"She what?" Danny asked after fifteen minutes of shock filled silence. They all had stopped moving and were all just staring at her. They knew there was a secret, something dark, but this?!
"Your mother sold you to them," Stella repeated in a shocked and slightly disbelieving tone. Lindsay nodded.
"The men she was introducing me to," Lindsay clarified, "she was actually showing me off to them, like cattle at auction." Hawks had fallen over in the fifteen minutes that they had all sat there – not that anyone had noticed – but now he was standing and starting to pace the length of her living room.
"She was showing you off like cattle at auction!!! Her own daughter!!!" he fumed, "What was she going to sell you off to the highest bidder or something?!"
"She wasn't going to, Hawks," Lindsay pulled one hand from Stella's and Mac's grip to tuck a hair behind her ear, "She did…"
"Excuse me," now Flack was on the verge of murder, by the sounds of his voice.
"My sixteenth birthday she held a silent auction that I never knew about," Lindsay said, in the same voice she used to relay facts of a case, "I actually didn't know any of this until that night. When I was with her, after the men had left, she was always talking about clothes or something and I thought we were bonding. We had fun.
"But after my party we went back to her house and there was this guy there… the winner… and I had a little to drink, but was still sober enough to realize that this wasn't good a thing… and when he took me up stairs, my mother helped him and she told me that it was a normal thing for a girl my age and that this was expected of me… and he held me in that room with him for two days…"
"Oh, God…" Stella moaned and covered her mouth with both hands.
Mac had leaned back and closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose, fought to digest the story she told.
Flack stared at her feet, mouth open, with shock and anger still in place on her face.
Hawks was rubbing his forehead and still pacing, suppressed rage in every step.
Lindsay never turned to look at Danny until his grip tightened on her shoulder and she tempted a glance over she shoulder.
Danny's eyes were dark ice storms, their gaze into her own caused a little shiver to run down her spine and he felt it. Closing his eyes for a second and then reopening them, he focused at showing her that this didn't matter and didn't change who she was – that he still wanted to get to know her and that felt great.
Lindsay heaved a sigh/sob combo and fell completely into Danny's strong embrace. She buried her face into his neck and shoulder. She clung to him and silently begged that he not let her go – and he didn't. He held just as tightly and rubbed her hair and back. It was in this position that he asked the question that haunted them all…
"How long?"
"She set me up with a different man every week, sometimes two, until I was eighteen and wasn't required to come see her anymore," came Lindsay's mumbled reply, "she threatened to have my grandparents discredited and removed from guardianship – I didn't know it then she was bluffing, so it worked… the only people I told were those who sat on the fence…
"They were my family… after I was eighteen, I sat down and told my grandparents… gave my grandfather a heart attack… thankfully he survived… there was nothing I could do …"
"Why," Flack asked.
"The DA and two of the local judges were customers…"
"Oh, Lindsay," Stella sobbed.
"Two years," Hawks groaned and sat down in the chair Mac had once occupied.
"Well, until college that is," Lindsay said coming up from Danny's neck but not moving her head from his shoulder.
"What? What happened in college?" Stella wondered aloud looking at her friend.
"I started dating this guy, Willis Hill, and thought I was in love," she said, no longer caring, "he asked me to marry him and I said 'yes'… and then I found and letter from him to my mother saying that he had deposited $500,000 in her account, that we were engaged, that we had sex often, and that he would be expecting the next "lesson" as soon as possible…"
"'Lesson?'" Mac asked.
"Yeah, that's what I wondered," Lindsay supplied, "two weeks later, I found a letter from my mother to him and it was filled with everything that he would need to keep me interested and "in love." All those years of bonding had supplied her with enough information to train some rich, horny bastard to be my "perfect guy"… I went to confront him about this and found him banging a university cheerleader in my dorm room…
"I told him it was over and then I called Aaron, who was home for a stint before leaving for active duty… unfortunately between the time that he and Lydia could arrive to get me, Willie found me and proceeded to demand that we were still engaged – forcefully… a university guard spotted the exchange and came over to stop it… Willie stabbed him, but by that time Aaron and Lydia arrived and Aaron subdued Willie while Lydia used the Security Guards walkie-talkie to radio for help and to tend me… Willie walked on all counts…"
"What?!" Lindsay wasn't sure which over companions had said it first and it didn't really matter.
