I have to dedicate this to my husband. In the last few nights he has ignored me while I started to rewatch season 4 again to get ready for writing what is coming up. I have one more chapter after this one and then season 4 starts. Last night I watched 'Child's Play' before getting in bed.
You are all awesome. I am completely addicted to reviews and feedback. I have been getting feedback from those of you who have never said anything before. Thank you thank you thank you. Please keep up the great support.
Read and review pelase.
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"How was Montana, Monore?" Don Flack dropped a plastic bag with a bloody hammer in it o the table in front of her. "Detectives found this three blocks away from the scene. Thought I'd bring it over."
"Thanks Flack." She cocked her head to one side. "Nothing says love like bloody tools." She started working. "Montana was good." She told him.
"You bring Messer back or is he still out roundin' up cattle?"
"After eating my mom's country cooking, it was hard to tear him away, but he's home. Call him and go out tonight. I have to work late." The elevator doors opened, Adam stepped out with a laughing blond. Adam blushed. "Who's that?"
"The new girl. Stella hired her while you were gone. She works in the lab."
"And her name is?"
"New girl. We haven't formally been introduced. I haven't worked with her yet. Linds, there are people who have been working here for years and I haven't met them. But she's got Adam really hopping."
"Really?"
"You watch." He told her before bouncing his brow and walking away.
**
Lindsay watched Adams and Kendal for the rest of July. She watched them banter and flirt. She watched the respect grow and the two become closer. Lindsay took stories home to Danny and he couldn't wait to get back to work to meet the girl that could fluster Adam.
**
"You've started something you know." Hawkes told Stella in the main lobby. "When you came down to meet Lindsay, you started something. Adam told me that Lindsay was there when he came in the front door for his first day back and now here we are again waiting for Danny." He glanced around at the usually suspects hanging around and waiting for Danny to stumble in. Hawkes leaned in closer to Stella. "I wonder what Mac's gonna think when we're all standing here when he comes back."
"Lindsay will most likely be gone by then and she won't drag us all down here for a welcome back reception." Stella told him. Lindsay was the one behind the latest meeting in the lobby. She announced that she was going to her break and meet Danny when got there. Adam followed and Kendal followed Adam. Their small evacuation got some attention and more followed. It finally came down to Hawkes and his reason for being there was that he didn't want to be the only one who didn't show up. Somehow Sid found out and stepped into the marble cave seconds before Flack walked in.
"All this for me, awww you shouldn't have." Two hands were placed on his heart and he pretended to be overwhelmed.
"Get over here, Flack. You know this isn't for you." Lindsay told him.
"Yeah Flack, this isn't for you, this is for me." Nobody noticed his arrival during the other detective's dramatic performance. Danny stood a short distance away, bag over his shoulder, smug look on his face. There was a round of welcome backs and then it as back to work.
"Lindsay, before you leave today we need to talk." Stella told her as they parted ways.
**
There are few works that you never really want to hear your boss say. After the popularity of Trump and the Apprentice one might thing that "you're fired" would be those words, but the words "we need to talk" can be worse. It could be something positive or something negative. And usually it meant change.
When Stella said the words Lindsay momentarily panicked. Had she messed up? Had she missed something? Had there been a complaint? Was there an issue with a piece of evidence? Every possible question ran through her mind but nothing prepared her for the discussion at the end of her shift.
"Hey kiddo have a seat." Stella greeted her when she stepped up to her office door. Stella finished what she was working on and gave Lindsay her whole attention. "Let me say that your work here the last six weeks has been top notch. You jumped right in and helped out more than you will ever know." There was a pause. "Adam's back. Danny's kinda back and I would understand if you are ready to step out. There's only a month left of your summer break and I don't want you to feel obliged to stick around."
Whoa, what had she just been told? She could leave and go enjoy her summer. Did she really want to leave? She though back to the original agreement: she would work until things went back to normal. Were things back to normal? Danny wasn't 100% yet and Mac wasn't back.
"What if I want to stick around?" It must have been the last thing Stella expected to hear.
"Huh?"
"I said...I would stay until things were back to normal. Danny's not back out in the field yet and Mac's still in London. What if I want to stick around until he comes back?"
