Okay, let me start by saying I know you all could have done better in the review department though thank you to those that did review they were all wonderful. This piece kept nagging me to write it so I did (I'm so weak…lol) Again I own nothing, and if you review again you might get yet another chapter. I am still a review whore; enough said.

"The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places"

-Ernest Hemingway

Broken Boy

Lindsay sighed as she stored her stuff in her locker; it had been two days since she'd see Danny last. Since she'd slipped into his brother's hospital room and proceeded to hold his hand while he listened to Louie confession via tape recorder; she wanted desperately to know how he was doing. Just minutes ago Mac had ended up giving her quite the talking to regarding Danny; he'd pulled her into his office and began picking her apart.

He started with her breaking protocol by going to Danny with the DNA results, with how he should fire her on the spot like he had her predecessor though he used her name; he had said Aiden. Lindsay had panicked then because Mac Taylor was all about rules and she didn't want to lose her job. She looked down as he continued to rant and rave, much like a child does when they are getting in trouble by a parent, but he never yelled at her. He didn't stop until he was in the middle of scolding her for springing the tape on Danny while he was sitting worriedly by the brother's bedside; he didn't need this now, might not be able to handle it; when Don Flack pushed into his office and saved her.

"She did was she thought was right and it was right Mac, it was exactly what Danny needed. Believe me; I was there. So if you're going to yell at her you might as well yell at me too; I let her see him." Mac sucked in a breath and the rest of his lecture as his eyes moved from Flack to her to Flack again before he sighed. He nodded to the dark haired cop before running a hand through his own hair and turning away for a moment. Apparently, having Flack vouch for you was as good as having Stella vouch for you. And like that she was free to go…almost.

"Fine, but I can't just let you walk out Lindsay. I need to suspend you for a couple of days; sorry." She wrinkled her nose, so close to getting off, but took her punishment without a word; she knew how much worse it could have been. Stella caught her as she was closing her locker to go.

"Hey, I heard, are you okay?" she patted Lindsay's shoulder, light eye clear with worry. "I can talk to Mac if you want me to?" Lindsay shook her head.

"Thanks but I'm fine. Plus I think Flack did all the damage control he could already and Mac's right, I deserve some punishment though I still would have done what I did." Lindsay shrugged her shoulders as Stella walked her out. Lindsay, she noted, did exactly what Stella herself would have in that situation and that made her like the young CSI all the more. "The way I see it, I just got two days vacation."

"That's my girl, I'll see you Wednesday." Lindsay nodded as she pushed her black bag higher on her shoulder and waved goodbye to Stella as she made her way out of the building and started for home. It was dark out already and she was tired.

She climbed the three flights of stairs to her floor and pushed her door open with her side; it really didn't look good being suspended 7 months into a new job. The door clicked behind her and she locked it while she kicked off her shoes and left the lights off. She slipped off her jacket, the same one Danny had hooked his finger through, lazily letting it pool by her shoes as she moved towards her bathroom. A hot bath, she decided, sounded wonderful and as she made her way towards it she began taking off her clothes.

She ripped off her plain white tee-shirt, throwing it in the general direction of her living room, not caring where it landed; she'd find it later. She continued on, hopping on one foot and then the other as she peeled off her socks, letting them lay where they fell. Lindsay patted barefoot now down the hall as she unzipped her jeans and stepped out of them halfway to the bathroom. It had been a long time since she'd walked around her house in only her underwear and bra, here or in Montana and it felt really good; she smiled.

Lindsay opted for flicking on the small shower radio en lieu of the lights, allowing soft country music to fill the small space of her bathroom as she started to fill the tub. She turned away from the bathtub, grabbing a hair elastic from up top a candle and pulled her hair into a messy ponytail, brushing fallen curls out of her face. She hummed along with the quiet love song playing as she pulled a lighter off the soap dish and started lighting the cappuccino candles she had scattered around the room. The soft light of the fire set off shadows in the room, made her brown eyes glow, and reflected in the mirror. She remembered late summer nights, when her whole house was lit by candles and the windows were open to get in warm breezes and she felt free. That though, was a long time ago and she missed it; back in Montana.

She slipped off her undergarments and stepped into the tub with its water so hot the steamed rolled off it; she settled down in contentment. She lent back and closed her eyes, letting the last few days roll away except for her thoughts of Danny. She itched to call him, to hear his voice and see how he was doing but she didn't want to become a bother; not now. He'd call when he was ready, if he wanted to; she'd have to except that.

Lindsay stayed like that until the water had turned cold before she stepped out, wrapped a fluffy red towel around herself and drained the tub. She began blowing out all the candles and flicked off the radio on her way out of the bathroom and towards her own room. She pulled on her pajamas, black yoga pants and a brown tank top before getting into bed; sleep was calling her.

It was midnight when her head hit the pillow as she pulled up the covers and it was 12:01am when she fell asleep. And, it was 3:17am when persistent knocking at her door woke her up. She shook sleep away, stumbling to the door as she pulled on her robe and stood on tiptoes to look out of the peephole. Her heart sped up as she took a loud intake of breath and hurried to pull open the door.

"Danny?" he looked up at her through his eyelashes but kept his head down and his hands hidden in his jacket pockets.

"Can I come in?" she nodded, and moved back to let him slip inside before locking her door behind him; did he realize the time? She didn't say anything about it.

"Did something happen with your bother?" She asked as he took off his shoes beside hers and bent to pick up her discarded jacket before hanging both of their jackets in her closet. He shook his head slowly.

"No, he's…he's still the same." His eyes started to adjust to the darkness of her apartment as he gazed at her; his voice was haggard and low.

