Chapter 3: Planes,Trips and Exes ,OMG

And then there was their trip to Santa Fe. Mindy was currently dating Casey Pearson. a christian minister she'd met on the were going great with Casey and Mindy, it seemed like she'd finally found a nice stable guy who was actually as he seemed.

Mindy was gearing up for her, Jeremy,Morgan and Danny's trip to a medical conference in Santa Fe. That's when she got a call from the not so distant past. Josh, her philandering ex-boyfriend was living near Santa Fe and he wanted to talk to her. Mindy had no intention of seeing Josh, but Casey, the good guy that he was, thought it would be a good idea to get some kind of closure.

Danny though, thought it was a horrible idea and he was quite vocal about it on the plane. In his opinion closure wasn't necessary and anything to do with Josh would just lead to trouble. In the end Mindy did end up going to see Josh, and not so surprisingly Danny found himself driving her there, after she tried to sneak off during the conference .

What was surprising though was where Josh lived, he was in a rehab facility. Mindy was finally able to put the missing pieces together of what went wrong in their relationship. Josh also gave her some insight into herself. Apparently Mindy was sometimes blind to things that were right in front of her face. Thins like Josh's erratic behavior, which clearly hinted at his drug use . Out of all the surprising things Josh had revealed, his assumption that she and Danny were a couple was the most surprising.

In the moment she'd shook it off as nothing, but she couldn't stop thinking about Josh's assumption. The thought of her and Danny as a couple mingled in the back of her mind during the remaining length of the conference, as well as on the plane. As she tried to shake the thought from her head, heavy turbulence struck and she instinctively reached for the thing that would make her feel safe, Danny's hand.

It appeared his instinct was synched with hers because in that exact moment he reached for her hand too. Mindy couldn't believed she'd grasped his hand. The part of her that remembered it was Danny made her pull her hand away. Danny quickly grasped her hand wrapping it tighter with his , asking if she was ok before letting go. Just as quickly as he let his barrier slip completely he put it right back up, but it was long enough to create a slight shift in their dynamic.

Neither said a word to the other the rest of the flight, but once in awhile Mindy would glimpse at him like she was trying to figure out a puzzle. These glances would occur when he wasn't looking of course, and unbeknownst to her, he was doing the same.

They were back in the office and when asked how their trip was, they shared a look and shy smiles. Unfortunately the moment was interrupted by someone from Danny's past, his ex-wife Christina.

Danny resisted at first, but gradually he agreed to try again with his ex-wife, while Mindy and Casey grew closer. Casey then announced that he would be going to Haiti to do missionary work and that he would be gone for a year. Mindy didn't want to end things with him. Casey was her first solid relationship in a long time , so they decided that they would have a long distance relationship.

A long distance relationship however proved harder then she anticipated, and Casey hadn't even left yet. Mindy impulsively said she wished she could go with him ,and that led to her deciding that she would indeed go with him.

First though, came the camping trip. Danny was taking Christina camping . Somehow Mindy and Morgan had worked their way into the trip and the five of them found themselves camping. The trip started off fun enough, until Mindy started to seriously think about how it would be living in a tent with Casey for a whole year. While Danny asked Christina to move in with him.

Mindy leaving for Haiti with Casey was official and a bon voyage party was thrown for the happy couple at Danny and Christina's place. Mindy though was feeling less and less certain about going, in fact she was fairly certain she didn't want to go to Haiti. Yes ,she cared deeply about Casey, but every time she thought about what it would entail being away from New York, she cringed.

She was taking comfort in her going away cake, when Danny found her in his room. He was going through his own crisis. He was freaking out about how fast things were going with his ex-wife. As he always seemed to do in times of extreme stress he turned to smoking, dropping the cigarette and lighter once he spotted Mindy sitting on the floor. She was holding a whole cake platter, a large square piece of it missing , a silver fork in hand .

She and Danny started to discuss men, and moving too fast. That's when she got an idea of how to get out of going to Haiti. Pulling Casey aside, she told him she couldn't move to Haiti with him without them being engaged. Thinking , of course, that would be enough for him to be ok with her staying in New York.

