DISCLAIMERS: I do not own any of these characters. They belong to Jerry Bruckheimer and the wonderful writers for CSI: NY. Any resemblance to scenes from the episodes is included for clarity and continuity and I do not claim any of those as my own work. However everything else is mine.

In Danny's Bed

After the laughter calmed to intermittent giggles on Lindsay's part, Danny left the couch to retrieve another ice pack for her ankle.

"I'm gonna have another beer. How 'bout you?"

She tipped her head back and looked thoughtfully up at him, "Do you have any wine?"

He went into the kitchen and rummaged around. "No," he called back, "Just beer." He really did need to pick up some groceries.

He walked back into the living room with a beer in his hand and perched himself on the back of the couch. "This is the last one so we'll have to share."

She looked at him a little suspiciously and said, "Okay, but I get first swallow."

"What? Why is that?" he asked a little confused.

"Because the first swallow is the coldest, purest, and most tasteful drink of the whole beer."

"Obviously, but I still don't understand why you should get first swallow?" he challenged.

She stared at him a second longer before she completely disarmed him by placing her hand gently on his thigh, widening her eyes innocently and whispering, "Please."

He wordlessly handed the beer over to her. She smiled innocently, holding his eyes as she took a large swallow and handed it back to him. He shook his head at her, grinned, took an even bigger swallow and handed the beer back to her. And so it went, back and forth, until the beer was drained, not saying a word, but with each pass the swallows became bigger and bigger. The last swallow was hers and she relished the look on his face as she rhythmically swirled it around in the bottle before she put it to her lips and slowly tipped it all the way back and let the liquid glide gently down her throat, making tiny sucking sounds on the bottle. Sharing a beer with a woman had never been such a complete turn-on. Who the hell was this wanton little wench and what had she done with his sweet Montana? No wait, it didn't matter what she did with that sweet Montana chic, it just became paramount that he find a way to keep this wanton little wench around well after her ankle healed. Think Messer, think very hard, you got about three days, five tops, before she'll be able to walk out of here on her own two feet!

After she handed the empty bottle back to him, she leaned her head back on the couch and closed her eyes. "I am so tired," she murmured. "Where's my bed, Cowboy?"

"Oh right, sleep," he said, as he pulled himself back to the practical matters at hand. He came around the couch and slid his arms around her back and under her knees and carried her to his bedroom. She never said a word, just snuggled into his chest. He held her handily with one arm as he pulled the covers back and laid her gently on the bed.

She reached up and laid her hand along his cheek and sleepily stroked the stubble on his chin with her thumb. "You're not going to leave me in here alone are you?" she asked.

"No way, Montana, I just have to go lockup. If you aren't too sleepy, the bathroom's right through there and here's your suitcase. I'll give you a few minutes, okay?"

"Mmmm," was her only reply. When he left, she forced herself out of the bed to go into the bathroom and brush her teeth. Anything else could wait until tomorrow, she thought, as she dropped her yoga pants and jacket to the floor and crawled back into bed.

When Danny joined her a few minutes later, she was breathing deep and heavy. The day had taken its toll on her and also on him. So he did his customary thing with her and slid in behind her and molded his body along hers. He couldn't help running his hand up her thigh before reaching her waist. Damn her, she has no shorts on, only underwear. She is going to do me in without even trying and before I ever actually get to be with her. Okay, double damn her. She instinctively nestled back into his groin as his hand slid around her waist to rest along her stomach. But this time he couldn't resist resting it under her shirt next to her skin. One of her hands joined his there and it interlaced with his fingers. He thought sleep would be impossible but with the events of the previous 24 hours and the 11/2 beers (even though he was convinced Lindsay had cheated and got more than ½ of that last beer) he was out in no time.

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Danny awoke the next morning a few minutes before the alarm went off. He looked at Lindsay, completely sprawled out across his bed. For such a small person she sure could take up a lot of room. In reality he didn't mind. It just meant that he had to sleep that much closer to her to keep from being pushed to the edge of the bed. As always, her hair was tangled wildly about her face and her breathing was deep and even. He swore even her breathing could turn him on. He quickly dropped a kiss on her exposed shoulder and climbed out of the bed. That's all he trusted himself to do. A very cold shower was in order.

