A/N: okay, new chapter, another long one. oh how i love these. this one is a plot twister, with just enough D/L to hopefully keep y'all pleased.
btw: i decided that Lindsay's going to pick Danny even though Colt is a truly stand-up guy…i realized after i asked y'all's opinions on the subject, that the ending had already kind of worked itself out that way, but just so you know, most people wanted me to keep Colt good, and not make Danny her default choice. i agree.
Love, El.
Chapter 8: Kindling
"Seriously, Danny, this is very good news." Lindsay sat looking at the DNA results Danny and Adam had verified shortly before. "Our next step is pulling Cristine Connor's family history; see whether it's a brother or father who we obviously need to talk to." Lindsay took another sip of her coffee, reminded of how sweet it was that Danny had brought her coffee and a muffin. She looked up and found him giving her an odd look. Something made her tingle though.
"I'm already there. I pulled her family history when Adam first showed me the results. It's under the results report," Danny said as he sipped his own coffee. There's nothing quite like this. Despite the fact that the Crime Lab never stopped, since crime itself knows no schedule, it was giving Danny very good feelings to sit here in their office with Montana in the quiet stillness of the night. "I'm thinking it won't be her father we're interviewing, since he died from testicular cancer four years ago."
Lindsay flipped through the results report, trying to get to the family history. "So it was a brother then." Lindsay paused a moment in thought, "Maybe she and the brother had a fight over something."
"Maybe they had a falling out and things have been pretty tense between them ever since, leading to one final fight." Danny lowered his eyes as he said this, staring intently at the mouth of his coffee cup. He need not say anything for Lindsay to know just where his thoughts were right then.
"How has he been, Danny?" she asked in a soft voice. How does she read my mind like that? How did she know I was thinking about my brother? He looked up at her, meeting her gaze, feeling the tension building between them.
"He's been better; he's been on the mend, but it's slow, ya know, real small steps," Danny sighed. "I've had…we're better. We need to be." Only someone who had known Danny for a very long time would be able to tell that his eyes had just misted over from the intense emotions that were tumbling through him. Only someone who had known him forever…
And Lindsay. She saw the war raging behind his blue eyes, and felt her heart constrict for him. 'Just like you'd feel for any other friend in a hard situation,' she thought. 'Uh-huh, yeah right,' she laughed at herself. Danny had taken on a faraway look, before shrugging his shoulders and rubbing the bridge of his nose after taking off his glasses. "Um, so, tomorrow, we're going to have to track down this brother."
Lindsay sighed and looked back at the family history report in front of her briefly before nodding. "Hmm, yeah, looks that way. And I think we should probably pay another visit to the good doctor at Columbia. Obviously things aren't adding up here: he lied, and I want to know why."
Lindsay yawned and rubbed the back of her neck, rolling her head back and forth over her stiff shoulders. Danny watched her, using all his self-control to keep his itching fingers from moving behind her to massage her neck. He ran a hand through his hair and over his face. I'm glad I'm the one keeping her up and not Paul Bunyan. "Montana, you sure you don't wanna go home and hit the sack?" Lindsay looked up at him, questions in her eyes. Danny caught the briefest glimpse of her quickening pulse in them as well. 'Cool it, Lindsay,' she chided herself, 'don't go getting excited just because Danny mentioned bed.' "I mean, I don't know about you, but I've had a long day." Danny looked at his watch – it was past midnight – and they'd both been at work since 7AM. She single-handedly makes 'workaholic' a pleasant thing.
Lindsay picked at the muffin Danny had brought her, not making any moves to wrap things up or call it a night. Danny kept his eyes on her, beginning to worry whether she was alright or not. That guy better not have pulled anything, I swear to God! "You okay, Montana?" Danny was still leaning back in his chair, his legs stretched under the desk in front of him.
"Yeah, I guess," Lindsay shrugged. She tilted her head to the right and didn't meet his gaze. "I don't know, I guess I'm just tired." Just tired, my ass.
Danny tried for a lighthearted approach; "I thought you and the big fireman had a date tonight? He didn't try and put the moves on you, did he?" Never did Danny expect the reaction he got.
Lindsay sighed, a hint of tears in her voice, and put her forehead down on her crossed forearms on her desk in front of her. "Oh, there is seriously something wrong with me!" Danny wasn't exactly sure whether he should say something or just reach across and comfort her, and in his indecision he didn't do anything. "I a grown woman, he's a sweetheart and we've been on more than one date – shouldn't I have let him kiss me tonight?"
