A/N Ok, I lied…………. There have to be 2 more chapters! I couldn't get it all in one! I promise I will post them close together if you will review this one! I thought we needed a little light and fluffy chapter after all the emotion, plus I wanted to tie up loose ends here before ending the story. The first part of this is especially for the crew over at the Talk CSI forum on the Danny and Lindsay Shipper Thread. The terminology is borrowed and I will credit at the end of the chapter. Enjoy the fluff! The end comes next! I'll post it later tonight!
Chapter 8 Rain Check
Danny walks out of the lab and sees Lindsay headed to the locker room. "Lindsay! You about ready to roll?" She holds up 2 fingers and yells "two minutes" back at him. Danny goes to get his bag and get ready to go. He and Lindsay had gotten a page right after Stella left them to go back up and see Mac. They've been working on this case all day and have barely seen each other. He was glad they'd at least ridden together so he knew they had to leave together. He changes his shirt, grabs his bag, turns around and walks right into Lindsay.
"Don't leave yet! Let me get changed! Stella called and told me that Mac is getting out of the hospital tomorrow and they are coming by the office. We're going to do balloons and stuff." Lindsay tells him all excitedly.
Danny rolls his eyes and follows her back into the locker room. "Yeah, Monroe! That's exactly what Mac's gonna want! You know he has no desire to be the center of attention!"
Lindsay opens her locker and starts throwing stuff in and pulling it out while talking rapidly. Danny couldn't help but grin at her. "Danny, it's not about making him the center of attention. He almost died! It's just a little bit of appreciation for our boss who beat the odds, ya know?...He'll be fine!"
Danny sits down on the bench and raises his eyebrows, "If you and Stella say so. I ain't arguin' with two women! I wasn't raised just yesterday! ……………So did Stella say how the talk with Mac went?"
Lindsay smiles a smile that reminds him of high school. "She said that they talked about a lot and that everything was fine, but it was HOW she said it that made me know things were really good."
Danny looks at Lindsay like she has lost her mind. "Oh yeah? So………..uh…………how exactly did she say it? I'm not sure I'm followin' that!" he says with a smirk.
Lindsay throws a towel at him and closes her locker. "Smart ass! So what are we doing tonight?" Danny gets up and says, "Ohhhhhhh, are you finally ready to go, Montana? Ya think we can leave this place now. I was planning on the rain check on that sex tonight. What're you thinkin' about that?" he says licking his lips and stifling a laugh.
Lindsay knows he is trying to get her riled up to argue and decides to play along. Partly because she wants to dish it back to him and partly because every time he says the word "sex" her body reacts. They are walking out of the locker room headed out and Lindsay tries not to smile and says, "I'm thinking I haven't had any in a while and you'll do. Hell, why wait. There's a broom closet on the way out!" She laughs out loud as she watches Danny's eyes get huge and the shock register on his face. Danny realizes she is yanking his chain and retorts, "You can't handle that Montana!"
Lindsay's mouth drops open, pride and competition kicks in and she forgets to even think about the consequences, "Wow, Messer you sure are full of yourself." They get to the broom closet and Lindsay yanks open the door, "Now who can't handle it?"
Danny gives a cackle of shock and excitement all in one breath. This girl has guts! "Get outta here……………….I'll have you screamin' my name and moanin' and groanin' and we'll get busted because people will walk by and think we have moaning brooms around here and open the door to check it out. "
Lindsay can't help but laugh at him, "Your loss Messer. I offered. I think you are a chicken." She lets the door go and starts to walk off with a huge grin on her face, knowing exactly what Danny would do next.
Danny grabs her, pushes her in the closet, shuts the door, flips the light, and presses her back into the wall tripping over a mop bucket and brooms. He kisses her long and hard with his hands wrapping around her waist. Lindsay's body is on fire and she wonders if she is going to even be able to breathe. She kisses him back and grabs the front of his shirt pulling him close to her. About the time she feels his body react and her own reaction meet his, he stops kissing her and pulls away.
Lindsay looks at him with glazed eyes, "What is it?"
Danny reaches up and puts a hand on her cheek. "This was funny, Lindsay. I'm hot and bothered and you made your point. I want you and I have no desire for the first time I make love to you to be in a broom closet. Next week maybe, "he says and grins," but not tonight. Tonight I want to take you home and do this right. Nice and slow and right."
Lindsay pushes him back so she can straighten up. She straightens her shirt and straightens his. "Who knew? Danny Messer can be a gentleman," she flashes him a bright smile. "It smells like Lysol in here anyway. Let's go home."
Danny opens the door and peaks out to be sure that no one is around and grabs Lindsay's hand and pulls her out of the closet. They both giggle as they walk down the hall. They walk out into the parking lot and Lindsay squeezes his hand and says, "Wellllllllll, that was the best sex I never had!" Danny laughed so hard she thought he was going to wet his pants.
Danny tells Lindsay that he took a long lunch and straightened his apartment today and asks her if she is willing to go by there for dinner. She is really impressed with his effort and agrees.
She looks at Danny as they walk up the stairs to his apartment and wonders why he looks nervous. He opens the door and motions her to go on in and her mouth opens in shock. There is a nice table in the middle of his living room with a dozen roses and two candles in the middle. Lindsay looks at Danny with an awestruck look. "You did all of this at lunch?"
