Here it is: the final instalment of Aftermath! *tear* It's like T-minus a couple of hours to the finale where I am, and I'm trying not to freak out, but it's not going so well. *reaches for brown paper bag to breathe into*
Anywho, I want to thank everyone who has kept coming back to this story to see how it unfolded – it means a lot to me. I also want to sent a special thank you to afrozenheart412, Lindsay1234, uscrocks, and conche - you guys have been reviewing since day one, and have continued to do so, even though you've heard nothing back from me. I wanted to let you guys know that I have read your comments and I really appreciate them. I will be replying soon, but I just wanted to thank you ahead of time. *hugs*
Just for your information, the section in italics covers the period between the end of the previous chapter and where the epilogue picks up.
One last time: I own nothing but my mistakes, so I seriously hope that nobody tries to sue me.
Please enjoy the epilogue to Aftermath!
It had been close to six months since Shane Casey had taken Lindsay and nearly destroyed Danny in the process, and both Danny and Lindsay had come a long way in that time. From the night when Lindsay came home and they talked onwards, they continued to take their recoveries, both as individuals and as a couple, one day at a time, and though it wasn't always easy, Danny and Lindsay had grown more in their relationship.
Each night, Danny continued to tell Lindsay that she would not have a nightmare that night and kiss her to complete the ritual, and it tended to work more often than not, but sometimes the nightmares were more powerful that the combined wills of Danny and Lindsay. Both discovered that their individual issues could be triggered by the types of cases they worked on. In Lindsay's case, her trigger was not any one particular type of case, so she was never sure of what would send her over the edge until she went to sleep at night and the nightmares came back. She found that they had toned down somewhat in subject matter, but each still involved Shane Casey coming after her, Danny and Lucy. She had started to wake herself up earlier in the dreams, so she wouldn't get to the part where Casey succeeded in hurting someone she cared for the most, but she'd had enough nightmares to be able to guess how each new one would've ended.
Whenever she was awoken by a nightmare, she would automatically turn to Danny and want to talk to him about it. Since she no longer woke up crying, Lindsay always expected to have to wake him up, but each time she found that he was already awake, ready to listen to what she had been dreaming about and to tell her that it wasn't even possible anymore because Shane Casey was dead and not able to come after them or Lucy. The return of her nightmares usually only lasted for as long as she was working on the case, so Danny went out of his way every time he saw her during those cases to remind her that she was going to be OK and that he wasn't going anywhere on her, gestures that she really appreciated.
In that six month period, Danny had worked cases that involved people murdered by their significant others. Every time, no matter what the circumstances of the cases were, Danny felt himself flash back to his freak-out in the interrogation room, and he felt the thoughts of his family being better off without him try to take hold once again in his mind, When it happened, he immediately sought out Lindsay, whether in person or over the phone, to tell her that he loved her and that he wouldn't leave her. Lindsay automatically understood that him getting in contact with her meant that he was having a really hard time dealing with his feelings, so she would remind him that she loved him just as much, that she knew he wasn't going anywhere, and reassured him that he was strong enough to finish the case because she was ready to support him when he needed her most.
To outsiders, these gestures and words may have seemed simple, but to Danny and Lindsay, with everything they had been through together, they were priceless lifelines that reminded them that they were never alone in what they were feeling.
Probably the hardest couple of days that Danny and Lindsay had to survive through in the whole six month period were the three days when Mac was at a conference in Philadelphia and Hawkes had come down with a nasty bout of the flu at the same time. Hawkes had offered to still come into work given that they were already short a CSI, but Stella, in charge with Mac gone, refused to let him anywhere near the lab for fear that someone else would catch what he had. To pick up the slack, Adam went into the field more often to help with evidence collection, and he, Stella, Danny and Lindsay were all pulling double shifts. Stella had tried to make it a little easier on the young couple by scheduling them so that one of them was able to watch Lucy for a significant chunk of the day while the other one was at work, allowing Stella to be only down one available CSI at a time, but the arrangement also meant that Danny and Lindsay barely saw each other, either passing each other at work as one came on shift and the other went home or coming home or leaving for work while the other one was asleep. The arrangement was anything but ideal, but they made it through the first day.
The second day got exponentially worse, as the case they'd caught at the beginning of Lindsay's shift involved a young couple being murdered, leaving their two young children orphans. It managed to set both Danny and Lindsay off, and though Stella would have loved to not have the two of them working on a case that hit way too close to home, she had no choice but to keep them on it. Danny was managing his feelings about the case by channelling them into solving it, but Lindsay was not having any success at putting her thoughts and feelings aside, and without the chance to talk properly to Danny about them, she was struggling. To add insult to injury, the case seemed too similar to her nightmare where both of them were murdered in their office, and remembering all too well the events of the two following days, she was desperate to avoid repeating her mistakes.
