One cream. Two sugars. Three stirs and a spoon in the dishwasher before she brought the warm mug to her lips.

"Halt."

Her eyes flicked up and she looked at Danny, glaring as he kept her from the caffeine.

"What?"

"We got a body. We gotta go."

"But… the… pretty coffee!"

"Yes, I know. Pitch it."

She sighed and jutted her lip out until he rolled his eyes and moved past her, reaching into the depths of the cupboard and producing a travel mug.

"Here. Pour. Let's go."

She obeyed, sticking the mug in the dishwasher and following him down the hall. He grabbed both their kits out of the office and they caught the elevator down to the parking garage. Danny was quiet, starting the car and navigating through mid-town traffic while Lindsay played with the radio and tried to figure out what was eating at her partner.

"Danny."

"What?"

"What's the matter?"

"Nothin'."

"Stop bein' a girl and spill it."

"Stop bein' a girl and thinkin' I need to talk 'bout it."

"Whoa, okay, just sittin' here. Didn't know you had a stick up your butt. Backing off now."

"Sorry," he sighed, glancing over at her and dropping his shoulders. "It's not you, Montana. They passed down the verdict on the Townsend case."

"He's walkin' around a free man?"

"Yeah. Went right back home to his wife and kids. He terrorized them so bad they couldn't testify. Even if one of them had spoken up…" he trailed off, smacking the steering wheel. "We all know he did it. Murdered that guy in cold blood. And now he just walks away."

"I'm sorry Danny," she sighed, leaning her head back against the seat. "I know how hard you worked on that case."

"I thought we had him, you know? It was all right there. Politics. Screwing up science every time."

"It's not your fault."

"I know."

"Yeah, but you still feel guilty about it. That's why you're growling."

He gave a wry chuckle and shook his head.

"He's gonna do it again Linds."

"He might not. It doesn't really matter if he doesn't, he still did this one."

"I hate the justice system sometimes."

"Really doesn't ever do its job, does it?"

"I don't know. Do you feel like it did its job for you?"

She sighed and cleared her throat before answering the only way she knew how.

"It can't bring the girls back or make the nightmares go away. Justice never promises to restore life to the way it was before, and I think sometimes we assume that it does."

"Do you feel like it did do what it promises?"

"I know it did everything it could, but I still feel like it didn't. I guess that's the human part of me that wants it all erased. Maybe that's why we do this job. Erase as much of the fear as we can."

He sighed and swiped his hand across his forehead while she reached over and turned up the air conditioner.

"It's not good enough."

"It never will be, Danny. We can't turn back time or ever overcome the evil in the world. We can't always solve a case or even give someone the answers. But I know that having someone caring, someone on your side, that helps. It helps a lot."

"Does it really or are you just sayin' that to make me feel better?"

"I wouldn't lie to you, Danny."

He nodded and focused on the road, their conversation done for now. He'd pick it back up again in a few days, as if no time had passed, but he would be a bit more settled with the issue. Lindsay had grown up with enough boys that she understood their operation, and that it often took more than one conversation for them to land on something.

They drove for quite a while up north to what Danny called "Country Club Hell." They turned off County Highway 104 and onto an unpaved road that wound into a wooded area.

"Where are we goin'?"

"New house construction," Danny said. "Found a D.B. when they were diggin' up for the foundation."

"Fresh?"

"Just bones as far as I know."

She nodded as he stopped the car and the got out, crossing the yellow tape and joining Flack at the edge of a now shallow grave.

"Well," he started, searching for the right words. "What you see is what you get. Found the body this morning. Not sure what was around it, they found it in the dirt pile after they'd lifted a load of dirt from the ground. No one's touched anything."

Hawkes moved around the body carefully, making note of the age of the bones, looking for any usable tissue. There wasn't much; the body seemed to have completely decomposed and no clothing even laid over the bones. The only telling mark was a gunshot wound to the head.

It was going to be a long day.

"You're not going to get coffee today," Danny said, poking his head in the office door.

"Am too!" Lindsay declared, taking a huge sip of the hot liquid. Danny cringed and shook his head while she drained the cup. "Told ya."

"And for the next five days while you can't taste anything, you just remember that you had the last word on that one."

"I will."

"Sid needs us down in autopsy."

"Okay," she sighed, pushing back from the desk and following him down the hall. They got in the elevator and fought with each other to be able to push the button first. Danny finally relented and she smiled victoriously, turning around to make a face at him. Instead she found herself pulled into a tight hug.

"What's this for?" she asked, hugging him back.

"I'm just glad you're alright."

She nodded understanding as he released her.

"I'm sorry I worried you."

"Not your fault. Just glad I got my partner back."

