Disclaimer: I am not Anthony Zuiker, Ann Donahue or Carol Mendelsohn. All the characters of CSI: NY are not mine…I'm just borrowing them for a little bit. I promise that I will put them back, exactly the way I found them when I'm done….Oh, Cory Reid is mine and I will take credit for anything she does. :)

A/N: Please, Please, Please review and let me know what you think!

Chapter 11.

Pushing Away

Danny and Lindsay were the two CSI's that responded to the scene at about 10pm. As they walked into the bathroom and saw the amount of blood both of the gasped in surprise. "Jeez's Montana. This is a blood bath."

Detective Kaile Maka walked in at that comment. "So our witness says that she heard people in the apartment at about 6pm. She couldn't here what they were saying; she said she has bad hearing. She heard the door open and someone walked out. She stayed at her door, looking out the peephole when the second suspect walked out, carry a bloody towel and he was covered in blood. That's when she called it in."

Lindsay had been looking around the apartment and saw no weapon of any kind. "He must have taken the knife with him."

Danny got a twinkle in his eye. "Well, Montana. I'll take the inside, if you'll dumpster dive."

Lindsay looked at him exasperated. "Why me?"

"I have rank on you." Danny laughed as she left the apartment grumbling under her breath about how she wanted someone else to be the new person for once. Danny looked up at the enormity of evidence that he had to collect and realized that he'd just given Lindsay the easier job. Damn. I didn't think about that! He just shook his head and began to process.

Lindsay, meanwhile, went outside and noticed a faint blood trail. With a uniformed officer following her, she started to follow the trail. Four blocks later, she made a turn into a dark alley. She lost the trail at that point.

Seeing the dumpster behind the building she walked over to it. Gingerly climbing up to the top, she tried to breath through her mouth to keep from getting sick at the disgusting smell. As she raised the lid, she noticed a flash of white out of the corner of her eye.

She looked and found what she was seeking. Reaching into the dumpster, she pulled out a bloodied shirt, followed by a pair of pants. She dug a little further and found a white towel that was wrapped around something. She opened the towel gently and there in the middle was a gleaming knife.

She bagged all the evidence and motioned for the office to come and hold it. She then took out her print dust and began to dust the dumpster for any fingerprints, especially on the side where the clothes were found.

She successfully lifted half a dozen prints, which she put in her kit to take back to the lab. She gathered the evidence from the officer and proceeded to walk back to the apartment.

Danny, meanwhile, had collected samples from all the blood pools. The coroner had come to remove the body and he took samples from all of the matter lying beneath the dead woman. He then walked around the apartment, making sure he had bagged all possible evidence.

He had just finished and was putting his kit back into the SUV when Lindsay walked up. She had an excited twinkle in her eyes. "I found where the killer dumped his things. Office building about four blocks from here. I got some prints from the dumpster. What about you?"

Danny shook his head. "No prints, but a lot of biologicals. The DNA lab it going to hate me after tonight." Lindsay cocked her head in a silent question. Seeing this Danny responded. "I bagged over 100 different samples from different pools of blood."

Lindsay's eyes widened. "Wow. You are definitely going to be unpopular for a while. Let's get back to the lab." With that, Danny and Lindsay got into the SUV to leave.

--

Danny and Lindsay walked into the morgue, after they had dropped off their evidence. "Hey, Marty. What can ya tell me?"

The young medical examiner looked at Danny. "This wound is not the COD."

Lindsay looked startled. "It's not? What is the COD?"

"Without having the results back from the tests I took, I would say a drug overdose." Marty shined a light on the body. "See these wounds? Her stomach was cut open, rather crudely. Whoever made the incision did not know what they were doing. I'm guessing she was a drug mule and a capsule burst, resulting in her death before she could ummm…" Marty trailed off, not knowing how to say what should have happened politely.

Lindsay smiled a bit at his discomfort. "I think we get the drift, Marty. Just get us the results of the Tox screen ASAP."

Danny and Lindsay walked back up to the lab. Lindsay decided to start with the fingerprints. She began scanning them all in and then ran them through AFIS. Almost immediately there was hit in the computer.

Danny looked over Lindsay's shoulder and saw the name that popped up. "Jesse Valdez. Should have known that Mala Suerte was connected to this. We'd better call Cory."

--

Cory was lying in her bed, asleep and obviously having a nightmare. "James, no!! James!!" She screamed herself awake and then shook her head realizing that the old nightmare was back. She got up to get a glass of water and was half-way to the kitchen when she heard her cell phone ring. Glancing at the caller ID she realized it was Danny.

"Reid." Cory winced as she put more force in to her greeting than she normally did.

"Cory. It's Danny."

"Whadda ya want, Messer?"

Danny was a little take back by the uncharacteristic rudeness in Cory's voice. "It's about Mala Suerte and what the hell is wrong with you?"

"There's nothing wrong with me," Cory lied. "What's going with Mala Suerte now?"

"Montana and I were called to the scene of a gruesome murder earlier today and the prints lead back to Jesse Valdez. I thought you might want to know."

"Okay. Thanks. Is there anything you need me to do?" Cory was trying as hard as she could to push Danny away so she could protect him and herself.

"Don't you want to come down to the lab and see the evidence? I mean, we might be able to help you get closer to catching Ortiz."

Cory drew a breath knowing that what she was about to say would be hard for her. "No. I trust you. I think I need to back away from the minor cases and focus on Ortiz himself. I just don't see how you could help me, Messer. Good-night." Cory hung up her phone, not trusting her to talk anymore without breaking down.

Back in the lab, Danny just stared at the phone in shock. "She just hung up on me!! She was rude and frigid and hung up on me!"

