This is my final chapter. I can’t thank my reviewers enough for the encouragement to continue. You guys are AWESOME!!

Kaoli Water Goddess, I’m giving ‘romance’ a shot. Hope you’re not disappointed!

Oh, and there is the obligatory NYPD gala thingy.

People, I’m BEGGING for constructive criticism. I know that my writing is not the best and I would love to improve. I can take it!

--CSI:NY--

Chapter 11 – Talk to Me, Dance With Me

Stella has hijacked my story, Lindsay thought. It’s amazing how this story gets more grandiose every time she tells it.

“…then Danny flies to Montana, and I don’t know how he made it, he was absolutely exhausted, poor baby. But, if that was what it took to get the woman of his dreams, he was willing to do it. And the wedding – no, first I’ll tell you about getting Danny’s call. And we can’t forget the sweet story behind the ring. Show her your ring, Lindsay.”

Lindsay lifted her hand and wiggled her fingers so that Jennifer could look at the ring. “It’s beautiful. I have to hear the story behind the ring.”

They seemed to follow a script: Stella droned on and on, filling in the gaps with her imagination and Jennifer squealed loudly, saying, “I can’t believe you and Danny got married! Oh, my goodness!”

The three women had talked and laughed on the way to the crime scene, while they were at the crime scene, during lunch on their way back to the lab, and Jennifer was still squealing the same line over and over again.

When Stella pulled into the parking garage, the women were in hysterics, tears in their eyes, unable to speak. They practically rolled out of the car. Every time Jennifer repeated her line expressing her incredulity, they all burst into laughter. Their conversation continued as they made their way back into the lab.

“Alright, ladies, I’m beginning to get a little insulted here. Is it that preposterous that Danny and I are married?”

Stella looked at Lindsay and tried to contain herself. “No, Lindsay. It’s about time you and Danny got married. I mean, honestly, how long have you two held a torch for each other?”

“I…I don’t know.”

“Okay, how long did you have feelings for Danny before admitting them?” Lindsay’s face seemed to say that she didn’t want to answer the question. Stella firmly prodded, “Out with it, Lindsay,”

“I don’t know, Stella,” she whined. “I don’t know when my utter dislike for him turned into…” Lindsay made a face while she struggled to find the words to describe how her feelings had changed for Danny since she met him. “…like, which turned into, I don’t know, confusion, maybe? I can’t tell you when these things happened. There are no definitive lines of demarcation in between. As I got to know him my feelings changed.”

Jennifer had a dreamy look in her eyes. “It wasn’t that complicated with Jake and me. We saw each other and we just knew, you know? I’m a firm believer in love at first sight. You can’t make me believe that, looking back, you didn’t love him when you first met him.”

Lindsay readied her defense. “Jen, you weren’t there on our first case together. You don’t know how, how obnoxioushe was to me. And as if tormenting me at the crime scene wasn’t enough, then he starts calling me ‘Montana.’” She said the nickname with a surprisingly good Staten Island accent. “Sure I found him attractive – an attractive jackass!”

Stella chimed in, “Oh, please! As if that nickname bothers you.”

Lindsay’s pitch almost rose to a level that only dogs could hear, “Do you know how many times I tried to get him to stop calling me that? The more I told him how much I hated it, the more he seemed to revel in my misery.”

“Of course, he did. You know how much Danny loves to watch you squirm. He always has. He only teased you because he liked you.”

“I know that now, but then,” she shook her head, “I did whatever I could to avoid him.”

Jennifer had to re-enter the conversation, “That obviously didn’t last for long. Whenever I saw you two in the lab, you would look at each other when you thought the other wasn’t looking, and when you got caught, you would smile at each other. I’m not sure what they call that in Montana, but in New York, that’s not how we avoid someone.”

Jennifer and Stella laughed, which made Lindsay blush and ready to move on to another subject.

“Are you two finished? Because I never got to ask, exactly what went down between Mac and Peyton while I was away, because that was some kiss he laid on you at my reception, Stell.” Lindsay placed extra emphasis on Stella’s name.

Jennifer’s eyes flew open and she inhaled sharply. “What did I miss? Is every CSI coupled now?”

Stella glared at Lindsay and silently begged her not to pursue this line of questioning.

Lindsay looked at her with mock confusion. “What’s wrong, Stell, did I say something I shouldn’t have?” She giggled while looking Stella in the eyes.

Stella proceeded to talk using a very stern voice and clenched teeth. “Mac and Peyton decided to go their separate ways, and to avoid an awkward situation, Peyton requested a transfer. Beyond that, I’m not at liberty to say.”

