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When he woke up to his alarm the next morning, he groaned and buried his face in the pillow. It took him a moment to remember where he was, then, blinking blurrily, he sat up and felt around for his glasses on the side table.
Six am sure felt a lot earlier in Bozeman.
Tossing the covers off, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and wandered down the hall towards the bathroom. He found a fresh towel sitting on the counter and gratefully stepped into the hot shower.
When he came out twenty minutes later, he could hear murmuring voices in the kitchen. He couldn't tell if Lindsay's door was closed or not, but since she had court today, he assumed that she was already up and waiting.
He dressed quickly, donning his usual court attire. As he draped the tie around his neck, he paused to study his pinstripe suit. In the context of the rustic bedroom, the suit looked fancy, too fancy. For a moment he wondered if things were done differently here. Should he forgo the jacket? The tie?
Before he could decide, he heard a crash outside and was out the door before he thought about it. Racing into the kitchen, he skidded to a halt when Lindsay and her mother stared at him in shock.
"I heard a crash," he explained, his eyes locked worriedly on Lindsay seated at the table. Even though he could plainly see she was fine, his heart was still beating a tad too fast for comfort.
"Oh, they're repairing a fence up in the north pasture this morning. I think they're loading the truck," her mother said from her place in front of the stove.
Lindsay raised her eyebrows at Danny's tie. "You need some help with that?" she asked. The amusement in Lindsay's voice made Molly glance sharply at her then turn to their guest.
Danny looked down then grinned a little bashfully and started tying it. He moved towards the cabinets and pulled a mug out. "May I?" he asked Molly, gesturing towards the full coffee pot.
"Help yourself to anything," Molly told him, smiling warmly. "Breakfast is almost ready. Have a seat."
"Thanks." He wrapped his hands around the mug, holding his tie to his chest as he eased himself into the chair across from Lindsay's at the small kitchen table. "Morning," he murmured to her as he raised his mug.
"Morning. How'd you sleep?" For some reason, she wasn't looking at him when she asked, and he eyed her a bit before answering.
"Great. You?"
Molly lowered a plate in front of each of them. "I don't think she's slept better since she got here."
Confusion was written all over his face as Lindsay turned bright red. "Mom," she said, her teeth clenched.
"I'm just saying," her mother continued, moving back towards the stove. "You didn't wake up screaming for the first time in three weeks."
Danny's eyes whipped back to Lindsay who was approximately the color of a fire truck. "The nightmares?" he murmured.
"Didn't have one last night," she told him, picking up her fork.
Following her lead, he let the subject drop and looked down at his plate, nearly choking on his coffee. Eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, fried potatoes and fresh strawberries were piled on his plate. He heard Lindsay chuckle and he looked up at her in disbelief. "How did you stay so skinny?" he asked, simply because he couldn't stop himself.
That made her laugh outright and Danny noticed Molly pause in lowering herself into the chair next to Lindsay's. "Fast metabolism," she said, her eyes glowing at him for a moment.
There was a slight look of awe on Molly's face as she turned to stare at him. He met her gaze, his fork halfway to his mouth. Then she smiled and reached out to squeeze his forearm. "Thank you for coming," she murmured, her eyes a little too bright in the sunlit room.
He smiled back out of politeness, but couldn't figure out why she looked like she was about to cry. "When do we leave?" he asked, noticing Lindsay's uncomfortable expression.
"Court opens at nine," Lindsay told him. "We should probably leave in about twenty minutes."
"They've been doing half days," Molly added, sounding inexplicably embarrassed. "It's the only court in town, so they have to share. You should be out by one."
Nodding, he turned back to his breakfast. He could feel Molly watching him and wondered if Lindsay had spoken about him before his unexpected appearance on their doorstep. Molly and Gordon had at least recognized his name, so he could safely assume he'd been mentioned. He wasn't sure what she would have said, though, so he kept his gaze fixed on his plate.
The ride to town took less time than he remembered from the night before, and he was surprised once again by the sheer amount of space as far as the eye could see. Town itself was small and the buildings were all a maximum of three stories high. He was starting to feel both claustrophobic, which really wasn't at all logical, and too vulnerable.
