She was scared. Danny could see it in her eyes and the way she walked down the hall towards the doors where Stella had entered moments before. Hell, he was scared too, but it wasn't like he could do anything for his best friend now.

It wasn't like he was sleeping with him, either.

He used to think that there might actually be something between himself and Lindsay, what with all the flirting she was doing with him at work and all. Okay, so maybe she wasn't the one initiating the flirting, but she was cute and if she was willing . . .

To what? To jump into bed with him instead of Flack? Dangerous road to go down, buddy.

It wasn't like he had meant to discover their little "thing." They can blame that on the guy who didn't tint the windows of Flack's backseat properly. And the guy who put the night vision goggles in the A/V lab to tempt him into finding out who was fooling around in the parking garage that night (the fact that he had to go all the way up to the lab and then all the way back down notwithstanding).

So they were fucking. Banging each other. Doing it. Shagging. Big f-ing deal. He didn't care about that. It obviously was meaningless. Why else would they keep it a secret?

Lindsay reached the doors first and gently pushed them open, almost hesitant to actually go in. But she did, with Danny right behind her. He started to move to where Hawkes stood talking with Mac and Stella but noticed her cautiously walking towards the window of Flack's room. This seemed strange to the native New Yorker, so he turned slightly and followed her path.

Unsettling and seemingly crazy thought it was, his friends' relationship intrigued him. Over the years that he had known Flack, he had seen him chat girls up in bars and flirt shamelessly with the young lab techs who gossiped afterwards about how his eyes "seemed to gaze right through to their souls."

Right through their shirts was probably more like it.

The younger detective was a stand-up guy, a great cop, and an even more amazing friend. But he definitely seemed to be a one-night stand kind of guy, one with no commitments or attachments to anyone. He didn't think he had ever seen him with a steady girlfriend or lover.

Yet there he was, going out (or staying in, as sometimes was the case) with Lindsay whenever they both had some free time. And no, he was not spying on them . . . he just happened to be in the same places as them . . . all of the time.

Somewhere in the back of his mind it registered that Stella was telling Hawkes that there was room for "cautious optimism." His focus, however, was on the country girl standing next to him.

Danny watched her carefully, noticing a few things about her like the trained CSI that he was. One of her hands was resting lightly at her side, clenched into a tense fist. The other was shaking slightly as she moved it as if to place it on the glass, then decided against it. Her shoulders were hunched over in a sort of defensive stance as if she was guarding against something. But what?

And then he saw her eyes.

Then he saw the depth of her worry. He saw her hope, her reluctance to let go. He saw her fear and her pain.

He saw that she loved him. And from the way that she was gazing at his prone figure, Danny figured that Flack had told her as much himself.

If Flack never woke up, he was going to kill him.

He turned to the others and watched Hawkes leave the room. Glancing back at his partner – no, his friend – he realized right then and there that she needed to get out of there. Fast.

"You still want that ride?" he asked her quietly, trying as hard as he could to convey another message with his eyes. A message that said he understood and was just trying to help.

Apparently she got it, because a few seconds she schooled her face into a calm and seemingly unaffected expression and murmured her consent. Spinning around, she told Mac goodbye and moved through the swinging doors. It barely registered with Danny that he was asking his boss to call if anything changed. His entire attention was on the woman in front of him, up until they exited the hospital and were in his car.

Up until the point when she broke down into painful sobs and he pulled her into his arms.

Flack and Lindsay had both been there for him when he needed a friend most.

He could be a friend now.