new chapter yay !

hahah. once again, thank you all SOOO much for your awesome reviews ! at the end of the day, theyre what really keep me goin; ya'll really don't understand how much i appreciate it :)

so even though it's like 3 oclock in the morning, it's technically wednesday :P

i couldnt hold off, i hate making people wait ! so here it is.

r&r, its much appreciated :)

enjoy (:

--mtc.

Chapter 17

Danny had hardly gotten a wink of sleep.

After Don had gone to bed, around 11:30 the previous night, Danny had stayed awake, watching random programs on television, reading random blogs on the internet, playing Mario Kart on Flack's Wii, anything he could find that would keep him busy. Ever since he had left Lindsay's apartment, he had been on what he called a "Montana High"; he was so overly excited from the night he had spent with his girls that there was no way for him to sleep. He tried sleeping pills, making warm milk like his mother would when he was Bailey's age, and he even at one point reduced himself to counting sheep. Absolutely nothing worked. The pills seemed to evaporate in his bloodstream, the milk only scalded his throat and woke him up more, and the sheep eventually turned into Lindsays; he would laugh as her teenage, country image filled his thoughts, her hair in braided pigtails, a cowgirl hat atop her head, her sweet smile as she waved back at him. He was slowly losing his mind.

As he sat cross-legged on the floor, clad in only boxers, a plastic steering wheel clutched in his hands, he began to see visions in the characters on the television screen in front of him. Princess Peach quickly traded in her Barbie-blonde hair and pink dress for light brown curls and a sexy outfit, causing Danny—Mario—to fall behind in the race. Lindsay on top of a motorcycle wearing a black cocktail dress was more than he could ever wish for in his wildest dreams. As his mind continued to play tricks on him, "Lindsay" winked at him before speeding off on the cartoon bike, leaving poor Danny distraught, gulping as he went from being in first place to ninth. Deciding that switching games would be his best bet, he swapped Mario Kart out for Wii Sports, unplugging the game system altogether when he saw Lindsay in the faces of every opponent he faced. He tried reading internet blogs, failing when he came across one titled "Wheatfields of Montana". He tried distracting himself with basic television, chuckling and shutting it off as Speed Racer's Mach 5 sped across the screen. Around six thirty that morning, his body finally gave in to his dire need for sleep, only to be woken an hour later by his cell phone alarm, telling him that it was time to get ready for work. At first, he sighed, realizing what a long day it was going to be on only one hour of sleep, but as soon as he realized that he would soon be seeing his girls again, all of his bad thoughts about the day disappeared. He remembered his promise to call Lindsay, but knowing that she usually didn't wake up until around eight thirty, he busied himself showering and such, getting ready for the day. After a shower, shave, breakfast and brushing his teeth, he flipped open his phone, ready to hit her speed dial and hear her voice again. His wishful thinking was quickly shot down as he realized he had rushed through his morning routine in the heat of things. The clock on his phone read 7:59. He poured himself a cup of much needed coffee as he watched time slowly tick by, not noticing when Don stepped into the kitchen.

"What time'd ya go to bed last night, Mess?"

"Around 6:30," he grinned back at his friend, who returned a look of shamefulness.

"Danno, do you realize how tired you're gonna be come your shift? How old are you, 17? The last time I stayed up that late was because I was crammin' for exams in college."

"Oh really? Cause the last time I did that was when me and Lindsay first started dating—"

"Don't need to hear anymore," Don interjected, his hands held up in the air as if he were trying to prevent the words from entering his ears. "But seriously, what the hell were you doing til 6:30 this morning?" he asked his tired looking friend as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

"Tryin' to get Lindsay offa my mind," he said as he half grinned back at his friend. "I'm tellin' ya Flack, it was hard. But eventually I got tired out, crashed for an hour. I honestly don't know how I made it through four years without her."

"All that matters is that you're here for her now," Flack replied. "Give her a call, tell her good morning, see if she wants a ride to work."

"I was already plannin' on it," Danny responded. "I don't think she's up yet though. I don't wanna wake her up."

The vibrations of his cell phone proved him wrong. A childlike smile appeared on his face as he read "Montana :P" on the screen of his phone.

