So, it's stupid o'clock in the morning, and the evil Plot Bunny of Doom has not only attacked, it's gone out, found a mate, and brought it's evil Plot Bunny of Doom babies along for the ride.

There are spoilers for, well, pretty much everything up to the end of season three – so if you've not got there on tv yet, don't read! I don't want angry emails telling me that I spoilt the end for y'all!

Rated for Language.

This is a Danny/Flack FRIENDSHIP fic. No slash or implied slash here, mates.

Crash and Burn

© Axellia, July 2007

Part One: Crash

When you feel all alone, and a loyal friend is hard to find
You're caught in a one way street with the monsters in your head
When hopes and dreams are far away, and you feel like you can't face the day
Let me be the one you call,
If you jump I won't let you fall,
Lift you up and fly away with you into the night
If you need to fall apart, I can mend a broken heart
If you need to crash, then crash and burn you're not alone

Savage Garden, Crash and Burn

If This Is Your Life was to do a show on Daniel James Messer the little red book would be filled with scraps and clippings showing how difficult his life had been.

From a young age he had been around men of a certain calibre… more often than not a 9mm, although there were some larger rounds thrown in there too. Needless to say, many of these men didn't stay in his life for long periods of time, and it was often years before he saw any of them again.

This never bothered him because he had his brother, Louie, to idolise and follow around like a lost puppy. Louie, although he would a) never admit this to anyone, and b) and actually liked, allowed his brother to semi-worship him. By the time Louie had found one of the better things in life (girls), Danny had thankfully found his (baseball).

True, from an early age, Danny had never had a problem with the ladies, but for almost the entirety of high school, Danny was in love with the America's favourite pastime.

For a period, it looked like all was going well. Scouts had made visits to his high school and it looked like he was up for a full ride to college. Which was actually pretty lucky because within two days of being offered this his father was sent to prison. A few weeks later and a drunk, (underage) Danny was involved in a bar fight with the son of the man who had sent his father down, and Danny also lost his full ride when his wrist was shattered, somewhat ironically, by a baseball bat.

The same night he lost his future, he lost his brother. After picking up Danny's bleeding and broken body and taking him to the hospital, Louie vowed revenge and called for help with Gino Sassone, his father's close friend. Gino gave Louie a car and a gunman, and before the plaster cast was set, the boy who had beaten Danny was fish food.

Danny never found out what his brother had sacrificed for him and when he asked, Louie told him that the boy had left New York. Although Danny was slightly suspicious, especially when the missing posters went up, he never said anything to Louie – he was his role model, after all.

With his dreams of becoming a famous baseball player shattered, (literally), Danny returned his focus on his brother. He was now dressing the same, and trying to act the same. School went out the window to be replaced by girls climbing in.

For a time, Louie allowed this to happen once again, largely due to the way it made him feel around Gino's son, Sonny. But the time then came for him to again make a decision which he would never come back from, but would benefit Danny. When a road trip took a turn for the worst, Louie told his brother to get out of his life. Whilst Danny returned home feeling like his brother hated him, Louie dug a hole and disposed of another body.

But life carried on, and thanks to Miss Brown, Danny's Chemistry teacher and saving grace, Danny got accepted into college. Several years later and Danny was working for the NYPD forensics team.

Here, Danny met his best friend. A complete opposite to himself, Donald Flack Junior had come from a long line of police officers – his family had always been on the right side of the law.

It had all started with a passing comment about how game days should be made public holidays and officers should either have the option of having them off, or, they should be payed double. Triple if it was the first or last game of the season. That had led to a conversation about sport in general, and that had led to Flack inviting Danny out for beers with himself and Aiden Burn.

It had of course been an initiation – a passage of rights – where Danny had lost most of his clothes (although he remained adamant it had been his idea, and after all, he had managed to get the barmaid's number out of it.)

When Aiden was fired, Flack was there, joking about how it was probably a god-send for Danny as Aiden was probably a few weeks shy of putting in for a sexual harassment complaint. That had earned Flack a basketball to the side of the head. And then Flack kicked Danny's ass in the game of basketball they had been playing. (A reoccurring theme).

