Chapter 3

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By the time Stella arrived at the restaurant everyone including Sid and Sheldon was there.

"Hey Everyone!" She called out approaching the table.

"Have a seat Sheldon was just updating us on Danny." Sid said standing and offering Stella his chair.

"Thanks Sid." She sighed as she sat down.

"Here you go Sir." Their waitress Carol said bringing over yet another chair. "Do I need anymore chairs?"

Everyone sadly shook their heads.

"OK then. What can I get you to drink, ma'am?" She asked Stella.

"Iced tea, please."

"Refills for everyone else?" Several "Yes please" were heard. Carol nodded. "Be right back."

"Where was I?" Sheldon asked.

"You were telling us about the CT scan." Adam answered.

"Oh yeah, anyhow Dr. Hartney said that Danny did have a minor bleed in his brain and that he'll keep an eye on him."

"What about his broken bones?" Stella queried.

Sheldon took a deep breath, reached into his pocket and pulled out a small note pad.

"Here we go." Carol said as she brought over the drinks everyone had requested. "Iced tea for the two of you." She sat down Stella's and Lindsey's drinks. "Soda for the young man." (Adam's drink) "And coffee for everyone else." She said walking around the table and filling everyone's cups.

Everyone said "Thank you" as they were severed.

"You're quite welcome." Carol answered grabbing her tray and walking away.

Everyone watched Sheldon as he fixed his coffee and took a sip.

"What?" he asked with a little laugh. "All right, all right." He picked up the note pad. "I spoke to Dr. Neal."

"He's an orthopedic specialist." Sid interrupted.

Sheldon nodded. "Yeah, he's going to be responsible for Danny's broken bones, but as of right now all he's going to do is stabilize them all and wait to see what happens to the bleeding in his head."

"Why wait?" Lindsey asked.

"Well Danny's jaw is going to have to be wired shut in order for it to heal properly."

Everyone giggled slightly.

"Yeah I know. I've tried to image Danny Messer not being able to open his mouth. This is going to be good." Sheldon agreed. "But he'll be able to speak, just not as much and not as understandable. Dr. Neal also said he'll set Danny's nose and shoulder while his out for the surgery on his jaw. They're not going to do anything about his cheek and let it heal own it's own. "

"What about his hands and ribs?" Lindsey asked.

"I was just getting to that, Linds." Sheldon snapped, when he saw the look on Lindsey's face he added. "Sorry."

Lindsey smiled slightly. "It's OK Sheldon we're all under a lot of stress right now."

"Thanks." He replied reaching over and taking her hand. "Anyway as far as his ribs they'll wrap them as soon as they can."

Sheldon took a moment and grabbed his cup of coffee and took a couple of sips as everyone sat and watched him.

"Can't a guy enjoy just a little bit of his coffee while it's still hot?"

"Sure just take your time, we've got all the time in the world." Mac said sounding every bit the boss.

Sheldon looked at Mac getting ready to reply, until he saw Mac smile around his own cup of coffee.

Sheldon smiled back. "OK. Danny's hands are messed up real bad."

"Cute medical term there." Sid said smiling also.

"Ah, hush up Hammerback." Sid sniffed acting hurt. "But seriously Danny's hands are also going to require some surgery, but Dr. Neal doesn't want to do it all at the same time, he's concerned about keeping Danny under for too long with he's lungs and all."

"Lungs?" Mac asked. "Why is this the first time I'm here there is something wrong with Danny's lungs?"

"Whoa Mac, Calm down." Stella jumped in. "I'm sure it was just an over sight. Right, Sheldon?"

Sheldon nodded. "Of course, you see it was when they took him to do the CT scan. They did a whole body one, figuring with his broken ribs there might be some internal damage somewhere, especially the lungs. And sure enough bruising was there."

"Will, will he be alright?" Adam stuttered out.

"Sure he will Adam." Don stated tousling Adams hair. "Right Sheldon?"

"Yeah, yeah he'll be fine Adam. It's just going to take a while that's all."

"Thank God." Adam cried. It was at that moment everyone else realized that Adam had been in shock over what had happened.

"Hey Adam let's take a walk." Sid suggested standing up. Adam nodded as he joined Sid.

"We'll meet you all back at the hospital, OK." Sid said letting everyone know that Adam needed to talk to someone about what happened.

"Oh man, I was so busy worried abut Danny, I didn't even think about how Adam was doing." Don groaned.

"None of us did." Lindsey agreed. "God he's got to be hurting bad."

Everyone around the table nodded in agreement.

"Damn I never even thought to ask him how he was holding up." Sheldon said concerned. "I mean him and his Aunt gave Danny first aid until the ambulance showed up and then having to go with him to the hospital because Danny wouldn't let go of his hand. He had to have been freaking out over that. God, image responding to someone needing help only to find out it was one of your best friends."

Carol had walked over to the table to ask if anyone needed refills, but when she notice that everyone was lost deep in their own thoughts she quietly turned around and left.

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By the time Sid and Adam made it back to the hospital about an hour later, Sheldon had gotten an update on Danny.