He felt slightly better once they were situated in the back of the court room, but he still had to stifle the urge to glance over his shoulder every now and then. Lindsay had become progressively quieter and tenser as they came closer to town and by the time they were in their seats in the back of the room, her breathing was audible and sharp.
The judge came out and calmly seated himself, appearing for all the world as if a man wasn't on trial for murder. When the warden led a man in an orange jumpsuit into the court, Lindsay's breath hiccupped. Reaching over, Danny gripped one of her hands in his, half expecting her to pull away from the intimacy of it. He was surprised when she laced her fingers through his and held on for dear life, even shifting slightly closer to him on the bench.
After that, things began to happen very quickly for Danny. Court opened with little pretense and both lawyers addressed the jury. It surprised him how young most of the jury members were and he made a mental note to ask Lindsay about it later. Then, Lindsay's name was called and Danny watched with a certain amount of horror as she walked to the stand.
Everyone stared as she came forward, but a few of them had a look in their eyes that made Danny want to run forward and drag her from the room. These had to be the parents of Lindsay's friends. And from the looks on their faces, it was obvious they blamed Lindsay for surviving.
Anger made Danny's fist clench as Lindsay was sworn in. He tried to keep it off his face in case her eyes sought him out in the crowd, but she didn't seem to be looking at anyone in particular except the lawyer who was speaking to her.
"Miss Monroe, could you tell us exactly what happened in the diner that day?" the prosecutor asked standing upright behind his table.
Danny watched Lindsay's chest heave as she drew a deep breath, then she was telling the story she'd told him. She focused on what had happened that day, leaving out all the details she'd given him about the girls she'd been with—he wondered at it until it struck him that everyone in the court had known the girls and didn't need that part of the story.
She was questioned for the better part of half an hour, the lawyers switching places at about the halfway mark. Her voice remained strong throughout, never wavering until she was asked the final question.
"And did Mr. Hanson ever say anything to you or the others?" the defense attorney asked.
"No," Lindsay said, shaking her head.
"So it's possible the defendant wasn't coherent at the time of the shooting," the lawyer added, deliberately glancing at the jury.
"He just pulled the gun and—and shot Shelby. His aim was sure and he didn't hesitate. He never said why." Her voice cracked on the final sentence, and she quickly lowered her gaze to her hands.
The next part was a blur as Lindsay was dismissed from the stand and she walked back towards him. She kept her gaze lowered and his teeth clenched as he involuntarily compared this cowed woman to the spitfire he'd met a year and a half ago. Finally, she looked up and met his gaze, her steps quickening as she came the last few feet towards him.
This time she was the one who reached out to take his hand in hers and she kept a grip on it for the rest of the day. Even when his hand began to fall asleep, Danny didn't move, refusing to let her go.
As soon as the judge dismissed the court, Danny stood and was pulling Lindsay from the room before anyone else was even out of their seats. There was no way he was letting any of those people get near her, especially not the parents who'd stared with a mixture of disgust and dependence. He supposed it made sense. They hated her for surviving, but she was their only hope of putting their daughters' killer in jail.
Despite understanding their position, Danny had no desire to empathize with them.
Wrapping his arm around Lindsay's shoulders, he pushed his way past the few reporters outside and managed to get her to the car in less than three minutes. As he pulled out of the court's parking lot, he decided that he loved Bozeman for their readily available and altogether convenient parking.
"You okay?" he asked after a few minutes, when the town began to appear small in the rearview mirror.
"Yeah." It was too close to a whimper, though, and his hands clenched around the wheel. He desperately wanted to hit something, an urge he hadn't felt quite as strongly in years.
"Mom should have lunch ready when we get back."
Danny glanced at her in surprise. Her tone was breathy, like she couldn't quite fill her lungs, but it had a note of steel to it. She was staring out the windshield, but her chin was raised determinedly, her back ramrod straight.
"That's good. I'm starving."
"You're always starving."
It hadn't been that funny, but he laughed anyway with what felt like giddy relief.
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Lindsay wasn't sure how it had come about, but when she came into the kitchen after her nap, Danny was chopping vegetables with her mother. She stumbled to a stop at the sight, wondering if the world had also tilted on its axis since her mother had ordered her upstairs.