"Two eyewitnesses, me a victim, the bloody knife with Willie's fingerprints, grainy video surveillance, and a dead security guard and nothing happened… it just went away," she flicked her left wrist and fluttered her fingers to add to the effect, but they got the point.
"It was then I decided that I didn't want another… monster get away," Lindsay concluded.
"You decided to become a CSI," Stella said with a heavy sigh. She sat in awe of this young woman and the past had created a strong woman and great cop.
"I decided to become a cop," Lindsay corrected, "I went into forensics, because I had always enjoyed science and had all the requirements I needed from my original major – I was an easy switch, basically."
"What was your original major," Flack questioned, genuinely curious. Lindsay smile.
"Large Animal Medicine," she answered, "I lived on a ranch I wanted to be a vet."
"I can see that," Danny said nodding. He looked down at her still nestled in his shoulder and smiled when she did. Even though, their friends and colleagues were sitting around them – not to mention their boss – it all felt very natural.
It looked absolutely natural to all other occupants in the room, who shared secretive smiles with one another while the couple wasn't looking.
Mac sat up and looked at the two younger detectives, a smile on his face and a decision made. He liked the way Lindsay opened up to Danny and learned everything about New York and the crime lab. He really liked the way that Danny seamed to calm down more, minus the moments he didn't but they were few and far between. Danny really seemed to have grown and changed and Lindsay seemed to be the stimulus behind it, and that was alright with Mac.
"Lindsay," Mac started clearing his throat and drawing attention to his self, "Is this Hill character the one your mother was talking about? The fiancé?"
"No Willie died in a drunken crash, the year I first started in Bozeman CSI," Lindsay said breaking eye contact with Danny to look at Mac, "He was drunk and the only victim, thank god."
"Then who?" Stella wondered aloud.
"I don't know and frankly I don't care," Lindsay said with a shrug and head shake.
"How can your mother think that she can just pick who to marry you off to?" Hawks asked.
"Because she thinks that if I get married to the right 'buyer,'" Lindsay explained, making quotation marks in the air with her fingers, "then I will have to hand over the ranch and homestead to her."
"How much is the ranch and all worth?" Hawks asked again.
"Somewhere around $2.5 million," Lindsay said heaving a sigh and closing her eyes, "The beef cattle we raise are worth much more… and then there are the thorough bread horses we breed, and they separately are worth about the same. There are other things that my family has dabbled in that make money, but it's not important…" she slowly opened her eyes to take in their reactions.
Mac was openly shocked.
Stella had both hands clamped over her mouth and her wide eyes even wider.
Hawks had stopped moving and was staring at her with a slacked jaw.
Flack looked like you could have pushed him over with a feather.
And when Lindsay turned to look at Danny, she was amazed at what she saw.
He looked like he wanted to burst out laughing, and when her eyes met his -- he did. He laughed for a good five minutes while people and another ten when he saw everyone in the room looking at him, like he was crazy.
When he finally settled down, he looked into his Montana's eyes again and smiled still shaking with laughter. Lindsay searched his eyes, then her own widen in realization and she hit him on the chest – thus sending him into another round of laughter.
"When did you find out?!" she exclaimed at him smiling with relief that the person she feared the most at finding out that little secret, wasn't overly bothered by it.
"After the DNA test results," he said calming down slowly, "I realized that you knew more about me and my life then I did about you and yours, so on those few days after Louis's attack that I had off, I Google-ed you and found some news reports from Bozeman and learned what I could… I'm sorry," he finished. But Lindsay just smiled and chuckled softly.
"Don't be," she said, "I should have said something…"
"No way," Danny interrupted, "I was ticked for a few hours after I read that but then I read about your cases and your Dad's death and your inheritance in that sense… and I thought about it and I realized that you hadn't said anything because you wanted us to get to know the real you and not just see dollar signs.