"You can't"
Those two words slapped her in the face and left her stunned. There was no attitude in the words, it was just the words. Stella looked so puzzled. She looked lost and her face was full of questions. Lindsay hoped the question was not "why would you think you could?"
"Oh." Her palms ran up and down the thighs of her jean as she stood to leave. The emotion couldn't be hidden. It screamed through her facial features.
"Lindsay, sit back down." Stella came around her desk and say on the couch next to Lindsay. "Mac's not getting back until the end of next month. You'll be in school by then."
"If I could." Lindsay shifted on the couch as if to keep what she was saying private, even though they were the only ones in the office. "If I could swing something, could I stay until Mac gets back?"
Stella carefully chose her words. Lindsay watched Stella's hands fold in front of her and her arms come to rest on her legs. "Let me say it this way: You could probably stay on as long as you wanted. We never really filled the position you interviewed for. Mac always hoped that you would change your mind."
"I'm only thinking about staying until the end of September." She told her.
"If you are available, we will use you."
**
August started with Lindsay working opposite shifts from Danny. He was on days and she was on nights. She showed up thirty minutes before he was to leave and he hung around for about thirty minutes when he was done to be with her. Other than that hour of overlap, they didn't see much of each other.
Each day Lindsay noticed items on Danny's "can't do" list get marked off. His recovery moved quite quickly once he was back at work. She'd wake up midday and the dishes and laundry would be done from the night before. He'd come home and dinner would be in the fridge ready to reheat. Danny immersed himself into his work and it was as if he'd never left. Lindsay loved her work and became a bigger part of the NYPD.
**
To: MDozier
From: LMonroe
Subject: Personal Leave
Mr. Dozier,
I hope that you are having a pleasant summer. Mine has been very busy yet fun.
Sir, I know this is short notice, but I need to take some personal leave at the beginning of the school year. Please advise me on who I need to see about getting this done. Again, I am sorry about the short notice
--Lindsay Monroe
**
To: LMonroe
From: MDozier
Subject: Re: Personal Leave
Ms. Monroe,
Unless your leave time is due to illness, your request for partial leave is not an option. You can take leave for personal reasons a semester at a time and then return to your position or one comparable. I am sorry to hear that you need to take leave; I hope that all is well.
--Mike Dozier
**
She had to make a decision. She had to make the right decision for her. It took a lot of yellow legal paper to really think it out. The next stop was to talk to Stella and see if she was crazy for what she wanted to do. She filed all the necessary paperwork with the school district and kept working at the lab quietly straight through to the beginning to August's last week.
**
Monday
The date was highlighted on every single thing that told them what day it was. It was circled on the calendar on their desk in the lab. It was highlighted in yellow on the calendar that he carried in his bag. Huge red arrows pointed to it on the calendar at home. All the other days leading up to that day were crossed off. In the apartment, it felt like Christmas, New Year's Eve and the Fourth of July.
That day was Danny's first day back out in the field.
He was medically clear to 100% again.
He was ready to get to work. He pushed Lindsay to go faster, walked faster, get there faster. He wanted to work. He wanted a case. He didn't have to wait long. Stella was waiting for him when he got off the elevator.
"Morning Danny, you're with me. Dead guy in an alley. Flack's there and waiting, he asked for you specifically."
He handed his stuff off to Lindsay slowly and Stella held out his kit. It fit perfectly in his hand like and extension of him, a missing piece. He shifted it to the other hand and firmly gripped the handle and let it hand at his side.
"I love you and be careful." Lindsay made the space between them disappear and kissed him briefly.
"Aww!" It came from a chorus made up of everyone in the lab.
"Love you too." It was meant for her ears only and another kiss fell upon her lips.
**
Wednesday
"Blood work came back from your case." Lindsay stated coming up to Danny in the hall. "It's only the vic's."
"Okay, no signs of stuggle, weapon only had the vic's prints on it…"
They continued to work their theories out while walking.
With many layer of glass between the couple and Stella, she watched. Flack walked up to his good friend and tried to figure out what she was staring at.
"Something's got your attention."
"Look."
