A/N – As promised, this is going straight up, and I'll probably post the next chap sometime tonight to get the story going, as these chaps have just been dialogue and stuff.

I just want to put out a mention to Laurzz. If you haven't checked out her story "why did you have to go?" yet, do it now! I've been missing out on the past 30 chaps or so, which I'm really gutted about!

But I can't believe how her story has grown so much. It's over 100 chaps now – yet it started out as a one shot, can you believe it? Anyway, I just wanted to mention it, as she was so incredibly supportive of me, and I love her stories so much! I'm about to catch up on what I've missed now – and I recommend anyone to join me - anyone who loves a good ole D/L story will be in for a treat! But who am i kidding? I bet most people have read it already!

Anyway – on with the story...

Chapter 21- Look Away!

The team filed into the break room and took their places. Stella (once again trying not to limp on her painful ankle) made a beeline straight for the couch, where she was joined moment later by Kendall and Adam. Mac grabbed one of the high bar- style stools and positioned it in front of the sofa and sat down. Danny, Lindsay Hawkes and Andrews headed around the back of the sofa where there were three remaining high stools. Seeing this, Adam stood up.

"Er... Lindsay, you wanna sit here?"

Lindsay, along with the two other women present beamed at him, then answered; "No it's okay... thanks though – that was real sweet of you".

Danny and Hawkes both motioned for her to sit on the stools they were heading for, to which she responded by saying she's sit on the work surface that ran along the wall behind them.

"Guys, you won't be here long, I just wanted you all to be comfortable while I spoke to you about some things..."

Mac's not-so-subtle way of telling them to hurry up had Lindsay nod and hastily try to push herself up backwards onto the work surface, forgetting her injured wrist for a moment.



Whether Danny anticipated her hurting herself, or whether he saw Lindsay's face crumple as she bit her lip, she didn't know. But she could barely contain her surprise when, he grasped her hips and gently lifted her on the counter without a word. With a small grin he simply turned and placed his own stool very close to her and sat on it, facing Mac as though nothing had ever happened.

Andrews was already perched on his stool, staring intently at Mac, and after looking at Danny's cheeky grin and Lindsay's shy blush, Hawkes chuckled slightly before taking his seat, and looking at Mac himself.

"Okay, now we're all good, I'm just going to be honest with you. You're all adults, and I'm not going to sugar-coat this for any of you. I also want you to know that the only briefing I received was about 6 muffled sentences from a guy in a yellow suit as I was frog marched into that elevator."

"Yeah, well that's six muffled sentences more than us Mac, so spill..."

Danny was obviously in a good natured mood, smiling at Mac as he spoke.

"Alright Danny, I'll spill... I don't trust HAZMAT. I'm sure as an organisation they do a lot of good, but those people down there are holding something back from us, and I want to know the full story. Adam, I don't want you to worry about the air conditioning because I want you to use every ounce of your computer skills to find out everything you can about this... Suproxin. And I mean everything, from its chemical composition, to its molecular structure... I want newspaper articles, textbook extracts, incident reports... anything you can find. And erm..."

Mac's voice dropped an octave.

"See what you can find out what the symptoms of contamination are... what treatment is given and so on... you think you could find all that out in around an hour?"

Adam replied with a slow nod, not sure what his voice would sound like. Danny took advantage of Adam's silence by asking Mac how long they were going to be there, and beside him, Danny felt Lindsay's leg stiffen.

"Unfortunately Danny, not one of those six muffled sentences divulged a possible timescale for this... quarantine. Like I said in the elevator, I honestly have no clue how long we're going to be here. But hopefully, with the information Adam can get us, we can look at past events where Suproxin and similar substances have forced a quarantine situation, and perhaps estimate how long ours might last."

"Woah, woah woah... hang on here Mac... could they actually keep us here for a while... as in possibly days... possibly longer?"

Stella broke into the conversation forcefully, not even giving Mac a chance to reply to her own question.

"This is ridiculous! They can't keep us here – they just can't! By keeping us here in this... place, they're serving us all with a death sentence. They could have quarantined us in any other facility Mac – there are hospitals and military bases with buildings far better equipped to handle this kind of situation, and instead they're keeping us here, around the chemical... thing and putting us all in greater danger!"

"Stella, I think you need to calm..."

"Don't you DARE tell me to calm down Mac Taylor...!"

The rest of the team, who had been staring at Stella during her sudden, loud outburst, suddenly looked away; out the window, at their feet, at each other, just anywhere that wasn't Mac or Stella.

They felt the awkwardness of the situation creep over them. Although all most members of the team were sure their two bosses would have had numerous quarrels in their time working together, and although the team sometimes felt the tension following one of those disagreements, both Mac and Stella had always remained professional enough to keep them strictly private – until now it seemed.

There was one member one the team however, who was gazing curiously at the growing argument. Andrews looked from Mac to Stella and back again, his head remaining stationary, but his eyes darting as though following a tennis match.

