Here we go again. You are amazing and thank you for reading. By the end of this chapter we get to the beginning of season 4. An so it begins...

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Danny didn't hug or congratulate Lindsay. He just stood. She was still keeping him on his toes alright.

She made it around the room and back to him for a hug.

"What just happened?" He whispered in her ear.

"It was just announced that I am going to hang around here for a while and work instead of going back to teaching this year." Fingers toyed with the short hair on the back of his neck.

"Why?"

"Lots of reasons. Money's better, it's challenging…my friends are here…I'm good at it…I missed it and" She leaned into his ear again and whispered. "There's this really great guy who works here that I want to get to know better."

"Really?" It was starting to sink in. "Who might that be?"

"Sid!!!"

Danny was flabbergasted, but he hadn't seen the gentleman walk up from behind him.

"Welcome aboard, sweetie." The older gentleman hugged her.

"Thank you." She moved away to see the cake

He cupped Danny on the shoulders. "You had no idea did you?"

"No, it was a total surprise."

**

"Montana, think this out with me." He held a case file in his hand and was flipping through the pages.

She heard it from Danny at least one or two times a week; he'd pop around a corner, ask her over dinner, or think it out during a game of pool. She added extra insight and another opinion. She helped break more than one case and he was hoping to get some new angles on this one too. Lindsay kept working on the pair of shoes from a case that Hawkes was working.

"Set it up for me."

"This morning I went to a scene where a mother and her three boys were found dead in a garage."

"Cause of death?"

"Carbon monoxide poisoning, all four."

"Murder/suicide?"

"Yeah, that's what I thought until my follow-up with Sid. He found trauma on the mother's face and head, blunt force trauma."

Gloves were snapped off and she leaned a hip against the lab table. "Okay, I'm confused. Start over."

In typical Danny form he tossed the file on the table, spread his feet to a comfortable distance apart and started talking with his hands. "Neighbor hears the car engine in the closed garage. After not getting a response at the front door, he called the cops. They break in and find the bodies: three small boys in car seats and mother on the floor by the open driver's door." He placed the scene photos in her out stretched hand. She flipped through them looking for small clues to what happened.

"Father/husband?"

"Out of state."

"Robbery?"

"No forced entry, place wasn't tossed, wallet in purse, purse in car."

She was still looking at the photos.

"Danny is this guy manually opening the garage?" She indicated to the EMTs in the photos.

"Yeah, the power was out. A power pole was knocked during an accident down the block."

"Blood alcohol?"

Danny checked the report. "0.0"

"You sure this isn't a case of murder/suicide?"

"There's the unexplained trauma to her head that would have knocked her out and Flack's had his hands full with the parents/grandparents. The family is catholic and they just know that their daughter would NOT do this."

"She might have been on her way to work." The wheels in her head started spinning. She paced the length of the room, looked more at the photos and thought. "Is the car here in the garage downstairs?"

"Yeah."

"Can I take a look at it?"

"It's evidence, yeah."

**

She looked and barely touched. She compared the photos to the car and looked closely at the real thing hoping for any indication to what happened.

"There's hair here in the seal of the door."

"Yeah, its her's."

She looked closely at the seat. The dusty footprint from the photos was still there. Her eyes wandered around the space while ideas formulated and theories came together. "I think I know what happened."

**

The only thing that sat on the table was an open box of white Kleenex. Danny and Don sat on a bench around the edge of the room and Lindsay sat across from the family. The case file was purposely forgotten in her office and she was looking at photos of the deceased family that the parents/grandparents had brought with them. Lindsay softened herself as much as she could while she sat there. There was small talk about each of the children and the things that they loved to do. Lindsay listened closely as they spoke. When each of the photos was taken back by the two sitting across from her, her hands folded in front of her.

"I know that this has been a very trying day for you. I am so sorry for the loss that you have suffered. I want you to know that your daughter did not kill your grandchildren of herself this morning. What happened at your daughter's home was a horrible, tragic accident." She gave them a moment to let the news sink in. Lindsay took in her hand a tissue and gave it to the woman sitting across from her. "Your daughter got ready to leave for work. She started the car and tried to open the garage, but it didn't open." She wanted to explain it fully but as briefly as she could without giving any of the details that they didn't need to hear. "There had been a car accident in the neighborhood and it knocked out the electricity when a power pole went over. She got out of the car so she could open it manually. When she stepped on the front seat to pull the cord that would release the door from the motor, she slipped and hit her head on the car door and knocked herself out, with the car still running. They succumbed from the carbon monoxide. It was all an accident. I am so sorry."

