Lindsay picked up her phone as it rang a week later not checking the ID in her rush. Danny had stayed almost every night, finding some reason to come after work and he usually ended up staying. She chastised herself because she was getting used to the simple routine of it all.

Emily was still a suspect and it still haunted Lindsay. She still felt responsible and tried hard to immerse herself in the cases she'd picked up. Apparently, Danny was smarter. He'd managed to make sure she went home, managed to make sure she slept and ate. She'd find it endearing if it wasn't also endlessly frustrating.

Sid had paged her twenty minutes ago for an autopsy on a new case she'd picked up and that was where she was headed. "Monroe," she answered, pressing her phone to her ear.

"What happened to my daughter?"

Lindsay flinched at the sound of her sister's voice, only pausing in her journey down the stairs. She figured they'd be faster than waiting for the elevator. "She got caught up, Maddy. I'm going to get it cleared up."

"We are going to get it cleared up. You've done enough damage."

"Damage?"

"Why is she even part of this?" Madeline snapped.

"I can't tell you. Plus, they pulled me from the case."

"So you really can't protect her now."

"Maddy, that's not fair."

"This would never have happened if we hadn't agreed to send her to New York."

"She's twenty-one! How are you going to stop her?" Lindsay exclaimed stopping on the landing between stair cases.

"Don't you dare pull that now."

"You're just upset because she chose to come out here instead of going to Montana State."

"Don't turn this on me," Madeline exploded. "You're the one that couldn't protect her."

Lindsay felt the twinge in her chest that let her know Madeline Reichle had hit a nerve. "Emily doesn't need protection. She makes her own decisions."

"She was brought in on a murder case! We got a lovely call from the detective."

"She was no where near that apartment, Madeline."

"That's not what the detective is saying."

"We can't prove it," Lindsay said dejectedly.

"This is what I'm talking about," Madeline snapped. "How can you not prove she wasn't there?"

"She was at my apartment for a movie night. Dorm-mates saw her leave and she stayed over. No one saw her go back and they found evidence that could potentially put her at the scene." Lindsay hated being defensive, especially with family members. Madeline had an uncanny knack for putting Lindsay on the defensive.

"What?"

"Its part of the case, Maddy, I can't tell you," Lindsay repeated, sitting on the stair.

"This is your fault. You should have made sure she had everything with her. You should have made sure she knew what this Lynn girl was into."

"Lynn was clean, she doesn't have a criminal record. The biggest problem she had was that she was probably too sheltered."

"Please," Madeline scoffed.

"Look, Emily called me, Maddy. She hasn't been to class in three days and you know as well as I do that's not like her. She liked Lynn, considered her one of her friends. You know Em's always picked her friends well. She hasn't so much as gotten a warning since she's been at NYU."

"She's coming home when all of this is over," Madeline stated strongly. "You've done a great job of taking care of her. I'm suddenly not surprised you haven't found a husband and a family."

Lindsay heard the click of the phone cutting off and dropped her head in her free hand, tears welling in her eyes. She's managed to keep her hurt hidden while talking to her sister, but now that she was alone in the stairwell, it flooded her system in full force. She'd never cried at work, never allowed that much emotion to permeate her objectivity. Nevertheless, she hadn't been this upset since she left Montana.

She was exhausted, she was stressed and she was worried about Emily and her involvement with the case. That was what she would blame it on if anyone found her and asked about it. Once the first sob shook her slight frame, there was really nothing holding her back. Tears streamed down her face as she tried to muffle her sobs to keep them from echoing off the cement walls.

She felt a hand on her arm and heard her once-hated nickname and knew, if she asked, this could be ignored. She wasn't surprised when he wrapped and arm around her shoulders and pulled her to him. She went willingly, curling a hand tightly in his shirt. He tucked her hand under his chin and waited out the storm.

His pager had gone off three times in the twenty minutes it took her to calm down but he ignored it every time. She figured hers had done the same, but on vibrate, she hadn't felt it. It wasn't until her breathing had calmed that a comment on it was made.

"You should probably answer that."

