Title: The Only Way to Ask You
Disclaimer: I don't own it. If I did, the entire free world would know about it! I'm only writing this because it's fun and I either am on break from school or I am procrastinating on homework.
Okay, so maybe, just…maybe there was a chance that he was intimidated by her. Not a big chance, mind you, just a small one. A very small chance. A chance so minuscule that it was even smaller than her; and she wasn't very big. Oh who was he kidding? Truth be told, Lindsay Monroe scared the hell out of him! It wasn't her size, or an ill-temperament that scared him though. It was the fact that he'd never found himself this attracted to anyone like her. He'd never met anyone like his Montana before.
"This is ridiculous. She's a girl, just a girl. You've asked girls out before. Pull yourself together and just do it. What's the worst she could say," Danny muttered to himself as he dropped his large frame on one of the stools at the breakfast bar in his kitchen.
'She could say 'no' and then go do that whole girl gossip thing with Stella,' his brain taunted.
"Shut up," he muttered and pulled out his phone to scroll through his contacts. When he came to the entry titled 'Montana', he hesitated. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. She might already be seeing someone, though she hadn't mentioned anything. Still, she wasn't obligated to tell Danny about every guy who came in and out of her life just so he could run a background check on them. She should though. If she was going to be dating someone, Danny wanted to make sure she was safe with them. Or at least that's what he told himself. In reality, he just wanted to size up the competition.
'You won't know unless you ask,' that stupid brain of his talking all sensible now.
"Fine. I'll call her," his thumb hovered over the green icon that would automatically dial her number, before he changed his mind and hit 'options' instead and scrolled to 'send message' before clicking okay. A text message was safer, he reasoned. At least this way, when she shot him down he didn't have to hear the actual words. Quickly, he tapped a few keys and hit 'send'. Setting his phone down, he took a deep breath before going to the fridge and retrieving a beer. Now all he had to do was wait for a response. He stood by the fridge and stared at the phone, as if that would make her response come through any faster.
In the next borough, Lindsay Monroe was finally home from another eighteen hour long shift at the lab, made more bearable by the near constant flirty banter she'd carried on with Danny all day, and had changed into a comfy pair of plaid pajama pants and an old Navy t-shirt she'd stolen from her older brother some years ago, and was watching, 'So You Think You Can Dance', when her cell phone beeped for a new text message.
"Oh come on," she half-grumbled half-whined as she reached forward to grab the offending object, assuming that the message had something to do with work.
New text from Danny Messer. Accept?
Not expecting to see his name, she smiled in spite of herself and accepted the text.
"Hi," was all it said.
Chuckling, Lindsay hit reply, tapped a few keys before hitting send, and then placed the phone back on the table in front of her and went back to watching her television show.
Meanwhile, Danny was still nursing his beer and chastising himself for the message he'd sent. "Hi? I talk to her every day, but in a text message, all I can come up with to say is 'hi'. Smooth Messer, real smooth." The beeping of his phone, signaling a new text message caught his attention and he quickly put down his beer and picked up the small, black phone.
New text message from Montana. Accept?
Sighing, Danny read her message.
"Hey Danny. What's up?"
Happy that she didn't seem annoyed that he was interrupting her evening, he replied, and then took his phone and beer into the living room to await her response.
Lindsay stopped arguing with the judges, when her phone beeped again, and read the new message.
"Not much. Just having a beer. What about you?"
She found the fact that Danny was sending a text message just to say hi and see what she was doing, despite the fact that they'd seen each other not three hours prior, sweet even if it was a bit odd. So, she replied, not bothering to put her phone back on the table or go back to arguing with the judges again. At this point, finding out the reason he was texting her was more interesting than the show.
Danny was flipping through the channels, wondering what Lindsay would be watching right now, or if she would be reading a book or listening to some music instead, when her next message came through his phone.
"Watching SYTYCD."
A ha! So she was watching T.V. He'd never watched an entire episode, but he had heard of the show. Typing out a response, he quickly sent it and then turned on Channel 5, so he could make a proper response if she chose to comment on the show.
Lindsay smiled when she read his reply. He'd obviously at least heard of the show before. Honestly, if Danny had responded with a question of what that was, she would have been a little worried. Everyone had heard of this show before, or so it seemed. Hell, even Mac had admitted (under duress by Stella, of course) to having seen an episode here and there.
"How's the competition looking tonight?"
It didn't take long for her reply to come through, and Danny laughed when he read it, for he could hear the impassive tone in her answer.
"Meh."
It wasn't that the dancing was bad or anything; she was just more of an 'American Idol' kind of girl where these kinds of shows were concerned, is all. She couldn't help it if she thought Simon Cowell was funny. It was simply the way he gave such horrible reviews in that dry, British accent that made her laugh! Growing up, Lindsay had taken dance classes starting in the third grade and continuing all the way through college. She had even entered several competitions in her early adolescence. Dancing was the perfect complement to her fondness for all things athletic. Her mother had pointed out that, while it was still a sport (well, she knew people who would argue with her on that point), it was more girly than the skiing; barrel racing, or competitive fishing that her daughter usually engaged in; so she felt like she knew what she was talking about in arguing with the judges. The next text message coming through, jerked her out of her thoughts.
