Danny could tell she had been crying. Her eyes were red and puffy, and she looked tired. He knew she went downstairs to cry in the middle of the night. But he thought she was okay, that it was cramps or a nightmare she didn't want to talk about. Boy, was he ver wrong.


Danny never expected to get the call he did that day. His desk phone rang, and he picked it up, "Reagan... yes, who's this?... what's wrong?... did something happen?"

Danny's new partner, Candice McElroy, looked up, wondering what was going on. She'd been working with Danny for thirty-eight hours, and she knew two things about him already: he was a hard-ass, and he'd go to the ends of the earth to ensure his wife's safety.

"Okay, I'll be there." He hung up.

"What's the matter?" Candice, nick named Mac, wondered.

"I dunno. I think my wife's having an emotional breakdown of some sort..." Danny pulled on his coat, "you can hold down the fort? Of course you can, you were a soldier."

"I'll let you know if anything happens," Mac smiled a little, watching her partner leave.


"Could you guys be any more vague?!" Danny wondered, very annoyed, "What the hell happened?" He asked Linda's best friend, Chrissy.

"I don't know, Detective. She seemed unstable all morning, then she accidentally cut herself with a scalpel, and boom! Waterworks."

Danny sighed, "where is she?"

"Over here." Chrissy led Danny to the nurse's lounge. She pointed to a hunched over blonde, her shoulders shaking violently.

The detective sighed and walked over to her. He kneeled in front of her, placing one hand on her knee. He brought his left hand up to her face, brushing the tears away with his thumb. He tilted her head up a little, and placed a loving kiss on her lips. He brought her into his embrace, "What's the problem, baby?"

"I don't know." Linda sobbed out. She hated herself for crying at work. She was a professional, she wasn't supposed to cry in the workplace. She was supposed to cry in her car on the way home.

Danny listened to Linda's babbles, not being able to understand anything. "Whoa, Linda, baby. Calm down. Don't cry, whatever it is, we'll work it out. Just... don't cry."

She shook her head as her breaths became short and choppy.

Danny furrowed his brow, this had never happened before and he wasn't sure what to do about it. He thought hard while he hugged Linda. All of a sudden, he remembered those damn breathing exercises the therapist made him to when he came back from Iraq. "Linda. Linda, look at me." He locked eyes with her, "just breathe, okay? Breathe. In and out. And in and out."

Linda closed her eyes and listened to Danny's soft voice. "It's not working, it's not working." She shook her head, her earrings twirling.

"It's okay, just breathe." He took her hand and placed it over his heart, over-exaggerating his breaths. "You can do it, baby. It's simple. In and out."

Linda closed her eyes tightly, focusing on Danny's words and his rising chest. After a few minutes, she was able to calm down. "I'm sorry..."

"It's okay, baby... what happened?" Danny pushed her hair out of her face as he sat besides her.

"I dunno. I've been crying randomly for a while. At night mostly."

"I knowit."

"And you didn't come see if I was okay?"

Danny shrugged, hoping he wasn't in the doghouse. "I thought it was menstrual."

Linda smiled a little, "bull."

Danny raised his brows and chuckled softly, "bull?"

"Mhmm."

"But seriously. What's happening?"

"I don't know. I wasn't like this before the pill."

"You're blaming this on the hormone supplements?" Danny found it funny how Linda refused to call her pill 'birth control'. She claimed she wasn't using it to control birth, so why call it that? She used it for hormones, therefore calling it a 'hormone supplement'.

"What else could it be, Danny? I wasn't like this till I got on the higher dose."

"I dunno." Danny sighed, "but if you tell the doc, she'll give you antidepressants. And you don't want those, trust me."

"So whaddawe do?"

"We'll figure it out, I swear. Right now, we need to get back to work."

Linda nodded, "thank you."

"Anything for you..." he kissed her lips, "Love you."

"Love you more."

"Love you most." She hugged her husband before sending him on his way. She hoped he was right, and they'd figure out what was happening.