A/N: I, again, apologize for taking so long with the next chapter. I was out of town for a week so didn't have access to my computer and stories. The story is almost complete, though I'm trying to smooth out how this is all going to end. Have to make sure it's fairly plausible and all. The plot of the story kind of twisted around what I originally had in mind.

Ch. 7

Danny had been wrong, unmercifully wrong, concerning the previous chest pain the product of sore muscles. That had been nothing but a dot in the universe compared to the pain now, and he longed for the old ache that had at least allowed him to breathe between coughing.

Too deep a breath and his chest would cramp up as though a knife were grinding against the bones. But with the coughing – now that was a nice slice of hell. He'd cough, agony would attack, and he couldn't stop the finish-up whimper even if he had a way to damage his own vocal cords. A rib was cracked, had to be, or maybe his sternum. It couldn't be simple bruising. He'd had both throughout his life so knew the difference. Although sometimes the similarity in pain was remarkably close with only a hair's width difference.

Danny was scared; not witless, panic-addled terrified, but worried to the point of shivering from more than just fatigue, and definitely more than chills because the chills weren't so present at the moment. The heat his body had been radiating without his knowledge was finally letting him in on the fact that he really did have a fever.

Lack of sufficient oxygen intake and rising fever gave Danny every right to be afraid. But he chose to hide it; number one with there being nothing that could be done about it at the moment and number two; it wouldn't help Lindsey's state of mind. He saw her pale, tear stained face and red eyes out of the corner of his own eyes, hovering almost phantasmal beside him, watching him with a sharp enough focus to notice every twitch of his muscles or blink of his eyes. She was cleaning the cuts with a wet rag, going at them slow and gentle. And still he winced.

Danny would never deny that Lindsey had spunk, strength, and attitude – he noticed all that the first day he met her despite her awkwardness and falling for his prank to have her call Mac 'sir'. But equally balanced to it was this massive caring side that had her sympathetic at the drop of a dime. When worried, she carried it around like a cinder block, shouldering the need to be concerned as though it were her responsibility to do so. Sometimes it was hard for her to control, and would burst like a dam that had her pacing, demanding, losing her temper though never reaching the point where she gave into tears.

New York style worry – don't get sad, get pissed, and she was quite adept at getting pissed.

Except the situation had gone beyond the luxury of being pissed. Lindsey was scared, and she was scared about him. Danny could see it in her eyes and the water pooling at the edge of her eyelids waiting for sufficient overflow to start spilling again. Plus her hands were shaking as she tried to help Danny without hurting him.

It twisted Danny's gut with guilt seeing as how she had enough to worry about with the creep squad just beyond the door. She shouldn't be losing her focus because of him. She needed to have a clear head, be able to think in a straight line without being torn between potentially getting shot or watching Danny slowly suffocate to death.

Danny was probably going to regret this in terms of pain, but at the moment he didn't care. " So..." he rasped, breathing fast and shallow to make up for lost lung capacity. " You.. uh... ride horses?" Redundant question since she already said she did, but Danny was grasping at what he could from an already exhausted and occupied mind. He was sitting up as straight as he could with the pillow positioned to help keep his head upright, but it only eased the pain in his chest to an ache, not out of existence. Breathing wouldn't allow him to forget about the damage.

" Ride 'em, train 'em. The vast majority of my extracurricular activities involved 4-H and barrel racing. I even taught riding lessons as a summer job."

" You have a particular horse?"

Lindsey swiped her eyes with her free hand to remove the lingering tears wanting to flood over. " Two, actually. And before you say anything; no, I wasn't a spoiled little girl who begged for a pony and was indulged. My parents breed paints on the side to everything else. My first horse, Gabby, I had to earn doing so many chores you'd think child labor would have had something to say about it. My second horse, Jinx, was a charity case. He'd been neglected, I brought him back to health, my parents let me keep him and I had my western pleasure horse for trail rides. Gabby was too competitive for slow walks through national parks."

Danny wanted to chuckle, but wanted more to avoid pain, so swallowed the laughter before it could breeze through.

" You still got 'em?"

Lindsey smiled tentatively. Danny's plan was working, and he noticed saw several of the smaller muscles of Lindsey's face unwind.

