Title: Almost Gone

Author: Calie

Summary: This doesn't have to be part of my series, but I like to think it is. It takes place some time in the future. Lindsay gets herself into a dangerous situation and Danny over reacts.

"This is what happens when you don't carry a gun!"

He was angry and she understood but it wasn't her fault. "I didn't ask for this creep to come after me. They said the house was secure."

Danny shook his head and turned away from her as he continued to unbutton his shirt. It wasn't her fault. Most of the time when people weren't killed it wasn't their fault. He's pretty sure if they could talk they would say they wish they could have protected themselves. After he threw his shirt into a corner he turned back to her. "That isn't the point. You could have learned how to use it and carry it, but because you have this 'too good for violence' attitude, you're going to get yourself killed."

"It wasn't my fault!" Her voice caught in her throat with emotion. "I'm alive aren't I?"

He couldn't help but scoff. In the back of his mind he knew he really should have been comforting her and trying to make her feel better but he was too angry to think about her comfort. "You're joking right." He walked towards where she sat on the bed, grabbed her forearms, and yanked her up roughly.

"Danny what are you doing." His hands dug into her arms almost painfully and he barely gave her a moment to gain her balance as he pulled her away form the bed. They finally stopped in front of her dresser. He roughly pushed her in front of him to face the mirror and stood behind her.

"Look." She didn't, instead her eyes remained trained on the ground. He pulled her hair back with one hand and took her chin in the other to raise it up. "Look!" Finally she did and he forced himself to relax slightly. "How many people have you seen lying on a morgue table with bruises on their neck just like yours?" She didn't answer him but he hadn't expected her to. "No answer huh?" He watched her in the mirror intently for a moment while she stared at the bruises on her neck.

"Let me go." She saw his anger flare up again as he shook his head but he released her. With soft steps and her shoulders hunched over slightly she went back to the bed and sat on it with her legs folded.

He turned and watched her as she walked to the bed. When she sat down she had trained her eyes on something on the floor, not once meeting his eyes. "So that's it. You almost get strangled to death and you have nothing to say."

"What can I say?" All she wanted was for him to stop being angry at her. She needed him so much right now. She needed him to hold her and all he could do was yell at her.

"Jesus Christ Lindsay. Are you a fucking idiot! Say that you'll take the fuckin' test to get your gun permit." Still she said nothing and just lay down on the bed. If she had yelled at him he wouldn't have been as mad as her turning away from him. He walked over to her, grabbed her arms, and turned her on her back. "You are not going to ignore me and you're not going to just let this go. I could have been walking into the morgue to look at your dead body tonight. You would have been laying on a cold metal table dead, not here in your bed."

"Danny please..." She sobbed and looked away from him when she realized she wasn't going to be able to stop.

"No. You'd be laying there in a metal cabinet and dead. Then we'd collect evidence from you body like every other victim."

"Stop..." She pushed at his bare chest to get him away. "I'm sorry." She sobbed. When she realized he wasn't going to let her go she dropped her hands. "Please Danny, please don't yell at me."

"Do you know how much it hurt me to see you in the hospital with these bruises on your neck?" His voice was harsh still but now it had lowered to a whisper.

"Don't be mad at me please." Her body was shaking now with uncontrollable sobs.

He just couldn't look at her like this. It hurt him to see the bruises on her neck, but to see her so broken and desperate made it worse. He sat softly next to her on the bed and pulled her into his arms. "Lindsay I can't see you like this again." When her sobs came harder he pulled her onto his lap and held her. Gently he rocked her and kissed her on the top of her head. "Every time I look at you I see that man's hands on your neck and it makes me physically sick. Do you know what was running through my mind when Mac told me you had been strangled and were unconscious?"

"I'm sorry." Her voice was a whisper and she wasn't even sure if he had heard her. They just sat there in silence for a long time. Eventually she quieted down and just sat there idly running her fingers over his bare chest, studying every part of it to distract her from what was going on. "I'll do it Danny, I'll get the gun permit, I promise."

He didn't say anything, even though it was a small relief. Still it didn't ease his worry like he had hoped it would. Having a gun was no guarantee that she still wouldn't have gotten hurt.

All Lindsay wanted was for it all to be over with. She didn't want to think about what happened and what could have been the outcome. She didn't want to have Danny upset like this. "Please don't be upset with me again."

He shut his eyes and remained silent. Her sobbing had stopped and now all he heard was her shaky breath. "Then don't leave me. I don't want to go through that ever again."

Lindsay looked up at him and was relieved to see that the anger on his face was gone. What she hadn't expected was the tears that just escaped his closed eyes. Careful not to jab a knee into him, she changed her position so that she was straddling his lap.

When her arms went around his neck, he wrapped his around her waist and held her as tight as he could without hurting her. "I've never been so scared in my whole life Lindsay."

There was nothing she could say to make him feel better. Even if she could think of anything she didn't know if she would have been able to talk at the time. Everything was still fresh in her mind and all she wanted to do was have him hold her. "I love you."

Danny buried his face in her neck and squeezed his eyes shut, trying not to let himself get upset again. "I love you too.