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"God dang it! Why the hell haven't we heard from Ed or anybody?" Sam shouted as she approached Nessa in pit five.

"I don't know, but I am really starting to get worried. Mike would tell us if he heard from them wouldn't he?" Nessa asked the question, more directed at herself then Sam. Sam looked at her with a face full of doubt and attitude.

"Come on, we are going to find dork number two." She said turning around heading towards the nearest door marked 'Employees Only'. As the two made their way down the long hallway Mike came barreling around a corner.

"Hey, hey, hey, where are you off to? Have you heard from Ed?" Sam asked not caring about the look that Mike was giving her.

"Sam if you haven't noticed I am a little busy at the moment." Mike said brushing by her.

"Mike is there something wrong with Danny?" Nessa chirped in. Mike turned around to look at Nessa.

"No Danny's fine for the moment I don't have time to fill you in. I have two card cheats at pit six and a guy with a monkeys paw at the slots. Meet me in Mystique in twenty minutes and I'll fill you in." Mike said walking away in a hurry.

"ugh I hate when he does that!" Sam shouted sounding very flustered. "You know what screw this, I am not going to wait around for Mike to tell us what's up I'm just going to try and call Ed." Sam stated flipping open her cell phone. Hitting the speed dial number two she raised the phone to her ear and heard the phone ring. "Dang-it Ed pick up your phone." She said talking to herself pacing back and forth. Nessa just stood back and watched her friend practically ware a whole in the floor.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

Ed tossed down his knife and fork putting his hands to his stomach.

"I am stuffed." He said looking at his wife across the table. "Thank you for breakfast sweetie."

"Yeah thank you Mrs. D." Danny chimed in.

"Danny that is the tenth time you have thanked me for breakfast today and you know you can call me Jillian." She said smiling reaching over and placing a hand on his to let him know she was only having fun.

"Daddy your phone's vibrating." Delinda said pointing to the flashing phone on Ed's belt. Looking down at the caller ID Ed saw Sam's number.

"Well this is the second call in half an hour I guess I should get this one." Ed said picking up the phone. "Hello."

"Oh finally, where are you? Why haven't you been answering your phone? What's up with Danny is he ok?" Sam began to rattle off questions, much like everyone else had done at least once over the past two days.

"Whoa. Whoa, whoa Sam, slow down. Danny's fine, he's here with me."

"Well why haven't you been answering your phone? You always answer your phone." She asked starting to calm down.

"What is with everyone and my phone? I was eating breakfast with my family if that's alright with you?" Ed said sarcastically.

"Wait I thought you said that Danny was with you." Sam said with a perplexed look on her face.

"Yeah, like I said before, I was eating breakfast with my family." Ed said looking at Danny. Danny looked back only hearing one side of the conversation.

"Oh, well what are we going to do about Mary's arrangements?" She asked looking to her feet for the twentieth time that day.

"Danny and I will take care of it. Don't worry about it. How's Mike handling things? He's never been left in charge by himself before."

"I don't know talk to Nessa." She said quickly handing the phone over to her friend and then walked away.

"What was all that about?" Ed asked confused, wondering if he said something wrong.

"She's pretty worked up about Mary. She keeps trying to hide it, but that's not working out well for her."

"Yeah I know, I have the same problem on this end." Ed said obviously hinting towards Danny. "Anyway how's Mike handling things, any problems?"

"Well he just rushed by saying something about card counters and a monkeys paw, but he had it all under control, plus Mitch and the guys are helping."

"Ok good, if you need anything or you think Mike gets in over his head you call and let me know."

"Ok, I'll talk to you later pops."

"Ok, thanks Ness." Ed said hanging up the phone. By this time Delinda had gotten up from the table and went to pack the clothes she was wearing the night before. Jillian had already cleared the table was now rinsing off the dishes and handing them to Danny who was placing them in the dish washer.

Jillian turned around briefly to see her husband watching them.

"You know Ed you could learn a few things from Danny." She said teasingly.

"What? I help with the dishes." He said defensively.

"Yeah, but look Danny actually loads the dish washer correctly. You just throw everything in there. Where did you pick that up?" she said looking towards Danny.

"Oh, when we were kids Mary would come over and cook me breakfast, but she would always make me do the dishes. She still…" Danny stopped in his tracks and set down the plate. He quickly looked at Ed and Jillian and then walked briskly out of the room to the backyard. Ed made his way over to Jillian and wrapped his arms around her. He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and followed after Danny.

Opening the door to the backyard Ed looked to his right and saw Danny standing by the pool. The older man made his way over to Danny and placed a hand on his tall shoulder.

"Danny it's ok to talk about her. Mary was a huge part of your life."

"Ed I was going to propose. I had the ring, all I had to do was meet her at her house after work." Ed was still positioned behind Danny.

"Danny…I am so sorry. I know that it is painful to talk about her right now, but we need to start making arrangements." Danny was still looking down at his feet and started to shake his head again.

"Ed I am not ready for that."

