anmodo - Thank you for saying that you are in awe of this fic! I have become a fan of your writing as well, so your compliment means that much more to me!

Thank you everyone for your reviews! I have appreciated them immensely! There will be more firefighters coming soon! But for now, here's some more romance. This scene was taken directly from a story my friend told me about her current husband while they were first dating. I think it fit Danny and Katie nicely...

"Love is giving someone the power to destroy you and trusting them not to" – Unknown

Chapter Ten - Amazing

Katie McNamara's apartment; Seventy Two Hours Missing

Katie's bare feet padded along the shiny hardwood floors of her apartment. She knew she had a bottle of bubble bath somewhere in her apartment. When her brothers didn't know what to get her for her birthday or Christmas, they went with the old stand-by's...bubble bath and scented candles. She had the candles. She had the wine. She had the latest best-seller and the Carly Simon CD's cued up in the stereo. She had the night all to herself and the hot water running in the tub. A perfect recipe for relaxing evening at home. All she needed now was the bubble bath.

"Max, did you eat my bubble bath?" She asked her German Shepard, who was lying on the floor in his favorite spot in the living room watching her go back and forth. He lifted his head to acknowledge that she was talking to him, but then laid it right back down again. "Aha!" She exclaimed in victory, pulling a gift bag off the shelf in her hall closet. Still wrapped up from last Christmas, Katie pulled out the bottle of jasmine scented bubble bath and headed back into her bathroom. She added the foamy liquid to her hot, running water and let the fragrant aroma settle her frazzled nerves. It had been a long week. And she deserved this evening to herself.

Lighting the candles she had strategically placed around her bathroom and shedding her bathrobe, Katie climbed into the hot, soapy tub and submerged her weary body in the floral scented bubbles. Carly Simon's melodic voice filled the small room and Katie began quietly singing along to her favorite song.

"All I want is you and the sexy hurricane that we share..." She sang, leaving her book in it's place on the counter. She would read later. Right now she was just enjoying the nothingness that filled up the space around her. Lying back against the tub, she closed her eyes and drifted off into relaxation world.

The CD was nearing the end and Katie was contemplating the thought of getting out of the tub to change it when she heard her doorbell ring. Her eyes flew open and she sat straight up. Max began barking and she could hear his toe-nails clicking on the floors as she was sure he was pacing back and forth in front of the door. "You've got to be kidding me." She muttered to herself, pulling herself out of her wonderful bath and putting on her robe. Pulling the belt tight around her, Katie made her way out into the front hallway in time to see Max jumping up on his hind legs against the door. Whoever was on the other side, was making Max nervous.

"Sit." Katie commanded him, but was ignored. Max's barking became louder, so she raised her voice and said again, "Max, sit!" Looking through her keyhole, Katie was surprised to see Danny standing on the other side. Max had crept back up behind her and Katie turned to grab a hold of his collar. "It's OK. It's OK, buddy. Go back to your bed." Max, the well trained guard dog, looked at her with his ears pointed and cocked his head to the side. It wasn't until Katie pointed at his bed that he finally followed her command.

"How did you get up here?" Katie asked through the closed door. "I have a rather large doorman downstairs. Who is paid very well, actually."

"Hi yourself." Danny said, smirking. "My badge must be worth more to him than your cash. I suggest giving him a bigger Christmas bonus."

"Have you no shame?" She asked.

"Are you going to let me in?" He asked. "I feel like an idiot standing out here in the hallway talking to your door. And with all the noise your dog was making, people are starting to stare."

"What do you want?" She asked, enjoying this little flirtation that they shared.

"To come in. Now open this door before I have to impress you with my skill at kicking it down."

"I think you are greatly underestimating my security system." She said, unlocking the door and opening it up. "And greatly overestimating your own strength."

"That hurt." He said, casually leaning against her door frame and grinning at her. "How are you going to make it up to me?"

"You interrupted my relaxing evening. And showed up here without calling first." She shot back. "I think the better question is, how are you going to make it up to me?"

Max, who had stayed on his pillow bed longer than Katie had expected, made his appearance and began barking at Danny. "Whoah...nice doggy." Danny said, taking in Max's sharp teeth and menacing bark.

"Max, get back in your bed!" She knelt down and rubbed her baby's head. "It's OK, baby. Go." Again, she pointed at the bed and Max skulked back to his bed, keeping one eye on Danny.

"That's a big dog." Danny said, also keeping an eye on Max.

"That's a good quality for a watch dog to have." Katie laughed. "My brother, Charlie, gave him to me. He thought I needed to be protected. I wouldn't move back home, I wouldn't let him move in here, so he figured that a dog was the next best thing."

