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The first time Daniel Rand saw Misty Knight the world had nearly ended.
He and his three comrades, having just saved New York stood in the wreckage of The Hand’s final attack looking a little banged up and very disheveled. After much bickering they’d all decided upon The Defenders as the name for their little group. While it may not have appeared that way in the remains of an exploded warehouse, all three of them had finally succeeded in doing what their name implied.
Defend.
Of course, like most things, defending New York and effectively the world hadn’t come without its price. Danny's costume was covered in dirt and grime and he was fairly certain a couple of his ribs were broken. Thankfully his Iron Fist mask was still intact and continued to conceal most of his face. The Press was sure to show up soon and he didn’t want anyone recognizing him as the son of the dead CEO of Rand Enterprises.
Jessica Jones’ long raven colored hair was a rat’s nest and her face was peppered with bruises and scrapes. Her coveted black leather jacket was now officially ruined and Danny made note to buy her a new one after all this died down. Something about Jessica being without a her jacket was very wrong and a replacement would be needed in order for the universe to right itself once again. Along with all this Jessica also looked incredibly tired and pissed off, but she always looked that way, so there was no real method to determine if her mood had changed at all.
Luke Cage in contrast to Jessica and Danny, didn’t have a scratch on him, one of the many perks of having unbreakable skin. On the other hand, his clothes hadn’t fared nearly as well. His shirt had been torn to shreds and his jeans were beyond repair.
He noticed Jessica standing by herself. With timid hesitation he walked up beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder. Her face instantly softened and for an instant Danny thought that she was going to cry. For not the first time since the group had come together he wondered what exactly had happened between Luke and Jessica that seemed to distance them from each other. Yet, it was flickering moments like these that made them seem like they were and always had been incredibly close. The moments never lasted long and Luke soon pulled his hand away.
Matt Murdock (or Daredevil, which was his name while he donned the Devil mask) limped towards the center of the debris where the unconscious form of Electra lay. As he knelt down beside her, wincing while he did so, the late afternoon sun glinted off his red horned helmet and Danny considered the irony of the fact that the so called “Devil of Hell’s Kitchen” had become one of its saviors. Blood dripped from the devil’s beat up nose and split lip as he gently cradled Electra's face in his hands. Not long ago he’d explained to them that he’d lost his beloved Electra once before and now it appeared he was going to again.
With a flurry of long dark hair and a white scarf trailing behind her, Claire Temple rushed onto the scene to come to Electra’s aid. If Matt was the devil then Claire Temple must’ve certainly been an angel. Never had Danny seen such a capacity for compassion and a desire to help those in who needed it than from the overworked, unofficial nurse of the Defenders. She’d saved all their lives countless times and not once asked for anything in return. Without her none of them would've been there today. Carefully she placed her scarf beneath Electra’s head and checked her pulse.
“She’s alive,” Claire turned to Matt who let out a sigh of relief, “but we need to get her to a hospital.”
Cop cars and even regular civilian cars had begun to gather around the scene. An ambulance pulled up, sirens wailing. As the paramedics jumped out and ran towards Electra with a stretcher something in particular caught Danny’s eye.
A woman stepped out of one of the many squad vehicles.
Oddly enough her hair was what caught his attention first and in retrospect how could it not? Considering it was only a tad longer than shoulder length it took up an impressive amount of space with its dark curls and volume. The hair was like its own entity that demanded recognition and respect. Her clothes on the other hand weren’t quite as noteworthy or flashy. She wore what Trish Walker would probably call the less angsty teen version of the Jessica Jones ensemble. Instead of a black leather jacket the woman donned a brown one with matching boots and a blue scarf tucked into it.
She pushed through the growing crowd of civilians showing her police badge to any who resisted letting her get past.
Once she moved on from the crowd confines and into the rubble her walk further confirmed that she was a cop. She held her head high and her shoulders back in a way that screamed authority and professionalism. Her warm dark skin almost glowed in the rays of the setting sun and even though Danny felt incredibly silly about it, he couldn't take his eyes off her. She was simply gorgeous. Sure, he may have just spent the last fifteen years living in a secluded mountain village, but it wasn’t like he hadn't seen beautiful women with big hair before. He couldn’t place his finger on what about her stood out to him so much. Even so, whatever it was shouldn’t have left him stuck staring at her slack jawed in the remains of a wrecked building, but there he was doing exactly that.
To Danny’s embarrassment he didn’t even realize she was walking towards him in particular until she was quite close.
