At First Glance

by Melanie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At first glance Martin Fitzgerald knew that he looked dependable, reliable, staid… first glances could often times be misleading.

When he’d asked Kyle out he’d been turned down because Kyle had thought him boring.

But then Kyle’s idea of a good time had been reading his old literature textbooks so really what had he known anyway.

Martin rubbed at the headache forming behind his eyes and scowled.

It was nine in the morning, starting the day with a headache didn’t bode well for the rest of it. He glanced at the picture of Kyle sitting prominently in the middle of tax laws and forms and sighed.

“You need to start dating again,” Martin scowled and refused to look at the door. Maybe if he ignored her she’d go away?

“It’s been over a year Martin…”

That’s right Jessie wasn’t his father, she wasn’t that easy to get rid of.

“Do we really have time to talk about this today?” Martin knew his voice was snarky and annoyed and he made no move to hide the fact.

They’d known each other since they were kids, there was really no way that she didn’t already know that he could be an ass sometimes.

“We’ve got all the time in the world today,” Jessie grinned at him, settling herself into a chair across from his desk. She looked to damn cheerful and he eyed her suspiciously. Jessie grinning? Either somebody she hated was being audited or Tax season was done.

He glanced at his calendar to make sure he hadn’t slept through the tax deadlines. He didn’t think he had, it was kind of hard to miss something that widely proclaimed, but he’d been kind of distracted lately.

“Did I miss something? Was a tax holiday declared while I was in the bathroom?” Jessie snorted and rolled her eyes and Martin leaned back in his chair, twirling a pen between his fingers as he waited.

Either one of them would get tired of the stare off or Donald would come in to find out why they weren’t working.

He was kind of hoping for Donald’s interference because he really wasn’t in the mood to deal with Jessie. Not after going home the night before and having to field the same exact questions from his father.

He swore they planned this sort of stuff out ahead of time just to see if they could drive him insane.

Victor Fitzgerald may have almost had a stroke when Martin had finally come out during his senior year of college but he seemed to have adjusted to it very well. He wasn’t waving flags or marching in parades but Martin wondered if he wasn’t about to start.

Especially since his mothers death three years prior meant that all of his fathers attention was focused entirely on him, with just the tiniest bit being diverted to his sister and her family.

She was married and happy and he wasn’t after all. And he was about a two phone calls away from paying her to have another baby.

It was a bit unnerving to go from having a father that barely acknowledged his existence to having a father that called him every night to make sure he’d gotten home from work safely.

The next time he was down in D.C. he was searching for the pod or hiring a hit man.

Victor was absolutely determined to get Martin settled into in a happy, fulfilling relationship and while grandchildren hadn’t necessarily been mentioned yet Martin had no doubt that Victor had either picked out some nice young woman with good genes and a name to be a surrogate or had a discreet adoption center already selected.

“You know if you don’t want to do the bar scene thing again I can always set you up with somebody.”

Martin froze, visions of the last blind date Jessie had set up for him dancing before his horror stricken eyes. He hadn’t thought Jessie knew anybody outside of the six people that worked in their office. He’d almost been terrified that she was going to set him up with Donald.

She hadn’t but by the end of the date Donald was looking mighty attractive.

Bulge, receding hair line and all.

“I beg you not to.”

Jessie propped her feet up on the edge of his desk, she looked utterly relaxed and then her expression turned serious. “He wouldn’t want you to mourn him forever Martin.”

“He’s dead he doesn’t get to choose,” Martin muttered and he knew he wasn’t being fair. Not to Jessie, not to Kyle and not to himself. This wasn’t how he’d thought he’d be spending his life.

“Okay we’re tired of watching you brood.”

“Have you been talking to my father again?” he asked suspiciously.

“This is a nice guy,” Jessie persisted, cocking her head to one side her face the picture of innocence even though she couldn’t meet his eyes.

“A nice guy…” Martin repeated. “You said Steven was a nice guy…”

“Okay I’ll admit Steven was a little… strange.”

“A little strange, he named his food before he ate it. He had a steak named Carla and a baked potato named Marcus.”

“I promise Danny doesn’t name his food.”

“Danny… you’ve already set this up, haven’t you?” Martin’s eyes narrowed and Jessie at least had the good grace to look sheepish. “Jessie.”

“Look, if I’d asked you first you’ve have just said no so…”

“You’re going to call and cancel this right now,” he ordered. There was very little chance that she was listenting to him, Jessie was like his father and had very selective hearing.

 

“He’s going to pick you up here around seven…” Jessie continued as if he hadn’t even spoken. Coming to her feet smoothly, smiling absently at him.

“Jessie.”

“Donald says we’re ordering in lunch so we can finish Sympatik’s forms today; let Connie know what you want from the Deli.”

“Jessica.”

“Wow look at the time,” Jessie moved for the door. “I should get back to work before Donald comes looking for me.”

Martin stared after her with a dazed expression. He had a date tonight.

He ran a hand through his hair and sighed, a glance at Kyle’s picture and he frowned. He had a feeling it was going to be a really long day.

 

******************************************************************************

 

“Connie have you seen Desmond’s deduction folder? It was on my desk and now it’s gone…” Martin rubbed at a spot between his eyes. The folder had been there and then had been gone and the only proof that he had that he’d even had it was the semi-filled out form that he’d been working on before he’d gone to get a soda.

“Connie?” he looked up and noted that Connie’s desk was empty, the light on her desk was off and someone that he didn’t know was sitting in a chair looking at him with a bemused expression.

He opened his mouth, closed it and then stated decisively, “you’re not Connie,” before feeling like a total idiot because obviously this wasn’t Connie. He’d known Connie for going on five years and just that morning Connie had been 5’3” with graying hair that hung in a braid down her back and he knew that he could be a little out of the loop but he was fairly sure that she hadn’t had a sex change since then.

At the very least someone would have mentioned it at lunch.

“No I’m not,” the voice said smoothly and Martin felt a prickle of interest at the appraising look and smirk that followed that statement. Well at least now he knew his libido hadn’t died along with Kyle because it was standing up and taking considerable notice of the man who could only be undressing him with his eyes and wow… he really wanted to be standing behind something desperately bad because this could get embarrassing really quickly.

“Were you waiting for somebody?” Martin asked, a quick glance around showed most of the offices dark and he wondered exactly how late it was before returning his attention to the man lounging in the front office chairs.

That pose should be illegal… or at the least the clothes should be gone. And he didn’t know this man and should really not be picturing him naked and sprawled out on Connie’s desk. Of course unless this man could read his mind he didn’t think it would really be that big an issue.

“You,” the voice was still amused and the smirk was still there, growing into a leer as Martin stared at him in incomprehension. “Jess told me to give you till 6:45 before I went in to get you. She said I could drag you kicking and screaming from your desk if I thought I was up to it,” he made a big show of glancing down at the watch around his wrist (nice watch, Martin thought stupidly) “you had ten more minutes.”

“Okay… oh…” recognition dawned and Martin flushed. Blind date, Jessie, Danny, he’ll be by around seven to pick you up. “You’re early,” he managed. He probably looked like an idiot.

Or a workaholic.

He wondered which would be worse in this mans eyes. Wondered why he cared.

 

******************************************************************************

 

The night was never going to end, Martin had decided. It was like they were stuck in some time loop that made seconds feel like hours. It was hell.

And Danny had some sort of masochist streak or something that made him keep smiling at Martin like he knew things that Martin didn’t. That had disturbed Martin so much at the beginning of the night that he’d run through a mental inventory of events that could be used to humiliate him.

It wasn’t his birthday so he was pretty sure he was going to be spared the humiliation of a surprise party, of course part of that was because he threatened to murder Jess and his father and feed them to the lions at the zoo if they ever tried to do that again.

But that unfortunately left about a million other ways that his father and Jess could team together and humiliate him. Like setting him up on a blind date with this guy that oozed sex appeal out his pores days before the tax deadline. Maybe Jess was trying to distract him from something at work so he’d get fired? The only problem with that was the firm was half his so she’d get fired before he’d leave.

And she didn’t hate him enough to do that. He didn’t think.

He could fire her though and maybe he’d do that tomorrow, it might relieve the stress of this ever happening again.

He stabbed a piece of lettuce on his salad plate viciously, imagining Jess’ face and the look on it when he said the magic words;  Danny’s chuckle sent shivers down his spine and he had to look up.

Danny was watching him with that same amused look that he’d had all night.

Martin was beginning to hate it.

He’d thought Danny attractive? He smothered a snort by shoving the mutilated lettuce into his mouth defiantly, his libido was obviously desperate to get laid or something because there was no way that Danny Taylor was attractive.

Oh who the hell was he kidding?

