Disclaimer: see my profile

Danny jogged down the stairs to the locker room. He thought that it would look different to him now that Lindsey had given him the news that was going to change his life forever, but it didn't. It looked the same. It smelled the same and it sounded the same.

He keyed in the combination on his lock and opened it while staring at the place she'd said, "I'm pregnant." His heart stuttered just like it had at that moment, but the extreme panic and urge to run far away wasn't quite so powerful. Instead, the feeling he'd had on the back of his left hand was the strongest. In the hallway, standing next to her that afternoon, he hadn't held her hand, but they'd been close enough for the hairs on his arm to stand up and a tingle to run down his spine.

If he could just keep that feeling in his gut and his heart, it would be okay. He would do the right thing. He would do whatever it took to convince her that he loved her like no one else in this world.

His child… Would it be a girl with brown curls and dark eyes that stole your heart with just one look? Would it be a boy with dirty blond hair and blue eyes? God he hoped his kid had better eyesight than he did. If it was a boy, maybe he'd have better luck with a career in baseball. Danny would make sure that he wasn't a knuckle-head like him. His son would be smarter in love than his old man. He wouldn't have to teach his daughter anything if the baby was a girl, she'd get all her mother's best qualities. All he'd have to do is keep the boys away from her till she was thirty. A nice long stay in a convent… Yeah, that would be just the thing to keep her out of trouble. He'd have to get that idea past Lindsay, but once he explained the logic of it to her, she'd understand.

He pulled off his shirt and continued to think about all the stuff he could teach this kid until a voice saying a familiar name entered his consciousness.

"…Monroe… "

"You serious…"

The voices were male, with heavy Staten Island accents. He didn't recognize either of the voices, but he recognized the tone of derision he'd heard in his own voice a time or two.

"Yeah, people come down here all da time an' they don't check da place over ta see who's in here. Jackson was here behind da lockers jus' like you an' me. He heard Detective Monroe tell Messer she was pregnant."

"What did he say?"

"Jackson figures Messer musta crapped in his pants, not dat I don't blame him. Apparently all the guy could say was 'are you sure?'

The other man laughed uproariously and Danny felt his hands clenching into fists. He was on the point of charging around the corner and confronting the assholes, when one said:

"Messer'll neva change, once a dog, always a dog. The sooner Monroe learns dat little fact o life, the betta off she'll be."

"I think Monroe's smarter than she looks… I think she knows a player when she sees one."

"In dat case ya think she'd go out with me?"

"You're a sick man. Why'd ya want ta go out with a pregnant girl…"

Their voices came closer and instead of confronting them, Danny slipped around the corner and sank back against the end of the lockers. The cold metal made him shiver, but not as hard as the thought that maybe those guys were right. What if he was incapable of changing? What if he was doomed to be an irresponsible player for the rest of his life? What if he failed as a parent? Black despair brought tears to his eyes. There were old sayings that said that a leopard can't change its spots, or that an old dog can't learn new tricks. Was this his lot, his fate, to disappoint the one person in his life that he loved more than his own life?

No… it wasn't going to be that way. He was going to change. He was going to take Jim's advice and not have any regrets. It was time to be a man that he could be proud of. He wanted to look himself in the eye in the mirror and be proud of what he'd become. He'd show everyone that he could be better. He'd spend the rest of his life making it up to Lindsay and their child.

The warmth that he'd felt from the proximity to Lindsay, suddenly flared on the back of his hand. Tears, this time tears of joy, flooded his eyes. He pushed away from the wall and stood tall. It was time to change. They would say he'd never change, but he'd show them all. They see how much he wanted it. And Lindsay would trust him again, he knew it! The old dog would learn new tricks. The leopard would change its spots for the love a beautiful woman from Montana.