Disclaimer: Still don't own it.

CSI NY

Ch. 5

Something was wrong. Mac did not know why he felt this way, but he did. He should not have though. Stella's call had been urgent, but the excitement in her voice had been brought hope. Now, as he paced outside the lab, waiting for Stella to finish whatever it was she was doing, he found his uneasiness increasing.

Stella came out of the lab, all smiles, and Mac stopped pacing.

" I found something," she said. " It wasn't easy, but it was there. A fragments too small to see on a black gun. Besides Ricky's skin alleles there was also something else, something dark I couldn't recognize. So I had it tested and the result… I'll skip the scientific names… it was leather. Black leather."

Mac went rigid. " Detective Ryan wears black leather gloves all the time."

Stella nodded vigorously. " Yep. But I don't know if it's enough to help. Aiden's still going through the case files, though. Maybe there's something there."

Flack walked up to them at that moment, seemingly agitated.

" You guys seen Danny lately? He was supposed to be here by now. I called his place but he didn't answer."

The uneasiness that had been haunting Mac suddenly returned. He immediately pulled out his own phone and dialed Danny. After too many rings, Mac hung up. As a CSI, there was not a moment, or a reason, when Danny didn't answer his phone.

" Dang it," Mac murmured. " Let's go to his place, see if he's there just not in the mood to talk."

" I'm coming with you," Stella said, removing her lab coat and setting it down on the nearest chair.

Stella rode with Mac while Flack took his own car. The first thing Mac noticed on arriving to Danny's apartment complex was Danny's car.

" Well, at least he's home," Mac said. Stella shook her head in bewilderment.

" But it's not like Danny to do something like this. At least he's never done something like this before."

" We don't know what he's doing. Maybe he's just late." But Mac highly doubted it.

They moved with urgency, though Mac could not understand the reasoning for it. He felt as though they were racing time, even though it would be Danny's own doing if he had chosen to stay home and avoid more questions.

Danny's place was on the second level on the right wing of the building. Mac reached the door first and pounded on it loudly.

" Danny. Danny! You there?"

He tried the knob, but the door was locked.

" I know this may not be the right thing to do," Flack said, switching places with Mac, " but maybe we should just let ourselves in."

Stella creased her brow. " You know how to do that?"

Flack studied the lock, then pulled two pins from his coat pocket. " This one guy I worked with showed me how. Says it comes in handy. Not really with cases though, jut to walk in on your girlfriend to, you know, see if she's being loyal."

Stella shook her head. " Sounds useful, but also very wrong."

" I've yet to use it in that manner myself."

He began working at the lock.

Mac's phone rang, and he answered it without hiding the irritation in his voice.

" Yeah?"

He heard harsh, ragged breathing on the other end, followed by a shallow cough.

" That you Mac?"

Mac stiffened. " Danny?"

Flack stopped picking the lock, and both he and Stella turned their heads.

" Danny where are you?"

Danny coughed again. Besides sounding raspy, Danny's breathing also sounded unsteady as though he was shivering violently.

" I – I'm not really sure right now boss. I can't see anything. I can't find my stupid glasses…" he suddenly sucked in a sharp breath, following it up with a sound like a whimper or sob.

" I freakin' hurt all over Mac," he said after a time, when his breath finally returned to him. " I just hurt… everywhere. I can't move. It hurts when I move. I can't move… I keep trying…"

Fear swelled in Mac's chest. " Then don't. We'll come find you. Can you tell me… can you tell me, at least, if you're near any place we know, anything at all?"

" I was going home," Danny said. " I made it home. Then I was taken here. I don't think it's far… but I don't know. It was dark."

" That's enough for us. We'll come and find you. Don't move, but stay on the line."

" Right Mac," Danny said.

Mac lowered his phone. " Danny's nearby. We need to find him, now."

Mac headed back up the hall, with Flack and Stella trailing after in confusion.

" Should I call in some help?" Flack asked.

" Go ahead. But I don't want to wait for them. Get an ambulance here too."

Once outside, Mac put the phone back to his ear. " Danny, do you at least remember the direction you went?"

Danny coughed. " Yeah, left. We headed left. Then… left again at the nearest turn, and right… but that's all I remember."

