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 Greenday.

Chapter 13.

Basket Case

When Lydia finally left the hospital after visiting hours were over, she was drained and confused. Hawkes had woken up once, but had been groggy and unfocused. As she watched him sleep, her mind had kept returning to Morgan and how his smile had affected her. Stop it, she told herself. You are with Sheldon. Remember what Derek put you though. Remember how hurt you were when you left Quantico.

She kept debating with herself as she walked into the lobby to leave. She was just about to walk in the revolving door when a hand touched her shoulder. Startled, she whipped around, only to see Morgan standing there sheepishly.

"Sorry," he uttered. "I didn't mean to scare you."

Lydia shook her head, dismissing the fluttering in her stomach as being a result of being caught unaware. She smiled softly as she looked into his eyes. "It's okay. I was lost in thought," she reassured him. "Why are you here?"

In response, Morgan took his hand from behind his back to reveal a bouquet of Spanish Irises. "I thought you could use some cheering up. How's your boyfriend?"

Lydia stared in shock at the bouquet of flowers. How did he remember that Spanish Irises are my favorite flowers? She finally smiled softly. "He's okay. They should be letting him out in a couple of days." She stared at the flowers again. "I can't believe that you remembered my favorite flower."

Morgan smiled as he softly brushed a strand of her hair back behind her ear. "Of course I remembered." He pulled his hand back quickly, knowing that she was off limits. "You wanna grab dinner?"

Lydia bit her lip, not sure of what to do. Finally, she shook her head. "I'd better not. I'm half asleep right now and really just want to fall in my bed," she told him, not wanting to reveal the real reason. She didn't trust herself with him and she didn't want to hurt Hawkes.

Morgan nodded, not sure what he was feeling about her. Did he still have feelings for her or was what he was feeling just a reaction to how they broke up? "So, what happened with your boyfriend?"

Lydia sighed. "Somehow he came into contact with Ricin. It caused him to collapse in convulsions, but luckily it was a small dose, so there will be no lasting affects."

Morgan looked shocked. "What? Is it an attack?" he questioned quickly.

"Nope. Doesn't look like it. There's only one other victim and you know as well as I do, that if this was a terrorist attack, then there would be more victims."

"That's a relief. Why don't you let me walk you home," he questioned, not wanting to say good-night to her yet.

"Okay," Lydia conceded as they turned to leave the building.

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When Flack got back to his desk, he sat down wearily. Taking a deep breath, he booted up his computer to do a more thorough background check on the victim and see if he had any outstanding complaints against him.

Thirty minutes later, he was fighting the urge to throw his pen across the bull pen in his frustration. Nothing! This guy is a convicted sex offender and there is nothing on file, he thought angrily. I just don't get it. He had run everyone (including the victim's ex-wife) to see if there were any lawsuits pending, but it had come back clean. Shaking his head, he got up to go to the lab to see how much progress they had made on the evidence collected at the scene the second time around.

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When they got back to the lab, Danny, Mac and Adam immediately split up to run the tests on the evidence. Adam handed over everything that he had bagged to Danny and made his way back to the AV lab, since he hadn't had a chance to go over the computer that Hawkes had bagged the first time around. Quickly, he attached the laptop to the lab computers and ran a virus scan. He knew that with the amount of pornographic pictures of children on there, there was a high possibility that the computer could be infected with any number of viruses and he didn't want anything to compromise the lab's firewall.

While the scan was running, he began to make a mental checklist of how he wanted to look over the files. He knew that was the best thing to do, especially since he was still a little distracted by Hawkes' collapse. Thankfully, the scan didn't take long since no viruses were detected. With his mental list complete, he put on his earphones for his IPod and began to investigate the hard drive and all it had to offer.

His stomach began to churn as he waded through the explicit pictures, looking for hidden messages or codes. He wasn't surprised at the nauseating pictures (given the history of the man), but the images were still disturbing. Biting his lip, he quickly changed his play list to something more upbeat, trying to quell the queasiness. Finding nothing in the pictures, he pulled up the email and browser history, hoping to find something there.

Two hours later, Adam was in shock with what he'd found. Shaking his head in amazement and disbelief, he jumped out of his chair, determined to find Mac and Danny to tell them what he'd found.

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After Adam had handed him the evidence, Danny turned to Mac. "You take the make-up and I'll take what I bagged from the kitchen?" he questioned.

Mac nodded. "Good idea," he agreed as he accepted the bags from Danny.

