A/N Wow. How did you guys get so lucky, three chapter in twenty-four hours?! hahaha While, I'm gone for the next couple of days, so it might be Tuesday or Wednesday before the fourth chapter gets up, but hopefully this will tide you over.

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"You okay there, Flack?" Danny asked, setting down his camera beside where he was crouched down by a blood pool and appraising his best friend.

Don escaped his thoughts and looked over at Messer. "Hmm? Oh, yeah, fine."

Danny shook his head with a grin. "You just met the girl two days ago. It's a little soon to be love-sick, ain't it?"

"Shut it, Messer."

"Ooh, hit a nerve."

Don scowled. "Don't you have a scene to process? I'm gonna go canvas the floor, see if any of the neighbours heard anything."

A couple hours later, as the friends rode down in the elevator of the apartment building together, Danny noticed that Don still seemed a little distracted. "C'mon, what's goin' on?"

Flack furrowed his brow. "She, uh – She has a kid."

"Oh. Wow. Wasn't expecting that," Messer commented.

The elevator doors opened, and the homicide detective and the CSI crossed the lobby floor and headed out to parking lot.

"She widowed or divorced?" Danny finally asked.

"Neither."

Danny raised his eyebrows. "Really. Didn't seem the type to have a kid out of wedlock."

"She didn't. Her daughter's adopted."

"Wow. She adopted by herself? That's pretty big."

"Yeah. I'm meeting Katie tonight. Frankly, I'm a little nervous about it."

"Wow."

"Would you quit sayin' that?"

"What? I'm surprised. You meet this woman two days ago, now you're tellin' me she has a kid and you're about to meet her. This is movin' a little fast. I'm just tryin' to keep up."

"Noelle's amazing. I want this thing between us to work."

"And you're afraid if her daughter doesn't like you right off, she's gonna have second thoughts?"

Don shrugged. "Maybe."

"Listen, man, you're great with Olivia and Matteo, and you've got, what, eight nieces and nephews, so you don't gotta worry about bein' around this kid. Besides, don't you think it's a little soon for make-it-or-break-it events? If this Noelle likes you as much as you seem to like her, she's not gonna kick you to the curb based on one meeting."

"I don't know. I just know that I don't want this to end."

Danny smirked. "Who are you and what have you done with my best friend?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

You haven't even really looked at a woman in longer than I can remember. It's like you gave up on the whole dating thing after the explosion."

"You try having a hole blown in your chest. Waking up beside some nameless stranger seems a little pointless after that."

He shrugged. "I'm not arguing with you there. Though, what was Devon?"

"Devon was some pent-up frustration."

Danny laughed. "Okay, okay. So, what, all of a sudden, you're thinkin' you're ready for the real thing? You want to settle down? I mean, the explosion was three years ago. This is just hittin' ya now?"

"Yeah, well, I didn't know Noelle existed three years ago."

"Oh, no way. You start talkin' soul mates and star-crossed lovers and all that Romeo and Juliet crap and I'll pull out my gun and shoot you where you stand."

Don laughed. "Careful, Messer, your wife and I are friends. We talk. But I'm not sayin' that. I'm just saying…Look, when something feels right, you should go with it, right? I mean, what made you get on a plane and fly to Montana when you and Linds were hardly speaking?"

Danny couldn't deny his reasoning. "I guess you gotta just go wit' your instincts, man."

A few hours later, Don knocked on Noelle's front door, fighting the nervousness that had been plaguing him all day. When the door opened, he flashed a smile. "The best Italian take-out you've ever had," he announced as she ushered him into her apartment. "And a 1992 bottle of Chateau Suzanne."

"I'm a cheap drunk, Don. You could get away with a lot of things with a 2007 Wolff Blass," she kidded.

He laughed softly, leaning down and kissing her cheek. "Duly noted. Where's Katie?"

"She's sleeping. She's got a bit of a cold and was a little fussy, so I put her down a while ago." She took the food from his hand and walked into the kitchen, where she set it on the counter. She then walked into her dining room and scrounged around in her china cabinet for her corkscrew.

Don came and stood in the doorway of the dining room, smirking when she spun around and walked right into his solid frame.

"Okay, now you're just doing that on purpose," she said as her cheeks tinged red.

"Damn straight." He dipped his head and captured her lips with his. The kiss, which started off as gentle and sweet, soon grew hungry. This woman who had been a stranger two days ago had quickly become a light in the very dark world he had found himself living in the past couple years and he could not deny that he liked it. He picked her up and backed into the kitchen, setting her on the counter. His hands moved to her face, holding her so he could deepen the kiss.

In response, she wrapped her legs around him, drawing him closer to her. She moaned into him, throwing her head back as his lips travelled down to her neck and hit her pulse point.

He brought his mouth back to hers and kissed her again deeply.

"Donnie, we have to stop," she said breathlessly after a while, pulling back. She smiled a little shyly. "You're going to make me break every rule I've ever made for myself."

He couldn't fight back the grin that crossed his lips. "I know this is happening kind of fast. I should be completely freaked out, but I'm not."

She ran a hand through his hair. "I'm wondering why I couldn't have met you a few years ago."

The sound of laughter filtered through the baby monitor that was sitting on top of her microwave stand.

Don smiled. "That's why."

She nodded with a knowing smile. She hopped down off the counter and took his hand, leading him down the hall to the second bedroom. She pushed open the door slowly.

Katie was standing in her crib, a bright smile on her face when her mother entered the room. She reached out her arms. "Up. Up."

"Hey, sweetie. Looks like you're feeling better. C'mere." Noelle eased the little girl out of her crib into her arms. She felt her forehead which was definitely cooler than when she had put her down earlier.

Katie buried her face in the crook of her mother's neck a little shyly when she saw the tall stranger accompanying her.

