Author's Notes: Yes, I'm actually posting a 3rd chapter in as many days! Please don't get used to it, ha, ha! I'm only doing it so that I can make this shameless plug:

Be sure to stop by the CSI:NY Fanfiction Awards, 2009 and nominate your favorite stories! .net/s/5055483/1/

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Full headers and disclaimer in Chapter 1

Title: A Father's Heart, Chapter 6 (completed 05/12/2009)

Chapter Rating: T

Word Count:

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"Shit, Mac! Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!"

Danny began to pace again, his fingers pinching the bridge of his nose as he attempted to process the ironic situation his boss had just confirmed. He was holding a photo of a woman who had been his childhood friend. The same woman who, he had learned only yesterday, had died and left a three-year-old boy whose birth certificate proclaimed Daniel Giovanni Messer as the father.

Danny had been unknowingly gathering evidence at the scene of her death until he came across the photo he now held, tucked into a book. If it were just a matter that he had known her long ago, it likely wouldn't have been an issue. New York was a big city, but that didn't mean that CSIs didn't occasionally deal with cases of people with whom they had some tenuous past connection. But the question of Danny's paternity of the victim's son made for too much potential conflict.

Mac watched the young man pace, knowing something was seriously bothering him, but also knowing that it was best to allow him the time to find the words he needed. He waited, not entirely patiently, but willing to give Danny a moment to gather his thoughts. He hadn't seen him this agitated since the night they'd discussed Danny's unsuccessful marriage proposal. That discussion had resulted in a joyful and successful, second attempt. Somehow, Mac didn't think this discussion would end so well.

"Mac," Danny finally said, "I think you're gonna haveta take me offa this case." Danny's accent always thickened when his emotions rose.

"I take it you know this woman, Danny?" Mac hoped he would stop pacing soon. The tension radiating off of the young man was palpable.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know her." Danny stopped and looked up, nervously tapping the photo he was holding against his other hand.

Mac winced, realizing that the photo was probably evidence and wasn't being handled in the most professional manner. It was obvious the photo had something to do with Danny's agitation, but Mac couldn't quite make out what was in it.

Danny continued. "I *knew* her, Mac…a long time ago."

"Were you…close to her, Danny?"

"Like I said, Mac, it was a long time ago. She lived down the street when I was growin' up." Danny knew he needed to get to the point. Mac could be very patient when a case affected one of his team more than usual, but Danny realized he couldn't keep the man waiting forever. "It's more complicated than that."

Danny sketched a brief outline of the visit from Child and Family Services the previous evening, stressing that he adamantly believed that he was not the boy's father. Still, he was likely to be embroiled in a complicated investigation that could potentially compromise his credibility on this case.

"I'm sorry, Mac. It seems like every time I turn around I'm puttin' you in a difficult position."

"Don't worry about it, Danny. You can't do anything about your past. It's just a bizarre coincidence that I put you on the case of this woman, with whom you're already connected. I appreciate that you are conscientious about bringing these issues to me as soon as you become aware of them. I know I've been hard on you about some things, but I've never questioned your integrity Danny, you should know that. I have a great deal of respect for you." Mac gripped his shoulder tightly, trying to emphasize the feeling behind his words. If there was one thing that truly concerned him about Danny, it was that he never seemed to realize his own good qualities. Whenever life threw Danny Messer a curve, he was too eager to take the blame upon himself, to see it as evidence of failure on his part. Mac wondered what had happened in the young man's past to so damage his self worth.

"Hawkes is working a double homicide in the finance district with Stella. I'll give him a call and get him over here and you can take over for him. I need you to bag your gloves and then I want you to wait by the front door until Hawkes or Adam gets here. Then you can head across town."

Danny's face brightened minutely when he realized that Mac was neither upset nor disappointed that Danny's past had again come forward to cause problems. He almost smiled when Mac actually said he respected him. Then he looked back at the photo in his hand.

"Mac, there's a couple more things before I go." Danny glanced over to the bed where the large envelope of money sat next to the open suitcase that he found in the closet. "The envelope there, on the bed. There's a lot of money in it. I was waiting to finish processing the room before I had you come in to count it."

Mac walked over to the bed and picked up the evidence bag containing the brown envelope. "Did you touch any of it, or take anything out of the envelope?"

"No, Mac. As soon as I looked inside, I closed it back up and put it in the bag."

