Chapter 11 – December 11, 2006

There was something wrong with the world. That was the only reason Danny could come up with for being called in on a case half way through an enjoyable evening wrapping presents with Lindsay. He'd been up for longer than he'd care to admit working a double homicide with Stella and Mac and the case had him exhausted and with a headache he was sure was going to develop into one hell of a migraine. He'd tried raiding Lindsay's drawers an hour ago, but she'd apparently run out of Aspirin and he was left to suffer. Thus, he'd taken to turning off every light in the office and leaning his head on his desk.

He groaned loudly when the light flickered on, relaxing slightly when whoever had turned it on, immediately gasped and shut it off. The next thing he felt was gentle fingers combing through his hair.

"Danny?"

"Too loud," he mumbled.

She chuckled under her breath. "Headache?" The word was whispered in the dark, as quiet as she could make it and still be heard. She understood his pain.

"Haven't been home yet," he answered.

Her fingers had started a very deliberate track over his head, still brushing his hair but applying more pressure in steady circles. "Mac and Stella?"

"Apparently they don't need sleep," he agreed on a moan as her fingers pressed firmly into his temples.

"You check for Aspirin?"

"None in your drawers," he answered smoothly, hissing when she moved her hands delicately down his neck to his shoulders.

She sighed. "You need sleep, Danny. You've got a tension headache."

"Can't." He moaned loudly when she removed her hands completely though he breathed a sigh of relief when she came back with a bottle of pills.

Lindsay tipped two onto his desk. "Coffee or water?" she asked softly.

He looked up at her blearily, his eye narrowing to focus on her. His glasses had long since been removed in an attempt to combat the pounding pain. "Water."

She smiled, combing her hand through the hair by his ear again. "Yeah."

Lindsay reached up to the cupboard in the break room, grabbing her mug and his simultaneously. Setting them both on the counter, she turned on the tap, letting the water run cold while she poured and fixed her first coffee of the day.

"Lindsay, have you seen Danny?" Stella called, poking her head into the break room.

"Why, what's up?" She didn't want to interrupt him unless it was urgent. She knew first hand how bad a migraine could affect a case.

"Prints came back on our case and I was going to take him with me to talk to the guy."

"He's in our office," she answered after a few minutes, picking up both mugs. "Want me to relay the message?"

Stella arched an eyebrow at the mugs.

"My first coffee. This is Danny's."

Stella chuckled when she caught sight of the water in Danny's mug. "He needs caffeine, not water and I really don't think he's tired enough to mix up the two."

"He asked for water instead of coffee to take with the two Aspirin," she replied.

"Headache?"

Lindsay sighed. "Worse, migraine."

Stella nodded. "I'll go find Mac to run this with me. Send him home."

Lindsay raised an eyebrow. "Okay…"

"We figured he hadn't made it home yet when Mac called him in…" Stella let the sentence trail off with a shrug.

"I'll tell him," Lindsay promised, slipping through the door Stella held open for her. "Thanks."

"Sure, but we might need a hand going over some of the evidence."

Her response was immediate. "Let me know. I'm not on a case right now, so I'd love to help."

Stella chuckled. "You going to make him owe you for this?"

"Maybe next time I have a headache of my own," Lindsay said with a smile. "Page me."

"You know it."

Lindsay made sure to guide the door closed with her foot when she entered the office again and delicately set her mug on her blotter before moving over to him.

"Dan," she whispered, gently placing a hand on her shoulder.

He raised his head, taking the proffered mug and picking up the two pills. "Thank you." He leaned back against his chair and she rested her hips against the back.

"Stella says go home," she said softly, her hand again massaging his temples, neck and shoulders.

"I'll be fine once these kick in," he promised. "There's a whole bunch of swabs to process, and trace is backlogged so I was going to process some of those."

"I'll work on those," she promised. "You need to go get some sleep."

"We've been up later than this and longer than this," he protested, "and the way your hands are feelin' on my shoulders is making this headache go away a lot faster."

She chuckled as she dug her thumbs into his neck, by his spine. "I'll take that as a compliment."

He sighed, rolling his shoulders when her hands moved back to his hair. He was going to have to get more headaches in the future if it meant she would so willingly do such wonderful things to his body. "Montana, you are fantastic."

"I know," she quipped. "You going to be okay?"

"Give me another fifteen minutes. Aspirin still has to kick in."

She smiled when he tilted his head back against her stomach. "I'll meet you in trace, okay?"

He nodded.

Technically, I'm all caught up so Chapter 12 definitely won't be up until tomorrow. I'm actually surprised its all caught up. Anyway, this one felt awkward to write, so if you liked it and you felt it fit with the story, please be nice and assuage my guilt? Hugs!