Attention any affliated with the CSI franchise:

I no own.

Me no money.

You lots of money.

You no sue me.

Kapish?

Coffee and Co-habitating

"I need a little more help than a little bit

Like the perfect one word no one's heard yet

'cuz everytime I try I get tongue tied

I need a little good luck to get

me by this time."

-Tongue Tied, Faber Drive

Carmen sighed heavily and yawned noisily. A glance at her watch told her there was an hour left in the shift and it was going by painfully slow. The ordeal with Zack had left her emotionally drained.

At least its over, she thought with relief. At least for the most part. He was enjoying a stale baloney sandwich and a squeaky old rusted cot courtesy of the state of New York. He didn't even deserve that much. What he really deserved was to be shot and pissed on and shoved in a pine box and buried as close to hell as possible.

She had offered to lend a hand in trace and was regretting her decision. Her eyes burned and her head pounded from spending way too long peering into the high powered microscope. She closed her eyes and put her hands to her temples ad massaged vigorously and imagined herself on an exotic beach somewhere, sipping Malibu and Coke.

"Rise and shine, Red." a deep, soothing voice said from in front of er.

Her eyes snapped open and she righted herself. The more time she spent being around Tim Speedle, the more she realized her was a decent guy and she hadn't had a reason to be so rude to him earlier. Although she'd never tell him that.

Why does he have to be so goddamn rugged and sexy? she thought fornlornly. Why does he have to smell so good and get under my skin and burrow himself there?

"Dirty dream?" Speed asked.

She smiled. "Maybe..."

He grinned. "You look like you are in some desperate need for a coffee. Extra large, extra strong."

"You are a good judge of character." she said. "Any news on Zack?"

"Hawkes and Mac found a standard home made abduction kit in the trunk of his car. Duct tape, hand cuffs, some rope, garbage bags. Your basic I'm gonna kidnap someone shit. Along with a sawed of Remington twelve gauge that is now sitting down in ballistics. He meant business. Guys in Phoenix found a detailed manifesto of sorts on his home computer and a room he'd built in the basement that they said, and I quote, reminded them of something out of the movie Saw. I'll spare you the details."

"Please do." Carmen shuddered at the thought.

"You know," Speed pulled up a stool and sat down across from her. "that was ballsy of you. Getting in his face like that.'

"I'm a ballsy kind of girl." she said.

"Nice to know you'd do that for a friend."

"She's not just a friend. She's more than that. More than even a best friend. Like a sister."

"She obviously feels the same way about you. You two are tight."

Carmen nodded.

"Good to see. She's lucky to have you."

"Actually," Carmen said. "I'm lucky to have her."

Speed smiled.

"Did you have friends like that in Miami?" she asked curiously.

"A couple." he revealed. "But I'm not really the friends kind of guy."

"You're the loner. Srong, silent, brooding type."

"And you say I'm a good judge of character."

Carmen yawned again.

"You wanna go grab something? After work?" Speed asked.

"I don't go out with people I work with." she replied.

"Just a coffee, Red. I ain't asking ya to marry me."

"Good. Because I'd say no."

"Thought you liked the dark, brooding types." he tossed back at her.

She felt her cheeks flushed.

"Just a coffee." he assured her.

She smiled. "With a shot of Bailey's?"

"Whatever you want." Speed said. "Personally, I'm gonna have ten times that."

Danny didn't want to go home. Home was lonely and quiet and he didn't want lonely and quiet tonight. Home brought back way too many memories. It gave him too much to time to think. Lying there in the dark, exhausted by unable to grasp sleep, his mind racing and his chest aching. There were no memories of him and Lindsay. There'd never rally been any moments that qualified as memory worthy. The couple of times they'd spent the night together following the pool table incident, had happened at her place so he had no mental image of her in his bed. Neither time had meant much more to him than searching for and finding much needed release after a long day. He didn't love her. He had fooled himself into thinking he did. he'd made the mistake of saying those words to her. Of falling into the trap of needing someone, or anyone,so bad that he convinced himself it was more than it was.