Lindsay looked at Danny to make sure that she had heard him right. "So is she coming to the lab?"

Danny shook his head no. "She said that she doesn't need to work with us. Montana, what's goin' on?"

Lindsay shrugged. "I'm not sure. It doesn't sound like her. Something must have happened. Let me go over to her apartment and see if I can find anything out."

As Lindsay walked out the door, Danny called out, "Good luck!"

--

Lindsay knocked on Cory's door until Cory opened. She pushed her way into her apartment. "What the hell is wrong with you?! Why were you so rude to Danny? He's just trying to help you with the case."

Cory blinked, trying to catch up with what Lindsay was saying. "What?"

Lindsay rolled her eyes. "Come on Cory. You hung up on him!"

"Oh. That. Honestly, Danny and I talked that night he came over." Lindsay tried to look innocent, like she hadn't seen anything. Cory didn't buy it. "Don't try to deny that you didn't see us asleep on the couch. We talked for a long time that night. He told me about his background. I just can't deal with that right now. I'm trying to push him away."

"Cory. Danny's out of that life. He's a good man. He's not like Ortiz."

Cory shrugged. "I know. It's just that…I don't date. I don't want to date and I saw that in his eyes when we woke up. I figured that it would be better to push him away now so that he won't expect more from me."

Lindsay looked at her. "Cory. If you don't want to date him, that's fine. But there's no need to completely be a bitch. Come on. Come down to the lab and see if by some miracle we can catch Jesse Valdez for this murder and tie him to someone up higher."

"Fine. I'll come down. But I can't promise that I won't be a bitch. Messer kinda brings that out it me."

Lindsay laughed. "He has that effect on everyone."

Cory remembered something. "So did you talk to Flack?"

Lindsay blushed. "Yeah. We talked and you were right. He likes me. Once he gets well again, we're going out."

Cory looked smug. "I told you so. Let me go get dressed and I'll come down to the lab."

--

Cory and Lindsay walked into the lab, where Danny was, laughing. Danny looked up in surprise. She's here and she's laughing? What's up with that?

Cory tried to act nonchalant. "What do we have?"

Danny decided to ignore the way Cory was acting. "One dead woman found in a bathtub." Danny put the photos of the crime scene on the table.

Cory looked at them as her stomach turned. "What else?"

Danny continued. "The M.E. said that she died of a drug overdose, heroin most likely, and then her stomach was cut open after death."

Cory nodded. "So she was a drug mule. How does this pertain to Mala Suerte and Jesse Valdez?"

Lindsay picked up the story. "I found bloody clothes and the knife in a dumpster four blocks away. The dumpster had Valdez's prints on it. The theory is that Valdez got the drugs out of her after she OD'd. The witness heard two men in the apartment. Absolutely no evidence to connect a second person to the crime."

Cory looked like she was deep in thought. "Do we know who the girl is?"

Danny shook his head. "As far as we can tell, she is not from here. She probably took a flight from Mexico to here. She would have had to ingest the drugs in a relatively short time before her flight."

Cory shook her head in disgust. She had seen more of these women that she liked to admit to. "Don't they ever learn? Swallowing drugs for money. If they make it once they are lucky."

Cory was still shaking her head in disgust when Mac poked his head into the lab. "Cory? Can I see you in my office, please?"

Cory nodded her head and followed Mac. "What's going on, Mac?"

"I figured you'd like the results of the DNA test in private."

"You're done already?" she asked incredulously.

"Yes. There wasn't any trace on it." Mac saw how disappointed Cory was. "Look. Just be careful. This isn't the first time that you've an indication that you were being followed. Just take precautions."

--

Danny looked at Lindsay. "Montana? What's up with Cory? She completely rude to me and she walks in here laughing with you? What did I do to piss her off?"

Lindsay thought for a moment, trying to decide what to reveal to him. "Look, Danny. She's just had a hard couple of days. Just give her some space and maybe that'll help. In the meantime we need to finish processing this evidence so that when Maka finds Valdez we can nail him."

Danny and Lindsay continued to work in silence until Cory came back. Lindsay looked at Cory and saw that she was somber. "Cory, you okay?"

"I'm fine, Linds. I just need a couple of days off to try to recharge. By the way, if you're looking for Valdez, try Mi Casa. It's a restaurant that a lot of the Mala Suerte hang out at. You might tell Flack…" She trailed off at her force of habit to think that Flack was there. "Sorry. You might want to tell whoever…"

Lindsay interrupted her. "It's Detective Maka."

"Ok. You might want to tell Detective Maka to start there. If you don't need anything else?" Both shook their heads no. "Then, I'm going home."

chili-peppers-i'm glad you still love it and Diolch!

screaming-poetically-i'm glad you love the danny-cory angst! my muse is being mean to him right now. more insight is coming into her past probably around chapter17 or 18.

pnkrckprncss-i hate waiting for cliffhanger chapter's too...that's one reason i have them written in advance...so y'all don't have to wait very long! i'm sorry you didn't get a lot of sleep but i'll glad you made it a priority to read!

kasmith101-i'm glad you like the angst between them (it's so fun to write!) but it will be a while before anything major happens between them (my muse is teasing y'all right now...i have no clue what chappie will see them actually let down their guard)

axellia-don't worry about the lateness! i figured that you were in transit back home! i wish i had been at the airport with you (sigh's dreamily--i have a huge thing for men in uniform!)...i actually don't know yet if he's going to get hurt (my muse is not letting me know that yet-all i can tell you for sure is that he doen't not get physically hurt up to chapter 14)...i know is really angsty right now but chapter 13 should help break that up...i'm so glad that you still love it! btw-i am feeling much better now (i actually called in sick to work, but didn't write that day b/c i was sleeping!)