"Danny, nobody's ready for something like this, but it needs to be done. Now if you'd like I can have Sam and Nessa…" Danny started to shake his head more insistently now.

"NO, I'll do it."

"That's what I thought. Now what do you want to do. Do you want to make the arrangements from here, the Montecito, your apartment, or what?"

"I don't care, we could do it from here I guess." The two walked back into the house. Ed looked up to see Jillian and Delinda talking at the table. Ed motioned for Danny to sit down at the table near them as he walked through the living room and into his office to get his laptop. Before closing it something caught his eye. His inbox had been up on the screen and there were several emails from one Ed sat down in his chair and put his head to his hands. Someone came walking into the room, but at the moment he didn't care. Luckily for Ed it was only Jillian, if it were Danny it would only cause him more pain and if were Delinda, well he just didn't like feeling vulnerable around her. With Jillian everything was right.

"Are you ok, you have been in here for awhile?" She said walking over behind her husband and placing her hands on his shoulders. She then peered over to look at the computer screen and saw what had caught Ed's attention. "Oh Ed I am so sorry, things like that are going to happen a lot right now." She said resting her head against his.

"I know, it just startled me that's all." He said getting up from his chair.

"Ed, it's alright to feel this way." She said giving him a sincere look.

"I know, but I can't let Danny see me like this. Right now I think the only thing that's holding him together is us being here for him."

"Yeah I know, but that doesn't mean that you have to hide it from me." Ed knew she was right and put his arms around her to give her a hug. Jillian always knew what to say to him and how to calm him down and vise versa. The two stood there for a moment engrossed in their hug while Ed thought how lost he would feel if anything had ever happened to Jillian. He then tightened his grip around her and let her go. Grabbing his laptop he put his arm around Jillian and vacated the room.

As the two walked into the kitchen Danny and Delinda were sitting at the table with a pad and paper.

"Well Danny and I have already decided on a few things. He's picked out a funeral home, the cemetery, and where we are going to have the celebration of life." Delinda said listing off some things that she had written down on her notepad.

"Roses." Danny said simply and quietly.

"What?" Jillian asked sympathetically.

"The flowers, they have to be roses."

"Ok" Delinda said adding it to her list.

"Do you have a specific reverend that you would like me to call?" she asked. Ed and Jillian began to sit down now.

"um, no I don't think so. Do you guys know one that would be good?" he said looking towards Ed and Jillian.

"Um, yeah actually Reverend Sykes is a really good guy." Ed said

"He actually christened Delinda." Jillian chimed in.

"ok then what else do we need to know?" Danny asked not wanting to focus on this anymore.

"Well there are two more things I can think of." Delinda said very slowly. "We need to pick out what she is going to where and we need to notify the people that you would like to come to the funeral and let them know the time and place."

"Yeah ok, well there is a black dress that she has, I can't describe it. I'll go over and pick it up later and I'll make the list of people throughout the day." He said getting up from the table and going back out to the backyard. The three Delines sat around the table and just watched Danny exit the room. They could see him standing at the edge of the pool just staring. Ed started to get up when Jillian tugged on his arm.

"Eddie just let him be."

Delinda was still watching Danny intently when she saw him begin to move. "Daddy." She said not quite yelling, but loud enough to sound alarmed. Ed turned around to see Danny kick off his shoes and tear off his sweatshirt and jump in the pool. Danny began to do laps in the pool with the whole fancy turn around kick thing the kids on the swim team do.

"He's fine, he just needs to clear his head." Ed said taking in a deep breath.

The three of them sat back down and began to put Danny's wishes for Mary in order. After about an hour Delinda got up from the table and walked out to the pool. At first he didn't even realize she was there but when he finally came up for a breath he saw her out of the corner of his eye.

"You're like a fish. I don't think you have come up for air the entire time." She said smiling at him.

"Yeah I love to swim. Mary and I used to sneak into the hotel pool areas when we were kids." He said smiling at first, but the smile quickly faded.

"Where did you learn to swim like that?" Delinda asked slightly changing the subject.

"Wha…oh I was on the swim team in high school." He replied quickly.

"Really I had you pegged as a varsity football guy." She said smiling again. Danny was now leaning on the side of the pool.

"Yeah I played JV football for a year and varsity football for three, but I was on the swim team too."

"Really, I would never have guessed that about you." Danny began to get out of the pool. "I have always wanted to learn how to do those fancy, turn, under water, things that you were doing." She said giving Danny a towel that she had brought out with her.

"Yeah, well if you go get changed I'll teach you." Danny said

"That's really nice of you, but the pool hasn't been heated. It's probably freezing." She said wrapping her hands around herself.

"Oh my god, that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. It's the middle of summer and you won't get in the pool because it hasn't been heated." He said laughing.

"What, why is that funny?" She said laughing a little herself.

"Just go and get changed." He said still laughing to himself.

"No, it'll be freezing."

"Oh yeah." He said stepping forward to push her into the pool. Danny's sudden movement startled her and she outstretched her arms dragging him into the pool with her. As the two came up for air they gazed into one another's eyes for a moment and Delinda moved in for a kiss. Two seconds after their lips touched Ed and Jillian came walking out into the backyard to see their daughter and Danny kissing in the pool. At first the two didn't notice the older couple, when suddenly they split apart when they heard the sound of Jillian clearing her throat.

