Notes: Thanks for the reviews. I didn't think anyone would like this kind of story. I don't know what inspired me to write it, other than just wanting to see Danny all worried and angsty.

Disclaimer: The WAT characters belong to CBS and the SVU characters belong to NBC. I own nothing.

Two Days Later – Monday Morning

He'd called her three times since he'd dropped her off early Saturday morning, but she hadn't called him back. Several times, he'd had the urge to go to her apartment, but he'd stopped himself – worried that his continued involvement with her had lead to her being hurt.

He'd woken up extra early to get to the office before anyone else. He knew that using FBI resources for personal business was illegal, but he couldn't help himself. The first thing he did was look up who owned the loft, figuring that was the easiest way to find out who Lauren's mystery man is. However, he was very surprised to learn that the loft was in her mother's name. The payment for the loft and all other living expenses were paid out of an account, also in Lauren's mother's name.

The fact that her mother paid for Lauren's living expenses was strange, but what was even stranger was the large cash payments made to the account each month. According to her mother's tax returns, she hadn't ever made more that $40,000 a year. But then Danny remembered that Lauren told him that they were living off her father's pension, so maybe her mother was getting the mother from there.

Danny did what research he could, but couldn't find any connection to this mystery man. The thought occurred to him that maybe she had just made him up for some reason. Maybe she was unstable, especially considering her suicide attempt. Maybe it was better that he not be involved in her drama at all.

"You're here early," Viv said as she walked into the bullpen.

"Hey. Morning, Viv," he responded as he looked up. "Couldn't sleep."

"Rough weekend?" she asked, stopping at his desk.

Frowning, Danny asked, "What makes you say that?"

Smiling slightly, she pointed to his face. "Looks like you lost your razor."

Raising his hand, Danny ran a hand over his chin. He hadn't shaved all weekend and had forgotten to do so before leaving his apartment. "I'm, um, I don't know what I was thinking this morning."

"Well, three-day stubble on most men wouldn't be that dramatic. On you, it looks like your shooting for a full beard," she said as she continued to her desk.

Danny nodded as he smiled sheepishly. Reaching under his desk, he opened his emergency overnight bag. "I should have a shaving kit in here somewhere."

"You okay?" she asked, voice sounding concerned.

"Everything's fine," he said as he rose from his chair with the shaving kit in hand and headed toward the men's room.

After he finished shaving in the men's room, he tried to regain his focus. He had to stop obsessing over Lauren. He'd done everything he could to help her, and if she couldn't be honest with him, then there wasn't much more he could do.

"Danny," an agent called out as he caught up to him in the hall.

"Yeah?"

"There are a couple of NYPD detectives here to see you. I put them in the conference room down the hall," he said, motioning in the other direction.

Sighing heavily, Danny thanked the agent and then headed toward the conference room. Clearly, he couldn't stop thinking about Lauren just yet.

"Hey," he said as he walked in the door.

"Agent Taylor," Detective Stabler greeted. "We, um, we were hoping to finish what we started the other day."

Danny nodded. "If you…if you still need to check my alibi, my boss should be here shortly."

"That won't be necessary. Your office coordinated with NYPD missing persons, so we read the report from Friday."

"Okay, then I'm not sure what else I can do to help you. If Lauren isn't going to talk, then you guys don't have much of a case."

Detective Benson shook her head. "We still have to do our due diligence. She has a rape kit on file. If she decides to talk to us in six months, we need to make sure we've found out everything while the information is still fresh."

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Danny took a short breath as he remembered his last conversation with Lauren. "She told me that she…that she didn't say no," Danny admitted in a quiet tone. "According to her, she said she was okay with whatever happened to her on Friday night."

Benson took a step towards him as she folded her arms across her chest. "If you'd read her hospital chart, you wouldn't be able to believe that anyone in her right mind would be okay with that," she responded, emotion brimming in her voice.

Looking up, Danny shrugged. "Well maybe that's the issue," he replied, voice hinting of betrayal. "Maybe she's not in her right mind. She swallowed a lot of pills and a lot of vodka. That's a pretty good indicator of her mental state."

"What was her mental state before that night? What was it like when you saw her that morning?" Stabler asked.

Danny sighed as his eyes widened. "I don't know. I—"

"She couldn't have been too unstable if you had sex with her," Benson said, cutting him off.

