A Gift

"Did you ever see yourself going out to buy teacher gifts over your lunch break?" Lindsay asked Danny as they strolled through the little artisan shop that had opened a block away from the lab.

"Did it mean spending time while I did so with a girl I was crazy about that I hadn't sat down to a meal with in two weeks?" Danny slid his arm around her waist and drew her close to his side as she stopped to go through a number of hand made photo frames. "Yeah, I could have seen myself doing that."

"But that wasn't the question," Lindsay pointed out. "Did you ever think about going out and buying teacher gifts?"

He nearly denied it until an old memory rolled in. "Yes, actually. Yes I did."

Lindsay let out a short laugh and turned to look at him. "Liar."

"No, no... in the third grade my mother drug me down to Macys where she purchased a gift for Mr. Vanmier, and had it wrapped in this bold paper with this really big bow she was going to make me carry to school," even now the memory terrified him. "When I complained about it one too many times, she started lecturing me on the fact that one day I would have a kid that would take after me and I would understand how important it was to thank those teachers for putting up with me. Then she asked me what I would get for the teacher when I had a son who did whatever I must have done that time for my own teacher who was doing everything they could ... and then she kept asking until I gave her back the answer she wanted."

"I love your mom."

"Yeah, so I thought about it. I'd say I was lucky that I had a daughter that took after her mom in school, but since her mom was known for using a sling shot on boys ..." he considered it, then shrugged. "I guess I'm still hoping Lucy takes after her mom."

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