This is the LAST chapter of this fic. Thank you to whoever has been following/faving/commenting.

I'm very sorry it's taken me so long, but I got busy with school, etc. I'm thinking of doing a sequel based on 2018 which I will attempt to start as there's a lot of material there. Anyways enjoy.

The romance part four: Labels

2017

April

"Licks me clean! Andy, I can't believe you said that!" he heard Danai yell boisterously into the phone, which caused him to break out in the brightest smile.

He averted his eyes around, trying to make sure that nobody could see him, even though he was alone in the hotel lobby nursing a half drunken glass of Sangria. He just missed her so much, and couldn't resist talking about her, or letting others know just how much she made him feel.

"I couldn't help myself," Andy answered. "The words just sort of slipped out before I knew it…"

"The words just slipped out, huh? Somehow, I doubt that," Danai responded. He could hear the sarcasm dripping out of her voice, even though she was being playful. He loved that playful, goofy side of her that was only reserved for friends. And now, he desperately wanted more.

He found himself getting up, his feet carrying him across the busy lobby, and up the elevator until he reached his room. Once there, he nearly ran to his hotel room, and rushed inside his room as though there was a bomb that he needed to dismantle in thirty seconds. The urgency of whatever he wanted to do next wasn't lost on him, as Danai's voice flitted in and out of his mind and ears.

" - And the cast is so nosey," He heard the back half of Danai's eager story related to him. "I got so many texts about what you said, and now everyone wants to know if you're my man!"

"Well, I am," Andy answered, and then paused. This time his voice was softer, more vulnerable. "Aren't I?"

"You are, but…," Danai trailed off. "But I want this to be ours right now. I don't want anyone in our business, and I just want us to figure this whole thing out. We don't even need to label it yet."

"No labels, but I - I told Gael about us. I told her that I want to get a divorce," Andy finally admitted, fumbling awkwardly over his words.

He heard Danai's sharp intake of breath before she spoke. "And how'd she take it?"

"Better than I thought," he admitted. "She just wants some time to make sure that Tilly and Art adjust to the changes. Matilda has been having some trouble recently at school, so we put her in counseling, and the counselor feels like she's picked up that something is wrong and," Andy paused, his voice cracking a bit. "I worry that I'm a terrible parent for this."

"Andy, you're not a terrible parent. Matilda is handling this like any child would," Danai assured him. "Just talk to her, and guide her."

"I will," Andy affirmed. "I love my kids, and I don't want to be unfair to you with any of this."

"Trust me, you're not. I'd rather you sort it out than hop into a new life with me with no regard for them. That's why I - that's why I love you so much."

"You love me?"

"I do, even when you're telling the world about that night we shared," she whispered.

"I miss that," he admitted. "I miss you."

He heard her sharp intake of breath on the other side of the telephone line, before muffled laughter at something going on in the background, before he finally heard her once more. "Me too, but filming starts next week…"

"I'll be there," he told her without hesitance, without a shred of doubt in his voice. "When I come to Atlanta, I'd like to take you on a proper date…"

"No," she told him, nearly breaking his heart in two.

He composed himself, making his voice flat and unaffected. "Why not?"

"You're still married, even if you don't want to be. We can't risk that," she abruptly paused, before whispering. "We just can't risk being seen together now, in that way. I want to take this slow, I mean it."

"Okay," he agreed.

"I've gotta go now, but please be good, Andy," he heard her say.

"I will," he promised, feeling a part of himself lift up and drop into the mattress beneath him, before her light voice was no more.

Once she was gone he was left feeling empty; it was the emptiest he'd felt in his whole life at the mere thought that a woman like Danai could simply slip between his fingertips like sand in a box, and that's what scared him the most about her. She was free to leave at any moment she wanted to, and he couldn't stop her if he tried. But the thought - the mere suggestion that they were no more nagged at him deeply. That's not something he ever wanted, and so he promised himself that he would do exactly as she said. He would fix himself and find himself, whoever that was, and he'd try to be a better man than he was before.

But before all that, he'd drink a little more. Because, after so many years of the warm, sweet taste of alcohol burning down his throat, he craved it. It was an incessant thought in his mind that made him want to mask and forget, possibly both at the same time.

