Danny had never felt the press of time like he did at this very moment. He was barely containing his fear, anger and worry as it was and now the damn clock was mocking him, ticking away the seconds of Lindsay's life like grains of sand. Frustrated, her ran a hand through his hair and squinted at the monitor he was watching.
Hawkes had dug up a spare pair of glasses for him but they weren't quite the right prescription. Still they helped.
When nothing appeared on the tape that could help him he popped in the next one and watched the attack on him and Lindsay from a different angle.
When he reached the end he rewound it and watched it again, resisting the urge to throw the monitor through the glass partition.
Stella was next to him doing the same thing and all the while time ticked by. He couldn't take it anymore.
Angry he banged his fists on the metal table, causing the computers to jump.
"Dammit Stella, there ain't nothin' here. Not a Goddamn thing!"
Stella frowned at him in concern and placed a comforting hand on his forearm.
"Danny, you need to calm down and focus. We'll find her." He threw off her hand and paced to the other end of the room.
"But what if we don't Stel? What if we don't? I fucked up with her, fucked up bad and now I ain't gonna be able to make it right."
Stella met his eyes and she saw it all there, everything that had happened between him and Lindsay in the last few days and what it meant for him.
"When did you realize you loved her?"
Danny ran a tired hand over his face.
"I realized it this mornin' but it's been happenin' since she walked into the zoo."
She smiled at him, but it was a weary, tired sort of smile.
"I don't blame you. She's that kind of person."
He didn't need her to elaborate. He knew exactly what Stella meant. She was the kind of person that got people's attention. The kind that once you think you got them figured out they turn around and surprise you.
He had a feeling that she would always be able to surprise him.
He had to get her back. People like her didn't die this way, they couldn't. He tried not to let his mind drift to Aiden. If he started to think about how she had died then he was bound to lose it completely.
Danny sat down and went back over the video and frowned. He rewound it and looked again, not sure what had caught his attention, and then he saw it. Excited he rapped Stella on the arm to get her attention.
"Stel, look at this. Is that what I think it is?"
The older CSI wheeled her chair over and looked at his screen to where he was pointing. She had to squint because it was grainy.
"It…it looks like a parking decal for a university." Danny licked his lips. That was exactly what he thought he was seeing.
"Do ya got the background check on Davis that we did?" Stella nodded and grabbed one of the files she had brought in to the viewing room with her. She shuffled through them and handed him the one he wanted.
Danny opened it and quickly scanned the information. He found what he needed on the second page.
"Look at this, whattdaya see?" Stella looked over his shoulder and her eyes grew large.
"Davis use to work as a janitor at NYU before he got the job and Rachel and Julie's prep school. That's his parking decal."
Danny nodded.
"And how much ya wanna bet he still has keys to that campus."
Stella smiled in triumph. "I'll take that bet, Messer. We gotta tell, Mac."
"Tell Mac what?" Stella and Danny turned as their boss walked into the viewing room. He had his cell phone clutched in his hand and he seemed to be as elated as they were.
"Mac we got a hit on one of the videos. Davis has got a parkin' decal outta NYU on his car," Danny gushed.
He had the feeling he got when he was on the scent of his quarry and a key piece of evidence has just fallen in to place. He was even more sure that NYU was were Davis had taken her when Mac told them why he had sought them out.
"Dispatch confirms your theory. Davis' car was spotted near a maintenance building on the south end of campus."
"What are we waitin' for, let's go," Danny said, already out the door. Mac would have smiled if he wasn't so worried for his CSI.
"S.W.A.T. is on its way, E.T.A. fifteen minutes. We can meet them there," he said and Stella nodded, grabbing her suit jacket as they went.
"Let's get her back," she replied, and Mac nodded.
Lindsay came to with a splitting headache pounded just underneath her skull and she groaned. It took her a minute to remember why and when she did the fear that had been threatening to incapacitate her spilled over and spread through her body like wildfire.
She tried to move but found that her hands were still bound, luckily though her legs were free. She tried to twist, but her abused ribs protested. She bit back a moan.
Lindsay's eyes focused a few seconds later and she blinked when the harsh glare of the overhead fluorescent lighting hit her corneas. She fought for calm against the building panic and forced herself to look past the glare into the room.
She almost wept with relief when she found that she was alone. Her relief was compounded when she looked down at her clothes and found them still on her.
