A/N: I got asked a question about Northern Idaho; and could I explain it a little. Northern Idaho was originally settled (not completely; but, a significant chunk) by people that were running. Running from something, or to something … As such the original families of Northern Idaho tend to be if not accepting of strange beliefs; but, have a live-and-let-live attitude. If you leave them alone; they'll leave you alone. At least that's my opinion of families from up that way; that's the way my mother's family was.

Thanks Afrozenheart412, Goddessthunder, Voetsek007, and Wherintheworld for the kindness and reviews; and Mysticsnowraven for making me an alert. Love you all!

Chapter 3: Lunch with Sheldon

"Lindsey; do you want to go to lunch?"

"Hmmm…." Lindsey's concentration didn't leave the piece of fabric she was examining.

"Come on; you haven't eaten all day."

"I need to finish this." She still didn't look up.

"It's a new place about two blocks from here; vegan and raw." Sheldon dropped the hint; knowing that Lindsey was always up for a new experience.

"Vegan?" That didn't quite compute for Lindsey. There were a few vegetarians in Montana; but, not many. Her dad didn't consider it a meal unless there was some form of meat. And he wasn't an atypical Montanan. Actually in many ways he was the norm. She had friends that were… what was that term… flexetarians. They didn't eat much meat. But, vegan? Raw?

"What's raw?"

"Well, it is held by aficionados of the raw diet that heating foods over 116 degrees Fahrenheit is detrimental to a person's health."

"Huh?" That didn't make sense. Mom had always cooked vegetables to within an inch of their life; unless it was a salad. And even that often had bacon or cheese or something like that in it. Vegetarian was definitely not a description of the diet she'd grown up on.

They believe that cooking destroys enzymes in food that can assist in the digestion and absorption of food. Cooking is also thought to diminish the nutritional value and "life force" of food."

"Why 116 degrees?"

"I don't honestly know. But, that is what they chose." Hmmm… I should look that up. Sheldon added it to his mental to do list. Alongside picking up his dry cleaning, reading the new NAME journal, calling his mother, oh and grocery shopping. He was out of milk.

'Okay; that sounds good. Let me…" Lindsey made some notes in her book; and marked her spot. It would suck to have to restart this again. Examining fabric wasn't hard; it was tedious and required extreme attention to detail.

Silence filled the air between them; a comfortable silence. This was one of the reasons Sheldon liked working with Lindsey; she understood silence. She didn't feel the need to have words fill the air. She could let silence be music; let his jazz fill the air and not talk over it. Or just be in the lab and let the sounds surround her. So many people felt the need to fill any space of perceived silence with words. Silly words; sentences with no meaning; conversations that would be forgotten in a minute. It was amazing the number of people that didn't understand silence.

"I'm ready. Where exactly are we going?"

"Two blocks south, and one over." Sheldon waved his arms pointing out the approximate location to the west of them. "A café called Air." Lindsey grabbed her jacket; she didn't think she'd need it. But, it was always nice to have.

"Air?"

"Air. I heard about it from a friend who I see at a lot of jazz events. His sister's boyfriend's brother is the chef.

Lindsey pondered that a moment, tracing the connection around in her mind. A grin broke out on her face. "I get that."

"What's the look for?" Sheldon asked as he held the door to the elevator for Lindsey.

"It's a western thing. Large extended families where everyone knows the entire family. My mom always used to tell me how I was related to people. She'd say something like 'Peter is your dad's second cousin once removed on his father's side.' After a while you learn your family tree; and when mom would start doing that the easiest way to figure out who they were was to trace the tree you knew and add them onto to a branch. Do they have chocolate cake?"

Sheldon nodded his head in agreement as they walked out the door into a sunny Manhattan. "Doubt it; maybe something with carob in it. I'm glad it's sunny today; the meteorologist was calling for rain last night."

"Mmm… I like the sun" Lindsey smiled up at the sky. "Tell me more about this raw food thing. How do they cook?" She put air quotes around cook.

"Well I Googled it. And according to the website; the blend, puree, sprout, and dehydrate.

"Dehydrators use heat. Dad used to make jerky so that he had hunting snacks."

"Apparently there are some that just use a fan and keep the temperatures low." Sheldon shrugged. The walk over had been pleasant and the façade of Air looked nice. There was a halo around the A in Air.

"I see."

Sheldon held the door for Lindsey as they walked into Air and grabbed a couple of seats at a corner table. Lindsey stared at the menu. Burrito Crudo with Chipotle Lime Dipping Sauce, Lasagna, Portobello Reuben Wrap, Sunflower Falafel, Veggie Wrap, Zucchini Pasta with Pesto, Zucchini Pasta with Walnut Bolognese Sauce, and Energy Soup. This stuff didn't didn't seem too odd. "What's Energy Soup?"

"Not really sure. It says it has lettuce, kale, squash, apple, and some other stuff in it. I guess it's blended."

Lindsey stared at the menu. "I think I'll go with the lasagna. It looks interesting; I'm not sure about the dates and miso in it though. What are you having?"

Sheldon pondered for a moment; not a lot of this resembled food. Too much acidophilous, miso and cabbage. "The falafel; it seems safe."

Lindsey looked quizzically at Sheldon putting down her menu; "You suggested we come here."

"I'm just not a big cabbage fan."

"There is an awful lot of cabbage on the menu. That and miso."

They waited in silence; a companionable silence as they watched the open prep area as their food and the rest of the lunch crowd's was made in the clean small bustling kitchen.

Sheldon watched for the kitchen for a couple of minutes; and as their food arrived at room temperature. Air is a raw food restaurant after all. He stared down at his sunflower falafel with some consternation. "Have any restaurants like this Montana?"

