100 reviews! Didn't expect to reach that number at all. I'm sorry for disappearing for a whole month, I'm not gonna give any excuses. I finished this chapter looong ago, but simply forgot to post it up. Sorry! Here's the chapter, and with the premiere of Season 3, I'll have more inspiration and material to continue my story with. Please keep sticking around, thank you for reading!

Disclaimer: CSI:NY and all its characters belong to CBS and Jerry Bruckheimer Productions.

Episode Spoilers/References: #02.24 - "Charge of this Post"

36: CHAOS

For a moment, Morgan could not hear anything but the dull ringing sound in her ears.

Still on the ground, she lifted her head up to survey the surroundings. A cloud of grey smoke and its smell hung in the air. The dust was still settling from all the blast, and broken glass from the windows and other debris littered the street.

After the ringing sound subsided, Morgan could hear people moaning in pain. She looked to her sides to see the women who had knocked her to the ground. They had suffered minor injuries and were able to sit up. They helped Morgan up to a sitting position as well.

It was when Morgan tried to stand up that she realized the pain in her right foot, a sprained ankle probably a result of the fall. Apart from feeling the pain and a little wooziness, she had sustained cuts on her knees and hands from hitting the ground.

Morgan managed to stand up on her feet despite the pain. She looked up at the gutted building and began to limp towards it.

Coughing from the thick smoke as she got nearer to the building, Morgan dug out her cell phone from her jeans pocket. She flipped it open and dialed Flack's number, hoping that it still worked.

"Pick up…pick up, Don!"

Morgan limped around, looking for any sign of Flack or Lindsay. As she waited for an answer, Morgan yelled out for the both of them, hoping that either of them would hear her, if they were within earshot. "Lindsay! Don!"

"If you can hear me, please answer me!"

Morgan was starting to fear the worst. She could hear people moaning and crying in pain.

There was no answer on Flack's phone, so Morgan tried to dial Lindsay's number.

"Hello…?" The voice was soft and weak, but unmistakably belonged to Lindsay.

"Lindsay? Oh thank God! Are you okay? Where are you?"

Lindsay was confused. How did Morgan know what had happened? However at that moment, she didn't have the energy to guess.

"I was going back to my truck when Mac told me about the bomb…"

"Mac was here too? Where are they now?"

Lindsay replied that she couldn't see them from she was. Morgan tried to keep calm and concentrate on finding Lindsay. Morgan took a look around and deduced that Lindsay shouldn't be too far away from her.

She kept her eyes trained on any women who looked like Lindsay, as she tried Flack's number again. No answer.

"Lindsay!" Morgan yelled, as her eyes darted around, looking for the green jacket Lindsay was wearing and found it.

Morgan half-ran, half-limped over to where Lindsay was.

"How did you end up here?" Lindsay asked, as Morgan nearly collapsed in relief.

"Dropped by to see a friend." Morgan's eyes noticed a bleeding wound on Lindsay's forehead and reached out to touch it. "Ow..." Lindsay grimaced.

"Where's Don? Did you see them make it out?" Morgan said.

"I…I don't know. I think they were still inside."

Morgan faltered. "Don didn't make it out?" The pain in her ankle was getting worse. "I called his cell phone…but there was no answer…"

Lindsay helped Morgan to a nearby stoop to sit down as she tried to reassure the near-distraught girl of Flack's safety. It only had a temporary effect on her, and Lindsay had to practically pull her back when Morgan seemed to want to make a break for the building.

"I've got to find him!"

It was lucky that Morgan was smaller in size than Lindsay. She held the younger woman by the shoulders and tried to keep her calm as best as she could.

"What am I going to do? Don's still in there…" Morgan said softly.

Lindsay had thought Morgan would be in tears by now, but so far she had not yet shed a single tear. Lindsay didn't think it was good or strong of her, she'd rather Morgan cry her eyes out than hold it in.

The FDNY firefighters and paramedics had already arrived, along with about a half dozen police squad cars. One paramedic noticed Morgan and Lindsay sitting at the side and asked if they needed help. Lindsay declined, telling him to go help the other injured civilians first.

