A/N: aloha! first fic for CSI: NY and second posted fic... go me! First fic kinda backfired (it was multi-chap) so this one is a one shot... no pressure lol. I've got a couple more fics in the works so hang tight and i might get 'em up here some day! until then, enjoy what i got up here already. (trust me, my fics are rare.)
Disclaimer: get real.
WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS
Aiden Burn had had a tough day. She'd gotten an early morning phone call from her mother with bad news, she'd been forced to work a decomp solo, she'd forgotten her locker combination and she'd needed to call the janitor, who spent twenty minutes complaining about her smell before he'd even touched her locker to cut off the lock.Then she'd left her locker door open while she went to get a new lock and some punk-ass intern had stolen her walkman. Now she had this to deal with. She groaned in self pity as the realization set in: she had to work a double shift. Smelling like a ton of dead sewer rats.
She slammed her locker shut and locked her new lock, making sure the combo was still written on her palm from when she'd gotten her lock. 32-16-14. Thirty-two sixteen fourteen. Sheesh.
She groaned her way into one of the evidence rooms where the victim's clothes from her decomp case were laid out across the table. She and the evidence were given a wide berth by the rest of the occupants of the lab, who were now more than glad to go over tedious fibre identification or scan fingerprints through AFIS, leaving Aiden and the rotting pile of discount clothing alone in the sterile white room. Aiden sighed and put on her orange,UV-protective lab goggles as she flicked on an ALS unit and began to scan the vic's clothes for anything out of the ordinary. She was still silently fuming to herself when a loud noise of disgust was emitted from behind her. She jumped and spun around, coming face to face with Danny Messer, who was holding his nose and frowning as he fanned the air around Aiden with his free hand.
"Funny, Messer. Funny." She grumbled, switching off ALS and moving the goggles to perch on top of her dark hair.
"S'not funny," Danny countered. "S'actually a very serious matter," he wheezed, pullin his shirt up over his nose jokingly.
Aiden reached over and smacked him in the arm, making him let go of his shirt. He gasped for air, his blue eyes dancing in mockery. He had no idea what kind of day Aiden had been having.
Aiden was not amused. She put the machinery down on the counter and placed her hand on her hip, bitterness in her glare. "Listen, just coz you didn't hafta work a freakin' decomp doesn't mean you got the right to get all cocky, 'kay? I've hadda bad day and I'm freakin' pissed, can ya lay off?"
"Whatev, Aid. I was gonna use this room to go over some bed sheets but ya know what? I think you'd like your privacy. That and, you kinda stink. I'ma go now, byeee..." he called, pinching his nose and jogging out the door.
It was a damn good thing he left, thought Aiden, coz he'd end up in the autopsy room next door in a few minutes if he didn't.
Exhausted, depressed, and nearing the end of her double shift, Aiden put away all the equipment she'd used and placed the evidence back into their respective plastic baggies. She peeled off her white powdery latex gloves and threw them into the trash can near the door on her way out. As she stepped out into the hall and turned towards the locker room, she heard her name being shouted and turned around to see who was calling her... it was Danny, yelling from way down the hall. She groaned, not wanting human contact after such a long, horrible, disgusting, tiring, depressing day. She strained to hear what Danny was saying...
"AIDEN! TAKE A SHOWER! I CAN SMELL YOU FROM DOWN HERE!" he yelled as he passed through the central hall of the CSI building where just about everybody could hear him. He was going to wish he hadn't done that...
Aiden spun around like a beast of prey, teeth bared and a low growl coming from deep in her throat. With her brown eyes flashing and her black hair streaming out behind her, she actually resembled a dark lion, like the kind that probably guard the gates of Hell. She stalked towards Danny, each step bouncing angrily off the stone walls. He took one look at her and turned instantly, sprinting away as fast as he could. Satisfied that she had at least scared the pants off him, Aiden turned back around and marched straight back to the locker room. Uh oh.
Was it 32-14-16? 14-32-16? 16-14-32? Crap.
What the bloody hell was her combination?
She slammed her open palm against the locker and dragged it down the cold steel in frustration, and was startled to find blue ink smudged in a trail following her hand. She picked her hand up off the metal door and nearly shouted with relief that she'd written the combination on her hand... 32-16-14. Excellent.
