Disclaimer: Yeah, still going with "I don't own 'em." I'll let you know if that changes.
Author's Note: Wow! I mean, this response to this is just fantastic. Thanks, everyone! It has made a not-so-good week so much more bearable. Thanks to Niki, Faye, Danielle and Lyss, whose reviews I could not reply to offline. As with all my fics, if you do not get a reply from me by the time the next chapter is posted let me know. I try very hard to make sure I reply to all the reviews I'm lucky enough to get.
Spoilers: Still nothing canon.
"Hey, Danny. You're picking Lindsay up tonight, right?"
"Yep."
"Great. Could you do me a favor?"
"You're rackin' 'em up, Stel, but sure. Whaddaya need?"
She held up a big brown bag that was stapled shut.
"This is for Lindsay. Would you take it to her, please?"
As Danny tucked the bag in the crook of his arm Stella wished for a moment that she had let someone in on her plan. But the only person she was likely to confide in was Mac, and she couldn't very well tell him that she was trying to get the two CSIs together in the hopes that he himself would take a look around the lab and see what he'd been missing.
Lindsay growled as she rushed into her apartment. Of course it had to happen that the case took up more time than it should have, today of all days. Now Danny was going to be here, at her apartment, in less time than it would take her to get ready. In fact she was surprised she had beaten him to her place.
Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.
"Yeah?" she called into the intercom.
"Hey, Monroe."
Speak of the devil.
"Come on up," she said as she pressed the button.
She opened the door and her welcoming smile died as she took in her appearance. She was glad she was holding the door and she increased the pressure of her grip and forced herself to breathe.
He was dressed as a cowboy.
"You like?" he drawled with a smirk.
Had words ever failed to properly express what she was thinking to the extent that his comment failed?
Did she like? Like? It was amazing she could think at all, let alone straight enough to properly form words.
The wheat colored straw hat looked like it had always been there. The blue flannel shirt, rolled up to display his forearms, hugged his torso like a second skin. He was wearing dark navy straight cut jeans that poured down his legs to his black boots.
It should be a sin, or at the very least illegal, for him to fill out those jeans the way he did, she thought to herself as she blatantly continued to check him out.
Wait.
Boots? As in…cowboy boots?
He followed the direction of her gaze and tilted one toward her.
"Yeah…actually they're not half bad, once you get used to them. I was prepared to hate 'em on principle, if nothing else."
He grinned when he saw that her attention was pretty fixated on his attire. He had hoped to get a reaction out of her. He had been worried that she'd be pissed and think he was once again making fun of her. But from the way she was outright starin' it was clear that she thought he looked more than just a little okay. Still, better to double check than to assume, he thought.
"So, Montana…do I pass inspection or what?"
She blinked and nodded her head.
"Come on in, Messer."
As he walked past her she couldn't help but check out the rear view. She very nearly groaned. Give him a long neck beer and change him into a tank top and he'd pretty much be a vision straight out of her fantasies…not that he needed to know that. As she shut the door she struggled to find something to say that wouldn't sound completely asinine.
He saved her from her thoughts by talking.
"Ever since you called me cowboy I knew it's what I was gonna dress up as."
"Glad I could help," she murmured as she finally made eye contact again.
"So you're going as…a CSI who just got off of work?" he asked as he looked her over.
"I don't know why people ever accuse you of being anything but brilliant," she intoned in as sarcastic a tone as possible.
"Am I early?" he asked with a frown.
She shook her head and walked past him.
"I got out late so it's going to take me a few minutes to get ready. Do you mind waiting?"
He shrugged.
"Not at all. Anything I can do to help?"
She smiled at him and shook her head.
"Just hand me the bag from Stella and make yourself at home. TV remote is on the table, movies, music, it's all pretty much concentrated right here," she said as she waved her hand at the couch and surrounding area.
He handed her the bag and sauntered over to the couch. She called out from her bedroom.
"If you're thirsty or need a snack help yourself to whatever I've got."
"Thanks," he acknowledged as he turned on the TV and began to flip through the stations. He stood up and was about to go get himself a drink when she reappeared and he plopped back down on the couch, his legs suddenly unable to hold him up.
"Damn, Lindsay."
Danny would later be impressed that he was capable of speech at all. She was a vision straight out of his fantasies and he inspected her from head to toe much like she had done to him, although he wasn't even tryin' to be subtle.
How could he, when she was dressed as a cheerleader?
His eyes traveled up her legs to the oh-so-short skirt she was wearing. He thought he'd gladly give his first born to see what she had on underneath that skirt. He wondered if she was wearing just the typical bloomers or if she had on something else underneath them.
Suddenly a hazy night flashed in his mind. He had been out with the team, and it was pretty late in the evening so he was feelin' pretty buzzed by the time The Conversation, as he mentally referred to it, took place.
He was on his way back with another beer when he picked up the tail end of Stella and Aiden's conversation.
"So he starts throwing punches, completely disrupts the game," Stella said.
"Yeah, that's the type of fan I hate to see," Aiden agreed.
Danny's brain was taking a bit longer to process things and when it did it was a little off.
"What about a fantasy?" he asked with a grin as he sat down. He missed Stella and Aiden exchange looks over his head.
"We wanted to know what one of yours was," Aiden supplied. He nodded.
"The Yankees winning the World Series," he answered with a smirk. Stella and Aiden both rolled their eyes.