Danny, Lindsay and Hawkes were exchanging identical 'what shall we do?' looks before noticing the direction in which Andrews was looking.

Being the closest, Hawkes whispered out the corner of his mouth... "Andrews... ... look.. away...!"

At that point however, Stella had come back at Mac with a particularly loud and high pitched retort, which left no doubt in Hawkes' mind that his advice to Andrews had been drowned out.

"...that is so besides the point Mac! I cannot believe that you of all people would just hand over the reins to HAZMAT in a situation like this! They are putting all of our lives at risk and you are letting them! Do you even care? Do you even value our lives at all? What about your own...?"

Hurricane Stella had finally blown herself out. She'd run out of steam and she knew it. Stella also knew that her anger lay not with Mac, but with herself (and more specifically the part of herself responsible for the broken piece of technology currently residing in her pocket).

Ignoring the pain shooting up one of her long legs, she pushed herself up from the couch and found herself at the coffee machine, although she wasn't remotely thirsty. She needed something to occupy her hands, and she needed to keep her back to the rest of her colleagues for a moment whilst she composed her face.

Lindsay felt rather conflicted at this point. She knew that the smart thing to do would be to stay where she was and wait for normality to resume its position within the lab. However, she was also aware that Stella was obviously upset, needing a friend. Lindsay was wondering if she should go and help Stella make the coffee no one wanted to drink.

Just as Lindsay was hearing the opening bars to 'Should I stay or should I go' by The Clash, Mac carried on with his team talk and made up her mind for her.

"Well that was enlightening, thank you Stella. I thought we were a team, I thought we were in this together. Is there anyone else wanting to go lock horns with HAZMAT? Anyone else feeling particularly rebellious towards me or our situation or something?"

It took less than a second for Lindsay's hackles to be raised. Mac was acting like a teacher making an example of an unruly pupil. The few seconds of tense silence following his questions was broken by the soft tap of Lindsay's shoes as she slid off the counter and hit the ground.

And although he'd been expecting some form of response, the moment he heard the 'tap' sound next to him, Danny realised that this argument was about to grow.

Mac, for his part, was shocked. He should have nipped the petty quarrel in bud straight away, and he had fully intended to. But when all eyes had turned back to him, he hadn't known what to say at all, so he'd voiced whatever babble had been in his mind at the time.

And now at the back of the room, a thunderous Lindsay Monroe was standing upright, silently glaring at him, next to a clearly exhausted Danny Messer, who looked as though he knew what was coming next, and didn't like it one bit.

Mac had intended for his questions to be completely rhetorical, not expecting a response at all. They had merely been fillers while he tried to remember where his speech had previously been heading. The rational side of Mac told him to ignore the dagger looks he was receiving and carry on with briefing his team, the sentimental side of Mac was amused and even a little proud to see Lindsay here taking the heat off Stella for a while. Yet another side of him was just annoyed that this was being carried on. He was sure Stella overreacted because of something else which was playing on her mind, and he had certainly retaliated more than he should have, and that was probably due to all that he had on his own mind at the moment.

Against his better judgment, Mac said quietly; "Do you have something you want to say, Lindsay?"

"Yes, actually I do. I'm not feeling 'particularly rebellious' and I don't want to 'lock horns with HAZMAT' as you put it..."

Lindsay had allowed Mac to set the tone, speaking as quietly as he had. Stella had known him much longer than she had, and Lindsay had enough respect for her boss not to yell in his face. However, she had quoted him with as much venom in her voice as she could muster.

"... but a team? You think that's all we are - a team? We're human beings Mac! We are in this together, but do you want us to die together too? This isn't a suspect throwing his weight around – this could be fatal... to all of us.

It's bad enough that we work around the clock... Stella and I were processing that crime scene for eight. God. damn. hours. (Without a break too, I might add!) And what do we have to show for it? ...A mess in the evidence locker and some dangerous chemical that could kill us and our team!"

Everyone heard the guilt in her voice as she finished her sentence, and everyone searched for the right words to say to relieve that. Hawkes found them first, trying to catch her eye as he spoke gently;

"Linds... you know no one blames you. Nobody could have guessed what your evidence could have been; you can't blame yourself... either of you. It's just the job."

Danny, Lindsay and Mac were all about to say something in reply, when Stella began to talk. Her voice was now quiet, almost sounding defeated; which was highly unusual for Stella.

"It's just the job? How much does this job want? We put our lives on the line every day to catch criminals and put them behind bars."

Stella paused for a moment to turn around and face her colleagues once more. She looked at each face before she carried on talking.

"What? Do some of you have amnesia? Mac, Hawkes... you were both here with me... in this very lab, when were running around trying to stop men from the Irish Mob stealing back their cocaine. We had to blow a part of the lab up to save our own lives!

Lindsay! Lindsay got bitten by a snake when she was just processing a car... AND she nearly got shot during an impromptu undercover operation against African blood diamond smugglers!

