A/N: Same Disclosures apply as in previous Chapters. Please understand that I really don't know how the NYPD goes about qualifications or how their range works, just taking some literary license. Please enjoy reading and review! Happy Holidays!

Chapter 12

Danny stared at Lindsay, dumbstruck. He had been thinking about asking her the same thing, but to hear it voiced out loud, caught him by surprise. He felt her starting to pull away, the shock must have been registering on his face.

"Lindsay wait," Danny called from the sofa at her retreating form. He heard a door close. He walked down the hallway, her bedroom door was open, so he knocked on the only other door closed in the hall. "Lindsay, talk to me. You caught me by surprise." Even he knew it was a weak response.

Lindsay looked at herself in the mirror. How could I have been so stupid, she thought, How could I have thought that Daniel Messer could actually be interested in dating such a hick from Montana. She must have been voicing her opinions out loud, because she heard him replying to her from the other side of the door.

"I am interested in you, more than you could ever imagine, and you are not a hick from Montana!" Danny said. "Please come out and talk to me."

"Danny, just go home." Lindsay pleaded. She couldn't give him anymore ammunition than she had already. Half the lab will know about this tomorrow, she thought, just what I wanted for Christmas. She sat down on the toilet as the tears began to fall again.

"Lindsay, come out here and talk to me, please!" Danny beseeched. "I really want to talk to you, please…" Danny sat down against the wall across from the bathroom door. The bathroom door still didn't open. Danny knocked his head back against the wall. "Lindsay, I'm not leaving until we talk." He said with finality in his voice.

"You started this! You made me like you!" Came her voice from the other side of the door. "You were just being nice to me to get more inside information to use against me!" She was sobbing, her words broken by her crying.

Danny's heart ached. He knocked his head back against the wall again. He didn't know what to do. He didn't want to leave; he wanted to talk to her to sort all of this out.

"Lindsay, look, I know I was a real horse's ass when we first met, and I am truly sorry. I've already explained that it wasn't you. I was pissed because Aiden had gotten fired and I would have been that way to anyone who came in." Danny stopped to listen for a moment. "Lindsay I wasn't just being nice to get information, I really do like you. I wouldn't have spent all last night and been back over here the first chance I got this morning if I didn't. Please come out and talk to me?" Danny paused again, looking at his watch. "If you don't want to talk to me, please come out so that I can get you to the range on time. I want to go with you; I don't want my favorite partner stuck in the lab instead of being in the field with me."

There was a sound of running water on the other side of the door. Then the sound of a door being opened and closed. Then the lock clicked and the knob turned. Danny stood up.

"I don't want to go." She said simply once the door was opened. Once again, her face was red, puffy, and wet. "I don't care if I'm a lab rat for the rest of my life, I really don't care." She muffled as he pulled her into his arms and ran his hand through her hair.

"Lindsay it's ok, you'll – we'll get through it, together." Danny said soothingly into her hair, while rubbing her back. "I'm really sorry I was such a juvenile when we first met, but I did it because, not only Aiden, but I wanted to see how capable you were."

"So it was like a test or an initiation?" She asked looking up at him questioningly.

"Like I said I acted like a juvenile." Danny repeated. "Come on, we have got to go if you're gonna make it on time."

Lindsay groaned as they broke apart. Danny helped her with her coat, and then they were out the door to the range.

Meanwhile, back at the lab, Mac Taylor was sitting at his desk, hands clasped it front of him looking out at the skyline. He looked like he was in deep concentration.

"Penny for your thoughts?" asked his favorite curly haired CSI. Stella was leaning against the door frame, smiling.

Mac smiled back at her and gestured for her to come in and sit down. She took the chair that he had motioned to.

"So what's going on Mac? I know that look." Stella said.

"Just thinking about this whole new regulation and how fired up its got Lindsay." Mac said, sharing his thoughts. Maybe Stella can give me a woman's perspective on it. "It can't be just a dislike for guns. There has to be something else behind it."

"Mac some people just don't like guns. There's no rhyme or reason behind it." Stella said wisely, "Maybe Lindsay is just one of those people. Besides, like you told her earlier, all she has to do is be qualified in order to go out into the field, she doesn't need to carry a gun or even handle one again until her next qualification." Stella smiled.

"Yeah but Stella, it just doesn't feel that way." said Mac, staring again out at the skyline.

"Well," said Stella, "you could always ask Danny." Stella smiled at Mac again, "They've been acting weird around each other. Like they're trying to hide something…Never thought I would say that about another CSI." Stella laughed.

"Is that so?" Mac asked curiously, raising an eyebrow, "You'd think that with as much as they banter back and forth they wouldn't want to spend anymore time with each other."

"Well Mac, you know what they say…" Stella trailed off, "Remember when you were in Junior High? You'd always tease the one you like."

Stella and Mac laughed with each other, and smiled.

"Would you want to go grab a cup of coffee and a bagel on the corner?" asked Mac, "It seems like it's slow today"

"Sure." Said Stella.

Danny and Lindsay pulled into the range parking lot. The hem of Lindsay's shirt had been twisted and untwisted probably about a thousand times on the ride. Danny had watched her the whole ride there, and had tried to engage her in conversation several times to no avail.