" Well, not here, no. My mom's using them to train future barrel racers and little girls with massive horse fetishes that they'll probably grow out of the moment they hit thirteen. My older sister was like that. It was all horses, horses horses, then boys, boys, boys."

" But not you?" Danny asked.

Lindsey shrugged, dropping the cloth to replenish the water in the glass. " I had the perfect balance. All the guys I liked were 4-H, so we already had something in common. Dates usually involved trail rides."

Danny grinned. " Beats the cliché of movies, movies, and more movies."

Lindsey held the glass to Danny's mouth, and he eased himself forward enough to take small sips.

" Yeah, they were fun, but I had my movie moments."

When finished, Danny eased himself back. " Who got to chose?"

" Actually, it was usually mutual. I know the stereotype is to see a romance on a date, but I find you pay better attention to action flicks, and get less pissed at the lead female who refuses to tell the guy she loves him when she obviously does, but keeps tip-toeing around it for the stupid reason of being engaged to a guy she doesn't even like."

Holding back a snicker was turning into a battle. " Amen to that."

" Although I do enjoy the occasional romantic comedy."

" I suppose. Too many dates ended early 'cause I'd never take a girl to see any of those. I mean, I know it sounds kind of selfish and all, but they put me to freakin' sleep which isn't any better. There was this one girl, though – Kasey Alester – she'd deck me if I took her to any of those lip-lockin' flicks. With her, it wasn't that uncomfortable boyfriend/girlfriend thing where you spend too much energy and time trying to impress eachother and keep the other one from breaking up with you. We were like old buds, and she was fun to be around, the kind of girl who wasn't all hung up on the knight in shining armor, Romeo and Juliet, buy-me-a-present everyday and sing me love songs crap. She was for real - let me be myself as long as she could be herself. Then she had to up and move on me. Didn't date much after that... Didn't want to deal with the drama."

Lindsey was smiling now, actually smiling, and a hell of a lot more relaxed as though the torment of only a few minutes ago had been nothing more than something just seen on TV.

" Unless you're a self-centered, womanizing creep into the romantic scene only to get laid, then you shouldn't have to change for anyone," she said.

Danny nodded, licking suddenly dry lips and trying to remoisten a suddenly dry mouth. Water was sweated out of him the moment it touched his tongue, and the easily ignored throb in his skull of only a moment ago was rising into a constant cracking like sledge hammers trying to break through the wall of bone. And he was hot, unbearably hot, with gut roiling toward nausea. It felt like car-sickness minus the motion, and he knew plenty about being car sick. It wasn't usually a problem for him except on hot days, sitting in a car with the windows rolled down instead of the A/C on, and his stomach empty. Flack had learned the hard way to take car-sickness seriously. Vomit all over the floor and dashboard of his car had humbled the man into driving less like a sixteen year old who'd just gotten his license.

" You know," Danny managed to say, attempting to ignore the discomfort, " I've always wanted to learn how to ride."

Lindsey perked ever so slightly. " Really?"

" Yeah. I mean serious riding. Fast riding. I have an uncle up north who raises horses. He taught us some stuff, took us on trail rides when we were kids... me and my brother."

" So you're familiar with it?"

Danny nodded. " I need more water."

Lindsey brought up the glass and Danny nursed the thing, drinking slow but non-stop.

" I could probably teach you," Lindsey said. " Maybe we could talk the mounted police unit into borrowing two of theirs. Or there's this place I found not too far from where you live, actually..."

Lindsey's words trailed off into echoing incoherence. Danny wasn't just hot, he was boiling, cooking from the inside out. His stomach churned, acid splashing, wanting to expel with nothing in it to expel. He struggled with an uncooperative hand at the blanket until it fell from his shoulders, but not his back. Since he was already breathing fast, there wasn't much change in that area. It was his heart that started to increase in rapidity, out of sickness, out of fear, and it made breathing a torment – he couldn't get enough oxygen into him to keep up with his racing blood.

Fear turned to terror. " Lindsey?"

NY

Lindsey stopped talking and didn't even manage a 'what' when her mind registered the change in Danny, and gut-clenching fright welled up in Lindsey like an arctic flood. His breathing rate had increased by a notch, easily overlooked. The fear in his eyes, the pleading for help, was like a slap to the face. She became confused, lost, didn't know what to do first let alone what needed to be done all together. Danny was struggling to breathe while also struggling from the blanket. It was the struggle from the blanket that snapped through the addled wall covering her brain, and her hand went to his forehead.

