Author: pchefbeth
Rating: M for swearing and innuendo
Spoilers: Every time
Summary: This is for the reader who is either new to the series or new to the DL (Danny/ Lindsey) Relationship I love so much. I thought that I would give you a recap of their relationship from the beginning. This way you can find all the sweet spots in the series. Anything that is said in italics or is an internal thought is my own interpretation. I do not own the characters of CSI NY, but boy do I wish I worked with them. I'm trying to make every episode a chapter so that you can "watch along", but I will from time to time add "Missing moments". I will always mark them as such. I've tried to get the quotes as accurate as possible, but anyone that can offer suggestions or that spots a mistake I am always thankful for editing. Beware- there are spoilers in every chapter. I hope you enjoy this.
Danny and Lindsey- From the Beginning
Chapter 1- Zoo York – Season 2.3
Scene: The New York Zoo in Central Park. Yellow crime scene tape surrounds the Large Cat exhibit, and several cops stand guard shooing away would be onlookers. A petite brunette walks through the crowd and flashes a badge at the nearest cop.
"Detective Lindsey Monroe. I'm looking for Detective Mac Taylor."
The cop looks over her ID and nods toward the crime scene tape. "He's in there. Down the ramp and to the left, inside the cage."
Lindsey smiled at the cop as a wave of nervousness and glee filled her. Her first New York Crime scene. She had ducked underneath and was a few steps past the tape when the cop's words actually registered.
"He's inside the cage?" she turned back to ask.
The cop glanced back at her. She stood 5'4 at best, was slight in nature and had a fresh to the city kind of look. She was going to get eaten alive. He didn't answer her again, just jerked his thumb back towards the cage.
Lindsey nodded again absentmindedly, smiled again at the cop and started to walk in the direction of her cage looking for her new boss.
Just a few yards away Detective Danny Messer was busy processing the crime scene. He was talking pictures of some blood spatter when he noticed the woman walking towards them. His investigative instincts kicked in while he tried to figure out who she was. She had that look about her that all real new Yorkers recognized. Transplant, he thought. Fresh off a bus and from the look of her smile she was new, real new to the job. She had a confident walk though, he noticed, not to mention a nice figure. He didn't think too much of it. It would have been more out of character for him to not notice a pretty girl. He watched her approach the tiger cage where Mac sat with the tiger and followed closely behind to learn a little more. Convincing himself that it would be in his best interest to get a closer look, he moved closer to the cage bars and pretended to be taking pictures of the scene.
Lindsey put her kit down as she stopped looking in the cage. "Detective Taylor?" she asked.
"Yeah?" Mac replied gruffly.
"Lindsey Monroe." she answered.
"My new investigator from Bozeman." Mac said with interest.
"Yes sir. Your office said you wanted me to come down as soon as I arrived. "
"Glove up."
"Now?"
"Are you here to watch or work?" Mac replied.
Lindsey reached into her kit to grab her gloves. "Do you want me to start processing?" she asked trying to stay upbeat.
"No ,Danny's got that covered."
From behind her came there was a man's voice. "That'd be me. Danny Messer, How you doin'."
Lindsey quickly said "Hi" to the Italian with the thick accent, barely registering his question. She turned back and focused her attention on the scene before her. Her new boss was actually handling a Tiger.
Lindsey turned back to Mac so quickly she didn't see Danny's quick but appraising look. Nice build, he thought, getting closer. He was so close that he could smell the shampoo that she used. Something soft and subtle, it made him think of rain. She was a far cry from the girls who usually caught his attention. He liked them fast with long legs, some glitz and a healthy New York attitude. This one had all the markings of a girl next door type, just not from his neighborhood. The girls from his neighborhood had more spunk than sweet. Bozeman, where the hell was that anyways? A Rookie. he thought. She was going to get eaten alive. The thought gave him an idea.
Mac was still speaking to Lindsey and she was preparing to head into the cage to help Mac while he made dental impressions of the tiger.
Danny leaned closer to Lindsey and murmured words for her ears only. "Just take a deep breath and don't let him know that you're afraid, because he can sense when you're nervous."
The tiger's tranquilized, I think I can handle him," Lindsey retorted smartly.
"I was talking about Mac," Danny replied without missing a beat. "And make sure you call him 'Sir'."
Lindsey's eyes got a little bigger and she nodded absently to Danny's words, and started for the cage door.
Danny walked away with a chuckle to himself. Sucks to be the rookie, he thought, and waited to see what would happen next.
Lindsey entered the cage slowly, then approaching the prone tiger, knelt down behind his head and helped Mac force open the very large jaws of the tiger. Mindful of the man standing behind her with a tranq gun, the very large teeth she was holding onto, and the man in working in front of her, Lindsey started to get more than a little nervous. Silence always rattled her a little and she started to talk about the first thing she could think of.