He wondered if he fake-choked on a crouton if Danny would perform the Heimlich or if he’d go right to mouth to mouth.

Martin knew which he’d choose.

Christ it was like he’d turned fourteen and just discovered his dick again.

“You doing okay over there Martin?” Danny’s amused voice broke through Martin’s contemplation of his croutons. Damn restaurant kept them within some sort of safety standard. There was no way in hell he could choke on one of them without looking like a fucking idiot.

“Fine,” and now his voice was even squeaking like he was fourteen again. Could the night get any worse?

“Martin is that you?” Martin’s eyes widened and he choked on the crouton that he’d just swallowed. He should have known better than to tempt the gods.

And Danny didn’t even pat him on the back or anything, of course in order to do so he would have had to shove the waiter and Sam out of the way as they fought for the honor in pummeling him.

If they left bruises he was suing somebody.

“Are you okay?” Sam rubbed his back gently, circular motions as he coughed and reached for his water glass. Half-coughing, half gasping for breath. He gulped his water, the waiter that had been tag-team beating him on the back refilling it a second later.

He was either very efficient or bucking for a really good tip, if he could sneak Martin out the backdoor without anyone noticing Martin might even contemplate giving him one.

Danny on the other side of the table watched with that same bemused expression and a look passed between him and Sam that had Martin questioning whether they knew each other.

It was the sort of half nod jerk thing that you used with co-workers when you wanted to acknowledge them without actually saying that you knew them.

He’d used it on Donald enough times in the past and he had to wonder how they knew each other.

“Martin?” Sam was still waiting for him to answer her and he coughed lightly before taking a sip of the water in his hand.

“Fine,” he squeaked out, he cleared his throat, took another sip of the water another deep breath and tried again. “I’m fine.”

Sam smiled gently at him, her hand laying softly on his shoulder, “are you going to introduce me to your friend?” she asked with a strange knowing smile on her face and his eyes narrowed.

She sort of, kind of worked for his father and if she was here to make sure that he’d actually gone on the blind date that Jessie had set up that she’d insisted his father didn’t know anything about he would kill somebody.

“Sam Spade, Danny Taylor,” he waved a hand between them and they definitely knew each other, he scowled.

This whole thing smelled of a set up and had his meddling fathers’ fingerprints all over it. Didn’t he get like a year to grieve or something?

“You two know each other,” it wasn’t a question simply a statement of fact and he didn’t have to look up to see the expressions on their faces. Well maybe a quick glance and that was enough to confirm at least a few of his suspicions.

Sam looked sort of sheepish and vaguely guilty; Danny though had a strange look that he couldn’t decipher on his face but there was no guilt. Of course it was entirely possible that Danny wasn’t guilty and was instead some innocent bystander that had been roped into getting him back into the dating scene.

He looked at Danny again and wished he hadn’t. Danny and Sam were having some sort of conversation without words, just a raised eyebrow, pursed lips; Danny was pissed and Sam was trying to placate him without saying a word.

They’d obviously been friends for a while.

Sam looked apologetic and was shuffling on her feet, Danny was scowling and tapping his fingers against his plate, Martin had a sudden urge to stab something viciously and the waiter reappeared with a wide grin, chair in his hands for Sam.

Martin frowned. So she was joining them now? When had that happened?

The waiter oblivious to the tension just smiled brightly at them. “Dessert?”

 

******************************************************************************

 

He knew that the coffee and Danish waiting for him on his desk were peace offerings. The fact that he’d drank the coffee and had been almost half-finished with the Danish when Jack had called them all to the table meant that he’d accepted the peace offering.

He probably should have held off, made Sam grovel a little but his alarm hadn’t gone off and he’d needed the coffee if he was going to be a functioning member of humanity, and by the time he was half done with the coffee he’d been hungry so he’d ate the Danish to.

He’d listened to Jack detail their latest case, waiting more importantly for their assignments.

He had made no secret of the fact that he’d had a date, he hadn’t said who it was with because really it was no ones business but his own.

 

Although he thought he really should have known better, Sam for some odd reason was getting in touch with the inner-mother in her and since she had no kids and no prospects she’d adopted him.

 

It probably had been to much to ask that she keep it to herself, because she knew that as soon as Sam had walked in the door that morning she would have told both Jack and Vivian.

And who he ended up partnered with would determine how interested in how everyone was in how The Date had gone the previous night.

He wasn’t even a little surprised that Jack put him with Sam. She was after all the only one that should legitimately know that his date had been with Martin Fitzgerald. Seeing as how she’d busted in on it and all.

Anyone else and it would have looked suspicious, or like Sam had a big mouth. He wondered if they even knew that the only reason that Sam knew was because she’d shown up in the middle of it. He was going to have to make her suffer for that, even though he thought he could almost understand.

 

Although it would make more sense if she’d known that the date was with the only son of Victor Fitzgerald. She hadn’t so he had no idea why she’d even been there in the first place.

 

Victor Fitzgerald, christ he wondered what he’d gotten himself into when he’d agreed to this. He felt a migraine comin gon and wished for coffee and aspirin.

 

Because Victor was hyper-protective of Martin, of both of his children actually. But more so with Martin than with the sister and that was probably because Martin lived in New York City instead of under his heel in D.C.

 

And he wouldn’t be at all surprised if he found out that Victor had done some sort of background check on him when he found out that Danny had been going out with him. The fact that Victor hadn’t put a stop to the date either meant that he hadn’t found anything that alarmed him or hadn’t got the background check back in time to do anything about it.

He’d been sort of nervous about the date; the last guy that Martin had dated had been well-off, well-connected and well-known. Danny was very obviously none of those things. Jessie had assured him that he would be fine, told him to be himself.

He didn’t think that she’d meant for him to undress Martin with his eyes the moment that he’d seen him. He hadn’t been able to help himself though, Martin had walked out of his office, tie pulled loose around his neck looking distracted and luscious and Danny had never wanted to see anybody naked more in his life.

If he’d thought Martin would have gone along with it he would have dragged him back to his apartment after dinner, stripped him naked and licked him until he screamed.

Sam waited until they were in the car to say anything, Danny driving because he valued his life and wouldn’t let Sam behind the wheel unless he was unconscious.

“I’m so sorry,” he glanced over at her, because she certainly sounded like she was sorry. “I just… I saw Martin and I didn’t even realize that you were there until Martin starting choking and I didn’t know what you’d told him about where you work, or with who…”

“Sam,” he tried to cut her off at the pass, she was flustered and could babble for hours if he didn’t nip it in the bud.

“I mean I knew you had a date I just didn’t realize who it was and I would never have shown up if I’d known… even though you have really bad taste in women, and well men but there’s not so many of them.”

“Sam…”

“And Martin is so not your type in the first place so really how would I have known anyway? I mean his father sets him up with sons of like Senators and powerful businessmen. He does not traditionally set him up with FBI agents.”

Danny arched a brow at her, tapping his fingers along the wheel as he waited at the red light. Sam was on a roll and from the looks of traffic it appeared that it was going to take them at least an hour to get out of the city, he hoped she wasn’t going to ramble the whole time.

He should really have got another cup of coffee before they left, at least he could have distracted himself with the caffeine.

“He looks different,” Sam mused. “I think he’s lost weight or something.”

“You’ve met him like what, twice, how can you tell?”

“Its two more times that you have.”

“And he looked fine,” he ignored the smirk that appeared on Sam’s face at that. “And I don’t have a type.”

“Yes you do… I don’t want to say the people you go out with are sleazy.”

Danny scowled. Because the people he dated were not sleazy. They just liked to show off their bodies. And that wasn’t a crime unless it led to prostitution. Which it didn’t.

“They are not.”

“They are,” Sam stated emphatically. “And Martin is so… so normal and kind of boring. He’s an accountant for gods sake. What did you guys even find to talk about? I mean it’s not like you have anything in common besides his father and I’m pretty sure that Daddy isn’t a conversation that Martin would feel comfortable talking to you about. Besides which the two of you are from totally different worlds.”

Danny scowled at her, because she was sort of right. Martin and he did come from different worlds. Very different worlds, Danny hadn’t exactly grown up on the streets but it had been a damn close thing at times. But none of that meant that there wasn’t a way for them to meet somewhere in the middle. “You know maybe that’s a good thing.”

“A good thing?” Sam looked at him warily.

“Yeah, you know opposites attract and all that bullshit.”

Sam sighed, and shook her head and Danny knew that in her mind she thought that he’d somehow missed whatever point she’d been trying to make. He hadn’t, he just didn’t care. So what if he and Martin were different, Martin might not have been born with an actual silver spoon in his mouth but he’d definitely had things that Danny hadn’t.

A stable home life for one. An actual home for the other. A sibling, parents.

But none of that really mattered in the grand scheme of things. As long as they liked each other everything else should take care of itself in time.

