A/N: Hi guys, just to let you know I'm posting from the beyond as the episode kind of killed me. Oh MY GOODNESS! What just happened? Was that real? I'm not overly sure. I'm pretty sure I dreamt it. Especially when Lindsay ran her finger over Danny's chin (lips?) And I mean come on, how many DL scenes did we get? Like 3959797? I lost count. Bill Haynes (the writer...) dude, you can come play again because holy moly, you're good dude. I'm pretty sure he's given us good DL episodes before. (Oh look at that, he wrote The Box and Exit Strategy to name but a few apparently.) We clearly have a DL shipper on our hands. Anyway, I digress. Here's a little... little, who am I kidding? This one is a monster! I hope you guys like it! I'm pretty tired after having a long day and I'm up for work in oooh, 4 hours. No big. hahaha.
Huge thank you to everyone who sent me love with the last post-ep. You guys are just beautiful people and I really love you guys! I read it back the next day and it wasn't as bad as I had initially thought (which is saying something because I still wasn't sure!) so thank you for your reassurance. I'm sorry I haven't replied personally. Senior year is a little bit of a killer when it comes to free time. Anyway. Thank you all so much! Sweet LIL loz, Meggie, Emilyyy, CODIS, RandomTVFan30, Jenniexcsixnyx, LindsayMesser, brendanakai, Promising Love 625, Alex Joleta, MesserFamilyFan100, afrozenheart412, 18lzytwner, CTI-Jenn, yenyen76, Daisy1966 and cklovesm-m.
Slinging her purse over her shoulder and letting out a relieved sigh, Lindsay Messer closed her locker with a satisfying slam. She was officially free for the next twenty-four hours and a glorious day off work was going to come as a welcomed change after the string of cases she'd picked up recently. Not to mention the sheer lack of face time with her husband had gotten her down significantly. While she understood what his responsibilities meant for their relationship, that didn't mean that she had to like it. Or accept it willingly.
When she'd ducked under the crime scene tape yesterday, she felt a flutter of excited butterflies flitter around her stomach at the sight of him. When he'd worked at the lab with her, they had eventually gotten to stage where it was almost normal to be called to a scene and find the other hunched over a body, carefully extracting some form of trace or DNA from the DOA; but it was different now. Seeing Danny in her neck of the woods gave her the butterflies she'd once felt at the beginning of their partnership together. She'd deny it to the death, but in the early months of her joining the lab, she always hoped that Danny would turn up at some point, giving her a unabashed chance to flirt with him.
So when she'd walked into the scene and found him scribbling in his notepad, it had quite simply been an opportunity that she would have been stupid to pass up. Admittedly, she'd felt bad when he'd looked at her and asked her if she was trying to break his heart. Really, a guilt trip was far from her true intentions. She had been trying to tell him that she missed him in a roundabout way. He'd offered her a wink afterwards, silently telling her that he knew she was just joking, but she still felt bad, because although he hadn't really meant it, she'd kind of taken something that she knew he was sensitive about and reminded him of the drastic changes in their life. Danny had made a point of voicing his concerns to her on a few occasions; mainly that he had to spend more and more time at work, and less time at home with his family. And as a result, they made a point of trying to have lunch with one another in the time that Danny was allocated for his break. Sometimes they made it out to a little cafe or sandwich shop, but more times than not one of them had to take a rain check – most of the time, that person being Lindsay. With her case load and her seniority status as investigator with Danny away from the lab, she had taken on a lot more responsibility with no one really asking her to; which of course had a ripple effect.
Not seeing Danny had been something she'd had to deal with every now and again when they worked together at the lab, so it wasn't completely alien to her. But, what was totally alien to her was not seeing him across the lab, staring into a microscope or smacking Adam over the head with a case-file. She had to admit that she was a little concerned with the fact that not having him around was becoming to feel... normal. It scared her, because if it was becoming to feel normal, then... what did that mean for them?
"You stick around here for much longer and you're gonna find yourself catchin' another case, honey."
Looking up from where she'd clearly been lost in her thoughts, her eyes fell on Danny, who was grinning in jeans and his beautifully tight green t-shirt. He looked quite the picture, and she took a moment to quite broadly soak him in with no reservations.
"Why move when the view is this good?"
"Nice." Danny smirked as he quickly closed the distance between them. When he did, her eyes fell to his waistband, and spied a visitor's badge, looped through his belt-loop.
"What's that?" She implored.
