HA, you all had to wait, not sure what i was going to do, mwahahahah!

Anywhoo. Yes.

Sorry it took so long, had my exam(cake walk, wooo) then had block likea demon, (grrr) then got distracted by some bright shiny jewellry...

But yeah, here it is, thenext installment!

All the usual disclaimers, reviewers, love you ALL!xxxxxREVIEW MORE, WOO!


He stirred, feeling himself hanging in nothingness, slowly becoming aware of his body, his chest, spreading to his arms, his hands which he flexed and came to realize he could see in a dim but steadily growing light. He came to feel his legs, a strange solidity at his back.

He was sitting, he realised, on a bench, near the river. Brooklyn Bridge dominated the horizon, a flag atop it waving in the wind. It was still raining, grey clouds rolling and boiling over the tops of the buildings, lighting flashing, thunder growling and rumbling almost constantly. But he was not afraid. It was peaceful some how. The rain wasn't touching him. It fell all around him, even directly on him but did not dampen him.

She sat beside him wearing that out fit, the tight wife beater, the jeans, her deep brown hair stirred by a breeze as it fell, tousled, past her shoulders.

"It's beautiful" she told him.

"I was never scared of storms as a kid. I thought they where kinda cool" he said.

"I was scared…I used to hide under my bed…my dad would come in every time and fish me out, and tell me it was just God bowling and taking photographs. I told him every time that I wouldn't be scared any more but he'd come in any way, every storm, because he knew I was lying so he'd be proud of me" She smiled, shaking her head happily at the memory.

"I remember the day you told me that, I got the funniest picture of you in my head, looking like this, fully grown, hiding under a desk at the lab" he smiled sadly "And you smacked me for thinking it"

"Well I'm not scared any more" she told him.

"Aidan…" Danny looked up at her and saw her brown eyes, wide and filled with affection and that edge she'd always had, that tough 'not to be messed with' glint.

"I know" She told him "I know…"

"I want you back…you're my friend, I want that back" And I know how selfish it sounds, but…I miss you" he said plaintively.

She nodded, looking out over the water which was totally, glassily calm despite the weather "It'll pass…give it time and it'll fade and you'll get back to normal"

"I don't want it to fade…I don't want to forget you" he told her.

She turned and looked at him, her eyes meeting his, her smile gentle "You don't have to forget me…you just have to get used to me not being around" she explained "Just imagine it like when I first left, only you cant see me on the weekends and stuff…we just cant meet up"

"I liked seeing you on the weekends" Danny stressed.

"Imagine it like I'm on a vacation then. That's all. I'm on a long vacation in the Bahamas, running around in a bikini, flirting outrageously with some hot island boy" she smirked "That's all you have to do…I'm not gone I'm just…not around right now"

Danny looked down the long path that stretched along the path of the river, off into the distance "And, I'm not alone" She told him "…I'm with my mom. And I'm with your dog Buster, the one who got hit by the car…"

Danny was staring at a figure standing too far from him for Danny to be able to see exactly who it was. But he had an idea.

"Is Louie with you?" He looked back at Aidan.

"I can't tell you that" Aidan shook her head.

"Why not?" Danny frowned.

Aidan took his hand, holding it between hers "Because I'm not really here, this is your dream, I'm only telling you what you already know but can't get to"

Danny frowned "So what do I know?"

"You know you need to start sleepin!" Aidan gave him a smile "you know you need to start eating…you know need to get out with other people more, I know you don't think it, and I do mean I know" she smirked "you know I'm okay…where I am now…I'm okay" she said the last softly.

Danny was vaguely aware that he was crying, thin tears rolling down his face. He hadn't even known he could cry in a dream.

"I have to go now" Aidan told him and he looked up at her again.

She raised one hand and cupped the side of his face with it, using her thumb to wipe away the tear there "You also know how much I would rag on you for being such a girl" she said affectionately and Danny chuckled sadly.

"You have to go too" she told him.

"Can we do one more thing before we both leave?" Danny asked her.

She smiled and frowned at the same time, her eyes questioning "Do what?" she asked.

Danny grinned his full blown Cheshire Cat at her and held out his hand.

