A/N: Hey girlies!
So... Oh how we loved the episode!! - Darling, sweetie, babe? - HOW MANY SQUEETASTIC NAMES?! Oh how three little words can so easily make my day! Well played, PTB. Well played.
Now, I will readily admit I know NOTHING about car racing, formula whatever it is, specs of cars, etc. etc. And Lindsay was otherwise engaged when I tried to hit her up for some details, so if you do know anything; just remember my only experience with a race car is at the Indy 500 at Disney World... So I'm sorry if anything is a bit of a fail. (I tried not to mention much if I'm honest!)
And as well, I'm going on the pretence (spellfail?) that NYland is the same as Lauraland, regarding dates and stuff - so Valentine's Day would be this weekend kind of thing... (And I believe I had them solve the case in three days as opposed to 41 minutes! :P)
But yeah, I hope you all enjoy.
And last but not least; HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGAN! :)
Post ep oneshot; season 6, episode 15; The Formula
Rubbing her hair with her towel, Lindsay Messer smiled to herself as she padded into her's and her husband's bedroom. She chuckled lightly as she listened to the burning rubber of the racing cars that Danny was sat watching on ESPN and shook her head. "Didn't get enough of that today, baby?" she teased.
Looking up Danny blinked a few times as he took in Lindsay's appearance, licking his lips as he did so. His eyes went from head to toe, and back up again as he shifted slightly on the bed. "Decide against those jammies I put in the bathroom for you, sweetie?"
She smiled and shrugged. "Thought I'd..." she trailed off. "Thought we could..." she blinked. "Danny, why have you gotten changed... into regular clothes?"
He smirked as he grabbed a pile of clothes that lay on the bed next to him. "As much as I would LOVE, to get down in the sheets with you..."
"... Classy."
"We have other plans," he continued, ignoring his wife's snip. "Get dressed baby."
"Are you crazy?" she implored, "It's nine-thirty at night. I'm fixing to go to bed, batman."
"Speedracer, do as I say."
She glared at her husband.
"Baby, please?" he sighed. "Please?"
"Why?" she asked as she dropped her towel with a smirk before gathering her clothes and quickly building up her layers. "What on earth have you done... wait. There isn't... something wrong is there? Danny do you need me to...-"
"I'm fine," he assured her. "I have a surprise for you,"
"A surprise? That requires me getting changed? Like a surprise that requires me leaving the confines of the apartment building?"
Danny nodded.
"Danny, baby... Honey... Darling... no."
"You don't even know what I have planned."
"Whatever it is, it probably means me waking our sleeping baby girl up, and as much as I love fighting with her to go to sleep, I'm gonna go with a no..."
"Do you have to wake her up though?" he smirked. "See, I was under the impression that I had made arrangements for a certain God father and a certain Greek beauty to come and watch her for an hour... or two."
"Since when did you get so good at sneaking around?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. "Planning things... Who put you up to this? Hawkes...? Wait, it was Adam, wasn't it?"
"Will you get dressed?" he smirked as he turned the TV off and got off the bed, heading round to where his wife was stood half dressed. "And chop chop, darlin'."
Rolling her eyes, Lindsay edged forwards towards her husband and stood on her tiptoes as she made her puppy dog eyes at him. "I'm not a fan of surprises."
"This one, you will be," he assured her as he placed a quick kiss to her lips. "Now get a wiggle on, baby."
As he left the bedroom and began fussing in the living room, Lindsay Messer sighed heavily.
So much for going for a third shower to get that grease out of her hair...
She'd get him back though...
Somehow.
Mac and Stella had arrived, just as Danny had stated, sporting big smiles and were excitedly engaging in a coded conversation. Lindsay had shrugged it off as the tension everyone knew they had but refused to act upon, and merely went with the flow. She smiled and nodded as they went over the usual, 'her bottles are in the same place in the fridge, her diapers are in the same place they have always been... you call our numbers about fifty times every day, so that's not an issue, so we'll see you later,' spiel.
However...
As soon as Danny and Lindsay had hit the sidewalk outside of their apartment building, she was bombarded with the blindfold that Danny tightly wrapped around her eyes.
Leaving her highly suspicious.
He'd bundled her into a cab, telling her to trust him – and as much as she did; right now, she refused to trust him. He was up to something. And while she knew it would be a good something – he was still up to something nonetheless.
