DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN CSI:NY OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS. I DO HOWEVER OWN SAMANTHA FLACK AND THE FLACK TWINS.

A/N: THANKS TO EVERYONE THAT IS ADDING ME TO ALERTS AND FAVS!

I WAS TOLD TO ISSUE A WARNING: DO NOT EAT OR DRINK WHILE EATING THE PART OF THIS CHAPTER THAT IS IN ITALICS.

ITALICS DENOTES A FLASHBACK.

PLEASE READ THE SONG LYRICS. IT'S PERFECT FOR OUR TWO COUPLES FEATURED IN THIS CHAPTER!


Flacks and Messers: Part Two

"Remember when I was young and so were you
and time stood still and love was all we knew
You were the first, so was I
We made love and then you cried
Remember when

Remember when we vowed the vows and walked the walk
Gave our hearts, made the start, it was hard
We lived and learned, life threw curves
There was joy, there was hurt
Remember when

Remember when old ones died and new were born
And life was changed, disassembled, rearranged
We came together, fell apart
And broke each others hearts
Remember when

Remember when the sound of little feet
was the music
We danced to week to week
Brought back the love, we found trust
Vowed we'd never give up
Remember when

Remember when thirty seemed old
Now lookin' back it's just a steppin' stone
To where we are,
Where we've been
Said we'd do it all again
Remember when

Remember when we said when we turned gray
When the children grow up and moved away
We won't be sad, we'll be glad
For all the life we've had
And we'll remember when."
-Remember When, Alan Jackson


"So have you heard from Adam?" Lindsay asked, as she and Sam lounged on the living room couch. Listening to the kids directly above them in the designated playroom. Laughing and co-existing rather peacefully at the moment.

The girls got along exceptionally well despite their nearly three year age difference. To Amanda and the twins, they weren't just 'cousins' and best friends. They were as tight as sisters. And that included the scrapping and fighting that came with all siblings. Amanda even hung around the Flack girls on the school playground even though Kellan and Kallison were in kindergarten. M&M, as she was affectionately known as, defended the twins -especially the tinier, more frail Kellan- from the older kids who liked to pick on them.

But having all three girls and DJ, the sole boy, in the same room, well that was a recipe for disaster.

"He called us yesterday morning," Sam said with a yawn as she tucked her legs underneath her. "He and Paisley wanted to wish us all a Merry Christmas and Octavia and Sebastian wanted to talk to the girls. Tell them all about meeting Mickey and Minnie Mouse and all the rides and what not at Disney World. Make Kellan and Kallison jealous in other words."

"And did it work?" Lindsay asked.

Sam snorted and rolled her eyes. "They've been upset about it since Adam and everyone left on the twenty-third. Actually, now that I think about it, they've been pissed since Adam announced he was taking his family to Disney. My girls must have cried and begged and pleaded for a week straight for us to go, too."

"Until Daddy stepped in and.."

"And told them that he didn't like the idea of being away from home at Christmas and that he couldn't take the time off for a proper vacation and that he couldn't afford two weeks at Disney World for all of us even if he could take it off. He tried the whole, you're both a little too small right now and can't enjoy all the rides, but that didn't fly considering Octavia is only a year older then the girls and Sebastian is younger then they are."

"Such fun and games, isn't it, Sammie?" Lindsay laughed. "We sure didn't sign up for this craziness when we agreed to become wives, did we?"

"It's been a journey," Sam said with a sigh, placing her elbow on the back of her couch and the side of her head in her hand. "Not always a smooth, enjoyable one, either. But I wouldn't give my husband up for anything in the world. He can be a first class bastard when he wants to be, but in the grand scheme of things, he's my rock. He keeps everything together. Keeps things running smoothly when I feel myself falling apart. He's always been the strong, dependable one."

"Doesn't hurt that he's always been madly and crazily and passionately in love with you either," Lindsay added.

The petite brunette smiled. "I lucked out the day God decided to bring Donnie into my life. I guess someone was shoving him in the right direction that night he waited at my apartment for three hours so he could talk to me."

"The guy was determined," Lindsay declared, leaning forward to snag a handful of Hershey's Kisses from a candy dish in the center of the coffee table in front of them. "Not to mention tenacious as all hell. He wasn't going to take no for answer."

"Well he almost had to," Sam said. "Until I chased him down in the rain. You know, sometimes that seems like a lifetime ago and sometimes it seems as if it was just yesterday. I mean, I can still remember the first time I met all of you."

"So can I," Lindsay tossed her best friend of a few of the small chocolates. "I remember you sauntering into the room where I was working in your lab coat, all raring to go, asking me if I needed help on my starfish autopsy. No introduction, nothing. I was thinking, okay, who is this and what is she doing in our lab?"

