DISCLAIMER: I have nothing, it does not belong to me.
A/N: okay, this one gets a little deeper into the actual episode then I like to get, but danny and Lindsay aren't exactly hanging out outside of the lab yet, so I hope it didn't get too summary. Anyway enjoy.
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: : Manhattan Manhunt : :
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Danny snapped his phone shut as he walked into the break room and headed straight for the coffee maker. It had just been one of those mundane mornings. No new cases yet, just some old paperwork and entering nonsense b&e fingerprints that never mounted up to anything. He was dragging, than his phone rang. It had been his girlfriend Cindy calling just to talk. Usually he would have been too busy to listen to her gabbing, but today it was welcome. Her words were never more than gossip and nothingness. He however listened, if just for the buzz. He had told Aiden back in the day: "why would I pay for it, that's what I have girlfriends for." Well this was kind of like payment, he was paying his boyfriend dues. After an hour, she had talked herself out, and Danny needed his coffee, which is what put him in his current position.
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Danny, Lindsay, and Sheldon all sat around a table in the sunlit break room. It was a mid morning lull, all had a cup of coffee in front of them, and all were fighting off the midmorning drudge. The lab had been quiet the last few days. That was not a good sign. Quiet was never good. It meant chaos was about to rain in. It was storming in Miami: they were dealing with the break out of a top security prisoner. He had ties to New York, and it seemed like everyone in the NYPD just knew it was only a matter of time before he began another reign of terror on New York. The midtown nurses were not a distant memory. Not even to Lindsay, who was in Montana when the massacre happened. The murders shocked the nation. Nightingale murders. Not good, not pretty, and they all hoped they could find and stop him before it happened again.
Today's bright sun, and cloudless sky, it was a beautiful day, but the lull, the unsettled feeling. Something was going to happen soon. Lindsay took a sip of her coffee and let out a pleasant sigh. Caffeine was what she needed. Sheldon continued to stir his cream around. Danny looked up and was about to break the quiet with a semi crude comment about the sound Lindsay just made, but his phone bleeped. So did his co-workers.
It was Stella: All hands on deck, quintuple homicide at Endicott penthouse, suspect: Henry Darius.
Danny looked up. The fear and uneasiness registered in everyone's eyes. "I'll drive."
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The penthouse was nothing like anyone could imagine, well almost. Lindsay gulped when she saw the state of the walls, he played in their blood. The threesome moved slowly into the home. Four teenage kids lay face down, hands behind their back, bullets wounds scattered across them, and a vase full of pills on the coffee table. This was grim. It was eerie. But no matter how awful this scene was Lindsay was not going to let it get to her. That was her past. She was past it, all that discomfort was in Montana, and that's where it was going to stay. No one knew here, and it was going to stay that way. But no. Mac dismissed her.
She tried to fight it. But she did as was told. But it didn't matter. She could handle it, she was a freaking CSI, and a damn good one at that. Aggravation and irritation joined her on the way back to the lab and wouldn't let her be. Did Mac Taylor know about her horrifyingly traumatic past? How? There was a knock at the door, pulling her from her depressing thoughts.
"What a ya got, Montana?" Danny asked as he usually did. But today it just irked her.
"Danny! Stop calling me that. It's Lindsay, Lindsay Monroe." She snapped.
"Alright, aright, I was just joking with ya." Danny yielded. She was on edge today, not the semi laid back Lindsay he had gotten used to in the last week.
"Well, it's not funny, what am I suppose to be the new girl and the butt of all your jokes."
"You upset that Mac dismissed you?" He asked. The tensing of her shoulders let him know he hit the nail on the head.
"I can handle it."
"It's not about that." Danny said, he knew from experience, he'd been there before and he knew it would happen again. "He was looking out for you, you saw that place, it was a slaughter house." It really was. He had almost wished he was dismissed.
"What, you think I haven't seen blood like that before?" Lindsay inquired, still irritated, she had seen bad scenes before, gruesome awful, Bozeman wasn't Mayberry, crime and murder happened. More than they realized.
"I don't know to tell you the truth, Have you?" Danny asked. Something was bugging this girl, and it went a lot deeper than just being dismissed from a crime scene.
"Yes." She replied, her tone of voice softening from the defensive kick she had been on. "and a lot worse than that." She turned back to the microscope. Maybe Danny had his good points, but he was still an arrogant, ignorant, pig headed, coworker and she wasn't going to let him see her break much more. Only her family and Jenna knew about what had happened her junior year of high school, and now apparently Mac Taylor, and that's how it was going to stay.
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"Anybody know what's up with Monroe?" Danny posed the question to Stella and Sheldon who were sitting in the break room when he entered for yet another round of coffee.
"No, why, what's up?" Stella asked.
"She just snapped at me." Danny said a little surprised.
"Did you deserve it?" Hawkes asked, a shit eating grin gracing his lips.
