Dedicated to afrozenheart412 who asked for more Their Story. Here's a later edition to the "Their Story" series from somewhere in season 7 and 8 as Jo is in the story. Feeling a little rusty, but I hope you like it. I don't own the characters, they belong to CBS and others, but its nice to borrow them every so often.

Their Taste

"Jo—" using evidence he was carrying around as an excuse to slide into the office she shared with Jo to see his wife, Danny stepped in and passed the tablet to the older detective. "Pillow case came back with traces of chloroform."

"Not something you'd expect to find in someone's bedroom," Jo said sliding a finger up the tablet to scroll through the information.

"Unless someone was reported missing," Lindsay murmured.

"Thank goodness it was only to take her out of the house to scare her." Jo passed the tablet back to Danny, then turned to Lindsay. "Pull up the chemical elements and see if you can trace the exact composition. Danny, you and Flack head back to Jason King's studio and see if you can get anything from him. If we're lucky we'll link this chloroform to the murder in Central Park."

"You and Lindsay didn't get anything from the other boyfriend?"

"Not so much," she glanced over at Lindsay with a small shrug. "But we did find this cute little bakery that had the most amazing cannoli. A new little shop that opened up a few months ago? Absolute best I've ever tasted. Would be a great place for a date night."

She tapped his arm with a folder on her way out of the office.

Betrayed, Danny turned on Lindsay.

"Best you ever tasted?"

"I didn't say that."

"But the date night—you don't agree?"

"I love a good date night."

He took a step toward her and moved into her personal space. "That sounds like a Messer challenge to me."

She grinned impishly up at him. "I love a Messer challenge."

"Good. Then after work, I'll head over to our little place and pick up a pair of cannoli and you can go get some of the ... what did you say?"

"I said nothing."

"That's right, best you ever tasted. We'll meet up at home, see who's the winner."

~ny~

It was late when Danny finally got home. He made time for Lucy, slipping into her bedroom to read to her before kissing her goodnight. Lindsay watched as he quietly emerged from her room and left the door open just a crack.

"All right, Mrs. Messer. Are you ready?"

Lindsay motioned toward the table where she'd set out the supplies. "I'm surprised you made it over there with the way the day went."

"I had Flack swing by after we left Jason King's studio. It wasn't hard to convince him. You know how he is about food."

"I do," she looked down at the clear plastic carton of Cannoli from Jo's recommendation and at the paper bag from the old family owned shop in Brooklyn. The cannoli were set out on plates identical to each other–but there was nothing really identical about the cannoli. One pair looked like a rush job next to the elegant master piece of Jo's version.

"Lets say we give him the loser."

"We'll we're certainly not giving the inferior New York cannoli to Lucy," he eyed her suspiciously. "You didn't already slip her one of those?"

"No, sir," she mocked with a serious face.

"All right," he grumbled as he picked up one of scarves Lindsay had pulled from her closet. "You first?"

"Sure," she turned and let him fasten on the blindfold. She didn't know how many times she'd let him do it. It was scientific, he'd told her the first time he'd challenged her to a food tasting duel. He preferred New York—and knew the taste that came with it. He didn't always guess the right place when it came to saying he knew one classic New York restaurant from another, but he always guessed right when it came to identifying his traditional home grown New York from other trendy places.

It really, she thought, had nothing to do with whether he liked the taste one way or the other. Danny just liked what he said he liked. So sometimes she played along and sometimes she intentionally chose differently than him. It really wasn't about the taste for her either.

Well, sometimes it was.

"All right, choice number one."

Despite the blindfold, Lindsay closed her eyes knowing exactly what she was about to savor. Danny would feed her his choice first—he wouldn't be able to help himself. As he held it to her lips, she leaned forward slightly and took a bite into the pastry, savoring the taste as a dozen memories swept over her.

He'd taken her to his favorite place, not exactly a bakery, for the first time on a day she'd been a little homesick, reminding her of why she'd come to New York. He told her it was where to get cannoli, not the spaghetti or the pizza, with its heavy New York gravy. It was only a place to get cannoli and the best cannoli in the New York. She'd already sampled cannoli in New York, but it hadn't been as good as this one. He'd been right.

It tasted of adventure and promise. She'd taken him a set when she'd picked him up from the hospital, both times, so there was hope and a shimmering awareness, and he'd brought her one when he'd returned from a scene after being called out on her first mother's day.

So as she bit in the the pastery and as the core of it filled her senses, she tasted that sweet tanginess of New York, she tasted the memories and the love—everything that was Danny.

"Mmmmm," she couldn't help herself.

The second bite was good, more sweet than the other, somehow heavy on both sugar and cheese and missing that something-something taste that brought back the memories.

"And the winner is..." he asked.

"The first one," she said, and removed the blindfold. "You're turn."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever," but he let her tie on the blindfold and test him by nearly poking him in the eye several times. His reaction wasn't a surprise and didn't disappoint. He picked his hometown favorite, the same place his uncle Clem had taken him as a boy.

"So I guess Flack gets your trendy new cannoli and we get them out of this house."

"Hey, I never said they were mine."

"You said they were the most amazing cannoli."

"No," Lindsay corrected him. "Jo said they were the most amazing cannoli, but these are definitely the best. They always have been. What is it you once said ... its not the taste of it, but that you're swallowing something authentically New York. How could it be the best, when we have the best together?"

Danny slid his arms around her and drew her close. "Is that so, Mrs. Messer?"

"Remember the first time you took me there? Gave an education on the plural cannoli and the singular cannolo..."

"Which you didn't need," he muttered a little bitterly.

"But you settled my nerves and reminded me of why I was in New York. Maybe there's a little bit of adventure in every cannolo, but there's only the taste of why I belong here, in this one. If people are going to cross New York city to go to an out of the way Italian restaurant and not order anything but the canolli, it'd better be something about the cannoli."

Surprised, and more than a little touched, Danny lowered his head and took her lips in a gentle kiss. "Why didn't you say so earlier?"

"I did, but Jo didn't come to New York for the same reasons I did. She has her own ... palette and experience. And she hasn't tasted these yet. She wasn't as keen on heading across to Brooklyn just to prove you right," She shrugged, not needing to point out that he had managed to get to Brooklyn. "Besides, that's not my favorite memory. Remember when we first got together and I broke you out of the hospital?"

"And you were feeling guilty for the switch in shifts and for avoiding my mama at the hospital."

"She can be intimidating, or at that point she was," Lindsay reminded him. "It was part of a very interesting ... weekend."

He grinned, his hands sliding lower. "Among other things... speaking of other things, if you didn't need a Messer challenge to know which was best, then why did both of us treck across the damn city for cannoli?"

Lindsay laughed. "Well, technically, Jo had purchased several extra cannoli for her and Ellie, so I just bought two from her. And as you said, you weren't too far out of the way. Besides, sometimes its good to remember and to savor."

"Yeah, but next time, you're going out for the canolli."

"Just give me a reason or a date."