Authors note: This story takes place before "Not what it looks like"

Stella Bonasera looks through crystal glass wall into the break room, where all of her team is waiting for the special reminder she was about to give. As her emerald green eyes scan the room her gaze comes to rest upon her little brother, Danny Messer. She chuckles as she realizes his mouth is gaping open and he is staring at her other csi, Lindsay Monroe. Everyone in the entire city knew that Danny had a crush on Lindsay except for Lindsay herself. Danny had even came up with a special nickname for her on her very first day. Stella sighs and steps through the door.
" Kay guys, so i just wanted to remind you before you leave that the May ball is tonight, and all firemen, policemen, and us are invited."she says, before turning and walking out of the room.
"Stella, wait" Lindsay chirps from the back of the room, before she too runs out of the room. When the door thumps safely behind her, Flack turns to danny and says teases loud enough for enyone remaining in the room to hear,
" So, messer you gonna ask your montana to the may ball." Hawkes, Flack, and Adam laugh, while danny just turns red. Flack than adds sincerely, "You like her don;t you."
Danny snaps back, "No." Flack gives him a look. "Maybe...." Danny mumbles. Danny then get up to dump out the rest of his coffee down the sink. Flack and the rest of the team leave the room. Danny then takes a seat on top of the counter. He thinks. He jumps off the counter, and starts making his way down the hall.
"Montana!" Danny shouts down the long corridor. He finally reaches the end of the hall, out of breath, he smiles. Lindsay giggles, her laugh light and cheerful.
"Hi danny, excited for the ball?", She askes.
" Yeah, the ball, hey linds i was wonderin' if you-" He didn't get to finish because just then he heard suppressed laughter coming from around the corner. Danny looks at Lindsay. Lindsay looks at Danny. Quietly, they peer around the corner just as flack whispers to Adam,
"Messer and Montana sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G---"
Lindsay blushes. Just then Danny clears his throat. Flack and Adam look up.
"Real mature guys", danny says.
"We're Just friends" Lindsay and Danny say together. Flack and Adam chuckle then leave. Lindsay looks at Danny, then at her watch and tells danny she has to go, and that she will see him at the Ball. She then leaves and Danny watches her go.

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7:45 @ the May ball.

Danny Messer is seated as close to the door as possible, without drawing attention to himself. He scans the crowd once again, searching through the puffy, full-skirted women, and tuxedo wearing gentlmen, for a head of moussy light-brown curls. He then sees a police officer collapse, "How is he already drunk?" Danny askes himself. Just then he sees lindsay enter the ball room wearing a stunning, sparkly, peach-colored, sleeveless, ball gown. Danny starts to walk torward the entrance, torward Lindsay. Clearly not seeing the drunken officer on the hardwood floor, Lindsay walks right into the man on the floor and starts to fall.

"Oh!" she manages to say before Danny catches her by the waist. Danny lifts her off the ground and spins her around to face him.
"Thanks Cowboy! Wow! You clean-up nice." Lindsay says, while gusturing to his Tux.

Danny blushes and smiles. Not knowing what to do, he stoops down and picks up Lindsay gold, matallic clutch purse.
"Here you go, Wow Montana you look...wow." Danny stuttered. Lindsay giggled.

"Thank-you" she says. The band then begins to play Don't Stop Believing.

"I love this song" they say together.
"Do you, um, Would you wanna-" Danny begins to say.

"I would love to dance" she finishes.
Danny places his right hand on the small of lindsay's back and guides her to the dance floor.

Little did they know that their actions did not go unnoticed by their fellow co-workers. Stella, Mac, Flack, Hawkes, Adam, and Sid were all on the edge of their seats waiting to see what would happen next.
"They'll be together by the end of the night" Flack said confidently.
"I wouldn't be so sure Flack, i will bet you thirty bucks!" stella comments, "I think it will be, uhh.. 2 more weeks."
"No way!" mac exclaims, "They are both to scared to rush things I say a month."Mac then adds his thirty to the table. Everyone looked at him in suprise. Rarely did Mac ever get into his friends love lives, but the constant banter between Danny and lindsay had been annoying even the boss.
Hawkes agrees with Flack.
Sid then says,"Well, it's friday now. I say it will be Wednesday."

Stella then collected the large ountain of bills and handed the total to Adam, who would hold on to it all, when the team knew who the winner was.

Danny and Lindsay danced for 3 songs, suprisingly there were rarely any awkward moments between the two. They teased and laughed, it was only the times where another couple would whistle at them dancing together, or an officer would comment on it, that they would blush and say "We're just friends." Then Danny would think i wish we were more. And lindsay would think I wish we were more.

After their dance they caught sight of their friends.
"Hi guys" Lindsay said
"Hey" Danny said.

The night passed and the entire team laughed a lot. It was midnight when Lindsay said she would head home. So Lindsay then shrugged off Danny's Jacket (He had given it to her when she was cold earlier), and heasded for the door. Danny said he also would be going, so he slide his coat back on and placed his hands in his pockets, when he felt something cold inside the left one. He stopped in front of the exit and pulled out Lindsay's gold braclet. He put it back in his pocket, and started running down the street. Soon enough he caught sight of Lindsays Peach dress sparkling in the moonlight. He was just going to call her name when he saw a hand shoot out from the alleyway and grab Lindsay by the wrist and pulled her in. Danny sprinted ahead and turned the corner to see Lindsay backed up against the brick wall and 2 men in front of her.
"What a pretty little lady we have here, don't we spike?" snarled the first one.

"We sure do, Joe." answered spike.

Lindsay's eyes were wide with fear, their chocolatey color which was usually so warm and inviting was now screaming for help. She let out a little whimper. Danny had then walked into a metal bin and it made a large crash as it fell over. Joe and Spike turned to see Danny pull out his gun and aim it at them. Swiftly Joe reached into his pocket and produced a gun as well, he then aimed his at Lindsay.

"Move one step forward and i will shoot her" Joe shouted.

Spike then began to bound lindsay with rope he had found in his pocket.
"You wouldn't shoot her she is a detective!" Danny shouts back.

"You care to test that theory mister?" Joe says.

Danny took a step forward. Joe grabs Lindsay and presses the gun to her temple. She lets out another whimper.
"Put your gun down detective." Joe commands.

Danny bends down to place his weaponon the littered alley ground, he then springs up and tackles the unsuspecting Joe. Just then Flack appears at the alley's opening. He then proceeds to take down Spike. Flack Handcuffs Them both as danny unties Lindsay and askes her if she is okay.

"Danny, y-y-you saved my life!" She states unbelieving what had just taken place.

Danny just smiles and pulls her into an embrace. He inhales her warm vanilla-y scent and thinks about how much he wishes she was his montana. They both lean in to share their first kiss when they hear Mac and Stella rush around the corner demanding to know what had happened. They both jump away from the other and think about what the kiss would have been like. Danny then proceeds to tell the story, slips Lindsay's gold braclet onto her slim wrist, and they save their first kiss for another day. Wednesday to be exact. Both were in awe when they saw Adam hand Sid an exceptionally large stack of cash.