Disclaimer: I do not own anything that is recognizable or famous. Don't sue, I have no money. ...also no Ewoks were harmed in this story, only one snarky detective. ;) For everyone who had fun with the costume ideas last year, enjoy!

11/01/2012: I forgot to add that the costume Stella is wearing as a black cat is based on a real picture that I saw while surfing around on Google Images, if you want to see what it looks like please visit my profile...thank you. *blows out a breath* If I'm not making any sense today, its because I'm exhausted...my parent's house had 333 trick or treaters this year. Down from the 402 they had last year, LOL. And I've corrected the massive mistakes in here, that's only shows that you shouldn't write it all out in one four hours and post hoping for the best. *face smack*

September 18…

"Boy, let me sit down and rest my poor feet," Jo sighs as she drops into one of the few empty break room chairs, letting her shopping bags clunk to the floor.

"Where you've been Jo?" Don asks his mouth full from his tuna melt, as he peers into one of the bags.

"Raiding Stella's closet from the looks of it," Danny smirks as he digs into his chicken katsu, when Stella's hand hits the back of his head. "Hey, I almost dropped that!"

"You're lucky I don't take it after a remark like that!" Stella glares at her friend rubbing the back of his head, before smiling at Jo. "I'd be more subtle about this but what did you shop for on your break?"

"I went to the craft store. They have this HUGE sale on scrapbooking supplies and I wanted to restock my Christmas card stash!" She smiles happily as she takes some decorative paper from the bag to show Stella.

"Ohhh, that's so gorgeous!" Stella ohhs and ahhs over the paper covered in snowy green pine trees decked out in red ribbon and candles.

"Wait a minute , school hasn't even been in session for even a month and you two are already thinking about Christmas?! What is wrong with this picture?" Don's shakes his head in disbelief. "What happened to Halloween around here!"

"Calm down, sheesh! I bought some spider candelabras that the store had too," Jo bends down and rummages around the bags before displaying them with relish. "Aren't they neat?"

"They are so lifelike," Stella fingers one of the fake furry spiders dangling from one of the candle holders.

"I thought you hated spiders," Jo asked with an inquiring look watching Stella play.

"I hate real spiders, fake ones I have no problem with." She smiles and continues to play. "But Don is right; we'd better get an idea going on what or who we want to be this Halloween. It's so close now that I can almost taste that trophy!"

"Oh god, here we go again," Danny whispers to Don, making his friend shake with silent laughter.

"I'm sorry I can't concentrate; Stella said I was right," Don puffs out his chest making the women roll their eyes.

"Anyway, do you have any ideas what to do as a group?" She asks Jo, taking a sweet bite of her homemade baklava.

"Nothing pops, how about Star Wars?" Jo suggests causing Stella, Don, and Danny to stop and look at each other warily. "Surely there are enough parts for everyone. I know you sew, Stella, and I have my old Singer at home ready to go whenever Ellie brings home a new pattern she wants to try out."

Stella sighs and slowly puts down the treat she was eating to give a pointed look at Don who was about to open his mouth. "That's great idea, and we have a lot of discussion going on who would be who…sadly none of us are all on board for who would be Hans or Luke. It caused such a uproar in the lab that Mac banned any dialogue on it."

"Let me guess, Danny considered himself Han-"

"Danny?! Are you kidding me? I'm clearly Han, Jess is Leia! Luke would be a better fit for Danny because Luke is shorter and does not have my rugged good looks. Besides, the whole thing isn't my fault that the lab turned into a near riot. It was Monroe's." Don, in his passionate defense didn't notice the mentioned CSI walk into the break room behind him with her lunch. "Since we're doing couples, Leia is clearly taken…"

Danny, torn between his wife and his friend, only puts his head in his hands knowing what was coming wasn't going to be pretty. "…As is Queen Amadala or Padame, whatever that was about, the stories that matters here are A New Hope through Return Of The Jedi. So Lindsay would be stuck with R2D2 or be an Ewok. DAMN IT! That was my rib, Lindsay! You have wicked fingers, woman." He muttered massaging his ribs as the fun size CSI passed underneath his arm to greet her grinning husband with a kiss.

"I will NEVER be an Ewok in your sick Star Wars fantasy!" Lindsay threatened until Jo interrupted before the situation turned dangerous.

"Nevermind," Jo lays her hands out pushing them both back the chairs and their food, settling back into hers with a sigh. "I didn't know it would be this cantankerous in choosing a theme."

