A/N: yay! Here's a gift for y'all for reaching 100 reviews on this story…I love you guys, I really do! You keep me going.

oh ---- this is a totally fluff chapter, thanks to my two muses this week: #35 and a wicked sunburn that i got at a Phillies game last weekend. let me tell y'all: CH definitely made the sunburn worth it. left-handed pitchers are hott – with two t's! --- um, and Carmine Giovinazzo, he's definitely a scorcher too. (sorry if y'all don't know who I'm referring to)

Love, El.


Chapter 9: Scorch


It was bright and sunny and about 93 degrees outside in the shade, and it was only 10AM. Danny rolled over, tangled and sweaty in his sheets, tossing his arm over his head to swat at his alarm clock. Why did God have to give somebody the brains to invent alarms that blare in your ear at such early hours on a Saturday? He rolled himself over onto his back, staring sleepily at his unfocused ceiling. He's not going to win today. Over my dead body.


Just over three hours later, Danny was standing next to the First Base at a baseball diamond in Central Park, talking to Hawkes and Pino as they waited for all the players and coaches and everyone to show up. "This year, Mac," they heard Joey Delvillaggio call out, "we're gonna beat your lab rats, nice and good. This is the year we kick your dorky asses!" Mac was standing about 10 feet away, towards the CSI dugout, talking to Stella and Sid. He turned to Joey and laughed, "Why so confident this year, Joey?"

"We got ourselves a secret weapon this year. He's strong and fast, with a right arm to kill for. He used to ride rodeo bulls," Joey said. He was the bull.

Hawkes nudged Danny and said, "You think he's talking about Lindsay's boyfriend?" Despite his desire to bristle at the use of that term, Danny kept his nonchalance intact. He was about to answer when Joey yelled to Mac that their secret weapon was on his way into the parking lot behind the diamond now. Danny turned and saw a huge deep blue pickup truck pulling into a space in the lot. He turned to Hawkes, "Yeah, that is definitely who he's talking about."

The pickup rumbled to a stop, and Danny rumbled right along with it. "Of course he has to drive a huge environment destroying vehicle because he's a manly man," he groused. "The exhaust from that thing probably killed a family of ducks on its way in here."

Hawkes rolled his eyes; he wasn't even going to dignify Danny's bitching with a response. Pino, however, shook his head and asked, "Don't you drive a big ass SUV around for work everyday, Messer?" Danny just shrugged, pretending like that was a totally different issue, and watched as Lindsay slid her petite frame off the pickup's passenger seat. She had to step onto a running board before she could make it to the ground, and Danny took a victory in the fact that Morrow hadn't opened her door for her.

"There's our guy, Mac. He's just what we've needed to beat you guys, so I hope you don't mind losing today." Mac just shrugged off the talk with a "We'll see, Joey," and made his way towards the CSI dugout to grab the field positions clipboard he had brought. With Lindsay's arrival they were only waiting for Flack to get there. Stella wondered that he could even play after the rough and tumble May he'd had, but Don said the doctors said he'd be fine to play.

Danny was attempting to not be transfixed by Lindsay as she approached the dugouts with Morrow, but he was failing miserably. His pulse had quickened the moment he saw her, and then had damn near overloaded when he saw what she was wearing. Lindsay knew it'd be hot and wanted to be comfortable, so she'd worn a pair of her old college shorts, the tight little short ones with the team logo on the back, and had cut her uniform Crime Lab fitted tee to make it a sleeveless v-neck. Her shorts accentuated her legs, and her shirt gave the promise of a hint of midriff if she stretched her arms too high over her head, and Danny was afraid he'd never be able to concentrate on anything again, as long as that image remained in his brain. Morrow bent over and gave her a kiss on the cheek, before she turned and made her way over to where Stella and Sid were now joined by Adam. Danny watched her smile and greet everyone – she was obviously excited for the start of the game – and Danny didn't realize anyone had been talking to him until Flack hit him upside the head.

"Man, I've been telling you the game's gonna start in about 5 minutes for the past four, and you've been in your own little world," Flack chuckled. He knew exactly why Danny had spaced; it had everything to do with a petite brunette whose soft curls were pulled back in a ponytail and who was bent over applying sunscreen to her legs, providing a good view of her ass to the guys standing by first base. "C'mon, Messer, we need you focused if we're gonna beat them this year," Flack chided as he headed for the CSI dugout to talk to Mac. Slowly Danny, Hawkes, and Pino made their way over there as well. Game time, it's on!


