AN Yup I'm on a Danny/Lindsay kick. What are ya gonna do? NeverMind is workin' the OC world at the moment so I figured I'd be the shipper...anyway let me know whay ya'll think...cause you know I'm obsessed with reviews. ;)

Disclaimer No owning going on here, just fantasizing and it's ever so pretty in my mind. I hope CBS doesn't mind me borrowing and manipulating their characters. They'll come back unharmed I promise. ;)

Out of My Mind
© Dream 2005

It was nothing.

She just passed by him in a doorway.

She had done that many times before, this time shouldn't be any different, but it was. This time she put hand up to his chest, in what was most likely an effort to keep the space between them, however it only caused him to look down at her hand then back up at her again. That was it; he figured that was when it happened.

It was different for her. She had loved the way the accent rolled off his tongue from the moment he introduced himself on her first day. He annoyed her to no end, seemed to always be competing with her, or something to that affect. But that didn't stop her from watching him whenever she could. This felt disconcerting, she didn't want to be attracted to this man, but she couldn't help it.

From the way he licked his lips when he was concentrating to the way he furrowed his brow whenever he was thinking or reacting to a suspect, she couldn't help it, she was gone.

The problem was, neither was willing to admit it and since they competed over a lot of things, who was more stubborn would prove to be their biggest endeavour.

"You really need to find a life Linds." Mandy said with a laugh.

Lindsay Monroe frowned as she locked the door of her apartment and looked through her mail, more bills, how boring. "Shut up."

Kicking her feet up on the couch Mandy continued to mock her sister, "I'm just saying, you've been in New York how long and you still call me every night and on the weekends.

"What kind of sister are you?" Lindsay complained, "You're supposed to encourage me and tell me how proud you are of me."

"You know I'm proud of you, you're the best big sister ever." Mandy lay it on thick, "That doesn't mean it isn't pathetic that you refuse to make friends."

"I have friends." Lindsay said defiantly.

"In New York Linds."

"Well if you have to get technical." Lindsay was grumpy, "Do you want to hear about my day or not?"

"I'm still in Montana at least I have an excuse to not have a life, so regale me." Mandy quipped, "Ooh wait, are you gonna talk about hottie again?"

Lindsay sighed, "Danny, his name is Danny."

"Otherwise known as hottie, you get this sigh in your voice when you talk about him and the way you describe him makes him sound dreamy." Mandy said wistfully.

"I do not sigh when I talk about him and he's far from dreamy. He's more like a royal pain in the butt." Lindsay said defensively.

"Who's nice to look at." Mandy added.

"Whatever…" Lindsay brushed over the topic like she always did and launched into the details of her day, trying to keep Danny out of them. She most definitely did not need her sister thinking that she felt anything but professionalism for the guy.

The thing is, he really was nice to look at.

"You need to find a life." Sheldon Hawkes stuck his head into one of the lab rooms.

Danny Messer looked up at his sometime partner and grinned, "Why would I want to leave the lab when it's ever so interesting here all the time?"

"I still maintain that when your daily goal is to piss someone off it means you're interested in her." Hawkes leaned against the door frame and crossed his arms. "In fact if you were six then you could push her in a mud puddle and be done with it."

"Push her in a mud puddle?" Danny rolled his eyes, "I'm not interested in her, she needs to relax and quit sucking up to Mac."

"I think she's pretty competent and good at her job, you should cut her some slack." Hawkes pushed away from the door with his foot, "And you really need to get out more, why don't you go on a date?"

"Why the hell would you suggest me going on date with Lindsay?" Danny shot his head up again and just stared at Hawkes.

The man just laughed, "I was actually thinking about that Cindy chick you've talked about." He walked out of the room then tapped the frame with his fist, "Sure you aren't interested Messer sure you aren't."

Danny just glared at the empty door. He wasn't! Why would he be stupid enough to be interested in some hick who was constantly trying to prove herself to Mac? He had to admit that it was admirable how well she did her job. To be honest who was he to talk about proving things to Mac, he was constantly trying to do that and he was constantly coming up short. He sighed and rubbed his eyes, the only thing he was interested in was finishing this case.