A/N: Alright, so I have an admission to make... I kind of lied. Apparently Fred had unresolved issues that needed to be dealt with before we could get to the good stuff; so it seems like we're going to share a bit of emotional baggage between our favourite couple before we get to the shower secks. Damn it, Fred. But this being said, I think it's common knowledge nowadays that I'm physically incapable of just sticking to my A/Ns and plans when it comes to a story's chapter amount. Case in point, Why'd You Have to Go; which by the way for anyone who is still interested is currently being worked on. YAYS. I hope people enjoy this chapter nonetheless. 7x15 is probably my favourite episode this season, bar 7x01 - so there's just so much I want to do for it, you know, hold onto it with both hands kind of thing; so I hope it's not getting old! I'm sorry if I appear to be repeating myself.. eeks!
I do know however that chapter 3 will bring the goods ;) and it'll be the final chapter (I think... hopefully!).
Now, can I just give a huge thank you to those who reviewed; I really loved hearing what you thought about the story. I hope there are others that enjoyed it too. Also, huge thanks to all of you who added it to story alert... or me to Author alert! That was awesome. Thank you! Special mentions to: cklovesm-m, MesserFamilyFan100, afrozenheart412, 18lzytwner, csimesser1, alexindigo, brendanakai, me00789 and lauralynn87 :)
Wrapped Up In You - chapter two.
Ducking his head out of the open window, Danny Messer felt a small smile grace his lips as his eyes fell on the form of his wife. He'd searched for her high and low in their teeny tiny apartment, before realising where she was most likely to be. He braced himself before climbing through the opened window and onto the fire escape that was just outside their bedroom. Although he attempted the climb through the small gap as gracefully as he could manage, he was pretty sure he lost a little bit of his masculinity, and was just thankful that Lindsay had missed his stumbling. Once he'd straightened himself up after nearly sending himself head first down the escape, he settled next to her on their 'balcony' they'd dubbed it, and let out a small sigh. "I figured I'd find you here, aren't you a little cold babe?" He inquired, shuffling close to her.
"Nope," she smiled offering some of her blanket to him.
"Is everything okay?"
"Fine," she nodded. "I'm just thinking."
"About anything in particular?" he inquired as she laid her head against his shoulder.
"Life." She shrugged as she shuffled closer to him; so much so she was nearly sat on his lap. "You, me."
"Oh yeah?" he mused, pressing a kiss to the crown of her head. "What about us?"
"Just stuff," she smiled. "Nothin' really, just that I love you."
"Aw baby, I love you too." He pressed a kiss to her temple. "But you needed to come out here to think about that? I'm not buyin' that."
"So maybe I'm thinkin' about some other stuff too," she admitted.
"Do you wanna talk about it?" he asked.
"Not really," she shook her head; her teeth chattering a little. "It got really cold all of a sudden."
"It's cause I stole your blankie," he reasoned, wrapping the blanket around her and pulling her completely onto his lap. "Better?"
"Aren't you cold?" She asked, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Nah, I got you; you're my little ball of heat on my lap to keep me warm."
"A little ball of heat?" she repeated, her eyebrows arched. "Really?"
"It's been a long day," he lamely defended himself. "You sure that there's nothin' I can do to help you?"
She nodded against him, threading her fingertips mindlessly through his hair. "I love you for wantin' to help, but I'm just thinking over it myself... I'm fine, I promise... it's just been a long day like you said."
"You still feeling the heat from the case with Kate?"
"A little," Lindsay admitted. "She called me earlier today and I missed her call."
"Linds," Danny sighed.
"Baby, please don't start." She pleaded with him. "I really don't want to get into it; just cuddle me and make me feel better."
"Let me guess; you're beating yourself up about it?" He questioned; ignoring her pleas to drop the subject, but he made a point of tightening his hold on her, wrapping her in a protective bundle.
"I'm sure I said I didn't wanna talk about it," she mused out loud. "How is it that you still manage to pry it out of me?"
"Because I think deep down you do want to talk about it."
"Maybe," she shrugged. "So go on, tell me what it is I'm thinking about."
"Hmm," he paused for a moment as he took a look at the stress that had taken over her features. "I'm thinkin' you feel bad and a little embarrassed that you apparently keep letting her down. You feel like you're not being the best version of the picture you've painted for yourself and you're not living up to your high expectations."
"You know, you're such a shit," she told him. "I hate that you know me so well... there's no mystery to me any more." She teased lightly, pressing a kiss to his jaw. "But I have to admit, I do love you for it."
"It's a skill I've come to master." He informed her proudly, "And let me tell you something. It's a load of crap; all what you're feeling is bullshit Linds."
"Excuse me?" she implored, moving away from him abruptly, but not being able to move very far because of the hold his arms had around her. "Come again?"
"All of these high expectations you have and the picture you've painted of what you need to do for this chick; it's eatin' you up and it's a load of crap."
"No Danny, it's what she deserves."
"Deserves? From you? I don't think so."
"Why might that be?" Lindsay sighed.
"Honey, I don't know if you remember but Kate lied to you."
"Yeah, well... it's the least I can do for her."
"Linds, what the hell are you talking about? She looked into your eyes and didn't think twice about lying to you."
"Do you blame her?" Lindsay implored. "She was scared, she knew what she'd been doing considering the circumstances wasn't helping her innocence plea."
"That doesn't justify her lying to you though. Let's be realistic here, baby."
"No, but just because she lied doesn't mean she doesn't need that reassurance that things will get better for her."
