A/N Okay, so what the hell was up with the servers? Lol, at least it gave me time to write this chapter. I seriously just finished and went ahead and tried loggin in, even though I thought it wouldn't work again. And wouldn't you know, it did. Lol, so on tot he chapter. This is the last one... I'm sad to end it, but this is it. Weeeeell, actually that isn't true, but you'll have to read the chapter and get to the next A/N to find out why. Hehehehehe so rating is still T and characters belong to CSI NY.

Danny had thrown himself into his work, ignoring the looks he was getting from his colleagues. He frowned as the shirt that he was running trace on became a blur. He knew full well that it wasn't a problem with his glasses, reaching upwards to swipe away the forming tears. No, I'm not gonna do this here. I gotta job to do that in no way involves Mac. Fucker.

Danny instantly berated himself for calling Mac the name, even if was in his head, for reasons he couldn't understand. Why am I being so forgiving when he acted like a jerk? He shook his head and tried to clear his brain before he could answer the question, but he couldn't stop himself. Maybe because I'm the reason he acted that way.

Danny cursed aloud, not caring that there were others in the lab with him. Wait a minute… Danny looked up and about the room. Those who were their previously were gone now. What the hell? He knew that what they were doing required them to be in trace for a while, so it made no sense that they left so soon.

Someone coughed behind him. Danny turned quickly and felt his body go on full alert, heart thumping blindly and tensed muscles, as he realized who was standing at the door to the lab.

The person in the doorway was Mac.

Danny's mouth went slack in his disbelief as Mac tried to form sentences. He looked downwards and shuffled his feet, managing to ask, "Can I talk to you, Danny?"

The younger CSI seemed to wake from his momentary confusion. He crossed his arms and glared at Mac. "I think we talked plenty earlier. I got nothing else to say to you." He turned back to his work, hoping Mac would get pissed and start yelling at him because somehow, Danny knew it would make the situation much easier to bear, considering it was bad enough that Mac took a huge chance even coming to see him.

But Mac didn't get pissed and didn't yell. He remained in the doorway, letting his face crumple into defeat. "Right…" He continued to stare at the floor, watching as gravitational droplets formed upon it. His own tears. Mac tried to stop crying but found it was impossible. He was silent about it, though, only making a noise to meekly apologize. "D-Danny… I know you're… I know I was stupid earlier, but…"

Danny spun on him. "No shit! You were a goddamn ass..." Danny fell silent as he noticed what Mac was doing. His anger was quickly dispelled by the sight of Mac's brokenness. "Oh God, Mac…"

He walked over to Mac and pulled him towards him, hugging him firmly. The tears flowed from Mac's eyes onto Danny's shoulders. Mac choked out, "Danny, I'm… I'm so sorry for hurting you."

Danny closed his eyes, trying to keep himself from crying. He tightened his embrace around Mac, but not enough to cause any physical damage to his wound. He heard his own voice nervously admit, "It's not your fault, Mac. You were right."

Mac pulled away from Danny and looked him in the eye, unafraid to show him his tears now. "No, I wasn't. I overreacted, and that isn't fair. You were just trying to help Stella out and didn't involve yourself on purpose."

Danny felt his chest tighten. "But I did get involved!" Damn it, here I go forgiving him… Why can't I just let him admit he was wrong without taking the fall for him?

There was a groan from the opposite doorway. Both men snapped their gazes towards the perpetrator.

It was Stella.

She rolled her eyes obviously and walked towards them coyly. "Will at least one of you act like a man and let the other take blame? Just make up already, so we can all get one with our lives." Her face was bright with a smile that illuminated all of her features. Her laugh was even more luminous, making both men feel slightly uplifted.

Danny was the first to recover. "Yeah, I was just about to tell Mac to stop complaining about the way I bring home the bacon and go get me a beer, but you kinda ruined the fun."

All three was laughing now. Mac quickly wiped the residual tears away and looked at Stella quizzically, seeing that her smile was as radiant as ever. "You're too happy… What happened with Porter?"

Stella laughed again. "Almost a week away from the job, and you're still as observant as ever." She paused as she realized something important that had been bugging her ever since she saw the two men in the lab clutching at each other. "Wait, how the hell are you even here, Mac?"

Danny's eyes widened as he heard Stella voice the question he had formed in his unconscious. He turned to Mac and softly asked, "Yeah, how did you get here?" He started giggling suddenly as he saw what Mac was wearing. "And why do you have my clothes on?"

Mac sighed and looked as if he was about to cry again. "I… I had to come talk to you and make things right, okay? So I somehow convinced my doctor to check and see if I was well enough to be released, and he said I was. So I put on the only clothes that were available to me and took a cab." He smiled sadly at Danny. "And here I am."

Danny reached over and gripped Mac's hand within his own. "I'm glad you came, Mac…" They both remained silent momentarily before looking back at Stella, who was staring fixedly at the wall and trying not to intrude. Danny queried, "So what exactly happened with Porter, Stella?"

At the sound of her name, her gaze was redirected back to them. It was a moment before she answered him. "Well, we just interrogated him, and he broke and revealed everything." She didn't allow for interruptions, knowing Mac and Danny needed to hear this. "He had stolen about half a million dollars from a bank last week and placed all the cash in a briefcase. Yeah, cliché, I know, but I didn't come up with this. So he goes to La Guardia to get a nonstop flight to Miami. Had things not gone wrong, he'd have been Caine's problem."

