Disclaimer: I obviously do not own CSI: NY. I just own my car, my laptop and my crazy muse who seems to want to write 4 different stories at a time. I also do own any characters that you do not recognize. You can borrow them if you ask permission first!

A/N: Okay. Thanks to everyone that read and reviewed! Here's the next chapter!! Many thanks to Aphina and Axellia for the beta. I don't own the chapter title either. That belongs to From First to Last.

Chapter 6.

Secrets Don't Make Friends

Derek Morgan studied the notes of a possible school shooter with a jaundiced eye. In his years with the BAU, he had seen pretty much everything, but even with that experience he knew that Garcia was right. Something was off. Yes, the handwriting analysis came back with a high probability that the writer was the same person, but he now understood what Lydia had been talking about. They didn't make sense. Both said that the particular school shooting that they referenced was "the beginning". The beginning of what, he wondered. And why was this sent to SSA Reid? She has had no contact with schools, not even at a career day.

Shaking his head, he decided to pull up all the information on Agent Reid that he could. He needed to know what made her special. Why the UnSub was focusing on her? As he skimmed the records, he shook his head at the sheer horrors that the unknown agent had endured. Her fiancé being killed, being kidnapped—not once, but twice—by members of dangerous gangs, being shot and then the kidnapping of her mother. He was surprised that she was still with the agency, truth be told. He glanced at her picture, noticing a slight resemblance between her and Spencer Reid and wondered briefly if they were related, but then focused his attention back on the notes.

Okay, this is not a normal school shooter. The profile of that is an outcast who is burning for revenge and usually doesn't want to survive the experience. Secrecy is first and foremost. Rarely do people even realize that they are mentally unstable. Usually have some sort of grudge against a specific set of people. He tapped his pen on the table, trying to put some sort of a profile together in his mind. So, this UnSub obviously wants attention, but why? What does the UnSub hope to gain from this? That question, he knew, would haunt him until he got more information. Sighing, he picked up the phone to let Lydia know what he had.

--

Cory was still awake when she heard the door to the apartment open, signaling that Danny's single had only turned into a double, instead of a triple. Sighing, she realized that she had been lying in bed for three hours trying to fall asleep, but her brain just wouldn't turn off. She kept going over every conversation that she had with Alistair in regards to Etienne. She kept feeling like she had been betrayed. Alistair knew how much she wanted to catch the man that was instrumental in trying to kill her mother, and the fact that he would withhold information from her, cut her to the quick.

She turned over and pretended to be asleep when Danny quietly walked into the bedroom. She had reversed her earlier decision to discuss the new twist in the case with him. She didn't want to burden or make him worry about her even more.

Danny tiptoed quietly into the room. He remembered that Cory had told him that she had to go into work early and wanted to let her sleep. He undressed quietly and slipped into bed, unable to resist pulling her into his arms.

Cory sighed softly as Danny's arms wrapped around her and her back was pulled flush with his chest. Immediately, her brain began to focus on the contact of skin on skin. She laid there for a few minutes, focusing on listening as their breaths become synchronized. She felt Danny's hand softly moving over her skin and felt the familiar rush of desire was over her and made a decision. I know one way to make my brain turn off, she thought as she turned in his arms and opened her eyes.

Danny felt her stir and looked down. "I'm sorry," he said automatically, feeling bad for interrupting her sleep.

Cory just smiled as she pulled his head towards her and kissed him deeply, intent on getting her brain to shut down.

--

When the alarm went off at three, Cory groaned softly. She opened up bleary eyes and realized that she had been asleep for maybe two hours. Sighing, she pulled herself out of Danny's arms and went to get ready.

Thirty minutes later, her wet hair pulled back into a simple French braid, she was walking out of the apartment, into the seemingly quiet streets of New York. She walked quickly towards the subway, not wanting to take the pains to drive. She went over how she was going to approach Alistair when she called him. She knew that she had to approach him carefully. She didn't want to alienate him.

She was still thinking about her strategy when she got off the subway, making a small detour to Starbucks because she knew that she needed coffee. Smiling as she walked out of the store, with her Grande Café Au Lait and blueberry muffin, she felt her spirits lifting. That is due to the absolute decadence of this muffin, she thought as she bit into it and sighed in pleasure. "Oh, so worth the calories," she muttered to herself while walking in the back part of the building. She smiled at the night security man as she walked towards the elevators.

Once on her quiet floor, she quickly shut herself in her office. She looked at the clock, and did the calculation to figure out what time it was in London. It would be just before ten a.m. there. She set down her coffee and picked up the phone to make the international call.

"Murphy," the crisp British voice answered.

"Good morning, Alistair," Cory responded.

"Ah, Corinne. To what do I owe the pleasure of your call, well before dawn your time," the older man responded.

Cory sighed. "Well, I have to admit Alistair, I'm a little bumfuzzled."

"I'm sorry. You're a little what?" he questioned her, clearly confused.

Cory laughed a little, hoping to lighten the mood. "I'm confused, Alistair."

"You and your sayings, Corinne. What are you confused about?"

Cory bit her lip, trying to think of a way to confront him without being rude. "Why didn't you tell me about Boleslav Kladivo?" she finally asked quietly.

Alistair felt the blood drain from his face as she mentioned the birth name of Etienne Martel. He didn't know how she had found out about him, but much to his relief, his assistant knocked on the door to usher in his ten o'clock appointment. "I am sorry, Corinne, but I have a meeting that I must go to. I'll ring you later," he said hastily as he hung up the phone.

