"You two knock it off! You need to stop arguing over the damn L-shaped desk! I mean it!l

WHAM! The slamming door rattled the office.

"Whoa." "Dang!" "Hurricane Mindy just swept through!" The office was suddenly abuzz. Danny stepped out of his office to see what all the commotion was about.

"Sorry, Dr. C." Morgan explained that he and Tamra had been innocently rochambeau-ing for the possession of the bigger desk, but Tamra kept insisting rock beat paper because hello, it's paper, the rock can just tear it.

"OK, enough, Morgan. Just take turns with the desk." He turned to Betsy. "What's Mindy's deal?"

"I hate to talk bad about my BFF," Betsy said tentatively. "But she's been in a terrible mood all week. She told Beverly If she wasn't happy here she could go back to sleeping in her car! That's just mean!" She whispered the last sentence.

"Mean? She's being a straight up bitch!" Tamra interjected.

"You guys, give her a break. She and her dream man broke up, she's gonna be a little touchy."

Danny froze when he heard Morgan's words. Settle down, Castellano, he told himself. She broke up with Cliff, big deal. But maybe she needed a friend... Because that's what they were.

Friends.

Weird, uncomfortable friends. The past few weeks had been awkward for both of them. It wasn't the accidental nudity that had caused it - in his line of work, Danny had long since learned to compartmentalize the female body. And Mindy had seen him unclothed before as well, thanks to that disastrous art show.

But then, they saw each other naked, emotionally. That did the trick. Danny had never seen Mindy as vulnerable as she had been that day in his office, when she thought he was going to be critical of her body. He in turn had revealed some personal things, inadvertently, and though he quickly assured her his opinions were based on being her trainer... he didn't think she bought it. He tried to lighten the mood by bringing up her over groomed chassis, but Mindy just turned that all back on him and made it more embarrassing.

So awkwardness had been the general theme, and Danny just reverted to avoidance. He missed her, as crazy it seemed. Work was too quiet, and his free time was bland. He got a lot of reading done, rewatched everything from Ken Burns, and got more proficient at his piano playing. Alone. It was slowly killing him, especially when he thought of Mindy and Cliff being a couple, doing couple things. Not that he wanted to be part of a couple. No, he just missed his friend.

Danny knocked on her office door and entered when he received a growl in response.

"Hey, you OK? I heard some yelling."

"I'm fine, Danny. Just busy, and I don't need interruptions." Mindy had a dozen magazine scattered across her desk, along with a giant coffee and what was left of a chocolate cake.

"Yeah, you look super busy." He plopped himself down on the chair across from her and reached for the cake, shoveling a forkful into his mouth. She ignored him and fiddled with a file. "But can we refrain from reprimanding the staff in public? We don't need patients overhearing it."

Mindy pouted. "Fine. Sorry." She still refused to look up at him. Danny waited to see if she would thaw and talk to him, but she sat there in stony silence.

"OK then." He rose to leave.

"Not like you don't do it all the time." Mindy muttered quietly.

"What was that?" Danny turned back.

"Nothing!" Mindy huffed, glancing up at him quickly, then tossing her file.

"Min." Danny's voice was soft, but the discomfort in it came through clearly. "Do you need to talk or something?"

He felt like reaching out and hugging her, comforting her, but he wasn't one of her chatty girlfriends. They weren't going to drink mimosas and complain about boys together. If he held her in his arms, just to comfort her of course, she might think he had ulterior motives. Which he didn't. At all.

Well, maybe a little.

Mindy didn't even look up. "Nope."

"How 'bout we hit the gym? Your leg's all better..." That earned a response, but it was more of a look of horror.

"C'mon, Min. You can just spend some time hitting the heavy bag. Get out your pent up anger. Hey, you just need to imagine my face on it!"

Mindy snorted at that. "It's not your face I'd be picturing, Danny. But thanks for the idea." She sat back and to his surprise seemed to be considering it. "OK, I'm game. Let's go after work though. I don't want to come back here all sweaty."

"That's fine. They do have showers, though."

"Oh, you'd like that, Danny. Are they co-ed too?" Mindy was actually smiling.

"Ha ha. 6 pm Mindy. Wear actual gym clothes."

Danny was fairly certain she would back out, but she was in his doorway at 6:08, wearing workout clothing that didn't have glitter on it. Her hair was in a high ponytail and her face scrubbed free of makeup.

"You look fifteen."

Mindy beamed. "That's awesome! Now everyone will think you're a dirty old perv dating a teenager."

"Gee, thanks, Min." Danny met her in the doorway and paused. "But I'm not."

"A dirty old perv?" She had a twinkle in her eye. "Or dating a teenager?"

He just looked at her for a moment, then shook his head and walked off. At least she was comfortable teasing him again.

Mindy was surprisingly enthusiastic to work out with the heavy bags. She was ridiculous, of course, flailing and jabbing, even flinging her body at it. Danny was sorely tempted to step in and teach her some moves, but he had seen enough of those Mindy movies to know that was bad news. He just tried to demonstrate from his own bag, and eventually, she picked up a little bit of form.

"Look, Danny! Look!" She shrieked as she pummeled the bag, which barely moved. He felt a swell of pride, and a little something else, and came over to observe.

Bad move.

Mindy, in a spurt of energy, whaled on the bag with a grunt, but somehow over swung and instead of slamming into the bag, missed it completely and caught Danny smack in the jaw.

That was the end of the gym trip.