NExSW (Northeast By Southwest) Chapter 2

A/N: The infamous Cindy referenced in Season 2 makes an appearance here. I kind of molded her into what I wanted her to be for the sake of this story. Also, I'm toiling under the assumption that Danny's father was pretty much not a part of his son's life. Any similarities to any other characters in existing D/L fanfic are purely coincidental.

Rating: T (there's a bit more naughty language in this one, ladies and germs!)

Disclaimer: All CSI: NY characters are the property of CBS. I'm kind of borrowing them without permission, but I will return them when I'm done with them. Promise. (looks sideways at Danny) OCs are mine, though I really don't want to keep Cindy.

Chapter 2: Tattered and Shattered

Cindy Hardin held up different tops to see which one would go with the denim skirt she had picked out. She sighed and was thinking how tiresome it was at times to primp and pretty herself up, when a knock on the door of her apartment interrupted her reverie.

"Door, mama!" chirped a young child's voice.

"Yes, Jake honey, that's the door!" Cindy responded cheerfully. She peered out the peephole, then unlocked the door. She swung it open to reveal Danny standing in the hallway. His face was grim, and he carried a small garbage bag.

"Danny." said Cindy. "I wasn't expecting you until later. What brings you around here?"

"Cindy, I need to talk to you. Alone." Danny hoped that Cindy was indeed alone, but the "Hi Daddy!" from Jake made him wince inside. Danny crouched down to the toddler's level. "Heya, sport, how you doing?" he asked in a considerably milder tone that he had used with Cindy. Jake responded by throwing his arms around Danny's neck. In spite of himself, Danny returned the little boy's embrace. Danny stood up and looked over at Cindy. His voice hardened once again. "Cindy, now. Call Mrs. Thorn or put Jake in his room, but I have to talk to you alone."

"All right, all right," groaned Cindy. "Keep your pants on. For now, anyway." She scooped up Jake and cooed, "Honey, go play in your room while Daddy and I have a talk, okay?" After Jake was properly plied with toys, Cindy shut the bedroom door and turned her attention back to Danny. "What on earth is so important that you have to talk to me right now?" She slipped her arms around Danny's neck.

"Get off me," snapped Danny, pushing Cindy's hands off him. "How long did you think you could get away with it?"

Cindy's smile vanished, and she shifted uncomfortably. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Danny's eyes blazed behind his glasses. "I'm talking about Jake, Cindy. I did a DNA test on him. He's not mine!" Danny retrieved the paper that Adam had given him from his pocket. "You led me on all this time, making me think I was Jake's father! I thought I was doing right by him, and by you, and it was all a lie!" As he spoke, he shook the DNA test results at Cindy.

Cindy's eyes were round. "I really did think that Jake was yours! We slept together at about the time he would have been conceived!" Her eyes narrowed. "Wait. You did a DNA test without consulting me? How did you do that?"

Danny folded his arms. "Doesn't matter how, but it proves I'm not Jake's father!"

"Maybe the test is wrong."

Danny shook his head incredulously. "I don't freakin' believe this. Look at this! The test is 99.997 percent positive! There's no way it's wrong!" He shook the paper at Cindy. "So what was it, huh? You knew I worked messed up hours, but you still wanted to date me, and then what, you sleep with other guys when I got called in?" He started to pace the room, all the while glaring at Cindy.

Tears rolled down Cindy's face, leaving trails of black through her thick makeup. "Maybe I did sleep with one or two other guys when we were together, but I didn't think that either one of them - "

"Oh, bullshit!" Danny's sudden expletive made Cindy jump, as did his throwing down the garbage bag he held. "Any one of them could just as well be Jake's father, but you never considered it, did you? I should have done the fuckin' test sooner. Maybe if I did..." His thoughts trailed to Lindsay, and he felt the tears coming again. He closed his eyes and exhaled hard. "Maybe if I did, Lindsay would still be here."

"Are you still going on about her? Come on, Danny," sniffed Cindy, "she was so plain and nothing - "

"Don't you talk about her like that! She was and is more of a woman than you'll ever be! And because of you and that bastard child of yours - "

"How dare you refer to Jake like that!" Cindy's hand whipped out and smacked against Danny's cheek.