"Mac wasn't one for doing the whole introduce the new girl thing," Sam laughed. "He pretty much threw me to the wolves and let me handle it on my own. I still remember Don thinking I was some lab tech and barking orders at me like I was just this young, sweet thing put on earth to serve him"

"Well he sure got a rude awakening when you flashed him that killer smile and your badge and your gun," Lindsay said. "I can still see the look on his face. Remember? Chased you down in the lunch room because he couldn't find some results you had promised him? How you humoured him for a couple of hours about being a tech until you just couldn't take it anymore?"

Sam smiled and nodded in remembrance.

"I will never forget that as long as I lived. When you let him know that A, you were a CSI and B, you weren't going to take his crap, man, he looked like he'd dropped a load in his pants. And I've never seen Flack look like that. Ever. And then when you called him hot buns and blue eyes, oh my God, I wasn't sure if he was going to kill you or die of embarrassment."

Sam giggled and unwrapped a chocolate and popped it into her mouth. "I call him hot buns from time to time to get him going. You should see his face. Priceless."

"But nothing can be a priceless as when he caught you and Adam hugging in the hallway…"

"And assumed we were dating!" Sam howled with laughter. "I had almost forgotten about that! The look on Don's face. I think that was the first time he'd shown this hint of his jealous side. And we'd only known each other what? Five hours? I mean, what kind of girl did he think I was hooking up with someone that quick."

"I think the thought of a girl like you being with someone that Adam mortified him," Lindsay said. "And when you told him that apparently he didn't catch on to your last name being Ross when you introduced yourself and that Adam was your brother? He nearly shit himself for the second time that day. And do you remember what he said? How is that possible? How can someone like you…"

"Share DNA with someone like him!" Sam cried, her and Lindsay saying the exact words in unison before they both burst into giggles.

"And then there was Devon…" Lindsay sighed, after her laughter had dissipated.

"Devon and then that little blond thing with huge boobs in the clerk's department and then Angell," Sam said. "I endured sheer hell for a year for that man. I hope he appreciates it. All that suffering and torture of seeing him with other women when I was having dirty dreams about him nearly every night."

"Well you could have just saved yourself a lot of hurt by just telling him you were jonesin' over him," Lindsay reasoned.

"And make things easy on myself? Never. Besides, I like to think that the way Don and I were? The whole friends first thing? I like to think that helped make our relationship and eventually our marriage stronger. I mean, I know we've had our issues, but we've always managed to get passed them."

"That's nothing but love, sweetie," Lindsay declared. "Look at what love helped Danny and I through all these years. Ruben Sandoval, Rikki Sandoval, workplace accidents. Need I go on? Yet here we are at the end of it all. A great marriage, three beautiful kids. Life is far from perfect but we're disgustingly happy. Same goes for you and Flack. What the two of you have? God, Sam. That's precious. That's a love we all wish we had but so seldom find."

"Well let's just say I'm holding on to him with two hands. As tight as I can. And he's not going anywhere."

"I doubt he'd ever want to. The guy is nuts about you. And those girls of his."

Sam smiled and nodded. "He's a damn good father. I just wish we would have had the chance to have more. Another baby would have been nice. A boy. Donnie would kill to have a little boy around the house."

"You guys wanna borrow Daniel for a while?" her best friend laughed. "That kid would be in heaven if he got to live with his Uncle Donnie. And with Kallison."

Sam popped a second chocolate into her mouth. "She told me about how he's her boyfriend," she said. "As cute and innocent as that is, I am keeping that from her father. Don's not ready to even consider one of his girls in that way. I know they're only five and nothing more will come of it other then playground hand holding and a kiss here and there and Valentines and Christmas and birthday cards exchanged, but it's just best Don doesn't know about it."

"I agree," Lindsay said. "'I'm not ready for him to be threatening Danny or making sure his kid keeps it in his pants. And about this baby thing…"

"We're not going to try adopting anymore," Sam told her. "The agencies just keep rejecting us because of my illness and my history of mental illness."

Lindsay frowned. "Is that what they said?"

Sam nodded. "They checked way back when and found records on my hospital stay when Zack had me committed. He was the crazy one. Not me. But they're holding that and my illness against me. So Don and I are shit out of luck."

"What about private adoption?"

"We don't know where to even start as far as private adoption goes," her best friend sighed.

"You know," Lindsay said. "The offer Danny and I made a couple of years back still stands. Danny's the one that got fixed after Makenna. I still have a lot of good, viable eggs kicking around inside of me. And Flack's obviously in normal, working order."

"Once I had the hysterectomy we never even had to worry about birth control ever again. But yeah, he still produces sperm if that's what you mean."

"The offer is still on the table, Sammie. Just say the word and…"

"I can't let you be a surrogate mother for us, Linds. I just can't."

"Why not?"

"My husband fathering a baby with my best friend? That's just a little too surreal."

"It's not like Flack and I actually have to have sex," Lindsay pointed out. "It's a medical procedure."