Danny swallowed. Oh man, I am not the person you wanna ask that question to, Montana. "There's nothing wrong with you, Montana, trust me." She looked up and met his eyes. "Maybe it just wasn't the right moment tonight for that kind of thing. Maybe you were too tired. It could be a lot of things, but it definitely isn't you." There is not a damn thing wrong with you, woman. Damn, Danny bit back a groan. Despite the sweet softness of his low and somewhat gravelly voice – he was tired too, after all – Lindsay could clearly see the heat she had felt earlier that day simmering hot and deep, just behind the surface of his blue eyes. "Don't let anyone pressure you into doing anything you aren't ready to do."
Lindsay could feel the heat between them bubbling to life and aimed for a laugh, but fell a little short of convincing. "Yeah, thanks, Dad," she joked sarcastically, half-smiling at him. Something sparked inside him at his small victory of getting her to smile, even just a little bit. I could feed off this feeling. Looking down at her hands as she picked at her muffin again, Lindsay sighed softly. "He's such a sweet guy, I feel like I should want him to kiss me, but I feel…" she searched for the right word, "confused. It's like my brain's telling me I want this to happen, but another…part," yeah, I know what part, "of me is holding back." Obviously she was in some kind of sharing mood tonight, as her thoughts and feelings just kept pouring out of her mouth, but even so, Lindsay refused to discuss her heart in such explicit terms with Danny. She was still too unsure of him at this point.
"Well maybe that's your mind's way of telling you something. Maybe you're just thinking too hard about this. Maybe you just need to feel," he said, looking into her face, keeping a steady gaze locked with her. She's dangerous, this Montana girl. Lindsay could feel warmth rolling off him in waves, completely enveloping her. And she found herself telling him her dreams, her desires, and how she felt about life, love, and Montana firemen.
And while Danny was busy being a friend to her – one she truly valued – he was also busy falling head over heels.
Montana makes getting no sleep look good, Danny yawned and stretched his arms over his head. He hadn't gotten home until very late the night before, but it was worth every minute spent in this office with her. In appreciation for his sweetness the night before, Lindsay placed a cup of coffee on his desk when she came into the office. They were together in their office to go over the family report in detail in preparation of their coming day. Lindsay shuffled some papers in the file folder, pulling out the family history as Danny checked all the relevant databases for any hits on men related to Cristine Connors.
"Danny, did you read this family report carefully last night?" Lindsay's eyes were glued to the page she was reading, but her hand was anxiously reaching across their desks to tug at his arm. 'And what a strong arm it is,' she thought off topic.
"Not especially. Why? What's up?" What's got her so alert?
"Because it says on page two that Cristine Connors had a brother," she started; just as Danny's monitor beeped that he'd gotten no hits for their vic's male siblings.
"Yeah, Monroe, we figured that out last night, remember? Her father is dead." He leaned his elbows on his desk, waiting for her to tell him what it was she was looking at.
"Yes, I know that," she sighed exasperatedly, "but listen. It says here that her brother was adopted out of the family when he was a baby – 18 months, to be exact." She paused, before adding: "It also says that he was born in 1993." Lindsay glanced up and saw that he realized what she was getting at.
"That means that he's only 13 years old. He was much younger than Cristine," Danny stated. "Does it say why he was put up for adoption?" Things just got a little more interesting.
"No, it just states that the father relinquished his rights prior to birth, and that Cristine's mother put the boy up for adoption for private reasons." Doing a little quick math, Lindsay sat back and said, "Cristine would've been 18 when her brother was born. At 18, a child is usually getting a taste of their first bit of freedom, heading off to college…"
"Sowing their wild oats," Danny interjected with a lopsided smirk. What were you like at 18, Montana?
'Damn,' Lindsay thought as she rolled her eyes at him, but smiled all the same. "We're talking about most 18 year olds, Danny, not you." You shoulda seen me at 18, Baby! Danny smiled at her teasing, but stayed silent. "Most 18 year olds don't want to be anywhere near their family, let alone help their mother through a pregnancy and infancy."
Danny shrugged. "I wonder if our vic even knew her mother had a baby," Danny became lost in thought. "Maybe this was a family reunion gone bad."
"With her brother being 13, Danny?" Lindsay skeptically raised an eyebrow at him. He shrugged again. "Think about it: we're not even sure she knew about her brother, let alone whether she had met him face-to-face, so I highly doubt that she was set on fire or injected with Clorox by a 13 year old boy."
