A/N: Yes. its here. Get the M&M's.
"Lindsay, are you okay up there?"
She wiped the tears from her eyes and cleared her throat
"Yeah, fine Mom. I'll be down in a minute"
She looked on her calendar, February 14th - Valentines Day. And she was still in Montana, without Danny, no mattered how hard she'd tried, there were no flights back to New York for yesterday, today or tomorrow.
She picked up her cell and dialled their home phone, and paced the room.
"Pick up – pick up"
"Hey, you've reached Danny and Lindsay. We aint home, leave a message"
"Hey- Hey Danny, Happy Valentines Day, was hoping to speak to you. But I guess you're not home I'll uh- I'll speak to you later. I Love you"
She disconnected just as her Mom came in the room
"Aww Lindsay, what's the matter honey"
She sat on her bed, tapping next to her, indicating for her Mom to come and sit next to her.
"I miss him Mom. I haven't seen him for a month and a bit; I haven't spoken to him in the past week. And now I won't see or speak to him on Valentines Day."
"It won't be that bad Linds, you have me and Daddy"
"Yeah, I know Mom, but even so-"
"We can do what we used to do when you were younger, ice cream, the park. Then we could go to the church. They have a special service on today that we thought we could go to"
"Mom, we've never been to church."
"So, that's no excuse, I think it would be nice to go, as a family"
"Yeah, alright, I guess so. What time?"
"I'll come get you, take a shower"
"Mom, I just had one"
"Yeah, well take another one"
Lindsay cocked her eyebrows at her Mom, and she looked down, avoiding eye contact
"Do I want to know what you've planned Mom?"
"No"
Lindsay shook her head as her Mother as she slowly shut the door.
Well, today was definitely going to be eventful!
Danny was pacing in his hotel room. He couldn't understand why he was so nervous. He knew Emily would have everything sorted and dealt with. All he had to worry about was, well, nothing.
"Dude, seriously; sit the hell down. You're driving me crazy"
"Chris-"
"Yeah?"
"Do me a favour"
"What?"
"Shut up"
"What Danny? Why?"
"Because I'm freaking out right now"
Lindsay pulled on her jeans and padded out into the hallway, walking into her mom who was carrying her holiday line of Estee Lauder products.
"Mom, why – what – where are you going with them?"
"Never you mind Lindsay Monroe, there's some breakfast on the table for you"
"I'm not hungry Mom; I'll grab something later on in town"
"No. There's some breakfast for you on the table"
"Jeez, alright, alright, I'll eat some breakfast."
"Good"
Lindsay turned shaking her head. Apparently she'd fallen into an alternate universe where her Mother spoke no sense and acted like a crazy.
"Mom?"
"Yeah-"
"I sure as hell hope I'm gonna find out what you've planned later today, cause I can't deal with you acting like a crazy"
"Lindsay, just go open your present-"
"Present?"
"Kitchen table"
Lindsay smiled, kissed her Mom, and ran off down the hallway towards the stairs leading to the kitchen. She practically fell down the stairs. Had Danny had sent her a present?
She got to the kitchen table and sat down, taking in her surroundings. Her favourite room in their home was the kitchen. The centre of the laughter, the base where they could all sit as a family, even if it had been in for 10 minutes when she had somewhere she had to have been. When she and Danny eventually bought their own house, she wanted a kitchen just like hers, a country kitchen where the whole family could practically live in. She smiled and pulled the red box towards her. Slowly, taking the lid off, she smiled at the next box inside the box. How old was he?
Finally, after 6 boxes, she got to the last one.
"A key? He got me a freaking key? If I didn't already live with him it wouldn't be so bad… I'm gonna kick his ass"
"Lindsay, you know it's bad when you start talking to yourself."
"Hey stranger, when did you get back?"
"This morning"
"Remind me where you've been?"
"New Hampshire. Business"
"Business?"
"Yeah, the firm's expanding. What's in the box?"
"A key, valentines present from Danny"
"See Linds, I always told you the guy was whacked. You already live with him, if you weren't, I gotta admit, it'd be kinda sweet. But you know, whatever"
"No, that's what I thought Chris. Hey, you better go get changed, Mom's gonna drag us round Bozeman like she used to"
"Nah, I got out o' it, good luck with that one, have fun Sis" Smiling, he headed for the door
"Jeez Chris you sound like Danny"
His face dropped, quickly, he replaced it with a smile and turned
"Linds, you just have Danny on the brain"
"Yeah, I guess so; get Mom to hurry up would ya?"
"MOM, LINDS WANTS YOU TO HURRY UP-"
"Chris-"she smiled picking up one of the seat cushions "I could have freakin done that" she laughed as she launched it at him
Emily Monroe unbuckled her seatbelt and turned to Lindsay who was sat in the back of their family car
"I can't believe you're dressed to go to church in jeans Lindsay. I thought I'd taught you better."
