Ch 6 Starting Over

Disclaimer: I don't own it. I never have. I never will. If I did, Danny would have used some common sense and reported that badge missing immediately!

A/N: Yes I have resurfaced and am alive. Sorry this took so long to get up! Life has insisted on being in my way lately. School has been super busy and family life has been even busier. On Christmas Day my grandma died and then right around the new year, we found out that my mom had tumors in her lungs and we were afraid that it was lung cancer- it wasn't, thank God, but that was a super stressful time. And then to top it off (yes, there's more), I had some medical issues around the middle of January that landed me in the hospital for a few days. As many of you know, I am expecting my fourth child in April. Well, I went into labor at twenty-nine weeks and ended up in the hospital over that weekend. I'm home now though, and hopefully everything will proceed as expected and he will join us when he is supposed to! Okay, on with the chapter!

A/N2: Don't shoot me for how it ends! Blame the muse! There is a plan…I promise!!! And I'll try to get the next chapter up with less delay. I'll try.

While he waited Mac pulled out the appropriate forms, which he had already filled out the previous day, and sat them in a neat pile on his desk to await her signature. Within a couple minutes of entering his office, there was a knock at the door.

Smiling slightly, he waved the young woman in and gestured for her to take a seat on the red couch that sat opposite his desk. Instead of taking a seat behind the large desk, Mac took a seat on the chair next to the couch. Approaching Lindsay as an equal, rather than as his subordinate, was something he found himself doing quite a lot when it came to her lately.

"How was Boston?"

"Good. It was good."

"And your friend," he asked conversationally.

"Penny is doing well. She's seeing someone and I got to meet him. He's a really nice guy," Lindsay knew that Mac didn't always approach her in the same way he did everyone else on the team when it came to relating to her as a person and she was pretty sure that was a result of what he knew she had gone through as a teenager, but when it came to the job he treated her the same as everyone else, never doubting her ability to do her job because of her past trauma, and for that she was extremely grateful.

"You ready to get back to work?"

"I sure am," she paused for a moment before continuing, "thank you for letting me have the time off on such short notice. I really needed that to be able to put things into perspective better."

"I'm just glad your back, we all are. Things just haven't been the same without you around. You really bring something to the team and this lab, Lindsay." Yes, Mac Taylor did indeed have a human side, and did let his team know how important they were and how much he appreciated them, though he knew he didn't do that enough.

"Well, I'll try to get things back to normal around here and swipe goop under your nose this week, okay," she said with a laugh, referring to how he had been the guinea pig in her first demonstration, much to Stella's amusement.

"Sounds good, but if you want to use a lab tech…or Danny for that, I won't argue," he smiled before continuing, "you'll be in the lab today, so you have an opportunity to get caught up on things."

"Alright, paperwork it is," knowing he was talking about the small mountain on her desk.

"Just sign these and your officially back on duty," Mac handed her the papers for her signature.

Lindsay signed the papers, and with a final smile, headed to her office to start her shift.

"Hey."

"Hey," Danny looked away from the computer screen as Lindsay took a seat at the desk across from him in their shared office and began gathering the papers she would need out of the bottom drawer of her desk.

"How'd things go? I heard you got ambushed by Stella as soon as you got off the elevator," he smirked at her, knowing how excited Stella must be to have her shopping buddy and partner in crime back.

"Things went well. I'm in the lab today, paperwork," she said mundanely before continuing, "It was nice to chat with Stella over coffee again."

"That's good," Danny was getting caught up in watching her organize herself for the task ahead, "and what did you two talk about," he didn't expect her to tell him, but it was worth a shot to ask.

"I told her all about how you were mean yesterday and wouldn't let me carve things into your head when I cut your hair."

"I'm sorry sweetheart, but I simply cannot commit baseball treason for your amusement," Danny shot back playfully as his pager went off. "That's Stella, I better get down to trace and see what's up. I'll see you later," he said, squeezing her shoulder as he passed on his way out the door.

"Hey Stel, what's up," he asked breezing into the lab and standing across the table from her.

"Lindsay's back," she stated unnecessarily and presumably off topic for the page.

Danny nodded, "she is; but that's not why you paged me, is it?"

"Oh, no, no it's not," she answered before continuing on with the original point of the page, "the dirt on our vic's pants, matches the dirt sample from Sanderson's shoes."

"So Angell's bringing him in?"

"When she finds him; it looks like he turned chicken shit at the prospect of going down for murder and ran."

"He wouldn't be the first one to do that," Danny muttered looking over the trace results.

"So…Lindsay," Stella went right back into her secondary reason for paging him. She wanted to talk to him away from Lindsay, where she could give him her no nonsense point of view without interruption and, since the trace lab as empty for the moment, this was as good a place as any.

"You're relentless," he said with a crooked smile and put down the report he'd been reading previously.

"She's my friend and I care. I just want to make sure she's not going to get hurt again," she explained honestly. Truth be told, Lindsay wasn't just a friend, she was more like the younger sister Stella had never had.

"Look, I know I made a horrible mistake and she didn't deserve to be treated like that. I'm doing the best I can with what she's given me."

"And what is that?"

"A chance. She's given me another chance to show her how much I love her and that I really want to be with her. I'm not about to screw that up…no matter what," Danny shocked himself and his co-worker into a momentary silence with the magnitude of his statement.

Not sure what to say next, the Greek woman thought it best to leave Danny alone to think about what he had just admitted aloud to her and, she thought, himself for the first time. "As my friend, I want you to be happy too," she said quietly before giving his forearm a squeeze as she walked out of the room, leaving Danny to think about what he'd just said.