Its easier to pretend your in love than accept that your alone. Flack had said that once. One of Flack's rare deep, thoughtful moments where he said something and you looked at the guy and wondered where the hell that had come from and where did the real Flack go. Flack got thoughtful and sentimental when he was drunk. If you wanted to see a big burly cop in tears over past mistakes and failed chances and memories of a less than ideal father son relationship, all you had to do was keep plying Flack with shots of JD and pints of Guinness and before long he was bawling on your shoulder and telling you he loved you and pouring his guts out to whoever would listen. Then the next day he'd be the same old Flack and give you that look that meant if you ever told anyone about the night before, he was going to snap you in half. And Danny liked his body in one piece. Alone or not.

It wasn't that Danny was alone. He had friends. Lots of friends. And usually those riends were readily available for a coffee or a beer an some guy talk. Except sometime when Danny wasn't looking, those friends had suddenly found what he was struggling to find. Someone to love them and need them. Take care of them. When things hadn't worked ou between Flack and that dumb ass socialite, Danny had been secretely happy and relieved. It meant that Flack would be around when Danny needed him to be. Whe he was with Devon, she had Flack hanging out with her friends and attending her formal galas. A blue collar guy stuck in a white collar world.

Devon couldn't stand the thought of being a bar that didn't serve champagne or in a restaurant that the meal didn't cost well over two hundred a person. And she couldn't stand Flack's friends. She thought they were loud and obnoxious and annoying. It was fine with the team because they couldn't stand her either. She was a pretentious and brain dead, boring dumb bitch. Things balanced themselves out well.

They broke up because Devon go tired of Flack's job coming first and Flack got tired of being an accessory. Flack became Flack again and everything was right in the world of Danny Messer. Back to shooting hoops and playing pool and drinking until they stumbled home, alone but happy. Were they happy? Flack never seemed truly happy with his life. But he didn't have the time or the energy to go out and find 'the one'. Someone that would accept being second to the job. Who wouldn't freak every time the phone rang in the middle of the night or during more intimate times. Someone who didn't cringe when he talked shop. Someone who would accept Flack for who he was. There were few women like that. No one like to come after a job. But it happened. A lot.

And now, the guy who vowed to be singe forever, looked very much like he was starting to re-neg. Danny saw how happy Flack was. A genuine, all out happiness and completeness Danny had never seen before or experienced himself. Flack was in love. There was no other word for it. He was head over heels in love. And Danny couldn't stand it. He was happy for Flack. He'd managed to find himself a decent, beautiful and intelligent woman. Maybe she was 'the one'. But Danny couldn't help but be jealous.

And Speed. What was up with Speed? He couldn't stay away from Carmen. And that was not like Speed. Speed stuck to himself and liked it that way. Less chance of getting hurt. And the more Carmen mouthed him off and gave him a hard time, the more Speed hung around. Definitely not Tim Speedle.

Danny couldn't go home. Too many things on his mind. His screwed up non relationship with Lindsay, his friends bailing on him. And Reuben. Reuben bothered him the most. He could still hear the kid banging on his door, begging him to get up. Still see him, the pride in his eyes at the blessing on the bikes. How cute Rueben had looked in his little helmet, pedalling along on that gorgeous sunny morning. telling Danny how his mom never let him ride ahead. They were laughing and chatting and making plans to grab some lunch. Having a good time. And then the phone call from Lindsay and Rueben riding ahead and turning the corner and...a gunshot. Running to catch up, yelling at Reuben to get home, take the short cut. He'd assumed Rueben had made it home. And he could still feel the bile and horror rise in his throat when he saw Reuben lying there on Hammerbeck's table and...

He wouldnt think about that. He wouldn't tortuer himself. He'd been torturing himself for months now. And going home would only compound the torture.

Instead, he headed for the all night coffee place by his apartment. He was a regular there. On a first name basis with the owner and wait staff. He wouldn't feel alone there. He didn't need to talk or have anyone talk to him. The background noise would be enough to keep him distracted.

He reached for the door and yanked it open. A pretty blond came nearly stumbling out and into him. She was tall and curvy with bouncy curls and powder blue eyes. She wore pale yellow hospital scrubs and a pair of those God awful Croc sandles Danny had complained to Sam about when he saw her wearing them two days ago on her way home. The sweet looking blond thing was visibly flustered as she juggled two carry trays of coffee cups.