"And she needs to work that out for herself babe. She needs to find peace with what happened so that she can move on."
"I just feel responsible; like I need to help her."
He let out a long, laboured sigh. "Was it you that attacked her?"
"What?" she scoffed. "No! Don't be so ridiculous, you know what I mean."
"No actually," he shrugged. "I don't know what you mean at all. I don't understand why you're responsible for her in the slightest to be honest, baby."
"I owe her the support," she rephrased what she had meant. "She deserves the support from me."
"Lindsay, were you on her case?"
"What are you talking about?" she furrowed her brow in confusion, but was also a little taken aback from the use of her given name as opposed to one of his many terms of endearment he had for her. "you know I wasn't on the case."
"So you didn't work with her during the initial investigation?"
"No." She said simply.
"So what is your role in this exactly?"
"It's what I didn't do, Danny. I handed her a pamphlet on dealing with trauma and some pepper spray months after the fact and sent her on her merry way; even though she still didn't feel safe. I need to make up for what I didn't do back then."
"So what was it you were supposed to do 'back then'?" He asked, using air quotes - half of him doing it to piss her off and the other half trying to emphasise the point he was trying to make with her.
"You know what I was doing; I went to offer support and advice."
"Okay, support and advice. And did you give her support and advice?"
"Well-"
"Yes or no," he cut her off. "Did you give her support and advice?"
She sighed, "Yes." She admitted, even though the admission clearly pained her. "But-"
"I said yes or no." He told her firmly. "You went forth and conquered," he said, pressing his index finger against her nose. "You did what you went to do baby; you gave her support and advice. Boom. The end."
"But- what if support and advice wasn't enough."
He sighed. "This really has you doesn't it? Like it's really under your skin and eatin' away at you."
She nodded sadly and slowly. "I let her down the first time with the checking my watch thing... and then there was the me not giving her a gun thing, obviously I wouldn't have just handed her a gun," she assured him before he had the chance to blow up about the ludicrous request on Kate's part. "But, I can understand where she was coming from."
"Well yeah, I can too, but you don't just ask a friggin' NYPD detective for a gun, babe."
"Yeah, hence the pepper spray," Lindsay reminded him. "And to try and make amends I gave her my number in case she wanted to talk, and what did I go and do.. miss the damn phone-call."
"Did you call her back?"
"Of course I did," Lindsay scoffed. "But she didn't answer. I left a message to call me back."
Danny smiled and shook his head slowly. "Linds... what more do you think you can do?"
"I don't know." she sighed.
"You know you're my superhero, and you're Lucy's superhero, but you can't be everyone's hero, babe."
"But I can try," she reasoned. "Even if I'm just Kate's."
"Kate can only be helped if she wants to be helped though. You've left her a message now. You haven't ignored her call; you went out of your way to return the call. And if I know you, which I do," he rubbed his nose against her own, "I'm pretty sure you didn't just tell her you were returning her call. I think you went onto apologise that you missed her call in the first place and you probably also gave her your personal number in case she wanted to get in touch urgently. Am I right?"
"I gave her yours too," Lindsay blushed. "In case I missed her call again..."
"Lindsay Messer." He sighed, shaking his head. "And you're seriously beating yourself up about this?"
"I know, I'm crazy."
"Maybe a little," he teased before shaking his head. "You're not crazy, you just care; too much sometimes. Leave Kate at work, okay? If she calls you back, then great. If she doesn't; oh well, that's her decision. You've done all that you can for her, okay? It's been a week Lindsay; you need be pragmatic and compartmentalise this because it's not something that should be still on your mind."
"I know." She sighed after a pointed stare from her husband. "Honestly, I know."
"Good," he said. "Because I don't want this bothering you any more, understood?"
"Yes sir," she teased him with a mini salute. "And I will... I'll try at least. I promise." She smiled and pressed a kiss to his lips.
"You're freezing," he cried as her cold lips met his. "You're like a little icicle."
"I know, I am really cold... I'm gonna head in for a shower, you coming in?" She asked him.
"I'll be in, in a minute."
"I'll leave the blanket," she smiled; draping it over his shoulders, then following that action by pressing a kiss to his temple. "Don't be too long, I don't want you to get sick; it's pretty cold out here."
"I won't," he promised, watching her retreating form slip her way through the gap in the open window. "Hey Linds?" he called just as she was about to disappear.
"Yeah?" she replied, sticking her head through the window.
"I love your big heart." He smiled. "And I know you want to help her and I love you for that-"
"But..." she prompted.
"This is our spot, isn't it? Reserved for you and me?"
She nodded in agreement.
"What did we promise each other?"
"That we didn't bring work to our spot." She reiterated a pact made months upon months ago between the two of them. "I just like to think out here, you know?" she sighed dreamily. "I thought the cool air would make everything seem clearer."
"And did it?" he pondered.
"No," she shook her head. "But you did."
And with that, she disappeared.
I originally uploaded this at 1am... it is now 3.15am. I was just going to read over it real quick and shoot off to bed. What went wrong? Well, it was a complete BITCH to me. I practically re-wrote the entire thing in the uploader and I'm still iffy on it. It just... I don't know why I was being so fussy with it. And I have NO clue why I'm sharing this, but I feel the need for some unbeknown reason. I hope you guys somewhat enjoyed the chapter! (I'm not sure if that's the right word for this chapter... it's a little heavy and deep but enjoy is all I have right now). Thoughts and comments are muchly appreciated. And thanks for checking in for chapter two, and I hope you come back for chapter three!