A/N: Inspired by the episode "Tanglewood" (one of my favorites), Warrior of the Shadow's question "What is Danny running from, I wonder?", and Danny's statement in "Grand Murder at Central Station": "I don't cuddle." Enjoy!

Danny sat on the couch watching TV in a rare moment of quiet, his arms wrapped around Maddie who was curled up beside him, his hands resting on her softly rounded abdomen. His cheek lay against her temple and he shifted subtly, pulling her closer to him as he kissed her hair.

Maddie grinned. "That's the third time you've done that," she told him.

"Done what?" he asked innocently.

She turned in his arms, her blue eyes twinkling. "Pretend to get more comfortable so you can kiss me."

"What?" he asked, his voice taking on the raspy quality it often had when he was embarrassed.

She giggled delightedly, draping an arm around his neck and playing with his necklace as she slid into his lap. "You just can't admit it, can you?"

He tried vainly to keep the smile from his lips. "Admit what?"

"You can tell me you love me, you can sleep with me, knock me up, and tell our baby you love it, but you can't admit that you like to cuddle!"

He opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by the ringing of a cell phone in the kitchen. "That's mine," he smirked, kissing her briefly as he moved her gently back onto the couch. "Probably work…I gotta get it…"

Maddie laughed out loud watching him hurry into the other room after the phone.

"Hello…"

She laid back and stretched out on the couch, still giggling as he paced around the kitchen with the phone. Her eyes followed him when he returned a few minutes later, traveling over his muscular physique as he made his way around the couch and sat down on the floor in front of it. Turning onto her side and running her hands over his shoulders, she caught the troubled look on his face and had to command herself ignore her screaming hormones.

"What's wrong?" she asked, leaning close to his ear.

He frowned. "That was my father."

That explained the change in demeanor. Maddie knew the two had a history, and it wasn't a pleasant one. "What did he want?"

Danny sighed. "He does this every year 'bout this time. Christmas is comin' and it makes him want to be a family man all of a sudden."

"Well, you can hardly blame him for that," Maddie replied.

"No," he shook his head, "but you know how I feel about him."

"I know." Her arms tightened around him, encircling his shoulders as she rested her cheek against his. "What did you tell him?"

"To get lost." He leaned against her and sighed again. "And not to call back."

She nuzzled his neck and kissed it softly. "Anything I can do?" she asked quietly.

"Just what you're doin'," he told her, a small smile forming on his lips.

C'mere," she instructed. He turned and climbed onto the couch beside her, laying his head against her chest and a hand on the baby as she held him tightly. Her fingers combed through his hair and she could feel his breath on her skin. "We'll just lay here and…"

"…cuddle?" he finished with a smirk, the irritation at his father already melting away.

"I thought you didn't like to cuddle," she teased.

He propped himself up on one elbow and looked down into her bright blue eyes, feeling the overwhelming urge to kiss her. He leaned in, but stopped a micron short of her lips and grinned. "I only like to cuddle with you."

She laughed and pulled him to her, unable to keep the smile off her face as she kissed him.

A few days later, Maddie was puttering around her classroom after school, tidying up after her last class and getting ready for the next day, when a man she'd never seen before walked in the door. He was in his late fifties or early sixties, his face and hands leathery, as though he'd had a hard life. He was dressed in a long black overcoat, and removed his hat as he knocked on the doorframe.

"Excuse me," he said in a strong New York accent. "I'm looking for Madeline Parrish."

"Well, you found her," Maddie replied, raising an eyebrow at him, wondering who he was and how he'd gotten past the security guards. "What can I do for you?"

His eyes traveled over her body, taking note of her swollen belly. "It's true," he said, nodding.

"What's true?"

"You're going to have a baby with Danny Messer."

She looked at him warily. "Who are you?" she asked. "How do you know Danny? And how did you know I was pregnant?"

He smiled at her unease. "My name is Michael Sassone," he told her. "I'm a friend of the Messer family. Danny's father heard that he might be becoming a grandfather and he wanted to know if his information was accurate."

Maddie returned to her work, wiping down lab tables with a look of disdain. "Is that why he called the other night?"

Michael nodded. "He just wanted to check up on his family."

She finished the table she was cleaning and moved to the next one. "Then why didn't he come down here himself?"

"He was unable to do so," was the only reply he gave.

Finishing the second lab table, Maddie stood and looked Michael in the eye. "Is there anything else?" she asked, her tone clearly implying that there better not be.

"No, that's all." He placed his hat back on his head and turned to leave, but stopped midway out the door. "Oh, there is just one more thing," he said, turning around to face her again. "Could you tell Danny I said hello? I haven't seen him in quite a while."

"I'll be sure to do that," she said, her voice filled with contempt.

"I appreciate that," he told her with a smile, disappearing into the hallway.

"What the hell was that all about?" she muttered to herself. She quickly finished with the room and decided to pay a visit to the lab on her way home.

Sheldon was coming in just as she was, and greeted her with a hug and a big smile. "How are you two doing?" he asked, patting her stomach.

She hugged him back and grinned. "We're good," she told him. "Healthy, happy, and growing."

"That's good news," he said. "Any movement yet?"