Mac smiled at the thought of his friend down in Miami, but he continued to listen to Stella's explanation. "Well, things went south from there. He, doing something I would never do if I had a half million dollars in my possession, puts the case down as he orders a Coke from one of the airport's fast food joints. So he pays, looks down, and…"

"It's gone," Danny guessed, trying to piece this all together within his head, visuals of the bear of a man he had seen walking back to his seat and finding it missing.

Stella nodded and asserted, "Yeah, it was gone. But there was a similar briefcase close to where it was supposed to be. So then he recalls a blonde in the opposite line, setting her briefcase down to take her order. So he realizes she probably has his briefcase, for reasons he assumes are unintentional or maybe even intentional. So he follows her out of the airport to her car because we now know she had just made it back into New York on her own flight. So he follows her to the overnight garage and lucks out because her car is only a few spaces down from his. She manages to get in her car and drive away, still unaware of her mistake. She gets to her apartment and probably puts the case somewhere to open and empty later. So he comes to the door and knocks, and when she opens it, he shoves his way in, the gun he keeps in his car in hand." Stella paused and made an angered face at the floor. "He was so damn smug about it. He was so smug when he talked about the way he killed her. He shot her three times and didn't give a damn." Stella looked up at her friends and sighed. "So then he said he found the briefcase on her bed and grabbed it. He was about to clean up the scene when he heard that rookie cop yell 'NYPD". So he hides in the closet… And, well, you know the rest."

Her eyes fell once again as Mac and Danny took in all that she had said. But Mac was still confused. "But if he got all of his money back, why stay in New York? Why stay when he knew was going to be chased down?"

Stella frowned and scoffed, "Because he's an idiot. He honestly thought that because he never did anything to get him in the system before the robbery that he wouldn't be tracked down. He also thought he didn't leave anything at the crime scene. But he did… Two witnesses." She smiled at them.

Danny shuddered slightly as he remembered just how Porter had left one of the witnesses. But his mind was directed back onto a less grim pathway. "So how'd you manage to get all this outta him, Stella? Someone with all that supposed knowledge couldn't have been easy to break."

There was silence in the room as Stella thought about what to say. She finally spoke up and looked at them directly. "I… I told him he only left one witness."

Mac didn't know whether to feel proud or nauseated as he thought of how close that possibility actually came to be. He felt Danny's fingers tighten around his own. He didn't look at Danny, fearing he'd start crying again at the ironic closure. He gave a Stella a congratulatory smile. "Good job, Stell. Thank you…"

"No problem…" The relieved looks upon their faces were enough thanks for her. But there was one thing left to be done. She inhaled loudly and put her hands on her hips. "Now that the case is solved, the caseload is considerably lighter for me. In short, I don't need you here, Danny." He stared at her blankly. "In other words, as temporary supervisor, I am giving you an order to get the man whose hand you're holding home and take care of him. God knows he can't take care of himself." Mac shot her an amused glare. "Yeah, I said it. So go home, both of you. Before I dock your pay."

Together, they all laughed again. Mac smirked at the approaching Greek. "You make a better supervisor than I do."

Stella chuckled. "No, I don't. I just make this job look better." She winked at him before she pulled him into a light hug. She let go after a moment's silence and turned to Danny. "You take care of him, alright?" Stella reached for Danny, who accepted the hug warmly.

"You know, I will." They let go of each other and looked towards Mac. Danny felt his heart return to a normal beat again, as he realized they were free again. "So I guess we'll be going."

Mac blushed as he realized all eyes were on him, so he looked at the floor. "Yeah, we better."

Stella laughed. "Just go before I change my mind and put you to work cleaning the toilets in the locker room!"

They didn't need further invitation, rushing out of the lab after voicing one more goodbye with Stella. Mac and Danny didn't speak as they headed out to the garage. Danny pulled out a set of keys from his pocket, and it took Mac a second to realize they were his. Before he could ask where the hell he got them, Danny beat him to it, explaining, "I knew you kept an extra set in your desk, so I swiped them when I got here. I was still mad, so I figured if really wanted to retaliate, I coulda just crashed your car into a tree or something."

Mac mirthlessly smiled, still feeling guilty for being the cause of that anger. He stayed silent, though, climbing into the passenger's seat. He turned to Danny and lifted an eyebrow. "Where to?"

Danny put the key in the ignition and began to head out of the garage. As they approached the street, he grinned. "Where ever you feel at home, Mac."

Mac thought for a moment. The line sounded corny to him, but after their bitter fight, he could use all the cheesy lines it took to get back to the way they were only a day ago, joking and laughing through their relationship. "Home is with you."

"With me, huh? So I guess that means I gotta pick where we go." He winked at Mac. "Well, your place can't fit two grown men, plus that bed sure as hell won't fit two grown men." His smile turned into a wicked smirk as he saw Mac blush furiously out of the corner of his eye. "So I guess that leaves my place."

Mac nodded. "Yeah…" They were quiet the rest of the trip, allowing each other the needed break to think and assemble their thoughts on the day's events. Mac stared out the window and found himself in awe at how things brought him to be in a car on the way to the house of his new lover. Of how one bullet could change things in its destructive power and manage to actually create something beautiful.

That's all it took. One solitary gunshot.

A/N So did you like? Poor Mac... I seem to have a kink for him being all vulnerable. Ok, ok I'll go ahead and tell you about the end. I got an epilogue that you all have some hint as to what it'll be about. Let's just say it'll make the rating go up. Hehehe, but I actually got to write it, and this Run Silent, Run Deep has had me working for over a week. (it's really frikkin long, and I'm not even through the episode yet! ( ) So it may be a bit before I get an idea of how I want them to erm... go about it. Lol!