Title: A Sense of Safety

Author: CaliaDragon

Fandom: CSI: NY

Pairings: Danny/Don/Mac mentioned

Warnings: Unbeta'd, Dark Thoughts, Introspective, AU

Spoilers: Slight Spoilers for the last season

Disclaimer: Not mine and never will be mine.

Feedback: Any one with prior permission, any list I send it to and BC.

Part: 1/1

Series: Runaway Lindsey

Rating: FRM

AN: This will be a dark series and eventually be a crossover with NCIS, CSI: Miami and Vegas. I am trying to decide if Aiden will appear and if I am going to pair Stella and Lindsey together or not.

Summary: Lindsey is not as naive as people think.

Lindsey Monroe was not as naïve as people believed her to be. She knew that her comparisons between New York and Montana often annoyed people, but it was her way of reminding herself that she was safe in a new city. Though saying one was safe in New York was a bit ridiculous, but she did feel safe.

After what happened with Danny and his family, Lindsey knew that she would never believe a word spoken against Danny again. She also knew that she needed people to stop seeing a crush that did not exist.

Lindsey knew that people thought she had a crush on Mac and perhaps to a certain degree they were right. Mac was a strong, driven man who went out of his way to protect the people he worked with. She knew that there had been strife between Mac and Danny, but she also knew that they had seemed to move past that.

It was Mac's strength and protective instincts that drew Lindsey to him; however, those were the same instincts that drew her to Stella, Don, and Danny. They protected each other. It was nothing like her last team. Lindsey shuddered slightly pushed away the thoughts that wanted to drag her under. Instead, she focused on Danny.

Danny was a contradiction in so many ways. He was also very complex. In one moment, he was the joker, in the next, he was a somewhat terrifying man willing to rip into their suspects verbally and in some cases, she was sure he wanted to physically force them to see what they had done. He was gentle and brutal, but she could sense a fellow survivor, someone who had come out of the darkest odds and lived. Lindsey knew that Danny, Don, and Mac were involved. You only had to see them together to feel the power of their relationship. Though, Lindsey was sure that she was one of the few that had actually looked and seen the relationship between the three men. Lindsey would never say anything to anyone about their relationship though; her respect for them would still her tongue.

Don was like Mac in many ways, but he seemed more forgiving and more able to see beyond the first wave of evidence. That was again back to what she had learned of what had driven Mac and Danny apart for a while. Don knew the truth about Sonny long before Mac finally realized it.

Sheldon was a nice man who was learning the way that she was, even though she had been a CSI longer than Sheldon had. He had other knowledge that she had never come across and Lindsey thought they worked well together.

However, Lindsey was drawn to Stella after what happened with Stella's boyfriend Lindsey had been afraid that the older woman would fall into depression. Yet, Stella was stronger than Lindsey had anticipated and she had survived what was done to her and what she had been forced to do. Lindsey had been relieved. Lindsey thought that Stella was stronger than she had been. When Lindsey had been forced to kill, someone she cared about she had runaway to a new job and a new city.

There were nights that Lindsey was relieved about the long hours and the endless noise of New York, it made sleeping easier on those nights, because then the screams in her head were drowned out and she could finally sleep.

"Hey Montana, you ready for a break yet?" Danny asked as he came to wear she was processing evidence. He and Stella had seen the pensive look on the other woman's face and wondered at the slight pinched look of pain.

Lindsey looked up at him and smiled slightly, Danny gave her a cocky grin and she laughed despite her dark thoughts. "Sure and don't call me Montana." She added as an after thought.

Danny chuckled and held up a hand in surrender. Lindsey contained the evidence and allowed Danny to lead her to here Stella was standing and the three walked away to lunch.

Lindsey smiled to herself and thought again that running away to New York had returned her sense of safety, all because she had a good, protective team.

The End for Now