A/N: Hey y'all! So this is a little oneshot I wrote in response to a prompt from the Livejournal community New York Romance.

Prompt: late night phone calls

Disclaimer: I don't own CSI: NY, any of its characters, or central plots. Any similarities between this story and any storylines on the show are merely coincidental and no copyright infringement is intended.

"Hello", the scratchy voice answered the phone before erupting into a fit of coughing.

Danny Messer cringed at the sudden burst of painful sounding noise. He sat, heavily on the bench in front of his locker and swiped his palm over his tired face as he waited for her coughing fit to subside before talking.

"Hey baby, how you feeling?"

"Like death," she mumbled humorously, settling back on the couch with a hot cup of tea.

"I bet you do. You have pneumonia Linds. You're gonna feel like shit for awhile," Danny reiterated with the doctor had said when he took her into urgent care the previous evening.

"Yeah, I was there when he diagnosed me, but thanks for the recap," she groused, causing him to smile until she began to cough again.

"I'm cold," she declared randomly.

Effortlessly going into caretaking mode, as he always did with Lindsay, Danny began trying to solve her current problem as best he could without being there with her, "you aren't wearing some sexy little negligee are you? Those don't exactly cover a lot of skin, Linds." Sure she was sick, but Danny still couldn't help but comment about how sexy she was sick or not.

"Danny, I'm sick! I felt more sexy when I was in the hospital bed with my legs in stirrups, exposed to the world, sweating profusely, in pain, and pushing an entire human being out of my body than I do right now!"

Knowing she was no way in the mood for it, he went about figuring out how to make her more comfortable again, "so you've got your warm pajamas on?"

"Yep, your Giants sweats are really comfy. And they smell like you," she said a hint of sadness in her voice.

"I promise you Lindsay, as soon as I can bust out of this place and get home, we'll cuddle up in bed together until you're feeling better- or at least until I have to come back tomorrow. I'll even do everything for Lucy so you can rest," he replied sweetly.

"You're a sweetie. I love you."

"Of course I am; that's why you married me! I love you too."

"Nah, I actually married you because you're hot and the sex is great," she coughed again, "and the whole pregnant thing too."

"So you married me for purely selfish motives," Danny loved how even when she was feeling so bad, they could banter like this.

"That would be right Mr. Messer."

"Well my motives were selfish too."

"And what were they," she asked amused by their conversation. No matter what, Danny could always make her feel better.

"You're a damn good cook and you're the perfect size for cuddling," what Danny wouldn't give to be there cuddling her right now.

"When are you coming home?"

"Hopefully soon; there's just so much evidence to go through and Doc is really intent on getting this wrapped up, hopefully before the holidays," Danny ran his fingers through his hair in frustration at the current case he was working with Sheldon Hawkes. Fifteen elderly nursing home patients found dead in their beds in as many days, and they couldn't find a common doctor, nurse, orderly, or housekeeper that was working on the day of each death.

"That's what you said three hours ago," Lindsay noted with a yawn, as she looked at the clock as the time approached one in the morning.

"I know honey, and I'm sorry, but you know how this job is."

"I know. I'm just being selfish. I'm sick and I want my husband to be home with me. You may not be able to make this pneumonia go away, only rest and taking the antibiotics will do that, but you can take care of Lucy when she fusses."

"Has she been difficult tonight," Danny asked, feeling a twinge of resentment towards the job he loved so much for keeping him away from his family when his wife clearly needed him.

"She raised a big stink over going to bed tonight. I've been in there three times already. I'm not sure if she's so excited about finally being able to stand up that she just doesn't want to sleep, or if she knows that I'm sick and want her to sleep so she's going to do the exact opposite just to needle me," Lindsay sighed in exhausted frustration.

Danny chuckled at the idea that an eleven month old baby could be dead set on aggravating her mother for no other reason than said mother was sick. As much as he'd like to comment on that further, he knew that he'd been gone for too long as is, and that if he didn't get back to the lab soon, Hawkes was going to come looking for him.

"Listen sweetie, as much as I would love to continue this conversation, I supposedly only came into the locker room to wash my hands real fast and I've now been gone long enough to have cleaned out the showers. I better get back to work before someone comes looking for me."

"Oh all right, abandon your ailing wife for your job if you must," she teased lightly.

"Don't start that. I already feel guilty enough that I even came into work today and left you with the baby," Danny said only half joking. He really did feel guilty for having to leave her today.

"Dan, how could you have possibly known that the baby sitter was going to break her foot yesterday, and that your mother would come down with a stomach virus at the same time? All that matters is that you're going to come home as soon as you can and baby me," she said the last part with the hint of a smile that he could hear through the phone.

"I know honey. I just hate that you're feeling so miserable and still have to take care of Lucy on top of that."

"Mothers do it every day."

"I know. You're an amazing mother, you know that?"

"Thank you. You're an amazing father. Now shut up and get back to work so you can come home and be an amazing husband too!"

"Yes ma'am! I love you," he said preparing to end the call.

"I love you too. I'll see you when you get home."

"Bye Linds. Try to get some sleep."

"Good night Danny. Be safe."

Danny sighed heavily, before standing back up and putting his phone back in his pocket. Maybe Hawkes was finally running out of steam and they could pack things in for the night finally. As he turned to head for the door, he was met with a sight he didn't expect.

"Mac, how long have you been standing there," he asked in surprise.

"How's Lindsay feeling," the older man ignored his employee's question and proceeded to find out how his other employee was doing.

"She's not doing that great, has the chills and, I suspect, a fever. Her cough sounds horrible. And to top it off, Luce is being difficult; wouldn't go down for bed and now that she finally has, Linds has had to go in there a few times because she's fussing so bad," Danny chuckled as he recalled what she said next, "Linds suspects that since she's sick and wants Luce to sleep, the baby is being a general pain just to aggravate her."

Mac smiled at Lindsay's rationale of why the baby wouldn't sleep before addressing the young man in front of him, "Go home."

"What?"

"You heard me; go home. Your wife is sick and needs to rest as much as possible. Go home; fluff her pillows, put her favorite quilt on the bed, make her a cup of tea, and just take care of her."

"But Hawkes and I still have so much work to do on the case and..."

Mac cut him off, "You let me worry about that. You just get home to your wife and daughter. Take the day and make sure that Lindsay really is okay and doesn't need to be in the hospital or something. Seeing that Danny wasn't sure about leaving the lab short two staff members for a day, Mac quickly intervened. "We'll be fine around here without you and Lindsay for one day. Remember when she was testifying in Montana, and you worked yourself half to death while she was gone and I had to order you to take the day off? You went and jumped on a red eye out to Montana just to spend the day with her and make sure that she was actually okay?"

Not entirely sure how Mac knew about that since neither he nor Lindsay had said anything about that day or how the events of it had changed the course of their relationship and lives forever, Danny just nodded and muttered, "yeah."

"Well, we were okay without the two of you for one day then, and we'll be fine this time too. She needs you to be there with her Danny, just like she needed you there with her last time. Now go," Mac said with that tone that had an unspoken 'and that's an order' in it.

Without any further hesitation, Danny collected his jacket and messenger bag from his locker before heading to the door. Before pushing it open, he turned around. "Thanks Mac," he smiled before heading home to his family.

"You're welcome Danny," Mac flashed that rare smile of his as he watched the young man leave the room and head home to take care of his wife and deal with his restless daughter.