A/N: Hey. I really dig the character Adam, I love his sense of humour, especially when he gets all dry and sarcastic. And I thought it was interesting that he was watching with Flack, Hawkes and Lindsay when they were making Danny hand in his badge and gun in Run Silent, Run Deep. Then I thought about it and couldn't really remember any significant talk or banter that wasn't entirely case related between Adam and anyone but Danny and maybe Mac. So in my delusional little head, I decided that Adam and Danny are friends. (non-slash) So...yeah. Enjoy.

Danny was sitting alone in the back of the small restaurant, picking dully at his lunch, when Adam came in from the rain and went up to the counter to place his order. Danny had been hiding in the storage room, sifting through cold cases and avoiding people when Flack had dropped by, insisting on dragging him to lunch. Danny had almost refused, but then he saw Monroe coming towards him with a sympathy soaked look of determination on her face, and he’d hurriedly agreed. Figured there were worse ways to spending his lunch break than getting hot dogs at Ozzie’s with his best friend. Like continuously getting asked how his brother was, how he was, if he was okay, if he needed anything...

But halfway through their second dog, Flack had been paged to a suspicious circs in the Bronx and left. He’d apologized more profusely than he normally would, but Danny hadn’t let it get to him. Flack had been treating Danny the best since his brother’s beating. In other words, even though he was being over protective, he was still the snarky, verbally abusive best friend he always was. Danny appreciated that more than Monroe’s coddling, Mac’s awkward attempts to be supportive, Hawkes’ in depth medical explanations, the long stares and tentative questions of the various lab techs and just his parents in general. Even Stella was getting all motherly on him, despite her sudden distractedness and extra irritability. Besides, Flack was always over protective, which made him more of a brother than Louie.

Danny was disappointed that Flack got called away, they had just started to get into a really good argument over Red Sox’ line-up, but was kind of relieved too. For some reason these days, he really liked being alone. It was easier.

So when he saw Adam duck into Ozzie’s, soaked from the rain and wearing his usual ‘am so not amused’ face, Danny had slouched in his chair and ducked his head, wondering what the odds of slipping past the lab tech unnoticed were. He was so goddamn sick of everyone’s heartfelt sympathies and gentle questions. And Danny and Adam hadn’t actually spoken since the incident, a whole week now. Admittedly, Danny had been avoiding the guy, but it hurt that Adam seemed to be doing the same back. Mac had been sticking him with paperwork and sorting out cold cases since that night, so it wasn’t hard to avoid being where his friend worked.

When Adam Ross had started at the lab almost ten months ago, the pair had been wary of each other. Adam because Danny was obviously over-athletic and exuded confidence. Danny of him because Adam just countered his smart ass comments with nasal, deadpan sarcasm and had a deeper knowledge of comic books than he did. But after unintentionally ganging up together on Zack, they became fast friends, even more so after Aiden left.

Danny had never had an excess of true friends. He got made fun of as a younger kid for being a scrawny bookworm who wore his brother’s two sizes too big hand-me-downs. In high school, even though he played baseball, wasn’t so scrawny anymore and had gotten pretty cute, most was wary of him because of the rumours about his family and because he’d argue if the sky was blue. His social life consisted mostly of tagging along with his big brother and Louie’s friends’ little brothers. And when Louie turned his back on him…by that time it was just easier not to be close to anyone.

Danny only had one or two real friends before he let Mac Taylor talk him into joining the CSI division. In Aiden and Flack he found people he could truly trust and bitch about baseball and Run DMC and the Knicks with. Hawkes was the first person he met who liked books as much as he did, and not in the obnoxious college student way, and Stella and Mac made him feel like he could in fact trust the system and expect something other than blood and strife from his city.

Growing up the way he did, he learned to put up a cool, tough front. Sure he loved sports and the Die Hard movies, but he was also such a geek. Adam was the first friend Danny ever had that he could totally and utterly geek out with. The two could talk about James Bond and Super Mario and X-Men for hours without fear of getting a blank look or laughed at. He was pretty sure Monroe had been creeped out when Adam called him and told him – even before he told Mac - about the kryptonite and Danny had gotten more excited over that than her reeling off the football stats. (Niether of them were by any means fanboys, but damn could it get geeky in the lab on slow days.)

But ever since they found the body in the pitch and he got his gun and badge taken away and Louie was beaten almost to death…it was like they’d never even liked each other. They hadn't even actually looked at each other since Adam watched with the rest of the team as Danny handed over his gun and badge. Flack was his best friend in the world and he hated getting attached to people, but he missed having Adam to goof off with while waiting for test results and to play videogames with in the break room between cases.

Danny snuck a glance at the counter and saw that Adam was gone. He must have gotten his lunch to go and either not noticed him slouching at the furthest table, or had and just ignored him.

He was so busy trying to decide whether he was hurt or relieved that he jumped out of his skin when a dry, nasal voice spoke up from beside his chair, “Mind if I join you, man?”

Danny twisted in his seat to see Adam standing there, three hotdogs and a Coke in his hands, his backpack hanging off one shoulder. He must have slipped around Danny to the condiments counter on the other side of the dingy restaurant without the CSI realizing.

“Well-” Danny almost told him that he did in fact mind, but then he noticed every other table was full and that Adam was doing a piss poor job of hiding the apprehension and hope on his face. “Sure, man. Knock yourself out.”

Adam dropped into Flack’s vacant seat and didn’t speak until he’d jammed half of his first dog into his mouth.