And next time he was begging for Vivian as his partner, she might be interested in his personal life but she didn’t meddle in it and she sure as hell had never shown up in the middle of a date with a really nice guy who was probably never going to call him again.

It was damn shame to. Because he’d liked talking to Martin, once he relaxed, which had been after Sam left, he had a wicked sense of humor and had been fairly amusing. Even if he did glance at his watch almost every half hour.

Danny was pretty sure that he’d gone back to work almost as soon as he’d been dropped off and he didn’t think he’d ever had a job that he’d been willing to do that for. Because being paged for work was one thing, voluntarily going back in again that was something else entirely.

He wondered if he could get Jessie to finagle a second date on his behalf.

Because it really wasn’t his fault that Sam had ruined the first one after all.

 

******************************************************************************

 

Danny had just about given up on ever hearing from Martin again. Two and a half weeks after their blind date and he’d not heard one word from the other man.

It was probably just as well. Self-doubt (which Danny didn’t have a lot of experience with but was finding out he didn’t like at all) had set in and he’d wondered if there was really any way that things between him and Martin could actually have worked out.

The week in itself had been long; the case they’d been working had been bad. Their missing person was found dead, had actually been dead before he’d ever even been reported missing by co-workers and that somehow made it worse.

He had planned on Chinese, soda and whatever sport he could find a TV (unless it was curling in which case he’d try the movie channels). Mindless fun, something he didn’t have to think about at all.

With that in mind he was juggling a bag of Chinese and a six pack of soda when he got to his apartment and heard his phone ringing. It wasn’t his cell, that was on his person and silent, which meant it wasn’t work.

Thank god. He needed a few days to get back in the right frame of mind to go back to looking for missing people.

He dropped the bag on the coffee table, the soda on the couch and managed to grab the phone before whoever was on the other end could hang up, or get the machine.

“Hello?” Danny shrugged out of his coat, shaking his head. It had started raining on his walk back to the apartment. The weather forecast had not said one word about a chance of rain. Not that he paid all that much attention to it.

“Danny?” the voice was familiar, warm with just a little bit of hesitation and it took Danny a half-second to place it. Then a smile appeared on his face and his heart lightened and the week that had seemed like it would never end faded away.

“Hey Martin.”

 

******************************************************************************

 

If Martin had hoped that having a phone between them would keep him from embarrassing himself he was obviously quite delusional.

 

Danny’s voice was smooth and warm and Martin felt a little shiver run down his spine. What he wouldn’t give to have Danny actually whispering in his ear instead of talking low on the phone.

 

“I… uh…” Martin floundered, he hadn’t been this nervous since he’d stood before Kyle shifting nervously on his feet waiting for the inevitable rejection. He certainly hadn’t been this nervous when he’d picked up the phone, carefully punching in the numbers that Jessie had so helpfully written down on a sticky note and affixed to his computer monitor with CALL DANNY!! in big black letters underlined about a million times. He wondered why it seemed Jessie was more interested his love life than in her own.

 

At least she had waited until after the 15^th to leave the note. Any time before that and he would have buried it on his desk under a mountain of paper and not found it until December.

 

Danny chuckled again and Martin wondered why this was so hard. He knew Jessie had expected him to call and set up a second date and while his entire body, hormones included thought that was a swell idea his brain had different thoughts.

 

If Danny Taylor worked with Sam that meant that Danny worked for his father and Martin had a slight problem continuing to go out with someone that his father might have possibly hand-picked out for him. Of course how he’d done that from D.C. was beyond him but he had no doubt that his father could figure out a way.

 

His hormones of course didn’t care how Danny had been brought to his attention, they insisted that it didn’t matter who had picked him out, his father, Jessie, the Pope himself, the sex would be amazing and it had been a long time and Martin was a complete idiot if he gave that up just because of who might have been involved in the setup process.

 

“Martin?” He started at the sound of the voice, realizing that he’d been staring at the wall and there was a worried note there that said if Danny’d had any idea where Martin lived he’d have been right there checking to make sure he was okay.

 

His hormones thought that was a fabulous idea and offered to give him the address.

 

“Sorry… I was…” Martin frowned. “It’s been a really long day,” he finally said, he knew his voice sounded tired.

 

“Tell me about it,” Danny sighed and Martin noticed for the first time that Danny sounded as tired as he felt, and his voice had the sort of empty-edged despair that he could remember hearing in his fathers’ voice when he was a kid, after a case had hit him especially bad.

 

His mother, when she’d been alive, before his father had transferred and become a big shot something or other had pampered the hell out of him. Making sure all of his favorite comfort foods were within reach, making sure she and Martin and his sister were within reach. She had known, somehow instinctively that his father needed to know that the people he loved were safe and sound, healthy and happy.

 

He hadn’t understood that when he was a kid, he’d thought his father over-protective and fought against the cage that he’d thought his father had been trying to erect around him to make sure that he was safe. He hadn’t really understood until he was almost an adult.

 

“I was thinking that maybe we could get together,” Martin winced, because well that wasn’t at all casual and certainly not what he’d planned to say. It sounded absolutely nothing like ‘I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to see each other.’

 

“What did you have in mind?” Danny was smiling into the phone, Martin could tell just by the sound of his voice.

 

“A movie, no Sam,” Martin said firmly.

 

“Sam…” another sigh from Danny and Martin regretted instantly bringing up her name. He should have left well enough alone. “She’s sort of over protective; she thinks I have terrible taste in men.”

 

“Oh…” Martin licked his suddenly very dry lips. Because if Sam had been there for Danny, then she hadn’t been there for him and that meant that there was a chance that his father hadn’t been involved in the setup.

 

A slim chance, but a chance still and at this point he’d take what he could get. His father didn’t really fit the image of a Jewish Yenta. Not being Jewish being the least of his problems in that category.

 

“I couldn’t really think of a way to get rid of her once she sat down,” Danny said and it sounded as if he was rattling bags on the other end of the phone. “I mean, Sam go away is kind of rude.”

 

“I’ve used that on Jessie before,” Martin confessed softly. “She didn’t talk to me for a whole day.”

 

“With Jess that was probably a blessing.”

 

“I think she only started talking to me again because she realized that she was only punishing herself and that I was relishing the silence.”

 

Danny laughed on the other end of the phone and Martin grinned on his.

 

“So a movie?” Danny prompted.

 

“Yeah… I don’t know what’s playing but…” Martin glanced around his apartment; he could probably dig out the newspaper and find out but that seemed like an awful lot of work considering the current state of his apartment.

 

“I was just going to stay in, watch TV, eat some Chinese, drink to much soda. It’s been a long week,” and there was that tired despair again.

 

“Oh,” Martin bit his lip. Because here came the inevitable rejection. He should have known. People like Danny didn’t go out with people like him. They went out with people that fell out their clothes without any prompting needed, if they were even wearing them in the first place.

 

He couldn’t do that, he looked awkward and uncomfortable and then inevitably got the ‘Martin, I think you’re a great guy but I don’t think this is going to work’ speech, otherwise known as speech 4 in the 5 that had been used to dump him in the past.

 

“Why don’t you come over here, I’ve got enough for both of us.”

 

Martin grinned widely, ignoring the relief flooding him. “Okay.”

 

******************************************************************************

 

Their second date was quiet. Eating Chinese food on the couch in front of the TV (he couldn’t remember doing that since the last time he’d visited his aunt and uncle), some movie that he would be hard pressed to remember the title of later playing on it.

 

He didn’t think Danny could have said what the movie was either. It was obviously unexciting and Danny had fallen asleep with a soda in his hand about two hours after Martin had arrived.

 

He’d clenched his hands into tight fists to keep from smoothing the wild hair down, drawn a deep breath then moved the soda carefully from Danny’s hand and into the kitchen.

 

He’d sealed the leftovers into a plastic container that had obviously seen better days and placed it into the refrigerator. He’d washed the few dishes they’d used, as well as some that they hadn’t, cleaned the counters and the table even though they hadn’t used them at all.

 

He very carefully didn’t look too closely at the thought that he was keeping himself occupied in the hope that Danny would wake up and he wouldn’t have to leave.

 

When that didn’t appear likely to happen he’d shut off the TV, moving the remote onto the coffee table, and then he’d laid a blanket found on the back of the recliner over Danny, fought once more to keep from assaulting Danny’s hair, scribbled a brief note and left.

 

That had been the end of their second date. No Sam, no choking on croutons in a restaurant. Of course there had also been no Danny undressing him non-subtly with his eyes but Martin chalked that up to him being so tired.

 

The real test would be their third date.

