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 Theory of a Deadman.

Chapter 31.

Bad Girlfriend

Danny awoke the next morning feeling slightly refreshed. He knew that it most of the reason that he slept so well was because he had figured out why Cory had pissed him off so much. The decision and knowledge of how he needed to proceed had been a huge weight off of his shoulders. He rushed through his shower, feeling excited, like he had all the answers.

When he got into work, around ten a.m., he immediately checked his email to see if the forensic accounting unit had found any information. He did have an email from Glenn Pearson, but it was a simple confirmation that he had received the files and they would look over them right away.

Sighing, he decided to check in with Mac to see if his boss had found anything new. "Hey, boss," he greeted the ex-Marine as he opened the glass door. "I couldn't find anything in the property records. I sent what I have down to Glenn Pearson in forensic accounting. Maybe the number geeks can find something that I missed."

Mac smiled, noting Danny's improved mood. "Good idea. The warrant hasn't turned up any leads and Lydia is helping Stella wade through all the red tape to get Pasternak on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list."

Danny exhaled as he settled in a chair. "I feel like we're on a train to nowhere. She's like a ghost. No hospitals within the tri-state area have her listed as a patient, nor do they have any records of a patient meeting her description being admitted."

Mac just shook his head and handed the younger man a printout. "We've done what we can do for now. We've got some more cases to look at. With Flack out on paternity leave, Maka is going to be covering for him. She's expecting you at the scene in thirty minutes."

Danny nodded his head. "Then I'm on my way." Danny rose from the chair and collected his kit. Within moments he was on his way to the scene in Little Italy. When he climbed out of the SUV, he breathed in the familiar smell of marinara and Canole. He nodded to the uniform that held up the crime scene tape for him and walked over the Maka.

The slight Asian woman shot him a smile. "Hey, Messer," she greeted him.

"What've we got, Kylie?" he returned all business.

"Looks like a simple gang initiation. Go in, rob the register and kill anyone who gets in the way," she responded.

Danny nodded as he walked in and set down his case. As he settled on his hunches and snapped on his gloves, the familiarity of his job settled over him. With a smirk, he began to process.

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When Cory landed at JFK International airport, she was exhausted. She had been unable to sleep during the seven hour plane ride and while it was only noon New York time, her body was still on London time and it was five there. Once she cleared customs, she pulled out her phone and called Danny, only to have it go to voicemail. "Hey chere. I wanted to let you know that I'm back in New York." She paused. "Look, I know we need to talk, so call me. Please." Closing her eyes briefly, she disconnected the call, disheartened.

Even though she was exhausted, the first thing that she did was get in her car and head to the Federal Plaza. When she finally arrived, she quickly parked her car in the underground garage and made her way up to her office. She was surprised to see Stella sitting at Lydia's desk with her. "Hey," she greeted the pair.

Both women looked up; both noticing the exhaustion lining Cory's face. "Hey," Stella returned. "Are you okay?"

Cory just waved her hand, dismissing the older woman's concern. "Fine, it was a long flight. What's going on?"

Lydia smiled at her boss. "Just walking Stella through all the red tape to get Polina Zolnerowich put on the Ten Most Wanted list." She furrowed her brow a second, not sure if she wanted to let her know what else was going on, but decided that she needed to let Cory know. "Oh. I have news."

Cory lifted an eyebrow, noticing the change in tone of Lydia's voice. "Oh, God. What happened?"

"It's nothing bad," Lydia rushed to reassure her. "Agent Michaels has decided to retire," she revealed.

"But he's only been the field office director for a year!" Cory exclaimed.

"I know, but he said something about his health." Lydia looked up as Cory settled on the corner of her desk. "Agent Kate Joyner is taking his place."

"Well, that is a surprise," Cory drawled. "She's a good agent, but I never expected her to get a job like this."

Lydia shrugged. "I'm just going to wait and see what happens. She wants to meet with you. Let's just say that she was less than pleased when I told her that I didn't know when you were going to be back."

Cory just raised an eyebrow. "Don't I feel the love?" She shrugged. "Oh, well. I'll face up to that tomorrow. I am way too tired to deal with her today." She turned her attention to Stella. "How's Lindsay doing? She still feeling like a beached whale?"

Stella looked confused until she realized that Cory didn't know that Lindsay had already had the baby. "Nope. She had the baby a couple of days ago."

"What?! Geez, I go away for a week and I miss everything."

Stella smiled. "She got released from the hospital yesterday. She and Flack are at home if you want to visit them."

Cory smiled. "Yeah, I do, but I have some paperwork that I have to finish up some paperwork about my trip abroad first. Hopefully, it'll only take an hour or so. I just have to fill everything out to transfer a prisoner from InterPol to us."

"We'll leave you to it, then," Lydia said.

Cory just smiled as she made her way to the office. A few hours later, with part of her paperwork finished, she decided to make her way to Lindsay and Flack's apartment. She made the drive quickly, beating the worst of the rush hour traffic and quickly ran up the stairs.

Flack opened the door after her quiet knock and smiled before drawing her into a hug. "Hey, Cory. You're back," he greeted her.

"Yup. Got back around noon today. It's good to be home," Cory told him as she returned his hug. "So, I heard that there's a new Flack in the world."

Flack grinned. "Why don't you come and greet him?"

"It's a boy?" Cory asked, her eyes twinkling.

"Yes and his name is Ryan," Lindsay said from the doorway to the hall.

Cory grinned as she walked over and gave her friend a big hug. "Congrats! God, I can't believe that he's finally here."

