Disclaimer: I do not own CSI:NY. I do own Kelly Higgins.

Notes: Apologies for the lack of updating. I was really busy with work and school. I should update a little more frequently now. Thanks to Nik Nak17 for talking me through this.

Arrested Development

Chapter 4: The More I Drink

Mac groaned but didn't look up when his CSI entered the room and exclaimed in the loudest voice he could muster without outright shouting, "Damn, these people are loaded!" What made it worse was that the owners of the apartment were standing just inside of earshot, talking to Don.

Danny sometimes (most of the time) could be like a child. Okay, he was an eight-year-old trapped in a 32-year-old body.

It had been three weeks since Ruben Sandoval died, and that hadn't been enough time for Danny to get over his death and the responsibility he felt. Mac had kept him from any active cases even though Danny insisted he was fine. He knew better than to take him at his word. Still, he was short staffed due to a flu outbreak and needed all the help he could get.

The look Danny received was enough for him to not say anything else. He avoided his boss' gaze and looked inside the open safe. A painting lay prone in a corner. He looked at it without recognition, but art really wasn't his scene. He put a rubber glove on and proceeded to poke the painting.

"Hey there, sexy lady," Danny grinned at the painting and wiggled his eyebrows.

Mac stood up suddenly and nearly tore his latex gloves off when he took them off. He didn't wait for Danny to turn around when he addressed him. Grabbing the younger man by the back of the collar, Mac whipped him around and pushed him past the body and underneath the crime scene tape and out into the hall.

It had been a long time since Danny had seen Mac this angry.

"Are you drunk?" Mac eyed Danny, already knowing the answer.

The younger man didn't look at his boss. His eyes darted around the hallway, making him dizzy.

"I dunno whatchatalkin' 'bout, Mac," Danny slurred. "I wazzjust makin' some jokes."

"Danny, I get it. I get that you're upset about Ruben, but this – what you're doing," Mac began with an overdramatic grunt. He was never really good with advice, but he did know that he was about one second from absolutely ripping into his CSI. He was trying not to yell because they were at a crime scene, but at that moment, that was the only thing keeping him from giving Danny a full dressing down in front of everyone.

Danny gaped and then laughed as if it was all some kind of joke to him.

"Oh, come on, Mac. I'm fine. I'm just joking around. I wouldn't come to work drunk."

Once again, Mac found his voice. "You're being stupid. God, Danny, I never thought you'd do something like this. Look, I get that you've been through a rough time, and maybe it's a bit too soon for you to come back to work."

He didn't answer. Instead, he chose to engage his shoes in a staring contest.

"Leave," his boss ordered roughly.

"Why?" The CSI managed to blurt out before thinking better of it – although, he really wasn't in any state to be thinking.

"Right now, you need to go home and get some rest," Mac started, trying not to let his anger show too much. He would let the CSI have it but in due time. He didn't have time to say anything else because Flack came to Danny's rescue.

He shook his head at the scene. Before he knew it, he had words form in his mouth and come out in the same moment. "I'll take him home, Mac." He bit his tongue after that. No, he didn't want to take Messer home. He didn't want to have to be the good friend who played mommy to a colleague.

He fought the urge to yell, "Just kidding!" as Mac turned to him and let go of Danny who nearly collapsed.

As if it couldn't get any worse, his mouth decided to open again. "Yeah, Jess'll cover for me. It's not a big deal at all."

Except that it was. It was a huge deal. He'd gone up to bat for Danny too many times, and it hadn't ever been reciprocated. Last year, when Mac had made a crusade out of finding the cop who stole the drugs, Danny never once defended his actions in trying to stop him. Never once. Yet, he was always protecting Danny.

Mac gave Danny a push toward the taller detective who caught the CSI in an awkward bear hug.

Danny looked miserable and tried to push off Don. In the struggle, Don thought he caught a whiff of alcohol on him.

Flack rolled his eyes and took hold of his drunken friend. He didn't say anything until they've got to the car. "Well, you really fucked this one up, Mess. Dunno how the hell I'm supposed to get you outta this jam."

"Didn't do anything wrong, Don."