Immediately feeling defensive, Danny responded, "She came to me that morning. I cared…I still care about her. That morning, she just seemed preoccupied and a little sad, but not unstable."

"What do you think she's hiding? What about the other man you mentioned when I first questioned you?" Stabler asked.

Danny shrugged as he looked from Benson to Stabler. "I don't know who he is. This morning, I did some research to see if I could get a name, but there's no viable connection between Lauren and any man. I met her at an FBI awards dinner. There were a bunch of politicians and bigwigs. She told me that she was required to be at the dinner by one of the politicians, and she alluded to the fact that he is married."

"You were okay with that, being in a relationship with someone else's mistress?" Benson asked.

Shaking his head, Danny swallowed hard. "I was never okay with it, but I was worried about her."

"Where do you think she is now?" Stabler asked.

"She's not at home?" Danny asked in a confused tone.

Benson shook her head in response. "No. She was cleared out of there by Saturday morning. I stopped by to see if she'd changed her mind about talking to us. Most of her clothes and personal belongings were gone."

Completely surprised, Danny took a short breath. "The only family she's talked about live in D.C. Her mom's name is Kathy Palmer. She has a brother at Georgetown. I don't know if she'd go there or not, but I can't think of anywhere else she may be."

"At this point, we can't really afford the manpower track her down. The ball is in her court. But if you talk to her, you can tell her that we're here if she ever wants to make a statement," Stabler said as he turned towards the door.

Danny just nodded as he escorted the detectives to the elevator.

Two Days Later, Wednesday

The team hadn't caught a new case all week. They'd caught up on all their paperwork, so they were spending time reviewing old case files. Viv had taken the day off to catch up on some things at home, while Samantha had volunteered to pick up some takeout for everyone's lunch, leaving Martin and Danny to continue their case review.

"You know, I don't know whether this is boring because it's depressing or depressing because it's boring," Martin said as he stifled a yawn.

"Well, it'd get more interesting if something would jump out at us…a lead…of any kind…so that we could get the hell out of this office," Danny replied in a frustrated tone.

"Cabin fever?" Martin asked, eyebrows raised.

Danny shrugged.

"Are you all right? You've been distracted all week."

"It's nothing."

"Have heard bad news about your brother?"

Danny shook his head. "No, it's not him."

"Hmmm…then it must be a certain tall, blue-eyed blonde that I met a few weeks ago," Martin said with a teasing grin.

Martin expected Danny to smile slyly in response, but instead his lips tightened in a thin line as he rubbed his eyes in obvious frustration.

Instantly regretting his comment, Martin apologized. "I'm sorry…sorry, man. I shouldn't have—"

"It's all right," Danny interrupted, shaking his head.

"No, it's none of my business."

"Oh come on, Martin. Like I haven't given you a hard time before about your love life?" he replied with a small grin. Danny rubbed his hand over his chin and then took a short breath before saying, "Lauren left town."

Martin's eyes widen in surprise. "Just like that? She's just gone."

"No, not just like that. Basically, she has something going on in her life, and she didn't want me involved in it."

"Was it serious between you two?"

Danny shook his head. "She had too many issue for it to be serious, but if she'd been honest with me or if she'd have let me help her….then who knows?"

Hearing heels clicking, Martin looked up to see Sam entering the bullpen. Sighing slightly, he responded, "For what it's worth, I've been there. If you need to talk—"

"Thanks, but it's really okay," Danny whispered before looking up at Sam with a big smile as if nothing was wrong at all.

"Who's up for Chinese?" Sam said as she put the bag down on the table.

One Week Later

Danny had almost gone two solid days without thinking about her. He'd finally started to sleep without her being his last thought. That's when the detective called him.

"Taylor." Danny answered.

"Agent Taylor? This is Detective Stabler."

"Danny. You can call me, Danny. What is it Detective?" he replied in an annoyed tone.

"Could you meet me at Lauren Palmer's apartment?"

"Why? I thought she was long gone?"

"She is…gone, but we have a few more questions for you, Danny."

Taking a deep breath, Danny pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'll be there in half hour."

"If this isn't an 'official' crime scene, should you guys really be in here without a warrant?" Danny asked as he entered the loft apartment.