"You know petting a cat has been scientifically proven to lower your blood pressure?" she asked Mac.
"Maybe the Vic heard the same thing", Mac answered with a grin. He completed the tigers tooth mold and began working on the paw prints.
Lindsey continued. "Tigers stripes are like fingerprints, no two tigers have the same pattern of stripes." On a roll she continued. "Females range in size from 8' to 9'. Sorry sir I recite meaningless trivia when I'm nervous."
Mac stopped her mid ramble. "This one's a male," he said calmly, nodding his head towards the rear of the tiger.
Lindsey gaped at her error. "Sorry sir, I should have checked first".
"And don't call me Sir," he said curtly before going back to his work.
Lindsey stared at Mac for a second and then whipped her neck around to glare at the detective she had just met minutes ago. She'd been so anxious she hadn't even considered that there would have been misinformation given. He'd made her look like an idiot!
Danny heard most of what Mac had said, but then his attention had wandered while looking at the stone wall of the cage. The blood from the 'vic' was starting to attract bugs and he was swatting at a cloud of them when he noticed the icy glare coming from the new girl. He stared back at her for a second and then gave one of his patented "What?" shrugs. The new girl spun back around to look at the tiger effectively trying to ignore him. Great, he thought, the rookie has no sense of humor. She better get one quick he thought, or she'll never make it in New York. Welcome to CSI-NY, he said quietly in his mind.
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Lindsey's thoughts started to wander as she took in the scene before her, and the body parts strewn across the yard. The tiger has consumed a large part of their 'vic.' As she transferred the remains into the body bag, she allowed her thoughts to quietly sift through what she knew of the case so far. Being in New York was every bit of exciting as she had dreamed. She just hoped that Detective Taylor- no, Mac's first impression of her hadn't been all bad. She blew her bangs up out of her face in frustration. She had expected some "give the bad jobs to the rookie" sort of treatment, but who would have thought that she would have gotten stuck with such a jerk on her first case. 'Danny Messer'. Was he this arrogant all the time? If so, how could Mac stand to work with him? She looked towards the two men standing at the end of the yard who were looking at the blood trail. Mac struck her as a 'by the book- no nonsense' kind of cop. But Messer, he just came across as cocky and arrogant. Typical New Yorker, she thought. Better get used to playing nice with them, there are certainly a lot more of them than you. She finished bagging the remains and caught part of the conversation that Mac and Danny were having.
"I've got the curator getting us names of vets, guests, keepers and anyone that has access to the zoo after hours." Danny assured Mac.
"Better tell the curator to also send to the lab anything the Tiger passes." Mac added.
"Passes?" Lindsey couldn't help asking aloud.
"Yeah, 'passes'," Messer responded. He looked over his shoulder at the young detective." I'm sure you've never seen anything like that up in Montana."
"You ever see what a Black Bear can do to a full grown man?" She retorted back at him.
Mac went up the ladder to follow the blood trail, and Detective Messer followed shortly after, leaving Lindsey to to complete the scene.
Idiot, she thought to herself. Thinks he knows everything. What like we don't have a zoo in Montana? Granted I've never been called the scene of suspected mob hit inside of a Tiger cage in the Montana Zoo in Billings, but I know that there are just as many dangerous animals in Montana as there are in New York. With that last thought, she somberly zipped up the body bag, and started to clean up the scene.
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Later that afternoon back at the lab, Danny looked up from the trace he was reviewing. The new girl- Monroe, was rummaging through every cabinet in the looking for something. He decided to be charitable and offer to help the new rookie learn the ropes.
"Help you find something?", he offered.
Trying to control her mounting frustration with the fact that nothing was labeled, she quickly quipped back, "Oh no, thanks, you helped enough already this morning."
Nice attitude, Danny thought. "Oh-kay", he snidely muttered back. God, she was still mad about that 'sir' thing. Adian would have already found a way to play a joke on him to get him back. She was going to be a pain to work with.
He turned away from the lit table to access the microscope behind him but he as he turned he ran right into her. She was just a few inches shorter than him, and as he steadied her arm and motioned for her to go first he caught the light scent of her shampoo again. He inhaled before he could catch himself. Her face turned up to look at him as she walked past. Big brown eyes focused in on him and then dismissed him just as coolly and she moved to work at the other table just down from him.
They both tried to concentrate on the evidence in front of them in silence, but their thoughts and eyes kept wandering back to the other investigator a few feet away.
Idiot...
Stuck up..
thinks he knows everything...
...kinda cute but annoying...
...arrogant, what does he think I can't hack it...
...country girl!
...city boy!
Danny finished his work and then left to take his evidence to trace, leaving Lindsey in the room trying not to notice him walking away.
