A/N: Sorry for taking so long on the updates, but I've hit a few snags that I've recently come across and I'm still trying to fix them. If I'm not able to, I may have to take this story down for a complete overhaul. But don't worry, I will get this story completed.

Ch. 4

Complication to Fear

Oh what the hell now? Sheldon internally moaned. Confusion was his dominant reaction, seconded by fear-born wariness. The spread positions of the four men brought to Sheldon's mind the idea of a stand-off, which probably wasn't too far from being a fact. After the tall man's greeting, no one had so much as blinked. It wasn't a face-off to see who drew first, but more like a competition of wills.

For Sheldon, it was more that he was reeling in surprise, unable to form coherent thought right off. He looked from each man, returning his gaze to who he assumed to be the leader seeing as how he'd been the first to speak.

" Um..." Sheldon said, just to break the silence and force his mind to work. And work it did, shooting off to thoughts of Tanglewood boys and their association with Danny. " Who are you? If you're looking for Danny, he's not here..."

" Not acquainted with any Danny," the tall man in the blue mask replied. From his voice, and the skin made visible by the holes of the mask, the man was clearly African American. Leader reached out behind himself to swing the door closed. " I'm here to talk to you." He lifted his hand, and twisted the bolt, locking the door.

NY

Lindsey adjusted the blanket so that it was wrapped all the way around Danny, cocooning him in, but he just kept on shivering while his forehead oozed heat. Fevers were funny that way. They burned bodies from the inside out, and half the time the one being burned wasn't aware since they were too busy freezing. Lindsey gave it, at most, twenty minutes to a half-an hour before Danny was struggling to get the blanket off, feeling the burn he'd been unconscious of moments before.

As Lindsey continued her fiddling with the blanket, making sure it stayed put, she studied Danny's colorless face and the vacant, glassy eyes staring at nothing. The word listless came to mind, but it wasn't a strong enough word. 'Dead' was more appropriate, but harsh, and it made Lindsey's flesh crawl. Had it not been for his heavy, noisy breathing and the occasional blink of his eyes, it would have been quite easy to assume him dead were someone to walk in on them now. Lindsey finished with the blanket and returned to stroking Danny's hair in a gesture of comfort, and on the first stroke Lindsey's hand came away wet.

It didn't seem natural for a body to sweat out so much moisture. And with that thought came the sudden, alarming realization of what else his poor body was probably lacking.

Lindsey's eyes rounded over. " Oh crap, Danny, I'm so sorry. You need water. I'll – I'll get you some water..." She made to rise when she heard the soft whisper of Danny's voice, so she paused in a crouch to lean forward toward his face.

" What?"

" Night stand," he breathed, then coughed, turning away so it wouldn't hit her in the face. Lindsey look up to see a small, sky-blue plastic pitcher on the nightstand next to the lamp, and a half-empty glass. She moved around Danny, grabbed both, and went back to him while pouring.

" Can you lift your head?" she asked.

Danny did so with a lot of effort and a slight grimace. Lindsey kept one hand on the side of Danny's head to steady him as she lifted the glass to his mouth and gently tilted it. He took small sips until he started coughing, spraying water from both his mouth and the glass. Lindsey set the glass behind her to reach around Danny and pat him heavily on the back to help in clearing the airway.

" Th-thanks," he wheezed.

Lindsey smiled. " Can't have you choking to death since we came all this way to save your life. You know, you might be able to breathe easier if you sat up straighter. Here, turn with your back to the bed..."

She helped Danny roll, then scoot until he was facing forward with the bed behind him to lean against. He slouched, shoulders sagging, but was free from the tight huddle.

" Better?" Lindsey asked.

" Little," Danny replied, and swallowed with a wince, the blanket loosening then falling open when he moved his hand up to rub his chest. " R-ribs hurt."

Lindsey closed the blanket back up. " Yeah, I imagine they would with all the coughing you went through. Maybe the paramedics will give you something for that."

