Chapter 8 – Influence and Interference

Lindsay and Danny held on to each other an extra moment as the song drew to a close.

"Thanks," said Lindsay, smiling.

"For what?"

"For not leaving me to dance with Vincent – definitely saved me an awkward few minutes there, so thanks." She felt a bit strange thanking him for a dance, but it was the truth. "Like I said, he's nice, but…" She let her voice trail off.

Danny was about to respond, when Stella approached them. "Hey, any chance of cutting in for a dance?"

Lindsay immediately took a step back, making room for Stella. "Go right ahead – I'm going to go join Hawkes over at the auction table; I haven't had a chance to look through what's there and wouldn't mind maybe placing a bid on something. I'll see you soon," she said, directing the latter comment to Danny. He answered with a warm smile, then turned to Stella.

Lindsay stole a glance over her shoulder back at Danny as she walked off the dance floor. She was relieved it was Stella and not some other random woman at the Gala who had stolen Danny for a dance – she wasn't too concerned about Stella having ulterior motives.

"Hey Hawkes," she said, approaching the auction table. She was very impressed with the huge selection of items to choose from, everything from show tickets to sports equipment to restaurant gift certificates to the cruise (which Hammerback had already bid on). She looked over Hawkes' shoulder to see he was placing a bid on a set of toy microscopes.

Noticing the look on her face, Hawkes explained. "I have a 10-year-old niece who's really into science. Her birthday's coming up. These sets are usually pretty expensive, so hopefully I'll win this and get a deal on it. She'd love it." He smiled and wrote in his bid. "There," he said, grinning. He turned to Lindsay. "So. Nice surprise being personally introduced, eh?"

Lindsay laughed. "Yeah, but it was unexpected – no one warned me! At least we didn't have to get up and give a full introduction – that's what they did to the newcomers in Montana. Granted we were much smaller so it was less intimidating, but was still nerve-racking to have to stand up in front of a bunch of people you don't know and try to come up with something interesting to say about yourself." She laughed at the memory. "At least here, you've been around for awhile and you know a handful of people. When I got the job at the Montana PD after I graduated, I had to give that about-me speech on my first day. I thought I was going to pass out, I was that nervous."

Hawkes laughed in surprise. "You? Nervous? Wow Lindsay, I wouldn't've pictured it!"

"I was actually really nervous when I started here, you know, new city and all, was a lot of firsts for me. I was trying to hide it, but Danny's interference made that much harder."

"Yeah, I heard about that. Told you to call Mac 'sir'. That was priceless. At least you didn't have to worry about being embarrassed here though." He moved away slightly from the auction table, as more people were coming up to survey what was available. "You did handle yourself well, though; Stella wanted to give you the heads up that you were going to be introduced, along with all the other newbies, but Danny talked her out of it."

"Hah, not surprising – leave it to Danny to jump on any opportunity to embarrass me," Lindsay joked, as Flack walked up to them.

"Where's your hot date?" asked Hawkes.

"Bathroom break, went with what I think was half the women here." He shook his head. "I'll never understand that, you women all going to the bathroom together."

Lindsay smirked at him. "We do it so that we can talk about the guys who are hitting on us in private and make sure our friends all approve, so if I were you, I'd hope that she's having positive conversations in that bathroom."

Both Flack and Hawkes just stared at her. "Are you serious?" Flack asked. "They're in there right now talking about me?"

"Absolutely!" Lindsay thoroughly enjoyed the looks on both their faces – what was even better was that she was probably right. Where else could a bunch of women go to discuss men in the same vicinity and not be interrupted? "Anyway," said Lindsay, changing the subject, "What 'stunt' was Danny referring to earlier?"

"Oh right, I meant to ask you about that," said Hawkes, turning to Flack.

Flack glared at Hawkes. "You probably don't want hear this story just as much as I don't want to tell it."

Lindsay scowled. "Well now you're going to have to, you realize, or I'll make a trip to the bathroom… Maybe let your little date know that the guy that's been hitting on her is a jerk, and happens to be terrible in bed."

