Title: By Your Side

Author: wintercreek

Disclaimer: Danielle is mine ... although I really think she's becoming her own person.  The rest are not mine.  Quotes are attributed to their owners in the text.

Spoilers: This only follows the show through S6, so it's pretty spoiler-free by this time.

Dedication: For Amelia, who loves quotes as much as I do.

A/N: More Xander and Danielle.  My apologies for not having written much in the past few months – this thing they call college keeps getting in my way.

~*~

"Xander, where are we going?"

"Just trust me.  Hey, no fair moving the blindfold!"

Sighing, Danielle lowered her hands.  She allowed Xander to guide her up a set of stairs towards her mysterious surprise.

"Ok, here we go ..."  Xander removed the blindfold.

Danielle stifled a gasp.  She found herself in Xander's guest room, a room she knew well since Danielle refused to share a bed with anyone but her husband.  The normally white walls were now covered in words, each quote painted in a different color.  She pivoted slowly.

Xander slowly walked to the door, closing it.  On its white back, in a rose pink paint, was the poem Danielle had quoted to Xander that day in the park.  "... Love is concerned / that the beating of your heart / should kill no one," he read.

Danielle smiled.  Near the ceiling, on the window side of the room and written in dark blue, she spotted one of her many favorite quotes.  "I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of stars makes me dream.  Vincent van Gogh."

"Give light, and the darkness will disappear by itself.  Erasmus."  Xander called her attention to the goldenrod words.

It became a game of sorts, each reading the quote that caught her or his eye.

"Life is too important to be taken seriously.  Oscar Wilde."

"It's all just fun and games until someone loses an eye ... then it's just fun and games you can't see!  James Hetfield of Metallica."

"I am forever walking upon the shore,

Betwixt the sand and the foam.

The high tide will erase my footprints,

And the wind will blow away the foam.

But the sea and the shore will remain forever.

Kahlil Gibran."

"Some people care too much.  I think it is called love.  Pooh, A. A. Milne."

"Pain nourishes courage.  You can't be brave if you've only had wonderful things happen to you.  Mary Tyler Moore."

"Let the river be your guide, let the sun be your warmth, let the trees be your shelter, let the wind be your force...and remember I am always by your side and in your heart.  Ruth Elaine Schram."

"Better to light a candle than curse the darkness.  Chinese proverb."

"We do not remember days ... we remember moments.  Cesare Pavese."

"Nothing is worth more than this day.  Goethe."

"Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.  Martin Luther."

"Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.  Anonymous."

"Courage and grace are a formidable mixture.  Marlene Dietrich."  Xander flashed a huge grin at Danielle as he read that quote.

She followed his gaze to that particular wall, one which had previously been at her back.  Written there were the words of "Amazing Grace," their special song.  Several other quotes also paid homage to one of her middle names: "Words can sometimes, in moments of grace, attain the quality of deeds.  Elie Wiesel."  "If we cannot be decent, let us endeavor to be graceful.  If we can't be moral, at least we can avoid being vulgar.  Langdon Mitchell."  Only one quote on the wall didn't hold the word "grace."  "Will ..." Danielle's voice failed her.

Xander stepped forward, turned her to face him and knelt.  His voice shook only a little as he spoke the words Danielle had been unable to read.  "Will you marry me?  Danielle Catherine Grace L'Heureux, will you be my wife?"

"I ... I ... YES!"  Danielle's composure was broken as she squealed and jumped into her fiancé's arms.  She feared that Xander's grin would split his cheeks, as he slipped his grandmother's engagement ring on to Danielle's finger.

"And that," Xander replied, "is now my favorite quote."

Danielle pointed to the far wall.  " 'I am always by your side and in your heart,' " she read softly.