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: Here it is…the long awaited chapter that reveals Cory's past!! Hope y'all like it…it's actually the first chapter that I fully completed before I even started to write the full story down! Please, Please R&R…tell me if ya loved it, hated it…what you think should be changed….ect…as always, the more reviews, the happier my muse is!! (lol)

A/N #2: Okay, y'all...I have a challenge for you. I want to hit 100 reviews between this chapter and chapter 20! If that happens, whoever who makes review number 100, I will add you to this story! (wink, wink) I have faith that y'all can make it!

Chapter 19.

Memories

After Danny left, Cory stood on the roof of the lab, deep in thought. She had run out of anger and was just depressed now. She looked across the city, sadly scanning the skyline. This is how Lindsay found her.

"Cory? You okay?"

"I guess."

"You want to talk about it?"

"I don't know."

"What happened? I saw Danny storming down the stairs."

"I just lost it. I said some horrible things to him, but I was just so…so pissed off! I mean…the things he said to me. I just exploded. I've never lost control like that before. What can I say…Irish temper," Cory said with a sad smile.

"What did he say to you?"

"Last night, he called me a slut!! I mean me? A slut? No way!! I had taken him home because he was so drunk...and then when I was trying to leave he grabbed my arm and said that I was his. After he said that, I just snapped and punched him. The worst part is that he doesn't even remember!! Do you know how many guys I've been with?" At Lindsay's nod no she continued, "Two. Exactly two. Does that make a slut? I don't think so!!"

"Who?"

"Well, I lost my virginity in high school. I was drunk."

"And the second?"

"My fiancé."

"You were married?"

"No, we never got married. Carlos Ortiz killed him the day before my wedding."

"Carlos Ortiz!!"

"Yeah. Why do you think that I was taken off the case 7 years ago?"

"What happened?" asked Lindsay.

"I don't know if I should tell you. Even my superiors don't know the full story. But for some reason I just need to come clean with someone. But not here. Can we go to my place?"

"Sure."

--

When they got to Cory's apartment, Cory looked around somberly. "I need a drink to do this," she muttered. 'Can I get you something? Glass of water, some wine, a beer?"

"Water's good."

With that Cory went into her kitchen and fixed a glass of wine her herself and a water for Lindsay. She went back into the living room and handed Lindsay the water. "I need to go change first." Cory went to her bedroom and changed into a pair of yoga pants and a camisole. Walking back to the living room, she drew a deep breath and tried to calm herself. With another deep breath she settled onto the couch and curled her legs under her.

"Let me start at the beginning. I grew up in Dallas. Not a bad part of the city or anything; it was nice. I was a brain in high school. Always on the A Honor Roll, graduated Magna Cum Laude. That's were I met Carlos."

"You know Ortiz?"

"Yeah. We were in the same grade. I tutored students after school. You know, I wanted to help people. One of those people was Carlos. His parents had just been killed in a car accident. His grades had dropped and he was in danger of failing his senior year.

"His algebra teacher came to me and asked me to help him out. So I did. I began tutoring him around Thanksgiving. He's smart, Lindsay. If he'd had the chance he could have graduated at the top of the class. He understood everything. He was the best student I ever had."

"When did you sleep together?" Lindsay asked.

"How did you know?"

"I'm a CSI; it's the way you were talking about him, calling him by his first name. Good memories."

"It was during the Christmas holidays. My parents had gone away to visit family so I invited Carlos over, so he would not be alone. We started drinking and one thing led to another…"

Intrigued by the fact that Cory was still calling him by his first name, she urged her to continue. "What happened next?"

Cory grimaced. "I had the typical next day regrets. I told him that I just wanted to be friends. I thought he was alright with that. We stayed friends. Actually, we went to prom together." Cory smiled at the happy memory.

"Not long after prom, he got really into a gang, Mala Suerte. The sweet, smart, ambitious guy that I had come to know…just disappeared. He stopped hanging out. He stopped coming to the tutoring sessions. He grew distant."

With this Cory got up and started pacing.

"Do you want another drink? Something to eat?"

"I am getting kinda hungry?"

"Let me make something to eat while I gather my thoughts."

Lindsay followed Cory into the kitchen. Cory grabbed a dish out of the freezer.

Lindsay asked, "What is that?"

"Homemade pasta sauce. I made lasagna again a couple of weeks ago and this is the left over sauce. I just need to defrost it and I can make it into spaghetti sauce." With this, she put the container in the microwave and set it to defrost. In the meantime, she got a pot out of her cabinet and filled it with water. Once the sauce was defrosted, she put the spaghetti in the water to cook it and added tomato sauce to the pasta sauce to thin it up.

