A/N: I continued with the story, I hope you all enjoy! Flashbacks are in Italics.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of CSI:NY

Danny Messer let out a sigh as he stood over the young woman's body, kit in hand. She looked like Alex. It could have been Alex, had he not saved her last night. He had walked her to his apartment, gave her some sweats to change into, and had made her swear she would stay there while he went to work. They'd talk when he came home.

"Danny," Mac Taylor's voice rang in his ear, causing Danny to shake out of his trance.

"Sorry," Danny said, pushing his square glasses onto his nose with a gloved index finger. He turned towards Aiden Burn who was bent over the young women, examining her body. "Excuse me," Danny coughed when his cell phone rang. "Alex? What do you mean you're hungry? Well order pizza or something. How am I supposed to give you money if I'm at work. No you can't have my credit card number! Look, call Ray's pizza shop and tell him to put it on my tab then. It's on my fridge, Alex. No you can't order Chinese. Well how are you going to pay for it? Reeves, you're getting on my last nerve. Alright, fine. I'll call it in. What do you want? Okay. Give me an hour or so, I gotta go, Reeves. I'm at work and I'm busy. Fine you order from Ray's then."

"Someone's whipped," Aiden coughed when Danny hung up the phone.

"Ayy," Danny said, pointing an index finger at her, and then setting his phone back in his front pocket. "Sometimes you gotta go to extremes to get laid," he said, half-joking. He wasn't trying to get in Alex's pants. Though he wouldn't mind if they did hook up. He just wanted to make sure she was okay. At one point in his life they had been in love, and they possibly were still in love.

The first time he had known she was special to him, was when he had watch her hit a wiffle ball over his head. He had spent half the day saying she'd be an easy out, and when she had retaliated with name-calling he hadn't felt threatened. "Bully pants" hadn't hurt his feelings. But the ball that had whizzed over his head, just inches from his ear had made him realize that girls were pretty cool. Especially Alex Reeves.

"So who's this Alex?" Aiden asked, putting a yellow marker down besides the women's purse, and snapping a photo.

"She's just a friend," Danny shrugged.

"What's the matter?" Alex asked, as she opened her bedroom window, and popped the screen out so Danny could climb in. She hated living in a one story home, until she had hit her teen years. It was easier to sneak in and out of the house on the first story. Especially with the heater vent right outside her window, making it easier to climb in.

"Why don' they lemme run with them?" Danny asked, climbing into her room, and then putting the screen back in place for her.

"Your brother?" Alex asked, pulling her hair back from her face.

Danny nodded his head and took a glance around his girlfriend's room. Instead of posters of Bon Jovi and New Kids on the Block, she had posters of Nolan Ryan and Babe Ruth. She wasn't a girly girl. She knew how to hang with the guys. And many times Louie Messer had allowed her to tag along on their many adventures. Sometimes leaving Danny out of it altogether.

"I mean how come I can't tag along? Why're they always leavin' me? You've gone with them what are they doin' that's so bad for me?"

"Seriously?" Alex sighed. "You just climbed into my window for a heartfelt?" she asked trying to avoid the subject. She knew Louie didn't want him running with him because he knew what it'd do to Danny. She'd seen them do illegal things, and she knew Louie didn't want Danny to have to see them.

"You climbed through my window and risked getting caught to talk about your feelings? When you could have already had me naked?"

"I'm being serious, Lex," Danny sighed.

"I am too," she giggled, pulling her gray t-shirt over her head, and then sitting on the bed in just a sports bra and underwear. "Come on," she smirked, pulling the covers back.

"Alex," Danny sighed, but took his shirt off as well. "You know, for a girl, you sure do like sex a lot."

Alex gave him a smile, and unzipped his jeans. "Only with you," she giggled innocently.

She listened to the front door open, and squeak shut, and then a bag hit the floor. Then footsteps begun to pitter-patter their way on the hardwood floor down the hall, and into his bedroom where she had made herself comfortable.

He let out a chuckle at the brunette lying with her head at the foot of the bed, clad in a light green button shirt he wore maybe once since he had bought it. And he was pretty sure he had never even washed the damned thing.

"Pizza in the fridge," she whispered when she heard him close the bedroom door.

