Magnet And Steel

DL Set around S3 Promo. Caught in two explosions in as many months, Lindsay's a little shaken up.

Disclaimer: My Muse, my imagination and my dreams are all mine (but can be rented for a high fee). I'm sure if I owned the cast and characters we would have an enormous amount of fun (but I don't. I'm just borrowing them).

A/N:- I don't think there's a single fan out there who's not looking forward to the start of Season 3 so to make the time go quicker I decided to write a fic, creating my own story about the circumstances during which certain things in the promo happened.

'Magnet And Steel' – Lindsay Buckingham

He didn't want her to be the one to go in there but she had insisted and as senior Agent on the case Stella had had the authority to let her. "She's ready and she wants to prove herself." Stella had said to him quietly when Lindsay couldn't hear them. He hadn't said anything to that but the feeling of uneasiness wouldn't leave him.

What was it about her that totally threw him off balance? Before she came along his life was practically worry-free and he never used to feel bad about not calling a girl back or forgetting anniversaries but since she had arrived it was like she was his walking and talking consciousness, silently making him into the kind of person who didn't want to go out partying with Flack every night and wake up in a foreign bed. He only wanted her. Her with all her endearing country traits and innocence, her with her disapproving looks when he was too harsh with a witness, her with her smile when he made her laugh. Just her.

And for the first time in his life, he couldn't find the words to ask her out because he didn't know how he would take it if she told him they could only be friends. And that was the reaction he had expected to get from her – he knew she must have a pretty low opinion of him. She wasn't deaf, she would have heard the rumours about him being a 'ladies' man' going round the lab and about him being a 'bad boy' involved with the Tanglewood gang. Sure she put up with his teasing, even if it had a slightly flirtatious tone to it, but maybe that was just her country-girl politeness…….. So why was he so hung up on the one girl he wasn't sure of getting?

"Remember, at the first sign of danger, get yourself out of there." he said into the microphone.

"She's not stupid." Flack said throwing him an amused look.

He looked at his friend irritably and was about to say something in reply when Stella stepped in.

"Guys, not now." She said pointedly.

"Thanks Stella." Lindsay's voice came through the speakers. "I'm going in."

He tensed, perched on the edge of his seat waiting to dash out of the van at the tiniest sign of trouble.

"Okay, don't forget. Act innocent and surprised to see them at our crime scene and when they make a run for it, try to see what they've taken but don't chase after them as we'll get them." Stella told her.

"Got it."

He heard fiddling with a bunch of keys and then the door opening. He could barely breathe and looking across at his co-workers, he could see they were the same.

It had started out as a relatively normal day with a dead woman's body found in a third floor apartment on Brooklyn. Turned out she wasn't just any old woman though – she had connections with members of one of the most powerful gangs in New York so Stella had suggested driving back to the crime scene to go over the crime scene again. The drive there had also started out normally with him and Flack arguing about the football game last night whilst Lindsay and Stella rolled their eyes and talked quietly about a movie on TV they had both watched last night. Then they had pulled up outside the apartment block to find that the NYPD officer who was meant to be manning the crime scene had disappeared and they had noticed movement by the windows of the suspect's apartment. Flack had told them that it was probably the suspect returning to the scene of the crime to steal away some crucial evidence or to get something he had killed for in the first place. The sensible thing would have been to call for back-up but Lindsay had been worried that if it was gang-related they probably had very powerful friends who would bury the matter unless they had solid evidence of what they were attempting to steal………. This had all led to Lindsay insisting that she go up and be the bait, giving the others reason to arrest them and find out answers later. Her theory was sound: no one, no matter how high up could turn a blind eye to an unarmed law enforcement agent having a gun pointed at their face, even if they could bury the small matter of robbing a crime scene…… He just found himself wishing for the umpteenth time that he was the one entering the apartment right now instead of her.

She would be lying if she claimed she wasn't nervous. She was really nervous, so nervous that the remains of that morning's coffee was churning in her stomach and she was glad she hadn't had time for breakfast. Adrenaline kept her feet moving and her senses alert and the determination to find out who had killed this young girl made the whole walking blindfolded into a possibly dangerous situation seem almost logical.

She walked quietly along the corridor towards the victim's bedroom, itching to have a gun in her hand as a source of comfort. Somehow she didn't think the forensic kit she carried instead would be much protection against gang members. She heard hurried whispers and furniture being thrown about behind the closed the door and she knew that this was it, this was the moment, after this she would open the door and become a standing target for all she knew.

She pushed the door open and had about twenty seconds to notice how different the place looked from the murder scene she had processed this morning before she found herself staring down the barrel of a gun.

