Disclaimer: I don't own CSI: NY (unfortunately) or its characters. Pretty much all I own here is the dialogue and Tony .

A/N: Set about a week before the events of 'Heroes'. My idea of what Danny and Aiden's last conversation would be like. Since we heard about the last time Stella talked to her, a plot bunny popped up and wondered about the last talk with her best friend. Thanks (as always) to WingFetish for the beta, and thanks to any of you who are giving my story a chance. Let me know what you think of it – Happy reading!

One Last Time

by SavvyAngel

Danny Messer walked into the pizza parlor, turning and searching for her familiar face. His eyes found her, sitting at their usual table to the side, right near the window that looked out onto the busy New York street. He smirked, waving to the owner behind the counter with a "Hey Tony, how's the kids?" as he walked over to the table, and sat down across from her.

"You know, we could eat in Manhattan sometime, 'stead of you making me come to Brooklyn all the friggin' time," he said with a smirk and a glint in his eyes.

Aiden looked at him, raising an eyebrow in her typical 'you're kidding me, right?' manner. "You're complaining, Messer? I can barely get you on the goddamn phone lately, and you're bitching about a few subway stops."

He smiled at the tone in her pure Brooklyn accent, something he hadn't heard in far too long. "Yeah, missed you too, kid."

She reached across the table to shove him.

"Ow," he said, giving her a mock look of pain while rubbing his shoulder.

"Wimp."

Danny was opening his mouth to respond when Tony came over, placing a large pepperoni pizza and two beers on the table.

"Enjoy, Aiden. Danny," he said.

Danny nodded his thanks, and turned back to his former partner. "You're good, you know that?"

She smirked at him. "Of course I do. Now, how 'bout you fill me in on some interesting cases, cause I'm getting nothing good at the moment. Too damn busy working on getting that PI license."

He grabbed a slice, leaning back and wondering where he should even start.

Half an hour later, Danny had gone through the majority of the more 'interesting' cases they'd had in the last few months that he hadn't already gone into detail about with her. He told her about the Kid Rock case ("There was like, this… kinka poodle thing or something. Leave it to some dumb celebrity pet to break a case, huh?"), along with the writer whose final chapter of a novel was written on his dead body ("Insane, A. Those people are insane.") The doll hospital was her personal favorite though ("I have never, in my life, seen so many creepy-ass dolls in one place.")

"You know, sometimes, our crime lab is prime-time worthy, Aiden, I swear," he finished.

She had missed this. Talking forensics and crazy people over pizza with her best friend – that was what Aiden had missed most about leaving the crime lab. That, working cases with a group of people, and spending time with the other members of the tight familial team they had formed over the years.

"Yeah it sure is. Hey… how's Stella been doing the last few days?" she asked. When Danny had first told her about Stella's attack, calling only minutes after he had heard about it, she could barely believe him. And after inquiring about the condition of the older detective, Aiden asked about the bastard who had done this to her. A part of her was almost glad he had died – otherwise, she knew, their entire team would've descended on him and made sure he never saw daylight again. She'd called Stella the next day, making sure she could see her soon.

"She's good," he responded. "Back at work, pretty much her usual self. And before you even ask, I'm keeping an eye on her, just in case. We all are."

She nodded for a moment, before bringing the conversation back to a more upbeat note. At least, for her. After all, one of her favorite hobbies was making fun of Danny.

"So really," she said with a smirk, leaning back against the booth. "How was that panic room a month ago?"

He shook his head and rolled his eyes before taking a swig of beer. "Friggin' nightmare is what it was. Of course, I had to get myself stuck in one with a crazy dead guy, Louie calling me every five minutes on the cell, and the heat turned up to 80 something degrees."

She made a considerate frown, then got the glint in her eyes that he knew was never followed by anything good. "Well, I heard that you were at least considerate enough to take your shirt off for the girls watching you on the camera feed."