Lindsay just wanted the case to be over, and so did Danny.
That first night, she went home to relieve their babysitter, and she was OK while she had Lucy near her to distract her from what was going on. After she had put her daughter to sleep, Lindsay dragged herself off to bed, knowing what would happen to her the minute she closed her eyes, but also knowing that she couldn't be afraid to go to sleep. She managed to last a couple of hours before a nightmare hit her, and when she woke up, she instinctively reached out for Danny, forgetting for a moment that he would still be at work for a couple of hours. As she started to cry, she reached out for Danny's pillow and wrapped herself around it, trying to take solace in his scent until she could have the real thing comfort her.
He came home several hours later absolutely exhausted and he made a beeline for their bedroom, needing to crash. He found Lindsay curled around his pillow and he knew right away that she had had a nightmare, and his heart broke for her. He quickly stripped down and threw on a pair of sweatpants before climbing into bed and pulling her into his arms. Having unintentionally fallen back into a restless sleep, Lindsay woke up the second that she felt the bed dip under his weight and she started to cry again, discarding his pillow and instead clinging to the real thing. He listened as she told him about her nightmare and he felt her calm down somewhat after unburdening herself. She asked if they managed to close the case, and she could hear the sorrow in his voice as he had to tell her that it was still open. She wanted to talk more to him, but she could see that he was already fighting to stay awake, so she kissed him sweetly and told him to go to sleep. He was asleep not long after, but sleep was much more elusive for Lindsay. When she was finally drifted off, it felt like it had only been ten minutes before the alarm went off to wake her up for her shift. Danny had only been home for three hours, so she let him sleep and went to work.
Her shift on that third day ended up being one that seemed to go on forever, and when she next saw her husband, they had a likely suspect but couldn't track him down. This guy was no stranger to the legal system, but Lindsay was angry after she learned that he'd managed to get off on his last charge, a murder wrap, on a technicality. She couldn't help but think that if someone hadn't screwed up the last time, two little kids wouldn't be orphans at the moment. She started to cry when Danny came into the room to tell her that they had finally managed to track down the suspect. He could see that she was upset, but he knew he didn't have the time to comfort her, so he reached for her hand and squeezed it firmly, mouthing "I'm sorry" before running to the elevator to catch up with Flack and the rest of the cops that were going.
She finished her shift an hour later without hearing anymore about the case, and as she returned home once again with her husband hours away from coming home, she couldn't help her frustration not only with the case, but also the situation they were stuck in. She knew that things would get better with Mac returning tomorrow, and Hawkes hopefully returning within a couple of days, but she was exhausted and at the end of her emotional tether. Lindsay didn't bother going to bed after Lucy was asleep, not wanting to risk having another nightmare without Danny there. Instead, she sat down on the couch and aimlessly flipped through the TV channels, using the noise to block out her thoughts.
When Danny came home a couple of hours earlier than expected, he found her still sitting on the couch, having dozed off there while watching the TV. He assumed that she was waiting up for him, so he quietly made his way over to her and shut the TV off before leaning down and trying to kiss her awake. Her eyes fluttered open and at first she was sure that she was dreaming, but when he reached down to pick her up and carry her to their bedroom, she realized that he was really there. Placed gently down onto the bed and now fully alert, Lindsay listened as Danny told her that the case was closed and they had gotten the suspect to confess. She let out a sigh of relief at that, but she was even happier to hear that both she and Danny were getting later shifts the next day in recognition of their hard work, despite the circumstances. Lindsay was worried at first that their reward would put an excessive strain on the lab, but she was OK with it when she learned that Mac had arrived hours ahead of schedule and Hawkes was over the flu. Finally able to have some quality time together, Danny and Lindsay spent the next hour expressing what the case had brought up within them before seeking the comfort they found in each other's arms and finally getting the rest they both desperately needed.
Danny found himself thinking about that particular case when he was called into Mac's office at the end of his shift. He was worried as he entered the office, but he left it feeling great. Danny had some great news he wanted to share with Lindsay right away, but he decided that it would be best to make a special event of it, because after two weeks of hard thinking, it seemed like the right time to bring up another subject with her. He hurried home and whipped together a quick pasta dish that he loved as a kid. As Lucy was already spending the day with her grandparents, Danny called his mom to ask if she could keep Lucy for the night, an idea that Maria Messer was more than on board with when she heard what her son was planning for his wife. Getting off the phone with his mom, he cleaned up their home, and himself, before he anxiously waiting for Lindsay to come home.