As did most of her plans, it ended up back firing when Casey announced that he never thought that when he'd met Mindy she'd be his future wife. With that declaration he began to attempt to propose . Which Mindy promptly stopped by announcing she didn't want to marry him, and she didn't want go to Haiti with him either.

Mindy went on further to say, she loved being independent and that there was no way she could spend a year in a tent with someone, even if that someone was Casey. It just wouldn't be enough. Casey had stormed out of there ,effectively ending their relationship .

Just when she was about to leave the party herself, her pager, as well as Danny's and Jeremy's went off , and there was no time to waste. She had to forget about everything that had just happened with Casey and slip into Doctor mode, she had triplets to help deliver.

After all three babies were delivered , Mindy had an epiphany, when she asked some questions of the new mother. In that moment she knew what she had to do. Danny had his own epiphany a thoughtful look on his face as he watched her leave.

Mindy then made her way to Casey's apartment building, running the whole way. Not taking no for an answer , as she begged him to forgive her and take her with him to Haiti. Casey still wouldn't budge and his neighbors , an angry women who threw clothes hangers at her, and a pervy man, were not making the situation any easier. When she revealed her new pixie cut short hairdo, the deal was sealed. She'd be going to Haiti with Casey after all.

Later in the doctors lounge , she and Danny settled into their usual comfortableness chilling on the couch, but this time, there was something a little different about the air in the room.

"Hey." Mindy said walking into the lounge.

"Hey." Danny said back not looking up from his newspaper.

"I'm gonna go..Oh My God what did you do to your hair!" Danny said looking away from his paper and seeing Mindy's short haircut.

"I cut it." Mindy said a smile on her face.

"Oh I hate it so much." Danny said.

"That is so rude , its short now, you can't just say you hate it." Mindy said as she took a seat next to him on the doctors lounge couch.

"Well only three women can pull off a short hair like that, Audrey Hepburn, Hallie Berry and Ellen DeGeneres, guys are not going to go for this, I'm telling you they're not going to deal with it. " Danny said going off on one of his trademark rants.

"Alright, well, its a good thing you're not my boyfriend" Mindy said .

"yeah, its a good thing." Danny said, though a part him knew that was a lie .

"I like it." Mindy said running her hand over the hair on the back of her head.

"It's..it might grow on me, we both have the same hair cut now." Danny said with a smirk, which made Mindy giggle, smile at him and nervously push her glasses closer to her eyes. There was a brief silence before Danny spoke again.

"I told Christina I want to slow things down so... " Danny said in a serious tone, eyes looking down as he spoke.

"You think that's...you've got a little something..." Danny began lifting his head and looking directly at Mindy, then stopping mid sentence as he reached to grab her glasses gently off of her face, cleaning them then moving closer to her ,returning them to her face just as gently his hands slightly cupping her head.

"There..." He said when the glasses were securely on her face.

" There was just a little smutz." Danny said gazing at her with an expression Mindy had never seen before, and surprisingly she found herself looking back at him with the same intensity. They were so close and there was something in Danny's eyes.

They both seem to make subtle movements toward each other, his eyes quickly glanced down to her lips then back to her eyes, her eyes did the same. She was this close to getting lost in the moment when she remembered something that made her snap out of it.

"Casey and I got back together ." Mindy said, and the look on Danny's face went from adoration to disbelief,he moved slightly away from her taking a moment to think before speaking.

"You did..." He said his voice slightly breaking .

"Yeah, so I'm gonna go to Haiti." Mindy said nodding her head.

Danny took a few seconds before speaking, he seemed to be contemplating how to respond to what Mindy had said. Snapping out of his temporary grief, he quickly started to pull his barriers back up.

"Good for you."

Mindy just continued to nod, trying not to think about the moment of intensity that had just occurred between her and Danny. Her mind couldn't go there, she shouldn't be thinking that if she wasn't with Casey ,and he wasn't with Christina, that they would have kissed. She would have kissed Danny. No, she had to stop those thoughts immediately . She was moving to Haiti with a guy she almost loved and that was that, end of story. Or so she thought, but we'll get to that later.

Danny, completely moved away, turning to sit away from her, his back resting on the couch, retrieving his newspaper while Mindy reached for the remote control . Both trying to forget what had had almost transpired, neither realizing that this was just the beginning.