Danny Messer smiled at his very pregnant wife across the empty lab. Lindsay smiled back and indicated with her eyes that he should look behind him. He did and found his buddy Don Flack standing behind him.

"You do know Lindsay's got a boyfriend, right man?" Flack asked. Danny nodded, yet again frustrated by the secrecy agreement which dominated his marriage. It was a mutual agreement, made because neither Danny nor Lindsay wanted the stigma of a intra-office relationship and the teasing that would come of it. It wasn't that they had ever lied about it, they just never said anything and acted quite professional at work. When Lindsay got pregnant the secret got harder to keep, but she had simply told the team she had a steady guy who was thrilled about the baby and they left it alone. Now that Lindsay was nearing her eighth month and, consequently her maternity leave the secret was even harder to keep quiet. Danny was thrilled to be a father and growing increasingly anxious for his little girl's birth.

"Yeah Flack, believe me, I know that," Danny sighed, "Better than most," he muttered under his breath.

"You're still sweet on her, aren't you?" Flack teased.

"Who, Montana?" Danny asked, "no way!"

Five weeks later, Danny was at the lab when his cell phone rang. The caller ID read 'Montana.'

"Hey, Montana," he said, smiling.

"Danny, it's time. The contractions have been happening all morning and they're ten minutes apart now," Lindsay panted breathlessly. Danny's heart began to race and he jumped up from his chair, glad this was a slow morning.

"Okay, just sit tight, Lindsay. I'll clear it with Mac and come get you really soon. Breathe, baby."

Danny ran to Mac's office, coat in hand.

"Mac, I just got a call from Louie's sister-in-law. I need to get to the hospital and I may be gone a while, but you understand a family emergency, right?" Danny said, talking swiftly, trying to appear concerned about his brother and not too excited over the birth of his daughter. Mac simply nodded without looking up and Danny ran for the door, nearly bowling Stella over on his way.

Six hours after Danny's departure, Lindsay was still in labor, but ready to start pushing. Danny was by her side, hand around hers, encouraging her. He kissed her forehead gently.

"Danny, this hurts," she complained.

"I know, Montana," Danny encouraged, "just a little longer, baby and it'll all be over." Lindsay smiled up at him, an exhausted one, but still a smile.

An hour later, a beautiful baby girl slipped into the world. Her cries were the most beautiful sound her parents had ever heard. She was placed on Lindsay's chest and Danny stared in amazement.

"Look what you did, Lindsay," he whispered into her ear, "She's beautiful." And she was. Her head was cover with a thatch of dark hair and huge eyes which had yet to take any specific color.

"Look what we did, Messer," Lindsay corrected him, "She's going to be a Daddy's girl."

"You got that right," Danny said, he spoke gently to the infant, "You have got a very smart mommy, Fina," he said, "You listen to her, 'kay?" Lindsay chuckled. The nurses took the baby to be cleaned up and Lindsay was moved back to her room. Ten minutes later the nurse returned with their little girl snuggled warmly in a blanket.

"Does she have a name?" the nurse asked, working to fill out paperwork.

"Serafina Mackenzie Messer," Lindsay said. She spelled the name out for the nurse who asked a few more questions before finally leaving the family alone for the first time. Danny continued to marvel over the little life in his arms. Then his phone rang.

"Messer," he answered.

"Danny, we need you."

"Stella, I told Mac, I have a family emergency."

"That was nearly eight hours ago, Danny, and with Lindsay on maternity we're running short-handed. And unfortunately the criminals aren't giving us a break for that." Danny rolled his eyes.

"Stell, really, I don't think I can make it," Danny tried to insist. He handed Fina to her mother.

"I really need your help, Danny."

"Okay, give me the address, I'll be there in a few." Danny sighed and hung up the phone. He kissed Lindsay and ran a finger down Fina's cheek. Just before he left the room he snapped a picture of the two of his girls using his phone.

"Love you, Montana."

Danny pulled up to the crime scene and was greeted by Stella.

"Danny, you look like something the cat dragged in. Did you get any sleep in your time off?"

"It was a family medical emergency, Stella. What do you think?" Stella smiled sympathetically. She gave him his orders and he set to work. Thirty minutes in he got a phone call from a very frantic Lindsay.

"Danny, they took her for tests twenty minutes ago and they haven't brought her back yet," Lindsay's voice was at least and octave higher than normal.

"Calm down, Montana, I'm sure everything is fine. Just try to relax, okay?" Danny moved further away so Stella couldn't hear the conversation. He worked to calm her down and finally ended up singing her to sleep, much like he had intended to do for his little girl. He was headed back to the crime scene when strong arms grabbed his from behind. Danny moved to resist, but soon realized that there was a small infant strapped to his attacker's chest.

"Drop the cell phone, Detective Messer, and come with us," came a gruff voice at his ear. Somehow, Danny knew that the baby was his daughter. He did what he was told, kicking it across the pavement in Stella's general direction.

"Please, take me, do what you want, but take Fina back to the hospital. She hasn't done anything and my wife will be heartbroken."

"Sorry, Detective Messer, but that is exactly our point. Lindsay Monroe doesn't deserve to be happy," came another voice, a female voice. They pulled him around the corner and into a waiting van. Once there, the man thrust little Fina roughly into Danny's arms. The jostling woke her and she began to cry. Danny rocked her gently and sang softly in her ear. Serafina wrapped her hands around Danny's finger, pulling it gently toward her mouth. She sucked gently as she drifted off to sleep. Danny felt tears in his eyes at the thought of Lindsay, panicked, frightened and alone, so alone.