 

******************************************************************************

 

Their third date, started with Martin being late. He hadn’t meant to, he’d actually set the alarm on his watch and his palm pilot to make sure it wouldn’t happen. But then he’d taken the watch off when he’d washed his hands after lunch and left it in the bathroom and he’d had misplaced his palm pilot somewhere between Connie’s desk and his office.

 

Then he’d gotten absorbed in some extension paperwork and hadn’t even realized that he was supposed to be with Danny until Danny showed up in his doorway with a semi-bemused expression on his face holding his palm pilot in his hand.

 

“We missed our reservations,” Danny was touching something on the screen and Martin just stared at him. He was entitled after all because Danny was in jeans. Tight jeans and a tight t-shirt and a brown leather coat that looked really comfortable and where the hell had Danny made reservations for anyway? Most places that he knew that required reservations also required you to be wearing a suit and tie. If not know the owner in order to get in.

 

And how did Danny manage to walk around in public dressed like that without getting assaulted? Were people blind?

 

Martin wondered if the air conditioner in his office was broken. It had gotten awful warm very quickly; he’d have to have maintenance take a look at it.

 

“Martin?” Danny was staring at him now, a quizzical expression on his face and how the man didn’t know that he bled sex out of his very pores Martin would never figure out. It wasn’t fair to the rest of the population that had to deal with him.

 

“Are you okay?” Now Danny was looking at him like he’d lost his mind, which Martin wasn’t positive but he was pretty sure he had. Because why weren’t they having sex yet?

 

“Um… reservations?” Martin managed to get out. At least he hadn’t asked the other question. That would have just been embarrassing. Danny thought him a nice boy, with morals and a chastity belt or something and Martin wasn’t sure how to disabuse him of that notion without coming across as desperate.

 

At least he was now reasonably sure that Danny wasn’t scared of his father, because while Martin admitted that his dad could be scary on occasion that was no reason to totally give up on sex. Unless Danny was getting it from someone else and Martin was just not going to think about that possibility because it depressed him. Besides the fact that he didn’t think Danny could manage it. This might only be their third date but they’d talked every night but the night before and that was because Danny had been in D.C. on a case.

 

“Yes Martin,” Danny rolled his eyes and looked at his watch with an exaggerated motion. He was not pleased and there was no way that Martin should find that adorable. “We had reservations for seven; we talked about this on Wednesday.”

 

“I set my watch,” a glance at his wrist showed his watch missing and his brow furrowed in confusion.

 

“You also set your palm pilot,” Danny turned the small device so Martin could see. MEET DANNY AT 6:45!! DINNER flashed at him as if the device itself was annoyed that Martin had been ignoring it. At least it wasn’t beeping. “It doesn’t do any good though if it’s in a drawer in Connie’s desk.”

 

“I didn’t put in Connie’s desk,” Martin said defensively. “It’s a busy time of year for us.”

 

“Tax season’s done Martin, I’ve been friends with Jess long enough to know that…” Danny sighed and Martin felt that little tremor of fear again. The one that said speech #4 was coming. Or possibly #3 ‘Martin your job is more important than me; I need to come first at least sometimes’. He hadn’t actually ever gotten that one, but he’d heard his mother say a few variations of it over the years to his father so it had gone on his list. He was sure he’d get it eventually.

 

“I’m…”

 

“Get your coat,” Danny dragged a hand through his hair, tucking Martin’s palm pilot into his coat pocket.

 

“My coat?”

 

“We’ve missed the reservations; we’ll just get some takeout and go back to your place.”

 

“My place?”

 

“Your place is closer to the Chinese food place,” Danny stared at him with an expression that said he couldn’t possibly be this much of an idiot. And he wasn’t normally, only when Danny was in the same room with him and breathing and wearing jeans like that.

 

“We don’t have to get Chinese, there’s a Thai place near there to,” Martin offered, because every time he talked to Danny he was eating Chinese food and Martin liked Chinese food but he liked to vary his diet a little bit sometimes.

 

“Whatever,” Danny shrugged, waiting as Martin shut his computer down. Patting his pockets for his wallet, Danny already had his palm so he didn’t need to worry about that and he had another watch at home until he figured out where he’d put the one he’d actually been wearing that morning. It couldn’t have gone far; they didn’t grow legs after all.

 

“I’m easy.”

 

Martin wished.

 

******************************************************************************

 

Danny had never expended this much energy on someone before. He’d never had to; normally people (men and women alike) fell over themselves to spend time with him. He certainly had never had to go searching for them when they didn’t show up where they were supposed to be.

 

And the thing was that he couldn’t say that he was expending all the energy because the sex was good… because they hadn’t even gotten that far yet.

 

Sometimes he didn’t think they would. Because really how interested could Martin be if it took two weeks for him to finally call Danny for a second date?

 

But he was. He had to be.

 

Because their second date had ended while Danny had been sleeping and no one else had ever tucked a blanket around him, done up a weeks worth of dishes and cleaned his counters and table. He’d even fanned out the magazines on the end table and he couldn’t be sure but he thought that he’d maybe started alphabetizing his bookcase so Martin had to be interested on some level because those were killing time because he didn’t want to go home moves.

 

They hadn’t seen each other again immediately after that, but they’d talked every night (except for Thursday… he’d been out of town on a case, although he had actually dialed the phone, he’d hung up because he couldn’t decide if they’d actually known each other long enough that he could call while out of town. That was a boyfriend thing and while he wasn’t sure where they stood he didn’t think they’d gotten there, yet.)

 

Then there was Friday, and their third date and if he hadn’t listened to Jessie’s speech about how Martin could get so caught up in what he was working on that he’d forget the world went on around him he would have thought he’d been stood up.

 

But he’d remembered, sighed and went to drag Martin out of his office. He’d heard the palm pilot beeping as soon as he’d walked in, an annoying tweeting sound and it would figure that Martin would have an alarm that made him want to kill something, Martin probably because they’d definitely missed their reservations. He’d glanced around the office and swore he’d apologize if it wasn’t Martin’s palm pilot making that annoying sound.

 

Only to find Martin’s palm pilot in the drawer, merrily beeping away and he was momentarily gratified to see the message (MEET DANNY AT 6:45!! DINNER) because that meant that Martin hadn’t meant to stand him up.

 

He’d walked into Martin’s office, turning the alarm off and found Martin bent over his desk absorbed in whatever he was working on.

 

Some day he wanted Martin to be that absorbed in him.

 

So their third date was at Martin’s. Sitting on a couch, watching TV, eating Thai food and trying to ignore the sexual tension that continued to build between them.

 

Sexual tension that he didn’t think Martin was as oblivious to as he’d originally thought, because he’d caught Martin staring at him three times and he’d blushed every time.

 

Danny hadn’t thought grown men could still do that, he certainly hadn’t thought he’d find it so adorable and want to lick Martin’s bright red ears.

 

Hadn’t anybody ever made a pass or something at him?

 

Their third date was the landmark date because it was also their first kiss.

 

Tentative, gentle, Danny had definitely not wanted to leave after that. He’d wanted to curl up with Martin on the couch.

 

He wanted to cuddle under the afghan that Martin had flushed and told him his aunt had made for him and kiss the night away. And it was saying something that his first thought hadn’t been to get Martin naked as soon as possible. He still wanted that, but maybe it was worth it to take things slow.

 

Especially since if he screwed this up there was every chance that Jessie would make his life a living hell. Not to mention Martin’s father, who Danny had met twice and while he hadn’t been scared of him he didn’t think that he was a man that he wanted to piss off.

 

Papa bear could be just as vicious as Mama bear in protecting his offspring. And since Mama bear was dead all the protecting fell to Papa bear in this instance.

 

He didn’t think Victor Fitzgerald disapproved of him… not as agent at least, as the man dating his son well he supposed they’d see. And he knew that nothing happened within their office that Victor didn’t know about immediately so there was no way in hell that Victor didn’t know that he was seeing Martin.

 

Since he hadn’t been reassigned to Alaska or someplace equally horrible he figured Victor had to approve of him on some level. Because he was still in the same city as Martin after all and if Victor hadn’t liked Danny to some extent than he had no doubt that Victor would have hired movers to get him out of the city.

 

It was what Danny would have done if he’d been in Victor’s shoes after all.

 

******************************************************************************

 

Monday morning found Vivian and Sam already at their desks and Danny smiling widely at them as he entered the work area.

 

“Good morning,” he knew his voice was bright and cheerful and even as he sat at his desk his back to them, sipping at the coffee that he’d met Martin for before coming into work, he knew they were staring at him.

 

He waited to see which would approach him first, he’d put even money on Sam but every so often they threw him for a loop and sent Vivian or god forbid (and he barely repressed that shudder) Jack once.

 

A glance over as Sam perched on the side of his desk, her face open and inviting begging him to share his secrets with her so she could share them with the rest of the office.

