a/n: I don't own CSI: NY. What I do own is what you don't recognize. Enjoy.

It was about halfway through November and it was freezing in New York City. Danny Messer, Don Flack and Adam Ross were walking down the street a couple of blocks from the crime lab together. Well, more likely Don and Danny were walking together. Adam was quite a few paces behind, complaining about the cold. He was in a heavy winter jacket. A hat was tugged over his head as far as it could go, and he had wrapped a scarf over most of his face as well. The get-up earned him a few strange looks from passersby, mostly because the two other men he was with were just in long wool coats. Danny had brought up "The Dark Knight", and now all three of them were arguing about who made the best Joker.

"Heath Ledger, man! No one could beat that!" Adam called, waving his arms up and down, nearly hitting someone that they were passing in the process. He quickly apologized and ran to catch up to the other two.

Danny shook his head. "No. Just no. Nicholson is the Joker. Ledger came close, but didn't beat him. Besides, now that I think of it, aren't you more of a Mark Hamill kinda guy?" Danny asked.

"Who cares? Cesar Romero takes the cake no matter what. I mean, he made the Joker what he is today," Don shrugged.

"No he didn't," Adam and Danny argued.

"Hell yeah, he did!"

The three men turned and saw a woman with dirty blonde hair smiling at them. Danny and Don were about to ask whom she was when Adam suddenly grinned and launched himself at her. "ROBBIE!" he hugged her, picking her up in the process.

The woman laughed. "Easy, Adam,"

"Uh…" Danny and Don blinked.

Adam finally pulled away, but still held her arms. "What are you doin' here so early, Rob? I thought you were supposed to get here tonight!"

Don and Danny exchanged looks again. "Girlfriend?" they mouthed to each other and looked back at the other two, curious to see if they were right, getting more curious since the hug didn't seem to be anything more than friendly.

"I decided to get here early. I got a train in yesterday and stayed with Jen and Amber," she replied. "I was on my way over to the lab to surprise you, but this works too. I guess you guys got off early, huh?"

"Yeah. This is even better, anyway. Come on, I have a couple of people I want you to meet," he took her hand and brought her over to the two other men. "Guys, meet my sister, Robbie,"

Danny smiled, offering his hand. "Hi. I'm Danny. Robbie, huh? Short for Robin or Roberta or somethin'?"

'Robbie' smiled. "Yeah, it's Robin," she shook his hand.

Danny nodded. "Nice to met ya,"

"Likewise," Robin smiled back at him. She looked at Don, who was just staring at her. He seemed familiar to her for some reason. "Do I know you?"

Don nodded. "Damn right, you know me! You're one of the bitches who cut me off on line for coffee yesterday!"

"Hey!" Adam objected. "What do you think you're doing calling my sister a bitch?!"

Robin's jaw dropped and eyes widened, taken by complete surprise. "What?! I uh… when…?" she sputtered.

Don glared at Robin, not really paying attention to Adam. However, his glare didn't last long. Soon a grin spread across his face and he laughed. "I'm just kiddin'. Well, your friends really did cut me off, but you caught the mistake and let me go in front of you. Now do you remember me?" he asked her, still with a smile.

It grew when Robin's look of total shock faded and was replaced by a half confused, half relieved one. "ARE YOU SHITING ME?!" She yelled. "If I hadn't literally just met you I'd smack you! You're freaking lucky I do remember that!"

Don snickered.

Robin crossed her arms over her chest and sighed, letting herself calm down. After a while, she spoke up, calmer this time. "Yeah. I thought you looked familiar. I'm really sorry about that. They usually aren't that desperate to get coffee, ya know?"

Adam raised an eyebrow.

Don chuckled. "It's fine. The coffee sucked, either way," he replied, then offered his hand, just as Danny had. "Don Flack,"

Robin laughed and shook his hand. "As you heard, Robin… and how would you know what crap tastes like?"

"You don't wanna know," Don shook his head.

Satisfied that everything was actually all right, Adam nodded. "Come get coffee with us, Sis! It'll be fun and you'll get to know who I work with,"

"Sounds good. Like I said, I was gonna spend the next hour or so catching up, so that works," she looked at Danny and Don. "Do you guys mind?"

"No. We just got off work, anyway. By all means," Danny put his hands in his pockets.

"What he said," Don agreed, already starting to walk. The three of them followed him until they reached Frank's Café and went inside. They soon decided to stay there for a while instead of taking it on the go then going separate ways in taxis, so they moved to a different area and found a booth. Danny and Adam took one side of the booth and Don let Robin slide in before he sat beside her on the other side.

A thin, redheaded waitress with an almost annoyingly bright smile walked up to them. "Hello, there. Can I help you handsome boys and very lucky lady?"

Danny laughed. "I'll take a regular latte, please,"

"Hazelnut coffee," Adam added.

"Black coffee," Don nodded.

"Same as him," Robin jerked her head in Don's direction.

"Alrighty, that's an easy order. I'll be right back," the waitress left.

Don chuckled, then looked at Robin. "Black coffee for you? That's brave for a woman,"

"What did you expect me to ask for? An iced coffee with caramel? Sure I enjoy those, but it's more fun being adventurous,"

Don raised his eyebrows. "I like you already,"

Robin laughed.

Danny also smiled. "So, who's the older of you two?"

Robin raised her hand.

Danny's eyes widened. "And a girl who's not afraid to admit she's the older sibling? Are we on Earth any more?"

