A/N: Don't own 'em…but you probably knew that already.
Danny chewed on the corner of his lip as he left the labs. He had set up his experiment but it would take a several hours until the mold grew and tomorrow was his day off. He would have to ask someone to check on them for him. Lindsay or Hawkes could do it. But he wasn't looking for any opportunity to call Hawkes. He also didn't want it to be obvious to Lindsay that he was looking for any opportunity to call her. So he debated in his mind if he should take the risk and call her, knowing she may be able to see his ulterior motive, or if he should just call Hawkes.
Screw it, he thought as he pulled out his phone and hit the speed dial button marked "Montana Home."
"Hello?" She sounded annoyed already. Must have caller ID, he thought.
"Hey Montana. How ya doin?"
"I'm ok." She said tersely.
"You sure bout that? You sound pissed off?"
He could hear her sigh into the phone, but he couldn't see her as she scanned the disorder in her apartment and realized she was pissed off, with herself.
"Its kind of a long story" She said, not really wanting to reveal much to him, as she feared it might come back to bite her in the future. He rolled his eyes, she had so many long stories and she was sharing none of them with him.
"What's up?" She asked wanting to move the conversation along.
"I need to ask a favor."
"Sure." She was really trying to rush him off the phone so she could resume what she had been doing when he called.
"I got this mold experiment running. Won't finish though until tomorrow. But I'm off tomorrow and was going to take my Ma to visit Louie at the hospital, otherwise I would check in on it myself."
She softened at the mention of his brother. She sat down at her kitchen table holding the phone to her ear with her shoulder.
"Where are you now?"
"Subway stairs."
"Getting on or getting off?"
"Whoa Montana…"
"Danny." She scolded, she really was in no mood for his games.
"Getting on."
"Well, I'm kind of in the middle of something now," His heart sank, she was blowing him off. She continued, "if you have some time now, why don't you come by my apartment. You can give me all the info I need on your experiment and there's actually a favor you can do me in return."
"Sounds good. I can be there in about 25 minutes." Danny had at best hoped for a conversation with her tonight, going to her apartment hadn't even been a thought in his head. He immediately regretted that he had hung up without offering to pick up take out on his way.
Lindsay buzzed Danny up, and as he stood outside her apartment door he noted the warm waft of cinnamon and nutmeg. He wrapped on the door with his knuckles. She opened the door holding her head at a slight tilt and offering him a smile. He held a pizza box and a paper bag which she could tell contained beer.
"Hey."
"Hey kiddo. I figured you doin' me a favor, I owed you a pizza."
She grinned. "Come in."
He placed the pizza and beer on the coffee table as he shrugged off his jacket. He scanned her apartment which suited her. It was one of those pre-war buildings that had care in its details. Carved moldings, glass-paned doors dividing the living room from the bedroom. It wasn't ornate, but simple in its beauty.
She returned to the kitchen with some urgency. He followed and was slightly taken aback at what he saw. There were dozens of orange mini muffins lining her counters. And almost as many dirty bowls and pans.
He grinned at her with his crooked grin, "You moonlighting as a baker Montana?"
She rested her hands on the counter and looked at him with some distress on her face.
"Oh Danny. I'm such an idiot." She looked away.
His brow furrowed at her words and he took a step towards her. He put his hand on her elbow. "What's the matter?"
"Back home, every Halloween we would bake pumpkin muffins and give them out at Halloween. Last year I had to work, but this year since I had today off and it's Halloween I thought I could do it here too. But…"
He tried to suppress his smile at her naivety. "But New Yorkers ain't gonna let their kids eat baked goods from strangers."
"Yeah. I mean they wouldn't at home either, but there are no such things as strangers back home. Everyone knew me. I only realized that as the third batch was in the oven. And now I don't have any candy, and I have 100 mini-muffins."
He couldn't help it, he laughed at her. She closed her eyes as she laughed too.
"So this is what I was thinking. You could take them to the hospital tomorrow as a thank you to the nurses and doctors, leave them at the nurses station or something." He smiled and nodded, he never would have thought of that.
"But Danny, I couldn't run out with the oven on, and its almost dark, could you do me a huge favor and run downstairs to the convenience store on the corner and pick up some candy for me?" She wiped her hands on her pants leaving a smear of flour on the back pocket of her jeans which he tried not to stare at. She handed him a $20 bill and her apartment keys from her purse. "I should be close to done and cleaned up some by the time you get back."