 

“Morning Sam,” he grinned at her.

 

“Danny,” Sam cocked her head studying him with an expression that he couldn’t place. Sort of like worry but not really and he wondered if something had happened to somebody. He’d just left Martin (no kiss in public because he’d done that Sunday night and he’d thought Martin was going to burst into flames he’d turned so red) at the entrance to the building.

 

“Sam…”

 

“Danny, good you’re here,” Jack’s voice sounding slightly annoyed and Danny wondered what was going on. He wasn’t late (he surreptitiously checked his watch to make sure) no he was early for the first time in four months by ten minutes and he blamed that totally on Martin.

 

“Morning Jack,” he turned and wondered if he was still smiling, he didn’t think so because standing directly behind Jack was Victor Fitzgerald with a stern expression on his face and that was enough to totally ruin his day.

 

Martin could have at least warned him.

 

******************************************************************************

 

Danny fought the urge to fidget on the sofa in Jack’s office. He felt like a fucking teenager again, sitting uncomfortably in the Principals office awaiting his punishment for some prank he’d pulled.

 

He wondered if Martin had ever had to go the Principals office, he wondered if Martin had gone to a school where they had Principals.

 

At least Victor looked just as uncomfortable as he felt and that made him a feel a little better.

 

They’d been sitting; Danny on the sofa, Victor behind Jack’s desk for five minutes just staring at each other and Danny wondered if Martin’s father had come to New York just to stare at him.

 

Victor cleared his throat and Danny arched a brow expectantly. Here they went. But Victor just linked his hands together on Jack’s desk and remained silent. Danny wondered if he was supposed to go first.

 

“You’re not what I expected,” Victor finally said and Danny looked at him with surprise. “Jessie told me a little about you when she told me she’d arranged the blind date with Martin and I did some research on my own.”

 

Danny buried the snort, because of course he had. Victor had probably had an entire department devoted just to unburying the secrets of Danny Taylor and he wondered if this was when he was going to be offered a check to walk away from Martin. He didn’t think they had known each other long enough where buying him off would even be necessary on Victor’s part. All Victor would have to do would be express disapproval and Martin would probably end it.

 

“My son has been through a lot in the last year,” Victor was going on and Danny forced himself to pay attention. “I don’t want to see him go through that again.”

 

“Mr. Fitzgerald…” Danny began, Victor held up a hand and Danny subsided. Hands’ resting on his knees and his back was starting to hurt from sitting so straight.

 

“If I’d had a choice you’re definitely not who I would have chosen for my son,” Danny almost felt sorry for the man, even though he really had no idea what he was trying to say.

 

“I promised Martin years ago that I wouldn’t interfere in his relationships,” there was almost a roll of the eyes and Danny somehow knew that Victor had been tricked or manipulated into making that promise against his better judgment. If anyone ever needed someone interfering it would be Martin.

 

“Then why…?” are you here? Danny finished silently. Because Victor may have promised Martin to not interfere but that didn’t mean that he actually didn’t interfere. He was here, in New York after all, talking to Danny and that was definitely interfering.

 

Especially since he was almost positive that Martin had no clue that his father was even in the city.

 

“My son is an excellent judge of character,” Victor eyed him and Danny had the sudden realization that this whole meeting had been a test of some sort. What kind he wasn’t sure, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. But Victor was smiling at him now so obviously whatever the test had been he'd passed, although Danny still had no idea what it had been on or if there was going to be an essay question before he left.

 

“Don’t make me regret not interfering this time.”

 

******************************************************************************

 

“It’s totally not my fault,” Jessie announced from the doorway. Martin glanced up, knowing that confusion was on his face. He also knew he didn’t care.

 

It had been a beautiful morning and he felt like singing. He didn’t because he knew his own limitations and Connie had left early one day because of it.

 

“Okay,” he returned cautiously. Just because he was in a good mood was no reason to give Jessie an out if he really should be mad at her.

 

“I had no idea he was coming into town,” Jessie perched on a chair, nowhere near her normal pose, obviously ready to take flight if Martin tried to kill her. She could run faster than him, but he was more determined and he knew where she lived.

 

“If I’d known I would have told you, you know that,” she wouldn’t meet his eyes, a classic avoidance technique that he was sure she’d picked up from her father; he unfortunately had learned how to lie while meeting the other person’s eyes.

 

Although nine times out of ten they could tell he was lying because he blushed, his father had never managed to curb him of that.

 

And then he realized who exactly Jessie was speaking of and his good mood vanished in a split second, he scowled and he wondered if this was one of those days that he should have used one of his six thousand vacation days and fled town. It might not even have been that hard to get Danny to go with him.

 

“Where is he?” Martin lowered his voice and didn’t directly name him. His father was like the devil, or the psychotic crazy guy that Michael Keaton had played, only instead of having to say his name three times you only had to say it once and lo and behold he appeared.

 

Besides there was no sense in tempting the gods too much, with his luck he was in the waiting room harassing Connie and he was going to end up owing her a few vacation days.

 

“He stopped by the Missing Persons Office,” Jessie said in a hushed voice, valiantly staring at Martin’s computer screen.

 

Martin choked and wondered what an actual heart attack felt like.

 

“Please tell me you’re joking, please tell me that this is some strange belated April Fools joke that you concocted to see if I could actually stroke out in my office.”

 

“Sorry?”

 

Martin scrubbed at his face, loosened his tie because it felt like it was suffocating him and then lunged for the phone.

 

Danny. Oh god Danny. He was going to never speak to him again. He was going to realize that Martin had the family from hell and decide that he didn’t want to be part of that.

 

He was desperately punching in the numbers ignoring the fact that he had Danny’s work number memorized already when Connie appeared in his doorway.

 

“Martin…”

“Just a second…” Martin cursed when Danny’s line when directly to voice mail. Where the hell was he when Martin wanted to warn him that his father was wandering around town unsupervised?

 

“Danny’s on line one,” Connie stated, turning on her heel and vanishing back to her desk her job done.

 

“Well I’ll just go…” Jessie popped to her feet, waved her hands and bolted as well.

 

Martin stared at the blinking light, trying to determine what Danny’s frame of mind was on the other end. Realized that he couldn’t actually determine that from the beeping of the little red light and picked up the receiver. Start with an apology, his brain helpfully supplied and he told it to shut up.

 

“Danny? I’m sorry,” he rushed on. Get the apology out of the way first. Please don’t be angry, I would have warned you and we could have fled the country, he didn’t say that of course. He thought it and hoped Danny could read it in his voice.

 

“Your father paid me a visit this morning,” Danny’s voice was calm, cool, collected. This morning? That was hours ago… had Danny been fuming silently waiting for the perfect opportunity to tell Martin that it wasn’t worth it.

 

“I’m sorry,” he said again, because he really had no idea what to say… not without knowing what exactly his father had said and oh god he wouldn’t try to buy Danny off would he? “He didn’t offer you money did he?” and he couldn’t quite hide the alarm in his voice.

 

“No, I couldn’t decide if I should be insulted or not. And then I realized that your father probably just shot the guys you dated that he didn’t like so…”

 

“My father had never shot anybody that I’ve dated,” Martin muttered. Although there had been that one young man that his sister had brought home when she was going through her short lived rebellious phase. The one with the tattoos and piercings in very interesting places. His father hadn’t actually shot him though, he’d pulled his gun and waved it around but there had been no actual discharging of his weapon.

 

His mother had taken it away from him after the police came.

 

Besides there had been extenuating circumstances and there had actually been a warrant out for that guys arrest so nobody had questioned the fact that Victor had pulled his gun too closely.

 

That had been the glorious end of his sisters’ rebellious phase. She’d met and married Christopher within six months of that whole fiasco.

 

“That you know about anyway, he’s probably got a plot already picked out for me if I screw up,” Danny laughed.

 

“Well, you know… I’m sorry?”

 

“You already said that Martin,” Danny’s voice was amused now and Martin felt some of his tension dissipate.

 

“I know… I just… I didn’t know he was here. I would have told you, warned you if I’d known,” he said softly, wishing someone had closed the door on their way out. He just knew that Jessie and Connie, maybe even Donald were hovering just out of sight listening to every word. He wondered if Danny would be able to understand him if he started talking in Pig Latin.

 

“Yeah I sort of got the impression that this was his check out the new boyfriend before he knows to be on the best behavior thing,” Danny’s voice was still amused and Martin relaxed even more. If he could rush the introduction to his sister Danny might even think his family was semi-normal.

 

“He can be kind of over protective,” Martin winced. Because massive understatement where his father was concerned for about the last ten years.

 

“Yeah I think I kind of got that.”

 

“He didn’t always used to be like this,” Martin offered. “When I was a kid I think it used to surprise him when he came home and realized that he even had children.”