The two of them were chatting about something, but Lindsay couldn't seem to make herself pay close enough attention to tell what. She watched his hands for a moment as he ran the knife through the onion. They were as sure as they were when he worked on trace in the lab and she was surprised that she hadn't known he could cook.
It made sense—he was Italian after all—but she'd never thought about it before that moment.
Suddenly uncomfortable with her own staring, she came fully into the kitchen. "Hey sleepy head," her mother called with a glance over her shoulder. "Dinner's almost ready."
"Need any help?" she asked, coming up next to Danny, but speaking to her mother.
"Oh, I think we're pretty much done. Danny made the salad for us. You could set the table, though." Molly waved at the dining room distractedly as she checked various pots on the stove.
"How'd you sleep?" Danny asked, wiping his hands on a towel and taking plates from her hands.
"Like a rock." Grabbing utensils, she led the way to the dining room. "What'd you do while I was out?"
He shrugged, moving around the table and laying the plates down. "Talked to Mac, finished some paperwork. Talked to your mom."
"Oh God," Lindsay muttered, stopping to stare at his face.
Danny chuckled. "Don't worry. We talked about completely harmless things."
"Like?" she pressed, hands on her hips.
"Like why I became a CSI. Oh," he said with mock panic as he came up next to her. "I think she asked about the Academy."
Rolling her eyes, Lindsay turned back to the table, taking the last plate from his hand. "Could you grab another chair from the kitchen?"
"Sure," he said, still chuckling. When he came back, she was filling glasses with iced tea.
"How many brothers do you have?" he asked, pushing the chair into place. When she paused before responding, he glanced at her, disconcerted by the silence.
"One," she finally answered. She seemed nervous and he filed that information away.
"So who's the last place for?" He really didn't mean to press the subject, he was just trying to make conversation now that the Great Wall of China had come down behind her face.
"Connor. Brad's best friend since we were kids. He helps out around the ranch sometimes. His family owns the property to the east."
Danny nodded, wondering at the fact that she wouldn't look at him. Something strange was going on there, and he was pretty sure Connor wasn't just her brother's best friend. Jealousy made him look away as he struggled to keep his voice even.
"I see."
He heard her sigh and then her hand was on his arm. Surprised, he glanced up to find her standing rather close and looking up at him. "I'll explain later," she murmured apologetically. "Just…not here."
When he tilted his head towards the kitchen, she nodded and went back to putting glasses at each of the place settings. Any thought he might have had was suddenly pushed out of his head by the clattering of what sounded like a hundred boots on the porch outside of the kitchen, which was capped with very loud, very deep voices talking to Molly. He felt his eyes widen slightly and heard Lindsay laugh a little.
"Don't worry. They aren't giants."
He opened his mouth to argue when Gordon was followed into the dining room by two very large men in jeans, flannel shirts, and cowboy hats. They crowded into the room behind the older man and blatantly sized Danny up.
He suddenly felt very short.
"Danny," Gordon greeted him, passing through the room casually, ignoring his daughter's presence except for a slight nod in her direction. Danny frowned and glanced at Lindsay, who was staring determinedly at the table and adjusting a fork.
"Who's your friend, Mouse?" one of the men asked, twirling his hand in his hand. He had similar coloring to Lindsay, though his eyes were blue and the cleft in his chin was more pronounced.
Lindsay rolled her eyes and gesture without looking up. "Danny, that's my brother Brad and Connor. Danny is out from New York."
"Dad happened to mention that," Brad said, flashing a cool smile at Danny. "How do you like Bozeman so far?"
"Haven't seen much of it," Danny answered, resisting the urge to cross his arms over his chest.
"I thought you went to town today." The words were a challenge, as was the hard gleam in Brad's eye, but Danny refused to bite.
"Didn't stay long," Danny said with a grim smile. Out of the corner of his eye, Danny saw Lindsay glaring at her brother.
Stepping forward, Connor offered his hand with a smile. "Connor Flanagan."
"Danny Messer. How you doing?"