"True," Danny allowed, "but, he obviously had some kind of connection with her, because there's still the matter of the injection equipment we found in her apartment with his DNA on a needle still attached to one of the syringes. Obviously he would've had to have been in her apartment for that to happen."
"What we need to do is find him."
Danny took a sip of the coffee she brought him. "If Cristine could do it, so can we."
Danny and Lindsay separated after their meeting in the morning, one going off to scan medical records in the state for information regarding the circumstances surrounding the vic's brother's birth and adoption, the other was interviewing various coworkers and colleagues at the law firm where Cristine worked.
"She was gentle and a real lady; there wasn't anyone who couldn't get along with Cristine," a woman named Kelly said when Danny asked her about the vic; she had worked in the same firm, for the partner next door to the one Cristine had worked for.
"So you can't think of any reason why someone would want Ms. Connors dead?" Danny switched the phone from his right ear to his left and reached for a new pen – the one he had ran out of ink.
"No, God no. She was too much of a good girl," Kelly sniffed a bit, "she was even thinking of having a baby, I think. She said something in passing about taking female hormones. She loved life, it's only fitting that she'd want to share that with a child."
"Did you know that she had been volunteering at a Columbia University study that deals with children? She helped take care of the children involved," Danny jotted something down.
The woman was silent for a moment, before answering, "No. But that sounds just like Cristine, I mean, we weren't like best friends or anything, but it doesn't surprise me that she did that."
"Well I believe that's all I needed to ask you, Ms. Hoster, but if we need anything else or you think of anything, give a call." Danny hung up and stretched his neck, before reaching out and dialing the last number on his list – Cristine Connors immediate boss, Dave Galen.
"Galen speaking," the man had a kind of a harsh tone about his voice that made it sound like he'd been a smoker for one too many years.
"Mr. Galen, this is Detective Danny Messer with the NYC Crime Lab. I'm calling in regards to your legal assistant Cristine Connors who was killed recently." The man did a combination grunt and cough which had Danny's ears on alert for whether it indicated some kind of guilt or not. "Are you available at present to answer some questions I have for you?"
"Uh, yeah, I've got a few minutes, go ahead." Despite his gruffness, Danny had to admit the man sounded like he genuinely wanted to cooperate.
"Were you very well acquainted with Ms. Connors?"
"About as acquainted as a boss and assistant can get in so short a time. She was a very hard worker, and she was ambitious to boot. The firm was helping to pay her way through law school, on condition that she work some amount of time at the firm in repayment after her graduation and admittance to the bar." Pretty good job she had.
"'So short a time,' you said. What did you mean by that?" Danny asked, his curiosity piqued.
"Well I simply meant that eight months isn't a very long time to get to know someone extremely well, especially if they work for you." So Cristine Connors was only working there 8 months?
"How was it that she was only working at your firm for eight months?"
"She only moved to the area last December, and before that she had worked at another firm upstate for a short period of time. Her former boss was a law school buddy of mine, so when he sang her praises, I listened. She had applied here without my knowledge of who she had worked for previously, but after I found out she had worked for Jay and he had recommended her so well, I immediately hired her. She was great; always on the ball, never late, stayed extra hours. That's why I was the one behind the push to pay for her continued education."
"I see. Were you aware of any medical or family problems she'd been having, or anyting of that nature?" Her boss would know if she'd needed leave for some kind of family emergency or anything.
"Not that I'm aware of, no. She never once asked for leave or vacation time, even over the holidays. I remember thinking that that was sad for her, but a bonus for us since she was always willing to do extra work for people on leave. Did she have such problems as you described?" Nice try, but you're not getting that info out of me.
"Unfortunately I can't discuss that with you, as I'm sure you're aware. However, I have to ask: were you aware of any work or activities she participated in outside of her work at the firm?"
"I believe she worked with children somewhere, but I don't really know any of the details. I only know it was children because I saw a picture one of them had drawn on her desk one day and asked her who'd given it to her. As far as I knew, Cristine didn't have any family either in the city or the rest of the state. I'm pretty sure she was on her own." The man stopped talking for a minute, and Danny could hear him murmur something to someone in his office. "I'm sorry to cut this short, Detective Messer, but I have a meeting in a few moments. Did you need anything else?"
"No, I'm pretty sure I have everything I need. If not, we'll definitely be in touch."
The man grunted his compliance. "Certainly. I hope you figure out what happened, Detective, Cristine was such a great person that this is tragic. She wanted the best life had to offer, she wanted to travel, had mentioned something about Russia and China, and had once said she moved to the city to make some dreams possible for herself. It's all really a shame."