Speaking of which, she looked to the door and watched. A low murmur of conversation drifted toward them, too low for Lindsey to hear. Logically, since Sheldon had called only a minute ago, it wasn't the paramedics she was hearing. Probably more like a nosy neighbor, butting in, stalling Sheldon from heading to the ground floor to await the ambulance's arrival. She contemplated aiding Sheldon in driving whoever it was off. In fact, she was getting antsy about doing so when the voices rose a little in volume – still not enough to be heard. Of Lindsey's pet peeves – Wanna-be good Samaritans ranked with people assuming all the time that she was from Kansas, and thus calling her Dorothy (which was why she tended to put up with Danny's Montana nickname. At least he got it right). People assuming themselves to be in the right and too stubborn to realize otherwise always – one hundred percent all the time – made a bad situation worse. And if the paramedics couldn't get here in time because someone wanted answers to something that was none of their business...

Lindsey clasped Danny's shoulder through the blanket. " I'm just going to see what's going on, all right?" she said. Danny nodded, barely, which was all he seemed capable of doing. Giving him another once-over, Lindsey was reluctant to leave. Wanna-be Samaritan was going to pay if something happened the few minutes she was gone.

She tensed in ready to rise, was even leaning forward to roll onto her feet, when a tall man in a blue ski-mask walked in, dressed in a black coat, dark jeans, and heavy boots. Another man, also wearing a ski-mask but red, followed, his coat tan, underneath which he wore an open plaid shirt and a gray T-shirt. From the holes showing hints of skin, one man was black, the other white. The two stared down at Lindsey and Danny, eyes flicking from one to the other, but mostly lingering on Danny. The black man pointed a gloved finger at the male CSI.

" That the dude you said had something wrong with him?"

White guy nodded. Lindsey looked over at Danny, shocked, suddenly scared. Danny was looking up at the two men, bewildered, even a little nervous.

" Th-they the paramedics?" he whispered. In the silence, the two men caught the words, because the black man smiled.

" No, kid. We aren't the paramedics." He then stepped forward and crouched in front of Danny, studying him as though assessing him like he were a piece of meat. Danny simply met the guy's gaze without blinking, assessing in return as much as his congested brain would allow.

" Wh-who the h-hell are you?" Danny rasped, breathing fast. " G-get the h-ell out of my p-place."

This only made the black man's smile widen, amused. " I like your fire, kid," he said. He placed his hand on Danny's forehead, moved it around his face, and no matter how Danny tried to flinch back, tilting his head away, the man's hand moved with him.

" Don't freakin' touch me!" Danny growled then coughed, hard. The man pulled his hand away to drape it over his knee, and chuckled.

" Kid, hate to point it out to you, but you have about as much threat potential as a flea. I'd relax if I were you. Can't be healthy stressing out like that, not when you can't do a damn thing about it." The black man glanced over his shoulder to the door. " Bring him in!"

Footsteps, then Sheldon was shoved into the room with two more masked men hovering at the threshold behind him. The black man shifted to the side, turning partially to have the tense Sheldon within his sights. Suddenly, his hand shot out to grab Danny by the hair and pull his head back. Danny gasped, arching his back with shaking hands ripping from the blanket to weakly grab the black man's wrist. He cried out in pain as the man kept pulling, nearly bending Danny's neck in half.

Lindsey's heart slammed hard enough to shatter, then almost stopped entirely when the man whipped out a gun to press it against the side of Danny's head.

" What are you doing! Leave him alone, you're hurting him!" she screamed. She then felt a painful vice grip on her arm, and the cold steel of a gun at the back of her own head.

" Can it," a voice snarled behind her. She rolled her eyes to Hawkes. The former coroner was rigid, and met Lindsey's gaze in a silent exchange of terror. They then both looked back at Danny and the man pushing the gun harder against his skull.

" Now that we got everyone's attention," he said, " time to get some things out in the open." He nodded his chin at Sheldon. " Like your name, for starters. We'll make it an exchange. Your name, for your friends well being. How about that?"

Danny starting coughing, then choking, sucking in air that sounded as though it were shredding his throat.

