A/N: I'm sure everyone wants to know how Lindsay got away from the big guy so that's where I started. There's a little more of Lindsay's past here…but now I'm starting to feel guilty for making her go through so much…

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Lindsay had been dreaming, sleeping very peacefully for the first time in months. Every now and then, especially after a horrible case, the memories would return to haunt her. It wasn't the thing to get over so easily but Lindsay had been sure she had learned how to handle it. However, every time those nightmares came, Lindsay found herself reduced to the shaking, trembling girl who had been too scared to fight back.

Now, as she was unceremoniously dragged out of the shack by that muscle-headed giant, those nightmares returned once more. "Lindsay!" She heard Danny call.

"Danny! Help!" She screamed before Beefcake slammed the door behind him. He leered at her small petite frame. What was going through his mind was easy enough to guess. He tossed her against the ground and stood over her, loosening his belt. Lindsay scrambled to get away but her bound feet only made it harder. Her mind was numb with fear.

Beefcake just smirked and took his time walking towards her. She wasn't going anywhere, not when she was tied up like that. And when he caught up with her, he could make sure she didn't go anywhere until he was done. It was a matter of simplicity to overpower a small woman like her.

Lindsay found herself backed against a tree and the big man was still coming ever closer. A scream escaped her lips as she struggled to get away but he was too close. With an alarming certainty, she knew she couldn't get away from him.

Beefcake considered the shaking woman, trying to get around the tree, trying in vain to put as much distance as she could between them. The bound legs would be a problem, considering what he had in mind. He'd have to make sure she was properly pinned. There were a number of interesting possibilities he could try but he was a simple man so he settled for the simplest one.

He grabbed her shoulder and threw her flat against the ground. Lindsay fought to sit up but she was easily pinned by one big hand that pressed down on her collarbone, just below her neck. Beefcake squatted above her knees, his other hand undoing the knots with a nimbleness that she had only seen with some of the farmhands back in Montana.

Undoing the knots on her legs could only mean one thing. Lindsay swallowed the bile that was rising in her throat as memories assaulted her once again. Her captor then, though he clearly wanted to rape her, had been more distracted by his hatred for her companion. He kept whispering about how he would do it whenever he laid his mad eyes on her, but only when her friend had gotten what he deserved. As luck had it, she had been found and saved not long after her friend died. She had been spared that trauma at least and everyone who knew her had been grateful for that fact.

Memories though, had a strange way of twisting themselves into horrible nightmares and what didn't happen in reality was finished in her mind. She would dream of how those investigators had gotten there too late…of her dead friend coming to life, pouring blame on her out of his mouth as if those harsh words were tainted liquids of some sort…of herself, dead and her soul being tormented for eternity…

The bonds around her legs loosened and the hand now moved on to her pants, tugging the button free and with exquisite slowness, Beefcake pulled her zip. Those nightmares were threatening to come true and Lindsay screamed in their faces, hoping irrationally to scare the nightmares away. Beefcake simply smiled and leaned in closer to her face.

Something broke in Lindsay Monroe at that point. She had taken enough, had been pushed so far that there was nothing her fear could use to scare her any more. Her mind was suddenly very clear and she knew she had to fight back. There was no way she would accept her fate just like that. Beefcake's face was very close and she brought her head up suddenly in a shattering headbutt against his forehead.

That's going to leave a mark. Lindsay thought, wincing from the impact. She felt like she had struck her head against solid rock, which, considering the man's apparent mental capabilities, probably wasn't far from the truth. She wouldn't have been surprised if her skull was fractured.

Her sudden defiance had caught him off guard and as he reeled from the blow, Lindsay braced herself and raised one free leg to kick the man where it would hurt most. Beefcake let out a long scream as her foot made contact and rolled onto the ground, clutching at his injured manhood. Lindsay had taken countless self-defense classes since her traumatic experience, and even more since she achieved her shield. Lindsay knew how to take care of herself but just in case, she had prepared for just such an eventuality.

She reached down into her shoe, accomplishing some very tricky contortions as she tried to reach as close to the sole of her shoe as possible with her hands tied behind her back. I should've thought of this earlier. Lindsay scolded herself mentally but she had been in a state of near-shock and panic. Besides, there was a secret, naughty part of her that had been savoring her closeness with Danny Messer. Their recent fight had put a definite strain on their relationship.