She gingerly rubbed her thighs together to determine her worst fear, whether or not he had raped her while she had been unconscious.
The only tenderness that she found was the residual ache her and Danny's activities had left behind and her relief was compounded.
Lindsay realized that she had been lucky so far. He had yet to rape or kill her, but she was sure her luck wouldn't hold. She had to get out of here.
He had tied her hands but he must not have really known what he was doing because there was a little bit of a give in the knot. Lindsay wiggled a little, just enough to work her hand into the right hand back pocket of her jeans. She grunted with the effort and pain shot up her side from her ribs, causing her to break out into a cold sweat, but she was triumphant.
Lindsay bit her lip to keep back the squeal of victory as she worked her fingers over the release of her pocket knife and started to saw at the rope binding her.
The sturdy steel silver blade had been her going away present from her grandfather and had come in handy more than once since she had come to New York.
Now it just might be the very thing that saved her life.
She reminded herself to call and thank her granddad if she lived through this.
With determined strokes she ignored the pain shooting up her wrists and hacked through the rope. She kept the knife razor sharp and after a few moments of work she felt the binding give a little more, enough for her to work her hands free.
She would have done so too if Davis hadn't of chose that moment to show up. She stilled when his hulking silhouette reflected off the wall and froze completely when he walked into the room.
He looked wild eyed, desperate, and more than a little scared. She suddenly realized way when she heard the bullhorn sound.
"Davis; give it up. You don't have anywhere to run."
That's Mac! She thought, elated. They had found her. They were going to get her the hell out of here.
Lindsay's little internal victory celebration however, was short lived.
"Get up, bitch," Davis growled and reached for her. She almost panic when she thought of the knife she had precariously balanced in her palm. She couldn't let him see it. He would shoot her for sure.
Lindsay focused on bearing down with her weight to keep him from pulling her to her feet. Davis' grip slipped and he growled at her menacingly.
"I told you to get the fuck up!" he screamed and kicked her in the thigh. Lindsay yelped in pain.
"Davis," she hissed, desperately wanting to clutch her thigh. "It's over. Give yourself up or they are going to kill you."
Davis looked around wildly, his panic almost tangible. The next words spoken from outside though were the ones that sent him over the edge.
"Davis, let Detective Monroe go. Or else S.W.A.T will have no choice but to come in after you," Mac said.
The escaped prisoner howled and dragged Lindsay up to her knees. She was lucky, she managed to keep a hold of the knife and he didn't seem to notice it.
"I'm not gonna go back to prison. No way. I'll die in that hellhole if they send me back. You're gonna make sure they don't. You're gonna tell them to back off or I'm goin' kill ya."
Davis raised his gun so Lindsay could look down the barrel. Fear and adrenaline spiked and she knew then and there that no matter what she did or said he was going to kill her anyway.
Petrified and angry she did what could be considered either the stupidest or most courageous thing she had ever done. She pulled her hands free, gripped her pocket knife and drove the blade all the way to the hilt into Davis's thigh.
He screamed in pain and the gun jerked sideways and jumped in his hands. The next thing she knew S.W.A.T. was swarming everywhere and she could hear someone yelling over their radios.
"Shots fired, shots fired, everybody move!"
It was all sort of a blur to Lindsay. All she could feel was a numb sensation traveling down her right arm and a warm trickle oozing out of her shoulder. Her head swam but one figure became clearer than all the others as he entered the room and moved to her side.
"Lindsay" he whispered. She tried to smile at him. He sounded so far away.
"Danny," she answered finally and she managed to quirk her lips up into a grin. She frowned when he didn't smile back and followed the direction of his gaze.
He was looking at her shoulder and there was anger blazing in his eyes. She turned to see what all the fuss was about and saw a perfect round hole just under her shoulder blade that she could look through.
For some reason she felt the overwhelming urge to giggle and she half realized she was in shock.
"Danny," she tried to say. She wasn't sure if it came out right. It must have because he focused on her and gently clasped her face in his hands.
"Yeah?" She struggled to stay conscious.
"I think…it might be a good idea…if I went to the hospital."
She blacked out after saying those words so she didn't hear Danny's reply, but she trusted him to take care of her. She knew in her heart of hearts that she could and that when push came to shove, he would never really let her