"A visitor badge." He laughed. "Why?"
"A visitor's badge, are you screwing with me?" She narrowed her eyes as she investigated the offending item on his hip.
"Hey!" Danny implored as her fingers went to the card as she pulled it from his belt to examine it. "Where you goin' with that?"
"A visitor? A visitor?" She implored. "They gave you a visitor's badge? You were here five hours ago and no one even cared enough to bat an eyelid!"
"I was here six hours ago actually." He smirked as she glanced down at her watch and groaned. "And babe, technically I am a visitor now..." He smirked at her reaction. "I don't work here anymore."
"Are you crazy! Did you not just hear me say you were here five hours ago-"
"-Except it was six hours ago." He smirked again.
"You work with us!" She cried. "End of story, for goodness sake Danny, you worked here for nearly ten years!"
"Protocol is protocol though babe." Danny reminded her. "Even for little old Danny Messer, shit doesn't change. As soon as I step out of my uniform, that's it... no special passes now."
"Well, shit needs to change." She snapped, feeling unsurprisingly angry at the reminder of Danny's new path in his career and the implications it was having elsewhere.
"Hey, come on." He sighed as he cupped her cheek and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. "I've been waiting to see you all day. Don't get in a crabby mood now."
"I'm not in a crabby mood," she scoffed at him. "I just don't see why they made you take a visitor's badge."
"Babe, I took one myself. I don't have my pass anymore, and it's just one of those things." He tried to explain, but knew fine well he might have been better speaking with Lindsay's locker, or the brick wall. "Listen, I've got a surprise for you. I called the sitter and she said that she was okay to stay for a few hours, so I'm going to take you somewhere, okay? Do you trust me?"
"Depends, where are we going?" she asked, a smile tinkling on her lips.
"I'll take that as a no then," he laughed as he pulled her into a hug. "I've wanted to hug you all day," he whispered into her hair. "I really missed you today... and yesterday... and the day before... and the day before that too."
Lindsay pulled away from his chest slightly and looked up at him with twinkling eyes. "I missed you too, baby."
And instead of breaking away from Danny's hug, she settled back into his arms and nuzzled her face against his chest, inhaling his scent and basking in the feeling of his arms wrapped around her tightly.
She really hadn't realised how much she missed him until she hadn't had him. And hell, if Danny had planned a night out then... well, who was she to say no?
"All I'm sayin' is that if it came down to it, I could win."
"Yeah, probably," Lindsay giggled. "Except you didn't so really your claims are a mute point there, darlin'." She glanced over her shoulder and linked her fingertips through his loosely as she tugged him towards another stand. "Let's try this!"
"Another?" Danny cried as he pulled his wallet out of his pocket. "But Linds, they're just a massive waste of money."
"So?" she cried. "With all the money we've saved over missed meals over the years surely we can fork out five bucks for it!"
Sighing, Danny begrudgingly handed over the five dollar bill to the vendor as he accepted the three soft balls. "What do I gotta do?"
"Knock down all the tin cans." The vendor explained as he pocketed Danny's money. "All of them need to be on the floor to win a prize."
Danny sighed as he glanced at Lindsay. "I hope you appreciate this," he muttered. "This right here, is me showin' you how much I love you."
"And I love you!" she giggled as she linked her arm through his. "Win me that one, there!" she pointed to a fluffy teddy, hanging among other potential prizes.
Sighing, Danny unlinked his arm from Lindsay's and narrowed his eyes as he focused on the tin cans; trying to figure out his best way of striking them to the floor. He could do this. He used to be in the minor leagues. This was nothing... he hoped. Otherwise, it was going to be a considerable blow to his masculinity. And he couldn't be having that. He threw the first ball, sending two of the cans plummeting to the floor.
"Yes!" Lindsay cried excitedly as she squeezed his arm in glee. "Get the rest!"
"Alright, alright." He chuckled as he extracted his arm away from her again. "Give me a chance, baby."
As soon as she backed away, Danny threw his pitch and smiled proudly as he knocked another three from the base. Two more to get. He eyed them up with a concentration on his face that in any other situation would have sent Lindsay into a fit of laughter; but the teddy was just... Lucy would die over it. And she knew Danny knew that.
She blinked as Danny threw the last ball and watched as the two tin cans flew to the floor. For a moment, they both stood in shock before Lindsay jumped excitedly and once again squeezed Danny's arm. "You did it!"
