A/N: Probably no updates for a bit- going out of town. Sorry! Anyway, enjoy:

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The next morning, Danny was sitting in the kitchen with Lindsay and her mother. He wasn't quite awake yet so most of the conversation happened over his head. Lindsay had spent most of breakfast on the phone, Danny had spent most of breakfast staring at his coffee. I am so frickin' exhausted…There are downsides to that much sex. Leaves you REALLY worn out. Of course, stayin' out late drinking didn't help matters…He let out a massive yawn.

"Danny? Danny Messer are you listening to me?" Lindsay asked with a smile.

He looked up from his coffee with a start. "What? What were you saying? Sorry babe, I'm kinda a zombie this morning."

"I noticed. I was just asking you what you wanted to do today. You have options. Today is Girlfriend Day- lunch and shopping and girltalk in Bozeman with a bunch of my oldest friends. You're more than welcome to come with." She chuckled at the horrified look on Danny's face. "What? You don't want to enter the inner sanctum of womanhood?"

He shook his head vigorously. "Hell no! If it's all the same to you hon, please leave me out of your estrogen-fest. If I felt like an outsider when you took me around the Pike, I'll REALLY feel like one if I tag along. What's my other option?"

Gail chimed in at this point. "You can spend the day helping me cook for tomorrow. Plus I haven't had a chance to show you Lindsay's embarrassing photos yet and tell you stories about when she was a little girl."

Danny's face lit up. "I'll go with what's behind Door #2 please, Montana."

Lindsay's mouth dropped when she heard her mother's suggestion-she hadn't known she had something planned besides cooking. "Momma! You can't show him the photo albums! You'll embarrass me!"

"Wait just a minute, Montana. Fair is fair. Ma showed you all those ridiculous pictures of me. If I recall, you even took a coupla doubles home!"

She grinned as she thought of the picture she had of 6 year-old Danny dressed up like Superman that she had on her refrigerator. "Well, I guess that's true. Anyway, I figured you'd want to stay here. Shelby and Megan were with us last night but Kirstin, Rachel, and Marie want to meet you so they're going to stop in to say hello when they pick me up. Oh and this way you have plenty of time to tell Ax stories." He groaned. "Oh, there's no getting out of it now buster. She's really excited about it. I'm sure she'll have you cornered for a good hour or two."

"Lucky me," he muttered, causing Gail and Lindsay to chuckle.

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Danny was surrounded by women and they all seemed to be judging him- Lindsay's friends had come to pick her up for their day of chick stuff and he felt like a dog at one of those shows Montana liked to watch on Animal Planet. After they visually sized him up, one of the women he hadn't met yet spoke up: "So you're Lin's Detective Studmuffin! That's how Shelby described you to us and it's your official title now. Hope you don't mind. I'm Rachel, by the way. It's nice to meet you, considering the fact that we're probably going to spend most of the day talking about you." She smiled as Danny became noticeably paler and squirmed. "Oh, don't worry. It'll probably all be good stuff, but that depends on what Lin decides to share!" They looked him over again then swept out as quickly as they'd come, bearing Lindsay with them.

Danny let out an enormous sigh of relief when the left. Why didn't she warn me her friends were so intimidatin'? Shelby and Megan didn't seem that way last night- maybe this is what happens when it's a pack of females or something… He shook his head then padded into the kitchen to start cooking. At least Gail isn't scary…

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Lindsay's friends didn't wait till they were in Bozeman to start talking about Danny- as soon as they all got into Kirsten's truck the tongues started wagging.

"Well done there, Lin. DAMN!" exclaimed Rachel.

"Yeah, Lin. Since when is that your type? You always were drawn to boy-next-door, wholesome sorts in high school, not the hot-as-hell, bad-boy, 'I'm too sexy for my shirt' types…" Shelby added.

