Title: Tourniquet

Genre: Drama, angst, possible character death

Characters: Aiden, Danny with mentions of Stella and Mac

Pairing: none

Disclaimer: Characters are not mine and the title is from Evanescence

Summary: Too short for one

Spoilers: Tanglewood and (I think) What You See is What You See

Author notes:

I don't think there will be a sequel, unless people really want one. So you can imagine whatever you want after the end.

I'm sorry for the grammar, but I'm not English so… well, let's just say there must be a lot of mistakes. But if someone want to correct it, feel free to contact me…

Tourniquet

Aiden knocked gently on the door, waiting for an answer which never came. Slightly worried for his friend, she entered nevertheless, discovering a neat flat, with no mess at all. She was a bit taken aback, having thought that Danny wouldn't have cared too much about the state he let his flat in seeing that he hardly ever was there.

"Danny," she called in, hoping he would at least answer her call.

She had come there after a phone call from Stella. The older woman had seen Danny leave Mac's office, looking upset… almost sad. Stella didn't have time to analyze the feelings her younger colleague could have had at the time, seeing that he had strode away, all but running out, as if he couldn't leave soon enough. Concerned about him, she had tried to call him on his cell phone as soon as she had finished with her report to her boss but no one ever answered. Not knowing what to do, since she hadn't finished her shift, she had called Aiden and asked her to go and see Danny.

Now, the young woman was there, in a flat that seemed totally empty but knowing better. The door hadn't been locked, telling her that Danny was indeed home but simply didn't want to speak to her. It was too bad because she wasn't going to let him go away without talking to her.

Heading to the bedroom, she couldn't make the knot she had in her stomach go away. She had a bad feeling about all this and she dreaded what she would find.

"Danny?" Aiden called again, opening the bedroom door and pecking inside.

Danny was lying on his bed, looking at the ceiling. He didn't seem to have heard her.

She entered, almost tripping on a bunch of clothes on the floor. The room was totally in the dark and she couldn't see anything beside Danny's shape. She didn't dare turning the light on so she simply walked in this surreal atmosphere, the knot in her gut never leaving.

"Hey, Danny," she whispered, easing herself down at his side.

Finally, the young CSI turned his face to look at her. Aiden almost jumped. His face was so pale. She realized it was surely because of the lightening.

"Hey, Aiden," he answered, talking softly. He seemed so much different of the lively young man, full of energy she used to work with. "What are you doing here?" he asked, with no animosity, no resentment, just plain curiosity.

She smiled.

"Stella phoned me. She was worried. You passed by her and didn't even acknowledged her. You never answered her phone calls either," she reproached him.

He blinked slowly, trying to remember when that happened. As she saw him doing that, she couldn't help noticed he seemed to have problems to focus. Maybe he was sick?

She was going to ask him if he was okay when he spoke.

"You'll tell her I'm sorry. I didn't mean to worry her," he told her.

Aiden frowned. "You'll tell her yourself, Danny. She's not gonna eat you," she joked.

Danny smiled briefly but didn't reply.

"Are you okay?" the young woman finally asked. "Why did you walk away like this? What happened with Mac?"

Danny's faced closed and he put on a blank mask. "What make you think something happened with Mac?" he inquired.

"Come on, Danny! We are CSI agents, we have good observation skills. Beside, your relationship seems… uneasy since.."

"Since Tanglewood, yeah…. Doesn't mean it has something to do with me leaving the labs"

"Stella saw you leaving Mac's office. You didn't look to happy. Listen, we can play that game for hours, but I would rather not. So, why can't you just tell me what happened. I'm your friend, Danny. You know you can talk to me, you can trust me…" she pleaded.

Danny reached for Aiden's face, with his left hand, caressing slowly the cheek of the clearly upset woman.

" I know I can trust you, Aiden," he acknowledged. "You're my best friend."

"So talk to me…"

"I… I went to see Mac because I wanted to know where we were exactly. I asked him if we were good." His voice dropped, as did his eyes. "He told me 'we'll see'." He let out a bitter laughed. "We'll see. What the hell does that mean?"

If Aiden hadn't concentrated so much on the words in themselves, but on Danny's voice, she would have noticed that the fact that such words were whispered and not yelled was not a good sign. But she didn't.

"Oh… Danny, I'm sure it's going to be okay. He said that but I'm sure he doesn't mean it. Even him can't be such a bastard." But then, again…

"Aiden," the name was a murmur. When the woman laid her eyes on Danny, she saw him fighting his slowly closing lids. "You'll tell him I'm sorry for not telling him about Tanglewood, that it was not that I didn't trust him, just that I was afraid he would be disappointed in me… Just tell him he was a good boss."

"Danny! What the hell are you talking about! You can tell him yourself tomorrow!"

"It's too late, now, Aiden…" His eyes closed but he opened them again. He looked at Aiden, straight in her eyes and smiled. "At least my last vision would have been the one of an angel."

Aiden got up as soon as the words escaped his lips, freaked out.

"Danny!"

"Bye Aiden," he managed to say before losing his battle against unconsciousness.

It was only then that Aiden, totally panicked, turned the light on and was greeted by the sight of a blood pool on the other side of the bed.

Horror painted on her face, she brought both hands against her mouth, muffling her scream.

"Oh my God!"

The End