A/N: Same disclosures apply as in all previous chapters. Please read and review, because in the words of NeverMindDream, I'm addicted to it.

Chapter 5

Danny heard her sobs on the other end of the phone.

"Lindsay, talk to me. What's wrong?" Danny was hurrying out of the lab. "Lindsay, come on, talk to me."

Then he heard the click of the phone being hung up and the next thing he remembered was pounding on her apartment door to get her to let him in.

"Lindsay, it's Danny. Open up." Danny was practically shouting at the top of his lungs. He heard movement inside, and then he heard the doorknob click, as the lock was undone.

He slowly opened the door. It was mid-afternoon and the sun was still out, but her apartment was dark. All the curtains had been drawn and there were no lights on.

"Lindsay?" He called out cautiously, and then he saw her; curled into a chair, as small as possible, like she wanted the chair to absorb her. "Lindsay, what's wrong?" He moved to turn on a light so he could see her better.

"Please don't." was the soft, shaking voice that spoke. "Please don't turn on the light."

Danny looked around. Everything seemed to be as it was this morning when he'd left, there didn't seem to be anything irregular or out of place. He walked around the sofa to be closer to her, when she turned into the chair more.

"I'm sorry I called you and bothered you. There's nothing wrong, I was just --" she gulped air, "upset about last night. I didn't mean for you to come all the way over here. You can--" another gulping of air, "leave, I'm sure you have something more important to do."

Danny knew she was lying and he wanted to find out why. He sat on the end of the sofa furthest from her, but so that he was staring directly at her.

"You called me for a reason, Montana," he called her the one name that he knew would get a reaction of her, something he hadn't called her in awhile. "and I would like to know what it is. I'm not leaving until you tell me. What happened?"

She didn't say anything, which surprised Danny. Usually whenever he called her Montana, she would either yell at his that her name was Lindsay, or not to call her Montana. He edged closer on the sofa, he didn't see her flinch so he reached behind him and turned on the lamp behind the sofa. What he saw shocked him and brought him close to tears.

Her face was red, and wet, probably from crying. There was a deep purple bruise forming around her left eye, with several little bruises streaking her face. She was holding her right wrist protectively close to her body. She looked so frail and defenseless; Danny's senses were going to into overdrive. He had left her alone, this was his fault, who could have done this to her, to any woman, were just some of the thoughts that were running through his head.

"So now you know my little secret." Lindsay said to him, trying to smile as if it were some sort of joke.

"Who did this to you? Did Pacey do this to you?" Danny asked her, trying to get her to look him in the eyes. He knelt in front of her, gently forcing her to look at him. "Did Pacey do this to you?"

Once their eyes connected, he knew his answer without her having to say a word. Anger filled his entire being, he wanted to kill that bastard for hurting her, he wanted to hurt himself for letting her make him leave.

"He said he would kill me if I told anyone, and that he wouldn't be so kind this time." It was as if the flood gates had been opened, she wanted to tell Danny everything, she wanted to make him understand that this was her fault, "It's my fault Danny, I started this whole mess. If I had just told you last night that I couldn't come to the lab, none of this would have happened. I should have accepted his apology when he was here this afternoon, instead I told him I needed to think, and that I wanted a break." Now that she was talking she didn't want to stop.

"This is all my fault Danny, he was right. I put everything before my relationship. My job, my friends, my cases, you…" She stopped and terror filled her eyes.

"Lindsay, what's wrong?" Danny asked, seeing how quickly the fear had filled her eyes. "Lindsay, what is it?"

"You can't be here." She said, "What if he comes back and sees you here? He said that we were over, but maybe he's changed his mind, and if I can prove that I'm a good girlfri--" Lindsay was interrupted.

"Lindsay, stop. Just stop. Listen to yourself." Danny was trying so hard not to take his anger out on her, none of this was her fault. "None of this is your fault. No matter what you said, did, told him, asked him or anything, you did nothing to deserve this. Now I'm calling Mac and Stella and the police. You are going to report this and you are going to press charges." Danny said as he picked up the phone.

Lindsay started to stand to stop him, but her wrist buckled under her weight. Danny caught her and looked at her wrist, it was all black and blue and she flinched when he went to move it.

"And then we're going to the hospital." He added.

He felt her lean into him as he dialed Mac and told him the specifics. Mac told him that he would take care of calling Stella, and to take Lindsay straight to the hospital, that they would meet them there. He figured he could call the police once he had gotten to the hospital or one of the nurses there could call. He wouldn't be leaving Lindsay again.

"Ready to go?" He asked her, looking down. Her face was still wet, but the tears had almost stopped. "We're going to take care of this. He's never going to hurt your or anyone else again." He kissed the top of her head.

The next thing that she really remembered was him helping her out of the car at Mount Sinai Hospital Emergency room. They walked in, Danny checked her in and then they were ushered into an examination room. Danny never left her side, except for when they took her for x-rays, and even then he was just outside the door.

When they returned to the examination room, there was already an NYPD officer waiting to talk to her.

"Lindsay Monroe?" he asked. His name tag read T. Marshall.

"Yes," She said as Danny helped her back onto the bed. He sat next to her, close to the bed.

"My name is Tyrese Marshall, and I need to ask you some questions if you're up to it." He said gently and kindly.

"Sure." Lindsay said, trying to smile but it hurt tremendously.

"Do you know who did this to you?" He had to ask the hardest yet most obvious question first.

Lindsay shifted uncomfortably, and looked at Danny. He nodded reassuringly, and rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb.

"Yes, his name is Pacey. Pacey Thomas." Lindsay said, and though she thought that the tears would start, they never did. "He works at the Manhattan Daily News, and lives at tenth avenue and west forty-sixth street in Midtown.

