SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sorry its taken so long, but here it is, the final chapter, hope you like it, disclamiers et al apply, love you all to death my reviewers, toodles!Xxxxxxx
Danny was slumped in the uncomfortable plastic seat of the subway car, staring unseeingly ahead at the black windows, Vincent at his side, half dozing. The station had been unmanned, they had bought their tickets in the machine and simply boarded the first train that had arrived, too exhausted, too shocked to worry exactly where they went.

The rhythmic 'snick snick' sound of the wheels on the tracks had a lulling effect on the two, and they found them selves struggling to stay awake. Danny stood, rubbing his face with his good hand, pacing the empty car slowly. "Hey you hungry?" Danny asked Vincent suddenly.

"Yeah, I guess" Vincent frowned.

"Maybe once we get some where, we can find us some kinda all night fast food joint and get some hot dogs or something, yeah?"

"What time is it any way?" the boy asked sleepily.
"I don't know, its gotta be close to dawn at least, I mean we walked for a couple hours, I slept for a good long while…and it was late when all of this even started…" he gave the boy an apologetic look.

"Where should we get off?" Vincent looked around the car.

"Yeah it looks like we got the one car with out any maps huh?" Danny grimaced, his voice stronger than before.

"Should we just get off at the next stop?" Vincent asked, then frowned "Wait, why don't we just ask the driver for help!" he slid of his seat, smiling excitedly.

Danny frowned gravely, "No way," he hissed quickly, getting an odd look his eyes that Vincent was starting to recognise as some kind of delusional state "He'll call the wrong people, things will just get worse"

Vincent stared back in dismay, realising that Danny seemed to be suffering some paranoia. He knew he could walk away from Danny, but he couldn't bring himself to. As much as a part of Vincent knew that Danny was sick, that he needed help and that he, Vincent, could easily leave Danny behind and run for the drivers booth, for help…he couldn't. Danny had saved Vincent's life, he had risked his own to do so and hadn't asked for a word of thank you in return. And even though he seemed to be having some trouble, Vincent knew that Danny was trying to get them to help, to safety. Vincent just wished he knew what Danny's idea of safety was. At the moment, even cops where unacceptable. "Well who will help us?" Vincent asked meekly.

Danny stared at him blankly, muttering under his breath "Uh…some body will kid, we just need to find the right people is all…some cops…they're not always good guys" he told Vincent "We need to find the cops who are good guys" he nodded to himself.

The car lurched to a stop and Danny and Vincent peered out of the window to the dimly lit station "Where we at?" Danny mumbled to himself.

"We could just get off here and hope for the best" Vincent suggested.

"Yeah, we could" Danny nodded "Ya wanna?" he looked down at Vincent.

"Yeah" Vincent shrugged.

"Alright" Danny nodded.

They climbed off the car, Vincent casting looks back to where they had been sitting. There was still blood from Danny's shoulder staining parts of the car, but there was less of it. Vincent smiled internally at his own handy work. He looked up at Danny who, while still pale, looked ever so slightly better. They walked out into the old looking station, glancing around. There was no one nearby "One night in the history of New York that there's no one around" Danny shook his head.

He headed for the stairs leading to the street, shuddering against the cold as the reached the snow covered pavement "Damn it its cold" Danny cursed "Come here" he pulled Vincent close to him and hoisted him in his good arm, carrying him a little unsteadily.

Vincent shifted around until he was secure in Danny's arm, cuddling closer to him for warmth. "That a little better?" Danny asked.

"Are you sure you can carry me?" Vincent squeaked.

"Couse I can kid" Danny lied "Now look around, anything familiar?"

Vincent looked around at the dark, silent streets, the windows of almost every building darkened and unseeing. "I think we're near my school" Vincent said uncertainly.

"You know how to get from here to like…the main part of the city? Maybe Time Square, I could walk to the lab blindfolded from Time Square" Danny asked.

"Uh…I think, maybe if we head that way" Vincent pointed across the street, down a road.

"Alright, well then we go thattaway" Danny nodded. He walked across the empty road and the almost knee deep snow, squinting up at the clouds.

"Danny, was your dad bad like my dad?" Vincent asked suddenly.
"Ya know kid, I'm starting to think he was, I never thought he was but uh…yeah, I think he was bad" Danny admitted, feeling odd about it.