Danny gritted his teeth at the stinging in the side of his face, his fists clenching to keep himself from touching where Cindy had slapped him. "You don't get it, do you? Say what you want, but the DNA proves that Jake is not my son!" Danny blustered, "I don't know whose, and I really don't care anymore, which is too bad, because he's a sweet kid. I suppose he gets that from his dad." Danny leaned up against the door. "So what was it? Looking to mooch off me because I'm better off than all your loser boyfriends?"

"It wasn't like that! Jake needs a daddy, and I really thought you were his daddy, but when you stopped taking my calls, I started trying to talk to the other guys, but they weren't having it either. I figured I could just go ahead and do the single mom thing. Then one day, Christine said she saw you out with Lindsay, and I just had to see for myself; such a hottie like you deserves to have a beautiful family with a beautiful lady and a beautiful child, not some plain, ugly - "

Danny advanced menacingly on Cindy. "I swear, if you spout anymore shit about Lindsay, so help me, God, I'll - "

"You'll what?" Cindy snapped back.

Danny stopped. "You know what? I'm done." Danny pointed to the garbage bag he had brought with him. "That's all the crap you and Jake have left at my place. I'm done with you, and I'm done with him. Don't ever come around my place again. I'm going to have my locks changed as soon as possible, and I'm taking out a restraining order. And don't try to pull anything screwy on me, because you know that I get paid to see through shit like that." Danny flung open the door and slammed it behind him as he stormed out.

Cindy stared at the door in disbelief, then she sank to the floor. More tears trailed dark eyeliner and mascara down her cheeks as she wept. The sound of Jake crying in his room made her rush to see what was causing her son's distress. She bent down and gathered Jake into her arms. "Baby, are you okay? Are you hurt?" she managed to ask.

"Want Daddy," cried Jake.

Cindy clutched Jake to her chest. "Me too, honey. Me too." She carried Jake to her room and laid him on her bed, keeping her arms wrapped tightly around him. Mother and son cried themselves to sleep.

o-o-o-o-o

Danny unlocked the door of his apartment and wearily stepped inside. He shed his jacket and button-down shirt, got himself a beer from his refrigerator, and sank down onto his couch. He removed his glasses, placing them on the coffee table, then threw his head back, his eyes closed. The turmoil of the last two days washed over him, and he felt the tears welling up again. This time, he let them fall freely.

Why didn't I fight harder for her? he asked himself. Why did I just let her leave? Lindsay had tried to cope with Cindy blowing into their lives with Jake in tow and insisting that Danny was the boy's father. Danny, not wanting Jake to know the hurt of not having his father around, the same way he did, started to indulge every request that Cindy made of him to spend time with the child, never realizing how she was including herself into the time that Danny spent with Jake and never realizing that Cindy was shoehorning herself in between him and Lindsay. Lindsay would put on a good face as the "happy family" made play dates and took outings to the park, but afterwards, she would complain bitterly about having to play second fiddle to the busty redhead. He had waved off her concerns and even, after one particularly exhausting day at the zoo, snapped at her for being a poor sport. Only now, and after that awful day, did he realize, too late, that Lindsay was right…

(Flashback)

Danny, Cindy, and Jake had gone up to Danny's apartment because Danny had wanted to change his shirt after Jake had spilled grape juice on it. Danny retreated to his bedroom and yanked off his T-shirt.

"Ooh, sexy," purred Cindy, who had followed Danny into his room. She laid a sleeping Jake onto Danny's bed.

"Cut it out," muttered Danny.

"Oh, but you are. I've missed you, Danny. I missed us." said Cindy. She sidled up to him and stroked a finger over his bare chest.

"Will you stop that? I may be Jake's father, but that doesn't mean that you and I are getting back together. We'll work out something, but I'm with Lindsay now. Don't forget that." He pushed Cindy's hand off him and took a fresh T-shirt from his dresser.

Cindy sniffed. "Oh, please. You and Little Miss Country Mouse? What has she got that I haven't?"

