This is a Flack/Lindsay friendship story set after "Charge of This Post" when Flack is still in the hospital. I am a staunch Danny/Lindsay supporter (as you can see from the end of the fic) but I can see Flack and Lindsay getting on well.
I got this story into my head because I thought Lindsay might be a bit reluctant to visit Flack in the hospital because she still doesn't feel like a complete member of the team.
Apologizes if I get the talking a bit wrong. I'm still trying to get my head around writing fanfics based on TV shows rather than books. Also I'm working on improving my grammar, so any hints, tips or suggestions are greatly received.
"I ain't got anything contagious you know" he said as he opened his eyes fully and trained his gaze on the petite woman standing in the doorway.
"Sorry?" she asked startled. She hadn't been expecting him to be conscious, let alone coherent and when he spoke he had caught her of guard. She had been in her own little world.
"You can come in, I don't bite" he said with a smile, his blue eyes twinkling.
"That's not what I've heard," she replied with a smile while she swayed by the door, still slightly unsure whether to go into the room or not.
"I thought you where asleep," she said finally taking the plunge and taking a couple of steps inside the room, hands stuffed in the pockets of her jacket while her bag hung off one shoulder "I didn't want to wake you"
"I sleep too much these days" Sitting himself up in bed as carefully has he could, he gestured with his head towards the green plastic hospital chair that was set in place at the side of his bed.
Detective Donald Flack had seen many people occupy that seat in the past week and a half, but this was the first time the young brown eyed, brown haired detective from Montana had been present. At least to his knowledge, he had to admit that the first couple of days had been a bit hazy with all the pain medication they had been pumping into him.
Lindsay sat down on the chair and began to rummage in the bag she had brought with her.
"Hawkes said you where on solid food now, so I brought you something" she said as she pulled out a small sized box from the bag.
"Contraband detective?" he asked before his nose caught the smell of something that smelled just a little but like heaven (well to a man who had been living on hospital food for the last week) "Is that pizza?"
She smiled as she opened the lid of the box and presented him with several slices of pepperoni pizza "All the way from Joe's"
"God Linds, you're a life saver" he said taking an offered slice and inhaling, letting the smell wash over him before sinking his teeth in.
"Danny says it's the best pizza in town," Lindsay said as she watched him. He moaned softly in response causing her to laugh "Well at least I now know how to make you happy"
"Very, very happy" he said between mouthfuls.
Lindsay watched him for a moment before speaking.
"Stella said you hadn't seen me, and wanted to know why I hadn't been to visit yet," she said quietly as examined her fingernails.
"I have been around," she said, looking at him or rather, in the general direction of the wall behind his head "Its just, you've often been asleep when I do come to see you and I didn't want to wake you"
"Why not?" he said, wiping the corner of his mouth with a tissue.
"Well, for one thing its quieter," she said with a laugh and a smile "And because I though you would rather spend your waking hours with your friends and family" her voice trailing off ever so slightly towards the end of her sentence.
"To be honest Linds, I'm desperate for some normal conversation. No, let me finish," he said when she started to open her mouth to interrupt. "Mac comes in here and you can tell by the look in his eyes that something is haunting him about this whole incident. Stella fusses and clucks over me like a mother hen while Hawkes helps himself to the medical reports. Not that I mind," he said stretching on the bed and reaching for another slice before pushing the box in Lindsay's direction and motioning that she should take a piece "Things make a hell of a lot more sense now that he's explained them.
"Now Danny," he began "He comes in here and started talking about football or baseball but before you know it, he's going on and on about this girl he likes"
"Isn't that normal?" Lindsay asked, trying not to appear too curious.
"For him to go on and on about girls? Yes. But not the same one and not for months at a time. I'm telling you, that guy has it bad and he doesn't even realise it yet"
Lindsay let out a small non committal noise from the back of her throat and continued to eat her slice of pizza.
"Then you got my family" he continued after a short pause and another mouthful of pizza "I'm telling you Linds, I cant escape them. My aunts are all trying to set me up on dates with these nice girls they know while my mom, well she's treating me like a three year old, and don't even get me started on the nurses"
"What's that about the nurses Detective Flack?" came a voice at the door.
"That they're absolutely, amazingly wonderful people" he said, flashing his trade mark smile at the middle aged Afro Caribbean nurse who came into the room,
"Nice save Detective, though need I remind you that you'll be our guest here for another week at least? You don't want to get on our bad side now"
"No mam"
"Hey Jenna" Lindsay said, welcoming the nurse.
"Lindsay, how you doing girl?" Nurse Jenna Jones said as she fluffed Flacks pillow before picking up his wrist to take his pulse. "See," she said, gesturing towards Flack with her head as she watched her watch, mentally recording how many beats per minute Flacks heart was beating "I told you he's a wake sometimes"
"I know," Lindsay said with a smile as she watched Flack, several questions etched across his face "How's your little girl? Any better?"
"She's still got the spots, though they've finally stopped itching. Which means, come Monday, she'll be back to school"
"Bet your glad about that" Lindsay replied with a laugh.