He had never thought of his dad as abusive, just mean, and drunk. Even years as a CSI being around cases that felt familiar to him, that struck a chord for reasons he had never been clear about. But he was starting to realise now that his father, Leo Messer, had been a violent, drunken ass hole.

"Do you hate him?" Vincent asked.

"I kind of do" Danny nodded "I mean growing up I loved him, he was my dad, I just though that as disciplinarians went, he was a tough one…but yeah…he really was fucking mean"

"I hate my dad" Vincent wrinkled his nose "He sucks"
"That he does" Danny agreed, hobbling along slowly "he's not a good person"

"Was your dad ever a good person?" Vincent asked.

"he cared about me sure" Danny nodded slowly to himself, "But I don't know if he was mean before or after my mother died and I was real young when it happened, so I cant remember if he turned mean after she died, or if he was mean all time. He was cool sometimes though" Danny recalled "I mean he was…as a parent, doin parent stuff, making sure I was doin my home work and all that, he wasn't horrible at that side of it, which I guess is why I never thought he was a bad guy the way I figured yours was, I mean he was the only parent I had and when I talked to other kids they would say that their dads made sure they had done their homework, and that when they didn't they got hit too…I guess they meant like a little spank on the butt or something" he tried experimentally moving his fingers on his bad arm and found it much easier than he would have thought.

"But whatever, dads are a touchy subject," Danny shook his head "Lets talk about something else"

"What else?" Vincent asked.

"Any damn thing"

NYNYNY

"I got a door!" Aiden yelled "And the blood trail leads in here" she waved her torch over her head, signalling the other searchers.

Mac and Stella ran to her side and Flack joined them a second later.

There was a buzz and a click and several high powered lamps flashed to life "At last" Flack muttered, "Whoah" he crouched beside the wall, the long streak of blood which led more or less solidly from the door in the alley.

"Damn it he's really hurt bad" Stella frowned as Mac, chewing his lip pushed the door open carefully and stepped into the next room. The team followed him as Flack yelled for the other searchers to get more lamps and torches.

"Look, he was definitely in here" Mac pointed the beam from his torch at the pile of boxes Vincent had used to prop Danny up "Some how I don't think he stacked those boxes on his own…which could mean the kid is helping him" he mused.

"I thought we already established Danny's innocent in this" Stella said just quietly enough to be heard.

"Don't either of you even start" Aiden shook her head and pushed past her superiors, heading further into the room.

She walked immediately to the boxes, shining her torch on the blood and following the trail through the huge room. Flack smirked and followed her, pointedly not looking at Stella or Mac. The older pair met one another's eyes and followed their younger companions.

"Jesus he's bleedin' bad" Aiden said, carefully stepping around the droplets of blood.

"That's why we got this" Flack held up the bright green first aid bag he carried.

"How did he get this far bleeding so much?" Stella muttered.

"He's Danny, he's tougher than a coffin nail" Aiden stated, as if it where the most obvious thing in the world.

"That's pretty much accurate" Flack agreed.

"Where would he be heading?" Mac asked "I mean…that's one thing that's really confusing me, after Jack went back into the apartment, why didn't Danny…I don't know, wait here for help, or try to get back in his building?" he frowned.

"Well he's shot…so he's got blood loss, shock, a kid in tow…maybe with the alley being as blocked up as it was he figured that he could find help if he kept moving?" Flack pondered.

"Or maybe Jack posed more of an immediate threat?" Stella suggested "There was that broken glass in the alley that probably came from beer bottles and didn't seem old…maybe he was chucking bottles after them so they ran in the first building to get away and just….kept going?"

"Could be" Mac agreed, "hey over here, new door" he yelled.

The group joined him, staring despairingly out at the snow covered lot outside. "It's going to take us forever to find his trail in this" Stella spat.

"Well the sooner we get to it the better" Aiden said, her voice, forcibly up beat. She stepped carefully into the snow and shone her torch at the floor "Check it out already, there are depressions in the snow, probably from foot prints," she crouched beside the depression and began to carefully sweep at the snow on either side. Stella joined her as Mac and Flack stepped out into the snow, searching for more depressions.

"I got blood" Stella stated, squinting in the still heavily falling snow "Not a lot but its here"

"More depressions, what could be a trail" Flack called out from several feet away.

Mac was even further up than Flack, shining his torch toward an alley way "If I was Danny I'd head that way" he called out as the other searchers began to light up other room as they had lit the first, being careful not to disturb anything that may be evidence, simply lighting up the room as much as possible.

