Danny and Martin returned from Boston three days later. Their trip was extremely successful. They'd found their missing person holed up with his mistress at a hotel. It had turned out he embezzled money from his company and was planning to leave the country with the mistress.

"Well that was another complete waste of time," Danny said as he entered the bullpen with Martin.

"We found him, didn't we?" Sam responded from her desk.

"Yeah…we found him all right…shacked up with some girl while his wife and two kids were frantic with worry. I don't get these people."

"You want to know someone else we don't get?" Samantha asked with a sly smile.

"Who?" he responded with a shrug.

"Karen Washington. She's called here eight times, at least, asking to talk to you. Both Viv and I have asked if we could help her, but she says she only wants to talk to you," she answered as she handed him a stack of messages.

Danny sighed heavily. "This is not my day. First the mistress slaps me when we tried to take Mr. Phelps away and now this."

"You need to talk to Jack." Samantha implored.

"You didn't say anything to him, did you?" he asked in a worried tone.

"You mean did I tell him that Mrs. Washington is hot for your body? No. I didn't. But you should."

"Thanks for the advice," Danny said cutting her off as he picked up his phone and dialed Karen Washington's number.

"Hello," Mrs. Washington answered.

"Mrs. Washington. It's Agent Taylor. I heard you are looking for me," he said warily.

"Thank goodness you called back. I was going through the attic the other day, and I ran across one of Sarah's old journals. I think she kept it when she was eleven. She wrote about wanting to find her father. For some reason, she got it in her head that my ex-husband wasn't her real father, and…"

Danny interrupted and tried not to sound too annoyed. "Mrs. Washington, why couldn't you tell Agent Spade or Agent Johnson about this? Better yet, I think it would be a lead for a private investigator to run down."

"Oh, well, I just thought I would run it past you first."

"Listen, Mrs. Washington, I work on a team. We're all capable of answering any of your questions or running down any legitimate lead."

"I know that. I just feel more comfortable talking to you."

"Well, in the future ma'am, I would recommend that you relay any information like this to whoever is available at the time," he said in the most professional tone possible. "In this particular case, the journal entry does not sound like something we can look into. I would again suggest a private…"

"A private investigator, I know. I'm working on that. Sorry to have bothered you, Agent Taylor," she responded curtly and hung up.

He took a deep breath as he put down the phone. He hated being short with her, but had to get his message across. Samantha, who overheard his whole end of the conversation, walked over to him. "You handled that well. I still think you should tell Jack, but if she doesn't get the idea after that…"

Danny just nodded and then changed the subject. "You think Jack would mind if I filed my paperwork tomorrow? I have to get out of here," he said as he thought of not seeing Anna for almost five days.

"I'll tell him. He won't mind," Samantha answered and then she smiled. "Tell Anna I said hello."

Danny smiled in return. "Thanks. I will. See you tomorrow, Sam."

He'd called Anna on his way there to let her know he was coming. It'd seemed like an eternity getting from his building to her apartment. As he rode up in the elevator, he literally couldn't wait to see her. Even though they were having problems, he still felt the same way as he always had about her, and he'd realized that sleeping without her for five days was almost unbearable. As soon as he stepped out of the elevator, her door opened slightly and then wider once she made sure it was him. She was wearing his favorite blue dress shirt, which had quickly become her favorite blue dress shirt as well.

"You stole my favorite shirt," he said quietly as he approached her— fighting to contain the urge to ravage her in the hallway.

"Do you mind?" she asked sexily while biting her bottom lip.

"Not at all. It looks much better on you, especially when it's all you're wearing," he said as he came within inches of her.

Her breath quickened as he got closer and closer. "God I've missed you like crazy. I know we need to talk, but…"

"…but we can definitely talk later," he said he pulled her to him and kissed her deeply.

She pulled him into the apartment while they continued to kiss. He kicked the door shut and then gently pushed her against it. His hands quickly found their way under the blue shirt. And then just as quickly, he removed the shirt in one smooth motion sending the few buttons she had buttoned flying. She managed to loosen his tie and work the buttons more carefully on his dress shirt. As he helped her take off his shirt and undershirt, he guided her over to the sofa.

Just as they collapsed onto the sofa, he heard the water running in the bathroom. "Did you leave the water on?" he asked as he stopped kissing her and looked toward the bedroom.

She smiled. "After this, we're taking a long, hot bath together."

"Do we have time before we have to shut the water off?"

"Yeah. This is the 'hurry-up/I want you now' portion of the evening. I've been fantasizing about this all day--so no foreplay needed. And then later, after a nice long bath, we'll do the 'slow down/I want to please every inch of you' portion of the evening."

