A/N: I'm a little disappointed not to get more feedback on this but I guess thats just the way it goes sometimes. I appreciate Kareena's review on Part 2 - thanx :-) Here's the end...

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Part 3 of 3

"No way" Neal gasped, as Lindsay finally parted from Daniel and glanced his way - she felt awful.

"Er, I gotta get to class" said Daniel, glancing across at the three kids that stared at him and Lindsay still, before shooting his girlfriend an apologetic look and walking away down the hall.

"Sam..." his sister began, not sure what she was supposed to say after that, and apparently her brother was going to spare her the trouble of figuring it out as he cut her off.

"So, you're dating Daniel Desario now?" he asked, his expression and tone both telling her he really wasn't thrilled at the prospect.

"Lindsay, he's... he's bad news" Neal cut in, and Lindsay was hardly surprised, after all, she knew her brother's friend had a crush on her.

"Yeah, I heard rumours..." began Bill, determined to join in apparently, but the girl they would talk out of her latest relationship, the one she'd been waiting too long for, would not listen to them.

"Please, guys" she urged them, waving her hand in a gesture that asked them to stop before they even got started, "Not now" she said definitely, as she turned towards the classroom door and disappeared through it.

The three boys, including her brother, stood staring after her, still in shocked from the display they had just witnessed.

"My heart is... broken" exclaimed Neal, loud enough for the whole school to hear, or so Bill would have guessed.

"Shut up!" Sam snapped as they moved down the hall to class.

For as long as he lived, he was sure he would never understand girls, least of all his stupid sister.

* * * * *

As the bell rang for lunch, Daniel Desario sped out of class down the hall and out onto the patio in the hopes of finding Nick before anybody else showed up. The last thing he needed right now was Kim, or any other McKinley students that didn't like Daniel for whatever reason, telling his friend he'd screwed him over. It was his job to be a man and face up to Nick, tell him what had happened and take the consequences. It was how Lindsay would want him to play it, he knew.

Daniel wasn't sure whether to call it lucky or unlucky when he spotted Nick sat alone on the steps, apparently a little out of it, but that was nothing new.

"Hey, man" he said as he approached him, sitting down a little way along the same step, "I gotta talk to you about somethin'"

"Don't tell me, man, you and Kim broke up again?" Nick smiled knowingly, after all this happened every other day lately, sometimes more often!

"Well, yeah" his friend admitted, nodding his head, "but, uh, that's not the whole story..." he explained, pulling his hat off his head and twisting it in his hands, "see, I broke up with Kim for a reason, 'cause I'm kinda changing my life around"

"Are you dropping out of school?" asked Nick, looking stunned and not happy about the idea at all, "Oh my God, are you leaving town?" he guessed again, a little freaked at losing his friend who he had been through so much with, after all, he didn't exactly have that many buddies anymore.

"No, no, nothing like that" Daniel waved away those concerns, "it's just... well, I made some choices, better ones, about my life and all, and..." he struggled to explain, being the kind of guy who rarely shared his feelings or whatever, he really didn't know where to begin with this, except to say it straight and hope he didn't get a punch in the face for his troubles, "Look, Nick, me and Lindsay, we're kind of, y'know, together now" he told him, looking at his boots until the words were said, then glancing sideways at his friend.

"That's not funny, man" he said flatly, looking like he might cry more than explode in anger, and Daniel wasn't sure if that would be better or worse right now.

"Its not s'posed to be funny, Nick" he sighed as he looked across at him, "it's s'posed to be honest and stuff. Look, I just didnt want you hearin' it from anybody else..." he tried to explain as Nick got to his feet and started pacing agitatedly.

"But she loves me" he said definitely, pointing a stern finger into his own chest.

"Hate to break it to you, man, but she don't" Daniel shook his head, "I mean, as a friend maybe, but not like that" he tried to tell him, hoping to lessen the blow, wondering why he hadn't just let Lindsay figure this out with him in that way that only she could.

This was perhaps the most inappropriate moment for anyone else to walk into the situation, which was most likely how Ken came to appear right then.

"Hey, guys" he said, fairly cheerily, until he saw the expressions on both their faces, "Woah, who died?" he asked as he dropped down onto the bottom step.

"Maybe it's me" said Nick, looking almost as devastated as when he first heard about John Bonham, "I think my heart just broke" he added bitterly, throwing a nasty look Daniel's way before storming off.

"Damn!" his apparent ex-friend exclaimed, slamming his hands against the step to either side of him and feeling awful.

"What the hell was that about?" Ken frowned as he looked between one angry friend and the other's retreating form, "Did he and Lindsay get back together and break up again since I last saw them?" he asked, confused by the whole thing - something weird was definitely going on.

"No" he heard Daniel mutter, "I just told him that me and Lindz are together now" he said suddenly loudly, as if he were proclaiming it and didn't care what the consequences were anymore.

On Ken's part, he didn't look so much surprised as proud somehow.

"You and Lindsay?" he nodded, "Dude, that's scuzzy, even for you... but I saw it coming" he smirked annoyingly as Daniel turned to stare at him with wide eyes.

"You did?" he checked, wondering how the hell that had happened.

"Er, yeah!" his friend told him, rolling his eyes at how dumb Daniel could be sometimes, "She's had a crush on you since forever, and you... well, if transparency were an Olympic event, you'd win gold, silver, and bronze all at the same time" he pointed out what he had observed, "It's so obvious you've been psyching up to dumping Kim for good and picking up little Lindsay Weir as your new toy" he shrugged it off like it was nothing, which would have been a good thing if not for what he said next, "Hey, I respect it, man. Who doesn't want to break in a virgin once in a while?" he said, raising a hand as if he were waiting for a high five.

Daniel could only find disgust for Ken's attitude.

