On and On

Spoilers for The Lying Game

Three.

There were three new messages in her voicemail when Lindsay Monroe turned on her cell phone in the middle of Gallatin Field Airport. Punching in her password, she cradled her cell phone against her ear, making her way to baggage claim.

Baggage claim. She couldn't help but smirk. This whole town was baggage for her. The automated woman on the other end recited that she had three new voice messages. The first was ADA Donaldson, with instructions to meet him in his office at the courthouse on South 16th, with a mechanical recitation of directions from the airport. She erased the message halfway through, remembering where to go.

The second message was from Danny, his accent sounded thick in her ear, making her smile as she picked her suitcase off of the conveyer belt.

"Hey, Montana, I, ah, I wanted to wish you luck, Mac filled me in a bit on the generalities. Listen, we've all been on the stand before, but testifying for people is a lot harder than testifying for evidence. People are unpredictable, unstable. Change their story, cover stuff up. Science never lies. Doesn't have a hidden agenda. No bias. Getcha hands on the forensics reports, look 'em over. Don't worry about the mothers, Lindsay. You're on their side." Her eyes watered, blurring her vision only just, and she stopped, setting down her suitcase to wipe at her eyes as Danny's message paused, and she heard the sound of him clearing his throat, and coughing once. He must have been outside. "Flack's draggin' me to a suspicious circs, I'll call you later." She grinned, accepting the comfort that Danny had offered in the brief message he'd left. Her smile dissolved, however, as the voice of her mother invaded her ear.

"Linds, gimme a call. Me and Dad're lookin' forward to seein' you." She rolled her eyes, knowing that her stay at the Watts Lane Farm was going to hopefully be short lived. They hadn't been overly supportive of her move to the East Coast, and she wasn't sure she was ready to handle the inquiries about New York, or the leading questions into the case-sensitive material of the trial ahead of her.

Mostly, though, she didn't want to see the picture hanging in the hall.

Sighing, she glanced at her watch. It was only four in the afternoon in New York, and Danny was probably knee-deep in the 419 with Flack. She'd call him back in a few hours, when her mind had been put to ease by the trial notes, or when her mother glanced at her left hand disapprovingly for the fourteenth time.

The drive down the 209 was neither horrible, nor long, as the airport is only a handful of miles away from the courthouse, and the scenery was a welcome sight after a year and a half of asphalt and high-rises. The winter had been fickle this year, but despite the fact that the ambient temperature was similar to that of the temperature on the streets of New York, the air was thinner, and Lindsay shivered, enjoying the view of snow that managed to remain white once in hit the ground.

Lindsay remembered the Gallatin County Courthouse as a large, cement block, four stories tall, one whole block wide. A daunting, intimidating building with severe angles and darkened, miserable windows in contrast with the drab, colorless cement. It had scared her, years ago when she hadn't started to unravel the secrets and tricks associated with law enforcement.

She entered the building with a passing glance, her heart cracking as the structure seemed to sigh wearily under the weight of her conscious. She smirked, the realization dawning on her that the Spartan brick of a courthouse in her hometown was easily dwarfed by the looming presence of precinct that was home to the lab on back East. She tried to smile, being back in the big sky country was a reminder of how much she had become a New Yorker, how much she belonged in the city.

How much this wasn't her home anymore.

She fingered her cell phone, rotting a hole in her jacket pocket, her jaw set determinedly. She would not unravel within an hour of landing. It was her connection to New York, to her life. The job was real, the lab was real, and this was all just a bad dream that she couldn't shake. Lindsay took a deep breath, knocking softly on Kevin Donaldson's door and swinging it open when she heard him call out a welcome.

Danny Messer groaned as he checked his watch for the third time inside an hour. He had been staring at the same sample of roofing tar for twenty minutes; unable to remember what he was looking for long enough to locate it. He was dangerously close to killing off an entire shift without Lindsay. He was also dangerously close to losing his mind. He straightened, pulling his frames back down to the bridge of his nose, and frowned at the spread of evidence before him. Lindsay's flight would have landed a few hours ago. If she had turned on her phone, she would have already listened to his message.