The start of the game was rather unceremonious. The umps were borrowed from a local league in order to make it fair and the fire station was first up at bat. The CSI team trotted out to their spots on the field after getting a brief pep talk from Mac – their obvious choice for coach and their de facto pick for catcher – which consisted of, "Do good and hopefully none of us will get called out to a scene." That's Mac: short and to the point, Danny chuckled to himself as he shuffled the dirt around his feet. He could hear Sid behind him out in Center Field giving encouragement to that Stella, who was back in Right Field. Mac and the umpire had just positioned themselves behind homeplate, when the FD team sent out their first batter. It was a pretty tough looking Hispanic woman named Luz, who Danny was sure, could take on any one of the guys present.

"Oh right, sacrifice the woman first," Stella griped so that only Flack at First Base and Danny at Second could hear. Flack and Danny exchanged amused looks, as Hawkes wound up for the first pitch. Lindsay stifled a laugh as Marty murmured something like, "Who decided it'd be a good idea to let him pitch?" from around the Third Base area. The first pitch was a strike, and the batter's teammates all moaned in universal disappointment.

As Sheldon wound up for the next toss, Danny heard Lindsay on his right trying to ease Adam's concerns. "I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to be a team asset today," he called.

"Adam, it'll be fine. Just do what you do at the lab, pay attention and catch something." That's my girl. A thought struck Danny just then as to whether Lindsay had been the peppy cheerleader or a player when she was younger. One second after he thought that, a baseball was flying towards his right ear, and Danny had to duck his head or risk not making it out of there with both ears intact. Hammerback ran up from Center Field to try and catch it, just as Stella rushed over to the same place, and the two of them ended up on the matted grass as the ball landed about fifteen feet behind them.

"Adam, go get the ball!" Pino was yelling from Third, as Lindsay moved back to cover Left Field and Danny made a move to get on Second, since by now, Luz was making her way towards his base. Adam picked up the ball and chucked it to Lindsay who, in turn, tossed it to Danny. Once Danny had the ball, Luz stayed on second and the at-deck batter moved up to swing.


The top of the first inning finished with a strikeout of the second batter, one single and a walk, an out at homeplate when Luz tried to steal the base, and another strikeout. Finally it was the CSI team's turn at bat. The first in their lineup was Marty.

"C'mon Pino, I've seen you crack a ribcage open with more force than you're swinging that bat!" Danny yelled to him. So far he was 2 strikes and a ball. I wanna wipe that stupid grin off loverboy's face out there. It just so happened, that Colt was the pitcher for the NYFD team. He wound up and threw a curve ball, which Marty only got a little piece of. Danny and Flack groaned at the same time.

"You know, at the velocity the ball was traveling, it could kill a person if it struck them in the sternum thereby creating a non-syncopated beat within the heart muscle proper, causing arrhythmatic problems and therefore a forced heart attack and without proper treatment, and actually in certain circumstances even despite prompt and attentive medical care, the patient may die," Hawkes remarked.

Hammerback grunted agreement next to him. "Indeed. When I was younger, there was a DB that came into the morgue with signs of a heart attack. It turned out that the gentleman did indeed suffer heart arrhythmia, but had actually died when an inexperienced passerby at the scene where the man had been having chest pain and subsequently lapsed into unconsciousness tried to perform chest compressions for CPR. He pounded so hard on the man's chest, he caused an irregular rhythm to occur which, incidentally, killed him." This launched the two pathologists into various stories about different dead bodies that had come into the morgue over the years and their various causes of death. Meanwhile, Marty had been struck out and Stella was on First Base, while Adam was one strike away from being out. Mac walked from one end of the dugout to the other, and while passing Hawkes and Hammerback, said: "Guys, this really is interesting, but Sid you're supposed to be on deck."

Danny was trying to control his already ramped competitive side, but couldn't help but notice that in between plays, Colt kept smiling and waving at Montana in the dugout. For her part, Lindsay remained calm and composed, neither acknowledging that she saw the gestures nor being uncivil to the man she supposed she was dating. She was, however, very aware of Danny's ass being directly in her line of sight. 'And he just has to be wearing athletic shorts that accentuate the fact that he has a nice ass,' she thought, wryly. Colt had just waved at her again, when Joey Devillaggio yelled, "Hey! Don Juan! Pitch to the old doc already!" which, of course, upset Hammerback since he didn't consider himself old in the least. Sid responded to the comment by hitting a double off the next pitch, sending Stella to Third.

"Is that secret weapon here yet, Joey?" Mac yelled, and Lindsay and Flack exchanged amused grins at seeing the usually reserved lab head getting into the competition as well. Joey merely shot him a glare and yelled at Colt again, causing Flack to comment, "Guess it sucks to go up against your man, huh, Lindsay?"

