Hey Guys! This is my first attempt at a CSI: NY Fanfic so I hope you enjoy! Just to start off with so there are no misconceptions it is pretty much a "guy meets pretty girl in trouble" type of thing so if you aren't into that this isn't a read for you. I find it's better to say that in advance to eliminate some of the "Its kind of cliché," "I hate Marysues", "I already see where this is going" kind of reviews lol. So with that said, I own nothing you recognize and everything you don't. I hope you like it and feel free to review with positive or negative feedback ! I really hope you guys like it!!! Let me know what you think!

Laila

Danny's shoe sloshed through a puddle as he trudged home. He shouldn't have gone out tonight, but the thought of drowning the last couple cases with a pitcher or two hadn't seemed like such a bad idea. Regrets are easy to wash down, but only for a small amount of time. Eventually, everything floats to the surface.

There was something exotic about a rainy city street at night. The way traffic lights glared off the reflective rivers that formed over pavement. The sirens creating a symphony of sorrow, the sidewalks a little emptier, a little wider, a sort of devil's playground.

A chill rose up Danny's spine and he flipped up the back collar of his jacket so it would protect his neck, shielding it from the cold, damp air. The rain had stopped before he'd left the bar but the sound of the remaining water drifting into the sewers became a rhythm for him to step to. Every few moments he would snicker to himself as he remembered some embarrassing drunken thing said or done at the bar. He'd pinned Lindsay for a lightweight but Hawkes?

A cab drove past and as the wheels hit the pavement, they splashed a spray of water to the curb. Danny thought he heard something coming from the alley way behind him. Stopping, he tilted his head to the side but failed to hear anything of consequence. Satisfied that the last couple rounds had hit him a bit harder than he'd previously thought, he started walking again.

Not two steps more he heard it again, a woman, is what he figured from the tell tale sounds of heels hitting wet pavement. No sooner had he registered the noise, did a girl come barreling out of the alley and directly into Danny Messer's life.

He instinctively grabbed her shoulders to stop her. As he did she cringed briefly in what was either fear or pain, maybe both.

"Whoa, you alright?"

She shrugged him off and quickly looked around. A shiver ran through her and she rubbed her arms.

"Yeah - sorry" she replied distracted.

"It's alright. Listen, you in some sort of trouble?"

She wouldn't make eye contact with him as hard as he tried, searching her face in the shadows.

"Yea, I mean no, It's fine - I uh- I'm fine." Shaken, the girl moved past him.

"Hey wait a minute" His instincts kicked in.

"Look just drop it okay, it's fine really. I'm just running a little late that's all."

"At 2 in the morning?"

Danny looked her over as she moved closer to a street light. A short black dress, high heels, maybe she'd come from a party or something.

"Are you su-" he stared to inquire but a car sped around the corner and beeped once.

Looking relieved the girl visibly relaxed and started moving towards the vehicle. The door flew open and another girl stuck her head out.

"Hurry up! What the hell were you thinking! Get in the fucking car!" The blonde glanced around wildly before scooting over and disappearing from his line of sight.

"Jen, I'm sorry - what was I supposed to do?!" The girl pulled her denim jacket closer over her small frame and began to move into the car.

Now Danny stood confused only for a moment before two sides of his personality began to function. As a CSI he was prone to automatically analyzing any given situation, especially ones that felt like trouble. But it was his troubled past that allowed him to really feel out situations such as this. These girls were involved in something, what it was exactly would take more time, but at that moment he just knew it wasn't good.

"Let me see your...OMG"

"It's nothing Jen." The girl said while trying to sit down in the car while the other seemed to be looking her over.

"NOTHING?"

He'd had enough.

"Hey hold up!" Danny sprinted the short distance to the black camry. The girl quickly shut the door.

"Drive!" The blonde instructed the driver.

"I don't think so" Danny whipped out his badge and both girls froze. The first girl rolled her window down entirely.

"What?" She asked annoyed and tired.

"What's going on here? You come out of an alley doing 65 -" he began his impromptu investigation.

"Nothing that concerns you" The blonde, or 'Jen' rather, countered.

The brunette lifted her hands as to say shut up to everyone before the situation could escalate any further.

"Look uh...officer? I guess whatever you are. We were on a really bad double date, you know how blind dates go, we've been trying to lie our way out of it for a couple hours now and we really just want to get home. There's no trouble really." For the first time she made eye contact with him.

She's good Danny thought to himself. Another man might have believed her, but he knew that like a false smile, false truths didn't quite make the eyes either. Realizing he didn't really have a legitimate reason for bringing these girls anywhere he rested his hands on the top of the car and sighed. You can't help people who don't want it right?

