A/N: Final chapter! Hope you've enjoyed this fic. I said it would be about seven chapters, and it's been ten. Feel that's not too bad. In the scheme of things. And further happy Advent Calenderness.

The light faded and for the briefest of eternities, Danny was surrounded by the feeling of nothing, and then they were standing back in the hotel room and Rusty's hand was flat on the mirror, and he watched the surface ripple and close over as Rusty took his fingers away.

Rusty. Danny was looking at Rusty. For the first time in over a year, and he was seized by the longing, the need and he reached out desperately and pulled Rusty into his arms, and the feeling of Rusty, warm and real against him was sheer relief and exhilaration,and Rusty returned the embrace every bit as fiercely and Danny couldn't be certain that neither of them was crying.

"Did it work?" he asked presently.

"Yeah," Rusty nodded, then looked at him quickly. "You want to call - "

" - yes," he agreed with an almost apologetic look, because he believed Rusty one hundred percent but he still had to hear her voice.

Rusty took a few discreet steps away, making himself busy going through the mini-bar while Danny dialled.

"Hello," Tess said after a moment, and Danny felt another surge of relief. She was fine. They'd really won.

"Hey, Tess," he said tenderly. "Just phoning to see how you are."

"I'm fine," she said, sounding slightly puzzled. "You just called this morning, Danny, is everything alright?"

"More than alright," he said immediately. "I can't want to talk to you more than once a day?"

"Of course you can," she returned. "Are you sure everything's alright though?"

He hoped so. "Yeah." He swallowed, suddenly wondering. "Just hanging out with Rusty."

"Rusty?" She sounded surprised and delighted. "He's alright?"

"He's fine," Danny assured her.

"Yes..." she said, the frown obvious in her voice. "I'm sorry, I don't know why I asked like that."

Yeah. Danny did. But Tess remembered who Rusty was, that was the main thing, and after a few more moments of tender conversation he said goodbye and hung up.

Rusty was sprawled on the sofa, glass in hand, and a second later Danny joined him. "Tess remembers you."

"Everyone should," Rusty nodded, passing Danny a glass of whisky.

He drank it and stared blindly ahead of him. "I cheated on her," he said hollowly. "She forgave me."

Rusty made an abortive gesture, as though he was going to take Danny's hand but thought better of it. "I'm sorry, Danny," he said in a low voice. "I should never have let that happen. You know I don't - "

" - I know," he cut in quickly. "'s not what we're about." That had been all about the need and the loneliness, on both sides. He looked at Rusty. "That was when I remembered you. If you'd just walked away then - "

" - like you said," Rusty interrupted. "I'd never have been able to stay away completely. Too many things that could go wrong."

Yeah. Danny could believe that. And the together-but-not-together would have continued to torture both of them, and maybe things would never have come to a head. Maybe he'd have lived the rest of his life without remembering, with nothing more than the constant nagging feeling that something was missing. He didn't think he'd ever be happy living like that. "It shouldn't have happened," he said.

"I know," Rusty said, his voice pained. "I - "

" - But that doesn't mean I regret it," Danny said firmly. He regretted hurting Tess. Hated himself for the betrayal and the weakness, but he didn't regret the moment of closeness with Rusty...Sammy.

"It's never gonna happen again," Rusty stated.

"No," Danny agreed. "But in the circumstances..." He never wanted Rusty to be alone.

Rusty looked at him anxiously. "You know, I didn't choose to...be her in order to seduce you or anything, right?"

Danny almost choked. "No," he said after a second. "No, I know you didn't." But now he came to think of it, "Why did you - "

" - wanted something different," Rusty said with a shrug.

"Does it feel strange?" Danny asked curiously.

"Going to miss the hair," Rusty said contemplatively, running a hand through his. He brightened suddenly. "Think I could - "

" - no!" Danny interrupted hastily, before Rusty got any ideas. "You want to give Linus a heart attack? Don't you think he's going to be confused enough?"