The three women burst into laughter just as the elevator doors opened, revealing Danny and Flack just passing in the hall. The boisterous laughter caught their attention and Danny whispered to Flack, “This can’t be good. Montana and Angell, I can handle, but with Stella…”

Flack said, “That’s trouble. Let’s see if we can split this up.”

“I know how we can keep Stella from stirring up anything.” They looked at each other and smirked.

“Hey, Montana,” Danny called out. “You said you were going shopping for the gala, right??”

Lindsay’s eyes widened and she covered her mouth with her hand. “I forgot all about that.”

Stella ears perked up when she heard the word ‘shopping’ and she went into 911 mode. “Don’t worry about it. We can go to this boutique after work that has dresses that…that will have little Dannys and Montanas running around here in no time.”

“Oh, my!”

--CSI:NY--

They swayed to the soft, slow music the band was playing. They were pressed against each other, her head on her husband’s shoulder and, again, they were lost in their own world. As she tried to remember the name of the familiar tune, she thought back to the beginning of that evening.

“Montana, you ready?”

“Almost.”

Danny couldn’t imagine what all the secrecy was behind the dresses the girls bought; she wouldn’t let him see it until the ‘grand reveal.’ He also didn’t know why they had to shop for hours for one dress. You go in, you check your size, you try it on, and boom! you’re ready to go. Thus the sexy specimen of a man he saw as he checked himself out in the mirror.

“Montana, come on. You didn’t take this long to get ready for our wedding. I’m dying out here!” he whined.

From behind the door he heard Lindsay’s impression of a WWE announcer, “Ladies and gentlemen, hailing from Bozeman, Montana, it’s the lady who stole Danny Messer’s heart – Lindsay ‘Montana’ Messer!”

With that, the bedroom door opened and out walked Lindsay with her hair up, wearing makeup fit for an evening out as well as a beautiful floor-length dress with a plunging neckline, a very strappy back, and a slit up the front of her dress exposing her left thigh. It hugged her in all the right places. Let’s just say that Danny was very pleased. In fact, he was so pleased that he was, for once, speechless. His eyes bugged out and suddenly he knew that he wasn’t the sexiest person in the room anymore.

With one hand on her hip, she asked seductively, “Was it worth the wait?”

He nodded his head, trying to pretend he was cool, but his strained voice was a dead giveaway. “Yeah. Worth the wait.” His index finger ran underneath the collar of his shirt so that he could breathe.

Lindsay wasn’t fooled. She laughed at him and, feigning concern, asked, “Are you okay, Danny?”

Still struggling to normalize his voice, he said, “Fine.” His red face proved him to be a liar. A very bad liar.

She laughed at him again as he walked over to her. She put a hand out and said, “No, no, no. You’re going to mess up my makeup.”

“I promise, baby, I won’t. Just one kiss.”

“Danny,” she begged.

“Come on. I got all pretty just for you so that you could have some eye candy. Just one kiss. Please.”

He approached her, leaned his head to the side and kissed her on the neck. Reluctantly, she pushed him away before he got carried away and left a bruise. She could tell from the look in his eyes that they were going to have a very short stay at the gala.

--CSI:NY--

Danny couldn’t help himself – he had to lean over and kiss her neck every so often.

“Danny,” she whispered. He knew that was his warning. He also knew that her resolve was weakening also.

“What? You expect me to be in control with you dressed like that, holding you this close?”

“If I have to control myself with you dressed like that, then, yes, I expect you to have some self-control too.”

“What you saying, you want me? ‘Cause if that’s what you’re saying we can leave right now.”

“Listen, Messer, I didn’t spend hours looking for this dress to only wear it for an hour. A few more dances, then we can cut out of here.”

In an attempt to keep his blood in his brain, he thought over their arrival at the gala.

Danny decided to lay down the rules for the night as they walked toward the building.

“Just remember, you have a husband. You dance with me tonight.”

“And if Mac asks me to dance?”

“Tell him ‘thanks, but no thanks,’” he replied seriously.

Lindsay rolled her eyes at him and chuckled. Yeah right.

As they approached the steps of the building, they were too into each other to notice anyone around them, but everyone else seemed to notice them. Heads turned as they descended up the stairs. That’s when the not-so-quiet comments began.

“I heard she’s pregnant and he had to marry her.”

“Yeah, I heard they had a real shotgun wedding. Her father made them do it.”

“Nah, I doubt that. If anything, she tricked him into marrying her. He’s not the marrying kind, you know.”

“Either way, they make a beautiful couple.”

“They do. Too bad there are so many gossipers around here. People can’t mind their own business.”

Danny smirked and looked at his wife. “Heard that, Montana? You tricked me into marrying you.”

