Hey people! Sorry for disappearing for so long...I feel so bad. So to compensate, here's a 7-page chapter (on MS word). Heh. Hopefully there are people out there who are still interesting in reading this...

Disclaimer: CSI: NY and its characters are owned by CBS and Jerry Bruckheimer. Only the OC Morgan Messer is my creation.

Ep. references/ spoilers: #1.21 - "On The Job", #2.01 - "Summer in the City".

-Twelve-

Morgan Messer was walking briskly towards the crime lab, trying to get out of the summer heat as soon as possible when she received a text message from a friend. "Spiderman just fell from the Empire State Building! I think his brain fell out…yuck." She raised an eyebrow at the strange message and replied with another text message that said, "What the hell are you talking about?" Moments after her message was sent, she received a phone call from the same friend who frantically explained the situation, and Morgan tried to calm her friend down. After all, it isn't every day that you see brain matter falling all over the sidewalk. She ended the call soon after, quickened her footsteps and entered the building that housed the crime lab, which had recently relocated to a high-rise building. Morgan ran in just in time to catch the elevator, and exchanged greetings with the new lab tech, Zack Shannon.

"Hey, Zack."

"Hey. Heat's terrible, isn't it?"

"A scorcher," groaned Morgan.

She passed her brother Danny in the hallways, who almost failed to notice her as he was rushing off to a crime scene. "Hey, gotta fly. I'll talk to you later?" Danny said as he entered the elevator that she and Zack had just exited. "Yeah, sure…" Morgan trailed off as the elevator doors closed and her brother disappeared from sight. A couple of months had passed since the shootout in a subway station involving Danny, a suspect in his case and an undercover cop which led to the unfortunate death of the latter. The ramifications of his actions also led Danny to finally open up to Morgan about his troubled past, but there were still some things about that time in his life which he kept from her. Morgan knew it, but chose to keep quiet for she did not want to pressure her brother into telling her anything, for fear that he would never open up to her again. That night the shootout happened was to be the only time Danny had (almost) completely opened to her; Morgan had tried to probe him into telling her more after that, but it was like the dam that was open had now been closed, never to open again.

Her train of thought was interrupted by Zack calling her name. "Yeah?"

"I said, sometimes I have trouble believing that the two of you are siblings," he repeated.

"Why is that so?" Morgan asked as they signed in and walked over to the locker room.

"Well, for starters, you're so different from him. You're…friendly."

Zack Shannon hadn't been with the crime lab for long and he still had that deer-in-headlights look from time to time, but luckily he found a friend just a day into the job – Morgan. They clicked almost immediately, and since then Morgan was sort of his tour guide even though she was still fairly new herself.

"Are you saying that Danny's intimidating?" Zack nodded slightly, and Morgan sniggered. "Don't worry, Shannon, he won't eat you up. Relax!"

Zack tried to defend his reasons for saying so, but Morgan covered her ears in mock ignorance. "Can't hear you. You gotta speak up, Shannon!" said Morgan as she walked over to the A/V lab. He did not have a chance to say so, but Zack had always felt that Danny would look at him in a weird way whenever he saw Zack and Morgan together. I wonder if he thinks that I'm hitting on his sister. If asked that, he would deny it, because he really wasn't trying to hit on Morgan. Zack also was under the impression that Morgan already had another man on her mind, even though she neither confirmed nor denied this when he asked her about it recently.

"Don't tell your brother I said that!" He called after her, and she waved him off without turning back to look at him.

XXX

Morgan had just stepped into the A/V Lab when her cell phone rang and judging by the caller ID shown on the phone, it was Flack. She wondered for a moment why he could be calling her so early. The past few months have been…weird, ever since she went with him to a movie, things with Flack have sort of been in limbo. They occasionally went out alone for dinners and a couple of movies since then, but things have not exactly progressed much, to the disappointment of Morgan, as she had began to be more sure than ever that she had feelings for Flack, albeit those feelings are still in the progressive stage. One thing she knew for sure was, she definitely would like to take things to a more romantic level with Flack, for she felt that he would be someone whom she could share everything with. The only glitch is that Flack didn't seem to be taking much action, and Morgan got the feeling that Danny might have something to do with it, albeit indirectly.

"Hey Morgan. Just wanted to give you a heads-up; videotape in a new case is on the way to the lab as we speak. Try and look through it, see if there's anything of interest." Flack's voice came through, and Morgan found herself suppressing a smile. "Sure, Flack. FYI, I do know how to do my job, you know." She joked. "So, what's the case about?"

