Beer For My Horses

by annscalf

The Texas Rangers pursue a murderer to New York City

1Title "Beer For My Horses"
Author- Ann Scalf
Email- annscalf...
Website:lonetreecp, please archive, everyone else please ask

Fandom(s):CSI NY
Genre (general, hetero or slash)- general
Pairing/Characters: Mac Taylor, Lindsey Monroe, Danny Messer, Don Flack and Stella Bonasera
Rating: NC 17
Summary: The Texas Rangers go after a murderer in New York
Warnings: Snort, if you ladies haven't figured out by now what is and
isn't good for you, there's nothing I can do about it
Notes: Poor Mac doesn't know what hit him
Acknowledgments: Beer For My Horses by Toby Keith

The characters of CSI NY belong to CBS and Tony Zuiker, Amanda Pritchard belongs to me.

Well a man come on the 6 o'clock news
said somebody's been shot
somebody's been abused

Amanda sighed as she heard the news report on the tv in the break room of Ranger Company C head quarters in Lubbock Texas. That poor woman's murder was getting on everyone's nerves, especially the Rangers since they had been assigned the case.

somebody blew up a building
somebody stole a car
somebody got away
somebody didn't get too far yeah
they didn't get too far

More bad news, robbery, car jackings, assaults, but some how they (Rangers, county sheriff's, local police) managed to catch them or most of them anyway. Thankfully, someone changed the channel to a football game. They all knew about all the ugliness anyway, they were working half of them.

"Min, Hart wants you." Sgt. Luke Travis told her. "Thanks, hon." she smiled. Luke was a dear friend since high school, they had been through a lot together.

"Whatcha need Hart?" she asked the Ranger Company C Capt. "I got a real interesting phone call just now from the CSI Crime Lab in New York City." He told her, grinning at her astonishment. "New York City?! What in creation are they wanting with us?!" "Just that they got themselves a body in their morgue that had his hands all over that bathroom in the Roswell house." He tossed the fax that the head of the crime lab, a Mac Taylor, had sent him when he called. It as a print out of not only a set of prints but the rap sheet of the person they belonged to.

"Lester Talbot, hailing from right here in Lubbock." she looked up at Hart after reading the list (an extensive list) of crimes the boy had been convicted of. All here in Texas. "Found dead in a back alley off of 3rd ave. in Manhattan?"

"Don't that beat all?" he asked, shaking his head. This murder was getting more complicated by the minute.

"Well, shoot," she said, tossing the papers down on his desk and looking at him confused. "Now what do we do?"

"You - " Hart said with a spark in his eye that was beginning to make her nervous. "are going to go up to New York City and hand these files," he pushed some file folders over to her across his desk. "over to this Mac Taylor, and help him out whatever way he needs." Hart sat back and braced himself for her reaction.

"Me ?!" she yelled."I wasn't even on the scene, I don't know anything about it!" Which was true but not the real reason for her not wanting to go. She just hated dealing with "city folks".

"That's what they got reports for." Hart said, calmly. "You'll have plenty of time for catching up on the flight up there." He did not laugh at the look on her face, he'd get killed if he did.

"Fine," she said, snatching up the files and marching out of the office.

"Oo-ee, what'd you do now boss?" Luke asked, grinning at the infuriated woman stomping past him.

Hart sighed. "Hopefully, finally getting her back into the real world again. "Yeah," Luke agreed; sadness creeping into his eyes same as Hart's.

"Ladies and gentlemen we will be landing at JFK momentarily. Please replace your tray tables and put your seats in their upright position." Mindy straightened her seat, put away her iPod and buckled her seatbelt. As the huge jet landed safely she sighed with both frustration and annoyance. She still thought Mitchell should have gone. Well, whatever the Capt.'s motives for sending her were, she was here and the sooner she delivered that file to this Det. Mac Taylor, the sooner she could go home. She buttoned her coat and moved forward with the rest of the passengers.

It took less time then she would have thought to collect her bag and hail a cab to her hotel. By the time she had arrived at her room though, she had had all she could stomach of the fancy high heals and tight skirt that Janet Markham had insisted were more "appropriate" for the big city. Before she headed over to the NYC Crime Lab she was changing into her real clothes and "appropriate" attire be hanged.

