AN Okay, this is the intro chapter to my 'A' story. It's got some Tanglewood spoilers (I think I have that right) in the sense that it's my take on the outcome of Danny's 'secret'. It moves pretty fast from here on in and I have no idea how much of it is actually believable, but I hope you find it a good story nonetheless! Let me know!
:oP NeverMind

"Keep in touch," Danny said as he and Aiden headed back to the CSI offices.
The week before a major trial always made the CSI offices that much crazier and this week was no exception. Sonny Sassone, Tanglewood Boy and accused murderer of Paul Montenassi was going on trail at the end of the week and Detective Mac Taylor was going through his evidence files to make sure everything was in order. He had an appointment that day to meet with the new Assistant District Attorney who was prosecuting the case and he wanted to hand everything over to her to bring to court.

Danny was running some prints from an on-going case through AFIS when he first saw her. The woman was dressed in a navy blue skirt-suit and her dark blonde hair was tied in a loose ponytail at the back of her head. Danny couldn't believe his eyes and wandered away from his station to get a closer look. She strode purposefully through the lab, a visitor's tag clipped to her left lapel. In her right hand, she held an alligator briefcase. She caught his eye briefly and gave him a half smile. He was practically plastered against the window, his jaw hanging slightly open.

"Danny. Danny? Danny!" he heard his name through the fog in his head and turned to see Aiden standing behind him. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"I'll be right back," was all he said before leaving the room and heading in the same direction the woman had walked.

"Detective Taylor?" the woman asked from the doorway of Mac's office.

"Yes. You must be ADA DiBiasi," he said, coming around his desk and offering her his hand. He was surprised at how young she looked, but did his best to conceal it.

She took it warmly. "That's right, but please, call me Lita. It's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for letting me come down. I always prefer to get my evidence straight from the source. I've never trusted clerks very much."

Mac smiled. "Can't say I blame you. Please, have a seat."

She did as she was asked and Mac followed suit, taking his chair behind his desk. He put the lid on the box that lay open in front of him and pushed it across the desk to her.

"I've accounted for everything myself."

"Excellent. I really wish there were more to go on, though."

"You and me both. But it should be enough to convict."

She smiled. "I really need this case to be air tight, Det. Taylor," she said softly.

"I'm sorry, I can't give you that. Unfortunately, the evidence just wasn't there."

She nodded. "I'll see what I can do about that."

Mac wasn't quite sure what she meant by that, but decided to let it slide for now. "You were working in Boston before you came here, right?"

"That's right."

"You specialized in mob-related cases if I read your CV correctly."

"That's also right."

"What prompted your move to New York? From the sounds of things, you were doing quite well in Boston."

"I was. But New York's my hometown. I was starting to feel home sick, so I asked for a transfer."

"I see. And you're taking all the mob-related cases here as well?"

"Those seem to be the case files they're putting on my desk. Hopefully I can keep my success rate of convictions as high here. I'm counting on you to help me, of course," she told him.

"My CSIs are some of the best out there," Mac couldn't help but brag. For whatever reason, this woman brought out the macho in him.

"So I've heard," she grinned.

"No offense, but you seem awfully young to be in such a high position at the DA's office."

"No offense taken. I'm a bit of a child prodigy – graduated with my law degree before I'd turned 20. I already have 8 years of experience under my belt if you can believe that."

"That's amazing."

"Was there anything else I needed to know about the evidence? I've read your reports a few times already, but I want to make sure I haven't missed anything."

"Not that I can think of. But if you come across something, please don't hesitate to let me know."

"Great. I should get going. I have a long week ahead of me, and I'm sure you have enough on your plate to keep your attention." She stood and arranged the box carefully under her arm.

"Oh, leave that. I'll get one of my people to take it out to your car." Mac said.

"Thank you," she said, taking his hand. "Oh," she said, clenching his hand tight, "One request – keep Mr. Messer as far away from this case as you can."

Mac gave her a puzzled, concerned look. "Why?"

She cocked an eyebrow at him. "He hasn't told you? I see. Well, I better leave him to that, then." She released his hand. "I need to make one more stop in your building. Tell your employee to meet me in the lobby with the box, if you would be so kind."

Mac nodded. "Good to meet you."

"Same here." She opened the door to find Danny standing there, staring at her.

She put a hand on his face and kissed his cheek. "Hi, Danny," she said, looked him intently in the eyes for a moment and walked away.

He stood there, dumbfounded. Mac walked past him to give the evidence box and detailed instructions to a trusted intern standing nearby.

"Danny," Mac said to him. He spun around to look at his boss. "Come in here."

Danny plopped down in the chair that Lita had just vacated.

"Why do you look like you just saw a ghost?" Mac asked.

"What?" Danny said, Mac's words not registering.

"Do you know ADA DiBiasi?"

"DiBiasi? She took her grandmother's name," Danny muttered.

"Excuse me?"

"Lita, she took her grandmother's name. Her real name is Giambi."

