Danny looked up from the chart he was reading and sighed. Mindy was sulking around the office like she was keeping nuclear missile plans instead of simply not talking about the elephant in the room. The giant baby-shaped elephant that they weren't going to talk about until later tonight. He could see her in her office, staring off into space with that blank look she always got when she was deep in thought, chewing on the end of her pen, and toying with a strand of her dark hair. God, she was hot...when she didn't open her mouth, of course. It occurred to him that after tonight he'd be spending a lot more time with her, if they could come to an agreement. He smirked to himself and headed into his office to finish up the day's paperwork.

Procrastination wasn't like her at all. She planned and replanned, made lists and enjoyed crossing things off them. She had decided what her life would be like when she was just eleven years old: become a successful doctor, meet a hot guy, get married, have a big family, find a cure for aging and never, ever die. It was simple. Except, turned out, it wasn't that simple. Eleven year old Mindy believed in dreams and wishes and magic; thirty-one year old Mindy knew that dreams only came true in the movies, wishes were for sissies and magic was better left to Harry Potter. And yet that soft, romantic side of her still ached...writing this list was like etching the death of her dreams onto a paper sized tombstone.

Five o'clock rolled around, declaring that Friday was over and the weekend had started. Mindy slid out of her lab coat and hung it on the back of the door. Grabbing her purse and pulling on her coat, she met Danny by the elevator. "So..."

"Stop...let's go back to my place and we can talk there." Danny was a very private man. He didn't like airing out his dirty laundry and he didn't want to go to some busy restaurant where people were talking and staring and judging. The elevator opened and he held the door until she stepped in and he followed suit.

Nodding, she didn't say anything as they walked in sync to the subway station across the street from their office and boarded the same train they always took home. But instead of going all the way to her stop, they got off two stops earlier. It was a much more rural neighborhood than her apartment but she found that she liked it. There wasn't so much traffic or noise, they walked a ways to the bus station and hopped the 305 until it dropped off outside a quaint two family home. He headed around the side and unlocked the door, "Welcome to Casa Castellano."

"Wow, Danny, this place is really nice." Mindy had opted for an apartment in the center of the city. Better for meeting guys, of course. She'd traded space and privacy for being close to bars and nightclubs. Danny moved behind her and gently helped her out of her coat, she smiled at him shyly. "Thanks."

Nodding his acceptance of her comment, he placed her coat in the closet. "Can I get you anything? Wine? Something to eat? My sperm?" He smirked at her, desperate to break the tension between them.

Laughing, she felt a huge weight lift off her shoulders. "You always know how to lighten to mood, Danny." Moving over to the couch, she sat down. "No, I'm good for now. I want to keep a clear head when we discuss all this...and I'm not really hungry. I've been...sort of on edge this week. This is all a lot to think about, you know?"

"Yeah I know exactly what you mean." Plopping down on the couch next to her, he kicked off his shoes and put his feet up on the coffee table. "Let's just keep it loose, okay? I can turn on some John Cougar Mellencamp if you want?"

"I dunno...I prefer Springsteen..." Mindy teased but she caught the look on his face. "Kidding! I'm just kidding..." She touched his arm, "Promise that I won't listen to any Springsteen at ALL if we decide to have this kid."

Danny nodded seriously, "That's on my list." He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a sightly crinkled piece of paper. He'd been writing down little scraps of things he thought of throughout the week. It was very different from Mindy's organized, printed list of things. "I would want our kid to have the best education...starting at home with not letting our kid listen to music that sucks. I want him to have an appreciation for the greats, the Beatles, the Stones, Mellencamp..."

"I think I could deal with that. I don't want to force her to play an instrument unless she wants to...I played the clarinet even though I WANTED to play the guitar. Let's just say, I got beat up a lot in school..." Her father had insisted she learn a classical instrument and it just so happened her grandfather had an old clarinet. The instrument had seen better days and with her meager talent, it hadn't made her one of the popular kids.