So she kicked off the offending heals and stripped down to bra and panties. Out of her bag she fetched a worn pair of Wrangler jeans, a long sleeved tee shirt, plain cotton socks, a black leather belt with silver buckle and a white cotton button down shirt with mother of pearl snaps instead of buttons. She pulled on plain black Justin boots when she had finished dressing and pinned on her silver Dept. of Public Safety badge; her most prized possession. She clipped her DPS issued Colt 45 in it's holster to her waist band and pulled out a round hat box that took up fully half the space in her folding garment bag. She snapped open the lid and lifted out a cream colored Stetson hat. Finally, she slipped on a black canvas duster and black suede rancher's gloves. She transferred her wallet, cell phone and hotel key card to a coat pocket, picked up the black leather report folder with the files for Det. Taylor and decided that she was now ready to tackle New York City on her own terms.

Down the elevator and out the hotel with a smile and "Thank y' kindly" for the doorman then left down First Avenue to the NYPD Crime Lab. She had decided to walk, it was only ten blocks. Along the way she encountered a gay couple being given a hard time by their cab driver. Something about they didn't have the right amount but she could tell it was more bigotry then anything else. "Here you go." she handed the driver a ten dollar bill "Keep the change." She smiled at the boys "Y'all have a nice day now, here." and left all of them staring after her. At the next stop sign she paused to wait for the light to change to green and heard "Mommy, look a real cowgirl!" She turned her head to see a little girl in her momma's arms. The poor woman was trying to shush the child but Mindy just grinned and winked at the little girl then touched a finger to the tip of her hat. "Ma'am" she nodded and went on her way with the mother staring and the little girl more determined then ever to be a cowgirl herself someday.

She bound up the stairs to the Lab building feeling a sudden surge of adrenaline. Even if she was way up north in New York City, she was on Ranger business and that always meant something interesting was going to happen eventually.

Danny looked up at a knock on the office door and stared at the young woman waiting politely to be acknowledged. "Yeah?" he asked. "How do, I'm looking for Det. Mac Taylor.' Danny just pointed to Mac's office door too stunned at the sight of a Texas Ranger (he'd seen the badge) to speak. "I'm Det. Taylor," Mac spoke up, having seen her come in as well. "Sgt. Amanda Pritchard, Texas Dept. Of Public Safety." She smiled and offered her hand. "Hart Beckley said you were asking to look at some files." she handed him the leather file case.

"Oh, great, come into my office." He gestured for her to precede him into the glassed in room that made Min whistle with appreciation. "Pretty fancy-shmancy digs for a detective, even for the New York City Po-lice." she grinned.

Mac recognizes that it's just friendly teasing but, the long, cold, dark winter's day along with two grisly murders connected across 3,000 miles was beginning to wear on his last nerve. Not to mention that the Texas Ranger Capt. Beckly had sent to assist on the case was nothing like what he had pictured one of those legendary lawmen would be like.

"Not used to anything so high tech, Sgt.? If you need help with anything just ask anyone here, they'll be glad to help." He sounded curt and arrogant even to himself. // Great, make her think I'm a pompous jerk. // he chided himself.

She glared at him "Even if we do still go after cattle rustlers and train robbers, don't mean I don't know the difference between a cell phone and a stirrup" Mindy smirked at the man's surprise. // Ain't used to being sassed, huh// she wanted to laugh but decided to go easy on him. For now, anyway.

"I'm sorry, Sgt., that was uncalled for." he apologized stiffly. He sat down heavily, trying to ignore the headache that was well on it's way to being enough to keep him from yet another decent night's sleep. He was also trying to ignore the fact that her soft drawl was sliding along his nerves and settling them down better then beer or whiskey ever could. Better to put all that out of his mind and concentrate on not alienating the best help he would have with solving this case.

