Disclaimer I own very little, especially not CSI NY. Wish I did though.

Notes Well, this is it, the last chapter : ( I'll really miss this story, it's one of the longest I've ever written. I had no idea when I started this that it would end up here! Thank you very much for reading through, I hope you've enjoyed it. If you've not reviewed before but have read it, I'd love to know what you thought overall, I will reply.

Thank you so much for the reviews I have had, I've been overwhelmed, and have loved reading every one. Thank you again, all the comments and feedback have really helped my writing, I do appreciate the time taken to send them. I hope this is a good ending. Enjoy!

Chapter 18: Endings and beginnings

Thorns: Chapter 18

Three weeks later:

"Well, well, well. I've finally managed to track you down. Been hiding out?

Flack looked up to see Danny standing over him, one hand casually, and at the same time possessively, on the corner of his desk. "They cleared you for work then, huh?" He continued.

"Takes more than a bullet to stop me, Messer."

"Uh huh. That's good to know. Good for you." Danny picked up a pencil.

"That's mine…"

And began flipping it up in the air from the back of his hand, catching it deftly in his palm, "That's very good to know, Don. Sooo, what's new? Are you having a nice day?"

The pencil continued its ascent and descent. Flack felt his eyes drawn hypnotically to it, up and down, up and down, before he snapped back out and glared at Danny suspiciously, a remembrance stirring in the back of his mind that here was unfinished business.

"I don't like the way you're looking at me, Messer. You'd better not be coming to sit at my desk now I'm back here. I warned you enough about that at the hospital."

Unable to stand any more of the pencil spinning up and down, he snatched it out of the air and slammed it away in his desk drawer.

Danny grinned at him in the manner of a cat grinning at a fledgling; a lame fledgling, with no place left to run, "Admit it, you loved my company."

Flack snorted, now very wary. Danny grabbed an apple off his desk and began twirling it by its stalk, round and round, clockwise, anti-clockwise.

"Put down my lunch…"

The stalk snapped. Flack's apple fell with a bruising thud onto the floor.

"Oops." Danny smirked.

Flack felt a muscle in his jaw begin to twinge, and the scar below his collarbone made itself known with an ache. He smacked his notebook down, "All right! Enough with the screwing about and touching my things. What have I done and what do you want from me?"

"Flack, you misjudge me! Who says I want anything?" Danny was wide-eyed, hands now shoved into his pockets.

"I do."

"Then you'd be right. Here's the thing, Flack. I want a confession from you. Confirming what you let slip whilst you were in a, let's say talkative, state of painkillers." His voice turned thoughtful, "I learned a lot sitting at your bedside. A lot of interesting information. Very interesting…" He pinned him to his seat with a feline smile.

Flack was now nothing more than a morsel of prey, "Danny…"

"3am Flack. Anything more you'd care to share about that?"

Flack licked dry lips and experienced a quiet panic, "No idea what you're talkin' about. Memory must've been affected…"

"Like hell, Flack. You know exactly what I'm talking about. All that torture you put me through - the winking, the mouthing, the notes on the windscreen. Is it comin' back to you now, huh? Had fun did ya?"

It all rushed through Flack's mind, and he felt a spasm in his leg as he clenched his muscles. He dredged up a sickly smile and picked up the apple to offer to Danny, "3 am, huh? Wow. You remembered. So, uh, what did I say about it, after I'd been shot remember, that may or may not be the truth?"

Danny scoured the apple on his jacket, inspected it and tore a bite from it, "The truth? Truth is Flack, as well you know, there was no 3am was there?" He chewed and swallowed, gazed again at the apple and then rocketed it into the trash can.

Flack followed its trajectory despondently, "Fine. You want the truth, then no, nothing ever happened at 3am, unless you count me escorting you home and seeing you safely to your front door, as only a good buddy would. Hold onto that thought, Dan. I guess I thought it would be a bit of fun to, y'know, make you think otherwise."

It was Danny's turn to snort, "So you're the kind of good buddy that puts me through torment? Do you have any idea what you did to me? Making me duck down behind cars, jump at every footstep behind me…"

"Hey, take a joke. I was only messing with you, Messer." He couldn't stop his face sliding into a smirk, hastily extinguished.

Danny shook his head slowly, "Nice. That's nice. You disappoint me, Don, and that leaves only one thing for me to do." He stared hard at him and then smiled, and Flack felt the disquieting sensation of being smeared on a glass and clamped under a microscope.

"What? What? Tell me and get outta my face. I'm sure there's plenty for you to be doing back in your lab."

The smile on Danny's face widened, "Oh I'm sorry, am I keeping you from something? So. What am I going to do, Don? I'll tell ya buddy. Nothing."

Flack twitched, "Nothing?" This was surely too good to be true.

His tone was beatific, "Nothing."

