Disclaimer; I don't own Las Vegas the Series or any of its characters.

AN; This story is set during season 2 but is a bit AU, meaning that Danny/Mary aren't engaged here. Thanks for all the feedback! I wasn't expecting so much for just the first chapter.

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Danny ran out of the surveillance room to meet Mary. He had to find her. Talk to her. Find out who that guy she was talking to... and hugging, was. But when he got to Cuppa Joe's, she was gone.

Cursing under his breath, he spotted his friend and co-worker, Mike Cannon, nearby. "Hey, man".

"What's up?", the bald man asked a bit concerned. He could tell Danny was frazzled.

"Have you seen Mary?", he asked, slightly breathless.

"Uh, yeah. Just now. She went into the casino."

"Thanks". Danny took off again now running through the casino. He then ran into another co-worker in his haste to get to Mary, Sam Marquez, literally plowing into her.

"Woah! Watch where you're going, Spazz", she chucked him in the back of his head.

"Sorry. And ow", he winced as he rubbed the injury she gave him.

"Suck it up, you big baby", Danny's rival replied. "What's going on?"

"I'm looking for Mary. Have you seen her?"

"Yeah. She said she was going to her office."

Without another word, he was off. Gamblers in the casino turned their heads to watch the desperate man he had become, race through the crowd. He finally reached her office door, out of breath, and knocked.

"Come in".

At the soft reply, he entered. "Hey", he plastered a smile on his face, trying to appear cool like he hadn't just run through the casino like a maniac knocking people over in the process just to find her. Nope. He was cool as a cucumber.

Mary raised an eyebrow at him. "You're late. I already had my lunch."

He frowned. "I'm sorry about that. Something came-"

"Up." She finished for him and nodded. "I know".

"I'll make it up to you", he appeased.

"There's no need", she replied as she continued to organize her files at her desk.

"No, I want to. How about dinner? Tonight? I'm working late, but I can sneak away for a little while. Mike will cover for me."

She froze and Danny dipped his head trying to look into her eyes. He was searching for something. What, he wasn't sure of yet.

"Uh...", she scrambled to her filing cabinets. "I can't make it tonight, sorry. I already have plans."

He blinked. "Really? With who? The girls?"

"No. You won't believe who I ran into at lunch."

Danny would believe it, but he didn't want her to know that when she wasn't with him he liked to watch her on the surveillance cameras, so he chose to keep his mouth shut about Mary's mysterious lunch pal until she told him about it.

"Do you remember Jeff Cooper from high school?"

It was like thunder and lightning struck at once outside for Danny. He did remember Jeff Cooper. Mary had a huge crush on him in school. And she also lost her virginity to him. He always hated that guy. "Vaguely", he answered in a fake uninterested tone.

"Well it was freshmen year. He only went to our school for a few months and then his family moved", she explained. "I went out with him a few times, remember?"

A pensive look crossed Danny's face, pretending as if he were trying to remember this guy. "I think so. He was tall, kinda geeky."

Mary sighed happily. "Yeah."

Danny's eyes narrowed. "So, what are your plans for tonight with this... Jeff?", he bit out.

She furrowed her brow at him. "Dinner. Nothing big."

"Oh", he squeaked out. "So it's not like... a date or anything, right?", he hopefully, but cautiously, asked.

She hesitantly shook her head. "No, it's just two old high school friends, getting together and catching up." She didn't really know why, but she felt like she was lying to Danny. And that also made her feel guilty.

He breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. I guess that's okay then", he muttered.

"What do you mean by that?", she asked as a look of suspicion crossed her pretty features.

His eyes widened in surprise of being heard and he stuttered, "j-just that... it sounds like fun", he amended.

She nodded and walked back to her desk to sit down. "I guess I'll have to take a rain check on that dinner you owe me."

"Yeah. So how is it that you just so happened to run into this guy after all these years?" That was still plaguing him.

"Oh! He's a musician and he'll be playing at Mystique this Friday. Delinda discovered him", she replied sarcastically.

Danny looked at Mary with slight confusion on his face. She sounded almost... jealous. He cleared his throat. "What time are you going out?"

"Seven. He's picking me up at my place."

"Your place?" He didn't like the sound of that.

"Well he can't pick me up from here. I would like to change first."

"Sure you would", he briefly smiled. "Listen, before you go out with him", he crossed his arms over his chest sternly, "I want to see this guy."

Mary rolled her eyes. "Danny", she whined. He always did this to her, ever since they were kids. She knew he was protective of her and it was very sweet, but also annoying at times. "I'm a grown woman. I can take care of myself."

"Just humor me, okay?"

He had that determined look on his face, so she knew he wasn't backing down. "Fine", she reluctantly relented. "Since you're working late, we'll stop by here after he picks me up."

He gave her a big satisfied smile. "Good. I'll see you later." She waved at him as left her office.

Standing just outside her door, he was already planning on how he was going to prevent Mary from going out with Jeff Cooper tonight.