"Let's go, Lindsey," Mac gently coaxed the small woman into a standing position even though she seemed hesitant to get up.

"Mac, I don't know if I can do this," Lindsey's voice came out small and child like as she gazed up at him with glossy, terrified chocolate brown eyes. He took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze before leading her out of the waiting room and into the hall where Dr. Stewart was waiting for them. They followed him through the long corridor of seemingly endless swinging doors until they got to a set of elevators at the end.

"He's on the third floor, room 3591," Dr. Stewart said as he pressed the up button. They anxiously waited for what felt like an eternity until the doors slid open. A few people walked out before they stepped inside and Dr. Stewart pressed the number 3 on the keypad. It wasn't long before the elevator slowly ascended, taking them closer and closer to their fallen colleague.

With each passing floor, Lindsey began to feel more and more apprehensive about seeing Danny. Her heart was racing by the time they reached the third floor and the doors opened to reveal a dimly lit corridor lined with several rooms to either side, each with its own little curtained observation window. Dr. Stewart stepped out first, followed by Mac. Lindsey remained, her fear almost paralyzing. Mac gently took her hand and squeezed it again, this time adding a warm smile in hopes that it would give her a little more courage. "It's alright," he whispered to her.

Lindsey bit her lip and hesitantly stepped out of the elevator, holding onto Mac's hand as if it were a lifeline. She cowered behind him as the doctor led them down the hall until they reached door 3591. "Ready?" Dr. Stewart asked before opening the door. Mac nodded while Lindsey continued to look down at the blue and white linoleum tiled floor.

With a small "whoosh," the door swung open. Mac stepped in first as the doctor held it open for him. He tugged Lindsey's hand to get her to move, but she refused the first time. After a reassuring glance back at her, she followed him inside the darkened room.

The faint beep of the heart monitor and the mechanical rise and fall of the ventilator were the first things Lindsey picked up on the deeper she stepped into the room. Her eyes had a hard time adjusting to the solitary fluorescent light illuminating the room in an eerie, otherworldly glow that made her heart race even faster. She already disliked hospitals with a passion, this just served to make her hate them more. It was that impending image of death that always got to her. Slowly, she began to make out Danny's figure lying on the bed only a few feet away from her.

Lindsey froze mid-step when her eyes fully adjusted and she saw just how bad he really looked. The entire left side of his usually handsome face was swollen black and blue to the point where she could barely recognize him. White surgical gauze encircled his head, hiding his short, dirty blond hair but not the stitches that pieced together the large wound he'd sustained from the impact with the windshield. A long white tube ran past his almost colorless lips and down his collared throat, helping him breathe.

The longer Lindsey stood there, the paler her skin turned. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. If it hadn't been for the wires that crisscrossed his body and the slow, rhythmic rise and fall of his chest, she could have sworn Danny looked like a corpse in the city morgue. The moment that final thought crossed Lindsey's mind, she completely lost it. "NO!" she bellowed, sobs overtaking her body as she let go of Mac's hand and slowly backed out of the room into the hallway, her eyes never leaving the bed. "No!" she cried again as her back slammed against the wall.

Realizing she couldn't go back any further, Lindsey bolted to the left, her sobs echoing down the hall as she ran away from the room as fast as she could. Having to see Danny so close to death made her resentful towards herself for all the things she'd said and done to him over the past few weeks ever since she stood him up for lunch. Every time he asked her why, she clammed up, refusing to answer and changing the subject to something a little safer. He made no big deal about it, but Lindsey knew it hurt him on the inside. That pain resonated in his ocean blue eyes every time she looked into them. She'd already broken him with her words, and now she'd managed to break him with her actions.

With her mind elsewhere, Lindsey couldn't see that she was about to hit a dead end. It was the impact with the wall at the end of the hall that finally made her stop. She fell to the ground, her body aching from the collision with the concrete, but that didn't stop her crying. Curling up in a little ball, her heartbreaking sobs continued to echo down the hall making several doctors and nurses glance in her direction with concern.