"Lindsay is small but quick, she had Don flipped onto his back and his eyelid in her hand before Mac could even say anything. Yeah, every year it gets harder and harder to come up with new and fun ideas." Stella thoughtfully chews her chow mein noodles, her baklava set aside for now.

"You should have seen them in 2008. Now that was a good time, but things that were happening back then are a lot more clearer now…"

"…Montana, are you sure you're up to this? You're so pale," Danny runs the back of his hand across Lindsay's soft cheek, trying not to flinch as she jerked away.

She quickly smiles and adjusts the bulky pumpkin costume around her middle to patting it lightly, clasping her hands to stop the fidgeting. "I'm fine! Just fine."

"Why a pumpkin? I thought you were going as my opposite, a slinky angel to save my poor damned soul," he smirked leaning in again against the roundness of the fuzzy orange fabric. Lindsay's initial reaction was to move away again but she had seen the hurt look on his face, slowly releasing her breath she smiled and ran her hand hesitantly through his hair highlighted with red paint just missing the horns.

Her mouth watering at the tight red tee he was wearing and the jeans that cupped his butt. "Maybe coming here tonight was a bad idea," she whispered huskily.

The thoughts in Danny's head swirled and fogged over with her touch before reality set in. "No, you're right we came to have fun tonight. Where is everyone?"

"Don's already inside, dancing with the Jess," Lindsay let the smile drop off of her face.

"Who'd a thought he'd get her to come as Elvira. I bet he's going to have a nice chat with the fellas in the locker room at work on Monday." Danny laughed at the trouble Don has been encountering all night.

"Like Jess won't? Don did a great job in putting his vampire costume together. The tux, the cape, not to mention the fangs. Yeah, they'll both have problems at work in the next weeks."

"BOO!" Stella voice startles them both out of their reverie only for there mouths to drop in shock at her costume. The mini black dress with a lace bottom, her sheer black stockings showing off the long black tail trailing behind her, while long sparkly black beads are twined around her neck and upper arms, perfectly setting off the black cat mask on her face.

"Wow, just wow, Stella! Can I be around when Mac catches a glimpse of you?" Danny laughs softly as a light blush rises on her face.

"How about I kick your butt, Danny?" She reproves him for teasing her, pushing them toward the crowd. "Dance, go on with you!"

Tapping the black high heels, she relaxes into the arms that hold her around her middle, his light cologne giving his identity away. "You look good enough to stroke."

The double entendre only made her laugh, as she twisted around in his arms to see his costume. Also dressed in a black tux, the only difference is how the white make-up sets off the bone structure of the skull on Mac's face and hands. "Not bad yourself Boney. Let's boogie…"

"…Ahem, I'm sorry for drifting off," Stella explains away the questioning look Jo was shooting her over the table. "We've had a lot of fun over the years with weird costumes, and hijinks that have ensued because of it. Like this one time Mac-"

"This one time Mac what?" The head of the crime lab asks as he walks in and over to the fridge to grab a water. Twisting the cap, and taking a sip, he lifts an eyebrow at his wife as she winks back at him.

"Did he ever tell you about his first year at the NYPD Halloween ball?"

"Don't, please don't," he begs knowing its futile on how they both enjoyed this story.

"I'm salivating, you've got to tell me now," Jo smiles grows wider as she looks back and forth between the married couple. "This is cute. I've never seen you blush this hard before Mac!"

"Well way back when, Mac started out as a motorcycle patrolman partnered with a woman named Lee Connors, her and Claire really became close like most wives are with their husband's partners. She persuaded Lee to let her borrow the uniform for Halloween and surprised Mac at the ball. They walked in together as Eugene Tackleberry and Kathleen Kirkland! Claire told me that everyone went absolutely nuts over it that they won Best Couple!" Both women had tears running down their faces as the laughter erupted between them, making Mac laugh just as hard…while everyone else looked confused.

"Okay, I'll be the first…I've never gotten that costume. You've mentioned it several times and for the life of me I don't know who you guys are talking about." Don replies taking his hand down after getting their attention after the laughter subsided.

"Are you kidding?" Jo looks at the faces of Don, Danny, and Lindsay gazing blankly back at her. "Oh my god, you've missed out on one of the greatest films EVER to be shot about police work."

Mac snorts into his water. "Greatest?! Isn't that taking it a little too far?"