 

It had only been after his mothers death that it had seemingly sunk in to Victor’s head that he had two children that he was now responsible for. Even though neither one had actually been children for a few years by that point it hadn’t mattered; Victor had taken to fatherhood like it like it was something he been getting a failing grade on and was determined to redeem himself.

 

And then Kyle had died and Martin had kind of fallen apart and his father had decided that Martin not only needed to be taken care of, now he needed to be protected as well.

 

“Martin you’re thinking to much, take a deep breath and relax,” Danny advised. “Are we still on for tonight?”

 

“Tonight?” Martin’s brow furrowed as he tried to remember what their plans were. “Dinner at my place? You’ll pick up the movie?”

 

“Good boy,” and there was that low purr that drove Martin insane and if he could have children he would have been offering Danny every single one of them for what that purr promised.

 

“Martin?” Martin’s eyes widened, his breath hitched, was his father trying to drive him insane?

 

“Was that?” he could hear Danny querying on the other end.

 

“Good you’re here,” Victor appeared in the doorway, talk and regal and Martin knew that his father had to be the mailman or something because he could never pull off that forbidding ‘you’re going to do what I say no questions asked’ look if his life depended on it. “I’m taking you out for a late lunch.”

 

“Um…” Martin glanced down at the watch that he’d found in the bathroom at work that morning and frowned. “It’s almost three.”

 

“That’s why they call it a late lunch,” Victor smiled and Martin wondered if he should be fearing for his life. Because his ‘you’re going to do what I say no questions asked’ look had morphed into his ‘this is going to hurt you a lot more than its going to hurt me and I’m going to enjoy it’ look. “If that’s your Danny tell him we’ll be down in about ten minutes.”

 

Martin’s eyebrows flew up and he had a split second to wonder how much of an idiot he looked like before he latched onto the end of that statement and then he could hear Danny clearing his throat on the other end of the phone.

 

“Yeah, right, I uh did call for a reason… your father; he wants to take us out to lunch.”

 

******************************************************************************

 

“You get along with my father,” he’d been repeating it for a while; he probably sounded like an idiot. He’d been saying it so much that Danny had got to the point where he didn’t even agree with him anymore, just rubbed his back and mumbled something that Martin couldn’t understand his breath.

 

Probably berating himself for dating such a nutcase.

 

But Danny… got along with his father. It was a sign of the apocalypse he was sure. Because Danny wasn’t the son of a Senator, or the son of a diplomat or the son of anyone in a position of power. He had no breeding, no family of name, he had nothing that had been part of his fathers criteria for a significant other for his son.

 

But his father liked him, so unless his father wanted Danny for himself. He shuddered in revulsion at the sudden image of Danny and his dad and now he needed to throw up and scrub his brain clean. Amnesia would be nice right about now; maybe he could convince Danny to knock him upside the head.

 

Danny got along with his father.

 

Half of his friends, just friends didn’t even get along with his father. Jessie didn’t get along with his father that well, Martin didn’t even get along that well with him.

 

Maybe his father wanted to adopt Danny?

 

No, Martin frowned, as he replayed the lunch, the long, late lunch from hell in his mind. Victor had been talking Danny up, listing his accomplishments like Danny was some prize stud that he was trying to sell him.

 

Like he needed to be sold on Danny. He was ready to buy, and he’d even fucking tattoo him ‘Martin’s Property’ if it was required.

 

Danny got along with his father.

 

And he’d been so distracted by that fact that he hadn’t even really paid attention to anything else. He sure as hell didn’t know what he’d actually ate.

 

Danny’s hand was gentle against his back and he just seemed to be propelling Martin to where he thought Martin should be.

 

They hadn’t let him go back to his office, he’d wanted to especially after the freakiness of watching Victor and Danny gang up on him, both telling him that work would be there tomorrow and no one’s really expecting you back anyway.

 

It made him wonder exactly what his father had said to Jessie when he’d ducked into her office.

 

Danny had his keys, unlocking the door and gently pushing him into his apartment. Shutting the door behind them, shrugging out of his coat and turning on lights as he went. In a very short period of time Danny had made himself at home in Martin’s apartment.

 

“Do you want something to drink?” Danny called from the kitchen and Martin dragged a hand through his hair.

 

Martin had absolutely no clue what he had in his refrigerator; Danny could probably list everything in his fridge and cupboards but still was balking on the sex issue. There was logic there that he didn’t understand.

 

Danny reappeared with a bottled water in each hand, set them on the coffee table when Martin made no move to take one and then did his graceful flop down onto the sofa. Martin wanted to move like Danny some day. Everything graceful even when it shouldn’t have been.

 

And now he was looking up at Martin with that bemused expression that he never seemed to lose around him.

 

“Are we ever having sex?” he blurted it out and immediately felt his face turn red. He’d been so sure when he was a kid that he’d grow out of that.

 

Danny for his part just looked at him, one eyebrow arching and asked, “Don’t you think it’s a little soon?”

 

“We’ve been dating for a month,” Martin grumbled petulantly, and they had been if he counted the blind date as their first and ignored the fact that it had taken two weeks for him to call between the first and the second.

 

“And that’s not a little quick?”

 

“No.”

 

Martin waited and Danny stared at him, Martin shifted on his feet, Danny stared at him.

 

“Its just I’d slept with Kyle three dates in and how do we even know we’re, you know, compatible?”

 

“I don’t think compatibility is going to be an issue, do you?” Danny rolled his eyes.

 

“Well, no,” Martin allowed.

 

“Besides isn’t it worth it to take it slow?”

 

Martin shrugged, because yeah, it was. But he was almost positive that the built up sexual tension was going to kill him.

 

“Martin…” Danny sighed and leaned forward. Elbows braced on his knees, his eyes soft. “I like you…” and oh god here came the brush off. The reason that Danny and his father had gotten along was because his father had known that Danny was going to dump him.

 

“Christ someone did a number on your self-esteem didn’t they?” Danny was shaking his head and pushing himself to his feet. Crossing the floor to where Martin was awkwardly shifting again, touching his face softly.

 

Martin leaned into the touch and hoped Danny didn’t notice, knew from the smirk that he had.

 

“People like you,” Martin shrugged, managing to not dislodge Danny’s hand cupping his cheek. “They don’t normally look at guys like me.”

 

“It’s because everyone else is blind,” Danny stated like it was the most logical explanation. “And I’ve seen pictures of Kyle so I know that’s totally wrong.”

 

“Kyle was like me.”

 

“What, an idiot?” Danny grinned.

 

“I’m not an idiot.”

 

“Of course not,” Danny soothed, the grin on his face not lending any credibility to it. “Martin you’re gorgeous. Anyone in their right mind would be happy to be seen with you, to be with you and trust me I know. We’re taking things slow.”

 

“There’s slow and then there’s non-existent.”

 

“We’re taking things slow,” Danny continued as if Martin hadn’t even said a word. “Because we’re going to do this right the first time.”

 

Martin smiled at him. “My father threatened you didn’t he.” Not a question, he knew his father well enough to know what had probably been said.

 

“For a guy with a desk job your father’s a scary man.”

 

“You should have grown up with him.”

 

******************************************************************************

 

Martin forgets about how used to having Danny in his space he’s gotten.

 

He forgets until Danny has to go out of town for one of his cases and Martin’s left behind wandering around his apartment wondering when it got so big and empty.

 

He used to have a life before Danny, he’s fairly sure of this. He used to have a job that he loved and that he’d have to be dragged away from kicking and screaming. He’d work 80 hour weeks, going in before the sun rose, leaving after it set and he wouldn’t even blink when someone asked if he lived in his office. Because he did, he had.

 

Now he drags himself in at nine, leaves by five and normally meets Danny in the elevator on the way home.

 

Their home.

 

He’s still trying to figure out when exactly Danny moved in.

 

Because he’s got suits in the closet and jeans lying on the bedroom floor and he’s moved all of Martins stuff out of the middle drawer and claimed it as his own and Martin doesn’t remember agreeing to any of it.

 

Of course if Danny had been kissing him when it had been broached it is quite feasible that Martin wouldn’t remember. Danny’s lips are like his own little drug and he’s been known to forget whole blocks of time when Danny’s got him pinned to the couch or the bed or the wall by the front door. Danny just smirks at him when Martin mentions that he should be listed as a controlled substance.

 

And he’s pretty sure that his father knows exactly why he was so breathless when he called on Sunday.

 

He rolls his shoulders, stares at the bed and wonders if he could make his father write something that said Danny would never be called out of town for more than a day again.

 

He doesn’t sleep as well when Danny is gone; of course when Danny’s there he doesn’t get a whole hell of a lot of sleep either. But there is a big difference between staring at the ceiling trying to ignore the empty space beside him and having Danny running his hands over him coaxing him to come.