Which unnerved her.
The cab finally came to a stop and Lindsay felt her husband's fingers slip away from her's as he dove into his pocket for his new wallet she had bought him as an early Valentine's Day present.
The paying of the fee was done quickly, and Lindsay soon found herself being tugged from the cab and back onto what she hoped was a New York footpath.
"Alright, I want you to count to one thousand."
"You're high," she informed him. "One thousand?"
"Yep," he smirked at his wife as he took her hand and slowly led her to wherever it was they were going. "And if you don't start, I'll make it two thousand, and just sit for one thousand of it..."
"One... two... three..."
"Thank you," he smirked as he carefully opened the gate and led her through it.
"Four hundred... Five hundred... Six hundred."
"That's cheating," he informed his giggling wife. "Either that or you really suck at math."
"I took AP calculus I will have you know," Lindsay informed her husband.
"Because I thought you did the Mickey Mouse classes at High school," He retorted sarcastically. "Come on, hurry up and get to a thousand,"
"Nine hundred and ninety nine.... One thousand..." Lindsay didn't wait to pull the blindfold from her eyes; and when she did, tears instantly sparked. "Oh my god... Danny."
Smiling, Danny gazed down to his tearful wife who was currently taking in their surroundings. There they stood on track of the NY 400, with two cars sat proudly.
"Danny..."
"That would be my name," he smirked. "Happy Valentine's Day, baby."
"Valentine's Day?" she implored. "I... What day is it?"
"Friday" he smirked. "Three days on the case... You started your set of shifts Tuesday..."
"But Danny... how..."
He pulled her into his side and pressed a kiss to her temple. "I'm working Sunday, and I wanted to do something with you before, rather than after. I wanted it to be a surprise."
"Well, it's definitely that," she said wiping her eyes. "But how?"
"Mac and Stella wrangled it earlier today and asked if we wanted a slot. I couldn't pass this up."
Lindsay glanced to the two amazing cars sat on the track and moved to go and examine them; but as she took her first step, she stalled and turned back to face her husband. She closed the distance between them with her steps and threw her arms around his neck, pulling him into a heated kiss. His hands went to her hips and he wrapped his arms around her slender frame, pulling her even closer to him.
She wiggled her nose against his in an Eskimo kiss and let out a breath to his lips, "Thank you."
He smiled and pressed one light kiss to her lips before squeezing her sides. "So, let's settle this debate..."
"You're batman, I'm speedracer? First one to finish three laps around the track is the winner?" Lindsay asked hopefully.
"Took the words from my mouth, sweetie."
The grin that stretched across Lindsay's face warmed Danny's heart. He glanced up and smiled at her as he gestured over to the girl who was holding their jumpsuits. She waved and placed their suits on the bench before disappearing back inside.
"You ready for me to kick your butt?" Lindsay smirked as they quickly gathered their protective clothing and began to kit up.
"See babe, the thing is... as much as I love you... which I do... a lot... Batman's cool factor is riding on this, so I'm afraid I've gotta bust out some moves on you and your geeky speedracer butt."
"Oh, it's like that, is it?" Lindsay implored as she zipped the suit up. "I see... Well, you wait," she smirked. "It's on."
Danny smiled as he handed Lindsay her helmet, she hesitated though before taking it from him.
"Don't," he said simply. "Don't start thinkin' about it."
"Danny... I... What if..."
"I'll be fine," he whispered as he pulled her to his side. "I promise, okay? I'll take it easy."
She opened her mouth as if she was about to say something, but promptly closed her mouth.
He sighed and cupped her cheeks with his hands, holding her face so that he could stare into her eyes. "Baby, don't worry about it."
"It's not that easy," she admitted. "Since I saw you put your brace on I..."
"I have it under control." Danny assured her. "I wouldn't do this if I wasn't absolutely positive."
"Promise me," she whispered. "Promise."
He laid his forehead against Lindsay's and pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose before looking her in her eyes. "I promise."
She let out a breath and leaned forwards to capture Danny in a quick, loving kiss. Once she broke away, a smile graced her lips, "Ready for me to kick your butt?"
"I was born ready," Danny smirked, trying to trash talk his wife.