Calmly purloining Flack's pen, he began to stroll away towards the door. Flack watched him retreat and was claiming victory with a triumphant smile, he could spare a pen or two, when Danny stopped, turned round and spoke again.

"Nothing as yet. It's gonna take a little time to plan my revenge, so just keep watching your back. Always watching. Catch you later."

Whistling something Flack was horribly sure he recognised, he was gone; leaving the blue eyed detective with the spoils of defeat and echoes of I'll be watching you knelling in his ears.

……………………………

It was early afternoon. The light in Mac's office was a pale opalescence, streaming its way around each object that was his, and flickering amongst the grains of dust in the empty air. Stella stood in the doorway with her hand pressed against the glass feeling it cold as silk under her palm. Her eyes were far away beyond the walls and beyond the city drifting behind the window. She lifted her fingers from the solid-water surface, revealing the ghost of their imprint traced in pearl. The room was empty, but she filled it with memory.

She stood alone, just breathing, until the glassed image of the man whose memories she was holding placed his living, existing arm around her shoulders. A smile that was sunshine on green seas danced in her eyes, and she turned to him, meeting delight in return.

"Stella. I thought I'd find you here."

She held him, her own arms encircling the all of him with all of her, "You know where to find me, Mac."

"You knew where to find me." Memory was between them; words, understanding, and conviction that would never need to be spoken but which they knew as the faith between them.

Time left them in its wake, unaware, drifting on. Time did not matter.

Mac spoke as he felt the glow of the sun on his back and in Stella's eyes, "Walk with me."

There was an amused quirk in her eyebrows, "Where to? Don't tell me we've run out of cases, Mac Taylor."

He smiled, mirroring hers, and still felt the cadence of her heart with his, it was his stronghold. "Never, not unless something has gone very wrong with the city we both know and love." He spoke from his heart to her, "There's time enough for them. I want to walk here, no further than the walls of the lab, just here."

She understood, and offered her arm to him, "Of course. Where shall we go first?"

Careful of the bandage still stark white around her wrist, Mac accepted her offer, "Wherever we pass. I'm happy simply to be here again."

Even with his hand rested light as sunlight on her arm, Stella felt the weight of his life underneath it and the heart that she carried even more carefully now. The memory of what she had so very nearly lost still phantomed through her dreams when she was able to sleep. She laid her other hand across his and they walked along the corridor.

Mac watched her unseen as they walked and saw the traces of everything that had happened still caught round her like cobwebs. They were there in the slight hollows in her face, the flick of her eyes to the side, nervous of a trick of light and the pressure of her fingers on his skin. All of this gave cold fusion to the anger he kept inside him at what David Matthews had done. His own damage he did not count, other than what it had impelled all of his people, but especially Flack and Stella, to do. He would give anything to have spared them all that they had suffered in consequence, for him. Their injuries he wished he could have taken as his own. It was his profound thankfulness that he found them and himself now back in the place that was an element of his soul, and that he was at the side of the person who was another. The two where his whole.

Stella saw too as they passed the rooms of Mac's life all that cast its shadow on him; the flesh that was missing from his form, the bones she could feel under the skin of his arm, avatars of the horror she could as yet only guess that he had endured. Time would bring them away though, in time she knew he would allow her to take them from him.

Citrine sun beams darted through the windows and they passed through them, casting a rhythm of light and dark to the sound of their footsteps. The sounds of the others were muffled beyond the walls, but they watched them and shared the pleasure of all that they did. Only Hawkes looked up as they walked by and his eyes showed the joy of the day to see them.

In time they found themselves back at the door of Mac's office, and he held the door open for Stella to enter. She pulled his chair out for him, and then sat herself down opposite. Light teased starshine glints in her hair as she smiled at Mac.

"Back to work? I don't know how much longer we can keep our absence justified."

He felt the warmth of her smile spilling into his heart and he shared it with her, "I'm the boss, remember? I'm allowed to spend a little time in my office. And besides, I need a few more minutes of your time." Mac held her eyes, enjoying their inquisitive look, "I have something for you."

He produced a small box, made of folded card and patterned with red and gold. A loop of ribbon held it closed.

Stella took it from his hand and felt no weight inside, "What is it?"

With a smile he replied, "The answer's inside, Stella. You have to open it first."

"The simplest answer." She delicately pulled away the ribbon and unfolded the top.

"No roses." He said in answer to her unspoken thought, "But the colour is as it should be."

In her hand she held what she already possessed of him, captured in blood red paper. A darker drop appeared in its centre. Her eyes were star bright, "It's in safe keeping, Mac. Always."

His hand reached hers, "As yours is with me, Stella. Always."

THE END

I can't believe I've finished this! It feels like a journey, and I'm actually very sad to finish now. I hope so much you've enjoyed it, and that the ending was good. As I said above, please, please let me know what you thought, of this chapter and the story as a whole. I will be continuing Falling Leaves in the next few days, and have a few more ideas. But any ideas or challenges welcomed also. Lily x