Sunlight streamed in through the window when Danny blinked open his eyes and tried to look around. He couldn't see, but when he tried to reach for his glasses he discovered that his right arm was unmovable and felt like it was on fire. He felt someone holding his left hand and looked over to that side of the bed. Even without the glasses he knew who it was.

"Maddie…."

"Look who's finally awake," she smiled, sitting up straighter in her chair. "Did you have a nice nap?"

"I feel like I've been hit by a truck," he groaned.

Maddie smiled again, more out of relief than anything else. "Well, you had a pretty bad day at the office, there, slugger," she told him.

Danny grimaced. "Yeah, I guess I did."

"You had us worried," she said quietly.

"Us?"

"Mac and Sheldon and Aiden and Don were all here until you came out of surgery, and Stella was here for a while too. They didn't want to leave, but they decided their time was better spent hunting down the guy that hurt you."

He nodded. "Good, 'cause when I get outta here, I want five minutes alone with him…"

"Oh no you don't," she warned. "Save that tough cop crap for someone else. You're not even going to be able to button up your own shirt for a while." She stopped and her eyes twinkled when she continued, "But I'll take five minutes alone with him…"

He laughed out loud at that just as the nurse walked into the room.

"That's good to hear," she smiled. She checked the heart monitor he was attached to and recorded his vital signs on his chart before looking over the bandage on his shoulder.

Maddie looked around the room searching for his glasses, and found a large manila envelope sitting on a table near the window. It contained his watch, wallet, keys, badge, and glasses, the latter of which she pulled out and took over to him. He smiled appreciatively and took her hand again as she sat back down in the chair beside his bed.

"When was the last time you slept?" he asked as the nurse left.

"I slept while you slept," she informed him.

"In that chair? Maddie you should go home...tomorrow's Monday...you've got school in the morning..."

She shook her head. "I'm taking tomorrow off. The school actually found a competent substitute teacher, and the kids'll be okay for day without me." He opened his mouth to protest but she quickly stopped him. "This is one argument you're not going to win, Danny-boy. You've taken care of me and them since the day we met," she reminded him, squeezing his hand gently. "Now you gotta let me take care of you for a while."

He smiled shyly. "Alright," he conceded. "But why don't you at least go home and grab a shower, change your clothes...you look like hell," he winked.

She grinned. "Have you looked in a mirror lately?"

"And maybe you can smuggle in some dinner on your way back..." he added.

She laughed. "I'll see what I can do." She sat for a minute, still holding his hand, her blue eyes gazing into his, and felt butterflies forming in her stomach. She wanted to ask him about the moment at the Empire State Building, to see if she had imagined the look in his eyes, to find out what he had wanted to say. But she did none of those things, instead squeezing his hand one more time and promising to return as quickly as she could.

When Maddie appeared again she was wearing a clean pair of blue jeans and an FDNY t-shirt. Locks of her still-wet hair hung loosely around her face, having escaped from the pony tail she had hastily attempted. She carried a grocery bag in one arm and a DVD player in the other, and smiled happily as she brought them in.

"What's all that?" Danny asked curiously, struggling to sit up.

"Dinner and a movie," she smiled. She put down the grocery bag and DVD player and helped ease him to a comfortable position. "I smuggled in a pizza from our favorite Italian place, and managed to liberate some Jell-O from the cafeteria for dessert."

He grinned. "Is that a DVD player, too?"

"Yep—the one from my place. Won't take two minutes to hook it up to your TV, and we can have movie night here this weekend."

She moved the grocery bag next to him on the bed so he could sort through the DVDs she'd brought along and busied herself with connecting the player to the television. He dutifully pulled out a few movies and looked at them, but kept glancing over at Maddie. He wanted to ask her about the moment at the Empire State Building, to see if he had imagined the look in her eyes, to find out if she felt the same way he did.

He shook his head as if to clear it, and she finished connecting the DVD player to the TV.

"So what's the verdict?" she asked, taking her place in the chair beside his bed. He handed her a movie rather absently and she looked at it. "Apollo 13? Really?"

"It's your favorite," he smiled in response.

She crossed the room and popped the disc into the player and started to return to her chair.

"C'mere and sit with me," Danny said, holding out his good arm to her. "It'll be more like home..."

