I do not own these characters, but I love them anyway. Enjoy.


Break: Chapter 3

"I know. I know," Danny rolled his eyes as he listened to his cousin's spot on Don Corleone impersonation. Someday, and that day may never come, I'll call upon you to do a service for me.

"Grazie, godfather." Danny responded on a laugh. Across from him, where Lindsay had been just an hour ago, Hawkes lifted an eyebrow. "I'll see you tonight."

"Making deals with the devil, Messer?" Hawkes asked.

"Trying to get around him, more like," he slid his phone back into his pocket. "It pays to have family in all corners of New York."

"Sounds a little too much like the Corleone family to me."

"Probably."

"You're not going to tell me, are you?"

"Lindsay will just tell you tomorrow."

Hawkes shook his head and returned to examining his evidence. "You're turning into a regular Romeo, Messer."

"Never," Danny leaned back into his microscope as he shuddered at the idea. "I'm just working it so she's happy and I'm in the least miserable position. I'm no martyr."

"LMP. A Messer acronym for dating."

"Exactly. One day, you'll be asking for lessons from me."

"I don't need lessons on how to treat a girl," Hawkes grabbed his evidence and lab folder and tapped Danny on the shoulder with it as he walked out of the room.


They took the subway, ate burgers and walked hand in hand under the lights of the city. They had the time to laugh and the time to talk about nothing. He told her about New York, about life as he knew it. She was able—purhaps for the first time in her life, to do the same thing.

There was no rush, no one waiting, no dead bodies calling their name. It was a date.

It was, Lindsay thought, the most perfect of nights. His long fingers were wrapped around hers; a fit almost like a mold. She rested her head on his shoulder and smiled.

"Tired?" he asked.

"No … well, not so much. More happy. Just happy."

"I like happy," he said. "But maybe we could try moving it up a couple of notches. This is, of course, our first date in awhile."

"To what? Ecstatic?" She pretended to consider it. Danny liked to play it other ways, but in the end he had a heart that was soft enough to try lots of things for her.

"Something like that. I have a surprise."

"Really?" That made her stop. She held onto his hand and waited for him to turn around to face her. "What is it?"

"A surprise, Montana. That means you don't know and you find out. Didn't they have those back in the wheat fields?"

"What? Like Children of the Corn?" she stared sweetly at him, then blinked her eyes dramatically. When they'd watched that movie together, he'd intimated at least that much--in jest, of course.

Danny laughed, picturing the zombie-eyed children wondering through the cornfield. He simply tugged on her hand. "Come on," he began walking again, "or we'll be late."

"Late for what?"

"Don't you want to know."

It wasn't a question.


Note from the author: What? You thought you would find out Danny's secret? If Lindsay and Hawkes have to wait so do you. Ha ha. :p ... don't worry. You'll know about the time that she does. (the story has to "break" here ... but more coming eventually. I wish I could say soon. Who knows.