She quickly opened her locker and yelped in surprise, jumping back as about twenty bright yellow lemons fell from their places on her locker shelf. She laughed half-heartedly and bent over to pick up all the lemons on the floor when she heard a wolf-whistle from somewhere behind her, and standing in the doorway were Danny and Flack. She narrowed her eyes at each of the men in turn, Flack throwing up his hands in innocence when her seething glare met his bewildered and laughing expression. She stood up slowly, arms laden with lemons, and with the speed of an experienced hunter she began whipping the fruits at her coworkers, who jumped away from the room and ran away laughing down the hall. Shaking her head, Aiden picked up the rest of the fallen produce near her feet and tossed them into her locker, then moved to the doorway to pick up the rest of the citrus artillery. As she replaced the last of the lemons, a note fluttered to the floor that she had missed in the avalanche of fruit. She picked it up and, despite her mood, smiled a bit to herself as she read it. She heard footsteps in the doorway and turned her head over her shoulder to find Danny leaning against the doorframe, looking casual yet apprehensive lest another barrage begin. She smiled and stuck the note in her locker again, turning to face Danny, a forlorn lemon still in her hand.
"Thought you could use 'em," he said, shrugging somewhat apologetically in case he offended her.
"I can, thanks, this saves me the weird looks I can get in the grocery store. Apparently people don't like 'eau de dead rotting guy' as much as Mac seems to like it on me," she laughed in a melancholy tone. She really did appreciate the fact that Danny was thinking about her, though. It was one of those little things of Danny's that made him so endearing sometimes, she thought to herself.
"If it helps any, you work that 'fragrance' better than anyone else I know," he laughed, his face creasing into a smile. A truly genuine smile... another endearing 'little thing,' thought Aiden.
She looked down at the lemon in her hand.
"So, exactly how many of these did you buy?" she asked, shifting the lemon from one hand to the other.
"Two dozen," he replied proudly. "Enough to last you a month."
"Are you kidding? In New York? These'll last me till like, Tuesday," she grinned, tossing the lemon up. Danny caught it on the way down. He noticed that, although she was smiling, the smile didn't reach her eyes. Her eyes looked dull and tired and full of sadness, the amber spark gone and replaced with two empty dark pools.
"Better get started on these soon, Aid," he said, indicating the lemon in his hands. "If you don't I think I'll puke... that, and the rest of the lab. They already know you smell, they just don't know how bad it really is..."
"What? You told the rest of the lab I-"
Danny stuck his thumb into the lemon as Aiden was speaking, tore away a bit of the skin and squeezed the juice all down Aiden's navy blue long teeshirt, leaving a dark and spreading wet mark over the plain cotton. Her mouth dropped open in shock and she let out a yell.
"You're smellin' better already," he said, smiling, throwing the lemon to the floor and wiping his hands on her right sleeve, effectively restraining her as she struggled to hit him. He held on to her right arm, keeping it back, and tried to defend himself against her left arm which was threatening to seriously injure him. He smiled playfully as she grew angrier, until she shook his hand off of hers and sat down suddenly on the floor. She picked up the violated lemon that lay where Danny had thrown it and began toying with it in her hands, her head hanging down and her hair covering her face. Danny worried that he'd upset her too much, remembering the look he'd seen in her eyes moments before, and he squatted down hesitantly beside her, rocking on his heels.
"Hey," he said, to her hair, which continued to cover her. "I was only joking..." No answer.
"Aid, I'm sorry-" he started, but grew discouraged with her unresponsiveness. He gently placed his hand on top of her head and ran it down her hair until he felt the contour of her neck, the he slipped his hand underneath the curtain of her dark tresses and lifted her chin with the tips of his fingers. He felt a pang of guilt that he had been the straw to break the camel's back - her eyes were shining with moisture and were red with the restraint she was willing on her tears. "Oh, Aiden, I didn't mean to-"
Danny knelt on the ground in front of the crumpled figure of Aiden and pushed all the hair away from her face. He pulled the lemon out of her fair hands, the juice stinging a papercut on his finger, and he placed it on the floor beside them. He put his hands on both of Aiden's shoulders and squeezed gently, the motion causing a tear to fall delicately off of her eyelashes and onto her cheek. Danny brushed it away with his forefinger and continued the motion to tuck a few strands of hair behind her ear. He placed his hand back on her shoulder, sat down cross-legged and pulled Aiden into his lap, turning her around so that her back was to his chest. She didn't struggle or complain. This was definately not the Aiden Danny had come to know and... like. A lot.