Maddie smiled and seated herself on the bed beside him, allowing him to wrap his arm around her as he had done many times before. She laid her head against his good shoulder and rested a hand on his bare chest, careful not to interfere with the cardiac leads.

Danny tried to concentrate on the movie, but his focus would not stay on the screen. After being shot he swore to himself that if he lived, he was going to tell Maddie how he felt. He wasn't timid in any other aspect of his life, and was determined not to be so with her, either. Sitting beside her now, he breathed in the scent of her freshly-washed hair and the baby powder she'd worn in lieu of perfume, feeling the butterflies that had roosted in his stomach at the Empire State Building return. He noticed how tightly she was clinging to him and wondered again if he had imagined the look in her eyes on the observation deck.

He decided it didn't matter. He loved her, more than he ever thought possible, and he needed her to know it. He squeezed her shoulders gently and kissed her hair, mentally taking a deep breath. He could feel her smile form against his shoulder and knew it was time. He lowered his lips to her ear and kissed her hair again.

"I love you," he whispered softly.

Her heart lept at the declaration, but then the common sense part of her brain took over—of course he didn't mean that romantically. She patted his chest. "I know you do, we're best friends," she said, hoping the disappointment didn't show in her voice.

"No, I don't think you understand, Maddie," he tried again. "I'm in love with you."

She pulled away from him and sat up. "You're serious, aren't you?"

He licked his lips nervously and nodded. "Yeah."

Maddie sat looking at him, stunned into silence, and Danny forced himself to remain calm.

He brushed a hand across her cheek, searching her face for some kind of reaction. "You're intelligent...you're kind...and funny...and beautiful..."

She took his hand in hers and shook her head, still unable to believe what he was saying. "Danny, you just think you're in love with me. It's a reaction to being shot…"

He reached for her again, letting a finger slide down her neck and trace over her scar from the attack at Eastside High. He remembered how it felt to have almost lost her that day and steeled himself for a repeat of that feeling, but he wasn't going to back off now. "No," he said softly, "I'm in love with you. I didn't know it until we were at the Empire State Building, and I should have said something then. I wanted to…"

That got her attention. "The Empire State Building?"

He nodded again. "Standing there in the moonlight with you, holding hands…it would have been perfect…"

"…but the elevator guy messed everything up," she finished. Then something clicked in her mind. "So I didn't imagine it…"

"Imagine what?"

"The look in your eyes…it was real…"

He looked away, embarrassed. "You saw that?"

She smiled and quietly repeated her statement from the previous night. "As well as you can read me, Danny Messer, I can read you better."

He still wouldn't look at her. "So did I read you right, up there? I thought I saw…"

She was grinning now, and took his hand. "You did." She waited a moment for his eyes to find hers. When they did her smile broadened and she squeezed his hand. "I love you."

He was so prepared for rejection that he didn't know what to say when it didn't come. "You do?"

"I do!" Maddie laughed joyfully. "I am totally, hopelessly in love with you!"

She released his hand and caressed his face, running her thumb over the stubble that had grown in. He leaned forward to kiss her, but the cardiac wires and an immobile arm hindered his efforts.

Maddie laughed again and leaned toward him. "Here, let me help you with that," she grinned happily.

His lips found hers, tentatively at first but then with more confidence, and his arm slipped around her. Her hand rested again on his bare chest, and she could feel his heart beating rapidly beneath it, hearing the rhythm of the cardiac monitor increase in tempo.

She pulled back, still grinning. "We better be careful," she teased glancing at the monitor. "Don't want you getting too excited there…"

Danny laughed, too loudly for a hospital ward, but he couldn't help it—he was the happiest man on earth. "I won't tell if you won't."

"Deal." She leaned forward and kissed him again, a soft, sweet kiss.

When they parted, he flashed her a big, dopey, love-struck grin that made her giggle girlishly. She curled up against him, once again resting her head on his shoulder and her hand on his chest. He pulled his arm tightly around her and kissed her hair.

"I love you so much," he told her, threading his fingers tenderly through her brown curls. "You deserve someone better than me, but I'm glad you settled."

"You know I didn't settle," she informed him, running her hand over his chest contentedly. "There isn't anyone better for me than you."