"Hush, it's a good film that these poor, young, deprived, cops haven't seen. We'll rent it one day and you'll thank me. Tackleberry," Jo snuffles, breaking into a laugh, causing Stella to go off again.

"Okay, if you think that is bad how about this costume from 2004 that Danny and Don showed up in." Mac watched the blood drain from Danny's face as Lindsay munches curiously on her steak sub sandwich. Don chortling at them both knowing what is coming next.

"Aiden Burns, the CSI that worked with us for a brief time and was partnered with Danny, was into Hip Hop. She used to dream of being a grand master and knowing that, dressed up as a DJ. Danny, back then having a reputation of a player decided to do something original and completely unorthodox." Mac's build up of his single days made Danny nervous enough to steal a look in Lindsay's direction which soothed him when she winked at him and continued to listen to Mac as she ate her lunch.

"Everyone was at the ball dancing having a great time when Danny, Don, and a few other guys from the 1-2 strolled or should I say waddled into the room in swim caps, goggles, white tights, swim fins, and tight white tees that read 'Fallopian Tube Swim Team.'"

A hacking and gagging noise could be heard coming from Lindsay as she tried to keep the sandwich from killing her as she pictured the long ago costume that only her husband could think of. "Sit back down, Danny, I'm not choking Danny. I'm laughing at the image of you in those waders; oh please, please say you have pictures of that!"

"I'll send them once we are home," Mac snickers as Danny glares at everyone picking on him.

"That's inspired, Danny, truly inspired!" Jo smirks then her face sobers. "But if you ever let Tyler in on that, I'll kill you."

"Let me in on what?" Tyler pokes his head around the door, his visitor's badge clinking lightly against the frame.

"Nothing!" His mama answers, looking around the room as she gathers up her bags, shoving them in his arms. "Please take these bags home, I have to finish up a few more reports and then I'll meet you and Ellie for dinner."

"Oh-kay," he says backing out of the room slowly unsure what is going on but with enough sense not to question it. "Bye!"

The team watches him leaving the lab and entering the elevator, the doors closing behind him.

"Crisis averted. So who haven't you told on now," Jo looks around the room and spots Lindsay trying to make herself smaller. "Lindsay…looks like you have a good story about your fist Halloween ball."

"Oh ho ho, she's got you there!" Stella crowed as the younger woman blushed a fiery red. "Lindsay was still in finding her feet in 2005 when we were called out on a bad case in Central Park..."

"…You'd think that since it was Halloween that summer would be over," Danny complained as he wiped the sweat from his brow before it contaminated the scene. He stood up, frustrated and hot in his drenched buttoned down blue shirt and jeans, his hair spiky from perspiration. "Where's Montana?! I thought we had extra hands on this?"

"I'm here," as she lightly jogged to the scene making her short black curls bounce, dressed in a short black coat buttoned to her neck, her legs bare and in high heels. She bent over to lift up the tape as the uniforms ignored her.

"I'm still getting used to the city. So this is Central Park." Lindsay stops to look around at the scenery taking a deep breath of fresh air, setting her case down on the grass. "I didn't think I'd see it with a dead body, but it's nice."

"Yeah, anything is nice out of the sticks." Danny grinned as he couldn't help himself, liking the way her brown eyes flashed.

"Okay, enough. Lindsay can you take a look at this and tell me what you see?" Mac holds up a fleck of something for her to identify.

"It looks like paint chips but I can't be certain until I look at it under the microscope. Doesn't Central Park have its own color of green?" She asks bending closer to the evidence trying to get a deeper read on it.

Mac smiled at her enthusiasm having passed his small test, noticed as she looking overheated as she swiped away the sweat from her eyes making the mascara smear a little.

"Lindsay, why don't you take off your coat," Stella suggests also noticing the young woman's discomfort.

"No, no, I'm doing okay…I'm cold actually. Brrr!" Lindsay fakes a shiver clutching her coat with a deathlike grip, the white makeup on her face running down her neck a little, and the perspiration beading up on her black lips.

"Really? Because to me, it looks like you're about keel over from heat exhaustion. Mac, help her with her coat." The guys milling around wondered at the strange new girl at the lab, as Mac helped her off with her coat…stopping everyone in their tracks.

A dress that was once described as scandalous in the post code days of the 30's, curved from the high slopes of her breasts down the sides of her ribs to her waist, leaving her entire back and sides open to view, only to gather at the small of her waist and cover her behind ending at mid-thigh in a flirty ruffle. Lindsay Monroe was Betty Boop personified. Mac, as swiftly as he could, pulled the coat back up over her arms buttoning it up to her embarrassed face. "Why don't you take the evidence we have now and get a head start on it while we gather up the rest?"