Still grinning, she took it and he stood, pulling her to her feet. From the very air, a slow tango began to play and Aidan laughed aloud as Danny gave her hand a sharp pull so she had to step forward into his arms. He held her close, one hand low on the base of her spine, their faces inches apart.

"You're not good at this" She smiled as the rain finally began to fall on them.

"If I'm dreamin, I'm an expert" Danny told her.

They moved to the music and Danny was indeed an expert, and as the dream began to fade around them, they danced in the rain.


Danny stirred, instinctively twitching one of his hands as his body began to wake up, check in.

Pain. Dulled by drugs to an all over ache rather than any acute points of pain but still…pain.

He couldn't help but make a noise, a raspy groan in his throat and then the acute pain came, at his neck, like a line of heat across his throat, spreading and growing warmer, more intense. It was like a chain reaction. The pain at his throat triggered other pains, radiating out, the one acute pain sending out aching waves that triggered others, his chest, his ribs spreading and spreading until he made another noise, this one a choked cry of distress and he felt his hands reaching for something, anything to grip.

He felt a hand in his and closed his hands, squeezing tightly.

"Danny" a voice, a voice he knew said firmly "Danny can you open your eyes for me?"

It was Mac, his voice, his hand "Come on kid, open your eyes"

Danny concentrated, focused his energy. His eyes opened a crack, the light piercing into his skull like a nail. Some one muttered something and the light dimmed.

"Danny?" Mac asked again.

Danny opened his eyes further, his throat feeling painfully dry. "Wha-" he tried to ask, trying to arrange his thoughts into something semi coherent, something he could put into words.

"Danny just hang on a sec, the nurse is gonna put some ice in your mouth" Mac's voice came.

There was a pause, then the feel of soft fingers, a cold sliver of ice. Danny let it melt, gasping slightly, running his tongue over dry, chapped lips.

"What happened?" he managed to rasp, his mind beginning to throw up images of the last things he could recall "Guide?" he asked.

"Danny" Mac's voice sounded again and Danny blinked, his eyes watering, opening his eyes and turning to the sound of his bosses voice.

Mac was leaning over the bed, his face pale and drawn, bags under his eyes showing how he hadn't gotten much sleep of late.

Mac smiled a relieved smile, seeming to slump as if some great tension had left him.

"You're okay" he said, the words not just telling Danny this was so, but telling Mac himself, saying it aloud as if to make it real.

"Mac what's going on?" Danny whispered, becoming aware that he was in a hospital room, that a doctor was standing near bye, a petite nurse making a note on a clipboard beside him.

"You got hurt" Mac stated.

"No shit" Danny coughed.

"Daniel" an unfamiliar voice, the doctor, his accent even in that one word cultured and clipped "I'm Doctor Heeley, I've been treating you" the man said.

Danny cast him a glance then turned back to Mac, like a child seeking confirmation from a parent.

"He saved you Danny…your throat was cut…you wheren't breathing…Heeley brought you back" Mac assured him.

"My throat?" Danny widened his eyes, remembering suddenly Guide's manic eyes inches from Danny's own, the feel of the blade at his throat, cutting into him.

He moved to raise a hand to touch his neck but the nurse, barely looking up from her clipboard reached down and stopped his hand pushing it back down to her side.

Danny didn't notice, he had already moved onto the next memory he had.

Nox, Pixie, bloodied on the floor, a gunshot, Nox slumping.

"Oh fuck…Mac, they, he was shot and I think he cut her throat, you have to get them, you have to help them!" he hissed painfully.

Mac sushed him gently "Danny, Danny…they're okay" he said with a small smile "Nox took a hit but the angle was off, bullet grazed his head pretty deep, knocked him out for a while and he says the ringing in his ears is only just stopping but he's fine"

"But I saw him…" Danny frowned.

"You can see him again you don't believe me! And Pixie too, Guide had to deal with Nox so he couldn't cut her up as bad as he meant, he hit pretty hard, knocked her out and managed to cut her neck but she's okay too"

"Are you sure?" Danny asked faintly.