"Alright look, I don't really know what going on here and I definitely don't buy your little fiasco bit but uh seeing as you ain't willing to share any more information right now... here... take this." He offered her his card and after a moments hesitation she accepted.

"What's this for?" She asked glancing at the card.

"In case you end up on any more bad blind dates."

The look on his face made both girls aware that he didn't for one second buy their obvious lie.

"Alright thanks." She nodded and half smiled before rolling the window up and signaling the driver to go. The car pulled away and Danny made sure to check out the plates, AMY 24 something was all he could make out. Sighing, he began the remainder of his trek home. This time the warm feeling of a buzz in his stomach turned cold, he didn't feel right and all at once he was reminded of the city he lived in and the work he did. It all floated to the surface as he knew it would.

"So what are you gonna do about it?" Flack questioned his mouth still full from the giant bite he had just taken out of his knish.

"What do you mean, what am I supposed to do about it?

"Well did you get a name?"

"No! Well, the girl in the car, she called her Jen."

Flack laughed briefly.

"Well that should narrow it down, a hot blonde girl named Jen."

"How do you know she was hot, I never said that."

"Uh...she's a blonde named Jen." he answered as though it was the most obvious answer in the world.

"Jagoff" Danny laughed before tossing the rest of his half eaten dirty water dog in the trash.

"Come on." He and Flack started walking but stopped when Danny's phone started blaring Donna Summer's "She works hard for the money." Flack gave him a questioning glance and cleared his throat in obvious embarrassment.

Danny smirked and answered "Mac." He resisted the urge to laugh at Flack's confusion.

"Yea alright I'm on my way." He hung up.

"DB in Queens I've gotta go."

"Uh -"

"Apparently he's got a thing for Donna Summer; I caught him singing along to On the Radio in his office one night. I couldn't resist."

Flack started laughing "Does he know?"

"Nah... but everyone else does."

"You're playing with you own life you know"

"Yea I know - I'll catch you later Flack."

"Hey Messer, you said you got a partial on that plate right? Want me to run it?"

Danny paused a minute. "Yea could you?"

"Consider it done."

"Alright thanks man."

"No problem - hey uh...what's my ringer?"

"Gotta go Flack - there's a rotting corpse somewhere in Queens"

Flack began to object but realized he'd spilled out half the potato all over his new jacket. Shaking his head and muttering some curses under his breath he grabbed some napkins and stalked off.

Danny sighed and rubbed his temples. The day had been rough, for the second time that month the body of a young girl had been discovered mutilated in Rego Park. Initial reports indicated that the similarities between the two victims were undeniable; they were most likely killed by the same attacker. This could mean serial killer, this could mean weeks possibly months of overtime.

"At least its Friday, you're off this weekend right?" Stella's voice floated into his thoughts.

"Yea I'm off. I'll probably stop in to go over some things on the new case tomorrow though." He leaned back against the coolness of the lockers.

"Besides working on your weekend off, any big plans?" She asked with a smirk as she unholstered her gun and grabbed her purse.

"Yes. A lot of sleep." He replied with a yawn.

"Well, enjoy it you deserve it."

"Thanks Stell I'm gonna head out I'll see you Monday."

Danny left the building and headed to the street. The week had been long, and as in typical fashion, the case they got this morning was the clincher. A young girl, no older than 20 found stabbed and strangled behind a dumpster. The autopsy would have to wait a day or so, they were backed up as usual. He thought about grabbing a beer but in the end resigned himself to TV and take out. By the time Conan O'Brian rolled around Danny was passed out with a plate of sesame chicken on the pillow next to him.

The weekend was a nice breather. Though he spent some time at the office most of it was spent lounging around in sweats avoiding all contact with the outside world. Every now and then his thoughts would drift to the case or to the girl from a few nights back, but each time that happened he pushed it out of his mind. You can't obsess over things you can't change, you can only right a couple wrongs when they come your way. As he lay down Sunday night he let the thoughts of the past week and the stress of the coming one melt away as much as possible. He set his alarm from 5:45; he'd have to get in early to over the old case with Mac to see what they could pull from it that would help the new victim. He closed his eyes and sleep took him quickly.

8:42 am Monday morning.

Danny stood at a corner with Flack waiting for the walk sign a cup of coffee in his hands. They say a second changes everything, this morning, it did. It only took one small second for a cyclist to whiz past Danny spilling his morning coffee all over his new button up.

