Woo, yeah, so it’s been how long since I’ve updated? Sorry, I’ve been studying for my AP US History test. Alright, I honestly don’t ask for a lot of reviews, but it’d be nice to hear other people’s feedback besides the people who have been reviewing faithfully (I thank you profusely for that), so I hate to do this, but at least five reviews per chapter before I’ll put a new one up. On a happier note- Lindsay’s back! So everything is looking up for them and only them… Don’t own anything.

Guess who’s back, back again?

“Montana!”

Lindsay smiled, “Hi, Danny.”

Danny sat in disbelief, staring at her until she started squirming underneath his gaze. He jumped out of his seat and gathered her into a giant hug. At first Lindsay stiffened, but soon relaxed and returned the embrace. “Mphmba…” Danny talked into her head.

Lindsay pulled back and raised an eyebrow, “What was that?”

“I missed you.”

Lindsay blushed and snuggled deeper in his arms. “I missed you, too.” Her words were muffled by Danny’s chest, and he laughed inwardly at the vibrations it sent through him.

Lindsay let go of him and looked up, “We should talk.”

He nodded, “I’ll grab my coat and we’ll go to dinner.”

Dinner was awkwardly quiet until Danny tried to break the silence, “What was Miami really like?” Even though I really only want to know about the guys… “I mean are you done with your thing?”

Yeah right, you just want to know if I met anyone. “Well, it was fun…” She paused, “As fun as death can be.” Danny laughed, “And yes, I am finally done. I don’t think I could have stood another day of the heat. Dealing with it here for a few months is hard, but all year? It’s horrible, ya’know?”

Danny nodded sarcastically, “I so get what you’re saying.”

Lindsay threw her napkin at him, “Shut up.” But as the food came, she sobered up, “We really do still need to talk.”

Danny sighed, not wanting to deal with this conversation yet, “I’ll start.” He stopped for a moment to gather his thoughts, “Linds… I really do love you. I always have. I know that I never said it, but I do, honestly and truly love you. My life was just... messed up at the time. I made so many mistakes, and I promise you that I will make up for them. Even if you don’t want to give us another chance at dating, as a friend, I will make it up to you.

“Linds, there’s nothing that I wouldn’t do for you. Whatever you want, I’ll be fine with. Friendship, dating, the state of… What was it?”

Lindsay chuckled, “Aggravation.”

“Right. That.” He leaned his head down to look her in the eyes, “Whatever you want, Montana. I’m game.”

Lindsay looked down at her hands and sighed, “I… I want to try this again.” Danny beamed, “But can we please take it slow? Please?”

Danny couldn’t help the smile on his face, “You set the pace.”

About to respond, Lindsay sat up straight, “CRAP!”

“What?”

She looked down bashfully, “I uh… Rhiana’s going to be mad at me. I forgot to tell her that I was coming home. She made me promise…”

Danny smirked, having been on the receiving end of the newest CSIs annoyance many times, “Smooth move.”

Lindsay glared at him, “Thanks for the sympathy.” She rolled her eyes and opened her bag to pull out her cell phone. Pressing number two on the speed-dial, she had to wait for less than two rings for Rhiana to pick up.

“Shafer.”

“Hey, Rhiana!”

“Linds!” Rhiana said excitedly, “How are you doing this loverly evening?”

Lindsay smiled slightly, “I’m fine. Listen, my uh… My plane just got in about twenty minutes ago, and I’m going to be back at my apartment in about thirty minutes or so.”

“Really? That’s great!” Over the phone she could hear a muffled, ‘Ya really think that, Montana?’ and a ‘Shut it, Danny.’ She grinned knowingly, “Awesome, call me when you get there and can I talk to Danny?” She asked quickly.

“Sure! Here he- shoot.” Lindsay hit her head with her hand, “I’m sorry, but I wanted to see Danny first. I jumped him in our office.”

Rhiana squealed, “YES! THANK THE LORD! Good for you, sweetie! Flack. Marty! Lindsay just jumped Danny!”

Lindsay froze when she realized what she said, “NO! Rhiana! I didn’t jump him that way! Get your mind out of the gutter!” But the damage was done. Now that Flack knew, it was safe to say that everyone would soon know. He was as bad as a teenage girl when it came to gossip. “Ugh. Bye Rhiana. I’ll call you later.”

“Love you, Nutter! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”

“And what would that be?” Lindsay said sarcastically as she threw her phone back in her bag. “Damn it.” She slapped her forehead.

