Author's Note: If I had to pick a favorite chapter this would be it. Enjoy!

Author's Note 2: Thank you to MariaLisa for her sprinkling of Beta magic upon my words. Special thanks to Sugah for her help with the tatoo.

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.

Knowing Each Other

Could there be anything sweeter

Than the knowledge

That the one who knows you

As well as you know yourself

Also cares for you

As much as you care for them

-Sally Jetson

The early morning sun wafted through the half-open blinds in golden streams that reflected into long ribbons of light. Evenly spaced along the wooden floorboards, they led to the bed as if they were the steps up to heaven itself, and to the couple that was ensconced there, contentedly savoring a long-awaited day off together.

Lindsay sat in the bed, propped up against a pillow, one knee bent casually up to her chest while the other knee was bent and flopped out to the side. She wore Danny's button down shirt that had been hastily tossed to the floor the night before, in their urgent need to become as one. She always did that; donned the shirt he had been wearing the night before, because she was an early riser and he was not. She would laze contently beside him, while he slept, surrounded by the scent of him in his shirt, the breath of his slumber caressing the skin of her knee. Sometimes she read, sometimes not, most of the time she just sat and watched him and thought. She thought about the last few weeks they had been together; the only moments apart had been when they were working on separate cases or when their days off had not coincided; and although an early riser she had shed the habit of jumping out of bed first thing to go for a run in Central Park, run errands, do the laundry and pay the bills. The run in Central Park would be done later, with him, after he was up, and the mundane tasks would be saved for those days when she was off and he was not, when she needed to fill her time; because time with him alone, like this, was too scant and too precious to waste!

She knew nothing would roust him out of bed before 11:00 am on his day off, however, she knew what would arouse him. Because she didn't really want him out of bed anyway, just somewhat conscious for a period of time… then he could resume his slumber.

She began at his tattoo, on his taut arm muscle just below his shoulder; the muscles that were always at attention even when he was relaxed. She traced it with her index finger, wondering how it had come to be and what had made him choose this particular design; because it was quite beautiful and intricate, like an ancient Tribal or Celtic work of art with its intertwining spiking and swirling design which made it difficult to discern where one path began and the other ended. She had asked him about it one time; he had shrugged it off saying it was something he had chosen in honor of his mother. She had been taken aback at that and remarked, to him, the first thing that had come into her head, 'Unusual… most tattoos in honor of mothers are big hearts with I LOVE MOM scrolled across them.' She had been half teasing and half not. He had replied, with a faint smile, that his mother was not the usual kind of mother. She remembered wanting to hear more about his mother, but he had abruptly clasped her to his waist with that tattooed arm and had begun razing the sensitive skin along her neck with that scruff of hair on his chin. It had made her shiver with the sensation of pleasurable pain that it gave her and her thoughts had been quickly obliterated by the intense lovemaking session that had followed. She thought about that now… the fact that he rarely spoke of his family. He went to see Louie on his days off and sometimes they stopped off together on their way home from work, but he didn't really talk about them and she wondered why.

Her musings and her tracing stopped when he gave a stir and reached the hand of his tattooed arm out to caress her knee once before trailing it up along her inner thigh, underneath the shirt, stopping just inside the crook of her thigh at her panty line, where his hand stilled. She sucked in her breath as her stomach fluttered. She knew what he was doing… he was teasing her. He would not move his hand again until she moved hers. He was playing 'tit' for 'tat' with her and he knew it drove her to the very edge, where he then could give her the gentle nudge required to push her into the yawning precipice below.

He was very well-versed in matters of sexual pleasure and she had never been with anyone like him before. Heck, she had only really been with two other men in her life. One was the quintessential hometown boy whom she had known her whole life; comfortable and familiar; she had learned the mechanics of sex with him, and, although it had been nice, once she had learned her way around, she realized after she had gone off to college that it was nice because she was young and 'horny', not because she was in love with him. When he had pressed her for a commitment she had broken it off. She knew there was more of the world that she wanted to see, than the view of it she would get if she lived her life as a rancher's wife.

The second man had been a young, up and coming business man whom she had met during her last year in college. It had been exciting at first, being with someone who was going places, but that had quickly faded when she realized he was really more interested in building his career and having a trophy wife than in her as a person. The final split had come when she had decided to pursue a career as a CSI instead of taking a relatively quiet and obscure position as a high school science teacher.

But being with Danny was a whole different ballgame. He had made his interest in her very clear… particularly that day in the hallway when she had shut him out with the excuse that 'she needed space' and 'it was her, not him.' It hadn't deterred him, and he had been there for her, ever since. He was where she belonged, she knew that now. Someday when the time was right, she would tell him so.

But now she had a physical craving that needed satisfying. The mere presence of his hand languishing outside the crotch of her panties had wetted and swelled her considerably. She started her tracing again, but this time, after she completely outlined his tattoo, she trailed her fingers, along his rib cage pulling the sheet down his lean, taut body as she went. The slight shiver, it invoked, deliciously rippled his muscles and only confirmed what was already evident through the sheet; he was ready for her. When she reached his hipbone she stopped; now it was his turn.

One long, sensual, finger began caressing the crotch of her panties and her head dropped back against the pillow as her eyes closed in total ecstasy at the sensations playing behind her eyelids. She bit her lip to relieve some of the pressure building in the pit of her abdomen because she knew he would draw this out far beyond what she thought she could ever endure. It was as if he knew her body's capabilities better than she did; never once had he made her feel uncomfortable, dirty, or unwilling with anything he had enticed her body to do. It all felt so natural and beautiful, like she was destined to this type of expression through her body, with him.