Mac and Dr. Stewart helplessly watched as the scene unfolded before them. They were quick to follow Lindsey down the hall until she hit the wall, which was when the doctor called for one of the nurses to bring him a sedative while Mac knelt down beside her in an effort to comfort her as she lay weeping on the floor. Nothing about her reaction was making sense to him. He'd always seen Lindsey as a pillar of strength, one of the many reasons he'd brought her to New York in the first place. But the unusual way she was handling Danny's accident alerted him that there was something he might have overlooked in her psych evaluation.

Now was not the right time to ask questions, though. Dr. Stewart was approaching, syringe in hand, to sedate Lindsey before she had a complete mental breakdown. She didn't struggle when the doctor took her arm and tapped two of his fingers against the vein of her inner elbow. Neither did she flinch when he stuck the needle into her skin and administered a low dose of the sedative. In less than a minute, Lindsey was calmly laying on the floor, her sobs having all but stopped as the drug did its work. Another minute went by and she was out for the count.

Ever so gently, Mac scooped up the small, listless woman and carried her back to Danny's room, laying her in an empty chair near the window. Dr. Stewart and a nurse came in a few minutes later with a pillow and a blanket, helping to situate her so she was in a more comfortable position. "She'll be asleep for a couple of hours," the young doctor said as he turned to Mac. "The .5mg of Ativan I gave her should keep her calm after she wakes up. She'll be a little groggy, though, so someone might have to drive her home."

"I'll keep that in mind. Thanks again, Doctor," Mac replied as he took a seat beside Lindsey while Dr. Stewart and the nurse exited the room. He glanced over at the sleeping young woman and began to wonder what had prompted her sudden outburst just a few minutes earlier. Lindsey did tend to get hung up on certain cases that involved young women raised in small towns far from the city, but nothing as dramatic as this. What had he missed, he began to wonder. Why was she so attached to Danny?

Having worked with both of them for over a year now, Mac began to pick out all the bits and pieces of their working relationship, from Danny's relentless teasing in calling Lindsey "Montana" and Lindsey's ability to keep Danny in line. The two of them seemed to click whenever they were working in the lab. 'Well, I'll be damned,' Mac thought when he finally put two and two together. 'They like each other, don't they?'

The thought brought both closure and worry. On one hand, Mac had figured out why Lindsey was acting so unlike herself, but on the other, he realized just how impractical and complicated a relationship with a coworker could be. He knew it'd be a double standard if he forbade them to see each other, especially after he'd also crossed that line with the new ME. Mac sighed; this was something he could afford to forget right now. There were more pressing matters on his mind.

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OMG! Oh, you guys! Awwww!!! I feel so LOVED! Thank you sooooooooo much for all your wonderful comments! I can't tell you how much they've meant to me, to my writing, to my inspiration. Seriously, I thought I was not going to get this next chapter finished, but all your kind words and well wishes have made my horrible week MUCH better! Please, keep them coming! It's how I manage to get from one chapter to the next without losing my mind.

So many wonderful people. So few words... I seriously don't know what to say. Leanne, the next time I'm feeling like shit, I'll definitely email you. Thanks so much for being so kind. And all the others... there are just so many names on that list I can't even begin to call them out one by one, but I'll try! Starting from way back when... Andy, notesofwimsey, I Can Hear the Sea, xbexyboox, KatKnits00, chili-peppers, Mystik225, crazy-chick07, melanie g, Miss Higher Power, oddie33325, Liffey, Dybdahl, peanut2lb, crashdownmontana, bookwrangler, and, of course, two of my best buds who have been around since well before CSI:NY, simbagirl and prplerayne. You are all AMAZING people! Thank you so much! I hope to add more names to this list soon, because I know there are so many of you who are reading and not reviewing, but have put me in their favorites or in their author alerts. You guys TOTALLY rock!!

About this chapter... I know, kinda crazy, hehe. But don't worry, there's a method to my madness, or should I say Lindsey's madness. LoL! All will be revealed in time, my dears. In time. You'll see where this meltdown leads. I hope you enjoyed it. Please, comments are encouraged, so send them. They keep my muse fed and ready to write.

Luv you all! And more coming soon!

-DK