Benson and Stabler turned around when they heard Danny's voice. "We have probable cause," Stabler responded.

"Probable cause for what? A sexual assault the victim won't admit even happened?" he asked in a flippant tone.

Benson folded her arms as she took a step towards Danny. "She was reported missing this morning. Your office in Washington contacted us when they heard about what happened to her the night she attempted suicide."

"The D.C. office? Why didn't this get reported to us, the New York Missing Persons Unit?"

"Because she was in D.C. when she disappeared," Stabled replied. "Her mother reported her missing. Apparently, she did go home to her mother when she left last week."

"She reported her missing this morning? When's the last time her mother saw her?" Danny asked.

"Saturday. She hasn't come home since Saturday. Have you heard from her?" Stabler asked.

"Not a word. Any signs of foul play?" Danny asked, his mind immediately going into agent mode.

"Not at first, but then they found her mother's car, which she had borrowed, in a desolate area in Richmond, VA, two hours ago. There was blood in the car."

"Christ," Danny muttered to himself. "Have you found any thing here?"

"You could say that, yeah," Stabler said as he walked toward the bedroom as Benson and Danny followed. "Do you know what's in here?" he asked as he pointed to the mirror.

Danny shook his head. "Looks like a mirror to me. But I've only been here twice, the second time was when she OD'd."

Benson reached out and pulled out the mirror to reveal a room on the other side. The room, about the size of a small bedroom, had a small refrigerator and wet bar. There was a chair directly in front of the two-way mirror. Danny's stomach turned as he noticed that the chair had a perfect view of the bed.

"What is this?" he asked in a small tone.

"We're guessing Lauren's mystery man does indeed exist, and he has some disturbing habits," Benson said as she opened a closet door next to the wet bar.

Danny's breath caught at the sight of the makeshift torture chamber. Leather straps were affixed to four corners of the closet, as well as other 'devices' that would obviously be used to hurt someone while they were restrained.

"Did you ever notice anything? Bruises? Scars?" Stabler asked as he watched Danny's expression go from stunned to horrified.

Danny nodded as he tried to find the words to respond. "She…she said she was accident prone…two left feet. I didn't really believe her, but I didn't push her," he replied softly, remembering that he hadn't wanted to start a dialogue explaining each other's scars.

"There's more," Stabler said.

Danny looked at him with frightened eyes.

"A motion-sensor video camera built into the base of the mirror," he said as he opened a small panel on the back of the mirror. "Someone made an effort to erase everything on the hard drive, but our techies think they can restore it, so maybe we can get a picture of this guy."

"Do you have any idea why or how she got involved in this?" Benson asked him.

Danny shrugged as he looked helplessly at the detectives. "She always used words like 'required' or phrases like 'no choice'. I, uh, I asked her once if he was paying her bills…if her obligation was financial…but she insisted it wasn't. So I have no idea why she was involved with this guy or why she wouldn't accept my help when I told her I'd help her find a way out," he replied in almost desperate frustration, before taking a deep breath. He closed his eyes for a moment to try to collect his thoughts. "But there might be a way to find a list of possible suspects."

"What way?" Benson asked.

"The FBI service awards dinner at the Ritz. There has to be a guest list. I know he was there and I know he's married. That's got to narrow the list a little."

"I'll track that down," Stabler said as he opened his phone and walked away.

"Who's your bureau contact on Lauren's case?" Danny asked Benson.

"Special Agent Ryan Meadows in D.C.," Benson replied.

"What's your next step here?" he asked, looking around the apartment.

"We're headed back to the office to see if the techs found something. Also, we're waiting for fingerprints. The CSI team just left. We're still waiting to see if Lauren's blood was in the car. The agents in DC are questioning her family."

"You…you mind if I tag along for a while?" Danny asked, his voice hesitant.

"D.C. probably won't like it. You know, you're still considered suspect, considering your relationship with her."

Danny pulled out his phone. "I'll call my boss right now. He'll clear it with Meadows in D.C. And hey, if you need to question me again, I won't be far away.

Benson just nodded as she turned to walk out to the living room.

Danny took one final look at the ominous room before walking out as well.