"That's dirty, you know?" he asked her, taking off his brown leather jacket.

"I know," she whispered. "It smells like you though." He hung his jacket on the back of a recliner chair in the corner of his bedroom, and then kicked off his shoes before turning towards the bed, to see her with her eyes closed, curled in fetal position one hand between her legs, the other covering her eyes. 15 years had gone by and she still slept the same.

"You miss me?" he grinned, unzipping his jeans, and then crawling into bed with her.

"I miss your smell," she nodded her head, her eyes still closed. She wrapped her arms around his back, and let out a sigh. "And your muscles, and your body heat. And your voice."

"Why did you try to jump?" he asked her.

She shrugged her shoulders. "Because I could."

Danny let out a sigh, and brushed back her hair from her face. "Why do you always give me that answer?"

"Because I can," she said, her eyes fluttering open. "Drop it, Danny. It's done."

"Alex. You tried to kill yourself. I'm worried about you."

"I'm fine," she whispered. "Come on. Let's just…let's just lay here. How we used to when we were kids. Hold me 'til I fall asleep."

Danny let out a frustrated sigh as he wrapped his arms securely around her and took in the scent of her hair. He'd never get an answer from her. If she didn't want to talk about something she wouldn't. He knew this from past experiences.

Danny, Dominic and Louie Messer watched as an 8-year-old girl skipped into the middle of the street and picked up the wiffle ball. "Can I play?" she asked innocently, shrugging her shoulders, her brunette pigtails bouncing.

Danny turned towards his biggest brother, and then towards his baby brother. Every boy playing wiffle ball had the same stupid look on his face. "We don't play with girls!" Dominic yelled sticking his tongue out.

"Well you're a little girl!" Alex whined, sticking her tongue out. "Lemme play! I bet you I can beat you all!"

"Alexandra!" A voice yelled. "Alexandra Michelle!"

"Run home Alexandra," a young, 14 year old, Sonny Sassone smirked, snatching the ball from the little girl's hand.

"That's my brother butt-head!" Alex retaliated, stomping her foot on Sonny's, causing him to let out a curse. "He's gonna make you let me play. He's a professional baseball player. One time he played with Nolan Ryan."

"Alexandra!" The voice said, a bit quieter than before. An older boy came to a halt, and stopped to catch his breath. "Mommy is looking for you. Come on, let's go."

"Tommy they won't let me play with them. Make 'em lemme play."

Alex's brother glanced around at the kids, all ageing from about 7 to 15. A kid with dark hair and dark eyes held both a wiffle ball and bat in his hands, while a blond kid with glasses and blue eyes stood on third base, and another kid with dark hair stood on a cardboard strip that acted as the pitcher's mound.

"What's up?" Thomas Reeves asked, nodding his head towards the kid with the wiffle ball. "You aint gonna let my sister play 'cause she's a girl? I bet yah she can beat all your asses."

"Yeah right," Sonny Sassone laughed, turning towards Louie Messer on the pitching mound. "He thinks a girl can beat us," he laughed, throwing the ball at Louie.

Louie let out a laugh and spit on the ground. "Yeah right. You guys the new kids?"

"Just moved in the gray house," Thomas pointed behind him. "From South Jersey."

"The Mets suck!" Alex laughed, holding her thumb out towards the ground and shaking her head. "Go Phillies!" She smirked, pointing her thumb towards the sky.

"Let's see what they got," Louie smirked, turning towards the kid on third base. "Whatt'ya say, Mets fans vs. the Phillies fans, lil' bro?"

"Hell yeah," Danny smirked.

"Dude what are you, five?" Thomas asked. "You kiss your mother with that mouth?"

"Mommy would put soap in my mouth," Alex shook her head, "No kisses for me!"

"Alright, deal," Thomas grinned. "We let lil' Alex here play verse that little punk." Thomas nodded his head towards Danny, and then turned back to Sonny. "Let's see best of three outs, who can nail the ball most. Fouls count as outs. I pitch for him, you pitch for her."

"Yes, yes, yes, yes!" Alex cheered, jumping up. "I getta bat first!"

"You're on," Danny said, hurrying off third base.