"Can I get you something? Coffee, tea?" It had been there, on the tip of her tongue; alcohol, but she stopped herself. Right now with everything going on he'd probably say yes and there was a high chance that mixing alcohol and pain would lead to regret the next morning on both their parts. He didn't need regret on his shoulders too; at least not more then he already seemed to have.

"Don't go out of your way." But she waved him off, turning towards her kitchen; Danny followed.

"I'm not, don't worry." She flashed him a small smile over her shoulder as she reached for the kitchen lights; he grabbed her hand.

"Leave 'em off," she understood, dropping her hand; his eyes couldn't take the light right now so she did as he asked. He followed as she moved flawlessly around her kitchen in the dark; boiling water, grabbing coffee mugs and filling them with chamomile tea. She never asked if he like chamomile but somehow she knew. She handed him a mug which he thanked her for before he added sugar and wondered into her living room; noticing her socks as he passed her hall entrance. Lindsay noticed him notice her socks and blushed as she picked them up and tossed them into the hamper before joining him on the couch.

"Do you want to talk? Tell me what happened; why you're here?" she looked into her tea cup, hopped he didn't think she was kicking him out before looking back at him. Flack had said that Danny trusted her but she didn't want to push. Danny growled and lent back, shrugging his shoulders.

"You said if I needed anything right?" he questioned, that was what she'd told him at the hospital; Lindsay nodded. He tried to get move comfortable, pushing into the back of her couch before his eyebrows kitted and he reached behind him to pull out her shirt.

"Are you sure I didn't ruin anything? Do you have someone here?" Her tee-shirt dangled from his finger in front of her face. Lindsay shook her head, but he wondered why he kept finding her clothes flung everywhere. For the first time he noticed the time and took in her appearance; he shouldn't have come, it was late.

"No, no, there's no one here; I just have bad aim." She blushed as she snatched the shirt from him and stood to place it in the hamper in her bathroom as well; he followed. His eyebrows shot up when he saw her jeans lying there and even with everything on his plate he couldn't help but laugh.

"My, my, my, Montana, if I didn't know better I'd think I caught you in the middle of something; I should have come earlier." She stopped walking, turned in her hallway to look at him with her jeans resting in her arms and smiled; that was the Danny she knew.

"You didn't miss anything exciting; I was just being lazy seeing as I have the time now." She rambled, entering her bathroom and dropping the rest of her clothes into the hamper, thankful she'd placed her undergarments in there before.

"You have a nice place here," he was moving into her bedroom before she could stop him and she followed him in. "Small, but it is just you." Lindsay lent against the doorway and nodded, wondering if he was ever going to tell her why he'd come by or if he was just going to keep avoiding it.

"Plus it was the only decent place in Manhattan that I could afford." She reached out as he neared and tugged on the sleeve of his tee-shirt. "Come on, our tea is getting cold." He let her lead him back to the living room, he knew she wanted answers, knew she wanted to ask other questions but he didn't know what he was going to say.

"I'm sorry I woke you," she pulled her robe tighter around herself as she shook her head, sending curls flying around her shoulders.

"No, don't be, it's fine." After a beat she finally asked the question she'd been dying to since she'd pulled open her front door. "Are you okay Danny?" She pulled her knees up to her chest as she rested her back against the arm rest and faced him; he shook his head.

"I don't know. I mean at least Louie's alive so yeah I'm okay but he hasn't woken up and the longer he's in the coma the harder it will be for him to come out of it so, no I'm not okay." She picked up on how he wouldn't look at her, on how he was fidgeting with his fingers; he was so new at talking about his feelings.

Something beyond her control propelled her forward until she was on her knees hugging him around his neck from his side. Danny turned into her so that his arms were wrapped around her middle, pressing her closer to him, feeling the warmth her body gave off, breathing in her scent. He found she smelled like cappuccino mixed lightly with vanilla; he liked it. They stayed like that for a long while, her holding him and him letting her. Lindsay knew that like in the hospital they would never speak of this again; it would stay inside the walls of her apartment. They pulled back slowly and he fingered a curl as he looked at her.

"I should go; you need to sleep, you have work tomorrow." But he didn't let go of her hair, and he made no move to go which was just as well because she opened her mouth to stop him anyway.

"Nope, Mac suspended me for two days." He knew it was because of him but he didn't say anything and she didn't mind. "And it's really late Danny why don't you just stay here, on the couch until morning?" Danny didn't know how much he had wanted her to ask him that until she had; he nodded. "Good," she used his knee to push herself off the couch as she went to get him a pillow and some blankets.

"I owe you, Montana." He told her as he took the pillow from her and let her spread a blanket over the couch and placed another one the coffee table for him.

"Forget it, I told you anything; I meant it." She bid him goodnight as she watched him stretch out on her couch and cover himself with the blanket before she disappeared into her own room. Not even two minutes later, just as she'd managed to settle into bed, Danny appeared in her doorway.

"Lindsay?" his sounded so small, like a little boy lost and it was breaking her heart.

"Yeah Danny?" he moved into the room cautiously as she sat up.

"I need to sleep but I can't. They sent me home…" she cut him off.

"They? Who Danny?"

"My mother, Mac, Stella even, but it's too quiet at home so I came here." She nodded, touched that he'd thought to come to her instead of someone else. "In the hospital it was quiet but when I put my head down on Louie's bed I could hear him breathing and that helped; I need to hear breathing."

She knew what he was asking her and she moved over to let him slid in; this as well would never be talked about. She noted bare feet as he moved in next her and reached out to intertwine their fingers, gently pulling his lips across her knuckles. So un-Danny like she thought; or was it really?

"Thank you," she let him pull her a little closer when he tucked their intertwined fingers under his cheek and she watched him as he watched her until her calm breathing lulled him off to sleep. She watched him until her eyes couldn't stay open any longer then followed him into sleep, but not before she reached out to gingerly touch his face; this broken boy beside her.

-Girlygirl