"Who are you!"

Lindsay automatically took a step back from the large black man who had just screamed at her and walked straight into someone else. She didn't get a chance to turn around before she felt a searing pain shoot through her body as her left arm was twisted back, causing her to release her forensics kit and send it tumbling to the floor.

"Who the fuck are you!" the man demanded again.

"I'm CSI. I just came to process the scene." She told him, as the man behind her who had grabbed her arm proceeded to pat her down, checking for a gun. She struggled against his strong grip but he wouldn't let her go. Whilst she didn't want to take her eyes off of the man with the gun, she could vaguely see a third man kneeling on the floor fixing something to the bottom of the upturned mattress but she didn't get to wonder about it for long before the perp took a step closer so she could physically feel the cold circle of the barrel pressed against her forehead.

"You're a cop." He spat.

"No." She said vehemently. "I'm a scientist."

"But you work for the people who arrested my son?"

"You have to understand that I just came here trying to do my job." She said desperately. God she was more than nervous now: she was terrified.

"And you have to understand up that I'm just trying to destroy the evidence that my son's a murderer." The man said with a sickly smile as he released the safety on the gun.

Somewhere in the back of her head she was vaguely aware of shouting coming through the microphone and someone whispering calming words in her ear. Then she felt the guy push her onto her knees and she knew she was screaming pleading words at him. Then another guy, the third guy, came up to the boss and said something about 'thirty seconds' and the pressure on her head from the gun was released and she could move her arms freely again.

When she finally had the courage to open her eyes again, she saw she was alone in the room. She stumbled to her feet and looked around, disorientated. The surge of adrenaline had passed and now her legs were trembling so bad, she could hardly walk, let alone think but she could vaguely hear shouting and fighting in the stairwell outside the apartment and then a beeping which came from something much closer …….. and then she saw the thing which the man had been attaching to the furniture flashing.

She barely had time to take two steps before the whole room blew up.

As soon as he heard the clear sound of the safety being released filter through the speakers, he knew that they had already left it too long and he didn't even wait for Stella to give the order to go. He was out of that van and sprinting across the road and into the apartment block before the armed officers had even taken up their positions. Running up the stairs he heard some commotion from above and he drew his gun, checking that Flack and Stella were close behind him before announcing themselves. They tried to make a run for it, they always did, but Stella, Flack and several uniformed officers wrestled them to the ground whilst reading them their rights.

He jogged up the remaining stairs. "Montana!" he called but just as he was about to open the front door there was a loud bang and he threw himself to the ground as the whole building shook. It took him a few seconds to recover and by that time Flack and Stella were helping him up.

"You okay?" Stella asked, looking at him concerned.

"Yeah, fine." He said, wiping his glasses on his shirt before it suddenly dawned on him and he marched to the apartment door.

"It's too dangerous Danny. We don't know if there's any more bombs rigged to the place – we have to get out of the building now." Flack said, grabbing his arm.

He swung his friend off and didn't even waste any words telling them he was going in whether they liked it or not.

The smoke was thick and he could barely breathe, not to mention see, but he stumbled around. Suddenly he felt a hand on his back and he nearly jumped.

"You go find her. Flack and I'll try to get some of this smoke out." Stella said to him, her throat dry and raspy.

He nodded and pushed his away through the rubble to the bedroom. He could see small electrical fires burning around the room and he tumbled to the windows and stuck his head where the panes would have once been and breathed in some fresh air before he started moving furniture, trying to find her. The smoke cleared up quite quickly and the fires fizzled out, mainly stifled by the rubble falling from the ceiling as the walls became to cave in. He searched desperately for what felt like ten years but was probably actually more like five minutes before he found her lying on the floor, almost hidden by a table. He threw the stuff off of her and shook her gently but didn't get a response.

"Oh God." He said, feeling for a pulse. Hope returned and he felt his own heart start beating again as he felt she was still alive. "Flack, get an EMT in here NOW." He shouted. Then he gently rolled her over and saw that she was breathing, no matter how shallowly. "Lindsay, Lindsay, come on, wake up." He said, gently shaking her.

She smelled burning and at first she thought she had fallen asleep on the couch and left dinner cooking again but feeling her whole body ache and the effort it was to open her eyes, she realised just how wrong she was. And then she felt him. He was rubbing her cheek and squeezing her hand.

"Danny." She muttered.

"Hey there Lindsay." He said, leaning over her with a small smile. He was covered in dust and looked like he had been to hell and back.

