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: Okay, Okay...Back to the drama! I hope everyone liked the fluff--there's some good fm radio fluff in here as well! As always, please, please, please R&R! My muse loves the attention! And my muse has been kinda moody lately, so any extra reviews are welcome!

Chapter 35.

Discoveries

Flack woke up early the next morning, content with Lindsay asleep in his arms. "I can't live without her. I want to spend my life with her. She's the one. I can do this. I know that she will not say no."

Flack grinned as he pulled Lindsay closer to him, content just to keep her in his arms. Eventually, Lindsay began to wake up. She smiled as she felt his arms around her. "Good morning, Linds."

"Good morning, Don. We'd better get up or we'll be late for work."

Flack mock pouted. "But I don't wanna get up!"

Lindsay laughed. "Come on. I like the fact that we both have jobs."

Flack put his hand on her arm as she went to get out of the bed. "Linds?"

Lindsay looked at the serious expression in his eyes. "Yeah?"

Flack took a breath. He was trying to gather his courage. "Do you want to move in with me?"

Lindsay felt her eyes grow wide at the question while her heart jumped in happiness. "Yes. I'd love too. Oh, Don!" Lindsay threw herself into his arms and surrendered to his kiss.

(Cory's Apartment)

Cory had woken up about 5 am. She lay in Danny's arms, thinking. "What am I doing? I know that Danny loves me and I love him, but if I don't back off things are going to get messy when I have to go back to Dallas. Damn! Why do I get to find a great guy only to have to lose him?" Cory felt tears well up in her eyes. Carefully she extracted herself from Danny's arms and went to take a shower.

She thought long and hard while in the shower and came to no conclusion on what to do. "I feel so torn. I'll just take one day at a time."

After getting out of the shower, she quickly got dressed for work. Danny was still asleep on her bed. She smiled as she watched him sleep, completely at peace. Quickly she wrote a short note to him. She placed it on the pillow beside him and turned to go to work.

(FBI Headquarters)

Cory walked into headquarters in a somber mood. She was wearing a black suit with low heels. She made her way to her office, a little restless. She was working on the report of her kidnapping when Agent Michaels knocked on her door.

Cory smiled a little when she saw him. "Good morning, Agent Michaels. When do we get to raid Ortiz's apartment?"

"That's why I'm here. We are getting ready to leave. Are you ready?"

"Let me grab my gun."

Cory and Agent Michaels walked out of her office.

(Ortiz's Apartment, Spanish Harlem)

Cory stayed in the background as FBI agents secured the area. Once they called the all clear, she snapped on a pair of latex gloves, a habit she had picked up from Danny. She went straight to the bedroom.

At first glance, the bedroom seemed normal, but she was not one to take things at face value. She decided to start by going through the dresser.

Ten minutes later, all of the drawers were empty and she had not found anything. Cory had a feeling that she had missed something. She went back to the drawers. She took the drawers out of the chest and had some luck with the bottom drawer.

As she pulled it out, she noticed that it was a lot deeper than it appeared to be. "Agent Michaels! I think I may have found something."

Agent Michaels walked in behind her. "What is it?"

He watch was Cory extracted the drawer with some force. "I think this has a false bottom." She knocked on the bottom of the drawer, trying to find out how to open it. Finally she found a small catch in one of the corners. She pressed the button down and the wood lifted up a small bit.

"Jackpot!" Cory was gleeful as she lifted the wood out of the drawer. The drawer was full of pictures. Carefully she began to withdraw the pictures from the drawer.

She looked at each picture as she withdrew it and was upset to see how many of the pictures were of her. "I guess he really was stalking me. Most of these pictures are from here in New York but I do see a couple from Dallas. Damn, I never even knew I was being followed. Twisted SOB." Finally she just stopped looking at the photos; she just put them into evidence bags.

When she was done with the drawer, she began to look in the closet and under the bed. Both places she found more photographs. She put all of them into evidence bags. She signed in frustration. "This is unbelievable. I feel so violated."