"I'll say he's too sexy for that shirt! And did you check out the way he filled those jeans? Mmmmm…Seriously, Lin, if we weren't like sisters I'd have to take him away from you." Marie joked. Teasing Lindsay was always a favorite activity among her group of friends because they'd decided out of all of them, she blushed the prettiest. Plus, it was insanely easy to make her turn pink (as Danny had happily discovered).

"Like you could," Lindsay managed to respond. Actually, her retort made her blush more.

"Oooh, you hear that girls? We've got a feisty New Yorker on our hands now! Our little Lin has apparently got Detective Studmuffin eating out of her hands," Marie continued.

"Yeah, maybe she can give us pointers," Kirsten joked. Megan and Rachel were married but the rest were without boyfriends at the time being- although Marie joked that she had plenty of 'insignificant others' taking up her time.

"Seriously though Lin, you seem CRAZY happy. That's so fucking great!" Rachel said with a big smile on her face. The six of them had all been friends since elementary school, but Rachel had also gone to the college that Lindsay had transferred to after Tom's death and they were especially close.

"Are you kidding me? Do you think any woman dating Detective Studmuffin WOULDN'T be crazy happy? I'm happy just to look at the guy and Lin here has got that prize specimen of man in love with her." Shelby gave her friend a fake glare full of jealousy.

Lindsay just smiled happily, thinking about how last August no one would have ever been jealous of her love life- she'd envied her friends for the normalcy of their various relationships and now she had a normal, happy relationship herself. What a difference a year makes!

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As a mother of three and grandmother of four, Gail knew when the time was right to broach serious topics of conversation and for most of the morning, the time wasn't right. Danny was clearly tired for some time, and then once he started waking up he seemed a little distracted. They weren't silent by any means but they focused on fairly frivolous topics.

Once Danny's brain emerged from its fog, he found himself thinking about his trip so far. Before he came out here he already knew that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Lindsay but this visit made his visions much more concrete- he wanted to be a part of this terrific family and come back here each year with her, he wanted to have what Joe and Susie had (well, maybe not as many kids), and he certainly wanted to have more days like yesterday with Lindsay. His thoughts were filled of fond wishes about the future as he mashed potatoes and made pie crusts.

After a while they took a break a coffee break. Gail looked at the young man with a smile. "So Danny, you still want to see our photos of Lindsay? I feel I must warn you- Hank was definitely one of those shutterbug fathers. So there's plenty of pictures." Danny just grinned.

They spent a good chunk of time flipping through pages in the family scrapbooks. He chuckled at the sight of 5-year old Lindsay dressed like a mouse for the Nutcracker, 8-year old Lindsay standing in front of a small pony at her first horse show, and other milestones. Of course she was a cute little kid- OBVIOUSLY not the same kinda cute she is now but completely adorable. He complained to Gail that Lindsay never went though the awkward stage that most children do- after all, Lindsay had seen images of him at the age of 12 in his acne and weight-problem glory. Not that I'm surprised- I can't see Lindsay as ever being anything but perfect. He listened happily as Gail told him stories about Lindsay growing up- while he loved hearing about little Lindsay raising hell he couldn't help but smile with pride when he heard she'd won her school's science fair each year beginning in the 3rd grade. He gladly accepted a copy of a photo showing a grinning young Montana holding her newest blue ribbon, standing in front of an entire wall of her past awards. That's my girl. Now I got one for the fridge…

It was a little awkward when they got to the high school years in the photo album. Even though he knew it was kinda creepy and wrong, he thought she looked totally hot in her cheerleading uniform. And he had to fight his eyes from bulging out when he saw what exactly counted as a uniform for her fast-pitch softball team- the short-shorts, the knee socks. It was too much. I wonder if she's got THAT one squirreled away in her attic too. DAMN I'm glad that my school's softball team didn't wear those shorts- I'd have never been able to concentrate at baseball practice otherwise! And then there would have been no college for Danny.

They finished up and Gail looked at him with a serious expression on her face. "Now Danny, Hank was telling me that you're considering proposing to our little girl?"