Burning to the touch, honest to goodness burning that could probably melt a whole bag of ice within a minute. Danny squeezed his eyes shut and clamped his jaws together so tight the muscles twitched. He was in pain, Lindsey had no doubts, and probably fighting nausea, with a part of her thankful he had nothing in his stomach to puke up.

He needed to be cooled down, right now.

Danny was probably going to hate her force this, but she figured as long as she didn't push it...

She took him by the shoulders to lean him forward and pull away the blanket, tugging it to her other side and pushing it away with one hand. She kept Danny leaning forward, with one hand on his shoulder and the other peeling the sweat-drenched shirt off his slick back and pulling it up over his head. He was a sight worse under the clothes – his skin colorless as a corpse and a little extra tight around his bones, with ribs, backbone, and collarbones sharp in detail.

" Wh-what... What are you doing?" Danny groaned between pants.

Lindsey winced, eyes burning with fresh tears, but determination and focus on the goal holding them back to keep them out of the way. " Sorry Danny. I need to cool you down. Just the shirt, though. Nothing else, I swear. No stripping you, right?" and she finished with a nervous, pathetic laugh.

Danny shook his head. " Don't... Don't do that." He attempted to struggle, or seemed to, which had him listing sideways. Lindsey grabbed him by the arm, but rather than hauling him back up let him slide down the bed to curl onto his side. She glanced over her shoulder, toward the bathroom, contemplating a cold spray, except there was no way she would be able to drag Danny's dead weight to the bathroom.

She grimaced at having thought 'dead weight', and also at what she was going to have to do.

She needed to ask for help, from them. She procrastinated, pouring water from the pitcher to soak the cloth, then squeezing the cloth over Danny's head then wiping his face and neck. But she wasn't naïve to think that alone would be enough.

Lindsey swallowed with a death grip on the cloth that had her hand shaking, and prayed she wouldn't regret this.

Hey..." it came out broken, so she cleared her throat. " Hey – hey! I – I need some help in here!"

The kid hurried in first, which Lindsey preferred, only to have her relief dashed when Creep and Quiet followed after.

" What now!" Creep snapped.

Lindsey gulped, placing her free hand on Danny's heated shoulder. She knew this was a bad idea.

" I – I..."

" What!" Creep bellowed, looking from Lindsey to Danny.

" I need help moving him," she blurted. " He's burning up and needs to be cooled down, now. I need to get him into the shower but I... I can't do it by myself."

Creep snorted. " So? How's that our problem?"

A very, very bad idea. She wanted to move to be between Creep and Danny, but felt as though she were being stared down by a pack of wolves, and the smallest movement would have them pouncing.

" I... I need someone to help me move him to the shower so he can cool off. The way he's burning up could kill him, please..."

The next snort was rhythmic, like laughter. Creep looked from the kid to the quiet guy in a joke neither was joining in on. " You want us to help you give this guy a bath?" His laughter increased with a shake of his head. He crouched at Danny's back and removed his glove to place his bared hand on Danny's arm.

" Crap. Your boy is liable to go up in flames." He clucked his tongue and rose while rubbing his hand off on his thigh, then tugging the glove back on. " Sucks to be him. Sorry, sweetheart but I'm not gonna be the one to drag his contagious ass to the tub." He looked between his cohorts. " Any of you guys up for it? 'Cause if you are, tell me now so I can avoid you later."

Lindsey's throat felt so constricted she could barely breathe. She was still scared, but seemed to be getting used to it enough to shove it back for the sake of a rising fury that had her shaking.

" What the hell is wrong with you," she said between painfully clenched teeth, voice wavering and chin trembling. " He's sick you heartless son of a bitch! All I'm asking for is help to bring his temperature down so he doesn't die so why the hell is that so difficult! This is your fault! You hurt him, probably broke a rib, which injuries like that can cause an increase in temperature. So if he dies it'll be because of you! Now somebody help me!"

Creep stood to loom over Lindsey, covering her and Danny in his shadow, with arms hanging loose at his side like a cowboy waiting to draw. " How about you shut the hell up before someone hears you." He pointed a stiff finger at the gasping Danny. " Since your so hot on being his hero, you drag his scrawny ass to the shower. I ain't touching him."

