Danny roughly pulled his tie through the loop. He was going to be late and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. He'd gotten up early to make an 8:00AM meeting with the zoning commission and in his rush to find his keys he'd turned around and crashed right into Mary, her large glass of orange juice spilling all over his suit. She'd apologized, but the foul mood Danny had woken up in had quickly gone from bad to worse as he pushed past her without a word--running back to the bedroom to change his clothes.

As he tightened the knot and pulled on his jacket he couldn't help but mumble to himself–cursing Mary's clumsiness and then himself for taking it out on her. He was just tired. He just needed to rest and maybe when Ed got back next week he could take a few days off.

Danny had been going non-stop for the last four weeks–doing not only Ed's job, but his own as well. Combine that with trying to get things around the house in order and their ongoing search for the Masquerade Group and he was definitely on the verge–of what, he wasn't exactly sure.

Putting his wallet and Blackberry in his pocket he headed back towards the kitchen–glancing at Mary where she sat reading the paper.

"I'll talk to you later," he said curtly heading for the door.

"Danny," she called out to him, "can you please try and call the pool guy today?"

"Yeah, sure," he said distractedly.

"Because you said you were going to call him yesterday and you didn't."

Danny stopped and turned to face her, irritation clearly showing on his face, "If you're so worried about it then why don't you call him?"

"I did. He's asking me questions that I don't know the answer to--stuff about the pump–it would only take a couple of minutes if you'd just make the time to get on the phone with him. If we're going to have everyone over this weekend I think it would be nice if the pool wasn't full of brown gunk."

"I said I would do it, Mare! Give it a rest."

"Danny," Mary was startled at his tone. It was true they'd been bickering quite a bit lately–certainly more than they ever had before, but this was different.

"You know some of us have to work and don't get to sit around all day reading the paper."

"Hey, that's not fair! It's my day off! I've worked the last 10 days without a break–you know that."

"Yeah, well I've worked the last month without a break, Mary, so let's not talk about fair."

"Fine, let's just cancel the party. We'll reschedule for when you're in a better mood," Mary got up from her chair, tossing her dishes loudly into the sink.

"Don't put this off on me. It's Ed's welcome home party and we're not rescheduling!"

"THEN CALL THE DAMN POOL GUY!" Mary's eyes were filled with fire now, her anger having escalated at Danny's callous accusations. Unable to look at her anymore, Danny turned on his heel and headed out the door–slamming it as hard as he could behind him.

Halfway to the car–he turned back–making it as far as the porch with his hand poised on the knob before he stopped. He was too angry and he needed to get it under control and he had a pretty good feeling that Mary was beyond pissed at the moment. He'd let them both cool off and then they could talk.

Mary screeched out a frustrated breath, her hands shaking as she tried to load the dishwasher. She had seen Danny that angry before, but it had never been directed at her. And the fact that he'd left without a word had her even more concerned. She'd been trying to alleviate as much of his load as she could the last few weeks–mainly at home, but his mood had continued to go downhill. He was stressed beyond his limits and she had no idea what to do to help him anymore.

What hurt her the most was that he hadn't even acknowledged the whole reason she was off today. They were supposed to have their doctor's appointment–the one where they would find out whether the baby was a boy or girl. Mary briefly considered letting it go–waiting to see if he remembered on his own, but she quickly dispelled that idea. That wasn't fair to Danny--trying to walk him into some sort of trap–but there was no way she was ready to talk to him yet. She reached for her cell phone and quickly sent him a text–BABY DOC 4PM.

----

Danny had received her text on his way to work and it had made him feel even more like an ass than he already did. He'd immediately pulled over to the side of the road to take a few deep breaths--first calling the pool man and then programming the alarm on his Blackberry to go off at 3:00–insuring that no matter where he was he'd have plenty of time to get to Dr. Overton's office for their 4 o'clock appointment. They'd discussed it at length and had both decided that they didn't see anything wrong with finding out the sex of the baby. Mary was a planner and she needed all the facts in order to have everything absolutely perfect and in place by the time the little one made his or her arrival.

One of the things Danny had learned early on was that Mary didn't like it when he tried to buy her affection or her forgiveness. It's what made her different from most of the women he'd ever known and it definitely had its advantages–namely for his checkbook. Unfortunately, it also had several disadvantages–first and foremost being that it made "making up" a lot more difficult and time consuming. It helped that they didn't fight that often, but this morning had been terrible and Danny knew he was going to have to do some major groveling. As he hurried through the Forum shops that afternoon, he decided that Mary wouldn't be upset at the gift he had in mind–after all, it wasn't really for her. He'd been distracted all day long–thinking about how to make things right between them and had finally come to some decisions. Now, if he could just get his damn headache to go away before he had to face her everything might just be alright.