"Ekaterina, this is Don. He's Mommy's friend. Can you say 'hi'?"

The little girl shook her head vehemently, keeping her face hidden.

Don and Noelle both laughed softly.

"She's going through a shy phase right now," Noelle explained.

"Mama, down."

Noelle obliged, setting the little girl down on the floor and watching as she then toddled out into the living room.

"C'mon, I'll get Katie's dinner and we can eat."

By the end of the meal, Don was completely enamoured with Ekaterina. She seemed to have decided that maybe it was okay to acknowledge him and had even offered a few shy smiles while they ate. Then as her mother lifted her down out of her highchair, she ambled over to Don and took his hand, inviting him to play with her as she sat herself down on the living room floor with some toys.

While Noelle cleared the table, Don played with her little girl. For the first time, Katie seemed to notice the badge on his belt, forgotten as he had come straight from work. She pointed at it with an inquisitive look.

"You want to see this?" he asked, pulling it off and handing it to her.

She examined it closely, turning it over in her clumsy hands and tapping the shiny surface. "Pwetty," she smiled.

Noelle walked into the room and smiled when she saw Don bonding with her little girl. "Careful. She likes anything gold and shiny. She's going to cost some guy a fortune one day," Noelle kidded.

Don smiled at them both. "I don't mind."

Katie was soon occupied with some blocks she had sitting in front of her, so Don ruffled her hair before joining her mother on the couch.

Ekaterina played by herself Noelle and Don each enjoyed a glass of wine as well as each other's company. There was a heat building between them, but with Katie in the room, neither could act on it. Noelle was almost grateful – she wasn't sure she trusted her ability to restrain herself when she was so attracted to the man sitting next to her.

"You're great with her," Noelle commented.

"She makes it easy."

"But you've obviously been around a lot of kids."

"Well, I've got eight nieces and nephews, and my closest friends just had twins a few weeks ago."

"Wow. Newborn twins. I can't even imagine. I guess there's a part of me that regrets that I missed that time with Katie, but I can't complain." She looked over at her daughter affectionately for a moment, before turning back to her date. "I, uh – I appreciate how accepting you've been."

He shrugged. "It wasn't a difficult thing to do."

An obnoxious cell ring tone cut through the apartment.

"Sorry," Don sighed. He pulled his cell from his pocket and glanced at the call display. "Damn."

"What?"

"Precinct," he said, sitting up grudgingly to answer the call. "Yeah, Flack."

Noelle walked over and sat down next to her daughter on the floor as Don grunted a bunch of affirmatives and negatives into his cell. She could not help but chuckle softly at his clearly disgruntled tone.

A couple minutes later, he slammed his flip phone shut and looked at his new girlfriend apologetically. "I'm really sorry, doll, but I just got called back in. Break in a case we've been working for a while."

She nodded in understanding. "That's a good thing."

He shook his head a little incredulous at her reception of the news. "You're being great about this."

"Don, you're a homicide detective. I get that it's not exactly a nine-to-five, Monday to Friday gig." She kissed the top of her daughter's head, then stood and walked him to the door.

There in the hallway, he took her face in his hands and kissed her until she thought she would not be able to stand had he not been holding her.

"Uh – Hmm, yeah, uh – So, call me later?" she stammered, trying to regain her focus as he pulled on his jacket.

"You sure? Might be late."

She shrugged. "Doesn't matter."

He flashed her a dimpled grin then kissed her cheek. "Then I'll call ya later."

"Be safe, okay?"

"Always. Later, doll."

On the way back to 1 Police Plaza, Don decided that this guy better be guilty and he better crack in interrogation, otherwise there was going to be hell to pay for ruining his date. And crack he did – into a million pieces. As Danny and Don both laid into him, he tearfully confessed to killing his girlfriend earlier that morning in a fit of jealous rage.

Shaking his head incredulously, Don walked out into the corridor of the precinct with his best friend in tow. "These jerks never cease to amaze me," Flack muttered. "Her ex leaves her a message and the guy flies off the handle and stabs her?"

"You're just pissed off 'cause I paged you in the middle of your date," Danny kidded him. "How was it by the way? You meet the little ankle biter?"

"Yeah, I met her. She's a beautiful little girl."

Messer studied him for a moment. "Oh, no, not the kid, too. You're hopeless, Flack."

"What's going on?" Stella asked curiously as she passed by and heard Danny's comment.

Danny clapped Don on the shoulder. "Ask Romeo here. I gotta go finish off this report so I can get home before my wife puts a price on my head."

Don glared at his best friend as he walked off, then looked at Stella with a shrug. "He's sleep deprived. Newborn twins. You know."

"Uh-huh. What's going on, Flack?"

"Nothing, Stel. But I promise, if there is something going on, you'll be the last to know. Well, maybe I'll put you on the list before Messer. He's starting to piss me off." With that, he turned and walked off, leaving Stella a little dumbfounded.

"Romeo?" she asked the empty hallway.

"Ah, yes, Shakespeare's tragic hero. Fell in love with Juliet, and that was the end of him," Sid waxed poetically as he joined Stella in the corridor. "The ol' bard. This reminds me of a time in college when I was taking this English literature class and there was this—"

"I think I hear Mac calling," Bonasera cut in.

"Mac left hours ago, I believe."

"I meant Flack. Have a good night, Sid."

Sid shrugged and headed back down to the morgue.

Outside, Don took a breath. Maybe Danny was right. Maybe he was hopeless. There was no such thing as love at first sight, right? It was too early to be thinking about this woman all the time. It was crazy to miss her, to wonder how he could manipulate his schedule so he could see her again before too long. "Christ, Noelle. What are you doin' to me?" But he smiled then as he made his way to his SUV. Whatever she was doing, he hoped she did not stop anytime soon.