Title: Leather and Lace

Author: Marianne H. Stillie

Categories: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, AU Episode Tag for Child's Play

Rating: T

Pairing: Danny and Lindsay

Season: Season 4

Summary: Lindsay knows how to heal Danny's grief.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and places for CSI: NY are the property of Jerry Bruckheimer Television, Alliance Atlantis and CBS Paramount Television. This piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment, not monetary purposes and no infringement on copyrights or trademarks are intended. Previously unrecognized characters, places and this story are copyrighted to the author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Archive: Please do not archive anywhere without the author's permission.

Copyright (c) 2008 Marianne H. Stillie

Author's Note: I understand why TPTB of CSI: NY created the problem between Danny and Lindsay in the second half of season four. It's their show and drama sometimes has its price.

I personally didn't buy the whole conflict and breakup. In order to create the clash between them, Danny and Lindsay were written seriously out of character.

Danny's total rejection of his friend and lover after over two years of knowing her and their months-long relationship was blatantly implausible. Lindsay is the first one he would have gone to for comfort.

Just as bad was Lindsay's timid, fearful little-girl behavior in dealing with his emotional crisis. She's too tough and knows him too well to leave him hurting so badly even if he was running from the pain.

It's water under the bridge now. Hopefully, TPTB will quickly and cleanly fix it in season five. This story is what I feel should/would have actually happened after Danny broke the bad news to Ruben's mother that night.

Leather and Lace

All through my teens I wondered what it would be like once I was an adult. I should amend that statement. Until that day in the restaurant, I wondered what it would be like when I was a grownup. After that hideously premature wake-up to the real world, I was careful of what I wondered about for the future.

My career choice was pretty inevitable. Forensic work was just there one day, and I grabbed at it heart and soul. All through college, police training and working in the Bozeman lab, catching the bad guys was everything I wanted in my life. Yes, I did have a social life. I even managed to lose my virginity. All the hard work in school was so worth it. It got me the perfect job, the one that kept all the old ghosts under control.

I would have stayed comfortably settled in my hometown except for the phone call from Mac Taylor. Next thing I knew I was on a plane heading for a new job at the New York City Crime Lab. I can't say that catching criminals in the Big Apple was more important than catching the homegrown Montana types. Scumbags are the same all over as my best friend would say in his slickest Bronx wisdom. Needless to say, it didn't take me long to fall in love with everything about the big city.

Which brings me to where I am right now. The city isn't the only thing I've fallen in love with. I look over at Danny's prone body, his nakedness barely covered by the heavily quilted comforter on my bed. It'll be sunrise soon, and I should try to go back to sleep. I know once he wakes up, he'll need my body right there, within his reach. You're probably wondering why I'm being so available to him. Saying I love him isn't that good an explanation for my total absorption in him right now. The real reason is that along with loving me, he needs me, more than anytime since we met.

When I opened my door just before midnight and saw what a mess he was, I said a prayer of thanks that he'd found his way to me. Closing the door to the world outside, I wrapped my arms around him. I didn't need any words as he swept me up in his arms and carried me into my bedroom. So much poured out of his body, passion, anguish, desire, urgency, and into mine, I was totally caught up in his duality of pain and pleasure. Finally sated, he wept softly against me then fell asleep.

As I held him, I rewound all the events of that terrible day. When he'd rushed out of the morgue after seeing his neighbor's dead son, I was petrified, not knowing where his grief would lead him. I asked myself if his training as a cop and the discipline he'd honed as a CSI would be strong enough to overcome his misplaced guilt over a child's accidental death. When he came to me instead of going on a self-destruct binge, I had my answer.

I hear him stir behind me, a deep groan escaping as the reality of yesterday seeps in. "Lindsay!" he calls anxiously.

Wantonly, I kneel above him as he rolls over onto his back. Despite the reason, I can't help the aching desire in my naked body that I know will soon be satisfied.

He reaches for me with burning hands that sear my skin. His words are like fire inside me, "I need you to love me again, Lins. I need you to make me feel better, to make this hurt go away."

His demanding hands surround my breasts, his mouth closely behind, possessive on my flesh. With no preamble of romantic foreplay, he flips me onto my back, his lean, muscular body consuming mine.

I know what he wants most, and let him slake his hunger. Craving the feel of him inside me, I make it easy for him to slip into my warmth. The lust is far from one-sided as I take all that he freely gives me of himself as he devours and ravages me to free his soul of the pain.

As quickly as the passion began, it's over, our bodies slick with sweat and other things from the hard, driving movements of our joint need. His breathing heavy, I barely hear the sweet whispered words that pass from his mouth to my flushed skin.

"I'll always be here for you, Danny," I whisper back.

His arms tighten around me in answer. I feel his body gradually relax against me, his exhaustion forcing him into sleep again.

I don't know how many days it will take for my lover and best friend to be healed of the trauma he was part of yesterday. However long it takes is fine, as long as he always remembers I love him.

My eyes are starting to droop. Dawn isn't very far away and I really need to sleep too.