Disclaimer – I do not own the characters. Not making money. Bring your own tissues.

Author's Note: OK, so this is a diversion from my usual Fluff. I was unhappy with the ending of "Risk", and this is my way of purging the negative energy.
It's dark and sad and doesn't have a happy ending. Don't worry, once I get this One-Shot out of my system, I'll return to my usual D/L fluff.

Just Missed the Train - from Lindsay's POV, in first person. ("I" Lindsay, "him"Danny)

I'm running.
My lungs are about to burst.
I'm wearing my high-heeled boots, and it will be a miracle if I don't fall and break an ankle.

People don't seem surprised by me. Someone sprinting through the subway station is hardly a rare occurrence.

But they said he left the lab already, and I have to find him. I'm usually more composed, yet here I am pushing and dodging my way through the masses.

I didn't trust him at first. Can you blame me? Still something unsaid was constantly between us, a tension. He had held my hand, and I know he felt the sparks. I know he did. I did

I'm thinking of how I flew out of the lab, and everyone stared. "What's up with the new girl?" More than three months, and I will forever be The New Girl. In the taxi across town, I drummed my fingers so hard that the driver gave me a dirty look in the mirror. I tapped my feet instead. The driver asked sarcastically where the fire is.

My soul, I think. Shut up and drive.

I saw the way he looked at me in the dress. I didn't imagine it. Did I?

I don't know exactly which train he takes, but I remember the track where the crime scene was. He was on the same line. So I ask an attendant, and it leaves at 5:20. If only I could catch a glimpse of him. It's 5:12. Run faster. I consider whipping out my badge and waving it, so people will move out of my way.

As I run, a cliché enters my mind: "He who hesitates is lost". I think of how I wasted so much time. I nearly run smack into an elderly woman in a wheelchair. Her husband glares at me, and I don't even stop or call to apologize. I want to turn around and explain to them that this isn't the normal Me. I'm insane. What have you done to me?

I was never an endurance runner, but for some reason, I don't feel fatigued. I'm running like a seasoned athlete. Call it adrenaline, call it love, call it desperation. Call it all of those. But it's 5:16.

I see the platform ahead. It's dark in here, and the sign glows. I can imagine it blinking at me: Lindsay, here is what you have been so stupid to resist.

Oh God. I finally have caught sight of him, and I'm afraid my heart will explode out of my chest with legs of its own. He is standing there waiting to board, talking on his cell phone. And he is more beautiful than all of the times I have seen him before.

I dodge a sanitation worker pulling a dumpster, nearly slide on a discarded napkin. 5:18.

Have. To. Catch. Him.

The door has not yet shut. I'm coming! I see him board, and flip his phone shut. Now! Get on!

Even as I start to approach the car, I see him smile suddenly – hugely – and I think he has spotted me.

He slips off his glasses. Wait, he only does that when-

No.

A dark-haired girl. Who is that? I am frozen. The door starts to slide shut. I stand there, my breath coming out in wheezes.

CLANK. The door has closed. In more ways than one.

I see the back of his head, his shoulders, through the window. I will him to turn and look out the window and lock eyes with me. LOOK AT ME. Please. You bastard, I think. You player. Even though he did nothing wrong.

The subway car shudders to life and starts to move. I can still see him framed in the back window.

I stand there and watch and watch until the window becomes a tiny fading yellow blip. Then fades to darkness.

I just missed the train.

There, I feel better. We now return you to your regularly scheduled Fluff. ;)