"Lindsay" Danny said taking her hand to stop her from twisting her shirt again, "It's going to be ok. We're going to get through this. It's going to ok, we're going to go in, practice, and then you're going to qualify." Danny tried to reassure her.

The look on her face was a look of terror, mixed with an emotion that Danny couldn't read, panic maybe. Danny leaned over and kissed her gently on the lips, then hopped out of his SUV. He jogged over to her side of the car and opened the door for Lindsay to get out. Once Lindsay was out of the SUV, Danny wrapped his arm around her shoulders, kissed the side of her head, and locked the vehicle with the keyless entry remote.

Once inside the range building, Lindsay gripped onto Danny's hand for dear life. The perky woman that Lindsay had talked to this morning was sitting at the front desk. Lindsay could tell that it was her, just by the way that she had been talking into the phone when they had walked in. Lindsay approached her, reading her desk plaque that said her name was Karmella.

"Hi, how can I help you?" Karmella asked, smiling and being way too perky, even for three in the afternoon. Lindsay looked at her for a moment. Karmella had a big smiled on her face and was just radiating with unused energy. Someone needs to switch this girl to decaf, Lindsay thought.

"Yes, hi. My name is Lindsay Monroe. I have an appointment with Lieutenant Phillips." said Lindsay.

"Ok." She paused. "He's in his office." She paused again. "I'll get him for you." She started to stand up from her desk. "Um...Have a seat." She gestured to some chairs. She half walked half skipped away from her desk.

"Ok, rocket scientist she is not." Lindsay said quietly to Danny as they sat down in the seats she had motioned to.

"Hey…that's my sister that you're talking about." Danny said, in a shocked manner.

"Oh. No." Lindsay sputtered, "I was merely observing that she's very perky…" Lindsay turned to look at Danny with a horrified look. "I'm sorry" she said meekly.

Danny burst out laughing. Lindsay looked at him oddly. He was now laughing so hard he was holding his sides.

"Lindsay" Danny gasped for air, "I'm sorry." He gasped for air again. "I'm really sorry, I was" another gasp "trying to lighten the mood." Danny finally had regained control of his body. "She's not really my sister, I've only met her once before. I'm really sorry."

Lindsay smacked his arm, and sat straight up in her chair with her arms crossed against her chest.

"That was not funny, Messer." She breathed. Her face was scrunched up in anger. "That was not funny at all."

Danny leaned over to rest his head on Lindsay's shoulder. He stuck out his bottom lip, "I'm sorry…I was just trying to get you to relax. Everything's going to be ok. Forgive me?"

Lindsay looked over at him and couldn't help but laugh. He was staring at her with his lower lip out as far as it would go and giving her sad puppy dog eyes.

"For now--" was all Lindsay got to say because just then a tall man with broad shoulders approached them.

"Miss Monroe I presume?" Lieutenant Phillips asked, directing his attention completely at Lindsay, not noticing Danny sitting next to her.

"Yes, call me Lindsay please. Lieutenant Phillips?" Lindsay asked. She studied Lieutenant Phillips for a moment, he was an older man, perhaps in his mid 50's, with a what looked to be a full head of slightly graying hair. He reminded Lindsay a lot of her father.

"At your service. And please call me Doug. Are you ready?" He gave her a warm smile.

"What am I chopped liver?" asked Danny jokingly as he stood up.

"Danny Messer. What are you doing here?" Doug hugged Danny sincerely.

"Helping my girlfriend through her first time shooting a weapon." He answered as they broke apart.

Doug looked at Lindsay, the shock evident on his face. She felt the color rise in her cheeks.

"You've never shot a gun before Lindsay? Ever?" Doug asked.

"No, never." answered Lindsay, "I'm really nervous, and I really don't even want to be here." Lindsay started to babble but Doug stopped her.

"It's ok Lindsay, we have plenty of people who come through here who have never wanted or had to use a weapon before. You'll be fine." Doug smiled at her again. "Besides, you've got two of the best teachers that you could possibly have, isn't that right Danny?" He turned to look at Danny.

"Well I couldn't put her in better hands than yours, PD." Danny said smiling, and taking Lindsay's hand.

"PD?" Lindsay asked curiously, looking from one to the other.

"I thought you would have forgotten that name by now. Actually I hoped that you had forgotten that name by now." Doug said shaking his head, laughing.

"Doug's initials are D. P. so I just reversed them. And it's kind of comical since he works for the police department…" Danny trailed off.

"Oh, makes sense now." Said Lindsay, "So, not to change the subject or break up this happy reunion, but how quickly can I get this qualification over with?"

"Come with me." Doug smiled at her, "We'll got through the basics, give you a little while to practice, and then we'll run you through the gauntlet."

Danny saw Lindsay tense at the word "gauntlet", so he leaned over to her and whispered in her ear,

"It's just slang for test, you're going to do fine. You've got the NYPD's weapons expert with you. I'm not kidding you when I say he's the best."

Lindsay smiled at Danny, she relaxed slightly. Well, she thought to herself, here goes nothing. Worse comes to worse, I'll be stuck in the lab, not that I want to be. Danny and Lindsay, holding hands, along with Doug went into his office to start to go over the basics.