Chapter Four: Opened Up and Let You In

Disclaimer: I own my Muse and psychotic imagination. Everything else I have humbly borrowed from CBS.

A/N:- Sorry it's been awhile but I got distracted and my Muse seems to be hitchhiking across various fandoms at will and all I can do is silently follow her lead. Anyway, finally a new chapter for y'all.

"Hey, what's up? I came as soon as I could." Don Flack asked as he strode down the dark alley to where Danny and Mac stood, hunched over a pile of cardboard boxes.

Danny stood up and straightened his back, rolling his shoulders back to get the knots out of them. "It's Lindsay. Some sick son of a bitch …" he seethed and kicked the pile of cardboard boxes in frustration sending them flying everywhere. They had been examining this alley for over an hour and had found nothing since any evidence that may have been left had been destroyed between now and the day Lindsay got attacked.

"DANNY!" Mac shouted, glaring at him. "You better hope that there was no evidence on them otherwise you may have destroyed our only lead."

"Sorry." Danny muttered, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and pacing up and down.

"I want you to cool off. Being like this, you're in no state to help anyone, least of all Lindsay. Go take a walk and come back when you're calmer." Mac said crossly.

"Mac, I'm fine." Danny insisted.

"Do it now or you're off the case." Mac said sternly.

Danny glared at him before peeling off his latex gloves and throwing them at the ground near Mac's feet and stalking off.

"What's up with him?" Flack asked, walking up to Mac.

Mac sighed. "I think he's having a hard time separating his personal feelings from the case." He said, taking off his gloves. Flack looked at him curiously. "Lindsay Monroe, our new CSI. She got attacked and raped down this alley last Tuesday and she never told anyone until tonight."

Flack's face rumpled up in concern. "What can I do?" he asked quietly.

Mac took out the piece of paper that Stella had given him. "You could start with narrowing down a list of suspects." Mac said. "We have Lindsay's clothes and I'm sure we can get DNA from that but it's going to be awhile before everyone else is in or until I can get back to the lab."

Flack nodded. "I'll get to it." He said, pulling out his cell phone and making some calls as he walked back down the alley to his car.

Mac pulled on a fresh pair of gloves and started back on his examination of the scene. He had it from the shop owners that the rubbish bins hadn't been emptied since Lindsay's attack so if he couldn't find the cloth anywhere on the alley he was going to have to delve into the never ending pile of refuse. And this time there was no Lindsay here to do it for him. He took out his flashlight and carefully walked the alley from top to bottom. He was about halfway down when he caught sight of something wedged in between two trashcans. Mac crouched down and picked it up. It was a dark, coarse piece of cloth and looked like it could have been used to gag someone. He was just bagging it when Danny came back carrying too Styrofoam cups of coffee.

"I'm sorry about before ….. I just …" Danny started, handing Mac a cup.

"I know. This is hard for all of us." Mac said, glancing at his co-worker.

"What do you need me to do?" Danny asked, looking around.

Mac handed him the bagged cloth. "Take this back to the lab and start the analysis on it. I'll finish up here and then join you."

Danny nodded and headed back to his car. 'Focus, focus, focus.' He told himself.

………………………………………

Danny stretched and rubbed his eyes. Mac had collected a series of fingerprints from the rubbish bins and he had given them to Danny to run them through the database. So far all of them had either led back to the restaurant workers or refuse disposers but he was hoping that at least one set would uncover a possible suspect. No luck so far though and he was getting down to his last dozen.

Suddenly the loud ringing of a cell phone broke the eerie silence of the lab and Danny reached for his phone before realising that he had his on silent. He swung his chair over to the other desk and saw that Mac had left his cell phone there. Looking at the caller ID, he saw that it was Stella calling and he couldn't help but worry that something else had gone wrong with Lindsay so at the risk of incurring the wrath of his boss he answered it.

"Hello."

"Danny? Where's Mac?" Stella said, surprised.

"He's in DNA and left his phone here. How's Lindsay?" Danny asked as he headed down the corridor to the DNA lab.

Stella hid a smile and glanced over at the sofa. "I managed to convince her to get some sleep so she's resting for a bit."

"That's good, that's good." Danny said, biting down on his lip hard as he couldn't help but wish that he was there with Lindsay whilst Stella was busy analysing evidence in the lab. "I'll pass you over to Mac now."