Feeling extremely proud of himself, Danny smirked as he pointed out Lindsay's desired prize and accepted the oversized teddy bear from the vendor and nodded his thanks before handing the bear to Lindsay. "Here, don't say I never give you anything." He smiled as he pressed a kiss to her temple.
"Me?" she blinked at him.
"Who else would I win a teddy for?" he laughed as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "It's cute actually, I feel like we're back datin' again."
"But... I thought you got it for Lucy."
"Oh please, that kid is so spoilt she doesn't know what to do with herself most of the time. I think she can miss out this one time."
"So this is mine?" Lindsay blinked up at Danny before casting her eyes down to her bear. "Really?"
"Really, really," Danny chuckled. "Nothin' but the best for my girl."
Lindsay blushed as she tucked herself tightly into Danny's side as she placed the bear on her hip, much like she used to with her daughter. "So, what now then?"
After they had left the lab, Danny had led her to the subway and Lindsay had been so excited in being able to talk to Danny about... well, just talk to him in general, that she'd not even noticed their long journey. She was so wrapped up in holding his hand, kissing him and finding out about his week that she hadn't even thought to take notice. It took Danny tugging her off the train for her to soak in her surroundings and only then did she realise that he'd brought her to Coney Island for the evening.
Initially, she'd stood with her jaw slacked; not quite comprehending that she was actually there and they were actually going to get to spend time with one another for a change. Then, excitement had hit her and she'd grabbed his hand and tugged him up the stairs quickly, leading to street level.
To begin with, they had decided on simply strolling around the pier, holding hands and giggling to one another as they absorbed the atmosphere. It was unsurprisingly busy for a Friday night, and although neither commented, it gave them a sense of normalcy in their relationship. Doing something special on a Friday night had never really been a regular occurrence for them.
So tonight was going to be special.
After seeing one too many vendors offering prizes, Danny had caved to Lindsay's incessant pleas for them to have a go, which brought Danny to where he currently was; taking the bear from a struggling Lindsay as she glanced in a hundred directions as she tried to figure out where it was she wanted to go next.
"Alright," he laughed as she evidently growing frustrated with not being able to make her mind up. "Are you hungry?"
"Starving." She nodded. "I definitely could go eat somewhere."
"Alright." Danny laughed as he took her hand and squeezed it affectionately. "You, me and our friend here can go get something to eat, then we'll go from there, k?"
"He needs a name." Lindsay informed him with a childlike tone.
"Alright Lucy, don't worry." He teased her. "We'll think of something, k?"
"You name him." Lindsay giggled.
"Nah-ah. No way, you know how bad I suck at picking names for bears. Lu doesn't even come to me anymore for stuff like that."
"You name him!" Lindsay cried. "Come on Danny, just give it a go. What's the first name that comes into your head."
"Lindsay."
"No, we can't call him Lindsay." She shook her head. "That'd just get confusing."
"Babe..." Danny sighed.
"Babe? I don't think that's very fitting either." She shook her head, a pinch of teasing in her eyes.
"Lindsay Messer!" he growled at her. "You're makin' me mad now."
She pulled Danny to the side; away from the flow of pedestrians and giggled against his lips as she stood on her tiptoes. "You couldn't be mad at me." She informed him. "In fact, you told me earlier that you couldn't be mad at me."
"Actually, I said I wasn't mad at you."
"So?" she giggled. "You're not mad with me now either, in fact... I have it on good authority that you think I'm being cute right now."
"Cute? No." He smirked. "Absolutely not."
"Liar." She giggled. "You think I'm cute."
"Nope." He shook his head, avoiding eye contact. "Not really. Not cute at all."
"What am I then?" she inquired, collecting some of Danny's green t-shirt in her fist, enabling her to tug him closer to her.
"I think that you're my gorgeous wife that I've missed way too much these past few weeks." He whispered before rubbing his nose against her's. He paused for a moment as he looked at her pink cheeks and glistening brown eyes. "Alright, so maybe you're a little cute. Or maybe beautiful?" He pursed his lips together thoughtfully before shaking his head. "How about damn sexy?"
"Nice recovery." She giggled. "I'll take it."
"Alright, food. What do you want?"
Standing on her tiptoes, Lindsay settled just above his lips and whispered. "You." She then turned and took his hand as she tugged him along the pier and back into the flow of traffic. He wasn't sure where they'd find him on the menu, but he was damn positive that he'd be more than able to whip something up for her at home.