Danny nodded. "Yeah hopefully, not anytime soon, I mean it's just…complicated." He still didn't know Gail very well but she was just the kind of person you could open up to. "It's kinda funny- for years I never thought I'd even want to get married and now I do and I don't know if the woman I love A) can handle it and B) even wants it."

She looked at him in surprise. "You don't think Lindsay wants to marry you someday? I think she does."

He shrugged. "Well, the thing is we haven't ever talked about any of that stuff. We just kinda coast along enjoying each day as it comes. I avoid bringing it up 'cause I don't want to scare her, and she never talks about it. So I assume that we've got some kinda tacit understandin' going on but you know what they say about assuming things…I guess I'm just a teensy insecure, that's all." All that Messer confidence when it came to the ladies- another thing of the past.
"I think you'll have to talk about this eventually but I understand why you haven't brought it up. She'll have to address it one day -she can't avoid the issue forever. Until then, listen to her mother: she's flat-out, certifiably bonkers for you and if she doesn't want to marry you one day my name isn't Gail Monroe." She smiled at him and he grinned back in relief. It's nice that he's so likeable- I'd hate to have a surly son-in-law that I merely tolerated…But this guy? A welcome addition!

"Thanks Gail, I appreciate it. Big load off my mind. And it seems recently that Lindsay's been doing pretty good with everything. Plus if I'm askin' her to live with me we'll hafta talk then, right?"

"I should think so. Speaking of which, thank you. I'll sleep better knowing my little girl isn't all alone in big bad New York. It really does make me a neurotic mess thinking about it sometimes. But enough about me and my issues- I have something for you." She got up, went to a nearby drawer, and pulled something out. Sitting back down, she handed him a small jewelry box. "Go ahead, open it."

Danny did and found a small gold ring- there was a pearl in the center with two small diamonds flanking it. He looked up at Gail with a quizzical look. "Uh, I don't think this is gonna fit me…"

Gail chuckled. "Ok, I should have said I have something for you to give to Lindsay. That was my engagement ring and my mother's before me. It just so happens that this ring is exactly her size- fortunately, at least one of my children didn't take after their moose of a father. Lindsay has the same petite frame as all the women on my side of the family and little hands. And I want her to have it- she was always taking it out of my jewelry box when she was a little girl. Besides, I don't think Ashley will mind- she could have worn it as a pinkie ring maybe. You might not have noticed but she does have very large hands- it's the Monroe in her."

Danny was floored. For a while now he had wondered how he was going to afford a ring because he wanted to get Lindsay something really special. But it would be impossible to get any more special than what Gail had offered him. "Whoa. This is amazing. She'll love it, I know. And I'm just stunned- we don't really have any heirlooms in my family. Anything my dad ever gave my ma probably 'fell off a truck' so she didn't keep a thing."

"I'm glad that you like it. And I want you to get Lindsay something nice with all the money I'm going to save you, ok?"

"Yes ma'am." Now I know where Montana got that whole 'stern voice' thing from…

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Lindsay was having a great time- the shopping situation in Bozeman was nothing compared to Manhattan but it did have better prices and the company was priceless. She loved her friends back in New York but it wasn't like being with The Girls (as they called themselves) yet.

As Rachel had predicted, a good part of the day was spent talking about him. Her friends all knew about her baggage and didn't make cracks about weddings and babies- they initially focused on how hot they thought he was and after Lindsay told them a few stories about him (including him waiting for her to be ready for a relationship, their first kiss, the way he'd bought gifts for her before they were together, etc.) they talked about how sweet he was.

"All in all a catch." Marie proclaimed over lunch. "Although Detective Studmuffin must have something wrong with him as he is a guy."

"Well, he can be hotheaded-gets him in trouble at work a lot. And he's really stubborn." Lindsay told them.

"Let's see- feisty and stubborn? Who does that remind me off? Can't quite remember the name-oh you know the girl. Real smart, played softball with her in high school, I think she was a cheerleader…" Megan joked.