Lindsey moved her lasagna around. The texture didn't seem like anything she'd had called pasta. It was zucchini sliced really thin. Weird; but, kind of like spaghetti squash she supposed. "No, I don't think we do. Aren't a lot of people who are on the raw diet in Bozeman. Our neighbor's the Bieshelt's, their dog is on a raw diet. But, that is ground up meat and bones and stuff like that. I'd say next to Wyoming, Montana has probably the lowest per capita number of vegetarians in the country."

Sheldon took a bite of his falafel; the texture was a little off. But, it was pretty tasty. "Not too bad. What kind of restaurants do you all have?" Sheldon like a lot of New Yorkers had a lot of ideas about Montana; but, unlike a lot of New Yorker's he wanted to find out what was real and what was just Hollywood.

"Well in downtown Bozeman there a couple of really good brewpubs. Steakhouses, … Lot of pizza places and fast food by the college. Typical college stuff. Chain restarants: Ted's Montana Grill, Applebee's, Famous Dave's, Old Chicago, … that kind of stuff. Lot of little café's; I think every town in Montana has at least one." Lindsey looked at the vegetarian raw food in front of her and took another bite. "This isn't too bad. Most of the menus really don't vary too much. Meat, potatoes, tossed salad with ranch dressing, that kind of thing. No raw lasagna, not a lot of sushi. Although there is this one place in Billings called Na Ra; they fly their fish in daily. Joy took us there once; she knows the chef."

"Who's Joy?"

"Oh, sorry. She's a friend of the family. Hawaiian-Japanese. She lives outside Bridger on a small ranch. They do mostly beef; but, some pork. How do you like your falafel?"

"It isn't bad. Not going to be one of my favorite falafel sandwiches."

"I agree." Lindsey looked at her watch; "We'd better get back soon." She really didn't feel like going back and finishing examining the chunk of fabric; it was one of her least favorite things.

"You all want that boxed up?" The typically perky waitress asked.

They looked at each other and down at their plates, and spoke with one mind. "No, I think we're good." Then Sheldon added "Could we just get the check please?" The waitress bounced off; "What kind of food do you all eat?"

"Us all people?"

"Montanans. How different is the food out west than here?"

Lindsey counted out the money (with tip) for her chunk of the lunch and thought about Sheldon's question as they started out the door heading back to the lab. "I'd say that our food is simpler than a lot of the stuff you see here. Dad did a lot of hunting, so instead of hamburger mom would use ground venison, elk, or antelope. A lot of ground venison; using venison is a lot cheaper than buying beef. Especially for large families."

"What does venison taste like?" Sheldon really had no point of reference. But, he did understand eating on the cheap; after all he'd been a broke college student for too many years.

"Goat. Remember when we went to that Jamaican place? You don't want to hunt for antlers; old venison is pretty tough. The younger it is the more tender it is."

"Okay." Sheldon understood that; he a quite a few Jamaican and Muslim friends who served goat; and he'd had some old goat. Old goat was tough, and had a gamy flavor to it. "That makes sense."

"We ate a lot of meat; dad didn't consider it a meal unless there was some form of meat and preferably potatoes too."

Sheldon held the door open Lindsey; his mother had trained him to be gentleman. "Potatoes, you all are near Idaho."

"Ha ha; funny." Lindsey rolled her eyes at him. "Potatoes, have a lot of nutrients, are cheap and grow in a large variety of climates. Why do you think the Irish started raising them? The potato is actually a native of South America."

"I remember reading that somewhere." I think it was in that nutrition class they made us take in med school. Silly class finally came in handy. "How'd you know that?"

"Took a nutrition class in college."

"Hmmm… so did I."

They walked the rest of the way back to the lab in silence. Both of them enjoying the relative silence of the walk; and the ability to be alone with their thoughts.

Mmm… Lindsey thought about the food that her mom made growing up. Cucumber salad, the one with vinegar that dad loved. Or the one with sour cream, dill and vinegar that she loved. Pot roast; mom would cook the roast overnight in the crockpot on low to tenderize it, and then add potatoes, carrots, onions, and celery. The venison chili dad made; it was spicy, oniony, tomatoey and meaty. Mom made him put beans in it; said it made it a well-rounded meal. She'd serve it with rice; or over cornbread depending on how much time she had. They did a lot of food in the crockpot; it worked with their schedules and didn't require a lot of effort. Well, other than browning the roast, peeling and chopping vegetables, sweating the carrots and celery, and browning the flour to thicken the gravy.

They reached the block with the lab and both of them unconsciously slowed down a little bit. Both Sheldon and Lindsey loved their job; but, parts of it were tedious: Examining yards and yards of fabric looking for abnormalities, staring at wound tracks for hours on end to determine the weapon that caused it.

"What are you thinking about Lindsey?" Sheldon opened the building door for Lindsey.

"The food that my mom cooked; she made the best pot roast ever. Her chocolate sour cream cake with chocolate frosting."

"That sounds really good. I think a lot of people have very fond childhood memories associated with family meals. My mom used to make pancakes on Sundays."

"The radish sandwiches that dad always ate; just sliced radishes on white bread with margarine."

"That sounds rather unappetizing." Sheldon waited for Lindsey to walk out of the elevator as they headed towards the lab.

"Oh, I always thought they were the grossest thing in the world. Then I moved out of Montana, now they taste like home. Back to work; lunch again sometime?"

"Yeah, that would be good. Although someplace with cooked food this time."

End Note: Google NAME, I dare you – there is a journal associated with it! And I pulled an actual NYC raw restaurant's menu and my food opinions mirror Sheldon's – too much cabbage! My husband is from Billings, MT so I don't have a lot of experience with Bozeman other than driving through it a few times. So a lot of this is Billings area centered; but, I did research and asked the family a lot of questions. So Bozeman people if I've gotten something wrong; holler. Use that Bobcat cheer and speak up.