AN: Okay, this is based also based on some recent spoilers that suggest we may be seeing a Mindy/Danny hook-up by season's end. Because Mindy & Danny aren't perfect, I predict we'll see them hook-up for a while in a FWB-type situation. Maybe one person (cough cough Danny) will have more serious feelings, but ultimately something will make them stop and they'll have to go back to working together and just being friends as each moves forward (with maybe a few slip-ups between the two of them in between relationships). That's kind of where this story is picking up – Mindy & Danny were hooking up, but hid it from the rest of the office, and now she's getting really serious with her newest boyfriend and Danny cannot even. Also this is Danny-POV so he's not really on the sideline, per se. (Includes a little Jeremy/Betsy as well.)

Title: She's the One

Show: The Mindy Project

Pairing/Characters: Danny Castellano/Mindy Lahiri

Rating: PG13

Disclaimer: Obvi I don't own the characters (except Logan) or The Mindy Project, so please don't sue me.

After Mindy's first date with Logan – which she described as "life-altering" – Danny was unconcerned and mildly amused. Mindy always tended to look at these things with rose-colored glasses and they always blew up in her face. And he was always there to help her pick up the pieces and, yeah, maybe keep her bed warm from time to time.

After the first two weeks of Mindy's new relationship, Danny knew it was just a matter of time. Any day now, the other shoe would drop.

After the first month, he got a little nervous. (And horny. Sue him; he was a guy and had a fairly reliable sexual partner in Mindy. He didn't want to rush out and find an alternative when he knew – he just knew – that as soon as he did, Mindy was going to dump this guy.)

After the first two months, he grew apprehensive. The only other joker that had managed to hang around this long was that asshat Josh who wound up being a cheater. When Mindy discovered whatever this guy's deal was, it was going to wreck her.

By the sixth month mark, Danny realized he was going to have to accept it: Mindy was really serious about this one.

He was going to lose her.

Danny scoffed at himself. Losing her implied that he'd had her to begin with. Yeah, maybe for a while, they had gotten a little hot and heavy, but that was more due to chemistry and convenience. And when that had imploded after one little fight (where he had, admittedly, said some not-so-great things about her lifestyle) and she had refused to have anything to do with him for five days, maybe he'd realized that he'd gotten sucked in a little more than he'd have liked. Maybe he cared for Mindy – a lot.

And after the five longest days of his life, maybe he'd groveled. And been more than a little heartbroken when she'd suggested they go back to being just friends.

And maybe he lived for the times where she was in between the douchebags she dated and would call him up, not even just for sex but for dinner or hanging out or a little cuddling.

And maybe… Maybe Dr. Danny Castellano should just stop being such a little baby coward and admit that he…

Fuck. Fuck.

Somehow, he'd fallen in love with Mindy Lahiri.

And she was in love with someone else.

Danny slammed the door to his office and dropped into his chair, releasing an angry breath that sounded more like a growl. He knew he was overreacting, but he was all nerves lately – ever since his realization about Mindy.

He'd made it through Christmas and Valentine's Day, but Mindy's birthday was coming up in a few days. Somehow, he just knew in his gut that something big was going to be happening between her and Logan. Almost every morning, he woke with dread that today would be the day she'd come to work with a ring on her finger.

Someone knocked on the door and Danny slumped over on his desk. "Go away! I don't wanna talk about it."

Because it was his life and that never worked, Morgan opened the door. "You okay, Dr. C? I sent Parker home; no one needs to see him crying like that."

Danny groaned and knocked his forehead against the cool surface of the desk a few times. "Just give me five, Morgan. Five minutes, please, to get it together."

"Here's the thing, Doc," Morgan said, letting the door drop closed behind him. "You haven't really had it together for a while now. And we're all starting to notice." Morgan walked behind Danny and started giving him a shoulder rub. "Just like I thought: you're all knotted up. What's going on, Dr. C?" He avoided Danny's attempt to shrug him off and kept massaging.

