A/N: So it's a few days late, but I hope you'll forgive my tardiness with my first post-ep oneshot of the new season. I've been processing the episode for a few days now and I have to say that I have never been prouder to be a CSI: NY fan. The episode was so moving and emotional on so many different levels and it managed to explore several different perspectives of that fateful day 10 years ago now (God, has it really been 10 years?). It was respectful and I felt that it really honoured the victims of 9/11 as well as those that survived them.

On that note, I've decided that the show did such a great job of exploring the aftermath that I've gone a different route with this oneshot. As a die-hard DL fan, I felt that the only thing that would have made the episode better would have been a little more on how Danny and Lindsay are adjusting to the recent changes in their lives so that is what I give to you here. It's a little fluffy, a little funny, and hopefully it will warm your heart just a tiny bit.

Enjoy!

"Hey, nice job up there today, Boss," Danny said, shaking Mac's hand once he'd finally descended from the podium and come over to join the team from the lab that had shown up to support him.

Mac smiled back at him. "I'm not your boss anymore, Danny," he replied.

"But… you'll be back though, right?" Danny asked. "I mean, you're not planning on staying on leave forever, are you?"

Mac chuckled and shared knowing smiles with the rest of the team. "No. I mean I'm not your boss anymore… Sergeant," he clarified, with a heavy emphasis on the last word to drive his point home.

"Oh. Yeah," Danny grinned sheepishly. "Right. Sorry, Mac. Old habits, you know?"

"Yeah, I know," Mac concurred. "They die hard." He smiled and clapped Danny on the shoulder. "It's good to hear you call me that again. I'm really glad you could make it today. It's not always easy to get away from work when you're the boss, is it?"

Danny shrugged his shoulders. "Nah. No big deal," he said. "Besides, this was important. I wouldn't have missed it for anything."

"Thank you," Mac said. He turned to the rest of the group and smiled. "Thanks to all of you for coming today. It really meant a lot to me to look out at that crowd of people and see a few familiar faces."

Sid, Jo, Hawkes, Adam, Lindsay and Flack all echoed Danny's sentiment that there was nowhere else they'd rather have been that evening.

"Hey, Mac," Flack said, "I was thinking that maybe we should all head over to Sullivan's for a drink or two. It's been a while since we all got together. Care to join us?"

Mac sighed and slipped his hand into his pocket, drawing out two battered ticket stubs and staring sadly down at them. He shook his head. "No thanks, Don," he said. "I appreciate the offer, but there's something else I've got to do. Maybe another time, okay?"

He bid his friends farewell, still keeping mum on whether or not he'd given any more thought to returning to the lab. The group watched him walk away before they turned back to one another.

"So? Who's in," Flack asked.

"I'm game," Adam piped up immediately.

"Yeah. Why not?" Hawkes concurred. "Camille's working tonight, so I got a little time on my hands."

"Well, I wouldn't say no to a little libation," Sid said.

"Jo?" Flack turned to the interim head of the Crime Lab. "Care to down a few with your favourite detective?"

"I wouldn't say favourite," Jo teased, tucking her purse under her arm. "But sure. After today I could use a good, stiff drink."

"Alright!" Flack said, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. "Messers? What about you? You're coming, right?"

Danny turned to his wife. "Whadya think, babe?" he asked.

Lindsay shrugged her shoulders. "The sitter said she didn't have to be home until nine, so… sure. It sounds like fun."

"Yeah," Danny agreed, sliding his arm around her shoulders. "It'll almost be like a real date," he teased. "Just… you know. With these clowns tagging along."

Lindsay pursed her lips together and furrowed her brow thoughtfully. "A date…" she mused aloud as the group began to move en masse through the sea of vacant chairs toward the subway station that would take them to their favourite bar. "Hmm… it sounds familiar. Remind me what a date is again?"