"I know how it's done," Sam said. "They fertilize your egg with his sperm. I know that. But still…I don't know. There's just something…weird about it."

"If you're worried about me getting attached to the baby and wanting to keep it myself, that's not going to happen. This is a business thing. Something I want to do for the two of you. I'm just carrying the baby for you. I won't stake claim to it or anything like that. I'll hand it over to you as soon as it's born. You know I'd never screw you guys over."

Sam sighed heavily.

"We will get lawyers involved and I'll sign whatever I have to. To prove to you that I'm not going to renege. I just want to give you guys a chance at having a baby. I wouldn't even expect you guys to pay for medical expenses. What the department doesn't cover through benefits Danny and I could easily cover ourselves."

"Linds, you know I appreciate the offer and the sentiment.."

"But…"

"But I just don't know if I can go along with something like that. I love you. Like a sister. But I just don't know if I can live with my best friend being pregnant by my husband."

"You don't have to decide right now," Lindsay said. "It's just something to think about. Before you guys were banking on adoption and now that that is out of the question, now it's time to seriously considering other options. And this is an option made with the best of intentions."

Sam smiled. "You'd actually do that for us?" she asked.

"In a heartbeat. You know that. I meant it two years ago and I meant it now. Promise me you'll think about it, Sammie. That you and Don will sit down and talk about it."

Sam nodded. "I'll talk to him."

"That's a start," Lindsay said and leaned over and wrapped her arm around her friend's slender shoulders. "You guys deserve the best. Let me try and give that to you."

Sam just smiled and returned her best friend's embrace. It was a hard decision to make to say the least.

One that affected everyone around them. And couldn't be made lightly.


"You can say something, Messer," Flack said, as he leaned against the counter across from his best friend.

"What do you want me to say?" Danny asked, unaware that several minutes had passed since Flack had dropped the New Jersey bomb on him and that they'd spent that time doing little more then staring at each other. Danny felt numb. Completely and utterly shell shocked. And both heart and stomach sick.

"Something," Flack replied. "Anything. Like maybe a 'are you fucking kidding me?' or a 'You've got to be out of your goddamn mind.' Something along those lines at least."

"New Jersey?" the CSI asked in disbelief. "For real?"

Flack nodded. "Nothing is set in stone yet. Just Sam starts at the lab there working for Stella on the first of February. I don't like the idea of her having to commute too much back and forth between here and Jersey so I figured the easiest, and smartest, thing to do is move everyone there. Start a new life."

"And what about your life here?" Danny asked, absentmindedly picking at the label on his bottle of beer. "Your parents are here. All your friends. Your career."

"I'm going to go in and talk to Sinclair first chance I get," Flack explained. "Explain to him what's going on and how the most logical thing for my family is to move to New Jersey and start anew. I'm sure he knows some of the top brass in the smaller cities and he could put in a good word for me with them."

"What about your house?"

"We're going to put it on the market in the new year. As soon as possible."

"How long have you and Sam known all of this? 'Cause to me it sounds like you guys have known for a while and have had lots of time to consider things."

"Sam was let go a little more then a month ago," Flack admitted. "We agreed to keep it between us until her last day got a little closer. And now that we're nearly at the end of December and we're going to be listing the house soon, I figure this is as good a time as any to start telling people."

Danny snorted and shook his head. "Can't believe the department fired her."

"It was Mac that did the dirty work," Flack said. "Called her into the office and did it in typical Mac style. No compassion, no sympathy. Nothing. Just told her that the department was cutting back and she was the first on the list for the lab. Because of all the time that she's taken off with her illness."

"They can't fire her because she's got a legit problem," Danny argued. "That's bullshit."

"Department considers her a liability, Dan-o. They don't want to be paying her to stay home when they can pay someone else to actually be doing work. And that's Mac's exact words. Not mine."

Danny downed half of his beer. A look of sheer contempt and disgust on his face as he considered what Mac had done. Cutting loose one of the best CSIs that that place had ever had. A woman with a legitimate illness and a husband and two little kids at home. Mac knew full well that the Flacks needed the two incomes to live comfortably. Hell, in New York City, everyone lived two incomes and sometimes three just to get by.

"So is that why Mac and Kelli turned down the invite to come here?" Danny asked. "They've been coming to Boxing Day at Chez Messer for nearly eight years now."

"He probably doesn't want anything to do with Sam," Flack reasoned. "Outside of work, anyway. He knows I'm pissed and ready to rip his head off. Who knows, maybe he even feels a bit bad for what he had to do. I always thought him and Sam had this tight relationship. Like a father and daughter deal. I mean, my kids call him Papa for Christ sakes. Apparently, they weren't that tight, huh? If he felt that way he would have handled things a lot better."

"Especially when he busted his ass to keep Adam on board a long time ago," Danny huffed. "Mac's got no heart. He's cold, Flack. Cold. How does someone as sweet and adorable as Kelli put up with him? And for so long?"

