A/N: Okay, here comes my next chapter. Thanks everyone for reviewing. Hope you all like this one too.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Water rushed past them, sweeping past their ears and pushing them forwards. Bubbles streamed out of their mouths and noses as they struggled to keep themselves afloat and avoid being dragged under by the swift current. Lindsay gasped as her head broke through the surface and seconds later, Danny came up too, coughing and gasping. "This- was some- idea you had- Montana." He tried to yell over the rushing water.
"It got us- away from the dogs, didn't it?" Lindsay managed to yell back. Water gushed into her open mouth and she spluttered it back out. "Let's just keep swimming." She suggested. A startling thought struck her, "Danny, there aren't any- waterfalls in New York State are there?"
"How the- hell would I know? I- live in the- city." Danny yelled back in exasperation. It was pretty tiring trying to keep above the water. "Why- do you wanna- know?"
"Fast waters sometimes- become rapids, and rapids become- waterfalls." Lindsay informed him, finally getting the hang of swimming in the current.
Danny paled slightly at the idea. "No- way, that'd be way- too cliché for- our- situation right- now." He tried to joke. It was his turn to splutter as water managed to enter his open mouth. "How are you doing that?" He demanded of Lindsay who was now managing to swim along with ease.
"Practice Messer. You think- this current is fast, wait- till we get to some real rapids." She smiled slightly at Danny's state. "Just relax. Don't fight- the current."
"Easy-for you to- say," Danny continued struggling, "Damn- I really- hope we don't- come to a- waterfall. That'd- really suck."
Fortunately for them, there didn't seem to be a waterfall in the vicinity so the river finally dumped them in calmer waters where they climbed up a rocky bank. Danny promptly collapsed face first on it and Lindsay wasn't far behind. "I thought you were a strong swimmer Danny." She teased as they tried to catch their breath.
"Don't bother me right now Montana. I think I almost drowned back there." Danny mumbled. "I even had a vision of Hawkes and Sid and Marty all working together on my autopsy. They were debating whether my COD was drowning, shot or bled out from being bitten by those dogs."
The image that popped into Lindsay's head was so familiar and ridiculous that she started to giggle. Danny turned his head just enough to glare at her and that only made her laugh harder. "That settles it," Danny muttered, "The next vic we find floating in the river or something, you're picking him up."
"Hey, I thought we were past the stage of making the new girl do all the dirty work." Lindsay protested but she couldn't help smiling as she said it.
"The new girl status stays until someone new joins the team." Danny asserted with all the logic of a thirteen-year-old. They stared at each other for a while and then started laughing all over again. "We've gotten ourselves into a pretty fine mess." Danny noted, "We're completely lost now, and those dogs are gonna come looking for us sooner or later. What now?"
"We could stick to the riverside." Lindsay suggested. "We might find some form of civilization somewhere downstream."
"Because sooner or later, this stream has to end up somewhere, huh?" Danny smiled, "I shoulda thought of that myself."
Lindsay stood up, trying to wipe the dirt off her wet clothes at the same time. "Let's get going then."
"Could we just wait a while longer? I'm completely worn out."
"All right Colin, Bill and I are gonna carry you to the road and then he'll take you to a hospital. Ya got that?" He asked. The broken body of Colin Jackal nodded painfully and the two men lifted up the stretcher that they had made up for him. The dogs ran around them, showing the way eagerly for their master.
A couple of hours and several painful bumps later, they finally came back to where they had left their truck. It had been well-concealed by leaves and branches and Bill began to pull them all off the large vehicle. "Messer…" Colin rasped in a voice that, if he had been any stronger, would've come out as a snarl.
"I'll find 'em Colin. I think I got a pretty good idea of where they'll be headed." He assured his former business partner. "I'll get 'em and we'll make them pay ten times over for every broken bone that ya got." He turned to Bill, "Take good care of him all right? I'll give you a call when I find them."
He watched as the truck disappeared into the distance. He was still standing there even after all the dust had settled and then he pulled out a map from his pocket. "Let's see now…that little stream they dropped in has to be around here." He circled the area with a pencil, "And assuming they survived the current, sooner or later they'll come ashore." He knew the smart thing to do would be to follow the river flow right to the nearest town. So all he had to do was get to that nearest town and work his way upstream from there.
He smiled, feeling a familiar rush. Let the hunt begin…
"Are we there yet?"
"No, there's still some time before we reach the general area."
"Can't we go any faster?"