Once the spaghetti was done, she and Lindsay helped themselves.

"Okay. Where was I?"

"Wow, this is fabulous…I've said it before, I have to get the recipe. Ortiz had gotten involved with the gang," Lindsay prompted.

"Oh. So, then we graduated. He didn't even come to graduation. It was too "normal". I had been accepted to Harvard, so I moved to Massachusetts. I graduated 4 years later with both my bachelors and masters in accounting. My senior year, I got an internship at an accounting firm that specialized in forensic accounting. I had found my career path. It was the perfect thing for me. After graduation, I moved back to Dallas.

"A couple of weeks later, I was grocery shopping and I ran into Carlos. We talked for a while and caught up with what we were doing. It turns out that he had gotten even deeper into Mala Suerte. He asked me out.

"I told him that I didn't think that we should hang around together, since I was trying to get hired at the FBI. A couple of weeks later I got hired at the Bureau."

"Did you ever see Ortiz again?"

"Yes. But not until much later. I was a changed person the next time I saw him."

"What changed you?"

"About six months after I got the job, a case I was assigned to involved Mala Suerte. The Bureau asked that I try to track down their money sources. It was the most challenging task I had taken on as of that time.

"I worked closely with a team from the gang unit. There I met James Hogan." Cory's voice started to waiver. She smiled bravely. "He was gorgeous. Six feet of grade A man! We clicked immediately. After a couple months we started dating."

Cory took a deep breath and paused for a moment, trying to get the courage to continue. "Six months later, he proposed. I was surprised. Of course I said yes. I spent months planning the perfect wedding. Then…" Cory broke off, too choked up with tears to continue.

"Cory, it's okay." Lindsay wrapped her arms around Cory, trying to comfort her. "Come on. You know you've held this in for too long. Just let it out."

Cory continued to sob uncontrollably until there were no more tears. Lindsay went to the bathroom to get a cold wash cloth to wipe off her face.

Lindsay asked, "Are you okay now?"

"Not okay. But I think that I can continue." Cory took another deep breath.

"Then, the night before my wedding there was knock on my door. When I heard the knock, I knew something was wrong. I opened the door and…and James' supervisor was there. I took one look at him and I knew James was dead."

"What happened?"

"Mala Suerte broke into his apartment. He had been tortured, all his fingers broken, both his legs broken then was shot him five times in the chest in a cross pattern."

"My God, just like the human slavers," Lindsay breathed.

"Yeah. Ortiz's signature kill, it started with James. Whenever he kills someone, whether it is an underling or someone that he wants to kill to send a message, he does that. I was…devastated. I couldn't eat, sleep, anything. I sank into the deepest depression of my life. The only thing that kept me from killing myself was my pure hate. I wanted to kill Ortiz. I think that if I had found Ortiz the first year after James' death and would have killed him and then killed myself. I took leave from the Bureau for six months. I still see a psychiatrist once a month to try to put this behind me."

Lindsay noticed that Cory had stopped calling him by his first name, and was just using his last name. "So that's why you were taken off the case. You were too personally involved in the case."

"Yeah. I found out a couple of weeks after it happened that Ortiz had moved to New York. So I tried to move on."

"Have you dated since then?"

"A couple of times. Only once did I let it get past the first date." Cory looked down at her hands. "It ended…badly."

"How badly?"

"He was killed. By Ortiz."

"What?! How did he know who you were dating from 1500 miles away?"

"He was having me followed. Get this. The message that they found scrawled in his blood was 'You slut. You're mine. This is what will happen to any man who touches you.'"

"He's crazy! Why is he so focused on you? It's insane!" As Cory's words sank in Lindsay realized why she was so mad at Danny.

"Yeah. Ortiz has just gotten worse over the years. That was two years after James died. I haven't dated since."

"I can see why you were so upset with Danny. His words brought back all those memories, didn't they?"

"That's why I lost it…Why? Why does he do this to me? I just wanted to…" Cory broke down in sobs again. Lindsay tried to calm her but was unable.

Lindsay held her in her arms until her sobs slowed and slowly her breathing became slower. Lindsay looked down at Cory and realized that she had fallen asleep. She got up and got a blanket to cover her up. Muttering under her breath about the shortcomings of the male gender, she cleaned up the kitchen and let herself out of the apartment, intending to go read Danny the riot act.

--

It was 3 am before Lindsay got to Danny's apartment. She was still pissed off at what Danny words had made Cory relive.

She pounded on the door until a disheveled Danny opened the door.

"Montana? What the hell is going on?"