Danny was quiet for a long minute, then stood, removing himself from Morgan's hands. With his back to the nurse, Danny asked, "What do you think about this Logan guy Mindy's seeing? You think she's happy with him?"

"Uh, okay, not seeing where this is related to you screaming at Parker for the way he makes copies, but… He seems okay." Morgan sat down in Danny's chair and assumed a thoughtful position. "He hasn't cheated on her, turned out to be a prostitute, joined the Army, or any of the other things the other guys have done. He shows an interest in the things she likes – we had a real good conversation about the Kardashians the other day. He always has money – although if my suspicions are right about him being in the mob, that makes sense."

"The mob?!" Danny scowled. "Be serious, Morgan. And get outta my chair."

Morgan jumped up, allowing Danny to sit, and walked over to the other side of the desk. "Why the sudden interest, Doc?"

"I don't know. I, uh, worry about her, you know? She keeps getting hurt and it just-" Danny frowned at his hands on the desktop. "It kills me to see her like that. She deserves the best." He glanced up and saw Morgan gaping at him. "What?"

Morgan exploded into motion, pacing across the floor and muttering to himself.

"Morgan, what?!"

"You love her! You love Dr. L!"

Danny tried to laugh it off, but it stuck in his throat and sounded more like a croak instead. When Morgan turned on him, he crumpled. "Alright. Alright! Yes, I have feelings for Mindy. Happy?"

Morgan stared at Danny. "Whoa, Dr. C, I did not see this coming. You and Dr. L?!" He shook his head. "You're kinda blowing my mind." He made hand motions at his temples to visualize this point, complete with explosion noises.

Danny shushed him and looked over Morgan's shoulder to make sure the door was still closed. "Stop! Stop, Morgan. I get it. Obviously someone like Mindy wouldn't go for someone like me. I just – I can't… I don't want to look back and regret not speaking up, you know?" Uncomfortable, Danny shrugged. "But I do want her to be happy. So honest opinion time: how serious do you think they are?"

Dropping into the patient's chair, Morgan let out a big breath. "I gotta be honest here, Dr. C. They're pretty serious, the kind of serious we all dream about. Like googly-eyed, swap-house-keys, help-you-bathe-your-grandmother serious."

"Yeah," Danny said, nodding sadly. "Yeah, that's what I thought."

"On the other hand-" Morgan began with reluctance.

Danny perked up. "Yeah?"

"Maybe she could be happier. Maybe this is just good-enough and it seems great because she's never had it. But it's not the right one, ya know? Like if I'm starving and you give me stale bread – I'm gonna think it's the best thing ever. But it's not pizza. Get it? It's. Not. Pizza. I just think it's as good as pizza because I'm hungry."

Danny smiled a little. "Yeah. Yeah, I get it. Thanks, Morgan."

"But on the other hand-"

"There's another hand? Doesn't this make three?"

"-Mindy is a grown woman capable of making her own choices, and who are we to say that she doesn't love the stale bread? Maybe she hates pizza – she's allergic to tomatoes or something – and stale bread is so good, she never realized because she's never tried it."

"Okay, I'm confused now; am I pizza or stale bread?" Danny asked.

"But on the other hand-" Morgan began again and Danny growled.

"Enough! That's four hands, Morgan! Four! This is not helping. Please leave."

"You're right." Morgan visibly deflated, then opened the door and called out. "Dr. Reed! We need your assistance in Dr. C's office!"

"No, we don't, Morgan," Danny said, then called out the open door, "No, we don't!"

That didn't stop Jeremy from walking in. "Everything okay, Morgan? Danny?"

Morgan ushered him to a chair and closed the door. "We got a problem, Dr. Reed, and this is gonna blow your mind: Dr. C is in love with Dr. L."

Jeremy relaxed into the chair and straightened his cuff. "Oh, is that all? Well, I should hope so, after the way they've been sneaking around – both in the office and out of it."