Danny couldn’t help but laugh at the situation, “Ya’know, Montana, I really wouldn’t mind if you jumped me. Anytime that you want, I’m open for it.”

“You’re a jackass.”

Danny gave her a shit-eating grin, “Fo sho!”

Despite her attempt to keep glaring at him, she couldn’t hold her laughter in, “I’ve missed this, Danny.”

“I’ve missed this too, Montana. Glad to have you back. Now,” He threw some money down on the table and grabbed her arm, “How about we go on a walk and you tell me ALL about Miami?”

“Sounds good to me. And we can also decide what we should do about me jumping you in our office.”

Danny paused, “Right.” He changed directions and started heading back to the lab.

“Where are we going?”

“The lab.” Danny said simply, not stopping.

Lindsay dragged her feet along the sidewalk to get him to stop. “Okay, why are we going to the lab?”

He sighed exasperatingly and explained it slowly, “You supposedly jumped me, right?” Lindsay nodded, “Well, the way I sees it, we have two choices. Go back and do some damage control and try to shut Flack up, or, you could do what they said and actually jump me in our office.”

“We’ll need to get Marty and Rhiana to keep quiet, too.”

Danny snapped his fingers, “Damn. I was hoping for option two.” She slapped him, “What?”

“Pig.”

As they entered the lab, Lindsay was pounced by two IFB, or unidentifiable flying bodies. “Rhiana? Marty?”

Marty kissed her on the cheek, “I’ve missed you babe!”

Rhiana nodded, “Me too!” She squeezed her even tighter, “I’m SO GLAD YOU’RE BACK! Marty, you’ve been great, but Lindsay… I’ve missed you so much!”

Marty looked at her, looking playfully hurt, “Rhi, you mean, all of this time you were using me as a substitute? Do I mean nothing to you? That hurts me, doll, it hurts me right here.” He whacked his chest and faked a sigh.

Rhiana was about to respond when Danny butted in, “I hate to cut this happy reunion short, but do you know where Flack is?”

“Why would I?” Rhiana asked. Danny just stared at her, “Fine. Last I saw him he was leaving to go talk to Sid about something. Not sure what.” She turned her attention to Lindsay and mouthed ‘Good job!’ Lindsay whacked her on the back of the head, “What was that for?”

“Flack! Flack!” Danny grabbed his friend and pulled him away from Peyton and Sid.

“Dan my man, what’s up?”

Danny pointed his finger at Don, “Who have you told?”

Flack looked at him innocently, “Told who what?” A glare was all it took for him to crack, “Only Marty and Rhiana know. I swear!”

Danny nodded, “Alright, but I’m keeping my eyes on you, Don Flack.” He gave him the ‘I’m watching you’ signal and stalked off.

“Kay, Linds, damage is at a minimal. Only Flack and Marty and Rhiana know, and I made Flack swear on his mother that he won’t tell.” Danny recapped to Lindsay.

“Well, I’ve threatened these two into submission as well.” Lindsay nodded with her chin toward her friends, “We should be in the clear now.”

Several hours later, Danny and Lindsay walked hand in hand into the bar to surprise the rest of the team, who had yet to know that she had returned.

“Oh. My. God. LINDSAY!”

Lindsay smiled warmly, “Hey Stell.”

The aforementioned CSI pushed Adam out of the booth and jogged over to Lindsay, arms outstretched. “Thank goodness you’re back. Not so overrun with testosterone anymore.” She and Lindsay giggled, “Anyhoo, girl talk. Guys, go get Rhiana, Lindsay and I some drinks. Or go to the bathroom.” Mac raised an eyebrow at her, “Fine.” She huffed, and stalked to the bar, “Linds? Rhi? We’ll talk over here.” A frown came over Danny and especially Flack’s face and they started to get up, “Ah ah ah, none of you are to come over here while we’re talking, capice?”

Danny winced inwardly at her horrible Italian but he decided against the wrath of Stella and followed the Greek woman’s instructions.

“Sit. Stay.” Rhiana said mockingly, “Good boy! Yes, such a good boy!” She pinched Danny’s cheeks, made a move towards Flack and Mac but dropped her hand. You don’t bite the hand that feeds you, “Later.”

“So, Linds…” Stella stared at the CSI in question, “You and Danny.” She motioned for her to elaborate.

“Yeah,” Rhiana chimed in, “You told me that you jumped him in the office, what came after that?”

