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: Ok, guys….Please don't kill me or my muse over this cliffhanger! My muse just got back from her vacation and was a little peeved at airport security, so she's taking it out on the characters…I promise that the character will not die…but anything more than that, I can't say… Please R&R, I need to get my muse back into a good mood! (Anyone got a case of DP for her? It's the only thing that keeps her happy after a run in the stupid security people!)

A/N #2: I reposted this on July 9, 2006 to correct some grammatical errors!

Chapter 25.

Kidnapped!

Mac arrived at Cory's apartment less than 30 minutes after Danny called him. Danny opened the door and let him in.

"All of it is on the table. We only touched it with gloves on and I put it in evidence bags as she took it out of the envelope."

"Good job, Danny." Mac picked up the picture with the crosshairs drawn on Danny. He raised his eyebrows and glanced at the younger man. Then he picked up the paper and began to read. Mac's eyes grew cold as he read what Ortiz had threatened. "That's it. Both of you are getting protection, immediately. I don't want you to go anywhere alone. You understand me?"

Danny just nodded his head. He knew that this was coming. "Got it, Mac. I expected that. I don't know how Cory will react to it, but I'll convince her that it's necessary."

Mac just looked at Danny, realizing for the first time how deep his feelings were for Cory. "You really care about her, don't you?"

Danny nodded. "I think I'm in love with her."

Mac grew even more serious. "Just don't let it cloud your judgment. Keep a clear head in all of this. I'll call you if I get anything off of this. Knowing Ortiz, there's very little chance of that."

Danny walked Mac to the door and as he opened it he saw that Flack was raising his hand to knock. "Hey, Mac. Danny. What's going on?"

Mac looked at Danny. "You explain. I'm going to process so we can catch this bastard." Mac walked out of the apartment. Flack walked in.

"Thanks for getting me the clothes, Flack."

"No problem, Messer, but what the hell is going on?"

"Ortiz threatened both Cory and I. Nothing that we can prove, unless Mac can work miracles, but we know it was him." Quickly, Danny outlined the night's events. "So, I'm gonna sleep on the couch, tonight. I don't want her to be here alone."

Flack nodded his head. "I understand, man. Do what ya gotta do to keep your woman safe. I'm gonna go home now. Call me anytime if you need anything."

"Ya got it, man. Be safe. Say hi to Montana for me."

After Flack left, Danny went to the closet and got out sheets to make up the couch. Once that was done, he turned on Cory's TV to restless to sleep. He finally drifted off to sleep some time after Letterman came on the air. A couple of hours later, the sound of Cory's scream woke him up. Grabbing his gun, he raced into her bedroom to shoot whoever was attacking her. When he got in the room, no one but Cory was there. She was sitting up in the bed, shaking.

"Are you alright?" he asked, scanning the room for intruders.

Cory looked up to see Danny with is gun in hand. "I'm fine. It was just a nightmare."

Danny walked to the bed, placing his gun on the bedside table. He took her in his arms to comfort her. "Ya scared me. I thought that Ortiz had come in and was trying to take you away from me."

Cory just wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tight. "You were definitely a welcome sight. Reminded me of Davy Crockett at the Alamo."

Danny just chuckled. "They lost. We won't." Danny looked down when he felt hot tears soaking into his shirt. "Shush…it's ok. I won't let anyone hurt you."

"I know, it's just…" Cory trailed off.

"Wanna tell me about the nightmare?"

"Ortiz was torturing you and he was making me watch. Then he killed you. That's when I woke up."

"Bella…that's not gonna happen. I'm going to protect you. As of right now, we both have protection. Mac's working on the evidence back at the lab. We'll catch him before anything happens." Danny was trying to console her. He felt awkward doing that. He'd never tried to comfort someone he was in love with before.

"Thank you, Danny. Listen, I'm not going to go back to sleep anytime soon. Want some coffee?"

"Sounds great."

