Chapter 23 – December 23, 2006

Sometimes, she hated her job. The running around from scene to scene, from tech to tech left her completely wiped by the time the end of her shift rolled around. She groaned when her phone rang in the locker room. "Monroe."

"I'm tired."

His voice still brought a smile to her face, though she could hear the exhaustion in his tone. "Me too."

"You have any other movies to watch?"

"Inviting yourself over?"

"Deal with it. Anythin'?"

"I might be able to find something in the depths of my collection," she said, unable to be honestly offended by his cocky and forward attitude. The fact that she liked spending time with him and enjoyed the way they'd been handling their relationship went unacknowledged.

"You on your way out yet?"

"Just in the locker room grabbing my stuff. I think I have something left over for us to eat in my fridge."

"Good. Meet you in the lobby in ten. I've got an SUV from the scene I was just at."

"I can help you bring up evidence," she offered.

"Figure I'll shove it off on some rookie. I've got important places to be with important people."

Lindsay was thankful no one else in the lab was there to see her blush. "Ten minutes it is," she agreed.

After there warmed dinner, Danny built a fire in her fireplace, a rarity in New York apartments, he let her know. They sat in front of it, leaning against the couch. Finally, she looked up at him, away from the mesmerizing colours of the flames. "You're worrying me, Danny," she said softly.

He looked down at her, noting the blatant concern in her brown eyes. "Why is that, Montana?"

"After the lab party you came back just to hold me. Not that I didn't enjoy it, but that's… not you."

"You think you know me that well?"

"I know I do," she replied. "I want what's best for you Danny, you know that. Flack, Aiden…Louie," she choked on the last name and felt him tense against her. "They're still worrying you."

"Of course they are," he agreed. "Aiden's dead."

"But Flack's alive and well, and Louie's still breathing at least…"

"He woke up," he corrected gently. "They've still got him in the hospital, but he woke up about a week back."

It made sense with his sudden need to reflect. "Okay, so Louie's awake. I just… I don't like seeing you carrying all that pain."

She was so incredibly sweet and caring and he had no idea what he'd done that she was now in his arms. "And what about you? Stella told me about how you reacted to those girls in the morgue."

"I'll be okay. I had flashbacks to Montana, that's all."

"Stel said you were cryin'. I think that's a little more than a flashback."

She looked back at the fire, unable to meet his intense gaze. "It's part of those things I told you I still have to work though. I really thought I'd put that all behind me."

"Tell me," he encouraged.

She took a deep breath. "I don't know if I can, Danny. It's still painful to think about, let alone telling someone else."

He had to make a decision. To ask her to give up her deepest darkest and most haunting secrets on her own was asking a lot. "I'll trade you one story for another," he offered.

She wove her fingers in his. "You have a story, Messer?"

"Everyone has a story," he agreed. "Rumours have some truth to them."

Lindsay wasn't stupid. She had a pretty good idea of what Danny was referring to. "So Danny Messer really is the bad boy every one thinks he is, huh?"

"Was," he corrected. "Everyone gets caught up sometimes."

"And you wanted to be just like other male members of your family," Lindsay said with understanding.

"This is my story, Montana, you can't interrupt."

She grinned unapologetically. "Sorry."

"There's part one of my story."

"I came from Montana," she said. "I had to get away because being there was too painful."

"Family?"

She shook her heads. "Not the biological ones anyway."

He nodded. "Tell me the whole thing."

She took a deep breath. "There's not much to tell, really. I survived a crime," she said with a self deprecating laugh. "I was the only one."

"And?" Danny asked, though he had a good idea where she was going. He'd only ever heard of survivor's guilt and had never experienced it face to face.

"Why was it me? It could have been any of the other girls."

"What happened?" His hand was running softly up and down her spine.

She would never be able to put into words how much that comforted her. "It was my last year doing my bachelor's degree," she started. "I was living off campus with a couple of my friends. I'd gone grocery shopping to stock the fridge. When I got back, I remember the feeling of being shot twice and the window breaking. The next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital. My parents had to tell me they were gone and…I just… I wanted them back."