"Uh, yeah!" Mac smirked "They where'nt in great shape, we where worried for both of them for a few days, Nox had some internal bleeding that they had trouble with…but they've pulled through"

"How long have I been..." Danny let the question ask its self.

"A little under a week" Mac told him "Although to be honest, the good doctor could have woken you from a couple days ago, when they took you off the machine…but we decided to let you sleep a little longer" Mac raised an eye brow at him.

Danny felt sleepy again and clutched at Mac's hand "It's pain meds" he heard the doctor say "We're turning them up a little for you, for now, then we're going to take them down a lot, so you'll be a lot more awake and alert"

"Mac" Danny asked, feeling afraid and not knowing why.

"I'll be here Danny, once you feel a little better I'll explain what happened okay, just sleep for now" Mac assured him, his voice soothing, familiar and Danny once again felt himself drift off, but this time he, knew he could come back.


"So we went up to Daniel Holker's apartment" Mac was leaning back in a chair beside Danny's bed "No one answered our knocks so we ask the neighbour across the hall if this guy, this Drew character, has left in the past hour. Neighbour says Mr Holker doesn't have any tenant he knows about, which means they're living arraingment is something very odd"

Danny was sitting up in bed, his legs crossed in front of him, his back cushioned with a mountain of thick pillows. Stella was sitting on the end of Danny's bed, nursing a mug of coffee the nurses didn't know she had. When she had first arrived a little while ago, she had told Danny she'd been feeding his cats and that the 'fuzzy little buggers' where mean.

She was leaning back on the bed, propping her self up with one arm.

"So we figure we have enough to break in the place and we do, and Drew is gone but we find…well, a mountain of evidence against them. Turns out, Holker, Guide, one and the same, he was a horticulturalist, and he had cross bred some very rare herb species to create the leaves he was using in the teas to sedate the vics. The stuff goes to work very quickly, breaks down in the blood very quickly and is untraceable once it does so" Mac explained.

Nox was in a wheel chair beside Mac's seat, dressed in woolly looking sweats some one had gotten him from home.

He had a thick bandage on the side of his head and his right eye was bruised, slightly puffy, as if he'd been punched. In reality it was the effect of the concussion from the gunshot. He was very lucky he hadn't gone blind. He was hooked up to an IV of painkilling medication. He was white, his skin near transparent, his black hair and eyes only emphasising it. He looked almost vampiric.

"Why?" Nox asked gruffly "What was he hoping to achieve?"

"Drew tells us the Guide seemed to be genuinely looking for a way to make people sleep…having your whole body paralysed doesn't leave you with a lot of options other than to go asleep…" Stella explained "Drew isn't sure when Guide started hurting people but he does know Guide would let him have his way with the girls before Guide killed them…he seemed disgusted when we asked if he molested any of the male vics" she raised an angry eyebrow.

Pixie was curled up in her own wheel chair closer to the head of Danny's bed, so the whole group formed a circle. She was hugging her legs, her chin resting atop her knees. She too was pale and wan looking, her black hair pulled away from her face with a simple head band. She had a bandage on her throat and neat stitches across a cut on her temple, where Guide had hit her.

She was watching the proceedings curiously "How did they get to the hospital?" she asked.

Mac looked over at her "Drew told us when Nox got hit by the car, he went out on the fire escape, managed to get down to an alley in the back without any one noticing because, of course, no one was looking out the back…" he glanced at Nox who shrugged tiredly.

"When I get hit by a car, people notice…I rule" Nox was also a little high on his meds.

Mac gave him a small smirk "Well, Drew waited around to see where the ambulance went, which hospital, then called Guide, explained the situation- he claims dosing you was accidental" Mac told Nox.

"Filthy liar" Nox muttered.

"Drew isn't totally sure what the plan was…he claims Guide just told him none of you could be allowed to get back to the lab…we think he might have been cracking at this point, we where closing in on him, Hammerbacks contacts would have gotten us a big step closer, one of them called us about two minutes after we figured out Holker and Guide where the same, explaining the herbs; he said he'd been in communication for almost two years with two men, working together on an herbal insomnia remedy, asking about older tribal methods…" Mac shrugged, "We ended up at the hospital with you guys because we'd managed to find the gardening nursery Holker was working for and they'd told us…he'd gone tearing out of there after getting a strange phone call" Mac took a deep breath "By the time we got there with some officers…you where all…well Nox and Pixie, you two where down…he was on top of you Danny with the knife" he bit his lips angrily, the memory making him uncomfortable "I think about five different cops shot him"

"That's kinda cool" Danny croaked "I feel loved" he too was feeling the effects of his heavy pain killers.

