Title: Unfinished Business
By: Rini1031
Pairing: Mac/Danny
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: On the Job, Tanglewood, Crimes and Misdemeanors
Summary: Post 'On the Job'. Danny, upset and hurt, retreats home. Mac follows him and the two of them realize their mutual attraction.

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The door slammed shut as Det Danny Messer stalked into his apartment. He was furious. He'd screwed up; he shot a cop, an undercover cop. He'd killed a poor guy who'd just gone into work that day. Danny stopped pacing around the small living room. Officer Minhas had just walked into work this morning and he'd been shot, by another detective no less. That could have been anyone of them. Danny knew the risks of the job when he'd joined the NYPD, but he'd just never thought about the fact that any day he, or Mac, could walk into a crime scene and end that day on Hawks' autopsy table. Any day could be anyone of their last. Danny visible shuddered at that realization. He couldn't die, not just yet; he had too much unfinished business to die now.

Unfinished business. Those two words brought an image of Mac into his head. Danny thought of the older man. He could be so cryptic at times, so hard to read. One example was with The Tanglewood Boys. After the interrogation, Mac kept looking over at Danny with an unreadable expression. He didn't say a word, just watched Danny. That was worse then any lecture that he could have ever given. Danny knew that he'd disappointed Mac. He'd lied to him, and Danny knew that Mac valued honesty almost as highly as he valued his life. The Silver Man case also came to mind. Danny had disobeyed a direct order; that time however he did get yelled at by Mac.

'I guess the third try really is the charm.' Danny thought sourly.

This time around Mac had threatened his job. That had scared him. Just who had tried to convince Mac not to hire him? Danny had been wondering that ever since Mac had uttered those words. Mac had hired him, against the harsh criticism his choice had raised. He'd hired him even though he knew that Danny was impulsive, and he hadn't fired him after his first major mistake, or his second, or his third. Danny also knew that this was his last chance though. One more mistake like the one he'd made yesterday and...

Danny's train of thought was interrupted by someone knocking hard on his door. He wondered if they'd go away if he played dead and resolved to do just that when he heard Mac's voice at the other side of the door. Danny knew that there was no question now whether or not he was going to open his door.

The door creaked as it slowly swung open. Mac turned around to face Danny. He looked like hell, and that was putting it mildly. Danny was as pale as a sheet and looked as if he hadn't slept at all these past two days. Well, neither had Mac. He'd been far to worried about the young man in front of him to even consider sleep as an option either night.

"You look like hell Danny."

"Thanks a'lot Mac. You wanna come in?" The words hadn't even left Danny's mouth when Mac pushed, gently, past him and into the small apartment.

Mac sat down on Danny's old sofa and waited for him to finish locking the door. Mac couldn't help but smile when he realized that Danny was purposely taking as much time as he could. Danny had been tense lately, he'd been tired a lot too, Mac suddenly wondered if there was more to Danny carelessness then just what he saw.

When Danny finally gave up buying time and joined Mac on the sofa he sat as far away from the older man as physically possible. Mac frowned, internally, at the distance between them. Didn't Danny know that he hadn't come over to yell at him? Mac had just hoped to talk to Danny, to find out why he had reacted the way that he had. The aloof, 'unemotional', Mac Taylor did care about Danny; he cared too much about Danny, that was why he was here and not over at his apartment, catching up on some seriously needed sleep.

Since it looked obvious that Danny was too tired and wouldn't speak first Mac open his mouth to begin, only to be interrupted by Danny.

"Look Mac, I screwed up. I proved them right and I embarrassed you. I'm sorry. I had no clue what I was doing, but I swear, I never heard Minhas ID himself. I know it musta' happened, but I didn't hear it. In my mind I was in danger. Why else would I shoot a cop?"

Danny spoke with both conviction and passion in his voice, and Mac knew that every word that he had said was the truth, well almost.

"No Danny. You didn't disappoint me, and I really don't care what anybody else says. I don't regret hiring you. You will never disappoint me."

"I already have Mac, or have you forgotten the Tanglewood incident and the Silver Man case? Third strike Mac, I guess that means I'm out." Danny's words held a finality to them; they also held sadness and pain that he was desperately trying to filter out of them.

"No, you're not out yet Danny. I don't intend to give up on you anytime soon, so don't give up on yourself. You are one of the best men I've ever worked with. So what if you've screwed up? Show me one person alive who hasn't screwed up at least once."

"Noone, once was bad enough, I screw up enough out of work, guess I didn't expect to screw up during work, much less three times during work."

"So your just going to quit? Throw all your hard work away?" Mac asked as he shifted closer to where Danny sat.

"What else can I do?" Danny asked redundantly. "I can't go on like this Mac."

