Timeline: This is set during Officer Involved, just after the scene where Danny avoids being reassigned. Don has a chat with Danny. Friendship and support. One-shot. Needed to get the bunny off my ankle.

All standard disclaimers apply. I do not own...if I did NY would run year round. ^.^

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Chat

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When Danny got back to the precinct he could feel the eyes of the others on him. Cooper had, undoubtedly, made it back long before him and mentioned the retraction or simply left. At this point, Danny wasn't sure if one option was better than the other. Many of the cops wouldn't believe he hadn't somehow coerced her into retracting it. Sure, cops were suspicious like that but, especially now, Danny hated it and couldn't help but be bitter about it. His history, the cop he'd accidentally shot, and all of his brashness would forever color their opinions of him. To them, he was guilty.

Resolutely Danny made his way to his desk, glancing around discretely as he went. Cates and Foley were nowhere to be seen. What surprised him were the two nods he got. Two cops who either accepted recent events or believed him. Aside from a few openly disgusted and hostile looks, the rest of the precinct cops seemed divided between distrust and neutrality. Being a scientist, there had always been a divide between himself and the other beat cops, but now it might as well have been a chasm.

Dropping his gaze back to his desk Danny took a deep breath and tried to get back to work. He had several reports due. And when he got them finished he would take them directly to the Captain and request a transfer form. There was no way he was staying here, and there were very few people who would even be capable of changing his mind about it if they were so inclined. Which he knew they wouldn't be. His Captain might make some pseudo attempt to 'convince' him to stay but Danny knew that he would really actually be glad to see him go. Once again, his record had colored someone's opinion of him before they'd even met.

Danny had only been working a short time when someone approached and settled themself of the edge of his desk. Surprised he looked up to see Don Flack sitting there, watching him. Ruefully he realized he probably shouldn't have been surprised at all.

"Flack." He greeted, sitting back in his chair and focusing his attention on the detective in front of him.

"Messer." Don greeted him back. "How'd it go?"

"Cooper retracted her statement." Danny told him. "I'm on normal duty." He could still hear the hint of sarcasm in his own voice as he said that.

"Come on Messer." Don instructed, straightening up off the edge of the desk. Danny hesitated for a split second before standing and following Don out of the squadroom and back into a vacant interview room. Once the door was closed behind them Don spoke again. "Okay, so what's really going on?"

"Like I said, Cooper retracted her statement. Lieutenant Adler didn't have to put me on modified assignment." Danny told him.

"Except you're acting like he did." Don responded. "So...?"

Danny turned away, pacing a bit, running his hands over his face and through his hair before he turned back to Don, his expression pained.

"I just can't get over it Don." Danny blurted out then. "I took care of those rookies. I tried to teach them how not to make my mistakes and be good cops. Yet they were ready to sacrifice my career, mine, to save their own!" Danny flopped into a chair, putting his head in his hands. "I thought I taught them better than that. And half the cops out there still think I'm guilty! They don't care that the evidence doesn't implicate me and that Cooper lied about me. Sure, most of them will probably give me another chance, but..." Danny shrugged.

"They're just going to assume things about you and rely on opinions of you." Don completed for him. "I get it Dan-o, I really do. And it sucks." Don walked around to sit in the chair opposite the table from Danny.

"That IAB investigation was your first. We never doubted you." Danny said.

"That's not what I'm talking about." Don responded. "And there are still a few cops out there who think I killed that kid. There are always the doubters." Danny sat back, studying Don. "When I made it into the NYPD everyone knew my father. Hell, he was still working back then. I tried to ignore it, but things like that don't change quickly. Cops either gave the same measure of respect to me that they gave to him, or they hated me. Didn't matter who it was. I could guarantee, walking into any precinct, that they would treat me like any other officer. Until I introduced myself. I watched countless officer's, sergeant's, lieutenant's, and captain's faces as they realized who I was related to. And then they assumed. They assumed I was as good as him, had the same personality, or that I was an idiot who got his spot on the force through 'daddy'."