June 2017

"I'm so sorry I'm late," Danai apologized to him quickly, as she rushed through the doors and around his awaiting arms. Her arms were currently occupied by a large dish - the only dish she'd learned how to cook to perfection - in her hands. If she dropped it, she wasn't sure if she'd cry or kneel in prayer. "I know everyone's probably waiting for -"

Andy just stood at the door, his specs adorning his darkened blue eyes. He looked good enough to eat. "Nobody's here…"

"What do you mean nobody's here? Now, I feel bad. They must've left because I'm so late," Danai rushed to explain, as she made her way through the house and towards the spacious kitchen of his luxury Atlanta home.

"Danai, I never invited them," Andy finally admitted, running his hand through the curls at the base of his neck. He blushed, and averted his eyes away from her, afraid of what she might think. "I - I wanted to do this for you, I wanted to do something special for you."

"Andy…," she trailed off, her eyes wider than an open window. He knew she was confused, scared, possibly unwilling to go along with it. He'd expected the reaction, given his circumstances. "This seems like a date."

"Two friends can't just enjoy a meal together?"

She tilted her head, and narrowed her eyes at him. "Alone?"

"We're alone, but we are eating. Sarah and I traded recipes and cooked together all the time…"

"Have you slept with Sarah?"

Andy's cheeks grew red, as he fumbled with what to say. "Well, no. But I figured I'd do something nice for you. You've been in South Africa and I haven't seen you in weeks. Norman, Melissa, and Lauren were coming, but they got held up on-set, so I just figured we could -"

" - Andy," Danai cut him off from his adorable rambling.

"Yes?"

"I'm just messing with you," she told him with the widest smile on her face. "Thank you, for the meal."

A deep, relieved sigh left his mouth, as he smiled at her. She looked beautiful tonight, he thought. She wore a pair of grey sweats, and an oversized hoodie, which supported the theory that she'd just been expecting an after work hangout with friends, but the dish that she held nervously in her hands said something else.

He'd known Danai for several years, but he hadn't known her to bring a dish to any of their other cast hangouts. She'd said that she loved making goat cheese hamburgers with wedge sweet potato fries, but in her hands was a fresh salmon dish.

"You made a dish?" Andy's eyes lit with excitement, but she just blushed.

"I tried to make a dish," she admitted sheepishly.

"You never made any food for my house dinners before," he pointed out playfully, as his smile grew larger and larger.

Her breathing grew heavy under his teasing stare, as she fought to reacess the reason why she'd even bothered making a dish for a "friendly" party, when it wasn't something she'd ever bothered to do before. A lot of the reasons before were because his wife would be present, or his two children, so she never made herself appear as more than a work acquaintance to them. But now, she wasn't here, and he wasn't just that.

"I wanted…," she paused, feeling uncharacteristically shy. She fought to control her breathing, as her heart galloped along like an untamed horse. "I guess I wanted to impress you. You're such a good cook and I...I wanted to make sure I was up to snuff."

"Well, I'm sure I can teach you a thing or two," he winked.

She simply stared at him, unblinking at his candor.

"In the kitchen, Danai. I meant in the kitchen. Unless you'd like to do that again. I didn't want to assume that we were still -"

"Andy, it's fine," she assured him. "Now please feed me."

:

" - And then my mum tells me 'Andrew, dear, you're going to have to try this,'" Andy explained in between giggles from himself and Danai. "Trying turned into running a twenty six mile marathon, but my mum is the most important person to me."

"Speaking of your mom, did she really want our characters together, or was that just you tryna be fresh with me?"

"Try n' a be what?" Andy's nose scrunched up adorably in confusion.

"We've got to get you into the 21st century, because this is sad," Danai giggled, and then stuffed her face with some more food.

"I thought you were a vegan now," Andy narrowed his eyes teasingly, before averting his eyes up to Danai, who sat with adorably full chipmunk cheeks, before swallowing and shooting him a frown.

"I'm trying," Danai admitted. "But you are tempting me to the dark side. Where does a guy like you learn to cook food like this?"