"WHAT!" Flack's jaw dropped. "I bet you they wouldn't even believe you," he said, attempting a recovery. "How would you know one way or the other anyway?"

"I don't, but it would make no difference that I was lying – women listen to the opinions of other women, especially when it comes to new guys… all I'd have to say is that you've gotten around the lab, and since our lab is pretty small it's only natural that everyone knows. And in addition to everyone knowing, everyone also talks, and, well, you can only hear the same negative comments so many times before you have no choice but to believe them. I'd even go so far as to saying it's the reason that I haven't personally let myself succumb to your efforts."

Flack began to protest, but Lindsay cut him off. "—They would assume that I was telling the truth on that one – regardless of the fact that you've made no such advances, and clearly do not sleep around. Again, they'd have no way to know I was lying."

Flack opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Instead, all he could muster was "Lindsay Monroe, you are pure evil."

Lindsay smiled triumphantly. "Bet that stunt story is looking like the lesser of two evils now, isn't it."

Flack weighed his options, then sighed in defeat, proceeding to tell Lindsay that Mac hadn't really called him and Hawkes to a scene, that he had made it up. He didn't say that it was so he could leave Lindsay and Danny together – he hoped she'd derive that conclusion on her own, saving him the explanation. He caught Hawkes' gaze, who was surprised he had told her. "What, you think I'd rather have Monroe spread all that stuff about me! The consequences of this story are tame compared to the terrible reputation I could have been branded with!"

But Lindsay wasn't listening – Flack had purposely left Danny and Lindsay at Nik's Place alone, using the story as a mere cover-up. On the one hand, she was ridiculously happy he had come up with that stunt – she had had a great night, injuries aside. But on the other hand, the only reason he would have pulled said stunt was because he thought they wanted to be left alone… and Lindsay wasn't sure she was comfortable with others having that knowledge. She turned back to Flack with a friendly glare. "You know, I should go tell those girls that rumour anyway, to make you pay for that, BUT—" Flack began to interrupt, but she held her hand up, hushing him "—I'm not going to because I'm clearly not as mean and conniving as you are."

"Ouch. As long as my name's not being dragged through the mud," laughed Flack, holding up his hands in surrender. "And on that note, I'll be steering clear of you for the remainder of the evening." He winked, then skirted around Lindsay, meeting his strappy-backed mate as she approached.

Hawkes turned to face Lindsay. "I swear I didn't know he was pulling that – he only told me as we were leaving that Mac hadn't called us to a scene, that he just wanted to leave you and Danny alone."

Lindsay smiled. "Don't even worry about it – Flack just likes to meddle about, it's fine. We had a great night, aside from the whole getting punched in the face thing."

"Don't even get me started on that, I felt terrible this morning when I heard what happened," said Hawkes, a look of sincere regret on his face.

Lindsay laughed it off. "Seriously, as you can tell from both of us today, it wasn't that bad. If the guy was sober he probably could have done some more severe damage, but he wasn't, so it's all good. Let's go sit at the table." She looked over to see Mac caught in conversation with Marty and Evan. She couldn't tell if the look on his face was that of interest or hidden annoyance.

She looked towards the dance floor as she followed Hawkes across the room and was surprised to find Danny looking at her. He smiled at her, then said something to Stella.

Lindsay let her gaze drop to the floor, blushing slightly as she silently thanked Flack for his meddling.

It had always astonished Danny, his relationship with Stella. She was like the older sister he never had, the one who made sure that he stayed in line and, for the most part, kept his nose clean. He never asked her to, it had just sort of happened over the years. He could count on her to tell him when he was doing something right, and when he was being a complete moron. He found it both comforting and frightening at the same time. They also seemed to have a deeper understanding of each other in the last few weeks, both having experienced a bit of an upturning of their lives.

"How you been holding up Messer?" she asked, slowly rotating in time with the music.

