A/N: Sorry it took me so long for Chapter 7. It's kind-of hard to study for finals and write at the same time. Not to mention my internet dying for a couple of weeks.

Chapter 7: Target: Carter

May 10th, 5:37 PM, Lindsay's Apartment

Lindsay collapsed onto her couch, sighing heavily as she did so. Stella and Flack sat in chairs across from her, looking equally exhausted. They sat looking at each other, the only sound in the room being their breaths. Lindsay finally spoke, "Turn on the TV, please." She said to Stella, motioning to the remote in front of Stella. Stella nodded and flicked the TV on, the news coming on.

"Rescue crews have recovered the final body from the wreckage of the crime lab. The body has been postively identified as CSI Danny Messer. CSI Messer will be transported to St. Joseph Hospital, with Detective Mac Taylor." Lindsay stared at the screen, speechless. Danny's body was mangled and bloody. It was obvious that he wouldn't be in action for a while. Lindsay sighed a heavy sigh of relief and despair.

"Lindsay..." Stella murmured, not really believing what she was seeing. Just then there was a knock on the door. All three of the CSIs jumped, Lindsay glancing nervously at the door.

"Hide...!" Lindsay hissed to the other two, and they hurried off and disappeared into a closet. Lindsay went over to the door and peered through the eye-hole. It was Ryan, and he was holding flowers. Lindsay sighed and opened the door.

"Hi, Lindsay. I heard about Danny, and...Well, these are for you." Ryan pushed the flowers out towards Lindsay. Roses. Five absolutely stunning roses.

She took them, sniffing one tenatively. It's delicious smell filled her mind, and the next thing she knew, everything was going black.

Ryan brushed his palms together, and picked up Lindsay. He tucked the flowers into his back pocket and smirked.

Another one bites the dust.

--6:04 PM, St. Joseph Hospital, Mac's Room--

Mac breathed a sigh of relief as the nurse told him that Danny was going to be fine, and they would be moving him into Mac's room in a little while. May laid on the bed, thinking about Ryan. Somehow Mac knew that Ryan would do this, try and take them out one at a time. But he didn't expect it to happen like this, not so brutally.

A soft knock came on the door, and Stella and Flack entered.

"He got Lindsay." Were Stella's first words, cutting off Mac's greeting and bringing another cloud over Mac Taylor's day. Mac frowned and stared at them.

"Who got Lindsay?" It was more of a demand than a question, and a rhetorical question at that.

"Ryan." Stella and Flack said together. Mac nodded and closed his eyes. A knock came on the door, and two nurses and a doctor wheeled Danny in on a bed. He was asleep, but looking definitely better than on TV. Flack sat down in a chair and stared at the two of them.

"What're we gonna do, Mac? Lock ourselves in our houses and have a SWAT team guard it? On a hunch?"

"I don't know. But it's up to you two to figure out what's going on. I'll help as I can. They said I can leave tomorrow afternoon, and I can already walk some."

"It'll be good to have you back, Mac." Stella said, bringing a nod from Flack. Suddenly Danny let out an ungodly sound of a snore, and shifted slightly on his bed. All three of them stared at Danny and they shared a small laugh together.

"Mac, I don't like you being in the bed any more than you do, but...I don't want anything to happen to you. If you suddenly jump up and start helping us, Ryan will no doubt try and take you down again. And this time, he might succeed."

"I highly doubt it." Mac said confidently.

--6:37 PM, Ryan's Apartment--

Ryan watched Lindsay sleep peacefully, occasionally turning over on Ryan's couch. Ryan opened his laptop and slid into a loveseat comfortably, glancing at Lindsay before accessing the CSI database. He brought up the two kids that he had employed, and looked over their short history that the CSIs had compiled.

Ryan wasn't exactly one for brute force. He preferred subtlety, poison, contained blasts, silenced pistols. But these kids had combined both to make a deadly combination. He would have to make sure that they were more properly armed this time. He glanced at his closet, where he kept an arsenal of a magnitude that could match a SWAT team. Not in numbers, but in firepower, and versatility. Ryan almost threw up at the thought of having to put Lindsay in the hospital. Surely he could muster the strength to do it to someone else, like Danny, but not Lindsay.

He loved her too much.

--7:07 PM, CSI Lab Ruins--

Stella sat among the ruins of the crime lab, watching cars drive by absently. She sighed heavily as another car drove by. What would Mac do? she asked herself. They couldn't do anything unless Ryan actually came out and admitted openly what he had done, or they had solid proof. Her phone made her jump as it rang. She answered it cautiously.

"Hello?"

"Stella? It's Flack. I think you might want to come down to Lindsay's apartment."

"Why?"

"You'll see." He hung up. Stella frowned and headed for her car.

--7:19, Lindsay's Apartment--

Stella and Flack both stood staring at the note someone had left on Lindsay's counter. It read:

You'd be surprised how easy it is to arrest a kidnapper. -Gyro

"Gyro?" Stella asked.

"Isn't that one of the kids we brough in to question about attacking the hospital."

"Yeah, but..."

"A kidnapper. I can't believe it. We're going to get this guy for kidnapping?"

"No. It doesn't say anywhere on the note that Ryan kidnapped Lindsay, and we have no proof. He'll never let us into his apartment."

"Only way to find out is to ask." Stella nodded and followed Flack to Ryan's apartment door. Flack knocked on the door and waited patiently for Ryan to come to the door.

"Hi. Can I help you two?"

"Yeah. We need to take a look around your apartment." Flack said.

"Why?"

"You're a suspect for a kidnapping." Ryan smirked and threw his door wide, stepping aside to allow them entrance.

"Make yourselves at home." He said as they walked in.

They searched thoroughly, but there was no trace of Lindsay having ever been there. They apologized for bothering him, and left.

"That was productive." Flack commented as they stood outside Ryan's apartment.

"Well, where would he have put her? Surely he wouldn't have let her just leave."

"I don't know, but we'd better find her, or we might have the first death of our team on our hands."

"Right."