“I’m Detective Knight with the NYPD.” She flashed her ID at him. “I’m here to investigate this explosion and all of the other presumably related attacks that have been taking place all over the city.”
“Uh hi,” Danny held out his hand to shake hers. “I’m Iron Fist.”
“Nice name” she said with a joking smile. “There’s gotta be a story behind that one.”
Danny laughed nervously. “Yeah. Few hundred years of stories actually,” he said, referencing all the other Iron Fists before him.
Before Detective Knight could ask what he meant Luke approached the two of them.
“Hey, Misty.” He looked pleased to see the Detective. “How’s life treating you these days?”
Detective Knight or “Misty” glanced at Luke’s ragged clothing.
“Clearly better than you,” she playfully shot back.
Danny observed this little exchange with curiosity. “You two know each other? How’d you meet?”
The pair turned to him. Misty looked like she was about to say something, but Luke did it for her.
“We’ve had coffee together,” he said. An uncharacteristic grin spread across his face.
Claire having let the paramedics take over Electra’s care for her approached the group to join the conversation. To Luke’s explanation she gave a soft unimpressed chuckle. “Sure, coffee,” she said with a roll of her eyes and a wry smile.
The way Claire said “coffee” made Danny think there was something about the whole situation that he was missing out on, but dismissed it quickly. Claire was probably just a little annoyed with Luke for bringing up having a past potentially romantic meeting with another woman. While Claire didn’t strike Danny to be a particularly jealous person that may not be the case with her relationship with Luke. Seeing as it was really none of his business Danny didn’t continue to pry.
“So I assume y’all are the fools running around town calling yourselves the Defenders?” Misty asked placing her hands on her hips.
“That’s us!” Danny said with unwarranted enthusiasm. Not only was he happy to see that the name was catching on, but he was also proud of what the four of them (five counting Claire) had already accomplished over such a short period of time. They’d just defeated The Hand and saved the city! If he could convince the others to continue to work together, surely the future of the Defenders was a bright one.
Luke nodded in agreement.
“Mind if I take you all back to the precinct for some questioning?” Misty asked. “It would really help to get a better picture of what happened here.”
“Sure thing,” Danny said. “Just let me--” He turned around to tell Daredevil and Jessica to join them, but the masked vigilante and the grumpy private eye were nowhere to be seen. “Huh...” he added.
The two loners must have fled the scene to avoid the hassle of the press and law enforcement. Danny’s vision for Defenders suddenly seemed far less feasible and his spirits sunk. If they couldn’t stay in one place together for more than twenty minutes then how could they continue as a team?
“C’mon, man,” Luke took Danny’s shoulder and led him to Misty’s squad car with the others. “We’ll see them when we see them.”
The drive to the precinct was a quiet one. All the stress from the battle that day had finally caught up to them and were too tired to speak. After extensive use of his Chi attacks, Danny was drained both physically and spiritually. Drawing Chi from within himself and from the center of K’un-l’un took a lot of concentration and he’d forgotten how much it took out of him with overuse. What he really wanted to do was collapse in bed, but just as drive had lulled him to sleep they arrived at their destination.
When they got into the precinct, Misty had the three of them sit on an uncomfortable bench, while she went and took care of some things throughout the station. There, they waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. To pass the time Luke and Danny played twenty questions.
“Is it an animal, a vegetable or a mineral?” Luke asked.
Danny pondered this from a minute. “Neither?” he said.
“How can it be none of them?” the other man questioned.
“Is there a rule against using items that don’t fit into any of those categories?” Danny reasoned. “What would it be if it didn’t have a physical form?”
Luke facepalmed. “Oh Sweet Sister, it’s the ghost from Ghost Dad isn’t it?”
Danny was silent for a moment. “...maybe.”
“Luke,” Claire interjected, “out of all the decades worth of critically acclaimed movies that Hollywood has ever produced, why in the world did you choose Ghost Dad to reintroduce Danny to American film culture?”
“Because it was a great movie,” Danny said, “ obviously. ”
Claire gestured wildly at Danny. “Don’t you see?” she said to Luke. “You’ve ruined him.”
“It was just on TV,” Luke said. “How was I supposed to know that it was going to be the first movie he saw after fifteen years of isolation?”
“Not only is it incredibly terrible and outdated,” Claire continued, “but it also stars a well documented rapist.”
“Babe,” Luke hung his head back in frustration, “can we please not have the Bill Cosby discussion again?”