"Then again, I don't think they sell you anywhere, I guess I'm going to have to settle for a hot dog or something. For now at least."
Great minds think alike, Danny smiled.
After some heated debates about dinner, they'd eventually settled on a couple of cheeseburgers from a food vendor with a side of fries to share between them. However, instead of sitting in the designated sitting area, they'd discarded their tray and headed down to the beach, deciding to eat their long awaited dinner in a more private setting.
Pleased with the setting of their dinner, Danny dropped his jacket on the sand and nodded for Lindsay to plop herself down on his coat. She did so without fuss; simply knowing that she wouldn't win against him. Without waiting for Danny to settle himself, she opened up her burger and took a massive bite, grinning up at him as he stared down at her in shock.
"Hungry?" he implored.
"Told you I was starvin'," she mumbled, a mouth full of food. "I wasn't kiddin'."
"Chew with your mouth closed!" he chastised her as he took his seat next to her and manipulated her body so that she was leaning on him.
"This is nice," she turned to look at him over her shoulder. "Dinner on the beach with the sun setting? That's quite impressive, Mr. Messer. Your wife must be a lucky lady."
"She is and she isn't." He shrugged as he opened up his burger box and dropped some fries into the lid before pouring the rest into Lindsay's box. "She has to deal with a lot of shit."
"I'm sure she understands." Lindsay smiled as she picked up a few fries and popped them into her mouth. "I'd even go as far as saying she doesn't mind."
"Yeah? Well you don't know her as well as I do, and she's pretty good at putting on a good front, just so I don't know that really, she'd kind of like me around more."
"But she understands!" Lindsay implored, not really sure as to why she was continuing with referring to herself in the third person. "I understand Danny, I really do. I'm not mad and I'm not upset about it."
"Yeah you might understand, baby, but it doesn't mean you like it. I know you don't and I'm sorry things suck right now."
"They don't suck Danny! Things for us right now are amazing. We've had no drama, no arguments, no reasons to be stressed... it's like a vacation for us right now."
"Oh well done Linds, you've only gone and jinxed that now!" Danny poked her playfully in the side. "Great job, babe."
"Shut up!" she scoffed at him before taking another bite of her dinner. "You know what I mean."
"Yeah, I do, but still, I'm sorry that you feel like you haven't seen much of me recently." He said, before shoving a handful of fries into his mouth. "It's not exactly the best set up, is it? Having a husband you never see..."
He felt her sigh and watched as she placed her dinner on the sand and then she proceeded to turn to face him. "Alright, you listen to me, okay..."
He nodded with a small smile on his face.
"Not seeing you doesn't matter, okay? I know why you're doing this and I know that you love what you're doing, so don't for one second sit here and make it out like you're not enjoying every second of it because you're not seeing me. You know I'm always there in our bed at the end of the day."
"Yeah, you might be there, but I never am when you are."
"And? That's not your fault, Danny."
"So? I just feel like I haven't seen you in forever. We're missing out on a lot of things right now, Linds."
"So?" she shrugged. "Like what?"
"Sex." He said instantly, gaining a hearty giggle from Lindsay.
"Why am I surprised?" she smirked sarcastically. "Would it satisfy you if you knew I had engaged in a little me ti-"
"If that sentence is going where I think it's going, I'd advise you against finishing the sentence," he smirked, to which she simply bit her lip and offered her husband a flirty smile.
"We'll have to make more time for things like that." She said softly, cupping the side of his face and stroking the swell of his cheek affectionately. "Because I miss you too."
"Yeah?" he asked.
"Danny, it doesn't matter whether we have a quick kiss before we go to sleep, fool around or make love; I love spending that kind of time with you. It's what keeps that special bond we've got, you know?" She paused for a moment and sighed. "You brought me out here because you're feeling bad, aren't you?"
"A little." He admitted, "I just feel like I don't have time for you and Luce anymore, and it breaks my heart because you two are the most important people in my life, and you're the two that are suffering."
"We understand though, sweetheart."
"You shouldn't have to understand. I should be there with you guys."
"But you can't be." She said with finality in her voice. "You're doing this for us anyway, so a compromise needs to be made somewhere. This isn't set in stone but rather a stepping stone for you to get further on in your career, and I understand that Danny. I don't blame you for wanting to think about your future in the NYPD."
"Our future," he corrected her.