Stella called out to Danny as she turned the corner. She had seen him go back there almost 45 minutes earlier to take a phone call. She was stunned to find that he was gone. She called his cell phone and her heart began racing as she heard it ring nearby. She immediately reached for her radio.

"Dispatch, this is C3 Bonasera. We have a missing officer situation. Repeat missing officer." She then called Mac.

"Danny's gone!" she blurted, as soon as he answered, "He got a phone call and he turned the corner and he was taking so long-"

"Stella, calm down," Mac ordered, "Tell me exactly what happened." Stella began to explain things but was interrupted when Mac announced he'd just received a letter.

Mac- it read

they gOt me froM The scene. No evidence waS Messed up. I'M A-OK right now. They want Lots mOney I think. Take whateVer you nEed oUt of my account. danny

TEN THOUSAND BY THE END OF TWO HOURS.

Mac wrote out the misplaced capitals OMTSMM(AOK)LOVEU. He ran the letters through a scrambler to try and make so sense of them. Flack stepped into his office.

"Do you see any hidden messages, Don?" he asked. Flack shook his head, then studied the original note.

"You left out two letters, Mac. See the 't' in they? It should be a capital, but it's not. Same with the letter 'd' in Danny. Add those into the mix." Mac did, and they studied the letters again. Adam joined them.

"It's a message to someone specific," he said, pointing out the first two letters.

"M-T-S-M-M," Mac read, "Total gibberish, I'm not sure Danny wasn't delirious."

The phone rang. Mac answered and the blood drained from his face. When the conversation finished, he set the phone down and turned to his companions.

"That was the hospital. Someone kidnapped Lindsay's newborn."

Flack stood outside Lindsay's hospital room, talking with her doctor.

"Detective Monroe is obviously quite upset. We had to sedate her. She was calling out for her husband."

"Lindsay's not married," Flack said, confused.

"The paperwork says differently." The doctor let Flack into the room. Lindsay lay on her side, knees to her chest, tears running down her cheeks as she stared at the empty bassinet. He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, which she shrugged off.

"Flack, where's Danny?" she asked, "I need him here." Flack shook his head.

"I don't know, Lindsay," he answered, "Stella said he got a phone call and moved around the corner. When he still wasn't back after 45 minutes, she went to check on him, found his cell phone on the ground. His kidnappers made him write us a note. But we need to talk about you and your baby, 'kay?" Lindsay nodded.

"Let's start with the basics. What is her name?"

"Serafina Mackenzie," Lindsay said, "She weighs 6 pounds 12 ounces, she's nineteen and a half inches and she has all this dark hair on her head. There should be a picture on Danny's phone," she suddenly started sobbing. "His phone, that was me on the phone, I was worried when she took Fina. I called Danny, but he said I was probably just over reacting. We were talking for about twenty minutes, maybe thirty. I fell asleep."

"The hospital also takes pictures of each newborn, we have that one, Linds. And your timeline helps us a lot. It explains why Danny didn't put up a fight when he was taken. Listen, do you and Danny have some kind of secret code?"

"No, not unless you count all the secret comments we've been making about Fina. Why?"

"We think Danny was trying to send us a message," Flack handed her the letter and the notes Mac had made. Lindsay studied it for a moment then gave a small sigh of relief.

"They mean something to you?" Flack asked, incredulous. Lindsay nodded. She grabbed for his note pad and wrote the letters out, grouping them by twos and threes. When she handed it back to Flack he read them off.

"To MT SMM A-OK LOVE U D," he read. "Great, Lindsay. Now, what does it mean?"

"It's a message for me. To MT means, to Montana. SMM is Fina, it's her initials. He's telling me she's alright. That means they're together. The rest of the note is pretty self-explanatory. Find them, please, Flack." Lindsay started to shake. Flack drew her into a hug.

"I will," he said, "I promise."

Stella ran into the lab, Danny's phone in hand.

"He got a picture of his attacker!" she said. She ran to the A/V lab and plugged the phone to the computer. The image uploaded. It was rough, and only captured portions of the two faces, but it gave them a starting point. Flack walked into the room.

"That could be the nurse Lindsay said took Fina," he said. Stella, unaware of the second kidnapping turned and stared at him. Before she could ask him anything, Mac interrupted.

"Did the message mean anything to her?" he asked.

"Yeah, took her like two seconds to figure it all out. Danny's got the baby with him and she's fine. I'll let her explain all the technicalities later. Right now, we have security footage from the hospital and trace from the letter."

The room was small, dark and damp. It was also far too cold for Danny's liking. Fina was shivering in his arms, so he unbuttoned his dress shirt and tucked her in next to his body, wrapping his jacket around them both.

Danny heard footsteps descending a staircase and the door creaked open. A tall and menacing figure filled the doorway, silhouetted by the light streaming in from behind him. Danny instinctively curled around Fina, shielding her. The man tossed a bottle towards Danny, who caught it and contemplated it.

"It's all she's going to get," the man said, as if reading Danny's thoughts. The young father nodded solemnly and gently coaxed his daughter to drink.

"Good," their captor muttered before he walked away.

AN- A little more angsty than my previous CSI: New York fic, but this one has been bumping around for quite some time… I want this to be the first in an AU series of fics… I've already got ideas for some more.