This is kind of an AU fic. The only change is that Lindsay did not join the NYPD when she came to NY. She still meets Danny and the events of season 2 happen. Please let me know what you think.

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Lindsay Monroe loved New York City. In the five months that she'd been there, she's made a huge change in her life. She was hopelessly devoted to her job and the change she was making in the world. The people she worked with welcomed her in and treated her life family. The dedication and creativity she brought to the job was almost boundless. And, sure it was a thankless job, but she could read volumes of appreciates in the faces of those around her. Each day was different, nothing was mundane or routine and she was proud of what she did. The sun was shining and today promised to be just as exciting as the previous

***

He didn't know if anything he'd done this morning deserved this kind of treatment, but Danny Messer was seated on a cushioned bench in the main office of an elementary school waiting to talk to the principal. Sure he'd been in this position many times before, but that was twenty plus years ago. And yet, here he was in his early 30s waiting for the principal.

Looking around, he noticed how some things never changed. There was an older woman sitting behind a huge wooden desk that held the title of secretary. She looked like she should be someone's grandmother. She'd called him 'dear' when he entered the office. She was currently bandaging up the finger of a young boy who'd fallen on the playground and trying to calm him down.

He sat on the bench with his kit between his feet and his head leaning back against the wall. Wiping his sweaty palms on the legs of his jeans he tried to pinpoint exactly what had gotten him to this place.

He'd pushed Mac's buttons all morning in one way or another. Danny got to work 10 minutes late only to find out that he was supposed to meet Hawkes at a scene and not come into the lab. He tried to explain that he never for the message, but it wasn't working. Mac sent Stella to the scene when Hawkes called to report that Danny hadn't shown up. Mac wrote down an address on a slip of paper and handed it to Danny telling him to report to the principal's office.

He sat on the bench and tried to figure out which event he would change if he could, but it was no use. Nothing was going to change the fact that he was where he was, so he focused on the floor and counted the tiles. He laughed at his himself, counting the floor tiles was how he passed the time when he was younger and waiting for the principal or his mom to come get him from school. There were forty-two tiles on the floor at his old school.

***

Lindsay looked at the evidence in the latest crime and tried to see if the story made sense. She knew that things were going to be total chaos in about ten minutes with the other investigators got there and the questions started. Looking around at the scene she saw footprints, trace, a note and some finger prints. She knew each told a part of the story, now it just needed to be figured out.

***

"Detective Messer?" The secretary called.

"Yes, Ma'am?" He stood and answered just as he would have in his youth.

"Mr. Dozier will see you now." She pointed to a door that lead into an inner office.

"Thank you." He turned to go through the door she pointed at, pausing only long enough to announce his entry with a few quiet knocks on the door.

"Detective Messer, thank you for coming in." He motioned for the younger man to have a sear in one of the chairs in front of his head. "I hope that I wasn't too much trouble getting here."

"No, sir." His leg was bouncing from the nervousness due to his surroundings.

"We have an advanced 5th grade science and math class, the teacher uses real life to teach her lessons. They've been studying the science of crime for the past few weeks. She taught a unit on baseball before she started her current unit. That was awesome and the kids loved it." He paused lost in thought. "Anyway, they're at the end of their study and they wanted to show off what they could do. The teacher requested a NYPD crime scene investigator to come in." He paused again to write something down on a yellow sticky note, then stuck it to a copy of a map of the school, and he handed it to Danny.

As Danny took a look at the paper that was handed to him, Mr. Dozier picked up the phone and dialed a few numbers. "Morning…well almost afternoon. I have a Detective Messer here from the crime lab that I 'm going to send your way…he'll be there shortly." After a few words that closed the conversation he hung up. Danny grabbed his kit after shaking the other man's hand and went out into the hall to find the classroom.

Following the map, Danny could tell that he was only a few doors away. He looked down at the piece of paper one more time and a bell rang in the hall around him. The doors opened and students poured into the hall and surrounding him. He was used to being in crowds on the street, on the subway, and sometimes at crime scenes, but he was not used to being the tallest one, especially when Flack was around, but he was the tallest today.

Slowly moving to the side of the hall and then towards the room where he needed to be. He stepped into the doorway to watch the controlled chaos. Kids would pass him every few seconds to enter the classroom.

"Detective Messer?" A confident voice questioned from behind him.

He turned to see a woman about his age standing at a desk in a lab coat. She was looking down at her desk reading something. She must have caught him out the corner of her eye. She wasn't what he envisioned; actually she wasn't the aged science geek that he pictured in his head. She was really quite attractive, and in the lab coat, she looked like she should be working at the lab and not in an elementary school.

"That'd be me, Danny Messer. How ya doin'?" He made his way over to where she was standing to shake her hand. Finally looking up from her desk and approaching him, she looked at him from head to toe. A questioning expression fell upon her face.

He looked down at himself holding out his hands to see what she was looking at. "Wha, somethin' wrong?"

She was hesitant in her answer. "You are not what I was expecting, definitely what I was expecting." She was still looking, almost staring at him.

He laughed the smallest bit. "Okay, I'll bite, what were you expectin'?"

She met his eyes, "Shirt, tie, dark trench coat." She looked over him again, "Definitely not a t-shirt, jeans, and Cons." Looking one more time, she then turned away to greet her students.

Danny relaxed a bit and laughed again. "Um, yeah…the shirt and tie guy with the trench coat, that's my boss. Somehow I managed to get on his bad side this morning and here I am." He pushed his glasses up on his nose.

"So this is not where you want to be?" She teased, leaning up again her desk with a hand on her hip. Then the bell rang. "Ooo, saved by the bell." She turned to her students. "Hello everyone, please sit down." She looked back at Danny, who was moving to the side of the classroom and followed him. "Where is my brain, I'm Lindsay Monroe." She shook his hand and went back to starting her class.

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Thank you for reading. Please review and let me know what you think. In the chapters to come, Lindsay meets Flack, Stella, Adam, and eventually the whole team. All the cases and events happen with a little bit extra thrown in. Please continue to read and enjoy it.