"No honey, your future." She smiled. "it's your career and believe it or not, you're allowed to think about yourself; although I do appreciate you saying it's our future." She smiled as she kissed him softly. "I know exactly what you're thinking. You need to work up the ranks so that when Mac retires, you're there and ready to step into his shoes. And Danny, I would love that for you. You'd be perfect for it, okay? So if right now, we have to make a few sacrifices, so be it."
"But Linds, I just... I feel like I'm missing stuff."
"Like what?" she asked him. "What are you missing?"
"Picking Luce up from pre-school." He began. "I'm missing you and seeing you every day, I'm missing being a husband and a father."
"No you're not." She cupped his cheek. "You're not missing any of that. You're a working Dad, but Danny, you're there for a hell of a lot of things."
"I just feel like it's gonna do more harm than good."
"What? Your promotion? It hasn't done any harm yet."
"Yeah, it's still in the honeymoon period. I haven't had to deal with any morons yet, what about when I do. What happens then?"
"You deal with morons..." Lindsay shrugged. "Shit happens; it can be a learning curve for you. But what's the point in worrying over something that may or may not happen?"
"Thank you," He sighed as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her onto his lap.
"What for?"
"For bein' you..." he said softly. "For making me feel better about everything, like you always do. Do you know how much I love you, Linds?"
"I have an idea," she smiled before pausing. "Wait, who are you again?"
He playfully bit her shoulder, sending her into a fit of giggles as he moved from her shoulder and lightly nibbled on her neck.
"Seriously," he whispered against her skin. "I love you."
"I know," she whispered in return, tangling her fingers in between his as she settled their hands on her stomach. "I love you too."
"And you know what else?" he said, his tone becoming a little more light, after their heavy conversation.
"What?"
"One of these days we're going to have lunch together." He laughed. "In the near future, I can feel it. It's gonna happen for us."
"I wouldn't bet money on it." She teased. "But we'll see. Hell, who knows, maybe one of these days we'll make it out to a nice restaurant with like those flickering things made of wax and that special kind of juice that's made of grape. And... and..." Lindsay paused for dramatic effect. "They might not have chicken tenders on the menu."
"Wait," Danny smirked, "There are places that don't do chicken tenders? Seriously?"
Lindsay nodded adamantly. "People from the outside have told me. They say that sometimes, they don't even have fries and ketchup isn't already on the table."
"No way!" Danny implored. "Now I know you're lying."
Lindsay bit her lip as she reduced into a fit of giggles. "God, I've missed this. You and I... we're quite funny when we're together, aren't we?"
"Funny?" Danny snorted. "We're a friggin' comedy act, babe."
Lindsay erupted in giggles against him; their dinner long forgotten. She wiggled on his lap slightly, and manipulated his thighs to open, so that she could slide herself in-between his legs, so that she was lent against his chest with her back.
"This is nice." She smiled as Danny wrapped his arms around her. "Thank you for bringing me here, Danny. I've had an amazing night."
"Babe, we've had a ride on the subway, a walk, I won you a teddy and we've had a burger for dinner. That's hardly grounds for an amazing night."
"Yeah well you know what, our time apart has made me appreciate the small things." Lindsay informed him. "And actually, the subway gave us plenty of time to just talk with no distractions. The walk gave us chance to feel close to one another and hold hands, appreciating each other. You winning me a teddy gave us a flashback into our early days when we were dating. And yeah, okay, we had cheeseburgers for dinner, but we had dinner on the beach, watching the sunset, and now we're sat here, snuggled up and very much in love."
"Well, when you put it like that..." Danny trailed off as he lowered his face into the crook of Lindsay's neck and placed a series of soft, sensual kisses to the area. "Here's to an amazing night."
They stayed like that until the sun had completely set over the horizon; taking the time to appreciate what they had in each other. Time was precious to them now, and although it had never occurred to them in the past, they'd taken the time they spent together for granted. Their busy schedules were now forcing them to take into consideration what was important in their relationship. With everything else that they'd managed to weather, this chapter of their lives would be a piece of cake.
And quite frankly, Lindsay was pretty positive that the end result would be nothing short of amazing.
There we have it, another post ep! Hope you guys liked it. Definitely fluff filled, hey, webdlfan? At least, I tried! haha, Fred was a little insistent on that conversation on the beach, but hey ho... it all ended well! ;)
Anyway, thank you for reading - and any thoughts or comments are, as ever - hugely appreciated. Go on, make my day... you know you want to ;)