Author: Liv
Fandom: CSI: NY
Rating: FRT
Words: 749
Summary: I'd prefer it if you left Candy Land.
Disclaimer/Author's Note: I own the plot. I own nothing but the plot.


She wasn't able to walk off her anger before she reached the labs, still fuming as she slammed her fist into the elevator door as it took her up.

"Damn it," she whispered, wiping her cheeks with the back of her hand as the elevator doors opened. She walked out and felt everyone stop what they were doing and look at her. Still steaming, Lindsay ignored them, if anything they angered her more. She spotted Don standing with Stella across the lab in the break room, the two of them both staring at her and Lindsay glared at them in return.

She stalked towards the break room, watching Stella say something to Don and him nodding in return to her statement, a smirk playing on his face. Lindsay swung open the break room door striding up to Don, and smacking him across the face so hard his head spun.

"Lindsay!" shouted Stella incredulously, taking Lindsay by the shoulder and pulling her away from Don.

"What did you say to him!" she shouted, jerking away from Stella and advancing on Don again, tears spilling from her eyes for the second time in ten minutes. Stella reached out to take Lindsay's arm gently when the woman spun on her. "And who talked to you!" she screamed, making Stella go pale, her lips pursing angrily.

"Lindsay, what's the matter with you?" she asked as Lindsay backed away from her, shaking her head loathsomely, tears forming in her eyes.

"You're not supposed to know," said Lindsay with a sob. "Sid didn't even know. Did you talk to Danny? 'Cause he's the only one who should know."

"We talked to Pino," said Don with a shrug. "This can't be that upsetting, Monroe," said Don quietly, his cheek red from where she'd hit him.

"How would you feel?" asked Lindsay, wiping tears off her face with the heel of her hand. "I didn't even know you knew. And now Danny won't talk to me, because he thinks I talk to you. And...Marty? Why- how would Marty know?"

"You talked to Hammerback," said Stella softly, reaching out for her friend again.

"I didn't tell him a goddamned thing, Stella! He guessed," Lindsay cried, pulling away from her friend once again. Stella looked over at Don with a guilty expression on her face. Lindsay looked from one to the other and sniffed pitifully, trying to stop crying.

"We really screwed this up," said Stella quietly, bringing a hand to her forehead. Lindsay nodded in agreement. "Oh, god, Lindsay. I'm so sorry."

Lindsay started crying again and allowed Stella to pull her into a hug. Stella stroked the back of Lindsay's hair, shushing her soothingly.

"I just want him to talk to me," sobbed Lindsay into Stella's shoulder.

"Who won't talk to you?"

"Danny," said Lindsay, mumbling the name childishly, clinging to Stella harder as the image of Danny yelling at her passed through her mind. "He yelled at me, and I yelled back at him and everything we tried to do just got fucked up and he's not going to talk to me because you guys had to butt in and it's going to be so hard to fix things now-"

"Lindsay stop talking," interrupted Stella, shooting Don a glare after he snickered at Lindsay's rambling. "It's going to be okay."

"It's not," said Lindsay with a sigh, pulling away from Stella and dropping her head. "It's going to be even worse because now he's going to start assuming things."

"So Danny knew?" asked Don in wonderment, shaking his head. "Well, that explains a few things."

"I need to go talk to him," mumbled Lindsay, running her hand through her hair distractedly. "I've got to go talk to Danny."

"What about work?" asked Don, receiving a smack over the head from Stella. Lindsay shrugged.

"Mac still thinks I'm a the doctors."

"I'll talk to Mac," said Stella, earning herself a smile from Lindsay in appreciation. Lindsay left the break room, heading back towards the elevators and past the staring lab tech's again.

"Onward toward Danny's," she muttered under her breath.