Envisioning little Mindy playing the clarinet made him smile. "Deal. I play piano so...I mean, I could always teach him, if he was interested."

There was so much about Danny she didn't know. He could play piano, he could dance...he was a great doctor. His finer points were adding up. But there was a little point she was worried about, "Um...I just want to make sure we have the same fundamental childrearing ideas. I...think we should start with deciding how custody would work?"

"Custody wouldn't be an issue, Mindy...I already told you, we'd be married. And if we got divorced, we would split fifty-fifty..." Danny replied. "I think we have more important things to decide, for example how we're going to go about conceiving this baby?"

A flush darkened her features. "Well, I mean...insemination would work. But we both know that it's a lengthy and expensive process. It also would be hard to keep something like that private..." They were both OBGYNs and keeping something like that private in their community of colleagues would be damn near impossible. Not to mention once she did get pregnant, everyone would know it was Danny's anyway. "What're your thoughts?"

Rubbing a hand over the back of his head, he nodded. "You're right about that. There's no substitute for the old fashioned way, honestly. Which would mean that we'd have to engage in sexual intercourse on a fairly regular basis."

Sex with Danny? She couldn't help but admit she'd thought about it. "So we agree then...we will do things naturally." She bit her lip.

Danny could sense her hesitation. "Is that a problem?"

"No, I just...what if you can't become aroused by me. I mean, it's very possible..." She said softly.

"That is not going to be a problem." Danny responded automatically. "Mindy, you're not an ugly woman. I really don't think that's going to be an issue. Besides, there's always Viagra," He laughed.

Peering at him pointedly, she nodded. "Yeah, yeah...of course." She looked down at her list. Well, he had told her that he was attracted to her...in a really backhanded way. "So the wedding...I mean, would you want to wait until I get pregnant to go through with it?"

Shifting on the couch, he shook his head. "I don't want people to think this was some sort of shotgun wedding that had to happen because we were careless. Especially not my mom and grandmother. I want you to meet them, get to know them before we commit to doing this. My family is really important to me and if...when we do this you're going to be part of my family too."

"What if I can't get pregnant?" It was something she feared. Already she was thirty-one, chubby, and her parents had a lot of trouble conceiving her. Sure, on paper she seemed healthy enough but nothing was a sure bet.

"If you can't get pregnant, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. But don't forget, I'm your gynecologist, Mindy. I haven't seen anything that indicates you can't get pregnant and carry a healthy baby to term." Danny reassured her. "I think that we should have...legal documents in place, however. A prenup." He seemed a little nervous suggesting that second part. His first wife had taken him for nearly anything he owned because he had been blinded by his love for her.

Mindy nodded, "I agree, I think that would be smart. We're both doctors...we keep finances and banking things separate. And as for where we live...I am assuming if we're married and co-parenting, we're going to be living together?"

"That's probably the best thing...we can look for places in good school districts outside the city. My mom lives in East Hills...great schools out there and she could watch the baby while we're at work?" Danny suggested.

"That's forty-five minutes outside of the city by car and over an hour if we used public transit. That commute would be hard on both of us." They'd have to buy a car, maybe two...depending on if he would carpool with her and their respective schedules. "You know, the city isn't so bad. I was raised there and my parents live in Manhattan, they could also watch the baby if we lived in the city?" Mindy suggested.

Danny shook his head, "I don't want to raise a child in a tiny apartment surrounded by noise and violence and city smog." He replied, "I love the city as much as anybody but it's no place to raise kids! If you want your parents to take turns watching the baby, I have no problem with that. I just...I grew up in the city too and it isn't the place for children."

New York was the greatest city in the world as far as Mindy was concerned. But maybe he was right. This was a city for artists, poets and single people. If they lived in the city, they'd have to send the child to private school. "I'm...willing to compromise, but...we both have to agree on the place to live before the baby is born, okay? We get an equal vote. Agreed?"