Danny made the obligatory assurances at hard work on her case and hung up. So Cristine Connors was new to town…
While Danny was busy doing his phone interviews, Lindsay was sifting through file after file from state hospital records on births filed under Connors, Baby Boy. After about an hour and a half, she found the record she was looking for. Baby Boy Connors was born at 4:17AM, on March 11, 1993 at Hudson North General Hospital – most people called it HANG Hospital since its abbreviation was HNG Hospital. Other than the requisite tests and a placenta pathology that were preformed at HANG – some cord blood analysis as well as bilirubin and typing – the baby boy was discharged along with his mother after a 3 day stay.
Shifting some files across the lab table in front of her, Lindsay picked up another manila folder. This one contained faxes she had gotten throughout the day, as well as printed copies of information regarding the baby's adoption. The baby's father had signed a relinquishment waiver when Cristine Connors' mother was 22 weeks, and it was filed with the state shortly after that. From the time the baby was born until he was about 14 months old, Lindsay could find little to no information regarding his health or lifestyle or that of his mother. There was no record that Cristine ever knew she had a baby brother; from what Lindsay could piece together, Cristine had left her mother's home at 17, moved in with an aunt who lived around Poughkeepsie, and later attended SUNY at Albany. As far as Lindsay could tell, Cristine didn't get along with her mother as she grew up, and moved as soon as an opportunity presented itself. Her parents had a divorce petition filed on record dating January 1987. 'So her parents divorced before her mother got pregnant with her brother, but her brother is her father's biological son,' Lindsay pondered.
Turning back to the medical file to try and figure out how that scenario was even possible, Lindsay couldn't help but feel sorry for their vic on a whole new level. It must have been hard having your parents divorce when you were just reaching puberty, not getting along with your mother, your father pretty much dropping out of your life, and wanting to do something with yourself so badly that you move away from home just to create a better life for yourself. 'Thank God my childhood was much easier than all that,' Lindsay thought. But even as she had that thought, her mind turned to Danny. From all that she could gather, his childhood had been somewhat of a trying time, what with his family being watched, and his brother being in a gang and growing up in a rough and tumble neighborhood. 'It's amazing what he's done for himself,' she smiled, 'He's amazing.'
Lindsay barely had time to control her thoughts and finish reading the file in front of her, when the object of her thoughts breezed through the doors.
"Monroe, what say we go back to Columbia now and ask that doc to explain why he felt the need to lie to us?" Any excuse, including legitimate work, is a good one if it means alone time with Montana.
Lindsay got up, and pulled off her lab coat. "Sure, give me just one second to clean up these files."
"What're you reading in here?" Danny was helping her stack the files in some kind of organized chaos.
"The medical and adoption files for Cristine's brother. So far nothing is jumping out at me as being unusual, and I still can't find any reasons why her mother gave the baby up for adoption." She carried the files out of the lab as Danny opened the door for her. Stopping by their office to grab her notepad and some other things, Lindsay and Danny then made their way to the garage under the building.
Opening the car door for her, Danny shrugged, pretending not to notice her somewhat shocked expression at the gesture. "Well, we'll think about all that on the way. And this time, the AC works."
Danny and Lindsay made their way into the lounge where they had found Dr. Terrill the first time they visited Columbia, but this time he wasn't there. Stopping to ask one of the study workers where they could find him, they headed down a small offshoot hallway to a room with large windows in which sun poured in on about a dozen children, ranging in ages from about 3 to 16, working at what looked like various activity stations. Dr. Terrill was standing behind a young girl of about 6, and was making notes on a clipboard when Danny and Lindsay approached.
"Doctor, we need to have another chat," Danny stated by way of greeting. Lindsay held in her smile at his bluntness. Dr. Terrill made no answer, wrote something down, and bent over to say something to the girl before turning to acknowledge their presence.
"We cannot chat here." His voice brooked no room for argument, but he made no move to usher them into another room or his office. "I will only speak with one of you, since I barely have time for this interruption. We are at a very important interval in the study and my presence is crucial."
Danny was annoyed now. "Listen, Doc, hold in your ego long enough for us to explain this visit. You lied and we want answers, so don't try and sidestep us."
The doctor looked at Lindsay with what he hoped was a glance of commiseration at her having to work with such an unyielding oaf, and leaned towards her. "Detective Monroe, I'll be glad to let you interrupt me for a very brief chat, if only you follow me into the next room." The doctor turned back to Danny with a look of impatience on his face.