Cory got out of bed and then realized that she was only wearing her Cowboys jersey. "I don't remember getting ready for bed."

Danny felt a blush crawling up his cheeks. "You didn't. You feel asleep in the bathroom and I put you to bed."

Cory began to blush as well. "Oh." There were so many feelings in just that one syllable. She walked to her dresser and pulled out a pair of matching boxers and put them on. Without a glance at Danny, since she was so embarrassed, she just made her way into the kitchen to fix the coffee. She noticed that Danny had made up the couch.

While the coffee was percolating, she walked into the living room and her CD player. Scanning over her CD's, she selected one and put it in.

Danny walked back into the living room, just as the first beats of Enter Sandman by Metallica was beginning to play. "Metallica, Feebie. Got some suppressed rage?"

Cory giggled. "It fits my mood."

Danny smiled. "Okay." He walked over to her CD collection and it surprised him. She had every single musical genre and it was all alphabetized by genre. "Hey, Cory! Why is your CD collection sorted by genre?"

Cory walked into the living room, holding two cups of coffee. "Makes it easier to find what I want to listen to."

Danny just looked at her then went back to looking at the CD's. "Elvis, The Beatles, Guns and Roses, Garth Brooks, George Strait, Rammstein, The Prodigy, Riverdance? Is there anything you don't listen to?"

"Um…gangsta rap. I like rap, just not the gangsta variety. See anything you like?"

"Only half of your collection. Are your movies done the same way?"

"Of course! I'm a very organized person."

Danny just looked at her and rolled his eyes. "There is such a thing as being too organized."

"Uh-uh. You can never be too organized." Cory just started laughing at that point. The she stopped and listened to the music a second. "This is my favorite song by Metallica!" she squealed when The Unforgiven came on.

"New blood joins this earth

And quickly he's subdued

Through constant pained disgrace

The young boy learns their rules

With time the child draws in

This whipping boy done wrong

Deprived of all his thoughts

The young man struggles on and on he's known

A vow unto his own

That never from this day

His will they'll take away"

As the chorus came on, Danny just looked at Cory in awe. He couldn't believe she knew all the words.

"This is my favorite part," Cory said as the second verse started.

"They dedicate their lives,

To running all of his

He tries to please them all

This bitter man he is

Throughout his life the same

He's battled constantly

This fight he cannot win

A tired man they see no longer cares

The old man then prepares

To die regretfully

That old man here is me"

Danny was just sitting there in shock. He couldn't believe that she was still singing and singing it very well.

Cory stopped singing. "Come on. Don't tell me you never sang along with these songs! I know the whole CD. I listen to it so often that I had to burn me a couple of new copies because I wore out the CD's."

"No comment. I'm just going to listen to you."

Cory continued to sing along with the CD. Danny was truly impressed. He never knew that someone could learn the words to all of the songs on one CD.

Finally, Cory got tired again and decided to go back to bed. She was just leery about going back to sleep and the nightmare. "Danny? Would just hold me until I fall asleep? The prospect of having that dream again scares me."

"Sure." Danny turned off the lights and followed Cory back to her room. They lay down in the bed and Danny held her until they both fell asleep.

Danny woke up first. He lay in bed, enjoying the feel of Cory in his arms. "I would die to protect her." Danny just thought about Ortiz and how he planned to prevent him from hurting Cory any further.

Cory woke up to the feel of Danny stroking her hair. She smiled peacefully. She had enjoyed a dreamless sleep in Danny's arms.

"Buona mattina, Bella. How did you sleep?"

Cory stretches and opened her eyes. "Good. What about you?"

"Good. I guess we should get up and get ready for work. Are you going to tell your boss about the threats?"

Cory sighed. She was trying to forget about Ortiz. "I have to. He'll insist that I have 'round the clock protection. I hate that."

Danny looked down at Cory and gently lifted her chin with his fingers. "Bella. I know, but I don't want anything to happen to you. Mac's insisting that I have protection, too. I'll be careful if you will be."