"Oh please, you went home to your Mommy the day you met me, cowboy. Born ready? Sure..."
"So what if I did... I had to tell her I had met the girl I wanted to spend the rest of my life with sooner or later. I just went for a lot sooner."
Lindsay blushed, before tucking her helmet underneath her arm. "Ready when you are honey," she smirked as she started towards one of the two cars. "Dibs blue!" she cried.
"I'm sorry, what are you? Ten?" Danny teased. "Dibs?"
"Dibs," Lindsay giggled as she stuck her tongue out at him and began to climb into the race car.
"Now, before you guys go, I've got to tell you that you break it, you buy it." The girl said as she appeared by the side of Lindsay's race car. "Seriously..."
"You heard that baby?" Danny smirked. "No gettin' too excited, k?"
"Yeah yeah," she said with a roll of her eyes as she climbed into the car. "You ready for a butt kicking of the decade?"
"I'm gunning for the century," Danny smirked as he pulled down the protector on his helmet.
Lindsay turned to look at Danny, and despite the fact that he couldn't see her lips, he could tell from her eyes that she was doing two things, one – smiling at him with utter love and adoration in her eyes and two – thanking him for coming up with such impromptu Valentine's day present.
One to which, she'd never forget.
Both turned at the same time to face the green flag held in the air, waiting for it to be waved.
In the blink of an eye, the flag moved and both Danny and Lindsay floored their cars, screeching their way around the track as they did so.
Danny was off like a shot, using his weaving skills developed with living in New York City traffic jams with places to be to his advantage. Whereas Lindsay... Lindsay was biding her time. Waiting. For the first lap, she was on his tail with him moving ever so slightly across the track, making it difficult for Lindsay to overtake him. However, the bend as they began the second lap, made Danny lose his rhythm a little. Using it to her advantage, Lindsay floored her car, cruising past Danny as he desperately tried to regain the technique he had in the first lap.
Within seconds Lindsay was losing him; but he was still giving it a good go as he floored his own car, desperate to either tie with her, or overtake her.
As they rounded the bend signalling the last lap, Lindsay made a decision. She slowly took her foot from the acceleration pedal; making her fall back significantly from the lead effectively making her on par with Danny. He accelerated and she continued to take her foot from the pedal. She didn't really know as such what had spurred her to do it, but somewhere inside of her quite liked the teasing he would most definitely dish out. She wanted to hold onto a part of the relationship from years ago when things weren't as heavy. When they didn't have responsibilities like they did now. When it was just them. Not that she didn't love her life and the way everything had unfolded... And most importantly, her baby girl... because she did. She wouldn't change her world for a thing. It was just sometimes, when he brought up the Mach 5 vs. the Batmobile debate, it reminded her of a time where she hadn't been that happy in one hell of a long time. That time with Danny; she had been newly liberated. She'd felt like herself again. And if there was a way she could hold onto that feeling; then she would all that should could to make sure she did so.
She watched Danny cross the finish line, and seconds later she joined him. Danny was out of his race car quicker than she could blink and she could see that he was adjusting to the fact that he had stolen the very close race at the last minute.
She hadn't won. Could she have? Possibly. But the thrill she would have got from settling their debate of the Mach 5 vs. the Batmobile was nothing compared to the feeling she got from the smile that was displayed across Danny's face as he threw his helmet up in the air and caught it again. She smiled as he danced around doing a victory dance, looking like a complete idiot. But... he was her idiot. He'd given her the opportunity to race a car on the NY 400 track. That was all that mattered to her – the fact that he'd gone out and planned such a thing for her. For Valentine's Day of all days.
They hadn't had it easy. Both knew that. Over the years, they had argued like cat and dog. Chased each other like cat and mouse. Both were stubborn in different ways, making them explosive at times. Their banter and teasing had driven everyone around them (and quite possibly themselves) crazy at one point or another.
But it was what made them, them.
And as Danny pressed a kiss to Lindsay's temple, she let out a breath as he tucked her into his side. Despite all of their grievances and struggles over the years; Lindsay knew that neither of them would change a thing, because for every bad thing that had happened to them, they'd gotten something good out of it. Everything that had happened had contributed to the strong and happy married couple that they were now.
And in anyone's book – that could be considered as a damn good formula for success.
Let me know what you though :) - thanks for reading!!