 

He sighs and leaves the bedroom, Danny said he’d be home in three days. Its three days to long.

 

******************************************************************************

 

“ ‘lo?” Martin was breathless when he reached the phone, after his morning pity party, standing there staring at the bed he shared with Danny he’d decided to distract himself by cleaning. It’s possible that was a huge mistake.

 

“Hey,” Danny, he bit back the sigh, and ordered his hormones to stand down. He was an adult and by god he was going to act like one.

 

“Hey,” or maybe not.

 

“Whatcha doing?” the sound of papers shuffling on the other end and it sounded like Danny was making himself comfortable. He hadn’t managed to talk Martin into phone sex yet but it wasn’t from lack of trying on his part.

 

“Cleaning,” he flopped down on the couch, trying not to wince at the fact that he’d probably have to clean it once he was done.

 

“Martin…” Danny started and stopped and Martin knew he was trying to keep himself from saying something about the fact that Martin was an anal-retentive, cleanliness freak. Possibly he knew if he said something that it would piss Martin off and it might take longer than the three days that he was going to be gone for Martin to forget about it.

 

“I was bored,” Martin said defensively. Silence on the other end and he just knew that Danny was literally biting his tongue. Danny might know Martin inside and out but Martin was no slouch either.

 

“So your father called me this morning,” change of subject and Martin winced.

 

His father talking to Danny was never a good thing, even though they got along better than Victor had ever gotten along with Kyle. It wasn’t a good thing because for some reason they both thought he was a five year-old workaholic who needed a life. Victor had obviously entrusted Danny with making sure that happened and he called him twice a week to make sure it was.

 

Although Victor knew that Danny was out of town, Martin had complained about it just that morning in fact so he had to know that Danny wasn’t making sure that Martin wasn’t spending 23 hours straight at his office.

 

“Why is my father calling you?” he asked and he knew his voice was filled with suspicion. One of the first things that Victor had realized upon Danny descending into Martin’s life was that things that Martin would normally refuse to do for him he’d do in a heart beat for Danny.

 

Martin hadn’t had the heart to tell him that Danny normally convinced him to do things by using sex, besides the fact that thinking about his father and sex in the same sentence kind of made him nauseous.

 

“Your sisters having some fancy version of a not-barbecue next weekend, he wanted to make sure we were going to be there.”

 

“Oh, yeah, he mentioned that this morning,” Martin frowned. “I already told him we were going… did you not want to?” Because Martin hadn’t even thought about it, when his father had mentioned it he’d just automatically said yes for the both of them, maybe Danny had plans. Some sports related event that Martin would feign interest in and then retaliate by dragging Danny to a museum.

 

Turn about was fair play after all.

 

“No its fine,” Danny brushed aside the worry that Martin might have over stepped his bounds as boyfriend and moved right on. “He said you sounded strange, he wanted to make sure we hadn’t broken up.”

 

Martin rolled his eyes. Victor might have handed day to day over-protectiveness operations over to Danny but that didn’t mean that he didn’t perform spot checks when he thought something might be going on that he hadn’t heard about.

 

“The apartment is too big,” he said by way of explanation and his voice didn’t sound whiny in the least.

 

“Martin my apartment was bigger than that cardboard box that you call an apartment,” Danny laughed at him. “If we both breathe at the same time without the windows open we’ll run out of oxygen.”

 

“Then why…?” and Martin didn’t finish that question, because he’d never asked Danny to move in and he couldn’t find a way to say ‘why the hell did you move in with me if you hate my apartment’ without sounding like an ass.

 

“Because you love that place, besides I figure by the time your lease is up we’ll have either found someplace bigger or your father will have bought us a house,” Danny said matter-of-factly.

 

“That’s not funny,” Martin muttered.

 

“Your telling me, he’s trying to get me reassigned to D.C. Jack’s fighting him on it and I’ve told him that you wouldn’t leave Donald in a lurch like that. But he’s still trying, he’s probably figuring out relocation costs for moving your whole office at this moment.”

 

Martin didn’t say anything; the horrified gape that Danny couldn’t see might have had something to do with that. There’d been a reason that he’d moved to New York after all. He’d wanted to move to Alaska but the call for an accountant up there had been minimal and Kyle had fought him on it complaining that it was to cold.

 

They’d compromised by moving to New York and not listing their number.

 

It had taken Victor three days to find out what it was, but it had been three days of blissful silence.

 

“Martin?” Danny sounded amused, with a tiny edge of worry. He’d probably said his name more than once.

 

“I think I’m going to have to kill my father,” he announced. “Can you help me hide the body or would that be a conflict of interest?”

 

“He just worries about you,” and Danny defending his father should not make him feel like he was a bad son and going to hell because of it.

 

“I know,” Martin deflated. He did know it, it didn’t mean he had to like it though. “I’m still not moving back to D.C. though. I grew up there and property values are atrocious. Do you know how much it would cost us to rent?”

 

“They’re not that great in the city either,” Danny reminded him. “How much do you pay for that one bedroom box you live in?”

 

“We’d probably be better off buying,” he said absently and then stopped. Because they were dating and living together but were they really ready to buy property together?

 

“Not in the city,” Danny said softly and Martin had never heard his voice that soft. He knew if Danny had been there, in the room, sitting on the sofa next to him they’d be wrapped around each other and Danny would be kissing his neck and touching him gently as he held him.

 

“Someplace outside it, not to far though,” Martin knew his voice sounded just as soft as Danny’s and he could practically hear Danny’s smile through the phone. He wanted him to come home right now and maybe if he wished it hard enough he’d suddenly appear.

 

“Martin…” Danny started and just as suddenly stopped and Martin wished he was there, knew that in two days and seven hours he would be and he’d say the words all over again. He’d paint them on Danny’s skin with his blood if he had to.

 

“I love you,” he breathed it and held his breath. Waited.

 

“I love you too,” and now he could really hear Danny’s smile. Could hear his joy in his voice and his laugh and it was funny the simple things that could make that happen. Three little words and such pure happiness.

 

“I want a dog,” he said firmly and Danny laughed.

 

“We’ll get two.”

 

******************************************************************************

 

It was a cold, dreary, rainy day. The perfect day, in Danny’s opinion to cuddle on the couch, wrapped up in the afghan that Martin’s aunt had made for him.

 

Martin had blushed when he told him that. Scuffing his feet as he held the blanket protectively in his arms, as if he thought Danny might laugh at him and then burn the thing.

 

Danny liked the blanket, liked to wrap it around the two of them as they watched TV with the volume down low, soft voices murmuring to each other.

 

Danny was currently wrapped in the blanket, a baseball game that he wasn’t really interested in playing on the TV. His attention was currently wavering between the game that was being very poorly played to Martin who was sitting at his desk (which was actually a table in Danny’s opinion but they’d already an argument over that so he didn’t say anything) pen moving at breakneck speeds over the papers in front of him.

 

On his last pass through the room he’d hovered over Martin’s shoulder long enough to see six columns of numbers that scared him, as well as some doodles in the margins that Danny knew Martin had made when the numbers were annoying him and not doing what he wanted them to do.

 

It gratified him to know that he knew Martin’s habits so well. He doodled when annoyed, cleaned the refrigerator when he was depressed and organized the bookcases by author when he was bored.

 

And he had a family. A big family that liked to get together once a month.

 

As such they were to have their third family event that coming weekend. Victor had warned him before the first one that he’d have to frisk Martin before leaving their apartment to make sure he left his calculator behind. Danny had not considered it a hardship, although he’d been quite confused as to why he had to do this.

 

Did Martin do annoying party tricks with his calculator or something?

 

It wasn’t until they’d arrived and it had been whispered by Victor that Martin’s sister Ellen had hidden hers when she knew he was coming that he’d found out exactly why.

 

Ellen had someone else do her taxes. Martin had been trying to get his hands on them for two months so he could redo them and make sure they were right. Even if they were right Danny had no doubt that he’d find something wrong with them. Ellen was going to be paying for that folly for some time to come.

 

Although Danny didn’t think she’d ever have someone other than Martin do them ever again.

 

It had taken Martin one hour and twelve minutes to find it, and Danny decided that Martin should have gone into law enforcement like he’d once mentioned might have happened; he had a nose like a blood hound.

 

Martin had found her calculator and her taxes and sat down with a sharp pencil and determined expression and started redoing those same taxes.

 

But they did have the picnic that weekend. Granted the last two had been no version of a picnic that he’d ever been to before but he had hopes that maybe they’d dressed them up a bit because he was newcomer.

 

It never ceased to amaze him that the man that terrified Jack Malone on a daily basis and had been known to make grown men burst into tears at the thought of having to deal with him played hopscotch and jacks with his grandchildren.

