Title: Three in the Morning
Pairing: Stella/Danny (oneshot)
Summary: "I guess this is what you do when there's no one to go home to?"
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Three in the Morning
It's amazing how big a deserted precinct looks like without its usual occupants hustling and bustling around as they go about their day's work. For instance, if someone walks from one end of the hallway to the other in really long strides, it would take twenty-eight of those strides to get from point A to point B.
Not that Detective Stella Bonasera ever tried measuring the distance of the hallway, no. She won't do such nonsense. Maybe Danny Messer would but she sure as hell won't do such a thing. All she did was walk using normal strides, counted them and then divided it by two.
"So it takes fifty-six 'Stella steps' or about twenty-eight 'Flack long strides' from the edge of the stairs to the door leading to the morgue" Stella muttered to herself and then scrunched up her face at how bizarre she actually sounded.
'So this is what happens when you're overworked, lacked sleep and have downed half a dozen cups of coffee at three o' clock in the morning. Your brain short circuits' she thought to herself as she went about exploring the precinct wondering if that Janitor's closet has always been there or why that battered looking couch near the information desk seem to appear only at this time of day.
She rounds a corner and stops short, her keen senses gearing up as she heard rustling somewhere in the men's locker room. Stella's sure she's alone in the hallway and she knows that Mac is in his office and Dr. Hawkes is in the morgue. She would have seen one of them come out while she was lounging along the corridors. As far as she's concerned the three of them are the only ones left in this side of the precinct.
She slowly walks in (ignoring the fact that she was about to enter a men's locker room) and sighs in relief when she realizes it was only Danny Messer rummaging through his duffel bag and fishing out a pair of sneakers, thoroughly unaware of the presence of another living soul in the room. Until:
"So it seems like I'm not the only person who's got no one to go home to." Stella calls out a bit too sarcastically, not to mention a bit too loudly.
"Stella!" Danny yelps in surprise. "This is the men's locker room. You're not supposed to be here!" he yells some more thoroughly shocked at the thought of having a woman in men's territory.
"Let's see." Stella starts off. "Mac's in his office, Dr. Hawkes is probably somewhere in the morgue asleep, the whole graveyard shift's out on a case, and Flack's convinced Aiden, Jane Parsons, Chad, and Det. Macca to take a break and head over to Sullivan's with him. So, unless their cellphones and beepers go off and call them in for another case, I basically have the whole precinct to myself and can go wherever I want." She tells him justifiably.
"That still doesn't give you a good reason to just barge in here. You're lucky I already had my clothes on when you did." Danny cried out, exasperated.
"Not lucky enough if you ask me. I wouldn't mind seeing you without your clothes on" Stella's eyed widened at those words and resisted banging her head against the nearest locker. Guess short circuiting isn't the only thing her brain does at three o' clock in the morning. It also thinks Detective Daniel Messer is totally hot!
"What!" came the confused reply.
"Nothing." Stella replies as nonchalantly as she can, hoping Danny would just shrug the slip of the tongue off. But just in case, she might as well change the subject. "So, like I said. It looks like I'm not the only one who's got no one to go home to." She said, trying to sound as casual as possible.
Danny rolls his eyes in exasperation and Stella succeeds in averting the situation.
"Stella, let it go will 'ya!" Danny tells her in annoyance as he turns his back on her to resume putting on his shoes.
"Mhhhmmm….." Stella wasn't really paying attention because at that exact moment Danny bends over to tie his shoelaces and Stella can't help but cock her head to one side and marvel at how beautiful Danny's ass looks at this angle.
It was irrevocable: Stella Bonasera had officially checked Daniel Messer out.
"That comment wasn't meant to be rude. It was just an assumption derived from an observation." Danny indignantly says and Stella's head snaps up in full attention at what the young CSI had just uttered.
"So just because I was working extra hours for a case, you directly assume that I have nobody to go home to?" she tells him in defense.
"Well, maybe a cat . . .or a dog." Danny creases his brow in thought, wondering if Stella was either a cat or a dog lover. . . maybe neither, come to think of it. "It's not as if it's not true, right? You really don't got anyone to go home to. . ." He went on as he straightens up and turns back to face a now furious Stella.
"Danny, shut up." Stella warns him with a glare.
"Maybe if you were a bit nicer, you know, maybe be less uptight . . .men won't always think you're permanently PMSing. Then you could probably find a decent guy to date and eventually go home to." Danny finishes off with his patented Danny Messer smirk.