"So he's dead?" Pixie asked "Like for sure?" she sounded concerned.

"He's about as dead as he's gonna get, when a man is deemed an immediate threat to a civilian or officer, and has a weapon in hand, it's shoot to kill" Stella told her "He's dead, in the morgue right now"

"Could we see him?" Pixie asked "I kinda want to see him…to be sure" she looked away from Stella slightly, not wanting to show her weakness.

"We'll see what we can arrange" Stella told her.

"So that's it?" Danny asked "I mean…that's all there is?"

Mac frowned as if trying to recall any other facts "Other than, you all are staying in here until I say otherwise and Drew is going to prison for a very long time and Danny I want a word with you…yeah" he nodded.

Stella slid off the bed and telling Danny good bye, helping Pixie with her chair. Mac took Nox and returned to Danny's room a few minutes later, sitting down beside his bed.

Danny looked at him.

"How are you feeling?" Mac asked him.

"Like shit actually" Danny shrugged.

"Well, you came awfully close there Danny…" Mac stated "We where…worried…more than we like to be, we…thought you wheren't gonna pull through"

"That doesn't make me feel better Mac" Danny told him.

Mac quirked his head "Well that's why I'm here…how are you going to be over this?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" Danny asked.

"You haven't been sleeping. You haven't been eating. You're close to a total collapse Danny. I saw how badly it affected you when Louie got hurt, I saw how upset you where over Aidan and I know how hard its been without Flack around all the time…this cant have helped" Mac took a breath "Is this going to make things worse?"

Danny frowned, seriously considering it. He recalled the odd dream he'd had, of dancing with Aidan in the rain, of her telling him, or, him realising, that she was okay.

"I don't know" he admitted "I…I've never slept right, my whole life, not ever…so the last few weeks have been like, an extension of that you know? I cant tell if this is gonna make it worse or better, I honestly don't know…but I kinda think…maybe its not…" he licked his lower lip "I think I might start talking to that department shrink" he gave a one shouldered shrug.

Mac smiled nodding "I'd happy with that"

"But if you tell any one, I'm sorry Mac, I shall have to kill you" Danny raised an eye brow at Danny.

"Oh really?" Mac smirked "But Danny, to catch me you'll have to get up early"

"I just wont go to bed" Danny grinned.
"Your shrink wont be happy with that" Mac leaned back in his chair.

"Pfft, shrinks are never happy" Danny rolled his eyes dramatically.

Mac chuckled and rose "I'm gonna head out, you'll be okay?" he asked.

"Yes already! Jeez, relax Mac" Danny shook his head, making a big deal out of being frustrated.

It was a glimpse of vintage Danny again, that Mac was glad to see.


"So are you gonna be all mysterious and disappear now?" Danny was sitting on his bed.

Pixie, once again sat across from him, her usual jewellery and make up back in place, just about covering her bruised face. She was wearing what looked like, but couldn't have been, the same hooded t-shirt, a pleated blue skirt and black tights with high leggedflat back boots.

Danny still wore sweats, he and Nox had yet to be discharged, Nox having suffered from painful migraines that had briefly concerned the doctors.

"You know that diner? I can usually be found round about there some place" Pixie smiled, "But maybe I like being all mysterious like" she gave him a small shrug.

"You confound me" Danny grinned.

"Who actually says confound?" Pixie gave him a bemused frown.

Danny smirked "You'll be careful right? No more random little groups in the middle of the night?"

"They're not all stalked by serial killers" Pixie told him.

"Yeah but some are and that's more than enough reason for me to be concerned" Danny raised an eyebrow.

"You don't need to worry about me man, I'm very able to take care of myself" She smirked "So long as I get my knife back some time soon" she gave Danny pointed look.

