Chapter One

She bolted upright when her cell phone rang. Squinting in discomfort due to the sunlight filtering through into the room, Lindsay picked up the phone and answered it.

"Hello?" She swallowed the thick glob of mucus that had gathered in her throat from crying too hard the night before.

"Good morning, Montana! We have a scene just a few streets from your place so Mac wants me to pick you up."

"Okay, Danny. Give me fifteen minutes." She spoke, her voice still a little hoarse.

"Sure. See ya."

She muttered a half-hearted goodbye and hung up, swinging her legs off the side of the bed. Lindsay hoped to hell that Danny would not irritate her incessantly today, or she might just break down completely and kill him.

Danny knocked on the apartment door and smirked when Lindsay let him in.

"You ready, Montana?" He teased her by waggling his eyebrows and unabashedly eyeing her up and down. The playful shove or annoyed yell he was expecting her to give never came and all he received was a low 'yeah'. Caught in a mixture of surprise and concern, Danny looked for the first time that morning at her face.

Lindsay looked tired and depressed. Her usually bright chocolate eyes looked sorrowful and sunken in. He moved a step closer, forcing her to look into his eyes.

"Lindsay, is everything alright?"

She sighed heavily and replied, "Yeah, I'm just tired."

He knew she was lying, but it wasn't his place to probe. Looking at her pale complexion and puffy eyes, Danny felt a twinge of pain in his heart and placed a hand on her shoulder. He didn't miss that she had flinched. Feeling oddly confused that he actually cared, he asked, "Want a hug?"

Lindsay ignored her body's desire to sink into the warmth he could provide and shook her head. Pushing past him gently, she moved towards the door, "Let's just go."

They arrived at the crime scene after a silent car drive. Lindsay hopped out of the vehicle as though she needed desperately to get away from Danny, who was still pondering the reason of his concern. He barely knew the woman.

"Lindsay, Danny," Mac greeted the two CSIs, "34 year old Angela Cox was murdered two days ago while her roommate was away in Wisconsin visiting family. Here is the case file." He passed the file to Danny. "I'll leave you two here to search about while I go back to the lab and talk to the M.E. Come back as soon as you can."

Both nodded, picked up their kits and entered the apartment, ready to process the scene. Lindsay busied herself, snapping photos of the sticky pool of blood in the kitchen as well as anything suspicious she could find. Danny scrutinized the place for any weapons, occasionally finding himself glancing at Lindsay whenever she was near him.

"Danny." She called from the victim's bedroom. Taking a deep breath, she took out a pair of tweezers and picked up the few loose strands of wiry hair on the bed sheet.

Danny entered the room and stood beside his co-worker. He stared at the flowery bed sheet which was matted in blood, "She was probably raped and injured here."

He felt Lindsay shudder slightly at his words and turned to face her. She looked at him with a frown, "He could've stabbed her multiple times in the kitchen."

"But how did she get from here to the kitchen? He must've dragged her."

Danny noted that Lindsay's eyes clouded and she blinked them clear. "Yeah, he must've. We should check the floor, he could've smeared it. Or something."

He nodded and took out the dark light torch. They found a few stains and Lindsay swabbed the samples and bagged them. Searching the apartment another time just in case they missed anything, both eventually concluded that was all they could find.

"I'm ready to go if you are." Danny said, slinging the bag of articles over his shoulder. She nodded and picked up both their trace kits, and following his lead, exited the apartment.

A/N: I know it's starting all a little too slowly. Give it time to develop. :)