"You knew?!" came out of two equally shocked men.

"Danny," Jeremy said with no little amount of censure, "of course I knew. You didn't think you'd be able to hide that from me of all people, did you?" He clicked his tongue. "So now you're – what? Trying to come up with some grand gesture to show Mindy that you care? Are you sure that's the wisest path? She does seem quite content with that Logan fellow."

"That's what I said, too: we should respect her choices," Morgan said.

"Yeah, Morgan, but you also argued for the other side, too." Danny groaned and dug the heels of his palms into his eyes. "This is pointless. We're not getting anywhere." He heard movement and uncovered his eyes just in time to see Morgan opening the door again. "No, don't-"

"Betsy!" Morgan yelled. "Betsy, you're on deck. Get in here!"

Jeremy sat up straighter in his chair and ran a hand down his skinny tie, a fact that Danny filed away for later. When he wasn't, you know, plotting how to ruin the relationship of a close friend and simultaneously confess his love to her.

"Did you need something, Dr. Castellano?" Betsy asked, then pokered up as soon as she moved further into the room. "Dr. Reed," she said, not making eye contact with her other boss as she took possession of the empty chair.

"Betsy," Morgan began in a tone that people used to talk to small animals and children, "what we're about to tell you is a secret. It goes no further than this room. That means you don't tell the nurses, you don't tell Parker, you don't tell your priest at confession. Got it?"

"Well, I'm not Catholic, but yes, I understand. What's going on?"

Morgan laid out the entire situation and Danny tried not to look to uncomfortable as his employee shot him pitying looks. "Oh, Dr. Castellano," Betsy said in a sweet voice, "I'm sure Dr. Lahiri cares about you just as much. Maybe she just doesn't realize it and needs that extra push."

"But as I was saying," Jeremy interjected, "Mindy's a grown woman capable of making her own choices and we should respect that."

Betsy didn't look at Jeremy as she responded. "Maybe Dr. Lahiri doesn't realize that she has another option. You can't expect people to make the best choice when they don't have all the inform-"

"Danny's just doing what he thinks is best," Jeremy said, voice rising a little.

"-ation. And if he really respected her, then he wouldn't take that option out of her hands and decide that he's the man and he knows best and he needs to protect her from making a mistake." Betsy finally looked directly at Jeremy, a steely look Danny had never seen on her face before.

Jeremy colored beneath his tan, but remained silent after that.

Morgan, chin in hand, nodded sagely as if he were processing all the information. Clearly the subtext was going right over his head, which was just as well. Danny did not want to open that can of worms while they were still in the middle of this discussion. "So Dr. Reed is against, Betsy is for, and I'm still just as torn. BEVERLY!" Morgan called, pulling the door open.

From there it just devolved into a free-for-all, with Betsy and Jeremy shooting barbs at each other, Morgan still adding hands to his reasoning, and Betsy trying to tell them all a story about a threesome she had at a German hostel.

So of course, that's when Mindy decides to open the door. "Whoa, guys! What's going on in here? You do know we still have patients to see, right?" As they all stammered over one another, a look of realization crossed her face. "Omigod, please don't tell me you are trying to plan another surprise party! The answer is no. No more surprise birthday parties! I just want a quiet dinner with my boyfriend. And he has dropped some hints that make me think it is going to be a Very Important Night, and I do not need your wacky hijinks to mess this up for me! I don't need it!"

Danny ignored the pitying looks everyone was sending him and climbed to his feet. "I hear ya, Min," he said, taking her arm and walking away from the office. "I'll make sure they don't go any further with it."

"Thanks, Danny!" she said with a grin, knocking her shoulder into his. "You're always there for me when I need you."

He smiled down at his feet and shrugged, knocking her shoulder back. "What are friends for, right? Hey, Mindy," he said, grabbing her arm as she started to walk into an examination room, "I know you've already got birthday dinner plans on Friday, but what about a birthday lunch that afternoon? Just you and me."