Danny looked at the two and got out of the pool hurriedly. He walked out of the pool area and over to the edge of the Delines property. Delinda, embarrassed that she tried to kiss a man who just lost his fiancé, quickly got out of the pool and ran into the house.

"Jesus, what the hell was that?" Ed was now pacing back and forth.

"Eddie, he just lost the love of his life and Delinda has been helping him through it. Just calm down, plus you know that you like Danny and Delinda together." She said smiling at him. Ed looked at her with a surprised look on his face, although he knew he shouldn't be surprised she could always tell how he was feeling or what he was thinking.

"Yeah well I know but…"

"but what? Danny's going through a hard time right now and he doesn't know how he's feeling. You're just going to have to understand that." She said holding on to one of Ed's arms.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

"Oh my god what the hell was I thinking? I'm such an idiot; I can't believe I just did that. Wait a minute he kissed me back." Delinda was talking to herself in a very jumpy state. She didn't know what to make of this. She would never have gone after Danny if Mary were alive. Why all of a sudden was she falling for him? She couldn't answer any of these questions and she was panicking. She had to admit, she was falling for him; his tall dark body, his dark brown hair, and the way he made you feel like you were the only person on the earth when you looked into his eyes. She still couldn't get over the fact that Mary hadn't been gone for more then a day and she felt like she was moving in on her turf; although Mary did tell her to take care of him. Is that what she had meant? Not to mention Danny was there too and he wasn't all that innocent he kissed her back. Delinda franticly shook her head to get rid of all the thoughts that had been streaming in and out.

"you ok?" a voice came from the doorway that nearly scared her death. She swiftly turned around to see her mother leaning against the wall. Relieved that it was only her and not Danny or worse her father, she collapsed on the bed sinking her head into her hands.

"Oh mom, what was I thinking?" Jillian smiled and walked over and sat down on the bed next to her daughter.

"You like him huh?" Jillian asked putting an arm around the young woman. Delinda took her hands off of her face to look at her mother and shook her head yes.

"Ugh, I don't want to like him. He just lost Mary and there's a rumor going around he was going to propose, I can't do this to Mary."

"Sweetie, Mary told you to take care of Danny and if I am not mistaken she also told him not to sit around for the rest of his life. Now granted I don't think she had in mind for him to move on the day after she died, but it is ok to have feelings for Danny and I saw the way he was looking at you he has feelings for you underneath all the hurt he is going through right now. You just have to take things slow." Delinda nodded her head in understanding and leaned over to hug her mom. "Now why don't you go and change AGAIN, and meet us downstairs."

"Yeah ok." Delinda said getting up from her bed heading towards the bathroom. As she shut the door Jillian made her way out of the room and headed downstairs. She made her way through the living room and into the kitchen where she looked out the window into their backyard. She could see Ed out towards the edge of the property talking to Danny as the two looked out over the strip. It looked to be a serious conversation but got lighter when Danny playfully hit Ed on the arm. They turned around to come back in smiling the whole way. The two men came in laughing and Danny took his seat on the stool at the breakfast bar.

"What are you two laughing about?" Jillian asked mysteriously.

"Nothing." Ed said rather quickly.

"Yeah right, nothing, what he said." Danny said looking at Ed.

Jillian turned to look at them after putting a cup in the sink and saw a tattoo that Danny had on the upper left portion of his chest. She leaned in a little closer to look at it.

"See Ed you need to get back to the Gym your wife can't get enough of this." Danny said motioning towards his own physique. The older man turned around seeing what Danny was talking about. Jillian smiled to herself and glanced at her husband.

"Ed doesn't need to go to the gym, he is perfect just the way he is. I was actually looking at the tattoo you have. It is similar to the one Ed has on his arm." Danny looked down at his chest and then over to Ed.

"The kid idolizes me so much he had to get a matching one." Ed said casually and then couldn't keep a straight face and burst out into laughter.

"No, but really it was something I got before I was deployed the first time. I got this one too." He said reaching over and pointing to the one on his right arm.

"yeah I see that. This one just caught my eye because it's so similar to Ed's." Just then Delinda came walking into the kitchen.

"Ok well now that I have freshened up for the second time today thanks to Danny I am ready."

"Ready for what?" Ed asked confused.

"Well now that we have most of the arrangements done we have to go over to the hotel, pick up Danny's things, put some of the arrangements in place, and…talk to Mike, Sam, and Nessa." She said her voice starting to fade.

"Yeah ok, but I'll have to meet you guys there." Danny said clearly not giving out the reason why.

"Why?" Ed asked not caring about Danny's privacy.

"I have to stop by my dad's house." He said quietly.

"Ok then Delinda and I will take my car over to the hotel, Danny you take your car, go over to your dads, and then meet us at the casino." Ed said throwing Danny his shirt and shoes that he had brought in earlier.