Forcing himself to relax, he clasped the other man's hand firmly in his own. He tried to ignore the way Brad eyed his friend in dubious confusion, instead basking in the relieved expression Lindsay threw his way. Then it occurred to him that the look could have been directed at Connor. A foul taste settle in his mouth while his skin suddenly felt too tight.
"Danny and I work together at the crime lab," Lindsay explained. She shifted her weight and Danny wasn't sure if she was moving closer or farther away.
"You a CSI, too?" Connor asked with a friendly smile.
"Another nerd then?" Brad cut in before Danny could say anything.
He wondered absently if the silent 'asshole' attached to that question was as audible to anyone else. "Absolutely."
Lindsay laughed and Connor nervously chuckled, eyeing Brad warily. Danny noted the surprise on Brad's face at the sound of his sister's laughter and inwardly sighed.
"We should wash up," Connor said. He nodded at Danny and Lindsay and began moving from the room, deliberately bumping Brad with his shoulder as he passed him.
Brad kept staring at Lindsay for a minute then his eyes flicked back to Danny. Something had eased in them, marginally but noticeably, and when he nodded at Danny, his look was more curious than anything else.
As they filed from the room, Danny felt some of the tension leave his shoulders. "Sorry about that," Lindsay murmured. "Little overprotective."
"Expected more trouble from Flanagan." He could have bitten his tongue.
Lindsay sighed and made a tsking sound with her mouth. "It's not like that," she told him quietly. "It's…complicated."
"Is it?" he asked quietly, turning to meet her eyes. He wasn't sure what she saw there, but it made her face fall a little.
Nodding, she drew in a shaky breath but closed her mouth as her father reentered the room. Lindsay bit her lip and pulled out a chair to sit when her father did. Danny silently followed suit, his gaze meeting her father's briefly. The older man glanced between them, but didn't say anything.
And for a few minutes, all Danny could hear was the ticking of the grandfather clock in the living room across the hall. He cleared his throat in the silence but couldn't think of anything to say and both Gordon and Lindsay were staring vacantly into space.
When Brad and Connor, boisterous and laughing, collapsed into their chairs, talking about stud fees. Danny saw Gordon focus his attention on them and once again wondered why Lindsay's father seemed to be ignoring her. Then Molly came through the doorway, and he stood to take the serving dish from her.
"Thank you," she said with a warm smile.
"Do you need anything else carried out?" Danny asked, conscious of the sudden silence behind him.
Molly shook her head. "I'm just going to grab that salad you helped me make."
Carefully, Danny brought the platter of roast beef to the table and began to set it down only to pause when Brad half stood. "Here," the other man muttered, moving a glass out of the way.
"Thanks, man," Danny said, setting the platter in the empty space.
"No problem."
Glancing up, he saw Lindsay staring at Brad with wide eyes and he sighed. He seemed to have thrown everyone off balance with his arrival. Finally, Molly returned with the salad, and Danny lowered his head and folded his hands when everyone else did. As Gordon said Grace, Danny added his own special plea to God that he live through this trip to Montana.
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Dinner hadn't been as horribly awkward as he'd first feared, but he was still exhausted as he rolled into bed that night. After his initial belligerence, Brad followed Connor's less threatening lead in dealing with Danny, albeit with reluctance. However, Lindsay had kept her mouth shut for the entire meal, leaving Molly to fill the silence with bright chatter.
Silence seemed to be a given in Bozeman. Lying back on the bed, Danny strained to hear anything. The quiet roared in his ears until he could hear a vague ringing, like someone running a finger around the rim of a water glass.
Sighing in frustration, he turned to bury his face in the pillow. Everyone was in bed now, had been for a couple of hours, but he couldn't get his eyes to close for more than a few seconds. All he could hear was the sound of an owl hooting every so often and the distant chirping he could only assume was coming from a colony of crickets.
A soft knocking on his door made him jump up with a strange sense of relief. When he stumbled across the room and found Lindsay on the other side, his stomach dropped, though it couldn't have been anyone else. She brushed past him without a word, her arms crossed over her stomach.
"Couldn't sleep?" he murmured, shutting the door. He didn't have his glasses on, but he thought he saw the pale blur of her body shake her head. "You can turn on the light."