Realizing they needed answers more than a fight, and knowing that Montana could be just as crafty as anyone during questioning a suspect, Danny took a step back, and motioned towards Lindsay with his hand, "I'm sure Detective Monroe will be happy to accommodate you, Dr. Terrill. I'll simply stay here while you guys talk."
With a cautioned glance at Danny, Lindsay turned and followed Terrill out of the room and into the adjacent study room. Danny turned his attention to the children at the activity stations surrounding him. Finding a adult volunteer nearby, he asked what part of the study this room was used for.
"The study participants come into this room to work at various stations, where they'll alternately find age-appropriate activities and also items with scents attached so as to incite various emotional attachments within the children to the activities. The children can sometimes work at the stations for hours without showing any signs of progress, depending on their level of olfactory perception." After the explanation, Danny let him move away to a lab bench which had various types of respirator-looking equipment on it. The guy seemed to be taking them apart and cleaning them.
"Detective Monroe, I realize I wasn't fully forthcoming with you and your partner the other day, and I apologize." Lindsay tensed at his smarmy politeness, alert and searching for suspicious items as she was in interrogation mode now.
"Dr. Terrill, you weren't merely not forthcoming, you flat out lied." Terrill visibly tensed at the accusation.
"Well I understand the delicacy of the situation and I'd been hoping to avoid relating every intimate detail with you." He looked rather uncomfortable.
"Are you saying that you and Cristine Connors had a sexual relationship?"
"Oh Lord no! All I meant was that I didn't think my having been in her apartment would have been something you needed to know."
"It is definitely something we need to know when your fingerprints are found in the victim's bedroom and again in her kitchen. How did they get there, Dr.?" Lindsay kept herself distanced and cold from his fake, unctuous manner towards her. 'If there'd been a role for a creepy-doctor-who-could-have-killed-the-victim-and-is-now-hitting-on-the-CSI on Broadway, he would have won it hands down,' she thought.
"Oh well that is all easily explained," he motioned away at her, as if trying to motion away her professionalism.
"So explain." Lindsay didn't budge.
Danny wandered around the room, glancing at various workstations where the children were being occupied by various activities: books, puzzles, maps, questionnaires, scent identification, etc. He stopped now and again to watch the person at the workstation doing the activity, but didn't interfere with anyone.
He came upon a pubescent male who was hunched over a workstation, murmuring to himself. Danny stopped and looked down to see what he was working on and saw a puzzle map of the United States. Most of the states were removed from the wood backing of the puzzle and were scattered in various array around the workstation table. Only Maine, California, Tennessee, Arkansas, Arizona, and Wyoming were in their correct positions on the puzzle. All the other states were turned face-down.
Danny thought he had heard the boy murmur something about population and then again something about birds, when the boy turned over the state piece in his hands and placed Kansas on the backboard. "What is it that you're figuring out before you put down each piece?" Danny asked him. The boy looked up, somewhat surprised at having been spoken to, and blinked as if in his own world. Danny noticed that there was no presence of any kind of emotional response to his query in the boy's affect at all. This must be what Dr. Terrill meant when he said these kids are cold.
After a couple minutes silence, and what felt like quiet judgment on Danny's part, the boy answered. "I have to name the state, the capitol, the land size ranking of the state, the official date of statehood, the current governor, the state's population, and the state bird before I let myself place the piece on the puzzle." Damn, Danny thought, it must take him forever to finish this. Danny picked up a state piece off the workstation surface; he could tell it was New York even though it was face-down in his palm. "So," hetold the boy, "show me how this works."
"We weren't friends. That part was true, Detective. I merely went to her apartment because she asked me to come over and help her with some medical information she was researching. She said it was for a case for the law firm she worked for, and I had no reason not to believe her." Dr. Terrill was having a hard time meeting Lindsay's eyes.
"That explains the fingerprints in her kitchen, but not the ones in her bedroom. How did they get there, Dr. Terrill?" He squirmed a bit.
"Well she said she had something she wanted my opinion on, that it was in her bedroom. Maybe it wasn't very polite of me, but I followed her in there. She had wanted to show me a medicine bottle; it was for some kind of allergy medicine I thought. I suppose I must have touched some of her furniture or something while I was in there." Lindsay looked anything but convinced by this explanation.
"So you're telling me that you did not sleep with Cristine Connors?"
The doctor looked affronted; Lindsay almost laughed in his face. "I am a married man, Detective Monroe! I would never stray from my wife." 'So said many a cheating man before you,' Lindsay thought ruefully. "There was no reason for me to cheat on my wife with Ms. Connors."