"I know," Stella said with an evil smile Danny completely misread, "we'll take turns, and the worst fantasy buys the next round. What do you think?"
Aiden nodded her head and hid her smile behind her hand. After a moment to process Danny shook his head too.
"Ok, who's first?" Aiden asked with a too-innocent stare at Danny.
"It was my idea so it's between you two," Stella announced. "I'll flip a coin. Danny, you call it."
"Heads."
Stella flipped the coin and patted his hand after looking at it.
"Sorry, it was tails."
It didn't occur to Danny to ask to see the coin himself. He was too busy taking a drink and thinking about what fantasy to share.
"I've always had a thing for cheerleaders," he admitted with a smile as he thought back to the girls in his class who had worn the uniforms.
"You ever date a cheerleader?" Stella asked. Danny shook his head.
"Nah, I was a ball player, not a footballer," he said, as if that explained everything. Aiden and Stella looked to each other for help but when none was forthcoming Aiden spoke up.
"So why did that mean you never dated a cheerleader?"
He shrugged.
"That time of year they were too busy getting ready for their competitions to come to our games. I always thought it was a bum rap. I mean, we were division champs three years running while the football team never broke five hundred all four years I was there. And yet, they got the cheerleaders."
Stella nodded.
"And by the time football season was over they'd all gotten boyfriends on the team," she guessed, and Danny nodded.
"Yeah, so I always wondered what it'd be like to see a girl wearin' my jacket with that hot little skirt peeking out," Danny stated with a faraway look on his face.
"What's the matter? Does it look funny?"
Lindsay's voiced jarred him back to the present and he licked his lips. He didn't need to wonder anymore. It looked un-freakin'-believable. God, Lindsay was so hot already…it was wrong how much he wanted to skip the party and explore her outfit thoroughly. He shook his head, both to calm his libido and answer her question.
"No, definitely not funny. I just thought Stella needed my jacket for her costume, not yours. It caught me off guard."
"This is your jacket?"
He nodded and she looked around for the mirror before deciding to just take off the jacket and look at the back. Her hands went to the buttons and Danny had half a mind to tell her to keep it on, but before he could say anything she shrugged out of it and he lost what little rational thought he had.
The cheerleading top left too little to his imagination, even though she was wearing a tight long-sleeved shirt beneath it. His fingers itched to touch it, to trace the "NYPD" letters on top and all that creamy skin he was imagining beneath it.
She held the jacket up and looked at the back. There was a baseball emblem, the word "Wildcats" on top and "Messer" spelled out on the bottom. She smiled as she traced over the letters with her fingers and he had to swallow a groan.
"I had no idea this was yours. Stella just told me she had a jacket that would go perfectly with this so I wouldn't be so self-conscious. If I'd have known…"
She trailed off as she realized he wasn't paying any attention to her. At least, not to the words that came out of her mouth. His attention was definitely not on her face. He belatedly noticed that she had stopped speaking and he made eye contact and grinned sheepishly at her before he went right back to staring.
"Sorry, Montana. It's just, you look…" he trailed off, unsure of what word to use. His brain was still too busy filling itself with images of Lindsay in the outfit to come up with a proper synonym so he went with brutal honesty. "…completely smokin' in that outfit."
She blushed and put the jacket back on, grabbing her keys and preceding him to the door.
"Not that you don't always look good, 'cause you do," he continued, aware on some level that he really should shut the hell up right about now but somehow unable to do so, "but in that getup? Man, you are gonna be beatin' them off with a stick tonight."
That thought broke through his semi-trance and he frowned. He was right, she was gonna have guys pretty much wettin' themselves to get near her. This was not good. Stayin' in the apartment was looking better and better.
Lindsay wondered if she was ever going to stop doing her human tomato impression. She hadn't counted on quite that reaction from Danny. Actually, if she had known there was a snowball's chance of a reaction like that she would have gone back to her original plan of the ghost costume in a heartbeat.
But as they rode the elevator down to his car she had to admit that his reaction definitely made her feel good. Actually, coupled with how freaking hot she thought he looked it made her want to stay home and see what he had on underneath the flannel.
"Well, Messer, I think you'll have more than your fair share of ladies drooling over you tonight," she said with a smile as he opened the car door for her. He returned the smile and leaned on the door after she got in.
"Ya think?"
"Let's just say I wouldn't be surprised. Why? Are you scared you can't handle it?" she teased, aware that she was inflating his ego more than she probably should, especially given the chemistry between them.
He shook his head as he closed the door and jogged over to his side. As he turned on the ignition he gave her another once over, smiling when she blushed again. It was too easy to make her react like that.
"You never know, Monroe. Do you plan on rescuing me if it looks like I'm being fed to the wolves?"
That made Lindsay think of the reason why she had abandoned Little Red Riding Hood and she turned her head to look out the window, hoping to cool her cheeks.
"I've got your back," she announced with a grin, although she kept her eyes on the passing scenery.
"Good to know. Maybe you should stick close, in case I need you," he suggested with a casualness he most definitely did not feel.
Lindsay's heart skipped more than a few beats but she managed to smile without swooning.
"Well, what with the whole gang hanging out I'm pretty sure you won't be left alone, should you choose not to go off with anyone, that is," she teased, "You never know, there could be a cowgirl just waiting for you to tip your hat to her."
He grinned at her and settled into the seat, anxious for the night to reveal itself.
