DISCLAIMER: Not even slightly mine.
A/N: Shorter than usual, but I can definitely promise the next chapter will be epically long, (lots of flash backs coming present from You Look Good) and it will be up within days, just some current additions, AND editing. Stay tuned. Love you all! *Hearts* Gigi.
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: : Fare Game : :
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It had been a very interesting day to say the least. The cases the team got, just were weird. Mac, Stella, and Lindsay had been hunting people down all day effectively playing a game to find their killer, and Danny and Hawkes, well. Danny had eaten a centipede for an early afternoon snack, and Hawkes was hatching eggs. It was just odd. Exotic Cuisine indeed.
They were just about to leave the function when Mac rang Danny's cell phone. He wanted them to bring some of the 'food' back for the team.
"Come on Mac, No one is gonna eat that stuff. Danny said signaling for one of the waitresses to wrap some up for evidence
"I'm sure at least Lindsay will."
"Nah Mac, no way in hell is she gonna, not even take a bite." Danny laughed.
"Five bucks Messer meet you and the rest of the team in the break room in 15."
"Aright Mac, five bucks, but I'm telling ya, she's not gonna do it." Danny smiled and hung up with Mac, he finished packing the truck before hopping into the passenger seat.
"Did you really just bet Mac that Lindsay wouldn't eat that shit?" Hawkes asked with raised eyebrows.
"Yea."
'You remember she's from the country right?" Hawkes looked skeptically at Danny. He simply laughed,
"And I don't let her forget it why?"
"Just checking." Oh Messer was so going to lose that bet. He could see it already. She had brothers, there was no way she hadn't eaten dirt, and bugs, and all that shit before. It's what brothers do to sisters. He'd tried it.
"So you think she'll do it.'
"Without a doubt." Hawkes smirked. They pulled into the labs parking lot and unloaded the goodies and brought them upstairs to the break room, they were unpacking the things when Stella, Lindsay, and Flack walked in, closely followed by Mac.
"So boys what did you bring us?" Stella asked as she scanned the covered containers. Hawkes walked around to the opposite side of the table to get a better view, mostly of Danny's face when the guy was proven wrong.
"Aright I got meal worm spaghetti, stink bug pâté, cricket crockets, braised ant brochette, Thai dragonflies; who's going first?" Danny asked looking around Stella's face was one of pure disgust, and she was suppose to be a world traveler, Don's seemed to think Danny was kidding, and Mac just stood back and smiled, looking for even the smallest movement. Mac glanced in Lindsay's direction.
Feeling all eyes on her, she and Mac were the only ones who had yet to not decline, Lindsay reached forward and grabbed a deep fried spider. There was a lot of breading it couldn't be that bad. "It's only protein." She shrugged and she took a bite out of one of the legs. She could really feel all eyes on her now. Danny glanced in Don's direction and had to turn away to keep from laughing hysterically. He turned around again when he felt Mac tap his arm.
"Told ya she'd do it." He smiled
"Aright aright, aright." Danny smirked as he pulled a $5.00 bill out of his pocket and handed it to Mac. All eyes that were once of disgust turned instantly and laughed at the glare Lindsay gave Danny.
"Okay, Pizza, my office." Mac said holding up the $5. Everyone turned to go out the room, Hawkes gave Lindsay a slight nudge on his way out, in a good for you gesture before leaving to grab himself a piece of pizza. Lindsay then looked back at Danny, as she swallowed.
"You bet Mac I wouldn't do it?" she teased.
"Yea, what was I thinking, betting against a country girl." He said pulling up a seat next to her. Lindsay laughed and she took another bite.
"You know, it's actually not that bad."
'Well, try it with some grasshopper chutney." H offered her some sauce. "Wasp Tamale?"
"Don't mind if I do." Lindsay took a bite of one. "mmm, hmmm." Danny couldn't help but laugh, this girl was full of surprises.
"Meal worm spaghetti is the best." Danny claimed as he popped a worm into his mouth then rested an arm around the back of Lindsay's chair. She laughed and took another bite. They sat there and munched for a few minutes before Lindsay put the fried spider down, its legs gone, it's body still intact. "You not gonna finish that Monroe?" Danny joked sitting back.
