Disclaimer: Not mine. And apparently I have no need for them to be because the season finale did it better than I could ever have.

A/N: So. I have hardly any motivation to write after seeing the season finale, it was just that good. So please review and tell me it's not completely pointless for me to carry on. If I get lots of encouragement, there will be another chapter posted soon. If I don't, well, there will probably be another chapter anyway, but I do appreciate reviews!

Dear diary, what a day it's been.
Dear diary, it's been just like a dream.
Woke up late. Wasn't where I should have been.
For goodness sake what's happening to me?
Write lightly, yours truly, dear diary.

It was cold outside my door.
So many people by the score.
Rushing around so senselessly.
They don't notice there's people like me.
Write lightly, yours truly, dear diary.

They don't know what they're playing.
They've no way of knowing what the game is.
Still they carry on doing what they can.
Outside me, yours truly, dear diary.

It's over. Will tomorrow be the same?
I know that they're really not to blame.
If they weren't so blind then surely they'd see.
There's a much better way for them to be.
Inside me, yours truly, dear diary.

Stella wandered into the lab with a grin on her face. She had spent her night with Flack at the local billiard hall, with him teaching her how to play. She could hit the ball at least, and she wasn't too bad, but there was no fun in letting Flack know that. She had thoroughly enjoyed him placing his hands on top of hers to guide her when she hit the ball. She felt a smile creep over her face at the thought. If she hadn't had to work early this morning, she was sure the night would have lasted longer. But looking on the bright side she was working with him today.

Stella wandered down to Mac's office to get her assignment. She was surprised to find him absent, and decided to wait for him at his desk. Even that man had things to do outside of work Stella reminded herself.

She was waiting patiently for Mac when his phone rang. She looked at the line and started to get a little worried. It was ringing on the case only line, where the dispatchers would let Mac know of a crime scene. And he wasn't here to take the call.

She picked up the phone and answered. "Detective Taylor's office, Detective Bonasera speaking."

Stella listened patiently to the report and recorded the information on a pad of paper. Neighbors heard disturbance, police took a look, found signs of struggle and blood on the floor. Stella thanked the dispatcher and hung up. Then she looked down at the address she had just scrawled out. It looked very familiar.

Stella's eyes widened as something clicked into place. She whipped out her cell phone and called Mac hurriedly. Pick up, pick up! Come on Mac! Where are you?

"Hey Stella, sorry I'm late, I got held up in traffic. I'm just walking down the hallway now; I'll see you in a moment."

He hung up before Stella had a chance to say anything other than "Okay."

She fretted as she waited for him to come into view. She ambushed him as he rounded the corner to step into his office. She shoved the piece of paper into his face, startling him.

"Stella, what are you doing?" Mac said, bewildered by Stella's actions.

"Just look at this Mac. Look at the address."

He looked at it, and clued in much faster than Stella had. "That's-"

"Danny's apartment. And Lindsay is with him." Stella finished. "Mac, what do we do?" She looked at him, and she saw he was as scared as she was.

---------------

It had been a long ride to Danny's apartment for Flack. He had gotten the message over the police radio while taking a coffee break. He left, giving the cashier a twenty for a three-dollar coffee and running out the door. The lights and siren were on before Flack had realized he had made it to his SUV. He just couldn't understand what had happened.

Flack ran into Mac and Stella waiting for the elevator up to Danny's apartment. They all had the feeling of dread that accompanied them when an officer was involved. Mac felt the same as he had when he had heard about Stella's officer involved shooting. The feeling as though your stomach had made a sudden drop to your knees – a feeling of helplessness.

The three detectives stepped up to Danny's apartment, guns drawn. They weren't taking any chances. Flack stepped into the apartment first, through the open door, and the sight that he met nearly made him drop his gun and give up then and there. Mac and Stella followed with the same reaction.

"What the hell happened here?" Flack wondered aloud, voice shaking.

There were upturned chairs and dishes smashed around the place. There were rugs thrown around and overturned, but most prominent, and worst of all, was the trail of blood drops leading to the door, ending in a small amount of blood that had been smeared, by the looks of it, with a hand.

Mac walked into the bedroom and saw Danny's glasses, lying broken beside the bed. "Ok. We need to grab samples of this blood, bag any other evidence we can find, and do it as fast as possible. This is a kidnapping, but I don't think they want money out of it. I think they want both of our CSI's dead."

Mac's voice sobered up Stella and Flack quickly. Their friend's lives were hanging in the balance. And all they could do was process the scene as best as they could.

"I'll take the bedroom, Stella; you take the main room, Flack; look around for a sign of anything in the other rooms. Bag whatever you find. But be quick and thorough. We don't have a lot of time."

The three detectives got to work quickly, each wondering if they would ever see their friends alive again.

