CSI:New York : Who Are You? (Don Flack/OFC fanfic)

Game On

'You coming along tonight, Lindsay?' Hawkes asked her as they processed evidence for a case they had just been assigned. As if the bike messenger case hadn't been tough enough, Mac had given them an even tougher assignment: the mindless murder of a nightclub DJ who - they had since discovered - had a list of enemies a mile long. Too long to narrow it down. All they had on this was that a tool of his very own trade had murdered the DJ; his throat had been cut with a 12" vinyl record.

Lindsay had concluded that being assigned this particular case had something to do with Hawkes still being relatively new out in the field and having to prove himself further; Hawkes preferred to think of it as their boss laying on a test and one they were expected to pass with flying colors. Not looking up from the fingerprint she was staring hard at through the microscope, she said, 'What's happening?'

'Drinks at Sullivan's,' Hawkes reminded her.

'Oh yeah, Olivia mentioned something earlier. Are you going?'

'Only if you show up wearing a cheerleader outfit complete with pompoms.' Danny had just walked into the lab and threw a grin in Hawkes direction, waiting until Lindsay straightened to give him that look she was so fond of when she was outraged at something he said. She didn't let him down.

'How many times, keep me out of your schoolboy fantasies,' she warned, eyeing him.

Danny chuckled. 'That's twice today I've been told that.'

'Maybe someone's trying to tell you something,' Hawkes told him with a smile. 'Who was the other?'

'Duke.'

'Olivia? Ooh, I thought you weren't going there?' Hawkes asked still smiling.

'I'm not, but y'know, a girl's hot, a guy's curious. What you gonna do?' shrugged Danny.

Hawkes shook his head. 'Unbelievable.'

'Loathsome is the word I'd use,' Lindsay corrected.

Danny only grinned at her. 'Getting jealous over there, Montana?'

She clucked her tongue signalling her displeasure. 'Heard you'd closed your case, so don't you have some reports you should be getting on with?'

He wiped his hands together and replied smugly, 'Done. Already posted in Mac's inbox.'

'Well...then if you don't mind, we're a little busy in here - '

'Ah, loosen up, Montana,' he said leaning against her workstation, folding his arms over his chest. 'I've seen the way you look at me.'

Even though her heart jumped into her throat at the mere sight of the way he leaned, she managed to say in her best icy tone, 'Oh, you mean like you just crawled from beneath a rock, kind of look?' and made Hawkes chuckle from the other side of the room. 'Because you'll be slurping on Sno-Kones in hell before you get anything else from me.'

'You getting this?' Danny said turning to Hawkes. 'You feel that, how cold it just got in here?'

'There's an old saying, I think it goes something like: Give up while you're ahead,' he offered with a shrug.

'Too far in the game, man.'

Lindsay looked at Danny and blinked. Okay...what? Had he just said that? And what the heck did he mean anyway? 'Excuse me?' she said, although her heart was no longer jumping, more like frantically leaping. 'There is no game. And what's that supposed to mean anyway?'

Danny only grinned at her and Lindsay decided then and there that the guy should be made illegal. 'You think you're the only one playing it for all it's worth, Montana?'