"Can you keep searching here, preserve the blood and the foot prints, we're gonna see what else we can see" Stella told one of the other searchers who where also CSI's.

She and Aiden followed their male counterparts toward the alley way, keeping their torches on the ground, following the shallow depressions.

"Oh fuck me" Flack snapped from several feet into the alley way.

There where visible blood drops in the reasonably sheltered alley way, leading even deeper in. Flack was following the blood drops, which where not in a straight line, as if Danny had been staggering unsteadily.

"I'm guessing he came through here" Flack was trying to appear detached "looks like he turned up into this alley…damn it he's gone really far" Flack began to follow the trail, yelling Danny's name.

"Flack he's probably long gone by now" Stella yelled "lets just get to where he may have gone before we start yelling"

Aidan and Flack set off following the droplets further into the winding maze of alley ways, their torch beams bouncing off the walls briefly as they tried to get their bearings. "Do you know where we are?" Flack asked Aiden.

"Not…accurately…I mean I know where we are in relation to Danny's place, but I couldn't be totally sure where these alley ways are gonna come out or where the fronts of some of these buildings might be" Aiden admitted.

"Weird to think there could be these little…no where places in a city like New York" Flack mused.

"Not exactly…I mean…Considering the size and how old it is, all the building, re building that goes on…it sort of makes sense that there are spaces like this where there's a whole lot of nothing" Aiden replied.

"Good point…plus buildings like that first one, half the time the guys who own places like that, forgot they even own them…but it still freaks me out that these alley ways…you cant get in here from a main road, you couldn't get a car in here, you can only just get people in here…I'm a grown man right, and I'm seriously grateful that we got so many people backing us up so we know where to go to get out of here if we need to…imagine if a kid got lost in these alleys…shit, think of how it must be for Danny and this little boy" Flack shook his head.

"I'd rather not" Aidan said quietly.

"hey, are you doing okay with all of this?" Flack looked at Aiden as he walked.

The young CSI kept her eyes on the ground, following the blood as she answered "Yeah, I'm fine, just tryna get Danny back safe and sound is all"

"I only ask cos…I know you and Danny are really good friends…I mean, really good friends right?" Flack asked.

Aiden actually smirked "Meaning what exactly?" she put a warning tone in her voice.

"Nothing just…look the way I look at you CSI's…Mac and Stella are like the principals of the school and you two are the kids they have to keep an eye on…which isn't a slight to you two, I just say that cos you're both still learning…but you and Danny, you have…I don't know, kind of a thing…I see it all the time when you both are together, you have this…chemistry I guess" Flack shrugged.

"What! Not even!" Aiden snapped, still following the trail.

"Aiden, sweetie, trust me, it's there" Flack stated "But, even if it wasn't, you two get along better than any one at CSI, you're more than just work colleagues, you're genuine friends, I mean me and Danny hang out, out side of work, but in that…guy way, I mean we're friends I guess but it's a matter if convenience…you know how I first got talking to him, before I really knew who he was?" Flask asked.

"How?" Aiden seemed to warm to the story Flack was preparing to tell.

"I was supposed to be playing a two on two pick up game, me and another detective named Marcel, playing two other detectives right? Only Marcel's kid gets the chicken pox and the day of the game, Marcel wakes up all pimply and itchin, and this was like a…a tournament in the squad so it wasn't like I could just forfeit, there was some money, a little cup, not to mention glory on the line, so I'm stranded tryna find a partner to play with and no one'll help me out cos me and Marcel have kicked more or less every other teams ass so they don't want to see us win, and I'm up poo creek basically and I'm walkin to the play ground to ask the other guys if we can rain check, knowin full well they wont, and I see Danny playin a solo game, I don't know workin out I guess, and he's doin good for a wiry little spazz with specs" Flack smiled fondly at the memory "So I asked him to play, he did, we won by like a million points and from then on, he was my sports guy, I needed some one to play a game with, Danny was my guy…and our friendship just kinda developed out of that…we don't really have anything in common out side of sports…I love the little geek any way but….you and him, you got like, the same weird sense of humour, and you get those goofy science jokes you crack and you have like, in jokes over experiments you did that crack you up and are totally 'had to be there' kinds of things…I mean its cute how well you each compliment one another's personalities too, you're like, cool headed to his fiery temper, you both have that…hey" Flack stopped dead in his tracks and put a hand on Aiden's shoulder, pulling her up short.

