Chapter 3 – December 3, 2006

"Hey Messer! You busy?"

Danny had been on his way to paperwork, thankful that for one day, crime had decided to take a vacation and that was all he had. Of course, the fact that it was just mundane paperwork was bugging him. Lindsay's voice gave him hope that there was something he could do instead.

"Depends, Montana. Is this another experiment?"

She laughed, ignoring the heat that rose in her cheeks. "Well, with crime's vacation, Stella, Hawkes and I are all on paperwork duty. I'm assuming you too?"

"Yeah."

"Good. We're having a paperwork party in the break room."

Danny raised an eyebrow.

"With popcorn. Well, actually, we're interspersing our paperwork with decorating. The popcorn garlands were Stella's idea."

"Garlands?"

"It's a Christmas thing. Haven't you ever heard of popcorn garlands?"

"Woah. We're making them?"

"Yeah. Wasn't my idea. I'm sure Stella just wanted to make sure she had something else to occupy herself with so she isn't completely annoyed with paperwork."

It was Danny's turn to laugh. "Sounds like our Stel. Let me grab my stuff, okay?"

"We used to do this all the time," Stella was explaining to Lindsay as the strung kernels of popcorn on either end of a piece of thread. "Popcorn garlands are cheap and easy to make, so it occupied us and let us help in the decorating every year."

Lindsay flashed Danny a smile as he dropped his papers on the table. "Every year?"

"Something to keep us in the Christmas spirit. I haven't done it in years."

"My family gets together for dinner, and my mom used to make a gingerbread house with us kids every year, but that's about it," Danny volunteered. "Now that me and Louie are out of the house, she works with the nieces and nephews."

"My family was Christmas crazy," Lindsay said. "We have a hot cocoa recipe, watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas, had a fire every night… We did a lot around the Christmas season."

"My family is pretty low-key about the whole season," Hawkes said. "We get the kids new pyjamas every year, but other than that, its Christmas dinner."

"I used to get a new pair too," Lindsay exclaimed with a sad smile.

Danny and Stella exchanged a look. Stella could almost physically see Danny filing that information away for later and resisted the urge to grin. Sometimes her co-workers were so predictable.

Lindsay passed her end of the garland to Hawkes, splitting Danny's pile in half. Shuffling through them quickly and efficiently, she pulled up the files that were identical to hers. She piled the remainder back on the others and flipped them open, copying down her information from the files and tossing them back over to his pile to sign.

"You don't have to do that, Montana."

"If you're going to help us decorate, you're going to have to cut down on this pile, Messer. How long have you been procrastinating on it all?" Lindsay retorted. "We've been doing this the whole time, and Stella and I have been in here since about nine."

"The whole time?" Danny asked.

"The swapping thing. One takes half the cases you've been paired on together and works on both copies. Then there's just the personal stuff to add before it gets signed and done. It's more efficient," Stella explained. "You want to give this a try?"

Danny eyed the end of the thread Stella held out to him warily. "I don't know."

"Its easy," Lindsay spoke up. "I learned."

"Can I get a half decent dent in this pile first? Even with your help I have ages worth of case reports to work through."

Lindsay rolled her eyes. "Danny, it's really easy. There's a needle on the end of that thread and you just thread the kernel on. There's absolutely nothing difficult about it."

"I know that, Monroe, thanks," Danny retorted.

"You afraid of something?" she challenged. "Or maybe it's difficult for you, even if it's easy for the rest of us?" If there was one thing Lindsay knew, it was that Danny couldn't resist a challenge.

He grumbled good-naturedly, taking the edge from Stella and picking up a piece of popcorn. It cracked as he tried to get it on the needle. He turned to Stella, but she had already moved on to paperwork and the mirth in her gaze told him she'd rather watch him break many more kernels before helping him. Hawkes was completely concentrated on his end to watch him.

Lindsay giggled. "Don't push so hard," she coached. "They actually slip on pretty easily." She took the needle from his hand, brushing her fingers against his before quickly and skilfully slipping another fluffy kernel onto the thread.

"And watching you do that makes me feel so much better," he said sarcastically.

Lindsay chuckled again, handing the needle back to him and presenting him with another piece of popcorn. "You can do it, you just have to be a bit more gentle."

It took a few more times before Danny managed to get one on properly. "There," he announced. "I've made my contribution."

Lindsay and Stella laughed before the latter spoke. "That's okay. We're going to need you and Hawkes to help us hang them and the other Christmas garlands around the room."

Danny met Stella's gaze. "That's a little crazy isn't it, Stel? Mac hates decorating the break room."

"We over-rule him," Stella declared, determination flashing in her eyes.

Danny knew better than to try and argue with her. Plus, when it came down to it, he could defend himself against Mac's wrath by hiding behind Stella. Instead, he sighed, turning back to his paperwork.

"Hey, Hawkes," Lindsay called after a few minutes of complete silence. "The CD stopped, can you hit play again?"

It took Danny a few minutes to place the song before he locked his eyes on Lindsay's. She blushed a rather fetching shade of pink. "I like your choice, Montana."

"I got it from a friend of mine," she returned. "They left it for me because I left most of my Christmas stuff, including my CDs back in Montana."

It was hours later that Stella stood and stretched, taking in the miles of popcorn garland they'd put together as well as the box of yearly decorations in the corner of the room. "This is where you come in, boys."

"Are you kidding me? Mac's still here," Danny said. "There is no way I have that much of a death wish."

Lindsay and Stella exchanged a look and Danny felt he was seriously missing something. "Lindsay and I are going to take these to Mac. He should be about an hour in putting the finishing touches on them and going over them to send them to the higher ups," Stella explained. "We'll be back in ten minutes to give you guys a hand."

"And," Lindsay added. "We're getting dinner."

That was enough to catapult Danny into action. It wasn't often he'd allow a woman to pay for dinner. It wasn't in his nature, morals or genes. However, if he was going to get dinner out of the deal, he'd decorate the whole lab.

Stella poked her head into Mac's office later that evening. "Lindsay and I sprung for Chinese. You up for dinner?"

"Sure," Mac said, thankful to take time away from the paper. Apparently he really enjoyed field work. He heard the carols when he was twenty feet from the room. "Stella, what did you get the others to do?"

"I can't believe you'd blame me," she said indignantly. "We all contributed!"

"Under who's suggestion? Decorating the break room doesn't strike me as something Lindsay would do and I know Danny wouldn't."

Stella rolled her eyes. "There is no way I'm letting you be Scrooge this year Mac Taylor. You are going to have fun this Christmas, understood?"

Mac didn't reply but did hold in the groan when he saw the full extent to which Stella had gone in decorating the room. Popcorn garlands were strung all around the glass windows, interspersed with green and red streamers and small strings of Christmas lights. Window stickers of gifts, stars and evergreen trees were scattered on the windows facing into the lab.

If Mac was honest with himself, not only could it have been worse, but it was tastefully done. However, what really stopped him from making any sort of comment was the happiness on the faces of the rest of his team. The way Lindsay, Hawkes and Danny were chatting away made him stop and allow them this little bit of happiness.

"I'm assuming the paperwork is done?" he said, stepping into the room.

"Party pooper," Stella teased as she stepped in behind him. "The armfuls of files from a few hours ago is all of it."

"All of it?"

The occupants of the room grinned. "We had a system," Lindsay said proudly.

Mac just shook his head. "So what do we have here?"

Sorry about the semi-awkwardness of this and the lack of quality DL fluff. Trust me, by the end of this story you're really going to need your toothbrushes. Hope you paid attention to each member's Christmas traditions!