Author's Notes: Sorry for the delay. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Disclaimer: Still not mine.

Gassed
Chapter 13

"Can't you three stay outta trouble for any length of time?" Flack accused as he entered the hyperbaric chamber carrying a small metal box with him. Stella was right on his heels with her kit in her hand. She set the kit on the floor of the chamber and crossed to give Lindsay a hug.

"You had us scared for awhile there, Kiddo. How are you feeling?"

"A little like Alice must have felt when she first went down that rabbit hole." Lindsay admitted. "Things are still pretty fuzzy about what happened at the crime scene but the pieces that Mac filled us in on doesn't make the picture any clearer. Maybe the gas is still affecting me but none of this makes sense."

Stella smiled. "It's not the gas, Lindsay. It doesn't make sense to any of us. If anything the story gets crazier. Adam and I went back to the townhouse to see if we could find anything else…"

"What happened to going back to the lab and staying there? And keeping me in the loop about anything that happened?" Mac protested dryly from where he was sitting to the side of Lindsay's gurney. Stella gave him a glare.

"Probably the same thing that happened to you staying put at the hospital until morning. Anyway, Adam discovered a secret compartment in the refrigerator. It contained several vials of unknown contents. Adam took it back to the lab until we could get back to process the contents."

Danny shook his head. "Consider the other evidence that was taken, ya think it's safe there?"

Stella shrugged. "Adam's locking it up where only Mac's access code would work. It's the safest we can make it. Speaking of evidence, I was told you had something for me."

Danny nodded and handed over the baggie that contained the syringe used to try to kill him. Stella took it and her kit out of the chamber into the outer area of the chamber to check it for prints. Mac looked from Flack down to the case he'd brought in with him. "That our weapons?"

Flack nodded. "I don't think I've ever had to hold on to so many at one time." He opened the box and handed Mac his gun first and then Danny. Lindsay reached out to accept hers and all three men noticed that her hand was trembling. Danny remembered how shaky his own hand had been in the ER and knew it was an effect of the gas in her system. His own trembling had gotten better so that it wasn't noticeable to anyone who wasn't looking for it but he was aware of the slight tremor and didn't want to admit that it scared him; he could imagine that Lindsay found her own trembling equally as troubling.

Flack hesitated. "I don't know, Monroe. Maybe I should hold on to yours a little longer; after all you are injured."

Lindsay's eyes flashed. "You aren't really going there are you? Really? I can't have my weapon back but you didn't think twice about handing Mac and Danny theirs. The only reason they aren't on a gurney like I am is because they left AMA. If someone might be coming after us, then I should be able to protect myself. Now either give me my gun and I'll stay put, or I'll check out AMA like they did and take it back myself. Now which is it going to be?"

Flack looked to Mac for help but the head of the crime lab gave a slight nod. With a sigh and against his better judgment, he handed the third piece to Lindsay. She accepted it silently and put it under the blanket within easy reach. The detective looked over at Danny. "You got a description of the guy who tried to kill you?"

Danny described the man in scrubs as best he could. Flack and Mac exchanged glances. "Sounds like the same guy that tried to run you down. He certainly gets around; the question is, is he working alone?"

"No prints on the syringe." Stella reported as she re-entered the chamber. "Although I don't know what I was hoping for. None of the fingerprints that Lindsay collected at the crime scene were a match in AFIS or to our victim."

Lindsay closed her eyes, trying to force her way past the cobwebs in her mind to go back to the crime scene. A few memories had resurfaced after hearing more about the case but most of the events were still fuzzy. She could dimly recall her and Danny talking about the view from the window. Why was she at the window? "What about the palm print? Any hits off it?"

Stella eyed her carefully. "What palm print? There wasn't a palm print in the evidence that you collected. Just photos of the room, blood samples from the splatter, and about 15 different fingerprints."

Lindsay was about to curse her foggy memory for playing tricks on her. This case was complicated enough without her mind playing tricks on her. But still the memory of taking the print off the window seemed almost clear the more she thought about it. She had teased Danny about looking at her ass. The easy banter between them had to have been real.

"Nah, she's right. I saw her collecting the print when I came in." Danny defended her. Lindsay flashed him a grateful smile. "Could it have been taken when the other evidence disappeared?"

Stella shook her head. "I processed the prints before any of the evidence disappeared. The evidence in that box wasn't out of our sight from the time we gained access to the room and when I processed it."

"But it was from the time Montana collapsed and you got back into the room. Maybe it was taken during that time." Danny offered.

Now it was Flack's turn to protest. "That room was full of carbon monoxide. The only entrance to that townhouse is the front door and we were standing right there when the two of you came out of the house. The only ones in that room during that time were the firefighters. Are we suspecting them now?"

Mac shrugged. "This guy has managed other things we didn't think possible. It could have happened. Why take that one print and not the others?"

