Spoiler Alert: Spoilers for Seasons 2 & 3, up to and including "Silent Night".

A/N: Great to hear from so many readers, and I love seeing the hit numbers going up! Let me know who you think the "bad guy" in Montana is; there have been lots of good suggestions so far. Here are some new clues for you.

Disclaimer: No infringement of copyright is intended. All characters originated with CSI:NY; all song lyrics are from The Beatles.

It's A Long Journey Home

Chapter 32: Help Me If You Can

When I was younger, so much younger than today

I never needed anybody's help in any way

But now these days are gone, I'm not so self assured

Now I find I've changed my mind and opened up the doors

Stella walked down the hallway, searching for Mac as she spoke on the phone, "Got it, Danny. I'm looking for Mac now, but I'm sure if Special Agent Monroe asks, he can have access to whatever he needs. How are you doing, working with a Fed?"

She listened to Danny's complaints for a moment, laughing at his exaggerated claims, "Oh, I doubt he's that bad, Danny. He's Lindsay's brother, after all."

She spotted Mac going into an office. "Just a sec, Danny, I've found him. Hold on." Reaching out for Mac, she held out the phone, "It's Danny. He needs a favour."

"Surprise, surprise," Mac muttered, but his voice was warm when he took the phone, "Hey Danny. How's our girl?"

His eyes widened as Danny explained the latest incident. "Did he tell you this?" He mouthed the words to Stella, who nodded, then mimed shaking her head in disbelief. "Okay, Danny, so what do you need from this end?"

Mac attached the phone to a speaker and turned up the volume so Stella could hear as well, and started taking notes as Danny began to list the tests and evidence he needed help with.

"Some of this stuff I'm going to have to liberate, Mac. Olafsen seems okay, just a bureaucrat, but between Evans and McKim, I'm shut out. I just spent two hours this morning trying to get them to let me look at the evidence Lindsay collected. They won't give me access to the photos she took, and according to Evans, she lost the shell casings."

Mac almost laughed, "Lindsay? Lose evidence? I don't think so."

Danny said, "Yeah, that's what I told them. But someone is losing evidence; that's for sure. No one came from the station to collect the clothes she was wearing, but when we found her ODing on morphine, the bag with her clothes in it was gone from her room."

"Anyone tracking who went in and out?" Mac asked.

"I was in the room when the duty nurse, Cheryl Robbins, came in. She brought Olafsen, Evans, and McKim."

Stella wondered if Danny knew his voice went cold and flat every time he said McKim's name.

"They kicked me out to interview Linds. Cheryl left just after I did, once she was sure Lindsay was lucid and didn't need anything."

Mac could hear Danny flipping through his notebook as he talked it through, adding precise times when he could, estimating what he couldn't. Stella was actually doing a timeline on an incident board as Danny talked, and Mac nodded approvingly. When Hawkes walked by the window, Mac waved him in as well.

"Okay, Danny. If you can upload the pictures Lindsay took, we can run them through what we have here. If you can't get a hold of her actual photos, I wonder where her camera is?"

"That's good, Mac. I'll look for that. I'm also going out to her place with her brothers Jamie and Mick now to see if we can find the bullet; Lindsay didn't have time to do a full search of the meadow, and the Bozeman police haven't looked, as far as Diane and Ted know."

"Back up, Danny," Stella called out. "Anyone else seen entering or leaving Lindsay's room while you weren't there?"

Danny flipped through his book again, then answered, "Cheryl says she thinks she saw one more person in the hallway after the cops left but before Chris, Diane, and I showed up. She doesn't know if he was in the room or not, and she didn't know him, but she saw him carrying something when he left. So he may have taken the evidence bag."

"No name. So description, then?" Stella filled in another line on the board.

"Shortish, medium build, reddish hair, kind of curly. 'Scruffy', says here. She only caught a glimpse."

"They have security cameras in the hospital?" Hawkes interjected.

"John Monroe may be able to find out. Me, my name is mud with a capital N Y." Danny sounded fed up, but mostly he sounded tired.

"Danny, you okay?" It was Stella who asked, and the two men looked at her gratefully. Danny might answer her.

They could hear the sigh, "Yeah. I'm okay. We're moving Linds out of here to a safe place. I've got to go with her, Stella." There was a plea for understanding in his voice, as if he was worried they would think he should work the case instead.

"Of course you do, Danny. Look, don't worry. I'm sure we'll be able to work with John Monroe. You just get us what you can, then disappear good, okay?"

Mac interrupted, "We need a way to contact you, Danny. I can't have you both out of touch." He let it sound like a work imperative, but really he just couldn't stand the thought of not knowing where the two young CSIs were. He had thought his heart was going to give out when Danny told him about the latest attack on Lindsay.

"You can use my cell to leave messages until I come up with something better, Mac, and we'll stay in touch with Lindsay's parents. If you need us to know something, that may be your best bet. I don't know about this place they are sending us to; Diane said it had running water and electricity as if that was something to be grateful for!"

The three New Yorkers laughed at Danny's horrified tone. The city boy was having a predictably hard time adjusting to country ways.

"You'll be okay, Danny. Just remember to keep the wood pile stocked, not to mention candles," Hawkes said seriously.

They all laughed again at Danny's groan.

"Look, guys, I gotta go. I'm hiding out to talk to you as it is; no cells in the hospital and I don't want anyone overhearing me. Here are the numbers," he gave them the Monroes' home and cell numbers as well as John Monroe's cell.

"Just one last thing. Could you do a background check on John McKim for me?"

Mac's eyebrows raised, "McKim? Lindsay's ex-partner?"

"Yeah, I know. Pure as the driven snow, I'm sure. But there's something off here, Mac. He went to high school with the Monroes; he'd 'a been around in 1995. He definitely wants my ass outa here, and while there may be other reasons for that, I'm just getting a funny smell off him. Do me the favour, right?"

Mac nodded to Hawkes. "Sheldon can do that for you. We can text results to your phone?"

"Yeah, or email until tomorrow when hopefully we hit the wind. I'll be in touch when I can, okay?" Danny's voice sounded strained, as if he was bidding familiar shores farewell before taking off across a dark, unknown ocean.

Of course, thought Stella, he is going into the backwoods country of Montana; who knew what he was going to be exposed to.

They all said their goodbyes, Stella adding one from Flack, and sent Lindsay their love, and Danny hung up. Stella pushed away from the desk, where she had been leaning, and looked at the board. "Hard to figure anything out here, isn't it? We just don't have enough information without being on the spot."

"Without Lindsay's evidence, we are walking blind," Mac agreed. "Let's hope Danny can find something more for us before he goes under."

Hawkes' eyebrows raised, "Could be interesting, that."

Stella shot him a quick glare and shook his head. Mac looked at him in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

Hawkes ignored Stella, "Well, considering what those two have been going through, I wonder what time alone in a cabin is going to do to them."

Stella had given up; after all, Mac had been the first one to know about Danny and Lindsay. "She has a dislocated shoulder, separated ankle, and a concussion, Shel."

Mac muttered, "Yeah, but Danny has a pretty inventive mind."