He handed Mindy some of the reports in the file folders and spread the rest out on his desk, the better to see everything. She tossed her hat on the corner of his desk, hung her coat on the back of

her chair and took the offered papers propping them on her crossed leg (left foot resting on right knee), the better to study them. Mac was studying her surreptitiously. Despite her unfamiliar

western clothing and accent he had recognized immediately that that wasn't an act with her. Her hand shake was firm and her smile was open and honest; normally things he liked to see in people. So why was he reacting to her so strongly, especially when she wasn't doing anything to deserve his harsh treatment?

He decided that making it all up to her would have to wait. He picked some papers and began going over what little they knew so far.:

A young mother in Lubbock Texas had been found murdered in her home, her newborn infant missing. The Lubbock police, Lubbock county Sherif's Dept. ,Texas State Police and Texas Rangers had all been called in for a frantic two day search. The baby had been finally found in a garbage dumpster behind a downtown restaurant; badly dehydrated but thankfully the doctors at the local hospital said she would make a full recovery. The little girl (Lucy) would be staying with her grandparents for the time being.

Mindy shook her head; looking at the blood and fingerprint analyses. "Victim in her own sittin' room, her murderer is then found in a back alley off 3rd Ave. in Manhattan." She picked up the photo of Lester Talbot, the aforementioned back alley db. "What's a piece of West Texas white trash doing in a New York city alleyway?' "That's what I was hoping the Texas Rangers could tell me." Mac replied tiredly. "As well as who's prints are these?" he handed her another slip of paper with a set of finger prints and their computer analysis deemed "inconclusive". "Nothing in any of the national databases?" she asked. "Nope," he replied, "and it was in the living room of Linda Roswell's house." Mac named the victim in Lubbock.

'What all was found on Mister Talbot?" Mindy glanced up and saw the tiredness creeping up from his voice to compressed lips and into his eyes. She chose to ignore for the time being what pretty eyes they were. She focused instead on what he was taking out of the thick manila envelope marked "Evidence". "Not much; wallet, driver's licence some coin change and this - " he handed her a vicious looking knife in a black leather scabbard. Min took it carefully; a 16 ½ inch Bowie knife with a rosewood handle, the blade alone was 11' She looked at him. "This puppy retails for at least 300.00." "Where'd a piece of West Texas white trash get the money for something like that" Mac repeated Mindy's question.

They finally called it quits around 8:00 (early for Mac), but Mindy had somehow managed to talk him into going home and getting some rest. "You'll feel a heap better with some sleep under you're belt' she told him, firmly, relenting when she saw how completely exhausted he was.

Mindy was putting on her coat and gloves when she heard the other two detectives outside Mac's office whispering to each other. She turned her head to listen. "Wonder where her spurs are?" snickered the young man, immediately earning him a poke in the ribs from the pretty brunette

next to him. She grinned and held out her hand. "How do, I'm Amanda Pritchard, folks call me Mindy " "I'm Lindsey Monroe and this is Danny Messer." Lindsey told her, glaring at Danny.

"Danny," Mindy shook hands, her grin getting bigger. The poor boy was turning red as a tomato. "Don't need m' spurs, h'aint got m' horse. She put on her hat and turned to leave. "Night all." Lindsey was all but clapping her hands with glee at meeting a real Texas Ranger, not to mention seeing Danny Messer get his comeuppance for once

Justice is the one thing you should always find
You got to saddle up your boys
You got to draw a hard line
When the gun smoke settles we'll sing a victory tune
And we'll all meet back at the local saloon
And we'll raise up our glasses against evil forces singing
whiskey for my man, beer for my horses

An hour later, Mindy was in a small Chinese take-out place across the street trying to get some supper. She had inadvertently caused a ruckus coming in there. Seems that the owner (an immigrant from Hong Kong) had always idolized John Wayne. He was almost falling over himself; yelling for his son to hurry up with her order and trying to let her have it "on the house, on the house for pretty cowgirl." She laughed, genuinely embarrassed, "Now Mr. Hwong," she used the name out on the sign hoping it wasn't just a Chinese word. "I already told you, my mamma would have my head if I didn't pay for anything I had bought." She grinned at the smitten man. " You don't want me gettin' no whupping now do you?" He sighed, actually expecting that she would feel that way. "Be five more minutes." he promised and went back to the register to take another customers order.

