Author's Note: I just want to thank everyone who wrote in the positive feedback and reviewed. They're so greatly appreciated!

Disclaimer: Danny and Lindsay and the rest of the CSI:NY team don't belong to me, I'm only borrowing them for a while and I promise, I won't damage them in any way.

The following morning after Danny's visit, she was trying to counter the affects of the pizza and beer by over-hydrating. She ran into Hawkes in the break room who made comment of Lindsay's excessive drinking with a grin.

"That's your third bottle of water this morning. Yankee game?" he guessed and Lindsay just looked at him in surprise. "Danny must have broken up with Cindy."

"It wasn't Danny," Lindsay vied and folded her arms across her stomach.

Hawkes looked at her like she was telling him they were turning Trump Tower into a zoo.

"Oh yeah? Who was it?"

"No one," Lindsay lied, guzzling the water down in all attempts to leave the break room. "I watched the game alone."

"Bad news for Cindy," he retorted.

Lindsay finished off her bottle of water and tossed the container into the recycling bin. "I have to go find Mac."

Over the next two days, Lindsay thought long and hard about things with Danny. He was definitely doing his part to rouse her interest but she wasn't sure how much he meant it. Growing a friendship with him would be difficult, mostly because he was too much. Too charming, too handsome and way too restless.

In the end, she resigned him as a man who couldn't be trusted with her heart.

But what a way to go.

Don't go there, Monroe, Lindsay scolded herself.

Determined to remain his friend, Lindsay brushed off her night with Danny as a reason not to see his girlfriend.

Back at her apartment, she entered the building after a refreshing run. James was heading down the stairs with a shopping list and his phone in hand.

"Hey, Lindsay," he said with a grin.

Refreshed, rejuvenated and happy she ran, she was feeling good until that moment. James smelled of soap, cologne and aftershave. With an over-sized sweatshirt and sweat pants on, Lindsay suddenly felt like a sweaty pig.

"Hi," she said breathlessly.

"You're really a wildcat aren't you?" he said and Lindsay made a disapproving face. "Oh no!" He laughed. "Your sweatshirt. Every time I see you, you're wearing something with Wildcats or Black Bears printed on it."

If it were possible for her face to flush even more, it did.

She gave him an embarrassed smile. "College teams, they have the best running clothes."

"I'll keep that in mind. You have anything from NYU yet?" he asked, walking down a couple of steps and looking back up at her.

Lindsay shook her head. "Not yet."

"I have a friend who works at the university. Tell Jenna when you want a made-up birthday and we'll see if I can get you something," he said and winked at her.

Lindsay smiled and ran the rest of the way up the stairs. Checking her messages, there were two hang-ups and a short message from Allie that consisted of Allie saying hi, a crash in the background, a toddler crying and Allie hanging up.

Turning on her shower, Lindsay retied her hair into a ponytail and took off her over-sized sweats, leaving her in a tank top and tight running shorts.

As she applied a blue facial mask to her face she sighed, recalling her first case. She had made a list of everything she wanted to see in New York and the Central Park Zoo was crossed off after her first day on the job. Granted, it wasn't the type of visit to the zoo she was hoping for but she made it.

Maybe I'll take Jenna, Lindsay mused. Yeah, Jenna would be a safe person to go with. No complications, no tension, sexual tension...

It was hard for her to deny his sexuality, especially since they were being pushed toward one another at every turn. Last week they worked a case of a doll-doctor's murder over a secret no one would have known. On the cold street with the snow all around them and Danny's hand wrapped around hers, she could feel her face flushing and her heart beginning to race.

Looking at her hand in his, she pulled away and shoved her hand in her pocket. The warmth of his hand on hers lingered and she tried to slow her heart by counting backwards from one hundred.

And with a casual, "You hungry?" from Danny her heart leapt but her mouth told him no before her body had time to interfere.

Why did he have to be so sexy? she thought. Why am I hoping he'll see me as far more than friend?

