Summary: Jess felt like she had no need to worry about her safety: until now. When her past comes back to haunt her, can Don and the CSIs keep her safe?

Disclaimer: No, I don't own CSI: New York or any of the other CSIs. They belong to some rich guy somewhere, never bothered to look it up. If I did own CSI: New York, Jess and Aiden would not have died. What was the point to Aiden's death?

A/N: I wasn't going to post this but what the hell. I probably did not pick the right time to post this because I'm in the process of moving to Georgia. I apologize in advance for how much time goes by between chapters. Cheers!

Jessica Angell always told herself that she didn't fear anyone. Being a homicide detective, fearing people wasn't an option in her opinion. She stood up to the most badass people on a daily basis. Of course, she usually had back up. She had her boyfriend and partner, Detective Don Flack, both on and off the job. Out of the detectives at the Crime Lab, she worked with Mac Taylor, Danny Messer, and Stella Bonasera the most. She worked with Lindsey Monroe and Sheldon Hawkins on occasion. Either way, Jess felt like she had no need to worry about her safety: until now.

Jess sat on her couch, eating chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and reading a book. Don was out of town visiting family and he wasn't due back until next week, she missed him. She had a disaster of a day. A suspect pushed her off a subway platform. Now, she fresh bruises on her left arm, and back and she hit her head. Stella dragged her to the ER, afterwards. It also didn't help that her CO had been riding her all day over everything. She was half way through her book when she heard a loud banging at the door. "Jessica! Jessica, get out here, you stupid bitch!" she heard a male voice scream. Jess grabbed her gun from the coffee table in front of her and headed to the door. She looked through the peephole and gasped. When did this man get out of prison? "Jessica!" he continued banging.

Jess signed as she slowly opened the door. "What the..." she began, but she quickly cut off by a hard slap to the face. She stumbled backwards and held a hand to her cheek.

"You're going to pay for sending me to prison!" he yelled.

Jess, tearfully, nodded. "You sent yourself to prison!"

With that he pulled her by her wrists out of her apartment and pushed her up against the wall in the hall. He wrapped both of his hands around her neck and Jess froze. She looked into his eyes and saw nothing human staring back at her as he tightened his grip. Jess gasped for air in vain. Everything was getting fuzzy; she knew it wouldn't be long. She couldn't let this psycho beat her, not again. Finally, she remembered she was still holding her weapon. She pointed the gun at him and fired. The man yelled in pain and stepped away from Jess, releasing her. She slid to the ground, still gasping for air. The last thing she saw was the man running away, then her world went dark.

Don came back from his vacation early. Well, if you can call it a vacation. He had to listen to his dad complaining about everything he did, dealt with his dad and sister's constant fighting, and his grandmother bugging him to settle down and get married, while his dad chastised him for jeopardizing his career by dating his partner. He couldn't win. The only thing he wanted to do was go to Jess' apartment and hold her all night, but first, his friends at the crime lab wanted to take him for a couple drinks. They even offered to bring Jess along.

Don picked up his suitcase when he saw his ride. "Hey guys!" he greeted as he put his suitcase into the trunk of Mac's car.

"Hey Flack, how was your vacation?" Hawkes asked.

Don sighed. "I'm so happy to be home." He smiled, closing the trunk.

Lindsey laughed. "Was it that bad?" she asked.

"I'm never bringing Jess to see my dad." He answered.

"Why?" Mac asked.

Don groaned as he recalled his vacation. "I'm jeopardizing my career. Why am I such a disappointment. He didn't raise me to pick a whore over my career." He recited.

"No he didn't!" Lindsey gasped.

"Which is why I left." He paused. "Well, he may have needed a stitch or two in his face." Everyone laughed. Don looked around. He hadn't called Jess to tell her he was coming home early. He didn't want to tell her why he was coming home. He was embarrassed to even be blood related to his father.