Mindy was looking at some lovely jade and ivory statuettes with her back turned away from the counter when she heard the yelling. "I said gimme the damned money!" the young punk looked as scared as Mr. Hwong from the way he was waving his gun around and looking frantically around for something or someone. Backup maybe, Min thought as she slipped around the back of the case and looked around the other end at the register. Mr. Hwong was comforting a badly frightened woman; Min assumed it was Mrs. Hwong; and shoving money from the till into the plastic bag the kid was holding. The couple's eyes widened as she un-holstered her gun. Mindy opened her coat, pointed to her badge and put a finger to her lips. Mr. Hwong squeezed his wife's hand. The cavalry had arrived.

"Texas Rangers, freeze!" she yelled. The would-be robber whirled and shot wildly, missing her and giving her ample time to return fire. He went crashing against the counter and slipped to the floor. But before Mindy could check on his condition, she caught sight of the supposed back-up and barely got out of the way of the bullet, landing against the side of the display case. "Ow" she muttered, jumping up and running after the second shooter. She looked around and saw him heading down the street to her right and ran after him. Raising her gun, she gave the kid one more chance. "Freeze!" she yelled again. Nope, wasn't gonna, dammit. She raised her gun again and fired. She clipped him in the knee where she had intended. She'd learned that one got into a lot less trouble (at least in Texas) if you hobbled a perp instead of outright killing 'em. He was

writhing around on the ground and crying for his momma. Mindy just shook her head and dialed 911.

Mac found Amanda leaning against the Dept. SUV when he came out of the restaurant after helping Stella process the area around the counter and where the second shooter had fallen.

"Sgt. Pritchard," he greeted her, annoyed at her nonchalance. "Lt. Taylor," she replied, grinning around the toothpick she had been chewing on. It gave her an almost feral look. Or maybe it was

the amused glint in her eyes. "You couldn't call it in and let the local authorities handle it?" he asked, sounding as annoyed as he felt. She snorted. "With midtown traffic what it is?" She

straightened up and took out her toothpick. "Besides," she continued, looking him dead in the eye to make sure he got the point. "I don't know how you Yankees handle things, but where I come from, we don't let other folks deal with what we can take care of ourselves."

"We Yankee's don't treat every situation like we were in Dodge City in the 1800's either." he countered. Mac caught the spark in her green eyes and steeled himself for an argument. "Mebbe not," she fired back; "Don't mean the bad guys don't." A detective came up to her and asked her to sign the statement she had made out while waiting for Mac to get done in the restaurant. After answering several questions from him, she turned back to Mac. "And if y'all did mebbe folks like me wouldn't have to handle things ourselves." Ignoring the infuriated look he was giving her,

she picked up her bag of food from the hood of the SUV and turned back to him for one more parting shot- "And for the record Mac, Dodge City is in Kansas, not Texas." His rising frustration suddenly dissipated with that last crack and he couldn't help a sudden bark of laughter. He had all but flat out accused her of having an itchy trigger finger and she had chosen instead to be

offended by his invoking an Old West town in Kansas instead of her home state. He watched her walk back to her hotel and shook his head. As he was getting into his car to head back to the lab and file his reports of the robbery he wondered what else he would discover about this Texas Tornado.

Mindy was awakened the next morning at around 6:30 by the ringing of her cell phone. She groped for the obnoxious thing on the bedside table, flipped it open and saw it was from Taylor, M. "Yeah, Pritchard" she mumbled, or at least that's what it sounded like to Mac. He grinned at having woken her up at such an un-Godly hour. Un-Godly for city-folks maybe, Min had spent the first 18 yrs. of

her life on farms and cattle ranches in Lubbock. Four A.M. getting up to do the chores before heading to school, that was early.

"Amanda, I think you might want to see this." he said, trying to ignore his reaction to her soft sleepy drawl. "Oh?" she asked, already putting on her brown wool slacks and white blouse.

'Another murder, vic was connected to Linda Roswell." "I'm on my way" she got the address from him and hung up. The brown blazer she pulls on is tailored and shows off her fit, trim body.