She remained silent, reaching over to click the lamp on. Danny blinked in the sudden brightness as he wandered over to the side table and slid his glasses into place. When her image came into focus, he saw her settling herself against the headboard. Her eyes turned to him as he dropped back down on the bed and shoved a pillow under his head.
"I can't keep my eyes closed," she told him, stretching out her legs.
He rolled his head towards her. "Bad…thoughts?"
She frowned and shrugged. "No more than usual. I just can't stop thinking."
Danny nodded. After a minute, his lips curled up on one side. "It's too quiet for me."
Lindsay glanced at him, eyes wide. "I had the same problem when I got here."
They both laughed, trying to keep the noise level down. Lindsay shook her head. "I never thought I'd miss horns blaring outside my window. You?"
Danny pulled himself upright and grinned at her. "Never had anything else."
"You've never been out of the city?" Lindsay asked.
"Does Staten Island count?"
"No."
Her seriousness made him laugh yet again, which, in turn, set her off. After several minutes, they managed to quiet down and Lindsay sighed.
"I'm feeling kinda punchy."
Trailing off into a chuckle, Danny shrugged. He watched her tuck her hair behind her ear, and his heartbeats suddenly felt like they were shaking his chest. When she turned to meet his gaze, he had to look away and think of something—anything—else. He swallowed and stared resolutely ahead of him.
"Lindsay," he murmured, feeling her gaze like heat on the side of his face. "What's going on with your father?"
Her breath caught audibly, so he tried to give her space by not looking at her for a few moments. When she let out a trembling breath, he braced himself. "He's mad at me. Disappointed, maybe, but mad, too."
He nodded and pushed himself upright so he could rest his back against the headboard next to her. "It's really complicated," she said, then winced as she heard herself repeat the same excuse she'd used earlier that evening.
After that, she couldn't seem to get anything else out. Danny waited patiently for her to continue. After a minute or so of tense quiet, he gave up and turned to let her off. "Montana—"
"He wanted me to marry Connor," she blurted out, squeezing her eyes shut.
Danny blinked at her. "He wanted you to?" He took her sigh as an affirmative. "Were you going to?"
Running a hand through her hair, she nodded grimly. "Yeah. I was."
Letting this information sink in, Danny swallowed before frowning. "Okay. Why didn't you?"
Lindsay restlessly shifted. "Because I didn't love him. At least, not that way."
"Then why were you going to marry him?"
"A misguided sense of…obligation…debt." She sighed and rubbed her temple. "After the…" she swallowed. "I went to school at the University of Montana, and during my second semester, my dad had a heart attack."
Before Danny could say anything, she hurried on. "Connor helped my brother run the ranch while my dad was in the hospital. He saved my family's farm." Lindsay sighed. "When I came home for the summer, Connor kept taking me out and bringing me flowers and my dad kept smiling at me and he seemed so happy."
Lindsay buried her face in her hands and groaned. "I know it sounds stupid, but I was a different person back then. I was a little lost during that first year of college."
Danny reached out and ran a finger down her hand. "It's not stupid. You were worried about your father."
Lindsay dropped her hands and glanced at him, smiling wryly. "It was stupid." She'd expected disgust for her lack of backbone. Instead all she saw was calm attention. "Connor asked me to marry him when I was nineteen. Well, actually, he asked my father. My father said yes."
"Wait, he asked your father, not you?" Danny looked adorably confused as he folded his arms across his chest.
"Connor's family is very…traditional," she stressed. "He asked for my father's blessing. He got it."
"So, when you said no, your dad couldn't forgive you? That doesn't make any sense."
"I didn't say no." Danny's eyebrows shot up his forehead and she looked away. "We were engaged for five years."
"Five years? Engaged to a man you didn't love?"
"Yep. I'm an idiot."
"You're not an idiot," he murmured, looking away.
"Yes, I am. I told him that I couldn't get married until I was out of school and settled in a job, so we stayed engaged until I was a CSI in Bozeman. That took five years. Then, once I was back here, settled, Connor started talking about the wedding. We started planning. And I panicked."
She shook her head. "I couldn't marry a man I didn't love just to pay my father's debt."
