7. Ho, Hey.

At the end of the longest day she had experienced since the night-of-four-births, Danny appeared in the doorway to the break room- looking even more tired than she felt right now.

She was sitting on the couch in her scrubs and glasses, thinking back over the past few hours. Both Danny and Jeremy had jumped in to cover all of her patients for the afternoon after Mrs. Palmer had shown up in full-blown labor. By the time they both made it to the hospital, her blood pressure had dipped precariously. At the same time, it had become apparent that a c-section would be necessary and Mindy scrubbed in knowing that it would be one of the riskier procedures she had done in her career. And now, sitting alone with herself and an episode of Monk, she was thinking of that screaming hot-pink face lying in the nursery and feeling pretty damn fantastic.

And then she saw him leaning in the doorway, looking at her like he always has- like he uniquely knew what she was feeling in that moment. Before this morning, it had unnerved her. The way he looked at her made her wonder if he could see all the things people aren't supposed to see when they look at her. But now, she kind of didn't mind.

"I just saw him. Nice one, Dr. Lahiri." He tucked his hands into his jeans and flashed her one of those sloppy smiles he saved for when he really, really meant it.

"You look awful, Danny. Did you really not sleep at all last night?" she would normally rouse herself to do some hair flipping in that universal sign for 'you should one day, maybe make out with me again', but this wasn't that moment. She was pretty sure they didn't have those moments. She smiled slowly back at him, remembering some of the stuff he said this morning. Things he might be wishing she had forgotten.

"Nah, I haven't in awhile, actually. But I'm feeling pretty tired right now. Hey- you want to go get some Ethiopian food with me?" he asked this even as he blinked slowly, like he could fall asleep where he was standing.

"You sure about that, dude? Because it sort of looks like you need a bed more than you need ethnic food."

He winked at her and said only "I could go for both actually. Come on, get dressed- I'm taking you to Brooklyn!"

"Brooklyn?! NO, Danny. No. We do not go to Brooklyn if we can help it." She shook her head adamantly.

And then they kind of went to Brooklyn.

She had begrudgingly thrown on a printed cap sleeve wrap-dress that she kept in her locker with a coordinating pair of navy sling-back wedges. It was her go-to emergency date outfit for the season and she had used it on exactly no one. Which pleased her even if no one knew that, as the feeling of Danny's arm sliding over the material to rest at her hip her made her happy in a way that she never wanted to replicate again in that outfit.

They walked the four blocks over because the weather was nice, because this was not an outfit you wasted on the L train, and because she had only agreed to go to Brooklyn because Danny promised that the place he had in mind was just on the edge- more Brooklyn-adjacent than deep in the heart of the monstrosity. On the way over, they traded notes on the many ways they had spent the morning avoiding each other, and she told him a little about the delivery she made.

"You know, you really were right- about what you said this morning." Danny said this abruptly as they turned onto the last block between 'you are here' and 'food'.

She thought back to all of the things she had been saying lately. "I was right about... what now?" cutting her eyes sideways at him.

He chuckled a little and leaned in to kiss her on the cheek, like he had been waiting for an excuse. "The practice. We'd be lost without you." He looked away from her then, but his eyes were dark in that way they get when he is saying more than he's actually saying.

Mindy smiled at this and replied, teasingly, "Hey, since when would a dodgy place in this neighborhood be considered 'my idea'? Isn't that what you said this morning- that things would be Mindy's way from hereon out? Because, I have to say- I was really into that."

"You're absolutely right,"

Danny turned to her suddenly and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in closer than was appropriate for a public area- particularly the arm across her lower back, which tilted her hips into his like he was taking possession of her. It was inappropriate. And antifeminist. And she let out a squeak because it was also way, way hot. Her hands fluttered out of surprise, then came to rest around his neck. He leaned in until his lips hovered over hers precariously and in a low rumble that she could feel in some pretty personal places, whispered "I want to do whatever makes you happy. Because I think that's what makes me happy. But I have some ideas of my own about that, and I think they'll make you happy too." At this, he let his lips brush across hers innocently, as if he hadn't trapped her pelvis against his and she was really wishing that there was a wall behind her that wasn't covered in hipster urine. Mindy pressed her eyes shut and deepened the kiss, recapturing the taste of his tongue that her mind had spend most of the day blocking out. She felt his hand slide up under her hair to cradle her head and marveled at how open he felt, and how these words seemed to be easy for him somehow. And that she was pretty sure she believed all of them.