Neat ankle boots, long chestnut hair braided and coiled on the nape of her neck and a slender "Black Hills Gold" necklace gave her a far more formal appearance then yesterday. She allowed herself a small smirk as she donned her "good" white hat, the one that all Rangers wear since

they were the good guys. Danny was going to be disappointed again, still no spurs. But she'd see what she could do about that before she went back home.

Mindy made the 4 mile trek from her hotel to Central Park West in only 15 minutes; traffic being light for once. She payed the cab driver, bound up the stairs of the townhouse and opened her

brightly colored tapestry coat to show her Ranger I.D. card to the officer at the door. "Det. Mac Taylor sent for me." she told him. "He's in there." he said, indicating a room on the left off the foyer. She thanked him and went inside.

"Whatcha got Mac?" she asked as she knelt down beside him next to the prone body of what she assumed had been the housekeeper. She had apparently been shot. "This," he stopped his

examination of the victim to hand her a folded piece of paper. It was a sales receipt - Sharp Shooters Gun and Knife Shop- along with an address in Lubbock. "My gracious, I've been to this

place myself, they've got some real nice stuff." Mac looked askance at her. // Why am I not surprised. // he thought. Mindy stood up, still looking at the receipt. "Now how do you suppose this

poor creature got hold of this?" Mac sighed as he stood up too. "It wasn't on her it was behind a waste basket in the bathroom, wedged between the bathtub and the vanity." "Sure'nuff?"

Her eyebrow went up at that. She went to the small downstairs bath Mac indicated off of the living room. She saw that the area had not yet been processed so she kept her brown leather gloves on and

picked up the waist basket. "Well now, will you looky here." she said to herself. "Mac, can I have a bag, please?" "Now, what have you got?" he asked, handing her a small plastic evidence bag. "Beggar's Lice" she said, holding up a small clump of round, green, prickers on a long stem. "Pernicious stuff, I've pulled enough off my dog, my horse and myself to know. " "I've never seen it," Mac said. He decided he was glad for that, from the looks of it. "Count yourself lucky." she said drily "Now all we have to do," she continued, catching site of some dark strands of thread clinging to them "- is figure out who's trousers this stuff was pulled from."

Five hours later, they began wrapping things up. Stella Bonasera had joined them. Mindy liked her a lot, they shared a lot of principles and opinions. She also met Det. Don Flack, who had been assigned to the N.Y. side of the case. And since he was a good looking young man and she was a red blooded Texas woman, she proceeded to flirt with him once they had finished interviewing the residents of the town house. She stopped that though when she realized that Stella's attitude had changed from friendly to disapproving. "Sorry about that," she told Stella; gesturing toward Don; after going to see what Mac wanted. (The botanical name for the "beggar's lice" she had found - Daucus Carota.) "That's okay, you didn't know." Stella said, warming up to the newcomer as well as being impressed with her perception. She had grown up wanting to be a cowgirl same as everyone else and she shared Lindsey's fascination. The glimpse that Stella had gotten of Amanda from the previous night's robbery and shooting had been of a young woman who didn't put up with anything from anybody. Including Mac. What fun!

"So what do you make of this?" Stella asked her, meaning the crime scene and people involved. Mindy laughed, "That some Yankee's don't like us Red Necks and never will." she laughed again at the look Stella gave her. "I think it was more a matter of not liking anyone not from her social set." Stella said, meaning the owner of the townhouse that they had just finished interviewing.The woman who had reported the db was a society matron who was extremely proud of her lineage and social standing. Her nose had lifted even higher in the air when she was introduced to Mindy and

heard her Texas drawl. "Ma'am, do you know anyone in Lubbock? Mindy asked. "Certainly not." the older woman sniffed (her name was Clarice Channing). That sniff earned her a raised eyebrow, but Mindy decided to let it pass - for the moment. "Well then, does anyone else

in the house know anybody in Lubbock, or in Texas for that matter?" The older woman turned hard grey eyes on her. Mindy was stunned by the anger being hidden in their depths. "I'm sure I don't know." Mrs. Channing said coldly and went to sit down on the sofa by the fireplace. //Well all righty then// Mindy thought, grateful that the old biddy had left when she did or else she would really be in trouble with Mac. Though she had to smile to herself at that, since she never had been overly concerned with getting into trouble before!