"Guy falls nearly 30 floors down the Empire State Building and his brain pops out. The videotape you'll be viewing was the guy's climb up, filmed by his friend." Morgan tried to resist a chuckle when she heard that, Flack always had this talent for making gory details sound as trivial as asking if someone had eaten their breakfast yet.

It was then that Morgan realized that this was the "Spiderman" that her friend had been rambling about earlier. "Poor guy. You know, a friend of mine was there when it happened, even called me to tell me about it. Does it really look as bad as it sounds?"

"You tell me when you see it for yourself." There was a short pause at the other end of the line, and Morgan wondered if Flack wanted to say something else to her.

"Flack? Anything else you wanna say to me?" She asked. Another pause. "Um, no, I guess." Morgan then heard Mac's voice in the background and Flack hurriedly ended the conversation and hung up. She let out a disappointed sigh and put away her cell phone as she started up the computer that was her "best friend" in the job. "Why don't you make the first move?" came a voice at the doorway, causing Morgan to nearly jump right out of her own skin. It was Zack Shannon, who was acting like Chad Willingham No.2, poking his nose into her business. Speaking of the original, he had recently been put on the night shift roster and just when Morgan thought that she would be free of such peskiness, out pops Zack Shannon. He was a nice, quirky guy, but a little too curious at times which made Morgan frustrated.

"Zack! Do you float instead of walk! I didn't hear you come in…h-how long have you been standing there?"

"Hmm, right around the time you asked Flack if there was anything else he wanted to say…yep, about then." Zack cowered slightly when he caught Morgan glaring at him. "Eeep. Sorry, shouldn't have listened in. Go ahead, punish me."

"You know what? I won't punish you, because I'm a very nice person, am I not?"

"Yes, you're the nicest person in the whole world…I'll get out of your hair now." Zack smiled sheepishly as he left the A/V lab and got back to his own "lair", the Trace Lab.

The videotape arrived sometime later, and was handed to Morgan by a uniformed officer who gave Morgan a form to sign. She initialed the form and handed it back to the officer who exited the lab promptly. "Let's see…" she mumbled to herself as she loaded the tape and began to view the climber's fatal ascent up the Empire State Building. There was nothing suspicious throughout most of the climb, but Morgan spotted something of interest as he reached the 34th floor, which he fell from: there was a flash of light from the window – which she would later find out, was the muzzle flash of a gun. She noted that down, as well as the time it occurred on the tape. She would have to report it to Det. Mac Taylor later when he got back from the field. Morgan also saw how the climber fall, and unluckily for her, the tape also captured how his brain matter got spattered everywhere. She cringed at the sight and thought about how her friend must have felt, having seen that sight first hand.

Morgan passed Stella and Aiden in the hallway carrying bags of evidence as she was going to the break room to get a bottle of water. "Hey, shouldn't Danny be doing all the heavy lifting?" Morgan asked jokingly. "I'll be at the M.E's office," said Stella as she broke away from the trio. "So, where's my dear brother?"

"We sent him to go talk to a model who modeled a diamond bra," answered Aiden as Morgan followed her and unloaded the bags in the Evidence Room. "Hands in your pockets, girl." Aiden warned good-naturedly as she removed the diamond bra from the evidence bag and Morgan gawked at it. "Eight million dollars worth of diamonds, baby…" Aiden said as she began to document the evidence in detail.

"So, you got Danny to talk to a lingerie model, huh? He certainly got the better end of the stick," Morgan said as Aiden pretended to chase her out. "Alright, I'm gone!" Morgan laughed as she exited the evidence room. "Don't forget we're gonna be dinner buddies tonight!" She reminded Aiden, who replied jokingly, "Alright, alright. Couldn't forget even if I wanted to."

The two of them hung out together regularly after work these days, and had gotten to be close friends. At first, Morgan felt as if Aiden was spending time with her on account of Aiden's friendship with Danny; but as time went on she realized that both of them much in common with each other and could never run out of things to talk about. Morgan had known Aiden for some time even before she joined the lab, but never got the chance to know her better till now. She admired Aiden's independence and strong personality that came from growing up in a less-privileged neighborhood in Brooklyn; and Morgan wished she could have been more like her; perhaps she would have followed in her brother's footsteps and became a CSI. She saw how hard Danny worked sometimes, and felt like she could have lessened his burden in some way if she had gone into the same profession. They would probably be working different cases or even in a different place, but at least Morgan could understand what Danny was going through on the job – emotionally and professionally.