Sheldon swallowed hard. " Hawkes, Hawkes, you can... call me Hawkes."

The black masked man released Danny's head. The gun, however, remained pressed to him. " Good man, Hawkes. Think your buddy here appreciates it." He clasped Danny's shoulder, making Danny jerk.

" Plus, just for that, you can call me... Ron, just to take away a little awkwardness between us." 'Ron' (fake name, no question in Lindsey's mind) shifted himself so that he was sitting comfortably on the floor beside Danny. Then, to Lindsey's disgust, the man switched the gun into his other hand to place his arm around Danny's shoulders. Danny cringed, and the look on his face had Lindsey momentarily afraid that he might actually try to kill the guy.

" Now, seeing as how your buddy here is in need of some serious medical attention, I won't tip-toe around this. I need your help. Or, more accurately, I need your cooperation. Your law enforcement pals have something of mine that I'd really like back, and you're gonna be the one to get it for me. It's real simple, Hawkes, You get this item for me, we leave, and you're free to help your friend all you want. Fair enough I'd say. And here's how it's going to go down. Me an' you are going to drive on over to that warehouse you just left. I'll tell you what to look for when we get there, you go in, get it, we come back, and we're done. If it's not there, then it's off to your little Frankenstein lab, and you'd better hope someone brought it in, because if it's not there either than me and you are going to have some issues. Now, you're probably thinking 'but I can just go in and tell my cop friends about this whack job'. Here's the deal with that..." He tightened his hold around Danny's shoulders as though giving him a quick hug. " You do that, and we got even more issues, especially considering all the wonderful talents a cell phone possesses. I write a text message, one word, but refrain from hitting send until I see someone other than you heading to the car. That happens, I hit send, my boys get the message, and shoot the lovely sitting lady next to your sick pal here."

Now Lindsey's heart really did freeze, and she shuddered at hearing the click of a gun being cocked.

" But it gets even better," Ron continued. " As insurance for a safe exit for my boys, and for myself, that leaves your sick pal. The cops show up, and your sick friend's chances of survival are cut a couple of notches. He'll be used as a hostage. They let my boys pass, he won't be harmed. Let me go, he won't be harmed. Refuse, then it doesn't matter if the kid starts vomiting blood, they ain't letting him go. It's only natural to hole up where you can when surrounded by cops. Waiting's not a problem for them, but it is for your friend. Get the picture?"

Hawkes nodded, seemingly numb.

Ron grinned. " Lovely." He gave Danny another squeeze, slid his arm from the quaking shoulders, and rose with a grunt to his feet. " Let's get started then. Oh, and if I think you're trying anything funny, another little quirk of cells – camera phones. I don't think you'd be up to seeing pictures of your sick friend all bloodied up, and to tell you the truth I'd rather not see'em myself. Doesn't sit right having someone pound a frail looking kid like that. Now, let's get this over and done with. shall we?"

" Wait," Hawkes said. " Give me a moment. Just a moment."

Ron seemed to ponder this, then nodded a go-ahead. Sheldon knelt in front of Danny and placed two fingers against the pulse-point on his neck. Next, he parted the blanket enough to place his ear to Danny's chest and listen as he breathed.

Hawke's eyes rolled up to lock with Lindsey's. Lindsey didn't like his expression. Worried, too worried, and a little afraid.

When Hawkes lifted his head away, he patted Danny's shoulder. " You'll be all right Danny, I swear."

Danny nodded his head on his limp neck. " Do what you gotta do, doc," Danny whispered. " Still be here when you get back. Swear it."

Sheldon chewed his lip for a moment, then nodded and stood.

Ron let the muted, paled Hawkes head out first and began to follow when he turned to whisper something to the man in the tan coat. The man nodded, and Ron finished heading out.

Tan coat man looked to the other two. " Gotta wait by the door," he said. " Keep an eye on them."

The two men nodded, the tall one stiffly, the shorter one nervously. Tan coat left, and when he did, tall man moved to crouch before Danny and Lindsey, looking between the two. Without fully realizing it, Lindsey place a protective arm around Danny's shoulders. Danny just glared at the guy through eyelids trying to slide close.