"Morning Montana," he answered, smiling.

"Morning babe," she whispered back with a hint of sleep still lingering in her voice.

He laughed at the sleepiness in her voice. Had she gotten the same amount of "sleep" that he had? "Did you sleep well?"

"I wouldn't exactly say I got sleep, per say," she confessed through another yawn.

"Really?" Danny asked with a chuckle. "And why is that?"

"I was up thinkin' about you," she admitted. She could hear his huge smile through the telephone.

"Well what a coincidence," he laughed. "I was up thinkin' about you too. Guess we can keep each other up half the night even when we don't share the same bed." He let her giggle before continuing. "Whaddya say about goin' for coffee before work?"

"Right now, that sounds amazing," she laughed, yawning once again. "I've gotta take Bailey to her check up first, would you like to join us?" She knew what his answer would be before the question passed her lips, and she couldn't help but giggle at the excitement in his voice.

"Definitely, I'll be right over."

"Sounds good Cowboy. See you soon?"

"You can count on it." He hung up his cell phone and was on his way out the door before Flack could so much as ask him where he was going.

-----------

"Hey cutie," Danny said as Bailey opened the door to the Monroe apartment.

"Hi Danny!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around his muscular frame, a smile spreading across his face as her tiny arms gripped his own.

"You ready for your check up?"

"I guess," she replied with a sigh. "I think I hate the hopstickle now. I just got out of there, I don't wanna go back."

"Don't worry kiddo, it's just a check up," he chuckled. "You'll be outta there in no time."

"Good," she said, a huge sigh of relief washing over her face. Lindsay laughed as she came up behind her daughter, placing a hand on her little girl's tiny shoulders.

"Sweetie, why don't you go brush your teeth?"

"Okay," she said unenthusiastically, rolling her eyes as she dragged her feet down the hallway towards her bathroom.

As soon as she was clearly down the hall and out of sight, Lindsay pulled Danny into a fiery kiss, their lips crashing together passionately. After a few moments of their lips lingering there, Lindsay pulled away, a huge smile on her face as she stared into Danny's glazed over eyes, the intensity of her kiss shocking him a bit as he tried to steady himself again.

"I missed you too, Montana," he chuckled, stroking her cheek with his thumb.

She giggled lightly at his reaction, pulling him down for one more quick peck before she heard the water in Bailey's bathroom turn off, and the patter of the little girl's feet making her way back down the hallway.

"Ready to go baby girl?"

"Yep, let's hit the road!" she exclaimed, grabbing Danny's hand on her left and Lindsay's on her right, all three swinging arms as they made their way down the hall.

-----------

They had been sitting in the waiting room for a half hour; any longer and both mommy and daddy would be late for their shifts. Lindsay busied herself with a case file while Danny had picked up a copy of Sports Illustrated, Bailey reading the latest celebrity gossip out of Us magazine. The entire waiting room had been empty, except for the cozy family, only adding to the aggravation that was eating at Danny and Lindsay. As Danny caught up on the latest Yankees news, his reading was interrupted by his little girl's inquisitiveness.

"Danny, what's a whore?"

If his glasses hadn't been perched upon his nose, his eyes certainly would have bulged out of his head.

"Excuse me?"

"What's a whore? It says right here, 'Paris is a whore,'" she told him calmly, showing him the article she was attempting to reading. He quickly tore the book from her hands, nearly ripping the pages as it was pulled from her tiny grasp.

"Hey!" she half yelled.

"Sorry kiddo, you shouldn't be reading this, not for you," he stuttered, placing it at the bottom of the pile and handing her a Disney Channel magazine. "Read this, gain your innocence back," he muttered under his breath, letting out a sigh as Lindsay glanced over at him, smirking.

"What's going on over there?"

"I asked Danny what a whore was and he took my magazine from me without telling me!" Bailey interjected—quite loudly at that—before Danny could even open his mouth. Lindsay's smirk quickly turned to a look of sheer terror, her jaw dropping and her face turning bright red as Danny had his turn to smirk. "Will you tell me what a whore is mommy? Paris Hilton seems like a nice lady, does it mean she's nice?"

