"You know," Stella smiled, "I really enjoy having these 'family dinners'. I'm glad we all got a break at the same time tonight."

Mac, sitting beside her, took her hand and squeezed it affectionately, touching off a chorus of "awww" from around the table. Sheldon and Don, the only two singles at the table, looked at each other and smiled wryly.

Danny winked at Maddie and Shayla, proclaiming, "I'm glad I'm not that whipped. What happened to the daring Mac that kissed Stella in front of everybody at our engagement party?"

Shayla giggled and Danny flinched, waiting for the inevitable swat from his fiancée, but it didn't come.

Instead, Maddie only half-smiled. "Leave them alone, Danny," she chided gently.

"That all you got tonight?" he asked, his tone softening even as he teased her.

Her smile grew a bit and she patted his shoulder. "For now."

Sheldon laughed out loud. "Uh-oh, Danny."

"You're gonna get it later," Don chimed in with a grin.

Danny smiled crookedly. "Yeah, probably. But you know I love you, right babe?" he asked, brushing his lips against the soft skin of Maddie's cheek.

Another round of "awww" sounded around the table in the little diner.

"I thought you weren't that whipped," Mac winked.

Later that night, Danny and Maddie said their good-nights to Shayla and tiredly readied themselves for bed. Maddie's mood was still subdued, and Danny was beginning to worry. His mind ran through the possibilities as he stripped off his work clothes and pulled back the covers.

"Don't forget to stop by the hardware store tomorrow," she reminded him, "so we can paint Shayla's room this weekend."

Oh, so that's what this is about, he thought. She's been so quiet because we're repainting the nursery.

"No problem," he assured her. "She wanted that sort of light purple shade, right?"

"Lilac," Maddie confirmed, crawling into bed beside him.

He wrapped an arm around her and drew her to him, kissing her hair. "We'll probably need a couple of coats to cover the green," he told her gently, wanting to comfort her but not knowing what to say.

"Yeah," she nodded, laying her head on his shoulder. Her hand traveled slowly over his chest, absently tracing the outlines of his muscles as her mind replayed Paul's visit to her in the parking lot at school.

...he's still one of us…

"Danny, when was the last time you saw your family?" she asked quietly.

He frowned and wrinkled his forehead, trying to figure out both the answer to her question and why she was asking it. "It's been a while," he responded. "I haven't heard from my brother since before I met you, and I've seen my father once in the last five or six years."

"Just once?"

"Yeah, the day Michael Sassone came to your classroom. I stopped by my father's house on the way home that night."

"Why?" she asked.

"To tell him to leave us alone," Danny replied pointedly. "I knew he was the one that sent Michael to try and intimidate you."

"And that's it?"

"Yeah." He hooked a finger under her chin, lifting her eyes to his. "How come you're asking about my family all of a sudden?"

"Just thinkin' about the wedding," she told him with a twinge of guilt. It wasn't a lie exactly because she was thinking about the wedding a little, but she had never kept any part of the truth from him before and she felt bad about doing it now. "Are you going to invite any of them to the ceremony?"

He frowned. "Not my father, that's for damn sure."

"What about your brother?" she asked, propping herself up on her elbows.

He hesitated. "I don't know…"

"Maybe you should think about it," she responded, absently playing with the chain he always wore around his neck. "He's your brother, and I know you care about him. I can hear it in your voice when you talk about him."

"What about your father?" he countered. "I know you still care about him, even though you haven't spoken to him in…how long has it been?"

It was Maddie's turn to frown. "Since his second wife called me an ungrateful bitch in front of him and he did nothing…'bout five or six years for me, too."

Danny slid a hand down her back. "I bet he'd like to be there when his daughter gets married, though."

"Okay, I'll make you a deal," she decided. "I'll invite my dad if you invite your brother."

"Assuming neither of them screws up again between now and the wedding," he added.

"Right."

He pressed his lips together, but nodded slowly. "All right, deal."