He nodded. "No problem Montana. Any special candy requests?"
"No," she replied busying herself again in the kitchen. "Oh, but no Kit Kats, those are my favorite so I'll just eat them if they are in the house and I don't need that kind of temptation."
He put his jacket back on thinking about the absurdity of a woman as thin as Monroe worried about her candy consumption, but he didn't comment. He was almost at the door when she called after him "Same thing for Reese's peanut butter cups."
"Got it." he said smiling as he closed the door behind him.
Fifteen minutes later he returned shaking his head at himself. He and Lindsay hadn't even been on a date and she already had him running her errands. He had to make sure Flack and Adam didn't get wind of this, he would never live it down. He knocked softly as he unlocked her door and entered.
She had arranged all the muffins in a basket with wrapped in orange cellophane and tied with a bow. He noted there was also a small note attached to the top. He dropped her keys next to it and fingered the note she had attached to the ribbon "Your kindness and care is much appreciated. The Messer Family."
She had also set the table with an open beer at each of their places and the pizza in center of the table. She emerged from her bedroom wearing a tight light orange sweater and black jeans.
"Thank you Danny. You're a lifesaver." She gestured to the basket. "I made up a basket for tomorrow. I have these little notes with holes on top that thread on the ribbon, so I put one on. If you don't like it you can rip it off though." As soon as she had written "The Messer Family" she felt uncomfortable that she was overstepping her bounds and that it might put Danny off. Danny recognized from the slight babbling that she was nervous, and he also recognized that on some level he liked her off balance.
"Thanks Montana. That's real sweet of ya." He said reassuringly.
"Let's eat." She said walking towards the kitchen. She pulled two frosted mugs from her freezer and poured each of their beers into it.
She sat opposite him and took a bite out of the pizza slice he had placed on her plate. "Tell me about your experiment."
"mmm." He mumbled as he finished chewing. "Its mold. We found some spores on a vic…"
He was interrupted by a knock at the door. Lindsay's eyes grew wide and he noted the excitement on her face. She strode to the door while opening the bag of candy Danny had purchased. From his seat he couldn't see who was on the other side but could hear the exchange.
"Trick or treat."
"Oh my goodness, you're beautiful, are you a princess or a Queen?" Lindsay asked bending down to offering the bag.
"Princess," a small voice replied.
"And you, a penguin right here in New York? Is it cold enough for you?"
"Yes it is," another small voice answered.
"Happy Hollween."
"Happy Halloween," the small voices replied.
Lindsay shut the door and returned to her seat with a smile. The evening continued like that, Danny filled her in on the experiment between trick-or-treaters interrupting. Each one was greeted with some question on what they were or what they did. Danny was cleaning up the plates when he heard another such exchange.
"Wow, you're spikey. What are you?"
"Sonic the hedgehog."
"Oh my," Danny could tell from her tone that Lindsay didn't have the slightest recognition of this video game character. But she wasn't deterred.
"What kind of noise does a hedgehog make?" She asked as Danny almost spit out his beer with laughter.
The poor trick-or-treater was silent for a few seconds as Danny was sure he was puzzled. Finally he answered with, "Beep, beep, schwing."
"Oh cool." Lindsay replied with enthusiasm.
Lindsay closed her door and sat next to Danny on her couch. Her legs folded under her she looked at him, "I love Halloween. I think its my favorite holiday."
He was going to make some joke about her sharpening her interrogation skills on these poor kids but he didn't want to risk dampening her spirit.
"I can tell." He answered smiling at her, it was nice to see her happy. They sat on the couch and talked about Louie, about the job, about Halloween's growing up. Their conversation flowed so easily that they didn't notice that the stream of trick-or-treaters had stopped or that they had finished the six-pack Danny had brought.
Danny stretched and looked at his watch.
"Damn Montana its past eleven. I better go before the subway gets too filled with freaks," he said rising from the couch. He really didn't want to leave, but he didn't want to wear out his welcome either as he was hoping to be invited back.
"Danny, I'm sorry. I didn't realize the time," she said also rising from the couch.
"Don't be. I had a really nice Halloween," he said. They stood facing each other in front of her door. He reached into his pocket and handed her a Kit Kat and a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. "I think maybe you should give into temptation every now and then." She took them and gave him a knowing smile, fully understanding what he meant.
"Thanks Danny." She said handing him the basket of muffins. "I'm working on it."
The End