A/N: Believe it or not, I wrote this scene before watching "Hung Out to Dry".
Chapter 20: Dreamweaver
Ooh dream weaver
I believe you can get me through the night
Ooh dream weaver
I believe we can reach the morning light
Fly me high through the starry skies
Maybe to an astral plane
Cross the highways of fantasy
Help me to forget today's pain
Lindsay walked out of Mac's office feeling drained. The last thing he said before she walked out the door was, "Talk to him, Lindsay. If he's your friend, you have to trust him. And if you can't, you'd better find out now."
Knowing Danny was out of the building by now, she risked going to the locker room and grabbing a change of clothes and her toiletries for a shower. She stood under the boiling hot shower and sobbed as hard as she could, a trick learned in a house full of men impatient with female emotions. When she was finished, she felt clean and cleaned out. She walked out of the shower area, rubbing her hair dry.
"I'm going to wash that man right outta my hair…" caroled Stella, coming up behind Lindsay and making her jump. Never one to miss a song cue, Lindsay chimed in with the next line of melody and they shimmied a little impromptu two-step through the locker room as they finished it off.
"God, I haven't done that in a while! Yay, high school musicals!" Stella laughed. "Were you Nellie?"
"Yeah, my last year. What about you?"
"No way! I was a sailor."
Lindsay laughed in surprise, "Not a nurse?"
"All-girls school and I was tall," Stella's explanation was clipped, but all Lindsay needed. She had heard rumours about Stella's unhappy childhood, and knew that it was not a topic for discussion.
"Better songs for the guys, anyway," she offered, and Stella shot her a laughing nod.
"Hey, come have something to eat with me," she offered.
"I should go home."
"No, you shouldn't. Come on, Lindsay. I've gotten used to having someone to share with. I eat too fast when I'm on my own."
"Where's Don tonight?" Lindsay said it casually, but with a little flicker of interest. Gossip was prime currency in the lab, and she was severely in the red, as she didn't usually have much to pass on.
Stella's face lit up. "I kicked him off to play with his friends. I think he and Danny were going to have a beer, which will lead to pizza, which will lead to more beer, if I know them. And I do. So I'm foot-loose tonight. Are you going to be responsible for letting me run free and terrorize New York?"
"Oh, I'd hate to have that on my conscience! Okay, where are we going?"
"I am craving mu hsu pork. Don hates Chinese – the food, not the people. There's a great restaurant just down the street. Superior wor wonton soup, lettuce wraps, egg rolls… I just have to grab something from my office before we go."
"I'm sold! I'll wait for you here."
As Stella made her way through the lab, she heard a call go out, "Officers in pursuit, suspect is heading for the roof." She automatically logged the address in her head, and realized it was just around the corner from the station itself; in fact it was the bar cops spent most of their off-hours at. More significantly, though, she recognized the first voice as Flack's. What were they doing pursuing a suspect? They were supposed to be floating in beer and pizza.
Her heart stuttered as she heard Danny's voice, "Stop, you idiot! Flack, go the other way – he's heading across the rooftops. Stop!"
Then her heart stopped all together as she heard Flack gleefully whoop, "Messer, you madman!" There was a pause; she could hear people running, movement, then Flack's voice: "Messer! Messer? Shit! Call a bus! Officer down! Officer down! Dammit, Messer! DANNY!" Stella was running almost before she heard the scream.
Lindsay had been standing at the window, looking out at the skyline Danny had shown her so proudly. She heard the whistles, the running feet, coming from the bar around the corner. She caught a glimpse of a man running, leaping to catch a fire escape ladder, then two other men in close pursuit. The figures swarmed up the ladder; the first slight, obviously young one managing to stay a hair's breadth in front of the one that Lindsay recognized was Danny.
As the station house was several stories higher than the buildings the men were on, she had a great view of the chase. Danny was going full out, as only he could, but the suspect was young and agile and stupid enough to try to roust a bar full of slightly lubricated cops. He wasn't going to stop if the doors of hell opened in front of him.
In fact, when the roof ran out, he hesitated for about one moment, looking over his shoulder to see Danny catching up. Lindsay was at the right angle to see him steel himself, then leap right off one roof, arms outspread to catch the one next to it. Danny didn't hesitate even that one second. Arms and legs windmilling furiously, he went straight off the roof and disappeared from Lindsay's sight.
Lindsay could hear herself screaming, but couldn't feel anything. She turned when Stella ran in from the lab and threw herself in the other woman's arms. "Danny." It was the only word Stella could understand. Lindsay collapsed, taking Stella down with her.