Mary didn't know if it was self-indulgence or just plain stupidity that kept her kissing him, and either way, something in her brain screamed at her that it didn't matter, because she was kissing him, and he was kissing her, and that could only be good.

But it's not, something in her brain told her, the part of her brain that still worked with her body pressed into his and his strong arms holding her tightly. It wasn't right, because nothing had changed, but this might be the very last time she ever got to kiss Danny McCoy, so she'd make the most of it.

Okay, Danny told himself, this was good. He had wasted so much time, been such an idiot over the years, and now he finally had it all figured out, everything slotted perfectly into place for the first time in his life, and, God, he was so afraid that it was too late.

All the way down from the surveillance room, all the way down the halls and down the stairs, and when he running through the casino floor, his heart was pounding and his stomach was turning and his hands were shaking so much he was afraid he'd fall over something right there in front of a whole bunch of strangers and employees who'd get a big thrill out of his humiliation.

And then he'd just watched her. He'd stood a few feet away from her, watching as she smiled, smiled with something hidden behind her eyes that she didn't want anyone to see. But he knew it was there. He always knew. She thought she could hide from the world, fool everyone with a beautiful smile and twinkling eyes. But she couldn't fool him, and he realised that was just another reason for them to be together. There were a hundred thousand more, but that was the one he thought of in that moment.

And then he hadn't been able to just watch anymore, and it was just about then that she had turned and caught his eye, like she had known he was there. Maybe she had known. Maybe she was just able sense when he was around, because he knew that he did. He knew that in any crowd in any room, the scent he tried picking out was the one she wore, the smell of her shampoo and the sound of her voice, all the things that were filling him right now.

His feet had worked on their own initiative, taking him over to her in long strides that made him more and more nervous every time his foot hit the ground. She had looked at him questioningly, and he had to smile at that because it was so adorable on her, and he'd told her she was wrong, because she really, really was.

If he'd been able to think about anything, he'd have thought that maybe her decision was made and he wouldn't be able to sway her, that she'd laugh at him and reject him, though they were things that he knew she'd never do to anyone, especially not to him.

And then he had kissed her. And kissing her was like… It was like no feeling in this world or any other. He'd never believed in heaven or hell, not since he was a kid when his father would make up stories about his mother watching them from a better place. Danny remembered asking his dad where exactly could be better than with her husband and her son, the two people who loved her more than anyone else possibly could, and of course there had never been an answer. But if by some miracle there ever was a heaven… This was what it would be like.

And she was kissing him back, wasn't resisting, and that was good, right? He could even feel the way she was trembling, her hands only lightly grazing his chest, touching him softly like she was afraid that this was a dream and if she held on any tighter he would just disappear, like so many of her dreams had since that day when broke it off between them.

And then he could feel her pulling away, a cold chill hitting him where the warmth of her face and body had been, and he had to force his eyes open to look at her. Whenever they were apart, when he closed his eyes, he sometimes forgot just how beautiful she was. He'd know in his heart that she stunning because he'd known her forever and having a best friend like her growing up did some seriously strange things to a teenage boy, but then he'd see her again and sometimes, like right now, it would just take his breath away and he'd be too speechless to say anything until the initial shock wore off.

Mary backed away, not too much because her knees were hardly capable of keeping her upright when she had been leaning on him, so on her own she knew she had no chance. Instead, she grasped the back of the chair where she had been sitting a few minutes earlier, using it to support her weight just to get some distance between them because she could barely think when he was close to her. She could feel the tears welling in her eyes, hardly unfamiliar but wholly annoying when she couldn't really see properly through them. A hand came up to her face, swiping at her eyes as inconspicuously as possible and she thanked the lords for waterproof mascara.

"Danny…" she said, although the word came out in a half-sob, half-whisper. "What are you doing? You can't just kiss me and then…" she asked him, but she ran out of breath. She took a moment to compose herself, took in a lungful of air and felt her throat clear. "What are you trying to do to me?"

"Mary," he said, and that was going to be followed by something else. But when he tried to think of the words to express everything right at this moment, nothing came, and he was standing there in front of her with his mouth open and his expression blank.

"What?" she asked him, her face a mask of confusion and hurt. "Danny, we're…we're over, okay?" God, that hurt to say. It was like she felt her heart break a little bit more inside, even if she hadn't thought that was possible. "It means that you don't get to kiss me, and I don't get to kiss you. We agreed."

And then he found his voice. "No, we didn't," he told her softly. "We didn't agree anything. You made the decision."

"Well, it wasn't like you fought me on it," she pointed out, and she could feel the tears still there, held in check only by sheer will, because if he wanted to do this, she would. It was time to get everything out in the open. Okay, so maybe a full casino with people slowly turning to look at them and listen to their conversation wasn't the best way to do it, but still…

"I didn't know how to," he told her, a frustrated expression coming over his face and his hands came up to his face in a hope of divine inspiration.

"And now you do?"

"I know that you were wrong," he told her. "I knew it then, and I know it now."