Rusty grinned and for a while they sat in silence. After a few moments, he became aware that Rusty was looking at him.

"What?" he said, without looking round.

"What they said..." Rusty began, with uncharacteristic hesitation.

They'd said a lot of things. But Danny knew what he meant. "Wasn't true," he said immediately. "I knowit wasn't true. They were using my...insecurities..." He spat the word out, because they shouldn't have been able to play him like that, no matter what strange power they were using, the doubts shouldn't have been there for them to take advantage of. "I don't doubt you, Rusty. And I'm sorry."

There was a long moment of silence and, frowning, Danny opened his eyes and Rusty had shifted away from him minutely and was staring at the floor. "It wasn't true," he agreed in a whisper. "But it wasn't exactly not true. I didn't letyou go to prison, Danny. If I'd known that was gonna happen..."

The guilt and misery in his voice was rich and aching, and Danny didn't even hesitate, leaning close and pressing his shoulder against Rusty's. "I don't doubt you, Rus'," he said again softly.

"'s not like I can tell the future," Rusty said, not looking at him. "Not while I'm human at least. But sometimes I have...'s like another set of instincts. Feelings, to act on. Just before you...went away...I got this idea like you'd be in danger if I stuck around. So I went to England to see Bash. And when I came back..." When he'd come back, Danny had been in prison. And if he'd never went away, maybe, just maybe, Rusty would have been able to keep him out of prison. There was no doubt it was a near-certainty in Rusty's mind. "I didn't know that's what was going to happen, Danny." His voice cracked."I didn't know.I'm sorry, Danny. I'm so fucking sorry."

There was another long silence. Danny took a deep breath. "You were trying to protect me?" he said at last, his voice barely recognisable.

Rusty winced. "Yeah," he agreed hoarsely. "And I did a lousy job of it."

That wasn't the whole story. "You ever figure out what would have happened?"

"No," Rusty said almost at once, and Danny could hear the evasion.

He turned his head and looked.

Rusty looked away. Closed his eyes. "While you were gone, there was...if you'd been there, you would've done the same thing. You would've had to. Only it all went bad, and I got tracked back home and..." He shrugged and Danny got the point. If Danny had been there, they both would have got tracked, and they'd have found Danny as easily as they'd have found Rusty, and more than that, because Danny didn't live alone and they would have found Tess.

And they had found Rusty. Danny reached out and squeezed his hand urgently. "They hurt you?"

"No," Rusty said after the smallest pause. "No. It didn't hurt a bit."

And that was absolute truth and the grief tore through Danny at the implication. "They killed you."

Rusty still wouldn't look at him. "Doesn't count if no one sees," he said simply.

In a heartbeat, Danny's arms were around him like he never wanted to let go, and there wasn't even a question of forgiveness. Maybe Rusty could have protected him from prison and maybe he couldn't. But the point was that there had been death and Danny hadn't been there. And it did count. It did matter.

"You should have told me," he said simply. Not like he wouldn't have listened if Rusty had said that he had a feeling they were in danger. Not like he wouldn't have been just as anxious to find a way to keep them both alive and out of the pen.

"Before I knew you knew," Rusty pointed out.

Danny nodded. "This time wasn't," he said softly. Rusty could have told them something. "Don't ever do that again."

"It was for Tess," Rusty reminded him, a sharp edge to his voice. "You think I ever wanted you to face that choice?"

"It wasn't your choice to make," Danny answered immediately.

"Everything is our - "Rusty began and stopped all at once.

Danny grinned humourlessly. "Exactly," he said. Everything was supposed to be theirchoice. "Maybe together we could've worked something out from the beginning. Stopped this year ever happening."

Rusty sighed. "Maybe we could've, but maybe we couldn't.Maybe this would've worked out worse. They wouldn't be interested in making a deal with you, Danny. It was always me they wanted to hurt. I walked in there a year ago figuring they'd ask me for a favour. Something distasteful. Something I'd never want to do. And I knew I'd do whatever they asked, I just didn't want you to feel like you were asking me. I didn't want you to choose, Danny. That was my decision."