Tall man simpered. " Man, that is so frickin' sweet. You his girlfriend?"

Lindsey was aware she probably shouldn't be talking to this guy, but words came whether she wanted them to or not. " Friend. We work together."

Tall man regarded Lindsey silently for a moment. " Well aren't you the picture of brotherly love, coming to check in on your co-worker, see if he ain't coughing up a lung. Sure you ain't got a thing for him?"

" Leave her alone," Danny rasped. Tall man's attention snapped to him, gaze darkening and fingers clenching.

" What'd you say little man?"

" Piss off," Danny rasped. Tall man cupped a hand to his ear.

" Still couldn't hear you, pal. You're gonna have to speak up."

Danny started coughing, small at first, almost quiet, but jerking his body. Suddenly, he snapped forward to release a massive explosion of a cough right in tall man's face. Tall man lurched back to go falling on his butt.

" What the hell!" he scrambled to his feet to loom over Danny with fist raised. " You little son of a...!"

Shorty ran up to grab tall man's arm and hold him back.

" Dude, calm down." It was actually a struggle with tall man continuing his attempt to advance and shorty pulling him back. Then tan coat came in, looking sufficiently pissed.

" What the hell is going on! Those paramedics arrive and you two are screaming then there's no way I'm gonna be able to get rid of them, so shut up!"

Lindsey did not think it was possible for her heart to sink any lower, and yet there it went, probably to her feet. They needed that ambulance. Danny needed to be in a hospital, and she would have protested if she didn't already know the futility of it.

Tall man pointed a stiff, shaking finger at Danny. " I swear, if you survive this and I get sick, I'll hunt you down and cut your lungs out."

Danny smirked, actually smirked, and lifted a shaking had with middle finger raised. The guy reacted in another lurch in a pounce attempt, but was held back by shorty who eventually tugged tall man from the room where the two stood in the hall, talking in low murmurs.

Lindsey's jaw was fortunately too attached to her face to fall all the way to the floor. She turned to Danny, shocked, appalled, and a little amazed.

" Danny! what the hell were you thinking?"

Danny's smirk remained a permanent fixture on his face. " Wasn't thinking, was pissed. My home, Linds. You're in my home... I got a right to get on your bad side all I want. Not that I'd get on your bad side. I mean I like you. I don't like them, though." He started up another round of coughing, this one longer, rougher, not simply jerking his body but almost sending it into convulsions and keeping him from taking in the air he needed. Lindsey's heart pounded and she tightened her hold on Danny, bringing him in closer while rubbing his shoulder with there being little else she could think of to do. She reached sideways for the water glass and brought it around. When the fit subsided, leaving Danny trembling, she brought the glass to his mouth for small sips.

Fewer sips this time. When finished, Danny's head dropped against Lindsey's shoulder when his neck lost the strength to hold up the skull. Danny was heaving in deep breaths, coughing periodically, eyes fighting uselessly to stay open. He really was thinner, more frail looking – but only in appearance. As much as Danny's defiance had scared the hell out of her, she found a small amount of comfort in it, knowing that this was still Danny no matter his current state of appearance.

Very small comfort. Danny was way too weak to fight. She knew he knew this, and she knew it must be tearing him up inside. He really had looked gung-ho to taking a few masked interlopers down. Had he not been sick, he would have tackled tall guy, and before then Ron. He probably would have won, too. At least Lindsey liked to think so. More realistically, he would have been shot. So one could ironically admit that this illness had just saved Danny's life – if it didn't end up killing him in the long run.

The look on Hawkes' face haunted Lindsey's mind. She didn't have to put her ear to Danny's chest. She could hear him wheezing just fine, feel the jerks of his body when he silently coughed. She was a woman who faced facts, and she was facing them even now. Danny was in a bad way, getting worse, and she was scared. And for Danny's sake she would have loved to have been able to hide it, but she was pretty sure Danny had already seen it.