“You’re a humanitarian, Messer,” he mumbled around the mouthful of bun, mustard, ketchup, relish, and ‘meat’.

Danny wrinkled his nose, but grinned a little, feeling the ice break up a bit.

“And you’re an animal. What, where ya raised in a barn? Chew your food.”

Adam swallowed and gave him a dry look. “Hello, pot. I’m kettle.”

“Whatever.” Danny muttered, leaning back in his chair, wishing he had something to do with hands. He settled for sticking them in his pockets.

They sat in silence for a few minutes while Adam inhaled his food and Danny glanced around Ozzie’s, looked out the large windows and stared at the tabletop. The CSI was scrambling for something to say, something to stop Adam from offering condolences or bringing up Louie, something to return them to their mutual geekdom, but he had nothing.

Finally, as Adam balled up his used napkins and attempted to pitch them into the garbage bin eight feet away, Danny asked, “D’you believe the rumours ‘bout me and Tanglewood?”

That made Adam falter at the last minute and the little ball of trash bounced off the rim and onto the ground.

“No hoop dreams for you.” Danny told him quietly.

Adam scowled and scratched at his short beard, ignoring the pot-shot. “What rumours?”

“Dunno. Any of ‘em, I guess.”

“Well, I dunno,” Adam returned, his voice tight and irritable. “It’s not like you and I regularly get Oprah with each other about family.”

Danny felt a surge of guilt and ducked his head. Where he’d grown up working class in Brooklyn with too many male influences trying to draw him into a life of crime and filth, Adam had grown up just as poor in Hell’s Kitchen with a single working mom and no siblings or father to help him along. Evelyn Ross was murdered in their tenement apartment when Adam was in class during his third year of college.

“Look, never mind. I-”

Adam cut off his apology with, “The way I figure it, the rumours about your brother and mob ties are just as legitimate as the ones about my mom getting killed by some random asshole.”

Danny wanted to throw himself off a bridge. A big one. He’d completely forgotten about the locker room talk about why Adam was so weird and standoffish and dedicated to his job when he asked that question, and the time he’d accidentally stumbled across a newspaper clipping about the homicide in the cold cases last month.

Giving him a heavy-lidded glare, Adam continued not with his usual show of exasperation, but actual anger. “They’re not entirely false or unfound, but they are entirely no one else’s business.”

“In other words, I should mind my own fuckin’ business?” Danny asked with a raised brow.

Adam seemed to relax a little and he turned his head to eye the menu over the serving counter. “No,” he said musingly, “Just don’t assume I’ll be prying into yours or accepting the rumours as truth. I’m a scientist, dude. I look at all the facts. But we’re friends so maybe we’ll exchange war stories some time.”

Danny crossed his arms over his chest, unsure whether or not they were good or not. It hurt badly to be discussing this kind of stuff with anyone, but Adam was easier than most.

“So then why’re you avoidin’ me, huhn, Ross?”

Adam rolled his eyes and let out a sigh of mock patience. “Because, Messer. I figured you wanted to be left alone. All those people hounding you…I just know I don’t want to talk about my mother all that much.”

“Oh.”

“How is your brother?” Adam asked. If his voice had been full of sickening sympathy or pity, Danny would have flipped the table over on the guy, but there was nothing but blunt curiosity.

“Stable. Coma still. But stable now.”

“Harsh.”

“Yeah. No kiddin’,” Danny mumbled, staring at the tabletop again.

Adam was still and silent for a few minutes, then he grabbed his backpack and started sifting through it, a thoughtful frown on his face.

“Well since we seem to be all buddy-buddy again, I guess I’ll be lending you this.” They had an exchange system of films and music going.

“What?”

“This.” Adam handed him a CD that Danny immediately recognized.

“David Bowie?”

Adam gave him that un-amused look and said in a revering voice, “The David Bowie album, my friend. Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Better than Nine Inch Nails when you’re angsty any day.”

“I know this one already. Why lend it to me?” Danny asked even though he loved the album. He used to have his own copy of Ziggy Stardust, but a girl had stolen his LP of it a couple years ago and he’d long since worn out the CD.

“Because I don’t do sage advice or heartfelt bonding. I leave that to the masters of pain and inner turmoil,” Adam informed him, tapping the CD then getting up from his seat. “I gotta get back to the lab. That Montana chick is scary when she’s impatient.”

Danny nodded absently, studying the track list carefully. “Yeah, sure. I’ll see you back there.”

It was Adam’s turn to raise his brows. “Actually?”

Pressing his lips together in resolve, Danny looked up and nodded. “Yeah, I’ll come bug you later, after I finish the mountain of paperwork Mac oh-so-kindly gave me to get through.”

“Sounds good, amigo.”

Danny snorted at the stupid handle and waved Adam off. “G’wan, man. Get back to your beakers, test tubes and nerd toys.”

“Stop being hypocritical, you closet geek-boy.”

Danny flipped him off and Adam gave him another look and left.

Watching the younger man hurry off through the rain, Danny realized that he felt somewhat better. He was still feeling irritated by everyone and really wasn’t looking forward to another bout of cautious sympathy from the team and lab techs after his break was over, but now he had a CD to put in his Discman and could therefore block them out for a little while. And things were reastablished with Adam. Plus, Danny hadn’t had a chance yet to brag to his fellow geek about getting his hands on a remastered copy of Jim Jarmusch’s Down By Law. He made a mental note to thank Flack for making him go to Ozzie’s for lunch.