A/N: Thank you all for the reviews and hits on the story thus far. It's very encouraging. If anyone has any opinions on the sex of the baby or if we should have any surprise multiples, let me know and I will take it into consideration. I would love the opinions of my readers.
Two weeks later:
Lindsay walked into the crime scene, already surveying it with a critical professional eye. It was early in the morning, as she'd been called in before her shift started to help out with the overload of cases the lab was attempting to cope with. Mac had told her it was a homicide and that was about all. Which is why she was completely shocked when an ever familiar voice called out, "Mornin' Montana! Glad you finally showed up."
Lindsay narrowed her eyes as she stared at Danny Messer, who was currently kneeling by the body of a young Caucasian female and opted to go with the professional mode. "What'd we got Messer?"
If Danny had heard the cold professionalism in his voice, he didn't acknowledge it at all. "So far looks like the normal mugging gone south. Two females, multiple stab wounds to the chest, purse missing a wallet. No ID." He offered her is usual trade mark grin. Lindsay didn't bother to return it.
"You get pictures already?" asked Lindsay, already getting her camera ready.
"Just of the body. Mac told me you weren't doing bodies for awhile. What's up with that?" asked Danny, standing up from where he'd been kneeling by the bodies.
Lindsay narrowed her eyes at him, before going about taking pictures of the scene. "As if you didn't know."
Danny looked at her with disbelief, "If I knew, I wouldn't be askin' now, would I Montana. What's wrong?"
Lindsay didn't answer him, she just continued to move about the scene, taking pictures. Danny just looked at her, unwilling to accept that she was not giving him an answer, and unable to come up with a reasonable explanation in his mind, of why she wasn't capable of working all aspects of the crime scene. After Lindsay had finished taking pictures and had set the camera down next to her case, Danny grabbed Lindsay's wrist.
"What are you doing? Let go of me!" said Lindsay angrily, her brown eyes flashing dangerously as she attempted to pull her wrist out of his hands.
"Why won't you give me an answer?" asked Danny, his voice low and cold, a clear indication that he was unhappy.
Lindsay continued to struggle with him, but Danny wouldn't let go, he wanted his answer, "I told you already and you didn't care then, why would you care now?"
"Montana, I have no idea what ya talkin' bout!" said Danny his accent getting thicker as his voice got colder and laced with more frustration.
"Let go of me! And quit calling me Montana!" replied Lindsay loudly, she was almost yelling at Danny, and some of the patrol officers were starting to glance in their direction every now and again. What neither of them knew was that Det. Angell had told the officers if there was any hassle between Danny and Lindsay, while she went to canvass for witness, that they were to call Mac immediately. As it would happen, the officers had and since Mac was at a scene with Stella not far from Danny and Lindsay's, he'd come over and walked up at that moment.
"What is going on here?" asked Mac in a commanding, clearly unpleased voice.
Hearing Mac's voice, Danny immediately let go of Lindsay, and she acting off her emotions, took two steps back and began rubbing circles over her belly, the feel of the soft cotton shirt calmly her little. "I asked a simple question Mac and she won't give me an answer."
"And that's reason to hold onto her against her will, instead of doing your job?", replied Mac, raising an eyebrow, and staring at Danny. The message was clearly sent: Mac was not happy with Danny and wasn't buying that he was innocent in all this.
"He wanted to know why I can't work on bodies for awhile." interjected Lindsay, tersely.
"Why can't you? Ya look fine to me! I mean two weeks ago, ya were doing everything just fine, like normal. I come back and all the sudden I gotta do the majority of the work! I ain't connecting all the dots here!" said Danny, just as terse, crossing his arms across his chest and spreading his feet out in his patented Messer "I'm here to do battle" way.
" How dare you!" shouted Lindsay, "How dare you, demand answers out of me, like I owe it to you. Let's get one thing straight Messer, you lost your right to do that when you ran out on me. Don't you dare stand there and act like you don't know the reason."
Taking a deep breath, Lindsay looked at Mac and in a softer tone said, "Mac, I think I need to take a small break."
Mac looked at her and studied her body language, trying to determine if it was to pull herself together or if something was wrong with the baby. Almost as if reading his mind, "We're fine. I just need to a little time to pull it together."
Mac nodded his head, "Stella should be almost done at our scene. Why don't you go with her and help process the evidence. I'll stay here and finish up with Danny."
Lindsay let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks Mac, I will."
Picking up her kit, while still keeping a hand resting on her belly, Lindsay walked out of the scene, her head still reeling. How could Danny ask her that? Everyone at the lab knew now she was pregnant, it was part of the stress at work. Because of her pregnancy, she couldn't handle certain aspects of her job. It was putting the more and more behind on the cases. She'd told him she was pregnant! It was what made him run out on her.
Back at the Lab, about an hour later:
Stella looked across the table at Lindsay and hesitated over what she was about to say, "I hear you had an interesting scene."
Lindsay looked up from the purse she was processing, "Not really, mugging gone bad, at least that's first blush theory."
Stella shook her head, obviously, Lindsay was either dense or choosing to avoid the issue. "That's not what I was talking about. I know Mac didn't send you over to my scene because he thought I needed help. We had a single homicide, with a confession. You had a double homicide."
Lindsay set the purse down and sighed, then sat down on the lab stool. "Danny was there. I tried really hard to be professional but he wouldn't be. He kept calling me Montana. He asked me why I wouldn't take the bodies, when I didn't answer he grabbed my wrist and wouldn't let go. He only let go because Mac made him."
If Stella was shocked by anything Lindsay, she didn't say anything. Lindsay took advantage of Stella's rare silence to vent some of her feelings. " I was so scared Stella, scared enough it came out as anger. He's never grabbed my wrist like that, and he was really rough about it. It's already bruising. Flack's going to want an explanation and I don't know what I'm going to tell him."
As if knowing he was being talked about, Flack walked into the room just then, "Tell who what?"
Lindsay turned around and looked at him in wide-eyed fear, "That um...
A/N: Cliffhanger! Don't you just hate those? Well, as usual, let me know what you think. I don't own anything, CBS does.