Danny instinctively reached out and unloaded her off the trays. Danny Messer was a gentleman when it came to things like that.

"Thank you sooo much." the young lady gushed in appreciation.

"Hell of a load to carry there." Danny commented. "You got far to take these?"

"Just to my car." she gestured to a beat up Toyota at the curb a few spots down.

"Lead the way." Danny said and followed her. "You a nurse?" he asked.

She nodded. "In the ICU at Cedars Sinai. You?"

"I'm a cop. Detective actually. Crime Scene Investigator."

"That must be exciting. And its a small world. My cousin is a CSI, too."

"Here? In New York?"

She nodded. "Well, she's in New York now."

"Wait a second... you're cousin didn't just come from Arizona did she?"

"As a matter of fact, yeah. Samantha Ross. You work the same shift?"

"I know her very well. How's that for weird? Me meeting you and working with your cousin. You guys close?"

"I'm hoping to be now that she's back home." she fished a pair of keys from her pocket and unlocked the driver's side door. "Thank you again." she said and took the trays from him and settled them on her front passenger seat.

"No problem." Danny said sincerely. "Miss..."

"Erica. My name's Erica."

"I'm Danny." he offered his hand. Her hand was small and soft and warm as he shook it.

"It was really nice of you." she said again.

"Have a good night." Danny said with a smile and began heading away.

"Hey... Danny!" she called to him.

He doubled back to the car.

"Maybe I could treat you to coffee sometime. For helping me out."

He smiled. "You could do that." he said.

She grabbed a scrap piece of paper from her glove compartment and an eyeliner to use as a pen and scribbled down her name and number. "Have a nice night, Danny." she said and folded the paper and tucked it into the pocket of hs leather bomber jacket.

"I'll call you." he promised.

She smiled as she climbed into her car. "I hope so." she said and closed the door.

Danny stood on the curb and watched her drive away. Suddenly the lonliness began to lift.

Mac Taylor and Clint Chambers sat across from one another at a table in the fifth floor cafeteria of the crime lab. It was the only one of the three cafeterias that were open twenty four hours and it was well after nine. Mac had been so busy with Zack Turner fiasco that this was the first chance he got to sit down with the man. Clint had asked to see him and had come back to the lab on his own accord.

So they sat and sipped black coffee and shared stories about their time in the service. Clint talked about commanding paratroopers in Korea and the Balkans and Mac talked about the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut and his time in Operation Desert Storm. Both men found they were a lot alike and quckly developed a respect for each other.

"I need to ask you something, Taylor." Clint said in all seriousness as they still sat there an hour later.

"Go ahead." Mac urged.

"Whose this kid my daughter is messing around with?"

"With all due respect, Clint, Don Flack is thirty years old and no more kid than you and I."

Clint nodded slowly.

"And he's a hell of a cop." Mac said.

"Never mind what kind of cop he is. What kind of man is he? For my daughter? She's my main concern first and foremost. I need to know that whoever this guy is, he's not another Zack."

"He's far from being anything like Zack." Mac assured him. "He's a good, upstanding young man. He always back his friends. He was the one that got your son and Danny Messer out of that warehouse that day. Put his ass on the line many a time to help Danny out as a matter of fact. Speaking honestly, I believe his feelings for your daughter are genuine. I know he cares a lot about her. He was furious when he found out about what Zack did to her. Not to mention he put his career on the line by going to that hotel and laying a beating on that kid."

Clint considered all of this, sipping slowly at his coffee.

"He's got a level head." Mac continued. "And since he was gravely injured two years ago on the job..."

"What happened to him?" Clint asked curiously.

"He nearly died when a bomb was detonated at a crime scene we were at. He stayed behind to clear people out of the building. He was in the hospital for nearly three months and spent another month and a half recovering at home and doing re-hab and physio. I think it gave him a new perspective on life. He wants something to hold on to and he feels your daughter is that something."

"In all honesty, Mac... if this was your daughter, is this a guy you'd want her bringing home?"