Finally, she had it in her hands. A small switchblade that had fit neatly in the space between the sole of her shoe and the shoe itself… And not a moment too soon. She could hear Beefcake's labored breathing starting to ease, signs that he was recovering from her powerful kick. Lindsay rolled to her feet and stood over the fallen man, their roles now dramatically reversed. She stepped lightly on his throat, exerting just enough force to warn him that she probably could and would crush his throat if he did anything stupid.

Her hands struggled with the switchblade to cut through the thick rope and finally, she was free. "There," She said with a vast sense of relief washing over her. "Now what do I do with you?" She pretended to think it over. "Hands," Lindsay ordered, a steely glint in her eye and emphasizing it by exerting a bit more pressure under her foot.

Those big beefy hands came up obediently and Lindsay used what she could get from the rope that once held her to tie them securely together. She did the same with his legs and then, as an afterthought, trussed his four limbs together much like how cows and bulls and most other four-legged livestock were tied up on her farmhouse home.

When she was certain that all her knots were secure, just like she was taught, Lindsay finally went to see if Danny needed any help. As it turned out, Danny had it all under control, judging from the last few jumps she saw him getting out of his human mattress. He looked so much like a kid jumping on a bed that she couldn't resist asking, "Have you regressed back to childhood Messer?"

Danny stared wide-eyed at her as if he was seeing a ghost or something, his mouth hanging open. "Montana, how'd you… But weren't you… Where's…" Danny had so many questions to ask but he couldn't quite decide which one to ask first. He finally settled for, "How'd you get free?"

Lindsay smiled sheepishly and brandished her little switchblade. "Sorry. I forgot I had this with me. We could've gotten loose earlier."

If it had been anybody else, Danny might've yelled mercilessly at them for their oversight. But this was Lindsay, so he looked her up and down, smirking naughtily. "And where, may I ask, did you hide that little thing? Is there a hiding place on ya that I should know about?"

Lindsay blushed and set about to cutting Danny's ropes. "We can talk about that later Danny. Right now, let's just get out of here. Jesus, what did you do to him? He's practically flattened." Lindsay spared the man on the floor a glance. Checkers seemed to be completely unconscious and there was heavy grunting coming through the open doorway. Beefcake was trying to break his binds. Lindsay wished him good luck. She had used those very same knots to tie up a very big and very grumpy old bull once.

"Just testing out the possibilities of alternate options to springs in mattresses," Danny answered glibly. "Humans are very good to jump on, I've found, especially when they're raging psychos with over-inflated egos." The last of his ropes were sawed through and then he was free.

"I don't think we'll be stuffing beds with humans anytime soon Danny. Come on, let's get out of here."

Danny was about to follow Lindsay out the door when he stopped to search the unconscious Checkers. Lindsay looked back at him questioningly and Danny triumphantly held up his gun. It felt good to have it again. Even though he probably couldn't shoot well without his glasses, at least it was in his hands and not that crazy madman anymore.

They passed by the trussed-up Beefcake and Danny whistled. "Damn Montana, they teach you that on the farm?"

"If you grow up on a farm, you have to learn to help out with various chores." Lindsay said as explanation. She stared around them. Nothing but trees as far as the eye could see. "Where are we?"

"Beats me," Danny answered, also staring at their surroundings. They were very deep in the woods somewhere, the trees above so thick that they nearly obscured the sky with their spreading branches. "Which way did we come from anyway?"

"That way," Lindsay pointed to a certain area not far from the door.

"How'd you know?"

"If you were a Boy Scout, you'd know about forest tracking. But obviously, Danny Messer is no Boy Scout." Lindsay teased.

"Glad ya noticed that Montana but that still doesn't answer my question."

She sighed theatrically. "See the twigs on the bushes? They're all snapped, and the grass is flatter than the rest of the area. That shows it's been trodden on regularly."

"Right…broken twigs…I shoulda seen that…" Danny said sheepishly. He started to move towards the track but when Lindsay didn't move, he looked back at her. "Don't you wanna get outta here?"

"Where are we going to go?" Lindsay asked.