"Son of a –" Danny was quickly silenced with a jab to the ribs a la an amused Flack, before he could finish the end point of his sentence. Don nodded towards two small, giggling, school girls mocking his misfortune.

"You two think this is funny?"

The girls paused in their laughter for only a moment. After a quick glance between one another they nodded their heads in enthusiastic agreement before running off to catch their bus.

Danny stood muttering something about no respect these days when Flack cut him off.

"Come on Messer, you can't fault a couple 5 year olds for having a good sense of humor."

Danny's death glare easily destroyed Flack's poor attempt at a straight face. He instead rolled his eyes.

"Jesus Christ – come on I'll buy you a new cup."

"Just forget it, I'm already running late, I told Mac I'd be in an hour ago to go over the old reports.

"Well the way I see it is, another 5 minutes ain't gonna kill ya if you're already dead. "

Danny stopped trying to frantically brush away the coffee that had been projectiled all over him only moments before. He seemed to contemplate this and in the end agreed.

"You make a good point my friend. Coffees on you"

Flack smirked and held the door open for Danny.

"You know for a corpse you smell an awful lot like mocha."

"Alright you know what don't bust my balls today I've had enough and I haven't even made it to work yet."

"A little case of the Mondays never killed anyone."

"Yea well if you don't stop talkin you might be the first casualty on record."

Flack didn't respond as he had become distracted by the amount of people sporting gypsy skirts and dread locks in line ahead of them.

"It's like Woodstock exploded into Washington Square Park." he quipped as they approached the front. Danny just smirked and shook his head.

"What can I get you two this morning?" A voice from behind the counter interrupted them.

Both men took a moment to take in the girl in front of them. She was gorgeous and definitely didn't fit in with the granola crowd around them. Instead of hair that was spiked, dreaded, or multi colored, she had long, blond hair that hung down past her very round hips. A tight pink halter top squeezed her curves and a small shrug accentuated her chest. She chewed her gum loudly with purpose.

There were of course more attractive girls in the world but at the current moment neither Flack nor Danny could remember the last time they'd seen one. They say a smile is contagious, well sure, if that smile came from lips like hers.

"Excuse me?" She spoke again "Are you two ready to order? I'm sorry to rush you but there is a pretty serious line behind you cause like classes are about to like start."

After a barrage of mumbled "oh right sorry" from both Flack and Danny, they were ready to place their orders.

Flack leaned into the counter, elbowing Danny out of the way.

"I'll have a large coffee black and uh ...my buddy here will have... what is it called again? that fancy stuff...it's like chocolate or somethin..."

Danny glared into the back of Flack's scalp.

"You mean mocha?" She inquired innocently.

"Yea mocha right?" He turned back to Danny who had crossed his arms and clenched his jaw.

He stepped up to the counter.

"I'll take what he's having but uh..." he paused to lean in..."make it an extra large."

She giggled before shouting out the order and ringing them up. Not more than a minute later, Danny conceded that Flack had won this round and allowed him to flirt shamelessly with the blonde at the register as he went off in search of napkins, sugar and creamer.

"Come on... there's a lot of people waiting here buddy." A whiny voice piped up from behind them in line.

"Hey hey," Flack started whipping out his badge

"I happen to be discussing official police business with this young lady, now if any of you have a problem with that then please voice your concerns, my buddies downtown will be sure to take your statement and the stash I know you've got hidden within the depths of your khakis, for those of you that don't want to make that phone call home to mommy and daddy I suggest you learn a little patience."

Danny just shook his head and moved down to the condiment area, grabbed a couple napkins and started to dab once again at his stained shirt.

"One large one extra large coffee black." a voice called from next to him.

"Yup right here." Danny turned around to take the two coffees and was taken aback once more at the sight of a pretty girl in this hell hole of a cafe. Except this was a pretty girl he'd seen before. Long dark hair hung down in waves over a black v neck tee with the sleeves rolled up. She had dark eyes, rich olive skin, and a nice smile.

"You a sucker for punishment of something?" Her voice snapped him out of his lost train of thought.

"Huh?" He asked confused

"Looks like you already tried the coffee thing this morning...didn't work out so well..."

"Uh...yea - this guy on a bike." Danny was finding it a bit difficult to form coherent sentences and glanced over to Flack who seemed to be exchanging numbers with the Barbie doll.

"Lance Armstrong took you out?"

"This was no Lance Armstrong; this was a mythological creature on wheels."

She laughed and he liked the sound of it, the smile didn't quite reach her eyes just like he remembered.

