As has been said, it isn't whether Don Flack wants to bend Danny Messer over the hood of his car - let's face it, that’s not love, in any way shape or form, that’s lust :devil: - it's are there some feelings there that go beyond the normal working relationships you have with your colleagues. I go out drinking with my work mates, even discuss my private life with an honoured few but I don't and wouldn't risk my career or life for them. Now this is perhaps because I don't venture into a job that puts my life in the line of fire, and I would imagine that if you choose to do those sorts of jobs then yes, the bonds you form with your colleagues are deeper than the average “office, 9-5” Joe. I have made some very close friends at all my places of employment though, people I see in my free time, put myself out for when they have spent time in hospital or been through difficult and painful times, they are after all my friends, I love them, I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t.
You spend most of your waking hours at work (just like we did at school, think of all the friends, crushes and vendettas that are made in that place) it would be weird not to make and keep friends, there is also a statistic out there (buggered if I can remember what it actually is
) that states that work is the most likely place to meet your future partner (as a single woman in my work place you have no idea how scary that is!!
) and lets face it, it’s probably true, you see people at work in their true light, happy, sad, arrogant, back stabbing, you see all your colleagues at their worst and their best, so it isn’t unreasonable that you would find someone at work and make a decent enough judgement about them as to whether a relationship is going to happen.
It is not reasonable then to think that Flack loves Danny, taking away any undercurrent of Slash, as
Faylinn pointed out this is not a slash thread regardless of anyone’s feelings on the subject, Flack is continually there for Danny (I’ve said before I think Flack also loves Stella), whether to protect Danny from himself or from other people. They socialise with each other outside of the working day, now I think someone pointed out that with the sort of jobs they do may not allow an awful lot of time for socialising, which may mean they lack friends who are outside of the force but surely it means that the bonds they form are stronger? No one wants to be lonely after all.
Apart from Stella and Mac (who we know are friends outside of the office) Danny and Flack are the only other pair that we know socialise together, Basketball, pool, even perhaps golf. In ‘All in the Family’ Flack seemed to know his way around Danny’s apartment. Danny didn’t seem to think it was odd that Flack had gone snooping around, if one of my colleagues had my landlord open my apartment and went digging around in there regardless of if it was for my own good, I’d be pissed off! But Danny reaction wasn’t like that at all, he seemed to understand that it was what Flack does, when Flack bends the rules a bit for Danny and Danny excepts that and takes the offer of help. Whenever he needs a shoulder to lean on he knows that he has Flack, and I agree with
Faylinn I would like to know that isn’t one sided, I like a lot of people on this board were, annoyed when Danny left Flack at the hospital with Mac and didn’t stay himself, but then that’s typical Danny behaviour really, not being able to face the bad stuff. Perhaps he couldn’t see the guy who is usually a rock for him become dependant on machines and so on, and in all fairness he did only disappear when Hawkes returned to say that they though Flack would be ok. Although I have to say I thought that was pretty poor behaviour on Danny, shame on TPTB for that, the guy had just seen his brother beaten up, lost one of his good friends (again he carried on socialising with Aiden after she left) to a murdering rapist and then another one of his friends is blown up… you’d think he’d have wanted to stay there!?!? But maybe TPTB didn’t want to make it all about Danny? I dunno…
Flack looks like he practically broke every driving offence to get to Danny and Hawkes in ‘In the Deep’. His "...I heard what happened" shows that he isn’t just about the crime and justice, he wanted to make sure his buddy was ok (I’m sure he was concerned about Hawkes also).
Their friendship has been consistent from the 1st episode (not including the cross over with Miami as Flack wasn’t in that) and it is used time and time again. Flack jokes around with everyone on the team, he even has digs at them as we see with him and Hawkes, but Danny is the only one (apart from Stella who I think is sometime Stel) that Flack gives nicknames too, that he jokes at his expense, Danny doesn’t seem to mind, I know in ‘Can you hear me know’ Flack/ Eddie has a dig at Carmine rather than Danny with the Staten island comment, but Danny doesn’t get offended because I guess as we know when our friends make jokes at us, it’s done with affection.
In ‘…Come around’ that is not a polite drink after work, that’s a wind down after a bad day. There is no “hello, you ok?”, Flack is straight in there with a joke. They don’t have to do the niceties, they aren’t needed.
The one thing I have noticed, that with all the teasing and the fooling around Flack has at Danny’s expense he never belittles him. He always takes what Danny says and considers it, I mean surely now Flack must have realised that Danny has absolutely appalling character judgement
, but he still asks him (the only example I can think of is ‘Rain’) what he thinks. Again the only person that I can think of that Flack treats like that is Stella. Mac, Lindsey and Hawkes maybe aren’t belittled but he wants them to back it up or in Mac’s case he’ll follow the order but you know if he agrees or not
, Danny or Stella tell Flack some thing he is onto it. Just an observation I have made.
I think it comes down to the actors too, Carmine and Eddie have a great chemistry, and some of their stuff, for instance, in ‘You Only Die Once’ is made up by them… the hallway “she got teeth?” comment was all Carmine’s own, for those that may not be aware.
So yes I personally do think Flack loves Danny, taking away any slash/pairing overtones(I’ll discuss that in the relevant thread
), the evidence (of friendship and Flack's feelings for Danny) is there in all four seasons. Now like
Faylinn I just want to find out if Danny loves Flack.
Regarding the subtext and reading into whether or not there are any relationships (as in couples) in the show, subtext is what fuels those pairings, and IMO it should stick to subtext, I watch the show for the crimes and the who dunnits as I'm sure the majority of people on here (like
xfcanadian ) aren't interested with who is sleeping with who (and any D/F fans probably got into the pairing as a fun thing, like the D/L contingent). I guess what i'm trying to say without offending anyone, that whilst the majority of people voted yes, according to the poll there are a lot of people who don't see what I see, my mum for example doesn't but then she does tend to fall asleep... my dad on the otherhand sees the friendship and the buddies element (in fact he likes it) but when I jokingly said about them as a couple he looked at me as if I was mad.
Sorry bit of a monster post but I had to get my thoughts out of my head.
