Again, sorry for the delay, guys. Life has been hectic and rather annoying lately. Hopefully the next one won't have such a long delay.

Danny looked up at Sara's soft groan and followed her line of sight into the main part of the Homicide department. Sure enough, another one of the delivery people that everyone had come to recognize, and used to tease Sara, was coming towards their office. The delivery person, possibly a male because of the height, was looking a bit apprehensive as the officers just pointed which way he should go without being asked. Reaching the open door to the office, he knocked and looked about to speak when Danny grinned and interrupted him.

"Sara Pezzini, right?" At the nod, Danny pointed over to Sara.

"Thanks, man," he said as he handed the dark red and gold wrapped package to Sara and left, tossing "tip's taken care of" over his shoulder on his way out.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" Sara asked as she dropped the gift onto the desk in front of her.

"What? Seeing you flustered? Yeah. Think I can learn more about Mr. Mysterious now?" he prodded same as he had yesterday.

"No," was the stock reply given same as the other times the question had been asked.

"You know, Pez, I thought your Mr. Mysterious had finally seen reason since there was no package yesterday."

"Finally seen reason," Sara repeated in a voice tinged with acid. "Just what's so unreasonable about a guy giving me presents?"

"It's not," Danny hurried to say, lifting his hands in defense. "I just meant he stopped delivering here at the precinct. Finally saw sense that if it kept up you'd probably kill him."

"I felt like it, trust me. But…" she trailed off, leaving Danny to fill in the blanks.

"But you like the gifts? You like that he obviously likes you enough to even start this whole thing?"

"I guess," Sara admitted grudgingly. "That and he can get away with a lot."

"Why do you think that is?" Danny leaned back in his chair and threaded his fingers, knowing as any good police officer did that at times in an interrogation, subtle though it was, the suspect or friend had to reach their own conclusions.

Sara flushed and picked up the package. "Aren't you wondering what it is this time? The other times you couldn't wait," she reminded him.

Seeing the distraction ploy that Sara had used to avoid answering the question, he waved a hand.

Nodding her thanks for his tacit permission, she removed the gold bow from the slim package she held before running a nail along the seam of the paper to cut the tape.

"I hate it when you do that," Danny groused good-naturedly.

"I know," she grinned at him before revealing what the wrapping had hidden. It was one of the slim CD jewel cases containing a plain silver CD.

"Well, it's not flowers. Any clues?" Danny asked from across the two desks.

"If it's standard for…" she paused, about to say his name before settling for "him, it's something retro."

"Toss it over," Danny told her, catching it as she did. He carefully took the CD out of the case and put it into a boom box that occupied a part of a shelf in their bookcase crammed with books and files. Pressing 'play,' they both waited for whatever the man Danny had dubbed Mr. Mysterious had planned.

An accented voice that Sara had never heard before but sounded familiar all the same came on. She shook her head at Danny's look, silently asking if this was Mr. Mysterious.

"Hallo, fair Sara Pezzini. Your boy Gabriel told me all about you when he asked me if I'd consider letting him give you a copy of one of my songs. He chose this song because of the chorus, to remind you not to think too much. Apparently it causes trouble in America same as it does in Ireland. He says he does know how you've ended up with him, or why you will. But if you want the reasons, you have to talk to him, all right? He really loves you, Sara Pezzini. Give him a chance, okay?"

The note finished, a guitar started playing. After about ten seconds, the same lilting voice came in with the beginning to the song.

It's the luck of the draw

How you wound up with me

I don't know how at all

But I beg you to stay

Crawl around on this earth

With the world still small

At the end of it, the singer came back on with a quick addendum to the note that had started the song. "Don't forget that you still owe him twenty-three more. You wouldn't welsh on a promise, would you?"

Sara buried her face in her hands as Danny turned off the boom box and returned the CD to the case before putting it on Sara's desk. "Twenty-three more?"

"Kisses," Sara groaned, knowing that Danny wasn't going to let everything go. "You know, however many years old you are, you get that many kisses and one to grow on?"

Danny nodded, recognizing the tradition, though he's believed it was for kids or mothers, for the most part. "Boy?"

"He's not a boy, Danny," she told him disgustedly.

At that moment, Jake entered the office carrying a pair of manila file folders that he had been using for research on one of their cases. At Sara's proclamation, he blanched, shook his head, and left for the break room, hoping that they had some strong semi-decent coffee.

Both detectives watched their rookie partner still shaking his head as he walked away and laughed before Sara continued. "He's younger than me, but I'm not a cradle-robber or anything, Danny."

"How young is 'younger than you?'"

"He just turned twenty-five, okay?"

Danny thought about it and nodded. "Four year age difference. Nothing that'll raise any eyebrows." He paused and sat down on the edge of the desk. "So, do I get a last name to go with the first?"

"No."

Danny shrugged and went over to his chair. "Well, I know a lot more than I did earlier," he stated philosophically. "Mr. Mysterious is a twenty-five year old romantic named Gabriel. I can wait for the rest of the Intel for a wile longer."

Sara shook her head at Danny's use of military lingo. Intel indeed. Her life was really starting to look like battles on all fronts.

Okay, everyone recognized the song, right? "Honey Don't Think" sung (and written, I believe) by Grant Lee Phillips. You guys like that Conchobar came in or still iffy on it?

The next part will hopefully be longer and up quicker than this one…. And I promise, it'll have some Gabe/Sara in it, ok?