"Love I guess. That's the only thing I can think of. Same reason why Linds and Sam have put up with us all these years."

"Yeah…but we're human, Flack. We're not…we're not Mac…"

The detective nodded. "I called to wish the boys a Merry Christmas. Michael told me that Kelli's been making Mac ride the couch and giving him the cold shoulder since all this with Sammie went down."

"Rightfully so. Makes it hard for Brooklyn and Kelli to be friends. And if it wasn't for your wife, Mac would never had met Kelli. So he should be kissing Sam's ass of ever introducing them to each other. Fucking asshole. Anyone else know about this? And the move?"

"Only people who know are my folks," Flack said. "They were shocked. Especially the old man."

"I can imagine. I'm shocked. It's gonna kill Linds. And DJ. Gonna break his heart to lose his Uncle Donnie."

"He's not losing me," Flack argued. "We're going to be looking for a place in Hackensack. That's like twelve miles from here. If that."

"It'll seem like twelve hundred," Danny grumbled. "This sucks. Utterly fucking sucks. What am I suppose to tell my wife and my kids? Especially Daniel."

"Let's not tell them anything until we know when we're leaving Queens," Flack told him. "Who knows how long the house will be on the market. Until we sell, we're staying where we are. Plain and simple. Sam's going to tell Linds about losing her job when it gets closer to her last day. No one knows. Not even Hawkes or Adam. Keep it that way, okay?"

Danny nodded. "But I.."

He cut his own words off abruptly as Samantha wandered into the kitchen, cuddling Makenna, in white leggings and a scarlet red velvet dress with white lace trim around the hem and the sleeve cuffs and the neckline, to her chest, a protective hand on the back of the baby's head and her lips pressed to the little girl's ear as she talked quietly and lovingly to her. Flack couldn't help but smile at the sight of his wife with that baby in her arms. Sam had been a natural mom right from the start. Patient and loving and compassionate. Tending to her children's needs before her own and sacrificing a hell of a lot to give them a decent life. She'd always been a beautiful woman. But became even more so the first time he saw her cuddling their daughters and breastfeeding them. She had suddenly seemed so mature and ethereal the moment he saw her caring for the babies they had managed to create and bring successfully into the world together.

It was unfortunate that they hadn't been able to have more children. Hell, he would have had a whole starting line up for a hockey team with her if that had been in God's plans. But it hadn't been and fate had worked against them and it was a damn bitter pill to swallow regardless of how much he loved and adored his girls.

And seeing her with a baby, whether it be their 'niece' or someone entirely different, his heart nearly damn well broke for what had been taken away from them.

"You can take her home with you for a few days if you want," Danny commented.

"No, it's okay," Sam said with a smile, pressing a kiss to the side of the baby's head as she stood beside her husband. "My baby skills are rusty. Donnie has always been the better one with babies. He's got a knack with them."

"You're full of crap," Flack told her and sipped his beer.

"The girls always stopped crying when he picked them up," Sam said. "Always. And when I was pregnant and they were carrying on and using my internal organs as soccer balls, all he had to do was put his hand on my tummy and talk to them and they knocked their shit off."

"That's 'cause I'm the boss," Flack declared and wrapped an arm around his wife's shoulders.

Sam snorted. "Don't flatter yourself, honey," she teased.

He grinned and dropped a kiss on the top of her head.

"You both make great parents," Danny informed his friends. "Seriously. It's a damn shame those stupid adoption agencies don't chill out a bit. Especially considering some of the homes kids grow up in these days. Alcoholics and druggies for parents. Mom's that are prostitutes. Abuse and neglect. And they have the nerve to question whether you guys are fit to care for a baby?"

"It's just their job, Danny," Sam sighed, running her fingers through Makenna's curls. "They have to put the health and the well being of the child first. And apparently they feel that I'm a risk."

"What a crock of shit," Flack said. "Like you'd ever do anything to hurt the girls or any baby for that matter."

"They're entitled to their opinion, Donnie," Sam told him. "And that's their opinion. We still have a couple of options to pursue. We're not completely at a loss just yet."

Makenna, a tiny fist shoved in her mouth, glanced up at Flack and let out a loud gurgle followed by an ear piercing shriek and a giggle. A gigantic smile spreading from ear to ear.

Flack returned the smile and set his beer down on the counter behind him and held his hands out to the little girl.

"All the kids love Uncle Donnie best," Danny declared. "There's no escaping it."

"It's because they find him tall and goofy looking," Sam joked, smiling up at her husband as she passed the baby over.

"Thanks, babe," he said with a smirk as he tucked Makenna into his chest. "I'll remember on my deathbed that you called me tall and goofy looking."

"Well to me you're tall, dark and handsome," she told him. "But to babies you're something entirely different. And look at her. She loves you. Next to daddy you're the most amazing guy in the entire world."