"Okay, wait, back up. How do you know her?" Mac asked, genuinely puzzled.

"We grew up together. She's a… mob princess."

"A mob princess?" Mac had a hard time believing that.

"Yeah, as in granddaughter of Carlito Giambi."

"I don't understand, why does she only prosecute mob-related cases then?"

"Because she was sick and tired of the mob abusing their power. She and her grandfather fought for weeks about her going into law, but he couldn't say 'no' to her. She convinced him that the law was just the mob done right."

"And you've been in love with her for how long?" Mac asked pointedly.

Danny looked up at him in surprise. He didn't think he'd been that obvious.

"It's written all over your face," Mac said with a grin.

Danny hung his head. "Since we were 10 years old. We dated for a while when I was in high school."

"And then she moved to Boston?"

"Something like that."

"She's prosecuting the Tanglewood case," Mac said.

"She is?" Danny asked, his heart dropping into his stomach.

"Yeah, and she told me something I found really strange. She told me I was to keep you as far away from this case as possible. Do you have any idea why she would say that?"

Danny gaped at him, his mouth opening and closing soundlessly.

Just then Stella burst into Mac's office. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but we have a problem."

The three CSIs raced down to the lobby floor where they found general chaos. Detective Flack was yelling at a number of officers, all of them trying to regain some order. The intern from the CSI lab was sprawled on the floor, blood gushing out of his head. ADA Lita DiBiasi was sitting on the ground with her hand on her throat; her briefcase split open and her papers everywhere. Mac and Danny raced towards her while Stella tried to help Flack calm people down.

"What happened?" Mac asked Lita, giving her a visual once over to make sure she wasn't hurt.

"Get him away from here," she whispered to him, nodding at Danny who was crouched there, looking completely helpless.

"Danny," Mac said firmly, "See if David is okay."

"No," Lita said to him. "He can't be here at all. He will compromise this case."

"If this is about the subway incident…" Mac started, ready to defend his protégé.

"No, this has nothing to do with that. If you don't send him away now, he will compromise this case by ending up dead," she said, her eyes scanning the room to see if her attacker was still there.

Now Mac was worried. He looked at Danny, who had his fingers on David's pulse point. He shook his head – David didn't make it.

"Are you okay?" Mac asked Lita.

"Yes. Get him out of here, now," she said firmly.

Mac stood up and took Danny by the elbow and rushed him out of the room. He looked behind him at Stella who gave him an annoyed, perplexed look.

"What..?" Danny asked.

Mac shoved him into a vacant office and slammed the door.

"You tell me everything. Now. No more bullshit, Danny."

"Mac, I…"

"Save it. This woman seems convinced that you are connected with the Tanglewood case somehow and that if I let you anywhere near it – or her – you will end up dead. Now I want to know why and I want to know right now. What am I dealing with?"

Danny cringed and sat down heavily on the desk. "I ran with Tanglewood, for a bit," he said through clenched teeth. "Sassone and I have plenty of history. Lita – she, well she basically got me out of it. I couldn't help but fall in love with her and it made me want to make something of myself but I knew that wouldn't happen if I was still involved with the gang. They were starting to get too cocky, ya know, like the law couldn't touch them or something. I spent weeks trying to figure out what to do when all of a sudden Sonny said it was clear for me to get my 'out' date. I tried to find out what had changed, but all Sonny would tell me was that Lita had been very 'convincing'. To this day I still have no idea what she did, but I couldn't live with the thought that I had made her do something, anything, for Sonny just to get me out. So I broke it off with her. Then all of a sudden she's in Boston and that's the last time I saw her until today."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"You should have told me, Danny," Mac said, obvious disappointment in his voice.

"Yeah right, what was I supposed to say? Hey, Mac, I used to be in a gang, want to hire me?"

"That's exactly what you should've said."

"Would you still have hired me?"

"I don't know." Mac left him in the office and went back out to the lobby to start processing the case.

Danny hung his head. He felt like all he'd done in the last year was disappoint Mac and it was starting to grate on him. He walked out of the office to see if he could help.

"Danny!" Mac yelled at him. "Get back upstairs and finish the face case. After that you're on leave."

They stared each other down for a moment before Danny backed off and retreated back up to the lab with his tail between his legs.

Aiden was pacing the floor in front of the elevator when Danny got back up. They hadn't let her downstairs after the commotion had started "What's going on?" she asked him.

"There was a shooting. David's dead. The evidence on Sonny Sassone is gone." Danny said blankly.

"Oh no. What about that woman?"

"She's fine. Mac and Stella are working it. We need to finish the face case," he said, starting to walk away.

Aiden grabbed his arm. "Danny, are you okay? What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing."

"You are such a liar! Danny, I'm your friend – you can tell me."

He shook his head. "No, Aiden, I can't. Let's finish this case."

Aiden looked helplessly at him as he walked back to the computer where he had been trying to match fingerprints.