Title: Unexpected Attack

Author: Ginny
Fandom: CSI:NY
Trio: Mac/Danny/Don
Disclaimer: No one is mine, I'm just borrowing for a bit
Warnings: Slash, threesome, angst - the usual, not really warnings when you know that I'm the author
Rating: FRM
10 Per Genre: Action/Adventure Prompt 10: Attacked
Beta: The Nuts
Summary: After an attack outside the precinct, they all have to deal with the aftermath
Author's Notes: Many, many thanks to Kathie and Dee who put up with me while I struggled to write this, gave me suggestions, and rewrote scenes that simply wouldn't cooperate. hugs to both of you Also, I named the Duty Captain from RS, RD because I needed a counter-part to Captain Gerrard. I might be wrong, but in this one, if Gerrard is Don's boss, the Duty Captain is Mac's.

"I still don't think the husband did it," Stella said as she, Mac, Danny and Don walked down the front steps of the building, seeking fresh air and good coffee. "The evidence just doesn't support it."

"What do you mean it doesn't support it? His fingerprints were on the gun," Mac pointed out. "Not to mention–" his protest was cut off as the sharp crack of bullets filled the air.

Mac reached for his gun but was thrown backward by the impact of a bullet, falling silently as blood poured from the wound in his chest.

Stella, Danny and Don dropped to the ground immediately, pulling their weapons. Danny pushed himself up and crawled over to Mac, ignoring the danger, when he heard the labored breathing coming from the other man.

"Get down Messer," Don snarled as a bullet flew over his head. This was ridiculous, they were outside a police station! How the hell was this happening?

Danny ignored him as he pressed his hands against the bleeding wound, talking frantically to Mac. "It's nothing Mac. Just a graze. You're going to be just fine. Breathe, that's all you have to do. Breathe Mac," he ordered him, staring into his eyes. "Everything's going to be fine."

Mac choked on his own blood as he stared into the frantic eyes of his lover. He tried to speak, but the pain was overwhelming. "L - love," he managed.

Danny shook his head. "Don't speak. Don't you dare say that. You're going to be fine. Just fine," he insisted, ignoring Don's angry screams to get down out of the paths of the bullets.

Mac lifted his hand, wanting to reassure Danny that he'd be fine, but didn't have the strength to raise it more than a few inches.

Danny grabbed his hand, squeezing it tight. "You're going to be fine. You're Mac Taylor, nothing can take you down." He tried to smile. "Keep your eyes open Mac, okay? Just a little bit longer," he pleaded when Mac's eyes drifted closed. "Mac! Mac!" he shouted. Visions of Aiden, Stella and Louie filled his vision and he ruthlessly pushed away any thought of doing anything other than trying to save Mac's life. He grunted when a hand grabbed his ankle and pulled, forcing him to fall to the ground.

There were a few more seconds of bullets flying overhead, hitting the building and then backup came running around from the side of the building before, finally, silence fell over them. It seemed like a tangible thing it was so heavy, colors were muted and everything seemed to have soft, blurred edges. After a second that lasted forever, the world reverted back into focus and Stella, Don and Danny jumped back into action.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Danny yelled at Don. "I need to keep pressure on the wound."

"Me? What the fuck is wrong with you, Messer! When bullets are flying toward your head, you stay down, you don't put yourself in their way!" Don screamed angrily. He had honestly thought that this was going to end with both of his lovers lying dead three feet away from him.

Danny ignored him, instead focusing on watching Mac's struggle to breathe. He couldn't do this again. It was too much. As he pressed against the wound, he willed Mac's lungs to fill with air and the bleeding to stop. He was too freaked out by the blood that kept seeping through his fingers. When hands tried to pull him away, he struggled until it finally registered that it was the paramedics.

Stella, Danny and Don let themselves be led from the steps as the paramedics worked feverishly over Mac, trying to get him stabilized as they loaded him onto a stretcher. They could see Hawkes and Lindsay standing at the front of the crowd at the top of the stairs, watching their friends nervously. Right now, this was a rescue effort, not a scene to be investigated.

"Can I get the three of you to sit down please?" a paramedic asked the three of them sympathetically.

Stella stared at her for a long moment before recognizing her as Kara Cassidy, one of the paramedics that they saw on a semi-regular basis.

"I'm not hurt," Stella assured her, looking over at Don and Danny who both shook their heads.

"You're bleeding," Kara pointed out, "And Detective Messer is covered in blood."

"It's not my blood," Danny said quietly.

"It's just a scrape."

"Sit down Stel," Don told her, taking her arm carefully and lowering her to the ground. "It's not."