"I'd have no objections." Mac answered quickly and confidently.

Clint sighed. "I just don't want her getting hurt. She's been through a lot all ready."

"You don't have to worry about him hurting her. You have my word."

"As his boss?"

"No." Mac said. "As a Marine"

They walked through the Strawberry Fields section of Central Park. Sipping at steaming cups of coffee and alternating between gazing up at the stars and catching themselves observing each other when one thought the other wasn't looking. It was a beautiful summer night. A slight breeze tousled the tree tops and the moon was full and bright and stars twinkled in the black velvet sky. The temperature had dropped considerably. Forecasters were predicting steady rain beginning after midnight and lasting for at least twenty four hours.

"Tell me a little bit about yourself, Carmen." Speed said.

She stopped walking and turned to stare at him. Taken aback that he'd actually called her by her name. "What would you like to know?" she asked, when she'd gotten over her small state of shock and began walking once again.

"I don't know. Bits and pieces, I guess."

"Well..." she sipped her coffee and considered what to mention and what to leave out. "I'm originally from Portland. I came to New York City to attend college after my brother was killed in the line of duty. He was a firefighter."

"Sorry to hear that." Speed said sympathetically. "You guys were close?"

"We were. I took it pretty bad. It still bothers me after all this time. Its not something I like talking about."

"Well then you don't have to." he told her and smiled gently. "What about your folks? They still around?"

"In Portland. Thank God. My mom and I get along all right. My dad and I... let's just say we both have very different expectations for my life and we don't see eye to eye on them. I don't think I've had a civil conversation with my father in years. Actually, any type of conversation for that matter."

"All your college education, why'd you become a cop?"

"I don't know. Serve and protect I guess."

Speed laughed and shook his head and sipped his coffee.

"What?" she couldn't help but laugh at his reaction. It seemed so light hearted and genuine. "What's so funny?"

"That's just the answer we all give when we're going into the academy. I'm here because I want to serve and protect. What a line of shit."

"Okay, Mr Speedle..." she stepped in front of him challengingly and walked backwards. "Why did you with your degrees become a cop?"

"Help people. Feel like I'm making a difference."

She arched an eyebrow.

"Who am I kidding? I became a cop to chase bad guys and because they give me a badge and a gun and I get paid to use them."

"Much better." she laughed and fell back in step beside him. "So tell me more about yourself. Tim."

He smiled. No one had called him Tim in years. In fact, he was called Speed so often it may as well have been his legal name.

"What would you like to know?" he asked. "I'm originally from Syracuse and I have a masters in biology from Columbia."

"Family?"

"None. My parents are dead, no brothers or sisters. Relatives I haven't seen in years."

"What about your friends in Miami? Do you ever talk to them?"

"No. That part of my life got left behind the day I came home. That was an old Tim Speedle. He died that day in that jewellery store."

Carmen arched an eyebrow curiously.

"Police shoot out." Speed explained. "Wrong place at the wrong time. Got shot in the chest, nearly coded twice, brought back to life all that fun stuff that comes with having a bullet in your heart. Came back here to recuperate, went into PI work and now, here I am, working at another crime lab."

Carmen liked the way he was so straight to the point and confident. She found herself thinking there wasn't much she didn't like about him. Get a grip, she thought. He's just a guy you work with. Nothing more. And he'll never be more. That's the way you have to keep it. To protect yourself.

"Well you're a good person to have around." she said. "You've all ready proven that."

"I wasn't just going to stand there and let some guy bully an ex around. Things could have been a hell of a lot worse."

She nodded. "Do you like being back in New York?" she asked.

"I'm starting to." he said and smiled softly at her.

Carmen felt a lump form in her throat and her pulse quicken. She was glad that it was dark out and he couldn't see the flush that came over her face. It had been a long time since a man had looked at her that way. Especially a man like him. She shivered involuntarily.

"Cold?" he asked, and before she could respond was taking off his light jacket and wrapping it around her shoulders.

"Thanks." she said, her voice meek. She'd never heard her voice sound like that before. It was frightening. He was frightening. So intense and dark and sullen and mysterious. And he smelled so good. She fought the urge to nuzzle her face in his jacket to breath in more of that masculine scent.

