Disclaimer: Not mine. They belong to the brilliant writers of CSI: NY. Song lyrics are from the Moody Blues.
A/N: So, I am a little disheartened, the season is coming to a close with the season finale this Wednesday. But from the clips I have seen, it is going to be one hell of an episode. It'll probably make this story seem like crap. Oh well.
When the sun goes down,
And the clouds all frown,
Night has begun for the sunset.
Shadows on the ground;
Never make a sound,
Fading away in the sunset.
Night has now become
Day for everyone.
Danny was happy. There was no other word for it. Well, maybe ecstatic was another word. He watched the door to the bathroom intently. In a moment, Lindsay would walk out of there, ready to go home. And where was home? At his apartment. She had agreed to stay with him while she recovered. He couldn't wipe the grin off his face. Yesterday, he didn't know whether or not Lindsay was going to survive. Now, she was coming home with him.
Just then, Lindsay stepped out of the bathroom, moving a little slower than normal, but otherwise okay. She took one look at Danny and nearly ran back into the bathroom. He looked really good. He had finally showered and cleaned up, and now was staring at her with those bright blue eyes. She started to feel warm all over, just thinking of what might happen in the next few days.
Danny stepped over to her and grasped her hand firmly in his.
"Let's go home." Was all he said, but it was enough.
An hour later, Danny was finally settling down. He had made up a room for Lindsay to stay in, with the pullout couch for a bed. He hoped that he wouldn't need to use it, but it was there just in case. He glanced over at Lindsay, who was sitting on his couch, watching the Yankees game. He had never met a girl who was so into sports before. He ran his eyes over her, and thanked all the gods he knew and even the ones he didn't that Lindsay Monroe wanted him. How he got so lucky, he didn't know, but he was sure thankful.
When Danny's cell phone rang, he reluctantly left the sight of Lindsay to answer it.
"Messer."
"Danny, it's Mac. I was hoping you could help me out. We recovered the DVD from the crime scene, but it is encoded. This is a type of code no one at the lab has seen the likes of before. I was hoping you could take a look, and possibly discover something, before we have to turn it over to the Feds."
"Sure Mac. Do you want me to come into the lab?"
"If you could. Lindsay would be welcome to come as well. Everyone wants to see her, they were all worried."
"Sure Mac, we'll be over there in an hour or so, once we get ready."
"See you then."
They both hung up, and Danny was left wondering what code had been used that was so impossible to decipher. And if he could understand it, what would he find? That DVD had obviously been worth killing for. Did he really want to know what was on it? He looked over at Lindsay once more. She had almost died recovering that DVD. Of course he wanted to know what was on it. He wanted to put those SOB's away for a very long time and throw away the key. And the key was that DVD.
As Danny hung up with Mac, he noticed the light was blinking, telling him he had messages. He looked at the caller ID for them. Dad. His thumb hesitated over the button, but then he pushed the one next to it instead. A message popped up. Deleting message. Danny had no wish to talk to his father. He didn't want to hear what he had to say. He didn't care.
---------------
Sonny Sassone was pondering his options. He had to kill Danny Messer. But how to do it? And should he do it personally, or hire a hit? It would be easier to do it personally; obviously it would be done right. But if he was implicated, this lazy house arrest he was given would be traded for much harder living quarters. And should he kill the girl? That was the other big question to be answered.
Sonny sat down in front of his fireplace, and stared into the empty pit. It had been pure genius to poison Figlioni with peanuts. Absolute genius. He had to come up with something good for Messer. Just then, a light bulb flashed on. He had it. This was to be unrivaled by any murder he had committed in his past. It was brilliant.
---------------
Joey Messer couldn't sleep. He looked at his wife beside him and thought about all the things he had done to her. He had beaten her, yelled at her, smacked her, and more, yet she was still here. Why? Why didn't she leave? Joey reasoned that the answer had evolved. First was for their sons. Louie and Danny had meant everything to her. When Louie died, a part of his wife went with him. Joey couldn't bear to tell her that he had been behind Louie's death. Despite what it may have looked like, he loved his wife. Just like he had loved his sons. Now she stayed by him for love. And why she still loved him, only God knew.