"I'd like that, Danny." She smiled again and slipped grabbed the chart from its holder and started to walk in. "I'm so glad we can still be friends after everything. Your friendship means a lot to me."

And with that blow, she was gone. Danny turned back to see everyone crowded in his doorway, wincing at what they had obviously overheard. "Alright, get back to work, you bunch of weirdoes."

"Outta all the places in New York, you choose a chain restaurant?" Danny shook his head in amazement as he held the door open for Mindy.

"Hey, man, my birthday, my choice." Mindy flashed a grin over her shoulder then turned back to the effusive hostess of the Times Square establishment.

Danny smirked at her back as they were seated in a kitsch-covered booth.

They spent the appetizer talking about the practice and their employees – whether Beverly was finally catching on, what Morgan's grandmother must really be like, would Jeremy and Betsy ever figure out their weird chemistry.

It wasn't until Mindy casually mentioned dinner with Logan that Danny felt the nerves kick in. "How's that going?" he asked, trying for casual.

Mindy paused while their entrees were served. "You know how sometimes you dream of something for so long and then you finally get it and it's kind of a letdown? It doesn't really live up to the dream?"

Chest tight with hope, Danny managed to answer in the affirmative.

"This is totally not like that!" Mindy grinned and stabbed at her sizzling chicken, oblivious to Danny's disappointment. "Logan is so great, it's almost scary. Like what is this crazily perfect human male doing with me? I'm a mess."

"Don't say that; you're great, Min."

"Thanks, Danny," she smiled with self-deprecation, "but you don't have to placate the birthday girl. I know what you really think of me."

"Mindy, come on," he protested. "Is this about The Fight? I didn't mean any of that – not really. I was just scared."

She set her fork down for a minute. "I've been thinking about this a lot and, before I move into the next chapter of my life – which could be happening tonight – I think we need to talk about it. Closure."

Danny took a long drink of his tea, wishing in vain that he'd ordered something stronger. "Alright. It's your birthday. If that's what you want, that's what we'll do."

"It's what I want. So let me start off: you said you were scared. Of what?"

"Wow." Danny chuckled. "Going bare-knuckled already. Um, okay. I guess I was just scared of getting hurt again, ya know. You're my friend and I thought we were just messing around, but then…"

"Then…?"

He exhaled. "Then I realized I kind of, ya know, had other feelings. And after Christina, I just couldn't… Look, I know there were other women before you and I were… whatever, but they weren't important. You – you were important. And that was scary. And so I picked a fight to push you away."

"Danny," Mindy said slowly, "I don't know if that is the sweetest or most frustrating thing I've ever heard. Also, there were some crazy specific details in your litany of complaints against me that night."

"Of course there were; we were kind of adversaries before we were friends, so we both know right where it hurts most, right?" He smirked a little. "You weren't without your cheap shots either that night."

She nodded. "Okay, I get that. But Danny, why didn't you say anything? If not that night, then later, when I said we should go back to being friends! You acted like you were perfectly fine with it!"

"C'mon, Min! What was I going to say?"

"Uh, gee, I don't know." Mindy dropped her voice into her horrible impression of him. "'Hey, Min, that idea sucks. Let's try giving it a real shot instead.' You talk about being a Real Man, Castellano," she said in her normal voice, "but when it's time to sack up, you chicken out?! Not cool."

Danny cleared his throat. "And if I had… If I had said, 'Hey, Min, let's try giving it a real shot,' what would you have said?"

"Danny…" Mindy looked away, then seemed to gather her courage and faced him squarely. "Okay, sacking up time. I would have said okay. I would have been ecstatic. Because you weren't the only one having other feelings, alright?"

Danny gaped at her. "Min…" he said breathlessly, just as the waiter chose to walk up to the table with their check.