She had ducked her head so her hair covered her face but Flack could clearly see that she was crying "Aiden, sweetie hey, I didn't mean to upset you! Come'ere" he pulled her into a bear hug, resting his chin atop her head as she slumped in his arms, quietly sobbing.

"I'm sorry" she whispered "I just…I keep thinking we're gonna find his body and I think of how different everything will be without him and how you're right about how me and him are friends and I don't want to lose my friend Flack!" her voice was muffled as she still had her head buried in his chest.

"You wont lose him Aid, none of us will, we're gonna find him, we're gonna get him to the hospital, we'll sort this mess out, he'll be back at work this time next week, wising off to a suspect as usual"

"Hey what's going on?" Stella asked quietly, her voice filled with concern.

"I figured this situation wasn't quiet sad and messed up enough" Flack told her, still hugging Aiden as he spoke "so I made a pretty girl cry, you know, for the kicks" he shrugged.

Stella raised an eye brow at him as Aiden drew away from the hug, making a visible effort to compose herself.

She sniffed and gave him a gentle shove "What ever Flack, any time you wanna start in with the water works, go right ahead, we know you like to appear uber macho but its okay to cry a little some times" she said jokingly.

Flack gave her a smile "I really didn't mean to upset you" he told her.

"I know you big lug" she muttered, clearly embarrassed by her emotional outburst.

"You kids" Stella rolled her eyes and headed back to where Mac was talking into a walkie talkie as the younger cops continued on after the blood drops.

"You really think we'll find him again?" Aiden asked Flack quietly.

"We better" Flack said, deadly serious "The B-Ball tournament is swinging back around soon and Marcel's takin the wife to Aruba"

"Oh fuck" they heard Mac growl.

"Whats wrong?" Aiden yelled back.

"One of the other shifts CSI's just called in…she was going over the apartment for any final evidence we could use and she dropped her pen under the fridge…she found the fucking gun, she said there's scratches on it like it slid across the floor…she thinks Jack could have shot himself and dropped the gun and it went under the fridge, she said it wasn't far enough under to have been purposely shoved there. Danny didn't kill Jack"

NYNYNY

"So the good news is, I have some idea of where we are" Danny told Vincent who now walked at his side, holding Danny's hand.

"And the bad news?" Vincent asked.

"We're miles away from where I wanted us to be. But, there's an all night diner right there" Danny grinned widely and pointed at the dimly lit diner across the street "So I'm thinking…breakfast?" he grinned down at Vincent.

"Okay!" Vincent smiled back, his green eyes shining in the light from a street lamp.

They crossed the street and Danny pulled Vincent up short as they where about to enter the diner.

"Listen, sit near the door and be ready to run, we cant be totally sure these guys are safe" he told the little boy.

"Maybe we could ask to use their phone and call for help?" Vincent suggested.

Danny frowned deeply in thought "Mmm, maybe, we'll see how it goes…if they seem okay, maybe we call for help, if not, we book, deal?" he asked.

Vincent nodded, hoping the people in the diner would meet what ever criteria Danny had for 'safe' people.

They entered the diner, the pair f them blinking in unison in the glare of the over head fluorescent lights which buzzed and hummed and clicked.

Danny immediately directed them to a booth almost exactly beside the door as a tired, bored looking woman in a waitress uniform shuffled over to them carrying a coffee pot, looking as if she needed its contents intravenously pumped into her blood stream. She barely looked at Danny and Vincent as she poured Danny a coffee, set the pot down and asked for their orders.

"Um…pancakes?" Danny asked Vincent, noting internally that while the waitress seemed as if she was too tired to notice anything, her eyes would flick around in sharp little jolts, taking in everything. The woman was an experienced New Yorker, not to mention working the graveyard shift in a diner in the middle of the city. She had probably memorised Danny from the top of his head down to his sneakers in perfect detail before she even picked up the coffee pot to approach the booth, and would give the cops that picture perfect description if she thought it necessary. Danny was glad he was sitting with his bad shoulder facing into the booth, so it was less obvious, but he figured the woman had already seen and noted it too.

"With everything?" Vincent asked and Danny nodded in agreement "Two orders of pancakes with everything and two glasses of OJ please" he smiled at her, figuring being polite wouldn't exactly hurt.

"Anything else" the waitress, whose nametag read 'Millie' drawled lethargically.

"That'll be it for now, thanks" Danny nodded.

