It should be clear to everyone by this point that I suck at these AN's.
Mari & Ilna-you're the best.
McRollers-thanks for reading.
Irrevocably (1/1)
"Wow, that was quite a night," Danny said as he and Gabby collapsed on their living room couch, exhausted.
They'd spent the evening at a local pizza place/game center combo with Steve, Catherine, DJ, and Angie.
Gabby stretched her neck. "Until tonight I didn't realize that two kids can combine to go in twenty different directions at the same time."
"I'm not sure my hearing will ever return to normal," Danny groused good-naturedly.
Gabby barked a laugh. "So much squealing."
"I'm a little miffed that DJ beat me at skee ball three times," Danny said. "I mean legitimately beat me. I used to be the skee ball king."
Gabby rubbed his arm softly. "I guess you're just the skee ball prince now."
They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Danny spotted a manila envelope on the coffee table. "What's that?"
Gabby leaned forward slightly and reached for the envelope she had tossed there earlier in her rush to change clothes and get back out the door after work.
"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you." She laid her head on his shoulder. "They offered me a contract extension at work. The one I'm working under now expires at the end of next month."
She could feel his whole body freeze and she knew exactly what he was thinking without even looking at him.
"I'm gonna sign it," she said quickly and felt him visibly relax. She pulled back so she could see his face. "Were you worried I was gonna quit my job and leave the island again?"
"No, I just … I forgot your contract was expiring and I ...it's just …" He sighed resignedly. "Ok, yes. For a minute I thought that option might be on the table."
She squeezed his hand. "When I left to go to Colorado last time things were very different. Not only with my career but between us too."
Danny nodded in agreement. "I know that."
He'd known he loved Gabby practically from the moment they met, but his life felt so much less settled back then. Between raising Grace and helping build the task force, he didn't have the time he felt like a new relationship needed to grow and develop. When the job offer in Colorado came along, he knew it was Gabby's dream job at the time and encouraged her to take it.
They talked a bit about the possibility of a long-distance relationship, but both knew it wasn't going to happen. From the day she left he was haunted by doubts of whether he'd done the right thing letting her go without a fight. He wondered if he should have tried harder to make her stay. He just never wanted to hold her back.
"I love my job." She tossed the contract back onto the table. "Curating an entire collection is what I've dreamed of my entire life. Having a real voice in acquisitions. Getting to leave my own stamp on something that will be around long after I'm gone."
She studied his face carefully and could barely hold back a smile when she saw a look of slight disappointment cross his features.
"So, your main reason for staying on the island is your job?" He tried to keep his voice light, but she could hear the trace of uncertainty.
"Well, that …" she said. "And the fact that I am truly, madly, deeply, irrevocably in love." She leaned over and kissed his cheek.
"Irrevocably?" He beamed.
"Irrevocably."
"That means you're stuck with me forever." He grinned mischievously.
"That's what it means," she said with a smile that lit the room.
"So, you're happy with the way things are?" he asked.
"Very happy," she reassured him. "What do I have to be unhappy about?"
"I don't know." He picked at a piece of imaginary lint on the couch. "I thought I saw a look in your eyes earlier at the pizza place."
Her eyebrows knit together. "A look?"
"Yeah. Like … I don't know … like being around all those kids made you wish you'd had one of your own."
Gabby barked a laugh. "I adore spending time with DJ and Angie but that place most assuredly did not make me wish I'd had kids of my own. I was probably making a mental note to be sure my birth control prescription gets refilled."
Danny snorted.
"I am happy being cool Aunt Gabby, and I look forward to someday being Grandma Gabby, but I don't regret not having biological kids of my own."
"I like the sound of sexy Grandma Gabby," Danny teased.
"She's gonna be amazing," Gabby promised.
Danny laid his head against the back of the couch and closed his eyes. She got the feeling he had something else he wanted to ask so she waited patiently and let him find the words.
"Do you think we should …" He waved his left hand around as if that would convey his thoughts.
"We should what?"
"You know …" He pointed wordlessly to his ring finger.
Gabby burst out laughing. "Get married? Do I think we should get married when you can't even say the word?"
He scoffed. "I can say the word."
"Then say it," she challenged.
He looked her in the eyes. "Married."
"Did that hurt?" She teased. "It looked like it hurt a little."
"Very funny." Her reaction relaxed him immediately.
"I am perfectly happy the way we are," she said sincerely. "Are you?"
"Blissfully," he replied.
"I think we should learn from the way Steve and Catherine handled it," Gabby suggested. "If there comes a day when we both feel like it's something we should do, we'll do it. But if that day never comes," She tossed her legs across his lap, "I'm perfectly happy with the way we are."
"Me too." He sighed happily. "But do me a favor and don't tell Catherine we're taking their lead on this because she'll tell Steve and he'll never let me hear the end of it."
She pretended to think it over. "You can buy my silence with a foot rub."
"Deal," he smiled. "Irrevocably."
THE END
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