As usual, I do not own these characters, and if I did … well. Anyway.

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Chapter 5: Theatre

Lindsay turned her head, looked away from the direction her grandfather had gone. The street was busy. The bright yellow taxi's stood out in the traffic as they plodded slowly on. The sounds suddenly registered to her—it was odd that you usually just tuned it all out. How she had learned to tune it all out.

But for a moment, she missed Montana, the wide open sky that would have been dotted with stars. The room to run and not have to weave through a crowd. Just run straight and forward in what seemed like a moment of forever.

And the space to scream, to just let out the tension in one massive burst of noise where no one would be concerned or even know. To fall to the ground, and roll over to look at the night sky. To just look at the stars.

For the tears to come, and not have to worry that someone would make something of it.

Or as would most likely happen here—ignore it, tune it out, or push it aside.

When Danny's hand closed over her shoulder, she jumped.

"Linds?"

She shook her head and looked back at him as she offered a saddened smile. "Sorry."

"What do you want to do?" his fingers nudged aside her shoulder length hair and gently rubbed the based of her neck where so much of the tension had massed. "We've got the night wide open to ourselves."

"Lets just go somewhere," she said, leaning into his touch. "Go somewhere just to … I don't know. Just to do it."

"How about a movie?"

"Somewhere off the beaten path?"

"I know exactly the place," his hand dropped down, followed the length of her back, then came around to meet with hers. She merged her fingers with his, and felt a release.

She wasn't in Montana, but her grandfather was right. This was her place.

.ny.

Danny's theater was so different than the thoughts of Montana she'd been having, it felt like something out of a movie itself. In a way, it infused a sense of New York back into her heart. Hidden between a Chinese restaurant and a New York City hostel, the outside showed signs of greatness and age. It had been, at one time, one of the grand movie palaces, but economic times had whittled down its real estate so that it seemed more of a hole in the wall than something impressive. It only offered one screen. And that screen wasn't even publicized on the outside.

It was, Lindsay thought, a New York City nitch. And perfect for what she needed tonight.

Rehab had not come to the classic interior, either. As Lindsay walked in, hand in hand with Danny, she felt like she was entering her own horror movie. She giggled a little, expecting the dark music to warn her of her impending death.

"What?" he asked as they reached the inside usher who took their tickets.

"This is cool," she accepted the ticket that the guy handed back to her. "Why haven't you brought me here before?"

"Not usually my type of gig—they have a lot of marathons. Foreign films, mostly. French, Polish. Subtitles. That kind of thing."

"So what's on tonight?"

Danny reached forward, opened the door to the theatre, and tried to usher her in. "I don't know. But the theme is classic horror films."

She stopped him, stood at the door and stared up at him. "This was so not happenstance."

"No … I saw it last week, thought I'd get around to bringing you a few times. Just so happened tonight was our night."

For Lindsay, something inside of her softened toward him, something pealed back slightly enough to shimmer, something that had been missing—not just for the last few hours, but for the last few months. She rode on the feeling and bounced slightly to bump her lips against his. "You're absolutely amazing, you know that?"

Danny grinned, and hand on her back, ushered her in to the darkened room.

.ny.

For a few hours, Lindsay simply relaxed. Danny simply watched her. They stuck around for a second movie, and then Lindsay convinced him to stay for the third—a film, she said, was voted the worst film ever made which made it something they should see.

He was doubtful, but stayed and was surprised by the number of people that meandered in to fill nearly half the seats.

Ten minutes later, he sighed and pulled out his vibrating phone. They were walked hand in hand out of the theatre.

"I'm sorry we had to leave." He couldn't keep the laughter from his voice.

"It's okay," she turned, found his other hand and laced her fingers through it as well. "We can rent it. Or come back."

He laughed. "Next time, I'll pay attention to what's showing."

She pushed up, pressed her lips to his for a brief kiss. "I guess I'll see you at work tomorrow?"

"Don't rush away just yet," he released her hands, slid his arm around her back, and turned in the direction of the subway. "I'll take you home."

"Danny—you've got to get your case, get to the scene."

"And your grandfather could be waiting there at your place. I just want him to think—"

"Something other than the truth?" she eyeballed him with a sideways glance, but didn't stop moving. If Danny was going to insist taking her home, then she needed to move. "So gallant."

He shrugged it off, but kept his hand in hers, and picked up the pace. Little did Danny know that the murder scene would lead him less into horror film and more into Jones. Indiana Jones, to be precise.

Next up: Cost of Living …

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I intended to move into COL, but it seemed too much for now. So you got the fluff! :p And… here's a weird note, but as I can, I'm going to satisfy my own need to share what I had decided to write in … then deleted.

I started off with the theme for the movies as Superhero films, but, those really didn't take off until the 70s. I even tried to look up foreign superhero films to give the showings some range, but … alas Google didn't offer anything. New films didn't fit the setting's budget. SO I moved to horror.

I wrote them watching the movies, but it started to drag, so if you're just wondering what I think Lindsay and Danny saw … the movie they entered into the middle of at first was the old Boris Karloff film The Old Dark House, then the Vincent Price film – The Fly (I thought it would be something Danny could rib Lindsay about) and the third is the only movie I've seen (and own) of the three—the film voted worst movie ever made: Ed Wood's Plan Nine from Outer Space. I learned about it in my history of film class and then watched it. It's hi-larious. Warning though--watch it with a group of people that love quirky things (and do a little bit of research to be prepared to know what to look for) … keep your eyes open for wire on the space ships, cardboard tombstones that move, curtains on the edge of a set, the detective unable to get out of the grave … and the terrible, terrible dialogue. Oh—and the classic Dracula, Bela Lugosi, who died early in the filming and they reused the same scene over and over again, then replaced him with a really tall, younger man that walks around with a cape over his face. Opps, sorry for the history lesson—but I think Lindsay would have been fascinated by this one as well. But I could just be projecting myself. :)

A/N to make this longer!: I did the research myself. Go to imdb and look it up. Click on the review labeled something like "to be taught" which is spot on, and then on the link for goofs ... that's what I'm talking about. :p