And here we have the last section. Its been a long time in coming, and I'm sure I had much grander plans than this, but the basic concept and happenings are still there. Here's wishing for a much better second half of the season than the last six episodes, but ...

A New Perspective

Chapter 13:

"She knows something," Kale said as he followed Hawkes out of the apartment building.

Hawkes looked up at the apartment above them. "Oh, she knows something alright. Maybe we should stick around, just kind of make sure she's safe."

Kale frowned. "I don't think its her safety we should be worried about."

"I wasn't saying that," Hawkes murdered and sighed. Maybe he should have used air quotes to help Kale out with the meaning. "I was just—you know what? Never mind. We should get back to the lab anyway."

"So we're just leaving her here?"

"We can't just stand around here all day and wait for something to happen, someone to come by. And she doesn't have to leave through the front door. Not in this place."

"Like the fire escape?"

"Sure," Hawkes shook his head as he stepped to the cross walk, waited for it to turn green and let him cross. "The fire escape or the back window. Its not like this place has a high security advantage. How is it that you have a fiancé, man?"

"She likes—"

At that moment, as Hawkes started across the street, Kale grabbed at him, spun with his weight, and toppled them down to the cement below, just as a car sped past.

"What?" Hawkes shook his head, and hated—absolutely hated—the feeling he had in his gut. "Get off me."

"Sure," Kale rolled off, then stood up with his bumbling grace, and held out a hand to Hawkes.

Hawkes took it, then looked down the road where the car had gone. "What just happened?"

"Looked like we were about to get splattered."

Not we, Hawkes realized, but him. Kale had saved his life.

He looked back at the CSI, the gangly lab tech who'd gone after the detective's badge. He was like Adam, with a gun at his waist. It was scarey, so scarey really. He didn't have words for it.

And yet, even as Kale plugged in the ear pieces to his ipod, to once more tune the world out, Hawkes had to admit he was grateful. He had to be grateful.

Kale had saved his life.

Of all people to owe, of all people to feel grudging respect for ...

Stella was going to owe him something big now. She had promised. And Danny. And Lindsay. Especially Danny and Lindsay.

He might even extract something from Lucy.

.ny.

Back at the ranch.

The drive back to Lindsay's home had been long. Danny sat in the passenger seat and watched the scenery pass by. There were no quick stops, there was no body Lindsay thought he should meet. She didn't have notes to go over, or things to figure out.

Back in New York, he might have taken time to process the case, but coming in the middle like this, he found he just didn't have it in him.

No ... not when he was alone with Montana, alone and married.

With no where to go but home.

He smiled a little, thought about Lindsay's old boss. Dr. Fairhorn had pulled him aside, shook his hand.

"Its good to finally meet you, Danny."

Danny had nodded and looked the man in they eye. Whatever the man's faults, they all had them. What mattered was he'd been someone who'd helped Lindsay in her darkest hours, who'd shaped her, and in the end he'd been the one who'd set her on the path to New York.

"Things move a bit slower out here in Montana. It might take a few days to push through the paperwork, get you guys home." He'd looked toward Lindsay, where she sat at the small table in the clinic's office, filling out paperwork on the case. She reached up, rubbed her temple. She'd have a headache, Danny knew, from working through the details she'd know—and bypassed—years ago.

"Might give you some time to ... take some time. Be a family."

Danny looked back, smiled a little at the man, and gave his hand a final shake. "Thank you, sir."

"Take care of her."

"I will."

So once they arrived back at the ranch, they did take some time to be a family. It was nice to just be together with Lucy. It was nice to just laugh, and joke, to have someone there to take photographs and to take the time to simply look at each other.

He wasn't sure he had taken time to appreciate his girls, not like this, and not in a long time. Maybe on those first few days at the hospital, with Lucy so young and new to the world. He had taken some days as a father to simply enjoy them both. He would have to do that more often.

But first, he would take time to enjoy his wife, having his wife.

Lindsay's father had handed him a set of keys to the old house her grandfather had built. He didn't say what to do with them, and Danny was glad that conversation didn't happen, but he was able to put it together when he was told Lucy would be fine one more day with her grand parents.

So for the first time in his life, Danny just let things happen. There was nothing to worry about, and no where to go.

Except to a little cabin, out on a far flung field in Montana.

New York could wait.

Lindsay had been right, all those years ago. He'd thought he'd found everything he could find in New York. He'd believed nothing could be important outside of the city streets. He hadn't believed that somewhere else would and could be brighter, warmer, nicer than the place he'd always known as home.

He hadn't understood that even then, he'd been searching for home. It was in the city, it wasn't in a state. It wasn't east or west or in skylines or wheatfileds. It was with his family, with her. He hadn't known, back when he'd looked over that impressive skyline of New York just to goad her, to poke at her, maybe to even impress her; he hadn't known how much more was out there.

Not until now.

And with that ... you'll have to use your imagination! LOL Let me know what you thought. Hope the last chapter was worth the last two years of waiting ;p