Author's Note: One of my favorite chapters that I've written so far. I adore D/L emotion! Let me know what you think.

DISCLAIMERS: I do not own any of these characters. They belong to Jerry Bruckheimer and the wonderful writers for CSI: NY. Any resemblance to scenes from the episodes is included for clarity and continuity and I do not claim any of those as my own work. However everything else is mine.

The Fight

Boy her blood was boiling as she strode down the hall. How dare Messer rat her out to Mac before she had a chance to tell him herself. And he had the nerve to get on her case when he knew Mac would be doing it too. How dare he? Who did he think he was? She was going to have words with him.

Danny was not in the briefing room or the lab. When she marched into their office, he was staring intently at the computer screen on his desk. He looked up with a quizzical look on his face. "So how did it go with Mac?"

"How did it go with Mac? How did it go with Mac?" she fired at him. She had her hands on his desk and was leaning over with her face inches from his.

"How do you think it went with Mac after you ratted me out to him about Laurel's murder," she retorted her face twisted in anger.

"What are you talking about, Monroe?" he threw at her as he popped up out of his seat and mirrored her pose on the opposite side of the desk.

"How can you play so innocent Messer?"

"I am innocent, Monroe, I didn't tell him I swear!" Danny cried vehemently.

She looked at him first with anger in her eyes but as his mesmerizing blue eyes held hers, the anger turned to hurt. Emotionally she choked out, "How could you do that to me? You, of all people, who knows what it's like to have lost a sibling? You of all people who I went to first when I found potentially damaging evidence against you in a crime case so that you could handle it with Mac in a way that you saw fit. You didn't give me that chance. You took it to Mac before I had the chance." Now the tears were flowing down her face freely.

His heart was breaking for her. If he had known she was going to be busted by Mac, he would have gone easier on her. He had just been so angry that she hadn't opened up to him and had put herself in a precarious position. But right now he wanted nothing more than to take her away from here and wipe away all her pain, make it right between them. He came around the desk and stood as close to her as he could without touching her. She was still facing his desk so he was able to speak directly into her ear. "Lindsay, I swear upon my mother that I did not tell Mac. You have to believe me."

"How can I believe you?" she stammered. He touched her arm gently and she flinched.

"Lindsay," he said brokenly, right up against her ear, "let's go talk this out right now, you and I. I promise we can work this out."

She felt his warm breath on her cheek and her heart began to melt just a bit. But she had to go. She had to catch a plane to Montana. And her anger welled back up at that thought: anger that she had to leave, anger that she wouldn't be here to help catch Laurel's killer, anger that it should have been her and not Laurel that died that night and anger that Danny had betrayed her. The anger threatened to spill over, consume her and devastate the man who was so desperately trying to make things right with her. So she handled it the only way she could at the moment.

She looked him straight in the eye and said through clenched teeth, "I can't, Mac is shipping me out of here on the first plane to Montana so I have to go to the airport now."

She turned on her heels and stalked out of the office but he caught her elbow just outside the door and spun her around to face him. "Lindsay Monroe, this isn't over, I'll call you when you get to Montana."

Her eyes blazed at his high-handedness and the anger started to seep out like a molten lava flow from a volcano on the verge of eruption. She had tried to contain it but that little maneuver he had pulled just now sent her over the edge. All the frustration, angst, stress, sadness and now hopelessness that she had experienced over the past two years came spewing forth. "It is over Danny Messer! And don't call me because I don't want to hear your voice and I sure as hell don't want to see your face ever again. Do you hear me, Danny Messer? You have screwed up my life enough. Thank you very much!" And she wrenched her elbow out of his grip and stalked off down the hall.

"Dammit, Dammit, Dammit!" Danny exclaimed as he kicked the office door with a vengeance. Then he looked around at the stunned looks in the hall, Stella, Hawkes, Flack, Adam and Mac. F'ing' A, not Mac!

"Danny in my office now!" Mac clipped out.