The family was distraught, beyond inconsolable, but relieved. The victim's mother held Lindsay's hand and looked her in the eye. "Thank you, thank you for finding the truth. You have no idea what this means to us."

In quiet thought, a family advocate stepped in to talk to the family and the three detectives stepped out of the room. Lindsay needed to be away and she went down the hall on her own. Danny and Don stood quietly and let her go. The compassion and thoughtfulness she showed for the family was awe inspiring. Her explanation was flawless. Flack drew a hand down his face almost in disbelief. He saw the strength that she had. He saw the human side of detective work in Lindsay Monroe in that little room.

Danny saw something in that room that he had never seen before. He saw someone take the worst news in the world and made someone feel relieved to hear it. He saw her work magic and bring some ease to their suffering. The depth of her commitment to her job struck him hard in the chest and he was struck dumb. To him the day was over and nothing could follow what he had just witnessed.

If the lab had a system of "street cred," Lindsay would have banked a lot that day. Stella was stunned with her intuition about the case. Before leaving the lab that night, Lindsay was receiving pats on the back for a job well handled and well done. For Lindsay it was the small sign that she needed to prove that she had made the right decisions in her life about switching jobs. Her head was held a little higher.

**

**

"Whoa."

"Yeah, I know. She did it this afternoon. She said she needed a change. I'm still getting used to it." Danny told Flack, standing by the bar a few nights later. Stella called them all together for a drink at Sullivan's to toast the end of summer, to toast a rough case that came to an end earlier that day, and to toast the best group of people she ever worked with. Mac was returning the next day and she really wanted to thank everyone for making his absence a little more tolerable with hard work.

"Wow." Flack said again in disbelief.

"Yeah, she gets a day off and she spends it getting all her hair cut off." Gone were Lindsay's curls. Gone were Lindsay's waves. Danny thought there was a strange woman in their apartment when he went to pick her up for their night out. He didn't recognize her at all.

Stella started another toast a little ways away. She wasn't drunk, just very loose lipped. She was gushing about how wonderful detectives were and called Flack over. "Oh Donnie, without you guys we'd be lost." Danny knew that very few people got away with calling his best friend 'Donnie.' It looked like Stella, for the night at least, was added to that very short list of two or three. Danny laughed and took a fresh drink to Lindsay.

Adam and Kendal were openly flirty, it was nothing too serious, but Adam's eyes were light and he was smiling and laughing way too much. Hawkes and Sid were off in their own world talking about a new brain imager something or other that had been installed in the morgue.

The night got late and the family members started to pour themselves into cabs. Danny noticed everyone got into their own taxis except Adam and Kendal. Looking really cozy, they got into the same cab and departed.

Danny opened the car door for Lindsay and they were on their way.

**

Warm hands were walking her up slowly. It was early, the sunlight was barely visible, but they didn't have to be at work until early afternoon and it was turning out that it might be a great morning. Lips targeted the skin on her neck. Shorter hair gave him better access to her. His hands were all over the front of her body and he was really starting to get into loving her. She let him worship her freely. The blood started rushing in her body. It was so loud nothing could be heard.

Until…

His phone starting ringing in the distance.

It was ignored and their focus returned to the matter at hand, literally.

Until…

Her phone started ringing in the distance. Coincidence? It was ignored.

He got a text.

She got a text.

He got a text.

She got a text.

"Cowboy, whoa. Something's going on." Taking a t-shirt from the floor she went to get their phones. She was gone a moment before the screaming started. "GET UP!" GET DRESSED! My phone missed a call from Stella. Her fist text says 'Get to the lab.' The second say 'NOW!' You have a missed call from Stella. The first text from her says 'Get to the Statue of Liberty.' The second one says 'NOW!'" Lindsay flew into their room and started throwing clothes around. Danny turned on a local station.

"Police are just arriving, but this is the view that greeted New York this morning when the sun rose about an hour ago."

Both Lindsay and Danny froze in their places to see what was showing on the television. The news helicopter flew around to the front of the Statue of Liberty's face and a red substance dripped down her nose as if she had been shot in the forehead.

Danny and Lindsay wasted no time getting to where they were ordered to go.

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I am stuggling with season 4. I am getting frustrated with season 4 and thoughts have come through about walking away from it for a while. I have been watching the episodes again, I have been studying the episodes and trying to get inside of them and almost behind the scenes, but still its been hard. I know where I want to be when the season ends, but getting there has been a struggle. Please hang with me, I don't know what's gonna happen next with this.

--Thank you for being there with me so far.