Lindsay readjusted herself on the gurney, trying to get more comfortable. "From what you've all said, not all the evidence has been stolen. So what makes some evidence worth stealing and others not?"

"The computer chip on the canister, a tracking chip from the victim's body, and a palm print. Stealing the technology makes sense; it could be easier to track down but the palm print?" Mac pressed a hand to the bridge of his nose trying to ease his headache.

Stella nodded. "Maybe someone was worried the palm print would get a hit in AFIS. If so, then the print didn't belong to our vic because we got nothing off his prints. Maybe it was our killer's. Lindsay, I know your memory is shaky but think carefully; we need to know if other evidence was taken beside the palm print."

Lindsay nodded, closing her eyes once again trying to force a memory. She went back to the last really clear memory she had of the day. Danny had insisted on driving to the crime scene and he'd been giving her a hard time about something; she couldn't remember quite what it was. Everything after that was just disconjointed images that didn't make sense out of context. She opened her eyes again, frustrated. "I'm sorry, I just… Damn it, I hate this. It shouldn't be this hard to remember what happened at a crime scene. I have this feeling there was more there but I just don't know what it was."

Danny reached out and gave her hand a squeeze. "Don't sweat it Montana. That gas is nasty stuff; I didn't even get as much as you and I can still feel some of the effects. It'll get better; just don't force it."

"Don't force it, yeah, right, cause we've got all the time in the world, right? Someone is out there trying to kill people I care about and I could have important information that could help us find him in my mind but it's like that particular file has been corrupted. What if someone else gets hurt because I can't remember what happened? I'd never forgive myself."

Danny frowned. It was the second time she'd used that same phrase, first to Freddy to convince him to leave and now to blame herself for not being able to remember. He couldn't be sure if she was truly carrying the full weight of what was happening on her own shoulders or if it had more to do with the effects of the gas but it was time to put an end to it. Ignoring the presence of Mac, Stella, and Flack, he sat down on the gurney next to Lindsay and waited until she was looking straight at him.

"Okay, see, it's not your fault. None of this. You didn't ask for any of this to happen and if something more happens before we piece everything together, then it's not on you either. So I don't want to hear any more of this not forgiving yourself. There's no blame on you, a'right?"

Lindsay didn't look away from his gaze. "Sometimes absolving yourself from blame you shouldn't carry isn't as easy as someone telling you you've got nothing to be sorry for."

For just a moment neither one broke their gaze of each other. Though to the other three in the room, her statement might seem like just an observation of her own feelings, Danny realized there was more to her words than just that. He wasn't sure how, but he realized she somehow knew about Louie, somehow knew about the guilt he was carrying inside. Then he looked down. "Yeah, I guess you're right. So, let's work on it together. Just relax and clear your mind. We arrived at the crime scene and realized the door to the townhouse was ajar. I took the body and you took the inside. Something had to draw you straight to the bedroom cause that was your first stop. Why the bedroom?"

Resting her head against the gurney, Lindsay did as Danny instructed, letting the timbre of his voice work past the cobwebs that obstructed her memories. "The officer that cleared the scene reported seeing blood there. Seemed like a good place to start."

Mac looked at Stella who didn't seem surprised that Danny was breaking through her locked memories. No one else spoke, not wanting to break the concentration that the two investigators seemed to have established with each other.

Danny continued, careful to keep his tone soft and unassuming. "Okay, great. So you walk into the bedroom, set your kit down and do a visual inspection of the room, plan how you want to proceed. What stands out the most?"

He could see her eyes moving beneath her closed eyelids and knew she was trying to envision the entire room as if she were actually there. He didn't press her for an answer, sensing that would just stress her out even more. Seconds passed into minutes without an answer and then a single tear slipped past her closed eyelid. Danny sighed and looked back at his friends, shaking his head. She just hadn't recovered enough from the gas to give them the information they were looking for. To push her much more would just further upset her because she couldn't remember.

Mac came over and gave her shoulder a squeeze, making her open her eyes. "It's okay, Lindsay. You being able to remember what all evidence you processed isn't going to change anything that happened. Either we still have it or it was stolen. If we have it, it didn't yield us any information and if it was stolen, knowing what it was that was stolen isn't going to get us any closer to finding who is responsible."

Lindsay still looked miserable. "If I hadn't collapsed, then the evidence wouldn't have been left unattended to be stolen at the crime scene."

Mac smiled at her. No wonder she fit in so well at the lab from the moment she had started. She had that same sense of indestructibility that they all seemed to have. "So you are beating yourself up for being human. I know how that feels. If I had been a little bit faster chasing after him, maybe I could have caught him before he got away with the chip. I'm sure Danny thinks that if he hadn't dozed off when the guy came in trying to kill him, maybe he could have caught him before he got away."

Lindsay blushed and offered him a little smile. "Kind of arrogant of me, huh? Okay, boxing gloves will come off for now. But I'll keep trying to remember what happened. It could be important."