"That's fair. Agreed." He smirked. "Would you like to shake on it?"

"I agreed verbally." She teased back, laughing. "You know, we may very well be revolutionizing the way marriage and family works in this country. I mean, why can't everyone sit down and talk things over like this? I think we have a really good thing working here."

Danny nodded, "Yeah, and you nobody can say we didn't agree on everything. We're going to be kickass parents." He laughed, "So I think the sooner we get this process started, the better. Thanksgiving is coming up and I'd like to introduce you to my family then. It's not a huge event, me and my mom, my grandmother, Aunt Kathy and whoever her boyfriend of the moment is, my cousin Billy...and I would've said his wife but their wedding fell through."

Thanksgiving sounded good. "We don't really do much on Thanksgiving so I'm sure that'll be fine. My parents and I do brunch once a month, I'd love you to meet them then?" She smiled when he seemed agreeable. She was curious though about this big wedding. Danny had tried to keep the wedding a secret but he'd asked Betsy to pick up his tux and she had run her mouth all over the office. "Yeah you never told me what happened there. You said it got called off?" Mindy asked, curious. Calling off a wedding was a big deal, especially to do it the day of.

Letting out a heavy breath, he shook his head. "I think it was both their faults. Billy's eighteen and he thought he met the love of his life. But they're young and stupid. She ran off with one of the ushers the night before the wedding. He's shattered."

Mindy felt awful for him, "Poor kid..." She patted his shoulder. "Well, with age comes wisdom I suppose. I mean, look at us! We're making the right decision here." They'd just agreed to have a baby together and she was amazingly fine with it. "So, do you know a lawyer that could draw up these papers for the prenup? If not, I could go searching through the yellow pages."

It was all very civil, exactly what he'd hoped for. He hadn't really been expecting it from Mindy but it seemed she was more grown up than he'd originally thought. "I have a couple buddies who are lawyers. I'll ask if they know anybody who will do a good job. Thanks...for trusting me with this."

"We're having a baby together...I think trust needs to be the first thing on both our lists. I want us to be able to talk without the other getting angry and storming off. Open lines of communication was number one on my list..." Mindy replied.

"Mine too," Danny handed her the scrap of paper so she could see for herself. "So far so good. Now, can I get you something to drink?"

Kicking off her shoes, she placed her feet up next to his on the coffee table. "Actually, from this moment forward, I'm alcohol free. You'll be proud of me, I started my diet yesterday..." She bit her lip, "Well, okay, I only had one bag of peanut M&Ms from the vending machine. But it's a start!"

Laughing, he nodded, "I'm glad to see you're taking this seriously." She looked so sweet sitting next to him on the couch, he leaned over and captured her lips. At first she seemed shocked but then she yielded, his lips gently gliding over hers again.

Eyes wide, her heart pounded when he leaned in and kissed her. He pulled back and she licked her lips, "What was that for?"

He shrugged, "I figured we'd seal the deal...here's to a long and prosperous partnership of parenthood." Standing up, he rubbed his hands together. "I'll order us up some dinner. Stay put..." Disappearing into the kitchen he left Mindy to herself for a moment.

It was lucky he didn't ask her to move. She couldn't have stood up even if she wanted to. Kissing Danny Castellano...huh...it was nice. Okay, more than nice. Oh, who was she kidding? It was amazing. It occurred to her that she might be writing a whole new kind of romantic comedy starring a handsome, single doctor! A smile spread over her face. This was the start of something good.

Thanks for the reviews! This chapter is very important to setting up the story. So, I hope you enjoy. Please remember that there are 3 episodes of this show so if information comes up after the fact, I'm working with what I know in this moment! Obviously this is an AU storyline (unless they want to hire me to write for The Mindy Project). So there are going to be deviations from what happens on the show! More reviews means more muse for me! So I hope you'll leave me a comment! Happy Sunday!