"Do you know what brought about this action?" He asked cautiously, "We're not placing blame, we're just trying to determine what set him off, to determine if he's going to be a hostile arrest."

"We had a verbal argument early this morning, and he had come back to apologize and to talk. I was still really upset about this morning, because he had said some really derogatory things and I didn't know what to think. So I told him that I wanted to think about it and I thought that the best thing for us would be a to take a break," she paused and took a deep breath, "and he flipped out."

Then the officer motioned in the nurse to took in depth pictures of her injuries to give to him. He thanked her and said that if they had anymore questions or needed her for anything, they would call.

"Thank you Officer." Lindsay said, and she settled back onto the bed. She felt drained and wanted to do nothing more than sleep for the next week. The hospital staff had given something to relax her, and ease the pain. But just then the doctor happened to make an appearance.

"Ms. Monroe, your x-rays are back and your wrist is fractured in two different spots, but we're not going to be able to cast it today, so we're going to put it in an air cast until the swelling goes down." He paused to glance up at her, then looked back down at her chart. "Other than that, it just looks like minor bruising. No concussion or fractures anywhere else. Once the air cast has been applied, I'll come back in and sign your papers for discharge, if you're all set to go." With that, he turned and walked out of the room.

"Well, that's a different style of bedside manner." Lindsay said, somewhat sleepily.

Danny laughed, and squeezed her hand gently.

"He's probably the only doctor on the floor today. He's busy, you can't expect him to ask how you're pets are doing." He shrugged, as if to say there's really nothing you can do about it anyway.

Mac and Stella walked in at that moment, just as Lindsay was about to close her eyes.
"Oh Lindsay," Stella started just after she passed through the door frame. "I'm so sorry." Stella shooed Danny out of the way.

"Stella it's not your fault." Lindsay said, "It just happened." She yawned.

"How are you feeling Lindsay?" Mac asked, trying not to show how alarmed he was about her appearance. When Danny had told him what happened, he didn't expect it to be this bad. "What have they told you so far, have they said when you're getting discharged?"

Lindsay started to answer but just couldn't keep her eyes open anymore. Danny noticed this and answered for her.

"They have to set her wrist in an air cast until the swelling goes down and then, as long as she is feeling well, they plan on discharging her today."

They all looked at the sleeping Lindsay, her breathing soft and even.

"She can't go home." Mac said suddenly, "She needs to be with someone at all times until this situation is under control and this creep is arrested."

"She's staying with me." Danny said firmly, just as Stella started to say something. "He's not going to do this again." The last sentence was said more as a thought out loud than directed at anyone in the room.

"Danny, do you think that's a good idea?" Stella said cautiously, "How do you know that Lindsay will want to stay with you? Don't you think that she will want to stay with another woman?"

"I'm the reason this happened. If I had stayed or taken her out with me, or kicked his ass and called the cops when all of this started, we wouldn't be here now." Danny slammed his fist down on the bedside table, startling Lindsay.

"Go away!" She shouted and started to pushing at the air in front of her like she was half dreaming and half asleep.

"Ssshhh, Lindsay." Danny said soothingly, "it's ok, it was just me."

Lindsay opened her eyes and looked around the room, sheepishly. She hated feeling so weak in front of them. She was about to say something when a doctor came in the room, followed by two nurses.

They ushered everyone out and closed the door, stating that the less people in the room while the air cast was put on made it take less time and there was less confusion. They assured everyone that they would be done in just a few moments time, and then Lindsay could go.

Danny paced outside the door, he didn't like her being alone. Her being alone had caused all of this in the first place. Danny had been pacing for about two minutes and Mac had just stood up to get him to sit down when the doors opened and Lindsay walked out.

Her wrist was encased in a plastic sleeve that had pillow like air sacs securing her bones. She smiled weakly at Danny and the rest of the group.

"They say all I have to do is sign my release form and I'm good to go." She waved her injured wrist, "Not as good as new but it'll get there.

They all walked up to the nurses' station and waited as Lindsay signed all of the appropriate paperwork. Once everything was signed, Lindsay said thank you to all of the nurses for all of their help, and the group made their way out of the hospital to the parking lot.

Danny wrapped his arm around Lindsay's waist and she leaned into him, completely exhausted from the events of the past forty-eight hours. They stopped outside of Danny's vehicle, and started to talk.

"Lindsay, you are always more than welcome at my home if you don't want to stay with Danny, ok?" Stella said. She wanted to make sure that Lindsay knew she had an alternative if it got to be too much with Danny.

"Thanks Stella, but I think I'll be ok." Lindsay said, looking up at her protector. Her stomach growled softly.

"You hungry?" He asked her.

Mac finally spoke up, he had been quiet for most of the hospital visit.

"Why don't we all go out for a bite to eat? There's a small diner around the corner from here, has really good food." Mac said softly.

"Sounds great Mac," Danny said, followed by agreement from Lindsay and Stella.

They agreed to meet at the diner in a few minutes. Danny helped Lindsay get in his truck and he pulled out of the parking garage towards the diner.

After they were seated and had placed their orders, Lindsay started asking about what she would be doing at work since she was pretty sure that Mac wasn't going to let her into the field.

"You're right Lindsay, you won't be in the field," Mac confirmed her suspicions, "But you can be in the labs or I'll have you working on paperwork."

Lindsay nodded.

They were talking about miscellaneous stuff while they ate their dinners when Lindsay dropped her fork and froze. She was sitting on the inside of the booth, and was trying to scoot as far in the corner as possible.

"Lindsay, what is it?" her fellow dinners asked her, slightly alarmed at sudden change in demeanor.

Lindsay couldn't answer them, she could only stare. Danny followed her stare, and couldn't believe his eyes.

Pacey had just walked in the diner and was headed their way.