Flack found what she was staring at. Through body language and facial expressions that Lindsay and Danny were making, Flack could tell that they were going over the case. Danny held the file open with one hand and counting things off with the other. Lindsay turned a page and pointed something out and then Danny nodded in agreement.
All Stella and Flack needed was some ragtime piano music and they'd have the perfect silent movie.
Lindsay stood back and reenacted how she thought the murder happened. Danny shook his head and closed the file to show Lindsay how he thought the killing happened. All in silence to the onlookers, they had a heated discussion about the evidence vs. the theories and then an imaginary light bulb went off over her head. She told him something, they acted it out and then high-fived each other and went separate ways.
"They work well together." Flack told his best friend standing there. "Too bad school starts next week for her." He didn't hang around long enough for Stella to share her secret.
**
Friday
He had to be at work at 7am. She was due in at 1pm. He cursed Stella's name for not letting them work the same shift on her last day. He got out of the apartment as quietly as he could and then the moping started.
Danny's mood was foul.
He snapped at Adam when the test results he was waiting for weren't back when he wanted them to be done.
He snapped at Flack for his good mood and chipper greeting. Danny really lit into him when Flack had the nerve to ask what his problem was.
He snapped at Hawkes while out on a case.
He snapped at Stella when she told him to be in her office at 1:30 that afternoon.
The only two people who missed a biting remark from him were Sid, only because he didn't go down to the coroner's office, and Lindsay. When Lindsay got into the office she lit into him.
"What's your problem?" She didn't give him the chance to answer. "I got off the elevator and people are questions me about your wonderful mood." Blue eyes stared back at her. "Well?"
"Well what?"
"What's with the mood today?" He took too long with the answer. "Tell me later, I have to get in and see Stella about something."
"Yeah, she wanted to see me too."
"Let's go then."
The met Flack in the hall. He was transporting a large, white, flat cake box. Danny knew in his heart that it was probably part of the send off for Lindsay. His foul mood worsened. Danny and Lindsay were followed into Stella's office by Flack and the box. Adam and Kendal trickled in and Hawkes and then Sid.
"Good, we're all here, except for Mac of course. But, um, I wanted to bring you all here today to celebrate paperwork." She got blank stares from the people she knew hated the piles and piles of paperwork that came with their jobs. "I have been signing a lot of paperwork lately. The first thing to come across my desk was the reinstatement of Adam after medical leave. Welcome back. We missed you while you were gone." A quiet round of applause echoed off the walls.
Stella turned her attention to another person in the office. "Kendal joined us and I am proud to say that her probationary period was over as of two days ago." Adam gave her an awkward hug that lasted a few seconds too long and it was noticed by all. "Kendal, I don't think I need to say that we are ALL very happy to have you around and you have been a great asset to the lab." Her attention changed again. "Detective Messer."
"I am sorry to everyone for my wonderful mood today." Danny interjected trying to smooth thing over with everyone.
"Thanks for that, but I was going to say that the official paperwork, fully reinstating you to the field was filed yesterday." Lindsay hugged him and he was congratulated by a slap on the back from Flack. He was starting to fly high again.
"That brings me." Stella started one more time. "To the last set of papers that were just signed this morning."
Dark clouds fell over Danny. This had been his and Lindsay's best time. He loved sharing this life with her and having their lives so woven around each other. They talked about cases they were investigating and processing. His evidence was always passed her way and then they worked out the details together.
"Lindsay, you have done us all a huge favor by giving up your summer to help us make ends meet." She went on to say other wonderful things about Lindsay's work ethic, attention to detail, knowledge and ability to follow the evidence, but Danny shut it out. He knew the last words would be "Thank you so much and have a great school year." But those words never came.
Flack started slapping him on the back and Lindsay was being hugged by everyone.
The cake box lid was opened and he read the words. "Welcome back Adam and Danny! Welcome aboard Kendal and Lindsay."
He couldn't help but think "What did I just miss?"
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Okay...my goal with Lindsay working in the lab is not to rehash the episodes of what we saw. I am hoping to have a healthy mix. If you have any suggestions about anything dealing with season 4 please let me know. The main question I get is about Rikki and Danny sleeping together. What about the rest of the season?
