A/N: I've developed a really bad habit of starting stories and not finishing them. So I have an outline and everything on this one. I am committed. Outline predicts 8 chapters – who knows for sure, but we will see a fin. Ok, so here we are in my personal AU, sometime after S3 ep 18 "Sleight Out of Hand"…"the cannon one" but I skipped over the hard stuff – homecomings and all that. "They're here, they're together…get used to it" is my motto.

Disclaimer: I don't own CSI:NY or its characters, nor do I own the Crowded House song " Four Seasons in one Day" that I titled the chapters after, although not really a song fic.

Chapter 1: Lying in the depths of your imagination

It was perhaps the first perfect day of spring. New York's inhabitants still had to wear long-sleeves but no parkas or gloves. Danny and Lindsay were processing a crime scene together, and although it was an alley-way, on the first nice day of Spring everyone from Delaware to Maine was glad to be outdoors.

Danny heard a slight buzzing and watched as Lindsay pulled her cell phone from its place on her hip and snapped it open.

"Monroe." He noticed the sun glance off the parts of her hair that were more honey than brown. She was serious and intent, as she always was on the job. He smiled to himself knowing that any one of his gamut of inside jokes could render her almost giddy.

"Of course, I will, but I am at a crime scene, it will be at least and hour and half before I will be able to." She seemed annoyed and then thoughtful, "Unless this is an emergency in which case I can find…." She paused. "Ok, then I will speak to you later today from the crime lab," she said while jotting down a number. She closed her phone and involuntarily rolled her eyes as she replaced it in its holder.

"Everything aw'right?" He asked, his attention returning to their vic.

"Yeah." She said crouching on the other side of the body. "Some Federal agent. I need to call him from a secure land line." She said emphasizing and drawing out the last three words in jest. "Do they have to act like everything is a matter of national security?"

He snorted as he placed some trace in a small envelope.

"I suppose its their job." He said. "What's it about?"

"Danny." She snapped "He couldn't say so much as even the most general topic of his call on a cell phone." She said with mock severity. He grinned and shook his head.

"Probably an old case or something." She sighed and continued processing.

When the body had been taken from the scene at they were satisfied they collected all the evidence present, they headed back to the crime lab. They went their separate ways. Later Danny stopped back in their office to grab his jacket before heading back out to interview a suspect with Flack.

She was sitting at her desk in their office looking over the file-to-date on the case. She smiled reflexively when he entered but it dissolved when she saw him grabbing his coat.

"Linds I gotta go see a man about the antifreeze in his wife's stomach." He said collecting his things and powering down his monitor.

"'k." She said checking her watch. "Your place tonight? I want to talk through something with you," She asked with raised eyebrows.

"That's where I'll be ," he answered giving her hand a squeeze on his way out the door.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When Danny opened the door to his apartment later that evening he could tell by the smell that Lindsay was already there. He found her leaning over a large pot in his kitchen tasting something from one of his wooden cooking spoons.

He walked up behind her and snaked an arm around her waist. "Smells good Montana. What are we having?"

"Mmmm." Her reaction as much to his touch as to the taste from the spoon.

"Soup." She said somewhat apologetically. "I hope its filling enough for you. I have been feeling a little run down and, I don't know…I just wanted soup." She said grinning at her own self indulgence. She leaned back against him. "I just worry about your ravenous appetites."

"Don't you worry about my appetite." He said rubbing her hip while nipping gently at her neck with his teeth. "I know how to take care of that."

"I know." She said, turning herself within the circle of his arm to face him. "That's what worries me." The held each other's beaming eyes for a long moment. Away from work, alone together, there was bliss in this moment and they knew enough to savor it.

She allowed him to kiss her. His lips meeting hers, his tongue exploring her mouth. When he again moved his attention to the nape of her neck, the spot he had learned was her weakness, she laughed and pushed against his chest.

"No, no, no, no," She said lightly. "I told you have to talk to you, before you make me forget everything else."

He shifted his weight on his feet, he wanted to feign indignation or protest, but her admission that he could erase her mind to everything else but him was too much for his ego to ignore.

He kissed her cheek and rubbed it in with his thumb as a measure of protection that she absorbed it. "Ok, whadda got?" He asked.

"The Fed thing." She said returning to the soup, spooning two portions into bowls to cool as they talked.

"Oh yeah." He said finally taking his jacket off. "what was that all about?"

She moved to his couch and waited for him to join her, she needed to see his eyes. She reached out her hand to him so he would sit near her. He took it and sat inches from her. He was worried there was something wrong with the case in Montana. Her gravity made him fear she was in danger.

She sighed. She had all day to think of the right way to say this, but she couldn't come up with anything eloquent so she decided to just get to the point.

"The Fed, Mike Donahue, he asked me to be a part of an ongoing surveillance." She said softly. She could see the concern in his eyes, so she finished quickly. "Surveillance on you Danny."

"What?" He asked. His mind now racing. "Montana, you serious?"

She nodded. "Yes. Danny." When he made no reply she continued. "He said they have evidence that your father is involved in organized crime. And they suspect he is using you and your position in the crime lab to his advantage."

Danny's eyes grew wide, he pulled his hand from hers to run through his hair as he blew out a long breath. He dropped his head backwards and regarded the ceiling. After a few moments, she found the silence painful.

"I'm sorry Danny." She whispered, and he remembered she was next to him, interacting with him, drawing him out of his thoughts.

"What did you say to him?" He asked, the words out of his mouth before he could stop them.

"I told him you were a law enforcement professional, same as I am. And if you knew of illegal activity you were honor-bound to report it, same as I am. And that I was certain you would not be involved in illegal activities." His lips tightened and her own temperature rose as she retold the story. "And I told him that I was in absolutely no way going to participate in surveillance on you. Surveillance which I could only characterize as profoundly unnecessary." She said angrily.

He warmed as he thought of Montana all but spitting in the face of the Fed.

"Lindsay about my father…" she cut him off.

"I don't care about your father Danny. I'm here, with you. You're not your father." He knew enough to read between the lines. The less she knew for sure, the better off they both would be.

"I told Donahue if there were anything to report you would be the one to call him," She said reaching into her pocket and handing him a business card.

He remained pensive and distant. Having a past you preferred to keep behind you was a thought she was familiar with.

"Danny." She said in almost a whisper. "I can go home if you want to think about this yourself for a while. I just wanted you to know what was going on." She almost imperceptibly drew herself away from him.

He bit his lip and shook his head while letting out a dry laugh. "Montana. I'm not you, you know." He again placed his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to him, so as much of her was in contact with as much of him as possible. "I get that when you hurt your instinct is to be alone and work it out. But I'm not you Montana." She wasn't sure why, but tears rose to her eyes. He continued, "when things get tough for me Lindsay, I get stronger, the closer you are to me." Before she thought enough to fight its escape, a tear ran down her cheek. He caught it with his thumb.

"Linds, if you want to go because you want to think about what the Fed said, I understand. But I'll tell you one thing, right now, I feel like my world is shaking, and the one thing I will always reach for is your hand. Together, you and I can handle anything. I've learned this Montana."

She swallowed and nodded. Not knowing what else to do she leaned into him and wrapper her arms around his neck. She thought perhaps she heard him murmur "I love you" into her neck, but she decided tonight was not the night for that, so she pretended not to hear him, as she would all night.

They ate their soup and found their way to his bed. His mind spinning on every moment from his childhood to this one in her arms. She could sense his desperation and reached out to him with her body, forcing him to focus on the connection of her flesh against his. The joined and each fell calm as they approached sleep.