Right now though, it was after 12 o'clock and her stomach was complaining about not being fed yet. She was in the middle of relaying her conversation with Mrs. Channing to Stella when it rumbled again

- loudly. "Here now," she scolded, looking down at the offending organ. Stella laughed, "Mac dragged you out of bed before you could get some breakfast?" she asked. Mindy looked up from her notes with

a sour expression. "You don't sound too surprised." she commented. Stella sighed, "It's the Marine in him, sometimes I think he can't help it." Mindy raised an eyebrow, "Do tell, was he in the Marine

Corps?" Well, that raised her opinion of him a little bit anyway. "He's still going to have to realize that just because he was trained to be able to go four, five days without eating, sleeping, bathing or going to

the bathroom, doesn't mean everyone else can too.' Mac had come behind them and heard that last remark. "If I had known that the Rangers were going to send me someone who didn't feel that way about doing our job I wouldn't have contacted Capt. Beckly to begin with." Stella's eyes widened. She'd never heard Mac be so rude before.

Mindy's eyes narrowed at that. "Let me show you something, Mac." She unpinned her badge from her blazer and held it up for his inspection. "I didn't get this badge from no gum ball machine. There are currently only 127 other people who have the right to wear it and considering how big the state of

Texas is, that's a pretty exclusive group." She paused to take a breathe, but dove back in before he had a chance to answer. "The Texas State Legislature, Hart Beckley and the rest of my fellow Rangers in my Company considers me capable of doing my job so I really don't care jack dookie what your opinion of me or my work ethic is.' she turned her back on him and spoked to Stella in a much calmer voice. "Let's get this evidence back to the lab so Danny and Lindsey can start processing it then you and me can go get us some chuck." she used the old cowboy term for food. "Fine with me." Stella said, sending Mac a look that dared him to say anything to her. They loaded the SUV and drove off, leaving Mac to catch a ride back with Don.

He stood there on the sidewalk, fuming that any one as free wheeling and unorthodox as her could make him so easily loose his cool. Thankfully by the time Don came up to him and told him he was done Mac had cooled down enough so that he wouldn't bite the poor guys head off as well.

A little later at the diner Stella took them to, Mindy was still burning mad. "If that man is an example of N.Y's finest, I'd say y'all got a problem on your hands." Stella nearly choked on her sandwich,

"He's not always like that though," she defended her boss. Loyalty had won out over aggravation, as always. "Is that right?" Mindy drawled. But again, she backed down. She was pissed at Mac, no need to drag Stella into it as well.

"So what have y'all found out about why Lester Talbot was up here in N.Y.?" she asked. Best to keep focused on why she was here to begin with.

"As we say in these parts - " Stella grinned at Mindy's amusement. "What, I grew up on Bonanza and Gunsmoke." Mindy had to put her sandwich down and cover her mouth, she was laughing so hard. "Which one were you, Miss Kitty or Festus?" she chortled. "Are you kidding, I was Marshal Dillon!"

"Hey now!" Mindy high five'd her. They got themselves under control again and Stella continued,

"Anyway," she said, "we haven't found bupkas."

"Bu-what!?" Mindy laughed even harder.

"It's Yiddish, means nothing." Don smiled at the two women. He'd gotten Stella's text to join them when he could.

"Y'all, we're gonna need us an interpreter, or at least a Red-Neck to Yankee dictionary." "They make those?" Don chuckled. "I'll find one, if not we can write it ourselves." he quipped. Which set the girls off yet again.

"Anyway" Mindy shot Don a look warning him to quit for now. His merry blue eyes told her that he wasn't done with this line of discussion yet. "I'm going to call Gary Reynolds down to Sharp Shooters

to see if that's where Mr. Talbot bought that Bowie, he might have mentioned what he was up to, to Gary or some other information as well." Gary was another old friend.