Lindsey made her eyes go heavy lidded, every muscle twitching in the high of a massive adrenaline rush. " You didn't have a problem touching him when you hurt him."

" Contact was minimal," he countered. " And I'm done risking my butt." Creep then stalked out of the room, leaving the kid and the quiet guy.

Quiet guy was regarding Danny without visible expression, as though calculating something, perhaps assessing Danny's worth alive. He then looked to the bathroom and sniffed.

" Too small in there to get him through without a problem," he said. " Besides," he jerked his thumb over his shoulder, " the less exposure we have to whatever your friend's got, the better. Sorry."

Then, for the second time that day, the kid came to the rescue. " Dude, I don't know. The boss said we needed him alive. There's gotta be other ways of coolin' him down. Maybe use ice or something."

Quiet searched the room until his eyes strayed to the window and held. " All right, here's the deal. It's pretty cold outside. If she can get him under the window, she can open it enough to let the air in. She tries to call for help or slip out - not that she would seeing as how she's not stupid, right?"

His eyes shot to her, boring into her hard and cold as a steel knife. Swallowing against a tight throat, Lindsey nodded.

" Right. If she tries to do any of those things, shoot her."

The kid nodded shakily but looked scared to hell. Not that it mattered, Lindsey had not intentions of pulling any escape attempts unless Danny could come with her, and there was no way that was going to happen.

Quiet left the room, and Kid moved to hover on the threshold. Lindsey moved while she still had adrenaline pumping through her like electricity, sliding her arms beneath Danny's armpits and wrapping them loosely in front of his chest. Keeping in a low crouch, she shuffled methodically backwards applying the pressure of her arms to his flanks rather than his chest. And still he gasped, stiffened, and uttered a broken cry of pain. On reaching the window, she moved enough to ease Danny's back against the wall just beneath the sill. The moment she released him, Danny doubled over with legs drawn up and arms hugging his chest. Lindsey tugged at the window, opening it inch by inch until the space was a hand width wide. Cold air spilled in like an invisible water fall to wash over Lindsey's hands and Danny's body.

Since she couldn't bring Danny to the cold water, she might as well bring the cold water to him. With quick assurances to the kid that she wasn't going to try anything, she grabbed the pitcher and rushed into the bathroom, twisting on the tap of the tub to let the water beat over her hand.

" Come on, come on..." she urged, bouncing on her heels. When it was arctic, she gathered the water into the pitcher and hurried back to Danny, dropping to her knees beside him.

" Danny, I apologize in advance for this and will gladly pay for the damages to your carpet."

Danny didn't replied, being too out of it to even listen to her. Biting her lip, Lindsey slid the fingers of her right hand beneath Danny's chin to lift his head, and with the other hand dumped the water over his head to let it splash down the rest of him. Danny pulled away in a convulsion of shock that had him gasping so deep he choked on his own breath and became caught up in a coughing fit that sounded as though his body were trying to expel his lungs.

Lindsey's heart tried to beat out of her chest. " I'm sorry, Danny, I'm so sorry..." she rose, grabbing the pitcher then the glass and rushed back into the bathroom. She returned with both filled, setting the pitcher down and holding the glass to Danny's mouth.

" Come on, Danny, drink. It'll help, I promise..."

Danny put his mouth to the rim and Lindsey tilted. Most of the water was lost in an explosive spray during the coughs, with a few swallows going down in Between. Danny went on coughing, and all Lindsey could do was grab the cloth, soak it without wringing it out, and maintain a constant application of cold water to Danny's heated skin. The coughing eventually subsided to lesser bursts that had Danny's body twitching. Exhaustion was absolute, and without warning he slid along the wall to the floor, shocking Lindsey into eliciting a tiny yelp of alarm.

" Danny!"

Danny remained motionless curled on his side, his breathing even more labored, harsh, and shallow. His mouth hung open, drinking in air like it was water in the desert. Lindsey could see his fear in the tightness of his face, and through the heavy-lidded eyes. His hand curled, clenched, and uncurled reflexively, clawing runnels into the carpet.

And all she could do was keep cooling him.

NY

TBC...