Cory stared at the dead line in shock and anger. What the hell just happened?

--

When Danny awoke at five, he was unsurprised to find Cory's side of the bed empty and the sheets cool. Huh, I guess she had to go in really early, he thought as he got ready for work. He wanted to be in by seven so that Adam and he could have time to go over the surveillance video. He had an idea that the reason there was blank time on the tape was because of scheduled maintenance to the system and wanted to make sure.

When he got to the lab, he found Adam asleep at his desk, still dressed in the clothes he had worn the previous day. Shaking his head, Danny plopped down next to him and waved his cup of coffee underneath the younger man's nose.

Adam stirred out of a pleasant dream of the woman he had met at a club, a few days prior. He opened his eyes, trying to focus and finally saw Danny grinning in front of him. "What time is it?" he asked sleepily.

Danny cocked an eyebrow. "A little after seven. You know, you really shouldn't fall asleep at work; it makes the rest of us look bad."

Adam just smiled as he stretched, popping his back. "Sorry, I had one of the techs at the security company send me the security feeds from the previous month and must have nodded off."

Danny nodded sympathetically. "So, I had an idea about the blank time on the tapes. What if it was for regularly scheduled maintenance?"

Adam's eyes lit up. "That actually is possible. I'll call the company and find out for sure," he said excitedly.

Danny shook his head. "No, you're going to go take a shower and change your clothes," he said sternly. "I'll call the company and then check on the trace to see where we are at."

Adam nodded sheepishly as he looked down at his disheveled clothes. "Okay. I'll be right back."

Danny just waved the younger man away as he picked up the phone. Ten minutes later, he had his answer. Every month, the security system shut down for two hours to perform back up maintenance. Danny shook his head. Okay. One question answered, a multitude still left.

Sighing, he walked into the trace lab and checked with Kendall about his results. She winked at him a little, still flirting with him, even though she knew that he was engaged. He ignored her flirtations and nodded. "Good morning. Do you know if we got any results on the trace I pulled from my scene last night?"

Kendall leaned to the side and grabbed a stack of papers. "The bullet had some trace on it. Gunpowder. I took the liberty of comparing it to the gunpowder that you pulled out of the freezer and it matches. I did some work to try to trace the gunpowder back and I did get a hit from the FBI database. Some fireworks that were reported missing from Port Authority. It got bounced to the FBI since they are working on a possible weapons smuggling ring that is importing the firearms in through fireworks."

Danny raised an eyebrow. "Interesting. How did you get all that info?" he asked curiously. Usually he was the one that had the FBI hookup.

Kendall smirked. "I know people, but they didn't have more information than that."

Danny nodded. "Right, I'll see if I can get Cory to work on it."

"Who's Cory and is he cute?" Kendall asked with a predatory gleam in her eyes.

Danny just shot her a look. "Cory. Corinne Reid? My fiancée?" Danny returned as he held back a laugh as Kendall's face fell. "She's pretty high up and she might be able to get some info for me."

"Oh," Kendall said as she turned back to her work. "I'd better get on these results for Mac and Stella. They should be in soon and I want to have them ready."

Danny nodded as he walked out of the room, happy that maybe Kendall had finally gotten the point. He bumped into Adam, freshly showered, as he walked back to his office. "Got a possible lead. The security company confirmed that on a random day each month, they do a backup. They don't notify anyone of the backup, so everyone thinks that it is business as usual."

"Interesting," Adam said, trying to figure out what had happened in the store.

"Not as interesting as this," Danny teased. "The gunpowder I found in the freezer, was also on the bullet that killed the second vic and it matches some missing fireworks from Port Authority. Fireworks that the FBI suspects are part of a weapons smuggling operation."

Adam shook his head. "Wow."

Danny sighed. "I know. This is starting to feel like an organized crime hit gone wrong and the store manager maybe got caught in the crossfire?"

Adam just shrugged. "I think we need to identify the unknown victim and maybe it will shed some light on what might have happened."

Danny nodded as he turned towards the lab. "I'm gonna work on the DNA and fingerprints."

"And I'm going to work on the tapes and see if I can find anything interesting on them," Adam stated as the two men walked in opposite directions.

AN: Okay guys...Only 3 reviews? :( My apologies to Kendall lovers here...for some reason my muse wants to write her as a bitch!

Soccer - Thanks!

lapland - Trust me when I say that you ain't seen nothing yet with imaginative cases. My muse has been over the moon about a case that is going to happen somewhere between chapter 10 and 15 and she will not let it go. I've had to write the entire case down (I'm about halfway through and have 16 pages so far), but I had to stop because some of what I've planned but not written is going to effect it so I have to write it! if that makes sense. But I can promise you...this case will give you chills!! evil laughter Thanks!

BEG - No worries! I'm glad things are looking up! I still can't get my muse to shake this case, but I've managed to convince her that I have to write the chapters before it so I don't have to rewrite after I write them! I usually use real life cases for inspiration, but the fast food one is completly from my head (I used to manage a fast food restaurant). I think both Adam and Sid are underused and underappreciated! Adam is actually factoring a lot more in this story since Lindsay is going to be out for a while. I love Adam and I'm giving him a girlfriend in this one! :D ttyl!

Okay people! Go vote for whether or not you think that Lindsay is having a boy or a girl on my profile! I have written that part, but don't have a definite chapter for it yet, so I'll continue to look at your input! Until then...Happy reading!