Her phone rang and Lindsay picked up before she remembered she was screening her calls.

"Hello?"

"Hey kiddo," Allie greeted warmly. "How was your pizza and beer with the pain in the ass?"

"He's got a girlfriend," Lindsay told her friend and she could hear a sigh from the other end. "It was just pizza and beer."

"How many bottles did you have?" Allie asked.

"I'm not going to tell you because the judgement in your voice is saying enough," Lindsay said almost jokingly. She turned the water off in the shower and walked to her living room to have a seat on the floor.

"I'm not saying I think it's a bad idea," Allie started and Lindsay scoffed. "You know you'd have a fantastic time when you're off the clock but working alongside someone you're sleeping with isn't easy."

Lindsay knew what she meant. Tension was high enough on a murder scene. She didn't want to think about the ramifications of two people dating.

"He's not into me like that," Lindsay said beginning some stretches.

"So why do you have a school-girl crush growing?" Allie asked with a smile in her voice.

"I am resigning him to the friend category," Lindsay retorted. "Once we're down that road there are no detours."

"Like what's-his-name who you almost married?" Allie reminded her.

"Almost married!" Lindsay cried. "We weren't!"

Allie had to laugh. "Drop-dead gorgeous doctor proposed, you accepted the ring, you had horses, you lived together. That's almost married. If it weren't for his family-"

"Hey, no regrets," Lindsay interrupted. "Besides, Danny isn't a black doctor with a family like Ty's. He's an Italian guy from the Bronx with a shady past."

"How shady?" Allie asked cautiously.

"I don't know," Lindsay said with a sigh. "For all I've heard about him, I can't really take it with more than a grain of salt."

It was true. The rumours at the lab might spread like wildfire but how accurate or factual was always in question.

"How shady?" Allie repeated.

"Nothing like Bozeman," she reassured her friend as she walked over to her bathroom to take off the mud mask. "I don't know. Kids in New York face different challenges. Drug runners and gangs are always after young kids. I get the feeling when he was younger he was involved in something."

"That's your red flag right there," Allie said. "You had enough of that here."

"I've already told myself not to go there," Lindsay told her friend. "What's the harm in flirting? I'm not exactly his type anyway."

"Don't give me that, Lindsay Monroe," Allie said in her best mommy voice and Lindsay shrunk on her side of the phone. Allie used that tone when she was scolding her children and it stunk to be on the receiving end of it. "You know very well you're a beautiful, smart, funny, attractive woman and he'd be insane not to be interested in you."

"Allie, I'm not going there," she assured her. "So can we drop it?"

"Fine," Allie sighed. "But don't sell yourself short."

"Fine."

"Anyway," Allie started. "I have less than a minute before my kids come screaming in here so you need to tell me anything and everything about your last case."

"We were at the scene of a roller derby played by women and one of them was killed in a pile-up," Lindsay said. "She was dosed with DNP by the owner's wife so she would be thin but it ended up killing her because it causes the body to release heat. She died of hypothermia but took a skate to the face by some pre-school teacher named Hallie on Wheels."

"Sounds awesome," Allie said rushed. She held back a laugh and cleared her throat. "I gotta go, Amy just walked in covered in orange marker and Paula is the culprit."

Lindsay could hear the beginning of Paula's scolding and Amy crying before the receiver made contact with the handset.

As she showered she thought about what she said to Allie about dating a co-worker. It would be hard. Serious distraction would be needed and she wasn't sure where the best place would be to go. Running didn't always do it.

Wearing her robe and sitting in her living room with a cup of tea and a cream cheese covered bagel, she picked up the newspaper and began reading the sports section.

When she finished her current paper, she went to her recycling bin in the corner of her kitchen and read every other sports section she had. She spent the entire afternoon reading about sports and by the end, she was an expert. Ask her the stats on anyone mentioned in the last two weeks and Lindsay would tell you. Her hands were covered in black ink and she was sore from sitting on the floor for so long but it had kept her mind off Danny.