"Good. I can count it with Adam." Mac became thoughtful for a moment, not sure how to say what he needed to say without offending the other CSI.

"It's ok, Mac," Danny shrugged, then continued. "I know you'll have to search me once Adam or Hawkes gets here. It's procedure. When that kinda money is found at a crime scene, you gotta make sure it's kept secure. And under the circumstances, you have to do everything by the book. I understand that. I don't mind."

Mac breathed a sigh of relief. "You said there were two things, Danny?"

Danny took one more look at the photo. "Yea. The second thing is…this."

He handed the photo to Mac, who looked at it carefully and frowned. "I take it the woman in this photo is Melinda Ponzio?"

"Yeah, yeah, that's her." Danny shoved his hands in his pockets, no longer having the photo to keep them occupied.

"Do you have any idea when or where this was taken?" Mac continued to scrutinize the photo; trying to determine what significance it might have in the case. He hoped Danny's connection to this would end with the woman's claim that he had fathered her son. And for Lindsay's sake, he hoped Danny's denial would prove true.

"That's definitely the old neighborhood, cause that's Melinda's parents' home in the background. The shutters are painted green in the picture. I remember I went home to visit Pop and Mommy right after I started in the lab and the Ponzios had just painted their shutters blue. And when I went with Linds a few months ago, they were still blue. They'd been green ever since I was a kid though. So I know it's at least five or six years ago, but it could be a lot longer."

Mac chuckled. "You always pay such close attention to the neighbors' shutters, Danny?"

"Nah, Mac. It's the training, ya know? It's hard to turn it off. I just notice things. And I remember." Danny shrugged and, pulling his hands back out of his pockets, he began to fidget, trying to twirl his wedding ring inside the glove. It didn't work well, and he crossed his arms in an effort to hold himself still.

"I know what you mean," Mac agreed, "it's an occupational hazard, but I guess it's better to notice too much than too little." He continued to look at the photo. "Well, she certainly doesn't look like a teenager in this photo. I'm guessing she's at least in her twenties. So that would put this somewhere between five and ten years ago."

Mac turned and grabbed two evidence bags from Danny's kit, slipping the photo into one and handing the other to Danny. "C'mon, Danny. Bag your gloves, I'll bag this and secure the cash. Then I'll call Adam and see what's keeping him. I'll need you to go over what you've done so far with him before you leave."

Danny nodded, stripped off his gloves and sealed them in the small plastic bag. He closed up his kit and followed Mac out the door, turning for one last look at the bedroom. He wondered if he would ever get to the bottom of the many mysteries that suddenly surrounded his old childhood friend.

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Being searched by Mac, while a very embarrassed Adam watched, had been uncomfortable, but he'd endured worse things. He gave his camera to Adam so that the younger man could process his photos of the bedroom. Then he went over all the details of what he'd photographed and the areas he'd searched. Adam would have to repeat the searches, but as long as nothing contradicted Danny's report, he wouldn't have to spend much time on it.

Danny spent about two hours helping Stella finish up on the double homicide. It looked to be a pretty clear case of murder/suicide, related to a stock market scheme gone bad. He still had a lot of evidence to process. By the time he got back to the lab it was well past lunch and he was starving. He planned to lock up his evidence and run out for a slice before he spent the rest of the afternoon processing. Danny was waiting to catch the elevator back down when he heard Mac's voice calling him.

"Danny! Can you step into my office a moment?"

Danny turned around to see Mac standing in the door of his glass-enclosed office, gesturing for him to come over. Sheldon Hawkes was seated inside the office, reading something off a computer tablet. As Danny walked over, Hawkes looked up and set the tablet aside. He stood and gripped Danny's arm, patting his shoulder with his other hand.

"Danny, Mac told me about this mess with Melinda Ponzio. It's weird, man! I mean Brooklyn Heights is not even our usual stomping grounds and you of all people get called in on the case. Too freaky! You ok?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm good," Danny nodded, acknowledging his teammate and returning the grip as Mac gestured for him to sit on the couch. Hawkes drew up a chair and sat opposite while Mac leaned up against his desk, his hands braced on the desktop behind him.

Danny sat, his hands clasped between his knees. He looked up at his boss, wondering what was in store. He knew Mac was trying to make him feel comfortable, but somehow he felt like he was on the wrong side of the table down in interrogation.