He picked it up. "Sid. It can wait."

She sniffled away the last of her tears. "We should tell him we're on our way." She moved to get up but his arms tightened around her.

"Lindsay, you look like hell. Sit down, calm down and we can apologize to Sid later," he promised.

She slapped him lightly, but didn't try to pull away.

"You gonna tell me about it?"

"I'm fine."

"You just spent twenty minutes soaking my shirt. That's not going to fly, Montana."

"Really, Danny."

"Lindsay…"

"Maddy's blaming me."

"Maddy?"

"My sister."

He'd always found silence to be the best technique for getting information out of people and he employed it now. Plus, how was he supposed to respond to that?

Lindsay sighed. "I've been going over that night, trying to figure out if there is a way to prove she was over with me, trying to figure out who might have seen both of us in my apartment, who else knew she was there."

"You can't blame yourself."

"She was there. She shouldn't even been involved in this."

"A lot of people shouldn't be in a lot of situations."

"She's so young, Danny. She didn't do anything."

"I believe you."

"We have to prove it."

"We can't."

"That's the problem. And the reason my sister just ripped into me."

"And the tears."

Lindsay was silent for a few moments, her hand clenching in his shirt until her knuckles were white. "Maddy didn't want Em to move. She wanted her to stay close to home, stay safe. Em convinced them that since I was here, she'd be perfectly safe here."

"She is safe here."

"She's a suspect in a murder! A murder I can't touch because of a conflict of interest."

"We're running prints now," he offered.

"Her prints… Em never knew Claudia's name let alone where she lived, Danny. Lynn… Em knew Lynn was fighting with her sister and our family… doesn't take well to family problems. Most of us are close and I know Em hated the way Lynn wasn't close with her sister. She always said that, always told me she loved that she was still really close with her brother and sister back home."

"Lynn and Claudia were on the outs?"

"Em didn't tell you?"

"We never asked."

"She hated it."

"She mentioned it was a movie night."

Liindsay nodded. "She thought it was offensive that I hadn't seen Rent," she reflected. "We watched it and The Perfect Man."

"That's what she said," Danny agreed. "Living vicariously, Monroe?"

She blushed, but smiled fondly. "I was exhausted the next day from staying up late. I'm glad Hawkes was there to go over the room with me."

Danny's phone chirped again, and Lindsay could have sworn it was actually angry. "We should go."

"Yeah," he agreed reluctantly, though neither of them moved for a moment.

Finally, she released the handful of his shirt she'd held tightly in her fist, using the edges of her own long sleeved shirt to dab at her eyes. "Presentable?"

She was rumpled and looked exhausted, but looked no less beautiful than ever. He knew better than to tell her the former when he probably looked just as tired. "Perfect."

Lindsay blushed but stood, straightening her shirt and watching him stand. She let out a breath, waving her down in front of him. Its an autopsy. Focus on the work, she coached herself.

Her heart didn't slow down until Danny rested a hand on her lower back to guide her into the morgue.


"Prints came back from the apartment," Stella said, stepping into Lindsay and Danny's office around lunch time that day. The former had left ten minutes prior to pick up something for lunch.

"And?" Danny inquired apprehensively.

"None of them are a match to Emily Reichle. Not so much as a print on the front door," Stella replied. "Our male vic's prints are on the bedroom door and the door knob. Lynn's prints are on the front door, and on the box of photos."

"In all honestly, Stel, I think we're looking at this the wrong way. Lindsay and I went through that box and found pictures of Claudia and our mail vic ripped in half. I brought back some of the pictures from Lynn's room and compared those and the ripped pictures to some found at Ryan Hann's place and they're identical. I'm starting to think our motives are off and Emily didn't have anything to do with this, like they've both been saying."

"So you're thinking break up gone wrong?"

Danny nodded. "Emily didn't have a motive. Those pictures showed both Claudia and Lynn getting cozy with Ryan Hann. I think Ryan wanted Claudia back but she wasn't going to go for it. He used Lynn to stay close to her."