When Lindsay finally walked through the door, she had planned on spending a quiet evening with her husband and daughter, so she was surprised to not see or hear Lucy anywhere, instead seeing a candlelit dinner for two waiting for them on their dining room table. Lindsay was about to call out to Danny when he appeared in the kitchen doorway, a bright smile lighting up his entire face.
"Hey Montana."
"Hello yourself. What is all this for?" she asked, gesturing towards the table.
"My mom's keeping Lucy for the night, so I thought we could have a dinner date. I've got some news I want to share with you, but we'll leave that until after dinner." Lindsay was more than a little intrigued about the news he had to share with her, but she forgot about that the moment Danny walked over to her, kissed her sweetly, and then took her by the hand over to her seat. Once she was seated, Danny sat down beside her and uncovered their plates, and they started to eat in silence, keeping a connection between them either through looks or by brushing their hands together. When they were both finished eating, Danny quickly cleared the dishes from the table and went to load the dishwasher as quickly as possible, eager to return to his wife and share his news. He found her fiddling with her napkin and the smile he saw on her face told him that tonight was the right time to share with her what he had been thinking about for the past two weeks.
Sitting down again, he reached for her hand and watched as her eyes locked with his, once again intrigued about what he needed to say to her. "I got called into Mac's office at the end of my shift today, and he told me that I'm back on the promotion scale," he stated plainly, beaming at her. She leaned forward to wrap her arms around him, and he returned the hug just as tightly.
"That's great Danny, I'm so happy for you." She knew that it meant a lot to him, so she was ecstatic for him.
"I know, so am I." He paused and took a deep breath before continuing. "Now, there's something else that I want to tell you, but I need you to close your eyes and bear with me for a minute, OK?"
Lindsay nodded and closed her eyes, taking her right hand and using it to cover her eyes to show Danny that she would not peek. Danny promptly removed his wedding band and placed it on the table beside her before he lowered himself from his chair to take a knee on the floor in front of her. Reaching for her left hand, he started to remove her engagement ring and wedding band.
"Danny, what are you doing?"
"Just keep your eyes closed. You'll see in a second." Lindsay didn't want to listen to him, desperate to know why she was now ringless, but she trusted Danny and knew that there was a reason behind whatever he was doing.
Putting her wedding band down on the table next to his, he held onto her engagement ring and hoped to hell that he didn't screw this up.
"OK Lindsay, you can open your eyes now." He watched as her hand peeled away from her face and her eyes blinked several times, unsure if what she was seeing was real. When the initial shock wore off after a few seconds, Lindsay's right hand returned to her face, this time covering her gaping mouth, as tears streamed down her face. She couldn't believe what she was seeing: Danny was down on one knee, holding her engagement ring firmly between two fingers. It took Lindsay a minute to calm down enough to pull her hand from her mouth and actually form words. "Danny, what…"
The rest of her question was silenced as Danny reached forward with his free hand and placed a finger to her lips. It was then that Lindsay saw that Danny had removed his wedding band as well. Her heart began to race as her brain began to process what was going on.
"These past six months have been really hard on the both of us, as individuals and as a couple. There were times when it seemed like you and I were never going to rise above all the crap that life had decided to throw at us. It took us both some time to realize that shutting down and running away was not going to help us move forward after what happened, but we eventually figured it out in the end. We didn't know how to move forward, so we decided that we should take life one day at a time until the time came when we were ready to make long-term promises to each other again. Taking things day by day, we had to choose on a daily basis to trust each other, and that's exactly what we did. I think that's the most important thing we learned in the last six months: to trust each other and rely on each other through the good and the bad stuff. It wasn't easy, but we've made it through.
"For the past little while, I've been wondering whether we were ready to move forward and return to our life before all of this happened. Surviving through those three days of hell by leaning on each other whenever we could, I felt that we were ready, and I hope you do too." Danny saw Lindsay give him a slight nod, and he smiled. "Now, since we agree that we're ready to go back to making long-term promises, I think that there's one that's more important than all the rest and it needs to be addressed first, so I have a question that I need to ask you." Danny paused to take a breath, and he found that he was more nervous than he had ever been in his life. As tears started to form in his eyes, he got to the most important part of his little speech.
