A/N: So I have been thinking about this idea and decided to let it surface. This is a Mac/Lindsay fic. I know that this is a new ship that I'm still on the fence on, but this idea has been bugging me for so long I had to do something about it.

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Mac rushes through the hospital. He had received a phone call from the hospital informing him that one of his CSI's had been admitted. His newest CSI, Lindsay Monroe.

He had thought it was a dream at first.

'Why would you be her emergency contact?' he asked himself on the way to the hospital. 'Who else does she have here?' a voice replied. 'Oh'

He quickly asks the desk nurse which room is Lindsay's. He walked into the room to find her trying to put on her coat with one hand, because the other was in a caste. She turned around when she heard the the door close.

"Mac." She looked surprised.

"What happened? Are you okay? Where do you think your going?" he asks her. She looked so defeated, yet it was like she was still trying to get away. 'Get away from what?' She was still putting on her coat and trying to not wince from the pain.

"Mac I'm fine. Really. I...just slipped on some ice outside of my apartment. Landed on my wrist funny. That's all." She was staring at the floor while saying this. Then looked up and gave him a smile that almost convinced him that she was okay. Almost.

"Lindsay, I wouldn't have been called here, if something serious hadn't happened." he said gently. He waited for her to tell him what happened, but she just turned away and picked up her sneakers.

'She's good at ignoring you Taylor.' He decided to keep probing. "Why are you putting your coat on?"

"I'm leaving," she shrugged. Then elaborated when she saw the confused look on his face. "The hospital."

"I can see that." he gave her a small smile.

She moved and sat down on the bed. She already had on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, while she lamely held her coat. 'Must have taken her a while to get those on.' He mused.

He moved and sat next to her. She looked up at him in surprise.

"What happened?" he asked in a gentler way then before.

"Mac, I already told you..."

"Lindsay, I can see the bruise on your shoulder. I'm not going to ask you again." he said.

She moved her shirt off her shoulder. He was right, she could see the forming of a large bruise on her shoulder. She felt tears in her eyes but quickly brushed them away. Lindsay looked up into his blue eyes. She'd never been this close to her boss before. She had never seen the lines of worry on his face. The way his eyes seemed to give her a window into his soul. Lindsay looked away. She can't handle this. Not now. 'He looks so sincere. Maybe you should just tell him.' She wonders. After a few minutes of silence she spoke.

"It's nothing Mac." She said, looking down, and struggling to keep her emotions inside.

"Lindsay...did someone attack you?" He asked. He couldn't understand why he felt a lump in his throat as he asked this.

She nodded her head. Mac breathed in a deep breath, something that didn't go unnoticed by Lindsay, though she still did not have the courage to look up at him.

Mac slowly calmed himself. "Did they..sexually assault you?" he asked, feeling his throat tighten even more.

"No."

"Lindsay..."

"Mac he didn't rape me." She states and Mac is surprised to find that he had been holding his breath.

"Do you know him?"

She nodded her head solemnly.

"Who is he?"

Lindsay seemed to get smaller, and replied in a tiny voice, "My husband." She said not daring to look up from the floor.

"You're married?" he asked in disbelief.

"We've been legally separated for a year. He refuses to sign the divorce papers. I have a restraining order against him. I left Montana to get away from him. My last name isn't legally Monroe." She confessed to the ground.

Mac thought about this.

'How did you not know this?'

She was his newest employee.

'So not a reason Taylor.'

He thought back to when she was hired. He hadn't really looked at her social security number, her birth certificate said Monroe.

'You're an Idiot Taylor.'

"You look ashamed." He said finally

She looked up at him. "I loved him with all my heart, and he ruined my life." she stated. Mac just looked down at her stunned.

Lindsay looked away as though she was contemplating something. There was a silence between them. Not an awkward one, but not a comfortable one either.

"Have you ever been married Mac?" she asked. Her voice sounded so tired and hoarse. Lindsay looked at him. It dawned on him that she must not know about everything that happened. He had just always assumed that someone would have told her about Claire.

“How lonely it must feel. To be in a place where there is no one to protect you and to look out for you,” you think and then you realize that you do know how that feels. It was exactly how you felt when you watched your life crumble around you. At least you had Stella.

Lindsay was still looking at him, waiting.

"I was. Her name was Claire. She..uh.. she died four years ago. Um she was..she was in one of the towers when they were hit. There was nothing I could do about it."

You look away, trying to shield your emotions from her.

"I'm really sorry." he had expected her to say that. She placed her hands over his. He had not expected that. "I know how it feels to watch as someone you love is slipping away from you." She said to him.

Those simple words blew him away. She was right. Mac shook his head. She was attacked and he was the one being comforted. She seemed so much wiser then before. It was like the wall she used to shield her emotions was crumbling. He now saw exhaustion and sadness in her eyes.

"It's ironic. You loose your wife, someone that loved you, and I can't get even loose my husband who only hurts me." She says as tears start to roll down her cheeks.

Mac pulled her into a hug, and held her as she cried softly into his chest. 'And this is the first time in years that you feel needed. The first time since you lost Clair that you feel as though everything will be fine...'

"That I was whole again." he finished off.

The End