"Humans do many things without having reasons for them, Doctor," Lindsay replied slyly.
"Yes, well, I never even got that sort of vibe from Cristine. She never seemed interested in marriage or even sex. I thought that was somewhat weird considering she was a rather attractive woman."
"I'm sure it'd be hard for you to imagine any woman not wanting to sleep with you," Lindsay retorted. The doctor merely nodded his head absently, as if he agreed with what she said but hadn't realized it was really an insult. "If you aren't being 'fully forthcoming' with me this time, Dr. Terrill, you can rest assured that my partner and I will be back." The doctor looked at her apprehensively, as she stared him down before turning to leave, "Only next time, we'll bring our friend – a warrant for your arrest – with us."
This kid is smart. What's taking Montana so long? Danny was standing in front of the boy holding another state puzzle piece, as the boy was attempting to list the population of Pennsylvania. "What's your name?" Danny interrupted.
"Evan," he replied tersely, before rattling off the number - 12,429,616. "But that's only the 2005 estimate," he added.
Danny nodded. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Lindsay approaching them. "What is your favorite state?" Evan asked him.
Danny didn't answer the question, but rather replied that the state bird of Pennsylvania is the Ruffed Grouse. Evan turned over the Pennsylvania piece and placed it in its proper location on the backboard. Lindsay had reached them by this point, giving Danny a look of amusement at seeing him finish a puzzle with the boy. "You ready to go, Messer?" she asked, turning for the door. Danny made a step to the side to follow her, as she now had her back to him, but Evan stopped him.
"You didn't answer my question." Evan looked up at him, waiting for Danny to reveal his favorite state.
Danny tossed the puzzle piece in his hand onto the backboard where it landed face-up. "That one," he said, then followed Lindsay out of the lab. Behind him he could hear Evan murmuring, "Montana, the capitol is Helena. It ranks fourth in land size…"
It took them a little longer to get back to the lab due to construction and traffic, but during the trip Lindsay had gone through some of the folders she had brought with. As she and Danny were making their way through the Crime Lab lobby and towards the elevators, she was scanning the medical file on Baby Boy Connors. "Danny," she out her hand on his arm much as she had done that morning in their office. I could get used to this little habit of hers. "It says in this file that Cristine's brother was conceived through artificial insemination using her mother's egg and her father's sperm."
"Isn't Terrill's study focusing on olfactory-caused emotional problems in children artificially conceived using the parent's own reproductive media?" he asked her.
"That's exactly what I was thinking. What if Cristine volunteered at Columbia because she found out her little brother was part of a study there? I think we need to find out if our vic's brother is part of that study, Danny." They made their way back towards their office. Lindsay's phone went off in her pocket. "Monroe." She smiled, and Danny didn't miss it. "Oh hi, yeah I was going to call you later. Good I'm glad," she said, still walking next to Danny. His ears were on high alert; he knew it was the fireman calling. "Yeah, I won't be able to tonight, and there are still some things I want to get done here before I head home, but I'll definitely see you tomorrow. That sounds great, and I'll bring some sunscreen." Danny opened their office door and ushered her in with a hand on the small of her back, an action Lindsay definitely caught, just as she folded up her phone and put it back in her pocket.
"Where are you going tomorrow that you'll need sunscreen?" Danny asked, trying to not sound as jealous as he felt.
Lindsay rolled her eyes at him, giving him a look that said, "Duh!" "I'm going to be at that big baseball game between CSI and our neighboring fire station." She looked at him archly, "Aren't you going to be there too?"
Danny scratched the back of his head, Is that tomorrow already? "Um yeah, I guess I am."
"Well I'll definitely be there, because Mac's making us all play and Colt said that he'll see everyone tomorrow, since it's his station house we're playing." She smiled again, more to herself than anyone, "He told me to tell you, 'Get ready to lose,' because he always gets what he wants." Lindsay looked at Danny.
The heat building between them was palpable. Danny put his hands down on his desk and leaned over it towards her, licking his lips. 'Damn,' Lindsay caught her breath whenever he did that, which was often. She was afraid her knees would buckle if their eyes kept locked to each other like they were now. "That so, Montana?" She barely nodded, keeping the teasing sparkle in her eyes. "Well then he's in for one hell of a fight," Danny smiled. No one beats me at my two loves: baseball and Montana.
Ok, next chapter will feature America's pastime, fun, summertime, and the return of the slightly persistent/jealous Danny that i sort of miss. i can't wait…can you?
as always, i heart your reviews.