Don rolled his eyes. "Yeah, then why am I the one who always takes care of you? What about Lindsay?"

"Dunno. She's not happy with me."

"Whadya do this time?"

Danny strained to think for the words. "I may've slept with Rikki."

"God, you're stupid," Flack reasoned blandly as he turned the corner to Danny's apartment complex. "You're so stupid."

Danny gave him a blank look.

"And I'm stupid too! I let you drag me into this shit," Flack mumbled to himself. "Why? 'Cause you're my best friend. Yeah, it's gettin' old, Mess. It's gettin' real old."

"What're you talking about?"

Don shook his head and parked the car. He walked around to Danny's side and yanked the door open. "Get out." He sighed and added, "Now," before the CSI finally responded.

He staggered out of the car and was caught in an awkward bear hug. Don grunted something unintelligible. He slid one hand back to his jacket pocket to retrieve his phone.

"Hello," a voice yawned on the other end. "Hold on."

He groaned impatiently as he waited for her to get back on the phone.

"Yeah, what is it?" She asked a bit rudely from her end.

"Need your help with Mess. Meet me at his place ASAP." He hung up without letting her argue. He sighed and for the first time since dragging Messer out of the crime scene thought about the actual crime.

Back at the crime scene, Mac continued processing the scene, trying desperately not to think about the paperwork he would have to do over whatever he would decide to do with Danny.

Lindsay walked in nearly an hour after Danny was removed from the scene. She greeted Jess with a nod and a smile before chirping a happy hello to her boss.

He nodded in reply and returned to his work. That is until Lindsay decided to bring up the elephant in the room, who happened to not be in the room.

"Where's Danny?"

It was as if time stopped. No one said anything. Jess made a face before deciding to ignore Lindsay's question. It was no secret that something happened after Stella's place had burned down between Danny and her. The team was just sick of trying to ignore it.

Mac sighed before putting down a T-ruler and taking a picture of a bullet casing.

Lindsay picked up on the fact that neither one wanted to talk about it and got back to work. The only thing that interrupted the silence was Sid walking in just ten minutes later.

"Traffic was horrible. There was an accident on Lexington which no one bothered to tell me about," he explained before ushering his team to the body. "Looks like exsanguination's the cause of death. Bullet seems to have hit his femoral artery. I'll know more once I get him to autopsy."

"Of course," Mac answered with a nod.

Sid nodded. "Do you have any idea what Kelly would need Marty for?"

"Excuse me?"

He looked at Mac with his head cocked to the side before connecting two and two. "Oh, you know, Detective Higgins. She wanted him for something. I think Flack was mentioned before he left."

"I do know her name, but, no, I don't know what they'd want with him, Sid," Mac answered half-heartedly, knowing that it had to do with Danny and not wanting to talk about him.

Sid frowned but didn't say anything else while he was at the scene. He took it that he was walking on thin ice as it was with these questions. Something was going on, but he would find out back at the morgue

The ride back to the morgue was quiet. Normally he and his assistants would talk about how they would process the body or about the Rangers or something, but today they were quiet. It was as if everyone knew something major had just happened to Mac's CSI team.

The autopsy of poor James Adams who got on the wrong side of a gun was a slow process.

Sid found the .380 bullet smashed in his rib cage. It severed his femoral artery which was his preliminary COD. He wouldn't release that until he finished his autopsy.

Hours upon hours later, he finished his autopsy, and the bullet had in fact severed the femoral artery, causing James Adams to suffer a premature death. He sent the bullet along with a white powder down to the lab.

Four days later the white powder was officially identified as a certain strain of cocaine that had been recovered two months earlier in a drug bust. The bullet was identified as belonging to a Steve McCann, Narcotics Officer Steve McCann.

The result was, needless to say, a surprise. Mac checked it three times, running three separate tests on the cocaine. Each test came back the same. He ran the bullet through the entire system again. The report did not change. A narcotics officer shot and killed James Adams who seemed to be holding recently recovered cocaine.

A/N: Oh dear, let's see who this Steve McCann is, shall we? I hope you enjoyed this :D