The Race
by messersmontana
Jess and Don meet for their run and she challenges him to a race for breakfast. See if you can guess who's gonna win. Takes place after Love run cold.
A/N This is a tribute to my beta reader and friend Cassie. But I do also want to thank all of you who have reviewed my stories and you know who you are. Because this is for Cassie, it is not beta read.
Disclaimer: Do you think if I owned CSI NY that I would have let me favorite character, Jess, die? Of course not.
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Jess got to their bench before Don did and started to do her stretching exercises so she would be ready to run when he got there. She'd had the night shift last night and today was her day off. The night sift was really boring last night, it seemed that every criminal was asleep or something.
She had today all planned out. First was her daily run with Flack, something they'd started a few days ago when she'd almost run him over at this very spot. This had become their bench, where they met everyday for their run.
After their run today, she'd planned on going to Mills Coffee Shop for a nice breakfast. It was one of her most favorite places to go first thing in the morning after a run. She was a regular there and never had to place an order anymore. If Joe saw her walk in, he would start making her breakfast before she even sat down at her regular booth.
Jess saw Flack heading her way and stood up as he approached. "Hey Flack, you're late. I almost started without you." She told him.
"You in a hurry Angell?" He replied as he started his stretching.
She shrugged. "Yeah, I've got places to be, breakfast to eat. Then a nice cool bed waiting for me back at my place."
He smiled. "You buying me breakfast Angell?" He asked.
"No, I'm not. How about we race our run today? Looser buys breakfast at Mills Coffee Shop." She challenged.
Never one to turn down a challenge, Don smiled even bigger. "Deal, but I hope that you brought enough money, cause I'm really hungry this morning."
Jess laughed. "Ditto Flack, cause I don't plan on loosing this race."
Don finished stretching and turned to her. "Oh wait, we can't run our normal route, cause it's still closed off to the public since the marathon." He informed her.
"Oh yeah, that's right. They had the marathon the other day though, I thought it would be clear up by now." She said, confused.
"It should have been, but there was a homicide during the race and we just closed the case yesterday afternoon, just before your shift. I believe the crime lab was going to have the scene cleared later today, but until then, we'll have to use an alternate route." He explained the whole story to her her.
"I must have missed that on the news, and since it was solved before I got on last night, I didn't hear about it. We could race down by the zoo and back. Same rules apply, looser buys breakfast." She challenged him again.
"Right, so you ready Angell?" He asked her.
She nodded. "I'm ready Flack."
"Okay then, go!" He exclaimed and they took off.
They ran side by side all the way to the zoo, and on the way back to the bench Jess took the lead, until Don sped up. Jess saw him moving closer to her and ran faster. They were both running as fast as they could, and both were running out of steam. Finally they both saw the bench in the distance and moved closer to it at the same time. In the end, it was Jess who won the race.
"How did you do that?" Don asked, out of breath. He was trying to catch his breath as he bent over, placing his hands on his knees. He hadn't run that, for that long since before the explosion.
Jess was also panting, trying to catch her breath. "I grew up with four older brothers who were very competitive and I was always getting into trouble with them. I had to be fast to keep away from them when they wanted to retaliate. My brothers could deal out punishments worse than my parents." She explained.
Don nodded. "Yeah, okay I now understand. I had to chase my sister Sam around too. She was always getting me into trouble, the monster." He said, but she could tell how fond he was of his sister by the look on his face.
"Okay Flack, let's go." She told him, changing the subject when her belly made a noise.
He actually looked confused. "Go? Where are we going?" He asked.
Jess wanted to laugh at the look on his face. "Breakfast? Mills? Remember you lost the race? You owe me breakfast Flack and I'm starving, and I'm driving."
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot the bet. Okay, you drive and I'm paying. I'm not sure where Mills is, I've never been there." He said, following her towards her car.
They got to Mills in no time, and Don was impressed with the place. There was a huge plate glass window with the word Mills painted on it. There was a green and white awning over the window and door and looking inside he could see how crowded it was.
They walked inside and he could see just how crowded it really was, he couldn't see an empty table. "Wow, they really pack them in here. I'll have to remember this place. How are we gonna find a table?"
"Not a problem, just follow me." She told him as she led him to a booth in the corner. He noticed that the table had a pile of clean dishes on it and as she sat down, a girl quickly took them away. "Thanks Lacy, how's your mom doing today?"
The girl looked from Don to her. "Hey Jess, she's doing well, almost time time now. I can't wait, this pregnancy has been hard on her. She's not a spring chicken anymore." She said as she poured coffee for them both.
"Well tell her that I said hello, and that I miss her. I also want to see that baby when it's born, so you have to call me as soon as she has it." She told Lacy, taking a sip of her coffee.