"Cindy, just shut up. You don't know Lindsay at all." Danny poked his head through the top of his T-shirt and stuck his arms through the sleeves. He stepped past Cindy into the kitchen. He bent down into the refrigerator to retrieve a bottle of water. When he stood back up, he saw that Cindy had followed him and was now standing very close to him. He narrowed his eyes. "What?"

Cindy pushed herself closer to Danny, forcing him to back up against the kitchen wall. "Don't you think it's time you, me, and Jake made it official? You can do better than Lindsay."

"Are you kidding me?" said Danny incredulously. "How many times do I have to tell you that I'm only interested in making sure Jake's got a daddy; you and I are – " Danny's tirade was cut off by Cindy's arms crushing herself to him and her lips locking onto his. Caught completely by surprise, Danny took two seconds to get his bearings and wrestle Cindy off of him. He very quickly discovered that it was two seconds too long, having suddenly become aware of Lindsay standing just inside the doorway of his apartment. Her brown eyes were rimmed with red as tears fell from them. She shook her head, muttering, "I knew it," before turning tail and fleeing from the apartment.

"Lindsay!" Danny extricated himself from Cindy's arms and pushed her away. He ran out the open door of his apartment and looked both ways down the hall. Lindsay had run exceptionally quickly, because there was no sight of her. He sighed exasperatedly, only to jump when he felt a hand on his arm. He turned, hoping to see Lindsay, but saw only Cindy. He glared at her and growled, "I'm going after Lindsay, and when I get back, you and Jake had better be out of here!"

(end flashback)

Ever since that day three months ago, things had rapidly gone downhill. First came the ignored knocks on her door, and the screened phone calls. After that, he began to notice that he never worked any crime scenes with her anymore, as if Lindsay had asked Mac to specifically not put them together. Then came the day when Stella had shown up at his apartment to retrieve Lindsay's belongings. After Danny had a large floral spray delivered to the lab with an "I'm sorry" card attached to it, he was crushed to find it stuffed upside-down in the garbage and crushed even further when he learned that Lindsay had requested a transfer to the swing shift. He would try to stay past his shift end just to get a glimpse of her when her shift started, but when she noticed what he was doing, she began ducking him again. Now, she was gone to who knows where.

Danny didn't know why he didn't immediately take action when Flack asked him one day, "How do you know that Jake is really your kid?" He really had no reason to think that Cindy had been duplicitous in any way, but as the days passed and his relationship with Lindsay continued to unravel, he began to wonder if Flack was onto something. Getting the DNA sample was easier than he'd imagined; the day after Danny decided he would have Jake tested, he found Jake sucking on a lollipop when he met Cindy and Jake at the park. After the boy had finished his candy, Danny carefully wrapped up the lollipop stick for Adam to run the test. When the test came back proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was not Jake's father, Danny immediately started brainstorming about just how he was going to get Lindsay to finally listen to him and accept his apology. Of course, all that went south when Perry had told him about her resignation from the crime lab. Danny had rushed to Lindsay's apartment building, hoping that he could catch her before she was gone for good, but it was not to be. As he walked to the subway station, the sorrow at losing Lindsay stepped aside in favor of rage at Cindy and pity for Jake, and it built with each step he took, climaxing with the blow-up at Cindy's place.

Now, the anger that Danny felt was directed solely at himself. He cursed himself audibly and chucked the beer bottle at the far wall. The bottle fragmented into bits against the cinderblock wall and sprayed its contents all over. He dropped his head into his hands and let the tears overwhelm him. His chest actually ached, as if his heart had been scooped out piece by piece with a teaspoon until there was no more. After what felt like hours, Danny finally pushed himself up from his couch to pick up the bits of broken beer bottle from the floor. He shuffled numbly towards the wall, inadvertently bumping against the pool table in the middle of the room. As he looked down at the felt of the pool table, he recalled the first night that he and Lindsay made love on top of it. The empty achy feeling in his chest returned, and he climbed on top of the pool table, sprawling himself on his stomach over the rough surface as if to reabsorb any vestige of Lindsay having been there. Succumbing to the fatigue of the day's events, Danny fell into a deep dreamless sleep.

Thanks to everyone who has been reading, and to those who have reviewed! This new author feels honored.

Next chapter: Lindsay's crashing at Rich's, and is Danny headed for a different sort of crash?