"Kendall, Adam, and Sid are picking up Angell. They're supposed to drag her out, if necessary. Her day wasn't so good, so she might not want to go out." Stella informed him.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Your CO's an ass and a suspect pushed her off a subway platform, she's bit sore." She said.

Don nodded and they all piled into two cars.

Kendall, Adam, and Sid were parked outside Jess' building. Kendall was in the driver's seat with Sid next to her and Adam behind Sid. Kendall was on her cell phone trying to get a hold of Jess. "Come on, Angell." She muttered. Jess didn't pick up. "Damn it, voicemail." She groaned. "Hey Angell, it's Kendall. You better be home because we're taking you out for drinks whether you like it or not. We're coming up." She hung and they exited the car.

Jess' apartment was on the second floor. They opened the door to the building, when a red liquid caught Kendall's eye: blood, but only drops. "Look." She pointed at it.

"Whoa, is that….." Adam began.

"Blood." Sid finished.

Kendall and Sid started followed following the trail. "Whatever happened, it happened up the stairs." Kendall observed. "Let's see where it starts." She began to walk up the stairs.

"Wait a second!" Adam called. Kendall stopped and turned to him. "We're not cops, maybe we should call Mac." He explained.

Kendall sighed. "Well, there's a cop on the second floor, we can run up and get her. Plus, Sid's a doctor, if someone is hurt up there he can help." She explained.

"I thought you said the blood was leading out the door." Adam questioned.

Kendall huffed. "Come on, Adam." She and Sid started to walk up the stairs, keeping their eyes on the blood trail.

"I don't have a good feeling about this." Adam muttered as he started to follow them.

Immediately after they got off the stairs, they spotted Jess' lifeless form on the ground leaning against the wall. They raced to her aid. Sid knelt down to check her neck for a pulse. She was still alive. "Kendall, call an ambulance. Adam, call Mac." Sid instructed.

Kendall immediately took out her phone, but Adam froze when he saw all the blood. "Is that hers?" he asked.

Sid checked her body for injuries. Other than the bruises on her cheek and neck and her earlier injuries, she had no open wounds. "It's not hers. She probably shot her attacker." He answered, nodding towards the gun that was still in Jess' hand. He gentle took it away from her and placed it on the floor. "Adam, call Mac." He repeated.

"Right." Adam nodded and pulled out her phone.

Don and Stella rode with Mac, and Lindsey and Hawkes rode with Danny. Mac's phone rang. "Taylor." He answered.

"Mac!" he heard Adam's voice on the other end. "Angell's been attacked and she's unconscious outside her door. Get here quick!" he rambled.

"We're on our way, Adam." He hung up. He turned on his siren as he sped up and abruptly, turned the car. Good thing they were all buckled. Mac looked in the rearview mirror and saw that Danny took a hint and did the same.

"Mac?" Stella inquired.

"Angell's been attacked." Mac answered.

"What?" Don asked. "Is she okay?"

"She's unconscious, that's all I know. Doesn't sound like anyone was around when it happened. Don't worry, Sid will take great care of her until the ambulance gets there." He assured him.

Flack sighed. Yes, he trust that Sid will make sure she's okay, but he was still worried. He should have been there.

By the time the got there, Jess was loaded onto a stretcher and was about to be loaded onto the ambulance. Everyone raced to her. "Angell?" Lindsey asked. She, Danny, and Hawkes weren't filled in on the situation before they got here.

"Jess!" Don said, taking her hand. "Jess, it's going to be okay." He whispered. Jess slowly opened her eyes. "It's okay." Don repeated. He looked to Mac. "I'm riding with her." He stated.

Mac nodded. "Go, we'll manage here." Mac insisted.

Everyone else met Kendall, Adam, and Sid by Jess' apartment. Lindsey gasped when she saw the blood. "Oh God."

"It's not hers." Sid assured them. "She had no open wounds, just bruises."

Danny nodded when he saw Jess' gun on the ground. "This is the attacker's blood."

"Let's hope this son of the bitch is in the system." Stella added, bitterly.

