AN So here it is - the long awaited Chapter 14. Thanks for all the reviews - it makes writing the story that much more fun! Stay tuned for 'the talk' but don't expect any white picket fences...

"Sleep, dammit."

Shelby and Danny didn't get to see much of each other after that – Shelby practically lived at NARC and Danny was assigned to three more cases on top of Operation K-Car, so he hardly left the lab even to go home and sleep. Two days breezed by and they hadn't even talked on the phone.

Shelby was pouring through the surveillance files on Yates since he'd been brought in for questioning. It hadn't phased him. He hadn't even changed his patterns. She was glad. He would be way easier to manipulate if he didn't expect anything.

She didn't notice her partner, Ben, leaning on the door frame of the small office, so she startled at his voice. "You never cease to amaze me, Winters," he said.

"Geez, Ben. You scared me."

"Sorry. I was just trying to tell you how impressed I was that you're still able to focus so completely on this case even while you're so smitten with this CSI."

"What are you talking about? I'm not 'smitten.' What an old folk word," she said, trying to ignore him.

"Well, whatever. You're something all right. This guy's more than your usual one night stand."

She gave him a dirty look. "Don't start with me. I'm trying to concentrate."

He shrugged. "I'm just saying…"

"So what? I'm not allowed to like anyone?" She didn't know why she was getting so defensive about this.

"I thought you didn't want me to start with you."

"Must you always push my buttons like this?"

"Yes. We have a big-brother-little-sister relationship, remember? At least, that's what you keep telling my wife."

She sighed. "Look, I don't know what I'm thinking about this guy yet, okay? I haven't seen or talked to him for two days. That might have been the end of it for all I know. If so, fine. If not – well, that would be better, I guess."

"Aha, so you are smitten!"

"Shut up. I don't know why I tell you anything."

"Oh, suck it up, princess. You always get like this when you work too hard. Maybe this guy is good for you – give you something else to focus on once in a while."

"I told you, I want to be an old maid with cats, remember?"

"I thought you just said it would be better…"

"I know what I said. I'm having completely conflicting, equally important thoughts about all this right now. Let me focus on this case so I don't have to think about it anymore."

Ben threw up his hands in surrender. "Sure, whatever you say, boss lady."

"And don't call me boss lady."

Ben walked away, shaking his head. "Sure are touchy when you're smitten."

"I heard that!"

Danny had high hopes that the more he worked the easier it was going to be to get Shelby off of his mind, but this wasn't the case. Fortunately, his thoughts never compromised his work, merely took over where cases left off.

He reasoned that except for their initial meeting he had done enough instigating. Besides, she had been quite emphatic about her need for space and he usually agreed with that. Why did this feel different? He shook his head, if she couldn't commit to someone like Don Flack, why would he be any different?

"That microscope teaching you the secrets of the universe?"

His reverie was broken. He slid his glasses from their perch on his forehead back down to his nose, "Fiber is trilobal."

Stella leaned on the table and looked up at him, "Trunk of a car then, the body was obviously dumped."

"Rigor wasn't fixed and there wasn't a blood pool at the scene, we knew he was dumped." Danny pointed out.

"Right, but at least now we know there's a trunk out there with our vic's blood in it."

"Since when have you been an optimist?" He asked her with a sidelong glance.

"Since it took you ten minutes to see that a fiber was trilobal."

He grimaced, she had noticed his change in demeanor, "Sorry, I spaced out."

Yeah, that sounded like a good enough excuse.

"So this Shelby Winters, is she really all she's cracked up to be?"

"What?" He was not in the mood to talk about Shelby, it made him think about the fact that he hadn't seen her in three days. He didn't want to be reminded.

"The NARC on the Orlando Yates case. Is she as good undercover as Aiden makes her sound?"

Oh, she meant work Shelby! He breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, "Yeah she's good. Impeccable actually." In more ways than one.

Stella smiled and patted his arm, "I hear you and Flack have similar taste about this girl."

He should have known Stella would have had a comment about that, "Don't believe everything you hear." He said defensively.

"I don't Danny, but your face is speaking volumes."

"Don't we have a car to find?"

He really, really didn't want to talk about Shelby with anyone, mainly because he had no idea what to say about her. The sex was amazing, her smile drove him crazy and he found himself getting more and more addicted to her every time he was around her.