"Lindsay. Sounds strange coming from you. You don't usually call me that. It's always Montana. Montana, like I need reminding which State I come from. I have a friend who calls me Marilyn to annoy me …….. Marilyn Montana Monroe ….. lots of 'M's." She was rambling. She was lying stretched out on the floor, rambling. She hadn't rambled since ninth grade when she had been forced to work on a class project with the guy she had a crush on.

"I'm just glad you didn't come from Massachusetts – too much of a mouthful." Danny grinned. Then he moved his head down closer to address her again. "Montana. That better?" Danny said, smoothing her hair back.

She smiled weakly. "Danny." Then she realised she was still lying on the floor and she frowned. She tried to sit up and he told her that she better lie still til the doctors got here but she insisted and eventually he relented and helped her up. She looked around and it all came flooding back: the bait, the gun, the bomb. Danny was holding onto her arm and she suddenly realised she was shaking all over. She looked at him with such a look of lost desperation and she felt him draw her into his arms, holding her close to him.

"You're going to be fine Linds, everything is going to be fine." He said softly as she started to cry.

……………………………………………………..

A trip to the hospital, a trip back to the lab, a trip to the interview room to give her statement and now a trip to the locker room later, Lindsay was feeling remarkably calmer to how she was feeling when she had burst into tears in Danny's embrace.

Seemed like it wasn't time for her number to be up twice now and she felt numb in realisation about how lucky she had been to have got away with nothing more than bruises and scratches both times.

"Hey, you still here?" Danny asked, opening the door to the locker room slightly and peeping his head in.

She nodded. "You checking up on me?" She asked with a small smile.

Danny opened the door wider and walked in. "Yeah, need to make sure you actually get out of this place sometime tonight." He said, taking a seat next to her. "Hell of a day eh?"

"Yeah." Lindsay said, fiddling with the sleeves of the overly big NYPD hoodie.

Danny dropped his gaze from her, remembering it was impolite to stare but he was worried about her. Most people would have been really shaken up by being caught in one explosion but she had been caught up in two major bomb attacks in as many months – if he was her, he would probably have refused to set foot outside his apartment again, but at least after a day like today, he had family in the city he could go and see to seek some comfort. Where would Lindsay go?

He rubbed her back gently. "Come on, let me take you home."

"What about the case?"

"Mac and Stella said they would take care of it. We're this close to finishing building a case on the son and we have enough evidence to put the others away for a great deal of time too."

Lindsay nodded and slowly made her way to her locker to grab her stuff, feeling Danny's eyes on her all the time. He had been really good to her today, bringing her drinks and food, checking that she was fine every five minutes even though she had been cleared by the hospital and most importantly, he was there giving her a smile whenever she fell too far into her own thoughts. Her opinion of her co-worker had changed such a lot over the past few months she didn't know what to think now. First she had seen him as your typical city ladies' man she had been warned about with too much confidence and too many girls willing to soak it up but as the days passed, she found him annoying charming and funny and now he was this caring, lovable man with a great personality. She scrunched her face up – did she just call Danny lovable!

Danny parked his car at a meter outside his apartment block and walked Lindsay up to her flat. She hadn't said anything since they left the lab and he respected the fact she must be exhausted and didn't try to break the silence with idle chitchat.

"Well, here we are." He said as Lindsay came to a stop outside her home. He rubbed her arm gently. "You going to be okay?"

Lindsay's eyes flickered over his face and chewed her bottom lip as she nodded slowly. She didn't want him to leave – having him near really made her feel good and how much she needed him never seemed so clear to her as it did today.

Danny looked at her. She was staring at him oddly and he suddenly felt quite self conscious. "Okay, well, I'll see you tomorrow?"

As he turned to go, she quickly reached out and grabbed his arm. She didn't know whether it was due to her recent near-death experiences but she was overcome with a sudden desire to seize the day, do something she normally wouldn't have, take risks …… "Danny, thanks for everything." She said quietly. He looked at her questioningly but she didn't give him a chance to say anything as she leant up and brushed her lips slowly over his.

They hovered close together for a split second before they both closed their eyes and let their lips melt into each other.

When they finally pulled away Lindsay looked flushed and he was pretty sure he looked the same. "Wow, I didn't know they taught girls to kiss like that down in Montana."

Lindsay giggled for a minute before she looked at him seductively, running her tongue over her lip. "I bet there's a lot of things you didn't know about country girls." She purred taking his hand and leading him into her apartment.

Now he would have an excuse to worry about her.

A/N:- I meant to post this ages ago but with everything that's been going on I forgot all about it until now. Hope that the third season lives up to all our DL filled dreams!