'Oh no he didn't!' Stella thought as she felt her blood boil at the remark. She was very much tempted to smack Danny upside the head and wipe that snarky smirk off his face.
"CONSTANTLY PMSing?" She exclaims in anger only to realize that her enraged voice was enough to wipe that smirk off after all. She smiles inwardly at that and thought, 'This was gonna be fun. Let's see how much rage it takes from Stella Bonasera to make Daniel Messer squirm.'
Apparently, not much because as soon as Stella takes a step towards him, he backs up out of reflex and Stella notices that he starts biting his lip as if to try and find something to say to take it all back (too late) and then she watches as he looks around as if in search for an exit. Too bad Stella was blocking his only way out.
"Uhm…Stella?" Danny stammers nervously and looks around to gauge what chance he's got to get out of the locker room unharmed from the seething woman before him.
"What, Danny?" she replies as she crosses her arms and continues glaring at him. She can't ignore the fact that a nervous, stammering Danny was a total turn on.
Before any of them had time to think, Stella grabs Danny by the wrist, drags him out of the men's locker room and walks the short distance to the ladies locker room. There, Stella shoves a bewildered and shaken Danny hard on the chest causing him too stumble backwards and end up straddling the long wooden bench.
Danny stares up at the older woman towering above him in disbelief. The moment Stella had grabbed and steered him towards the ladies room he was too shocked to protest. And later after all is said and done he'd wonder why Stella was able to get him there against his will and without any struggle.
"Uhm…Stella?" he says, trying to regain a bit of composure. "What are we doing in the ladies locker room?" Composure my ass, he just asked that one with a really shaky tone in his voice.
"We're here because you need to be taught a lesson about knowing when to keep that machine gun of a mouth of yours shut up." With that, Stella reaches out and holds his chin in place and just when Danny was about to ask what she was about to do, she tips Danny's head back and leans forward to capture his lips in a rough kiss.
Danny's eyes widen at the unexpected gesture. He struggles to gain control of the situation but Stella's lips were hot and demanding against his own making him groan in pleasure. And for once in his life he allows someone else to take charge. So, he gives in to the pleasure and kisses her back.
Stella sighed as she felt his lips move against hers, truly relieved that Danny finally decided to reciprocate. She let go of Danny's chin and trailed her hand down his neck to rest it on his chest and she could feel Danny's heart beating so fast underneath her touch. She moves that hand down to untuck Danny's undershirt and slipped her hand inside, eager to touch the smooth tanned skin of his washboard abs and explore the taut muscles, feeling it ripple as it reacts to her touch.
Danny's mind was in a haze. He knows anyone could just walk in on them like this and so he breaks off the kiss telling Stella "Somebody might walk in and see us." but that only took a split second and there wasn't much conviction in those words. Before he knew it Stella's lips were back on his, this time gentler as she leans in some more, lifting her leg off the ground to rest her knee between Danny's legs; and the warning seemed to have fallen into deaf ears.
Stella did hear him but she really didn't care. The main reason why she dragged Danny to the ladies locker room to do this was because the only people other than her and Danny in the building were Mac and Dr. Hawkes. Meaning, there were lesser chances of them getting caught in here rather than in the men's locker room if ever both Mac and Sheldon decide to use theirs.
Besides, who cares if somebody does walk in on them? She's kissing a very hot guy and no one in their right mind can actually dare to blame her for that. If she ever gets caught making out with someone she'd choose Danny over anyone else because one look at him would make anyone realize that it's a legitimate choice. Danny was by all means cute, especially if he's all hot and pliant underneath her touch like this.
She was about to push Danny into a horizontal position against the long wooden bench when both of them hear someone somewhere in the room clear their throat. Danny breaks off the kiss hastily upon hearing the noise and looks up to see Aiden and Jane, both wearing amused looks on their faces. Det. Kylie Macca was beside them looking a bit pissed off, for what reason, he doesn't really know.
Stella gives the newcomers a sheepish smile, her hands still gliding up and down Danny's sides. She was about to greet them when she felt Danny hide his face in the crook of her neck and mumbles "I told you we were gonna get caught. . ." against it. She laughs at that, finding it endearing that Danny actually had the courtesy to be ashamed. She's never seen this kind of behavior from him before. She gives him a kiss on the temple and moves off him casually and finally greets the other people in the room with a silent wave.
