Disclaimer: I obviously do not own CSI: NY. I wish I did because then Danny and Lindsay would be together already! Anyway, I do own any characters that you do not recognize. You can borrow them if you ask permission first!

A/N: Here's the next chappie!! Thanks to all who reviewed. As always, please R&R. My muse loves the attention. :D

Chapter 11.

A Break

Danny was still looking at the blank spot on the wall when he heard Cory answer the phone. He looked up in concern when he heard her ask who was on the phone. When all of the color drained out her face, he walked over to her quickly.

"Bella? What's wrong?"

Cory looked at him, fear and surprise in her eyes. "Um…I think that was Frasier. He told me that he might go after you first." Cory closed her eyes, trying to suppress the anger and fear that was flooding through her body.

Danny looked at her in shock. "What?"

Cory drew in a breath and opened her eyes. "He said that the cute CSI that I was with might be first on his list. I…" Cory trailed off in shock.

"Cory. I promise that I will be careful. Trust me; if I get a shot at him, he's mine. I will not let him hurt you."

Hawkes looked over at the pair, trying not to eavesdrop on their conversation. He cleared his throat. "Um. Cory? Do you know how this guy likes to kill? Is it a simple assassination or does he try to make it look like an accident?"

Cory shook her head. "I have no clue. All I know is his name. I haven't had a chance to research his kills, yet." Cory drew a deep breath and pulled some strength from her anger. "I've got to go to the office. I have so much stuff that I have to do."

Danny nodded in his understanding. He knew that she had to work to try to overcome any feelings that she was having. "Go, bella. We'll finish processing her."

Cory smiled but it did not reach her eyes. "You, chere, are much to understanding for me. I hate to jet on you, but I need to do this. I'll call you when I'm on my way home." She leaned in and gave him a quick kiss. "Je t'aime."

Danny smiled and decided to surprise her. "Moi aussi."

Cory raised her eyebrows. "You learned French?"

Danny smirked. "A few words. I thought that it might be nice to surprise you."

"Thanks. It means a lot to me. I'd better go."

Danny watched in concern as she left. Once she was gone he turned to Hawkes. "Man, I'm worried about her. I don't know how much more she can take before she reaches her breaking point."

Hawkes nodded his head in understanding. "You can just be there for her if she does break. Cory's strong, Danny. She'll survive. Especially if you keep supporting her."

Danny nodded, the concern not leaving his eyes. "I know. It's just wrong. Sometimes I think that she got the short end of the stick. You know, I've never met her parents? I've met James' parents, but not hers. Anytime I ask about them, she blows me off. I've stopped asking since she obviously does not want to talk about it." Danny let out a breath in exasperation. "I love her. I want to ask her to marry me, but something's holding me back. I don't think that she feels like she can trust me completely yet."

Hawkes looked at him. "Just have faith, man. She'll open up to you when she is ready." He turned and looked around. "Well, I'm done here. There is nothing left for me to process."

Danny nodded. "I'm right there with you. Still not a damn scrap of trace. How is this guy doing it?"

"I don't know, but when we catch him, we'll make sure that he never gets out of jail." Hawkes packed up his kit and watched as the coroner's assistant began to load the body.

(FBI Headquarters)

Cory walked into her office, noticing the silence around her. Since it was Sunday, not very many people were in the office. She turned on her computer and sat deep in thought as the machine booted up.

Once her computer had finished pulling up all her programs, she first went to her email. Damn. Still over a hundred emails. How am I going to get though all of this? I'm distracted as it is. She sighed, gritted her teeth and opened the first email.

Most of the emails were fairly routine updates from the various cases that she was involved with. Finally, about two hours later she was almost through all of the mail. She noticed an email from one of her friends in Interpol. She furrowed her brow as she opened it up. The email was simple. It just said, "Cory, I got your email. Call me as soon as you are able."

She looked at the time stamp on the email and realized that he had just sent it. Frowning, she picked up the phone and began dialing the international number. She paused and then punched in another series of number. Finally, the phone began to ring.

"Murphy."

"Alistair. It's Cory. How have you been?"

"Cory! I did not expect a response so soon from you. I've been wonderful. How has life been treating you?"

Cory laughed. "It's been better. I don't know if you've heard, since I just found out myself, but I now have a contract out on my life."

Alistair gasped. "What? Who did you manage to upset, dear?"

"They are some major drug traffickers. Obviously I must be doing my job right, if they are that mad at me! Anyway, what was so urgent that I needed to call you?"

"I got you're email request about those dead girls. I think I may be able to help you out."

"Really? We are at a dead end here and the NYPD just found another body."

"Very interesting. The two pictures that you sent me are for an Anna Dubois and Marie St. Claire. They were classmates at an elite Swiss boarding school. Two years ago, right after graduation they both disappeared. There were signs of a struggle in their dorm room. The Swiss police found no evidence and when the girls were spotted in Madrid, Interpol was called in to help."