Danny pulled back and dropped a hand to the small of her back to steer her inside the restaurant, and Mindy thought fleetingly that this had already been one of her better dates.

As they were seated and started looking over the menu, Mindy also had the thought that this was one of the most ridiculous restaurants she had ever been to. "Danny... there are no forks. Why are there no forks?"

"Oh, ah- I think this is one of those countries where they eat with their hands." He gestured over to the next table, where a couple of teenagers were scooping chunks of meat up with what looked to be soggy bluish sponge and feeding each other.

"Oh, oh god. Danny, my parents put themselves through college in Delhi so that their children would not have to eat with their hands. And I think that blue stuff is the bread." The waitress walked over at that moment and put down a basket of blue stuff on the table between them.

They looked for a long moment at the basket. Danny started to laugh first, remembering that he had decided on this place after a lunchtime recommendation by Morgan. He was a little off his game today.

"Danny, I am so hungry, I'm afraid I'm going to eat some of it." She said this while reaching forward and tearing off the tiniest corner.

"You, know what? You try the bread, I'm going to go track down our waitress and ask about forks. And rice. I'll be right back."

When he returned moments later, there was a significant amount of sponge missing. Their drinks (and forks) arrived next, along with an order of lamb he had taken it upon himself to put in after the waitress talked him down a little bit. The food turned out to have a spicy kind of weirdness that always makes for good date food- new and interesting sensations to think back on later. They ate like the tired, hungry people they were. The check came and Mindy reached for it. Like, really reached for it. Both of their hands sat on the check for a moment. He tugged.

"So, how's this going to work, exactly? We're going to do this every time?" he was looking at her intensely, like he would not lose this.

"Every time? That's a little presumptuous for a guy that had to track down a fork for his date. I don't know, maybe. Do you want to go Dutch? Is that it, Danny?" she smiled a little too coyly back at him.

"I asked."

"I shaved my legs."

"Good."

Mindy decided that it would be okay if she let him win this one, and let go of the check.

After he paid, they found themselves back out on the street, waiting to hail a cab and somehow doing that proximity thing he was apparently good at making look accidental. He slipped his hand into hers and said quietly, staring straight ahead, "You know... this is kind of our third date."

Mindy looked up at him carefully. "Umm, how is that- exactly?" She started wracking her brain for the contents of her purse, and thinking back to how fast things had escalated in the darkened office that morning, and maybe a little bit rooting for him to come up with a really good answer.

"Well, one was that time we got pizza together, remember that?"

She smiled and said suspiciously, "The worst pizza in the city? Yes, I have a vague recollection of that. I also seem to recall that you and I started out the evening on dates with different people. So, I'm not sure that counts, exactly."

He shrugged and offered, "Okay, then how about that time we had breakfast in the office and then made out with the lights off."

Uh, oh. "This morning?! Are you seriously telling me that that is the date you want to be telling people about during our 50th wedding anniversary slideshow?" she was going for righteous indignation, but she was afraid she also sounded a little bit into it.

Danny shrugged and turned to look her in the eye as he raised his arm at a passing cab. "Well, I would hope there's no slide for it, but- yeah. I'm good with that."

And he smiled and her stupid knees went weak and they were climbing in the cab and making out enough to give those teenagers back at the restaurant a run for their money. They sort of started where they left off earlier, but sloppier, with his hand on her breast and her leg over his waist and kissing like they were trying to decide who gets to be on top. She snuck a peek at him as he ran his hand up her thigh and felt herself melt at the way his eyelashes fluttered as he gazed down at it. A wrap dress is a dangerous weapon in the employ of a 30-something woman in the city who just maybe found a guy who lets her bring up wedding anniversaries on their first/third date and doesn't immediately crawl out the proverbial bathroom window.

When they emerged from the cab at her place, she felt distinctly that letting her decide everything maybe wasn't the worst idea he had ever had.