He glared at her. "You know, sometimes, you're a real…"

"Ass. Yeah I know. You deserve it sometimes."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, content to simply enjoy each other's company for the first time in awhile.

"All right," she said, taking a drink of her beer before continuing, "Stop avoiding it, Messer. You know you need to tell me more about the not-so-new girl, who you still insist on calling the rookie."

"Hey," he said, pointing at her, "technically Montana is still the newest person on the team, so I can call her that until someone else joins up."

She raised an eyebrow at the slightly familiar nickname. "Montana? I still can't believe you are actually calling her Montana. I mean, her home state, Danny?"

He shrugged his shoulders, grabbing another slice of pizza.

"Wow," she said, continuing to shake her head at him.

"What?"

"Nothing. Just… get on with the stories, Messer. Tell me more about that first case you two worked. The one with the tiger and stuff?"

And he did. They had talked briefly about the case before, but Aiden was still curious about it. And about how Danny was handling his new partner. She was almost amazed at the details he remembered from the case, and from the conversations (or lack there of) that day.

"Wait, wait, wait," she stopped him, mid-narration with a hand in the air. "You left out that little detail before. You actually told Monroe to call Mac 'sir'? And to be afraid of him? That was one of the first things you said to the poor girl?"

He nodded, slightly afraid of her reaction. She just shook her head at him again. "You, Danny Messer, are a complete and total ass."

It didn't take Aiden long to see that Danny could talk about his new partner for hours on end, and it amused the hell out of her.

"I mean, she knew every stat about this guy, Tyrell Mann," she heard Danny continuing, drawing her out of her thoughts. "Who knew the hick would know about football?"

"And I swear, she thinks wheatfields are a better view than anything we got around here. The view from over by the Brooklyn Bridge? Is apparently not impressive."

Aiden laughed. "Come on, Danny. I think for all the charm and suave you think you have, you still got a lot to learn about women."

He looked almost offended at the suggestion. "Whadda mean?"

"She's trying to piss you off. She knows damn well how cocky you are, and she knows how to play it to make you angry. Actually, I'd say from the looks of things, she's doing a pretty good job of keeping you in line," Aiden told him.

He waved his hand in a dismissing motion. "Please. She's –"

"She's what?" she countered, interested in his response. When he failed to come up with one, Aiden smiled. "I think someone's got a thing for the cowgirl," she said in a sing-song voice.

She thought he was going to jump out of his seat. His eyes opened wide, mouth flapping open and closed a few times as he stammered to find a response. It was all Aiden could do not to give up and just laugh at him.

"I do not! Where the hell'd you come up with that one?"

"Well, what else am I gonna assume? You haven't been around in over a month cause you've been so damn busy flirting with your… Montana, and now all you can do is talk about her and… are you blushing, Messer?"

Danny had begun turning a slight, barely visible shade of pink when she'd mentioned flirting with Lindsay, focusing his eyes on the pizza and trying to think of anything but the girl in question.

"No," he said with a scoff, but still not looking up at her. "I don't blush."

Aiden smiled again. "Oh really? So, if I keep talking about you and your little country girl, you're telling me you wouldn't be… blushing?"

Danny tried again to hide the changing color of his face. He rubbed the back of his neck, and cleared his throat, saying, "Nothing to talk about, A."

"Right."

"I mean," he said, trying to save face, and gain back some ground in the conversation, "maybe I can see if you would think Montana's got a thing for me, cause that happens a lot but…" he said, leaning back against the seat with a smug grin forming on his face.

"You know, Messer. You think you're so hot all the time, sometimes I wonder if you ever actually look in the mirror when you've been on shift for 12 hours. Cause then, let me tell you – you are most definitely not the prettiest sight in the world."

"Shut up, Aiden."

"No. Oh and you call her Montana because what? You're teasing her?"

He rolled his eyes at his former partner's unwillingness to drop the subject. "Yeah! What else –"

"You have a crush on her, Daniel Messer," she said, accentuating her point by poking his shoulder after each word.