"You, Messer, have a lot to answer for!!" Lindsay yelled. "You stupid, insensitive, arrogant BASTARD!! You…You…." Lindsay trailed off, too enraged to speak.

Danny looked at her, confused. "What in the hell did I do to you, Montana?"

"It's not what you did to me, you pig! It's what you did to Cory!"

"What?"

"You're insensitive words caused her to relive some very painful memories. Memories that she thought she had put behind her. How could you say such a thing to her?"

"I was drunk, Montana. Not exactly like I was on my best behavior. I don't know why I said what I said. Hell, I don't even know what I said!"

"I do. You like her, but you won't act on your feelings. Then when your guard dropped, you acted like a jealous lover who saw his honey cheating."

"I don't like her! Even if I did, she made it very clear that she is not interested in me." Danny exclaimed.

"Me thinks you doth protest too much." Lindsay quipped.

"No, you're wrong. She's like a co-worker; a member of the team."

"Yeah, right, Messer." Lindsay started giggling as she realized the root of the problem. Danny was in love with Cory, but he couldn't admit it.

Just then, both of their cell phones rang.

"Messer."

"Monroe."

"Be right there," they both said in unison.

"Mac wants me to pick up Cory on the way," said Danny.

"No way. I'm not letting you near her. She's been through enough."

"Montana. It's Mac's call."

"Whatever. I'm going with you. And we're stopping to get something to drink first. Where in this city can you buy Dr. Pepper?"

As Danny was getting dressed, Lindsay tried to call Cory to warn her, but her phone was turned off and kept going straight to voicemail. Sighing, she hung up the phone when Danny walked out of the bedroom and grabbed his keys. In silence they drove to Cory's apartment.

"I'm comin' up with you Montana."

"Whatever."

Together they walked up to Cory's door and knocked. After a minute with no answer, Lindsay used the spare key that she had borrowed to lock up after she left.

Lindsay and Danny heard some whimpering coming from the couch. Lindsay went over to her.

"James…Oh, God….no," Cory whimpered in her sleep.

"Cory…Cory. Wake up, honey. It's just a dream. Come on, wake up," Lindsay murmured, trying to wake the dreaming woman.

Danny looked on, reality setting in on how deeply Cory was hurt. He didn't understand why Cory was upset, but realized that lashing out (however inadvertent) was the stupidest thing he had ever done. He was also trying to figure out who James was.

All the sudden Cory sat up calling out James' name.

Lindsay tried to calm her. "Cory, it's just a dream. Come on, snap out of it."

"Lindsay? You're still here?"

"No, I came back. Danny's with me. Wait! Don't yell at me. We're here about a case. Two bodies have been found. One of them is the man that you said was Ortiz's right hand man, Hector De La Cruz. Mac wanted us to pick you up and go to the scene," Lindsay explained.

Cory wiped her eyes. "I'll go get dressed."

After Cory left the room, a sober looking Danny looked at Lindsay. "I really screwed up, didn't I?" At Lindsay's nod, he continued. "I think I'm goin' to back off. Give her the space she asked for. Who's James?"

"That's her business if she wants to tell you."

They were interrupted as Cory walked back into the room.

"Oh, Cory." Lindsay said, trying to lighten the mood. "I have a DP for you."

"You are the most wonderful person in the whole world. I really need a Dr. Pepper right now." Cory hugged Lindsay. "Thank you for being thoughtful. We better not keep Mac waiting."

With that, the three left the apartment.

screaming-poetically-sorry about the missing scene...i don't really write sex scenes very well and i really did try...but i just couldn't get it to sound right, so i deleted it. maybe if cory and danny can get that far, i'll have more luck!

tylerhiltongroupie53-glad you liked the drama...the conflict will get resolved soon. of course the tattoo (the dragon one) will come back into play...it makes danny drool!

kasmith101-yeah, this drunk danny just pissed me off! don't worry, it was necessary to get this chapter! he will never be that way again!

chili-peppers-glad you liked it! i liked the idea of them fighting (and also her punching him out!) but i really did not like having to write danny like that, but alas...it was necessary.

axellia-i'm glad i was able to make your workday go by faster! you inspired me to complete chapter 22 today, so thus...another update! i'll warn you, it may take another couple of days until i update the next chapter! btw...LOVE the whole Monty Python ref! (now i have "she turned me into a newt! a newt! i got better." stuck in my head) and for all those who this comment was lost on go watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail immediately and you'll see what i'm talking about! and yes, he so needed to be smacked upside the head, which is why she punched him!

bluenose-sometimes i think so, too...but it'll work itself out (cory will probably eat some crow!)