A/N: I had some fun doing this chapter. However, the process nearly killed me.

Insight

I jabbed the button in the elevator and wringed my hands impatiently as it made a slow ascent. I felt like I was going crazy. After fumbling for my keys, I jammed it impatiently into my door lock and pushed myself in. My heart had morphed into a bunny with floppy ears.

He loves me, he loves me, helovesme.

And I had hurt him so much, judging from the dismay in his face. A thousand thoughts were whirring in my head and my mind was a jumbled mess. Was that guilt? I don't know. I don't know what I felt. I hopped into bed after a cold shower and pulled the covers over me, trying to gather as much warmth the flannel could provide. One thought popped out from among the one thousand. Wouldn't it be nice to have someone near, near enough to hear his heartbeat and the sheets rustling under his feet, after a long day at work?

A little voice nagged at me. Oh, but Lindsay, you already know who that someone is to be.

Suddenly I felt wistful, and something tugged at the hollow in my chest, I twisted to my side and buried my face into the pillow. Another thought emerged among the remaining nine hundred and ninety nine. Why did I feel like singing 'Cowboy, take me away'?

Maybe because you wished that could happen. And it could, really, if you'd just tell him how you feel.

I was searching for something, finding confirmation. Why was it that finding a piece of evidence in matters of the heart so difficult? I drifted into sleep a while later, exhaustion taking over my body and my soul. I was tired; tired of thinking.

I went to the lab early in the morning with less than three hours of sleep, to put it simply, last night sucked and I was eager to put it behind me. I was hoping to snag a case before Lindsay came in, so we wouldn't have to deal with each other, at least for a few more hours. DB in lower Manhattan, Mac said, and Stella was already there. I drove to my destination, sighing in relief that there was work for me to do.

"Hey, Danny! Over here!" Stella called over from behind the crime scene tape. I nodded in acknowledgement of her greeting and ducked under the tape.

"Mornin'"

We spent the whole morning processing the scene, and were sitting at the curb of the road resting while the coroners took the body back to the morgue. "What's wrong?" She asked.

"Nothing, why?" I tried to sound nonchalant, I really did, but Stella knows me better than that.

"Aww, spit it out already, you've been awfully quiet this morning." She slung an arm across my shoulders and pulled me closer, "Come on, Danny, you can tell me."

"Stella, you already know what's wrong."

"Lindsay," I nodded, "Still?"

I treasured the friendships I had forged in the lab because they were strong. Amazingly strong. I don't know if it's the long hours or the fact that we deal with the fragility of human life every day, but we were a loyal bunch. Stella was one of those people I could trust, not just because she was like the elder sister I never had, but also because she loved and cared so much more than most people ever had for me. And like that, the events of the night before poured out of my mouth in clipped sentences and awkward sighs.

"She said she didn't dislike you?"

"Yeah, verbatim," I nodded glumly.

Stella stood up and lifted her kit off the ground, I copied her actions, "I don't think she meant to hurt you."

"What are you saying?" Something in the way she spoke was weird, like there was something she knew that I didn't.

She opened the door to her van and tossed her kit in. "She may have said something to me last week that's not in my place to tell you. But… you wanna know my take of the situation? I think she's confused."

"Confused, about what?"

Thumping me good-naturedly on the back, Stella leaned against her van, "About you. We have to go back to the lab, talk to her soon, will ya?"

I sighed again and nodded, it was sooner or later after all.

When I arrived at work, Mac greeted me once I entered my office. "Good, you're here, I was looking for you. I want you to work on Hawkes' case, here's the file. He's in the DNA lab."

I agreed (not like I had a choice, really) and went off in search of Sheldon. I found him and Adam staring at a computer screen and they waved at me distractedly. "Lindsay, can you go get the DB info from Sid?"

I left for the morgue, where Sid was looking pensive over the dead body, which I presumed was our vic. "Hello, what do you have for me?"

Sid gestured for me to stand closer and take a look, "This guy," he paused, I think for dramatic effect, "has Styrofoam balls in his stomach." Okay, that was weird. He passed me a small Petri dish with a sample.

Looking at me from the gap above his glasses, he said, "COD: asphyxiation, TOD: sometime last night." He then showed me some tattoos he found on the guy's butt and grinned when I blushed as I took the photos.

"So how's my favorite CSI doing?" He asked just as I was about to leave the morgue, the vic's naked ass still imprinted in my vision.

I smirked, "Stella?" Sid was a funny, funny man.

He laughed, "So modest, how are you?"

"What do you mean 'how am I'?" I frowned, "Fine, how else would I be?"

"You know," he chuckled, "I was in love once, with this fine red head. She was beautiful, and everything she did was beautiful, too. We did good until she found out I worked with expired people and she ran, said death scared her. And since then…"

I smiled patiently at the way he was swaying his head theatrically, "Sid, is there a point to your story?"

"I'm getting there, I'm getting there," he sighed and pulled off his gloves, "Since then I've been able to see love. Or well, maybe just lust. You know, Lindsay, I told you some time ago Danny calls you 'Montana' because he had a crush on you. I was right, wasn't I?" He chuckled and smirked to himself, "Now, both of you look sad because you're both in love with each other. Trouble in paradise?"

"You knew about us?" No way, he couldn't be that perceptive.

"Now I know for sure." He gave me a knowing grin, "You better go back before Mac yells at you."

I nodded and turned to push open the door.

"Oh, and Lindsay? Brief is life, but love is long." He gave me one final smile and went back to the body.

"Thank you, Sid." I called, before leaving, and going back to where I last saw Hawkes.

The rest of the day went on without a single halt, Stella and I had already formulated a few theories, that we could confirm the next day. We were having tea after shift, having skipped lunch, in her office. Both of us were silent; Stella had closed her eyes, only opening them when she wanted to take a swig from her coffee mug, I was staring at the clock on her desk.

I was counting the seconds when Stella finally sat up, putting the mug down. "You thought about what to say to her yet?"

I shook my head, "No."

Stella placed her chin on her fist and looked at me. I sighed loudly, letting all the air in my lungs out. "I doubt she's the small talk kind of girl, so you probably won't have to say much."

"I don't know."

"Well, 'be of courage, and make ready, faint heart never won fair lady'." She smiled, and cocked her head in the direction of the glass panels behind me.

I caught sight of Lindsay's back disappearing down the corridor, towards our office.

Stella, great friend that she was, plucked the cup out of my hands, "Go. See you in the morning."

I got up to my feet and stretched, "Good night, Stella." Faint heart never won fair lady, and if all of that didn't go well, a good ball game with Flack may just ease the pain for a few hours.

A/N: Read and review! P.S. I was refering to 'Cowboy, Take me Away' by the Dixie Chicks, just in case there's confusion. :P