"You know; me and you together in the same place for more than five minutes," he began, rubbing her arm affectionately and pulling her tightly into his side as they walked. "Grown up conversation, a couple glasses of wine…"

"Oh, right," Lindsay nodded her head. "Yeah, I'd kind of forgotten about those," she said flatly.

She heard Danny sigh. His arm slid from her shoulders and he shoved his hands deep into his pockets. She stole a glance at him and saw the muscles in his jaw working as he struggled to bite back whatever it was he was going to say. Placing her hand in the crook of his elbow, Lindsay leaned in and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

"I'm sorry, Danny," she said. "I didn't mean for it to come out like that. It wasn't a criticism."

"I know," he said, turning and giving her a small half smile. "It's just…" He broke off, shaking his head. "You know what? Forget about it. Let's just have a good time tonight. We can worry about all that other stuff later."

Lindsay smiled and pursed her lips, silently asking for a kiss which Danny quickly bestowed upon her before pulling his hand from his pocket and lacing his fingers in with hers.

"Jesus, you guys comin' or what?" Flack asked from the top step of the subway entrance into which the rest of the team had already descended.

"Bite me," Danny muttered, ribbing Flack with his elbow before shooting him a grin and leading Lindsay down the steps.

"Alright. Me and Messer against the Doc and the dork," Flack said, handing out pool cues to the other men gathered around the pool table.

"Hey," Adam protested, accepting his cue from Flack. "For your information, I am a geek. There's a difference."

"Yeah Flack," Danny quipped as he began to rack the balls on the table. "Show a little respect for the grown man that can't even tie his own tie."

Adam's cheeks flushed and he shot a glance over to Lindsay who winked at him. "He's just jealous, Adam," she assured him. "He thought when he married me that it meant that all other men's ties were off limits."

"And for good reason too," Danny said, coming over to stand beside his wife. "It's the oldest trick in the book. You find a pretty girl, pretend you don't know what the hell you're doing and make a huge mess of your tie…" He smiled when Lindsay played along, reaching up to straighten his collar and giving the knot at his throat a little adjustment. "She offers to help. And while she's fixing your tie, maybe you catch a whiff of her perfume. She looks up at you, your eyes meet… and boom. You got yourself a nice little moment. And as a bonus, you're perfectly positioned to lean in and steal a kiss." He lowered his head and pecked his wife lightly on the lips before he turned back to Adam. "And that's how it's done."

"Wow," Adam said, clearly impressed. "That's pretty smooth."

"I know," Danny smirked. "And that's exactly why the next time you need help with your tie, you go find someone else's wife. Capisce?"

Lindsay giggled and smacked Danny's chest. "Stop it. It was purely innocent."

"Sure it was," Danny said, playfully narrowing his eyes at Adam. "I got my eye on you, kid. Don't think that just 'cause I'm not there everyday…"

"Stop threatening my coworkers," Lindsay said, giving Danny's backside a pat before pushing him in the direction of the pool table. "Now go play with your friends and behave yourself." She turned back to Adam and smiled. "And as for you," she began, lowering her voice so that only he could hear, "Anytime you want to talk… you know you've got a friend in me, right?"

He smiled shyly and nodded his head. "Yeah. I do," he said. "Thanks, Lindsay. For listening to me and not… not making me feel like a complete loser."

"We all have our own stories about what happened to us that day, Adam" she said comfortingly. "You've got nothing to be ashamed of. Once you knew what had happened, you did what you could to help and that's all anyone could ask of you."

The young lab tech beamed at her and she watched him return to the pool table to join Flack, Hawkes and Danny. She smiled when Danny clapped the younger man on the back and ruffled his hair affectionately before they began their game.

"What do you say, Lindsay?" Jo asked, sidling up beside her. "Me and you take on the winner of this game?"

Lindsay smiled. "Girls against guys?" she mused. "I like the sound of that."

"Well I don't," Flack shot back as he watched Hawkes line up his shot. "When me and Danno win, I ain't playing against Lindsay. She cheats."

"I do not cheat!" Lindsay scoffed.