She laughed and said, “I rather liked the immaculate conception theory. If only they knew.”

They entered the foyer, and proceeded further into the ballroom. Their eyes scanned the room for their team. Unfortunately, they had been banished to the back of the room because of Danny’s and Flack’s drunken tirade and near-brawl the year before, so they had quite a way to walk. As they approached the table, Stella caught sight of them and her eyes widened and her mouth dropped.

“You two look spectacular!”

With that pronouncement, all eyes at that table were on them. Lindsay blushed and leaned her head on Danny’s shoulder.

“Hi, guys,” she said as she beamed at their friends, and they all exchanged greetings.

Hawkes tried to get a rise out of Danny. “Lindsay, I have to say that you look stunning.”

Danny said, “Hawkes, eyes off my wife. Where’s your date?”

“Man, I’m just complimenting Lindsay. Do you mind? And for the record, my date is in the ladies’ room.”

Flack, being Danny’s best friend, wanted to keep it going. “Yeah, Lindsay. I can’t take my eyes off of you. I would love to have a dance – or two – with you tonight.”

Before Lindsay could respond to him, Danny glared at him and said in a low, warning voice, “Don’t start, Don. Where’s your date?”

“In the ladies’ room.”

“I guess looking at you made her stomach turn, eh?”

Flack got a little louder and said, “What are you saying, Messer?”

“You know what I’m saying…”

Stella said quietly, but sternly, “BOYS! We are NOT having a repeat of last year, or next year we’re going to be in the parking lot. Now cut it out!”

As Danny and Flack started laughing, Mac shook his head and hoped that none of them decided to imbibe too much or the situation would definitely get out of control. Meanwhile, he at least knew how to shut Danny up.

He stood up and reached out his hand. “Care to dance, Lindsay?”

“Why, yes, Mac, I would!”

Danny looked at her disbelievingly. “What happened to ‘thanks, but no thanks’?”

--CSI:NY--

“What are you thinking about, Danny?”

Danny looked Lindsay in the eyes then dipped his head to give her a passionate kiss. “How to talk you into sneaking out of here with me.”

Lindsay could feel that Danny was beginning to physically lose control, which led to her being about to lose control. She was suddenly quite receptive to his plan.

“Let’s get out of here.”

--CSI:NY--

Surprisingly, they made it home in one piece, seeing that Danny couldn’t keep his eyes or his hands off of Lindsay. The ride up the elevator was a tortuous one, especially since Mr. Hampton from down the hall was on there with them. They nodded to acknowledge each other’s presence and rode in silence. When the doors opened they made their way to the apartment and Danny unlocked the door, moving aside to allow Lindsay to enter first. After he closed and locked the door, he turned around and saw Lindsay looking at him longingly. He paused to take in the beauty that was before him, knowing that she was doing the same. Obviously, he took too long, because she began walking toward him to get their private party started.

She leaned up and kissed his jawline, working her way over to his mouth. Sufficiently ignited, his mouth engulfed hers and the firestorm began. She began working his jacket off of him while he unzipped her dress, happy that the zipper lay across her butt. She took his bow tie loose and unbuttoned his shirt, silently cursing every button. Her dress was on the floor by now, closely followed by his t-shirt. Lindsay kissed his chest while holding firmly onto his strong arms. She tried to lead him into the bedroom but he wouldn’t let her, indicated by him gripping her arm and shaking his head. She quickly got her shoes, pantyhose, and panties off. Danny put his arms around her waist and closed in for a passionate kiss. When they pulled apart, Lindsay worked on getting his pants off of him while he kicked his shoes off, but only managed to unbutton and unzip them before he lifted her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist. He turned and backed her into the door and their passionate night continued into morning, ending in the bedroom.

--CSI:NY--

Morning found them draped across one another, tangled up in the sheets. As the light streamed through the gap between the wall and the shades, Danny reluctantly opened his eyes and just as quickly he shut them again. He pulled Lindsay into an embrace and thought about how his life had changed in the past two weeks. He thought about all that he had gained: a wife, a future, real happiness.

All of that from one trip west.

--CSI:NY--

A/N 1: Stella’s storytelling antics are based on my daddy’s. His stories get longer and more elaborate with each re-telling.

A/N 2: This story was extremely fluffy, wasn’t it? I’m going to try to write some angst next time and I can’t wait to get started. I didn’t want to start that one before finishing this one because I hate it when stories are abandoned. And it’s always the good ones, too.

A/N 3: I hope Lindsay’s dress didn’t come off too, ummm, slutty. It wasn’t meant to be. I hope my description did the dress I tried to describe from an online picture justice.