"I do not!"

"C'mon, Messer. You're telling me that in the seven months that Monroe's been around, you haven't ever thought anything but 'coworker' when you're looking at her?" Aiden asked, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

Danny stared at her for a moment, opening his mouth to speak, and closing it again. He looked down at the table. "No."

"You're full of it, Messer. Completely full of it. I mean… Danny. You ate bugs with the girl. Bugs – I mean, you didn't just take the bet and run to Mac's office with everyone else and get actual food, you sat there and ate BUGS with her. If you're not falling for her, then you're going friggin' crazy."

He waved his hand, dismissing her. "I… no… I mean… just…"

She laughed. "Oh man. You are –"

"Drop it."

"For now." She looked out the window at the passing city for a moment, and to Danny's eyes she was deep in thought. Then, she started talking again.

"So really," she said with a smirk. "You and Monroe…"

Danny glared. "Thought you said you were gonna drop it?"

"I lied. Get over it."

"You know, you two'd get along real well."

"Why? Cause we both gotta keep your ass in line and deal with you for obscene amounts of time?"

"Nah. Well…" he said, considering the thought. "Maybe. But mostly cause you're both stubborn asses and bossy as hell."

She laughed. "Yeah, and that's why you love both of us," she responded with a grin as Danny narrowed his eyes at her.

Aiden heard a beeper go off, and saw Danny look to the one on his belt.

"You?" she asked, still trying to recover from her laughter.

"Yeah," he responded. "Looks like DNA's finally got my results for when I get back."

She looked down at the watch on her left wrist. "You probably gotta get going, yeah?" She raised her eyes again as Danny glanced at his own watch. "I mean, unless you want Mac to fire your ass for taking a nice, ridiculously long lunch."

"He wouldn't fire me," Danny responded with a cocky grin. "I told him I was heading over here, so he gave me a little longer. And my case was pretty much on hold 'til these results came in anyway. Plus, worse comes to worse… I'd just blame you."

She shoved him as they rose from their seats after leaving money (with a generous tip for Tony) on the table. "Yeah, you would try to throw the blame on me. Jackass."

He threw his arm around her shoulder as they walked outside. "C'mon, A. You're walking me to the subway," he said with a grin.

"You need me to walk you two blocks, Messer? Well, if you need protection that bad…"

"Shut it," he replied, laughing and releasing her. "You owe me – I gave up lunch and basketball with Flack to put up with you."

"So now I rate below Flack?" she questioned, looking at him with exaggerated offense. "I mean, maybe if you'd broken a date or something with Monroe, I could see being upset. But –"

He threw his shoulder into hers. "You are such a pain. I think you hung around Stel too long, Aiden."

They continued on, walking down the stairs to the subway. Aiden smacked Danny on the upside of his head when he was a step ahead of her.

"Ow!" he said, holding a hand to the back of his head and turning quickly to look at Aiden. "What was that for?"

"Cause you're an idiot sometimes. And since I'm not around to keep you in line, I figure that takes care of the next couple times you do something stupid."

A smile broke on both their faces.

He hugged her as he went to leave. "Take care of yourself, Aiden."

She smiled, patting him on the back. "Don't worry about me. I'm good. Don't get yourself into any more trouble, you hear me?"

He smirked, "I ain't promising nothing, Burn."

She shook her head. "One more thing, Danny." He turned back, wondering what else she had to say.

"You don't pick your damn act up and figure out that you are crazy about Lindsay, and actually tell her that – she's gonna find someone who will."

He stared, wide eyed, unable to properly react.

"You really want to be late getting back to work? Cause, I'm still pretty sure Mac wouldn't be too pleased, Messer. Get your ass in gear," she finished with a smile.

He just shook his head. "Whatever, Aiden. Call me next week – this time, we're eating in Manhattan, got it?"

"You bet. I'll see you soon."