"Next to him?" Flack snorted. "Try I am the most guy in the entire world."

Danny rolled his eyes. "In your dreams, Flack. In your dreams. You guys were made to be parents, you know that? Seriously. You two were put on this earth to procreate and raise kids together."

"Don't know about the latter, but we're damn good at the procreating," Flack declared. "Or practicing the procreating."

"You're so full of yourself," Danny said with a dramatic sigh. "I'm just gonna run upstairs, check on my other two rug rats. You two okay with her?"

"I promise I won't hide her under my shirt and smuggle her out of here, Dan-o," Flack assured him.

"Like I said, I'm willing to lend her out for a few days," his best friend joked, patting him on the shoulder as he passed by. "I mean it guys," he said before disappearing out of the kitchen.

"Don't put her back to sleep," Sam said, peering at the baby tucked into her husband's broad, strong chest. "She just woke up from a nap."

"She's not gonna fall asleep. Are you Makenna?" he held the baby out at arms length, laughing as the baby gurgled at him and flashed a wide smile. "She's damn cute, huh?" he commented, as he laid the little girl along a forearm.

"She is," Sam agreed. "Not as cute as our girls were at the age…"

"We're prejudiced though. We're always going to think our girls are the most beautiful girls on earth. Makenna comes a close second."

"I saw you do hide her under your shirt," Sam said. "Run off with her."

"You'd like that wouldn't you? Not necessarily the kidnapping part. But having a baby in the house again."

Sam nodded and ran a hand over Makenna's hair. "Would you?" she asked.

"Have I not been going through all that disappoint with those agencies with you, babe? I wouldn't do that if I wasn't serious about wanting another baby."

"Like I said, there's a couple more options that we can think about," Sam said, wrapping an arm around his waist. "Private option, a surrogate…"

"We talked about that last one and we both decided it wasn't for us," he reminded her. "You aren't comfortable with me fathering a kid with Monroe and to be honest, the thought kinda freaks me out. My sperm and her egg? That's a little too bizarre even for me."

"What if it's our only choice?" she asked.

"Then it's our only choice and we got another dog instead of having a baby. Not even I want a baby that bad, Sammie. It would be nice, but…"

"It would be something we'd have to talk long and hard about, Donnie."

"We're talking about it right now. We talked about it two years ago."

"Well maybe this time we need to really, really, really talk about it."

"You can't honestly be serious," he said and looked down at her.

She stared up at him, her eyebrows raised.

He gave a small laugh and shook his head. "You're fucking mental, you really are. I'm not jerking off in a cup so someone can take a turkey baster, suck up my sperm and impregnate your best friend. No way. I'm not doing it."

"If it was another woman?" Sam inquired. "Someone random that a fertility clinic helped us find? Would it be okay then?"

"You know what? No. It wouldn't. Because that's disturbing. Having to use another woman's eggs. If it was eggs that they managed to harvest from you and put them in another woman to carry once one of them was fertilized, then I'd be all for it. But this way? Hell no. I'm against it and you know it."

"But what else can we do?"

"Private adoption is still open to us."

"How will we find a family?"

"I don't know," he sighed heavily. "We will manage. And if private tanks for us then that's it. That's a sure sign that we were not meant to have any other kids. I can't believe you'd even consider letting Lindsay do something like that."

"Well she offered," Sam reasoned.

"I'm not impregnating your best friend! Even if it's done scientifically! I am not doing it, okay? It's just plain fucking weird. And I know you want a baby. Badly. So do I. But you considering something like that? That's fucking selfish and you know it."

She sighed heavily and stared down at the smiling baby lying so comfortably along her husband's arm. "I'm sorry if things didn't work out the way you wanted. That I let you down some way and.."

"You know what? Knock it off. Don't even finish that sentence. You're getting on my nerves, Sam. When you talk like that it irritates the shit out of me. How many times have I told you that it didn't matter to me? That it sucked that it happened but it wasn't the end of the world? How many times?"

"Tons," she admitted meekly.

"Tons. Exactly. And I'm getting goddamn tired of saying it. Of having to make you feel better about yourself. It happened, Samantha. It happened and it fucking sucks but deal with it for Christ sakes! I love you but fucking deal with it! Own your shit already!"

She blinked. Taken back by his harsh, albeit honest words. It was the truth. And she knew it.

"We're in this life together, Sammie," he said, his voice softer as he gazed down at the happy baby. "I love you and accept you no matter what. And it's time you loved and accepted yourself no matter what."

She nodded slowly, letting his words sink in.

"I'll always be here, Sammie," he said. "No matter what. But that doesn't mean you have be totally dependant on me and lean on me all the time. And that's what's happened and you know it."

"Anything else you want to shit all over me about Don?" she asked and stepped away from her.

"I'm not shitting on you, babe. I'm trying to help you out. Don't get all defensive and run away from things."