She lay back down against his chest and resumed her slow tracing, pausing when her fingers found a rough patch of tissue near his left shoulder. Her mind flashed back to the day it happened, the day he was shot trying to prevent the robbery of a jewelry store. She had almost lost him that day, before she could tell him how much she loved him. Now she lay beside him, his mother's engagement ring on her left hand, and knew that she still loved him as much as she had then, perhaps more. But was he lying to her? Was he still involved with the Utzielis?

"Hey Stella," Maddie called, entering the lobby of the Crime Lab. "Mac around?"

"What makes you think I know where Mac is?" Stella asked, trying to sound defensive but not quite succeeding.

Maddie grinned. "Same reason why everyone always asks me how Danny's doing after a tough case if the girlfriend doesn't know, no one does. And you work with him, so…"

Stella chuckled. "Good point. I just left him in his office. I'd walk you back, but I'm on my way out…"

"No problem," Maddie smiled, spying a lab tech she knew. "Zach will be happy to do it."

The tech grinned and offered his arm to her, escorting her to Mac's office where she found him standing in front of the window, uncharacteristically avoiding work.

"Hey Mac," she smiled, biding Zach good-bye and knocking on the open door.

He turned and smiled. "Hey Maddie. Looking for Danny?"

"Actually, no, I'm looking for you," she told him, stepping inside. "I…I need your advice."

"That's a coincidence," he replied. "I need yours."

"Stella?"

He nodded. "Yeah, but you first."

Her smile turned to a frown as she closed the office door and found a seat in one of the chairs near his desk. "I think Danny may have lied to me about his family."

Mac wrinkled his forehead. "What?"

"His father came to see me at school…waited for me in the parking lot, actually. Probably couldn't get passed the security guards with the piece he was carrying."

"Danny's father came to see you…and he was armed?" he asked incredulously.

Maddie nodded. "He told me Danny was still involved with the Utzielis, and had 'climbed up the ladder nicely' as he put it."

"And Danny says he's been out since he graduated high school."

She nodded again. "I don't know what to think, Mac. If he is lying, then he and I will have words. But then, it isn't just the two of us anymore…we have Shayla, now, too, and she's gotten so attached to Danny. She just adores him, but if what his father says is true…"

"Yeah," Mac agreed. "Well, what about your gut instincts…what are they telling you?"

"I don't know…Paul Messer certainly has motive to lie to me. But if Danny's still involved, he does too…"

Mac thought for a moment, then sat down beside her. "You could have asked anyone about this…why did you come to me?"

"You're the only one who knows about his family, Mac. If Danny's telling me the truth, I don't want to get him in trouble with the law or with the Utzielis…"

"Exactly," he said. "If you believed he was lying to you, would you still be trying to protect him?"

Maddie looked down at her hands. "Probably not," she responded.

"So by coming to see me, your instincts are trying to tell you to believe Danny."

She sighed. "I guess so."

"But you're still not sure."

She shook her head.

"Have you talked to him yet?" When she shook her head again, he nodded. "There you go. Talk to Danny. Tell him about his father's visit to you and see what he says, how he reacts. Let your instincts decide if he's telling the truth."

She looked up at him and smiled a small smile. "You always know just what to do, don't you?"

He grinned sheepishly. "Except when it comes to Stella's birthday…"

She laughed. "And this is where I come in…"

The next day, Maddie found a large manila envelope in her mail slot at school, marked only with her name and school.

"Must be the article I asked the Science Coordinator for," she mumbled to herself as she meandered down the hall. She opened the rest of her mail on the way back to her classroom, dropping it on her desk when she arrived and slitting the flap of the last one.

What she pulled out, though, was not the article she had expected, but a series of photographs of Danny. They began with him entering a house in a neighborhood she'd never been to, and ended with him leaving, bidding farewell to an elderly gentleman she had never seen before. A note accompanied the pictures:

I told you he was still involved, but don't take my word for it. Ask Mr. Utzieli…

She waited up for him that night, sitting on the couch the way a jilted lover waits for a cheating partner angry and confused, and wondering if it was all just a bad dream.

