NExSW (Northeast By Southwest) Chapter 7

A/N: Thanks again to everyone who has read, and to everyone who has read and reviewed. I appreciate it immensely.

There was mention in one review about "if Bridge kisses her." Technically speaking, Bridge has kissed Lindsay at least four times already; none of those times have been on the lips, though (twice each on the hand and the top of her head).

Now that Danny's in Austin, things should get really interesting!

CSI: NY canon characters property of CBS, yadda yadda yadda; OC's are mine, dot dot dot.

Chapter 7: Showdown at the UT Corral

"You're not shitting me, are you? He's actually here, from New York?" asked Bridge. He steered the Eclipse into an adjacent lane to pass a slow-moving SUV.

"I'm dead serious," replied Rich, holding his cell phone to his ear with one hand and using his other hand to slip his shoes onto his feet. "He said he knew where he needed to go, and I have this feeling that he's headed to UT. I tried calling her, but she's not picking up. Like I said, I'd go myself, but I have a meeting with one of the record execs in half an hour. You're closer to the campus than Mick, Midori, and Daryl, so if you can…"

Bridge sighed. "Actually, I'm not at the office right now. I'm on my way back there from meeting a client. I have to drop some stuff off, but I'll head to the campus once I'm done. You should probably still call the others anyway."

"Yeah, I'll do that. Thanks, man. I owe you one. Talk to you later." Rich ended the call to Bridge, gave himself one last glance in the mirror by the front door, and sprinted out, scrolling through his phone's address book.

Bridge tapped the disconnect button on his Bluetooth earpiece and stomped down on the accelerator. The Eclipse rocketed up MoPac Expressway.

o-o-o-o-o

A knock sounded on Lindsay's office door. "Come in," called Lindsay. Without looking up from the papers on her desk, she remarked, "Bridge, I didn't think you'd be coming until later."

"Don't tell me you've already forgotten my name, Montana."

Lindsay jerked her head up, her blood feeling very cold. "Danny! What the hell are you doing here? How did you find me? Flack told you, didn't he? I knew I couldn't trust that son of a - "

"It's not Flack's fault, not really. Anyway, I need to talk to you." He shut the door and walked up to Lindsay, extending the bouquet of roses to her.

"Why? You made your choice. Go back to your son and his mother. Just go," pleaded Lindsay, ignoring the rose bouquet.

"Please, Lindsay." Danny set the bouquet on Lindsay's desk, crouched down next to her chair, and reached for her hand, which she pulled away. The action tore through Danny's heart like a dull knife through a raw steak, and he found himself fighting back tears. "You need to hear this. I'm really sorry about everything."

"Okay, so you're sorry," sniffed Lindsay. She pushed herself out of her chair and walked past Danny to the door. Opening it, she continued, "But it's too late for that. I'm done with you. I won't play second fiddle to your baby's mother, and I'll spare myself the hurt of seeing you traipsing around with your family."

"Lindsay, don't do this. Please, I love you. I admit, I was stupid, and I was wrong. And I'm not a father. I had Jake tested, and he's not my son."

"What?" Lindsay felt like she had been hit by a bus.

"It's true." Danny pulled the DNA test results, folded into a square, from his pocket. He held it out to Lindsay. "I had Adam run a test. There's no denying the results."

Lindsay slowly unfolded the paper and read it. The shock of the sudden revelation widened her eyes.

Danny carefully took Lindsay's hand. This time, she was too shell-shocked to pull away. "You were right to suspect something was wrong. So was Flack. I just got all caught up in the whole fatherhood thing because of how my own dad was and how much I didn't want to be like him. I only did it for Jake, not for Cindy. She means absolutely nothing to me. Don't you see?" He held Lindsay's hand to his pounding heart. "There's no son, no baby's mom. Just you and me, Montana."

Lindsay yanked her hand out of Danny's. "So why did you kiss her?"

"I didn't kiss her; I didn't want to. She threw herself at me and caught me completely off guard. I wish I had done the test sooner, so that none of this would have happened, but I was a stubborn jackass, and it wasn't until you'd already transferred to swing that I finally got off my ass and did something about it. Now that you know, will you please forgive me and come back?"

