Title: Scars
Author: DrawnToDarkness
Rating: T
Pairing: Danny/Sarah
Spoilers: General for the series.
Summary: One-shot following the story 'Shining Armour and Silver Linings' but you don't need to read it - all you need to know is Sarah and Danny are alive and home but not entirely unscathed..

He watched her from the doorway of the bedroom they shared in their new home – a flat that had formerly belonged to their friend and team mate, Captain Hilary Becker, who had no need for it any more now he was happily – sickeningly so, Danny liked to tease – married to the ARC's Field Co-ordinator.

In some ways, Danny envied his friend. While he was pleased Becker was home –and thrilled that the Captain had been able to let go of the guilt and emotional baggage he'd been shouldering when they'd last met – Danny couldn't help but watch the younger couple and be envious that Becker had done what he couldn't – he'd found Jess before she could be harmed irrevocably by her ordeal, while Danny...

... Danny had found Sarah by chance, not because he'd been looking for her, and he got frustrated sometimes that he hadn't found her soon enough.

If he'd been just a few hours earlier, if the anomaly he'd followed Patrick through had opened just that little bit sooner...

She was alive, and they were home, but the Sarah Page who stood in front of the full-length mirror was not the woman she'd once been and he blamed himself for that.

He blamed himself for a lot of things where the woman he was undoubtedly in love with was concerned.

He should have told her, before he left, how he felt about her.

Should've let her come with him like she'd asked, or at least should have forbidden her and Becker from looking for them if he and the others didn't make it home.

He should have gone searching for her when he heard of her death, should have been brave enough to take the risk of changing timelines consequences be damned.

In the end, he hadn't needed to, but Danny still felt guilty that he'd found her by accident and not because he'd been trying.

He felt guilty because he'd given up on her.

Sarah had laughed at him when he confessed as much, but though her eyes had been warm, her laughter had been a little bitter. She'd been dead, she reminded him, still a little shell-shocked at herself at the revelation. Left for dead, Danny had corrected, but neither of them held any blame in their hearts for Becker, who they knew would undoubtedly blame himself.

"It's okay, Danny. You had other priorities, and for so long, you didn't even know." She'd cupped his face with her hands and kissed him sweetly under the shade of the canopy of the trees they'd made their home in whatever godforsaken era they'd been in at the time. "You found me when it counted and that's all that matters now."

Fate, destiny. Whatever power had led him to her, Danny was grateful to it.

Grateful, and regretful that it hadn't intervened sooner.

It was a reminder she would have to live with for the rest of her days, a visible mark of just how close her brush with death had been.

The puckered line marred the otherwise smooth skin of her chest, a jagged line that sliced from her collar bone, down between her breasts and curved around towards her back.

Sometimes, she could still feel it. The agony as the sharp claw sliced through her skin, the putrid breath hot on her face as the creature pinned her down, against the rotten interior of the car she'd sought protection in.

Shaking herself mentally, Sarah closed her eyes for a few moments, forcing the memory away. Once she'd managed to push it back into the dark recesses of her mind where she tried to convince herself it belonged, she opened her eyes to study her reflection once more.

Unattractive.

Disgusting.

Ugly.

Those were the words that ran through her mind and ate away at the confidence she'd always had before.

"You're beautiful." The man who appeared in the mirror behind her met her gaze unwaveringly, his blue eyes warm and tender. "You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen."

Tears stung her eyes at the sincerity in Danny's voice but Sarah shook her head wordlessly.

She didn't want to hear any lies, no matter how comforting they were or how sweetly they were delivered.

She didn't want to be told something she was sure wasn't true.

"Sarah." Moving his hands to rest on her shoulders, Danny turned her around, forcing her away from the reflection that tormented her. "You are beautiful. You see those marks as being a weakness but I see them as being a reminder of how strong you are. Of what you survived. And I thank god for it every day because I don't know what I'd do if you hadn't."

"You'd be fine." Looking away, Sarah blinked back the tears that stung her eyes in frustration. She was tired of crying, tired of being weak. And it was sod's law that whenever she did break down, Danny was always the one to witness it. "You already thought I was dead, Danny, and you were fine."

"I was fine because I had to be. Because I had to find Patrick." Pain flickered in his eyes, the grief over his brother's passing still lingering on. "But if I'd lost him before finding you… I wouldn't have come back, Sarah." He waited until she looked at him before continuing. "I would have taken my chances in whatever time I was in and prayed for a quick end."

Shocked, Sarah could only stare at him for a few moments. She shook her head, not wanting to believe his words despite the sincerity in his voice. "That's not true. You'd have come home and…"

"Without you, I wouldn't have had a home to come back to. I mean it, Sarah." His hands tightened on her shoulders and he lowered his head so he could rest his forehead against hers. "I didn't realise how much you meant to me until I came back and they told me you were gone. I should never have left you, Sar. I should never have..."

The tears she'd been fighting slid down her cheeks but Sarah did nothing to stop them. She lifted her own hands to his face, pulling back just enough so that she could force him to look at her, and her heart ached at the depth of emotion shimmering in his eyes.

"I love you," she told him, wondering if she'd ever not feel the little thrill she got at being able to tell him when she'd once thought she never would. "I don't blame you for any of this, Danny, and I wish you wouldn't blame yourself."

"And I wish you could see yourself through my eyes and know how beautiful you are." Closing the gap between them, Danny kissed her, lightly at first, tasting the tears on her lips before they parted beneath his. He moved his hands from her shoulders, tangling one in her dark hair while the other slid to the small of her back, pressing her closer. "You are beautiful," he murmured against her mouth, "so beautiful."

Even as her hands tightened on his shoulders, Sarah thought about the scars marring her skin and knew she should protest. She didn't get the chance, though, as Danny turned them swiftly, walking her backwards towards the bed.

He lowered her down to the mattress carefully and knelt beside her, staring down at the skin left exposed to his gaze by her bra before lowering his head. He started at the top of the scar, near her collar bone, and kissed his way along itself length, lips and tongue gentle over the sensitive skin.

Once he reached its end, he retraced his steps, and continued to kiss his way up the slender line of her throat to her lips, which parted on a sigh as he settled over her.

"You are beautiful," Danny told her when the kiss ended, his voice husky with emotion. "And I will gladly spend every day for the rest of my life showing you how much if you'll let me."

"Every day?" A smile curved the corners of her mouth, her voice breathless as she gazed up at him.

"For the rest of my life," he repeated, eyes solemn as they locked with hers. "Marry me, Sarah. Stay with me forever."

Tears stung her eyes again but for the first time in far too long, their cause was good. Nodding wordlessly, Sarah wound her arms around his neck and drew him down, murmuring her answer against his mouth. "Forever."

End