She turned and shuffled away, her scuffed tennis shoes making soft scraping noises on the linoleum floor as she walked behind the counter and relayed their owrder to the chef.

She spoke to the large, hairy man for longer than seemed necessary to ask for two sets of pancakes, and Danny caught the tiny glance she threw back at him and Vincent.

As Danny watched, she wandered, seemingly vaguely over to the phone, sighing as she picked up he receiver, as if her call was to no one important.

Danny watched her dial three digits, then mime dialling some more before turning her back to him and slouching against the wall as if she where simply calling to check in on her kids or husband or some thing unrelated to Danny and Vincent.

"We have to go" Danny told Vincent as the boy idly tapped his fingers on the table.

"Why?" the kid squeaked, obviously upset.

"The waitress just called the cops on us, we have to leave right now Vincent, please don't make a fuss, just get up with me and we'll walk out, cool as cats" Danny gave Vincent a reassuring grin.

"But the cops will help us wont they, we should wait for them!" Vincent stated.

"Not if they've been called on us like this…if we go to the right people, that's different, but then the police have been phoned on you, its bad, they see you as a bad person…it will make things worse Vincent I swear to god it will" Danny said seriously.

Vincent sighed but slid out of the booth obediently. He took Danny's hand and they quietly slipped out of the doors of the diner, walking away as quickly as they could.

"That was close huh?" Danny asked.

Vincent shrugged, feeling the tiny spark of hope dwindle in his chest.

NYNYNY

"Hurry up!" Officer Jason Macnulty yelled out of his window at his partner as the older man, Simon Liu, carried a cardboard tray holding two cups of coffee out of the deli they had stopped at.

"Dispatch just called it in man, a waitress at a diner just reported a wounded guy with a kid coming into her diner a few minutes ago, wounded guy matches Messer's description perfectly" Macnulty took the tray from Liu as his partner climbed into the car.

"Oh hell yeah" Liu grinned.

"A car is heading to the diner now but I said we'd patrol the immediate area, Messer booked when he saw the waitress making the call, if that isn't behaviour of a guilty man I don't know what is" Macnulty shook his head "So I figure we just take him out as soon as we can, don't let it escalate ya know, we don't want to hurt the kid" he mused as Liu put the car into gear.

Macnulty gave him the address and he began to drive, carefully navigating the snowy roads.

"He got pretty far huh?" Liu thought out loud.

"Probably trying to get back to Tanglewood or something, get to a mobbed up safe house ya know?" Macnulty nodded "I shudder to think what might happen to that kid in a mob house…he either gets killed as a witness, raised by some fucked up crime family and brainwashed into likin it, or they sell him off to some perv to turn a dime" he sneered "Or maybe that's why this whole thing started, maybe that dad was trying to protect his son from the kids 'special friend' Danny Messer" he shrugged.

"Either way, fuckers gonna die" Lie said dismissively.

NYNYNY

Stella, Mac, Aiden and Flack where running back through the alley ways, leaving the other searchers and CSI's to follow the trail.

They too had heard the call and had no doubts that the man in the diner was Danny. They charged through the snow, ducking around the people who now filled the alley ways, searching for Danny and the boy. Making it back ti the original alley in less than half the time it had taken them to get to where they got the call, Flack began barking orders at uniformed officers who where still at the scene, even as he ran fro the car, digging his keys from his pocket. He and the CSI's piled into his car, all but humming with tension as Flack peeled out, driving far too fast considering the weather. It was the weather however that had snowed in a lot of people, leaving the now early morning streets almost totally empty. It was not yet dawn, but the earliest risers, or latest fallers depending on how you looked at it, where still on the streets as Flack threw the car into turns, spins and one spectacular donut that miraculously, didn't kill anyone inside or outside of the car, while also leaving them facing the direction they needed to go.

"We're no good to Danny spread across six blocks Flack" Mac said firmly, hanging onto the dash board for dear life.

"I promise next time I'll go slower Man but right now, Danny's bleeding out" Flack shrugged and spun the wheel again.

"if I puke will that help?" Stella asked from the back seat.

"Swallow it Stel" Aiden warned, "Flack, don't be a pussy put your damn foot down" she snapped.

"I love it when a woman talks dirty" Flack smirked and stamped on the accelerator, slamming the cherry light onto his dash and flicking the switch. As the whooping siren and spinning red light filled the car, Aiden said a silent prayer that this dangerous ride would be worth it, that there would be something to save once they got there.