"Thanks for lunch, Danny," Mindy said, giving a good try at a grateful smile. "I'm glad we are close enough that we could talk like this." And then she was gone.

Danny hurriedly tucked some money into the check holder and ran out after her, catching up by half a block. "Mindy," he said taking her arm.

She shook him off. "Let's just go back to the office."

"I've got one more thing I want to do first," he said with grim determination and flagged a cab down.

"Danny, no," Mindy said, shaking her head. "No no no no no."

The cab had pulled up outside the Empire State Building and Danny was handing money forward while trying to push Mindy out of the car.

She stepped out with obvious reluctance and looked like she was going to bolt at any minute, so Danny put his arm around her. "I've got some things I want to say, and I want to say them. To you. Here."

"Danny, please." She pulled out of his hold. "Please don't do this to me."

"Mindy, just come up with me," he asked. But she was backing off, shaking her head.

"Say it. Right now. I am not going into the most romantic building on the planet with you. Not today, not on the day when I'm 90% sure I'll be here later – with my boyfriend who is most likely planning to propose." She was near tears now and Danny felt like dirt. "Say it to me right here."

"Mindy Lahiri, you infuriate me." She barked out a watery laugh at that. "And you amaze me. And you entertain me. And I never knew I could feel for someone what I feel for you. I love you, Mindy. I am in love with you. And I think you and I should try again." When she was silent for a minute, he panicked and kept going. "And I'll let you take me shopping. I'll wear a pocket square. I'll let you name our kids after celebrities. I'll let you redecorate my place and I'll help you pressure Jeremy into changing the practice's name to Lahiri, Castellano, and Reed. And I-"

Mindy stepped forward and gently cupped his cheek in her palm, quieting him with a soft kiss. And Danny could have cried from relief.

But then she pulled away. "Danny, it's too late for us. I'm with Logan now and I'm happy with him." She looked up at him with wet eyes. "I'm really sorry it took us this long to come to this point, but this is how it has to be."

When she walked away this time, Danny didn't move to stop her.

He couldn't.

Mindy hadn't gone back to the office, he'd found out. Apparently she'd called Betsy and said she was taking the rest of the afternoon to get ready for her birthday dinner and to reschedule all her patients.

Which was fine. Danny was fine with it. He really was.

What he was not fine with was all the pitying looks and the whispering and Morgan trying to hug him and… Jesus. He should just pack it all up and move back to Staten. Where life made sense and there weren't beautiful Indian girls just waiting to rip a guy's heart of his chest and stomp it under her ridiculously high heels.

He could move back in with his ma and… his ma would love Mindy, he thought, and then shook it off. He finished up the day on autopilot, lucky that no emergencies cropped up needing his attention, and went home.

Maybe if he slept for two straight days, he'd be able to handle seeing her on Monday. With a ring on her finger that wasn't his.

As he walked out of the building, he noticed with no little amusement that it had begun absolutely pouring. And he didn't have an umbrella. Shrugging it off, he didn't worry about catching a cab – it would be nearly impossible now. Instead he just trudged his way home, where he stripped off his soaked clothes and poured a tumbler full of whiskey and lay on his bed.

It was really over. There was no hope left for him. By tomorrow morning, Mindy would be engaged to a great guy that she loved. And he'd be the same embittered old man he'd been slowly becoming before he met her.

Danny wasn't sure how long he'd been asleep. The last thing he remembered was knocking back the last of his whiskey and fumbling to put the glass on the nightstand.

But the apartment was pitch dark now, so it had to be pretty late.

And yet, someone was pounding on his door.

He groggily moved to the side of his bed and ran his hands vigorously over his head, then pulled on some jeans on before making it to the front door.

The beating had slowed slightly, before it kicked up again. "Alright, alright already! What?" he yelled, throwing the door open.