He pulled her closer to his side. "It wasn't your fault."

"Some of those girls had more of a future than I did, so much more. It could have been someone else…"

"Is it wrong to say I'm glad?" he asked softly, nuzzling against her neck.

"While I'm telling you a serious story, yes," she said. "I wish I knew why the guy did it."

He now understood her preoccupation with Vackner. "Linds…"

"I know," she said. "What about Louie? He saved you."

Danny shrugged. "I figured for years that he kicked me out because he didn't want me, because he was disappointed with me. To know that he did it because he cared the same day he ends up in the hospital… it was a lot to handle."

She nodded against his shoulder, trailing her fingers along his forearm. "Then what happened with Aiden and Flack…."

"Icing on a terrible cake," he agreed. "Aiden was my best friend. You have no idea in the last couple of months I've wanted her around for a female perspective."

She looked at him in concern. "Why?"

"Well, Montana, we may be where we want to but a couple of months ago I sure wanted her advice on how to get ya to pay attention."

Lindsay smiled. "You always had my attention, Danny."

In pure clichéd fashion, they looked at each other, growing closer and closer until Lindsay's eyes fluttered closed in anticipation. His lips touched her softly, pulling back and never deepening the contact. She took it happy to just be sitting with him like this, able to touch and kiss him like she wanted.

"You know, Montana, I think we've been a little serious for the Christmas season," he said when he pulled back. "Movie?"

She nodded, slowly untangling herself from Danny and standing.

He caught her wrist as he stood, pulling her back to him for a moment. "I'm glad you started to share, Lindsay," he said softly, pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead.

"You know, if you keep saying and doing these sweet little things I'm going to come to expect it," she replied, through the harshness of the remark was lost in the twinkle of her eye.

"With you, everythin's gotta be right," he told her softly. "No screwin' up."

She tugged on his hand until he lowered his head enough so she could comfortably touch her lips to his. "Things happen, Danny," she whispered. "I know you'll try and I'll try, but we're bound to drive each other crazy eventually."

He really didn't like the pessimism of her statement and pulled her to sit with him on the couch. "Listen, Lindsay this is one of the few things I don't wanna screw up. Sure, we've been dancin' around this thing for a while, but how long is a while? Eighteen months is a long time to be avoidin' a thing."

Her eyes widened at her admission. "Danny," she breathed.

He smiled slightly. "I was pretty damn jealous of that tiger."

Lord, she hated it when he made her cry. "This is way too serious," she whispered through her tears.

He chuckled, wiping the moisture with his thumbs. "Raincheck on that movie?" he asked.

"Okay…" she agreed, her forehead wrinkling in confusion.

"I'm tired," he tried to explain. "If I don't get home soon it'll be too dangerous for me to drive."

"So stay," she offered, surprising herself at her own brazenness.

"No offence, Montana, but the last time I slept on your couch I had aches for a couple of days."

"So sleep in the bed," she said with a shrug.

"I'm not makin' you sleep on the couch in your own apartment."

"You won't," she assured him, already pulling him down the hall. "We're both adults, we don't have to do anything other than sleep."

His resistance was fading fast and he was pretty sure he was too tired for anything other than sleep anyway. "You'll set the alarm so I can get back to my apartment and change?"

She nodded. "Promise, cross my heart."

He was too tired to argue anymore.

They were both asleep when their heads hit the pillow.

I hope this didn't turn out as awkward by the end as I thought it might have been. See, I tend to do my best writing at around 1am when I'm dead tired so I was falling asleep as I was writing the whole sharing part and when I woke up to write this morning, forgot what I'd wanted to do. Note to self: just finish first!

You guys have been so awesome with the reviews. Thank you so, so much, especially since this and Family Matters were my first shots at anything DL related. You've been… over the top.