"Danny's showing signs that the bleeding in his head is getting worse. They are getting ready to do another CT scan and if it shows what we are expecting it to show." Sheldon stopped and took a deep breath. "He will be taken to the OR immediately and Dr. Hartney will do whatever he can to stop the bleeding and hopefully Danny will stabilize enough that he can have any other surgery done and begin the long road to recover."

"What if they can't control the bleeding?" Mac asked.

"Let's not think that way Mac. Danny's strong and in good health and Dr. Hartney is the best neurologist in the state of New York, hell the entire tri-state area." Sheldon said.

Mac nodded. "I'm just scared that he won't be all right."

"He's a fighter Mac, he'll be fine." Don said patting Mac on the shoulder.

"That may be the problem." Mac told his team. "Danny's had to fight his entire life and he's tired. He just wants to be able to live life without having to fight for whatever he wants."

"He told you that?" Stella asked.

Mac nodded. "He said that just before he stormed out of the house last night."

"Then what happened?" Sid asked.

"I remember going after him and, and…." Mac began.

"And what?" Stella prodded. "What is the next thing you remember?"

Mac shook his head "You at the lab garage."

"So we have to figure out what happened between those two points of time." Don said. "I'm going to the station and get people on this right now. What time would you say Danny left?"

Mac thought for a moment "It had to be approximately seven."

"You sure?"

"Yeah I noticed that the traffic was beginning to let up and they had their lights on."

Don nodded in acknowledgement. "I'll get on it. Let me know if anything changes."

With a quick goodbye to everyone Don left.

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"I'm sorry Don, but you are not allowed to have anything to do with this case." Detective Jessica Angell said.

"Says who?" Don demanded.

Jessica just exhaled.

Don rolled his eyes "Let me guess, my father?"

Jessica nodded.

"Damn him." Don snapped.

"I happen to agree with him on this one Don. You're to close to the situation. You are friends with both the victim and the suspect."

"Mac's a suspect?"

"After the fight that Taylor and Messer had in front of the entire lab, what do you expect?"

"Mac didn't hurt Danny." Don sighed.

"I hope you're right Don, I hope you're right."

"I do have some information." Don commented.

"OK let me have it." Jessica said.

"Mac said that Danny left his apartment around seven and he followed." Don said thinking back on what Mac had said.

"He's sure of the time?"

Don nodded. "Yeah he said he noticed that the traffic was thinning out and the cars had their lights on."

Jessica was writing down what Don was telling him. "Go on."

"Well Mac said the next thing he remembers was waking up in his car, in the employee parking lot at the crime lab with Stella trying to get him to wake up."

"Bonasera was there?"

"Yeah Stella found him."

"I'll talk to her about that. Do you know what time?"

"It had to be around nine."

Jessica just stared at Don. "Nine?"

"Yeah Stella had collected evidence from Danny and was taking it back to the lab for testing."

"Please tell me she didn't."

"Now what?"

Jessica shook her head "Your old man said any evidence collected and or processed by day shift is to be ignored."

"What? Is he out of his freaking mind?" Don yelled. "That does it. I'm not going to stand still for this."

"Don, wait."

"NO. You know as well as I do that the day shift CSI's the best this city as to offer."

"I agree Don, but what are you going to do?"

"Do something that I should have done a long time ago."

"What's that?"

"Tell my father what I really think of him."

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After Flack left Sheldon went to check on Danny.

"Mac?" Sheldon came running back into the waiting room.

"Sheldon what's going on?" Mac asked.

"They are rushing Danny to surgery." Sheldon explained.

"Oh God." Everyone seemed to say at once.

"What is going to happen?" Mac asked.

Sheldon took in and released one large breath. "OK, Dr. Hartney said by what he sees on the CT scan he believes that there are two spots on the surface of Danny's brain that is bleeding. How bad he won't really know until he gets there, but he seems to think that he can control the bleeds by cauterizing the areas."

"So he doesn't see any longer term problems?" Sid added.

Sheldon shook his head. "No, but when the human brain is involved. Who knows for sure."

"Why do they think that maybe Danny's suffered some kind of brain injury?" "Lindsey began. "No wait." She took a deep breath. "Obviously he's suffered some kind of brain injury, what I mean is. Oh heck I don't know what I mean."

"I hear what your saying Linds." Sid said. "You're wondering if maybe Danny's suffered any, shall we say long term affects."

Lindsey smiled at Sid and nodded.

"Wait." Adam jumped in "You think that Danny has s-s-s-suffered some kind of lasting brain damage?" He stuttered as tears began to well up in his eyes.

"Adam?" Sid walked over and put a hand of Adam's shoulder. "Remember what we talked about before." Adam nodded working hard at trying not to cry. "All right and remember we agreed that the best way we can help him right now is to stay positive and calm." Again Adam nodded and gave Sid a little smile as the older man wrapped an arm around the youngster's shoulders.

"We won't know what kind if any long term affects this may have on Danny, but like Sid said the best thing we can do is to remain positive that Danny will be all right." Sheldon agreed.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Now let's go up to the surgery waiting room and pray that this won't take long." Sheldon said leading the rag, tag bunch of medical and law enforcement people to the nearest elevator.

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