"Back to civilization of course." Danny answered without thinking.

"The country isn't uncivilized Messer." Lindsay said, a little annoyed, "And anyway, which way is the city? We were twisted and turned and went in all kinds of circles before we walked here." Danny opened his mouth to reply but nothing came out. Lindsay was right. They had no idea where they were and where they could go.

"So now whadda we do?" Danny said at last, throwing up his hands in exasperation.

"We have the upper hand over them now," Lindsay gestured back at the shack with her thumb. "And they know the way back. We can try to pry it out of them." The idea of getting back at the two men was a very appealing one. "Or we can wait here for Mac and the rest to come find us. In any case, this shack is our only reference point. We have nowhere else to go right now."

Danny sighed heavily and ran a hand across his flat stomach. "I hope they got some food."

Beefcake refused to talk and Checkers was still unconscious. He wasn't dead though, he still had a faint pulse. Lindsay inspected Danny for any serious injuries but except for maybe a fractured rib and lots of cuts and bruises, Danny was fine. Lindsay only had the cuts and bruises but they were fine on their own. And then they had an argument about whether they should give Checkers some first-aid.

"The man was plannin' to torture us," Danny said, "Why should we care whether he lives or dies? Even if he does, I can easily say it was self-defense. I was the one tied up."

"That doesn't mean we have to sink to his level." Lindsay argued, "Besides, it'll go on your record. It'll be better if we do all we can and then he still dies. At least then we can say we did our best." She was adamant on treating him and soon fashioned some kind of splint out of rope and wood around his ribcage. Danny still didn't quite approve and he showed it by rolling his eyes…a lot.

They had then searched both men for any means of communication but they turned up nothing. A further search outside the shack revealed a small cabinet stocked with cans of food and water. So now they had food, all they had to do was get the fire started.

Danny was being more of a hindrance than a help, Lindsay decided. No matter how she told him that random leaves and twigs wouldn't work, and that in order to build a fire, smaller and more flammable twigs and leaves were needed first, he insisted on bringing whatever he could gather in his arms. He even tried to start a small fire of his own, rubbing two sticks together. That had turned out to be a futile waste of strength. In the end, Lindsay had given him the task of opening the cans with her little knife.

The city boy now sat on the grass, squinting at the lids and struggling to pierce through the tin cans. Somehow, either the blade had gotten dull at some point or he just hadn't the strength, or these cans were really made of steel and this was all part of some elaborate torture dreamed up by Checkers to kill them. Danny darkly speculated about the possibility of dying of starvation when all this food was so temptingly close at hand. The look of concentration on his face was highly amusing to Lindsay, who glanced over every now and then and just missing Danny watching her too.

The country girl was on all fours and blowing hard at the small embers she had managed to ignite. She had a smudge of dirt on her cheek and she stared at the tiny twigs with such intensity that Danny was surprised they didn't spontaneously combust. There was one honey-brown curl that kept falling down the side of her face and she had to tuck it behind her ear, only to have it fall in front again. Her faint look of irritability made Danny smile. Lindsay always looked cute when she was angry.

"I'm glad it's you I got stuck with." Danny said after a while. "Don't get me wrong, I don't want to be in this situation either but if I had a choice, I woulda taken either you or Mac."

"Mac?" Lindsay was confused.

"He's a Marine. He probably knows all kinds of survival tricks." Danny explained. He made a pained face, "Could you imagine what it'd be like if it was Flack? We'd both be doomed out here. Lost and wandering in the middle of nowhere." Lindsay had a brief image of Danny and Flack wandering lost in the forest until they were old and grey and she giggled. "Besides, he isn't as easy on the eyes as you are." Danny added and Lindsay blushed.

"How about Stella and Hawkes?" Lindsay asked, more to change the subject than anything else.

Danny thought about it. "I suppose they would've been fine. I wouldn't be surprised if Hawkes was a Boy Scout as a kid. I'm not so sure about Stella but any of them would be better than Flack." He paused, "You don't need to tell him I said that though."

"We'll see… Who knows? I might need a favor someday."

"You're a cruel woman Montana." Danny grinned.

"Only to men whom I think I might need a favor from." Lindsay said sweetly, "Now get back to work."

