A/N: Post Snow Day. This is what happens when shippers have the whole summer to dwell on the final episode.
Danny bolted upright in bed gasping for air. He could feel his body flush with perspiration as he looked around him gulping audibly in a struggle to find his way to consciousness. Lindsay recognized the sounds from the three other times it had happened that night and bolted from her perch in the window ledge of his bedroom. She sat on the edge of his bed, whispering to him.
"Danny its OK. Its over. You're home."
"Montana." was all he could manage. His good hand finding her shoulder for support.
"Yeah." She whispered back. Reaching her hand to his forehead wiping the sweat from his brow.
"You're home Danny." She softly cradled his cheek in her palm. "Its all over."
She noticed this time his body felt hotter under her fingers and she worried if his injuries may be fighting infection. She glanced at her watch and saw he was due for his pain pill, and in her mind it registered the scant hours since his injuries were sustained.
His breathing still erratic, she did the only thing she could think of to calm him, she pulled him into her neck and kissed his temple.
"You're OK Danny." Every muscle in his body was coiled and ready to strike, but he softened as he inhaled her.
"Linds…" he muttered in confusion.
"They wouldn't let you home alone…" she trailed off, unsure if he wanted her there. The images from the hospital came flooding back as he felt her fingertips stroking his hair. They wanted to keep him for observation and he refused. She agreed to look after him during the danger period after a concussion, and promised to watch him faithfully for 24 hours.
"You're due for a pain pill." She again kissed his temple, hoping the intimacy would stave off the arguments.
"I don't need a…"
"Danny, the doctor said to just take them on schedule today, because if you didn't the pain would get ahead of you and it would be too hard to catch up."
She searched his eyes and saw his pupils still wide from the nightmare that woke him. She whispered in his ear, "Be as tough as you want tomorrow Cowboy. Let me take care of you tonight."
She sensed only the slightest hint of a nod and eased herself out of bed. She returned with his medication and a cool damp cloth finding him still flush and breathing heavily. She began to smooth away the sweat on his brow. Lost in the curves of his form she ran the cloth along his biceps and chest.
She sensed him relax against the bed. The urgency of the nightmare passing. The terry cloth warming between her hand and his muscled frame. Grateful he was alive, she leaned in and pressed a kiss against his forehead. Her breastbone inches from his face, the proximity to her soothed him. Her warmth near him, the medication overtaking him, he easily glided back to sleep.
Later he again awoke with a start but this time silently. He opened his eyes to see Lindsay sitting up with her head leaning against his window, sound asleep. He looked at the curve of her lips, remembering how he had recently tasted them. He shuddered when he allowed himself to briefly consider what might have happened to her in the hands of the criminals who had instead tortured him. He would put himself in that place a hundred times over before he allowed her to be harmed. The ache to protect her, to shield her, to merely feel her possessed him.
"Montana," his whispered gruffly with the intent of waking her. She didn't stir.
"Montana," he repeated again more loudly. She leapt from the window and was on his beside in a moment.
"Danny, are you OK?"
"Yeah." He said, his good hand smoothing over her hair.
"You need to rest Danny."
"I know. I just…" he let the sentence hang. He swallowed hard and was unsure if he should continue. They shared a night, a single night. A night on a pool table not even the comfort of his bed between his sheets.
She held his head in her hands, and he searched her eyes for confirmation that her feelings were equal to his. She had sat with him through the night, her eyes full of concern, he decided he had nothing to lose.
"I would just sleep better if you were closer to me." In an instant the reserve and strength she had been trying to show him dissolve as tears escaped her eyes. She collapsed against his chest and rolled in the bed beside him. He enveloped her sobbing frame in his arms, leaning his injured hand atop his good behind her back.
"Danny." She whispered through salty tears against his neck.
"I'm Ok." He said, his own words parroting hers from earlier. "I made it out Linds, I'm OK."
"Danny," she said falteringly through sobs. "I only just found you. I don't know what I would have done if I lost you…especially when it should have been me."
"Leave it behind, Lindsay. Its behind us. I'm here." He said sensing his words getting through to her. "and we're here together." He said pulling her even closer.
She could make no reply. She felt her edges melt in his arms. He could smell her shampoo and it dawned on him how that scent alone made him feel like he was home, safe.
"We're here together Linds." He whispered. "We'll be OK."
A/N: At one point I had a whole M-rated follow-up in mind for this one…but I have zero stick-to-itiveness so I figure I'll bill it as a one-shot.