"What about her? Is she okay?" He looked to Morgan, who had barely acknowledged his presence. She looked to be in a daze. Lindsay pointed Morgan's sprained ankle to the paramedic and he bent down to inspect her foot.

He gently twisted Morgan's foot and asked if she felt any pain. She didn't answer. "Miss, can you hear me?"

Morgan shifted her glance to him. "I'm not deaf."

He went back to treating her foot, and she was more responsive. "We'll need to get some ice on it, and in the meantime I suggest that she not move around too much."

The cuts on her knees and hands were easily taken care of, but Lindsay still refused treatment for the moment, sending him to treat the other injured people.

XXX

Stella had just been notified by Dispatch about the explosion and went to get Danny and Hawkes. Just before they were about to pull out of the parking lot in the CSI truck, Danny's cell phone rang. It was Lindsay.

"Montana, you alright?

Lindsay told him about Morgan, which probably turned out to be a mistake because it only made Danny more anxious. "What the hell was she doing there! Is she okay? Was she injured?"

"Danny, calm down. Other than some cuts on her hands and knees and a sprained ankle, she's fine. But I think you'd better get here quick. Flack was still inside when the bomb went off."

Danny didn't need any further explanation. He knew what his sister was probably going through. He very nearly barked at Stella to start driving and remained antsy throughout the drive to the West Village.

The three of them had been caught in a minor jam, and it further depleted Danny's patience, not that he had a lot of that in the first place. "Why don't you put on the lights and race through this damn traffic?"

"Danny, relax. I'm driving as fast as I humanely can in this traffic. Lindsay's with Morgan, she'll be fine," Stella tried to keep a level tone. Danny could be a tad overbearing when it came to what mattered most to him.

"I can probably get us there much faster," Danny grumbled in the backseat.

"Danny, I am not letting you tear through the streets and possibly mow down cars and innocent pedestrians in the process," Stella warned. "Now just calm down, will you."

She heard him flip his cell phone open and press a few buttons. "Damn, she's not answering her phone."

"Hawkes, you wouldn't happen to have a sedative in that kit of yours, would you?" Stella said, gritting her teeth through the rear view mirror. She was just as anxious about Mac and Flack, and Danny was not making things any better.

XXX

The vehicle raced to a stop and Danny practically jumped out before Stella could even park the truck properly. He saw Lindsay standing near a car speaking to a couple of police officers. "Montana!"

She was fully immune to that nickname and hardly batted an eyelid when Danny called her that.

"Morgan's over there," Lindsay pointed to the nearby stoop without Danny even asking. He asked about the cut on her forehead, which still hadn't been treated and she brushed it off with a "I'm fine".

Stella and Hawkes arrived behind him and Lindsay updated them on the situation while Danny ran off to check on his sister. "Be right back," he yelled over his shoulder.

Morgan sat on the stoop with her hands in her lap, her gaze following a man who was being wheeled away on a gurney by paramedics. She didn't even notice Danny approaching from the other side.

"Morgan," Danny had to repeat her name a couple more times before she shifted her gaze to him. He cupped her face in his hands and stared into her eyes. "Does your ankle still hurt?"

Morgan shook her head. Someone had just given her ice to soothe the pain.

"Don's still in there…"

"I know…"

"You have to get him out, Danny."

"We will," he said as he embraced his sister tightly to comfort her. "Don't worry, okay? We'll get him out."

"I'm scared…" Morgan said as tears welled up in her eyes, the first sign that she was about to break down. "Look at the building, how could he have–"

"Shut up, don't say that. I said we were going to get him out and we will."

"You have to." Morgan was almost sobbing now.

"Danny, you ready to go?" Hawkes said as he approached from behind with Lindsay. "Yeah, let's go."

He stood up to leave but Morgan still held onto his hand tightly.

"Just sit tight right here, and I'll bring him back out to you, okay?" Danny then asked Lindsay to stay with Morgan, and she agreed.

