A/N: alright – sorry this didn't come out sooner, but i've been busy. my older brother graduated college Saturday, and i graduated college a month ago, and my sister's having a baby, and i had to give the Heimlich…so been crazy. but this one turned out pretty long…and i'll have chap 5 by tom. oh! and its gonna be total fluff cause i love that. and -- in case you haven't figured it out, Danny's thoughts are the things in italics.
oh yeah and, btw, i don't really like the idea of Lindsay with a new hunk either, but i think he provides the perfect plot point to stir Danny up. but i'm personally hardcore D/L all the way.
R & R – Love, El
Chapter 4: Thermal
The digital read on the bank thermometer that was near the lab building read 102.3°F. The guy standing next to Danny on the corner was looking up at it too. "Gotta be broken," he muttered. Broken or not, it feels like 102.3 degrees. Danny made his way into the crime lab building, where air-conditioning and climate-controlled temperatures were key to maintaining proper equipment operation. But Danny knew, even with the large amounts of cold air being pumped into the rooms all around him, his body temperature was about to go well above the 102.3 that was outside. All it takes is her.
Danny rounded the corner and dropped off some stuff in his office, before moving back to the Trace lab, where he had been working yesterday. He had thought he found some possible sites for fingerprints, but there was no way he could recover them on the charred clothing as is. He had to first remove the remaining expelled carbon, without using water which would wash away anything there. He ran the ALS wand over the area he was working on, picking up remote flashes of light, here and there, indicating there was fluid or fingerprints or something unusual. He had to change gloves a couple times, because they kept turning completely black from soot, and he didn't want to ruin these prints or fluids – they were too hard to get in the first place. From there, Danny managed to extract various sections of the cloth and body tissue to be placed in the tabletop tent for cyanoacrylate fuming. He also pulled off miniscule pieces of evidence at the same time to put them through the mass spectrometer.
Placing the pieces he cut into separate tents, Danny then systematically went to each one, dropping the chemicals into the pan to begin the process. It shouldn't take long now before we know who or what you came into contact with before you died. After Danny meticulously packaged the samples to be taken over to gas chromatography, he stood leaning back against the lab counter opposite where the samples were being processed. Arms crossed over his chest, he let himself think for a moment.
She's gorgeous, yeah, and I definitely want her. I mean, I care about her; she's been pretty nice to me even though I've picked on her and put her through the paces. But, honestly, I would've done that with anyone who came in to take Aiden's place. At the thought of Aiden, he paused a moment, it was still a fresh cut for him – they had been great friends. She would've laughed at me, if she were here now. She'd have teased me for getting so caught up by one woman. Danny cracked a lopsided grin. But that's the thing, this isn't just some woman – this is Monroe. I mean, she's a coworker, a friend, he sighed deeply, and she's damn hot and I want her badly, but that's it right? I mean she's just an itch that I can't scratch, so that only makes it itch more.
"Here's a penny." Hawkes had come in and Danny hadn't even heard. Danny eyed him quizzically, and then realized he meant the old "penny for your thoughts" deal.
"You can keep it." Danny shrugged. "I was just thinking 'bout itches."
"You were thinking about…itches? Like, ones you scratch? Or get when you have a rash?" Hawkes paused. "You don't have a rash, do you?"
Danny grinned. "Sheldon, buddy, no need to look so frightened, I don't have a rash. I don't have anything wrong at all. I was just thinking about hypothetical itches."
"I didn't know there was any other kind than real itches." Hawkes moved with him, as Danny went and retrieved his specimens for closer examination. Danny had pulled his samples out of the tents and was now poring over them with the microscope, looking for various evidence. He found a partial on the third piece of body tissue – the one from her arm – and went about retrieving the print. Hawkes just stood idly by, watching him work. Head down, glasses on his forehead, looking in the microscope at the detail of the print, Danny grunted.
"Did you actually want something, Doc?"
Hawkes shook his head, which Danny caught out of the corner of his eye, and shrugged. "Nope, you just looked like you were going to sink into your thoughts if someone didn't reel you back in. I just happened to be passing by. I'll leave you, your evidence, and your itches alone now; I have some things I gotta take care of for Mac for that uptown case we're working." Hawkes moved away and was almost out the door, when he turned back. "Oh and Danny?" Danny grunted again. "If you wanna talk about it – the "itch" – I'm always around." With that, he left.