"Messer, I may take the leap and eat deep fried spider legs, but the torso, a whole other story, no way in hell am I biting into a spider like that."
"That I understand." Danny smiled as he picked up a run away worm and tossed it back into the container with the rest. Then Don poked his head into the break room,
"Danno, Linds, throw the bugs away and come eat some pizza."
"Well who can say no to that." Danny shrugged,
"Good, cause the bug taste, not working to well for me." Lindsay smiled as she stood and threw away a few containers of the dead and cooked bugs. They walked down the hall to Mac's office where the pizza had just arrived, the room smelled amazing. Pizza from Ray's was fantastic.
"Lindsay I cannot believe you ate that." Stella said as her friend walked into the office.
"What, no one else was going to eat it, I felt bad." Lindsay shrugged.
"That's gotta be a Northwest kinda thing, cause you definitely don't see that out here." Hawkes shook his head then bit into a steaming piece of pepperoni pizza.
"Nah, I'd call that a New York thing, not giving a rat's ass, I find that's pretty common out here." Lindsay smirked at the look on Danny and Don's faces. "What?" she asked grabbing a piece of sausage and pepper pizza.
"Did you just say New Yorkers don't give a shit Monroe?" Danny asked eyebrows raised.
"Uh, yea, I mean can you honestly tell me your neighbors care?"
"I don't know my neighbors." Danny said, "well okay I know 1.5 of them." He shrugged.
"Exactly." She smiled. "And how do you know half a neighbor Messer?"
"Well, okay 2, but seriously it's a nod in the hall, and a hello."
"And that's knowing someone?"
"Her kid is like attached to my hip some nights."
"Aw, Messer is a mentor." She quipped,
"Aright whatever Montana, admit it you like knowing that strangers don't know every little thing about you."
"Yea, it's nice. But when it comes to manners…"
"Yea yea, we need to learn to take off our shoes." At this everybody laughed. After that case at the doll hospital it seemed like Danny told everybody in the lab that Lindsay actually took off her shoes to enter a potential suspects house. At least it got us a bit more evidence, she had defended herself while he teased her. You might get more than you came for, and boy did they.
They finished up the pizza and on Mac's orders headed home, that little bit of paper work they had could wait until tomorrow, and well, it being a Saturday, chances are they'd be in early, so they should try to get some sleep.
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Shit! Danny thought when he glanced at his watch after Mac dismissed them. He had missed plans with Cindy. He decided it would probably be best to head over to her place and apologize like there was no tomorrow. But why? He told her he was working a case. That he probably wouldn't make it. So why did he feel guilty? Damn Catholicism in him, that's what it was. His mother beat it into him as a kid.
He knocked on the door, several times, it was still early, so she would be up. After a few minutes she yanked the door open. "WHAT THE HELL DAN! YOU SAID YOU'D SHOW UP." She yelled at him through the closed door.
"No I never said I'd show up I said I'd try too, and the ball got rolling, there was no stopping it."
"YEA THAT'S BEEN YOU EXCUSE FROM THE START. WHAT THE HELL, WORK IS MORE IMPORTANT THEN MY GIRLFRIEND. I'D RATHER FIND THE BAD GUY THEN SPEND TIME WITH CINDY WHATEVER. GO AWAY DANNY, YOU MADE ME FEEL LIKE AN IDIOT TODAY!"
"Hey, you knew this when we started going out, my time is not always mine, I pretty much belong to the city. And YOU SAID you could deal with that."
"YEA WELL I WAS WRONG. I NEED SOMEONE TO BE AROUND, SO JUST GO DANNY, THIS THING IT'S OVER."
"Fine, you can't deal with how I live, then I'm better off without you. Have a great life Cindy." Danny said as he turned and left.
"WAIT DANNY I DIDN'T MEAN THAT."
"Sure ya did Cindy, now accept it, Goodbye." And with that he left, and permanently deleted 'Talk' off his cell phone, as well as her number. No need in keeping it anymore. He was free again, and he'd be lying if he said he didn't see Lindsay Monroe in a whole new light. He liked her, but he was not going to date a coworker. It just wasn't going to happen. And she may not even like him like that, well, yet.
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