Danny couched roughly, waking him from the darkness. Drywall and rebar slipped down beside him. Danny coughed again and slowly pushed himself to his knees. The ruble from the walls and ceiling slid off his back and joined the rest on the floor. Danny looked around slowly, trying to take in the new scene. In front of him, the stairs were cut off by the amount of ruble covering them.

"Flack! Lindsay!" Danny called. His dry throat caught the dust and sent him into another round of coughing. "Flack, Lindsay! Where are you?"

Below him, Danny could hear another person coughing from the dust. "Danny!"

"Flack? That you?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, where are you?" Flack asked.

Danny dragged himself to the edge of the stairwell. He peered over the railing. At least two flights below him, Flack was looking up at Danny. Flack stood several feet from another cut off. He didn't look too bad, one mean cut on his forehead and he was covered in dust, but he was fine.

"You alright Flack?" Danny asked

Flack nodded, "Yeah, fine. How's Lindsay?"

Danny looked above, toward the higher staircases. "I don't know. I can't see her."

"I haven't seen her down here. She has to be above us." Flack said.

"Lindsay! Can you hear me?" Danny called.

They waited for a moment in silence. Danny could hear a faint shifting above them. At first, he thought it was just ruble shifting after the explosion, but it refused to stop completely. Danny looked down at Flack but was unable to say anything when a voice broke through the silence.

"Danny?" the voice was small and faint.

Danny's head shot back up. "Lindsay? Is that you Lindsay?" Danny started climbing back up the ruble-covered staircases. He took it slow, so not to miss Lindsay or anyone else that might be up there with them. Drywall cracked under Danny's feet as he slowly made a second flight.

"Lindsay? Where are you?" Danny called.

"You see her Dan?" Flack asked.

"Not-" Danny broke off mid-sentence. Above him, several steps, the ruble shifted. Danny used the railing as his support and followed it up. He stepped down carefully and lifted the drywall off. His heart broke as his eyes fell upon Lindsay's injured body. She was lying on her side on the stairs. Her legs were completely buried under the ruble. One of the structure beams was lying across her, pinning her to the stairs.

"Lindsay! Lindsay, talk to me." Danny pleaded.

"What's going on Dan?" Flack called.

"Lindsay's hurt, bad! We gotta get her out now!" Danny answered.

Lindsay stirred for a second before opening her eyes. Danny felt a huge wave of relief filled him as he peered into her bright brown eyes. "Danny?"

"I'm right here, Linds." Danny said.

Lindsay groaned as she moved her head. "What happened?" She made a motion to sit up, but Danny held her back.

"Don't move Linds. You're pretty banged up." Danny said.

"So that why I feel so lousy." Lindsay said. She closed her eyes for a moment. Danny admired her bad attempt at humor.

"Where's Flack?" Lindsay asked.

"About four cases below you, kiddo. I'm going to try and get help to you two. Just sit tight." Flack called.

"We're not going anywhere Don." Lindsay replied.

"Make it fast, Flack." Danny called.

"You got it." Danny could hear Flack starting his decent below them. The drywall crackling, the shifting of beams and other loose debris.

Danny sighed and looked back at Lindsay. He licked his lips and knelt beside her. "Let's try an' get some of this off you. Just tell me when to stop, got it?"

Lindsay nodded, "Yeah."

Danny started lifted debris off Lindsay chest. He managed to free her arms and see a better look at her injuries. Several pieces of rebar managed to dig its way into her left arm. Her arm was also bent at an odd angle, indicating a break somewhere. Danny continued freeing Lindsay from beneath the rumble. Every so often, Lindsay groaned and Danny would stop. He moved to another spot and tried again.

Danny chucked a large piece off drywall over the railing and sighed. It seemed like hours until he'd managed to-almost- completely free Lindsay. She still remained pinned to the stairs by a large beam that was stubbornly crushing her legs and chest. Danny wasn't able to lift it on his own, but he'd managed to ease a little tension from Lindsay by placing ruble beneath the beam.

"Alright, that's all I can clear." Danny said.

"Works for me." Lindsay groaned. She leaned her head back on the stairs, wincing.

Danny stripped his jacket from his back, "Hang in there Linds." He gently lifted her head and set his jacket beneath her.

"I think the rain stopped." Lindsay said.

Danny listened for the patter of the rain, but it never came. "That would be our luck. It stops when we get inside."

Lindsay smiled, "Yeah, Messer luck must be good after all."

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Mac Taylor and Stella Bonesara pulled up across the street from the collapsing building. They hurried under the yellow police tape and joined the leading search and rescue officer under a blue canopy. To the left, beyond the tape were ambulances, treating the wounded. Firefighters emerged from within the building, bringing more wounded out and returning back in to search for survivors.

"Detective Taylor!" Sinclair called. He stood under the blue canopy, standing in front of a table of monitors.

"What's the damaged?" Mac asked.

"We've counted seven dead so far. The teams are leaving the dead, for now. We're focusing on the survivors." Sinclair explained.

"How many floors have been scouted out so far?" Mac asked.

Sinclair pointed to the screen. "This is on the second floor." He motioned to the others. "We have them on a chain. Once we get to another floor, we deploy another scout. Unfortunately, we've only got three to scout out the building."

"How many floors are there?" Stella asked. She watched the screen as the scout came to another dead body. A young woman of twenty, from the looks.

"Too many." Ma said. He turned and walked form the canopy. Stella watched him leave and quickly followed him. Mac walked to one of the fire trucks and pulled off his jacket. A firefighter handed him extra equipment.

"Mac what do you think you're doing?" Stella asked.

"We need more eyes in there, Stella. Those scouts are too slow and we could lose more people." Mac explained. He dawned the jacket and tank.

"Mac-"

"Stella, we've got three coworkers in there. I don't plan on waiting around for those scouts to find their bodies." Mac explained.

Stella nodded. "Then we stay in touch." She ran back to the SUV and pulled out a silver case. She ran back to the truck while Mac finished dressing. Stella opened the case and pulled out two headsets. She pulled one on her head and waited for Mac. As soon as Mac had finished suiting up, Stella handed him the second headset. Mac placed it over his head and positioned the mic. Stella pulled out a small camera and attached it to the headset. The screen in the case turned on. Stella's face came up on the screen.

"All set, Mac." Stella said.

"Keep tabs on the floors." Mac ordered.

"Got it."

"Mac, holdup!" They turned. Hawkes was heading down the street, caring his own equipment. "I'm going with you."

"Hawkes-"

"Mac, I didn't show up on time to the scene. I should be in there with them. The least I can do is go in there and help find them." Hawkes explained.

Stella handed Hawkes the last headset. "Be careful."

Mac nodded. He turned and headed fro the building. Hawkes followed after him. Stella watched them enter the building. Sinclair would have a conniption fit when he found out, but Stella didn't give a damn at the moment. Mac was right; three of their closest friends were inside. They didn't know if they were alive, but if they waited for the scouts, they might not be. Making your own rules was better than playing by the set rules in these cases. In Stella's opinion, anyways.

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ok, so...status of team: not good.

i own nothing