Disclaimer: I don't own the characters; they belong to Anthony Zuiker and CBS.
Author's Note: This is in the same realm of my story "It's About Time!" with the members of Lindsay's family.
Gallatin Field Airport
Bozeman, Montana
Kathy Monroe stood on her tiptoes as she scanned the baggage claim area. "Do you see them, Steve?" she asked her husband.
Steven Monroe, at 6'2", could see a little better than his wife. "Not yet," he said. "But it wasn't a full flight, they were saying, so they should be…" He trailed off as his wife squealed-At 50…still she squeals like she's ten, Steven thought-and bolted to hug the living daylights out of a familiar brown-haired young woman. Steve shook his head as he saw his daughter Lindsay throw her arms around her mother and hug her back.
Over their heads, Steven caught the eye of his son-in-law, and smiled when he saw the little blonde in his arms. Lucy. His newest grandbaby.
Steve made his way over to the little party and shouldered the black duffel bag that Danny Messer had in his hand, and then shook his hand. "Danny. Good flight?"
Danny Messer nodded at his father in law. "Steve, good to see you. Yeah, it was a little long, we had a layover in Denver, but-" he nodded to Lucy, who had her face buried shyly in Daddy's jacket- "this one slept most of the way."
This was the first time Steve and Kathy had seen Lucy in person. Lindsay had skype'd with them a few times, and emailed pictures, but it wasn't the same as seeing her in real life. She was beautiful. Steve guessed she was about a year old now, and she had her mommy's eyes, but the rest of her was oh-so-Danny.
"Daddy!" Lindsay squealed in perfect imitation of her mother, and threw her arms around her father for a Steve Monroe classic bear hug.
"Hi baby," Steve replied, running a hand down her back. "Linds, I hate to say this but…she got your eyes and that's about it!"
Lindsay rolled her eyes. "That's what everyone says, thanks a lot, Dad." She glanced back at Danny, who winked. She turned to her parents. "Mom and Dad…this is your granddaughter Lucy Elena Messer." She took their daughter from Danny and brought her up to her grandparents. Kathy took her gingerly from Lindsay, and Danny and Lindsay waited with baited breath. The last thing Danny wanted was to make a scene in the middle of an airport in the middle of NRA-loving, 2nd Amendment following Montana.
Lucy whimpered a bit.
Danny bit his lip.
"Hi there, Lucybell," Kathy whispered. "If you aren't just the cutest thing." She hiked her up on her hip and brushed her blonde hair out of her eyes. She turned her body so Lucy was looking at her grandfather. "Look at her, Steve. All our grandkids are blonde!" She chuckled.
The soft laughter did it. Lucy smiled.
Danny let out the breath he didn't know he'd been holding. He looked over at his wife. Lindsay grinned. Danny noticed something as he looked around at his Montana family.
He was seriously underdressed.
Lindsay was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a pair of Gore-Tex boots. She had a long-sleeved t-shirt and a Columbia vest over that. His father in law was in jeans and a button-down black shirt and a pair of cowboy boots. Lindsay's mom wore jeans, sneakers, and an oversized, hooded "MONTANA" sweatshirt. Even Lucy had baby-sized jeans and her baby-sized NYPD sweater.
Lindsay had said it was chilly in the fall out here but…he thought he'd be okay in his jeans, motorcycle boots and t-shirt.
Steve caught him subconsciously rubbing his arms. "Y'know, son," Steve said, "I've got an extra jacket in the truck if you want to borrow it while you're out here."
Danny felt his ears turning hot. "Yeah, that'd be great, thanks."
"Well, we should get moving," Kathy said. "Nicki and David'll meet us out at the house and John's plane doesn't get in until later tonight."
"Can I have my daughter back, Mom?" Lindsay asked with a smile.
Kathy touched her nose to Lucy's and the toddler giggled. "Oh, I dunno, hon….I think she wants to stay with her grandma."
Lindsay glanced sideways at her husband and rolled her eyes. "I told you," she muttered as they headed for the parking lot. "Once Grandma got ahold of her we'd never see her again…"
"Wow."
Danny stopped dead in his tracks as they came out of the airport. He had to stop and take a breath. It was chilly. But holy Lord, was Montana ever pretty. Danny's parents had taken him and Louie up into the Adirondacks when they were kids, and he'd thought they were pretty cool but…wow. Montana had them beat. The massive Bitterroot Mountain peaks rose around them, looming dark forest green and black in the fading sunlight. The sky was a brilliant kaleidoscope of yellow, orange, pink, red and purple. He heard a plane take off behind them, and he turned to his wife, who was smiling with knowing eyes. "Much better than your old skyscrapers," she teased.
He was having a hard time disagreeing. "Wow, Montana," he said in awe.
Lindsay switched her backpack from one shoulder to the other so she could hold his hand without obstruction. "Wait 'til you see sunrise," she told him. "Or stick your toes in the creek." She glanced around and sighed. "This is home." She put her head on his shoulder. "I'm glad you're finally here to share it with me."
