Montana

DL Set after S2 'Stealing Home'. Montana meets New York in a whole new way.

Disclaimer: I own my Muse, my imagination, my dreams, the fangirl in me and not a whole lot else. CBS I worship the ground you metaphorically walk on.

A/N:- I should warn you that if you don't like fluff or cheese then you'll probably be cringing throughout most of this. I have no idea what my Muse was thinking.

As of 2005, Montana has an estimated population of 928,670, which is an increase of 8,750, or 0.9, from the prior year.

As of 2005, New York was the third largest state in population with an estimated population of 19,254,630, which is an increase of 27,542, or 0.1, from the prior year.

Lot more people in New York. Lot more people to get killed. Lot more people for them to investigate.

Lindsay slammed a case file shut and reached for the next one on a pile of five. She hated Fridays and the number of reports she had to file before the weekend. And today she hated them even more than usual.

Usually when she thought of Montana, the first thing she thought of was how much she missed her home town, the familiar places, the friendly people, and the country air. Now the thing that came into her head when someone mentioned Montana was the innocent girl, Sara, who had come to the city looking for the same kind of excitement as she had. And Danny. Montana. Danny. Danny. Montana. Sid was lying about the whole crush thing right? Danny Messer was far too cool to get mixed up with an innocent country girl like herself, right?

"Thought you could use this." Stella said, setting down a Styrofoam cup of coffee down on the desk next to her.

Lindsay looked up. "Thanks." She said gratefully.

Stella sat down at her own desk and shuffled the loose papers on her desk, trying to clear a writing space. "You went down to the prison didn't you?" Stella asked although it was clear that she already knew the answer. Lindsay looked at her surprised. "Mac said than Danny said that the mermaid case affected you badly and that you wanted some answers." Stella explained.

"Wow, news travels fast around here." Lindsay muttered.

Stella smiled. She still remembered when she was the new girl trying to fit in the team. Lindsay was doing a much better job at it than she had. "We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to ….."

"No it's okay." Lindsay sighed. "I didn't get an answer from him anyway. Like Mac said, it's just something I'm going to have to get used to in this job."

"Well I'm warning you: There are somethings which you'll never get used to." Stella said, opening up a case file.

Lindsay dropped her pen on the desk and warmed her hands around the cup of coffee. "What's it like being back at work?"

"Tough." Stella admitted, swinging her chair round as she sipped her own cup of coffee. "Somehow or other, I seem to be able to relate every single moment of every case back to my own case. It's like Frankie's face is always following me everywhere." Stella looked down at the floor. She hadn't told anyone that before, not even Mac. He cared but his thoughts were forever on the rapist case and he tended to take her bravery at face value.

"I don't know how you do it. If it was me, I don't think I could have survived it and come back to work only a week after." Lindsay said quietly. She was slightly in awe of Stella. Ever since she arrived at the lab, she had kind of looked up to the older woman as a sort of mentor and everything she hoped that she could be one day.

"I have a little more faith in you then that." Stella said, smiling at her warmly. "Anyway, what are you still doing here this late on a Friday night? Shouldn't you be out having fun?"

Lindsay groaned. "Reports. I always leave them to the last minute." She sighed.

Stella chuckled. "Me too."

The two ladies turned back to their files and worked in companionable silence for awhile and Lindsay inevitably found her thoughts drifting back to what Sid had said. She hadn't been blind and she could see right from the start that Danny's interaction with her was somewhat flirtatious but she had taken it for granted that that was what he was like with everyone and the whole 'Montana' thing was just his way of winding up the new girl. Eventually she had been integrated into part of the team but the nickname had still stuck and, truth be told, she had gotten so used to it and would be surprised to hear Danny call her by anything else. Now every time he called her that, every time he even looked at her, she wouldn't be able to help just wondering what she would do if he ever tried to make a move on her.

"You know, most men bring flowers." Stella said, amusement ringing in her voice.

