Save the Last Dance for Me, Dr. Lahiri
You can dance
Every dance with the guy
Who gave you the eye
Let him hold you tight/
You can smile
Every smile for the man
Who held your hand
'Neath the pale moonlight/
But don't forget who's taking you home
And in whose arms you're gonna be
So darlin'
Save the last dance for me
-The Drifters
Summary:
Mindy and Danny are back in NY. They try to navigate the transition between friendship, something more, and working together. Karma steps in and they have to figure out "whatever this is" between them.
Author's note: Thanks to Bethofbells, Mindy needed to deal with Danny's almost name calling before moving forward, so I had to incorporate that idea at the beginning or their "relationship" in this story or didn't make sense to me going forward. Trying to weave in moments of Season 2 is a bit of a challenge, since Mindy and Danny are in relationship purgatory, so you might recognize season 1 moments. In keeping with the spirit of the show, I thought I'd throw a couple of curve balls their way to see how they might handle it. Love all the Mindy-Danny stories others have written.
Disclaimer: TMP characters….wishing for Mindy and Danny this season. Want more Mindy-Danny drama!
Ch1: Closure and Karma: a couple of bitches.
It had been 6 weeks since Mindy and Danny returned from a medical conference in Boston, Mindy's hometown. Although Danny almost didn't go because it was dangerously close to hell on earth (i.e. Fenway Park, because he was a Yankees fan), he thought he'd better go and not let baseball define his career. What neither of them expected was to end up at an Indian wedding of a family friend of Mindy's and get swept up in their attraction for each other. One thing led to another, and they ended up in Danny's hotel room. Before you get any ideas, nothing really happened between these two. They had a long overdue make-out session, but Mindy still had a moral compass. Having sex with Danny would have been a Christina-type move, and that was not Mindy Lahiri's style. Mindy was engaged to Casey, but realized Casey…was…not…The…One. Mindy and Casey broke it off, and it hurt, but not as much as she expected, because she knew he wasn't the one. She was sentimental though, and she cared, so it was still sad. Danny kind of knew and just gave her some space, but he was still waiting for her. They drifted back to regular Mindy-Danny mode for a while, whatever that was.
There was that brief hiccup when Danny thought Mindy slept with Paul. When he heard Paul say that he slept with Mindy, he couldn't see straight or hear anything after that. That prick, who had the nerve to sit there as a sex therapist and then sleep with his ex-wife and Mindy? And, Mindy, who was engaged, who seemed to share something with him in that God-forsaken city of the Red Sox, who consumed men and then spit them out? That didn't seem like her, to have sex with someone while she was engaged. He didn't like it, because he thought less of her and that maybe he was wrong about her character. And that would have been a deal breaker for him, if he couldn't trust her. So imagine what an absolute ass he felt like when he almost went there and called her a sl-. Well, he didn't say it, but she knew. She opened her mouth in protest, lest he say something he could never take back, but right at that moment, someone rushed into his office and saved him before he could say something he would regret forever. That saving grace was what made Danny believe in God. What a first-class jerk, he thought to himself in retrospect.
After Paul left and Mindy got her office back, Danny brought her a chocolate croissant and coffee from her favorite Parisian-style bakery on his way to work. He waited in his office until he heard her come into the office. He gave her five minutes to say her hellos and get settled in her office. He sauntered by her office door with coffee and pastry in hand and put in on her desk as a peace-offering. She looked at him, quiet and steely eyed behind her Clark Kent glasses. Uh-oh, she was really, really pissed. Her lips were in a tight, closed mouth smile, but that smile was not in her eyes. There was 'loud-mad' Mindy, who let him have it and argued with her hands when they argued about stuff. He knew how to deal with that Mindy. Then, there was 'quiet-mad' Mindy. He was scared of 'quiet-mad' Mindy because he had only seen it on rare occasion and didn't quite know how to handle that Mindy yet. He had some groveling to do to make amends.
"Mindy….." he started. He noticed she was tapping her foot impatiently under the desk. "I, uhm," he reached his hand nervously behind his neck and cleared his throat. He started sweating profusely. Damn it!
"Can I help you?" she said blankly. She was going to make him squirm a little. He was sweating. Good. Didn't he know her at all? She was trying to protect him from what Christina and Paul did to him, and that was the thanks she got? She tried to keep her anger in check. After it had happened, Mindy went back to her office, immediately called Gwen and spilled the beans after Danny almost called her a slut. What the hell? she said, expecting Gwen to agree immediately. Gwen was of course, on Mindy's side, but did point out that at face value the situation did seem kind of bad from Danny's point of view. What would Mindy have done in that situation if the tables were turned? Okay, okay, she would have reacted the same way. Damn, her.
"I'm sorry for assuming the worst about you." he said with heartfelt remorse. "I should have known better. I'd understand if you hated my guts forever," he said quietly and looked down at his feet. Danny was not used to this. Nobody ever surprised him. Somewhere in his past, someone would pull the rug out from under him, just when he least expected it. He could push people away with the best of them. No one got to Danny Castellano first, he was ready to strike at a moment's notice. When he saw her face and then learned the truth, he realized this habit he somehow picked up along the way in life, he would need to un-learn with one Dr. Mindy Lahiri. It was not sustainable relationship behavior.
Mindy was done seeing him squirm. He was sorry. She forgave him. Quiet-mad Mindy was gone, but she needed to let him know that there was a new rule in their unofficial, unspoken Mindy-Danny rule book.
"Danny, I forgive you, but in the future, realize that once you say something, it's out there and you can't take it back."
"I know." Danny swallowed his pride. He couldn't take back the implication of what he said, and he knew he was going to be the one haunted by his actions, when they were married, when she was pushing out their babies, when he was having unbelievable sex with her. Lesson learned, new rule. Try not to screw up like that again, he thought to himself.
She sighed, lifting the mood with a dangerous smile crossing her lips. "All right, Danny. Let's go burn the sheets that Paul and Christina slept on in your apartment. It's bad karma," she said with a twinkle in her eye. Mindy always did things BIG. He liked that about her. He loved that about her. When he lit the flames, and saw the sheets burn, it felt cathartic. He felt lighter, and he let go of that anger towards Christina rather than hold on to it, like he was used to doing. Progress, he thought with a silent smile in his heart.
Danny smiled as he looked at Mindy standing next to him, watching the flames die out on his previous relationship with his ex. Symbolic closure, damn that Dr. Phil, maybe he wasn't such a new age son-of-a-bitch after all. Danny didn't deserve such a fabulous woman who had such wonderful ideas. When Mindy got home from Danny's that day, she saw a big bouquet of orchids at her door with a note:
Min-
Knock, knock….
Who's there…?
Idaho…
Idaho who…..?
You are not the ho, I da ho.
I don't deserve you. Thank you for the Dr. Phil moment.
Love,
Danny
Mindy laughed when she got the note and saved it in a box she had with the other letters she got from Danny while she was in Haiti. She knew they both needed closure from their past relationships before moving forward together. She texted Danny her response, who was on call that night:
Sometimes closure and karma can be a couple of bitches.
G-Night, Danny-boy.
XO
Min
Mindy went into her apartment, took a long bubble bath with a glass of wine in hand and listened to her "American songbook playlist"-Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett among others. She went to bed, and had a deep, restful sleep.