It was only then that she realized her arm was on fire and blood was running down to her wrist. "Oh," she said in surprise. "I didn't realize."

"You too Danny," Don ordered. He could see other officers taking control. Captain Gerrard was out, shouting orders along with the Duty Captain, Richard Smith. Right now, all he had to do was make sure his friends were safe and not tear someone's head off in his terror about Mac. That could come later.

"I'm fine," Danny said stubbornly, clenching his hands into fists as he struggled to get his rage, anger, and worry about Mac under control.

"Sit down."

"Don."

It was one word, but Don knew exactly what Danny was requesting. He was begging for the few moments he needed to calm himself. Don realized that if Danny allowed himself to give into a few moments of weakness, he'd break down completely and none of them could do that just yet.

"All right," he agreed reluctantly. It sucked, the things he wanted to do more than anything were the things he absolutely wasn't allowed to do. He couldn't stay with Mac, promising him that everything was going to be okay. He couldn't wrap his arms around Danny and promise him the same. All he could do was stand here and struggle to hold onto his professionalism.

Everyone flinched slightly when the first ambulance peeled away, its sirens blaring. Don and Danny both watched it until it turned a corner and disappeared from sight. One shuddering breath later and they once more focused on the scene around them.

"This isn't stopping bleeding," Kara told Stella. "I'd like to get you to the hospital too."

"No." Stella shook her head. "I can't. I need to be here."

"I really think that all three of you need to go to the hospital and be checked over," Kara insisted. "At the very least, you're all in shock, I'd like to make sure that none of you are hurt worse than you think."

Stella shook her head again. "We need to run this scene. Lindsay and Hawkes ... I'm not leaving them alone to deal with this," she explained. Mac was ... momentarily out of commission, she refused to think anything else. If she and Danny both left that left just the other two. They were good, but neither had the experience that was going to be needed to control this.

"Go to the hospital Stella," Danny said calmly. "Make sure you're okay, check on Mac and then come back and we'll catch the bastards."

She stared at him for several long moments, debating what to do. Her arm was numb and she knew it needed attention, but it went against every instinct to leave. She could see that Danny was once more in control of himself and wasn't worried about that. She knew she could trust him to lead this, but she also knew it was going to cost him in the end.

"Go," Don urged her, "Danny says he's fine" He sent Danny a warning look and the shorter man nodded. "We can handle things here. Besides," he let his voice drop, "We need someone to check on Mac. Please."

She hesitated for a few more seconds before nodding. "All right. I'll be back as soon as I can." They both smiled at her and she let herself be led toward another waiting ambulance. She'd take a step back for now, but only for the moment. They were going to make sure whoever was behind this paid and she needed to be healthy for that.

Lindsay and Hawkes bolted to Don and Danny as soon as the path was clear.

"Oh my..." Lindsay's eyes grew wide when she saw Danny up close. "Why are you still here? You should be–"

"None of it's my blood," he told her harshly. She paled in understanding. "Lindsay, I need you to finish taking pictures of this. Hawkes, you–"

"Detective Messer," a voice broke in. They all looked over to see Duty Captain Smith standing next to them. "You don't need to lead this."

Danny scowled. "With all due respect Sir, I do. Mac's – Mac's unable to and Stella isn't here at the moment, which means that I'm in charge."

"You were involved with this. None of you should be involved," Captain Gerrard interrupted as he joined them.

Danny's chin rose stubbornly. "We're the best CSIs this city has to offer. I'll keep my hands off the evidence, if that's what concerns you, but we're not letting this go to another team. Sir."

They stared at each other for a long minute, everyone around them holding their breath. "That's not necessary, " Smith said, nodding once.

"I really don't think they should be involved," Gerrard insisted.

Smith's gaze was calm as he said, "They're the best CSIs the city has to offer. I won't have anyone else investigating this. No one does something like this and gets away with it." Gerrard bristled, but didn't continue arguing. "Don't be afraid to ask for help," Smith told Danny.

"I won't," Danny promised. Too much rested on them doing a good job for him to let his pride get in the way.

"Keep me informed. No one does this on my watch and gets away with it," he told them, scowling, before both of them stormed away to bark more orders at their officers.

"Get to work," Danny ordered the other two.

Lindsay nodded, picked up her camera, and got back to work.

"It would probably be a good idea if I bagged your shirt," Hawkes suggested quietly.

Danny nodded, looking down at his ruined shirt and blood stained hands. He was going to have to change before he could work anyway. "Let's go to the locker room then," he agreed and headed into the building.

