Thanks for the reviews! A little more exposition/backstory to bring us up to speed, but the good stuff is coming!

Daniel Castellano was a man of many talents. Gifted doctor, budding pianist, unwilling male model. But the one skill he had made use of most of his adult life was his ability to neatly bottle up his feelings after failed relationships. It began with his disastrous marriage and continued on a lesser scale with each subsequent partner. It was neat and clean and allowed him to avoid the pesky inconveniences of actually dealing with his feelings. Sure, he would slip on occasion, but that always made things worse, so he was resolved to not go down those paths again. Leave the past in the past and move on, that was the pragmatic thing to do.

And it should have worked well. All those unresolved issues and ended relationships were locked away, never to be revisited. Danny avoided reminiscing and kept very little to remind him of previous times. Pretty much all that remained of his reunion with Christina was the big letter D that had hung on the wall - Christina had dented it by throwing it on the floor. She had taken her letter C, which had amused Morgan greatly when he came to help Danny move. "She didn't want your D, Dr. C! She left the D! Too soon?"

But to Danny's dismay, one particular set of emotions would simply not let itself be locked away - in fact, he couldn't even get the door closed. It was his own fault for letting himself have feelings for Mindy in the first place. He had always had a physical attraction to her, but damn, somehow her annoying behaviors had become endearing, and she smelled good and felt good and then it wasn't just physical anymore. He had thought, a few times, that she felt the same way - hell, they almost kissed a couple of times. But there was always something, or someone, in the way, and that was fine, because dating a co-worker would be complex and messy and didn't make sense. And so he kept on keeping on, nose to the grindstone at work, going an occasional date now and then with women who were nice enough, but not... enough.

He had a suspicion that Mindy knew how he felt, because there was a bit of a weird vibe between them now, especially the last few weeks. He couldn't figure that out - the last potentially embarrassing, revealing thing he had done was months ago at the Christmas Party. That was also the timeframe of the last almost-kiss, and when she began dating Cliff, so if anything awkward was to arise, that would have been the time for it. But things were mostly normal afterwards as Danny tucked his feelings away and Mindy dealt with her new boyfriend, up until recently. Mindy had begun acting squirrelly around him, darting her eyes and fiddling constantly with whatever she was holding, avoiding being too close to him. And God forbid he touch her - she jumped and flinched when he even just nudged her.

But the strangest thing was just last week, when he got in the elevator with Mindy and Cliff. It seemed perfectly normal to Danny, dashing into the closing car and tucking himself next to Mindy. Sure he could have left a little more space between them, but he kind of liked the way her arm felt right up against his, and it wasn't like he was flexing his bicep a LOT. "Geez Danny, you're sweating all over me!" Mindy squealed, but she didn't move, she just stood there looking at the floor.

"Morning Mindy. Morning Cliff." Danny grinned at the pair. Cliff replied with the standard niceties and they continued the short trip in silence. Cliff got off at his floor after giving Mindy a quick kiss on the cheek, and Danny had expected Mindy would then move away. But she just stood there frozen, pressed against him, and then fled when the doors opened on their floor. Danny had just exhaled and continued on his day.

He couldn't decide if she was freaking out because she didn't want his touch... or because she did? It wasn't like he was going to put the moves on her, not when she was seeing someone. Or even if she was single. No, Danny had had enough drama to last him two lifetimes - he had no need to set himself up for more. Even though she was the highlight of his day, and he missed her when she wasn't there, and he looked forward to his office hours or running in to her in the hospital. No, that wasn't in the cards. He would just have to work around the weirdness.

But today was even stranger. Cliff was in the elevator alone and Danny had called out to him to hold the door. Cliff just stared at him - glared, really - and pressed the close door button. The elevator slammed shut in Danny's face. As Mindy would put it, rude. So when Mindy came in, looking a bit rattled, Danny couldn't resist a bit of teasing. It was kind if his favorite thing these days.

"Hey Mindy. See if you can teach your boyfriend some simple social graces, OK?"

Mindy just stared at him. The rest of the office workers in earshot stopped to listen, as the Mindy and Danny squabbles were always entertaining.

"What are you talking about, Danny?" Mindy asked, avoiding his eyes and reaching for her charts.

"Cliff closed the elevator on me this morning. I asked him to hold it! I mean geez it's just courtesy..." Mindy cut him off. "I'm sorry, Danny, but you'll just have to address that terrible indecency with him directly!" And with that she grabbed her charts and hustled off to her office. Danny was not dissuaded.

"Oh come on, Min. He's not MY boyfriend." Danny chided as she settled in her office chair.

"Well, he's not my boyfriend either." She replied, still avoiding his eyes. Danny was surprised, sort of... Mindy didn't have the greatest track record with relationships either.

"Oh wow. When did that happen?"

"Last week." She replied, fighting the temptation to let herself discuss the ordeal with Danny. She couldn't even look him in the eye, so how could she even begin to explain?

"He seemed like a great guy. What did you do?" Danny couldn't help but grin. He had no intention of torturing himself by attempting to act on his ridiculous feelings, but he had this silly joyful reaction to hearing that Mindy was once again single. Of course that had backfired before with Casey... as she had gone back to him.

"For your information, Danny, I broke up with him. Why do you assume that I did something wrong? I am a fantastic girlfriend, Danny. Why are you smiling?" Mindy finally looked at him and was outraged to see him enjoying her woes. His grin made her heart do leaps in her chest and that pissed her off even more.
"Sorry, sorry." Danny replied, holding up his hands in mock surrender. "I'm sure you're great. Sometimes things don't work out and no one is to blame."

"Thank you Danny. I appreciate the support."

"So, what happened?" Danny couldn't let it go. He was not normally this curious about anyone's love life, but Mindy was an oversharer anyway, and for some reason he just wanted to know. Especially since Cliff seemed so bent out of shape.

"I just... We just... Look, it's not important." Mindy was oddly flustered.

"So when has that ever stopped you?" Danny laughed. "Most of the things you tell me aren't important!"

That was enough for Mindy. She had to get Danny out of her office. "OK!" She yelled at him in her warning voice.

"Hell, if we only talked when you had something important to say, we'd never speak!" Danny continued to tease, even with Mindy gesturing him out the door.

"OK, Danny! I need to work now! GO!" Mindy was on edge and Danny's teasing was too much right now, especially since he just kept grinning at her with that damned smile that made her knees weak. Danny got up and slipped past her to leave her office, but stopped midway. She found herself looking up at him against her better judgement and met his eyes. He was still smiling, but it was that soft, crooked smile now.

"Hey." He murmured, his voice lowered so the whole office couldn't hear. He put his hand on her arm, just above her elbow, and gave it a gentle squeeze. "You'll be OK." And there they stood, just a heartbeat longer than appropriate. Danny started to move away, eyes still locked with hers, and released her arm, his fingers sliding down and just brushing against her hand, and then he was gone.

Mindy closed her office door and shut her eyes tight, heart pounding. All she could focus on was that soft touch that had left her fingers tingling. She wasn't sure how much more of this she could take.