NYNYNY

"Shit, shit, shit" Danny was muttering under his breath as he stared at the slowly approaching car.

"Danny they're cops" Vincent was saying "What do we do, do we try to get away?"

"Probably wont make a difference" Danny said resignedly "We're dead kid…I'm sorry" he muttered.

"No!" Vincent squeaked "No we made it this far! We can get away!"

"Where could we go?" Danny hissed as the car got closer.

"The subway, we could just go down and hide out until a train comes!" Vincent began pulling Danny toward the subway entrance which was just closer to them than the cops where.

Danny let himself be pulled, his eyes flicking from the car to the entrance, his mind racing.

"Alright, but they've seen us, so this has to be quick…when I say go, we run, okay?" he asked Vincent.

"Yeah" the boy nodded.

"Ready…go!" Danny snapped and together, he and Vincent charged for the stairs.

The cop car came to a sudden halt and two officers, their guns already drawn, climbed out, their faces set in grim masks.

"We got you Tanglewood" Danny heard one of them yell as he reached the stairs a little behind Vincent, hoping his shoulder didn't hinder his progress down.

His foot twisted under him and he pitched forward with a yell, remembering just in time to bring up his hands to try and protect his face as he tumbled down the cold, hard steps. His injured shoulder banged against the edge of a step and Danny all but blacked out for the rest of the fall, only dimly becoming aware he had raced the bottom when Vincent began trying to drag him away.

Danny couldn't move his right leg and he could feel the heavy, hollow feeling that accompanied broken bone some where near his ankle. Other injuries began to call in for attention, most notably his gunshot wound, and Danny looked back up the stairs he had fallen down to see the two cops advancing on him slowly, their guns drawn.

Danny took a breath and forced himself to sit up, shuffling back wards awkwardly using only one hand and one leg to push himself.

"Freeze, NYPD" one of the cops growled "You used to know that that means something" he added angrily.

"Danny?" Vincent said warily as he helped Danny move backwards.

"You got it wrong" Danny managed to croak, his head feeling oddly clear for the first time in hours. He could suddenly see that given the probable scene he had left in his apartment building, there was a good chance he was in some trouble.

"You executed that boys father, we didn't get that wrong" on of the cops, an Asian American with slightly greying hair spat.

"What?" Danny and Vincent asked in unison.

"Okay, you got it really wrong" Danny panted, his chest feeling broken rib tight "That SOB was alive when we left"

"Sure he was" the other cop, a red headed freckle faced kid scoffed "Son, come here to us, we're gonna protect you" he looked at Vincent.

Vincent clutched Danny even tighter as Danny reached a wall and stopped shuffling backwards. Danny reached up and grabbed Vincent's arm, squeezing it comfortingly. He could see the determination in the two officers eyes and with a silent curse, he gave Vincent a gentle push "Vincent run away, these are bad cops" he said quietly.

"Where's the gun Messer?" the red head asked.

"Ask the kids dad, he still had it when we left, after shooting me with it!" Danny snapped, becoming aware that he had reopened the stitches in his shoulder.

"The kids dad, is dead. You executed him mafia style you sick fuck, now where is the gun!" the older cop growled.

"I don't have it!" Danny yelled painfully "I never had it!"

"Messer, we know all about you man, not just tonight…you got a reputation, you're a bad cop" Red head said quietly.

Danny sensed Vincent stiffen beside him and cursed inwardly.

"No he's not" Vincent said quietly.

"Son I don't know what he's told you but you need to understand, Danny Messer is a dangerous man, he killed your daddy and he wants to hurt you!" the older cops said and a tiny part of Danny couldn't help but respect how the cop was trying to keep the child safe.

"You're wrong, Dad was alive when we got away!" Vincent snapped.

"Messer told you that did he?" Red actually cocked his gun and took a step toward Danny, who felt his heart rate jump up a million more beats.

"Don't do this" Danny whispered "You've gotten it totally wrong" he could feel his shoulder bleeding heavily again, and was dimly aware that he was bleeding on the floor of the train station, and that he was losing his fight to stay awake.

"Look man, you're scum, and you're not walking out of here alive…we know you're a Tanglewood plant, and that you set up Officer Minhas to be killed…its an eye for an eye, you killed one of ours, so we kill you" the older cop shrugged and any respect Danny had had for him went out the window "So show the gun so me and Jase here don't lose our jobs, come on"

"I don't…have…the gun" Danny growled angrily.