Danny was leaning against the fence in front of the dugout, but his ears were as good sitting between Montana and Flack. She smiled and laughed, "Oh, I'm not that upset about it. He thinks he's going to win, because he says there's a lot riding on this game. Apparently," she leaned towards the taller detective on her left conspiratorially, "a lot more than he's willing to share with me. But," she said, leaning back and crossing her legs, "he gets all competitive and I'm pretty competitive, so it's fun letting him think I want him to win then coming here and kicking his ass at the game." This time Flack laughed with her, thoroughly amused that she was full on ready to beat her own boyfriend at some friendly competition, and knowing full well that Messer was close to wetting himself because he was so excited at spending a day with Monroe. Flack watched Danny closely, knowing where his thoughts were, before getting up and grabbing a bat to practice on deck.

This isn't good, Messer. Now you want her even more because she's not afraid to get down and dirty to win a game. Even if she is playing against the guy she's dating. She's like a little tease wrapped up in the perfect girl-next-door outfit. "Damn, that's hot," Danny muttered.

"What's hot?" Stella asked him. She had just scored the first run of the game, when Mac got a single. Danny hadn't realized she was next to him while he was thinking about Montana, who at that moment was about 10 feet in front of them bent over in her little shorts tapping dirt from her shoes with the end of her bat. Stella knew just where his eyes were glued and chuckled to herself when he answered her question with, "Oh, um, I meant it's hot out here. The sun, ya know."

"Yup, Danny, sure the sun is hot," Stella said before leaning in his ear as she passed, saying, "and everyone knows that isn't what you're eyes are fixed on." Danny suppressed a groan, and grabbed his mitt; Flack's out was number three. Danny fought the urge to turn and punch the big firefighter, when Colt slapped Lindsay's butt as she ran past him towards her shortstop position. She was bright red and it wasn't from sunburn, as she caught Danny giving her a look. God this is gonna be a long afternoon!


The next 5 innings passed without any real improvement in the game. The score was still 1-0 in favor of the Crime Lab, and besides a couple of expected comments and barbs traded back and forth, nothing much had transpired. Colt had so far lived up to Joey Devillaggio's praise and had struck out everyone, including Lindsay, at least once. It was now the bottom of the sixth inning and Danny made his way out to homeplate to bat.

"Don't get comfortable, Lab Rat," Colt joked, "cause you're going to be heading back to that dugout soon enough." Danny just smiled sarcastically and tapped the corner of the plate with his bat. He had been a star baseball player, and this was his game. The stakes are too high to lose today.

"Show me what you got, Paul Bunyan!" Colt threw a fastball which turned too close to Danny and so was ruled a ball by the ump. So you wanna play rough, huh? "Trying to hit me, tough guy?"

"I wouldn't do that with ladies present," Colt replied. He turned his body, wound up, and sent a pitch over the plate which Danny whiffed.

"Shouldn't you guys be upset that he thinks he works with all girls," Flack asked the first baseman next to him. Charlie just shrugged, and hit Flack's arm with his mitt.

"Yeah well, the way I hear it, Morrow has some sort of big thing riding on this game. I think he's especially out to knock Messer down a couple pegs." Flack interestedly listened, as his eyes found Lindsay in the dugout, and was a little surprised to find her watching Danny and not Colt. "Yeah, and that won't be too hard with the way Messer's been playing today," Charlie was saying.

"Pitching bad is no way to get the ladies, Smoky!" Danny readied himself for the pitch.

"I'm obviously doing better than you when it comes to getting the girl, Messer," Colt yelled before pitching one over the plate at Danny, who said nothing, but had a blaze burning in his blue eyes. Don't be so smug, Smoky. Somewhere from the dugout he thought he heard Pino call out, "Shut up and pitch!" Danny merely replied to Colt's low blow with a homerun over the Left Field fence, returning both himself and Flack to homeplate.

Meanwhile in the dugout, Lindsay and Stella had been talking as Danny made his way up to bat. When they heard the comments start to fly, Stella looked at Lindsay with a worried expression. "Doesn't it bother you that Danny is abusing that sweet guy who you're dating?" Lindsay shrugged.

"Eh. Not so much. Colt's a big boy, he can handle a little innocent ribbing," she laughed.

