A/N: I'd like to thank StoryDreamer, Rum on the Drums, NuiteNoire and ShylohJaye for their great, made-my-day reviews. I'd also like to thank Rum on the Drums, ShylohJaye and Angst Is My Middle name for their favorites, and all nine people who set alerts on this story. Soulless-tears, wolfeylady, anymousie, StoryDreamer, ShylohJaye, Rum on the Drums, NuiteNoire, Nariena, and Mellow girl, thanks! You guys all ROCK!

I just wanted to warn you, I think I might over-use italics. And I'd like to apoligize for the random POV shift in the last chapter, as well as the one I apparently slipped into my other story- Sorry! The shift in the beginning of this chapter was intentional, just because I thought starting with Danny would be a nice change up.

And, as always, your reviews make my world go round, so please don't hesitate : D

Disclaimer: I don't know and I don't own, so please don't sue!

..-.. ..-.. ..-..

Danny woke with a pounding headache and the realization that there was someone half on top of him. He opened his eyes to the back of Don's head, the other man's face pressed into the crook of his neck, his breath ghosting over Danny's collar bone.

He smiled affectionately toward the sleeping form of his best friend, reaching his free hand up to smooth down the back of his hair, letting it linger on his neck. He was pleasently surprised to note that Flack's temperature seemed to be back to normal, deciding it had probably been stress and not an illness of any - physical - sort. As he moved to pillow his head with his arm he caught sight of the digital clock perched on top of his cable box.

Only nine? he thought. Good. That gave him plenty of time to do the things that had already worked their way onto his mental to-do list, and none of them were particularly fun. Don didn't work today, that much he knew, but it was gonna be hell on both of them to convince him to go to the clinic.

The man couldn't go on like this, wouldn't, and if he put up any resistance Danny'd make sure of it if he had to lock him in his apartment in person every night and let him out in the morning. Don Flack was the closest thing he had to a brother, and he'd be damned if he was gonna lose him.

He felt the weight on his chest shift, and his companion stiffened distinctly and suddenly. Danny enveloped him instinctively in a hug, trying to be reassuring.

"S'okay, Don. It's me. It's just me," he murmured, and the horrible, tense knot that had been tightening itself in his chest since he'd found Don the night before loosened minutely when Don mostly relaxed and hugged back.

"Yeah," his speech was heavy with sleep. "Yeah, I know," he said into Danny's neck before levering himself to his knees, then his feet, and offering his friend a hand.

"You ain't workin' today, eh, Don?" Danny asked, moving toward the kitchen, more to fill up the awkward silence than to actually ask.

"Nah," Don replied, his hand rubbing the back of his neck, his feet shuffling agaisnt the carpet. "Why?"

"I, uh- Hey," he turned away from the frying pan he had heating up and held up an egg. "Two eggs in your omelette or three?"

"Two." Danny leveled his best 'what the fuck?' look at him and Don sighed, nodding appeasingly. "Three."

"Cheese?"

"Sure."

Danny turned back to the stove and broke the eggs like the expert he was. "I got some things to do today, an' I'm gonna need you to come with me."

"Why? Doncha got work today, anyway?"

"Not till three," he replied evenly, mixing cheese in so it would be a little burnt and crispy as he tried to figure out how to work this into the conversation. "I've gotta go to Jersey real quick."

From the tone of his voice, Danny knew Don was curious. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." He slid the omelette in front of the younger man and grabbed the sour cream from the fridge on his way back from the silverware drawer, dropping it and a fork and spoon onto the counter. Danny moved back in front of the range and set to work making his own breakfast. Don ate silently till the CSI sat across from him.

"Why you goin' to Jersey?"

Danny shoveled two big bites into his mouth and chewed on them, pretending that was the only reason he wasn't answering. He shrugged, lowering his eyes back to his plate and making a big show out of cutting another peice off of his omelette.

"Dan?"

"You want another?" Danny motioned to his friend's empty plate, and Don shook his head.

"Danny." He had the no-nonsense homicide detective quality in his voice now, and Danny felt like he was a main suspect on Detective Flack's radar.

"I-" he sighed and pushed his half eaten breakfast away, not hungry anymore. "I- God, Don." He ran his hands over his face and crossed his arms nervously. His leg jiggled nervously and he couldn't bear to meet the other man's eyes. "Don't be mad."

The half terrified look on the young detective's face was enough to break the hardest of hearts. And Danny was a softie. "Mad about what, Dan? What's in Jersey?"

"There's this clinic on the shore-"

"You sick, Danny?" The terrefied look was quickly replaced by a devastated one. "What's wrong?"

