make me glow glow glow glow/ how far can you go?/ make me glow glow glow glow/ only you know how to make me/ glow glow glow glow/ i wanna go and go and go and go
-Nelly Furtado, Glow

Despite the stink of decomp that followed him like an ugly cloud, Danny fairly swaggered into the lab. Grinning at all he passed on the way to the locker room, he ignored the hands held to noses and the murmured complaints. He was far too happy to be upset by a little smell.

Of course, that didn't mean he was careless with scrubbing the scent off of his skin in the shower. Not when he had someone he wanted to get close to later.

With the benefit of hindsight, he knew that he had been making too much of it. For some reason he'd started putting it off, wanting things to be just right, which of course meant that he just got more anxious. Hell, it was only sex. But it was sex with Lindsay Monroe...

He had a feeling that he wasn't going to be able to concentrate around her for a while. Boy would Flack enjoy ribbing him about that. But the knowledge of the curves of her body, the smooth silk of her skin, they way she gasped and giggled when he...

He grinned again as he stepped out of the shower, feeling around on the bench for his towel and glasses. To think he had been worried about impressing her. It turned out that Miss Monroe was one hell of an impressing lady herself.

He heard women talking in the locker room as he towelled the water off his skin. The voices were easy to recognise. He would know those soft Midwestern tones anywhere- and after last night he was pretty sure he had heard her entire range. Also known, though not as well, were the brash rounded syllables of his New York born and bred supervisor.

He wasn't trying to eavesdrop on their conversation, honest. But as he dressed he couldn't help but overhear what they were saying.

"I can't believe it..." Stella said, laughter in her voice.

"I know," Lindsay replied. He smiled just to hear her. "I had no idea how hard it was going to be to convince Danny Messer to..." Her voice dropped and he couldn't hear the rest of the sentence. Pulling his shirt on, he edged closer, absorbed by the conversation.

"...the ex-boyfriend card?"

"Yeah," there was a pause, and he imagined she was bitting her lip in that damn cute way of hers. "And I told him I thought he was pretty cute- for a geek."

Stella laughed. "And it worked?"

"He got all insulted. And yeah, it worked."

He put it together. They had run into an old boyfriend of Lindsay's on the street outside the lab; he remembered her delight at seeing him, the tang of jealousy at the back of his throat, then the sly sideways look once she sent him once the ex had moved on. "You didn't think I was sitting around in my apartment waiting for you, did you, Messer?"

Later after dinner in a small family owned Chinese restaurant, and they were in his apartment, a whisper in his ear. And he'd stopped thinking beyond the need to prove to her exactly what kind of geek he was.

He heard Stella say goodbye, and the door close behind her. A moment, and he stepped out into the locker room, fully clothed.

She looked up from her locker, and smiled at him. He could close her eyes and see her naked. But really, this thing between them was always about more than that. Plus he understood how she could've been a little... frustrated at him for holding back.

He reached out and pulled her to him, capturing her lips with his own. She grinned when they separated. "Hi."

"Hey."

She frowned, screwing up her nose. "What is that smell?"

"Decomp."

"Eww." she said, but stayed in his arms. When she looked back up at him there was a serious glint in her brown eyes. "How much of that did you hear?"

"Enough."

He leaned forward and kissed the frown lines on her forehead. "I gotta say, Montana. I really like the way your mind works."

--------------------------

Sorry this took so long guys. First I had to figure out who was telling the story, then I had to get Danny's voice right, then I had to figure out what he was saying. And instead of doing that I was studying and working all the time. But as I am now only working 6 hours a week you can expect quicker updates from now on.

Would also like to state that I wrote this before the promos for the season finale came out. :p

Coming up next in Climb This Mountain- You didn't really think it was gonna be that easy for them did you? Now EVERYONE knows and someone's getting cold feet...