The new girl, the replacement, turned up shortly afterwards. It was Flack who, after many conversations about her over games of pool, pointed out that calling her Montana was Danny showing affection. To which Danny had promptly scoffed, messed up his shot, and lost the game to Flack. Again.

When Louie had been taken to hospital, it was Flack who had stayed by his side – not just because Mac had ordered him, but because his friend needed him. When Montana had told him the truth about Louie, about how he had been protecting his little brother all those years, it was Flack to whom Danny turned. And when Louie had died a few days later, it was Flack who insisted that he was staying with Danny those few days until he was capable of looking after himself.

When Aiden had died, he and Flack had spent far too much money on alcohol than should have been legal, and had then woken up the following morning up a tree in Central Park. Danny had taken it just as badly as Flack, but Flack being the more responsible (although younger) one had taken it upon himself to make sure that he was the rock for Danny. (Well, someone had to after neither could remember how they came to be up there!) He had moved Danny into his spare room a couple of days later.

Thankfully, it had been a long time before Danny had needed to call upon Flack like that again.

Danny smiled to himself, remembering all the mischief he and the detective had gotten up to. The memories were the only thing that were keeping him from murdering the very attractive, yet very inexperienced nurse, who was attempting to bandage his fingers. Well, he could have remembered what he had gotten up to the night before with Lindsay. But he was also pretty certain that that would become far too embarrassing and the nurse would suddenly be getting the impression that Danny was very attracted to her.

As she left, after explaining to him how and when to take his painkillers (with repeated emphasis on not drinking) Flack appeared in the doorway.

"Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling," Flack all but sang at him.

Pulling a face, Danny picked up the pills and launched them at his friends who caught them, laughing. "How many times do you have to sing that at me?" Danny had never quite forgiven himself for allowing Don to come to autopsy with him, definitely never forgiven himself for introducing him to Sid, and almost daily, regretted never strangling Sid after he taught the homicide detective the old Irish folk song. "I'm not dead yet."

"You clearly haven't been told that Mac took off for London with that English chick."

Danny's jaw hit the floor, "Mac. As in Mac Taylor. The guy who has worked every holiday for the last five years and has probably never had a sick day in his life, Mac Taylor?"

Flack grinned, "the one and the same."

"Well, waddya know?"

"I know plenty, actually. You'd be surprised how much a person picks up when a crime lab explodes."

"Like what?" Danny asked suspiciously, not liking the grin plastered over Flack's face.

"Well, I heard someone lost a bet last night. Although I guess that's not entirely surprising as it seems to be a reoccurring habit with you. Or did you make a bet intentionally? Here." He tossed the painkillers back at Danny, who caught them deftly with his left hand.

"What's this for?"

"Figured you were about to launch the jug of water at my head. I've seen the janitor – trust me, you don't want that dude cleaning up in here."

Danny pulled a face and launched the pills back at his friend, who again caught them laughing. "You're predictable, Danny-Boy. Speaking of which, thank you."

"For what?" Sometimes, Flack really worried him.

"Three hundred and eighty seven bucks."

Danny blinked. "Huh?"

"I won the pool. You and Lindsay," he continued upon seeing Danny's blank face. He quickly jumped out of the way of the cup of water which was then thrown at him.

"I think you at least owe me a pizza and a beer with that," Danny grumbled to himself. "Tonight."

"Oh, you can get that pizza, but you're not drinking. I heard the nurse, even if you were more preoccupied with the length of her skirt."

Danny rolled her eyes, "just because she's a nurse does not mean I was checking her out."

"No," Don agreed, "the fact she was female and had a pulse meant that you were checking her out."

Danny flung himself back against the pillow, "did you just come here to mock me?"

Flack sighed and shut the door behind him. "No."

Danny frowned, watching his movements, "I'm not going to like this, am I?"

"Internal Affairs are reassessing your background."

Danny let out a stream of expletives, "just because my pops and bro were integrated into the Sassone crime family doesn't mean that they're connected to every single criminal in New York fucking City."

