RK9 - honestly, a new job would make me update faster! Ha ha, you can find out now who she's calling! I'm not a fan of pork - it's too dry. lol! bacon, on the otherhand...

Thoren - I think you're right. In more ways than one!

Madison Bellows - I'm about to be really nice to her (before I'm mean again) Though, I figure the story would be boring if it was happy all the time! Nope, I wouldn't feel that bad either!

Alana Xavier1 - I am sorting it all out in the next two chapters! I promise. Well, maybe not Sgt. Flack. It's gonna take a while for that to be sorted, simply because I turned him into a right mean bugger, and I don't think he'd be too forgiving - maybe the gladiator would be useful!

demolished-soul - He is, and you've hit the nail on the head. I figure he's either dead, or there's a good falling out having happened. And yeah, it's all his fault!

sparkyCSI - the last thing you should be worrying about is betaing - I hope your dad is alright!! Gimme an email if you need to vent! She's crap. Heck, I'm verging on as bad (mainly beacuse it's too painful to check, lol!)

meadow567 - I think you're right with their relationship. I know I went for a while without checking mine. Then I realised I had nothing left in them, and a load of money needed to be transfered around. She sucks. lol, I made her suck!

Well, I honestly had been prepared to update this last night... and then, surprise surprise - I got called into work! (Then I went to see my life in a film!) So here we go!

What The Eyes Can't See

Chapter 167: Who will save me from all that I'm up against in this world?

'I take it Flack's not been back yet?' Lindsay asked as she settled into a seat opposite Stella and Danny at a table in the coffee shop.

Stella shook her head. 'I convinced him to spend some time with Cordelia. Though I tell you, we're not going to have long before he's back.'

Danny nodded. 'I give it an hour maximum.'

Hawkes sighed from beside Lindsay. 'I still can't believe it.'

Danny was ready to say something when his phone rang. He frowned, pulling out of his pocket and answered it. 'Messer.'

'Danny, I need your help!' Taylor's voice came down the phone.

'Taylor? What are you doing?'

'Using my one phone call to convince you I'm not a drug dealer, a drug user, a drug supplier, a mule, a… I don't know how those drugs got in my apartment, Danny.'

'I know that, Tay. We all do.'

Taylor breathed a sigh of relief. 'Good. Because I didn't want to waste the whole phone call on that. Look, Danny, I don't know what to do, but I think I'm in serious trouble here.'

'What are they saying, Taylor?'

'Oh, that I'm trying to take over Sassone's spot in his gang hierarchy.'

'Sonny?!' Danny exclaimed. 'Why on earth would they have that idea.'

'I may have been researching them,' Taylor admitted. 'And it's also possible that I may have been to see him a few times.'

'You what?!' Danny exploded. 'Do you have any idea what a stupid idea that was?'

'You sound like your brother,' Taylor muttered.

'Louie knew?'

Taylor nodded, and then realising he couldn't see her, quietly admitted, 'Yes.'

Danny sighed heavily. 'What did you see him about?' he asked her, and then realised he was talking to a dial tone. He hung up and looked at the others.

'What was that about?' Stella asked.

Danny quickly relayed Taylor's side of the conversation. 'I'm going to talk to my brother,' he declared.

Stella nodded. 'I'll find Adam and see if we can hack into her office computer.'

Lindsay bit her lip. 'I have a spare key to her apartment,' she muttered.

Danny looked sharply at her. 'You can't go in there.'

'And what if I need to pick up some clothes for Cordelia?' she shrugged. 'It's not a murder scene – the swing shift will have cleared all the evidence out by now anyway.'

'You could get into a lot of trouble,' Stella warned her.

Lindsay shrugged. 'Are you kidding? How many crime scenes has Taylor been on, and how much trouble has she been in?'

'She is being questioned at the minute,' Hawkes pointed out.

'For drug supplying,' Lindsay retorted. 'Not for being on a crime scene.'

Hawkes nodded. 'Fine. I guess that leaves me with Sassone.'

Danny shook his head. 'Nah, that guy is all mine.'

'Go together,' Stella told him.

'We're forgetting something,' Lindsay said. 'Two things, actually.'

'What?' Danny asked her.

'Mac, for one. He's going to notice that none of us are there.'

Stella sighed deeply. 'Alright, we'll have to stagger it. Danny, Sheldon. You go see Sassone first. He's going to be on a schedule – you're going to have to see him during visiting hours. We'll cover you.'

'And the official line?' Danny asked, trying hard not to smirk at Stella's rule breaking.

Stella shrugged. 'You're with Flack. We'll all be taking it in turns to check on him and Cordelia – keep him away from the precinct.'

'Mac is going to kill us,' Lindsay muttered, matter-of-factly, as the left the café.

'I wish there wasn't glass between us,' Danny muttered again, as he fidgeted whilst they waited for Sassone to grace them with his appearance.

Hawkes nodded. 'Here he is,' he said, more for something to say, as Sassone seated himself opposite.

'Well if it isn't Baby Messer,' Sassone said, mockingly. 'And to what do I owe the pleasure? Your brother been burying bodies again?'