"I'm not sick, Don. I'm fine. I'm okay, I promise."

"Then.. why-" Don broke off, eyes searching Danny's face for...something.

"It's-" Danny's voice cracked and he cleared his throat in frustration. "It isn't for me, Donnie."

There was a split second of tense silence before Don was on his feet, his stool clattering loudly to the floor. Anger was the only emotion Danny could read in the other detective's eyes now.

"Me?" Danny nodded, surprised by the loudness of Flack's voice, and instantly became very interested in his countertop - was that granite? "What the hell, Dan? You think I'm- what? I'm a sex addict or somethin'? I got some mental problem? I'm a druggie, too?" His furious questions hung in the air around Danny, quickly moving to asphyxiate him, pressing hard on his chest to stop his breathing. There was a moment while the taller man waited for an answer, then, "WHAT?!" and an open fist came crashing down on his, possibly granite, counter.

"We gotta get you tested, Don," was all he offered, in a tentative, quiet, hopefully soothing voice. He didn't need to explain.

"You think just cause I'm a hooker I wasn't smart enough to make the bastards that I did buisiness with wear condoms?" Don ground out, insulted and saddened and covering them both with rage.

"I never said that, Do-"

"Then WHY?!"

There was no sound for a second while Danny prayed Don would take this in the way he meant it. "Did.. the first guy. Did he wear one, Don?"

Don stared at him for a beat, then sank onto the stool to his right like the air had been let out of him.

"I'm sorry, Flack," Danny sighed, hating the guarded look that had painted itself on the younger man's face.

"It ain't you who's gotta be sorry, Dan. I was a jerk. I know-" he sighed. "I know you're only lookin' out for me."

"Always will, alright?" Danny leaned on the counter. "And I think I can tolerate you bein' a little jerkish for a while. Considerin'."

Don nodded, raising his eyes up from the floor and frowning at the blond. "Here," he grunted, sliding the half finished omelette back at him. "If I had to eat before we leave, so do you."

Danny took the offered olive branch with an upward twitch of his lips, barely noticeable, but there nonetheless. He finished his breakfast in four bites and two sentences and was up, moving to the bathroom for his shower.

..-.. 0 ..-..

Don swung his feet from where he sat on the table. He didn't want to be here. He didn't want to have to be here. He had only been in this place fifteen minutes while Danny filled out some forms and talked to some person in scrubs and he hated it.

He only hated three things more than this place and two of them were specific men. The third was more of a concept.

Danny stepped through the door with a lab-coat lackey and shut the door behind her quickly.

"Now," the woman nodded at Don and he nodded back. He guessed a free clinic wasn't really the sort of place you would greet everyone cordially. "Dan, is it?" He opened his mouth to correct her, but she ploughed on. "I'm going to need to take a vial of blood, alright?" He nodded and glanced at Danny, who was standing in the corner with his arms crossed, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

"Yeah," he said, hesitantly. "Yeah, sure, fine."

There was a few minutes while she took his blood, and explained that they would run down any common STDs and follow up any abnormalities that came back on his bloodwork and blah blah blah he should really blah blah. She wasn't telling him anything he didn't already know and, frankly, by the time she was capping off the full sample and bandaging his arm, he couldn't wait to never see her again.

She gathered the supplies that hadn't gone into the biohazard or sharps bins into her arms and Danny pulled open the door for her. She nodded at him in thanks, then turned back to Don and, as a somewhat personalized valediction, smiled, "Have a nice day, Mr. Messer." And she was gone before Don could react.

He stared blankly for a few moments at the place she'd been, then looked to Danny to get the explanation that he couldn't seem to find the words to ask for.

Danny shrugged, like it wasn't anything. "Everyone knows I'm loose, Don." When all he got was a stare in return, he sighed and nodded toward the still open door. "Are we leavin', or not?"

Don slid off the stupid padded table and fell into step beside Danny as they hit the automatic doors, walking in silence until they reached the car. "Are we goin' back to the city now?"

"Uh-" Danny nodded, unlocking the doors. "Yeah. But I gotta stop by somewhere before the hospital, alright?" Don nodded, sliding into the seat and locking the door after it closed.

"Where?"

"Just. Just somewhere, Don." Danny studied his face, the shadows under his eyes. "You look beat, man. Get some shut-eye." He started the car and shifted it into reverse as he glanced at the clock. "This time a day it'll take us at least an hour to get back to New York, probably more."

Don could tell that he was avoiding something, but souldn't figure out what that look in his friend's eyes could be.

"Seriously, Don. Go to sleep." He slapped the blinker on as they waited at the light to exit the hospital complex. "I'll wake you when we get there."