"Well don't feel bad about it, I get more coffee spilt on me on any given day than I drink in a year and I drink A LOT of coffee."

"Occupational hazard?"

"Yea, something like that." She picked up a rag and began to wipe down the counter.

She turned around to grab some kind of whip creamed coffee looking drink and handed it off to a kid who had been standing next to Danny oblivious to the looks of confusion and disgust being directed at his purple and blue dreadlocks.

"I swear the entire universe is conspiring against me today. If I see one more punk with a beanie and birks I'm gonna puke. Do these kids even shower?"

"Not likely. Between pot and protests they don't have much time for personal hygiene. But that's what you get for coming into a cafe like this."

"How do you work here?"

If she was taken aback by his bluntness it didn't show, she simply looked past him towards the window and replied

"There are worse jobs."

"Yea sorry - I'm just not myself this morning. Hey listen... about the other night." He figured if she wasn't going to bring it up he might as well.

The girl tensed up and for the first time took a good look at the customer in front of her. She fumbled with the mug she was drying.

"I think you're confused I've never seen you before."

"Oh don't play that bullshit. Look, I'm glad I ran into you again, you girls seemed a little …"Danny was cut off by the shrill ring of his cell phone.

"Messer"

"Danny where the hell are you Mac is flipping out we've got 3 new cases and we're understaffed you were supposed to be here an hour and a half ago." Lindsay's voice snapped him back into reality.

"Sorry Montana, I've had the morning from hell I'm a couple blocks away I'll be there in ten." Danny flipped the phone shut and looked back up to apologize for the interruption but the girl was gone.

Flack appeared from the side and took his coffee out of Danny's hand. Gone was the flirtatious Romeo and in his place a very no nonsense professional Flack had resurfaced.

"Danny lets roll - got a call from Mac on a DB in Queens, fits the profile of the last two."

"That's her."

"That's who"

"Her"

"Her who?"

"The girl from the other night."

"Where?"

"She was just here I was just talking to her."

Danny glanced up one more time and caught a glimpse of the mystery girl in the back putting away glasses.

"That's her? Where's Jen?"

Danny glared at Flack.

"What it was just a question. Look, this is a good thing, she's here, she's fine, maybe she wasn't making it all up."

He sighed and shook his head.

"Alright let's go" The two headed for the door muttering to one another.

"Jen…Jesus Flack."

"What! I was just curious."

"How the hell should I know where Jen is? Dumbass" They continued bickering as they exited the café.

In the back the girl stopped what she was doing and drew a shaky breath. That was close. After a moment she snapped back into reality and continued her work.

"Whadda we got?" Danny asked as he approached Mac who was leaning into a dumpster.

"Well look who decided he wanted to keep his job." Mac smirked without removing his eyes from the contents of the green metal dumpster.

"Sorry Mac, everything that could go wrong this morning did. Not to mention Ken over here met Barbie in a coffee shop and it was hard to separate the two. "

Flack, who had been talking to a cop on the sidewalk, raised two hands in protest as Mac glared at him before rolling his eyes with a slight smile. Just enough to show he wasn't actually upset. As soon as Mac looked away Flack flipped off Danny who just shook his head, adjusted his glasses and moved further into the crime scene.

"Not everything." Mac replied as he picked a bit of evidence out of the trash before stuffing it in a ziploc.

"Huh?"

"I said not everything, as in not everything that could have gone wrong did...it could be worse...you could be her."

Mac pulled back and tilted his head in the direction of the alley behind them.

Danny moved around Mac and started into the alley. His first instinct caused him to turn his head away and his jaw tightened. He brought a hand to the back of his neck and tilted his head down staring at the body in front of him. All cases were hard, you never get used to the way a DB looks, the damage to the corpse, the unnatural contortions, if the eyes are open - the look of fear they often hold, the smell, but worst of all is the idea that perhaps only hours before this was a person with a life, with emotions, with ties to this Earth. Girls were tough for Danny, girls and kids, they were tough for anyone, but Danny always seemed to get a little angrier.

She looked about 20 maybe a little younger, just like the other two. She wore the remains of what wasn't much of a dress to begin with. Multiple contusions and scratches laced her body. There was blood still damp plastered to a hole in her side and what looked like chicken wire around her neck. She had one shoe on and her leg was bent back at an unnatural angle. Her eyes were open and glazed over like she was still crying.

Danny took a deep breath and opened his kit. The coroner showed up moments after and began to look over the body for a quick preliminary work up. Seven hours. Seven hours ago this girl was alive. It never got easier.

Well thats it for chapter one!! I hope you guys liked it! Please review !