A/N: I love this freaking show so much. Just some Mindy/Danny fluff inspired by tonight's episode. Hope you enjoy!

Why Mindy Lahari Should Never Babysit

Gwen and her husband went away for a weekend and they left Riley with Mindy. She balked at first at the thought of being alone with the kid all weekend, but Gwen told her about how impressed she was the last time she saw Mindy and Riley together, and how Riley was such a well-behaved kid that she practically watched herself. Against her better judgment, Mindy said that of course she wouldn't mind watching Riley and that they had nothing to worry about. The weekend went smoothly until they played hide-and-seek.

"Mindy!" Riley cries, banging on the bathroom door. "Mindy, let me out!"

"Why won't this stupid door open?" Mindy says loudly, turning the doorknob and pushing in. She tries again, pushing harder and the door doesn't budge. She thinks to herself that the kid had found the optimal hiding spot. She literally couldn't get in to find her. "Riley, did you lock the door? Look…look at the doorknob. Did you turn the little lock on the door?"

"Mindy! Mindy!"

"You've got to be kidding me," Mindy murmurs. "Riley, turn the lock."

"What's the lock?"

"The thing on the…" she trails off when she realizes that she doesn't know how the hell to describe a lock to a five year old. "Oh my God, I'm never getting Gwen's kid out of this bathroom." She raises her voice and says, "Riley, everything is going to be okay! I'm going to call for help!"

She walks quickly to the living room and grabs her phone from the coffee table. She dials Danny's number and waits impatiently for him to answer. He picks up right before it goes to voicemail and she snaps, "Could you have taken any longer to get to your phone? Seriously, Danny, what if this was an emergency?"

"Hello to you to, Mindy."

"Actually, this is an emergency," Mindy says, talking fast. "There is an emergency here because for some reason Gwen thought it was a good idea to have me watch her kid for the weekend. Which, let me tell you, is not a shining parenting moment for her and-"

"Mindy, calm down. What happened?"

Mindy glances back at the bathroom and exhales sharply before admitting, "Riley's locked in my bathroom."

"She's what?"

"You know what, Danny, I don't need that tone," she spouts off defensively. "I just…need you to come over here and open my bathroom door."

"You're kidding."

"Do I sound like I'm kidding?" she shrieks.

"Why don't you have her unlock the door?"

"Because apparently she can manage locking it but not unlocking it," Mindy says in exasperation. "And my attempt to describe a lock went nowhere, and…could you just freaking come here like I asked?"

"Alright, alright," he says. "I'll be right over."

"Drive fast," she tells him.

BBBBB

He shows up about twenty minutes later and Mindy is starting to worry because Riley hasn't been making a lot of noise, and if she kills her best friend's kid that's probably something that a vodka tonic and new shoes can't fix.

"Thank God you're here," Mindy says, talking fast as he takes off his coat and walks over to the bathroom door. "She hasn't been making any noise. I think she might have passed out from excitement."

"She's probably just sleeping," Danny says, running his hand down the seam of the door.

"But she was freaking out before," Mindy says.

"She probably worked herself up and then got tired," Danny says reasonably. Mindy gives him a look and he says, "I have a lot of young relatives."

"So, can you open the door?"

"Yeah, I think," Danny says. He points at the keyhole in the center of the knob and asks, "Do you have the key for this?"

She leans forward and stares at the small keyhole. "Huh, I didn't even know that was there."

"I'm guessing that means you don't have the key. Alright, that's fine. Do you have any bobbypins?"

"Yes," she says happily, feeling more in control as she can answer his questions positively. "That I do have, my friend. They're in…"

She trails off when she realizes what she was going to finish that sentence with.

"They're in the bathroom," Danny finishes. He looks around the room and then back at her, his eyes moving to her hair. He smirks a bit, shaking his head.

"What?" she asks, her cheeks flushing self-consciously. "Why are you staring at my hair? Does it look funny or something?" She starts patting it immediately and grins wide when she feels the bobby pins. "Danny Castellano, I believe I just found you some bobby pins."

He laughs. "Just hand them over."

She takes them out of her hair and drops them into his palm. He walks over to the door and she watches him crouch down, inserting the pins into the keyhole.

"No way," Mindy says, walking closer. "You're jimmying the lock!"

"Yes, I am," he says, intent on his work.

"Cool," she enthuses. "Where'd you learn to do that?"

He shrugs, adjusting the angle of the pins. "I don't know, when I was little I guess. My brother was a troublemaker and he taught me some things."

"Who would've known," she says, grinning as she watches him work. "Danny Castellano, the street thug."

"I was not a street thug," he says.

"Um, you're picking a lock right now," she reminds him. "That seems pretty street thug to me."

"I'm picking a lock because you got a five year old locked in your bathroom."

She catches the tone of his voice and says, "Okay, this totally could have happened to anyone. Kids are unpredictable." She crosses her arms over her chest and asks, "Are you almost in?"

"Not yet.
"Danny-"

"Give me a break," he says. "It's been a while since I've done this."

"Fine," she says, leaning against the wall. He glances over at her and asks, "How did she get in here anyway?"

"We were playing hide and seek," Mindy says. "It was going really well at first. The kid has some mad hide-and-seek skills. Like, she hid in my kitchen cabinets. Freaking ingenius."

"That doesn't sound safe."

"But then she ended up locked in my bathroom," Mindy says. "So…I think it's pretty much decided that I am the worst babysitter ever."

"I got it," Danny says, the lock making a soft clicking noise. He opens the door and Riley is curled up on the plush carpet, her thumb in her mouth. She shifts a bit and Mindy says, "Oh thank God, she's alive."

"Isn't she a little old to be sucking her thumb?"

"She went through a traumatic experience, Danny," Mindy says. "She deserves a little thumb sucking."

"I guess."

Mindy watches Riley sleep on the carpet and notes, "You know, she looks really peaceful there. Maybe-"

"Get her out of the bathroom now."

"You're right," Mindy says immediately. "I'll just…" She goes to move forward but then steps back. "Should we really wake her, though? I mean, look at her."

Danny sighs and shakes his head. He walks forward, stoops down and picks the girl up. He carries her over to the couch and sets her softly onto the cushion. He looks around for a minute and Mindy's about to ask what he wants when he spots the blanket over on the other chair and walks over, picking it up before laying it on Riley.

"You're not half bad at this," Mindy notes.

"Young relatives, remember? Do you need anything else?"

Mindy shakes her head. "No, this should do it. Thank you, by the way. You really saved the day."

"It was nothing," he says with a shrug.

"Do you want a drink or something?" Mindy asks. "Or a snack? I got these really good chip things for Riley, and they may just be the closest thing to heaven on earth."

He smirks. "That's tempting, really, but I need to get back to work. Some of us work on Saturdays, you know."

She gives him a look and says, "I'm going to choose to ignore that jab at my work ethic."

He grins. "I'll see you later, Mindy."

"Bye Danny."

A/N: I just love them together! Even if it's not romantic, their dynamic is so much fun to write. Hope you enjoyed this! Please leave feedback.