"Back from your breaks?" she asks Aiden in particular.
"Yes. How was yours?" Aiden replies teasingly making Danny flush and he gapes at her for making such a comment.
"You guys had fun over at Sully's?" Stella asks some more, ignoring Aiden's question. She knows Aiden teases a lot, especially when it comes to Danny, the light friendly banters between them always fun to watch.
"Clearly, not as much fun as you had in here." Jane Parsons quips in her British accent and Danny flushes some more making Stella and Aiden chuckle. Since when did this woman acquire a sense of humor?
Stella turns to Det. Macca waiting for her to throw in her own taunting but was shocked to find the woman seething green with envy. Stella's suspicions were right on the money. She knew Kylie had a thing for Danny, can see it every time these two had a chance to interact.
Danny on the other hand didn't wait for Macca to make a comment about the 'incident'. He quickly gets up from the bench and heads toward the exit saying "hi" to Aiden on the way and scampers out of the Ladies locker room with his tail between his legs.
Thinking he was out of humiliation's way, Danny heaves a sigh of relief only to have it short lived when he found himself face to face with Mac Taylor, looking flabbergasted at the sight of him leaving the ladies locker room with his shirt untucked and his hair ruffled. Dr. Sheldon Hawkes was also there looking at him with the same amused expression Aiden and Jane had back in there.
"Danny, what were you doing in the ladies locker room?" Mac yells at him incredulously and Danny actually jumped at the loudness of the voice.
Danny looks at Mac's disbelieving face and struggles hard to find an excuse at the same time tries to tuck his shirt back in only to pull it back out because he somehow had to hide the obviousness of a hard on down there. "Mac." He says. "I was just. . ." he really didn't know what to say.
There was a rustling noise from behind him as the ladies piled out of their locker room and Danny finds it hard to keep focus on Mac as the older, high ranking CSI's face turned from bewildered to scandalized in just mere milliseconds.
Mac stares at Danny and then back at the four women who had just exited their locker room wondering what the young male CSI did in there with them and wondering some more if he really wants to know. He can hear Sheldon stifling a laugh behind him, can see Stella smiling at him looking totally unfazed, can see Jane and Aiden who also seem about to burst into laughter and Det. Macca who looks pissed but calm nonetheless. He tells himself that if they can find this bit of situation funny or of no big deal then maybe he can find a way to dodge this bit of awkward situation and keep it to himself. No harm no foul. He doesn't really have to know everything every time.
Danny couldn't take it any longer. He makes an excuse (which nobody really heard clearly since he was stammering) and makes a beeline to the men's locker room, trying to walk as calmly as he can.
"I think he said he's got business to take care of." Dr. Hawkes says with a knowing smile, breaking the silence. Then he turns to the women before him and asks "How come none of you took care of that for him?" he asks teasingly.
Stella snorts at the question and watches Mac's reaction as he stares unbelievingly at Sheldon. And then, she watches as he turns away and walks off shaking his head, muttering something about hiring more normal CSIs and telling himself to get a new medical examiner while he's at it. Stella thinks Mac needs get laid.
"Well, ladies. I'm off." Dr. Hawkes says and walks off to the general direction of the morgue. Stella thinks he should stop hanging out in that place. It makes him weirder than he usually is.
"We should take breaks like this more often. It does absolute wonders to our disposition." She hears Aiden say to Jane Parsons as they wave goodbye to her. Stella thinks those two should stop hanging out together, they're starting to rub off on each other. Aiden sounds like she's got bitten by Jane's British accent and Jane's taken a leaf out of Aiden's book and can now tease as effectively as the young brunette.
"See you around." She says to Det. Macca as the woman started to storm off, giving Stella a stiff nod of acknowledgment. Stella thinks she needs to get a clue and realize that Danny is oblivious of her feelings for him.
As for Danny. Stella thinks he should know that one of these days come hell or high water he's going to realize that the only person Stella would want to go home to is him and no one else.
But as for now, who really needs someone to go home to when she already has someone to go to work for.
With that thought, Stella walks on to explore this big precinct some more. Who knows, maybe she'll find a room with more privacy and less chances of interruptions to sneak Danny in the next time she has a chance to rendezvous with him. Maybe she'll start with that Janitor's closet she discovered earlier or maybe she'll keep it simple and start with that old couch that seems to appear only when the time's three in the morning.
The End.