Hawkes! Not only was Hawkes trapped in here with us that time, he nearly got framed for murder by Shane Casey AND nearly drowned last year when he was diving to collect evidence. He was only saved by Danny who has had his fair share of drama, haven't ya Dan?

I mean, aside from everything Tangle Wood, you nearly suffocated in that panic room, and was then held at gunpoint by the perp, you ah... you go jumping across buildings and on the back of motorcycles trying to apprehend people, and you were in physical therapy for months with your hand after you were held hostage in that warehouse.

Jesus – even Adam got dragged into that mess – those bastards used him like an ash tray!"

Stella's voice had been slowly rising again as she turned around the room, focusing on one person and then the next. She turned back to face Mac, and her voice dropped low again.

"Even Aiden died trying to nail that scumbag... Haven't we all done enough yet? Haven't we risked enough? Mac, we've all proven that we're willing to do anything in the course of this job, to protect people, to protect this city. Our team is being kept here to keep this city safe from contamination, a city we all work to keep safe on a daily basis. But now, who's going to keep us safe?"

Mac forced himself to meet Stella's eyes, and once he had, he allowed his gaze to trail around the room. He thought carefully for a moment about what he was going to say, and when he did so, he spoke in a warmer, less business-like voice than he'd been using.

"We're going to keep each other safe. There are things we can do, steps we can take. You asked me if I valued our lives Stella, of course I do. I worry about the safety of this... our team, every. single. day.

But all the good we've done here, every time we have risked our lives... If we break this quarantine right now, then we risk contaminating one of the biggest urban ares in the world. And that would pretty much cancel out any other risk we've ever taken don't you think?

For all we know, every one of us is already contaminated or infected with whatever this Suproxin does, but there are millions of people out there that are safe - does anyone here want to jeopardize that?"

"Mac... we weren't saying that we..."

Lindsay too used a much softer voice when answering her boss, and she was interrupted gently, with a smile and a nickname Mac hardly ever used.

"I know you weren't Linds. You and Stell were trying that whole 'girl power, ganging up on me' thing. You were just looking out for her, and that's what we have to do, we all have to look out for each other."

Danny reached forwards slowly and snaked an arm around Lindsay's waist. He barely needed to use any force to pull her gently against him as he sat, and she leaned back into his embrace, feeling his breath on the side of her face as he said to Mac;

"We will."

Every occupant of the room could feel the tension slip away. They were all aware that there were still some heightened emotional states flying around, but for the moment at least, everyone was focused on the tasks ahead, as Mac began delegating jobs once more.

"Okay, so Stella and I are going to be making all the necessary phonecalls, Adam, you're going to be researching Suproxin..."

"Yeah, actually Mac, there's quite a lot to be done in an hour, do you think you could spare someone to help me out?"

Adam stole a glance at Kendal, who was looking right back at him with a coy smile: she'd understood him loud and clear. Apparantly, however, Mac hadn't.

"Of course Adam, that's absolutely fine. Umm, Andrews... you're going to be helping out Adam with the research, okay?"

A short while later, it was decided that Hawkes and Danny would move around some furniture, such as the sofa from Mac's office, to make the break room more comfortable for the undetermined duration of their stay. And they'd also gather supplies that had been stocked in the supply closets in the new post 9/11 safety procedures.

"And that leaves Lindsay and Kendal - are you two okay with making sure the floor is sealed? You know, what I said about closing windows and what Adam mentioned about the air conditioning and so on?"

Both women looked at one another sheepishly before Kendal spoke up.

"Sure - except i don't know where the janitorial closet is..."

"Well it could be in boiler room too - i don't actually know where the a/c controls are... Lindsay - do you know where you're going?"

Lindsay smiled apologetically at Mac; "Well i've never actually had a reason to go to either you know... when i'm not in the field I..."

She was cut off by Danny's laughter beside her, the arms that were around her waist shook slightly as he did so.

"Yeah yeah, laugh it up Messer, real funny... Let me guess, gonna come out with a country girl joke? Because before you say anything, we did have air conditioning in Montana!"

"No - I was going down the 'new girl' route, and..."

"New girl? I've been here more than three years Danny - when is that going to get old?"

"Maybe when..."

This time it was Mac who cut Danny off.

"Alright you two, knock it off... I take it you know where to look Danny? Good, you go with Lindsay then, and Kendal, you can help Hawkes gather supplies and move things around? Okay everybody - you all have something to do. We're going to meet back here in one hour, and we'll discuss where we're going from then.

Good luck everyone!"

A/N - In case you were wondering, I haven't forgotten about Flack & Angell, or Peyton. They'll all have a part to play sooner or later... grins Thanks for reading!

Also the line: "Andrews... ... look..away" i may have 'borrowed' off another T.V show (only with a different name lol) What can i say, it inspired me :P Can anyone name that show? lolz

xxx