Danny shook his head. Montana, you won't bring me down so easy.
Two days after Danny had practically run away from Lindsay, they still hadn't figured out what caused their victim to burn from the inside out. They had gone through what they thought were all possible scenarios, only to discard each one in kind.
"What if something caused her body temperature to rise enough that it simply caught fire to her actual organs?" Lindsay shook her head, even as she voiced the theory. "No, no I guess that wouldn't work." She sat there biting her bottom lip just a bit, eyes on her right knee which was crossed over her left one. Oh, down boy, down. "So I guess we're left with one option."
Danny was purposely keeping his eyes down on the lab table where he was going through the various pill bottles that they had collected when they did the pharmaceutical dump on Cristine's apartment. "What's that?"
"She spontaneously combusted."
This time around, Danny did choke, but not because she was making him hot. He was in disbelief. "You really think she spontaneously combusted? That's the theory you're gonna go with, Monroe?" He was staring at her like she was someone he didn't know.
"Well, her body burnt from the inside out. And at a very high temperature, mind you. We can't find a plausible reason why her body caught fire within her, so that leaves us with spontaneous combustion. We really can't rule it out, Danny." She looked at him as if this was the most practically obvious and logical conclusion she had ever explained to anyone.
"No. No, we're not considering it. I'm ruling it out."
"How can you rule it out? We have no other way to explain why this happened to an otherwise healthy 32 year old woman," she pinched the bridge of her nose, obviously frustrated. I wanna rub that tension right outta her shoulders.
"I can rule it out because I'm a scientist – you're a scientist – and spontaneous combustion is not a scientifically acceptable explanation. There's another explanation, we just haven't discovered it yet."
"So you're telling me that you just don't believe spontaneous combustion is possible?" The look Lindsay gave him made him feel like her future thoughts about him depended on the next words out of his mouth.
"Are you telling me you believe in spontaneous combustion?" Always good, deflect it back to her.
"Oh no you don't, Messer. At the risk of sounding four again, I asked you first. Don't you believe someone's body can burn up like our vic's?"
"Do I believe a body can burn like the vic's, yeah. Do I believe that it can start on the inside without any kind of external instigation or accelerant? No." He adjusted his glasses. Ball's in her court.
Lindsay licked her lips, and caught her bottom one in her teeth. That was fast becoming his favorite habit of hers. To be her teeth right now. She had looked down, thinking for a second, before meeting his gaze dead on. Staring into him, she shot off:
"You don't think a person can get so hot inside, they just burn up, Danny? The heat is so intense, so hot, it's just gotta burn them up from inside out so that it can burn out? You don't believe someone can feel a blaze like that?"
Danny stared right back, never breaking that gorgeous chocolate gaze of hers. Talk about intensity of heat – this is solar. It really was quite shocking to him that he hadn't simply passed out from the fever he was running yet. He licked his lips, never blinked, swallowed hard, trying to think of how to answer her. We're changing the laws ofthermodynamics here. If anyone knew about burning up from the inside, it was Danny.
"I believe it's very possible for a person to experience a heat so intense they can't do anything but succumb to it, let it burn through their entire body, consume them. I just don't think it's the same type of heat you're talking about. Bodies don't spontaneously combust." Though Danny could swear he was coming pretty damn close.
Lindsay kept her eyes trained on his. It was right on the tip of her tongue to ask: "What kind of heat burns you up, Danny?" Unfortunately, or possibly thankfully, depending on how one looked at it, Stella walked into the lab looking for her.
"Lindsay, there is a rather good-looking man located in the break room who says that he's here to pick you up. Can I take your place, if you don't know him?" Stella smiled.
Lindsay finally broke her gaze with Danny to look over at a grinning Stella. "Oh, I forgot! What time is it?" Her eyes flew to her wrist. "Crap! I'm late. Can you possibly go stall him while I run to my office to freshen up and grab my things, Stella?"
"Oh girl, no need to ask twice. My complete pleasure, trust me." Stella walked with Lindsay out of the lab, where Danny was still standing, staring at the place where moments before Lindsay's eyes had been. Stella grinned; he hadn't even blinked yet.
In the deafening crash of silence that followed their exit, Danny whispered one word to Lindsay's unspoken question: "You."