"I'm not sure if that's a compliment or an insult," he answered with a smirk.

"I swear I didn't mean it like that!" She insisted, giggling at his furrowed brows and confused pretty eyes. She found him so adorable when he was bemused, even though she'd never admit it. "I meant, tell me about how you became such a good cook. I want to know."

"Out of necessity," he admitted. "My father - my father wasn't into me being an actor. He wanted me to do something academic, but I was never really into that. And then I'd started to act. When I realized that I was good, I wanted to pursue it, but my dad told me that I had to get into the five best drama schools in England…"

Danai whistled to herself, impressed. "Did you?"

"I did, but my dad told me that if I wanted to go, I had to pay for it," Andy explained. "So, I got three jobs, one of them was a commis chef, and that's how I learned."

He shrugged as if it were nothing, but Danai didn't think it was just nothing. She saw something in him that he didn't see in himself; a person with ambition and drive and determination to do what they needed to do no matter what. She'd wondered secretly how someone so impossibly good could allow himself to have the wife that he did, the in-laws that he did.

She reached over across the table, tentatively placing her hand over his. It was the first time that she'd truly touched him since her birthday, and her body ached for him in ways she hadn't experienced in her whole life.

When she'd come over tonight, she'd just come to see him because she missed him, but right now, after that story, all she wanted was to be underneath him in the most intimate of ways. She didn't care what would happen next, but she knew she wanted him.

"I'm finished with dinner," she said suddenly. "Take me to the bedroom."

"You want to see the bed?" He asked.

"No," she answered. "I want you to fuck me."

Andy's eyes widened, because he'd never heard her speak in such a way. But he wasn't going to let her say it twice.

July

The sound of his phone blared in Andy's room early that Friday morning. He groaned and got up, pausing momentarily to stare at Danai's beautiful back. Last night, she'd tortured him in a low cut top on the way there, constantly walking by his seat and brushing her ass against his legs. It'd gotten to bad that he'd had to put his headphones on and pretend to be sleep in order to will away his massive erection. But somehow, he'd still wound up knocking on her door just past 11, after she'd sent him a pretty scandalous picture of her topless on her bed with her legs spread. Her message simply read: Come. And that's exactly what he'd done.

But now in the light of the day, all he wanted to do was relieve being sheathed in her walls over and over. The phone rung once again, knocking him out of his reverie. He looked at the caller ID, groaning even louder when he saw his wife's name plastered across the screen like charred hot coals on his back.

He answered, already anticipating the tongue lashing he was about to receive. "Where in the hell are you, Andrew? The kids and I have been waiting at the airport for nearly two hours! You were supposed to pick us up."

"You didn't make arrangements to come with me," Andy answered simply.

"I'm not doing this with you right now, Andrew. I told you last month that Matilda and Arthur were on holiday that week and we would be joining you this week," Gael reminded him. "I swear if I don't write certain things on your forehead, you'd never remember them."

"Look, I don't want to hear it," Andy sighed, chancing another look at Danai's sleeping form. "I'll be there in 15 minutes."

"You better because I don't want to -" Click. He'd hung up on her, and instead of causing him anxiety like it usually did, it only gave him a sense of deep relief.

He got up, and left the bed, while sliding on his shirt and jeans. The last thing he wanted was to leave her, but he knew that Gael would make a scene of it. Before he left, he decided to leave her a letter, explaining everything to her, because he didn't want to wake her so early in the morning, not when she looked so peaceful.

In all the time he'd known her, she rarely slept deeply. Her schedule was usually so jammed packed that she preferred cat naps and sleeping pills, which he didn't think was very healthy, but somehow worked for Danai. In his eyes she was superwoman; able to do things regular mortals couldn't.

Hey,

I have to go pick up Art and Tilly from the airport. Didn't want to but I had to otherwise I'd be there with you. Please rest up and then meet us on the beach for the tradition. Wouldn't want you to miss out.

Love you. Andy.

:

Danai didn't expect a light knock on her door, or the precocious set of green eyes that peered up at her either. Andy's daughter Matilda stood there waiting for her with an expectant expression on her face. She was a little thing, standing somewhere between three and four feet tall, but she felt her presence strongly, and wasn't sure what to do.

