Note From The Author—Here's the second half of Should Have Said No. I couldn't just leave it, so I decided to write this second short chapter. Hope this satisfactorily wraps it up.
Things were even more tense between them after their heated encounter. It got to the point where Mac did everything he could to keep them from ending up on the same case, and the rest of the team couldn't help but wonder if things would ever be resolved. Still, they ended up on cases from time to time, but it was three weeks before Danny approached her to talk about anything other than work.
She was in the lab looking over some results when he walked in. She sensed him there immediately, but she wasn't about to be the one to speak first, not now. She stayed silent and still, waiting for him to say something.
"Can I talk to you Lindsay?" he asked, uncharacteristically quiet.
She turned around to face him, careful to keep her face neutral. "Did we get a hit on the print?" she asked.
"No… I mean, I don't know, but I meant about what you told me, about manning up."
"Okay, I'm listening."
His hands went immediately into his pockets, and she could tell whatever he was about to say was hard for him. Most of her didn't care how upset he was, but there was a part of her that still felt for him. "I wanted to tell you that I thought about what you said, and I get it, I really do. It wouldn't make a difference if I apologized until my face turned blue."
"No it wouldn't," she said quietly.
"I know that. I just wanted to tell you that…." He trailed off, searching for the words and when his eyes met hers again it was through a sheen of tears. "Everything started going down hill when Ruben died. It isn't an excuse, and it doesn't make what I did right, but I just couldn't deal with anything after he was killed. I felt, and I still feel, like it was my fault, and I'm not sure how to fix that. I just wanted you to know that I'm getting some help. I'm talking to someone, a professional, about everything and I'm trying to work it all out. I guess I just needed you to know that Montana, that I'm trying."
She nodded through her own tears and only watched as he walked away. It couldn't fix it all and certainly not this quickly, but it was something; it was something that he was willing to try.