Aiden curled up into a smaller shape and nestled into Danny, her tears having broken unwanted through her barriers, falling faster now that her back was to Danny and nobody else was around to see them fall. She gasped back a tiny sob and started to shake.
Danny knew this was about more than the lemons, and more than her bad day. She was more vulnerable now than he had ever come close to seeing her before, and although he wasn't uncomfortable with her he was definately worried and upset at seeing her like this. He rocked her slowly back and forth, placing his chin on her shoulder and making calming noises softly into her ear.
"What's wrong, Aiden?" he whispered. He knew she didn't want him to ask that question, but it had to be done if Aiden was going to feel any better in the near future. As Danny predicted, a small whimpered "nothing" came meekly from the prone woman in his arms. He accepted that she didn't want to talk about it yet, but he would definately be asking her about it soon.
Aiden surprised him, however. "Okay, it's not nothing," she said suddenly. Her voice was shaky, but at least it was there. "My... I... I got a call early this morning... or yesterday morning... God, I get so disoriented with double shifts... anyways, it was my mother. I haven't, y'know... talked to her in... well a long time. She... she say..." - deep breath, Burn - "she says to me..." and she started to cry again. Danny wrapped his arms tighter around her petite frame and kissed the top of her head, whispering to her between kisses. Shh. It's okay.
Aiden took a deep breath in and continued. "She says my brother was in the hospital..." Aiden's voice began to squeak with the constriction of her throat, but Danny encouraged her to keep letting it out of her system. "He was in the hospital after an aneurism...she told me to come see him but I said I had to work... I should've taken the time off... I should've..." She broke off into tears again.
"Is that all? That's okay, it's okay..."
"No, it's not okay! It's not! It should be, but it's not. I should've gone to see him, I should've visited him in the hospital, I should've been able to do that after work even, but then I got stuck with a double shift and no replacements and then... and then... and then my mother calls me again, right? Right in the middle of my second shift, she calls me... and she says to me... she says 'you're too late,' and that's all she says. That's all she says..." Aiden's voice shook, quavering until her words were nearly lost. A sob escaped from her lips and she snuffled pitifully, wiping her tear-stained cheeks with her sleeve. She breathed deeply, the sharp, acrid smell of lemons and death assailing her nose, and Danny offered her a tissue from his jacket pocket. She accepted it and wiped at her nose, crumpling the tissue and clenching it in her hand as she continued. "My brother passed away today, Danny, in the middle of my shift. I never got to say goodbye. I should've been there, I should have seen him," she gulped. "I shouldn't have even come into work today. Coz I got stuck with the shitty end of everything and now here I am and I look like shit and I smell like shit and everything's wrong..." and she literally collapsed into tears, shaking almost violently in Danny's arms. Danny was absolutely amazed at how anyone could have managed for so long without showing what she was really feeling, without breaking down immediately at the news. He turned so that he was leaning against the lockers and he turned Aiden gently in his lap so her legs hung over his right leg and her body was cradled by his arms. She leaned her head into Danny's shoulder and moved her right arm around his neck, holding him as tightly as possible as if to save him from her brother's fate. Danny stroked Aiden's arm, and she shivered at the gentle contact; began to whisper soothingly to her again and Aiden's tears refused to dissapate. She was taking comfort in the fact that Danny was there for her so literally; he hadn't run screaming when she had shown emotion and he was continuing to hold her because she needed him. The sobs that wracked her body slowly began to subside as lights in the hallway shut off one by one and janitors began to wheel their carts from room to room. Aiden dabbed at her eyes with the crumpled tissue in her hand, and she brought her breathing back to normal with only a hiccup now and then to prove that she had ever been crying. She looked up at Danny with wide, tearful eyes, knowing she looked like a mess, but he still looked down at her with his caring blue eyes as if she was the most beautiful woman in the world.
"Oh, Aiden..." he started, and then a tear of his own found its way down his cheek, his face contorting as he sniffled back tears as well. "Oh, Aid... it's not your fault, we never know when these things are going to happen... you can't blame yourself..." He trailed off and simply hugged Aiden tighter, wishing she didn't have to go through this grief and that he could somehow take her pain away. She sat up in his arms and kissed him tenderly on the lips, then pressed her cheek tightly to his.
"Thank you," she whispered, her still somewhat ragged breathing tickling Danny's ear.
Danny just squeezed her in response. It had to be alright.
A/N: hoped you liked it, if not, tell me. ttfn