"Yeah, all your tormenting skills have to be used somewhere."

"Yeah, like yours don't?"

She laughed as they stepped off the elevator and walked down the hall to autopsy.

"Glad you're here," Sid said, snapping his glasses apart and looking up at them. "Got some trace on the gunshot wound."

He handed Lindsay a plastic vial with a few small pieces of fuzz or something in it.

"I've also found a wrist fracture, fresh around the time of death. Not sure what it's from, but I've got the measurements and force required for you."

"Male or female?"

"Male, around thirty years old, Caucasian. I'm waiting on some results but I'm putting death and burial around twenty five years ago. I'll know more later."

"Got anything else?"

"I'll have my report as soon as I can. I've got dental records coming down, hopefully that will give us an ID. If not, I'll see what kind of DNA I can come up with."

"Okay. Thanks, Sid."

They made their way back upstairs and into the lab, each donning white coats and gloves and going over to the microscope.

It was a boring look at a cotton fiber and they both sighed, taking samples to run the gamut of tests, determining origin and hoping that it would be a link in the chain of evidential pieces.

"Well now what?"

"Don't know," Danny answered. "Either wait around here for Sid's report or call ten hours a day and go home."

"Ten hours, really? I've gotta get out of here. I don't think I even called Adam all day."

"You didn't take a lunch break either."

"I stole some Handi-Snacks out of your desk."

"Well I stole some cookies out of yours."

"We're way too comfortable with each other."

"It keeps us fed," he shrugged as they tied up loose ends and got ready to leave. "Speaking of food, is your clan feeding ours tonight or the other way around?"

"I don't know. Did Austin work today?"

It took him a lot longer to answer than it should have.

"I think she had court this morning but was off the rest of the day. But I don't even know for sure what day it is."

"Right. Well why don't we both call our better halves and see what they want to do?"

They both took out their phones and were soon lost in their own conversations.

"Hey, what are you doin'?" Lindsay asked when Adam answered the phone.

"Me and Austin are watching Firefly while the kids run around naked, screaming their heads off."

Lindsay exchanged a look with Danny who had gotten the same answer from Austin.

"So you're both rotting your brains out watching Firefly for the fortieth time and the kids are somewhere, but you haven't heard a peep in a while and are both too chicken to investigate."

"Brava on the deduction darling."

"It's my job. Dinner. Thoughts?"

"We need to eat. Might as well do it soon. We could all just go out somewhere. We never do that."

"Well you'd better dress the kids so we don't get kicked out."

"I'll get right on that. Get home safe."

"I'll be there soon."

All the plates were empty and the kids were still happy with their menu coloring pages, sharing crayons as if they had been sent to refinery school. Austin and Danny lounged back in the booth like it was a love seat, looking like a pair of high schoolers on a Friday night. Lindsay was leaning her elbows on the table while Adam rubbed her back and played with the ends of her hair, listening more to her voice as she spoke than the actual words she was saying. He often found himself doing that and having to ask her to repeat what she'd been saying because he'd been so enraptured by the sound of her voice that the words she was forming didn't sink into his consciousness. It irritated her, but he also liked her irritated voice, so he wasn't going to tell her why he was only truly listening half the time.

"We all know about it, they can stop pretending to hide it," Austin said with a chuckle.

"Yeah. Like what, we're in middle school or something?" Lindsay agreed.

"Now wait a minute. You two hid your relationship for months!"

"Well yeah," Lindsay defended, putting a mental hand on a mental hip. "But no one knew we were hiding anything. No one suspected except Stella."

"That's because no one paid attention to us," Adam interjected.

"Yeah, no one cared."

"Okay, wait a minute," Danny started. "I knew somethin' was goin' on with you, Montana. I just didn't know that something involved Geek Boy."

"Yeah, no one ever caught you two kissin', just high fivin'."

"What? That is kissin'!"

"Oh my word," Austin chuckled, shaking her head. "I don't… I can't… let's just not go there."

"Okay, well then back to Mac and Jo and how to get them to admit what's going on."

"They're practically married. Geez."

"Dude," Danny coughed. "Why are we listening to this?"

"Because we married into it, man," Adam commiserated.

"Are you guys goin' out of town this summer? You know, to get these two away from each other for a while?"

"Hey!" the girls chorused, each smacking their respective husband in the arm.

"And if you are, could you make it now?"

"We're not goin' anywhere this summer," Lindsay sighed.

"Yeah, her parents don't want us back. She wrecked the tractor last time."

"I did not wreck the tractor! It was already wrecked! Besides, I thought I was runnin' over a tumbleweed, I didn't know it had a boulder in the middle."

"Because why, Linds."