Robin pointed at him. "Hey, I said I was older, I didn't admit that I was old,"

Danny put his hands up. "Hallelujah, we're still home,"

Robin smirked. "How would you know? Maybe we're in some crazy parallel dimension somewhere where all women are tough because they've been trained by the leaders of the dimension: The entire Ross family,"

"OH!" Adam clapped, then held up his knuckles. "Pound it!"

Robin smirked and hit his knuckles with her own, then they slapped five, then clicked their tongues. "What up?" they said simultaneously.

Danny laughed. "So that's where you get it,"

Adam nodded. "You bet. That's ages old but never really gets old,"

"No one would ever think so," Danny replied.

Don looked at Robin. "So what brings you to New York, Robin?"

"Robbie, please, and just a visit in general. Gotta make sure my brother hasn't gotten into any trouble lately," she flicked Adam's ear and grinned evilly when he jerked away and glared at her playfully. "You haven't, have you?" she looked at Danny and Don. "…Has he?"

"Well, not really… but you may wanna kill him when you see his apartment," Danny shrugged.

Adam sunk lower in his seat. "I was gonna clean before you got here," he mumbled. "…And get some decent food,"

Robin laughed. "It's not like all you have is pizza, burgers, chips and other crap like that, right?"

Adam sunk lower, casting a glance at the waitress since she came back with their drinks and set them in front of their respective owners.

Robin paused and the other men exchanged looks, waiting for her to go on some total health rant, but were surprised when she burst out laughing. "You haven't changed, A-Ross,"

Adam sat up a little bit, a look relief spreading on his face at the use of her nickname for him that she used when she was in a very good mood.

Robin smirked. "I'm not Mom, man. I could care less. All Amber and Jen had were those really crappy health meals that you order over the phone that are like two spoonfuls of food and that's it. I need junk food after that,"

Danny went wide-eyed again and put the spoon he had been stirring his latte with. "Why can't there be more women like you?!" he demanded.

"What about Lindsay?" Robin inquired.

Danny raised an eyebrow. "How'd you…?"

Robin pointed at her brother.

Danny glanced at Adam, who shrugged. He looked back at her. "Yeah, she's an amazing girl and she's tough in her own right, but you admit to being older, you drink black coffee, next thing we're gonna hear is you like football,"

Adam and Robin snorted.

Danny gaped at her. "You do,"

Robin nodded slowly.

"What team?" Don asked.

"Miami Dolphins. They have their ups and downs, but hey, they're better than the Jets at times,"

Don and Danny both looked at Adam and pointed at Robin. "Why have you been hiding her from us?!"

Adam paused. "I haven't really, I've mentioned her before!"

"Do tell," his three companions requested.

Adam took in a breath. He had really just mentioned her rhetorically a few times, so he knew he was in for it. Something told him that it was going to be a very long day. He started rambling on just as he usually did, mentioning several stories that he could think of that involved Robin, and to his surprise, the men had actually heard them, and Robin got more and more red with embarrassment as the stories went on, like when their old dog Desoto had somehow gotten into her room once and gotten into her underwear drawer and had dragged every article in it around the house. Needless to say, when they four were done, Adam had to run out of the building to get away from Robin, who was dead set on beating the crap out of him. She had managed to catch up with him and tackle him to the ground when they had reached a small park, but before she could do any real damage, Danny and Don had pulled her off of him.

"As much as I wanna see this and I'm sure Messer wants see this, I'm not in the mood to pick up little pieces of Adam," Don told her.

"Yeah, we just got off work. We're not going back on," Danny nodded.

"Exactly," Don agreed. "Kill him in the morning when he and I are unconscious,"

"YOU'RE GIVING HER IDEAS?!" Adam objected.

"Yes they are, and I'm taking them into consideration," Robin took one of his arms in her hand and helped him up . "Sleep with one eye open,"

"Hm," Adam nodded, shifting in between Don and Danny for protection.

Don grinned at the blonde evilly, then looked back at Robin. "So, you've had coffee. You hungry yet?"

"Not really. I've ate already, like I said,"

"Not in New York, you haven't," Don shook his head.

"I told you about the crap-food stuff with my friends, right?"

Don shook his head. "Sure, you've eaten here already, but you haven't really eaten in New York yet… as far as I know,"

Robin leaned towards Adam. "… Is he usually this strange?"

"Not at all," Adam replied.

Don smirked again. "My treat. Be right back," he trotted off across the street.

The Ross siblings watched him until he disappeared in the crowd, then looked at Danny, who shrugged. "Don't look at me,"

Don came back a couple of minutes later holding something that was wrapped up. "Now, if you've only been around Adam, I know you haven't had one of these," he unwrapped it. "Didn't know what you like on it, so it's plain, but still,"

Robin finally got a good look at it and realized it was a hot dog. "Are you kidding me? Is that from one of the vendors or something? I've heard rumors about these…"

"Trust me," Don reassured her.

Robin paused then took a bite, then started at him. "Holy crap, these things are amazing!"

Don nodded. "Toldja,"

Adam sighed. "And now we're gonna have to find a vendor for lunch and dinner every day she's here,"

"I'll pay for it, I don't care," Robin replied, going to town on the hot dog.

"Good. You're paying for both of us then," Adam told her.

"Whatever works," Robin nodded, then pointed at Don. "You are my new best friend,"

Danny turned to Adam and put his hands on his shoulders. "God help you, man,"

Adam merely grunted a bit before leading the others down the street yet again.