"Amen honey" Nurse Jenna said as she let go of Flacks arm and jotted down some figures on his chart before leaning it against her chest and looking at Lindsay. "Now how's that Detective doing, the one with the nice arms and that butt"
"Its not nice to talk about me while I'm sitting right here you know" Flack said with a smirk, drawing the attention to himself then wishing he hadn't as Jenna cuffed his lightly on the back of the head.
"Quiet you," she said, sticking a thermometer in his mouth as Lindsay tried to hide her laughter behind her hand. She failed miserably when Flack attempted to glare at her. "I don't wanna see your butt after you've been sitting on it all this time. It'll be all pasty looking and saggy, and may I take this opportunity to remind you that those gowns at backless. So when you can get up, I don't want no floor show"
"Now her partner," she said whipping the thermometer out of Flacks mouth and reading it before pointing it at Lindsay "He could walk around here all day in a hospital gown and I wouldn't say boo. Man, can that boy wear a pair of jeans" she sighed "Makes me wish I wasn't already married. I'd be willing to play Doctor's and nurses with him any time he wanted"
"You'd better not wait too long to snap him up," the nurse said as she checked her watch and headed for the door "A man like that don't stay single for long" and with that she left. Leaving behind a slightly red faced Lindsay and a slightly bewildered Flack.
"How," he began.
"She used to come in and check your vitals when I was visiting, we just started talking"
"So," he tried again. This time Lindsay had her phone out and was standing.
"I have to go," she said, packing up the remains of the pizza and stowing the box safely in Flacks bedside cabinet "My shift starts in half an hour"
She bent down and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Get better soon ok, works kind of quiet without you" she said and turned to go when another voice sounded at the door.
"You still got me Montana, that's got to count for something" Danny Messer said as he lent casually against the door frame, idly observing the scene in front of him.
Flack had to give Lindsay some credit, she didn't stop and she didn't miss a beat with her reply, reaching the door she turned and looked back at him.
"I repeat, get better soon" before she walked out the door and down the corridor.
Danny bent over almost in two to watch her to the end of the corridor and get into the lift. When the doors closed he snapped his head back in the room and came face to face with a smiling Flack.
"What?" he said, a small blush creeping its way up from his neck to his ears.
"I'm trying to remember the last time I saw you blush" Flack said honestly, only causing the other man in the room to go a deeper, more vibrant colour of red.
"Is that pizza?" Danny said as he took the seat by Flacks bed and began to rummage through the piles of food that littered the shelves of the bedside cabinet.
"You know, I wonder whether you actually come to see me. Or do you just come for the free food?"
"Well, it's a toss up. However," he said as he extracted the box and opened it "On this occasion, it has to be the food"
"You'll like it," Flack said as he watched Danny stuff half a slice in his mouth "Its from Joe's"
"How'd you get pizza from Joe's?" Danny said after he'd swallowed the first mouthful.
"Lindsay brought it for me"
"Montana brought you pizza?"
"Yup" Flack said with a smile
"Huh" Danny said after a few moments then continued to wolf down the pizza.
Flack watched him while his mind went to work, putting together all the little pieces of information he had stored away in the back of his brain, about the mystery girl that Danny was always going on about. He twined it with what he had garnered this afternoon and came to a stark conclusion. One that, he thought, must have been staring him in the face for months now.
Danny looked up as Flack began to laugh to himself.
"Yo Flack. You alright?"
"Yeah. I just figured something out that's been bugging me for a while now" Flack said with total honesty "So, what's been happening?" he asked.
Danny fell into his usual triad about work and sport, finally lapsing into talking about this girl he liked. Instead of half tuning in out, Flack actually listened this time and felt like slapping himself on the head for missing it before.
"You ever going to up the anti and actually ask her out? Or are you just going to continue yapping away to me about her?" he eventually asked Danny.
"Eventually," Danny replied with a glance at his watch "Look man, I'm going to have to head. The paper works been piling up and if I don't make a start on it, Mac'll have my head" and with that he stood.
"Tonight"
"Sorry?" Danny asked.
"Ask her tonight" Flack said, fixing his gaze on Danny.
"Why?"
"Seems as good a time as any" Flack replied with a shrug.
"I, hey! How do you even know I'm going to see her tonight?" Danny asked suspiciously, folding his arms across his chest.
"A detective never revels his sources" said Flack, mirroring Danny's pose as well as he could while laying on a hospital bed in a gown that was open at the back. He really needed to remind his mom to bring him in some t-shirts and sweat pants for him to wear.
"Maybe" Danny said after a bit, deciding that Flack wouldn't budge and tell him how much he knew, or how much he thought he knew. He was probably way of base anyway. "See yah"
"I wouldn't wait too long," Flack began as Danny headed out the door "A girl like that doesn't stay single for long" he said as Danny disappeared out of the room and into the hall.
Picking up the final slice of pizza and holding it in his hand as though it was a prize, he said to himself "Especially one who brings guys pizza from Joe's" before taking a bite and sinking once more, into pizza heaven.