"Danny, come on," she implored. "You know this is all just some reaction to you not wanting to lose at anything. It would have only been a matter of time before things started going wrong between us. You were there in L.A., when I asked where I stood with you, you couldn't answer. You know how disconnected we were. You don't want to be alone, Danny, no one does, but I won't be your safety net. I can't do it."

"What are you talking about, 'safety net'?" he asked.

"I don't want to be your second choice," she said. "The one you settle for because you're scared of getting close to anyone else."

"You think that's what this has been about?" he asked her.

"Isn't it?" she asked, a challenge set for him.

"No, it's not," he told her. "And if you just listen to what I'm trying to say—"

"I've been listening to you my whole life," she told him. "And all it ever got me was pain and heartbreak."

"Mary," he told her, a slow smile spreading across his face. "You could never be anyone's second choice. Especially not mine."

"Do you have any idea what you're doing to me?" she asked in a whisper, a lump forming in her throat that seemed to appear every time he said something like that making it difficult to speak.

His hand came up and wiped away a tear that was falling down her cheek, his hand lingering on her smooth skin for longer than it should have because he had missed it so much, even if they had only been apart for a few days.

"Do you trust me?" he asked her.

"With my life? Absolutely," she managed to say. "With my heart? Not so much. You've broken it too many times already."

"All of my life…" he told her, "I saw my father hurting every single day because of what happened to my mother. He'd smile and he'd laugh and he'd talk, but there was always something empty in him because his heart was so broken. You know, you saw it. I don't want to be like that, Mary. He didn't have a choice. I do.

"In L.A., you asked me where you fit in… I know the answer now. I always knew." He reached down and took her free hand, the one that wasn't gripping the back of the chair so hard that she was sure there would be imprints of her nails forever. He placed her palm over his chest, right over where his heart pounded wildly inside of him, and she let herself hope it was because of her. "Here," he said emotionally, feeling tears form in his eyes that he tried to shrug away as he looked down at her hand over her heart. "You belong here."

"Danny…"

"I am in love with you, Mary Connell," he told her.

"You're not in love with me, Danny," she said, her voice thick with emotion. "You're in love with the idea of me. How you were when you came back from service… I've never seen you like that before. You were so afraid of having nothing in your life that you thought us being together would solve that. You had seen so much over there, lost so many friends… I wanted us to work so badly, Danny, so much that I can't put it into words. You needed someone to cling to, for the first time in your life, and I wanted to be that person because I never thought you'd need me like I needed you. But I think you're confusing needing a friend with something else."

"I have friends, Mary," he said determinedly. "I have Delinda, Sam, Nessa, Ed as friends, and I wouldn't change that. You and me are different. If I felt like this about Ed, there would be something seriously weird about this whole situation."

"This isn't something to joke about, Danny."

"Do you see me laughing?" he asked. "I'm not joking about anything. I have never been this serious in my whole life. If I don't love you…why can't I breathe whenever I think about you? Why can't I think when I see you? Why does my heart stop when I touch you? When we're apart I can't wait to see you again, when I see you I can't wait to talk to you, when I talk to you I can't wait to touch you, when I touch you I can't wait to kiss you, when I kiss you I never want to stop.

"I've watched people die, people I was supposed to fighting against and people I had spent months with, relying on them to watch my back. I couldn't believe in God or any kind of higher being controlling us and fate and life, because no one and nothing could ever be that cruel. But that didn't stop me from praying to whatever's up there or around us that I'd live long enough to see you again, and even if I have only just accepted it, I'm not going let any more time pass without us being together. When I was away, all I ever thought about was you. You know that. The one thing that I knew I had to come back for was you, that was a promise I made to myself the second I said goodbye to you.

"My whole life, you've been there, and that made it hard for me to see clearly. I thought that was what friendship was, feeling like you needed the other person to be whole. The day after the Duran Duran concert, I asked Greg if he felt like that, and he laughed and said that it was just you and me who felt like that and it scared me the crap out of me. I never wanted to acknowledge what I felt for you because I was scared of what it would do to us. I didn't want to screw it up, and then realise I'd lost my friend because of it.

"But I couldn't do that anymore, I knew that when we were together the night I shipped out. I didn't want to play this game of flirting and getting jealous and then having to pull myself back because I didn't want you to realise what was going on. It was getting too hard watching you and knowing how felt but never being able to do anything about it.

"Being with you…that was the one thing in my life that ever felt right," he told her seriously. "My life changed because of you, Mary, the moment you said yes to marrying me. I know that you think it was rushed and impulsive, but after all these years, was it really?

"Then why," she said, taking a deep breath and swallowing back everything that was filling her, "Why, when I told you it was over, did you just let me walk away, Danny? If you were so sure, why didn't you come after me?"

"All of this time…I was so scared of you and me being together…of us. You were the one person who was always so sure that we'd work out and be okay, you know? When you called it off, I figured that if you had doubts…then we really never did have a chance," he said, shaking his head to himself. "You know what, though? It's taken me all of this time to realise that you don't have all the answers, you're just as scared as I am and that's okay. It doesn't matter anymore. I'm not afraid of us anymore, because I'm more afraid of living my life without you."