She nodded and her smile grew. "I sure will Jess, dad is hoping for a boy this time." She turned to Don and pulled out a pad. "Now, what will you have today?"
Don gestured to Jess to order, but Lacy kept looking at him, waiting. "Um, well I'd like your hotcake special with my eggs over easy and bacon, please." He told her and waited for Jess to order.
Lacy wrote it down and walked off without taking Jess's order. Jess grabbed the newspaper that had been left on the table for her and started to read one of the sections, not noticing the really cute, but confused look on his face.
Don picked up another part of the newspaper and started to read it also, but his curiosity was getting the best of him. "Okay, are you going to eat too? I mean you said that you were starving, but you didn't order anything."
Jess laughed and put the paper down. "I haven't had to place an order here for a long time now. I'm pretty much a regular here for breakfast and Joe, the owner and cook, and also Lacy's dad, noticed that my order was always the same, so they stopped taking my order and just brought me my food."
Don was about to respond until Lacy came back over with their food. She was followed by a younger girl, carrying orange juice, who became bashful when she noticed Don. "Hello there." He said to her and gave her a huge smile.
She hid behind Lacy until she got to Jess, the then girl hugged Jess. "Hello Cassi, how are you today?"
Cassie smiled. "I'm good, I missed you though. You haven't been here all week, I thought you forgot me. Is he your boyfriend?" She asked, pointing at Don.
Jess smiled and shook her head. "I could never forget you Cassie, and no, he's not my boyfriend. We work together, this is Detective Don Flack. Flack, this is Lacy's little sister Cassie." She introduced them.
Don reached over to shake Cassie's hand. "It's nice to meet you Cassie, and you too Lacy." He said as he shook each of their hands.
"It's nice to meet you too Don." Lacy said as she grabbed Cassie's hand. "Enjoy your breakfast you two. Come on Cassie, we're needed in the kitchen, we need to help Sarah finish the pies." And they were gone.
Don looked over at Jess's plate. "So, you always eat the same thing when you come here for breakfast?" He asked her.
"Yeah, they know exactly how I like it too. I always have two eggs over easy, turkey bacon on the crispy side, and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. My order never changes here. They always keep this booth empty in the mornings so that if I come in before or after work, it's all ready for me. They treat me like family." She explained.
He smiled at her. "Family is good, even if it's not blood relations. Kind of like all of us at work. It didn't take long for the people at the crime lab to bring you into the family fold."
"That's true and I'm so honored to be included in the family. Well, I guess I could do without Messer." She said and they both laughed.
They enjoyed their meal and talked about work, and Don even bought her a slice of pie. Jess sat back and sighed. "Thanks for breakfast Flack, oh and the pie too. I'm so ready for bed now."
Don couldn't pass up the opportunity. "Me too, your place or mine?" He joked.
"Ha, ha, very funny Flack. Don't you have to be at work in a few hours?" She asked him.
He laughed. "Yeah, I do. Why don't you drive me back to my car so that you can go home and get some sleep, and I can go home and get ready for my shift."
"Alright, I would like to get home before I fall asleep right here. Meet you at the park tomorrow morning?" She asked.
"Yeah, that sounds good. I was supposed to work the late shift tonight, but Adkins asked if we could switch. So I'll get up early again tomorrow and meet you at the bench." He said as he got up to pay the bill.
Jess drove him back to his car and they sat there for a few minutes, just talking. "Thanks again for breakfast Don, and the run. I really do have fun on our runs, even if we have to make them morning runs." She told him.
Don was thrown for a second when she finally used his first name. "You're more than welcome Jess, I enjoy our runs too. In fact, why don't we start running in the morning and then we could have breakfast at Mills? We could either go dutch, trade days on who pays, or even race to see who's gonna pay. Although if we race, I'll either have to get faster, or ask for a raise."
Jess laughed, something that she noticed she did more often lately, and always around him. "How about you take the odd days and I'll take the even? I'd also like to run in the mornings better, that way if one of us has to work the later shift, we'll still be able to get our run in."
"Okay then, I'll see you tomorrow Jess, oh and enjoy your day off." He said as he opened the car door.
"Thanks Don, you have fun at work, and I'll see you tomorrow." She watched him cross the road to his car and he smiled at her before he got into his car and drove away. She then pointed her car towards home, and that nice cool bed that was waiting for her.
The end
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A/N Okay, as I said this one was for Cassie for all of the help she has given me. I know I didn't mention much of the episode in the story, it just never entered my mind while I was writing this. Anyway, onto the next story now. Please review, I love to get reviews. They make me do the happy dance.