Should she invite her in? Where were her parents? Why was she here? But before she could do that, the young girl flipped her chestnut locks back and skipped into the room as if she owned the place.

"Dad doesn't know I'm here," Matilda smirked mischievously. "Yet."

"And your mom?" Danai eked out, nervous about them even speaking to one another so casually. She wondered how much Matilda knew about her relationship with Andy, and if she did know, did she approve?

"She's fussing at dad about something, I think," Matilda said casually.

"You know you could get into serious trouble, young lady," Danai put on her most stern, adult voice, but couldn't quite pull it off because she wore her favorite comfty bunny slippers and her furry pink robe.

"Sure, sure," Matilda said, sitting down on the couch and kicking up her boots. "Dad will find me, and give me a cuddle," she explained, her transatlantic accent wafting through the relatively empty hotel room. "I texted him where I am and hopefully it takes him only thirty minutes to find it - this time."

"Matilda, why are you here?" Danai questioned the young girl.

"Do you fancy my dad?"

Danai averted her eyes nervously to the floor. "No, your dad and I are just buddies. We slay zombies together."

"Hmmm," Matilda narrowed her eyes. "Sure."

"You are your father's child, you know that, right?"

"What does that me -"

Before Matilda could finish her question, a banging on the door startled them both, and immediately Matilda leapt up from the couch, and ran to the door. Once opened, both of her parents stormed into the hotel room with concerned expressions on their face, and the usually cool room turned deathly cold. A few moments later, a distracted Arthur bounced in, and sat on the couch, too engrossed with his Super Mario Bros game on his tablet to truly care what was going on.

"How in the world did you get up here, Matilda? You could've been hurt, kidnapped, or worse…," Gael trailed off, standing stiffly by the door. Her dark shades covered her eyes, and her mouth thinned into a tight line.

"Dad's friend saw me and let me stay with her," Matilda quickly explained.

"On the fifth floor, Matilda?" Gael questioned her once more.

"Yeah, on the family fifth floor, mom. Can I go to the beach now?"

Gael sighed heavily, deferring to Andy with one empty look. "You handle it."

Andy kneeled down, placing his hands on Matilda's shoulders, while he peered into her light emerald eyes. They were eyes just like her mother's, but instead of ice orbs, hers were fiery, like her father's. "Tilly, sweetheart, you can't go knackering off with my - with my - with my friends," Andy eyed Danai discreetly. "What are you doing up here?"

"I just wanted to talk to her, without you guys," Matilda admitted. "Is it okay if I like Miss. Danai?"

Andy simply smiled. "No, sweetheart. But now we've got to go to the beach, alright?"

"Alright," Matilda said, before joining her brother on the couch.

Once the two children were preoccupied, the adults went to the Backroom to have the one tall that nobody was prepared to have. But they had to have it. When they arrived at the bedroom, it was still a bit of a mess from before, but they managed to find a quiet spot to speak without being heard by the overly nosey children.

For Danai's part, she mostly felt awkward. This whole thing was a lot.

"I know what's going on, I always have," Gael finally said, cutting into the awkward silence of the room. She removed her dark shades, and placed them on top of her head, before sighing. Her jade eyes were heavy with trepidation, her skin sallow with stress. "My only request is that you not embarrass me."

"What do you mean?" Danai questioned her. "Andy and I are -"

" - Save it, I know you're shagging. I'm over that now, but I have a reputation, as do you, as does...he," Gael motioned towards Andy, who looked on the verge of vomiting. "This...whatever it is must remain as private as possible until, and only until Andrew and myself are formally parted, it's for the best interests of everyone involved. I can even have a formal s agreement drawn up…"

"There's no need," Danai said, unable to truly respond to how cold and detached Gael was about her marriage. On one hand, it made her feel relieved; on the other hand, she felt deeply unsettled by her.

"Fine, but I request you distance yourself. I don't care what you get up to in private, but in public, distance is the best, for all of us."