Danny nodded as he continued to kiss her and touch her. "You've put a lot of thought into this."

"I've had like five days to focus on it. I don't think I can allow your boss to let you be gone for that long ever again," she answered completely serious. "Now, you only have about twelve more minutes…"

He cut her off with a passionate kiss as he pinned her arms on either side of her head. He wanted her so much that he knew he would have little problem with this portion of the evening.

A half an hour later, they were in the bathtub. Danny was lying against her as she rubbed his shoulders with her fingertips.

"If I could bottle this feeling, I swear I'd be a millionaire," he said in a completely relaxed tone.

"What feeling is that?" she asked.

"When I was at the office, before I got here, I was having the world's crappiest day. Our guy was holed up with his mistress in Boston. So when we had to arrest him, his mistress hauled off and slapped me. Then I had to fly back here, and I hate flying. Martin took a nap--which made it worse--because I had no one to complain to."

"That may be why he was taking the nap," Anna said as she continued to massage him.

Danny smirked. "You're probably right. He probably wasn't even sleeping. Then I get back to the office, and…" he started, but then thought better of it.

"And what?"

"Nothing…just…more paperwork," he said not wanting her to feel threatened by his problems with Karen Washington.

"So what about all of that do you want to bottle?" she asked trying to direct him back to his original statement.

"Oh…right…this feeling," he said as he look up at her for a moment and then closed his eyes. "The feeling of utter peace and relaxation after a crappy day that I now believe can only be achieved by epic sex followed by a hot bath and massage."

Anna laughed. "Actually, as I said earlier, the epic sex will be later. What happened before was intense, hot and fan-freaking-tastic, but ultimately just a prelude to later."

Danny smiled. "I love you…you know that?"

"I love you, too. And just think, if you lived here, we could do this every night."

"The state I'm in right now—you could probably talk me into anything."

"I'll keep that in mind," she answered quietly and then became more serious. "Speaking of talking, I know you said you wanted to. I hope you don't think I am trying to avoid it. I mean maybe I am, but I just wanted us to have a nice night together."

"We have all the time in the world to talk," he said as he leaned his head back against her and closed his eyes. The way he was feeling right at that moment made him forget about all the lingering issues between them.

Just as the water started to get tepid, the telephone rang. "Hello," Anna answered. "Great. Give us about 10 minutes and then bring it up. Thanks."

"Who was that?" he asked as he frowned not liking the interruption.

"It was Stan."

"Stan? What is Stan bringing up in ten minutes?"

Anna smiled. "I assume you haven't eaten. And you're going to need your strength for later so I ordered takeout."

"You really are like out of this world amazing. When you plan an evening…you plan an evening," he said as he rose from the tub.

"I don't sleep when you aren't here. So I plan what we'll do the next time we see each other and even beyond that," she said as she let him help her out of the tub and wrap her in a warm towel.

"Beyond that, huh?"

"Yep," she admitted with a sheepish smile. She didn't say it out loud, but she'd actually planned their wedding, honeymoon, and even when she would give birth to each of their four children.

They both got dressed in comfortable clothes, and then Danny went to meet Stan at the door while Anna dried her hair.

"Hey. Stan the man, what's going on?" Danny asked in a playful tone.

"Back in town finally?" Stan replied.

"Yeah, it was a long, lonely trip," he said as he took the bags of takeout from Stan. "You're too good to us, amigo."

Stan smiled. "It's a pleasure being good to nice people like you and Ms. Ridley. Now some of the other stiffs in this building…"

"I hear ya, man. Sometimes, I feel like I need to show ID when I ride in the elevator."

Stan laughed and then got a little serious. "I had to make sure we didn't run into any stiffs when your brother came by earlier in the week."

"What? What are you talking about?" he asked as his smiled faded.

"She hasn't told you?" Stan said referring to Anna as he looked in to the apartment.

Danny shook his head. "My brother was here?"

"Yeah. I didn't even think he was telling the truth when he told me who he was. I mean, I saw his prison tatts and thought it didn't seem right—you being a Fed an all—but then I called up here and Ms. Ridley said he was okay. So I escorted him up here myself, just so the tenants wouldn't get nervous."

"Do you know how long he was up here?"

"Ten…twenty minutes max. Should I not have let him up here?"

"It's okay, Stan. But in the future, call me if he comes by when I'm not here."

"Will do," Stan answered before turning to leave.

Danny put the takeout bags down in the kitchen and then walked back to the bedroom. He watched as Anna put moisturizer on her face followed by lip gloss. For a moment as he watched her, he didn't want to ask her about Raffi's visit. He didn't want to ruin their evening, but his anger overtook him.