Chapter Three: Broken Up, Deep Inside

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or CSI:NY. I do however own my imagination, my Muse, my insanity, my fangirliness and my dreams.

A/N:- Here's the next chapter for you guys. Thanks for all of your reviews so far!

She had barely stepped out of the elevator before Mac and Danny came jogging up to her.

"Did you find out what was wrong? Is she okay? Can we come up?" Danny asked.

Stella raised her hands to stop his urgent questioning. "Woah. The answer's yes, she will be and yes you can come up." She told him.

Mac studied Stella. She looked much more worn down and sombre than she had half an hour ago. When he had picked her up earlier that evening she was full of that happy, bouncy spirit that was typically Stella but now she looked exhausted and drained. He wanted to offer her some sort of comfort but he didn't dare now that Danny was with them.

"So?" Danny prodded again as they got into the elevator.

Stella swallowed hard. "Last Tuesday on her way home from work, Lindsay was raped in an alley near Morrisons." There was a sharp intake of breath. "Yeah." Stella sighed. "That's why she reacted so badly to you touching her Danny."

"Why didn't she tell anyone? Why did she keep it to herself?" Danny said forcefully, angry that Lindsay had to suffer this.

"People deal with things in different ways Danny." Mac said. "When we go in there I want you to be calm and focussed. She won't want to see you like this."

Stella nodded her agreement as she ripped off the page from her notepad and handing it to Mac. "This is everything I got off of her. We need to examine the crime scene carefully and there might still be a rag there that he used to muffle her. She also has the clothes she wore that night unwashed so we've got plenty to start with even though we no longer have any evidence on her herself. We also need to pull Flack off of whatever case he may be working and onto this one."

"Okay." Mac agreed. "Stella, if you want to be primary on this one then …"

Stella shook her head. "I'm going to stay here with Lindsay if that's okay."

Mac held her gaze. Very often they didn't need words to pass between them to understand each other. "Sure. That's a good idea." He said.

The three of them got out of the elevator and walked into Lindsay's apartment.

Lindsay got up to meet them, rubbing her hands together nervously. She felt pity radiating off from all of them which made her feel incredibly uncomfortable. She caught Danny's eye and he looked like he wanted to say something but couldn't find the words.

"We're going to catch the guy." Mac stated with his usual determined, unwavering tone.

Lindsay nodded slightly. Stella walked up to her and put her arm around her shoulders lightly. "Mac and Danny are going to collect evidence from your apartment and then head back to the crime scene and lab to start running the data whilst I'm going to stay here with you okay?" Lindsay nodded again and broke away from the group, heading into her kitchen.

The three others exchanged a look.

"Right. I'll take this room." Danny said walking into the room on his right whilst Mac went to the bathroom to collect the clothes.

Danny entered Lindsay's bedroom and automatically felt that with every step he took he was intruding on her privacy even more. Stella said that everything Lindsay had been wearing that night was in the bathroom so he didn't know what he had hoped to find in here. Her deployment belt with her gun and ID were on her bedside table and Danny picked it up and examined it. It looked like it had been chucked onto the ground and it was still covered with particles of dirt. Maybe if he took it back to the lab they might be able to find something on this. No doubt the guy they were trying to track down was an amateur and not a serial rapist otherwise Lindsay surely wouldn't still have this. He pictured it in his mind: in his eagerness to get to her, the perp probably tore this from her and threw it down without paying much attention to it. Still the gun was hard to miss. He must have made sure it was well out of Lindsay's reach before he pinned her to the ground and then took off in such a hurry, forgetting all about it. Danny bagged it before taking a look around.

The room was decorated in soft pastel colours and neatly organised. She had brought with her from Montana a surprisingly large amount of teddy bears and soft toys which showed a sentimental side to her that he had never seen at work. On top of the dresser were a collection of photo frames: there was one taken more than a decade ago of Lindsay and her family which told him that she used to be close to her family but perhaps wasn't anymore. Some were of her and her old team of CSIs in Montana messing around with the camera in the lab and at her leaving party. She seemed much more light-hearted and relaxed around them than she had been in New York. The others were of her friends back home taken not too long ago – her and her girlfriends laughing at a party and one of her and five guys at a pool. They were all in their swimwear and they were all carrying her, ready to chuck her into the water. Looking at the photos Danny had a weird feeling of jealousy that he didn't know her then to be there, enjoying her company when these photos were taken. Apparently he felt more for his co-worker than he himself had realised. He heard movement by the door and turned round.

"Hey." He said.

"Hey." Lindsay responded softly, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

Danny looked at her. She looked completely different to the Lindsay in the photos and he didn't know what to say to her. He never was good with words. "I'm sorry – for what happened and what you've had to go through." He said, sitting down next to her on her bed unsurely.