"No. Now just relax. We'll get there in time."
"I can't relax, not like this. Who knows what kind of hell those two sadists are putting them through?"
"Yeah, it's such a big area…Will we even be in time to rescue them?"
"Don't even think that. They'll be all right. They have to be."
"Lindsay is with him. They should be able to work something out."
"You're right. Plus, she's a country girl. I'm sure she knows all about surviving in places like these. She'll take good care of Danny."
Danny winced every time he set his foot down, the sharp pain shooting up his leg with every step. One of those damned dogs had gotten in a good snap on his leg, just below his calf muscle. Though he hadn't said anything about it to Lindsay yet, he knew she would notice it soon. She was a CSI after all, and he was already getting a limp in his leg.
"Montana, could we stop for a minute?" Danny asked.
"We're losing light Danny." Lindsay said as she turned around to face him, but then she saw the slightly pained look on his face and she became concerned right away. "Are you all right?"
"Fine," Danny said gruffly, "I just think one of those dogs managed to sink its teeth into my leg back there." He bent over to pull his pants up and reveal the nasty looking bite mark. Lindsay took a sharp intake of breath. It looked pretty deep and was bleeding badly.
"Danny, why didn't you tell me you got bitten?" Lindsay asked as she led him to the riverbank.
"I didn't think it was this bad." Danny replied defensively. "The pain kept getting worse though." He set himself down on the ground and soaked his injured leg in the running waters.
"You could've gotten an infection." Lindsay began to scold.
"I know, I know," Danny started to wash the wound out with his hands. He gritted his teeth as he tried not to touch the sore spots but that was proving to be impossible to do if he wanted to wash away the blood and dirt at the same time.
Lindsay sighed, "You're impossible. Let me do it." She brushed his hands away and tentatively began to clean his wound for him. Her soft touch sent tingles down his spine. Danny gulped and tried to focus on the pain instead of certain other things. Lindsay could feel her muscles tensing on the contact alone. I can't believe I'm actually doing this, she thought. "This would be a lot easier with a piece of cloth or something…" She murmured, trying to keep her mind off the man seated in front of her.
"Yeah well, we only got the clothes on out backs, your knife and my gun. We gotta make do with that." Danny said the first thing that came to mind.
Awkward silence rose between them for a moment or two and then Lindsay threw up her hands. "That's the best I can do. Now all we need is something to bind it with." She looked around at their surroundings. Nothing but trees and other similar green things. Danny noticed her gaze and his lips quirked upwards, ready to make some smart remark about whether country girls knew how to turn leaves into bandages. However, Lindsay removed her knife and started to cut a strip of cloth off her own shirt.
"Montana, what're you doing?" Danny spluttered.
"Like you said, we only have the clothes on our backs. We have to make a bandage out of something. You didn't think I was going to make one out of leaves and twigs did you?"
Danny coughed embarrassedly, "Of course not." He replied quickly and then tried to change the subject while she wrapped the strip of clothe around the wound. "What're we going to do when it gets to night time? Are we gonna sleep out here in the open?"
"Well…" Lindsay looked slyly at him, "We could always sleep in the trees. How'd you like that?"
"Do I look like a bird to you? There's no way I'm sleeping in a tree."
"Then it's out in the open, unless of course we find something more comfortable than just sleeping under a tree. With any luck, we might find a cave or something."
"Aren't there bears in those caves?"
"Only sometimes," Lindsay admitted, much to Danny's horror. She laughed at his pale face. "Relax Danny. The chances of us coming upon a bear's den are slight. And besides, more people are mauled by dogs every year than by bears. You've already been attacked by a dog, you can't be that unlucky to come up against a bear too."
Danny groaned, "You just had to say that, didn't you? Now you've gone and jinxed it. Any cave we find will have an occupant now, I'm sure of it."
"Don't be so negative." Lindsay smacked him lightly on the head. "Can you get up?"
"I'm not an invalid. My leg just hurts." Danny stood up slowly and walked a few steps. "I'll have to limp but I should be able to walk."
Lindsay linked her arm with his and smiled a little shyly. "I'll help you. We'll make better progress that way." Danny returned the shy smile with one of his own. It didn't just feel good to have her on his arm. It felt…right.
Okay, I think that's about enough for this chapter. It's still shorter than I would've liked it… I liked the part where the team was talking together, although I'm not quite sure myself who was talking. It could've been only a few, or all of them. I'd like to hear what you guys think, so please review!