"Wouldn't expect anything less." Mac assured her. "In the meantime, I think we should concentrate on the evidence that we do have. Stella, you and I should head back to the lab take a look at the vials you and Adam collected from the townhouse. Flack, you can stay here and protect Danny and Lindsay? I think I trust your presence better than the uniforms at the door, even with their new orders."

"Mac, you should stay as well. You may have checked out of the hospital but at least you are still at a hospital if something should happen." Stella protested.

Mac shook his head. "I'm sore and I have a headache but it's been long enough since the accident that if I were going to have complications from the concussion they would have manifested by now. The quicker we can find out who's responsible for this, the safer we'll all be. Flack, can we borrow your car?"

Flack handed Stella his keys. "As long as she drives. Complications or not, you do have a concussion, Mac and you have no business behind the wheel of a car."

Mac didn't have any protests. He was willing to concede to his limitations. He looked back down at Lindsay, "Promise me you'll get some rest." His eyes flicked up to take in Danny as well. "Make him get some rest as well. I need you both back in top form as soon as possible."

After giving her a friendly kiss to the forehead and a clasp to Danny's shoulder, Mac left with Stella. The two didn't talk much on the way to the lab. Instead, Mac took the opportunity during the long ride to do exactly what he had made Lindsay and Danny promise to do. Stella glanced over at the sleeping man with a smile. She would have preferred that he stayed in the hospital but she could understand his need to see this case through. It had gone beyond personal for them all. No one was going to get much rest until they had the ones responsible for hurting members of the team in custody.

When she pulled into a space in the garage next to the lab, she hated to wake him up but his eyes opened as soon as she turned off the ignition. They made their way to the lab, going directly to cold storage. Mac wasted no time putting in his code and opening the door. He frowned and looked back at Stella.

"There's nothing in here."

"That's impossible. Nobody could get in that storage unit without your code. How the hell could it have been stolen?"

"Call Adam." Mac ordered a little more brusquely than he probably should but couldn't hide his exasperation.

Before Stella could pick up the phone, Adam came in running. "Mac, how are you feeling? I didn't expect you to come back so soon. How are Danny and Lindsay?"

"They're fine." Stella gave him a puzzled look. "How did you know we were here?"

"More importantly, how did someone manage to get in here and steal the evidence the two of you recovered from the townhouse?"

"Funny you should ask that Boss. Come with me and I'll show you." Adam led them down the hall to the computer lab, offering an explanation as he walked. "Maybe I've watched too many spy movies or like Flack said, looked at too many conspiracy theory websites; I don't know. See I got to thinking while we were in the townhouse that maybe they had eyes on us, maybe even ears and that's how they knew we had something they wanted. So I decided to turn the tables on them. I set up a camera in the storage area that captured everything that happened."

He pulled up footage on the computer and ran it back to a particular time stamp. As they watched the same man who had broken into the lab earlier entered the storage locker. He placed some sort of electrical device on the door near the lock and pressed a button. After a couple of minutes, a light on the device turned from red to green and the man was able to open the door. He reached into the refrigerated unit and pulled the cooler out. He opened it up to see what was inside before closing it once more. He carefully placed the strap over his shoulder and closed the door. He pressed the button on the device again and waited until it turned red again before removing it. Then he disappeared out of the lab. The entire theft took only five to seven minutes.

Adam was practically rocking on the heels of his feet as they watched the theft. "After he left I pulled up the image of the door before it opened and zoomed in on the device he used to get around the lock. I've been researching it to see if I could isolate what he used but so far nothing. It's very sophisticated, which I guess doesn't really surprise me after everything else we've seen. I've got the image running through the computer now and if there's anything similar to it, we'll find it eventually."

His hands on his hips, Mac looked at Adam almost angrily. "Are you telling me that you watched the robbery and just let him get away with the evidence? Adam, what were you thinking?"

Stella put a hand on Mac's arm, trying to calm him down. "Mac, what did you expect him to do? He might have gotten hurt if he tried to stop this guy; don't forget this is the same guy that nearly killed both you and Danny."

Adam shook his head. "Guys, Guys, he didn't get the evidence."

"Adam, we just saw him take the cooler." Mac protested wearily.

The young lab tech smiled. "Cooler, yes, evidence no. Like I said, I expected someone would try to come in and steal the vials and I figured, what if I made them think they were getting what they wanted but they weren't? It would at least buy us a little time to figure out what we were dealing with and maybe get a little closer to locating them. So I filled some vials with colored water to match the vials we collected from the townhouse. I put them in a cooler just like the one we used and put it into the cold storage unit and put the secure lock on it. I set up the hidden camera and waited for them to strike. It didn't take them thirty minutes after I had it all set up."

Stella shook her head, confused by what she was hearing. "You mean he didn't get the evidence we collected? Where is it?"

"Some place no one would think to look."

- CSI: NY -

Author's Note 2: I had a blast writing this scene with Adam. Anybody got a guess where he hid it?