Lindsay sniffed haughtily. "I have no idea who you're talking about Megan. I think you're imagining things. Anyway, when Danny was younger he wasn't quite a thug but he wasn't really a 'good' kid. And before he met me he was a bit of a ladies' man."

"Yeah, I can see that. I told you I got a 'bad boy' vibe from him," Shelby said. "The important thing though is you did the impossible and seem to have reformed him. You're not supposed to be able to tame bad boys –it's what makes them bad."

"I think Danny's probably always been a sweetheart but was just immature for a while, like lots of guys. And he's a police officer! So it's not like I tamed this free-roving lion on the savannah- I just drifted into his life at the same time he happened to grow up. Besides, he was hardly in the same class as Chuck." Chuck was the spectacularly sleazy guy Kirsten had recently rid herself of- a lying, cheating sack of shit. About a month ago he had told her she needed to lose 20 pounds- she realized she needed to lose 175 lbs and kicked him out.

Kirsten snorted. "No one will ever tame Chuck but he does belong in a cage."

"I still say you should have branded his forehead with 'Asshole' as a warning to those who come after you. It would have been a public service." Rachel said.

"I still say we should kick his ass!" Megan added. And the topic drifted away from Lindsay for a while as she caught up with her friends.

"I miss you girls so much!" she said 2 hours later, after laughing hysterically over Shelby's tales of dating fiascos and Rachel's boss from hell. "You need to come visit me. I'll show you all the sites- I've got my own personal native to give you a tour."

Megan laughed. "I'd love to Lin but can you imagine trying to arrange our vacation times so they overlap? It's asking too much just to see a bunch of buildings."

"And me! You'll see me! And there's lots of really great things about the city…there's the theater and the shopping and museums and the bars…" She knew Megan was just pushing her buttons but she still had to jump to defend her city. Wow, I really ama New Yorker now.

Lindsay's eyes lit up. "Wait! I know what'll make it worth your while to visit." She started rummaging through her giant purse. "I know I put them in here before you all picked me up this morning…ah! Here we go." She emerged from the depths of her handbag triumphantly clutching an envelope. "I have pictures of my co-workers." She passed them around the table.

Kirsten let out a whistle as she held up a picture of Danny, Flack, Sheldon, and Mac that she'd taken one night when they were all out. "Geez, Lin! Is there a rule at the Crime Lab to only hire really, really ridiculously good-looking people?"

"Nope. They aren't all good-looking, my team must be a statistical anomaly- all cute guys. The CSIs on the night shift…well, homely is probably the nicest way to put it. And in other precincts they aren't anything special."

Kirsten was still flipping through the pictures and found one of Lindsay and Stella. "Is this the other woman you work with? Shit, Lin! Your whole team is gorgeous? That's just impossible…Seriously, it shouldn't be."

Lindsay blushed because Kirsten was including her in that statement. C'mon, I'm not in the same class as Stella. "I know, I know- it's weird. ANYWAY- these two are single," she said, pointing to Flack and Sheldon. "This one," she tapped Hawkes' face "is a honest-to-goodness genius and ridiculously nice. The other one," she tapped Flack's face, "is a giant little boy. Great sense of humor, great eyes- not so good if you're looking for someone to marry but if you want a little city fling" she looked pointedly at Marie who adopted an innocent 'who, me?' look, "he's your guy."

Her friends passed the pictures around the table as Lindsay told stories about her coworkers.

"Ok, ok. You've convinced us, Marie and I are in." Shelby said. "Well, maybe the idea of Flack convinced Marie…" she jokingly elbowed her friend in the ribs.

"Hey! Can you blame me? Listen Lin, you tell your boss that if you folks ever need a new microscope or something and the city doesn't want to pay for it, you could make a pretty penny with a 'Men of the Crime Lab' calendar." Marie said.

They all laughed as Lindsay's face turned red at the very thought. I don't even want to THINK about suggesting something like that to Mac!

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