She shrugged. "It's not your fault. I'm sorry for lashing out at you. Here." She said and handed him some ice wrapped in a towel. "Otherwise it'll really start to bruise up."

"Oh thanks. It doesn't hurt at all though." Danny said taking it and pressing it against his cheek.

"I know after you asked I should have offered some sort of explanation …" Lindsay started.

"Hey, no, I completely understand. Of course you'd feel more comfortable talking to Stella, I was just worried, you know," Danny said, looking at her.

Lindsay held his gaze for a moment before forcing a smile and looking down. "Thanks."

"Well, I've gotta go." Danny said, standing up.

"Of course."

"Yeah, well, I'll see you later."

"Sure."

Lindsay watched him go. She knew she was going to have an ingrained mistrust of men from now on but she also knew that Danny Messer was someone she could trust.

………………………………………..

"You hungry?" Stella asked, shutting the door after Danny and Mac had exited.

"I, er, no." Lindsay answered, distractedly.

Stella observed her. It was going to be a struggle but she had to try and take her mind off of things. "You don't mind if I order one do you?" she asked, taking out her cell phone as she slipped her tired feet out of her high heels.

"No, go ahead."

"Do you like peppers or not?" Stella asked, as she searched her phone for the number of the pizza place.

Lindsay chuckled. "You're not going to be able to trick me that easily."

"Come on, you haven't eaten and if you make me eat a whole pizza by myself then I'm blaming you if I can't fit in my clothes tomorrow, please?"

Lindsay looked at the slim Detective and found that hard to imagine but although she wasn't hungry, she knew she had to eat something before she started to fade away. "With peppers please." She said causing a smile to form on her colleague's face.

Whilst Stella talked to the pizzeria, Lindsay grabbed some glasses and a selection of drinks before settling herself back on the sofa. She could feel herself start to relax a tiny bit now her attacker's time left in the open was severely limited.

"I'm sorry I ruined your date tonight." Lindsay said as Stella finished her order and sat down.

"Oh don't worry about it. Mac and I have waited so long, one more night doesn't make a difference." Stella answered, reaching for a can of soda. There was silence and she paused mid-reach as she realised what she had just said. She leant back against the sofa. "Ah."

"So you and Mac, huh?" Lindsay said curiously, managing a smirk. She knew the two of them were close but she had never imagined there was anything else going on between them.

Stella suddenly seemed very engrossed by picking invisible fluff off of her skirt. "It was just dinner." She said offhandedly. "We still don't know what the transition from friends and co-workers to something more is going to be like and we may just decide to be friends so we're trying to keep it off the radar."

Lindsay nodded to show she wasn't going to start broadcasting it over the office. "You two are perfect for each other though. I mean you already know what each other are thinking and can finish off each other's sentences …."

"I wish it was that simple." Stella sighed.

"What, is there a rule against dating co-workers?" Lindsay questioned.

Stella shook her head. "It's not that." She said hesitating, considering if she really ought to be saying any more but she realised that everyone in the lab knew about it anyway, it would only be a matter of time before Lindsay found out. "Mac's wife died on September 11th."

"Oh." Lindsay said as it all came together. It really did seem that everyone on this team was hiding their own dark, depressing secret. Back home in Montana, everyone at work had had the same kind of country upbringing and most had the same day-to-day dreary life.

"Yeah." Stella said quietly, lapsing into her own thoughts until the doorbell rang. "Looks like pizza's here."

They ate their dinner in mutual silence watching an old comedy show on the TV, all the time Lindsay having to make a conscious effort to focus on it rather than wondering how close Mac and Danny were to catching her attacker. What if they never found him? What if he was left out there to roam, attacking more women? What if she herself had to come face to face with his latest victim whilst at work? She shuddered inwardly and turned her mind to other things.

"What's Danny like?" she asked suddenly.

Stella turned to her, a little surprised at her question. "With Danny, what you see is what you get."

"Really?"

"Well, not exactly. What I should have said is he doesn't mince his words and he's very vocal and emotional but not necessary in a bad way." Stella mused.

"And does he always relentlessly tease the rookies?"

Stella laughed. "Only the ones he likes." Lindsay's eyes widened slightly and Stella realised what she said sounded like. "I mean, if he didn't like you, he'd probably just ignore you and never speak. Why what do you think of him?"

"I don't know. I just feel like he's always hiding something." Lindsay said frankly.

Stella didn't say anything at first, instead just stared at the carpet but she caught Lindsay looking at her out of the corner of her eye.

"Aren't we all?" Stella said softly but it was more of a statement than a question.

A/N:- You will get some DL and MS fluff I promise but you're going to have to wait for a bit! Hope you like.