Mac led the way. When they reached the point that Danny recalled, they split up, taking opposite directions. Mac stayed on the phone with Danny.

" What happened?"

" Bruno… Him and his buddies. Listen – Mac – I really don't feel too good…"

" Too bad, Danny, you need to stay on the line. Ramble if you have to."

" I think Tom planted the evidence."

" So do I," Mac replied, his heart racing a mile a minute. He went between buildings, peered down allies, and asked questions of people coming out of their homes. Where ever Danny was, it must be a secluded spot, or someone would have found him by now.

" I don't know why though," Danny went on, his voice sounding weaker. " I haven't figured that out yet."

" Aiden's working on it," Mac assured. He was moving faster, but his direction was too random. He left the alley he had just entered, moving around to the front of a building where a few people were emerging. He approached them quickly, pulling out his ID.

" Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen," he said, his voice steady and controlled as though this was a routine thing. Several people stopped to look at him either nervously or with irritation.

" I'm with the New York Crime Lab and I'm doing an investigation. Has anyone here seen or heard anything unusual last night, anything at all."

" I think I did," a middle aged African American woman nervously replied. " I thought I heard screaming. But sometimes kids come out here and do weird things, and the police don't like it when you keep calling them about nothing…"

Mac forced a calm smile, though inside he was torn with the desire to just take off and keep looking. " I understand ma'am."

" I heard it too," said a young woman dressed in business attire. " Totally freaked me out. Sounded like somebody getting murdered. Is that what this is about?"

" I hope not. Was it nearby?"

" Sounded like it," the young woman replied. " Not by our building, but still pretty near."

Mac nodded. " Thanks." He turned back into the alley he had been in and placed the phone back to his ear.

" Danny?"

No reply.

" Danny! Danny, pick this phone back up right now and talk to me!"

Mac moved quickly between the buildings. " Danny!"

" Mac."

Mac stopped. The voice had not been on the phone, but off to his left. He turned abruptly to see Danny standing with his left arm held against his chest by his right hand. His face was horribly bruised, cut, and caked with blood. His shirt was untucked, flecked with blood, and torn at the collar. He was pale as a corpse, and shivering fitfully, his breath coming shallow, quick, and unsteady.

" I thought…" He clamped his mouth shut for a moment, swallowing hard. The look in his eyes was not only one of pain, but fear. " I thought I'd try moving anyway. But I don't think I should have."

Mac was too stunned by Danny's appearance to respond, but not to move. He moved over beside him and helped to lower him to the ground onto his knees. Danny didn't have his coat on, and neither the sports jacket he always wore to work. Looking back the way Danny had come he didn't see them, so Danny must have gotten quite a few steps in before finding Mac. Mac removed his own coat and placed it carefully over Danny's back. Danny winced but that was all.

Mac then took his phone and called Stella.

" I found him."

He gave her directions as best she could, giving the address of the building where he had questioned the people, who he felt suddenly grateful for.

" Tell Flack. See if he can't get the ambulance here, and hurry," He finished.

Mac put his phone away and placed his hand on Danny's shoulder. " You still with me?"

With Danny doubled up almost in half, Mac had to bend closer to see Danny's face. His eyes were squeezed closed and his mouth shut so tight that his jaw kept twitching.

" Possibly," Danny managed to say between gritted teeth. Mac smiled.

" You'll be all right now, Danny. You'll make it."

" Wouldn't be the first time."

Mac paced the hospital corridor in short strides. Stella sat in a chair, while Flack opted to stand, leaning his back against the wall. The place was busy with doctors rushing about and patients being wheeled here and there, but it was easy for Mac to ignore it, and even managed without realizing it to stay out of the way of any nurses or doctors hurrying by.

" Bruno's going down for this one," Flack said with a dark scowl. " There's no way he can get away with this."

" Wouldn't be the first if he did," Mac said as a matter of fact. " He's gotten away with a lot."

" But not if we can help it," Stella said. " Danny said Bruno was there, personally. There's got to be something – in the alley, on Danny's clothes…"

" On Danny," Mac finished. Stella nodded solemnly.