Danny made a big snorting sound of disgust. "It won't budge. It's a conspiracy I tell you. Checkers is trying to torture us by getting all this food and putting it out of reach. This thing wasn't meant to be opened by a little switchblade."

"Can-openers were invented fifty years after the invention of the tin can." Lindsay said, remembering the little tidbit of information. "People did fine opening cans until then. Just keep on trying Danny."

Danny glared at the can as if that would make it magically pop open and give up the food hidden inside. What do I have to do to open this thing? Say 'Open Sesame'?

Eventually, they got to eat. Both of them were more than a little ravenous by then and they fell upon the food eagerly. There was no sound from either of them as they ate their fill. Finally, Danny sat back, fully satisfied and watched Lindsay finish the last few remnants of her food. There was a question that was bugging him but he didn't know quite how he should put it. One wrong word and she would shut him out again. Lindsay hadn't acted normally during their captivity and he wanted to know why.

Lindsay could feel his blue eyes on her, studying her and she was strangely pleased about that. She also knew he was fingering her switchblade and she could tell he had questions, questions that she didn't want to answer. All of it was in the past and she didn't want to relive it all over again. Lindsay had a feeling though, that he wouldn't let up until he had all the answers. It was one of the things she liked about him, and the reason why he made a good CSI.

"When I was about 15 or so," She began softly but it caught Danny's attention immediately. "Things…happened…" Lindsay didn't want to remember that part and skipped to the aftermath instead. "All I ever wanted to be was a cop but after everything…I became much more interested in forensics. It's a pretty small town we have at home though, and everyone knew what happened to me. They all treated me like I was made of glass for years, even after I made it as a CSI. They all shielded me from everything, even my co-workers. If a scene was too bloody or a case was too sick, I either got taken off or got confined to the lab."

Abruptly, Danny remembered her reaction when Mac sent her to the lab during that Henry Darius case. She had been really upset about not being able to process the scene. "They had your best interests at heart." Danny said slowly.

"I know, but that was precisely the problem. It got very stifling back home. I wanted to get over it but people kept coming up to me and saying it was okay for me to still be upset. They kept reminding me of what had happened, saying it wasn't my fault. I know they meant well but couldn't they just forget about it? It got to the point where I either had to prove to them I was over it or I had to leave."

"So you came to New York." Danny said, "But why New York?"

"It was convenient at the time. The blood spatter from the case that got me Mac's attention was one of the few cases where my co-workers lost the fight to keep me away from the scene, and it was pretty much the last one I worked. When Mac's offer came, I took it immediately. I just wanted to get away from there. I wanted to get as far away as possible, where no one would know about my past. And you don't get much further than New York City. Everyone objected to it but I was coming here, whether they liked it or not." Lindsay stopped and smiled shyly, "Honestly, I was actually pretty glad when you kept teasing me and trying to piss me off…once I got over my anger anyway."

"Wait…you were glad that I was pissing you off?" Danny interrupted, confused.

"I was angry," Lindsay admitted, "But when I thought about it, you were just treating me like any other rookie…one that replaced a good friend of yours. It was just a sign that you, and everyone else, were treating me like any other normal human being instead of some fragile doll… I just wasn't used to being treated normally at first. And that's why I'm not risking all that by telling anyone what happened. I don't want to be treated specially. It's all in the past and I just want to forget about it."

Danny thought he understood, and he nodded. "All right. I won't press you to remember. But you know…if you need to talk about things…you can always talk to me. I promise I won't treat you different."

She managed a smile. "Thanks Danny, but I can't take that chance. At least not right now. Maybe someday…" Her last words surprised them both. Lindsay hadn't wanted to speak at all about her past, not now and not ever. But if it was Danny…then maybe…maybe she could make an exception.

Danny smiled, "I'd be honored." The situation was getting a little embarrassing as they just sat there exchanging looks. Danny rubbed the back of his neck and stood up. "I'll just go take a look and see if Checkers is awake. And maybe Beefcake has had a change of mind. They're our only ticket out of here after all."

Yes, I'm finally done with this chapter! It's back to the lab in the next chapter. This one seemed a little weird to me somehow… Anyway, thanks for the reviews!