Claire sighed and crossed her arms “Fine, but we should really show him a better movie. After all this is over I’m getting Good Will Hunting on demand.” She smiled at the both of them with one of those warm, motherly Claire smiles that could probably heal the injured. “Mandatory movie night. My place. Next Friday. What do you say?” She received a couple of tired grunts from the two men as confirmation of her invitation. After that they sat in a weary, but not unhappy silence for what seemed like forever.
That is, until Danny finally chimed in.
“Since when was Bill Cosby a rapist?” he asked. His question was met with a different kind of silence; an awkward one.
Ten years of isolation was right.
Thankfully Misty came by before anyone had to answer.
She’d taken off her jacket and scarf since they’d last seen her revealing a red long sleeve shirt, which didn’t intend to show off, but complimented her figure all the same. Danny came to the conclusion that most things did. Misty could’ve walked in wearing a garbage bag and he still would’ve sworn up and down that she looked stunning.
She nodded at Danny “Could you come with me first?” she said. “I’d like to talk with each of you separately if that’s alright.” Although they could all tell she really said it as more of a command than a request.
He got up from his spot and stretched and Misty motioned for him to follow her down the hall. While they made their way a sort of anxiousness from unknown origin crept into his thoughts, which reached a tipping point when he caught himself staring at Misty’s butt. Quickly he averted his gaze to the floor.
What was wrong with him?
Being raised in K’un-l’un he’d been taught to regard women with respect and modesty. Now after only spending a few months in New York he was subconsciously objectifying one. Great, just great. Next Colleen Wing was probably going to jump out of nowhere to whack him on the head with the blunt side of her katana and lecture him on third wave feminism.
She'd totally do that too. Just for kicks even, but she wasn't there.
Honestly, he could really use that whack to the head right about now, because Misty had just opened a door for him to a small interrogation room and the idea of sitting in it alone with her was making his irrational anxiety grow. Where was that katana wielding feminist when he needed her?
The room didn’t contain much else other than a metal table bolted to the floor and two chairs on either side of it. There was also a clock high on the wall whose ticking was audible in the absence of much other noise.
Misty pulled a small yellow notepad and pen out of her back pocket and sat in one of the chairs. Danny was inclined to take the other across from her.
“Who exactly was responsible for the attacks?” she asked.
Danny shifted uncomfortably in the cold steel chair “Well, there’s this secret organization called the Rand,” that wasn’t right. “Wait, no!” he sputtered after inadvertently saying his real surname. Although Misty couldn’t possibly know what he accidently revealed, his heart beat much faster than reasonable. “I mean the Heart.”
Misty raised her eyebrows and scribbled something down in her notebook without looking up “The Heart” she said almost sarcastically.
“Yes. No! The Hand. Yeah, that’s what I meant” he said, somewhat relieved that he finally got the simplest name of any hyper malicious ancient gang of martial artists ever invented on the third try. “It’s uh this secret organization of evil ninjas.”
Misty looked up from her notes “Evil ninjas.”
“I suppose if you say it like that it sounds stupid.” He pulled at the collar of his Iron Fist costume and he felt a tomato red blush rising in his cheeks.
“Are you alright Mr….” Misty paused. “What were you calling yourself again?”
“Iron Fist,” he said.
“Right, uh, Mr. Fist,” she said and frowned like she didn’t quite like how the second part of his alias paired with “Mr.” tasted on her tongue. “Would you like some water or something? You look a little red faced.”
“No, I’m okay it’s just that I’m very--you’re very--” Danny trailed off unsure of where he was going with his statement.
“I’m very what, Mr. Fist?” Misty interrupted. There was a sharpness to her tone as a warning; telling him to choose his words very carefully. His breath quickened.
“It’s just that I find you very--,” Danny swallowed, “ pretty !”
Huh.
Well, he certainly hadn’t originally intended to say that, but then again he hadn’t any idea what he had intended in the first place. It was true wasn’t it? He meant it. Hopefully she’d just take the compliment and move on.
Predictably the universe never allowed Danny Rand such luxuries.
Misty looked at him with wide, unrelenting eyes. “Do you now?” She didn’t sound upset, but she didn’t sound pleased either.
Perhaps Danny could still salvage his dignity. “Yeah, very pretty,” he said. “Wait, not that I’m coming on to you or anything. You're just pretty and that deserves recognition.” A bead of sweat dripped off his nose and the wall clock’s ticking seemed to slow down. “Is it hot in here?”