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Lindsey all but ran down to the reconstruction lab Stella had told her Mac was working in. She had completed all of her evidence traces and sent everything over to DNA for review. She had even completed her CODUS search and while there were no hits she at least had an update for Mac. Stella had found her finishing her trace and told her that Mac wanted to see her as soon as she was done. Stella seems really nice, she thought. In fact everyone had been really helpful, the lab techs were always offering to help her with something, and Stella had taken a moment to give her some really good advice. 'Protein Bars, Comfortable shoes and 4 hours of sleep a night', she had told her. She agreed about the shoes. Her feet would probably be throbbing later, but for now she was too excited to notice. When she entered the reconstruction lab Mac was waiting.
"I sent trace on the shoes from our vic, some sort of sawdust compound, and sent it over to DNA. No hits in CODUS though." she finished.
"So he's a John Doe for now," replied Mac thoughtfully. Then he gestured towards a nearby rack. "Grab a bib." and he moved towards a large pig carcass that was hanging from the ceiling.
"I've heard about these reconstructions, but I've never done one," she admitted to Mac.
"Well this should be memorable for your first day". Mac said grinning.
"The Tiger wasn't bad," she replied.
He began explaining the reconstruction set up and Lindsey nodded absently as she absorbed the technique. Mac handed her a small pick and told her to "Give it a try". After a reassuring glance from him, she began her attempt. She and Mac took turns stabbing the carcass with various sharp instruments, measuring the widths of the holes and marks and referring back to pictures that had been sent up from the morgue.
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Danny had gotten the results back from trace, and the tech also had the results for Monroe. He was still shaking his head over the techs initial unwillingness to give up the results to him. The silly kid had insisted that he should give it to Lindsey himself. Looks like Monroe was turning some of the tech's heads already. He walked towards the lab where Lindsey was working with Mac in reconstruction thinking about her some more. I mean she's good looking and all, but she's defiantly not my type. He grinned thinking of his latest date with the blond bomb named Cindy. He wanted a woman that he could have some laughs with, and Monroe obviously had no sense of humor. That thought died a little as he walked into the room behind Mac and heard Lindsey crack a joke about never eating bacon again. Mac actually laughed. What was that about? Mac rarely laughed. at least at his jokes. Maybe Monroe actually could be funny.
Danny leaned against the door frame and reported what trace had found. "The DNA on the tape only belonged to our Vic, but the shoes were another story. The flesh that 'Montana' here found, was a mixture of Pork, Beef and Lamb."
It was a last second decision to call her Montana, something about the way she got all indignant about that bear comment earlier. Like anything ever happens up in 'nowhere, Montana', Danny thought. The second he said it though she got all annoyed, and gave him this look. She didn't say anything in front of Mac, just rolled on past it, but he could tell it had really annoyed her. He filed that piece of information away for later. She really was so easy to tease.
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Mac took Lindsey with him to look for their new suspect, a man who had clocked into work but had left before anyone else got there. It seemed that he had had an argument with their vic just the day before. He wanted to let her get a chance to work some more in the field, so he sent Danny back with the newly bagged evidence from the meatpacking plant to start working. The two of them had been bantering the entire time. Even he couldn't help but notice. They defiantly hadn't gotten off to a good start. Maybe he shouldn't have had Danny working with her on her first day. He was still too emotional about Adian. But he needed his entire team to be able to work together and do it well. He'd spent too long building this team up, and he wanted to make sure that Lindsey was going to be a good fit. No better way, he thought than to see what she's capable of. She seemed eager enough to do the work, and he already knew that she was capable. Her history in Bozeman had proved that to him. He's reserve judgement on her though until he saw how well she would fit in.
Mac headed up into the building where their suspect lived and stopped when he realized Lindsey had stopped just outside the entrance and was writing something. As he walked back to her side he saw her assessing the building and a small sign in the front window.
"Still haven't found a place to live yet?" he asked her.
Lindsey shook her head 'no'.
"Have you tried Queens, Brooklyn, Long Island?" he offered.
"This girls heart is set on Manhattan", she admitted with a smile. "Until then its Uncle Freddy's couch in Terrytown." Then she started to head into the building. This time she stopped when she realized that Mac hadn't followed. As she stood on the stoop, Mac approached a man that fit the description of their suspect. Suddenly the man swung his bag at Mac and bolted down the sidewalk towards her with Mac seconds behind him. She didn't even have time to think, just threw her entire weight into the move and slammed into the suspect as he ran by. She took him by surprise and they barrelled into a parked car. As the man tried to get up Mac had caught up to them and helped her slam the suspect back down until they were able to cuff him.
As he caught his breath Mac turned with a bewildered grin on his face. "What do they feed you up there in Montana?"
Lindsey just grinned at him as they forced the suspect to his feet and started back to the station.