Stella’s jaw dropped, “You… You jumped him? GO LINDSAY!” She shouted excitedly, “I always knew that you had it in you!”

Lindsay dropped her face in her hands, “Stell, I didn’t jump him, or anyone else, okay? I surprised him by coming into the office and we went out to dinner.” She sighed dreamily, “We’re going to try to give us another chance.”

Rhiana clapped happily, “Thank Neptune!”

“Congrats, Linds!” Stella enthused, “But you still should jump him.” She said, turning somber, but breaking it by bursting out laughing.

“Stella?” Lindsay said softly, “I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t tell anyone about that. Rhiana? Same thing for you.” She smiled, “And you know what they say, right?” Her companions shook their heads, “Turnabout’s fair play.

“Rhiana, tell me about Flack, and Stella? What’s going on with Mac? I’m kinda out of the loop at the moment.”

Stella looked around to get the attention of the bartender, “I’m going to need another drink to talk about this.”

Rhiana nodded, “Pink Squirrel for me.”

“Sex on the Beach.” Lindsay.

“Kiss me Quick.” Stella.

Drink in hand, Stella was up first. “Devil, thy name is Peyton.” Stella scowled and took a large gulp.

“The ME? What does she have to do with anything?” Realization dawned on the two youngest CSIs. “Oh.”

“I’m sorry, Stell. Mac doesn’t deserve you if he thinks that Peyton is right for him. He’s an idiot.”

Rhiana smiled wanly, “Well, at least one of us is in a good relationship right now.”

Lindsay and Stella frowned, “What do you mean?”

“Yeah, I thought you and Flack…”

She nodded, “We were. Once. But about a week ago he started avoiding me, and now he just… He won’t talk to me anymore! I went to his office one day to ask id he wanted some lunch, he yelled at me to get out and then physically pushed me out! He grabbed my arm and everything!”

Stella gasped, “He didn’t!”

Rhiana pulled her sleeve up to reveal a large, hand shaped bruise, “He did.”

“Well screw him.” Lindsay said vehemently.

“That was the plan until three days ago. Whatever, boys are stupid and I now have no want to talk to him. I’d like to forget about it though, so could we just keep it between us?” A nod confirmed it, “Well, enough of our pity parties, worse things have happened to us, right Stell? Linds?”

“Without a doubt.” Stella said, remembering Frankie.

“Definitely.” Lindsay replied, “I’m in a good place right now, but I’ve gone through hell before, and I’m pretty lucky that things turned out this great.” She looked over at the other table at Danny who smiled back at her, “And I’m sure that everything will turn out well for the two of you.” Without turning around, she shot a glare at Flack and mouthed ‘We need to talk, bastard.’

Flack looked shocked, Lindsay rarely, if ever, swore. Especially at him, but he nodded anyway, “Flack? Buddy? Ya in there?”

“Sorry, what was that Dan-O?”

Danny sighed overdramatically, “We figured that the girls were talking about us right now, so we’re going to talk about them. We’ve already gone over Mac and Peyton and Montana and me, so what’s up between you and Rhiana?”

Flack immediately stiffened, “Nothing.” He said coldly, “Nothing’s goin’ on between us.”

Marty regarded him oddly, “Why? I thought you were head over heels for her. What happened?” Flack mumbled something inaudible, “What was that now?”

“She stood me up for another guy!” Flack said fiercely, “I asked Lindsay where she was the next day and she told me that she was with Toby.” He spat out.

Marty looked at him, confusion obviously evident, and he glanced quickly at the girls, “Dude… Toby’s her brother. She told me they haven’t seen each other for a few years a month or two ago.”

Mac noted the gaze Flack had now put on Rhiana, specifically her arm, “Flack?” Mac frowned, “What did you do when you found out about Toby?”

“Erm… Nothing.” They looked unconvinced, “I just ignored her. That’s all.”

Marty and Danny had now joined Mac in watching Flack intently watch Rhiana, “Then why, pray tell, does she have bruises all over her arm and why is my girlfriend giving you the scariest death glare I have ever seen?”

Flack remained silent as Mary said menacingly, “What. Did. You. Do?”

Geez, that took me forever to write. I apologize profusely for it, I’ve had some major writer’s block, not to mention I had my AP US History test last Friday and I’ve been spending a lot of time studying. But my muse has returned, and I finally know that direction that this story is going to take. But things never go straight according to plan, right? Anyhoo, five reviews before I’ll update.