"I know I'm not always the easiest person to love, but you are my once-in-a-lifetime chance at true love and happiness. You bring out the best in me every single day, and I can only hope that I do the same for you. You are the most beautiful person that I know, both inside and out, and I would be honoured and forever grateful if you decided to spend the rest of your life with me. Lindsay Messer, will you marry me?"
Lindsay had slowly been losing her composure ever since her eyes reopened, so by the time he asked her to marry him, she was beyond the ability to speak. She never thought that he could've topped the way he had proposed to her the first time, no matter how unconventional it may seem to anybody else, but she knew that he had just done it. She was trying to recollect herself enough to answer him, but it was proving to be a difficult task.
"Lindsay, are you alright?" She nodded her head and it took her another minute or two to answer his question in the best way she knew how:
"I can't marry you Danny, because I'm already married to my soulmate."
She watched as he started to gawk at her, and she couldn't help the wide grin that overtook her face and the giggle that escaped her lips, even as her tears continued to fall. She had been feeling that they were close to being back to normal, and the fact that her first instinct, even in a serious moment, was to lightly tease him, told her that they were ready.
He got up from his knee and sat down once again on his chair, now chuckling to himself.
"You're a real wiseass, you know that?" She could hear in his voice that he was teasing her back. "Here I am, asking you a serious question, and you're…" Danny had looked down for a second while he was speaking, so he never saw Lindsay lunge forward and attack him, throwing herself into his lap before she glued her lips to his. His body reacted faster that his brain did, so he was kissing her back for a while before his brain understood that she was on top of him.
They continued their kiss until both were starving for oxygen. Pulling away only slightly, they were both panting, but Lindsay managed to huff out "You should take that as a 'Yes' to your question." He started laughing, but it sounded more like he was choking because he was still so out of breath.
They sat in silence for several minutes trying to recover, still clinging to one another. Danny was the first to make a move, and he placed her engagement ring down on the table and picked up her wedding band. Removing her left hand from the back of his neck, he brought it between them and held it in his own hand, running his thumb back and forth over it.
"I, Danny Messer, take you, Lindsay Messer, to be my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, to love and to cherish, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, 'til death do us part."
He started to choke up at the end, thinking about how much more those vows seemed to mean after what had happened to them since the first time they had said them to one another. He slid the band onto her finger, then picked up her engagement ring and placed it over top, and after seeing those two rings back in their rightful place, Danny was never more proud to call Lindsay his wife.
Lindsay reached back and picked up his wedding band in a trembling hand, feeling the weight of it in her hand. There had been a brief time when she thought that he didn't want to wear it anymore, but seeing his face and the way he was looking at her, she knew that that assumption could not have been any farther from the truth. Taking his left hand and holding it between them, she began to repeat the words that had been burned into her memory more than a year earlier.
"I, Lindsay Messer, take you, Danny Messer, to be my lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, to love and to cherish, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, 'til death do us part." She slid his wedding band back into place, and then whispered the final two words of their vows: "I do."
He quickly echoed his own "I do" before bringing his hands up to frame her face and pulling her face down to his to seal their union once more. There was no urgency in their kiss, as they passionately explored each other's mouths in a way that they had not done in a very long time. As the kiss continued, Lindsay felt a wave of desire come crashing down on her, and she pulled away from Danny, a mischievous look on her face.
Danny opened his eyes to see why Lindsay had pulled away from him, and he could see a plan forming in her mind, and he had a strong feeling that he was going to love where this was going.
"Lucy's staying with your mom for the whole night, right?" Danny nodded his head and unconsciously licked his lips, certain he knew what she was building up to. "Why don't we go celebrate our remarriage properly, since we have the place all to ourselves? I seem to remember that the last time we did this, I had to finish packing for my trip to Montana the next morning, and I was close to seven and a half months pregnant at the time."
She saw her own desire reflected back at her from his eyes, so she knew that he was game. Still, she waited for him to say something, but Danny only turned toward the centre of the table and blew out the candles. No longer able to see her husband, Lindsay was taken by surprise when he attacked her mouth with his own and she felt him slowly stand up from the chair. She adjusted her legs so that they were locked around his waist and snaked one arm around his neck while the other started to undo the buttons of his shirt and his pants. They continued to fight for dominance in the kiss as they stumbled back towards their bedroom, leaving a trail of clothes in their wake.
There were definitely no nightmares for either of them that night.
Wow, I can't believe that I actually made it to the end of this story, or that I actually managed to finish it before the finale airs!
Once again, I want to thank everyone who has EVER read this story, even if you stopped reading it long ago because you hated it (I know you're not seeing this, but I'm just putting it out there). You guys are all awesome in my books!
Happy finale watching everyone! Bye for now!