Hawkes walked in at that moment, brandishing a folder. "DNA from the sheets has two donors, one: Ryan Hann and the other is running through CODIS. Blood on Ryan's hands comes back to Claudia Stevenson."

"So Ryan beat Claudia to death," Stella concluded. "Works with Danny's theory that Ryan wanted Claudia back."

"'If I can't have her no one can'," Danny agreed.

"Other DNA is male," Hawkes provided. "Supports the theory."

"Doesn't explain the gun shots. And where was the other guy when Claudia was being beaten?" Stella pointed out.

"Guy probably brought the gun with him," Danny answered. "Trace came back on the bedside table as cocaine."

"Miss Stevenson was an addict," Hawkes assumed.

"Tox came back negative for her," Danny contradicted. "I'd put my money on the guy she was sleepin' with."

"So what?" Stella asked. "Ryan finds out Claudia's got a new man, a druggie no less, beats her to death out of anger, then gets shot by the new boyfriend?"

"Doesn't explain Lynn being there," Hawkes said.

"Collateral damage?" Danny suggested. "Emily said Lynn was looking to patch things up."

A flash of determination went through Stella's eyes. "We have to find that boyfriend."


Danny's heart had lightened considerably after running over the evidence with Stella and Hawkes. Emily was off the hook, not that he'd truly believed she'd done it.

"You look happy," Lindsay remarked, interrupting his train of thought as she entered, lunch in her arms.

"Emily's not our murderer."

Her brow knit in confusion. "I know that."

"Evidence proves it," he told her, watching her eyes brighten. "No prints and no DNA. Only evidence putting her at the scene is her cell phone which can easily be explained as an overprotective friend looking out for their room mate." He could almost see the tension draining from some of her muscles at the news.

"Thank goodness," she breathed.

Danny chuckled. "Figured you'd be excited. Now, hand over lunch."


Mac was surprised when Danny dropped his file on the marine's desk two hours earlier than he usually did. It wasn't Mac's place to pry and , unlike Flack, he wasn't one to joke about Danny's love life.

"You're done early," he decided on.

"Yeah, figured if I actually buckled down today and did some work I might be able to get out of here a bit early," Danny admitted sheepishly.

Mac nodded. "Sounds good. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Are you serious?" Danny asked, taken aback by the simplicity of the whole thing.

"Yeah. You've worked hard today, so has Lindsay. If you see her, tell her to go home too."

Danny managed to hold in the smile until he'd turned his back on Mac after saying goodbye. He'd long ago decided he'd make sure Lindsay left when he did. He found her in their office, papers strewn across the surface.

"Mac says get out of here," he announced, leaning a hip on the edge of her desk, close enough to her and the pages to read them properly.

"I can't," she groaned.

"No choice, Montana."

She chuckled slightly. "You haven't given me a choice in the last couple of weeks, Messer."

Danny pretended to think for a minute. "I let you choose lunch and dinner. Now come on. There's a game on tonight and your couch is more comfortable than mine."

"Another game?"

"Montana, there's always a game." The look on her face told him she knew there was no game on. Still, she didn't argue.

"You're getting dinner."

"I got dinner yesterday," he retorted.

"And you're using my couch and my TV, therefore, you're going to buy me dinner," she told him flatly.

There really wasn't much of an argument he could honestly put up so he kept his mouth shut. It would do him no good to annoy her now just to save his injured pride. "Can we go then?"

Lindsay smiled at the childish behaviour of her partner. "I guess. Let me pack up and drop this off with Stella. I'll meet you downstairs in… ten minutes."

Danny nodded and strolled out of the room.


Let me know if this doesn't fit with what's happened. I wrote this before I wrote the interview scene with Emily and tried to edit it, but I'm not sure how well that worked.

Thanks to everyone that's reviewed thus far. As I'm sure you're all well aware, you guys are fabulous. If I could, I'd bake you all cookies.

Oh, and I almost posted 8 instead of 7! That wouldn't make any sense. Thus, here's the same author's note. Thank Stacey, a reviewer for Christmas Wishes, who reminded me I had to post this.