"Because I leaned over to push my brother out of the tractor and I wasn't payin' attention to where I was goin'."

Austin snorted and shook her head.

"Lin, you make me so proud."

"Thanks."

"So you're not leaving town?" Danny asked for clarification.

"We're going to Arizona in October. And why are you so anxious for me to leave Danny? You just got me back."

"Yeah, I like you at work. I don't like the two of you teamed up. Scares me."

"He's onto us," Austin giggled.

"Our evil plan to actually comb his hair!"

"Ditch them for Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders?" Danny suggested.

"Doesn't hurt to try," Adam said with a one shoulder shrug. "By the way, what are our kids doing?"

They looked over at Colton and Isa who were sword fighting with breadsticks, but doing it like they were stuck on slow motion.

"So they don't break the breadsticks," Lindsay clarified.

"Duh."

Adam and Danny looked at each other and shook their heads. They were used to this, but that didn't mean they ever understood.

"Dental records just came in," Hawkes reported, tossing a manila folder onto Danny's desk. "You guys are gonna want to look at this."

Danny flipped the folder opened and sighed.

"David Cobb. Why's that name sound familiar?"

Hawkes gestured to the report again.

"Went missing in the spring of 1988," Danny continued. "He was a cop working out of the 50th- wait, I know this case. My father, he worked it back then. Austin's dad too. You sure on these records?"

"Positive. Double checked. Sid's running bone marrow DNA as we speak for further confirmation, but this is David Cobb."

Danny stood there for a second, reading over the small amount of information Hawkes had given him.

"We need to get the old records from the case. Feel like gettin' dusty, Montana?"

"Dustier than you, pretty boy."

Hawkes rolled his eyes.

"I'm going to go see if Sid's ready to release his report yet."

"Thanks. We're gonna go over to records."

They left the office after Danny tossed the folder on his desk.

"So what do you remember about this case?" Lindsay asked, tucking her hair behind her ear.

"Not much. My dad didn't really talk about work at home. I know it stressed him out though. Cobb went missing after work one night. He'd walked home from work but never made it there. His wife was six months pregnant. Cobb was teamed up with a guy named uh… Bridger I think. I don't really remember much else."

"Bridger?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure."

"The house."

"The one bein' built?"

"Yeah. Wasn't that house being built for a woman named Bridger?"

Danny pulled a small notebook out of his back pocket and flipped through it for a minute.

"Yeah, Tallie Bridger."

"The world isn't that small, is it?"

"I dunno. Probably not in a court of law."

They made it down to the records room, both sneezing in unison at the dust that had accumulated and the old paper smell.

"So. Where do we start?"

"Well, figurin' this thing ain't even organized none… your guess is as good as mine."

"You go from country slang to proper English in the middle of a sentence."

"I'm awesome Danny."

He arched an eyebrow and the set to work, looking at labels on boxes for a good twenty minutes before they even made it to the right year.

"Found it, you owe me a slushie."

"We stopped doin' that years ago, Montana."

"We fell out of the habit, that don't mean it's not still in play."

"How does Austin keep up with you?"

"The heck? How do I keep up with her?"

"How do me and Adam keep up with either of you?"

She smiled and shook her head, opening the old bank box and sneezing again.

"Dash, can't anybody wiggle a dustbuster around in here once a decade?"

"Who?"

"What?"

"Dash?"

"Oh. Means damn."

"Right."

"Danny you should know by now."

"Know what?"

"It's just no use."

He chuckled as they started to go through the papers in the box, finding very little more than they already knew. It was like the investigation had been at a dead end before it even started.

"Hey, do you think we could get your dad down here? Ask him some questions, maybe he remembers something that's not in the files."

"I could ask. I know it was a really hard time for him, but he might be willing."

"I could use my charms," Austin said suddenly from the doorway. "I got all the Messer men wrapped 'round my little finger."

"That's what we want you to think," Danny retorted. She flicked his ear and grabbed the papers out of his hands. "You remember this?"

"Vaguely," she said, biting her lip as she skimmed over the old typewritten document.

"You were knee high to a grasshopper."

The girls just stared at him for a second before letting out complimentary sighs.

"Moving on."

"We should see if we can find old newspaper articles. I remember my dad getting interviewed for something around this time," Austin suggested. "Maybe there's something."

"Worth a shot."

"Speaking of, did Sid recover a bullet?"

"Negatory," Danny replied. "He thinks it might have fallen out when he was being transported. If there was flesh left he could tell if the bullet had been removed intentionally, but so far…"

"Dead end."

"Exactly."

They all dropped their shoulders in early defeat. This was beginning to stink like a cover-up or something even deeper than that, and they all knew how that would turn out. Right back in this room, putting the unsolved case into the box again.