Linda's making pancakes when he walks into the kitchen.
The boys are underfoot playing with their toy cars. Sean hits the siren on his and yells "Dada!"
Jack runs to him. "Happy birfday!"
He picks up Jack, then Sean when the little boy toddles over to him. "Hi, boys. Did you sleep well?"
"Yeah. Happy birfday! I want cake!" Jack says.
He kisses their heads. "I think Mommy's making pancakes because she knows Dada loves them."
He puts the boys down, goes over to Linda and pulls her close.
"Happy birthday, babe," she says, kissing him.
"Thank you," he whispers, kissing her lips and face and…
"Ewww, yucky!" Jack says.
He ignores the little boy, until Linda pulls away with a giggle. "Danny, the pancakes are gonna burn!"
He lets her go and fills the boys' sippy cups.
The boys insist they have to sing happy birthday twice, and his stomach's growling. He snatches a piece of bacon from the platter almost before Jack has finished his 4-year-old version of grace. It's endearing.
"And pease bing Dada home safe," Jack adds—something he's obviously said every day, and then his eyes pop open and he looks at Danny. "Oops. Tank You for binging Dada home safe, and God bless Dada on his birfday," he says, looking Danny straight in the eyes before making the Sign of the Cross with the wrong hand.
Danny swallows the lump in his throat. "Thanks, Jack-y."
He looks at Linda. He's been home six months. How had he not known that Jack always added that to grace?
He kisses Jack's head, takes a sip of coffee.
"What should we do today?" he asks Jack.
"Go to the park!"
He looks at Linda, who smiles. "It's your day, babe. We'll do whatever you want."
"I think the park sounds good."
It's a blazing hot August day, and once they have sunscreen on the kids, they release them at the park.
Danny's sweating in his USMC t-shirt.
His scars are burning and itching from his sweat, and he jumps when Linda puts a cold hand on his back. "What was that?"
"Saw you squirming, so I put my hand in the cooler for a minute. Sorry I startled you."
He shakes his head, pulls her close. "No, that actually feels really good, babe; thanks."
He kisses her head. "Doc thinks I'm ready to do a trial run—one day a week of being back on the streets with my gun, next week—slowly working up to my full schedule."
"Didn't know that was a thing."
He shrugs. "Doc swears he's done it with other cops."
"Do you think you're ready?"
"I think I'm going to lose my marbles if I have to spend another 40 hours combing through video surveillance—well, what marbles Fallujah didn't take permanently."
"You're not crazy, Danny—you're hurting. Remember?" she says, kissing him.
He nods, and kisses her back until a passerby mumbles "Get a room."
"Can we get a room later, after cake?" he whispers in her ear. "You did say there'd be cake, didn't you?"
"Yes, and of course there will be cake. I'm making your favorite as soon as we get these little boys home and down for a nap."
He whispers in her ear how much he loves her, until Sean starts crying that he needs someone to push him on the swings.
That night, after a day of family and cake and only one teeny-tiny hint of a flashback, he's lying in bed as Linda gives him a back-rub. She starts kissing the scars—her nightly routine, an attempt to help him associate them with her and not with pain—and he rolls onto his back, pulls her down to him. "You know it's been almost six months—since I came home."
"I know. What about it?"
He's breathless from their activities in bed, and from a sudden wave of tears.
He kisses her. "I…haven't said it enough, but…I couldn't…have gotten through…the last six months…without you. If I didn't have the best partner a cop could have…I would've eaten my gun back in April. When Dad was being a hard- $$ about the therapy and pills…you told me that getting help just made me stronger. I love you, Linda Rose O'Shea Reagan."
"Love you more, Daniel Fitzgerald Michael Reagan."
"Love you most," he says, and falls asleep to dream of kissing her on the corner of 10th Street and University Place.
A/N; Should there be an epilogue about Mary's death and Danny shoving everything back down, or should this end here?