Alex had showed the boys that she could indeed play baseball, even at just eight years old. She had nailed multiple hits past the boys' heads leaving them in awe, and she'd be leaving them in awe for the next ten years.

She grabbed her clothes from his dryer, and changed from his shirt into her clothes, tears streaming from her face. She needed to leave before he woke up. Before he could leave her all over again. The dream she had last night after sleeping in his bed had been more of a nightmare. A memory that she on occasion dreamt about. The night he left her. The last night they loved each other.

And she needed to leave before she fell for him all over again, and he left her in the dust once again.

"Alex?" A raspy voice came from behind her. She slowly turned to face a distraught Danny leaning against the threshold of his closet slash makeshift laundry room. "You leavin' me?" he asked, eyeing her in the clothes she had worn the night before. "It's three in the morning."

Alex looked at her feet, and then back at Danny. "When Dom died, I didn't get it," she whispered. "I get it now."

"Sure you did," he nodded his head clearing his throat. "Thomas didn't die-"

Alex shook her head, and cut him off before he could finish. "No, Thomas just left. And that sucked. But when you were sad over Dom, I didn't really get it," she whispered, grabbing her purple sweater from the ground, and pulling it over her head. "I get it now. And I don' really know how you live without him. I can't live without Drew." She straightened the sweater and then wiped her face free of tears with the back of her hand.

"Hey," Danny sighed, scratching his nose, and pushing his glasses up, "Don' cry."

"I should go," she whispered when he approached her to give her a hug.

"Alex."

"Don't Alex me," she said, shrugging from his grip. "I shouldn't have ever come here. I should have just left and gone home."

"Where is home?" Danny asked her. "Hmm?" He folded his arms against his chest and watched as she shuffled nervously on her feet.

"I sold my apartment," she mumbled.

"Why?"

"Because I wasn't planning on you coming to talk me from jumping off a God damned bridge," she shrugged. "Usually when I have something set in my mind, I stick with it. So when I decided I was jumping, I decided what's the point in keeping my house?"

"You were really gonna jump then," Danny nodded his head, still in shock.

"Amazing how we been livin' in the same city all these years, and the one day I don't want you, we bump into each other," she laughed pathetically. "I really gotta go."

"Go where? You don't have a house."

"To work, dumbass," she growled, mumbling something in Italian. "I'm still employed. I gotta job I need to do. People need me."

"You're impossible you know that?"

She shrugged her shoulders and wiggled past him. "Before you ask, I can stay at a girlfriend's place until I figure out where I'm gonna live."

"What about your things?" Danny asked, watching her scramble for the front door, following close behind her.

"Storage Unit. I'm not super dumb. I knew you'd figure out I was dead sooner or later. If you looked on the back of the note, my storage unit with the combo was on it. I gotta go. Nice seein' yah. Thanks for not letting me jump off a bridge."

"You should see someone. Like. Like a shrink," he called as she slammed the door shut in his face.

Alex smiled at the blond lying in the hospital bed in Scooby scrubs, a smile on his face. "You be good until I get back, Mr. Woofer," she smiled, rubbing her knuckles against his unruly hair.

"By Nurse Alex," he smiled waving to her as she left the hospital room.

"Hey Mama," a dark skinned woman smiled, bumping hips with Alex as they met in the hall. "Tried hittin' you up last night. No answer. You wit a boy, Mama?"

"Somethin' like that," Alex rolled her eyes. "Hey you think I can crash on the couch tonight?"

"Go for it. Take my bed. R.J. got the baby mama to take the kids tonight. We're going to have a night to ourselves at his place."

"Girl," Alex laughed, shaking her head.

"Hey, don't be jealous I'm getting laid and you aren't," the woman laughed, shaking her head, as her hips swayed in her scrubs. "How you been, Mama?" she changed the subject, knowing it was the anniversary of the death of Alex's little brother.

"Ugh," Alex shrugged her shoulders, pulling her brown hair back from her face as they headed for the nurses station in the center of the hospital. "Well. Don't freak out because obviously I didn't. But I tried jumping off a fucking bridge last night."

"Mama!"

"Charise," Alex laughed. "I said I tried. I didn't actually go through with it. Someone stopped me."