"You're sick, y'know that?" he told him as he got up to walk away, "Totally sick"

"Thank you?" he called behind Daniel, really not understanding why that was really a bad thing...

* * * * *

Lindsay was glad to have got through at least half of today without too much drama. She had always imagined that dating Daniel would be some kind of dream come true. Of course, hanging out with him had taught her he was far from perfect, but that didn't mean he couldn't be right for her. It wasn't just that he was hot, which he obviously was, Lindsay just loved the way he didn't seem to be bothered by what anybody else thought. She loved his attitude and the way he made her laugh and his smile and... she could go on all day listing things. It made her wonder how she'd ever come to be dating...

"Nick" she was startled to exit the school building and run right into him just outside the door.

"I'd ask why you're in such a hurry to get out to the patio, but I already know" he said, as he moved away from her, looking upset and she ought to have immediately guessed why, "Need to get to your new boyfriend, Lindsay?" he said nastily, clearly hurt, and that she had been expecting at least.

"Oh, so you know about me and Daniel" she said, trying to think of something else to say next.

Most of the morning, between daydreaming about Daniel and seething over Kim's behaviour, she'd been worrying about Nick. Unfortunately, after several hours, she still hadn't come up with anything sensible or helpful to say when she finally faced her ex.

"He just told me" he snapped, and she nodded in response, at least glad that Daniel had been a man and faced his friend with this instead of leaving her to drop the bombshell.

"Well, that's good" she said awkwardly fiddling with the strap of her school bag, "I hoped he would, so you didn't hear it from just anybody" she explained.

"I didn't want to hear it at all, Lindsay" Nick all but exploded at her, arm waving in an emphatic gesture as he turned away and then back to face her so fast she was surprised he didn't knock himself over, "I thought... I thought you and me were like destined or something" he told her, "that one day it'd be me and you and... and, I dunno, but I thought we'd be together" he yelled, making a show of the both of them, and causing Lindsay's guilt to quickly turn to anger.

It was as if he were accusing her of ruining some perfect romance they had. Truth was, she'd never really believed in their relatinship, and almost felt as if she'd ended up in it by accident somehow.

"Okay, first off, you dumped me, Nick" she snapped at him, counting off her answers on her fingers, "and second, I'm sorry, if you had some big future plan for us, but I never asked for that, okay?" she softened some as she looked up and saw the pain in his face, it really wasn't his fault any more than it was hers, "You're a great guy, Nick, you have a lot of good qualities" she assured him, her hand going to his arm, "and some girl is going to be really lucky to be with you... when you're not stoned" she joked lightly, glad to see the smirk that appeared on his face at that, "but it's not me, okay? It can't be me" she said, sad to be breaking his heart, if that's what he felt she was doing, but knowing that being honest and straightforward was the only way she, Daniel, Nick, or anyone was going to come out of this okay.

It seemed as if Nick accepted her apology and explanation both, even if he didn't like hearing the words she'd said. Sighing, he sat down on the wall and rubbed a hand over his face.

"It was always about Daniel, wasn't it?" he said sadly as he glanced up at her, squinting against the sun that shone from over her shoulder, "I know, you liked him from the start, I just... I tried not to notice because I liked you so much" he said, looking away and feeling even more dumb now than he ever had before.

"I'm sorry" she said, and that he knew Lindsay meant sincerely.

She hadn't meant to hurt him, he knew that. She was such a good person, not a one of them really deserved her, not him or Daniel or any guy he knew. She was a goddess amongst women to Nick, and always would be. All he really wanted was for her to be happy.

"It's okay" he nodded as she sat down beside him, "I guess I shoulda known it was going to happen sooner or later"

"I guess" agreed Lindsay with a slight smile, not sure she ever saw this coming, but knowing it was what she had always wanted on some level, "So, are we okay?" she asked Nick then, her hand on his arm, "because, I don't know about you but I'd really like to stay friends, if that's cool?"

Nick looked sideways at her and managed a smile that Lindsay couldn't quite believe was true, but it would be.

"Yeah" he nodded once, putting her hand over his, "Friends is very cool" he agreed.

"Hey" they heard and both looked up to see Daniel stood before them, shifting awkwardly as he glanced between Lindsay and Nick.

"Hey, man" his friend greeted him, giving his ex's hand a squeeze before he let go and stood up from the wall, wiping dust from the butt of his jeans, "Look, I'm sorry about before. I was being lame about the whole thing" he shrugged it off, knowing this wasn't really worth losing a good friend over - if Lindsay was happy, that was all that really mattered.

"It's cool" Daniel nodded, hands in his pockets and shuffling his feet, "It's kind of a big deal so... yeah"

"Yeah" Nick replied in kind as Lindsay looked between the two, wondering at how dumb boys could be about friendship, so quick to fight, they were lousy at making up.

As he mumbled something about leaving the new couple alone, Lindsay watched Nick walk away and sighed.

"That went better than I hoped" she thought aloud as Daniel replaced her ex beside her and she let her head drop onto his shoulder.

"Can't say the same for Ken, and definitely not for Kim" her boyfriend replied, throwing an arm around her back.

"Does it bother you" she asked, lifting her head a little to see his face, "that you're going to lose friends if we... date or whatever?"

"Nah. Screw everybody else, right?" he grinned, in that way that only Daniel Desario could, "What the hell do they know?"

"Exactly" Lindsay agreed just as loudly, and smiling just as wide as he was, "They're all losers!" she said, throwing a careless hand at the world around them that knew nothing of what that really felt or who they really were.

"Then I guess that makes us the winners, huh?" he asked, laughter dying on his lips as he looked into her eyes.

"I guess so" she agreed, right before he kissed her, reminding her fully why she didn't care what the rest of the world said or thought or did.

For a few moments more, there would be just the two of them, and the rest of the world could wait.

- The End -