A/N: No worries, I'm still sticking with this story. Now hold on tight, folks. 'Cause awaaaaaay we go!

Ch. 9

Danny was warm. Or more to the point no longer freezing his ass off, or having his bones pressing against an unrelenting surface. But pleasant as these trivial comforts were, they didn't hold a dime to the sweet stream of oxygen saturating his lungs with each shallow intake. He drifted in and out, up and down, sinking to oblivion in the bliss of warmth around his body and air to his lungs, then snapping back to the surface of reality when recollection struck.

He had home invaders. He wasn't supposed to be sleeping. Except oblivion was quite persistent, or more his body that would rather bask in lethargy and oxygen than let his brain try to work out some solution to get Lindsey and him out of this mess. Danny shifted, actually looking for a less comfortable position in order to annoy himself enough not to drift off again. Instead, he settled deeper. And Lindsey wasn't much help as she continued to insist he sleep.

Danny slid his hand under the pillow on his next squirm to stay awake, and his fingers brushed cool metal. Curiosity shoved back the lethargy enough for Danny to explore the strange object beneath his head. He felt it out, mentally mapping the shape of the thing through touch. He knew the shape, the texture, his brain simply refused to cough up the answer. Until he felt the hole in the other end.

Gun. My gun. My freakin' gun! The realization made his heart jolt, but only his heart. Now that he knew what the object was, lethargy slunk back in trying to throw a haze over Danny's mind. He fought it, wrapping his hand around the grip of the automatic, wracking his brain for a means to use this discovery. He had a weapon, which meant squat if he didn't have a means to use it that wouldn't end in them all face down on the floor bleeding to death.

Danny struggled, but potential plans turned into dreams, and he was out again.

NYC

Sheldon paced in short strides and tight round-abouts in front of the stoop of Danny's apartment complex, passing his hand over his mouth then shifting it to rub his head. His heart was determined to beat out of his body, and he didn't blame it. At this moment, he actually kind of wished he were someone else, someone like Mac, who would have a better idea of what to do. The man was a veteran and seasoned detective, and you couldn't be any more at an advantage in the problem solving department than that.

Hell, Mac probably could have had this whole ordeal sorted before it had even began.

As though granting some unspoken wish, another CSI issued truck pulled in and parked behind Sheldon's. Mac slipped out of the driver's seat, and Flack the passenger's, with Stella following after from the back seat. A police car parked behind them, lights and sirens off as Sheldon had requested and to his great relief. Sheldon went to them so they wouldn't end up within sight of any of the building's windows.

" Mac, I am so sorry about this..." Sheldon began. Mac held up a hand to stop him.

" We'll talk about this later, although I'll tell you right now I already don't see this as your fault. I need you to tell me what you can about the men still in Danny's apartment."

Sheldon nodded. " Not really much except that one of them's a complete ass hole. Hot-head type, and very likely trigger happy. He... um..." Sheldon placed his hands on his hips and glanced to the ground. " He seemed to really enjoy roughing up Danny." Sheldon then returned his gaze to Mac. " Mac, you've got to make whatever happens next happen as fast as possible. Danny's real sick and this whole mess will have made it worse."

Mac placed a hand on Sheldon's shoulder. " We're going to do everything we can, Hawkes, all right? We'll get them out of there and get Danny to a hospital."

Sheldon nodded. Mac squeezed his shoulder. " Good. It'll be all right."

Sheldon might have been more convinced if he hadn't caught the brief flicker of fear in Mac's eyes.

NYC

Lindsey could have set her watch by the way Danny kept slipping off to sleep only to jerk awake two minutes later. When he slept, he looked at peace. When he awoke, he looked exhausted. Lindsey was just glad he wasn't looking blue from oxygen deprivation.

The sound of movement drew her gaze away to the hall. She saw Creep move across it, and the kid watching him. When Creep passed again, Lindsey witnessed him shaking both hands as though trying to flick something off them. Sort of like what people do in states of extreme agitation.

" This is taking too freakin' long," Creep muttered.

" Maybe they got hold up in traffic," the kid said.

" They would have called. E would have headed back up here. Something." A few seconds later, Lindsey flinched at a loud thud.

" Damnit!" Creep cursed.