Misty stared at him with a blank expression.
“And uh--,” he continued. Oh god, was he still talking? Why was he still talking?
For whatever reason Luke’s earlier comment popped into his head. Suddenly before he knew what he was doing words began spewing out of his mouth beyond his control. “Uh Luke said you had coffee with him d-do you waNNA HAVE COFFEE? HAHA COFFEES GOOD WE SHOULD GO HAVE COFFEE.”
A sickening silence enveloped the room.
What had just happened?
Danny felt somehow even more heat than before in his cheeks. Why was he acting like a nervous wreck? What was it that made him lose all communication skills that usually allowed him to act like a normal, functioning human being? No more than a couple hours ago he and his new acquaintances single handedly saved New York and now he was in an police station interrogation room yelling sporadically about hot beverages to a beautiful woman for no apparent reason. Maybe he was coming on to her. This just made him feel even more awful.
Oh god, this looked bad.
At that moment, Daniel Rand, The Immortal Iron Fist, Master of Martial Arts and the Pride of K’un-l’un wanted more than anything to crawl into a dark cave and never see Misty Knight or any other living person who might recognize him ever again.
“What?” Misty glared at him. “So you think that just because a woman has coffee with one man one time she’ll go and do it with any random guy who asks?”
“Maybe?” Danny said with confusion. Why was she so defensive all of a sudden? “I mean it’s just coffee right? There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“Just coffee? ” Misty replied with even more disdain. Why did she look so angry? What exactly had he said?
“Yeah, we could go to a cafe or something,” he said. He supposed his embarrassing outburst had now turned into a genuine coffee invitation. Truthfully he wasn’t even a huge fan of coffee. He’d had it with Colleen once or twice and quite frankly he preferred the tea his masters at K’un-l’un served, but even that he wasn’t overly fond of. “Just have a cup of coffee and chat.”
“Oh,” Misty said.
All the agitation had drained from her face and now she looked rather small and non-threatening. The fight that was there a moment before was gone and now it appeared it was her turn to be flustered.
“What?” Danny asked.
“It’s nothing,” she replied dismissively. “I just don’t like coffee.”
“Then why did you have it with Luke?” Danny questioned. Once again he felt as if he was missing something here.
As Misty shrugged she regained her earlier composure. “Different kind of coffee.”
“Then we don’t have to get coffee. Lunch maybe?” Danny said, his own reply surprising him. His determination to spontaneously ask this woman out for... what? Was it a date? Whatever it was it certainly looked that way and he now was committed to doing so.
The image of him in his suit and mask and Misty sitting across from him at a table in a crowded restaurant popped in his mind. Okay, maybe he hadn’t thought this through with the whole secret identity thing, but he was willing to try. Maybe if he went to a lunch as the crime fighting Iron Fist he could get them a free meal or something. After all that running around at night and kicking butt with Daredevil last week one of the people they saved from muggers or The Hand was bound to be a restaurant owner. If he could get his act together and start being normal around Misty that prospect looked rather welcoming. Yeah, he could make this work. He could have lunch with this woman and not make a fool of himself.
Misty shook her head and smirked enduringly. “You’re really something, aren’t you?”
He felt infinitely better now that she didn’t seem to be angry with him for unknown reasons and began once more to feel like himself again.
“I’m definitely something.” Danny smiled. “Is that a yes?”
“Look,” Misty sighed, “it’s really not professional for us to talk about this on bureau time. Could we please steer the conversation back to you and the attack?”
“Of course” Danny responded. “What do you want to know?”
“First of all,” she said, “I’d like to know your real name not your cute little WWE one, how you became affiliated with the other meta-humans and why you all decided it was in your best interest to start a fight with a ton of ninjas.”
Danny didn’t respond right away.
As much as he wanted to trust Misty he didn’t think revealing his true identity was the right course of action, at least not right now. Misty seemed to read his unease and leaned back into her chair with a sympathetic half smile.
“I get it” she said. “If I had to wear green and yellow spandex with a giant dragon stamped on the front I wouldn’t want anyone to know who I really was either. However if you tell me who you are I can guarantee it won’t reach the press. It’ll just be between you, me and the Chief of this department.”
Danny still remained silent. The wall clock ticked away.