"Like what Danny? What's going on in that brain of yours? I can help you Danny, even if all I do is listen I can still help."

"You have your own problems Mac, you don't need mine on top of your own."

Mac sighed heavily. He knew that getting Danny to open up to him would take some convincing, but he didn't care, Danny needed to talk and he needed to know what was bothering Danny. Mac suddenly decided to try a slightly different approach. He slid right next to Danny and put his arm around his shoulders, effectively pinning the younger man between himself and the sofa's armrest.

"Flack said that you told him that I 'Didn't have your back.', care to explain that statement.?"

"What I...What I meant was..." Danny trailed off. And looked helplessly at Mac.

"What you meant was?" Mac urged Danny on.

"What I meant was that I thought you weren't doing the best to help me. I thought that it would be better if I came clean. I was wrong, 'bout everything. Sorry Mac."

"Oh Danny, why on earth would you ever think that I didn't have your best interest in mind?"

"I don't know. I know I shouldn't have doubted you. That guilt is half my problem."

'Half of his problem?' Mac thought, 'He cares enough about me to make me half of his problem?'

"What is the other half?" Mac asked Danny, the tone of his voice left no room for argument; Danny would respond, honestly.

"Unfinished business." Danny said after a lengthy pause.

"Unfinished business? I don't quite follow Danny."

Danny paused again and tried to think of the best way to phrase his answer.

"I guess it just recently sunk in that any one of us could be killed any day, and I didn't want to die without telling you a few things." Danny finally answered.

"I'm here now, so, tell me."

Danny knew that this was it. He would tell Mac the truth, no matter the consequences and, hopefully, Mac would, at the very least, understand him and, at the very most, reciprocate his feelings. If not, well, Danny figured he would just leave, go back home, and he'd nurse his heart back to health, again.

"First off, I never officially joined Tanglewood Boys, I didn't 'just hang out' with them, but I don't have the tattoo. I was an unofficial member because Sonny knew what my family would do to him if he made me get the tattoo.

"Second, I lost someone I loved too. We weren't married but he and I loved each other just as much as you loved Claire. He was murdered in a bank robbery. That's what pushed me into both Sonny's and the NYPD's arms, and when I said it pushed me into Sonny's arms, I meant literally.

"And lastly, I got over him. I moved on with my life only to fall in love again, with you."

Mac was shocked. It took him quite a few moments for everything that Danny said to sink in, but when it did, Mac was pleasantly surprised. He had, for a while now, had feelings for his friend but had kept silent for many reasons. Danny was: male, younger than him, straight, a flirt, his employee; what ever his reason was for that morning not to corner Danny in one of the labs and kiss him senseless. Mac knew that both of them had been waiting for a clue from the other one, a clue that they would never have received.

Mac looked at Danny, his head was down and he was staring at the ground, waiting for his answer. Mac slowly stood up and untangled their bodies. He saw Danny's body slump and start to shake with inaudible sobs. He knew that his actions had been interpreted as a rejection.

Mac knelt in front of where Danny sat and gently lifted up his face. Brown eyes met blue as Mac assured Danny that he wasn't mad, that he felt the same way. The next thing either of them knew was that they were kissing, desperately, passionately.

Danny's phone rang, and the two men fell apart, breathing heavily. By the time either of them had gotten their breathing back to normal the answering machine had claimed the call, and Don Flack's voice rang out through the apartment. He was just calling to warn Danny that Mac was going to stop by on his way home from work. Flack had also apologized for 'accidentally' hinting to Mac that Danny had a problem or two that he needed help with and wished Danny luck. He was chuckling as he hung up.

"That demonic jerk. He swore he wouldn't say a word to you."

" He just said that you looked pale. Does he know that you..."

"Love you? Yeah, that's the main reason we broke up." Danny said with a sigh.

"I thought he and Aiden were dating." Danny laughed at Mac's expression of jealousy. He took his hand and laced their fingers together.

"Nah, he likes her though. That was the underlying reason why we broke up Mac."

"Flack set us up didn't he?" Mac asked, his words were now laced with humor.

"Yep, 'fraid so. Wanna help me kill him later?"

"After a goodnights sleep, yes, defiantly." Mac replied after a quick glance at Danny watch.

"What time is it?"

"Nearly midnight, too late for me to drive home."

"You can always stay here. I won't have any nightmares of the shooting if you stay."

Mac stood up and pulled Danny to his feet as well. Still holding hands Danny led Mac into his bedroom. Both men stripped down to their boxers and climbed into Danny's bed. Mac found the light switch and turned out the lights. Then he turned around to face Danny and folded him into his arms as he gave the blond a goodnight kiss and whispered-

"Goodnight Danny, I love you."

"Love you too Mac, goodnight."

FIN

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