Lindsay returned her hug and then guided the pair of them to the couch, while giving Flack a look clearly telling him to get lost. "Yeah. I had him in the lab."

"What? Oh my god. You have to tell me everything," Cory gushed.

Lindsay settled back and began to tell the story. When she was done, she glanced at Cory. "I was so glad Sid was there. I would have freaked out even more, but that's neither here nor there. What is going on with you and Danny?"

Cory bit her lip. "I was thoughtless and stupid. I flew to London without even telling him that I was gone. I didn't even think about it until he called me. I'm such an idiot."

Lindsay patted her on the shoulder. "I'm not going to tell you that what you did wasn't stupid, but what's the reason behind it?"

"Honestly, I don't know if I can explain it. He's just gotten under my skin. I am obsessed with catching him," Cory admitted. "I don't know what to do."

Lindsay nodded. "I can't tell you what to do, Cory, but I think you know. You know that obsession, especially for those of us in law enforcement, is bad. It's the one way to guarantee that you'll never catch him."

Cory sighed. "I know. My head knows that, but my heart won't let it go. And if I don't, I'm going to lose Danny."

"I don't know about that. He loves you and together you two can work this out."

"He won't even return my calls, Linds. I've left him five messages today, asking him if we could talk and he won't even call me back," Cory said forlornly.

"Keep your chin up. It'll work out," Lindsay reassured her.

Cory yawned. "Thanks. I'm going to go catch some sleep. I'm still on London time, so I've been up forever. Maybe next time that I come over, Ryan will be awake so I can visit him."

Lindsay laughed. "Feel free to come over about three a.m., he's awake then."

Cory just laughed as she gave Lindsay a hug and then called bye to Flack over her shoulder.

Lindsay smiled as Flack walked into the room. "Don, I think you need to have a talk with Danny. At least get him to talk to Cory," she requested as he settled on the couch and pulled her into his arms.

Flack nodded. "I'll try, but Danny's hotheaded, so I'm not making any guarantees."

"Thanks," Lindsay said as she heard Ryan begin to cry. "Time for diaper duty. It's my turn this time, right?"

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When Danny finally finished processing the evidence from his and Maka's scene, he was exhausted. Huh, looks like Maka was right, he thought. This is just a simple case of gang initiation. Haven't had one of those in a while. Overall, he was glad for a simple case, especially since the cases that they had been getting were all over the top. It was almost relaxing to get a case that didn't tie in with some weird human experiments or that was going to ultimately going to have to be passed off to the FBI.

He had just walked into the locker room when his phone rang. He quickly checked the caller ID, since Cory had been calling him all day and he was still ignoring her calls and was surprised to find that it was Flack. "Hey, man. What's up?" he answered.

"Why are you ignoring Cory?" Flack asked without preamble.

Danny glanced down at his phone in shock as the anger began to build. "None of your business," he shot back. "Is she whining to you now?"

Flack sighed. "Look man, she's back in town and she looks like shit. She came over to visit Lindsay and the baby…And before you say anything, she has no idea that I'm calling you," he returned with annoyance clear in his voice. "I'm not asking what the hell happened between the two of you, but damn it Danny, stop acting like a child! Be a man. Call her back."

Danny flushed in both anger and embarrassment as Flack hung up on him. "How dare he?" he raged mentally. "But you have been acting like a child," his conscience argued. "But…" the second voice tried to counter. "But nothing, moron. You know how bad she looked during the conference call. Hell, she wouldn't even look at you during that. And you know something else has been going on. Now what? She's left you five voicemails, which you haven't even bothered to listen to and you are ignoring her like a petulant child! Flack was right. Grow up!"

Danny sank down on the bench in resignation as his conscience smirked in triumph. "Damn. I am such a toe-rag," he muttered. Defeated, he picked up his phone again and listened to his voicemails. By the time he'd gotten to the final one, he was feeling thoroughly chastised. Cory had simply said, "Do you still want to get married?" The sound of deflation in her voice made his heart clench in response. Quickly, he grabbed his keys and ran out of the lab.

The drive home filled him with frustration. There was an accident which doubled his drive time, so he didn't get home until almost ten. He drew a fortifying breath as he opened the door, not knowing what to expect, but it wasn't a completely dark apartment. There wasn't a light on, so he flipped the switch and threw his keys on the table by the door. Thinking for a moment, he surmised that she was probably asleep in the bedroom. He was halfway down the hall, when he heard her scream out, "Oh God! Danny! No!"

His heart in his throat, he sprinted down the hall.

AN: Okay. So it has been less than a month since I last updated. My muse has decided to come home, so I've been nice and busy writing chapter's for y'all. And I did not want to post this chapter until I had the next one written since it is such a cliffie. Thought y'all'd appreciate that. :p Anyway, after my flash drive acting up and deleting 2 chapter that I was writing on (repeat to myself, I will not smash the computer, I will not smash the computer), I have up to 34 written now. I'm on vacation this week, so I hopefully can crank more out for you, provided my muse is willing to play. But, I will make you a promise. I will either post 32 next Monday or when I get to 140 reviews. :p I know. I'm a review whore. Now on to the responses!!!!

Soccer - I can not imagine waiting in line for 16 hours to get tickets. Did you buy them in advance??? Anyway, thanks!!!!

Maddy - Thanks! **blushing** I at least know how I'm ending the story now, so that has given me inspiration on writing on it now. I think that was the problem. I got lost in the plot and lost my overall vision. But, it's back now and I hopefully will have this finished before my niece graduates high school!!! (she's starting her senior year).