"Danny," Mac began, clearly not completely comfortable either, "given your involvement with the victim, Melinda Ponzio, I have to ask you some questions. I want you to know that this is not a formal interrogation, but, if you prefer to do this with legal council, I can call for the union rep or give you time to obtain your own attorney."

Danny sat back and digested this for a minute. Anyone being questioned by the police had a right to have council present. If the person was actually under arrest, they had to be informed of this right prior to questioning. However, when a formal arrest hadn't yet been made, it wasn't common practice to remind the person being questioned of this right. Did he have something to worry about? Danny knew that Mac would have to get the full story of his involvement with Melinda at some point. He'd expected to be questioned. But he hadn't really been near Melinda in years. There couldn't be anything that connected him to her death. Could there? "Stop this!" He thought to himself. He was getting worked up over nothing, surely.

"Nah, Mac. I don't think that's necessary."

Danny thought Mac relaxed a bit. He hoped that was a good sign. He took a deep breath and hoped he would be able to relax as well.

"Danny," Mac said, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "Why don't you start by telling us how long you've known Ms. Ponzio?"

Danny sat forward again, his arms on his knees. "Geez, Mac. I've known her just about all my life. Her family lives just a few doors down from mine. We grew up together. My ma and hers were friends, so I probably first met her when I was a baby." Danny stared out the window as he tried to dredge up old memories. "I guess my first memory of her is from before we even started school. She used to come over when her mom had to work and the two of us would play in the sandbox in my backyard."

"Ok, Danny," Mac smiled, "I think we've established you've known her a long time. Maybe you can fast forward a bit. You told me earlier that you dated her briefly." Mac trailed off, hoping Danny would pick up the lead.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure Mac, sure. I guess you might say that Melinda was my first girlfriend, when I got to the age that I started to notice girls, ya know?" Danny glanced between Mac and Hawkes. Both were listening intently, Mac still smiling. Hawkes was grinning. "I was about 14. All the time we were growing up, neither of us hung out too much with the other kids in the neighborhood. Melinda and I were a lot alike. We both loved playing sports, be we also really liked school. I guess we were geeks or nerds or whatever the term was at the time. Anyway, when the other guys were asking girls on dates, it just seemed to make sense for me to start dating Melinda. So I did. That went on until I was about 16, when she told me I needed to date other girls."

Hawkes snorted. "Wait a minute. She told * you * that you needed to date other girls?"

Danny chuckled, "Yeah, she did. You see, I loved her, but not like * that *. And she knew. I think she knew the whole time. But as long as she was dating me, she didn't have to deal with how some of the Neanderthals we went to high school with might treat her."

"So, you're saying the relationship ended…amicably…on both sides?" Mac pushed himself away from the desk and walked around it, to sit down in his chair.

"Yeah, we didn't argue or fight or nothin'. Just sort of agreed that we were good friends, but nothing else." Danny was beginning to feel like his informal interrogation was resembling a teenage girl's slumber party. The next thing, Hawkes would be asking him if he "liked" Melinda, or did he "like, like" her?

"And you stayed friends after you stopped dating?" asked Hawkes.

Danny turned to address the former ME. "Yeah, but we didn't see much of each other. Girls I dated didn't like me being 'friends' with another girl and I guess the guys she dated felt the same way about me. So we stopped hanging out together. I guess when you're 16, your hormones have a big say in what you do. I missed talking with Melinda, but by that time I wasn't as interested in talking with girls as I was in other things."

At that, both Mac and Hawkes chuckled. Mac grew quickly serious again. "Danny, when we were talking earlier, I got the impression that your relationship with Ms. Ponzio was more intimate that you make it sound. Did you resume the relationship at some later point?"

Danny looked up at his boss. This was really starting to be embarrassing. He could feel his face beginning to warm. "We never dated again after that, no. But the summer before our senior year, we were both…unattached. I had a good shot at getting a baseball scholarship, so I was spending all my time either working my summer job or practicing. I didn't have time or money for dates. Her parents own a restaurant and she worked most nights waitressing. But they would give her a couple of nights off each week and I'd go over to her place and we'd stay up late talking."

Danny looked at the other two men, wondering if he was really going to have to finish this story. Neither seemed ready to let him go. He sighed and tried to concentrate on his hands.