Lindsay looked up with a start to see Danny entering. Hadn't he left for the night?

"Sorry to disappoint you Stella but these are for Montana." Danny said, walking over to Lindsay, a grin on his face. Inside, Lindsay's stomach was doing somersaults and she hated herself for feeling this way. He held out something to her.

"Wheat? " She said taking the long strands of familiar organic material.

Danny shrugged and sat down on the edge of her desk. She could smell his aftershave and it made her feel suddenly very lightheaded. "It might not be an entire field of the stuff but I did my best."

Lindsay laughed, suddenly recalling their conversation earlier that day and she carefully put them in her pencil holder.

"Why do I get the feeling I'm missing something here?" Stella said, looking at them curiously.

"Just a little country versus city argument." Lindsay said, running a hand through her hair. She couldn't believe that Danny actually took to heart what she had said.

"So, it's a Friday night and we've all obviously got nothing better to do, why don't we go out for a drink?" Danny said as if the thought had just occurred to him whilst Lindsay was pretty sure he had come back to the office for that reason.

"Some of us still have a pile of paperwork to do." Lindsay said, motioning to her desk.

"It can wait until Monday." Danny said defiantly reaching out and closing the file which Lindsay had been looking at. Lindsay glared at him. "Come on Montana, let me show you what the city has to offer." He said grinning.

Lindsay made a face. "Fine." She said reluctantly.

"Coming Stella?"

"Not for me I've got to keep an eye on Mac and make sure he doesn't pull an all nighter again." Stella said, rolling her eyes. "You guys have fun though." She said pointedly.

Lindsay cringed inside at the look Stella was giving her and she smiled in embarrassment though Danny didn't seem to notice. She grabbed her jacket and her bag and let Danny lead the way out.

"So where do you want to go?" Danny asked, turning to her as they swiped out.

Lindsay shrugged. "You're the man about town – you choose."

Danny gave her a small smirk. "You're letting me choose?"

Seeing the look on his face, Lindsay instantly regretted letting him have the final decision. "Well …."

Danny waved a cab and cut her off. "Nope, you're letting me choose." He told her and leant forward to tell the cab driver their destination.

"That doesn't sound like a bar." Lindsay frowned.

"It's not. It's my apartment." Danny said off-handedly and then chuckled at the look on Lindsay's face. "Don't worry Montana, you have nothing to be afraid of." He said patting her leg.

Lindsay suddenly felt very much out of control. Writing reports sounded like a much safer option.

………………………………………….

"Why exactly are we at your apartment?" Lindsay frowned as she stood outside his front door, waiting for him to find his house key.

"What? Never been to a guy's apartment before?" Danny said grinning.

"You're either extremely sure of yourself or you don't know me at all if you think this is going to go anywhere ……." Lindsay started but before she could finish Danny put his finger to her lips to shut her up and then covered her eyes with his hands. "Danny-"

"Shh. Trust me." Lindsay heard Danny whisper somewhere near her ear sending involuntary shivers down her spine, then she heard the door open and Danny slowly walked her into his apartment. She could feel her heart racing. What game was he playing?

"This is because I know how much today's case affected you and I reckon it must be really tough moving so far away from home." Danny told her and then he removed his hands and stood back.

Lindsay let her eyes adjust to the light and then looked around. "Oh my God!"

She couldn't believe what she was seeing ……. All the furniture which had obviously once occupied the space in the middle of his living room was pushed to the side and in its place was what could only be described as a reconstruction of a country scene: wheat strands and hay covered the carpet, there were cowboy hats and accessories lying everywhere, there was a rocking horse with a lasso hanging from it, stuffed toys to represent farm animals, and a checkered cloth lay in the middle with a typical country picnic laid out complete with several types of cheese. And then out of nowhere country music started to fill the air.

She was in shock. "Oh my God, you did this for me?" She said turning round to face Danny.