"Well don't," she snapped. "Don't help me out. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself if something happened to you. I just don't ever want to have to be without you. What is so wrong about that?"

"Nothing. Nothing is wrong with that. It's just sometimes…I don't know. Sometimes you rely on me too much."

"You're my goddamn husband. If I can't rely on you who can I rely on?"

"I don't want to fight, Sammie. It's Boxing Day. We're at Danny and Linds' house."

"I don't want to fight either," she said and started to head from the room.

Flack caught her by the arm and pulled her back. Capturing her lips in a long, soft kiss. "I love you," he told her. "Always. Don't ever doubt that, okay?"

She smiled and nodded. "I love you, too," she said and after a final kiss, headed from the room.

Flack sighed and looked down at his baby 'niece'.

"Don't ever torture some poor bastard as much as your aunt tortures me," he pleaded.

Makenna smiled up at him.

"Who am I kidding?" he asked. "I enjoy it. I wouldn't have put up with it for so long if I didn't. I wouldn't give your auntie up for anything in this world, you know that?"

Another smile. And a loud gurgle.

Nothing will ever come between us, he thought, laying his left hand on the baby's tummy, his gaze falling on his wedding band. Thinking long and hard about what that simple, four inch thick plain white gold ring meant to him. And to his life.

For better or for worse.

And everything in between.


Sam was hunkered down over the dead time travellor's personal belongings. The strange helmet like apparatus that he'd been wearing, along with a watch and a GPS monitoring chip that Sid had pulled out of the vic's hand down in autopsy. The case was getting stranger and stranger by the minute. A naked guy, covered in blood, had stumbled into the twelfth precinct claiming to have killed someone. Kevin Murray. A Chelsea student. There were only two problems with the confession. The first was that the alleged murder didn't take place until the next morning. The second was that this Kevin Murray had apparently been found alive and well, and completely buck naked, in his shower at the Chelsea dorms.

Now on top of a needle being found in the man's brain and the GPS device being found in the his hand -from what Sid had said, it had been a personal surgery, done with the aid of a local anesthetic- word had trickled back to the lab that thanks to the info Adam had recovered from the chip, their previous John Doe was a Doctor Martin Browning, a famous and award winning physicist. And sitting there at Browning's apartment, where Hawkes, Flack and Mac had been going through the good doctor's things and investigating what went wrong, was a very elaborate time machine.

Too science fiction for her. Adam had always been the Doctor Who and the Star Wars and Star Trek fanatic. Sam had never been able to stretch her imagination that far and get into such far fetched genres. Truth be told, things that were too out of this world, alternate universe scared the crap out of her. She believed in ghosts and was terrified of them. Hence why she avoided watching horror movies and woke up to the smallest sound in her darkened apartment. She wasn't interested in being contacted by someone on the other side. The only thing a visit from a deceased relative would do would be to cause her to piss her own pants and send her cowering under her sheets.

So suspending belief long enough to by the idea of time travel was out of the question.

Even though her curiosity was starting to get the better of her.

"Hey, Linds!" she called to her best friend as she toiled across the room, processing evidence herself. "What do you think about…"

Sam's words were cut off by the sensation of something cold and rock hard being pressed up against the small of her back. Her eyes widened as she felt warm breath on the back of her neck and the touch of skin against her cheek. And the smell of Danny Messer wafting over her.

"Hey, Brooklyn," he whispered into her ear. "Wanna see my pickle?"

"You're what?" she asked. "Danny…what the hell…"

"I know you wanna see it," he told her. His voice low. Sultry almost. "I know you wanna see it real bad. Can you feel it, Sam? Can you feel my pickle?"

"Danny Messer, I swear to God if you don't…"

"Take a look," he encouraged. "I know you want to see it. You're dying to see it. Look down, Sammie. Just look down and look at my pickle. Satisfy your wanton curiosity."

Sam glanced across the lab at Lindsay, who was doing her best to keep a straight face as her boyfriend tortured her best friend.

"Come on," Danny whispered. "Just take a peek. It won't bite. Unless you want it to."

"Get the hell away from me, Messer! You're sick!"

"Just look already," he ordered.

Sam sighed heavily and looked behind her. Dissolving into giggles at the sight of a massive dill pickle encased in an evidence bag.

"You're a dirty girl, Brooklyn!" Danny chuckled. "You were seriously hoping it was something else!"

"I was not! Don't be such a dirty minded perv."

"Here," he grabbed her hand and brought it down to the evidence bag. "Touch it. Touch my pickle."

"No!" she shrieked and slithered away from him. "Get the hell away from me with that thing!"

"Come on Brooklyn," Danny advanced on her, the enormous pickle held out in front of him. "I know you want to touch it! Don't be shy! I heard you like guys with big pickles!"

"Don't come anywhere near me with that thing!" she warned, backing away from him. "You're disgusting!"