"Oh yeah?" Flack challenged. "Then how do you explain the fact that whenever we play one another, you beat me?"

Lindsay rolled her eyes. "Because I'm better than you?"

"Oh, ho!" Danny chuckled. Flack shot him a withering glare and he quickly arranged his features to hide his smile. "She's got a point, Flack."

"Hmph," Flack sulked, turning his attention to the table where Hawkes had just sunk two striped balls. "Whatever."

"I'll be on your team, babe," Danny offered. "I like the way you play."

Lindsay smiled. "You just don't want to lose to me again either."

"Well, yeah. There's that," Danny admitted with a grin. "Although losing has its perks." Lindsay blushed when he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at her from across the table.

"Whenever you two are done making googly eyes at one another," Flack grumbled, "It's your shot, Messer."

"Woo! Yeah!" Flack crowed while watching Danny sink the eight ball in the corner pocket. "Nice one, Messer!" Danny grinned at his friend and they exchanged victorious high-fives.

"Ah, better luck next time," Jo called out to Adam and Hawkes from the small table where she, Sid and Lindsay had sat to watch the game. She turned to Lindsay. "You still want to have a crack at beating the guys?" she asked.

Lindsay smiled. "I think I'll have to take a rain check," she said, getting to her feet. She joined the men at the pool table, walking up behind Danny and placing her hand on the small of his back. "Sorry to break up the party, but we gotta go, babe." She pointed to her watch and Danny nodded his understanding.

"Right," he said. "Sorry Flack. But we can't keep the babysitter waiting."

They said their goodbyes and Lindsay smiled when Danny offered her his jacket to fend off the chill of the night air before they stepped outside. "What a gentleman," she giggled, sliding her arms into his overlong sleeves. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." He put his hands on her shoulders and turned her so he could do up the buttons. "I didn't get to tell you earlier," he said quietly, leaning in close so that he wouldn't be overheard, "But you look real pretty tonight, sweetheart."

Lindsay smiled demurely and raised her hand to cup his face, grazing her thumb across his stubbled cheek in a gesture of gratitude for the compliment. He waited for her to collect her purse from the table and they waved a final farewell to their friends before he lead his wife to the door and held it open for her. Once they emerged onto the sidewalk, he took her hand in his and gave her fingers a gentle squeeze.

"You wanna get a cab?" he asked.

Lindsay shook her head. "I was actually thinking that maybe we could go somewhere quiet. We could just sit and talk; maybe get a glass of wine or a cup of coffee or something?"

Danny cocked his head to the side, his expression questioning. "But the sitter…" he began. "Didn't you say we needed to be home by nine?"

Lindsay scrunched up her nose and shot him a guilty smile. "Yeah. About that… I may have told a teeny, tiny lie. We don't actually have to be back until ten." Danny continued to stare blankly back and her and she shrugged her shoulders. "I'm sorry. I just… don't get me wrong; I love our friends. But I wanted to have you all to myself – even if it is just for an hour. I wanted some time with you with no distractions; no work, no friends, no worries, nobody to interrupt us."

Danny's expression softened and he raised their joined hands and pressed a lingering kiss to her fingers. "Your secret is safe with me," he said. "I won't tell a soul what a dirty little liar you are."

He released her hand and wrapped his arm around her shoulders and they walked together down the sidewalk, heedless of their fellow pedestrians pushing and jostling past them. They stopped outside of a cozy little wine bar tucked away on a quiet side street and ducked inside.

If asked, neither of them would have been able to say what it was they'd talked about that night, but for one hour they held hands over a small, intimate, candlelit table, sharing a bottle of wine and talking. There were no distractions, no demands on their time. And for that one hour, it was as if they were the only two people in the world.

I had a hard time ending this one. It wanted to keep going and going… but I figured we'll have more time for that after the next episode (only two more days!) so I managed to reign myself in.

Thanks for reading! And if you'd like to share your thoughts with me, go ahead and leave a review. :)

*rhymes*