I don't own any of these characters, and if I did we would see a return of the Messer home front (and more) that we got until season 7. Anyway, enjoy! And if you have a moment, submit a review. :)

New York Magic

Nothing was more magical to Lindsay Messer than watching her husband interact with their daughter. He'd always been one to pay attention. It probably made him a good CSI. Mixed with his propensity to feel, that sharp eye simply made him an amazing man.

And as much as she loved her father, he'd never been able give her his undivided attention, not with three brothers. She smiled a little ruefully. It was probably why she could talk cars and football, and manage two conversations full speed ahead. She'd learned to store facts, just in case, and to have the scores ready so that she could tell her dad when he walked in the door.

It never would have occurred to her father to stop to talk about shoelaces and princesses, though he might have talked to her about frogs a time or two.

So even when she was done eating, she simply cleared her spot and returned to the table with her palm sized video camera. She kept a careful eye on her daughter's appetite. Depending on how hungry she was, and how much she talked, Lindsay could never guess who would finish first. To pull this off, she would have to jump in at just the right time. Too close to bed time, and Lucy would never go to sleep, too long at the table and she would be ready to play.

Danny, on the other hand, would just have to catch up and catch on.

And, since there had been a good bit of adult conversation, as Danny had been fascinated by Mac's sudden profile page, Lucy had dug into her meal and was the first to lean back with a dramatic sigh. Lindsay laughed as she stood to take Lucy's plate. It was amazing what Lucy emulated, especially from her father.

"Lucy," Lindsay dipped down beside her daughter so that she was eye level. "Go into mommy's room and get the bag off of her bed. Daddy has a surprise for you."

"Surpwise?" Lucy clapped her hands and swung her gaze to her father. Danny simply shrugged as he met his daughter's gaze, then looked at Lindsay. She simple shrugged, but flashed him an impish grin.

Lindsay dropped a kiss on her head as she set Lucy on the floor. "Just go get the bag, sweetie. But don't open it."

"Are you going to let me in on this surprise?" Danny asked as Lucy scampered out, then frowned as she reached for Danny's plate. "Hey! I wasn't done with that."

"Well, you should have eaten faster," she said as she took his plate into the kitchen with Lucy's.

"Just because you didn't eat at all," Danny muttered and watched as she carefully lowered herself back in the chair. "Don't think I know you're not hurting, Mrs. Messer. Your body's not going to take that kind of tensing and reactive force without pain."

"Neither of us is as young as we used to be." She didn't deny it. Thanks to Adam, she knew he'd gone down to the garage to take a look at both cars. She wished that he wouldn't do that to himself.

Though she was guilty of the same thing. They both had the capacity to reconstruct the damage, impact and results in their head.

"I'll be okay. You just get your act together," she picked up the camera and turned it on, twisting the view finder so she could film and watch without the camera getting in the way.

"What act?"

"Don't think I don't know you were just practicing on me earlier?" she said and smiled as Lucy came running into the room with the small bag.

With a few more directions for her orchestrated post dinner entertainment, Lindsay sat back to enjoy.

First up was Danny. As Lucy climbed into the chair, Danny pulled open the small box from the photo store. When he pulled out the personalized deck of cards, printed with a closeup shot of him and Lucy captured months ago at the lab, his stunned gaze swung toward hers.

"How did you?"

Lindsay shrugged, grinning as she caught his reaction.

"I've got magic tricks of my own."

"Le' me see, Daddy."

Turning his attention to his daughter, Danny showed her the deck of cards. Laughing as Lucy pointed out that all the pictures were the same, Danny turned the cards over to show her the standard playing cards. Soon he was leading her through the trick, fascinating Lucy as he did it over and over at her request.

And Lindsay leaned back to enjoy, capturing on camera the delight and love that reflected on their faces.

~ny~

Though Lucy tired of the trick long after the novelty of it had been lost on Danny, she asked him to do the "surpwise" one more time at bedtime–but only if she could get her story first. After reading the story, Lindsay handed Danny the cards she'd tucked in the back pocket of her jeans, and moved to the door to watch.

It was such a stark contrast to the picture of family they'd unraveled throughout the case today. Lindsay wondered, and worried, where it had all gone wrong for them. Surely they'd had moments like this, so sweet and perfect, so full of love. Had they forgotten? Had they let other things become more important?

Or had the seed of dishonesty, of distrust, of hate, always been there, part of them?

It worried Lindsay, as it always did, how someone could be so callous enough to cause such fear, or to take a life ...

How a daughter could do what she'd done, seeing the fear that she'd caused.

Fear was horrible and it was something she knew. She'd seen her family threatened and afraid. She'd felt such fear herself, so many times over her life.

"Hey," Danny's gentle voice pulled her out of the daydream as he gently led her into the hallway. "If you're hurting that bad, maybe we should go to the hospital."

"No–it's not that," Lindsay murmured, and leaned into him, wrapping her arms around him. She sighed as his arms came up–ever so gently around her. It comforted her, even more so, to know that he was careful with her and the bruises he thought she might have.

So as he walked her toward their bedroom, she told him, and let out the painful questions that had been rolling through her head as the horror of the actual events finally unfolded.

"So you wanted to record the happy times to remember," Danny murmured, and shut the door behind him.

"Yeah, you need to remember the good times right?"

"As long as you're with me, I have my good times," He kissed her forehead and slowly gathered the hem of the mesh shirt before pulling it over her head.

Lindsay laughed. "I don't think I can manage that tonight."

"No kidding, Linds."

When she looked she found that he'd lifted the hem of her shirt to study the bruises that ran down her left side. "Montana," he grubbled as his fingers traced the early colors of brusing. "You should have said something. Lucy would have been a handful coming home. I could have gotten off a little early."

"Then I wouldn't have been able to get away with picking up your surprise. Besides, it doesn't hurt that bad."

"Yeah–and neither of us is as young as we used to be," he reminded her, before shaking his head. "How about this? I'll run you a bath with those healing salts and the scents you like, and maybe later I can show you a little magic of my own with these magic hands I have."

She snorted. "Magic hands, Messer?"

"You just wait and see. Meanwhile, you can tell me how you managed to get playing cards made in just a few hours."

"Who said it was a few hours? Maybe I just had a feeling in advance?"

He grinned at her. "You've got magic all your own, babe, but its not that kind."

She laughed. "This is New York City, Danny Messer. You can do anything in New York City."