As he showered, he worried about Lindsay. Even though she had slept relatively well, there were times throughout the night when she had started murmuring and twitching. It probably would have escalated if he hadn't been there each time to stroke his hand along her body and whisper reassuringly in her ear that he was there and it was all a dream. She never actually woke up but her restlessness would cease until the next episode. He worried about her being alone today. Maybe someone at the lab would be off today, who he could send by to check on her or better yet maybe he could sneak in a long lunch and check on her himself.

When he emerged from the shower to get dressed, Lindsay had curled back into a ball on his side of the bed with her face buried into his pillow, which she clutched in her arms and legs. Instinctively, he wanted to crawl back into bed with her and replace the pillow with himself. He wished he had today off so he could spend another day just being in her presence. He wished she was all better so he could do all the things to her that he had been dreaming of for months now. He wished… Stop wishin' Messer, or you're gonna need another cold shower!

He dropped his towel to get dressed and swore he heard a little squeak almost like a mouse but not quite. He turned around to look at Lindsay but she was still curled in a ball with her eyes closed. Maybe some mousetraps were in order. He shrugged, quickly finished dressing and threw the towel towards the bathroom. When he saw Lindsay's clothes on the floor beside the bed he absentmindedly picked them up and laid them on the end of the bed. She shouldn't have to live out of a suitcase, he thought to himself, so he quickly cleared out two drawers by stowing the contents in a basket in the closet. It didn't really matter where his socks and underwear lived anyway, a basket was as good as a drawer any day.

He scribbled a note to Lindsay, locked up and headed out into the early morning hours, into a city that never slept.

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Oh my god, was all Lindsay could think when Danny had dropped his towel. She barely suppressed a squeak and closed her eyes before she felt his eyes upon her. Damn Lindsay, if he catches you enjoying a peep show, with him as the star, you'll never hear the end of it! She swore she didn't breathe again until she heard him lock the door on his way out, even though she did open her eyes and watch him get dressed. Oh he was hot! Really too hot to describe in words, but she had the image of him burned into her mind now. The muscles on him were so well defined, not in a massive body builder way but in a lean, athletic way. His shoulders curved and dipped into his bulging biceps which in turn, flowed into his powerful forearms then finally tapered into those long sensual fingers. She loved his fingers. She knew from his finesse in the lab that he would be able to elicit all sorts of pleasurable torture across her body with those fingers. A shudder went through her body just thinking about it. And that was just the part of him she had seen before. The rest of his body absolutely took her breath away. His broad muscled back tapered into a waist that didn't have a spare ounce of flesh on it. And his ass was so tight you could bounce a quarter off it. What woman wouldn't want to grab that. When he turned slightly to pull on his boxers, she saw the slight hollow in his hip that screamed well toned body. Her eyes traveled down the long hard length of his thigh to focus on the bulge of his quadriceps as they flexed, when he bent his knees to pull on his boxers. As the boxers passed over his lower legs she saw his calves clench and release, in order to balance himself. If she had glimpsed at a full frontal view of him, she would have come long and hard on the spot as her insides were already quivering at the sight of him. From here on out she would never be able to use the words 'Danny' and 'body' in the same sentence without also including the word 'magnificent'.

With the image of Danny's magnificent body in her mind and his scent all over the pillow in which she had her face buried, she drifted back into sleep. Danny was with her once more touching her in the most delicious ways and saying her name in the most sensual manner but then his voice changed to a sing-song menacing tone and his hands became rough pushing her onto the bed and holding her down with his body and clapping a hand over her mouth so she couldn't scream. And when he pulled back so she could see his face, it wasn't Danny at all, but Laurel's killer with the blood trailing down the side of his face and the sweat beading on his brow. "I'm going to finish what I started, little Miss Lind--say."

"No, no, no," she screamed, as she sat straight up in bed. Her body was drenched in perspiration and her heart was beating like a caged bird. She drew a steadying breath, pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her forehead on them. She had slept so well last night. Every time an image had started to materialize in her dreams, she would hear Danny's voice reassuring her and his hand stroking somewhere on her body and the image would recede. How was she going to make it through the day without him here?