Agent Michaels looked at Cory. "Let me work on this for a bit. Go take a break."

Cory didn't even argue. She felt sick at her stomach. "Thanks." She walked out of the apartment and stood beside the door. She felt her cell phone vibrate in her pocket. When she looked at the caller ID she saw that it was Danny. "Bonjour, mon cherie. Did you sleep well?"

"Good morning to you to, bella. I did sleep very well, but you were gone when I woke up."

"I know. I'm sorry, but I had to get to work. I'm helping to gather evidence right now. It's been an enlightening day."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing I can discuss right now. Listen. I should get back to work. Are you staying at my apartment until I get home?"

"I'm gonna go home and get some clothes, but I'll be back. See you tonight, bella."

"See you later, Danny."

Cory hung up the phone with a smile on her face. As she put the phone back into her pocket, she walked back into the apartment.

As she walked back in she heard Agent Michaels call out her name. She walked back into the bedroom. "What's going on?"

"I found something quite interesting. These are all pictures of Ortiz committing murder. I also found some pictures that included Travis in them. Looks like he was an active participant in the gangs' activities."

Cory looked over his shoulders at the pictures of Travis. "I knew there was more to his story than him trying to protect his family." Cory got a determined look in her eyes. "I can't wait to talk to him again. But that's going to have to wait until I talk to Ortiz."

Agent Michaels nodded. "Agent Reid? We have enough evidence with these pictures to convict Ortiz for killing Agent Hogan."

Cory looked confused. "Do you mean that there were pictures of Ortiz killing James?" Cory's voice was low, almost deadly.

Agent Michael looked at her. "Yes. Agent. Cory. Don't do anything stupid. I know you want make him pay, but do it by the book."

Cory drew a shuddering breath. She knew he was right, but the white-hot rage she felt was almost uncontrollable. "Okay. I'll go by the book, but you'd better have someone in the room with me so I don't try to kill him." Cory stalked out of the room.

Several hours later, the forensics team was done processing. Cory just felt sick at her stomach. In addition to the pictures, they had found videos detailing all of the killings, including James, Michael and Armando's. Cory had been unable to watch any of the videos.

When she got back to FBI headquarters she walked to the bathroom and threw up. After she was done, she was standing at the sink, splashing cold water on her face when Lydia walked in. "Hey, Cory. Are you okay?"

Cory looked at Lydia in the mirror. "I'll be fine. I'm just a little disgusted right now. Ortiz is one sick bastard. And he only wants to talk to me. Me! I don't know if I can handle it right now. I might snap. That scares me, Lydia. I've never wanted to kill someone so much."

Lydia nodded in the mirror. "I know. You're strong, Cory. I have no doubt that you can keep your temper. Hell, you didn't kill him when you had the chance! That says something. You don't want to be the one who kills him. Hang on to that. You'll be okay."

Cory smiled. "Thanks. I needed to hear that. With everything that has happened in the last couple of weeks, I'd begun to doubt my detachment. Thanks for the pep talk. I need to go see what the forensics team has gotten from the evidence."

Lydia said good-bye as Cory walked out of the bathroom.

(FBI forensics lab)

Cory walked in to the forensics lab feeling a little bit of déjà vu. The lab was very similar to the NYPD crime lab. She shook her head, trying to clear it. She walked up to one of the techs to see what kind of evidence that they had bagged.

"Hi, Jim. How's it going?"

"Agent Reid. The team from the apartment brought in a lot of evidence. I sent all of the biologicals over to be tested for DNA. I've got all of the photographs in here. There are a lot of photographs."

Cory looked on. "How many total?"

Jim looked at her. "I've logged 767 so far and I've still got three boxes to go. Right now, I'm just trying to scan them into the system and log them into the evidence log. It's going to take a couple of more hours before I gotten that done. Once I get that done, I can start to sort them into some kind of order." Jim paused. "Um, Cory? I don't know how to say this, but of all the pictures I've looked at, three-fourths of them are of you."