Lindsey's heart started to pound.

NYC

Mac rubbed at his chin and along his jaw as he paced and wracked his mind. Two perps, one of them violent. Two CSIs, one of them extremely ill. If threatened, the perps would use Lindsey as a hostage, possibly kill her, then use Danny until the illness finished him off. That's how Sheldon had explained it in a nutshell.

Mac would admit to being scared. It was a controlled, tempered fear, one that wouldn't debilitate, but one that was making his heart pump pretty fast. Standard procedure would only lead to a hold up that would very well end in the loss of both his CSIs. They needed to take the perps by surprise, get into that apartment before either one could get to Danny and Lindsey. And right now the only one who'd be able to do that was Hawkes. The former ME was a part of this, so the perps wouldn't be immediately suspicious of him with the right back story as to why the head of this fiasco wasn't with Hawkes. The problem was it meant having to put Hawkes back into the fray, and Mac had no desire to do that.

Not really much of a choice, though. He looked over at Hawkes, who was staring at the apartment complex, hands on hips, leg twitching and back tense enough to snap. He wanted back in there. He wanted to be a part of this, which made Mac reluctant to discuss any plans with him.

But, again, there was the pesky fact that no further options were forthcoming.

Flack approached Mac after speaking with the two officers that had followed them, Stella keeping stride with the taller man.

" How we gonna play this, Mac?" Flack asked. " Full force or something more subtle?"

Mac glanced at the building. " Definitely not full forced." He then waved for Flack and Stella to follow. Mac headed toward Hawkes, who seemed to sense Mac's approach and turned.

" Mac?" Hawkes said with a heavy cocktail of hope, anger, and fear in that brief tone.

" This is a delicate situation, Hawkes," Mac said. " I'd rather not have you going back up there, but we need a way into that apartment, and at this moment, you're the key."

Hawkes nodded. He didn't need any elucidations.

Mac looked around at those gathered. " All right, here's what we're going to do..."

NYC

Danny opened his eyes to a blurry world. The only clarity – or close to clarity – was Lindsey still sitting leaning against the bed with one arm resting on the top. Danny closed his shaking fingers tighter around the rough grip of his gun. There was no way in hell he'd be able to aim, no way to protect Lindsey if it came down to needing the gun. Danny was pretty much useless in the long run, except that he had a gun, had his hand on it now, he just couldn't use it.

But Lindsey could.

Danny moved his hand, spreading his fingers to cover the gun. He began moving it, inch by inch, so painfully slow he wanted to scream curses at himself. He'd certainly picked a bad week to go decrepit. He slid the weapon from under his pillow to beneath the sheet, closer and closer toward Lindsey. Then he released it, and snaked his hand out toward Lindsey's arm and nudged it.

Lindsey's head snapped around to him, and she removed her arm from off the bed. Danny slid his hand down the side of the mattress and out from under the sheet. He took Lindsey's wrist into his flaccid grip and pulled. It took effort, way more effort than it should have, causing Danny's hand to tremble hard. Lindsey stared at him with brow furrowed and eyes starting to go a little panicky. Danny brought Lindsey's hand to the gun and released.

Danny pulled in as deep a breath as he could, coughed, then pulled in another.

" Surprise..." he breathed, and smiled weakly, " Montana."

NYC

Lindsey stared at Danny's pale face in wide-eyed shock as her fingers roved over the cool metal of a gun. She could almost make out Danny's small grin, which soon melted into a pained frown. He squinted, then began coughing until his whole body shook with it. He pulled in a wheezy breath, and coughed more. When he next opened his eyes, what Lindsey saw broke her heart.

Pain, and fear. Utter helplessness.

A frantic knock at the door forced Lindsey to turn away. Without even fully realizing what she was doing, she slipped the gun from under the covers to under her shirt, tucking it into the waist band of her pants at the back.

Creep strode stiffly to the door and pressed himself to one side with gun drawn and raised.

" Who is it?" he tersely called.

" It's Hawkes. Let me in. Ron wanted me to deliver a message."

NYC

Sheldon's heart was trying to pulverize itself now. His eyes darted between Mac pressed against the wall on one side of the door, and Flack and Stella pressed against the other, all with guns ready. The two uniforms were hidden around the corner of the hall.