"Did I meet Charlie?" Danny asked, trying to get the McNamara brothers straightened out in his head.

"Not this week, you didn't. He died in the North Tower. All we recovered of him was his left arm and part of his..." Her voice trailed off as she looked over at Max, lost in her remembering. After a moment, she straightened and looked back at Danny. "You would have liked him. Everybody liked Charlie. He would have been the only one of my brothers to give you half a chance this week. So, why did you say you were here again?"

"To see you." He answered simply.

Taken aback by his honest answer, Katie recovered by saying, "That's all you've got? C'mon Danny, we haven't seen each other in two days. You couldn't come up with something better than that?"

"Do I need something better than that?" He asked, moving closer and finally noticing that all she wore was a bathrobe. Her flawless skin was pink from the heat of her bath, her red hair was loosely pulled up on top of her head with enticing little tendrils escaping all around her face, and she smelled intoxicating. Trying to focus, Danny said, "OK, how about I tell you that Frank Runyeon's body was found floating in the Hudson yesterday."

"So, you're here to arrest me?" She asked.

"Have you done something illegal?"

"Not recently." She smiled, but then remembered the conversation she had with her mother this morning. Her demeanor changed and she asked, "You questioned my father?"

"Katie..." Danny began, not wanting to go through this with her again.

"Why?"

"Because it looks as if Runyeon's been murdered. And your father has been keeping tabs on him for eight years." Danny said, then wished he could take it back when he realized she didn't know that.

"What are you talking about?" She asked. "Keeping tabs on him?"

"He's been protecting you. Making sure that he stays far away from you." Danny reassured her. "Just being a good father."

"Which has promptly landed him on your radar and in the middle of this whole mess." Katie finished for him. "I guess being a good father isn't quite as rewarding as it used to be."

"It's going to be alright, Katie. If he didn't do this, then there is nothing for your family to worry about..."

"Nothing to worry about? My father is the glue that holds our family together!" She told him. "Everything we do is because of him. We buried Danny, and then Charlie, and half the boys I grew up with and somehow we lived to grieve another day. Because my father was determined that it wasn't going to destroy us. And the whole time, he and the boys spent their days down at that damn pile searching through God knows what so that they could bring my brothers home. Because my dad knew that my mom couldn't bear it if they were left there. My father is not capable of murder."

She didn't know and Danny didn't have the heart to tell her. Tom McNamara was capable of the unthinkable. Because he was a father. Danny had seen the look in Tom McNamara's eye when he had spoken about his daughter and what Runyeon had done to her. And at that moment, Danny believed that her father would have been capable of all that she couldn't imagine to get even with the man who hurt her. And his alibi for that night put him at the scene of the crime.

"We're going to get to the bottom of this. I promise." It was all Danny could say.

"I need a drink." She said, suddenly. "Do you want one?"

"I don't drink." She nodded and headed back to the bathroom. Confused Danny asked, "You keep drinks in your bathroom?"

"I told you that I was relaxing this evening. I only got to finish half of my wine before I was so rudely interrupted." Plus, Katie thought, I have to change. Being so close to him and wearing only a bathrobe was doing something delightfully dangerous to her senses.

"OK, Max and I will wait here." Danny called after her. He looked down at the dog and laughed a nervous little laug . "Good doggy." He said as he sat down on the sofa.

When Katie returned, safely clothed in the outfit she had been wearing earlier that day and carrying her glass of wine, Danny was nosing through one of the books on her coffee table. He looked up and said, "I found the dog treats. Max and I are now good friends."

Katie grinned as she sat down next to him on the sofa. "You're not like most of the cops I know."

"Why? Because I read a book?" He countered, then said, "I'm not a cop."

Ignoring his elitist comments, she said, "Because you still haven't stopped believing that the good guys always win and the bad guys always lose. It's sweet. Really. The only other one I ever met like you was your friend Agent Spade." Danny nodded in agreement and Katie continued, "Now, she was a detective who thought she could save the world. And I believed she could do it too, starting by putting a needle in the arm of the bastard who raped me. But we were both let down by a legal technicality."

Danny leaned back against the sofa and turned to face her. "Is it easier for you now, knowing that Runyeon is dead?"

"It stopped being about him a long time ago, Danny. I had to survive what happened to me and come out clean on the other side. For myself and for my family."

"That's a lot of pressure."

She nodded in agreement. "That's why Avalon is so important to me. It's a daily reminder that awful things happen to everyone sometimes and when they do, you're left with a choice. You can either stay down or you can choose life. I was down for awhile, but I finally realized that you have to accept what's happened, grieve about it, start the healing process, and go on."