"No, I called her Montana, and she just…" He threw his hands in the air and shook them about to signify craziness and edginess.
"Well, maybe you could call her by her given name." Stella summarized.
"What's the fun in that?" Danny asked, not seeing how that was a solution at all. That wouldn't solve anything.
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The debriefing was a solemn event. Everyone was glad they were done with it. He was behind bars, the images of the executed teenage kids were put into boxes along with all the paper work, and now all the team had to do was erase the images from their minds. That task was easier said than done. Especially for Lindsay. For try as she may, she was still fighting the images from the diner, the fact that the sister had seen her friends killed and escaped hit especially close to home, but so far, she had held it together pretty well. Only Messer seemed to notice anything different, and that was hours ago. She hadn't approached Mac. She wanted to, but she didn't want to bring it up if it were nothing, if he hadn't even known, although she was pretty sure he did. And again, that just wasn't a conversation she wanted to have. Jenna even called a few times, probably saw the news, and was worried, not that she had to be.
"Case Closed." The minute Mac said the words the entire room seemed to jump out of daydreams.
"I don't know about you csi's but I need a drink." Flack said, pushing himself away from the conference table and stretching out his lengthy limbs.
"I'll second that." Danny agreed. "How bout it, Sullivan's?" he threw out to the table. All agreed, even Mac. Danny turned to the his side where Lindsay had remained quiet. "So how bout it Monroe? Something was bugging you earlier."
Lindsay pondered her options for a minute. Really, what else was she going to do, go home and have Jenna worry that she was ok? A beer might make that easier to take, and everyone else was going. "Yea." She nodded. "Yea, let's go."
"First rounds on me." Mac announced slapping the table. "Good job today everyone."
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Lindsay pulled her coat on and pulled her cell out of her pocket. It read six missed calls. Each one was from Jenna. Figuring she should call her roommate, she hit the call button. It rang once before a worried Jenna answered, sounding just like Lindsay thought she would.
"Lindsay! Are you okay? I saw on the news, and I wanted to check that you were o-"
"Yes Jenna I'm fine." Lindsay said. Sure the events of the day upset her, and they did resemble the diner in ways, but she was fine.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes Jen, I'm fine. It's been 10 years, I'm not over it, but I can handle my emotions. It's in the past, moving out here is suppose to be a new start."
"Yea but Linds."
"No Jenna." Lindsay interrupted her friend. "I promised my dad I was leaving the ghosts in Montana. And that's what I'm doing."
"Okay, but Linds."
"I'm fine Jen, I miss them, you know that, you know better than anyone, but we'll talk when I get home okay?" Lindsay asked, she really didn't want to get into it when she was in a lab full of people and glass walls.
"Sure, when will that be?"
"In a few hours, the team is going out for drinks." Lindsay smiled, the team, she wasn't alone out here. "I'll see ya in a bit." Lindsay hung up the phone and turned around to find Danny Messer leaning against the doorframe.
"Da-Danny, how long have you been standing there?" Lindsay stuttered.
"Not long Mont—Lindsay." He corrected himself. "Just came to grab my jacket, didn't want to interrupt." He said gesturing to her phone. From her stance to the tone of her voice Danny knew it was a personal, and important phone call. "Everything okay?" he asked. She had been on edge for a good part of the day, granted they all had, but just the same.
"Yea, just a worry wart of a roommate." Lindsay said with a small smile.
"That's not always a bad thing." He said with a smile as he swept his jacket up off the back of his chair, "So what da ya say, drinks on Mac?"
"God yes." Lindsay said tossing her head back and walking out the door Danny held open for her.
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Sullivan's bar was a dimly lit cop bar with a heavy Irish tone to it. It was the perfect place to grab a beer post shift, and even lunch when on shift. The team had pushed two tall bar rounds together and Mac brought back two pitchers of beer that were poured and downed quickly. All seemed to loosen up, Don tugged his tie loose, Mac took off his suit jacket, and the girls toed off their heels and dangled them from their toes, it was a simple night. Friends, a few drinks, a few laughs and goodnight. Nothing more, nothing less. After the second pitcher was just about finished, one of the pool tables in the bar opened up.
"So how 'bout it Montana?" Danny nodded his head in the direction of the table. "Feel like cashing in that rain check?"
"Sure, why not." Lindsay said grabbing her clutch and hopping off the bar stool. "Two weeks hasn't changed anything, you're still going to lose." She smirked.
"This should be good." Flack said grabbing his pint glass and following Danny and Lindsay over to the pool table. The rest followed, there was now an audience watching Danny rack up the balls.
Being a gentleman he let Lindsay break, that could have been a huge mistake. But Lindsay was in a relatively good mood. Eyeing Danny and his confident posture up. She'd be playing him quite a lot in the future. She could go in for the kill right away, but what was the fun in that? Really. She broke and sank two stripes. She and Danny played back and forth, the entire game they were relatively even, until the end. There were 4 balls left: 2 stripes, a solid, and the 8.