"Amanda, have a sample of that Daucus Carota sent up from Lubbock, preferably Linda Roswell's property. I want to confirm that that's where the stuff from the Channing house came from." Mac suddenly appeared behind her next to their booth. He felt her stiffen as he slid in to the booth next to

her. "Sure Mac, I'll get right on it." she muttered, taking up her coffee mug again. (Obviously he hadn't heard her say that that stuff grew all over the place down there.) He looked at Stella, silently asking with a look what the hell had he done now? Stella silently replied with a shrug that she didn't know herself.

Mindy was deciding how she should go about dealing with Mr. "By the Book" Taylor. She could set the man down and just tell him to shove it up his ass, but somehow she didn't think he deserved that.

It couldn't be easy being the head of anything in New York City let alone the Crime Lab. And besides that, her instincts were telling her that it wasn't just work that was causing his shoulders to slump and his temper to be so short. She'd sit down with Stella in private and get her to tell her what was going on in that man's life. Not that it mattered scat-all to her, mind, she was just getting tired of being the outlet for his pent up frustration.

Okay, so she'd forgive all the insults to her intelligence and questioning her competency, at least until after the case has been resolved. After that 'Ol Mac was on his own. And she also conceded that he would need to confirm that the "beggar's lice" had come specifically from the Roswell property. Fine, she'd be nice to the man. Somebody needed to, 'cause he sure wasn't.

"Were you able to get anything out of Mrs. Channing, Don?" she asked. (Keep your mind on the case girl, not on good looking men who annoy the hell out of you)

"Only that she hasn't got any more knowledge of what happened then we do.' he said. "Course she don't." Mindy snorted. She was interrupted by the waitress asking if Mac wanted anything. "Just coffee thank you."

"Actually, he'll have y'all's lunch special and a sweet tea." She smiled at the girl, completely ignoring the stunned faces of the others in the booth. "And let me have the ticket for that." The waitress took the order and went to give it to the cook. Min went calmly back to sipping her coffee.

"You probably don't sleep any better then you eat ." she commented. "And before you start lecturing me again about how we could be doing more important things like workin' let me ask you this,' She got a huge kick out of the shocked look on his face, not to mention everyone else's! ""I've heard it said that

you CSI's speak for the dead since they can't speak for themselves, right?" He gave a curt nod. "How are you supposed to do that if you're dead yourself?" She looked around at all three of them. "Or at the least in the hospital from exhaustion and malnutrition." Her voice softened when she saw that she had gotten to them. "We all -" she gestured around the table including Don and herself, "speak for the dead, and their families. We can't fall down on them when they need us the most" She picked up her sandwich and proceeded to finish it. The waitress brought Mac's meal and he started to eat, almost afraid not to. "She looked over at him and grinned, "And you can fuss at Hart Beckley for that, 'cause I quoted him verbatum." "Let me guess, "fussing" at you?" Stella smiled. "Yup," But instead of smiling herself, Mindy suddenly looked sad.

The waitress came back to give Mindy her check, Don took charge of his and the girl's meals. As they got up to go to the counter to pay, Mac placed his hand on Mindy's arm. She turned to look up at him inquiringly.

"I just wanted to apologize for being so harsh." he told her..At that she did smile, an honest to goodness "million watt" grin. "Well thank you kindly sir, accepted." She offered her hand and he took it. He

decided he should be glad that she didn't notice how he reacted to the warmth shooting up his arm, even as he was trying to ignore how disappointed he was that she hadn't.

She reached for the toothpick dispenser and remarked "It's not good to have bad blood between folks anyway, be like starting up the War Between the States all over again." she gave him a saucy look. "That's the one what you Yankee's call the Civil War." "I completely agree," he said a slight smirk appearing that made Stella give him a pleading look. "And since it was us Yankee's that won that war we can call it anything we like."

Mindy froze in her tracks, her jaw dropped and Don grabbed Stella's arm and got them both out of there before they started laughing and really got themselves in it good. "Well there's no call to be rude!" She shoved her hat back on and stormed out of there with Mac following behind, chuckling.

And honestly feeling better then he had in ages.

Later that afternoon, Mindy and Don were back at his precinct working on phone and credit card records. She was still a tad sore. And the fact that their exchange had been so gosh darn funny was the main reason for it. That man was something else altogether. She really was going to have to talk to Stella now.