"You make it sound so easy." he said.

"I don't mean to. It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do. But I learned that the things that frightened me might not be so frightening after all. My tears of sorrow softly stopped and my heart began to heal itself. The human heart is amazing that way. My grief was interrupted one day by episodes of joy, and I heard the whisper of hope again." She smiled at him. "Plus, I had my therapist, Maria, and my family with me every step of the way. Some people aren't that lucky. That's why I do what I do...so women out there know that they're not alone in their pain."

"What was the hardest part for you?" He asked, letting his eyes drift over her beautiful face.

"Sex." She answered simply. "It was my biggest stumbling block. Remembering that sex was something that I had enjoyed immensely at one time and that what happened to me was about control and not sex."

"Have you..." Danny searched for the right words, but as usual Katie immediately put him at ease.

"Yes." She said smiling. "The only way back after having taken so much hatred from one man is to accept so much love from another. My first foray back into the dating world was with a great guy who cherished me. But it was a long, slow process. He was extremely patient and gave me the space I needed. My body seemed to have a mind of it's own for awhile. Even though my mind knew that he would never hurt me, my body remembered that the last time something had happened down there it had been bad, and it shut down. So he even went to a sex therapist with me and learned how to coax my body into enjoying pleasurable experiences again. The goal that my shrink had for me was that I could be intimate as a woman again, eventually, and not be controlled by the way I was violated. " She looked at him and said, "Too much information?"

"No," he answered quite seriously, "I asked. So, what happened to this great guy?"

"He was a fireman." She said and they both laughed. "After September 11th, things got tough. He had a lot to deal with, I had a lot to deal with and things were intense. We fought more than we did anything else and that wasn't good for either of our frail psyches. We just decided to call it quits before we ended up hating each other."

"That was very adult of you." He said, only half teasing.

"I'm beginning to find out that I will make a great grown up someday." She said. "But because of him we started a class at Avalon for men who's wives or girlfriends were raped and how to handle it."

"You're amazing."

She blushed at his compliment and the way that he was looking at her. Nervously she said, "I'm doing this so that women don't feel as if their lives are over after they've been raped or abused. So many of them don't know how to have an intimate physical relationship or that they can be beautiful people again. Maria always said that my willingness to give up my Victims Anonymous badge followed my realization that the withholding of passion and pleasure from myself, was a form of self-violence."

"So," Danny whispered seductively, "do you still deny yourself pleasure?"

"Not when I can help it." She whispered back, fitting her body next to his.

Danny took his cue and leaned closer. Slowly. Inch by inch. He could see her body tensing and so he whispered sweet and soothing words, his warm breath tickling her ear. He wrapped his arms around her and could feel when she finally gave in to her desire and relaxed. He inched closer and closer until their lips brushed against each other.

He moved his lips softly at first, feeling, tasting the taste of her sweet mouth, drawing in the sensation of her lips against his. But then the kiss deepened and became more passionate and demanding.. He teased Katie's lips further apart with the tip of his tongue, moving it slowly, caressing her upper lip, then the lower, finally diving in between. Katie's arms finally found their way around Danny's neck, her balance shattered under the fierce force of the kiss.

Danny''s hands couldn't resist touching her, his fingertips itching to feel her burning skin under them. They started moving, tracing their way up Katie's arms, until they reached her collarbone, then her neck, and they finally dived into her hair. He took her lower lip between his teeth, biting it briefly, just hard enough to make a silent groan escape from Katie's throat. Or was it his? He wasn't sure anymore.

With a gasp their lips parted, their bodies pulled slightly apart. "Danny," she said, the word barely a sigh. Danny's fingers were still tangled in her hair; his other hand had wandered to her waist in some point and was now gripping it tightly. His breath was a pant, his chest rising up and down, up and down, as he drew in air. She simply stared into his deep brown eyes, as widened as she imagined her own were.

It took a second before there were movement again. Danny's body jerked, as if startled by the sudden realization of what had happened, and he reluctantly dropped his hands to his side. "I'm sorry." He mumbled. "I didn't mean to..."

"Please don't apologize." she told him. "Unless you're sorry that it happened."

"No." He said quickly. "Not at all." He looked down at her and caressed her lovely face with his hand. His thumb traced a path from her jawline to the fullness of her lips. He was crazy about this woman. But he was treading in dangerous waters. "I don't want to scare you away." He whispered. "Or make you regret that you..."

She smiled at him and leaned in closer, whispering, "I don't scare that easily. And this is definitely not something I will regret." She caressed his face with her own hand reassured him. "It's OK, Danny. I won't break."

It was all he needed to hear as he leaned in for another breathtaking kiss.