Cory nodded her head. "Fine. I'd better get up and take a shower. I have to get ready for work." Cory got out of bed, grabbed some clothes from her closet and went into the bathroom.

Danny just lay in the bed, trying to figure out his feelings. He was still lying there 15 minutes later when Cory walked out of the bathroom with wet hair. She was carrying a hairdryer. He looked at her with a question in his eyes.

She smiled as she answered. "It takes about 30 minutes to dry my hair. I figured that I would dry it in here and let you take a shower."

Danny was grateful. He walked into the bathroom and immediately smelled the fruity scent of her shampoo. He inhaled deeply, realizing how much he associated the scent with Cory. When the shower was steamy he stepped in and began to wash himself off. Unasked for, the knowledge that Cory had just been standing in the same spot crept into his head. Sighing in frustration, he turned the tap to cold and hurried to finish his shower.

Both finished getting ready and headed out for work. Danny insisted on going to Cory's office with her, to make sure that she was okay. He told her that he would call Flack to come pick her up. Once he walked out of the FBI headquarters, he realized that both Flack and Lindsay had the day off. "Damn. I don't want disturb them. I know what they must be doing right now! I should be okay. I'll just walk to the subway and take that to work. There will be plenty of people around me at all times."

Danny started towards the subway, whistling in happiness, not realizing that he was being followed. He got on the subway and looked at the mixture of people there. Even to his jaundiced eye he noticed how many people of many different cultures were in New York. In his car alone, it looked that at least 7 different nationalities of people were represented.

He got off at his stop and made his way into the lab. The first person he saw was Mac. "Hey, Mac! Did you get anything from the evidence?"

Mac just nodded his head, somberly. "Nope. Ortiz is very thorough. No DNA, no fingerprints. Nothing. We might have a chance of matching the marker that was used to draw the crosshairs, but we have to have something to compare it to first. It's a very common marker."

Danny felt his good mood drop a little. "Damn. I was hopin' for a miracle. I dropped Cory off at her office and then took the subway here."

Mac cut him off, feeling his anger rising. "Damn you Danny! I told you to be careful. Taking the subway here alone is not being careful. From now on, you don't go anywhere along. Got it?"

Danny flinched at Mac's obvious anger. "Geez, boss. I got it, okay? Ya don't have to go all Marine on me!"

Mac just shook his head, letting his silence tell Danny how disappointed he was. Then he got a call. "Look, Danny. There's a DB in Little Italy. How about you take Detective Mata and Hawkes and go process the scene. Just be careful!"

"Ya got it!" Danny gathered his kit and grabbed Hawkes and made his way to the scene.

(Little Italy)

Danny loved the atmosphere in Little Italy. It reminded him of home and his Ma. When he and Hawkes got to the scene the responding officer let them in. Danny told Hawkes to take the outside and he would process the inside.

Danny was walking into the bedroom where the body was found and the next thing he knew was darkness.

A/N:

chili-peppers- I'm glad you think that it's just getting better...I've had the majority of this part of the story mapped out in my head for a while! As for being addicted...well, the first sign of recovery is admitting that you have a problem! (lol)

pnkrckprncss- don't worry about the lack of a review! I'm glad you liked the chapters! The story is really picking up now...soon I'll be done (I don't know what to think about that, but I'm thinking the final chapter total will be somewhere around 40)! Cool about going to see the Lost Prophets! Did you have fun?

tylerhiltongroupie53- I'm so sorry that I didn't disclose a warning about the cliffhanger...honestly I forgot b/c this one is such a cliffhanger! (hangs my head in shame)...I'm glad you liked it! You're welcome for him speaking Italian (I just sigh every time I think about it!) I'll warn you that for the next couple of chapters, they all seem to end on a cliffhanger!

the little corinthian- I glad you loved it! I love protective Danny, too...the drama is definitely going strong now!