" Where's Ron?" Creep asked.

" Outside waiting. That's the message. He wants you guys to head down now. He got what he wanted... So it's time to go."

There came silence for a moment, enough for Hawkes to hear footfalls, and some kind of shuffling. There was a shout, one of panic, the voice female.

" Stop it! Leave him alone!"

" Shut up!" Creep snarled. There followed a heavy thud, like something being dropped. " Get over here now!" Creep shouted.

Sheldon's stomach twisted, and he had to swallow several times to push back the bile trying to burn into his throat. He looked to Mac, who seemed suddenly uncertain – spooked - and that scared Hawkes to the point that he almost did puke.

" I said get over here or I blow his brains out!"

" He can't breathe...!"

" I don't give a damn! Now get over here...!"

Gunfire erupted loud as an explosion. Hawkes flinched and stepped back, just as Flack and Mac moved into begin kicking at the door.

NYC

Lindsey Just stood there, rigid and still as a tree, with the gun pointed at the immobile Creep sprawled on the floor when the door burst open and Mac, Flack, Stella, and Hawkes rushed in. She heard, like the echo in a dream, Mac and Flack shouting at the kid to put his hands up, the kid who had stood by and done nothing for his partner. Lindsey felt like she was in a dream, falling asleep the moment Creep had marched agitatedly into Danny's room. Lindsey had been ready to shoot him then, except Creep had been quick about flinging back the covers, ripping away the oxygen mask, and pulling Danny off the bed, onto the floor, and into the main room. Lindsey had shouted, Creep had shouted, but all Lindsey had heard were Danny's struggling breaths and pain-filled moans.

She was still hearing them, even now.

Creep had had his gun pointed at Danny. That must have been the last straw. Lindsey had whipped out the gun Danny had given her without a second's thought or hesitation. Creep was so surprised he never even considered raising the gun to point it at Lindsey. Lindsey's aim had been true – bullet right to the head, smack in the middle.

And that was it.

She was vaguely aware of someone trying to take the gun. At that point, she woke up.

" Danny!"

Forgetting everyone and everything else except for Danny writhing on the floor, trying to pull in air, Lindsey ran to the room, grabbed the mask and tank, and ran out to place the mask back over Danny's face. Danny sucked in several shallow, rasping breaths that ended more than once in coughing fits that had him curling into himself and tightening his face with pain. Lindsey remained kneeling beside him with one hand on his side and the other stroking his hair.

A hand on her shoulder made her jump and snap her head around and up to see Stella crouching beside her.

" You all right?" Stella asked, all sympathy and worry. Lindsey nodded numbly. Stella nodded back, then looked down at Danny, and the worry became fear. The woman acted fast, even when there seemed nothing they could do. She removed her blue CSI jacket, folded it up, and placed it under Danny's head. Following that was Danny's blanket from off his bed being draped over his body. Lindsey looked up to see Hawkes in the act of kneeling down on Danny's other side, adjusting the blanket, then checking Danny's pulse at the neck.

A worried crease formed in Hawkes' brow, and he looked up at Lindsey. " Where'd the tank come from?"

Lindsey looked over to where Flack had the kid against the wall, cuffing him. The kid no longer seemed afraid, or even nervous, just resigned.

" They weren't all bad," Lindsey said. She looked back at Hawkes. " Please tell me an ambulance is coming."

Hawkes looked toward the door. Lindsey heard the distant sound of a brief conversation, and seconds later two paramedics entered with a stretcher. Lindsey practically melted. She wanted to laugh, but knew better since it was already turning into a sob. With Stella's help she rose and stepped back to let the paramedics surround Danny and take over. Lindsey watched with hand over her mouth as the dirty mask was replaced with a clean one, and an I.V. was attached.

She also saw Danny's eyes open momentarily, disoriented, pained, afraid – helpless. Lindsey wiped her eyes before the tears had a chance to fall, and stepped over to the paramedics.

" Can – can I come with him?" She said. Then chuckled a little. " He... Um... has this thing about ambulances..."

NYC

A/N: Ah, sweet rescue. I said there would be an epilogue, but it may be a chapter and epilogue combined. You'll see what I mean.