She couldn't fathom leaving someone she'd loved for nearly twelve years as if she were giving up her share in a company, but now Danai was seeing her for who she truly was, and everything made sense to her. Their marriage was apart of their image, and Gael tended to it like a well tended to front lawn. Occasionally, she watered it, cropped the stray leaves, mowed it, but when it was time to leave the house, she no longer cared. The reason she tended the lawn was to sell the house, nothing more, nothing less.

And for the first time, Danai looked at her. She pursued her. Her eyes took in the frigid woman who stood at five foot nine; her temperament something akin to a mother bird. She was tense in posture, with shoulders that sat upright unnaturally, and arms always crossed around her front.

Danai knew she was uncomfortable by this, by them. But logically, she couldn't deny that their reputation did matter.

"That sounds fair," Danai once again said, filling the silence. "Andy and I - we'll keep our distance."

"Good," Gael told the both of them. "The kids and I will meet you at the beach, Andrew."

With that, she was gone, and Andy and Danai stood in the room bathed with natural light and silence. Neither spoke for a few moments, as Danai's thoughts lingered on the exchange that had just happened. She wondered how Andy felt about everything; was he just as relieved as she was? Did he still harbor feelings? Was this divorce something that was really happening? Was she wrong for her part in it?

She felt like water circling the drain with how her thoughts always circled back to that, but she couldn't help it. Without a label, she didn't know where they stood. But apart of her still wasn't ready for the pressure of labels when she wasn't even sure about the status of his relationship.

As much as she wanted to be with him, as much as she loved him, she still wasn't ready to take the plunge.

"I'm sorry about Gael," Andy finally said. "She lacks the compassion chip."

"I noticed," Danai told him. "Your daughter knows about us."

"Tilly knows!?" Andy asked, cluelessly. He snatched off his beaver hat and ran his hand through his slicked back curls.

"She does, but I think she's fine with it," Danai told him. "Have she...asked you?"

Andy shook his head profusely. "No."

"Would you - would you want me to be apart of their lives?"

Danai whispered this part out, as if embarrassed by the notion, but Andy simply reached over, grabbed her face, and pressed his lips against hers. Once done, his intense eyes landed on hers with deep promise. "You're apart of me, so there's no way you wouldn't be."

He was so convincing that she decided to believe him.

:

He wasn't prepared to see her body, but there she was along the shore stripping off her denim cutoff shirts and her white t-shirt to reveal a modest one piece black swimsuit. She looked divine, with her curves being emphasized to the fullest degree by the skin hugging leather fabric. She was oblivious to his internal angst, as she giggled and splashed in the water.

After awhile, Norman joined him, immediately noticing his discontent and angst. "Sup, man. You look like shit."

"Well, thank you for that," Andy responded sarcastically.

"What's going on with you? You've been walking around in a funk for weeks now."

"I want to leave the show," Andy blurted out, unsure of where it came from, but he felt relieved now that it was out there.

Norman's head spun around to fast that Andy worried he'd break his neck. "You what?"

"You heard me, I want to leave the show," Andy repeated, this time sounding more confident."

"But why?" Norman asked, genuinely confused.

"I -," Andy struggled for words as Danai stepped into view, her beautiful body encased in short shorts and a white t-shirt. She giggled at something Lauren said, before gracefully running down the beach like an Olympian runner. God, she's the best thing in this world, he thought, losing track of whatever else he was saying before.

"Earth to Andy," Norman said, shaking him out of his reverie.

"Sorry," Andy apologized, struggling to remember what he'd been saying. "I - I - Gael and I - we're separated, and she told me that she doesn't want to keep bringing the kids back and forth, that she's tired of it, that they're tired of it. I feel guilty...but this show, I've never cared about something more in my life. I'm...struggling."

"It's Danai, isn't it?" Norman answered.

"I'm in love with Danai," Andy suddenly admitted.

"If you're in love with her, you've got to do something about it, man. 'Cause there's lots of dudes lookin' to take your spot," Norman said, giving uncharacteristically sage advice.