“I’m sorry if I’m asking a lot here, but you’d be doing me a huge favor if you did this,” Misty said. “After the stunts I pulled during Luke’s case I’m already on my second strike with my boss and I need to write a proper report to her of the attack as well as the events leading up to it.” A pause. “People died and at least someone besides you and your three friends deserves to know what truly happened.”
Danny hesitantly viewed Misty before deciding whether or not to open his mouth. Her body language was open and welcoming, a high contrast to before when she was irritated with him. While her gaze was kind she also stared him down with a sort of unmoving firmness. She didn’t once break eye contact and that alone carried an authoritarian weight to it, like a mother asking an unhappy child what was wrong. Strong yet comforting. It made Danny want to tell her absolutely everything. His whole life story.
It then struck him that all that was entirely intentional on Misty’s part. A ruse to get information from him.
“You’re really good at your job, aren’t you?” he mused.
Misty beamed at him and he felt like the sun itself was casting warmth upon his face. “So people tell me,” she said.
He was so utterly gone that he didn’t even press the issue any further. She’d already won.
Danny sighed and slowly pulled his mask off, revealing the rest of his face.
“Whoa,” Misty said her eyes traveling to Danny’s hair. His curly hair, now unrestrained fluffed out and regained some of it’s volume.
“Is it that bad?” Danny said, insecurely trying to fix his hair, but without a mirror there wasn’t really any point. He hadn’t cut it since he came to New York, so it had become rather long and poofy.
“No, no, it’s good,” she reassured him. “What did you say your real name was?”
“I didn’t yet,” he replied. “My name is Danny Rand.”
“Of Rand Enterprises?” she asked.
“Yes, actually. Where did you--” Danny began, but Misty interrupted him.
“Wait here,” she said as she abruptly got out of her seat and left the room.
Danny, unsure what to think sat there cluelessly until Misty returned several minutes later. She dropped a photo in front of him on the table. It depicted a screencap of some security camera footage in the lobby of the Rand Enterprises building, in which Danny was fighting some security guards hand to hand. The footage must have been taken several months ago when he’d first arrived to New York from K’un-l’un and tried to get into the upper level of the building. Security wasn’t too happy about that. It wasn’t a very good shot and the part of Danny’s face that should’ve been seen from that angle was covered by his wild hair.
Now the real reason Misty had been staring at his hair was apparent to him.
She stood behind Danny and put her finger to his image in the photo. “Is this you?”
“Yep, that’s me alright,” he said.
“Care to explain to me why an heir to a business empire is fighting his own company guards?” she asked.
“Well,” Danny leaned back in his chair lazily, “it’s a long story.”
Misty took her place in the chair across from him and put her feet up, notebook and pen in hand. “Good thing we have all the time in the world Mr. Rand.”
The two of them shared a smile before Danny began his story. First he started with the death of his parents and his training at K’un-l’un, before getting into his journey back to New York to find his father’s company infiltrated by The Hand. After he managed to get the company back The Hand had already regrouped and were spreading trouble in other places in the city, at which point Colleen introduced him to Claire who in turn introduced him to Daredevil, Luke and Jessica. The rest was history.
“Do you want me to get you in contact with Jessica or any of the others I mentioned?” Danny asked after he finished his story. “Jessica bolted before you could bring her to precinct, but if she won’t talk I’m sure I could get one or two of her friends to talk to you. I bet Trish or Malcolm would happily answer questions.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Misty said. “I got more than enough information out of Ms. Jones when we had a little talk earlier this week, and I’d rather not bother her again. I actually had to pull a gun on her.”
“Whoa really?” Danny said with a grin. The idea of the two women going head to head in his mind wasn’t dissimilar to the clash of the titans. “Did she give her gun speech? ‘Shoot and me and I’ll pull the bullet out of my ruined jacket and--’.”
“‘Shove it up your ass with my pinky finger’?” Misty finished for him. “Yeah, she did, but backed the hell down when I told her I was a cop.”
“Man, I love it when she says that,” Danny added excitedly. “One time she said it to a mugger and he pissed himself!”
“I can see where your enthusiasm is coming from,” an amused expression graced Misty’s face, “but unfortunately I wasn’t in the right position to appreciate it.”
“I guess it’s not nearly as awesome when you’re on the receiving end,” he said, “but it still makes third place on my top five favorite things Jessica Jones says.”
“Ooh, there’s a list?” Misty took her feet off the table and leaned in really close to as if she was telling Danny a secret. “What’s first place?”
Danny snickered just thinking of first place. “When she called Daredevil a ‘horny bastard’ after she found out that he’d slept with Claire and a couple other women she knew.”