"We back to you not thinking of me as an equal?" he asked softly.

Rusty looked at him. "No. Because you'd have done the same thing and don't even try to deny it."

He didn't. "Don't ever do that again," he requested softly. "Please."

"Here's hoping I never need to," Rusty said with a sigh.

Sounded good to Danny. He sure as hell never wanted to go through another year like that again. And he neverwanted to lose Rusty again. He turned to look at Rusty for a long, long moment, drinking in ever last detail of hereand realand his.

There was an unexpected knocking at the door, and with a shrug, Danny stood up to get it.

Reuben and Linus were waiting outside and Linus had a bandage prominently on his forehead.

Danny stood back to let them in. "That was quick," he remarked, and he saw Rusty's minute head shake a fraction of a second too late.

"We've been gone four hours," Linus said, eyeing him strangely.

Ah, well. He grinned. "Really? Must've got...distracted." Linus grew wide-eyed and Reuben snorted with laughter. "How are you feeling, kid?" Danny asked seriously.

"Fine," Linus shrugged. "It's just a very minor concussion, the doctor said."

"Good," Rusty said. "You hit your head pretty hard."

"Yeah..." Linus shuffled his feet, looking at Rusty awkwardly for a long moment, with a mix of confusion, discomfort and just the barest hint of terror. "Did I...I mean, I didn't reallyhit on you, did I?"

Yep. He'd been right. Linus was plentyconfused enough.

Reuben was laughing again. Danny wasn't exactly sure that was helpful.

Rusty grinned. "I didn't take it personally," he assured Linus.

"Oh, God." Linus stared blankly and Danny figured there was a chance that they'd finally broken him. And this wasn't fair, because after all Linus had been looking at Sammy, not Rusty. On the other hand... "You just asked him to dinner," he said brightly. "It's not like you got hot and heavy."

"Oh, God," Linus said again, staring wildly between him and Rusty. "You know I didn't...I mean, I'm not even..."

"'s okay, Linus," Rusty cut in, and it was debatable whether he was taking pity or if he just didn't want Linus thinking too hard about what he remembered. "Like I said. You hit your head pretty hard."

"Right." Linus didn't exactly convinced.

Reuben was frowning. "So you guys have made up, right?"

Danny ignored the jolt of pain. Funny. Earlier, he'd been furious to think that Sammy had been messing with their friends' memories. Now he was conspiring to do the exact same thing. "Yeah," he said easily. "Was nothing."

The frown grew a little deeper. "It's been going on for months though, right? Doesn't sound like nothing."

"We're fine," they said in unison, and that seemed to go some way towards allaying suspicion. He supposed an argument was the most rational explanation for why Rusty hadn't been around the past year. And probably people would be quicker to seize on it if everyone didn't know they never argued.

"We're glad you're okay, kid," Danny said into the silence. "Why don't you go and get some - "

" - Benedict beat you up," Reuben said suddenly, staring at Rusty, horror dawning in his voice. It was like he'd just remembered something that had been edging round his mind. "Jesus, Rusty, I'd heard the rumours. I don't know why I didn't put it together."

Danny winced. Of course Reuben would have heard about Sammy. Reuben heard about everythingthat happened in Vegas. And now that knowledge was being translated and Reuben was left with the idea that he'd heard that Rusty had been hurt and he'd done nothing.And that wasn't the way Reuben everworked, and by the look on his face, he was having a hard time dealing.

Didn't exactly help to consider that somewhere Terry was sitting remembering exactly what he'd done and how it had felt. Danny could picture the look on his face. He could only hope that Terry realised now that there were going to be consequences.He hoped Terry was good and scared. He should be.

"Wasn't a big thing, Reuben," Rusty lied reassuringly.

In Danny's head the memory of Sammy lying bleeding on the floor played over again.