XXX

"Flack!" Mac called as he lifted a large piece of fallen debris off himself. There was no answer, but moments later he heard a voice calling for help. It was the young man, Smith, who Flack had yelled at to "get the hell out of here" just before the bomb went off. He had been pinned under a fallen door.

Mac helped lift the door off Smith and together they searched for Flack.

"Don!" Mac noticed a leg sticking from a pile of rubble and raced over. With Smith's help, he managed to get the debris off of Flack, who was barely conscious and gasping for air. He was covered with blue ink from the copier that had fallen from the floor above them.

Flack was unresponsive. Some debris had become embedded in his wound in the stomach area and he was bleeding profusely due to a torn artery.

This brought back tragic memories for Mac, who had been through a similar situation during his days as a Marine in Beirut. He had been unable to save the young Marine that time, and this time he was going to make sure Flack would not die.

The priority was now to stop the arterial bleeding. Mac asked Smith to remove his shoelace and he used that to tie off the artery and stop the bleeding. As unconventional and unhygienic that it was, if Mac did not do that Flack could very well have bled to death before Search and Rescue could have found them.

Tearing pieces of fabric off his own shirt, Mac stuffed the wound with them to stop the bleeding, as Smith tried to get the attention of Search and Rescue by banging on the walls. He lightly felt Flack's body for any broken bones and noticed a chain with a ring on his neck.

Fingering it, he noticed an inscription on the inside of the ring. "Stay Safe", it said. Mac guessed that it must have been a gift from Morgan. He unclasped the chain and put it in his pocket, lest it got misplaced while the paramedics and ER doctors took Flack's clothes off to work on him later.

He would hold it for safekeeping until he could hand it to Morgan.

"Can anyone hear me?" Smith yelled as he banged on the walls.

Soon enough, the banging sound drew Danny to where they were and the rescue team was quickly sent in to get them out.

Morgan watched as the paramedics pushed a gurney to the entrance of the building. Minutes later, the rescue team emerged with Mac, Flack and Smith. They quickly transferred Flack onto the gurney and loaded him into a waiting ambulance to rush him to Trinity Hospital.

"Morgan, calm down! Let the paramedics do their work, we'll get someone to give you ride over to the hospital in a bit, okay?" Lindsay said when Morgan wanted to rush over to Flack.

Mac headed for the temporary command center set up by the FBI and Homeland Security at a café across the street. He got his wound taken care of as Stella came in to report what findings they had at the moment. She also told him that Morgan was present when the bomb went off.

"Where's she now?"

"Outside. Lindsay's with her, she's fine."

"Good. I'm headed to Trinity Hospital, she can come with me."

XXX

Mac and Morgan arrived at the hospital where Flack was already under heavy sedation and about to undergo surgery to remove the debris from the blast embedded in his wound.

"How bad is it? Is he going to make it?" Morgan asked, but the doctor could not be sure at that point of time.

She sat with Mac as they waited for the operation to end. "Morgan," Mac said. He took out the chain from his pocket and handed it to her.

"I believe you gave Flack this?" Morgan nodded. She held it in her hands as she fingered the ring.

"I gave it to him as a good luck charm," she said. "Partly to put my mind at ease while he's out in the field, you know?"

Mac understood. His late wife too, used to worry about him constantly. One could never be fully prepared to face the danger that happens on the job, even how much you psych yourself up that "danger is inevitable".

"I'm scared, Mac."

With his hand on her shoulder, Mac tried to assure that things were going to be okay.

"Don's strong, he can get through this."

"I didn't get to apologize to him..."

"About what?" Mac asked. He was just about one of the only people still in the dark about the fight they had in the lab the day before.

"It's my fault. I said some things that crossed the line. He must be so mad at me."

"I'm sure he isn't," Mac assured her. "It's perfectly normal for two people in love to argue sometimes, but that doesn't mean that any one of you screwed up, it just happens."

"But still," Morgan said. "I still feel like I should apologize for snapping at him."

"Look, I know that this past week has been hard for you, and I'm sure he knows that too."