"Don't be like that! I know you like the pickle. You're not a Beaver kind of girl. You're a pickle kind of girl. So don't act all virginal here! You want to touch it!"

"Daniel Messer! I will kick your ass!" she cried.

"You'll like it! I promise you!" he continued after her. "You'll like the feel of my pickle. The taste of it."

She shrieked as he seized her by the front of her lab coat and pinned her up against the wall near the back of the room and held her there with the weight of his body.

"Feel the pickle!" he bellowed. Jabbing her in the stomach with it until they, and Lindsay, were lost in fits of laughter.

"Get the hell away from me, Messer!" she screamed, sliding down the wall until she was seated on her ass on the floor and assailed with ferocious hiccups.

"I knew even a tough Brooklyn girl like you couldn't handle a Staten Island guy's pickle," Danny declared. "You okay?"

"You're.." hiccup "an…" hiccup… "asshole." HICCUP.

"What in the hell is going on in here?" Flack asked, suddenly appearing beside his best friend. His eyes widening at both the sight of the massive pickle in his hand and the new girl on her ass with tears streaming down her face and her entire body shaking from hiccups.

"Just hazing little Brooklyn," Danny replied, extending a hand to the tiny brunette. And smirking as Flack stepped in front of him and offered his own hand. It was no secret, at least to Danny, that Flack had a thing for the new girl. A lot of guys had a thing for her. She was smart and witty and took no shit. And hot as hell.

And admittedly off limits to cops.

She ignored both of their hands and got to her feet on her own. "You guys are mean," she declared and headed back to her work station.

"Aww, come on now," Danny said as he followed her. "Just having a little fun with ya."

"She's supposed to be working," Flack grumbled. "On my case."

"Which was exactly what I was doing until someone poked me in the ass with their pickle and demanded I touch it. Don't get your panties in a knot, blue eyes."

Flack frowned.

Danny snickered.

"So what's with the pickle anyway?" Sam asked.

"It's part of my evidence," Danny replied. "Death by orgasm."

"With the pickle?" Sam inquired. "The pickle wasn't the culprit was it?"

"She was eating the pickle at the time," Danny said. "Apparently she was just sitting there at the deli and BOOM. Had an orgasm. Died. What a way to go."

Sam snorted and peeled off her latex gloves and tossed them in the nearby trash and shrugged out of her lab coat, placing it on her stool. "I don't' believe an orgasm can kill you. I mean I've given myself some really good ones. But never good enough to kill me."

Across the room, Lindsay Monroe burst into laughter.

Danny Messer and Donald Flack Jr could do little more then stare at the little Brooklyn girl, their eyes wise. Both at a complete and utter loss for words.

"Can I borrow the pickle?" Sam asked, snatching the evidence back from Danny's hand. "Thanks!" she called, heading for the door.

"Where are you going with it?" Flack asked curiously.

"The locker room. To see if it's as good as anything I've got at home," she answered, winking at him.

Lindsay laughed even harder, until tears were spilling down her cheeks.

"You two are so damn gullible," Sam declared and tossed the pickle back at Danny. "And don't be standing there thinking either of you can give orgasms like that. 'Cause whoever thinks they can, I'll be waiting down the hall."

And with that, she simply stepped out of the room and disappeared down the corridor.

"Don't even think about it!" Lindsay shouted at her boyfriend who took a step towards the door.

"Unreal…" Flack shook his head slowly. "She's just…unreal…totally fucking unreal."

"And you so want her," Danny declared. "So go. Go after her. Prove your manhood in the locker room."

"Shut up, Messer," Flack snapped and headed for the door.

"Get your head out of your ass and ask her out already!" Danny called as his best friend left the room.

Flack knocked on the glass wall and flipped Danny the middle finger before heading down the hall. In the opposite direction of Samantha Ross.

Danny chuckled and shook his head. "Give it a few years," he said. "In a few years they'll be married with a couple of kids. Mark my words."


"No word of a lie, that is what I said!" Danny Messer declared, as nine years later, he sat at his kitchen table surrounded by his wife and his best friends. "I said those exact words!"

Lindsay nodded, confirming his story.

"I knew as soon as I saw how jealous he was over you and I goofing off!" Danny said to Sam. "He had his big boy pants in a huge bunch. I knew right there and then that you two were gonna end up with a happily ever after."

"You are all knowing, Messer," Flack declared, finishing off his umpteenth beer. It was close to midnight as they lingered around the kitchen table. The girls had begged and pleaded to stay over night. To have a sleep over with Amanda. Once Danny and Lindsay had okay-ed it, their parents couldn't deny them the chance to spend the night and most of the next day with their aunt and uncle and their cousins.

The dinner that Lindsay had slaved over had been excellent. Succulent roast beef with roasted potatoes and carrots and three different types of salad. And homemade pecan pie for dessert. Following an hour of skating that had tired all the kids out and sent them into warm baths and then pyjamas and then to bed to talk and giggle for the next couple of hours, the adults had retreated to the kitchen to feast once again on baked goods and sip alcoholic beverages. Sam had accepted one glass of wine, then had moved to diet cola when it became apparent her husband wasn't going to take it easy when it came to the drink. Someone had to get him home in one piece.