"Why don't you come with us," Hawkes suggested to Don. "Then I could make sure that you're really okay too."

Don only nodded and followed Danny into the building, knowing that Hawkes would be only a few steps behind them. He wasn't ready to let Danny out of his sight just yet, needing to reassure himself that life hadn't completely gone to hell.

"You want your change of clothes?" Danny asked Don, his voice muffled slightly by the locker door as he reached in to pull out his own clothes.

Don glanced down. While he wasn't covered in ... he quickly cut off that line of thought. "Sure," he agreed and caught the clothes Danny tossed his way.

"You keep a spare set in Danny's locker?" Hawkes asked with a smirk.

Don shrugged, "Why not? I probably spend more time in the labs than I do at my own desk." They both looked over at Danny when he hissed while removing his shirt. "I thought you said you weren't hurt," Don accused him, catching sight of the bright red gouge in his side.

"I'm not, I didn't realize I was," Danny admitted, looking down. "It's fine Don, not even bleeding."

"I'll be the judge of that," Hawkes insisted, moving over to take a closer look.

"Damn Doc!" Danny hissed when Hawkes pressed at it.

"You're fine. You won't even need stitches. I'll put a bandage over it after you clean up."

Danny stared at his hands and chest, realizing just how deeply the blood had saturated into his clothes and onto him. "Yeah," he agreed, fiercely pushing away the wave of nausea.

He handed Hawkes his ruined shirt and headed for the showers. "Bag and tag. I want surveillance tapes. I want photos circulated. I want their heads on platters," he ordered Hawkes.

Hawkes nodded, catching onto what Danny needed. "Gotcha," he promised. He handed a bandage, pulled from his own locker, to Don and hurried back to work.

Don waited until the door was closed before wrapping his arms around Danny from behind, squeezing gently.

Danny shuddered, struggling to hold onto his control and he could feel Don doing the same thing. "He's going to be fine, right?"

"Right," Don agreed. "He's Mac."

"I need to get cleaned up, get this off of me," Danny whispered.

Don pressed a kiss into his hair and released him. "I'll be here. I'm not going back down until you're ready to go too."

"Ten minutes," Danny promised. That's all the time he could give himself before he'd have to be down there, making sure that everything went smoothly. "Don?"

"Yeah?"

"We'll get through this."

Don gave him a small smile and nodded. "We will."

"Danny!" Hawkes summoned, hurrying over to him.

"What do you have?"

"Surveillance photos of our shooters," Hawkes told him, grinning proudly. He handed Danny a stack of photos. "And I know who some of them are."

"Really?" Danny asked, taking the stack and flipping through them. "You're right," he realized. None of them had committed major crimes, but they'd all drifted across their radar at one point.

"I told Flack. He's put an APB out on them."

"Good," Danny nodded just as his phone rang. "It's Stella." Hawkes nodded, not saying anything, but was obviously listening intently. "Talk to me Stel," Danny answered. It had been an excruciatingly long two hours since she'd left.

"How are you? Good. How is? Right. Okay. That bad? Okay. We have IDs on several of them, they should be rounded up soon. How long until you're back? Great, see you then." He hung up and saw Hawkes staring at him.

"Well?" he demanded.

Danny looked over to see Don and Lindsay staring at him too.

"She's okay. She has six stitches and will be back here within twenty minutes," he told them. He took a deep breath before continuing. "Mac's in surgery. He will be for the next few hours. The bullet," he paused, taking another deep breath, "It punctured a lung, broke a rib, she wasn't exactly sure of all the damage. Umm... They umm... They're not sure he's going to make it."

"What are his chances?" Hawkes asked quietly.

"She didn't say," Danny said quickly. "I'd really like to be able to tell Stella we have the fucking assholes sitting in the interrogation room waiting for her, what's the status on our APB?"

"Maka and Scagnetti are out now. We think we spotted one of them," Don said, watching his lover closely. He knew that Danny was keeping something from him.

"Good. Keep me informed. You two, make sure that evidence gets processed. I want this by the book, no loose ends or loopholes. Got it?"

"Got it," they both said and hurried back to work.

"Danny," Don said quietly.

Danny shook his head and forced a smile, "It's Mac, he's going to be fine."

"All right," Don said finally, "But if I find out you're keeping something from me, I'm going to kick your ass," he warned. Danny managed a smirk and shooed him away.

Only when he was alone did he allow himself to grip the table as fear and grief overwhelmed him. He took several harsh, deep breaths before forcing the emotions away and gripping his professionalism with everything that he had. He had a job to do. Worry would come later.

TBC