Meanwhile, Mac and Dr. Sheldon Hawkes have uncovered a murder that their dead climber may have witnessed – he tried to call 911 before he lost his grip and plummeted down the Empire State Building. Hawkes had recently made the switch from Medical Examiner to CSI a couple of months ago, and was still trying to get the hang of things of being a crime scene investigator. One thing about him that hasn't seemed to change was, according to Danny, his quirkiness and ability to throw out bits of trivia at anytime, anywhere. Morgan had had a taste of that a few times – she'd encounter him in the break room and they would engage in a short conversation, some random fact would be mentioned and Hawkes would go "Did you know that…" Morgan was amazed at his knowledge of all sorts of trivia, and she looked forward to speaking to him whenever she had the chance. Just some of the ways she could satisfy her curiosity of random things. You could say that Morgan and Hawkes had one thing in common: his willingness to dispense bits of trivia information, and her willingness to take in all that information.

XXX

Things were a little quiet in the A/V Lab for Morgan today – a great contrast to the CSIs, who have been to more than one crime scene since the start of their day. Danny went past the A/V lab just as Morgan had her chin propped up on the table with her hands and chided her (lightheartedly) for being lazy on the job. "Shut up. I wasn't being lazy, alright?" She shot back at her brother, followed by a smirk which always made her brother raise an eyebrow at her. "What?"

"I hear you went to talk the lingerie model…"

"Yeah, so what?"

"I bet you had a hard time trying to talk to her, eh?"

"Hey, I wasn't checking her out, okay?"

"Oh, that wasn't what I meant, but if you say so, then…okay!"

Danny knew that he had been duped, and retaliated the only way he knew how. He slapped the back of his sister's head as he said, "Smartass,"

"Ahem," came a voice at the door. It was Flack, and any retorts that Morgan had for Danny all flew out the window, so to speak. He had come to see Mac and Hawkes about the case and on impulse decided to drop in and sneak a peek at Morgan. Only thing was, Flack had no idea what he would say to her. Nodding a greeting to the siblings, he tried to figure out something to say so that Danny would not get suspicious. "Hey," he said.

"Hey, Flack. You here about your case?" Danny asked.

Thank you, Danny, for helping me come up with an excuse. Flack said to himself and answered in the affirmative. Danny then excused himself, leaving Morgan and Flack in the company of only each other. "So…what have you got from the tape?" He asked casually, trying to sound as natural as possible. Morgan eyed him for a moment, trying to figure out if there was something more to his visit, say on a personal note, but chose not to let her mind wander. If he's here for the case, then he's here for the case. Don't go opening your big mouth, Morgan, she thought to herself. Aiden had made no secret of how Flack felt about Morgan; in fact she had said that it was strange that Flack hadn't made any move thus far. "You guys are gonna drive me crazy, you know that?" Aiden had ranted, while Morgan could only smile sheepishly. "If one of you doesn't do something soon, I may just have to step in and do something."

Morgan briefly described the flash of light she had seen coming from the 34th floor that the dead climber was outside of, just before he fell. "Could you show it to me?" Flack asked and Morgan played the tape for him, fast-forwarding to the few moments before the flash of light occurred. He stood next to Morgan and leaned in close to the monitor to get a better look. By now, their faces were so close, only inches away that their cheeks threatened to touch if any one of them moved any closer. Morgan realized that first and slowly leaned away from Flack, feeling slightly uncomfortable at the sudden lack of distance between them. Even thought she had shifted a few more inches away from him, she could still smell the hint of cologne that he wore.

"Have you shown this to Mac?" Flack asked. Morgan, who was feeling a little intoxicated from the sudden closeness to Flack mixed with the scent of his cologne, failed to hear him ask her a question. He repeated his question and this time she had recovered enough to answer. "Uh…no, not yet. He said that he'll come by and take a look at it later,"

"Right."

The silence had only lasted less than two seconds, but it felt like such a long time. Morgan was trying to get herself to say something, anything to Flack and all she came up with was, "Hey, you've got a haircut," with a nervous smile.

"Yeah," was all Flack said. Next thing he knew he was saying, "You like it?" He nearly wanted to slap himself in the face for saying something so lame. Imagine his surprise when Morgan replied that she did like his new haircut. "Really? You do?"