She pulled her hand away from where it was still resting on his chest and wiped it on her shirt, and shaking and fumbling she wiped at her eyes. "I can't do this…" she told him, turning to leave.

"No," he told her, grabbing at her hand, stilling her. "I'm not making the same mistake twice." He gently turned her back towards him, his hands moving to her face, one on either cheek and holding her gently. "Look at me," he told her when her eyes flickered around them, seeing everything but him.

Her eyes eventually rested on his as he moved closer to her, and her hands came up to cover his. "Look into my eyes," he told her. "Have I ever lied to you?" he asked.

She gulped back the lump in her throat, managing a barely-there, "No," and a shake of her head.

"Then believe me," he said. "Mary, I love you," he told her, his thumbs gently tracing her skin, making her tingle all over and her breathing hitched. "God, I love you so much, and I can't let you give upon this. We have to try, because if we don't, we're always going to regret it. And I don't ever want to regret anything, especially when it comes to us."

He put his lips to hers, just briefly and barely, but they were together and he could feel how much she was shaking. He pulled away and let his forehead rest against hers. "Tell me that you don't love me," he challenged her quietly, and he got a brief flash of that night when they trapped in the elevator together.

He kissed her again, their lips together for longer this time and he felt her hands gripping him tighter. "Tell me," he said again when they pulled apart.

"I can't," she whispered back. "I do love you, Danny, and I always have, but—"

"No 'but's," he said. "I want to know what it's like to be married to you," he told her. "I have to."

The gasps around them were audible as he let her go and sunk down on one knee, one hand retrieving the engagement ring from his pocket on the way while the other held her left hand tightly. "Please, Mary Connell…" he said looking up at her, the emotion in his voice evident to even his own ears. "Will you marry me?"

She looked down at him, a smile on her face that they should be able to store and use to light up Vegas if they ever had a blackout again. She was done being afraid, too. She was done thinking up excuses why not to love him and why they shouldn't be together when this was all she had ever wanted since that day years ago behind the swings.

"Yes…" she told him, voice marred with so much emotion that it was hardly audible. But he heard, and his smile grew over his face and reached his eyes, making them shine in the glare of the lights around them.

"Yes, Danny McCoy," she said again, and this time it was clear and without a hint of regret. "I will marry you."

He had leapt up and slid the ring onto her finger in one quick motion, his hands coming up to her cheeks to hold her as his eyes found hers. "I love you," he told her again, sincerity clear in every part of his body. She nodded, and amidst the cheers of the crowd that had formed, he kissed her.

Slowly at first, of course, because this was a 'once in a lifetime' moment, one of those times that you'll remember for as long as long as you live, and probably for as long as you're dead too, something that they'll be telling their kids and grandkids about in years to come.

His lips against the softness of hers, a taste of lipgloss just detectable that seemed so very familiar and warm at this moment that he hoped he could always taste it every time he kissed her in the future, and he knew there would be a lot of kisses. It was the first time he had thought about the future in any long term way. Usually, it was the need-to-get-my-car-to-the-garage this weekend kind of thoughts that would never define him or who he was. That was what this moment was, though. A definition of him, and of who he wanted to be. Thinking of the future was something he hated doing before, but knowing she was going to be with him, it held no fear because he knew he'd be okay, as long as she was there.

He always thought that he had to change before he could truly be with her, to be the man she needed him to be. He just realised that he didn't have to change at all, because she loved him for all of that, not in spite of it.

He tasted saltiness in the kiss, and for a second he was tempted to open his eyes and see what exactly that was. But then he felt a wetness on his cheek, and he realised it was a tear, his or hers, he wasn't quite sure, more than likely just a mixture of both. Her hands were on his chest, fingertips burning into his skin through his shirt. Her lips parted beneath his, and his tongue found its way in. He tasted her, just like she was tasting him, and he could feel his own hands shaking as they wound around her neck and into long, soft hair that brought back so many memories of their life together. They stayed like that, entwined in one another, revelling in the moment, their moment, until…

Until they realised where exactly they were. In the middle of a crowded casino with hundreds of pairs of eyes on them. But it wasn't until a particularly loud cheer from Mike permeated the din and reached their ears that they pulled apart.

Danny took her hand, the hand on which the ring sat, and brought it to his mouth, kissing the back of it in a way that made her laugh, eyes lighting up in a way that he hoped would never go away.

"Are you serious?" she whispered, disbelieving but knowing in her heart this was exactly right.

He chuckled to himself as her eyes found the ring on her finger, facets tiny and glittering, as perfect on her hand as she remembered.

"I told you not to expect another one," he told her with a grin.

"Wow," she said, "And you didn't even run away this time."

"Come on, let's go celebrate," he said as she grinned mischievously, taking her hand and leading her through the crowd, with slaps on the back and shouts of congratulations the whole way.

This was going to be a new start for both of them, one without the doubts and fears of the past. They deserved this happy ending, or happy beginning, which seemed more appropriate. They'd make this work together, because it was too hard to be apart.

Besides, Danny McCoy and Mary Connell were supposed to be together.

Everyone in Vegas knows that.

The End