Flack inhaled, "well, no. But they are connected to the Irish Mob." He held his breath as he watched Danny tense up, preparing himself for the rage that would soon follow. Only it didn't. "Danny?"

"What?"

"No offence mate, but that wasn't quite the reaction I was expecting," he told him, choosing his words carefully.

Danny just shrugged at him and held his hand up. "Hand's already broken. No sense in breaking another."

"You alright, Dan?"

Danny shook his head, "why do I always end up paying for my family's mistakes?"

"I don't know. Because life's a bitch?" He sighed and walked over to the window, leaning against it as he looked out over the city. "I suppose you could always have to live up to your father's reputation, constantly have everyone telling you that he did it that way, or that you'd never quite got it – not like he had."

"I tell ya something, my kid aint gonna have to worry about nothing that I've done."

Flack arched an eyebrow at him in the window, "Do I need to tell Linds that you're broody already?"

"Who said anything about Lindsay being the mother of my kid? Did you see the legs on that nurse?" He smiled briefly but the smile was gone almost as quickly as it appeared. "I mean it, though. No kid of mine is gonna have to worry about his pa's past."

Flack nodded, "you kiddin'? The papers already have you labelled as a hero."

This time it was Danny's turn to raise the eyebrow, "a hero?"

Flack shrugged, "alright, maybe an anti-hero. But either way, you saved four lives today."

"I didn't save no one."

"That's not what Adam's telling everyone."

Danny laughed, "no, it's probably not."

Flack frowned, "he is telling everyone that. He is of course regaling the nurses with the tale of how he was about three seconds away from single handedly taking out one of the bad guys, until the second one joined in."

"That sounds about right. Let Adam have his fifteen minutes of fame."

"What about yours?"

"Don, I've had more than my share of fame. You know this as much as anyone. Besides, I doubt they'll be able to fit my name in once they've finished ranting about how you managed to save the day and take out half the Irish Mob at the same time."

"It was more than half," Don grinned.

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that," Danny grinned back at him.

"So when you back at work?"

"How long does it take to fix a crime lab?" Danny retorted.

"Hang on one minute!" Don exclaimed, "Pratt needs sending down and I can't even bribe you to stay away from that case. And dear god, lets not forget all the fun we had with Sonny. And Gino. And-"

"Alright, already! I get the picture," Danny rolled his eyes. "I wasn't that bad."

"I beg to differ. And you still owe me for that bribe."

"Ha ha. Ya knew full well when I took it I was gonna go ahead and not follow through with it."

Don grinned, "true." He stared back out of the window, waiting for his friend to speak again.

"I don't know when I'll be back," Danny finally said, "depends on when I'm done with IA."

"Don't worry Danny, mate. I've got your back."

Danny smiled, "I know you have. You always do."

"Always will."

After another short pause, Danny smirked, "are we having a moment?"

'A moment," Don scoffed, "of course not! We're tough, macho cops. We don't do moments."

Danny laughed and settled back into the bed, "of course not," he repeated. "And as we're not sharing, you fancy getting out so I can get some drawers on. Because these gowns are damn drafty and I don't need you seeing the little man."

"There was a whole amount of wrong in what you just said then," Don told him, pulling a face. "You're crashing at mine tonight – doc said them pills might make you loopy. Of course, I asked him how I was to tell the difference."

"Flack, this gown is coming off in three seconds!"

"I'm going, I'm going!" He headed for the door, pausing with his hand on the handle, "I meant what I said though – I got ya back."

"I know," Danny told him in a serious a tone. "But that isn't gonna stop this gown coming off right now!"

Flack yanked the door open, "from what Lindsay says, I'd need a microscope anyway!"

He was rewarded with the gown being flung at his head as he walked out of the door, chuckling to himself.

Don't worry about my other fic – What The Eyes Can't See will hopefully be updated tomorrow!

Annyhoos, drop me a line and tell me what ya think! I crave reviews like a junkie does a wide array of illegal substances!