Don paused and Danny spoke up quietly. "I remember when I met you I recalled all the stories I'd heard about him." Danny shrugged with his usual casualness. "Of course, we were in the middle of a murder investigation so I didn't give it much more thought. You've proved yourself a good cop because of who you are a hundred times over. There's lots of evidence to prove that."

"You're a good cop too Danny." Don assurred him. They sat in silence for a while.

"You still get those reactions?" Danny finally asked, looking equal parts curious and thoughtful.

Don shrugged. "The cops in my precinct got over it some time ago. I don't pay much attention to the others." Don paused for a moment, shifting to get more comfortable. "For a long time it bothered me. Moran always introduced me as 'the legend's son.' I hated it. I hated him for setting an example like that, that I was still living in his shadow."

"What changed?" Danny asked.

"One day a couple of detectives got into a car accident on the way to a crime scene. I was the only one around to cover for them, so I went. I met Mac on that case. He was the first cop I ever met who didn't bat an eye when I introduced myself, and the only assumptions he made were that; I knew what my job was and I knew how to do it. All I had to prove to Mac was the same thing every other cop did, that he could trust me to do my job the best that I could." Don paused for a moment. "Mac Taylor earned my full respect that case. And I wanted to work with him a lot more. For several months afterward I did everything I could to work cases with him and the other CSI's." Don smirked a bit then. "Finally my Captain got the idea and made me the unofficial crime lab detective."

"I'd say you're a bit more than 'unofficial'." Danny interrupted with a grin of his own.

"Either way, I was so focused on getting to work with Mac I ignored all those other cops, and once I had the position I realized just what I'd done." Don said. "I moved past them. By finding my place, their opinions and reactions no longer had the power they once did."

"And Mac probably gave a few of them a piece of his mind if they gave you a hard time." Danny suggested.

"I doubt that." Don responded.

Danny shrugged, "you're part of the family. He'd do it for any of us."

"I'm not really..." Don started, but Danny interrupted.

"You're as much a part of the lab as any of us. Don't you ever think otherwise."

Don smiled and nodded. "Yeah, alright. I get it." He sat back, watching Danny for a moment. "So have you started on the transfer papers yet?"

"It's that obvious?" Danny asked, sitting back and crossing his arms over his chest.

"Yeah, it really is." Don told him.

Danny nodded. "Yeah. I'm going back. I need to work with people I can trust, you know." Don nodded in agreement as Danny continued. "I mean, there are good cops here. Those three included, if they hadn't lied. But as soon as this thing broke they all shunned me like they would end up tainted just by associating with me."

"Good cops make bad decisions some times." Don offered softly.

"Even so...they've hardly said anything to me the last two days. But you've all stood by me even though I left the lab months ago. I mean, how screwed up is that? We're expected to support each other in dangerous situations in the field, but how can I trust them to do that if they aren't willing to support me out of the field?" Danny gestured wildly in the direction of the squadroom. "Mac came to support me through the reassignment when those 'coworkers' wouldn't even look at me!"

"The whole lab would have been there if Mac hadn't grounded them." Don told him, half-serious, half-playful.

"Mac did say they wanted to come, but he didn't mention he grounded them." Danny sat forward, imagining the fight Mac must have had to get out of the lab alone.

"I'd bet he's being mobbed about it right now." Don suggested, smiling broadly. He could practically see the entire lab waiting outside the elevators for Mac to arrive with news. "You can probably expect to see most of them sometime soon."

Danny nodded and they sat in silence for a few minutes until Danny finally spoke. "Hey, I should probably get back to work."

"Yeah. Me too." Don agreed, getting up at the same time as Danny.

"Hey Flack. Thanks." Danny said softly, as they made their way back to the squadroom.

"What are friends for?" Don shrugged with a characteristic smile. As Danny sat down Don turned back to him. "I almost forgot. Adam asked me to give this to you. Just in case you needed it." Don tossed him a bottle and turned once again to leave. "See ya around, Messer!"

"See ya Flack." Danny hollered back, looking at the bottle in his hands. Sulfuric acid. Danny smirked to himself as he opened the note attached to it.

In case you need to escape. - Adam

Don was right. All the suspicious and angry cops around him meant little knowing all his friends and family at the lab were waiting for him to come back to them.

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