Joey thought back to when Danny was fifteen. He was a bit of a wimp, and no good to go into the family business of organized crime. Louie was the only one good at that. But while Joey had grown farther and farther away from Danny, his mother never had. She was the one to save up enough money for him to go to a good school. She was the one who helped him move to the Flacks' house for a more stable environment. She was also the one who called Danny about Sassone's release. She still cared. So why was it every time that Joey thought about his son, he got angry? Shouldn't he feel some love? Even when Louie had been killed, he felt very little. To Joey, family was the business. If you betrayed the business, it was like treason within the family. It was the worst thing you could do.
Joey sighed and tried to take his mind off Danny's hit. There would be nobody to carry on the family name of Messer. No more organized crime from the Messers. Joey sighed. That was inevitable. Even if Danny were to live, he would never enter organized crime. It was too late in that sense. So did he really need to die?
Joey lay awake for hours, and by the time he fell asleep, the sun was already beginning to rise.
---------------
"Lindsay! It's so good to see you! I'm glad you're okay, everyone was so worried!"
Lindsay sighed as yet another person from the lab came running up to her to wring her hand and tell her how glad they were that she was okay. She had never met half of these people before. How did they even know who she was?
She figured she would have to suffer through a lot of this for the next few days though, especially when she was in the lab. She also knew that she was going to have to get over the stares everyone was giving her, as she walked through the lab, holding on tightly to Danny's hand.
Danny meanwhile, quietly surmised that there were probably a lot of angry people, realizing that Flack had won the office pool. He smirked at the thought.
After what seemed like a lifetime to the two CSI's, they made it to Mac's office, wading through all the stares and gasps following them.
Mac was all business as he saw them enter, hand in hand. He gave them a brief smile before explaining to Danny what the DVD contained.
"Neither Adam nor I could make heads or tails of it. It looks like complete gibberish to us, and obviously, we would prefer not to hand it over to the Feds. Does it make any sense to you?" Mac asked as he showed Danny a printout of the symbols.
"Yeah. It does. It's a common code used by Tanglewood. They use it because it's good. Hardly anyone can break it because there is no base language. They literally pulled lines and symbols out of thin air to make sentences and words. But the real hard part is that it is also written in shorthand. So, a code-breaker will be unable to decipher anything, as there is no basis in the English language. There are almost no equivalents to vowels, and words, even when written out after a translation can look like gibberish."
"But you can decipher this? You can understand what it says?"
"Yeah. It was a lesson I was taught at a young age. Listen Mac, I can give you the translations for all the symbols, and then you can decode it first. I don't want to get mixed up in this if it could jeopardize the case."
Mac looked down at the young man with pride. He remembered when even recently, those would not be the words that came out of Danny's mouth. He would be more concerned with revenge than what was good for the case. When Aiden had died for example, Danny had been very concerned with getting some "alone time" with the suspected killer. When he had gone and talked to IAB after the shooting of an undercover officer, even after Mac had explicitly told him not to; that was the old Danny Messer. Mac could see how much Danny had changed in the past two years, from a cocky young police officer, to a smart, street-savvy young detective.
"Thanks Danny. That's a good idea. You can go home, and get it to me whenever you can. Take your time and do it right. I don't want to see you in the office for a few days at least, spend some time with Lindsay." He gave a nod in her direction as Lindsay thanked him profusely. "Now. Both of you go. Spend some time together and recuperate. Glad to see you feeling better Lindsay." Mac said with a smile, and then walked out in the direction of the elevators.
"Come on Montana. Let's go home." Danny said, whispering it into Lindsay's ear. She giggled once, knowing what he meant, and lead him silently out of Mac's office.
---------------
Danny hit his front door hard. It had taken him and Lindsay longer than normal to make it up to his apartment door. He dug his hand into his pocket to try and find his key when Lindsay nearly made him fall over.
"Damn! The doctor said nothing strenuous for a while Montana! What are you calling this? You're nearly killing me here!" Danny pleaded with her.
"Don't ruin the fun Danny. I'm fine." She responded, giving him a little nip on his earlobe.
Danny moaned as he tried desperately to unlock his front door. It had never seemed so difficult before today.
"Aha!" Danny exclaimed when he finally swung his door open. He felt a little embarrassed actually. He was way too proud of the fact that he had opened a door. Oh well. Montana was making it rather difficult after all.