"So, I've been thinking about something."
Lindsay couldn't help herself. She responded with the first thing that popped into her mind and quickly tapped it out onto the screen.
"Don't hurt yourself there, cowboy."
In spite of himself, Danny snickered at her answer. She would have said the same thing if he'd been sitting across from her in their office and said that. Perhaps that's what was driving him to want to get to know Lindsay better. She was how she was; take it or leave it.
"Smart ass."
Lindsay laughed. That's how Danny would have responded to her in a face-to-face conversation, so she wasn't surprised to see him respond that way now.
"What are you thinking about?"
It was the moment of truth. He'd started this conversation with the intent of getting to this point, but now that it was here, he was really reconsidering whether this was a good idea or not. After all, Lindsay Monroe wasn't like the other women he'd dated in the past. He would even go so far as to say, compared to his latest ex, she was the anti-Cindy. Ah, hell. He'd gone this far, he might as well bite the bullet and ask her. Quickly, Danny typed out the message and sent it, drawing in a deep breath as he did so.
When she received his reply, she had to read it over again…several times. Danny Messer couldn't possibly be suggesting what it seemed like was suggesting, could he? He couldn't. Simply put, Lindsay wasn't his type! As much as she had wished she was, she simply wasn't. No, Danny's type was: tall, busty, kind of shallow, typically not the brightest crayon in the box (though she'd heard he had a thing for Aiden and, from all accounts, she couldn't be considered the least bit dense), thought everything he said or did was absolutely charming, and had no qualms about a round of sex after a first date (and the date part was optional, or so she'd heard around the lab). Lindsay wasn't any of that. She was downright short, she'd seen cattle with bigger udders than her, at the tender age of fourteen, she'd acquired adult problems overnight and came to realize, all too well, that there were bigger things to worry about than if a certain outfit made her look fat, or what the latest fashion was. To top it off, she had graduated high school with academic honors and was sent to college on an athletic scholarship where she graduated with a degree in Forensic Science. And she really wasn't the type to engage in one night stands or even sleep with a guy on the first date. She read Danny's message over again, before deciding on a reply and sending it.
"I was thinking about…well….maybe if you were busy…one day after work or when we have a night off…I was wondering if maybe you would like to go out for dinner or to grab a drink or something. Nothing serious, you know, maybe just getting to know each other better… outside of work."
What was taking so long for her message to come through? "She thinks I'm an idiot," Danny grumbled, defeated, replaying what he'd said in his head. He'd sounded like some teenager asking a girl on a first date or something. For all the dating he'd done, one would expect Danny Messer to be more confident in pursuing a date but, right now, he felt anything but confident. Just as he was about to text her back and suggest that he meant with some friends or something, his phone beeped in response. Danny held his breath as he read her reply.
"Are you asking me out on a date?"
Given the kind of women he normally went out with, and that the only woman that he'd been seeing since Lindsay came around was Cindy, he couldn't blame her for being skeptical. After all, she had to notice that he normally didn't go for a woman like her. Still, he was hesitant about just coming out and saying that he wanted to date her, in his reply.
She was pretty sure that Danny had been asking her out, but she just couldn't believe that he would do that. Sure, she'd imagined what it would be like to date him, but she also knew she had a snowball's chance in hell of that ever happening; or so she thought. She was contemplating on forwarding the text to her mother and asking her opinion on it, when her phone beeped.
"I'm simply asking if you'd like to hang out with me outside of work for some dinner or drinks, maybe even some dancing, if you like to dance, and conversation."
Yes, he'd asked her out on a date, but he couldn't bring himself to say the phrase, "Lindsay would you go on a date with me?" She was a detective, he was sure she could figure out that he indeed was asking her on a date. Her reply came through with such speed that it startled him.
"Is that a yes then?"
She knew, with his reply, that he'd meant a date, but the idea that the Danny Messer was too nervous to actually use the word date with her, just made her giggle. She was nervous about going on a date with him, and she could have simply replied with an 'okay', but there was some part of her that wanted confirmation that he was actually asking her out. If he confirmed this, she was one-hundred ten percent certain that she would flip out and scare the neighbors with an excited screaming fit or something. After all, she was a red-blooded woman and a really hot guy was asking her out on a date! Just the thought made her want to squeal with excitement, but she restrained herself and tended to the beep of her cell instead.
"Yes. Lindsay Monroe, would you like to go on a date with me this Friday?"
Slapping a hand over her mouth and making and excited squeak, Lindsay grabbed hold of herself, and quickly typed in a response. Upon sending the message, she sat her phone back on the table and grabbed the throw pillow sitting next to her. Burying her face in the soft, green fabric, she screamed and stamped her feet on the floor, in excitement.
"Yes. I would love to go out with you on Friday. We'll work out the details at work tomorrow."
A broad grin spread across his face as Danny read her response. Jumping out of his seat, he quickly high fived the air before walking around the apartment, turning off lights and checking to make sure the door was locked and his gun securely put away, before heading towards his bedroom for the night. "I wonder if she likes sushi," he pondered aloud as he flipped on the lamp next to his bed.