No.

He was not going to be the long distance stalker. The last thing she needed was his New Yorker mouth distracting her from preparations for testimony. He ran a hand through his hair, fighting off the burning in his chest, the heavy feeling of hurt that she hadn't trusted him with her demons. That she had insisted on shouldering her dark past on her own. Danny took a deep breath, shedding his lab coat and abandoning his evidence in search of a cup of the strong coffee that had been burning in the decanter in the break room for the last few hours.

Silently he prayed for a swift trial, for her sanity, and his.

Danny had almost made it to the break room when his cell phone began to ring. He didn't bother to look at the screen as his flipped it open, cradling the phone against his ear as he made his way to the cabinet.

"Messer." He swung open one of the cabinet doors, his fingers gently pushing aside a few mugs to find his own.

"Hey." Lindsay sat in her rental car in the parking lots of the courthouse, unable to keep her tears at bay.

"Lindsay?" Danny all but dropped the mug in his hand, frowning at her brokenhearted tone. "Hey, how was your flight?"

"Um, good. I just, I just needed to hear your voice." She cringed, knowing he would pick up on her free admission of vulnerability. Danny's hoarse chuckle hit her ear softly, and she smiled, leaning back against the headrest, staring absently at the steering wheel.

"You wanna talk about it?" Danny moved around the kitchen area of the break room, wedging his phone between his shoulder and his cheek, pouring thick blackened coffee into his mug.

"It, ah, it's just a lot, you know? All at once."

"Catches up with you, then knocks you out."

"Yeah." Her voice continued to shake, and he frowned, wanting nothing more than pull her into a hug until everything was over.

"Country boys at the court house treatin' you alright?" His timbre was lighter, and she smiled, rubbing away her tears.

"Like I'm some big-shot New Yorker." She could hear him laugh, and take a sip of what she assumed was coffee.

"That's m'girl." He mumbled, grinning into the phone. "Bring a little city to the game, this guy'll rot in a nine by nine for the rest of his life."

"I just, I wish I wasn't so far from home." Danny cocked an eyebrow, fighting off a mixture of a pleased smile and the shattering of his heart. He listened to her try to hide a sniffle, and inhale a shaky breath. He rubbed at his eyes wearily, groaning softly.

"Don't let them make you forget that you're a cop, Linds."

"Because I bear such a resemblance to Dennis Franz." He relaxed against the counter, hearing her sarcastic jibe.

"But the badge you got is real. It says New York on it, Montana. Don't let them run you around." There was a streak of vindication in his voice, and she nodded, knowing he was giving her sound advice.

"I just feel like I'm a kid all over. Like I'm tripping over the forensics, I can't get their faces out of my head. I just never thought I'd be sifting through this stuff ever again. I'm not ready, I can't do it."

"These victims, Linds, they need you. This guys been runnin' around for ten years, yeah, but you're ten years older now, and ten years smarter, and instead'a cookin' dinners you've been cookin' theories, and I've seen you take down suspects. Seen you not so much as flinch in the courtroom with the scumbags we round up back here." Danny took a deep breath, blinking away the evidence of tears in his eyes as he continued, speaking softly into the phone. "Listen, to everyone else, it's just another case. Another witness, another day at the office. You care about these people, Lindsay, but you're still seeking justice. Fight for it. You were the only one there. You're the only one who can."

"Thanks, Dan." She sounded small, quiet, and Danny cringed, hearing her self confidence crumble. After a moment, she changed the subject. "What're you working on?"

"Well, I got a piece a' roofin' tar that's been givin' me a run for my money. Could use a second opinion." Danny grabbed his mug, taking a sip of his coffee as he made his way through the lab, filling her in as he went.