"Sure baby, let's go with that," Lindsay mumbled, not exactly paying attention to what her daughter was saying, as she was still trying to come to grips with the fact that her daughter had just asked her what a whore was.

"Well in that case, you're a whore mommy," she said sweetly, smiling innocently over at her mother.

Sitting next to her, Danny had doubled over in laughter, his face growing redder by the second, gaining stares from multiple people passing by in the hallway. Lindsay quickly ran over to her daughter, attempting to explain to her that the new word she had recently learned wasn't a nice one to use, while Danny had made friends with the floor, laughing harder than ever as he rolled around on the tile. As she continued to explain the nature of the word to her four year old, Lindsay extend a leg, making contact with Danny's side in an attempt to stop him from attracting more attention to himself.

"Bailey Monroe." A nurse entered the waiting room with a clipboard, quirking an eyebrow as she walked in on the scene.

Lindsay motioned for Danny to get up before she silenced his laughter with her foot, but she couldn't hide the laughter that was slowly creeping through her. They all stood up and began to follow the nurse, until Bailey turned around and stopped them in their tracks.

"I'm a big girl, mommy. I can do this myself." She had a brave look in her eyes as she dismissed her mother and Danny, the nurse reassuring them that she would be in good hands.

"Are you sure baby girl?"

"Absotutely," she replied confidently with a nod of her head.

"Well, I guess we'll be here when you're done then," Lindsay replied, smiling weakly as her little girl took the nurse's hand and the door closed behind them. She leaned into Danny who was standing close behind her, his strong hands wrapping around her petite frame as she sunk into his chest.

"When did she get so big?" Lindsay asked him, on the brink of tears.

"I don't know Linds. She's got her mother's determination to be independent."

"Remind me never to be independent again," Lindsay sniffled as Danny hugged her tight before taking her hand and leading her off down the hallway.

"Where are we going?"

"Well, I figure Bay's not gonna be done for another hour or so, why don't I take you for that coffee I promised you?"

She glanced up at him with a nervous look in her eye. "Danny, I don't like leaving her here alone."

"She's not alone, she's in a hospital, the doctors'll take good care of her. You've got nothin' to worry about," he reassured her, smiling sweetly.

-----------

They had barely touched the coffee. Their hands were intertwined across the table at the small café located on the main floor of the hospital. In the end, they had decided that they couldn't bear the thought of leaving their little girl alone in the hospital, in the end, mutually deciding that they would make the sacrifice and drink the crap-quality hospital coffee for now. He rubbed his thumb softly over her hand, her face turning a light red as she blushed.

"For the record, I don't think you're a whore," he said with a chuckle. With the hand that wasn't currently enveloped in his, she playfully slapped his arm and smiled back at him.

"Gee thanks Danny, it's nice to hear from you." He laughed in response.

"Lindsay, I wanna ask you something," he began nervously.

"Okay, shoot."

He stared down into the coffee cup in front of him, trying to avoid her curious gaze. "We've been spending a lot of time together, you know, and…and I really think we could be good together again. I mean, I've missed being with you so much, and—"

His words were silenced by the meeting of his lips with hers. She let her lips linger on his for a moment or two before pulling away and smiling sweetly at him. He smiled back at her, taking her hands in his and kissing them softly.

"So whaddya say Montana? Be my girl again?" he asked her with a hopeful grin.

"I never stopped being your girl, Danny. I'll always be yours," she answered with a schoolgirl grin. "I love you."

"I love you too. I promise we're gonna make this work."

Leaving the coffee cups, majority of the beverage still remaining, they walked hand in hand back to their daughter.

-----------

All of Bailey's tests had come back with flying colors, but the four year old was too smart to continue believing that that was what the adults in the front seat of the SUV were grinning idiotically about.

"What are you guys really so happy about?" she asked, crossing her arms as best she could over the seatbelt in her booster seat. Lindsay glanced at Danny.

"Should we tell her?" he whispered, grinning at his girlfriend.

"Uhh, DUH you should tell her!" Bailey exclaimed from the backseat.

As they pulled into the parking lot, Danny climbed around and lifted Bailey out of her carseat, placing her on his knee and putting his arm around Lindsay as she bent down next to them.