"No, I usually live with my living room like this." Danny replied sarcastically, humour dancing in his eyes. Then he shrugged and looked slightly embarrassed. "I thought it might cheer you up."

Lindsay flung her arms around him then and gave him a little kiss on the cheek before hugging him. Danny seemed a little stunned before he began to hug her back. "Thank you. It's the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me." She said, resting her head on his shoulder. She couldn't believe this. She had never seen Danny as being such a sensitive caring guy. I mean of course she knew he was caring and thoughtful but to this extent …….

"Oh no Montana, I don't do sweet!" Danny said, raising his hands in surrender. "If you tell anyone about this then ….."

Lindsay giggled and moved away.

"Beer straight from the bottle?" Danny said, motioning towards the picnic cloth.

"Of course." She grinned, sitting down. She still couldn't believe it … "How on earth did you find all this stuff in a couple of hours?" She asked incredulously.

"My neighbour runs a stall at the 'country fair' they have in the community hall every month so she supplied me with the food and hay, the other stuff I picked up here and there and I hate to admit it but I managed to find some Tim McGraw in my music collection." Danny said, making a face.

Lindsay giggled and helped herself to some of the food, aware that Danny was looking at her closely. "What?" She asked good-humouredly.

Danny shrugged and scratched the back of his head. "Nothing, it's just I've never done anything like this for anyone before ……. Girls really like this stuff?"

Lindsay laughed. "Trust me girls like surprises like this although I'm guessing if you did this for every girl in New York then they might be a bit confused." She said, motioning to all the country stuff.

"I think I'll stick to picking up girls in bars then." Danny said, finishing off his beer.

Lindsay leant against the sofa. "So is this your attempt at picking me up then?" She asked. She had meant it to come out curiously but instead it came out sounding flirtatious even to her untrained ear.

"Is it working?" Danny asked giving her smile that would have made her fallen for him there and then if she wasn't already past that stage.

She looked away and blushed slightly with embarrassment when suddenly a new song came on and saved her from answering. "Ooooh, I love this song." She said jumping up. "Come on Messer, show me your country dancing moves."

"I don't have any of those kind of moves." He said shaking his head but Lindsay pulled him up anyway and they jerked to the music and Danny made some actions that sent Lindsay into a fit of giggles. She grabbed one of the cowboy hats and put one on his head as he twirled her around in time to the music.

Then the song changed to a slow one and she was about to collapse back onto the floor when Danny pulled gently on her arm, drawing her closer to him. He was looking at her intently and she knew that the way she was feeling now ought to be wrong. Things were landsliding and she felt she would no longer be in control of her actions for the rest of the night. She looked down but let him put his arms around her and she rested her head on his chest as they swayed in silence. He smelt so good, this felt so good …. He slowly ran one of his hands up her back until it was entwined in her hair.

"Lindsay." Danny said quietly.

She looked up at him then and met his gaze. She saw him lower his head and she made no attempt to move away. Their first kiss started out softly, like he was testing the waters giving her a chance to back out if she wanted. But she didn't, she kissed him back and let him deepen the kiss until they had no breath left. They pulled away slightly, their heads only centimetres apart and he leant in again. "Danny." She said breathless, between kisses. "We can't do this."

"Why not?" Danny replied, moving her over to the sofa.

"We work together." She said as Danny started kissing down her neck and moving his hands slowly under her blouse. "Things could get awkward."

He stopped then and looked her straight in the eye. "If you don't want to do this then we don't have to. I didn't do this whole country thing to get you to sleep with me for one night and then regret it."

Lindsay looked at him, still panting slightly. Any doubts she might have had about how much Danny wanted a serious relationship with her were pushed from her mind. She forgot about worrying what the repercussions of this would be at work and pushed him down on the sofa and climbed on top of him, straddling him.

"Wow, country girls really-"

Lindsay covered his mouth with her hand. "Don't finish that sentence Messer." She said, leaning forward and kissing him again.

A/N:- Tada!