Danny turned as Mac walked away, intent on finding out what was bothering him. Over the next few hours, he took samples and tested them from everything he'd found, with surprising results. He'd grabbed the paper from the printer and turned to walk out of the lab to find Mac when his boss walked in the lab with a grim smile. Flack was coming up behind him.

"Found the source of the Ricin," Mac stated as soon as Flack had entered the room.

Danny raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Really? So did I. Where?"

"In the face paint. Where was yours?" Mac returned, just as surprised as Danny was.

Danny smirked, feeling proud of what he'd discovered. "Actually, in two places, but I think it's from the same source." He turned and led Mac to the table, where his samples were spread out. "First, I tested the mashed up food in the garbage and it turns out to be Ricinus Communis."

Mac's eyes opened. "Castor beans?"

Danny nodded. "Yep and the liquid that fell on the floor was actually homemade Ricin." He looked at Mac. "As far as I can figure, when the bowl spilled, some of it got on Hawkes and that's why he got sick."

Mac nodded, the light coming on in his head. "And the dog drank the water and that's what caused it to die," he finished.

"The question is…Was this a suicide attempt?"

"If so, there are easier ways to off yourself," Flack jumped in. "Why not just shoot yourself or jump off the Brooklyn Bridge?" he asked in confusion.

"Because it had to be accidental," Adam said from the doorway.

The three men turned to look at the young lab tech. "Go on," Mac said encouragingly.

"First off, I'm going to have to take a shower after going through his computer," Adam said with a shudder. "But, I found emails that he'd sent his ex-wife where he told her that he was going to poison her with Ricin. Also, in his browser history, I found where he had googled "How to make Ricin" and a link to the website where he'd found the recipe." Adam looked happy that he had made such an astounding discovery.

"Okay," Mac responded. "But, that doesn't explain how it got into his make-up."

Adam thought for a moment. "Transfer from his hands, maybe?" he temporized.

Danny shook his head as he leaned against the table. "Unlikely. If it was transfer, then there wouldn't be a high enough concentration to cause death. Of all the methods to administer Ricin, skin absorption is the hardest to cause serious harm. That's why Hawkes just got sick and he didn't die."

Mac thought for a moment. "Danny, has the mass spec given you a chemical composition yet?"

"Yeah," Danny answered, pulling the breakdown up on the screen. "You can definitely tell that it's homemade, tons of impurities in it."

Mac's eyes began to gleam as he moved to another computer and pulled up the composition of the sample he'd found in the make-up. "Look, mine is different. There are very few impurities in it. This had to have been made in a lab."

"So the question is...who put the Ricin in the make-up?" Flack said dryly.

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By the time they'd gotten to Lydia and Sheldon's apartment, Lydia was feeling much more relaxed. She'd forgotten how much she and Morgan had in common. It wasn't that she and Sheldon didn't have good conversations, but sometimes his intellect scared her. He was a board certified surgeon at the age of twenty-two, while she was still in college at that age. She never felt as if he was trying to talk over her, but she still felt that she didn't challenge him mentally and she knew that she wanted a partner that did that and could only assume that he wanted the same.

She sighed softly, listening to Morgan talk about his team. She had learned all about them on the way back to her place and he was currently telling her about Spencer. He seemed to be cut from the same cloth as Hawkes. Scarily smart.

"And seriously, the boy has no game whatsoever," Morgan said with a chuckle. "His idea of flirting with a woman is talking about statistics!"

Lydia laughed. "Is he the one that you asked Cory if she was related to?"

Morgan grinned. "Yeah. They look similar physically, but it's really the gleam in her eyes that did it. She gets the same gleam in them that Reid does when she is on the hunt for something."

"Huh," Lydia mused, thinking about Cory's family history. "They aren't that I know of. Cory has a sister in Dallas, but her dad was an only child and her mom only had a twin sister that died when she was ten."

Morgan shrugged his shoulders. "I really wish they were. I want to see if the weirdness runs in the family." He paused as Lydia stopped at a doorway. "This your place?"

"Yeah," she said softly. "This is mine and Sheldon's place."

He looked down at her, seeing the confusion and vulnerability in her eyes. It made him want to take her into his arms to soothe away her fears, but didn't think he could keep it on a platonic level. "He'll be okay," he tried to reassure her, misinterpreting her body language. "So, um…I guess I should let you go so you can hit the sack," he finally said after a pause.

Lydia looked up at him, staring into his warm chocolate eyes, feeling herself drawn into them. She bit her lip, trying to ignore the feelings she was experiencing. "Okay, I'll talk to you later," she said reluctantly as she unlocked the door. As she began to walk in, she turned around and called out, "Derek? Thanks for cheering me up."