As he finally slipped one finger under the elastic at her crotch, and skin to skin contact was made, she let escape the moan that had been trapped in her throat, since she had begun the self infliction upon her lip.

The moan unleashed the sexual predator that was at times the alter ego of Danny Messer, as he unceremoniously hauled her down beside him, covering her whole mouth with his, his tongue probing every recess of her mouth in alternation with her tongue probing his. Her hand could now reach farther down than his waist and she slipped it around to his latticed abs, letting her fingers trace those perfect little squares of muscle until she felt the customary response she was seeking; the clench of his abs and the stifled laugh against her mouth. He might be able to drive her, but she knew how to stall him. She laughed in small triumph back against his mouth and he muffled out, "Move the hand lower, Montana or I'll have to hold out on you!"

She moved her hand lower, and feeling his complete arousal, she muffled back, "I can tell you won't be able to hold out on me!"

As was often the case, she rendered him without verbal response. Therefore her second soft triumphant laugh turned to a small gasp as he took his sweet revenge by finally sliding a finger inside her, rocking her gently. In short time, he moved his probing mouth from her now appropriately swollen lips to the valley between her breasts, pushing aside the fabric of the shirt as he went along. Ever since she first had worn one of his button downs she had learned to fasten only one or two buttons because it shortened the access time. She was building stamina but it was still not her strength.

Both her hands were on him now, and she fed the intense pressure building in his groin with her skillful alternations of caressing and massaging. He slid another finger inside her and she knew this time she would not be able to hold on and wait for him; there had been too much thinking and watching of him while he had slept. One of her hands left him to clench on his wrist and help drive his hand to give her sweet release, while the other clawed the sheet, fisting it in pure frustration, as his mouth and tongue punished her nipples relentlessly, bringing all the sensations to a head in one completely still and utterly soundless moment…. then her climax washed fully over her body; hard and fast, with a shudder, and a moan of his name in conjunction with the word 'god' that left no doubt of her total release and his part in it. As her moans subsided into whimpers, he kissed her one last time in the valley between her breasts and nuzzled into her neck, his goatee tickling roughly against her skin. His fingers gently pulled out of her and caressed her inner thigh with tenderness, while his other arm drew her close to his chest as her aftermath whimpers subsided into a long contented sigh.

"Don't go to sleep on me, Montana," he murmured gruffly into her ear.

"Mmmm," was her only reply as she sank into drowsiness, her breath playing across the hairs of his strongly muscled chest.

Her breath was warm and sweet upon him and he drowsed contentedly along with her, biding his time… until it was his turn.

She wasn't aware of how long she had slept, only of when she awoke, as his hand caressed seductively at her hip. Then there was his kiss in the hollow right behind her ear, and she was aroused. Her hands moved down to find him, but even as she moved, he deftly flipped her over to her side facing away from him. He cinched her back, tightly, to his chest, winding one arm over her waist, while sliding his other arm around and under her neck, over her shoulder and down, unbuttoning the two buttons of his shirt that she was wearing, sliding it off her body and tossing it…to somewhere. His other hand slid under the waistband of her panties and pushed them down until her legs could wiggle free of them of their own accord. Her ear lobe became the object of his mouth and tongue, while her hands craved to caress some part of him in her struggle to ease her mounting tension, but she was thwarted as he was behind her.

She wrapped one hand around the back of his head and craned her head around to meld her lips with his. Her other hand intertwined on the top of his hand that was caressing her down below. Piggybacking her hand on his only aroused her further as she could now 'feel' his actions with her hand.

As he skillfully caressed her to a peak arousal, he broke the intricate dance of their tongues and whispered urgently in her ear, "Condom, Baby!"

She ran her hand between the mattresses, until she found the little package and pressed it into the palm of his hand that was caressing her breast. Momentarily his knee nudged between her thighs and she felt him fill her from behind. Her moaning sigh signaled her extreme pleasure in the intense pressure that she felt upon his entry. She had only ever tried this position once or twice before him and had never liked it, her partner then, only able to manage the position completely on her back, the crushing weight making her feel a loss of control and a sense of claustrophobia. But the way that Danny managed it, made her feel wholly his in the most desirous and secure manner possible, as his strong arms banded around her to hold her flush against his upper body.

She craned her neck back and around again so that her lips could continue the dance of their tongues, while the moans in the back of their throats mimicked the rhythm and intensity of the movement of their hips. When they were close, he turned her and released her gently down onto her stomach and she relished the weight of his passion hardened muscles on her. Never completely weighing her down, he balanced himself on his forearms, on either side of her body, leaving her free to arc her back and hips up against him. She intertwined her hands on top of his and dropped her head between her shoulders as he alternately nipped and kissed the skin along the back of her neck and shoulders causing her to gasp and buck her hips up into him with each tender caress of his lips and sharp nip of his teeth. He met each of her bucks with a strong, deliberate, thrust of his own and she savored this position for its raw sensuality, its hint of alpha male as he drove into her from behind, and the air of non face-to-face mystique. But it was also a protective, tender position, as he hovered and balanced over her body with his own, meeting and returning her bucks with his thrusts, characteristic of an intuition only befitting a well-versed and caring lover.

When her moans became pants he could feel her clench around him, so he pushed harder and faster, to send her on her way so that he could follow behind her. When she moaned his name in utter surrender, he felt her spasm around him in waves and he clamped his hands upon her hipbones and rose up to bury himself deeply inside until his climax finished only moments after hers. They both collapsed in a heap, he a little to the side of her, so that he wouldn't crush her, his hand caressing her sweaty hair away from her face so that he could kiss her tenderly on her lips. She laid her hand along his cheek and returned his tender kiss. Their foreheads met and they drowsed again in the bright morning light that was quickly turning to afternoon.