"Well then if anybody asks we'll say he groped the kid" Red, Jase, shrugged coldly and squeezed the trigger on his gun.

There was a flash and a bang and Danny heard Vincent shrieking before he got another, fresh dose of that molten liquid pain from before, this one on his chest, and then the darkness came.

NYNYNY

Aiden ran down the subway stairs, her inner CSI noticing fresh blood stains on some of the steps, indicating that some one with an open wound had passed by here not long ago. As she neared the bottom step, Mac, Stella and Flack at her back, she could see the backs of the two officers, Liu and Macnulty, who had called in only a minute before reporting to have spotted Danny and the boy.

As Aiden had leapt from Flaks car a second ago, she had heard the muffled report of a gun and as she reached the last step she realised what it had been.

"He grabbed for the kid!" one of the uniforms yelled as Aiden shoved past them.

Danny sat with his back to the wall, his legs spread out in front of him. His skin was grey and bloodstained, and there where two gun shot wounds on his body, one in his shoulder and one in his chest. There where growing pools of blood surrounding him, staining his jeans red and a tiny boy was clinging to him, screaming for help. Danny lay as still as the dead.

Aiden looked down and saw that the red haired cops gun was smoking from being fired.

She swung and clocked him clean across the face as Flack, Stella and Mac ran to Danny's side, Flack screaming into his walkie talkie for an ambulance.

"He tried to grope the fucking kid!" the older uniform yelled as Aiden hurried to Danny and began trying to pry the little boy off've him so Mac and Stella could get a better look at his wounds.

The kid was clinging to the chillingly unresponsive Danny but Aiden used brute force to simple drag him away, jumping as he spun and wrapped his arms around her instead.

Flack, angrier than Aiden had ever seen strode over to the two uniforms and snatched their guns from their hands.

"He killed that kids dad and he tried to molest that kid just now, we had to shoot him!" the red haired, now bloody nosed cop yelled.

"That kids fucking father killed himself you stupid, stupid bastards!" Flack roared into the cops face "you just shot an unarmed, totally innocent cop who saved a child's life tonight! I hope to god you got savings the pair of you because I will personally be seeing to it that neither of you are ever getting your badges back, you'll be fucking lucky if I let you leave this station alive now get the hell out of my sight but don't even think about leaving!" Flack's voice was at a level Aiden had never heard before.

"You liars!" the boy in her arms suddenly shrieked "Danny didn't try to hurt me you just said you would make it up and you shot him cos you think he's a bad cop! He took care of me and you killed him!" the boy was wailing through heaving sobs.

Aiden, still unable to speak hugged to boy to her and watched as Flack reached a whole new level of anger.

He literally tore a pair of cuffs from his belt and snapped them onto the uniforms, barking out the Miranda rights and almost unintelligible yells.

The uniforms seemed to consider resisting but Flack grabbed the read head by the collar of his jacket and dragged him so close they where almost nose to nose.

"Resist" Flack said in a suddenly very quiet voice "Please resist, give me an excuse to shoot you"

The uniform audibly gulped but still sneered arrogantly "You cant tell me I didn't just do a good thing, Messer was the rot in the NYPD, we'll be better off without him!" he shook his head.

"You better pray they take you out of hear before a train comes officer, cause I'm gonna throw you under the next one comes along" Flack said blankly and everyone in the station knew he was serious.

A pair of paramedics ran down the stairs, carrying a stretcher between them and Aiden felt part of herself detach from the rest of her to watch the proceedings from a cold, clinical perspective. The medics didn't hesitate to cut Danny's shirts open to get closer looks at the wound. The one on his shoulder looked to Aiden as if a street/gang doctor had done a sew job and sent Danny on his way, but the stitches where ton and the wound was bleeding freely. The one on his chest was close to his heart and it too poured blood. Danny had blood on his face and Aiden realised it was dribbling from his mouth because he had blood in his lungs. She supposed that meant he was still breathing.

The bubble burst. Aiden gasped raggedly and felt her legs give way underneath her as on of the medics slipped an oxygen mask over Danny's face, checking his wrist for a pulse.

"How much blood has he lost?" one of the medics asked Mac and Stella, who stood back from Danny, their hands covered in his blood from trying to stop the bleeding.