"No problem, Mami," he said, unconsciously using his nickname for her.

As the door closed, both stared at it for a couple of moments, wondering if they had made the right choice.

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When Cory got back to her office, she sat at her desk, mulling over what had happened. She knew that Lydia was going to have some mixed emotions due to what she had confided in her. Sighing deeply, she wondered what she would do in Lydia's position. Her thoughts were interrupted by the phone ringing. Hoping that it was Alistair finally returning her calls, she picked it up eagerly. "Reid."

"Agent Reid, how nice to hear your voice," a man said.

Cory's eyebrows drew together as she recognized the man. It was the informant who had given her all the information on Etienne. She quickly pulled her computer up, trying to start a trace on the call. "Who is this?" she asked, trying to by some time.

"As I told you before, Agent Reid, a friend," he returned calmly without giving her any information.

She thought quickly. "In order for us to be friends, it's only polite for me to know your man," she shot back. To her surprise, the man laughed.

"I knew you were feisty, Agent Reid…Or may I call you Cory?"

"How…" she began, in shock that the man obviously knew enough about her to use her nickname.

"I have my sources. If you insist on having a name to call me by, you may call me Marley," the smooth voice said as Cory tapped a few buttons on her computer.

"Okay Marley, what can I do for you?" she asked.

"First of all, don't try to trace this call, it will be impossible. I have some more information for you. You should be receiving it in your mail today."

Cory rolled her eyes as she watched the trace continue on the computer, knowing that she needed to keep him on the phone for as long as possible. "Why are you doing this? Giving me this information."

"Let's just say that I want him caught and I think you are the person for the job. Unlike Alistair Murphy who is too emotionally involved in this," the man revealed. "I'll be in touch."

Cory stared at the phone in shock as the dial tone began to buzz in her ear and the trace went dead. He'd been right; the call so far was untraceable. Damn! Whoever this guy is, he's good, she thought in frustration. Resigned, she put her phone back on the receiver just as the mail arrived. She nodded to the young man who was delivering it, taking a deep breath as she saw the manila envelope. Carefully, she opened it, not sure of what she would find. She turned it upside down and some more pictures fell out. Unlike the glossy pictures she had received the first time, these seemed to have been taken on a digital camera and printed out on a computer.

As she studied them, she realized that they were snapshots of Etienne walking around in a city and some of him meeting with some young men. She didn't understand what use they were to her until she got to a picture in the middle of the bunch. Gasping in surprise, she stared at the picture. It had been taken two weeks prior in front of the subway stop closest to her apartment building.

The revelation shocked her to the core. The idea that the man that had tried to kill her mother could be living less than two blocks from her made her blood boil. I've got to find him. I will find him, she thought with conviction as she stared at his face.

AN: All right. I didn't quite get the 5 reviews for the chap that I wanted, but I got 4 and I just finished chapter 14 (just waiting for it to be beta'd), so here you go!

Soccer-bitch - Don't I always make you curious???? LOL

Lapland - I don't mind moving...it's the packing and unpacking that I hate! You are totally right about animal control, but let's just say that for once, they forgot! It was important for the story....So you are right about the Ricin, but didn't I just throw a wrench in the pipes??? lol. I've been planning that twist since I thought of the story idea! Hopefully the next chap will be up soon!

Axellia - First of all, welcome back to the story! Yeah, I think you'd had way too much sugar when reviewing, but I agree. Who the heck uses 10k characters in a review? Ok. better now. I just never changed my disclaimer at the top. I copy and paste it! I have already written where Linds gives birth, so it should be too long. It's in my pre-written story line that I'm chomping at the bit to get too, but just have to move time forward a bit. Yes, Allison will be taking part in the story, but more of a cameo role (note to self, update The Lure of Chocolate). I forgot to ask.....how's the car? No worries about the chappies. I had fun reading them! So I take it that I have Taylor down? And I don't know how Marty stayed asleep, but when I sleep, it takes an act of God to wake me up, so maybe he's like me. Don't worry, Garcia will be coming in (I can't wait to see her and Adam together!) as will the rest of the team. I am totally freaked out by clowns, so that's why I wrote Flack like that! I think that I was pretty clear on how Hawkes got infected, but the big twist is how the clown got infected! And yes, I have sent you a new chapter and am working on 15 this week. :P

Maddy - Hey, my fav story that I've written is Heartbreaker and it's a tragedy! So I'm there with you with the strangeness. I can promise you that I am not going to kill Hawkes off. But that's the only promise that I'm making in regard to him and Lydia. Even I don't know what my muse has planned for them. :s I had a great New Year, so I hope you did as well!