Stan glanced up as Danny and Lindsay came back up towards him and he shot them a smile. Neither of them returned the smile as they went back to work. "What did I do?" Stan asked. "Oh, come on, I didn't hurt her feeling all that badly."
Danny shot a glance over at Lindsay to see that she was looking down at her hand. "Here, let me fix that up," he said, as he moved over to her side and gently took it a hold of her wrist. "I should have taken care of this earlier."
"It's okay, Danny," she said, as she looked up at him. "We both had other things on our minds." He quickly pulled his case up next to them and took out his first aid kit. "We needed to process the scene first." She bit down on her bottom lip as he began to clean the wound. He automatically looked up at her. "I'm okay."
"You sure?" Danny asked, as he began to bandage up her hand. She shot him a smile as she nodded. "Okay." He finished bandaged her hand and looked up at her. "There, you go, almost as good as new."
"Thank you, Danny." She then shot a glance around. "So now what shall we do?"
"You guys could talk to me!" Stan grumbled, causing them to look over at him. "Give me something to do." Both CSIs smiled as they turned to shoot him a look. "What? You guys are ignoring me at the moment. And I'm not going to talk to myself. Only crazy people do that."
"Coming from a guy who was thought dead," Lindsay said, as she got up and went over to the body she had been working on.
"I was out cold!" Stan snapped, as he struggled to get to his feet. "I hit my head when I took the shot to the chest and went down."
"Stan, take it easy," Danny said, as he looked over at the man. "We don't want any trouble."
"Oh, I don't care," Stan yelled. "I'm stuck inside a vault. A freaking vault. A tomb."
"Okay, I can't do this," Lindsay whispered as she got to her feet and went over to Stan's side. Danny missed her movement and she slapped Stan. "You have to pull yourself together. I don't like small either. You panicking, isn't going to help me either. It will me worse. If I panic, there is nothing you or Danny can do to calm me down. So don't you start to freak out on us. Are we clear?"
"Crystal," Stan answer, as he put a hand on the side of his face.
"Good." Lindsay then went back to work.
"Wow, she's got a temper that one," Stan whispered to Danny as he went up to his side. "Wouldn't want to piss her off."
"And yet you did," Danny said, as he left his side to move over to Lindsay's side to see that she was crying. "Hey, it's okay." He slid an arm around her shoulder. "I would have done the same thing."
"You wouldn't have." He reached out and stopped her hands on the body, causing her to look up at him. "Danny, I just couldn't take him talking about how small it was in here. I was starting to panic again. When I start to panic, I loose control, and there's no way you can calm me down."
"Well then, I'm glad you slapped him." He shot a glance over to see that Stan had started to pace. "Don't worry about Stan, Linds. He's just trying not to think about being trapped." He reached out and traced the curve of her face with his hand. "Let's keep working on the bodies to keep our minds of being trapped. That way, we don't end up being like Stan."
"Okay," she replied, as she wiped the tears away with the back of her hands. "I wonder how the others are doing?"
"How about you call them? You could use a tiny distraction." She shot him a look, which got a smirk from him. "Go on call. I'll keep working." She got up to call, while he went back to work.
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Stella's cell phone rang as Hawkes came up to her side. Mac had gone off to talk to Flack a few minutes ago. Hawkes gave Stella a curious look as she answered it. "Hello," she called out, as she got to her feet. "Hey, Lindsay." Hawkes shot her a smile, as he came closer to her side. "How are you?"
"I'm good," she said, as she looked around the vault, noticing that Danny's eyes were on her. "We're all good."
"How are you holding up?" Stella asked as she caught sight of Flack and Mac heading towards them.
"Good." Lindsay shivered and wrapped her arms around herself, hoping that Stella didn't hear her teeth chattering.
"Bit cold in there?"
"A bit. You guys did make it this way."
"And we're sorry about that. But you guys will just have to sit close together."
"Yeah, I don't think so."
"But you got Danny." Hawkes smiled and looked up at Flack, who was smiling as well.
"Yeah, but then who's gonna sit with Stan?"
"Ah, forgot about him. How's he doing?"
"Oh, fine, up until I slapped him."
"You hit him?"
"Yeah, I kinda lost my temper." Danny smirked and went back to his work. "But he's fine."
Stella let out a sigh as she shot a glance over to see that Mac was reaching for the phone. "Mac wants to talk to you."
"Okay." Lindsay turned so that she was leaning up against the wall and shot Danny a smile. "Hey, Mac. No, we're fine. Yes, I'm sure." She then paused. "Um, okay. Danny, Mac wants to talk to you."
"All right," he said, as he got to his feet and shot a glance over at Stan. "Don't touch anything." He jogged over to her side and took the phone from her. "Thanks." He then leaned up next to her side. "Hey, Mac. Yeah, we're okay. Bit cold, tired, hungry, thirsty, feeling bit caged. Wanting to go home."
"Well it might be for a few more hours," Mac said, causing Stella to look up at him. "Seems the techs ran into another problem."
"Oh, goodie," Danny said, as he shivered. Lindsay moved closer to him and he slid an arm around her shoulder, drawing her close. "Cause it's getting really cold in here. We don't have to worry about the bodies. They'll be frozen by the time you get the vault open."
"Very funny, Danny," Mac said, as he turned to look at the others. "They're working as hard as they can."
"We know, Mac," Danny replied, as he shot a glance down at Lindsay. "We're just getting tired, that's all. It's been a little stressful in here."
"Why don't you guys take a break. We'll give you a call in about half an hour."
"Okay, we'll do that. Bye." Danny hung up the phone and looked down at Lindsay. "Mac said to take a break." She shot him a glance. "We do need to take a break, Linds."
"I know." She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall. "That does sound like a great idea."
"Than a break it shall be. Come on." He took up her hand and led her over to where Stan was pacing. "Hey, Stan give it a rest. We're going to take a break for now." They sat down next to each other. "Just remember not to touch anything."
"I promise I won't."
"Why do I have trouble believing him?" Lindsay asked Danny, as she laid her head on his shoulder. Danny hid a smile, as she closed her eyes. "Wake me up in a few minutes."
"I will, just sleep. I'll be here."
"Thanks, Danny." Lindsay slipped into a light sleep knowing that Danny would watch over her as she slept.
TBC
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