"Here's something," she told Don. (She was getting mighty tired of having to remind herself to keep her mind on her work instead of Mac) She held up a Master Card invoice. "Someone took themselves off to Lubbock from New York city," she handed it over to him. "the week before Linda Roswell was killed."

"Oh, really," he took the invoice and studied it himself. "This is Jack Carson's credit card." he said, raising an eyebrow. "That fancy pants lawyer that was supervising everything everyone in that house said?" she remembered him, he was the one who looked like he had just bit into a quince expecting an apple. Her and Don's cell phones both rang at the same time. "Yeah," said in unison. Don looked at her and rolled his eyes while she just laughed. "Whatcha got Lindsey?" she asked "I finished examining those fibers on that 'beggar's lice" Amanda sat up at that. "A blend of silk and merino wool. Very high end." "Like in an expensive woman's suit, maybe?" Min guessed. "Yep, and Danny's done checking for prints, there's some we haven't got any hits on though." Min heard some paper shuffling as Lindsey found the one she was looking for. "That match the ones that were in the Roswell living room." "All right hon, I want to talk to Don and I'll get back to ya in a little bit." Mindy hung up and waited for Don to finish his call. "We're going to need a warrant for the Channing house." he said.

Mindy was already up and putting on her blazer (it'd turned too warm for her coat.). "My thoughts exactly. Do you want to go by the lab while we're waiting for it so we can check out those new findings ourselves?"

"Yeah, we can do that." He looked over at her to see if she really didn't trust Lindsey's and Danny's work. But he grinned when she winked at him, letting him know she was just offering him a chance to see Stella again. He liked working with a partner who could read him so well.

"The D.A.'s office is working on the warrant, said it might be a bit though." Don told Amanda as he hung up the phone in Danny and Lindsey's office. Amanda thought it was hilarious that these folks were just as cavalier with each other's things as she and her fellow Ranger's were back at Company C headquarters.

"So where is everyone anyway.?" she asked.

"Don't know." he replied. " I guess they're off doing CSI stuff."

He sat down at Danny's desk and started to rearrange files and reports Danny had set out a certain way to make it easier for him to study them. He took the pens and pencils from their container and tossed them in the bottom drawer of the desk, but it wasn't until he started to stand some super hero figures that Lindsey had given to Danny on their heads that Mindy put a stop to his nonsense.

"Come on now, you're gonna get whupped," she giggled, pulling him away from there.

"Nah, I'm not afraid of that little wop." Don bragged.

"If you ain't now you're gonna be..." Danny came charging in and it took Mindy and Lindsey to try and separate them.

"Danny," came Sheldon's exasperated voice from the doorway.

"Yeah," Danny replied, keeping a firm grip on Don.

"Let him out of the headlock,"

Danny sighed, "Fine," he said, letting go of Don's neck, not with out slapping the back of his head though.

"Lindsey, we're waiting on a warrant for the Channing house, can we see the report on those wool fibers, please?" Mindy asked. That choking sound Lindsey heard was Min trying not to laugh and get into trouble with Don and Danny both.

"Sure, it's right here." Lindsey rolled her eyes at Danny but he just gave a cheeky grin as she went to her desk to get the paper Min wanted.

"So where's Mac?" Don asked Stella, who'd come in at the tail end of the ruckus. He was also trying to head off a scolding, which from the look in Stella's dancing eyes wasn't a worry after all.

"See that, speak of the devil and make him appear." Mindy snickered as Mac came down the hall. "Hey Hateful!" she called cheerfully to him.

He looked over at her with a grin and asked "Anything new?"

"Actually, yes there is." Mindy said standing up. "Hart called and said he was sending up some soil and plant samples from Linda Roswell's yard, so we can get that settled hopefully by tomorrow afternoon."

"Great, anything else?" Mac asked, allowing himself the small indulgence of admiring her pretty green eyes.

"Yep, our warrant just came in." Don said, closing his cell phone. Mindy handed the report back to

Lindsey and checked her gun. Don picked up his papers and they headed out to the Channing residence, both wondering what they were going to find out about those fancy folk this time