Misty tipped her head back and let out a large, obnoxious, glorious laugh. “You’re kidding!”
“She didn’t even realize it was a pun until I’d been laughing for three minutes straight,” Danny said, unable to control his laughter even now.
“Oh, that’s precious,” Misty said. “Speaking of Daredevil…” She began eyeing Danny expectantly.
“I can help you talk to Jess, but Daredevil is a different story,” Danny replied. “Telling you my identity is one thing, but this isn’t my secret to share. Even arranging in mask meetings with him could be risky.”
Misty gave a melodramatic sigh. “You can’t blame a girl for trying,” a mischievous expression blossomed from her features, “but it probably wouldn’t have made all that much of a difference either way.”
“How’s that?” Danny inquired.
“I’d rather not let you compromise the integrity of my investigation.” Misty winked at him and rose from her seat. “Thanks for your cooperation, Mr. Rand. You can go now.”
“Aw, c’mon!” he playfully exclaimed. As Danny got out of his chair he felt almost sorry to go. “What do you mean ‘integrity’ of your ‘investigation’?” He put his mask back on and walked across the room to where she held the door for him.
“Let’s just say I have a promising lead,” she said with another one of those heart stopping smiles. Then she did something unexpected. She took Danny’s hand and pressed a small card in card into his palm. “Could you tell Claire to come in next? I’d like to see if her story correlates with yours.”
“No problem,” he replied.
Misty pulled her hand away and Danny curled in fingers around the card without looking at it. Something told him he wasn’t supposed to see it just yet.
“Don’t be a stranger now,” she told him.
“Yes Ma’am, Ms. Knight,” Danny teased and then began walking down the hall. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
“That’s Detective Knight to you, sir” she called after him and he heard the interrogation room door close behind her. At this Danny couldn’t help but smile to himself before heading back to where Claire and Luke were waiting.
Claire clearly exhausted from the day's events had fallen asleep on Luke’s shoulder.
“How’d it go?” Luke asked in a half whisper in order to avoid waking Claire. She snored softly as Danny sat down next to Luke.
“Good? I think I briefly had a nervous breakdown in the beginning, but other than that it went alright,” Danny said.
“Nervous breakdown?” Luke raised his eyebrow.
“I’ll explain later,” he replied. “She asked for Claire to go in next.”
Luke sighed defeatedly and moved the shoulder Claire was napping on to softly nudge her awake “Hey, babe?” he whispered.
Claire stirred slightly, but refused to wake up fully and snuggled closer to Luke.
He tried again. “Babe, you gotta wake up. Misty needs to ask you some questions.”
She groaned and got out of her seat.
“See ya,” she mumbled groggily and gave a little half wave to the other two before walking off.
“I’m gonna grab some water,” Luke said and left.
Danny waited until they were both gone gone to look at the card. To his surprise it was an old Nelson & Murdock Attorneys At Law business card; Daredevil’s business card. The Nelson part of the Nelson & Murdock had been scribbled out in black marker seeing as Foggy left the firm some time ago and Matt couldn’t afford new cards.
So this was Misty’s promising lead.
He flipped the card over to find a message and his heart skipped a beat.
In case you still want to get that lunch, hotshot it read in impeccable handwriting with a phone number written underneath.
A child-like grin spread across his face and he could hardly contain this feeling of victory rising in his chest. For a moment he wondered why Misty had used Daredevil’s card. Was it because she just happened to have it on her? Or did she purposely give it to him? Was she fully aware he’d understand it’s meaning as a way to showcase her intelligence and just how good of a detective she really was? Whether she meant it to or not (and he was fairly certain she did) he was thoroughly impressed and that only deepened his interest in her. Danny liked the idea that she was using her brain, not just her looks to win him over. He knew she must've been hiding something in that big hair of hers and it certainly wasn't air.
Damn, he was so looking forward to this lunch.
“What you got there?” Luke’s deep voice pulled him back to reality. He was back and holding two little paper cups of water. One of which he handed to Danny.
He held up his card so Luke could see. “Dude, she gave me her number!”
The other man chuckled. “Congratulations. I’m happy for you, man” he sat back down on the bench. “Misty’s a great ... person” he said and took a sip of his water.
Danny’s grin faded as an earlier event recurred to him. “That reminds me. What the heck kind of coffee did you give her?”
Luke coughed as he nearly choked on his drink. “D-don’t worry about it.”