Stella looked incredulous, and caught Mac's expression out of the corner of her eye. He looked highly amused that Lindsay was sticking up for Danny, and both he and Stella silently acknowledged that that must mean that Lindsay cares more for Danny than she was letting on. They could both already tell that Danny was nearing his sparking point with the whole situation; anyone who came within ten feet of them when they were together got burnt from the heat radiating off the pair. "Lindsay, I think this ribbing is a bit more than innocent. The antagonism between those two…" Stella started.

"Chemistry is not an invisible science, Stella," Mac interrupted her, and she got his unspoken message. Lindsay merely looked confused. Mac was telling Stella to let it go – one way or the other, this thing between Danny and Lindsay was going to combust sooner or later. At this point, most of the Crime Lab had money on sooner. While all this was happening, Danny and Flack were making their way into the dugout to get their mitts; it was the CSI turn to take the field. Lindsay gave both men a high five on their runs, but it escaped no one's notice that her hand lingered a little longer on Danny's and a mini nuclear explosion seemed to go off between the two of them every time their eyes met or skin touched. It really didn't help things that it was ridiculously hot out, and everyone was sweating up a storm.

As Danny was running out to his Second Base spot, Colt intentionally brushed past him on his way to his dugout. "You're going to lose, Messer, she's mine," Colt said, low enough for just Danny to hear. Before Danny could make a reply, Colt jogged off to his bench. Don't be so sure, asshole.


The top of the seventh was going pretty much as the other innings before it, except that the tension between Danny and Colt were rising with every swing, and everyone knew it. This made for some entertainment on both sides of the game. When Colt came to bat, everyone waited to see how it would go.

"Let's go, Doc, pitch a slow one since all he knows how to swing is a fire hose!" Danny yelled from the left of Hawkes. Sheldon laughed and threw a fast strike over the right corner of the plate.

"Don't piss the man off, Messer, before he bats a homerun!" Flack yelled at Danny as Colt readied himself for another pitch. The next couple throw were balls. Before Hawkes pitched any more, Mac came out the mound and motioned Lindsay and Flack in with them. After a short little conference, Flack and Lindsay moved back to their positions and Mac made his way back to squat as the catcher. Giving Hawkes a signal, Mac grinned in his face mask. Hopefully this worked…

In the meantime, Lindsay had tied her shirt tails around her midriff, just covering her belly button. Stella laughed to herself, knowing what was coming next. Hawkes pitched another strike, and Colt's teammates were yelling for him to hit the ball out of the park the next time. C'mon, Romeo, you only got one more shot to do something.

Colt was bent over the plate, knocking dirt from his shoes, and when he looked up he thought he might have a heart attack. There, in her shortstop position, Lindsay was stretching her arms over her head in such a way that her entire midriff was visible, 'including that cute little belly button,' thought Colt. Mac laughed behind him, 'Good job, Lindsay, we got him.' Stella and the firefighters' female players were all chuckling to themselves, knowing exactly what was going on, as just about every male player at the game, other than Mac, Adam (who was in his own little world at the moment, or he would have been looking too), Hawkes, and one umpire were staring at Lindsay as if she were doing a striptease instead of simply stretching.

A bead of sweat trickled down Danny's temple, and his eyes were fixed on Montana. She gives a whole new meaning to 'Seventh Inning Stretch,' he groaned. Trying to pry his eyes off her and pay attention to Hawkes, who was winding up for the pitch, he noticed that she seemed completely unaware of the effect she was having. Danny licked his lips; Lordy, what that woman does to me. Danny did notice too, with some additional pleasure, that Colt was busy staring at Montana too, and didn't see the ball Hawkes had pitched until it was almost on top of the plate. That resulted in Colt hitting a pop fly ball, which, surprisingly, Sid caught, making Colt sulk back to the dugout amidst hoots and jeers that he had been distracted by his girlfriend.

Unfortunately for the Crime Lab, when Charlie, the first baseman Flack had talked to earlier, got up to bat, he hit a triple, sending in two runners to make the score at the beginning of the bottom of the seventh, 3-2. The CSI team scored no runs in the bottom of the seventh and although neither team scored in the eighth, the NYFD managed to get in another RBI in the top of the ninth, tying the score up. It all came down to the bottom of the ninth.


The first two batters – Hammerback and Hawkes – struck out, making it crucial that Danny not do the same as he made his way to the plate. Danny got two strikes but hit a solid center off the third pitch, which made a straight line for Colt's body. Morrow leaned his body back in an attempt to not get hit with the ball and catch it at the same time, but the ball managed to bounce off his glove and pop back towards the space of ground between the Right and Center Fielders. Neither one of them managed to get it in time before the ball rolled twenty feet behind them into Center Field. At this point Danny was rounding Second, making for Third, as Colt and Joey Devillaggio were simultaneously yelling for someone to get the ball. Danny was stopped at Third, and stayed there with a devilishly handsome smirk on his face.