Mac sighed. Time to get down to business. "Okay, Danny, Angell was coming to when they were loading her in the ambulance. Go up to the hospital and see if she remembers what happened. Stella and Lindsey, start banging on doors. Kendall, take a blood sample and go back to the lab. Adam, dust for prints. Hawkes, take pictures. I'm going to collect evidence and look around Angell's apartment." All people named nodded and got to work. Mac turned to Sid. "Sid, there's nothing for you to do here, so just do whatever."

Sid nodded. "I'll go up to the hospital with Danny." With that said, he hurried to catch up with Danny.

Kendall bent down and took a swab a blood. "I'll get going." she said and left.

Don was waiting outside Jess' room while the doctors examined her. This wasn't how he pictured reuniting with her after a week of separation. He was personally going to kill the person responsible for doing this to her. Danny and Sid showed up and sat next to Don. "How's she doing?" Danny asked.

"She tried to tell me something in the ambulance, but the paramedic didn't want her talking. It looks like someone tried to strangle her." He informed him.

"Those were my thoughts." Sid explained.

"Up close and personal." Danny patted his back. "You know she's going to be alright. We'll find the bastard. Angell helped us out." Danny informed him.

Don raised an eyebrow. "How so?" he asked.

Danny smiled. "She shot him."

"Good." He paused. "I'm trying to think about whether she told me about any threats made against her. I can't think of any."

"You think she'd tell you if someone did?" Danny asked.

Don chuckled. "Probably not."

Hawkes was taking pictures of the scene. He took a picture of Jess' gun on the ground before Mac put it in a bag. He took a picture of the blood on the floor and the wall opposite of where Jess was found. Also in the wall was a bullet hole. "Mac, got a bullet." He called as he snapped a picture it.

Mac walked over with a pair of tweezers to dig it out. "Nine millimeter." He said, holding the bullet. He put it into an evidence jar and walked away.

He walked into Jess' apartment. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. The kitchen was clean, other than the dishes needing to be done. The living room was basically spotless, other than the jacket Jess wore earlier that day was on the floor in front of the couch. A bowl of melted ice cream, a book, and her badge were on the coffee table. Mac went into the bedroom and saw that the bed was unmade and some of her clothes were on the floor around the laundry basket. Mac smiled and nodded as he turned to leave.

"You here for Jessica Angell?" a middle aged doctor came out and asked.

Don and Danny stood up. Sid had gone for coffee. "Yea." Don began. "I'm Detective Don Flack, her boyfriend, and this is Detective Danny Messer, a friend." Don introduced. "How's Jess?"

"Well, she'll survive. She had injuries from earlier; I treated her then, too. But other than she has bruised cheekbone. Someone hit her with great force. Also, she has bruises around her neck. Someone tried to strangle her." The doctor informed them.

Danny nodded. "I need to photograph her injuries and talk to her about what happened. Can we see her?" he asked.

The doctor nodded. "Go on in. She's awake, alert, and asking for Detective Flack."

Don and Danny nodded and entered Jess' room.

Kendall matched the blood type: B negative, a rare blood type. She was running the DNA from the blood through the system. Maybe she'd get lucky and he's in the system. With nothing else to do, Kendall just sat there to wait for a match. She turned her head to search for her cell phone when she heard a beep. That was very fast. She thought. She looked at the profile for the match. Her eyes widened. Gotta call Mac. She picked up her phone.

Stella and Lindsey got back from their canvass of Jess' building. "Well, we got squat. Nobody heard anything." Stella told him.

"What'd you expect?" he asked.

"Nothing, really." Said Lindsey.

Mac nodded as he heard his phone "Taylor."

"Mac, I got a match on the DNA from the blood."

"Already?" He asked.

"Well, he's a recently paroled, registered sex offender. His name is Justin Burke and he was convicted in 1998 for the 1997 kidnapping , rape, and assault of….."

A/n: well doesn't take a genius to figure out the victim in that case. Lol. What do you think?