Lindsay sighed deeply. "I'm sorry, Danny. I appreciate your apology, really, I do. But you hurt me tremendously, after everything we'd been through, and I don't know if I can get past that yet. Besides, I'm all settled in here in Austin, and I can't just up and leave at the beginning of my first semester here." Seeing Danny's crestfallen face, Lindsay laid a hand on his arm. "What we had was wonderful, but it's all in the past."

"Please, Lindsay," begged Danny. "Don't do this to me, to us. I miss you. I need you. My life has been hell knowing that I caused you to feel this way. Please come back to me, and I promise you that I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you."

Lindsay looked up into the crystal blue of Danny's eyes and saw the depth of his pain. "I'm sorry, Danny," was all she could say as she found herself looking away and fighting back her own tears.

The sound of a throat clearing caused both Danny and Lindsay to turn towards the doorway, where a concerned-looking Bridge stood. "Lindsay?" he asked. "Are you okay?"

"Who the hell are you?" asked Danny.

"I'm Lindsay's friend; who are you?" said Bridge, stepping into the office and wrapping an arm protectively around Lindsay. Danny's eyes blazed with jealous fury.

"Don't worry about it, Bridge," Lindsay cut in, dropping her hand from Danny's arm. "Danny here was just leaving."

"So this is Danny? As in 'left you for his baby's mom' Danny?" Bridge's eyebrow raised.

"How do you know about that?" demanded Danny. "And what kind of a stupid name is 'Bridge'?"

Bridge pointed a finger warningly at Danny. "Look, I'll have you know that I was named for my granddad, and I will not stand for you mocking his name. And Lindsay told me about how you dumped her to get back with your baby's mom." He hooked the thumb of his free hand through a belt loop. "You've got a lot of nerve coming all the way out here. Does your new woman know that you're here?"

Danny's fury was rising. "There's no new woman! The kid's not mine! I admit it; I was wrong to treat Lindsay the way that I did, and that's why I'm here! I'm here to apologize, so if you don't mind," Danny continued.

Bridge looked at Lindsay, "Did I miss something?" Lindsay was still having trouble keeping her tears at bay, so all she could do was pass the DNA results to Bridge, who looked over the paper, then handed it back to Lindsay, who then passed it back to Danny. "So the boy isn't yours. And?"

"That means that there is nothing to tie me to his mother and keep me away from my Montana," answered Danny.

"Your Montana?" Bridge asked, confused.

"Long story," started Danny, before he switched tracks, "What the hell am I talking to you for?" He turned his attention back to Lindsay. "Lindsay, come back to New York, please. Come back to me. I love you."

The tears flowed down Lindsay's cheeks. "I'm sorry, Danny, I can't." She broke away from Bridge and ran out of her office, down the hall to the ladies' room.

"Lindsay!" Danny tried to follow, but found himself held back by Bridge.

"Look, Danny, let her go," said Bridge as soothingly as he could.

"What, so you can come in and take her from me? Like hell I will!" Danny shouted, wrenching himself from Bridge's grip and going nose to nose with him.

Bridge stood tall, staring back at Danny. "You just don't get it, do you?" he shot back, folding his arms. "You think that you can come all the way down here from New York and convince Lindsay with some flowery words to go back with you after all the hurt you caused her? Think again, friend. Can you see how deep that hurt runs? Maybe I haven't known her as long as you have, but I can see it." He sighed. "I'll admit, I'm very attracted to Lindsay – "

"Don't even think about it!" interrupted Danny, drawing a fist back.

"Will you freakin' let me finish? Yes, I'm attracted to her, and I'd date her if the conditions were right, but I know they're not. More than anything, she needs some calm in her life after the past few weeks, and most of all, she needs a friend. Like it or not, I'll be her friend for as long as she wants.

"She's obviously not over what happened with you; we were out over the weekend, and I said something completely harmless that made her think of you, and she just fell apart." Danny's fist dropped and his expression changed from anger to pain as Bridge continued, "Yeah. That's when she told me what happened, and I got so pissed that I swore that I would kick your ass if our paths ever crossed. You know what, though? I'm not going to kick your ass just yet, because y'all apparently have a lot to talk about," said Bridge firmly. "And because you actually came all the way out here from New York to do that, I'll step off for now.

"Know this, though. If I ever hear that you've hurt her again, I will hunt you down and kick your ass," Bridge held out his hand. "What do you say?"