They stepped inside Danny's apartment, lips fiercely locked onto each other's eyes glossy and full of lust. Danny kicked the door shut behind them and they wandered off in the direction of the bedroom. Danny picked Lindsay up, and her legs automatically wrapped around his as he carried her over to the bed. He laid her down on top of it, and got down beside her. He had been waiting for this moment for a very long time.
"I love you." He whispered softly into Lindsay's ear.
"I know. I love you too." She replied, pulling his mouth into a kiss.
---------------
Danny was the first to wake up the next morning. He glanced around the room, squinting because he didn't have his glasses on. There were clothes thrown around the room, and the sheets were untucked, wrapped tightly around the woman lying next to him. He smiled. Last night had been absolutely amazing. He had had a taste of heaven, and knew that he wanted every morning to be like this one. He wanted to wake up every morning and see Lindsay's face, see her lying next to him. He loved her so much; he felt his heart would break if he couldn't see her for even a short time.
He rolled out of bed gently, trying not to disturb Lindsay. He saw with a pang of guilt that there was a little bit of blood on the sheets, and that it looked like Lindsay may have slightly torn her stitches. It didn't look bad, but he would have to wake her up in a few minutes to check properly.
Danny walked into the kitchen to start preparing breakfast when he saw the light on his answering machine blink. He hit the play button and wandered over to his fridge. He froze when he heard the message.
Danny, it's your father. We need to talk.
Danny stared at the phone. What the hell was his dad thinking? They hadn't spoken in years, and now, suddenly he needed to talk to Danny the moment he was implicated in anything illegal? Danny shook himself mentally and deleted the message. But there were four more just like it.
What the fuck is so important? Thought Danny. He was getting angrier by the message. First his cell phone, filling up his inbox with messages, now hi home phone. The more his father tried to contact him, the more positive Danny became that he wasn't going to like what his father was going to say.
He started when the phone rang. He picked it up quickly so as not to let it wake Lindsay. He didn't check the caller ID.
"Messer/Monroe residence."
"Daniel. Why the hell haven't you called me back?"
Damn. Is it too late to hang up? Probably. Ok Danny. Just tell him you don't want to speak to him, and maybe he'll stop calling. If you keep ignoring him, he'll keep calling, so suck it up, here we go.
"I haven't called you because I haven't wanted to speak to you. I thought that would have been made obvious."
"I don't care if you want to speak to me or not. This is important."
"I don't care what you have to say!" Danny realized he was yelling and quickly shut up, hoping Lindsay was still asleep.
"Well you need to hear it whether you like it or not. You're in danger."
"Don't you think I know that? Anytime Sassone is involved, I'm in danger. I get it, and I don't need your help."
"Don't hang up just yet. You and me both know that you're in danger, but someone else is too. Someone who, judging by the way you answered your phone, you care very deeply for. Someone who you don't want getting hurt."
Danny stayed silent. This wasn't good. This was really bad. If Lindsay was involved, she was in danger. He could handle it if he was in the line of fire, but if Lindsay was dragged into this mess because of him, then he would never forgive himself.
"What do you mean?" He said, anger creeping into his voice.
"I mean that if you don't take my advice, the next time you see her, she might be at one of your crime scenes; and not as an investigator."
"She's safe for now, what else am I supposed to do?"
"Are you sure she's safe?"
Danny felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. He dropped the phone and sprinted to the bedroom. He heard rustling in the room and felt his heart pounding. How could someone have made it into his apartment?
"Lindsay!" He yelled as he opened the door and went running into the bedroom.
"Danny! I'm getting changed! Do you mind?" Lindsay replied, terrified at Danny's reaction as he had run through the door.
"Sorry." Danny muttered. "Just something my dad said got me paranoid.
"You talked to your dad?"
"Yeah, he said-"
Danny never got to finish his sentence because at that moment, he was hit over the head, and knocked to the ground. He heard a scream, and watched momentarily as Lindsay struggled with an attacker. He felt something hit his head again, and everything went black.
A/N2: I'm sorry for all the drama, but I can't seem to control the direction this plot goes. It just wanders off in its own direction. So please review and tell me if I should try and put more control on my plots, or keep them the way they are. Hit that blue button, and I'll try and respond to all of you who review. Thanks to you readers who keep me going!