---------------

Danny woke up to a startling headache. He had been hit hard by something. Everything was a little fuzzy too, and he realized that he was no longer wearing his glasses. Well, that would make things a little bit more difficult. He painfully moved his head to the side and realized his hands were handcuffed together around a pole behind him. He moved them around a little and discovered another pair of hands, wrapped around the same pole and handcuffed, just like his.

"Lindsay?" He murmured softly, grabbing the hand.

"Danny?"

"Yeah, it's me, are you okay?"

"I think so. I got hit pretty hard, but I finally got the bleeding stopped. What about you?"

"I'm okay, just a bit of a headache. Do you know where we are?"

"I haven't got a clue. Obviously some type of building that's been abandoned, but that doesn't narrow it down much."

"Do you have your phone on you?" Now that he knew Lindsay was okay, his only thought was getting out alive.

"Yeah, but the battery is dead. It's no good at all. What about you?"

"No go. It's sitting on the bar in my apartment."

Lindsay made a noise of frustration at the predicament they were in. "What's their point? Who are they and why did they take us here? What do they want?"

Danny didn't answer. He knew who sent them, although he never did get a look at their faces, and he also knew that all they wanted was for him to be dead, which didn't explain why they were still alive right now. After he had seen the two masked men in his apartment, he had thought he was never going to wake up again. "I don't know." Was all he said aloud.

"Are we going to make it out of here?" Came Lindsay's voice, and Danny's heart broke when he realized she was crying.

"Yeah. Of course we're going to make it out of here. We're both strong, we're cops, and we've got the whole crime lab looking for us by now. We'll get out of here."

Danny shuffled around the pole to get as close to Lindsay as he could. She leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder, just like she had that day at the courthouse. That seemed like an eternity ago. Danny closed his eyes and tried to remember how good that had felt, knowing that their worries were over, that they had a chance at a happy life – together. All of that seemed to be a lifetime ago and Danny wondered if he would ever feel so carefree again. He opened his eyes and looked once more at his surroundings. He focused on Lindsay's head on his shoulder, trying to block out everything else. He was going to get them out of here. Somehow, he was going to get Lindsay out of here. That's all that mattered to him anymore – making sure she was safe.

---------------

Stella sat in front of Adam, staring at him intently. Any moment now, he would read out the results to the blood test and tell them who it belonged too.

"And the blood belongs to – Lindsay." Adam answered. Instead of being calmed down, Stella's heart raced faster.

"Wait, there's another donor. It's XY, and it doesn't match Danny."

Stella's head shot up when she heard Adam say this. Could it be possible that their suspect had cut themselves? If it didn't match Danny, then who could it match? It had to be the suspect's!

"Run it through AFIS Adam, and let's hope we get something." Stella said, hope creeping into her.

"You bet."

"I'll wait here for the results if you don't mind."

"Stella, it could take hours, are you sure you want to wait?"

"I'm sure. This is the only thing that matters. It looks like we're drawing a blank on everything else. All we've got is that there are signs of a struggle. Danny and Lindsay fought hard against their attacker. It makes sense that he could have been cut." Stella looked skyward and mumbled a quick prayer that the results would show something. Please, let there be a match to whoever did this. They need to be caught. Please.

Hours later, the computer had finally popped up with a blank No Match staring at them, laughing silently. Stella shook, as she tried not to cry. This case was turning sour quickly. If they didn't find something probative soon, they were out of options.

"Run it through the other databases as well. Missing persons, anything. It's a shot in the dark, but we have to try."

Adam nodded, knowing that she was unwilling to accept the most likely probability. Stella thanked Adam and turned to leave, but was stopped abruptly when she heard a beep from the computer that could only mean one thing. Stella couldn't believe her eyes. In the city employee's record, there it was. Match Found.

---------------

Jason Flack looked at himself in the mirror and was disgusted by what he saw. His left eye had swollen up and was turning a dark shade of purple, and his nose was still bleeding slightly, swollen to almost double its normal size. He looked like a clown with a balloon for a nose. Time to put his EMT skills to use.

He walked over to his fridge, grabbed a beer and an icepack and threw himself down in front of his television. Hopefully this would heal soon, before too many people saw him like this.

He felt guilty. He had gotten himself into this predicament and deserved worse than the bloody nose and black eye. He deserved a blow to the head to wake him up. He deserved a slow, painful death. He blinked back the tears from his eyes. He wasn't a horrible guy. Really. He was a nice guy who had gotten into some trouble. All he had wanted to do was run with the big guys for a few days. Show them that he was tough enough. He had taken a lot of begging to get into that poker game. And then he had lost over ten grand.