"You were smart to say nothing and I think we all respect you a little more for it," he finished with a gesture to everyone around her and they all smiled and nodded their agreement. Then Flack spoke up with a mischievous grin.
"So, Monroe.., you play poker…" They all laughed together and he and Danny shared high fives.
After a few minutes of laughing, Hawks rejoined Flack on the floor in front of the couch. Soon all six of them submitted to a calming stillness and silence settling in the room.
Six team mates, colleagues, and friends all thinking about what they had learned and how that impacts their relationship.
"Lindsay," Stella finally asked, "why don't you go home to visit your family? I mean, you're a great cop and an accomplished woman – you're not a little girl anymore… why stay away?" Lindsay heaved a sigh.
"I guess, I have this..," she paused a beat to gather thoughts, "… this subconscious fear that she can still do something to me… or maybe it's that who ever she con-ed into thinking that we are getting married… will really believe it… and with what I've seen on the job… you know sometimes that begins to eat at you a little…" Stella nodded her understanding and shared a smile with her female friend.
"Your grandparents," Mac spoke up, "are they still living?"
"Still running the ranch," Lindsay supplied, "my grandfather and his bother are my partners and foremen. I've never been given a reason to distrust them," she shrugged, "and my grandmother is more then enough to keep them both in line," she ended with a smile.
"Then why not go see them," Mac asked.
"They understand my frustration and they actually come here four times a year to meet with our brokers, lawyers, and bankers," she said before adding dryly, "those are fun meetings." The team laughed softly.
"So, yeah," Lindsay giggled, "I see them and they don't want me to come back until I feel safe about it and I have to call my grandmother once a week and talk for at least half an hour or she has standing flight tickets to come and find out for herself what is wrong… but I usually keep up with that pretty well." The team nodded thinking of those who protected them and loved them.
"Hey Mac," Stella said breaking the silence and looking at her long time friend and partner with a smile.
"Uh, Oh," Mac teased.
The younger cops chuckled softly and watched the exchange take place.
"What would it take and how many string would you have to pull," she said with a smile, "to get…"
"…To get four CSIs, one supervisor, and a homicide detective simultaneous vacation time to go out to Montana?" he interrupted reading her mind.
Stella smirked and nodded. She knew he could read her mind.
Mac swallowed and sat up.
Everyone else was a little shocked.
"I was right… uh, oh," he joked and chuckled to himself, "and the answer is…" he paused for dramatic affect. Everyone waited with baited breath.
"… Not as much and not so many," he said smiling.
Everyone in the room let out breaths.
Flack and Hawks looked at the floor, each of them caught in their own minds.
Stella and Mac continued to smile at one another.
Lindsay and Danny sat together in silence, but after a minute Lindsay turned to him.
"Would you want to go?" Her eyes held a hint of fear of his rejection and he read it loud and clear.
"Yes," he said, with conviction and no hesitation, "yeah, I would go to Montana… if you wanted me to go…"
"I would," she interrupted, "I would kinda like you to go…"
"Okay then," he said with a shrug.
"Okay," she whispered.
"Can we come too?" Flack and Hawks asked together, cutely.
"Not if your going to act like that, you ain't," Danny teased.
The two men laughed, as did Mac and Stella.
"So how about it Lindsay," Stella said taking the woman's hand and looking her in the eye, "if Mac can pull of this type of magic trick… would you mind show a bunch of city folks around the country?"
Lindsay smiled for a minute and thought about what her friends were asking. Slowly, her smile shifted from happiness to a mischievous smirk.
"Well," she started lightly and shifting her shoulders, "I suppose that since you all had shared your city with me… I guess I could show my country to you," she smiled as they all released breaths and big smiles.
She cleared her throat to gather their attention once more and still smirking away.
"I do have one condition..," she said looking at them all.
"Uh, oh," this time it was Hawks.
"What?" Mac asked.
Lindsay waited a beat.
"Flack and Messer have to ride horses," she stated.
"Done," Mac announced reaching across Stella and shaking Lindsay hand amid the hurried and mock complaints from Don and Danny and the laughter of Stella and Hawks.
"I don't believe this," Don said.
"I do," Danny admitted.