"Its getting late." Speed said, tossing his empty cup into a nearby garbage can.

Carmen nodded. Afraid to say anything in case he noticed the disappointment in her voice.

"You live far from here?" he asked as they headed back the way they'd come. Walking close together, their arms occasionally brushing against each other. Neither attempted to move away. He watched her out of the corner of his eye. There was no denying that she was a beautiful woman. Head strong and intelligent and independent to a fault. And the way the moonlight danced in her eyes and shone in her hair was intoxicating. It had been a hell of a long time since he'd looked at a woman that way. He was starting to feel alive again. Human for the first time since the shooting.

"Twenty minutes on the subway." she replied.

"I'll put you in a cab. Make sure you get home okay."

"You don't have to." she said.

"I want to." he informed her.

They walked in silence back to the entrance of the park. True to his word, he flagged her a cab and slipped the driver a twenty. Told him to make sure she got in the front door of the building safely and not to pull away until she was out of his sight.

"Thanks for the coffee." she said, pausing as she went to slip into the back of the yellow cab.

"Never got the Bailey's in there, though." he said with a grin.

"Next time." she assured him and smiled gently, then slipped into the cab and shut the door.

He knocked on the window before the driver could pull away.

She rolled it down.

"I like it when you call me Tim." he told her.

"So do I." she said with a wink and rolled the window back up as the cab pulled away.

She had just stepped in her door when her cell phone beeped to show in incoming text message. She unclipped it from her pants pocket and checked the display.

You've got my jacket it read simply.

She grinned and sent a message back. Finders Keepers. Then turned off her phone and buried her face in that jacket and inhaled a long, deep breath.

Carmen Devine, she thought. What the hell do you think you're doing?

It was after nine by the time that Don Flack finally got the key in the lock of his apartment. He had wanted to be home a hell of a lot earlier by a last minute call had turned the day into a sixteen hour instead of an eight hour. He was tired and sore. On long days like that, especially with the damp threat of rain in the air, the ache in his chest and his back always seemed to creep up. He'd thought that after two years that would all be behind him. But there were days and nights it was so bad he could barely sleep and he had to stand under a hot shower for nearly an hour to feel any sort of relief. The Tylenol three had long ago stopped doing anything for the pain. The doctors had suggested something stronger, but when the first two rounds of Percocet had pushed him closer and closer to utter dependency, he'd pulled the plug on that. He may have been many things, but a druggie he was not.

Samantha was in the kitchen, sitting at the table with her lap top open in front of her, and a half eaten bag of oreo cookies beside her. Pounding at the mouse pad with two fingers and cursing so badly it could make a trucker blush. It seemed so natural and so right to see her sitting there like a permanent fixture. As if she'd always been there. Truth was, it was nice to have someone to come home to. And when that someone looked like her and was wearing one of your shirts and nothing else by the looks of it, it was even nicer. He realized when the thought of having her there permanently didn't scare the shit out of him, that he was in way over his head. And that he had no intention on getting out.

"Beating the shit out of it will not solve your problem." Flack said and dropped his keys on the microwave.

"I'm taking out my frustrations on it." she huffed. "I can't use this stupid thing! Adam said it was one of the better one! Well he was full of shit!"

"It's not the computer." Flack said "Its the person using it."

"Ha. Ha." she snorted and slammed her fingers down on the key board. "Stupid fucking piece of shit."

"Samantha, you've got a worse mouth on you than I do." he informed her and laid a hand on her shoulder and kissed the top of her head. "Did you sleep?" he asked.

"A couple of hours." she said and pushed her chair away from the table to stand up. "You know, I'm very impressed. You're one of the cleaner guys I've been around. You can actually eat of your floors if you wanted to. And the bathroom isn't disgusting. I didn't need to fumigate the toilet to use it."

"Its 'cause I'm never here." he reasoned. "And I'm sorry I'm late."

"Its okay. I took a bath and checked my e-mail and relaxed. I thought I'd wait for you to get something to eat." she loosened his tie and undid the top two buttons on his shirt. "Work was okay?"