"Did Connor love you?" Danny asked quietly, still refusing to look at her.
"Yeah, I think he did. When I gave him the ring back…he cried. I'd never seen him cry," she whispered, staring blankly down at her fingers.
"Does he still love you?"
Lindsay smiled grimly. "I doubt it. Things got really messy after I called the wedding off. But he was always very nice about it. Understanding. When I went to New York, he and Brad drove me to the airport. He's actually been more supportive of the move than anyone else."
Scratching the back of his neck, Danny nodded. His head was hanging so low to avoid her gaze that his chin was nearly resting against his chest. "You should try to get some rest."
"Danny—" Lindsay started to say, then stopped when he looked up. His face was still calm, though she could see the tension holding his shoulders rigid. The lamp behind his head made it hard to see his eyes and, realizing she was staring, she dropped her gaze. "I'll see you in the morning."
She slid herself off the bed and walked hurriedly towards the door, feeling his eyes on her the whole way. Maybe he did feel the disgust she'd feared before telling him. Maybe he thought she was a spineless idiot who'd never been meant for anything more than being a small town CSI.
"Lindsay," he said behind her as her fingers brushed the doorknob.
Stealing herself, she looked over her shoulder and found him in the same position she'd left him, shoulders rigid, arms crossed tightly across his chest. But she could see his eyes now and she wondered at the emotions raging in them.
"It's really none of my business." The words were hard, but his face was apologetic.
And, as easily as that, she could identify what she saw swimming in his eyes: jealousy. So simple. She felt her muscles relax and one corner of her lips turn up in a gentle half-smile. "Of course it is."
His face relaxed just slightly, and she swung the door open with more peace. Sneaking back down the hall, she slipped into her room and leaned against the door for a moment.
Danny Messer now knew all her secrets. Well, maybe she had a couple of others lying around in the back of her mind, but she couldn't think of what they might be. And she knew that if he ever asked, she'd tell him all about those, too.
The man who'd spent her first few months in New York hazing her mercilessly, nicknaming her Montana to remind her that she didn't belong, giving her the full rookie treatment—that same man was now her best friend.
When had that happened?
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notesofwimsey: Even without Lindsay, Danny is an awesome character; he's also way fun to write. Lindsay is a bit harder for me cuz she's been hiding so much on the show. So I'm glad their interaction is coming across plausibly. On another note, Danny won't be dealing too much with Gordon or Connor in this story, but he does in the sequel that I'm currently working on.
tria246815: Hi and thanks for reviewing! I'm glad you're enjoying the story.
prplerayne: Isn't it amazing how loyal Danny is? It shocked me greatly when they showed us Danny's reaction to seeing Lindsay in Mac's office in The Lying Game and they made it so obvious he still had feelings for her. I mean, I hoped, but they put it on the backburner so long and Lindsay wasn't exactly…encouraging…Yeah. Anyway. Danny's awesome.
Kavi Leighanna: Yay for flirty banter! I'm really looking forward to ep 19, after they wrap up Lindsay's trial. I can't wait to see what the DL friendship/relationship will be like. I'd even be happy if, like you said, they just go back to the friendly, flirtyness for awhile. I'm a sucker for fluff, I know. I'm angry with Lindsay's father, too. You hear that, Gordon? (shakes fist)
Devilla: Hi! Thanks for your review! I'm glad you've become addicted. I hope you liked this chapter as much as the last few.
CrazyGabs: Thanks for reviewing! I'm glad the story wasn't too sickening. I toned it down a bit from the original, so I guess that was a good idea:-p
Marue61: Hi and thanks for your review! I hope you liked this chapter!
gt4good: Thanks for reviewing again! Welcome back! More Danny in Montana coming up. :-p
chili-peppers: Yeah, poor Lindsay. Her intimacy issues are pretty understandable, I guess. :-/ Thanks so much for staying with the story! I hope you liked this chapter!
The Little Corinthian: Hi and thanks for reviewing the story! They're so fantastic together. I love them apart, but together is so much better. : )
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A.N. Hey guys! The story is starting to move pretty fast now. Let me know if it's too fast. The next chapter will be up tomorrow or maybe later tonight.