Cory nodded. "I know. Thanks for the info. Call me if you get anything new." Cory walked out of the room. She paused outside for a second. "Screw this. I'm going home. They'll call me if they need anything." With that decision, she walked back to her office, grabbed her purse and began the journey home.

(Cory's apartment)

After Cory got home, she took a shower, changed into a pair of shorts and a short-sleeved shirt. She decided to go sit on her fire escape to think. This was where Danny found her two hours later.

Cory jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Quickly she turned her head. "Danny?"

"Cory? You okay? I've been calling your name for two minutes." Danny looked concerned.

"Sorry. I was lost in thought. Why are you here?"

"I was supposed to come over tonight…Are you sure you're okay?" Danny looked into her eyes and all he saw was desolation.

Cory just closed her eyes. "It's been a difficult day. We found pictures and videos of Ortiz killing James." Cory opened her eyes and they were awash with tears. "I don't get it Danny. Why me? Why James? Now….now I feel so much hate, rage and pain. I'm scared."

Danny wrapped his good arm around her. "Cory. He can't hurt you anymore. If he doesn't know that after you beat him up, then he's just stupid."

Cory shook her head. "It's not that, Danny. I'm scare of what I'm feeling. I should have killed him. I had the chance to rid this world of a mad dog and I didn't take it. I choked."

Danny looked at her, understanding a little of what she was feeling. "Cory, you didn't kill him because you are not a killer. You did the right thing."

Cory smiled sadly. "Why does the right thing feel so wrong? Am I being selfish? I really don't want to talk to him, but….I'm the only one he'll talk to." Cory rolled her eyes. "Why me?"

Danny rocked her back in forth trying to comfort her. "He's just playing mind games. He thinks that if you are the one to interrogate him, somehow he'll get you to break and get out on a technicality."

Cory looked at Danny in shock. "How do you know that?"

Danny redirected the question. "Did I ever tell you about Sonny Sassone?"

Cory looked up, confusion in her eyes. "What?"

"Sonny Sassone was the one to beat up Louie. He's the one that put him into a coma. I wanted to kill him, much the same way that you want to kill Ortiz. Mac stopped me. Now he's in prison for murdering a boy back when we were kids. Trust me, Cory. You did the right thing. If you had killed him, he would have won. You would have been eternally changed from the person who are now."

Cory looked at Danny and tried to process what he had told her. Slowly she leaned into him and just let his arms chase away the pain.

A/N:

the little corinthian- Glad you liked! I actually updated it while RSRD was on (during commericial breaks of course). I hope you found something to tape it on! I can't wait for it to come out on DVD...All Danny, all the time:)

tylerhiltongroupie53- You're welcome. I'm still very much a DL fan, but I love writing fm radio! There are definately happy times ahead for fm radio! And Darn Cory for being so independent! All I can tell you is that the water will be really choppy for a while for them, but things will work out somehow!

pnkrckprncss- Things may fall apart, but they will not stay apart! I swear, even if I have to fight my muse to the death, I will prevail:D Thanks!

axellia- I'm glad you finally got a chance to read it! I must say, I'm still waiting on an update from you (hint, hint...I know, It's only been a day, but well...) Why were you in a mental coma? Yup...Sean Connery, best Bond ever...I'm not sure about the new guy (first of all, he's blonde...but I will reserve judgement until I do see Casino Royale) Cory will definately have a couple of different shots at Ortiz (although, sadly, none of them involve physical violence). I know that The Birds is my fav horror movie of all time (it's tied with Texas Chainsaw) and even the thought of a flock of birds flying anywhere next to me gives me the chills!

chili-peppers- I'm glad you liked the fluff...It's going to be in short supply for a couple of chapters (at least the CoryDanny fluff)...Merci!

note to aphina (when you get to this chapter)-Welcome! I love new reviewers!