 

Victor Fitzgerald was a pushover where his family was concerned and Danny didn’t just think that because he’d caught him changing his nieces diaper and cooing.

 

But there was a picnic… And Danny thought it might be time that they started bringing their own food to it.

 

He had two days, he might be able to beg a macaroni salad off Viv.

 

“Picnic this weekend,” he made it a comment instead of a question and he could feel the questioning look that Martin shot at his head.

 

“Yes I know,” Martin’s pencil was still scratching, although it had slowed. He was probably doodling instead of working now.

 

“What are we taking?”

 

“Taking?” he could hear the confusion in Martin’s voice.

 

“To the picnic,” Danny turned on the couch, the confusion in Martin’s voice was now written all over his face and his pencil had stilled, gripped in his hand. Probably with the fear that Danny was going to make him cook and thus poison his entire family.

 

Danny was well aware that Martin’s talents did not include any kitchen oriented ones. He got distracted to easily and burned water.

 

“We could take chips and soda but that’s kind of cheap,” Danny commented. “Your sister doesn’t seem like the chip and soda type person anyway.”

 

“Ellen has her picnics catered,” Martin said blankly.

 

“Yeah but,” Danny shrugged. “Picnics. There should be macaroni salad and hot dogs and everyone playing softball, although maybe not softball,” he mused. “Your family is kind of competitive; I think you guys’d kill each other if we didn’t put you in full body armor and have some safety procedures in place.”

 

Martin just stared at him, incomprehension written all over his face.

 

“Martin?”

 

Martin blinked at him and laid his pencil down, pushing away from the desk (table) and walking towards the couch where Danny was still wrapped in his aunts’ afghan.

 

If they ever broke up, which would never happen Danny promised himself, he was getting custody of the afghan. It was warm and comfortable and smelled like the two of them together. He loved that.

 

Martin leaned over the back of the couch and kissed the top of Danny’s head. “I love you.”

 

“Okay,” Danny stared at him, now he was confused. “I love you to.”

 

Martin climbed over the top of the couch, tugging on the blanket until it was wrapped around both of them and he was almost, but not quite sitting in Danny’s lap. Martin’s head resting on his shoulder, breath warm against his neck and Danny could tell from the way that he was smirking (because Martin didn’t smirk) that he was amused by something.

 

“My sister hasn’t sat you down and made you listen to her speech on the evils of processed food and how twinkies and hotdogs and chocolate are leading to the youth of today being fat, lazy and irresponsible… has she?”

 

“Uh, no.”

 

“Thought not,” Martin kissed his neck, focusing on the TV momentarily as the audience screamed for what Danny thought might have actually been a foul. The umpire let it go and if it had been a game that he was interested in he might have been heckling the TV by now.

 

“Chocolate?”

 

“Yeah,” Martin sighed, his head heavy on Danny’s shoulder. Danny thought he might be getting ready to nap, he shifted so his legs weren’t cramped and rubbed his face against Martin’s hair. A nap sounded really good. “Don’t even get her started on video games and organized sports.”

 

******************************************************************************

 

The house was silent was he entered. Which in itself was a warning sign.

 

Deathly quiet and Danny wondered at how Martin, who was a quiet man generally, seemed to make so much noise doing nothing. And it was funny how he never really noticed how loud Martin was until he wasn’t there to make noise.

 

In the backyard he could hear the dogs barking. That strange doggy sense they had that told them when one of their father’s was home. That was odd sign number 2.

 

Because Martin normally beat Danny home.

 

Unless something had happened with his father.

 

Or it was tax deadline day.

 

Which meant that Martin would roll in around midnight cranky and anxious and would dream about extensions and audits and Danny would not have sex until at least 24 hours after the deadline had passed.

 

It had five years but he still remembered the first time he’d made casual mention that he didn’t see what the big deal about tax season was. That he couldn’t figure out how a bunch of numbers could make Martin want to alternately cry, scream or break into hysterical laughter.

Martin had just looked at him like he’d wondered what he was doing with someone that didn’t understand his passion and had hugged his tax code book to him like he thought Danny might try to burn it.

 

Danny had wondered the same thing at the time. Because Martin was so far from his type that he didn’t think that people would believe him if he told them who he was dating and what they did for a living.

 

Christ when they’d bought the house together one of the first things Martin had done was go through and alphabetize their books by author. He laid out the magazines they received by last date received and freaked out if there was more than three months worth of a title on the coffee table at a time.

 

He hadn’t realized that it was a big deal until they’d went to bed that night and Martin had kissed him goodnight on the cheek and then rolled over and went to sleep.

 

It had taken three sexless days for him to get back into Martin’s good graces and he’d still resorted to calling his father to find out what Martin’s favorite foods were so he could bribe him.

 

They’d agreed to disagree about the importance of tax code, tax season and Martin’s anal attention to detail and then they’d made love and the next day they’d gotten their first dog together.

 

She’d been a three month old lab, solid black and Martin had fallen in love with her the moment he’d laid eyes on her. Sometimes Danny thought that Martin loved her more than he loved him.

 

But then Martin would kiss him, look at him with soft eyes that nobody had ever looked at him with and Danny knew that though Martin loved Kaley, Martin loved him more.

 

They’d got Tiger a few months later when Martin determined that it was time for Kaley to have a playmate. He’d been born to the same mother and while Martin adored him Tiger was most definitely Danny’s, the same way that Kaley was Martin’s.

 

He tossed his keys on the kitchen table, immaculate which meant Martin had cleaned it before he’d left that morning, shrugged out of his coat and hung it on the back of the chair (which Martin would yell at him about later) and opened the back door. Kaley and Tiger ran in, barking, tags wagging and he dropped to his knees to allow them their bonding moment. Kaley licked his ear and then raced to find her master.

 

She came back a few minutes later, tag drooping and sat glaring at him in a way that indicated that she thought it was his fault that Martin wasn’t home yet.

 

“Soon girl,” he rubbed the top of her head and she made a noise that on a human would have been a sigh and laid down, her head resting on her front paws.

 

Danny smiled, rubbed her head one more time and thanked the lord that they had dogs instead of kids.

 

******************************************************************************

 

The house was quiet when Martin made his way up the stairs by feel alone. He probably could have turned on a light, when he tripped over something in the hallway he decided that he definitely should have.

 

But the house was quiet, it was after one and from the sounds of things Danny and their babies were asleep.

 

The bedroom was dark, though he could just barely hear the steady sound of Danny’s breathing over the humidifier.

 

He stripped down to his boxers, folding his shirt and pants and setting them on the dresser that he could just barely make out because of the streetlight shining in one of their bedroom windows. Danny hadn’t shut the blinds or the curtains before he’d lain down.

 

He toed off his socks, balled up his tie and made his way towards the bed with a sigh of relief.

 

He was exhausted, he’d sat at a desk all day long staring at number and figured and the same five documents and he felt like his head might explode. He’d actually escaped to the bathroom for fifteen whole minutes and read the Avon catalog that he’d found in the men’s room just to see something that didn’t have the possibility of being audited in eight months.

 

He didn’t even want to know why there’d been an Avon catalog there in the first place. But it had kept him from screaming at Jessie so it was probably a good thing.

 

He collapsed onto the bed and jumped right back up when he heard the muffled yip.

 

Danny started and Martin stared and then Danny laughed and Kaley started licking his face, excited and happy and Martin felt himself relaxing for the first time all day.

 

“You don’t even know the things I had to promise her to keep her from laying in front of the front door all night,” Danny’s voice was sleep rough and Martin smiled. He loved Danny sleepy, he loved Danny all the time but when he was sleepy he was sweet and romantic.

 

He allowed Kaley to rub herself against him, rubbing her ears and then made a motion with his hand that indicated that she should remove herself from the bed and go to her own bed. Kaley jumped down and Martin made to lay, waiting as he felt the bed shake and Tiger appear from the other side of Danny. Jumping down and following his sister to the opposite side of the room where their beds were set up.

 

He lay, shaking his head, hoping that Danny hadn’t got another pet while they were gone that he would have to wait on.

 

He turned on his side, Danny’s eyes were already closed and his breath was evening out and it always amazed him how quickly Danny could fall asleep.

 

A lean forward to press a kiss to Danny’s lips, which got a sigh and then one of Danny’s arms settled on Martin’s hip and pulled him up snug to his body.

 

Martin wanted to trace his features, wanted to kiss him until he woke up enough to reciprocate, but mostly he wanted to close his eyes and know that when he woke up Danny would be there smiling at him.

 

“I love you,” a whisper and they didn’t say it often but they always meant it when it was uttered.

 

Danny smiled softly and tightened his hand on Martin’s hip.

 

“I love you too.”