"Well all I saw on my last trip was the inside of the Gallatin County courthouse so I'm looking forward to actually seeing, y'know, something other than pavement and concrete and glass." He winked. "If I wanted those I'd have stayed in Manhattan."
"Oh there'll be plenty of time for sightseeing," Lindsay assured him. "You'll get a crash course in the country rreaall quick." She stopped him in the parking lot a few cars from where her parents were loading their granddaughter and gear into a green Chevy Silverado club cab. "Ugh, he brought the truck," Lindsay groaned. "There's no place for a car seat in that thing."
"Wait…"Danny said in mock surprise. "Ya'll have cars here in Mon-taa-naa?"
She hit him in the arm. "Just for that, you can hold Lucy on your lap til we get to the house. It's forty minutes away." She raised an eyebrow. "Good luck, sweetie," she teased him as she hopped in the front seat with her father. Danny climbed into the back bench seat of the truck and held his arms out to Kathy. Kathy handed her squirming granddaughter to him. "If she gets to be too much of a handful, honey, you give her back to grandma." She handed Lucy a mini chocolate chip cookie and winked. "She and I have got an understanding."
"It's gonna take us years to unlearn all the spoiling you're gonna give her," Danny replied, and Kathy nodded with a grin.
Lindsay could still trace the route back to the family home. She knew every curve, every pine, every pothole in the gravel road. She and Nicki used to walk all the way out to the highway to meet the bus in the winter, because her father hadn't had time to take the tractor and clear the driveway.
The last time she'd seen her sister was her wedding, almost a year and a half ago, and she was really looking forward to seeing her again. Nicole, or Nicki, to the rest of the family, was a dentist in Bozeman. She was married to David Lewis, a local DJ for one of the country stations-and one of the few that was locally owned and not a conglomerate. He was known as "Crazy Midday Dave" and he ran the 11:00-4:00 block at the station. He and Nicki had two kids. Carson had just turned five and Haley was seven.
As they came around the corner, she squeezed Danny's hand without knowing it. God it's been a long time since I've been home. The house her father had built for her mother stood ahead of them. The foundation was river rock and cement, and the logs that made up the rest of the home were Montana pine. The house boasted two big bay windows that looked out over the hill to the highway. A gray Dodge Caravan was parked in the dirt-it belonged to Nicki and David. The garage was a double stall, and Steve backed the pickup into the stall closest to the house. "Home sweet home," Steven announced, and Lindsay felt her heart beat faster. It was good to hear those words.
She followed Danny out of the back of the truck. Danny had stopped where he was, frozen, looking at something on the other side of the garage. "Ah," Lindsay said with a smile, "you've found Daddy's toy."
"Toy?" her husband spat out the word as if it tasted bad. "No, hon, this is most certainly not a toy, this is…." He breathed. "Beautiful."
Steven came around the truck and grinned. "Ah. You've met Lucy."
"Lucy, Dad?" Lindsay said, laughing. "Really?"
"Hey, this was Lucy long before I knew there was a Lucy," Steven countered. He flipped on the light, and the '63 Thunderbird in cherry red gleamed under the fluorescent lights. "Look at all that red hair."
"She's beautiful, Steve," Danny said reverently.
Her husband and her father moved over to explore the mythical bond between man and machine, and Lindsay shook her head as she joined her mother in the house. She left her boots in the garage and stepped up to the kitchen door. She grinned as she heard barking on the other side. She opened the door. From the living room, a bundle of black fur came skittering across the tile and slid to a stop on the rug in front of her, planted their paws on her jeans, and tried to knock her over. Lindsay ruffled the black lab's ears. "Hey Midnight!" The dog sniffed her curiously and then tried to lick her face again. "I see Mom and Dad let you keep all your bad manners, huh puppy?"
"We didn't let her keep them," Kathy argued from the kitchen. "That darn dog just won't unlearn 'em!"
Lindsay straightened up and looked down at the lab, who was bouncing, tongue lapping, trying to lick Lindsay's chin. She grabbed the dog's collar on one bounce, and held the dog steady. She looked into the lab's eyes. "Down," she commanded in a firm voice, and Midnight dropped to all fours and stood patiently.
Kathy came by on her way to the garage. "Show off," she muttered under her breath as she squeezed her daughter's arm. Lindsay grinned. "Lucy in the high chair?"
"Yep!" Kathy's voice disappeared into the garage. Lindsay turned the corner into the kitchen. The kitchen had always been her favorite room in the house apart from her own. Kathy had insisted on big windows and stainless steel. But the kitchen had so many homey touches, including a rooster backwash behind the counters that she'd seen on some TV redesign show. In fact, roosters still dotted every available space. The cookie jar was a sitting rooster, and the placemats at the bar were a farmyard with roosters and chickens.
Lucy sat in wide-eyed wonder looking out the window into the backyard. Apart from their occasional jaunt to the seashore, Lucy had never seen nature quite like this. "Hiya, baby girl," Lindsay said, kissing the top of her daughter's forehead. "Lots to see, huh?" Midnight had followed Lindsay to the kitchen and was sniffing around Lucy's toes. Her daughter cringed and whimpered. "Midnight, kennel up," she told the dog, and Midnight retreated into the hall toward the laundry room.