"Well kiddo, your mom and I, we decided that we didn't wanna be just friends anymore."

"You guys aren't gonna be friends anymore?!" she cried, a look of terror washing over her face.

"Calm down baby girl," Lindsay laughed. "We're not just friends anymore. Me and Danny decided we wanted to be more than friends."

"Like best friends? Like Spongebob and Patrick?"

"Not exactly," she laughed again. "Do you remember when we went to see Enchanted, how Giselle and Robert started out as friends in the beginning of the movie?" She waited for her daughter's nod of approval before continuing. "And then do you remember what happened in the end?"

The little girl's eyes turned towards the sky as she thought hard, placing her hand on her chin. Her eyes lit up as she realized what was going on. "You two are dating!" she exclaimed excitedly. The two adults smiled and nodded in response.

"If it's okay with you, baby. I don't want to do anything that makes you uncomfortable."

"Are you KIDDING?! Of COURSE I'm okay with it!" she exclaimed, wrapping her arms around the both of them. "I knew my plan would work," she mumbled under her breath.

"What was that baby?"

"Nothing," she said, quickly changing the subject. "So does this mean Danny's gonna live with us?"

"Not exactly kiddo," Danny interjected. "We just started dating. Maybe once we've been dating for a little while I'll think about it, but for now I'll be stayin' at your Uncle Flack's apartment. I know this is all a little hard for you to understand, so if you have any questions at all, you know you can come to me."

"Are you guys gonna kiss and stuff?" she asked, scrunching up her face, earning a laugh from her parents.

"We promise we won't in front of you," Lindsay said with a laugh.

"Okay, good, cause kissing is gross. Boys have cooties. No offense or anything Danny."

They shared a laugh at the man as he pretended to be upset, and then realized that they were going to be late. Standing up, Bailey took her previous place between the two, taking a hand from each. Suddenly, she stopped. Getting a devious look in her eye, she took the to giant hands that she had been holding and joined them together, turning around to smirk before skipping ahead of them, humming the last song that had been on the radio. They looked to each other and then to their daughter, laughing before walking through the doors. They made their way into the crime lab that way, hands intertwined, smiles present on both of their faces. They wanted people to know they were back together. However, they weren't expecting their daughter to be running up and down the halls, telling every person that passed. They giggled as they saw her running from person to person, telling everyone in her path that her mother and Danny were together.

"Uncle Mac!" she exclaimed as the older man made his way down the hall.

"Hi princess, come to work with mommy today?"

"Yep. Guess what?!"

"I give up," he laughed, playing along with her little game.

"My mommy and Danny are DATING!" she shouted excitedly, many heads the lab turning, laughing as they realized what she was so excited about.

"Oh really?" Mac said, pretending to be surprised.

"Yeah, they're holding hands and everything! But don't worry; they said they won't kiss in front of us. I was glad about that part, kissing's gross!"

Mac couldn't help but laugh at the little girl bouncing around in front of him. As her parents approached, he realized that what she had said was entirely true.

"So I hear you two are dating," he said jokingly, trying to make Bailey laugh.

"You would be correct on that one," Danny said sheepishly, not wanting to make his boss angry.

"I hope you'll stick true to your word about not kissing in front of people. Bailey's right, kissing's gross," he said, sticking out his tongue jokingly as the little girl giggled.

"Aye aye Captain Mac," Danny joked, mock saluting as his boss gave him a "get to work" look.

Danny picked up Bailey, placed her on his shoulders, and bent down towards Lindsay, giving her a quick peck on the cheek.

"Screw Mac, I'll kiss ya if I wanna."

"Eww!" the little girl screamed. "You're a liar, you're a liar!"

"Oh yeah?" Danny asked her, bringing her off his shoulders and balancing her on his hip, placing a kiss to her cheek. "Is that gross?"

"Yes!" she joked.

"How about this?" he asked, kissing her multiple times as her giggles filled the lab. He placed her back on the ground, escorting her to Lindsay's office as they started the day at work.