"Fine. But let's not talk about work." he laid a hand on her hip and kissed her long and soft.

"What do you want to talk about?" she asked, slowly undoing the rest of his buttons.

"How dangerous it is that you're walking around in just my shirt and underwear."

"Actually," she said, grinning up at him. "I'm not wearing any underwear."

"I am going to pretend that you never said that."

"What? Does the thought of me not wearing any underwear get you all hot and bothered?"

"A little." he admitted and had to pry her hands from his belt buckle. "You need to just take it easy." he said.

"So only you get to have fun? That's not fair." she leaned against the counter closest to him and grabbed an oreo cookie from the package and pulled the top off it it. "You're still not going to try that no actual sex thing after what happened when we first got here are you?"

"I just don't think you're ready for 'actual sex' as you call it. Especially not with the last two days you've had."

"And what do you call what you did this afternoon?" she inquired, pressing her tongue against the white icing and then licking it slowly with the tip.

"That was not sex."

"Okay Bill Clinton." she teased and scooped some icing off with the tip of her tongue.

"What's gotten into you?" he asked, attempting to hide the fact he was totally turned on by her eating an oreo cookie in such fashion.

"Remember how I told you that chocolate acts like an aphrodesiac for me?"

"Yeah..."

"Well I ate half a bag of oreos."

He shook his head.

"And never mind what red licorice does and I ate all of those." she was turning the simple act of eating the inside of an oreo an erotic experience for him. And he didn't know how much more he could take.

"Do you mind?" he asked "Seriously."

"Mind what?" she asked innocently and scraped some of the icing off with her finger and then licked her finger slowly.

"Fuck woman... stop teasing me so much."

"Then give in." she said. "I know you want to."

"Of course I want to... its just that..."

"I promise I'll be gentle."she vowed and reached out and grabbed him by the waist of his pants and yanked him towards her so he was pressed up tightly against her and she was pinned against the cupboard.

"What are you doing to me?" he asked, looking into those golden eyes, his hands on her hips.

"Only what you let me." she replied.

He kissed her. Long and deep, his tongue in her mouth, his one hand sliding down her hip and up the bottom of the shirt, his finger tips finding nothing but the silky skin of her lean thigh.

She reached between them for his belt buckle again and had gotten it undone and the button of his pants snapped open when he pulled away.

"I need to go take a shower." he said. "A long, long long extremely cold shower."

"I told you I wasn't wearing any underwear." she said with a grin.

"I'll be back." he told her. "You stay here. Okay?"

"Are you afraid I'll rape you or something?" she asked as he left.

"I just don't think tonight is the right night. That's all." he replied as he headed down the hall towards the bathroom.

She wasn't going to give up that easy. She knew what she wanted and how to get it and wasn't taking no for an answer. She waited a few minutes and then went down the hall way and into the bathroom where he was just setting up the water.

"Samantha... I told you that..."

"Listen to me." she said aggressively and backed him against the wall. "I appreciate you being all gentlemanly and respecting my feelings and for thinking you know what's best for me. But let me make this very clear to you Don Flack..." she pulled the shirt over her head and tossed it aside and then vigorously finished undoing the rest of his shirt buttons and his pants. "Me and you are having sex tonight. Right here. Right now. Am I making it clear to you?" she slipped her hands down the front of his boxers.

"Crystal." he said.

"And I know that you want our first time together to be romantic and all because you think that's what I need and what I want, but what I need and what I want is for you to just fuck the shit out of me all ready. Understand? Now are you really going to say no? Do you really want to say no?"

"What I really want is for you to get your ass in that shower." he said. "And I'll give you exactly what you want."

She grinned broadly. "Its about fucking time."

Aphina: we have to keep the secret! LOL! Hope Tim and Carmen are heading in the right direction for you

Annabel-Messer: this is different and I'm glad you are enjoying it! Welcome! p.s. Danny's getting some love!!

Mauveine: lots more hot to come. I promise.

Forest Angel: glad you are enjoying!

jayfray: welcome!

and the rest of you reading this:

thanks for the reviews and the support!