"Both of us were still…inexperienced." Danny looked up; wanting to be sure the two men understood what he meant. There was a tinge of color on Mac's face. Danny suspected the man never thought he would have to officially question one of his team about such a personal subject. He resumed his contemplation of his hands, nervously toying with his wedding band. "We talked about it a lot. What it would be like, who we would want to be 'the first'. It was almost time for school to start again and we decided that we ought to just look at it like a scientific experiment."

Hawkes snorted again and when Danny looked up, he noticed Mac's eyebrows had climbed up nearly into his hairline.

"What? I told you we were geeks! We decided it would be a whole lot better to get it done in a controlled environment. That way, when we finally did it 'for real', we wouldn't be so nervous."

Danny was sure his face was beet red by now. Hawkes was nearly choking he was trying so hard not to laugh.

Mac's face had turned decidedly pink, and there was the ghost of a smile on his face, but he was doing a good job of holding himself in check. "And I take it you completed your…experiment?"

"Yeah, we did. Twice, actually, if you gotta know. After the first time we figured once wasn't a good enough sample, scientifically speaking."

That was all Hawkes could take. He doubled over, holding his stomach and sputtering. "I never would have believed it. Danny Messer, the great ladies man, whose first time was a science experiment!"

"C'mon, Hawkes," Mac said, a grin belying his strict tone, "settle down. We still have a case to deal with. And I think Danny is embarrassed enough by all this."

Danny, in fact, wanted to sink into the floor all the way down to the garage. What he couldn't quite fathom was how his high school hijinks had any bearing on the case. It was so long ago, after all.

"Ok, Danny," Mac continued after Hawkes managed to get himself under control. "I just need to clarify a few more points. After your…teenage liaison with Ms. Ponzio, you never rekindled the relationship, not even for one night?"

"No, Mac, never. She started dating a football big shot during senior year, and I had what you might call a revolving door policy with the girls. I got my scholarship and then I joined the minor leagues. She went off to college and then into some sort of business, I think. I've seen her maybe two or three times since high school graduation. And then only just in passing."

"You're sure, Danny? You never maybe, ran into her in a bar…maybe you were drinking and didn't really recognize her?"

Now he was getting déjà vu. Lindsay had asked him almost exactly the same question. He felt anger rise in him and fought to keep it under control. He knew Mac was only asking based on the reputation he'd once had. And besides, it wasn't personal. It was a case.

"Yes, Mac. I'm sure. I know I had quite a reputation before Lindsay came along. I'm not saying I never had a one-night stand. I had a lot of them. And I'm not saying I remembered every woman after. I didn't. But I did have some rules. One was not to ever hook up with a woman when I was drunk. Too dangerous. And there is no way I could run into Melinda and not recognize her. It just didn't happen Mac."

"Ok, Danny, ok." Mac leaned back in his chair. He was glad to see that Danny had been able to control his temper. It was obvious he was struggling. Mac supposed he couldn't blame him. It had been uncomfortable for all of them, but he needed to be sure of all the facts.

"Mac?" Danny took a few deep breaths. "Can you tell me what all this has to do with me? Did you find something? Should I be worried?"

Mac heaved a deep sigh. "Danny, you know I can't really tell you anything about this case. I can't reveal to you any details about any evidence we've uncovered."

Danny's face fell. He'd known that would be Mac's answer. Still, he'd hoped perhaps the boss would bend the rules, just a bit.

"Danny," Mac continued, "I will tell you that you are in no way a suspect in this case."

Danny let out a breath. He felt as though he'd been holding it through the entire interview.

Mac stood and came back around the desk, his hands in his pockets. He glanced at Hawkes. Danny had the impression the two had talked at length about how they would conduct this interview, and about just how much they could reveal to their colleague. "I'm also going to tell you that our concern is more for the safety of Ms. Ponzio's son."

Danny stood. He paced to the other side of the office, his hands clasped on top of his head. He returned to stand in front of his teammate and his boss. Men who were his friends. "You're telling me he's in danger because someone thinks he's * my * son?"

Mac glanced again at Hawkes. He turned back to Danny, and held the younger man's eyes with his. "Danny, we have reason to believe that the Tanglewood Boys have resurfaced. They're intent on bringing a Messer back into the fold. And yes, it seems they believe that Melinda Ponzio's son is yours. We believe the Tanglewood Boys murdered her in order to get her…and your…son."