meadow567 - he he! This has got to be quick enough for you!

laplandgurl - I've been uber busy. I found the one good thing about my job is that there are four hours that writing can be done! Lindsay surprised me to, but I've decided to go with the flow!

Aphina - Maybe for now, but we all know it won't last long! I have a day off from the bookies tomorrow (you can imagine how happy I am!) Yay! Anyhoos, Mac knew all along - he was just waiting for the evidence, lol

RK9 - Um, another chapter? Is that irritation in a good way, or a bad way? And Mac certainly didin't get there on his looks! (Okay, I'll put my claws away!)

demolished-soul - I think I have succeeded because I didn't want him liked! lol

Thoren - I miss hanging out with the guys - I have such an urge for a poker night and they all moved back home. She will be out very soon!

Alana Xavier1 - I do know better. I'm sorry! But I'm only going to be mean for one more chapter after this... and then I'm going to be very, very nice!

sparkyCSI - Was it the same day? Cool, I really am an updating machine at the moment! I do try hard to like Mac. I struggle, though

Madison Bellow - Check me out, eh? It's wierd because I write how I feel, but by the time I come to post, it's like, wow, that was dark! There's more happy coming!

Big thanks to my amazing beta, sparkyCSI!

What The Eyes Can't See

Chapter 169: I wanna be there for you, the way you've been there for me

'Daniel Messer,' Mac bellowed the second Danny stepped into the crime lab.

Danny cringed. 'Yes, boss?'

'Where have you been?' Mac demanded. 'I told you I wanted you in your office catching up on paperwork.'

Danny rubbed the back of his neck. 'I went to see Flack – see how he's holding up,' Danny shrugged uncomfortably.

Mac glared at him. 'Get in the AV lab, now!'

Danny nodded, ducking his head as he hurried past the ex-marine and into the AV lab. Inside were Stella, Lindsay, Adam and Hawkes, all looking like they'd been caught with their hands in the cookie jar, as well as Flack and Louie. The former of whom, looked exhausted.

Mac marched into the room and closed the door behind him.

Danny looked from Flack to Mac. 'Oh crap,' he muttered.

Mac just glared at the four of them, waiting for one of them to crumble.

It was Stella who went first. 'We've been trying to help Taylor,' she explained.

'What is wrong with you?' Mac snapped, at all of them – not just Stella. 'You were taken off this case for a reason.'

'We just wanted to help,' Lindsay told him, repeating Stella's words.

'And helping got you arrested,' Mac retorted angrily. 'And I don't appreciate being dragged to Sinclair's office to be informed of that.'

Lindsay looked guiltily at the floor. 'Sorry,' she mumbled.

'At least they were doing something,' Flack muttered.

Mac whirled around. 'Just because I haven't been breaking into crime scenes doesn't mean that I haven't been trying.'

Flack glanced away, staring through a monitor. 'I was talking about myself,' he admitted quietly.

Mac sighed and looked around at the group. 'So what have you found out?'

'Sassone is behind this,' Danny blurted out. 'We just can't prove it.'

'How on earth does Sonny Sassone play into this?' Mac asked in disbelief.

'Taylor got a letter from him,' Louie spoke up.

Flack looked over sharply at him, but said nothing.

'He was requesting she see him,' Louie continued. 'She did.'

'What did he want?' Mac asked.

Louie shook his head. 'She didn't really say. He was after something.'

'And she might be giving it to him, because she has been having regular payments into her account for a few months now,' Mac told them.

Flack shook his head. 'She isn't doing anything she shouldn't,' he said, defending her. 'I pretty much live with her – I would notice something like that.'

'Did you know she has a lot of information on her computers about Tanglewood?' Stella asked softly.

'She wrote something about gangs a while back,' Flack told her.

'She has been researching them for months,' Stella explained gently. 'I read that article, and it doesn't even begin to collate with half of what's in her files.'

'That doesn't mean that she's dealing cocaine,' Flack snapped angrily at her.

'Flack,' Mac said in a low, warning tone.

'Don has a point,' said Hawkes. 'We would know if she was dealing.'

'Would we though?' Louie asked.

'Yes!' Danny said nanoseconds before Flack.

Mac took a breath as he looked around the room. 'What did you find in Taylor's apartment?' he asked Danny.

Danny shrugged, leaning dejectedly against a wall. 'Nothing. The other shift cleared it out,' he said, throwing his copy of Taylor's key onto the desk next to Adam.

Adam sighed and picked it up, staring at it absent mindedly, only half listening to Mac who was now talking.

'Honestly, it looked like she did it herself,' Mac said. He held his hands up in the air to cut off almost everyone. 'I am merely reporting back what I saw. Don't forget, I am the only one who saw the crime scene before IAB got to it.'

'Yeah, and I wonder why IAB got to it?' Flack muttered under his breath, but loud enough for everyone to hear.

Mac ignored him. 'Without analyzing the trace, it looked like someone lit a match to gasoline. And it looked like it was someone with a key.'

'Maybe it was,' Adam piped up excitedly.

'What are you trying to say?' Flack demanded, taking a step towards him.

'You used this to get into Taylor's apartment?' he asked Danny. Danny nodded. 'And how old is the key?'

'I've had it months,' Lindsay told him.

Adam nodded. 'I couldn't tell for certain, without examining the lock itself, but there's been a freshly cut key in it. It has transfered scrapings onto this one.'