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Missing Moment 1
Danny was walking through the hall as he wolfed down a slice of New York's finest pepperoni pizza, reading the latest report on the tape they had brought back from the meatpacking plant. He spotted Mac and Lindsey come in with a man in cuffs. Looks like Mac caught our guy, he thought. As he neared them he caught Mac smiling again at something Lindsey said. She was smiling too, until she turned and saw him walking towards them. Her smile faded as she saw Danny approach them.
"You caught him." Danny stated to Mac.
"Actually- Lindsey caught him." Mac corrected. He grinned at the memory. "She took him down in a full body tackle. You should have seen it. Saved me chasing him all over Manhattan."
Danny smirked while looking at the petite woman in front of him. "Get outta here." he said to Mac. "Jeez Monroe, what do they feed you up there in Montana?"
Lindsey glanced at him coolly, then she turned to Mac and said, "I'm going to finish working on the trace from the warehouse, maybe see what touched that meat." She glanced once more briefly at Danny then headed back to the lab.
Mac and Danny watched her walk off.
"No sense of humor that one," Danny mused, and he turned and walked back to his evidence in the lab across the hall.
Mac looked back and forth between the two of them for a moment, then decided to let them work it out between themselves and walked back to his office.
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Missing Moment 2
One of the the younger lab techs that she had met earlier knocked on her lab window catching her attention. In her hands she held a large bin.
"Excuse me Lindsey" she said, "someone from the zoo just dropped this off. He said it was something something from the Tiger cage for the investigation." She placed the bin on the table and walked quickly back out.
Lindsey looked around. Where there had been a lab full of people a few minutes ago, it was a ghost town. A sneaking suspicion started to form in her mind. She turned the bin around and on the front there was a large label in black ink. Tiger Dung for CSI.
From the sudden lack of techs around Lindsey sighed at the implication.Its a dirty job, she thought, and it looks like the Rookie's got to do it.Well, she thought, I won't let anyone say I can't pull my own weight, especially Messer. He'd probably make some farm remark. She picked up the box and headed to find some bibs and a wash bin where she could hose off her new evidence.
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Missing Moment 3
Danny was walking out after pulling another 12 hour shift. He would have stayed longer but Mac had him on an early shift the next day with Sheldon and they were both heading out for the night. As he walked towards the exit he spotted the new girl-Lindsey working with one of the lab techs, she must have still been processing the suspects clothes from his apartment. She glanced up and caught his eyes for just a moment. Her gaze was rather cold. She must still have been mad.
Sheldon must have saw her too because he asked, "Is that the new inspector- Lindsey Monroe?"
"Yeah, from Bozeman Montana." Danny replied. "I don't know Hicksville USA if you ask me."
"Is she any good?" asked Hawkes.
Danny's eyes flickered over with a lazy grin to Hawkes face.
Hawkes rolled his eyes at the innuendo. "At the job Messer."
Danny bobbed his head half heartedly. "She's not bad. She's no Adian though. Doesn't have much of a sense of humor."
"Let me guess," Sheldon asked with a small grin, "been welcoming her to the team?"
"I guess they don't joke up there much in Montana. She's kind of fun to rile though."
"Did you hear how she took down that suspect today with a full body tackle. Never guess it by looking at her." Sheldon mused.
Danny's mind conjured up a vision of Lindsey tackling him, and had to shake his head to clear the image. It must have been a long day if he was having thoughts like that. Man he needed a night off if he was thinking of Lindsey that way- no better to think of her as Montana. It would help dispel any other wayward thoughts he might have. There was no way he was going to start thinking about her like that.
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Missing Moment 4
Lindsey blew her hair out of her face and looked back down at the evidence she was cataloging. Not bad for a first day. After she finished going through the Tiger dung she had gotten a break in the case. In the remains was an index finger and stuck inside it was a thorn- specifically from a rosebush. That combined with the fertilizer she found on the meat suggested a gardener. It was Messer who had remembered that there was a gardener there that morning who was planting rose bushes at the Zoo. Mac had taken her back out in the field to search the suspects garden center. They had found plenty of evidence and the motive for the crime. Unfortunately before they could get to him, someone else had. Mac was interrogating another suspect in the disappearance, the vic's uncle who reportedly was connected in a 'connected ' sort of way.
Well, she thought to herself, she would never be bored here in New York that was for certain. She heard a voice in the hallway and watched Danny and another Detective- Hawkes she had heard him called, walk out for the night. She pretended not to notice Messer walk past. From everything that she had heard, he was a good detective. Cocky, some of the techs admitted. Cute, even more of the female techs admitted. She shook her head at the thought. There was no way she was going to start thinking of him like that. She looked down on the evidence from the suspects apartment. Better get back to work, Mac was going to want a status report soon.