"Hmm. Is it possible that the victim that we have identified, Carolina Pierre, was part of their class?"

"I have a copy of the school enrollment right here. Let me check." Cory heard some papers shuffling in the background as Alistair began the search. "You are correct, my dear. She was listed on the roll. She was in the same graduating class with the other two. It looks like they were good friends. I have a picture of four girls here, they are three of them."

"Alistair? Can you please email me and copy of the picture right now?"

"Sure. Hold on one moment."

A few seconds later, an email arrived. Cory quickly opened it up and looked at the picture of the four girls. "I got it. The fourth girl is the victim that we just found. What's her name?"

"Abigail Beauregard. She and Marie are from England, Anna is from Switzerland. Why don't I email you all of the case info? Abigail went missing about six months ago."

"That would be great, Alistair. Can you please include a couple of other people in?" She gave him the email address for Hawkes, Danny and Mac. "They are the people investigating the deaths at the New York Crime Lab. You have been so much help. Thank you so much."

"No problem, my dear. I'm glad that we are able to give some sort of closure to these families. I'm just sorry that the news will be so bad. I'd better let you go, I'm getting ready to leave, I just wanted to wait for you're call if I could."

"Before you go, I have a favor to ask."

"Anything for you."

"I need you to send me as much information you can on Antoine Frasier."

"Why?"

"He's the one that has been called in to try to kill me. I want to know what to prepare for. I know that he's going to go after my friends and family, so I want to prepare them as well."

Alistair gasped over the phone line. "Dear. You must be very careful. He is very dangerous. I've had some dealings with him over the last ten years, so I have plenty of information on him. I'm more than happy to forward the information to you. It may take me a day or so to compile all of it, but I'll have it to you by Wednesday."

Cory smiled. "Thanks. I'll let you get home to Molly, now. You are worse than me! Spend some time with her."

Alistair laughed. "My dear, we just got back from a two week holiday in Greece. She was glad to get rid of me! Stay safe."

"You, too. Bye."

Cory hung up her phone. She felt slightly better after talking to Alistair. She smiled as she got another email from him, this one containing all of the Interpol case information.

She picked up the phone and quickly dialed Danny.

"Messer."

"Hey. Where are you at?"

"Hey to you, too. I'm at the lab."

Cory smiled. "Go check you're email. I think that I got some great case breaking information for you. I just got off the phone with an Interpol contact in London. He was able to ID all of the other victims. They went to the same boarding school in Switzerland."

Danny raised his eyebrows. "Really? That's great. I'll glance over it, but I've been on for over ten hours, so I'm heading home. Even Mac has left for the day."

Cory looked at her phone. "Wait. Did I hear that right? Mac. Mac Taylor. Former Marine Mac Taylor has already left work and it's only seven o'clock at night? Is he sick?"

Danny laughed. "Nope. Stella managed to drag him out of here. Said something about going to a concert."

Cory smiled. "Nice. I'm heading home, too. I'm still tired. I'll meet you there?"

Danny nodded to himself. "Definitely. I love you."

"I love you, too. I'll see you in a bit."

AN: I'm back!!! Okay, sorry that this took me so long to write. My muse is on strike because I gave up Dr. Pepper. (I know, it's amazing. But, I'm trying to lose some weight and I could just not afford the calories!!) Anyway, I've tempted her back for a little while, and I hope she'll stick around long enough for me to write the next chapter! I've got so many plans write now, that I don't know where to begin. I may go back and beta "A Time to Heal" to try to get my thoughts in order!

Soccer-Bitch - I'm glad that you loved the chapter! To answer you're question...I think I had a good weekend, but they'll all run together lately. I've been spending my weekends at my parent's house helping my mom build brick planters and then for the last 3 weeks, I've been helping my sister paint her living room. It seems like I have no time!

mj0621 - deftly dodging the pillow I know. I'm so mean! At least this one didn't end on a cliffie! I'm not quite sure to do with Antoine yet. I really can't wait to start to write him, because for some reason I have the most fun writing the bad guys, but I have no clue how I'm going to tie everything together yet. And I agree! Muses' are as crazy as their writers!!! I'm sorry it took me so long to update! Hopefully, Lexi will stay around for a while and I can crank out another couple of chapters!

chili-peppers - have you passed out from withdrawal yet? I don't know if anything will happen to Danny. I mean, come on, I had him kidnapped in the last one. Maybe it'll be someone different. Any one that you want to die??? Now take a deep breath, I've not forgotten about trying to update, but I've been busy and I am still in school!! But things are calming down a bit, so hopefully I can update more often!

hey-spitfire - YEAH!!! A new reviewer!!! I thank you! I'm glad that you are enjoying it!!