a/n: hey, thanks for all the reviews! It's the most I've ever gotten on a fic. YAY!


Chapter 4

Danny was silent, knowing there was a lecture coming. He may even get fired. Which would suck, because he was just starting to enjoy work since Aiden left. He thought he would get a break from all this drama when Flack walked in, but he was wrong.

"Danny, you're an idiot." He should have known Flack wouldn't let this one slide. Nope, he was getting a full fledged scolding. If the tables were turned, and it was Flack in the bed, not him, Danny probably would do the same thing.

"What the heck did you do?" Flack asked.

"I took some sleeping pills." He said. This comment made Flack angrier at his friend than before.

"It's more than that, Danny. You took the whole bottle, with a beer," Mac joined the conversation, before Flack could say something he'd regret. Mac was losing his patience.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking." Danny said angrily.

"How long has this been going on Danny?" Mac asked, calming down slightly. Danny rolled his eyes.

"Just this one time," he said.

"For some reason, I'm not sure that is so true," Mac said, warning in his eyes. "You need to tell the truth."

"I haven't been sleeping well lately. I've been having some personal issues, and, it was getting worse. I haven't slept in weeks," he explained, hoping that was enough for his boss to get off his back. Then, his mouth got the better of him; "Since when did you care about me anyways?"

"I hired you, despite being warned strongly against it. I chose you especially for this team, and this isn't the first conversation we've had like this," he said, knowing Danny knew this as well. "I don't know what to do. I've warned you that we wouldn't have another conversation like this, and we are. I'm beginning to think you need a break."

"Please don't. I made a mistake, a big mistake, and I'm sorry," he begged, going against all his gut was telling him. Something about begging just felt wrong. It's against his moral standard.

Mac didn't know what to say to this. He had never seen Danny ask him for anything. "Danny, it's gonna be very hard to regain any trust from any one. You'll have to work really hard to keep your job, and begging wont work next time, I promise you."

Danny winced slightly at the fact that he had to beg for his job. Flack was standing by the door, watching this little exchange of words. "Hey, Mac, maybe we should leave so the rest of the team can see him." The doctor came in though, followed by Stella, Sheldon, and Lindsay.

"That wont be necessary, if he can fight like that to keep his job, he can talk to more than two people at a time." He exited the room, leaving them alone.

Stella walked up to where Mac was standing. "Hey there. Glad to see you're okay," she said, smiling.

"Me too," Sheldon walked closer, smiling with his mouth, but not his eyes. His eyes on the other hand showed sadness. Danny was going to have a difficult time getting over this.

"Thanks. It's kinda weird having five people in one place that care about me like this," he said.

"Yeah, feel the love." Flack said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Despite the snide comment, he was smiling, eyes and all. "Hey, feel better man. I got somewhere to go."

"A date?" Danny asked curiously.

"Yes a date. With a very beautiful woman. Much better than you could ever get," Flack answered.

"I wouldn't count on that," Danny said as Flack was walking out the door.

"Well, I think we all better leave. You need your sleep." Stella said, ushering everyone out the door.

Once they were all gone, Danny was left alone. Ironically, he fell asleep right away.

Two weeks later, Danny had made a full recovery. He tried to act as normal as possible, but it was hard with Mac breathing down his neck all day. Everyone else at least pretended they forgave him.

This particular day, he was working a case with Mac. He'd been working a lot of cases with Mac lately, so he could keep an eye on him. Danny was convinced that he wanted him out, and was just waiting for a chance to nail him.

"Looks like blunt force trauma, see the abrasion on her forhead, and another on the back of her neck?" Danny pointed out.

"Yeah. Do you see anything that could be the murder weapon?" he asked, looking around.

Danny scanned the room, and didn't see anything until his eyes cought sight of a statue in the corner of the room. He stood up and walked over to it. "Hey Mac, look at this," he said, picking it up carefully.

"Bag it," Mac said. I'll process the body, can you get the rest of the room?" he asked.

"Yeah boss." He walked over to a blood spatter pattern on the wall. He took a picture of it and took out a swab. Taking a sample of the blood, he looked back down at the body, trying to get a feel for how this went down. Playing it out in his head, he realized that she was standing still when this went down, because there were identical blood spatters on three of the other walls. "How does this work out?" he asked.

"What?" Mac stood up and walked over to where Danny was standing.

"Why would, if the victim was standing still, but she was hit from three different angles?" he asked. "Why would the killer move around, if she wasn't?"

"Maybe there were three objects, and three people carrying those objects, that caused the abrasions," he ventured. He walked back over to the body. "There are hand prints on her neck, and bruises all down her arms. She was being held still, while three other men smashed her head in. I think you may have just put a whole new light on this case, Messer."

'Wow, a compliment from Mac' he thought. "Okay, I'll go process this DNA. You got the rest of the room?" Danny asked.

"Yeah. I got it." Mac said. Danny walked out side the house, and drove back to the lab.