"We don't know, he sustained one of those wounds at least five or six hours ago" Mac said, his voice sounding calm but with a thread of panic.

"Looks like he got a beating too, we need to get him out of here, now" the medic growled, dragging the stretcher toward him as his partner began to lay Danny flat, sliding a back board under him.

Aiden was kneeling on the floor, Vincent curled up in her arms, the pair of them openly weeping. More cops began filing into the station, and silence reigned as they watched the frantically working medics try to stabilise Danny enough to move him. The call had gone out that Danny was innocent, so as far as the cops where concerned, Danny was no longer a potential suspect, he was a fallen officer.

"Anything we can do?" one cop called out to the medics.

"make sure our bus isn't blocked in and a few of you help us get this stretcher up the stairs" a medic told the officer.

At some unspoken command, several officers raced back up the stairs to make sure the ambulance was not blocked in, in any way, while others ran to the medics sides and prepared to hoist the stretcher up the stairs.

Aiden could see blood staining the inside of Danny's mask, and the machines the medics where attaching to him where beginning to shriek with warnings that the patient was not doing well.

Flack was staring wordlessly at Danny's still form, every cop in that subway station was. The medics, acutely aware of the close scrutiny, nodded to one another and told the cops where to grab the stretcher, then lifted it, climbing the stairs.

Aiden heard some one ask "He gonna make it?" presumably of one of the medics.

The harried sounding "I don't know" the medic offered up in reply, inspired hope in no one.

NYNYNY

Aiden was gazing idly out of the window of Danny's hospital room, tapping out a rhythm on the rails of his bed. Her face had the scrubbed, flushed look you get from crying to much, but her eyes where hard and cool, her mouth set in a grim, angry line.

Danny lay in his bed, wrapped in bandages and hooked up to what seemed like every machine under the sun.

He had needed surgery to repair the damage Officer Macnulty's bullet had done, not to mention enough blood transfusions that Aiden had simple lost count. The doctors in the ER had had a lot of difficulty stabilising him to send him up to surgery, and Aiden knew that the sight of the treatment room after they had wheeled Danny away; dozens of blood stained rags littering the floor, pools of blood, discarded pieces of medical equipment, all for Danny, would stay with her forever. But it was okay, because Danny was doing well. Aiden felt a nudge against her arm where she leaned on the bed and looked up to see Danny, awake, his blue eyes shining. He couldn't talk to her, there was still a tube in his throat helping him to breath after the surgeries on his chest.

"Hey" Aiden couldn't help the slow smile that spread across her lips at the sight of him awake, interacting.

She pushed the note book that had been left at his side closer to his hand and put a pencil in his hand, resisting the urge to sweep a lock of hair from his forehead. Danny scribbled his note and passed it to her. Aiden read it quickly.

"Vincent's fine, he's in a group home for now but Mac's pulling some strings to get him with a really nice family who live by the park, they said they can already get him enrolled in some genius school or something" Aiden smiled, adoring the fact that Danny, since he had regained conciousness the day before, had only asked about Vincent.

Danny scribbled another note. "No I haven't been crying again!" Aiden blushed bright red "I just…washed my face to stay wake, you make for boring company Messer!" she scoffed.

Danny wrote another note " 'It's okay to cry Aiden…crying lets the hurt out'" Aiden read the note aloud and glared at Danny who smiled around the tube.

"I will beat your ass Messer, I'm not fooled by this 'oh I'm all injured' shtick you're throwing around!" she grinned.

Danny caught her hand in his and gave it a squeeze.

"What's wrong?" she frowned.

He shook his head and took the pen back up, scribbling a longer note " 'I really though I wasn't going to make it this time…plus I think I have the wrong idea about my dad' How do you mean?" Aiden asked.

" 'I think" she read aloud as he wrote it "' he was like Vincent's dad, but I never realised'…oh Danny" Aiden did lean fore ward and lay her hand on his forehead, meeting his eyes "You always said you and your dad where close?...how did you figure it out?" she asked.

Danny turned to another page on the note pad and began to write.

Aiden thought about what Flack had been saying as she watched Danny's hand tear across the page, and as she leaned against his arm, relaxing naturally against him, she wondered, how right had the detective been.

And that's the end of that chapter dusts hands let me know if you want em to go on with the Danny/Aidan stuff, im not a huge shipper but I think I could make something kind of fun with em both having to confront their loooooove. You all let me know, thanks for the lovely lovely reviews!Nadine.xxxxx