Lindsay relaxed and smiled in relief, "I'll get right on that."

She started to pick up the evidence boxes when a uniform took it out of her hands and another helped carry her case where the third uniform held up the crime scene tape for her to duck under.

Stella smiling at the way the men around them sat up and started paying attention, she noticed that one hadn't taken his eyes off of Lindsay as she left with the two uniforms. She snapped her fingers in front of his face. "Earth to Danny, come in!"

"What?! I'm alright." He shuffles his feet and licks his lips, taking another look behind him at the woman walking away before settling back to the business at hand. "I don't see any ligature marks or blunt force trauma, but we'll know more when Sid shows up..."

"I bet you looked gorgeous, Lindsay." Jo glows at her, Stella and Mac smile at the light blush on Lindsay's cheeks as she sits up straighter.

"Thank you." Lindsay looks around trying not to lose it as Danny plays with the hair at the nape of her neck. "But we still haven't solved our problem on what to do this year."

"I've got it!" Jess bursts into the room as fast as only a seven month old pregnant woman could waving a DVD in the air.

"You did?! Let me look at it!" Don takes the movie from her hands and an idea forms, meeting everyone's curious gaze, he smiles. "I have the perfect group costume, one that will win us the Best Group trophy."

October 31…

"Who decided this?!" Brigham complained as the eye patch kept sliding off of his eye, watching out of the other as everyone filed pass them into the ball.

"Let me help you," Jo pushes his hands away to fix the cord over his face and slides the eye patch on, making Nick Fury who he is.

"I'd be lost without you, Maria Hill," he smiles into her tawny brown eyes, giving her a kiss.

"Enough of that, you wouldn't want to embarrass the Cap!" Adam dressed as the Thor with his mighty hammer, Mjolnir, at his side. His comment breaks the kiss between Sinclair and Jo, as Adam spots Mac walking in with Stella as she struggles to button her suit jacket over her eighth month pregnant belly, dressed as Pepper Potts.

"Whoa Mac, you are the best Captain America that this city has seen!"

Mac takes the shield from off of his back and looks at it fondly. "My dad had a few of his comics that had been published by Timely Comics. I think he'd approve of me dressed like this."

"I know he would," Stella squeezes his arm and nestles into his side.

"Why are you guys standing out here?" Sheldon hurries out of the ballroom in torn clothing and green skin. "The judging has begun! If you want your trophy, Stella, we'd better get in there. Wait, where's Iron Man?"

"Right here," Don races up making a lot of noise clanking in the red and gold suit with a heavily pregnant Jess bringing up the rear.

"What you're not a part of this, Jess?" Sheldon asked adjusting his purple shorts.

"Nah, I'm too tired and uncomfortable to be stuffing myself into that tight leather, I'll participate next year. I promise. Let Lindsay have this year with Danny. Look at them, don't they look amazing?"

Danny in a green vest, his chest and arms bare with Lindsay's bow over hooked over his shoulder, a quiver of arrows on his back, was holding hands with his wife. Lindsay, dressed from neck to toe in thick black leather the red wig she lent to Jess last year, cut to shoulder length, was at her hero's side. The bracelets that fire her Widow's Bite, on her wrists.

"We're ready to rock this bash and bring home the trophy," Stella bounces in place, giddy that it might happen this year. They all form a single wall, jumping into place before walking into the ball capturing everyone's reaction to their gear. Flashes of light and clapping starts as the party goers caught sight of the impressive vision the team made.

Danny pulls back lightly on Montana's arm taking them a step or two behind the rest. "Did I tell you how beautiful you are tonight?"

"No," Lindsay says looking into his blue eyes before leaning in for a soulful kiss, "but then you don't have to…you show it to me everyday. Come on, let's go have fun. Happy Halloween Danny."

"Happy Halloween, Montana," Danny takes her hand and twirls her around making her laugh. "So...do you still have that Betty Boop costume?"

"What?! A guy can't ask his wife a simple question?"

The end.

This is my favorite holiday, its a chance to be a kid again and dress up. And who couldn't be a DL fan and not squee when I saw my nephew dressed as a furry tiger? I hope that you had a good time and a good laugh. Thank you for reading and Happy Halloween! :)