"You still think you're going to win?" Danny asked cockily. Really, she had a couple of difficult shots ahead of her if she was going to win. No way she'd be able to sink all of them.
"Wanna bet." Lindsay smirked eyeing up her shots, they were difficult sure, but nowhere near impossible.
"Well I'm so confused as to what we've been doing?" Danny said in mock confusion.
"Money hasn't been put on the table, only bragging rights." Lindsay said leaning seductively against her pool cue.
"Oh, aright, aright, name the terms Montana." Danny grinned. Lindsay pondered for a minute.
"10 bucks."
"Whoa, big spender." Danny teased
"I'm not done hot shot, 10 bucks and you take my next dumpster drive."
"k. I can do that." Danny confirmed, "I won't have to, but…" Danny said with a sarcastic and teasing shrug of the shoulders.
"Yea, just step back and watch." Lindsay said bending over and lining up her shot. She lined up the shot, pulled back and struck the cue ball. How she did it was a mystery, but she sank both stripes, and the cue lined up for an easy 8 ball shot. Once sunk she turned around and held out her hand ready to be paid.
"Hustler." Danny grimaced reaching into his back pocket and pulling out his wallet and handed a $10 bill over to Lindsay.
"Okay, next pitcher is on Messer." Lindsay laughed heading to the bar with Danny's money. Danny watched her grumbling.
"Danno, just to rub salt in the wound." Don snickered. "You know you just lost to a girl, and the new kid at that."
"Thanks Flack. I needed that." Danny groaned. He shook his head watching Lindsay laugh with Stella at the bar waiting on their next round. The girl was good, and apparently here to stay. Life was going to be interesting.
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Lindsay was unsure of herself when she arrived home. Of her current friends, only one knew the story of the Main Street Massacre, and that one friend happened to be subletting her a room. Jenna knew the whole story, Lindsay had told her Sophomore year in college, she had a massive breakdown at the anniversary but Jenna was there to console her, and be her friend. It made the next years anniversary that much easier, and solidified Jenna as BFF.
The apartment seemed quiet, Lindsay would almost have guessed Jenna went to sleep if had been any other night. But ever since she heard of Lindsay's past she had been a little protective and the light in the kitchen gave her away.
"Mom, I'm home." Lindsay called. Jenna poked her head out of the kitchen to see Lindsay rounding the corner.
"Ha ha, very funny." Jenna groaned. "I was worried."
"So says the 4 messages." Lindsay laughed plucking a bottle of water out of the fridge.
"Linds, I saw what the memories did to you in college, and I was on the phone for every similar case you had in Bozeman. I was worried."
"Yea, but I got over it." Lindsay shrugged.
"Got over it, Honey, you don't just get over something like that, and I heard it in your voice earlier, you cracked."
"Mac dismissed me from the scene." Lindsay said taking a gulp of her water.
"Does he know about….." Jenna trailed off.
"I didn't tell him, but yea, I have a hunch he does."
"Just a hunch, you didn't ask?" Jenna asked. If it had been her she would have broken down the boss mans door looking for answers.
"Yea, I get his point I'm better with evidence when I have a clear head."
"So he was looking out for you." Jenna said,
"That's what Danny said too." Lindsay said thinking back along the days events.
"Danny, he's the jerk with the nickname right?"
"Yea he calls me Montana, he can be I don't know sweet is pushing it, but I beat him at pool tonight, any way Mac suggested drinks so the team went out for a couple rounds."
"Okay, you were hustling pool without me tonight." Jenna said in mock hurt. "you are fine. But sweet, I thought you hated him."
"Not hated, he's just irritating, and arrogant, and stubborn."
"And he's hot? You are so going to fall for him." Jenna taunted.
"What no I'm not. He's a friend and nothing else, plus, he's got a girlfriend and I've got…."
"You've got Professor Kevin." Jenna smirked. "How are things going with you two?"
"Good." Lindsay said hesitantly.
"What's up?" Jenna asked. Lindsay was about to sabotage another potential relationship for something that was really nothing.
"I don't know, don't kill me, but I feel like he's almost too sweet, too romantic."
"Is there such a thing?" Jenna giggled, but Lindsay did not join in.
"When I feel like he's doing it to show up other guys, or just show off, yea I think so, he's just too sweet." Lindsay said
"Okay, do not do this again, let's give Kevin a shot, and until then, No nightmares tonight."
"No nightmares." Lindsay agreed. But that was probably going to be easier said than done.
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A/N2: Thanks for reading, i hate begging for reviews but i'm soon going to get desperate, just a warning, and a busy weekend starts tomorrow so it may be a few days before another update, but the muse has been going strong. Thanks, lots of love Gigi. =)