"She still only listens to you," a new voice said, and Lindsay turned to see her sister coming in from the living room. She could hear some Nickelodeon show on television, and guessed Carson and Haley were in there. Nicole grinned at her big sister. "Hi Linds!"
Lindsay gave her sister a hug. "I missed you!" She held her sister at arm's length and studied her. Nicole and Lindsay both had their mother's eyes, but Nicole kept her brown hair in a pixie cut, while Lindsay was experimenting with hers a little longer. "How are my niece and nephew?" Lindsay asked.
"Absorbed in Spongebob," Nicki said with a roll of her eyes. "But at least they're not fightin' over the remote anymore. So thank God for Spongebob, I guess." She peered around Lindsay. "All right, step aside, sister, I wanna see my niece."
She came over and picked Lucy out of the high chair. With the experience of someone who had two kids already, she swung Lucy around in a circle. "Oh Lindsay, she's so cute!" She cuddled Lucy. "You look just like your daddy!"
Before Lindsay could say anything, Nicki smoothly added, "But we all know you're gonna take after your momma."
"Nice save," Lindsay said with an appreciative grin, and Nicki winked. "Let's go introduce you to your cousins, huh Lucy?" She took off for the living room, Lindsay in tow. Nicki expertly snagged the remote from Carson's hand and put Patrick on mute. "Hey!" Carson objected.
"Mom!" Haley added her two cents.
"You can have it back in like thirty seconds," Nicki said with a roll of her eyes. "I want to introduce you to your cousin. Come here." She sat down on the couch with Lucy perched on her lap. Lindsay sank to the couch next to her. "Carson, Haley, this is Lucy."
Haley wrinkled her nose. "Lucy makes her sound like a gramma," she announced.
"Well, that's where we got the name," Lindsay told her niece. "She's named after your mommy's and my grandma."
"Just like you're named after Daddy's mommy," Nicki added.
"Oh." Haley studied the new little girl with interest. "Does she talk?"
"A little," Lindsay said. "Not as much as you do."
Haley considered that. "I like her." Then she returned to the television.
Carson was absently running a hand over Lucy's shoes. "Baby," he announced to his mother. "She's a baby."
"Yes, she is," Nicki said. "So be careful."
"I hold her?"
Nicki and Lindsay exchanged looks. Finally Lindsay patted her lap. "Come here, buddy." Carson climbed into his aunt's arms. "I'll hold you and you hold Lucy, how's that?"
Carson nodded. "Kay." Nicki carefully transferred Lucy, who looked like she was still trying to decide what she thought of 1) all the attention and 2) this new people manhandling her, and set her in the preschooler's lap. Carson carefully wrapped his arms around his cousin. For a moment no one moved. Then Carson said, "Pretty baby," and Lucy smiled.
"Two for two," Nicki whispered.
"Where is everybody?" David's twang called from the kitchen.
"Living room!" Nicki yelled back to her husband.
Tall, lanky David came in from the kitchen. He was wearing a gray "I'm Gonna Miss Her" t-shirt with a picture of a fishing boat and a pair of blue jeans. "Hey, the steak's almost ready and-hi Linds!" Lindsay's brother in law gave her a hug. "When did you guys get in?"
"About an hour ago," Lindsay said. "How's Midday Dave?"
Dave chuckled. "Crazier than ever."
"I would expect nothing less! The boys are outside in the garage mooning over Lucy the Car."
David placed a hand reverently over his heart. "She's beautiful."
"Oh brother," Nicki groaned, and David grinned. "Get over here, you nut, and come see the real thing."
David hunched down so he was facing his niece and smiled. "Hey, pretty lady," he greeted Lucy. "Linds, she's beautiful."
"Can you say hi, Lucy?" Lindsay asked.
"Hi hi," David said, and waited. He smiled again.
"Hi hi," Lucy replied shyly back.
Lindsay and Nicki glanced at each other. David grinned as he deftly picked Lucy up from his wife's arms. "Yeah, I am just that good," he said with a twinkle in his eye. "Boy, you're a good lookin' kid!" he told Lucy. "You wanna help Uncle David with the grill? Let's go check on those steaks, Lucy Bug, whaddya say?" He carried her off into the kitchen.
"Daddy!" Carson objected from the living room. "I wanna see the baby!" He squirmed off Nicki's lap and ran as fast as his preschool legs could take him out of the living room.
Lindsay laughed. "I may never see my kid again."
"Aw, she's in good hands though," Nicki replied. "Those are my boys…."
"But the girls are better, right Mommy?" Haley asked from her position on the floor.
Nicki winked at Lindsay. "Course they are Hales."
Kathy came into the living room. "Well I guess we've all been left for Lucy, one way or the other!" she said. "You ladies want to come help me set the table on the deck?"
Nicki and Lindsay followed their mother to the kitchen, and for a half hour, it reminded Lindsay of when she was Haley's age helping Mommy in the kitchen.
There were so many memories. She couldn't wait to share them with her husband. And she couldn't wait for their family to make many, many more of their own.