Andy narrowed his eyes, and then laughed. He couldn't believe how the tables had turned, with Norman somehow being the wise one, while he was the confused, vulnerable one. And then his eyes travelled back to where Danai now sat talking animatedly to Lauren on the beach. Norman's words hovered in Andy's mind like a haunting ghost, their presence permeating his mind even though he couldn't see them. He knew that Danai deserved something serious, and that one day she'd probably meet someone who could provide her with a normal relationship, but he selfishly wanted her more than rational thoughts allowed.

He knew one thing though, he wasn't ready to leave this show. Not now, maybe not ever, because leaving it - her - pained him. He couldn't do it. He wouldn't.

:

Later on that evening, when the sky turned black, and the ocean calmed, he sat outside facing the beach. He didn't want to go home yet, but he didn't know where else he could go. His thoughts were racing, and all he wanted to do was turn his brain off and just... float, but he just couldn't.

He sighed, wishing that he could turn back the hands of time. Maybe if he could tell his overly eager, missguided thirty-two year old mistake that infatuation wasn't love and extravagant trips around the world weren't everything, then maybe things would be different. Maybe Danai would be his wife. Maybe, maybe, maybe. His thoughts ceased when he realized that he'd gotten his children from this, and maturity. He wouldn't be who he was today without marriage, unfortunately; he guessed life gave you bittersweet gifts.

"You know, I've found you sulking out here on this dock two years in a row," came the familiar voice of Danai. He averted his head around, and saw her standing there with the brightest smile on her face.

Andy just smirked, patting the empty spot next to him beckoning her to join him. "You left all those fine Black Panther men to counsel this old man?"

"This old man happens to be my best friend, and those guys are a'ight," Danai shrugged, resting her head on his shoulder.

They sat in silence for awhile, not saying much of anything to each other. It felt comfortable and right to them, and they knew that words weren't really needed to express anything between them. Their bond was terrifyingly close, and unlike anything else.

"I'm sorry about today," Andy finally said. "My baggage is a lot."

"You're more than your baggage. You're you, and you've got to stop putting yourself down. I've told you that if I didn't want this, there wouldn't be a this," she emphasized, brushing her hands through his loose curls. "But I know you. There's something on your mind."

Andy sighed, deep in his chest. He knew he couldn't hide anything from her. "I might have to leave the show," Andy breathed out, and then before he knew it, he was sobbing. He didn't know where his emotions were coming from, and he hadn't allowed himself to open up to anyone about how he felt. Nobody would understand how much he loved doing what he did, and how it pained him.

"How do you feel about that?"

"I don't know…," Andy trailed off. "Nobody's really - nobody's really cared to ask how I felt - feel - about it. I guess I didn't think anyone would."

"I care," Danai said simply. "So that's one person."

"How'd I get so lucky finding you?" He asked her in awe, his eyes shimmering as he stared at her.

Danai just laughed. "Pure luck, Clutterbuck."

:

November 2017

Danai

"I'm sorry," Danai breathed into the phone as she held onto the sides of the toilet bowl. "I know I was supposed to meet fans at -," she abruptly paused, upchucking into the bowl until her stomach was empty and her skin was flushed. "Sorry about that, I'll be there at eleven. Alright. Bye."

She hung up on James Frazier, the CEO and brain of the whole Walker Stalker con franchise. She was feeling weird, but she didn't want to think about why she was feeling so damn weird. Her mind raced as she trudged to her closet, which was filled with skin tight tops and skirts, before falling to the ground. Her stomach felt upset once more, so she began to ponder it, the possibility that she could be.

She wracked her mind and thought back to her last period; it'd been so long ago now that it was truly worrying.

"Fuck…," she muttered, holding her belly for dear life.

I can't be. I can't be.

She dug through her bag nervously, and found a pregnancy test laying on the very bottom of the bag. She breathed deeply, her hands shaking as she headed towards the bathroom. After peeing on the stick, and waiting the allotted amount of time, she nervously turned around the stick. Her eyes widened when she read the results, and she grabbed her phone off the countertop before scrolling down to Andy's number and delivering a text.

Andy, there's something I need to tell you.

The End?

I know, I'm cruel. But I did say there'd be a sequel. Things aren't what they appear to be and there is a lot of material to cover. I'll start working on that story if anyone's interested in reading it. Happy 2019 everyone. God bless.