In The Know Once Again
DL Set during S2 'The Lying Game' Sometimes Sheldon Hawkes knew he was the best CSI out of all of them.
Disclaimer: I have custody of my Muse and the plot but I humbly acknowledge that I have no jurisdiction over the characters themselves.
A/N:- This is a sort of sequel (as the names suggests) to 'In The Know' but I guess you don't have to read that first.
Stella knew, Mac knew, Sid knew, Flack knew, hell even Adam knew. Danny liked Lindsay and that was a fact.
It hadn't come out in some kind of big revelation where they had gathered in a huddle in the morgue and Sid had spilled all and they had gasped in surprise. No, it had been something that had been gradually revealed to each of them at various stages in time. He, the great Sheldon Hawkes, laid claim to being the first to acknowledge the growing attraction between his two colleagues pretty much as soon as he had heard Danny call Lindsay 'Montana' for the first time. Then Stella had picked up on the vibe with her quick woman's intuition and had passed along the information that what was going on hadn't passed Mac by either. When Sid had finally broached the subject, he had said he had noticed it a long time ago and Flack and Adam had claimed that they had seen it all along.
So the clueless twosome had been alone in their ignorance for a long time leaving the others to sit back and watch their flirtatious interaction with smirks on their faces until one day the whole thing changed.
Hawkes had been in the lab with Lindsay when she had received the call from back home. He had seen how from that moment everything about her had changed. Her bubbly personality and cheery smile were replaced with the frown, the sad look in her eyes and a definite lack of concentration. A few days later and Danny had changed too. He no longer took every opportunity to flirt with her and he called her 'Montana' less and less. The vibe between them was no longer underlying sexual attraction but awkwardness and discomfort. At first he had thought that maybe they had slept together and things didn't work out but by the longing looks he saw Danny give Lindsay whenever she wasn't looking, he knew that wasn't the case. Flack had mentioned something about Lindsay standing Danny up at the restaurant but that information wasn't confirmed, only a suspicion the Detective had managed to deduce from something Danny had let slip. The phone call that Lindsay had got – Hawkes was sure that had something to do with the sudden change.
The day Lindsay had asked for the keys to the SUV as soon as they arrived at the crime scene was the confirmation Hawkes needed about the suspicions he had had about the sudden change in behaviour and though it gave him concern, it didn't surprise him when Sid had told him about her breakdown in the morgue.
What did surprise him was the fact that during the weeks after the morgue incident, Danny seemed as ignorant as the rest of them as to what kind of trouble Lindsay was going through. They were all concerned for her but Stella was the only one who knew what was going on and she had understandably been very tight-lipped about it all.
After Lindsay had come to see him to tell him that she was going away for awhile, he had respected her privacy by not asking for any explanation and simply giving her a hug and wishing her well but he had hoped that she had at least spoken to Danny about it. After all, that poor guy was practically half dead with pining for her when she was in the same room, Hawkes had no idea what her being the other side of the country would do to him. All those hopes were shattered when she had walked into the lab, a card in hand.
"Hey, I thought you'd left. You okay?" He asked. She was smiling but he knew that it was just a façade she had put on to try and convince everyone that going home was no big deal.
"Yeah, just tying up some loose ends." Hawkes knew she was referring to Danny and it disconcerted him slightly that it meant he was still oblivious to her eminent departure. "Have you seen Danny?"
"He's out in the field." Hawkes told her not failing to see how she looked positively relieved to hear him say that. He glanced at the envelope in her hand. He prayed that it wasn't what he thought it was. No …. Surely not …. Come on Lindsay!
"Could you make sure that he sees this? She asked, putting it on the desk.
"That's how you're going to tell him you're leaving? A card?" Hawkes didn't know what kind of relationship etiquette they taught up in Montana but surely even a country girl knew that men's appreciation of cards started and ended with the card with the girl's number scribbled on it. Still, this was love-struck Danny 'I'll even listen to country music for you' Messer so maybe he would jump with joy at a card which he could read again and again to wile away the hours when she was away.
"It's not a big deal. I'll be back." No big deal? Was Lindsay really as clueless as she was appearing to be or was she just trying to feign innocence about Danny's feelings for her.
"At least call him. Give him a chance to say goodbye." Hawkes suggested pointedly.
The look she gave him in response was slightly coy, half surprised at his unspoken hint that her relationship with Danny was any different than with the rest of them and her mouth twitched slightly as if she was shocked at his boldness in daring to interfere.
The thing was Hawkes didn't want to interfere. He appreciated that anything outside of work was none of his business but with Danny and Lindsay it was slightly different. They had been dancing around each other for so long he was surprised they weren't already as dizzy as he was just watching them. He hoped that when Lindsay came back from Montana she would have been able to file away those things keeping her from doing what she obviously wanted to do and he wouldn't have to keep on nudging.
After all, make no mistake, he was not looking to don the wings and take up the bow and arrows and play Cupid but if that was what it was going to take then in the end Hawkes was willing to give it a try.
And if it came to that then he was sure that his two friends would eventually thank him for it.
A/N:- Just a short little fic because I think that there's a Danny/Lindsay shipper inside Hawkes that is just dying to get out. Hehe. Hope you like.