"You two were so easy to read," Danny said, downing the remains of his JD and Coke. "The two of you wanted each other the second you laid eyes on each other. Admit it."

"Lust at first sight," Flack agreed. "All the way."

"Then what the hell took so long?" Danny asked.

Both husband and wife pointed at each other.

"It was you and you know it!" Sam laughed. "It was you that took your sweet time!"

"You could have told me you were into me," Flack told her. "Why were you waiting for me to make a move?"

"'Cause maybe girls like it when a guy pursues them," she reasoned.

"Well how was I to know you were that kind of girl, babe? You played hard to get all the time. I was starting to think you weren't into me that way. Or you were a lesbian."

Sam smirked. "That was so your wet dream, admit it. Me and Kaile Maka."

"Hey! You were the one that admitted once when we were fooling around that she was your girl crush!" Flack argued. "I can't help it if my mind went on overdrive after you said that!"

"You got a thing for Maka?" Danny asked. "Seriously?"

"I do not have a thing for her!" Sam replied. "I just find her really pretty."

"It's okay to get hot and bothered by another woman," Danny told her. "Lindsay admitted to me once that the thought of you and her doing things to each other got her horny as hell."

"Danny!" Lindsay cried, swatting his arm before burying her face in her hands, embarrassed.

"You two were the ones that kissed in the bar!" Flack reminded her. "Not us! So you two started all this perverted shit off!"

"You must have loved that kiss," Sam said. "You still go on about it all these years later."

"Of course I loved it! My girl kissed another girl!"

"What was that song back then, Sammie?" Lindsay asked. "I kissed a girl…"

"And I liked it. The taste of her cherry chap-stick," Sam finished.

"My lips taste like peppermint schnapps," Lindsay told her and winked.

Sam grinned, leaned sideways and laying a hand on the side of Lindsay's face, covered her best friend's lips in a long, smouldering kiss.

Danny and Flack's eyes widened. Especially at the sight of some tongue.

"On that happy note," Flack jumped up, swaying drunkenly. "I'm taking my wife home now and making an honest woman out of her!"

Sam laughed and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet by her eager husband. "I guess |'m driving," she said. "Considering your three sheets to the wind and won't be able to get it up even if there's a stiff breeze in the room."

"Don't worry about me," Flack said, ushering her towards the door. "I know how to take care of you, babe."

Both Danny and Lindsay laughed as they got up from the table as well and followed their best friends out of the kitchen and through the living room and to the front door.

"I'll swing by with the girls tomorrow afternoon," Lindsay told Sam, as the brunette slipped into her jacket and boots. "That gives you some time to sleep and take it easy."

"She's going to need the extra sleep," Flack declared, struggling to get into his coat.

Sam smirked and helped him out. And then had to instruct him as to which boot went on what foot.

"Sam's gonna get herself some if you don't pass out on the way home," Danny chuckled, as he watched the Flacks, Sam attempting to support her husband's tall, muscular frame as they stepped out the door and down the front steps.

"SHE"S GONNA GET LAID!" Flack bellowed. Loud enough for the entire street to hear.

"Shhh…" Sam scolded him as she yanked open the passenger door to their SUV. "Be quiet!" she whispered.

"Okay…" he whispered back. "Sorry."

Then nearly crushed her into the side of the vehicle as he kissed her passionately.

"Jesus Christ, Don!" she cried and shoved him towards the open door.

"Good luck!" Danny called, laughing as he watched Samantha buckling up Flack's seat belt. And Flack telling her that while she was down there, she might as well put her mouth to good use.

"Men!" Sam huffed and backed out of the SUV and slammed the door. Giving Danny and Lindsay a wave before climbing in behind the wheel, adjusting the seat and the mirrors and starting the vehicle.

"He is so going to be passed out by the time they hit the end of the street," Danny said, before turning around and heading inside the house.

"I love you so much, baby," Flack slurred as he reclined the passenger's seat. "You are so good to me. I am so going to treat you right when we get home."

"I sure you will, Donnie," she sighed. "And I love you too. Close your eyes and try and relax."

"Okay…" he said. "I will."

It was less then five minutes when she heard the loud snoring beside her.

Get myself some my ass, she thought with a smirk.

She stopped at a red light and glanced over at the passed out figure beside her. He looked years younger with his pale skin glistening in the moonlight and his long, dark eye lashes falling on her cheeks.

He was a drunk ass. No doubt about it.

But she wouldn't give him up for anything in the world.


Thanks to everyone that is reading and reviewing! I appreciate each and every one of you! Even the lurkers! But please, please, please leave a review folks! Makes my day!

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