Mac nodded. 'Day shift already confirmed that. The only problem is that it doesn't prove anything,' he explained as Adam seemed to visably deflate.

'No, but the reason Taylor has a broken arm is because someone mugged her. And isn't it slightly suspicious that her bag turned up with only the cash missing?'

'Because she'd have had to have changed all the locks otherwise,' Stella nodded.

'And she'd have had to have checked her bank accounts for unauthorized spending,' Danny added.

'But this still doesn't explain the cocaine,; Mac sighed.

'She's being framed by Sassone,' Lindsay cried.

'My dad will just say that she didn't start the fire,' Flack told them. 'Mac's right. We still need to explain the cocaine.'

'Tweedy Pie,' Louie said suddenly.

'I don't get what a cartoon bird has to do with anything,' Lindsay muttered, frowning slightly.

Louie shook his head. 'Tweedy Pie, not Tweety Pie,' Louie told them.

'Rick Tweedy?!' Danny asked.

Louie nodded. 'The hit man that doesn't kill.'

'Sassone won't have people killed unless he wants to send a message,' Danny explained to the blank faces.

Louie nodded. 'He finds it more productive to blackmail them. Or frame them – he does that when the person has useful contacts.'

'So that leads this all back to us?' Lindsay asked.

Louie nodded. 'Probably. We all work in a crime lab. He probably figures that one of us cares enough about her that we'd botch his case up, or something.'

Mac looked around. 'I guess he was right,' he declared, looking pointedly at Danny, Hawkes, Stella, Lindsay and Adam.

'Mac, we didn't do anything to Sasso-'

Mac cut Danny off. 'You have just returned from a sealed crime scene, and you,' he turned to Lindsay, 'got a note to file, as well as IAB's attention.'

'Well at least they were doing something!' Flack snapped.

Mac whirled around. 'You think I've been doing nothing, Flack?'

Flack glared at him, his blue eyes going dark. 'Something like that.'

'Aside from trying to keep my team out of trouble, despite the fact I knew what they were doing, Don, I have been talking to your father. He's allowed me to interview Taylor with him. He seems to think a familiar face might get her to confess the truth.'

'She hasn't done anything!' he exploded.

'I realize that,' Mac shouted back. 'It's why I'm trying to get your father to see that.'

'Where's Cordelia,' Stella asked, stepping between the two.

The anger remained in Flack's eyes as he whirled around to face Stella. 'School.'

'Alright, well how about we go and see if we can get some things for her – how's she coping without Wilbur?'

Flack sighed. 'I think she's more focused on the fact that Taylor isn't there.'

Stella nodded. 'Come on. Let's get her out of school. Clearly she won't want to be there,' she told him, leading him from the room.

Flack resisted. 'Stella, I would rather be here.'

'Doing what?' she asked him gently. 'Your father won't be happy if he finds out you're here, and I think that Taylor would be happy knowing you're looking after her niece.'

Mac watched the pair leave and turned to the others. 'Adam, get back to the lab, Louie, to the morgue.' The pair nodded, quickly following Flack and Stella from the room. Mac turned to Lindsay and Hawkes. 'You two get back to your desks, and don't you dare let me find them empty until the end of your shift.' As soon as he was left with only Danny, he turned to the younger CSI. 'You are suspended for two weeks.'

'Mac!' Danny began to object.

'Danny, you were trespassing on a crime scene – on a case you were banned from. Be thankful you're not getting fired. Go home and don't come near this building unless I tell you.'

Danny sighed. Realistically, he was getting a very mild punishment, especially if IAB were to find out. Still, that didn't mean he was happy.

Danny gathered his things from his locker and was heading towards the lift when he felt something in the bottom of his pockets. Confused, he pulled out the bits of plaster he had recovered from Taylor's apartment. He ran the chips over in his hands, and then checking Mac wasn't in sight, headed back into the crime lab.

'Richard!' he shouted, spotting one of the CSIs from the other shift.

The CSI named Richard turned. 'Messer, I can't tell you anything about the Turner Case,' he sniffed disapprovingly.

Danny rolled his eyes. 'I get that, Dick. I just wanted to make sure you hadn't missed something at her apartment.'

'I know how to do my job, thank you,' he told him.

'So you checked the plaster?' Danny asked him.

'Messer, what are you talking about?'

'The plaster covering the area where the drugs were found.'

Richard rolled his eyes. 'We've already confirmed it's fresh plaster.'

'Have you dated it in comparison to the plaster on the other walls?' Danny asked him, his tone accusatory.

'Do you have any idea how costly that process is?' Richard asked him.

'You mean you haven't?' Danny cried in disbelief. 'If it's gonna prove her innocence, it should be tested.'

'She probably did it anyway,' Richard told him. 'I caught her taking a sledgehammer from the weapons locker and she told me she was working for Pino – someone else who conveniently has been investigated by IAB.'

'So have I,' Danny told him furiously – Richard took a step back eyeing his clenched fist nervously. 'Does that mean I'm a criminal too?'

'Now I didn't say that,' Richard hastily told him.

'MESSER!'

Messer turned finding Sgt. Flack glaring at him. 'Stop harassing the swing shift and get your ass in interview room three now! And if you want your union rep with you, I suggest you tell me now!'

I have one chapter left, and then I am going to be nice for a bit - I promise! Anyhoos, I just wanted to say thanks to all for the reading (and of course, the reviewing!) Y'all truely do make a gal happy when she'd had a lousy day at work!