Danny shrugs and smiles. "Yeah. I have a little 75 year old neighbor, Miss Lilly that checks in on me all the time. When I told her I wanted to surprise my girlfriend with something special, she was all over it. I told her what I wanted and made the calls to get it all here and she set it up for us." Lindsay doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. She wonders how in the world this man goes from being an arrogant smart ass into being a die hard romantic with very little effort. She thinks all this drama can be very exciting!
"Miss Lilly huh?" she says, still in awe.
Danny walks over and picks up the delicate china plate. He grins and says, "Miss Lilly's china too. Not bad eh?" Lindsay starts giggling and he walks to the kitchen and before she can follow he yells back to her, "Have a seat! She cooked dinner too. Let me check the oven and I'll tell you what we are having!"
Lindsay sits down and it stunned to see Danny bring the food in, serve the meal, and wait on her hand and foot. They eat and talk about work and Mac's healing and just small talk. They both are overwhelmed at how natural and comfortable this is. They finish the meal and Danny tells Lindsay that he has bought her an outfit if she wants to go change. She looks at him like he is crazy. He shrugs and grins sheepishly, "I was banking on you staying the night. If not, then you just have a new outfit." She wants to be angry at him for assuming she'd be that easy, but she knows that she has wanted him to touch her again ever since he let her go in that dumb broom closet. She walks to his bedroom and sees a really nice pale pink velour sweat suit. She can't believe it, but the outfit is even something she would have picked out! It was soft and comfortable and even cute. She changes and stands there for a minute just trying to get her thoughts together. She never lets any relationship go this fast, but somehow with Danny, it just seems so right. "Besides," she thinks to herself……………"it has been awhile." She smiles and walks back in to see Danny sitting on the sofa waiting for her.
"You look nice," he says.
She sits down and snuggles up nest to him. "So, did Miss Lilly pick this outfit out too?"
Danny pretends to look horrified, "Hell, no! Miss Lilly has no idea you are staying the night! She wouldn't approve of our slumber party." Lindsay throws her head back and laughs at him. "You're so cute, Danny."
He blushes a little, "Cute enough to kiss?" he says. She turns her head up and kisses him. They kiss softly at first and then things get heated really fast. Within minutes he has her jacket off and she has her hand in his shirt. He stops and looks at her and says, "Lindsay, are you sure?' She looks him in the eye and says, "I'm sure. I want you Danny. I want so much from you, but I'll start with this." She smiles and gets up and pulls him toward the bedroom. Danny lays her down on the bed gently and makes every move slowly to the point of driving them both crazy. He wants to savor every moment of undressing and making love to Lindsay Monroe. He carries her to heights that neither of them has ever been. He makes love to her once, twice and three times and she feels like she is drowning in him.
Afterwards, she lay in the crook of his arm and he is content to just hold her close. "You OK?" he whispers in her ear. She smiles up at him, "Yeah. I'm better than OK."
"Any regrets?" he asks her.
"No, Danny. I have no regrets. What about you?"
He grins once he realizes that they are OK. "I'm not regretting anything Montana. I'm thinking we gotta keep this up. I swear to God, I think an angel gets its wings every time I make love to you. It makes me not ever want to let you go." She leans up and kisses him again.
They lay there quietly for awhile and he leans down and kisses her forehead. "Since I screwed everything up the last time we tried to talk about our relationship. I think I'll try to get a head start and see if I can do better this time." She giggles beneath him. "I'm crazy about you, Montana. I didn't do all of this for just the sex or just to get you in bed. I want to be with you and I want to see where this goes. I don't want either of us to have any regrets, but I find that I can't keep my hands off of you and I didn't want to push but I just couldn't help myself."
Lindsay reaches up to rub his arm that is draped across her chest. "I don't make it habit of going to bed with someone this soon, Danny. I just can't explain what you do to me. It just feels right and I don't want to have regrets either. We are just going to have to work as hard about the relationship part as we do the sex part." Danny nods at her.
Lindsay thinks for a minute. "Danny, what about work?" Danny sighs. "I don't know, baby. I think if we keep it discreet and see what happens then maybe it won't be an issue."
Lindsay says, "It may be an issue with Mac and Stella too." Danny looks at her a little surprised. "Do you really think so?"
Lindsay shrugs. "Can't you see they love each other Danny? I know I'm not dreaming."
Danny thinks about it. 'They've always been close. I definitely saw Stella fall apart when Mac got hurt. I've never seen Stella that frantic. She obviously cares about him and vice versa, but I just can't see Mac letting anything happen."
Lindsay shakes her head. "I think you're wrong. I would have agreed before the accident. I just think that Mac almost losing his life and realizing he might have lost her before ever even having her made him realize how much he cared. I don't think he will walk away from that now."
Danny hugs Lindsay closer to him. "I guess we'll see tomorrow. I hope you're right. That would be beneficial to us……………..and I think they'd be perfect together."
A very special Thank You to Amrita, Adamsgirl1, for the line about angels getting their wings every time……………She was the creative writer behind that line and gave me persmission to use it.
Also I think the originator of the moaning brooms was JorjaFan86 and the scenario for the broom closet came from various people in the D/L shipper Thread. This is a shout out for them!
Please read and review the light and fluffy chapter and I'll close Love's Journey out in the next one!