"Wait, this actually happened?" Linus exclaimed. "For real?"

"Way I heard, he broke your arm," Reuben said, staring hard. "Personally."

"Technically it was already..." Rusty broke off. "Look, he caught me cheating. It wasn't like it was unprovoked."

Linus blinked. "He caught you cheating?"

In other circumstances, Danny might have been amused at the fact that Rusty getting caught was apparently so far out of Linus' view of how the world should work.

"I let him catch me," Rusty explained. "There was this girl and...never mind. Point is, it was necessary. So forget about it."

"Forget about it?" Reuben repeated, sounding scandalised. "You think there's a hope in hell that's going to happen? So maybe I don't know what's been going on the past year, but I know Benedict's going down."

Rusty turned and caught Danny's eye, but Danny just smiled coldly.

Terry was going to pay.

It was late and Rusty leaned on the balcony railing and gazed out over Las Vegas. Felt good to be here. To be him.For the first time in a year, he was truly happy.

He heard the balcony door slide open behind him and a second later Danny joined him. He didn't look round but he smiled and they stood in silence and watched the lights below.

"I remember when this was a staging post on the trail West," Rusty said. "A couple of wooden buildings, lot of people looking to build a new life. At night you could see the candlelight from across the desert."

Danny tilted his head towards him but said nothing.

"First place on the Strip was El Rancho," he remembered. "Right over there. 1941, I lived there for a year. Organised crime was just starting to take an interest."

"Town's changed," Danny commented quietly.

"On the surface anyway," he said. The spirit of the town never changed. "Didn't come back for a couple decades or so, but even then it didn't feelany different." He smiled, remembering. "That was the first time I met Reuben, too. He was working as a cashier in the Desert Inn. Just a kid, but he was bright and sharp, and him and me ran rings round this group of corrupt undercover cops for months.We sicced 'em onto the competition and walked away clean, with the cash. And Reuben wound up a floor manager."

He could feel Danny watching him, but when he turned his head, Danny had already looked away.

"First time I met Reuben..." Danny began, and paused, his voice suddenly uncertain. "First time I met Reuben was during a craps game. I was shooting double sixes. He straightened me out."

Rusty didn't say anything. He knew the truth, after all. All the things Danny had given up for him. This was the cost of their happiness, and he was left trying to live with that. He closed his eyes and hid the truth from Danny. Sometimes, it was better not to know.

"Can't imagine Reuben as a kid," Danny added after a moment.

"Everyone starts out that way," he said stretching his arms across the railing.

"Except you," Danny said quietly.

"Except me," he agreed.

For a while there was silence, apart from the fireworks exploding over the Stratosphere."

"Were you..." Danny started, and stopped, shaking his head.

Rusty turned to look at him. "What?"

Danny sighed and carried on staring out over the city. "Were you alone? Back in El Rancho."

"I had friends," he said, thinking back to days without bright lights, when poker was played in dusky back rooms right along side those dealing in booze and drugs and guns, and the long con was the best game in town. "No one like you though." But then, there had never been anyone like Danny.

"They were right about one thing," Danny said, leaning on the railing heavily. "This is all fleeting."

They'd said that Danny was just the latest in a long line. One more infatuation. One more person that he would love and leave and forget.

"Don't be an idiot," Danny said softly. "You don't forget. You neverforget."

He watched the lights spread out below them. So many people walking these streets. So many lives burning brighter than the city around them. But even the brightest fire burned out eventually.

Danny shone with a splendour he'd never known before. Even after all these years, sometimes he was still dazzleblind.

"One day I'll die," Danny whispered. "And you'll be alone."

(The brightest fire...)

For a moment, it seemed as though all the lights in Las Vegas dimmed.

"Don't stay alone, Rus'," Danny went on, looking straight at him, his eyes bright and fierce and pleading. "When I'm gone, live. For me."

One day Danny would die. And he would be alone. And nothing would ever burn so bright again.

He reached out and took Danny's hand and the stars shone down, just for them.