As Lindsay covered her mouth in horror, she realized that her cheeks were wet. Tears she didn't even know she had been crying stained her skin. As she attempted to wipe them clean, she mourned the loss of Allie, though she had never known the girl herself. To have such a short time in this world, with little to show for it, was a tragedy. Allie should have been here, in Danny's kitchen, listening to him tell a story about the crazy people he worked with. She should have been the one to confront him on the other women in his life. She should have taunted him, flirted with him, cuddled with him.

Instead, the poor kid was lying somewhere, pushing up daisies, and Lindsay was lying here listening to the tale of her demise from the one man who had loved her the most. Lindsay felt like she was encroaching upon someone else's territory. It's not fair, she muttered to herself.

Danny grunted, and Lindsay realized she had stated her thought out loud. "Of course it's not fair. Nothin' in Allie's life was ever fair. She was the best dancer in the entire school, but not enough money to make it to competitions. She was an amazing student, but her ma needed her to help out instead of go to college. She loved Mikey with all her heart, but he was taken away from her when he was finally gettin' his act together. From the moment she was born, Allie's life wasn't fair." This last sentence was said more for his benefit than Lindsay's. Danny's back was propped against the countertop, his arms folded protectively in front of him. Lindsay stood across from him, watching his bare chest rise and fall rhythmically. She could almost hear his heart beat, if she really tried. Her eyes traveled up his abdomen to his face. Danny's eyes were focused on the ceiling in a thoughtful expression. The calm on his face was almost unsettling and for a moment Lindsay thought he had gone slightly insane from the strain of his memories, but once again, Danny Messer surprised her.

"Aileen wouldn't look at me at the funeral," he said in a choking voice. "My ma made me and Louie pay our respects, of course, but Aileen wouldn't have anythin' to do with us. She just sat there, staring at her daughter's coffin. Moved out a week later. No one's heard from her in thirteen years."

Lindsay shook her head, brown curls swirling around her face. "That's ridiculous, Danny. She couldn't possibly blame you for what happened. Did you tell--"

"But I was the one who was voted most likely to know where Allie was, no matter what. She told me everything, so Aileen assumed that she had told me about Pelham too." Danny sniffed once and looked down at his hands. Lindsay was almost taken aback at how much he looked like a little boy, lost and miserable.

"It's not your fault, Danny. You did nothing wrong."

Clear cerulean eyes met honeyed brown and Lindsay's breath was taken away. Later, when telling Stella about the moment, she swore that she saw Danny's soul at that very moment, and there was no trace of the reckless teenaged kid he had once been. "Really, Linds? If I had convinced her to stay with me longer, to meet me after she got off work, to come back to my place that night, she might not have gone." He looked away, pained. "If I had made a bigger effort to stop her, she might have told me what she was doing. I could have gone with her and helped her to understand why she couldn't kill Sonny."

"No one could have helped her see that." Lindsay took a deep breath and bravely crossed the room to be closer to Danny. Carefully, she tucked her fingers under his chin, bringing those beautiful eyes back to hers. "Allie had to find her own way- and if that meant she had to put her life on the line the same way Mikey did, that's what she had to do." Lindsay bit her lip at the confusion and ache in his eyes. "When the trial rolled around, I wanted to strangle the man who killed my friends with my bare hands. But Rory talked me out of it, and I was calmer after that. Allie doesn't sound like she was ever that mellow."

Danny cracked a small smile. "No, never. Even suggesting defeat pissed her off." He sighed and his eyes filled with tears, spilling over his long eyelashes to travel down his cheeks in an agony-filled cascade. "I miss her so much, Linds."

Without thinking, and without exact reason, Lindsay pulled Danny into her arms, cradling his head against her neck. There was only one other time she had ever seen him like this, and then Mac had been the one to comfort him, to tell him Louie would be okay. Then, Lindsay hadn't known what to do. This time, she was more than prepared.

---

Lindsay was shocked the next morning when Stella walked into her office wearing a million-dollar smile and gorgeous diamond earrings. "Hey! What's up?" she asked, hoping to kill two birds with one stone.

Stella happily slapped down a case file on the desktop. "We caught the guy. He wasn't hard to find; fingerprints everywhere. And I feel like looking nice today. Is that such a crime?"

Lindsay flipped through the manila folder, amazed. "Criminals keep getting more and more stupid. And in this department," she eyed Stella's jewelry apprehensively, "maybe."

The two giggled for a moment before Stella's phone buzzed, signaling her to the next big crime scene. She put the phone to her ear and waved goodbye to her friend, nodding a greeting to Danny, who held open the door for her departure. He watched Stella walk down the hall before turning to Lindsay with a skeptical eye. "Is it just me, or are her earrings--?"

"Don't ask," Lindsay said, holding up her hand. "I don't worry about her. You, on the other hand…" she smiled as Danny slowly sank into his desk chair. "How did it go?"

He shrugged. "Oh, ya know. Easier than I thought for some, harder for others. Getting rid of that box was tough. But," he reached for her hand over the desk, "I'm glad I did it. And I kept one picture of her on my dresser, for memory's sake."

Lindsay nodded happily, giving his hand a slight squeeze. "As long as you're not obsessing."

Danny smiled and moved to look at his computer. "Ah, shit, I've got work to do."

A small giggle escapes her lips before Lindsay bends over her own amount of paperwork. For moment she's working fine, but then she starts thinking and it's like someone lit off a bomb inside her brain. "I'll be right back," she fires out and Danny can only watch in mystification as she grabs her purse and makes a beeline for the door.

---

Lindsay gently placed the bouquet of lilies on the cold marble headstone. There's an identical one right next to it, but she has only eyes for the one before her. She studies the words written there, feeling the connection between her and this person she's never met. Lindsay sighs and looks up at the sky, not really knowing what to say, but also knowing what must be said.

"You didn't have to bring us together. It would have been easier to live with him for the rest of your life. But you made some decisions, and this is where it's gotten you. I have him now, and that's really the way I'd like it to stay. Thank you for what you did for him, but now it's my time to do what I can do for him."

Lindsay walked away slowly, pondering what to say when she got back to the lab.

Allie's gravestone watched her go, silent as stone.

Because time will pass. Things will change. And people will die. But love… well… that'll haunt ya.

THE END