Thank you all for the reviews. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside :D

Thanks again to cyko and Boleyn at DLC for the beta. Wub wub!

November 22, 2006
She comes into work late today. I'm already at work in the DNA lab when she joins me, her hair in a messy ponytail and bags under her eyes. I smile at her, but she responds with a grimace.

"What's wrong, Montana?" I ask carefully. She pulls on a lab coat and sighs.

"Nothing. I'm just in a bad mood. I couldn't fall asleep last night, and so I finally fell asleep at around two. Then there was traffic, which is why I'm late."

I nod. "OK. Well, I don't think this is gonna help your bad mood. We're at a dead-end. No DNA, prints come back to the victim, no witnesses..."

She comes to stand next to me. I can feel the heat radiating off her body, and it's making my knees threaten to buckle. "What about the victim's roommate? Did he ever come back from Jersey?"

I try to focus on the case, not Lindsay's perfume. "Yeah. Spent the night at his girlfriend's. Flack and I talked to him last night after you went home, and got nothing."

"So I guess we are at a dead-end," Lindsay says, looking right at me. It's then that I realize just how close we are; if we move our heads just a little bit, our noses would be touching.I swallow. "Yeah. So I guess that we're done?"

Her eyes seem to pop open. "What?"

I gesture to the file we were both looking at. "The case. We're done. No more leads, no evidence..."

"Oh."

Is it just my imagination, or does she look a little relieved? "Yeah. I guess so. I mean, unless it was suicide, which might..."

"Explain everything," I finish. We both look at the folder. "No DNA, no fingerprints except for his own, no witnesses. No one saw anything because no one was there," I say.

Our eyes meet. I should say something. I need to say something. Anything.

"So what are you doing for Thanksgiving tomorrow?"

Dammit. Not that.

She looks a little surprised. "What? Oh, uh, I don't know. Nothing. I'm having dinner with my Uncle Freddie."

I nod. "Good. That's, uh, nice."She nods, chewing her lip. "I'll go tell Flack about the case," she says, looking a little awkward. She pulls off her lab coat, seeming a little happy to leave.I stand up. "I could go with you, if you want. We could get something to eat?" I offer lamely.

She freezes in the doorway. "I thought that - Danny, I thought you understood that I can't..."

"I know," I cut her off. "Montana, I'm just asking if you want to get something to eat. Nothing romantic about that."

Lindsay looks behind her, like she's trying to see if anyone's coming. "Danny," she says, taking a step closer, "wouldn't it be easier on both of us if we didn't spend that much time together? Outside of work, I mean."

"You said we're still friends," I answer without looking up. "How can we be friends without spending time together?"

I finally look up at her. She's slowly shaking her head. "I don't know, Danny. I thought that we could be friends, but we can't. Because whenever I'm next to you, I just want to kiss you, and I can't, because I'm still not ready for a relationship. And it seems like you feel the same way, about wanting to kiss me. And until things can move forward, I don't think we should spend any unnecessary time together."

I swallow that. "OK," I say simply. She looks at me in surprise.

"Really? You can live with that?"

I smile. "Like I said, anything that will speed up the process." She looks at me doubtfully, but seems to accept it.

"OK. I'll go find Flack." She flashes a quick smile and leaves. I bang my head on the table. I had a perfect opportunity, and I blew it. Right now, I could be walking down the hallway, spending more time with Lindsay, showing her how funny and caring and supportive I am. And instead? I'm standing here, banging my head on a table, talking to myself.

God's funny sometimes.