Danny, who had wanted desperately to punch out Bridge from the moment he had put his arm around Lindsay, found his desire to do so wavering as he thought about what the other man had said. He still didn't want to trust Bridge, only because Bridge had admitted his attraction to Lindsay, but something about him struck Danny as sincere. He stuck his hands in his jeans pockets and looked off to the side, then looked back warily at Bridge. He sighed, then bobbed his head slowly in understanding. He reached out and grabbed Bridge's hand to shake it and was surprised at how firmly Bridge returned the gesture. "I guess I got no choice if I want her back," he conceded.

Lindsay reappeared in the doorway, her eyes edged with red from crying. She was relieved to see Bridge standing inside her office, but she froze when she saw Danny. "Danny, what are you - " she began.

"Lindsay," said Danny softly. He took a small step towards her. "Look, um, I'm sorry I just dropped in like this. I would have called, but I didn't have your number. Then again, you probably would have hung up on me, the way you feel right now." He chuckled uneasily, then produced one of his business cards from his pocket, jotted something on the back, and held it out to Lindsay. "That's where I'm staying for the next couple of days. You can call me on my cell, or have the front desk page me. Please don't shut me out." He picked up Lindsay's hand, turned it palm side up, placed the card in her hand and closed her fingers around it, keeping his hand folded around hers. "Bridge here says that you have a class soon, so I'm going to go now, but I really do hope that you call me later on." He removed his hand from hers, moving it to cup her face, then leaned forward and kissed her tenderly on the cheek. "I love you, Montana," he whispered. Danny turned his head, and nodded to Bridge. "Bridge." He slowly exited Lindsay's office.

Having noticed that Lindsay hadn't flinched when Danny gave Lindsay the address to his hotel, nor when he kissed her on the cheek, Bridge watched the whole tableau with a slight ache in his heart. He looked at Lindsay, who now stared at the card in her hand. "Lindsay?" he finally asked. "Are you all right?"

Lindsay started suddenly. "What? Oh, yeah, I guess I'm okay." Her shoulders hung low.

Bridge approached Lindsay and encircled her petite frame in his arms. He leaned his head down to kiss the top of her head. The desire to tilt her face up and kiss her full lips was overwhelming, but Bridge fought it off. "I am very sorry that I didn't get here before Danny did," he murmured into her hair.

Lindsay hugged Bridge tightly. "You did your best." She looked up at him. "How did you know he was in town?" she asked.

"Rich called me. He said that Danny had gone to his place looking for you. He tried to call you after Danny left, but you didn't pick up. He would have come here himself, but he had a meeting."

"Rich tried to call me?" Lindsay loosened herself from Bridge's arms and went to rummage through her purse, which sat on her desk. She pulled out her cell phone and flipped it open. "Oops," she said sheepishly. She held up the palm-sized device. "Looks like I forgot to charge my battery." She closed her phone and shoved it back into her purse. "But how did Danny know to go to Rich's?" After a pause, she blurted out, "Flack!" Upon seeing Bridge's puzzled look, she explained, "Flack, well, his first name is actually Don, but most of the time, we call him by his last name. He's a homicide detective I used to work with back in New York. I trusted him not to tell Danny that I was coming out here. I'm going to kick his butt!"

"Oh, okay," said Bridge. "I thought you were using some new curse word or something."

Lindsay laughed. "Okay, that was pretty clever. I never would have thought of that."

Bridge smiled. "There's that pretty smile. So are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. Thanks for coming by. I appreciate it," said Lindsay.

"You're quite welcome," said Bridge. He took hold of Lindsay's hand and kissed it. "Listen, I know that you have to get ready for your class, so I'm going to go, okay? Call me if you need anything, all right?" He reluctantly slipped his hand from hers, and with a final wistful "see you later," he walked out of Lindsay's office.

"Bye, Bridge." Lindsay felt her legs become wobbly, and she sank into her chair. She tipped her head against the back of the chair. She knew she shouldn't have expected Danny to just let her walk away without a fight, but he had seemed so consumed with being a father to who he had believed to be his son that she had felt that he wouldn't notice her absence. He picked a hell of a time to come and tell me the truth, she thought. I can't go back to New York now; I've started a new life here. And even if I could go back, do I really want to leave Austin? "Oh, I need an aspirin."

This chapter was much more difficult to write than I had imagined it would be; I didn't want either Bridge or Danny to come across as too wimpy or too aggressive.

So now that Lindsay knows the truth about Jake, what's her next move?