"Hey babe," he said tiredly as he came through the door. He dropped his bag and kicked off his shoes, heading toward the bedroom before he realized she hadn't responded. "Everything okay?"

"You tell me," she replied, rising from the couch and handing him the pictures. "Is that the Utzieli house?"

He glanced at the photos and frowned. "Yeah."

"And is that you conversing pleasantly with Vincenzo Utzieli, the head of the family?" she asked flatly.

"I wouldn't exactly call it pleasant," he tried, smiling a bit. Her expression didn't budge and he became serious again. "Yes, I was talking to him."

"The time stamp on the pictures says they were taken yesterday. You went to go see him last night, didn't you?"

"Where's Shayla?" he asked, not wanting to have this discussion in front of her.

"At a friend's house," Maddie returned. "I didn't want her to hear this." She paused, then looked up into his eyes and asked again, "Did you go to see Mr. Utzieli last night?"

"Yes," he said quietly.

"Then no, everything isn't okay because you lied to me, Danny." She turned away from him and walked to the window, leaning against the sill and looking out over the city.

"I have never lied to you," he told her, feeling himself becoming defensive. "Ever."

She turned from the window. "You told me you were out, done…that you weren't involved anymore. Then your father comes to Eastside and tells me you're not only involved but thriving!"

"My father?" he asked, confused. "He came to see you? You didn't listen to him, did you? You didn't believe him…"

She frowned. "I wasn't sure," she said honestly. "But I decided I'd at least ask you about it. Before I could I got those…"

He crossed the room as she turned back to the window, standing behind her and gently sliding a large hand over her arm. "Maddie, no, you got it all wrong…"

She shrugged him off. "Were you there?"

"Yeah, but it's not what you think."

She faced him, hurt replacing the anger in her face. "What am I supposed to think? What else could it be?" she asked softly.

"It was the first time I'd talked to him since I left," he told her, making a point of looking her in the eye. "I figured something was going on when you started asking me about my family again the other night, so I went to see Mr. Utzieli to ask him about it."

She studied his face as he spoke, trying to decide if he was telling her the truth. "And what did he say?"

"He said that my father wanted to come after us because I told Mac about my past. He warned my father not to, because if I was still in the good graces of the Department, then I could make life very hard for them."

"He told your father to back off?" Maddie asked, surprised.

Danny nodded. "Mr. Utzieli is a business man, and he knows that if they leave us alone, I'll keep my mouth shut."

"But they aren't leaving us alone," she protested.

"My father isn't leaving us alone," he corrected. "Which is what I found out last night. Michael and Sonny Sassone might be involved, too, but the rest of the family has nothin' to do with it."

She looked at him questioningly, wanting to believe him, but still unsure.

He took a step closer to her and squeezed her arm gently, protectively, reading the expression on her face. "I'm going to testify against them," he said quietly. "Against my father and Michael and Sonny. Between that and the forensics, we'll have enough to make sure they spend the rest of their lives in prison."

She wavered some more, remembering another of Paul's comments. …he won't testify against us in court, either…

"What about the rest of the family?" she asked. "Won't they come after you?"

He shook his head, moving his hands to her hips as he took another step closer. "Mr. Utzieli and I have an understanding. I'm only givin' up those three, and the Utzielis will respect our space."

"I thought you'd never flip on a family member."

Danny shook his head. "He might be my father, but you and Shayla are my family. Doing this keeps you safe."

The love in his eyes was unmistakable, and she knew he was telling the truth. Her arms went around his shoulders and she drew him to her, squeezing her eyes shut as she held him.

"You did try to lie to me once," she pointed out, opening her eyes when she pulled away.

"What? When?"

She grinned. "When you tried to surprise me with those Rangers tickets for my birthday," she reminded him. "Your body language practically screamed 'I have a secret' before you even bought 'em."

"I can't hide things from you," he smiled. He became more serious and added, "I don't want to."

She leaned up and kissed him softly, smiling the small smile his kisses always brought to her lips. "Me either."