Linda frowned as she looked at her ankle. One night of having drinks with her sister in law, and now she was looking at her mistake. It was small, and on the inside of her ankle, but she knew she would get hell for it. "Danny's gonna kill me!" She lamented to her sister in law.

"Oh come on, Linda. It's not that bad. There's only a small amount of skin." Erin tried to reason with her. "It's not that bad. And Danny has a tat. And it's much bigger than yours. It's a whole freakin' crest, for Pete's sakes!"

"I know, Erin. I just... I'm twenty three years old, I should've known better!.. and Danny has two tattoos."

"Really? What's the other one?"

"Semper Fi. Across the top of his heart."

"And you only have two tiny Chinese symbols. What do they mean again?"

"Peace of mind and love and happiness."

"See? All good things, all good things!"

"Erin, that's not gonna help! Besides... I didn't just get those little ones on my ankle."

"You didn't?" Erin sat on her foot on the couch. "Linda Reagan, what did you do?"

"I got another one!" She put her hand over her eyes, ashamed of her drunken self.

"Where?" This is almost too good!

"Lower back! While you were unabashedly flirting with another guy, I got a lower back tattoo!" Linda hung her head, "why the hell did you let me do it?"

"I didn't let you do anything. That was all you, girl."

Linda whimpered, "he's gonna see it, and he's gonna freak! You know how Danny is nowadays!"

"Yeah, paranoid." Erin nodded, finding the whole situation funny.

"Exactly!... oh, Erin, what am I gonna do?"

"Here's a thought: tell. Him. The. Truth!"

"Fine. But I won't enjoy it." She hung up and pouted, cursing herself. "Oh, I hope he doesn't kill me."


"Hey," Linda greeted Danny at the door, hugging him. "How was your day?"

"Uneventful." He kissed her lips, stopping suddenly.

"What's wrong?"

"What happened to your back?"

"Oh, um, it's- it's nothing, really," Linda turned away from him, under the guise of needing to stir the rice.

"Oh yeah?" She's lying, I know it. Broken eye contact.

"Yeah. I was just jogging in the park, and I fell. Hit a rock and it, um, jabbed me." She pushed her hair behind her ear. It was short now, and a little bit darker, but Danny loved it anyways.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She looked over her shoulder and gave him a small smile.

"Okay, long as your fine."

"I'm good, I promise."


A day or two later, Linda looked at her tattoo in the mirror, worry crossing her face. She knew Danny would ask as soon as he didn't feel the bandage. Why does he have a knack for finding bandages and scrapes and stuff? She shook her head as she pulled one of his T-shirts over her head.

Danny watched Linda turn the light in the bathroom off, smiling at her pajama choice. His eyes followed her as she sat down, and set the alarm. "Linda Reagan, is that a tattoo I see?"

Dammit. "Uh... yeah. I, uh, I got it the other day... with, um, Erin." She closed her eyes, waiting for the explosion.

"What is it?"

"Oh, it's Chinese. Peace, love, happiness, basically." She said dismissively, her hand waving.

Danny held out his hand, "can I see?"

She sighed, but turned and plopped her ankle in his hand. She watched as he silently inspected the tattoo, bracing for a lecture.

"It's kinda cute." Danny smiled after an agonizing silence.

"What?" Linda looked up. Surely she had heard that incorrectly, right?

"It's kinda cute. Discreet, really. I like it."

She let out the breath she was holding. Smiling, she answered, "I'm glad."

"So... one night of drinking with my sister, and you get a tattoo. Wow." He smirked, shaking his head.

"It was a stupid mistake... and I'm glad you like it... what would you say, hypothetically, if I hypothetically told you I got another hypothetical tattoo."

"I'd hypothetically ask where is this hypothetical tattoo?" Danny knew it wasn't a hypothetical question.

Linda sighed, turning her back towards Danny. She slowly lifted up the shirt, showing him the small tattoo.

Danny didn't say anything, he just looked. Smiling, he fingered the lavender and blue heart. It was split in half, like a best friends heart necklace. The blue section had his name on it, and the lavender had her name.

Linda bit her lip and closed her eyes, he doesn't like it! I knew he wouldn't like it! Why, oh, why did I do something that stupid?! She inhaled sharply when she felt his lips on the ink. "What?" She tried to look behind her.

"You do realize I'll be teasing you about this the rest of your life?" He put his hands on her back, beneath the shirt.

"Yeah, I- I guess. So you're not-" she stopped when she felt the T-shirt being lifted up. She let him take her shirt off, "not... mad?"

"No, I'm not mad." He kissed between her shoulder blades. "Not mad at all." Danny moved his hands to her rib cage, letting his thumbs skim the underside of her breasts.

"No?" She closed her eyes, happy he was okay with it.

"No." He kissed her neck, sucking on the skin.

I guess he really likes them!


A/n

Linda's ankle tattoos are for real. Amy Carlson has them on her ankle. The heart tattoo is slowly becoming canon in my stories/world.

Danny's tattoos are for real, too. The crest is the Wahlberg crest, and Semper Fi is canon.