Chapter 30 – December 30, 2006

"Lindsay!"

She startled, spinning on her heel in the middle of the lab hallway to face Stella. "Where's the fire?" she asked, seeing the flash in Stella's eyes.

"We're going shopping."

Lindsay's eyes widened. "What?"

"We're going shopping. You need some retail therapy and I don't have a dress for the New Year's Eve Ball." In actuality, Danny had asked Stella to take Lindsay to do something girly. With Lindsay's reaction to their case and the unhappiness he'd mentioned, she was all to willing to take the girl shopping to relieve some stress. It always worked for her.

Lindsay groaned. The ball had completely slipped her mind. "I forgot."

"Exactly. Drop those files and grab your stuff. We have some shopping to do."

"Stella, I give up!" Lindsay exclaimed as she sat down on a bench in yet another mall. Stella had dragged her, she swore, across the entire city looking for the perfect dress for the Ball and had so far come up empty handed. Lindsay had looked, though not hard, and found nothing she liked. There was something else at stake for her too: Danny.

She didn't wear dresses often. As she'd mentioned to Danny, they just weren't practical for the job she did. Theoretically, any dress would have worked, but Lindsay had other things in mind. He'd seen her green dress she'd worn for the opera, the white dress for the Nutcracker and he'd seen her in a dress last night, and so, she wanted something she was sure would knock Danny off his feet.

"You can't give up," Stella retorted, then she sighed. "Why is this so hard?"

"Are you looking for something in particular?"

Stella couldn't keep the smile off of the corners of her mouth. "So what if I am?"

Lindsay laughed. "It makes things so much harder," she responded. "What are we going to do?"

"The only thing we can," Stella answered. "We have to keep looking."

"I don't know if my feet can take much more of this," Lindsay said, falling into step beside her co-worker.

Stella scoffed. "What we endure for beauty. Which reminds me, who are you looking to impress?"

Lindsay blushed – and cursed her blush – trying to think up a lie quickly. "No one. You were the one that said I needed retail therapy, remember?"

"You were the one that said you needed a new dress," Stella shot back. "Why would you need a new dress when no one in the NYPD has seen you in a dress?"

"That's a lie," Lindsay quickly defended.

Stella raised an eyebrow, threading through the people. "Excuse me?"

"The subway surfer case? I came from the opera. Danny and Mac saw me in a dress."

Stella grinned. "So that's why Danny was a little shell shocked when he brought the stuff back to the lab."

"What?" Lindsay asked. "Are you serious?"

"I had to call his name three times before I got anything out of him."

Lindsay knit her brow. "Are we talking about the same Danny? The cocky New Yorker?"

Stella laughed. "The same one."

"There's no such thing as a shocked Danny," Lindsay replied with a shake of her head.

"I think you shocked him, Miss Monroe."

Lindsay blushed, remembering Danny saying exactly the same thing.

"You guys have been getting cozy, haven't you?"

Lindsay rolled her eyes. "Stella, you've been on this forever! Give it…" She stopped dead, her gaze locked inside a store on a dress. The mannequin modeled it beautifully and Lindsay was transfixed. It was blue, a shade between navy blue and royal blue and ended just past the mannequin's knees. It was cut low, though modestly so with thin straps. It was the design of the skirt that had caught her eye. Instead of a simple skirt, a layer of black netting fell over the satin fabric, the bottom embroidered with flowers, the only design on the entire dress.

It took Stella a few minutes before she realized Lindsay wasn't following. "Lindsay?" Retracing her steps, she saw Lindsay staring into the store. Stella moved to stand beside her co-worker, following her line of sight. She smiled. "You going to try it on?"

"Yeah," Lindsay said absently, finally getting her feet under her and stepping into the store. It didn't take them long to find and pick out Lindsay's size.

Stella grinned widely when Lindsay stepped out of the dressing room. "I knew we'd find you something."

"It can't just be something," Lindsay murmured, more to herself, spinning in front of the mirror and checking to make sure it fell right. "I'm going to need new shoes."

Stella almost squealed in happiness as a grin blossomed across Lindsay's face. "Shoes it is. Change so we can go."

A couple of stores later, it was Stella's turn to stop dead, but unlike Lindsay she didn't stand and admire. Instead, she strode right in, hunting down a sales woman and requesting the dress be found in her size.

Lindsay didn't hesitate in grinning when Stella stepped out of the change room. The dress was completely strapless, showing of Stella's shoulders. However, it was the skirt that she knew had sold the dress for Stella. It wasn't full by any means, but looked almost shredded, showing more leg than Lindsay would ever feel she could pull off. "Stel, you're gorgeous."

Stella nodded her head once resolutely, grinning from ear to ear. "Shoes?"

Lindsay resisted the urge to groan. "I don't know if I can handle that."

Stella laughed. "You don't have a choice. You already said you needed new shoes and I'm going to need better ones if I'm going to carry off this dress."

"Don't be ridiculous, Stella!" Lindsay exclaimed. "It won't matter what you wear on your feet."

"Ha! Shoes make the outfit, my dear. Let's go."

Lindsay sighed heavily as she plopped down on her couch. It had taken them the better part of six hours to complete their shopping and Lindsay knew she probably had a whole lot she wasn't going to ever need. However, her spirits were considerably higher than they had been All she wanted was a relaxing bath and then to collapse into bed.

Her phone had other ideas. "Monroe."

"How was your day?"

She almost slapped herself at the smile that turned up the corners of her mouth and the way she instantly recognized his voice. "Is it enough to say Stella knows how to shop?"

Danny chuckled on the other end of the phone. "You had a good time?"

She thought about it, how she and Stella had laughed and talked – though she'd resolutely avoided the topic of relationships – shopped and spent the afternoon thinking of anything but work. "I did. It was almost as good as my sick day."

"And what did you get?"

She laughed. "We don't have to talk about this, Danny. You're not interested in fashion."

"But I am interested in you," he responded smoothly and she could almost see the soft smile he was inevitably sporting.

Sometimes it scared her how easily he slid out of his tough-guy Danny and into the sweetheart he was when he was only around her. He was a chameleon and she knew that, but it still kind of scared her how easily he switched between the two.

"What did you buy?"

"My dress for tomorrow," she revealed finally, sinking further back into her couch cushions. She only hoped she could get up again when she finished on the phone.

"Really…" He sounded much more interested now.

Lindsay giggled. "Yes, really. You'll see it tomorrow."

He groaned. "Not even a hint?"

"Not a chance, Messer. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a date with my bathtub."

"You're a tease."

Lindsay rolled her eyes. "Good night."

Okay, I'm officially upset with this alerts thing, and I mean genuinely ticked. I'm pretty sure its part of the reason I'm not motivated… I'm not getting PM's because of the alert failure, which means that I'm less inclined to reply to reviews since people can't reply back (I have been anyway).

Nevertheless, you guys have still been pretty good with the reviewing. I'm pretty sure it'll skyrocket when the alerts come back because people haven't been notified that I've added. I hate this. I hate this a lot.