"It's evidence in the case kid" Danny told her, "Plus it's really illegal" he glanced at her.

She rolled her eyes away from him as if avoiding looking at him and fake coughed into her hand "So I guess I'm outta here then" She slid off the bed, scooping up a back pack that she had lain on a chair "You gonna be okay?" she asked.

"I should be asking you that" Danny stated.

"Yeah, well" she shrugged.

"Yeah I'm gonna be okay" Danny smiled.

"Will you be sleeping?" Pixie asked.

"Will you?" Danny retorted.

She smiled like he'd cracked a joke and shouldered the bag.

"Listen do me a favour….any one comes lookin for me, don't tell em you've seen me okay, I do like that 'mysterious' crap" she smirked.

She leaned forward and gave Danny a little hug and a kiss on the cheek "Oh and" she looked at him from only a few inches away "I know you probably get told this all the time, what with all that's happening…it'll be okay…I'm sure it will" she gave him a small smile "And since you cant really talk to any one around here…if you want to talk to me…I don't know…I guess you can call me?" she drew back from him "What ever, it's up to you" she grinned again and turned on her heel, all but skipping out of the room.

Her offer hadnt been romantic, simply a friend reaching out, and Danny appreciated it.

Danny watched her go, frowning at her disappearing back as she finally passed the window to his room and was gone.

Danny leaned back against his pillows, wondering what to do to fill time as his door opened and a doctor in a white coat frowned in at him "Is that Pixie kid in here? She's supposed to be in her room, she hasn't been discharged yet" he snapped.

"She still hurt?" Danny asked, alarmed.

"Not enough to be terribly concerned but I wanted to keep her around just in case" The doctor sighed "Do you know where I could find her?" he asked, "I'm looking at this address and I'm kinda thinking its bullshit"

Danny smiled "No idea doc" he shrugged "Sorry"

The doctor sighed again and excused himself, leaving Danny alone again.

It was early evening and Danny couldn't really decide what to do to kill time. Since he was on pain killers while he was in the hospital, sleeping was pretty easy, but he was still having trouble settling down. Now though, it was more due to the nightmares he had been having about Guide, about how close the man had come.

He swung his legs out of the bed and slid down painfully, feeling the smooth floor under his feet. He couldn't find any slippers as he unhooked the IV bag and found an IV pole with wheels, to hook the bag to.

He knew where he was going. Louie's room was a floor up and Danny knew he'd have to navigate around half a dozen nurses to get there.

It wasn't too hard to do, the elevators where pretty close to his room, but there was a nurses station just up from the elevators.

"Mr Messer? Where are you going?" One nurse in particular Danny had nicknamed Ratchett looked up from a chart as Danny waited for the doors to open.

He smiled at her as the elevator binged and the doors slid open, stepping forward, pole in hand.

He hit the button and the doors began to close as 'Ratchett' paced towards him, her hard soled shoes clacking on the floor.

The doors closed and the elevator lurched upward quickly.

As they opened on the right floor, Danny stepped out and headed for Louie's room, remembering the things he had promised to tell his brother.

He came to the room and walked in, chewing his lip at the sight of his still, pale brother.

"You know at this rate, you're gonna be skinnier than me by the time you get outta here" he told his brother who was indeed much thinner than he had been when he was checked in "Ma'll go nuts when she sees you, but think of the feasts she'll be cookin, I might put up with her gossipin just to get the food!" he lowered himself into a seat beside his brothers bed "But what did I say I was gonna tell you…Cookie Fustanzi, she's getting married but you know who too? Maria Carlton!" Danny chuckled, imagining how Louie would react to the news "Seems like as soon as she went to college she lost interest in men…means that you where the last guy she was with, means that you turned her man…I always knew I was the better lookin brother but jeez, turning a girl? Her mom wants to kick your ass" he trailed off.

"So if you're wondering why I'm in here, well, I got my ass kicked. And I do mean kicked, I took a beating man, not as bad as you, of course, you always gotta win out these situations" Danny laughed to himself "Cant let me have nothing can ya?"

"How's he doin?" Danny jumped and looked around awkwardly to see Flack, in a wheel chair, edging into the room.

