Disclaimer: I don't own CSI: NY or any of the characters (a girl can dream though, right?), so please, don't sue. I'm poor enough as it is.
She froze as a tear slid down his cheek.
Not once had she seen him cry. He was like Superman, nearly invincible.
Until he was confronted with Kryptonite.
"Don?" she said, her voice barely above a whisper. The only response she got was a few sniffles. With caution, she stepped closer and rested her hand on his shoulder. He grabbed it, and she realized how rough his skin was against hers. She said his name again, a little louder than before, and this time he looked up at her. His blue eyes were rimmed with red, and there were matching splotches all over his face.
It was him this time who initiated contact, as he stood up and wrapped his considerably larger arms around her shoulders, crying harder now.
"Don, what happened?" she asked gently.
"My dad, Stel…they said…car crash…" he murmured into her shoulder. Her throat suddenly constricted and her eyes seemed to be overflowing. She knew how much Don had cared about his father, even through everything that had happened to them in the past, and she felt horrible that this had happened to him so suddenly.
She knew she should say something, but her mouth seemed paralyzed. She felt all the comforting words she knew bounce around in her head, but they left her the minute she separated her now dry lips.
Finally, giving up any hope on getting whatever comfort she possessed through to him by speaking, she pulled him into an even tighter embrace, so tight that she could barely breathe, hoping that it would get them by for tonight.