"You said it was just a little service"
"Yeah, but even so, you could have at least made an effort"
"Mom, please, come on, I just wanna get through today. Please, just leave it okay?"
"She's right Emily. Leave her be"
"Thank you Daddy"
"But Lindsay, you should have come dressed a little better than jeans" he said whilst shutting his car door
She rolled her eyes and climbed out of the car herself "Dad- I thought-"
"Come on, they're opening the doors. We're probably the first ones here. We can get a good seat up front"
He was stood at the front of the alter, dressed in his tux and hyperventilating.
"They're here Danny. I can hear them"
"Shit, - crap, sorry God. Chris, what am I gonna do."
"Stand there and smile like an idiot. It works every time with Linds"
She pushed the doors open to the church, and she smiled at the choice of flowers. They were exactly like the kind she had picked out for hers and Danny's wedding.
She led the way into the church, and pushed through the second set of wooden doors, and just as Danny was about to shout out to her, she turned at the last minute to smile at her Mom.
"I'm sorry I've been so fussy today Mom, I just really miss Danny. I can't believe he wasn't at home when I called. I thought he would be-"
He listened to her talk on for a few minutes about him not being home, him being somewhere else. He had to make himself known.
"What if I had somewhere else I had to be Montana?"
She stared at her Mom, not daring to turn round. She knew that voice; she saw the smile form across her Mother and fathers face.
She whipped round to see Danny stood at the alter, in a tux, stood next to Chris. And as she had expected, Danny was there, smiling like an idiot.
She took off, running down the aisle towards them, and he met her half way, catching her, spinning her round and accepting her kisses.
"Happy Valentines Day Montana"
"Happy Valentines Day Danny"
He set her down and she turned round, so that she was facing her parents.
"You knew, didn't you?"
"Little bit"
She turned on her heel and pointed towards Chris
"And you – you were in on this the whole time. You've been in New York, haven't you? That's why you sounded like Danny. New Hampshire my ass Chris."
"And you Mr. Messer," She turned and prodded his chest "well, I got a few choice words for you as well."
"Like, you love me?"
"That's one-"
"And you wanna marry me-"
"maybe- I haven't brought my dress it's back in New- You have it in the back don't you-"
Danny turned round and looked towards Chris
"Chris I told you we'd forgotten something-"He turned back around to face Lindsay "Do you think I'm really that stupid?"
"Well, I didn't expect to be getting married, so you have to cut me a little slack here."
She glanced round the room. "Danny?"
"Yeah?"
"Why are all these chairs here, if it's just gonna be us?"
"All in good time Montana, all in good time"
Just then the church doors swung open to reveal both Mac and Flack on either side, in tuxes, holding the doors open
Lindsay turned to look at Danny, then back at Flack and Mac
"Welcome to the party Mac, Flack"
"Danny, do you know how lame you sound re-using old jokes- it aint even funny" Flack smirked
"Mac – Flack – Danny – how did you?"
She was cut of by the sounds of excited conversation of the NYPD crime lab's staff filling the church. Her town's dinky little church.
"Hey Linds, told you I'd sort everything didn't I?"
"Yeah, and apparently you weren't kidding either"
She smiled moving towards Danny until she heard a familiar voice
"Kiddo, you better get your ass down this aisle right now. We've got some serious dress up going on backstage"
"Stell?"
"You guessed it, come on, Jess is fixing Peyton's hair in the back"
"Peyton? What, she's here?"
"She said she wouldn't have missed it for the world, go on- get"
She looked back at Danny, who was still smiling at her. "I saw it on your to do list. Call Peyton. So I did. Her and Mac Linds, they talked. It's all good now. I know that's why you didn't want to call her. Now go on, get – hey Stell"
"Yeah"
"Look after her wont ya?"
The girls turned and laughed "Danny, we're just going into the back-"
"I know, but she's all I got"
"And I'll get her here. Don't you worry…"
Lindsay smiled as she walked up the aisle with Stella smiling at her guests.
"How on earth did you manage to pull a wedding off in a week Stell?"
"Umm Linds, - it was two days actually"
"Sorry, what?"
"Danny called me like two days ago, asking if I was busy. Stupidly I said I wasn't"
"You arranged all this?"
"No, he did. I just got everyone here."
"So, the guest list?"
"Him"
"The flowers?"
"Him"
"The dresses?"
"Him"
"The church?"
"Chris"
"I knew he was in on it – getting my parents keeping it a secret?"
"Okay, kid, I'm gonna save you some time. All him. Come on, before he does a runaway bride, lets get you cleaned up kid. Cause I mean seriously Linds, who the hell comes to church in jeans?"
"Don't start with me Stella Bonasera, just don't start with me."
A/N: Okay, so I lied. Next chap is the actual wedding. Just wait before you throw your M&M's at me :P