'How do you know Taylor Turner,' Hawkes asked him quickly as he watched Danny curl his hand into a fist beside him.

'Taylor Turner?' Sonny muttered, looking thoughtfully at the ceiling. 'Taylor Turner? No; no bells.'

'Quit the crap,' Danny snapped.

'Oh, yes, the journalist. I remember now,' Sonny grinned. 'She's the one that's been stealing from me.'

'Stealing what?' Danny asked through gritted teeth.

'My drugs, my men, my power,' he listed, shrugging imperturbably.

'Quit the crap,' Danny repeated.

Sonny shrugged again. 'Why do you think she was here?' he asked, staring only at Danny.

Danny sighed and pulled the phone receiver away from his mouth, covering the mouth piece. Hawkes did the same. 'Gimme five minutes,' Danny requested.

'Danny-'

Danny shook his head. 'He's not going to admit to anything with you here.'

Hawkes eyes them both warily, but reluctantly agreed. 'Five minutes.'

Danny waited for him to leave before putting the phone back to his ear. 'What do you want with Taylor?'

Sonny shrugged. 'She's a means to an end, Messer.' And then he hung up.

'Hey!' Danny bellowed. 'HEY!' he repeated, slamming his fist against the glass.

Mac stepped into the elevator and rode up to the crime lab. He'd just gotten back from Rikki Sandoval's apartment, after spending the last hour talking with Flack. He'd finally convinced the detective to take Cordelia back to his apartment and get some sleep. After Flack had left, he'd politely requested that Rikki refuse to look after Cordelia – if Flack was forced to have the child, he wouldn't be able to leave her, and thus, wouldn't be in the crime lab.

He stepped off the elevator and headed to his office, spotting Stella. 'Stella,' he called her over. 'Have you seen Danny and Hawkes?'

'Oh,' Stella nodded. 'They're with Flack. Trying to keep him out of trouble.'

'Really?' Mac asked, surprised. 'I've been trying to get a hold of either of them for the past hour.'

Stella shrugged. 'They've been there a while. Maybe this storm is keeping the cell towers down.'

Mac nodded. 'Maybe.' He looked piercingly at Stella. 'When they get back, send them to me. I want them in the lab doing paperwork where I can keep an eye on them.'

Stella nodded and watched him leave before breathing a sigh of relief.

Taylor lay back on the uncomfortable bed in the cell, staring at the ceiling. Clearly, as soon as Alex had found out she had been arrested from Sgt. Flack's questioning, he had sent her a lawyer. She wasn't sure how thankful to the lawyer she should be, but she had arranged that Taylor be held overnight in the holding cells, rather than being sent to Bayview Correctional Facility.

It was about three in the morning, and it was as noisy as it was twelve hours previously. In the cell next door, two drunks were singing off the whiskey, serenading the three prostitutes in the cell on the other side of them, with their rendition of Stand By Me – completely out of tune, out of sync, and the wrong lyrics – although the prostitutes were loving it.

Taylor sighed and brought her hands up underneath her head. She wouldn't have slept, regardless of where she was. At least here, it gave her the hope that she was going to come out of this, the right side of the law. In her mind, she kept replaying all the conversations she had had with Sassone.

There was no doubt in her mind that he was behind this. The only thing she couldn't work out was when he had planted the drugs in her apartment. It had never been broken into, and she'd had no work done in it for years. Hell, even her super hadn't been in it more than a handful of times over the four years she'd been in it. And she had always been with him anyway.

She rolled over onto her side, facing the wall. To top it all off, all she had seen of her apartment, was a picture of her bedroom. If there rest of it was anything to go by… Taylor shut her eyes, trying to push the thought from her mind.

On the other side of town, Danny was pulling back the covers and heading to his door. 'I'm coming!' he yelled to the incessant banging. 'I swear to God, if that's you, Flack…' He pulled the door open. 'Lindsay?!' he asked in surprise.

'Hey,' she greeted him shyly.

'What are you doing here?' he asked, stepping aside for her to enter. 'Not that I'm not happy to see you,' he added quickly. 'But it's after three?'

'The other thing we're forgetting.'

'Huh?'

'Earlier, we were forgetting about two things. The first was Mac.'

'Oh!' Danny exclaimed as he watched her sit down. 'What?'

'Sgt. Flack.'

Danny just looked questioningly at her.

'I've been thinking it through,' Lindsay said, getting to her feet. 'He's gonna have men on that door. So I'm not going to get anywhere near the apartment to have a look around.'

'That's a good-'

Lindsay held up her hand, cutting him, before she resumed pacing. 'You need to be ready to get in there whilst they're distracted arresting me.'

'Lindsay!' Danny began to object again.

Lindsay shook her head. 'I'm the only one who Sgt. Flack really doesn't… have a problem with. He's clearly out for your and Stella's blood, for different reasons. And he's just arrested Hawkes. Which leaves me. The worst I'll get is a suspension. You three – it could cost you your jobs.'

'Linds, I can't let you do this for me,' Danny objected.

Lindsay shrugged. 'I'm doing this for Taylor. I was a bitch to her, and she still flew across the country for me.'