"Can't complain, under the circumstances. My brother's doing a lot better, he's officially been given clearance to get back to work, which he's happy about. Can finally start to get his life on track – it's about time, too."

Stella smiled supportively. "That's great to hear Danny, it'll be good for him to start to get his life back together."

Danny nodded. "Other than that, work's been keeping me pretty busy – it seems everyone shares that sentiment lately." Stella sounded her agreement. "So between work and trying to find enough time to sleep, I haven't had time for much else." He shrugged.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. For awhile I didn't mind work getting so busy, it let me keep my mind off of everything. But you can only go so long before it begins to catch up with you – I think we all really needed tonight to just unwind, let loose a little bit. Thankfully none of us have been paged yet – the other districts are nice enough to try their best to cover for us tonight, but I suppose anything's possible."

"Yeah," Danny agreed, "I remember two years ago when Mac was here a total of about eleven minutes before he got called off for the night. So much for relaxing."

"But this is Mac we're talking about." Stella smiled. They continued to dance in silence, just enjoying being in each other's company. And in the case of Danny and Stella, nothing more needed to be said.

Danny let his mind wander. It definitely had been an eventful year – that was one way to put it. You can only go so long before such events start to weigh you down, especially when they affect you on such a personal level. He was used to dealing with death – he saw it every day. But every person has their breaking point, and every so often, something hits you personally. He smiled to himself, thanking whoever was responsible for at least giving him a strong support group: loyal coworkers who cared about him as more than just a colleague.

Without realizing it, he found his eyes had landed on Lindsay. She was talking to Flack and Hawkes, not noticing that Danny was looking at her. He hadn't realized before just how much she had actually been there for him. They really had become just more than coworkers – the relationship he shared with Lindsay was different from any other in the lab. He knew that there was very little she wouldn't do for him, and knew that when push came to shove, he'd do the same for her.

The motion of the dance removed Lindsay from his line of sight. He began to reflect on the many times she had given him support, whether or not he really needed it. What stood out the most was everything that she did when the Tanglewood Boys resurfaced. She had known it was against protocol when she approached Danny with the DNA results, but took comfort in that she trusted him enough to do so. She simply wanted to know what happened – never had she accused him of being responsible for the murder of that kid. Every time their eyes met that day, he saw the concern written all over her face. He wanted nothing more than to just go up to her and explain everything, tell her exactly what happened that night, but he knew that contact with the team was forbidden, given the circumstances. He was so relieved when his name was finally cleared, but even more so that the person to play the tape for Danny had been Lindsay. He'd been able to explain himself fully, without having to say anything. As Lindsay came back into his line of sight, he had an idea, and smiled.

"Well don't we look like the giddy schoolboy," laughed Stella. She followed Danny's gaze to Lindsay, who was now looking back at Danny and smiling. "You know she cares a ton about you. She does about everyone, come to think of it. She's definitely one of a kind, that one."

Danny sighed, turning to face her. "Yeah, I definitely know that."

"Look Danny, I'm not about to jump to any conclusions or tell you what to do, but I will say this. Don't put yourself in a situation where you're going to look back and regret not taking charge. I know it's not the best comparison, but look what happened with Louie. Fifteen years you guys didn't speak, and it took his near-death to bring you two back together. As corny as it sounds, you sometimes have to just seize the moment."

Danny smiled as the last tones of the song resonated through the hall. He stopped, and gave Stella a hug. "Thanks, I needed that."

Was her speech discretely referring to Lindsay, or had he heard it as such because he was thinking about her? The only thing he knew for certain was that he had to address his feelings, and quick. He had nearly lost Louie, and had learned a valuable lesson in taking opportunities when they're available. It was time to stop questioning the what-ifs, and to finally figure it all out for certain.

AN: Thanks for all the great reviews – please let me know what you thought of this chapter! What you've all been asking and waiting for is coming in the future!

AN2: Sorry it took me so long to get this up – this site was experiencing difficulties when trying to upload documents!