Feeling a little rusty, but to write better you have to write period. I don't own anything, anyone, or any characters in this story. They are the exclusive properties of others, including CBS. Reviews are fun, and because I'm fairly human, they help push me to write more. That's not a threat, its just the truth. XD Enjoy.

Danny and Lindsay finally venture off for an extended vacation... to Vermont (if you couldn't tell by the inventive title) :p.

Vacation in Vermont

It wasn't easy, as an employee of the New York crime lab on Mac Taylor's team, to schedule three days of vacation together, not to think about the five that they'd somehow managed. It was even harder to do so when you were married to another member of the team. Still, Lindsay had to give props to everyone for working it out, then slyly pushing them both to go.

It went back a couple of months to a murder of a couple who had worked their entire lives, saving for their vacation of "one day" only to be murdered in their sleep by some nut who was looking for jewels the woman never had. It effected everyone, but possibly both of the Messers the most. Soon after the case closed they'd started receiving emails of resorts, pamphlets tucked into their lockers and left on their desks, and people they didn't even know that well began to regale them of great vacation stories.

Going off to Coney Island for the weekend with Lucy apparently wasn't enough. They were supposed to be taking trips together, alone, and enjoying the life of young and married lovers.

It made Lindsay laugh. It wasn't that she didn't appreciate it. The truth was she had been wary about going on vacation since Shane Casey had stepped into the last one. Still, everyone had been so obviously pushy that eventually, they couldn't say no.

Working that week off into the schedule meant Danny worked a double and was barely off when Lindsay and Lucy arrived at the lab with the convertible. They met up with Danny's mother on the way out of town, so Danny could be there to say goodbye to Lucy, and then he'd dropped off to sleep leaving her to drive.

She didn't mind the peace and quiet of the drive. She'd chosen a route that took her along the old highways, preferring the scenic route to the flash and speed of the interstate. She'd missed the open road in Montana, but was grateful for the difference of a New York drive. There were still towns with single stop lights, farms and cattle that reminded her of home, but different in that the towns were far closer together. The further away she drove from NYC, the more the road changed, the trees grew thick, and the sky turned a rich blue.

Home. This was hers. Not the sky, but the drive with the man sound asleep in the passenger's seat; the daughter that played with grandma and grandpa and maybe Uncle Louie back in Staten Island.

She felt a pang. She should have brought Lucy with her. She would love to sit in the back with her daughter and point out the animals that grazed on the land. There were cows and horses aplenty, but there had also been goats, donkeys and sheep. Lucy would love it. Lindsay would even bet quite a bit that at his daughter's utter delight, Danny would join in making animal sounds with them.

Maybe next time Flack could come along for the drive, if Lucy was along. He and Danny could go off and pretend to be men in the wild and she and Lucy could play in the wild. It was the image of Danny and Flack though that made her laugh, and nearly made her make one of the donkey sounds from her childhood, and her own car trips, out loud.

"What are you snickering at, Montana?"

She nearly choked out the hee-haw of the donkey. "You're up."

"You were thinking too loud." He stretched slow, and adjusted his seat so he sat up. "How many times have you thought of Lucy?"

She shrugged sheepishly. "I haven't turned around yet."

"She's fine."

"I'll remind you Messer when she's out on her first date," she cast a look toward him, pleased at the edge of horror in his eyes.

"She's not going to date." Even as she grinned at his easy response, she was aware of his sudden restlessness. He leaned forward and grabbed her bag, rummaging through it.

"Looking for something?"

"You got something to eat?"

Lindsay rolled her eyes. If this was his response to Lucy growing up, he was going to be in trouble when she hit puberty. She directed him to the snacks she'd packed, then leaned back to enjoy the drive.

It was so natural to be with him. They could talk and banter back and forth, but also enjoy the quiet. For awhile she went back to her road trip musings and memories. Maybe later she would tell him, but it wasn't something she needed to say.

"Are you sure about this place?"

"What?" she glanced at over to see him leafing through resorts brochure. "Danny, you helped me choose it."

"Yeah, but the only person in my family who has vacationed at a resort in Vermont is my aunt Eunice, and I'm not too fond of doing what my Aunt Eunice does."

"Is Eunice the one who carries the dentures of her late husband around with her in that special leather case?"

"That's Eunice."

"That's sweet," Lindsay defended even as she laughed, not surprised when she felt his finger poke her in the belly. "Even so, Danny, it's just Vermont. And you said you were going to beat me at archery competitions."

"It's the one with the vultures, isn't it. It's coming back to me now."

"Falcons, Danny. Falconry lessons."

"Falcons are scavengers. Remember that case where the body was left on the roof and picked a part by—"

"Vultures?"

"Vultures, Falcons. Same thing. They eat fresh meat."

"Vultures are exclusively scavengers. Falcons are a bit more. They're smart, able to be trained and used by humans in battle, all the way back to ancient days. They're hunters, fishers. Trusted, reliable. They don't kill people, Danny."

"You just called them hunters."

"I've hunted and I've yet to—" kill a person. But she had. The knowledge and grief hit her suddenly with a fresh wave of sickness. It wasn't so much the look in his eyes, surprise and emptiness, but the moment where she hadn't had a choice. There hadn't been a choice.

"Lindsay, pull over."

She shook herself. "I'm fine."

"Just pull over," he put a hand on hers and for a moment she was lost all over again. Her hand had tightened so much that it was white. His were dark, strong and a little rough, even for a city boy.

She smiled a little, but didn't argue.

When she'd pulled over several feet along the roadside and put the car in park, Danny undid his seat belt and leaned over the center console, and placed a hand on the seat on either side of her.

"Danny—"

"Have I told you today how beautiful you are?" he asked. "How lucky I am to have you as my wife?"

She could have told him no, and his doing so now had her squirming a little in her seat. "Danny. We—"

"Don't be nervous. It's just a vacation. Families have been experiencing road trips, traveling around together since the beginning of time."

"In a car."

"No, wise ass. Not in a car."

"But even so, we should probably get this car moving."

"In a minute," his gaze dropped first to her lips, so she was unsurprised when he took her lips in his and led her on a beautiful, wondering journey of a kiss that was slow and sweet, better for her than any kind of drug. When he leaned back, he smiled. "I'm in no hurry. Are you?"

"This isn't exactly the place to be making out with your wife?"

"Why not? What's the hurry?"

"We have to-"

"We don't have to nothin'. We're on vacation. A wise woman once said that you could do a lot of things in a car on vacation."

The laugh bubbled out of her. "I don't think I said that. Or implied that either."

"Did I say you were the wise woman?"

When she shoved him he moved easily and immediately reached for his seat belt. "All right wise slave driver. Let's get this vacation started. It has occurred to me a dozen or more times that we've never had that honeymoon ... though, frankly I refuse to believe I'm honeymooning with anyone in the wilds of Vermont."

There were a number of things she could show him, she was sure, that would make Vermont look very tame. Shaking her head, Lindsay shifted the gears out of park and got back on the road. She felt better, she realized, better about the vacation than she had since she'd agreed to go.

And she just might convince him that with what she had in mind, with no shifts or "on calls" to worry about, Vermont wasn't such a bad place for a honeymoon after all.