Nobody likes a sore loser, Morrow. Colt was grumbling and grousing on the pitcher's mound, as Mac came up to bat. Colt walked him unintentionally because he was still too focused on Danny's triple and his own stupid mistake with the ball to pitch anything other than balls. When he saw Lindsay making her to the plate, Colt figured he'd strike her out easy enough, even if he was still pissed about Messer. Come on, Montana; show the big ox what a country girl's got!

Danny stood ready to run, a little off Third in the direction of homeplate, when Colt called, "Sorry, honey, about this, but you know I gotta strike you out."

Lindsay just grinned and caught Danny's eyes for a split second, before she said, "Oh that's all right, Colt, I know you've gotta do what you've gotta do." Danny could tell her tone was a little too saccharine to be anything but sarcastic, but Colt seemed to buy her whole I'm-just-a-country-girl-who-only-plays-baseball-to-look-at-the-cute-guys act. Colt pitched; Lindsay swung and missed. Strike one.

Danny knew her well enough to know that she missed the ball on purpose. She's so sexy when she's being a little tease like that. Colt wound up, tossed another – Strike Two.

"Sorry about this, Miss Lindsay, you know it's not personal," Colt smiled. Lindsay simply grinned; Stella called some encouragement and Flack yelled something along the lines of, "Kick his ass, Monroe!" Danny rolled his eyes; what a cheesy grin, Fireboy; just throw the ball already. Colt pitched and not a sound was heard.

Until the crack of Lindsay's wooden bat on the hard leather of the ball. Everyone stood watching the ball climb into the air, covering their eyes from the blinding afternoon sun in the clear blue skies, and saw it sail smoothly over the fence between Left and Center Fields. At about the same moment, all hell broke loose.

The NYFD dugout was a cacophony of screams and moans, knowing they had just lost the game 6-3 because of Lindsay's homer, and the Crime Lab bench went crazy with joy at winning. Stella hugged everyone in turn, starting with Adam, as Danny ran towards homeplate where Lindsay had dropped her bat to watch her hit go over the fence. She knew she'd won the game for them and she turned and saw Danny coming towards her.

As Danny made it to homeplate, Lindsay turned in happiness and jumped into his arms, so excited that they'd won. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he held her around the waist, her arms pumping the air in victory. The others made their way out to homeplate to join in the impromptu celebration. Danny knew he had every right to turn and make some smug comment to the firefighter on the pitcher's mound since they'd won, and it was his girlfriend that had scored a homerun and 2 RBI's off him to do it. Instead, Danny stood relishing the feel of Montana in his arms, as she squeezed his waist just above his hips with her thighs to keep from falling and threw her arms around his neck. She just kept screaming, "We won! Danny, we won!" in his ear. Colt was left dejected and being ribbed by his teammates about being beat by his girlfriend on the pitcher's mound, gaping at the two of them as they were surrounded by their teammates. Lindsay loved the feel of Danny's strong arms around her waist, mixed with her ecstatic feelings at winning the game for the team, and didn't want to get down, but she eventually did – not, however, before being there just long enough to make Flack, Stella, and Hawkes exchange knowing looks.


The team continued celebrating for a while, until everyone disbanded to gather up the equipment, although everyone was in agreement that they should all go out somewhere to celebrate the win further.

Colt pulled Lindsay aside to humbly congratulate her on her homerun and ask her if she'd like to console his loss by going out with him that night. Lindsay felt bad for him, but told him that she really wanted to celebrate the win with her colleagues. "But maybe you can call me later, or you can come over when I get back. I don't think I'll be out too long," she said, glancing at her watch – it was just after 5PM. She leaned up and gave him a quick peck on the cheek, before dashing back over to help Stella gather up the bats.

Danny couldn't stop the grin that formed on his face. "I told you, you can't beat me at my two loves: baseball and Montana," he murmured to himself.

While the rest of his team made their way to their cars – Lindsay was going to ride with Stella since she had come with Colt, Mac made his way over to Joey Devillaggio in the NYFD dugout. "You know, Joey, I think we brought a secret weapon of our own," Mac taunted. When Joey gave him a questioning look, Mac simply replied, "Chemistry."


Haha alright! Well, hopefully y'all got some sunburn too… anyway, next chapter will probably be a little cluff, but we'll see.

p.s. big ups to my little brother Jay who answered, like, 402 questions about America's Pastime for me…

your reviews deserve big hearts, y'all.