Danny had taken off his lab coat, and made his way to the break room, where he stood leaning against the counter, arms crossed over his chest – which coincidentally was all puffed out. He had made it there just as Flack arrived, and Flack had shot him a look, which combined with the fact that Danny had passed Lindsay in their office as she freshened up – meaning checking her face and hair in her compact, fixing her make-up, making herself look good for this guy, had Danny in a very uncivil mood. She doesn't need to freshen up; she's gorgeous as is. He wasn't saying anything; he didn't wanna make friends with this guy, because this guy was taking Montana out tonight. He was going to wine her, dine her, make her laugh, make her smile, look into her eyes, and maybe kiss her. Oh hell no, I'm not going to think about some other guy doing what I want to do. Danny made a low growl, which caused Flack and Hawkes to look at him, but no one said anything. He caught the tail of what Stella and this guy were talking about.
"…well, that's my full name. I mean usually no one ever finds out that my middle name is Wyatt." He smiled a charming grin at Stella.
"So Colton Wyatt Morrow?" Stella batted her eyes at him.
Danny rolled his. What is up with the women around here, he's just a guy.
"Wyatt, as in Wyatt Earp?" Hawkes questioned.
"Wyatt, as in 'Son of the Forest Guide.' My mama had a thing for loggers, don't ask." Morrow blushed ever so slightly, which only made Stella sigh and find him that much more adorable.
He's a son of a something, alright. Danny unconsciously puffed his chest out a little more.
"Did you come from Montana to be a firefighter?" Mac asked him. Until now, Mac had kind of stood to the back, arms crossed like Danny, appraising the situation and the man. Mac was eyeing up the man as if he had come to take his only daughter to the prom; this guy would have to pass inspection if he intended on having any kind of influence on one of Mac's team. Personal lives had a funny way of impacting people's work habits.
"Um no, sir, I was an environmental engineer with the Montana Forest Service originally, with a specialty in developing containment and extinguishing systems in cases of brush and forest fires." Morrow had maintained eye contact with Mac, a sign of confidence and respect. "Personal reasons led me east, and kept me here. I love fighting fires; it's a fire in and of itself, so I joined the NYFD." Mac nodded.
"Oh, you guys aren't interrogating him, are you?" Lindsay had been standing in the break room doorway as Morrow explained his roots to Mac. She had thrilled at the idea that he had a golden heart.
Danny glowered. Lindsay had changed into jeans and a blouse, she was still wearing her heeled boots, and her wavy hair was down and around her face. Betcha it feels good on the fingers. She made her way over to Morrow, who stood a good foot and a half taller than her. He handed her more flowers that he had brought with him. She simply smiled graciously, since they were still in front of everyone, and she felt relatively self-conscious. "Are you ready to go?" Lindsay asked him. He smiled and "yes ma'am'ed" her, and they made their way to the door. "I'll see you all tomorrow. Oh, and Danny, we'll figure it all out, I promise." Lindsay gave him a look, Danny's eyes and heart damn near melted right out of his body, and there were more than one person who noticed; Morrow didn't seem to be one. Lindsay had meant the case, of course, but Danny couldn't help but hope maybe they'd soon figure some other things out as well.
"Have a good time!" Stella gushed, good-naturedly as they made their way out, while Mac raised a hand to wave bye.
Flack shot Danny a look, who turned his head away and scowled. "Ooo, so he fights fires, big freakin' deal. I bring dead people back to life," he mumbled sarcastically under his breath. He didn't think anyone had heard, since there was only Stella and Flack left at the door, and they seemed to be chatting to each other.
"I think he's adorable. A real good, old-fashioned gentleman," Stella grinned. "I'll meet you at Trace, Don, just give me a minute to grab something out of my office." Flack assented and walked away, leaving Stella and Danny alone in the break room.
Not talking to anyone in particular, but obviously directing her statement towards Danny, she said: "I'm happy for her. She has someone to treat her right."
Danny grunted, half-turned from her. She had all but exited when she popped her head back in the door. "By the way, Danny honey – you shouldn't wear that shirt. The color's all wrong for you."
Danny, thoroughly confused, looked down at his shirt. It was a nice shirt; he wore it all the time and got compliments. What is she talking about – color? Danny shrugged off the comment as Stella talking crazy, and went to get some coffee.
His shirt was a big, old, bright green.
mmm…real long chap this time. there was more case than i had planned, but i'm glad it got in. hopefully, y'all still enjoyed it. let me know…i heart y'all.