Maddie shook her head. "Not yet, but the doctor says in the next couple of weeks I should start feeling something."

"That sounds about right. So what brings you by?"

"I need to talk to Danny real quick. Is he here?"

"I think he's around here somewhere. I'll help you look."

He offered her his arm and she took it, smiling again as she did so. "So how does it feel to be Dr. Sheldon Hawkes, Crime Scene Investigator?" she asked as they walked.

A faint blush crept across his cheeks. "It feels good," he replied shyly. "It's nice to be involved more with the living and less with the dead."

"I bet. And I hear you're doing a fantastic job, too."

"For a rookie," he laughed.

"Hard being the new guy again, isn't it?"

He nodded. "Yeah, but Mac and Stella and Danny and Don make it a lot easier. Ah, here we are," he said, spotting Danny coming out of Mac's office, holding the door for Stella as she went in. "Your Prince Charming."

Maddie laughed. "Prince Charming, eh? Don't let him hear that one…he'll be running around with my shoes calling me Cinderella…"

Danny heard her laugh and strode over to where she stood with Sheldon. As he came toward them, she squeezed Sheldon's arm and released it, slipping her arms around the father of her child.

"Hey slugger," she smiled.

He kissed her briefly and smiled back. "Hey babe." He reached down and caressed her abdomen. "And hey baby…"

Sheldon smothered a smile and cleared his throat. "Well, I'd better get back to work," he told them.

"Thanks Sheldon," Maddie replied.

"See ya later," Danny called after him.

Sheldon nodded, still trying to hide his smile, and disappeared around a corner.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of your company today?" Danny asked with a grin.

She frowned. "Do you know a guy named Michael Sassone?"

That name instantly brought back some bad memories. "Why do you want to know about Michael Sassone?" he asked cautiously.

"He came to see me at school today."

It was Danny's turn to frown. "What did he want?"

"He said he was coming to check up on me for your father, to see if we really were having a baby," she told him, watching the anxiety creep across his face. "He said he was a friend of your family's. Danny, who is this guy?"

He shook his head and slid his hands over her shoulders. "Someone I collared a couple of times when I was working at the 6-3. He's got ties to the mob, but we were never able to prove anything."

"Is he dangerous?"

"I don't think so. He just wants to see if he can scare us a little, so he says he knows my family." His arms went around her and he pulled her to him, kissing her forehead. "It's nothin'."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," he said, trying to be reassuring.

"He did know who I was, and that I was pregnant with your child…"

He thought about that for a moment. "Have you ever fired a gun?"

Maddie nodded. "I used to have a target permit back in Michigan."

"You ever carry?"

"Danny, I'm a schoolteacher," she reminded him, tapping on his head. "No weapons on campus."

"Well, maybe we should see about getting you a target permit here…just to get you used to handling a firearm again."

She nodded slowly, understanding what he was implying. "That's why I had one in Detroit…so I could use one correctly if I needed to."

He kissed her lips quickly. "I gotta get back to work…"

"Okay. We can talk more about it at home."

"Yeah. I'm gonna be late tonight, though…gotta stop to make after I get off," he said.

She nodded again and brushed her hand across his face. "I'll try and leave you some dinner leftovers," she grinned, making light of her ever increasing appetite. He laughed and she kissed him one more time. "Be careful…"

"I will," he promised.

The couple parted ways, not noticing that someone had stopped in the hallway just short of where they were standing. Don, not wanting to interrupt what had looked like an intimate conversation, had taken care to keep out of sight while he waited to talk to Danny. What he had been unable to do, though, was to keep from eavesdropping. He heard the name Michael Sassone, and heard the concern in Danny's voice even as he tried to assure Maddie that everything was fine.

I wonder who this guy is, he thought to himself as he tried to catch up to Danny. Maybe I should check him out…

Before he made it home that night, Danny found himself standing on the doorstep of the house he grew up in. He hadn't been back there in years, and had little desire to be there now, but he needed to take care of this before it got out of hand.

He knocked brusquely on the door, hearing shuffling sounds inside as the occupant moved to answer it.

The door opened. "Danny? Is that you?" an older man asked through the storm door.

"Yeah, it's me."

The outer door opened and the older man's smile dripped with condescension. "Finally come to visit your father, eh boy? Come in out of the cold."

Danny stuffed his hands in his pockets. "This is not a social call," he replied firmly without moving from the step, "and I won't be staying."

The senior Messer frowned. "I guess I'm not surprised—you've been refusing to speak to me since your mother died. Well, what is it you want then?"

"I came to tell you to leave us alone."

His father feigned innocence. "What do you mean?"

"I know that you sent Sonny Sassone's father to see Maddie at work today," Danny told him heatedly. "You're trying to scare her, to intimidate me, but it's not gonna work. I know who you are, how you operate, and whatever it is you want, you're not gonna get it."

"So you've told this girl all about yourself, then? She knows what kind of family you come from, who you used to associate with? She knows about the things you've done?"

Danny forced himself to remain calm and to look his father in the eye. "Leave us alone." He turned without another word and moved quickly down the walk, sure that this wasn't the last he would hear from his father.