He carried the phone over to the DNA lab and knocked on the door before motioning Mac to take the phone.

"Stella?"

"Hey Mac. I just wanted to check in and see how the investigation's going."

"Danny's had no luck with the fingerprints but I managed to get a lot of male DNA off of Lindsay's clothes which matches with the DNA on the rag. The fingerprints are running through the database now so hopefully something will come up." Mac informed her. "How's Lindsay?"

"She's being very brave."

Mac glanced around checking that Danny had left. "And how are you?"

Stella smiled, touched at his concern. "Slightly scared that something like this can happen to one of us and no one notice."

Mac didn't miss the sadness in her voice. That was Stella: She made every case her own personal crusade and this one was more personal than most. "We're going to catch the guy Stella." He said firmly.

Stella sighed. "I know. I should probably let you get back now. Call me as soon as you find out anything."

"Will do. Bye." Mac said before flipping his cell phone shut and heading over to NYPD. "You got anything for me yet Flack?" He asked.

"No nothing. No one saw anything or heard anything. I'm relying on you and Messer to give me some leads to run otherwise I'm just chasing thin air." Flack said, spinning round in his chair.

"Well, I better get back to it then." Mac said, heading back.

"Hey Mac!" Flack called. Mac turned back round. "Do you think if Danny hadn't set things off, Lindsay would have eventually told someone about this?"

Mac shook his head. "I honestly don't know. I can't even begin to imagine what she's gone through."

…………………………………………………………………..

Lindsay sat up on the sofa and stretched. It was going to take her forever to catch up on all the sleep she had lost but at least the rest had done her some good. She looked around and saw Stella come out from the kitchen, a cloth in her hand.

"You really don't have to clean up for me." Lindsay said.

"Don't tell me … I look really stupid wearing what I'm wearing with a dishcloth in hand." Stella laughed.

Lindsay smiled. "I was wondering if we could head down to the lab now." Lindsay said.

Stella dropped the cloth and came into the lounge. "Why do you want to do that?"

Lindsay shrugged. "It's been a few hours now and I want to see how it's going. Plus I would rather do something other than hang around here – even if it's just sitting in the break room in the lab."

"If you're sure you're up to it." Stella said unsurely.

"Yeah I'm sure. It's worked for me for the past week." Lindsay sighed, heading into her bedroom to get changed.

…………………………………….

"Hey Stella, Lindsay!" Danny called down the corridor.

The two ladies turned and waited for him to catch up.

Lindsay had been very quiet on the ride over here and Stella soon gave up trying to engage her in conversation, letting her brood silently. She hoped that once they got to the lab, Mac would have something for them so Lindsay could put this whole ordeal behind her.

"How are you?" Danny asked, jogging up and looking at Lindsay concernedly.

Lindsay shrugged. "Better." She said bravely. "How's the fingerprinting going?"

Danny frowned. "How did you know ……"

Lindsay laughed softly and reached up and brushed something from his face, causing Danny to heat up against his will. "You've got fingerprint dust everywhere." She said looking at him amusedly.

"She's good this one. Someone should make her a CSI." Danny said to Stella jokingly.

Lindsay elbowed him playfully. Funny how he still managed to make her smile no matter what she had just been through.

"Lindsay?" Mac said, curiously, walking up to them and giving Stella a questioning look.

"Yeah, I couldn't sit around at home anymore so I forced Stella to let me come in." Lindsay explained.

"You know we can't let you anywhere near the case until the very end right?" Mac checked and got a nod in reply.

"A set of fingerprints that you ran through the computer just got a hit." A lab tech said, bringing Danny a piece of paper. Danny read it and his eyebrows furrowed up in concern before he handed Mac the report silently.

After Mac had read it he glanced at Lindsay. "Lindsay, can you give us a moment please?"

Lindsay frowned. "Whoever it is, I want to know."

"Lindsay, you know we can't do that until we can confirm he's a viable suspect."

Lindsay sighed. She did know but it didn't mean that accepting she had to be kept out of the loop was any easier. "I'll be in the break room." She said, walking away.

"What's the matter Mac?" Stella asked at Mac's concerned look.

He showed her the report. "It's someone from NYPD." He said quietly.