"Who?"

"That kid," Alex started. "You know the kid I always talk about that I grew up with?"

"Sonny? Aint he in jail."

"No! Not Sonny. Danny. Danny Messer. He stopped me."

"Alexandra that's a big deal! Why did you try to kill-"

Alex clapped her hand over Charise's mouth. "Tell the whole fucking world. Because I thought that I didn't want to live being sad anymore. But then I saw Danny and it was like…. a sign from God telling me not to jump. Or something. I don't know. I'm gonna try to be happy and not try to be all morbid about the fact everyone in my family is dead. Save for Thomas who might as well be."

"You working the ER tonight?" Charise asked Alex. Overtime for the nurses was working the ER. The work sucked, but overtime pay always gave her extra money for her rent. Not that she had any at the moment.

"Just a few hours," Alex started. "You gonna leave the key under the mat?"

"Yes baby," Charise smiled. "I gotta go my shift is over."

"See yah, love," Alex smiled, sitting down in a chair and grabbing the sandwich she had ordered from te hospital cafeteria when she realized she hadn't packed lunch today. "Mmm. I love me some rubber turkey," she mumbled to herself as she bit into the sandwich.

Flack and Danny entered the hospital emergency room, and towards the center of the desk. "We're looking for Mark Santos' room," Danny said, tapping on the desk to get the secretary's attention. She gave him a dirty look until both he and Flack flashed their badges.

"Lemme check," she said, typing something into the computer. "Oh…" she mumbled. She turned behind her. "Hey where's Alex?" she asked a man sitting at another desk.

"On break," the man said. "Want me to page her?"

"Yes," the woman nodded. She turned towards the cops. "Mr. Santos didn't make it. I'll page his nurse however."

"Santos?" A nurse in pale green scrubs asked, stopping at the desk. "What about him?"

"Alex," the woman said. "These men want to speak with you."

Alex Reeves turned towards Flack and Danny, her mouth slowly dropping at the sight of the short blond with glasses sporting a very familiar face. "Danny," her voice squeaked. "What. What are you doing here?"

"Alex," Danny started, pushing his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. "We need to take a look in Mark Santos' room. He's a victim, we need to collect some evidence."

Alex slowly nodded her head. "Yeah," she spoke. "Ugh, I'll grab his personally belongings, and see if our coroner won't sign over his body."

A young woman hurried towards Alex and slapped her hand on the counter, her breathing hitched. "I need help. Denny keeps asking for a popsicle but whenever I go to give him one he refuses for it. Whada I do?" she asked catching her breath.

Alex nodded her head and patted the girl on her back. "Okay. You gotta act like his room is Jurassic park. He'll shoot at a dinosaur trying to get you and you act like it bit you or something, and he'll take it. Make sure it's red or pink though."

"Red or pink?"

"Yeah. The popsicles gotta match the color of your scrubs."

"Right," the girl nodded her head. "How'd you deal with him? He's so OCD."

Alex shrugged. "I listen to what he wants. You better hurry it's almost 10. His mom doesn't allow any sugar past 10."

The nurse hurried off and Alex turned back to Danny who was giving her a knowing look. The look that said she'd be a great mom had she not given her child up for adoption. "Right. Well, you can follow me." She headed for a curtain, Flack and Danny following a safe distance behind.

"You know her Messer?"

"She's my childhood sweetheart," Danny shrugged acting as if it wasn't a big deal. They watched as she grabbed a plastic bag filled with items and handed it to Danny. "Don't worry," she rolled her eyes. "I bagged everything with gloves, Mr. Scientist," she gave him a knowing smartass smirk, and then let out a loud dramatic sigh when her pager went off. "Are you fucking kidding me?" she shouted.

"Everything alright?"

"Just great," Alex shouted, walking out of the tiny room, "Coroner is on basement level," she called behind her, hurrying out of sight. She found the nearest empty closet, where most of the interns and residents went to have sex, and locked herself in there. She sat on the cement floor in the tiny cold dark space, and buckled her knees to her chest, her arms wrapping around them. She didn't stop her tears from coming as she sat in the center of her safe place. Where no one in the world knew where she was.