72 Hours Missing

It took a little convincing, but Jack finally relented and told Danny he'd called Meadows. He also granted Danny permission to take some personal time to assist Benson and Stabler any way he could. Danny appreciated that Jack trusted his judgment with very little question, although Danny knew he'd have to explain himself later.

Danny followed Benson and Stabler into the open, but run-down office. They introduced him to a few other Special Victims' Unit detectives. They also let him sit in while they debriefed their lieutenant. While they were in the debriefing, they were interrupted by a knock at the door.

After Stabler opened the door, the CSI tech poked his head in. "Excuse me, detectives. We have some new info on the Palmer evidence."

Benson and Stabler immediately moved toward the door and Danny followed.

Before Danny could get very far, the lieutenant called out, "You're on a very short leash, Agent Taylor. You're walking a very fine line here. If one of my detectives asks you to step away, you step away. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir. Understood. I just want to help find her," Danny replied, voice full of earnest.

After the warning, Danny followed Benson and Stabler to the CSI lab three floors below them. On the elevator ride down, Danny could have sworn the CSI tech was staring at him, but every time he looked up, the tech looked away.

When they entered the lab, the tech presented his findings. "First, we got no prints from any surface in the loft. It was wiped down. I'd ventured to say it was done by a professional. That's the first red flag. Second, I just spoke to our FBI lab contact in D.C. The blood in Palmer's car wasn't her blood type, and it belonged to a man."

Danny tried not to visibly sigh in relief at that news.

The tech glanced at Danny nervously. He took a deep breath as he continued. "We also recovered data from the video recorder in the bedroom. Most of the clips were short, just of Palmer getting into bed, alone. The motion sensor cuts off if there isn't sustained movement for more than fifteen seconds. But we also found some rather disturbing footage."

"How…how far back is the footage from?" Danny asked and now he sounded nervous.

"It's not time/date stamped, so it's hard to tell. It just stores eight hours of footage, and then it starts overwriting itself. Most likely, whoever monitors the camera would download footage to a flash drive or a DVD, and then let the video overwrite itself."

"Can you make out faces in the footage where Palmer isn't alone?" Stabler asked.

"Yeah, uh…" the tech stammered as he glanced at Danny again.

Danny's eyes narrowed as he watched the tech stumble over his words. "I'm on it. Right?" Danny asked, cutting to the chase.

The tech nodded hesitantly as Benson and Stabler exchanged uneasy glances. "Yes. I fast-forwarded the footage, and only stopped to get good head shots of the men."

"Men? How many were there besides Agent Taylor?" Benson asked.

"Four, in addition to him," the tech replied as he glanced at Danny again. "The last clip showed the missing person with two men. That was the most disturbing footage, but all four roughed her up pretty good. They, um, they'd tie her up, and one of them beat her up pretty badly. She wasn't fighting them, though."

Taking a deep breath, Danny sat down on a stool by the lab desk.

"You all right?" Stabler asked as he looked at Danny.

Danny nodded. "Let's see the pictures. I may recognize someone from that party,"

The tech handed Danny the small stack of pictures. As he looked at each picture, he felt more and more sick. They all had leering, almost sinister expressions. And then he came to his own picture.

"I should have removed that," the tech said as he reached for it, but Danny kept hold of it.

The picture was of him and Lauren as they stood in front of bed right before he undressed her. He was smiling and lightly kissing her forehead.

"Did you know there were other men?" Benson asked, voice not really accusing.

Shaking his head, Danny responded. "I had no idea. And none these guys look familiar."

"Well that makes sense, actually. I'm thinking whoever the mystery man is just a voyeur," Stabler suggested. "Either Palmer hooks up with these guys or the mystery man arranges it."

"Would you excuse us for a second," Benson said as she looked at the CSI tech.

"Sure, I'll just be over there if you need me."

Benson turned to Danny. "I need to ask you—"

"I never did anything like that to her. She never asked me to do anything like that. I never tied her up. I never hit her. I never—"

"Did she say anything about taping your encounter? Is that why she brought you to her apartment?"

"She never mentioned the video thing or that room. But I remember after we spent the night there, she said that she regretted bringing me there. I don't think she knew about it, at least not that night. I…I can't believe…"

"We need to find out who these men are," Stabler said as he picked up the photos from the table.

"And when you find them, I want to be in there when you question them," Danny responded in an almost unconscious, dazed tone.