Is this the goofy smile Aiden was talking about? Morgan said to herself. Aiden had mentioned that a goofy smile would slip onto Flack's face whenever Morgan was the topic of discussion. She got the feeling that the smile of his face right now was the 'goofy smile' that Aiden loved to laugh about. Looking at that smile, she could only smile back. The ringing of his cell phone shattered the moment in pieces as Morgan shifted her gaze to her computer and Flack flipped open his phone to answer. "Flack. Yeah, I'll be there ASAP." It was Mac, who wanted Flack to meet him and Hawkes at the morgue – the wife of Lee Dillard, the man whose murder was witnessed by "Spiderman".

"It's Mac. I gotta go."

Morgan nodded in reply and said, "See ya," before looking away.

"Bye."

After Flack left, she lamented how their conversation had ended on an awkward note – again. She fought the urge to bash her head on the table in frustration and let out a big sigh. At that moment, Aiden appeared at the door way and she seemed to be in a rush. "Hey, what's up?" Morgan asked. Aiden explained that she had something important to do and that dinner would have to be canceled. She apologized and added, "Rain check?" Morgan nodded and assured that this was no big deal, just a dinner and that they could go anytime. Little did she know that things were going to change – in a big way, concerning Aiden, just a week from now.

XXX

A few hours later, Mac came by the A/V Lab with Hawkes and asked to see the video footage. Morgan told them about the occurrence of a flash at the 34th floor window and Mac determined that it was a muzzle flash. This turned out to be a big clue, as they found out that the victim's assistant had been hired by his ex-wife to kill him. The muzzle flash could be seen on the video because the blinds were open – so that the ex-wife could watch while the murder went down. Mac later found the two at Dandridge Hotel, in a room which was directly across the victim's office. The ex-wife, a Connie Williams, plotted the victim's death because he had left her for another woman, leaving her penniless as a result of a prenuptial agreement.

At the end of the day, Morgan walked through the halls of the crime lab looking for Danny. If he had wrapped up his case, perhaps they could do some late-night grocery shopping and fix dinner themselves. Frankly, she was getting quite sick of eating out for the past month or so. The two of them hadn't been sitting down for a meal together for a few weeks, as Danny was always busy. Seeing no point in making food just for herself, Morgan often opted to eat out. She spotted her brother and Zack in the Trace Lab and popped her head in the room. "Hey, wrapped up your case? Was thinking of going to the supermarket. How about I make dinner for us tonight?" Morgan said to her brother.

"Pretty much wrapped up, except for some paperwork. Weren't you supposed to go to dinner with Aiden?"

"I was, but she had to cancel."

"Right. Mac assigned her to a new case."

The case wasn't exactly new, it was a rape case which Aiden had handled 18 months before – the rapist had attacked the victim again. The victim, Regina Bowen, refused to testify back then and the culprit got away scot-free. This time, she is determined to put him behind bars and had called Aiden for help. Despite this, Aiden was unable to find any useful evidence this time around. Her frustration and determination to crack the case would her to contemplate a terrible decision…

"So do you want me to wait for you?"

"Nah, I'll be here at least another hour. I think I'll get take-out."

"Okay. Hmmm…Zack!" Morgan called. "How about…you and me, let's go have dinner."

"Me?" Zack said, pointing to himself. He sneaked a glance at Danny, who was staring straight at him. "Don't be getting any funny ideas about my sister," he hissed softly.

"I heard that. Stop trying to scare him!" Morgan proceeded to drag Zack out of the Trace lab. "Let's go, just ignore him."

"Wait a sec." Danny reached into his pants pocket, got out his car keys and tossed them over to his sister. "Here, take the car."

"What about you?"

"You could always swing by and pick me up when you're done," he said with a grin. "If I want to." Morgan said with a mischievous glint in her eyes. "You wouldn't."

"Yeah, we'll see. Zack, you coming?"

"You never told me you could drive, are you sure about this?" Danny heard Zack say as the two of them made their way to the locker room to retrieve their things. "Zack!" Morgan said with an exasperated sigh. Danny couldn't help but smile in amusement upon hearing their comical exchange.

Meanwhile in the Layout Room, unbeknownst to everyone, Aiden was going over the evidence of the rape case and she came upon a small evidence bag containing the suspect's hair. Breaking the seal, she removes the hair from the bag and contemplates her next step…