To his shock, it was Mindy standing there, drenched from head to toe. She had a fancy red dress on and mascara was running down her cheeks and her hair was plastered to her head, but she had never looked more beautiful to him. "Min?" he asked in wonder, turning to follow her as she stomped past him into his place. He idly noticed that she was carrying her shoes and that she was leaking all over his floor, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

"You're a jerk, you know that, Castellano!" she said, her hands on her hips, clearly trying to look formidable. A look that was undercut by her shivering.

"Mindy, you're soaked. Let me get you some towels." He went to move past her but she stopped him.

"No! No towels! Not until I say what I have to say. I did not run across town in the rain to put this off. You're a jerk!"

Danny was finally able to clear his head of the shock and remembered his depression. "Yeah, thanks," he said with a grimace. "You already made that pretty clear at lunch today." He paused for a moment. "You ran here?!"

Mindy huffed. "Okay, maybe I took a cab to your block and just ran from the cab to the door, but I still did some running. And I'll have you know I almost twisted my ankle, too!"

"That's what happens when you try to run in the rain in those stupid heels!" Danny shook his head. "Do you want to snap your ankle? Because I don't really think crutches are the must-have accessory for the spring."

"Oh, please, tell me more about fashion, Signor Castellano! And where is your shirt? Geez, Danny! Is this how you welcome all the girls?"

He smirked again as she stared at his bare torso. "Only the engaged ones," he shot back.

Mindy looked up at him through her lashes and shifted from one foot to the other. "Yeah, that's part of the whole you're-a-jerk thing I was trying to get at. I'm not."

"Not what?" he asked. "A jerk? I know."

Mindy moaned. "No! Not engaged, you dummy!"

"Oh," Danny said, then slower, "Oh."

"Hence the reason you, Daniel Castellano, are a jerk." Seeing that he wasn't going to add anything else, Mindy dropped her shoes and tried to shake out her wet hair. "Everything was going perfect: dinner was great, I even splurged and had dessert, and we were in a cab outside the Empire State Building. And I knew. I knew if I went in there, I was going to be proposed to and all I could think of was your stupid face when I walked away this afternoon. And I couldn't do it. I could not make myself walk into that building, knowing that the wrong guy was there with me."

"The wrong guy, huh?" Danny managed, trying not to get his hopes up.

"Yeah. Which is ridiculous because on paper, he should be perfect for me. But for some reason, I am hung up on a sweaty, testosterone-fueled, awkward, arrogant gynecologist who doesn't even like good music! Like what is wrong with me?!" she said, but it was with a smile, so Danny didn't take it to heart.

"Say something nice now," he commanded, a grin tugging at his lips.

"Danny," she whined, but moved closer to him, putting her cold hands on his abdomen and watching his muscles contract. She looked up at him and Danny got lost in her beautiful dark eyes in that moment. "I love that you don't know anything about pop culture from the last twenty years. And I love that you like horrible music. I love that you're afraid of what the guys back in Staten think of you. I love that you are sweaty and cocky and a little insecure. I love that no matter how bad your piano playing is, you keep at it because it makes you happy. I love that you are a great dancer and an excellent doctor and a horrible furniture-builder. I love everything about you, Danny Castellano."

"Min," he breathed, tipping her chin up and meeting her lips with his. His hands threaded through her damp hair and she pulled herself closer to his body, making him jump. "Jesus Christ!" he cried. "You're freezing!"

"Duh, Danny!" Mindy said in exasperation. "Did you miss the part where I ran through the rain in March for you?!"

He grinned a little. "Well, how about we get you out of those clothes and into a warm shower?"

She grinned back, then frowned a little. "Okay, but I better not see that gross washcloth in there."

Danny cleared his throat and moved her to the bedroom. "Find some music for us. I've got something I need to do real fast."

Mindy nipped at his jaw and pushed him towards the bathroom with a knowing smirk on her face.

"Oh," she called out as he turned away, "and just so you know, you might want to keep an eye out, because I'm not sure that the Logan's-in-the-mob theory is entirely wrong."

"What?!"