When Mac next turned in his pacing, he looked up briefly to see Aiden hurrying toward them, carrying her camera and kit.

" I came quick as I could. How is he?"

Stella stood up from her seat. " He's alive, and he'll live. He had a concussion, some small internal bleeding, but the doctors got it."

" Have you seen him yet?"

" No," Stella replied. " But now you're here, so we're ready."

Discomfort showed on Aiden's face. " I don't like having to do this. It doesn't feel right."

" Just think about it as a way to help Danny," Mac said. He then led them to the room the doctor had said Danny would be in.

They found Danny awake but on the verge of falling asleep. He was in a hospital shift, but the partially turned down blankets revealed that he still wore his pants, most likely by his request. Danny always dressed in a professional way, and the thought of wearing nothing but underwear and a thin piece of material was probably loathing to him. The cuts on his face were sealed with butterfly bandages, and his arm was in a cast and sling. A nurse was there, waiting to assist in what Danny's friends needed to do.

" We're ready," Mac said. The nurse, a young woman with long, black hair, nodded.

Mac looked at Danny. " Ready for this? It won't be comfortable."

" I'm uncomfortable now," he said, turning his head slightly to look at Mac. He sat up with the nurse's help. Aiden took pictures of Danny's face then arm. The nurse untied the shift to expose his bent back. There was a dark, nasty bruise the width of his back, and a shoe-shaped bruise along the length between the shoulder blades. With Mac and the nurse's aid, Danny began straightening his back as much as he could.

The doctor had told them that many of Danny's ribs had been cracked, and one broken completely though luckily it had not damaged anything. The act of straightening caused sweat to bead on Danny's forehead and the fist of his good arm to clench and unclench. Mac had one hand on Danny's bicep, the other on his shoulder near his neck where he felt the younger man's pulse racing. But Danny made no sound of protest or agony, and kept his mouth tightly closed.

When Danny was as straight-backed as he could go, Stella placed an L-shaped ruler next to the foot-shaped bruise and Aiden took several pictures. When they finished, Aiden moved around to his front where she got pictures of a bruise on his chest similar to the one on his back.

" Looks wide, like maybe a baseball bat or something," Aiden commented. " Metal pipes don't usually leave that big a mark."

When they had finished, The nurse retied the shift and allowed Danny to lay back against the upraised bed.

Danny let out a shuddering sigh of relief. " That freakin' sucked," he quietly stated.

Mac clasped his shoulder reassuringly. " But it should be worth it."

Danny's fixed his darkened gaze ahead of him. " Did you check the alley?" He asked.

" Yes," Mac replied, remembering the flecks of blood on the street, walls, and coat, Danny's discarded gun, and his cracked glasses.

Danny's eyelids flickered in a futile fight against closing. Mac looked at Flack, Stella, and Aiden. They didn't need to hear any words to know what the look entailed.

" Rest up Danny," Stella said. " We need you back."

" We'll get these creeps," Aiden added. They then filed from the room, each one wearing his or her own troubled expression. Mac stayed behind for a moment, watching Danny, waiting to see if he had anything else to say before he slept. It was a sickening thing to think how close they had come to losing him. There was relief in knowing that he would be all right now, but the sickness lingered, fueling the anger that this had even happened at all.

" Don't even think it," Danny suddenly murmured.

" Think what?"

Danny took a deep breath, winced, and let it out slowly. " How pathetic or helpless I look. Don't even think it."

Mac smiled. " Danny, that's the last thing I would ever think when it comes to you."

Danny managed a smile small of his own. " Then do me a favor… make sure no one else thinks it. I'm not like that… never was."

Danny fell asleep against his will, and before any sign of peace settled over him he momentarily appeared angry about it. It would have seemed a comical thing to anyone else, but to Mac it was the complete opposite. It was a humiliation for Danny. Everything about this situation was. He was helpless, whether he liked it or not.

As Mac left the room, bitter thoughts slipped like oil into his mind. Somebody would pay for this, whether it was Bruno or the one who had planted the evidence. Danny would not lose this fight, not if Mac could help it. Being hurt made Danny seem helpless, but he was in no ways weak, not by any means. He did not deserve any of this. Someone would pay.