Jason grimaced. He had always gone through life being overshadowed by his father, a decorated police officer, and then his older brother Don, a star cop right out of high school. He was always second-best, and it had gotten a little annoying. It wasn't like he was really bitter about it, but it did get to him every now and then. So, when he was given the opportunity to run with the big guys, he took it. It was a chance to feel big and important.

But he should have known better. He owed Sassone over ten grand and had no way to pay it off. So what did he do? He gave him information and help. He gave him the spare key to Danny's apartment, and helped him grab Danny and Lindsay. He helped kidnap them to save his own skin. And he felt unbelievably guilty.

Danny was like a brother to him, and Lindsay was a friend. He had betrayed not only them but his family as well when he had given in to Sassone. He knew now that he was being used, that the poker game had probably been fixed to get him to lose. All Sassone wanted was his ties to Danny. And he had gotten it.

Jason shut off the TV and stared at the blank screen. All he wanted to do was put an end to the guilt. He didn't want to think or feel anymore. He just wanted it to be over. He walked over to his gun case and stared at it. He could do it. One pull of the trigger, and it would all be over. It would be quick and virtually painless. Jason entered in the code and pulled out a gun. He stood there, staring at it for a long time. Then he jumped when his phone rang.

"Flack." He answered, trying to keep his voice steady.

"What the fuck did you do with them? I knew something was going to happen. I tried to warn Danny. I thought you'd help him. I thought you'd keep him safe. Instead I find out you were behind it. You did this to him!"

Jason heard the man saying this to him and got angry. "I didn't do this you bitter old man! You did it! You caused this whole thing, starting from when Danny was only a kid. You tormented that kid so bad, it's a wonder he turned out as good as he did. This is all on you. And you were the one who agreed to the hit on him! Don't turn the blame onto me!"

"Sure, blame me all you want, Jase. Face the facts. I may have put out the hit, but I had no intention of seeing it through. I called him to warn him about you. I heard you were going and figured if he knew, you could help him get out of it. He would never be taken down if it was both of you against one attacker. I tried to save him!"

Jason slumped down, all fight gone. "I know." He said. "I just wish I hadn't done it. I wish things had happened differently. I don't know what to do Joey. I don't know what to do. And I never expected Lindsay to be there. She's innocent. I didn't want to take her, but I didn't have a choice. I deserved the hit to the face that she gave me. And I wish she had hit me harder. Maybe then I would have stopped. Maybe I wouldn't have done it. I'm so sorry."

Joey heard the frustration in the other man's voice and knew what he was feeling. When it was your own life on the line, you acted differently. It was a rule of nature. Every human wants to live, and it takes a very selfless person to do otherwise. Joey had done the same thing several times. The only thing that kept him alive was knowing he was going to do whatever it took to keep his only son alive. He would risk his own life, doing the right thing for once.

"You can still fix this Jason. They aren't dead yet. Where are they?"

"At an abandoned warehouse in the Bronx. I don't know exactly where it is. Sonny drove. It's scheduled to be demolished tomorrow morning. Sonny thought it would be the easiest way to kill them. I just brought them there with him, and handcuffed them to a pole in the building. I wish I hadn't done it Joey. I wish I hadn't done it." Jason broke, and started sobbing.

Joey heard Jason's distress and felt softened by it. Very rarely did he understand what it felt like to be in a position like that, but here he was, standing in a position that was completely identical. Someone you cared for, being put to death because of your mistake. It was a feeling that could be rivaled by nothing else. As Joey stood there, listening to the sobs on the other end of the phone, he felt his emotions well up. Going after Sonny would mean death. If he were to successfully take down Sonny Sassone, and thus cripple the Tanglewood Boys, he would lose his life. There was no doubt about it.

Joey looked down the hall at his sleeping wife, and at the family portrait that was hanging on the wall over her side of the bed. The previous happy family that now was only a memory. Louie was still alive, and Danny was smiling. For once, he was going to put family above everything else. For once, he was going to do the right thing. He would spend his last hours making sure that Danny would never have to go through something like this again. It was going to be the last thing he ever did, but that wasn't going to stop him.

"Call the NYPD and leave an anonymous tip about the kidnapping. Tell them what you know about the abandoned warehouse. They'll find it. Hopefully in time. I'm not giving up on them."

With that, Joey hung up, grabbed his coat and walked out the front door, trying not to wake his wife.

---------------

"New York police Department, how can I help you?"

"I have some information on the kidnapping of Detectives Danny Messer and Lindsay Monroe."

---------------

"Mac!"

"What is it Stella?"

"We got a hit on the blood from Danny's apartment. There were two donors. One matched Lindsay, and the other was an unknown male."

"This can't be right."

Mac frowned down at the name written on the piece of paper. "I can't believe this. Jason Flack?"

A/N2: I'm thinking about wrapping this up, this will probably be the final dramatic event of the story. My guess is another chapter or two plus an epilogue. Let me know what you think!