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Lindsay's day couldn't have been going better. On top of Bailey's test results coming back good and she and Danny reconciling, she had finally gotten a lead on a case she'd been working on for the past week, and as she rushed off to DNA, she began to think that nothing could ruin her day. Until, that is, she began to hear footsteps behind her. Angry footstep whose pace was quickening. She tried to ignore them, but as the voice that belonged to the angry feet began to speak, she found it hard to.

"Hey Monroe."

As Lindsay turned around, she realized who had been following her.

She was staring into the face of a very angry looking Cameron Burke.

This was not going to turn out well.

"Hey Cam, you caught me at a bad time, could this wait?"

"No, actually, it can't," he replied sternly, gripping her shoulder harshly and whipping her around. Her stare grew icy as she looked him in the eye.

"Okay, what do you want?"

"You wanna tell me why the hell you tried to pass off your kid as mine?"

"Cam, we've already had this discussion—"

"No Linds, we haven't. You giving me some lame ass excuse at the hospital isn't 'having this discussion'. You lied, Lindsay. You told that fucker that I was Bailey's father. You used me for your own selfish needs, and then you kicked me to the fucking curb."

Tears were welling up in her eyes by this point. But Cameron didn't seem to notice, or care. He continued harassing her in the middle of the hallway.

"What I still can't believe is that you actually took him back. I mean, do you even remember what he did to you? He left you Lindsay. He LEFT. He left you, on your own, with a kid, for FOUR YEARS, and you just fucking take him back? I've been there for you since the day I met you. Time and time again I've tried to prove myself to you, and this is the thanks I get? I really don't get it Lindsay. Would you like to explain it to me, because I'm still in the dark here."

She honestly didn't know what to say. The tears were free flowing from her eyes and she was staring down at her feet.

"I-I'm sorry Cam, I never…never meant to hurt you like this—"

"Like hell you didn't," he yelled in response. Little did he know, Danny was just around the corner. The intensity in his voice made the young detective's ears perk, but he could sense that something besides the raised voices in the lab was wrong. Lindsay was in trouble. He could feel it. He immediately rerouted, following the sound of the argument, his pace quickening as he rounded the corner, realizing his fears were true: the bastard was yelling at his girl. It only angered him more to see that his hands were forcibly pushing down into her shoulders. He wasn't going to stand for this. He grabbed the man by the shoulder, much like he had done earlier to the petite woman not ten minutes previous.

"Hey Burke, you wanna explain to me what your hands are doing on her?" he asked the man harshly.

"Well Messer, let's just say your girlfriend here deserves way more than what I'm dishing out to her."

Wrong move, Danny thought.

Before he could finish his thought, Cameron felt his body being forced against the wall behind him.

"If you EVER come near Lindsay or her daughter again, so help me GOD, I will tear you to pieces! You keep your dirty hands off of her, and you get the fuck out of her face." He could see the fear in the man's face, the blood rushing to his head as he struggled to keep from screaming like a little girl. Cameron slowly nodded, hoping the movement wouldn't make the man who was currently pinning him against the wall angry.

"Good. Now, get the fuck out of my face before I get my hands on you again. You deserved way more than what I just dished out to you," he repeated the man's earlier words as he pointed down the hallway, directing him away from where he and Lindsay now stood. As soon as Cameron had sprinted around the corner crying, Danny pulled Lindsay into a tight hug, wrapping his arms protectively around her.

"Shh, shh, I've got you Linds," he whispered reassuringly into her ear as she cried against his chest. "I've got you know Lindsay, no one's ever going to hurt you, I promise."

They stood in the middle of the hallway, Danny's arms never moving except to tighten the grip around her, making sure no other man could harm her. He was her protector, he would never let anything happen to either of his girls as long as he was living and breathing.

---

next week in Come Back to Me...

As he finished off Bailey's bedtime story, the little girl smiled up at him.

"Since you're dating my mommy, does that mean you're gonna get married?"

He smiled sweetly back at her. "I don't know kiddo. We'll just have to see how things go."

"I hope it does," she replied with a sigh. "If you guys got married, that would make you my daddy, and then I would be the happiest girl in the whole entire universe."

--

"Danny, I think it's time we tell Bailey the truth.

--

;)