"Same…as always, same" Danny told him as Flack wheeled over to him.

"Should you be outta bed?"Danny frowned at his friend.

"Should you?" Danny retorted.

"Touché" Flack bowed his head as he pulled his brakes on, his skin pale but flushed from the exertion.

Danny had been up to see him, and his brothera few times since he was brought to the hospital, so Flack knew how bad Danny had been hurt.

"So what's the happs bro?" Flack asked, raising his hands in some approximation of a gang salute.

"You're such a dork" Danny smiled "It's pathetic"

"What did I tell you about getting beat up? What I tell him Louie?" Flack cast a look at the figure on the bed "You gotta teach him better about getting his ass kicked, foolish jack ass don't know nothing about it, it's terrible, I tell ya" he shook his head.

"Louie don't listen to Flack cos he's stupid" Danny stated, "Hey besides, you cant even get better already and get back to work you lazy bastard so shut up" he raised an eye brow at Flack.

"My pain killers where'nt so totally effective in numbing me? I'd kick your ass for that, lab rat" Flack stated with a smirk.

"You couldn't kick a soccer ball you putz now shut up and find the remote, there's a western on and Louie is like, The Guy for westerns, he knows it all" Danny stated.

"pssh, westerns are easy, you just need a craggy old guy with a gun and some horses, you wanna be The Guy about something, be about mob movies, that's where shit gets complicated, that's where you gotta be keeping track of the different families and all the cousins and crap like that" Flack told him.

Danny found a TV remote and turned the television, finding the channel and moving his chair around so he could lean against his brothers bed to watch it.

"Complicated my ass, you and me both grew up with about four hundred cousins each, the mob got nothing on us" Danny scoffed.

He settled against the bed, Flack manoeuvring his chair so he could see the screen as the film began to start.

"Hey Danny?" Flack asked.

"Yeah?" Danny looked at him.

"Don't go getting hurt again" Flack told him seriously.

He left it for a second before continuing semi jokingly"I don't like havin to worry about your geeky as out there with out me backing you up"

"Alright, if you do me a favour?" Danny asked.

"Yeah?" Flack glanced at him.

"Don't be thinking about my geeky ass at all" Danny smirked at him "That shit makes me uncomfortable, I love ya man but, you just aint my type"

"What is your type?" Flack asked, putting on a mock effeminate accent.

"Well sweetie" Danny put on his own girlish, lisping voice "You'd have to be blonde and a lot buffer, no offence donut boy, and your fashion sense is all wrong and you'd have to" he dropped the voice with a laugh "Be a female"

"You love me, I know it, don't fight man, embrace" Flack shrugged, turning his attention back to the film.

"Shut up ya mouth" Danny laughed.

"You just need to accept who you are Daniel" Flack lisped.

"I'm not above beatin you up" Danny grinned.

"You're so bad, stop that, making me hot" Flack lisped again.

"You have to stop that, now" Danny was laughing out loud "It's not fair, it hurts me to laugh man!"

"You're in pain sweetness? I could rub it better" Flack was doing an admirable job of keeping a straight face but his mouth was quirking where Danny's laughter was getting to him "I could make you feel all kinds of good" he managed, his lips beginning to turn up almost uncontrollably.

"Flack I'll make you sorry I swear to god!" Danny gasped, clutching painfully at his side, his face pink from laughing.

"I get a piece of you'll never be sorry" Flack winked and made a claw with one hand 'growling' at Danny as he winked "I'd write it in my blog, all the boys would be so jealous"

Danny wiped tears of mirth from his cheeks, "You're too into this man, it's not healthy"

Flack finally broke, descending into hysterical giggles that matched Danny's.

Danny sighed happily, getting his breath back as he settled down to watch the film.

Flack lasted about ten minutes. Eyes on the screen, face a perfectly blank mask he took a breath.

In that same, lisping voice he stated "You'd look adorable as a cowboy Danny"

"Flack!"


And there ya have it, basically a resolution...if you like it let me know, i have an idea for a sequal/continuance dealing more with Nox's past, still Danny centric but just taking the character a bit further...let me know y'all, its been a joy.xxxxxxxxxxx