Just as he was headed back to the Montecito his phone rang. "Danny McCoy."

"Danny, it's me," Delinda sounded panicked and that was never a good sign. "The supplier was supposed to be here with the new chairs for Mystique and apparently there's some problem with the payment and they're refusing to release them."

"Slow down."

"I don't have time to slow down–Mariah Carey's group is going to be here tonight and we don't have any chairs. You need to fix this."

"Whoa! How am I supposed to fix this?"

"The guy's decided he's only going to accept payment in cash so we need to take it to him and then he'll deliver the chairs."

"Cash? What the hell kind of people are you doing business with?"

"That's not important," she dismissed him, obviously exasperated that he was missing her point. "I put the supply order on your desk so you need to get the cash and we'll meet him at 2:45."

"Delinda, I've got an appointment at 4 that I cannot miss."

"We'll be done in plenty of time if you'll stop arguing with me and get going."

"Fine. Meet me at the valet at 2:00."

----

Danny banged his head back against the wall as he listened to the chiming of the alarm on his phone. They'd headed to the warehouse only to find the place abandoned and no supplier in sight. Furious, Delinda had started snooping around and they'd ended up inside one of the interior storage units–a unit that locked from the outside.

"I thought you said you couldn't get any reception in here?"

"I can't–it's the alarm."

"Alarm for what?"

"It's reminding me about our doctor's appointment for Mary's ultrasound."

"Well, I'm sure she'll understand. It's not like we planned to get locked in here."

Danny sighed–hoping that Delinda was right and there would be someway for him to explain this all to Mary, because right now he was pretty sure she was going to be devastated–especially after the way he'd left things this morning.

----
"Hey, how was the appointment? Is it going to be a little Michael or a little Michelle?"

"I don't know. I didn't find out."

"What? Why?"

"Because Danny never showed up. He was supposed to be there and he never showed up and WE were supposed to find out and …he didn't show up, Mike," Mary's voice broke and a lone tear slipped down her cheek.

"Mary, that doesn't sound like him. I'm sure he has a really good reason."

"Yeah, well, we had a fight this morning so I guess he's still angry with me."

"How bad could it have been?"

"Look, I can't talk about it anymore because I'm going to get really upset and I would prefer not to do it in the middle of the casino. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

Mike shook his head as he watched Mary retreat to her office. There was no way Danny would knowingly miss that appointment. He'd mentioned it to Mike that morning and he was pretty sure that it hadn't slipped his friend's mind. Heading upstairs, Mike decided he was going to have to track down Mr. McCoy and find out what the heck was going on.

----
Four hours later and Danny and Delinda were still locked away. They'd banged on the doors until they thought their arms might fall off and yelled until their voices were almost gone. There was no one to hear them and with no means of communication they were beginning to wonder if anyone would ever find them.

"We're going to die here."

"Shut up, Delinda," Danny snapped. "Stop being so dramatic. Someone's bound to miss us sooner or later." Silently, Danny couldn't help but wonder if Mary was missing him. He knew she was most likely upset, but he wondered at what point she would start to worry and realize that he might actually be in trouble.

"Why does that thing keep beeping every half hour?" Delinda asked, indicating Danny's phone, "I thought you turned it off."

"It's a beacon of my failures."

"Now who's being dramatic," Delinda asked as she rolled her eyes. Danny glared at her again before they fell back into silence.

It was another hour before they heard noises outside the door. Mustering his last bit of strength Danny stood up, stumbling to the door to bang and scream until it opened to reveal a very confused-looking Mike Cannon.

"Thank God!" Delinda said as she threw herself into Mike's arms.

"Mike, buddy, I owe you big time. We've been stuck in here for hours. How the hell did you find us?"

"Joanna said you and Delinda had gone to pick up some chairs and it took me awhile, but I finally tracked the guy down who delivered them and he told me he was supposed to meet you out here, but he got tied up so he just headed to the Montecito."

"Wait, he delivered the chairs?" Delinda asked in disbelief.

"Yeah–they're all set up at Mystique. They look great by the way."

"Son of a …," Danny muttered, but was cut off by Mike.

"You are in some serious trouble on the homefront, buddy."

"Yeah, I know. I need to go. Please tell me my car is still out there?"

"It is. I'll take Delinda you just go fix things with your wife."

"Thanks," Danny said, giving Mike a slap on the arm as he hurried past them and out to his car.

----
It was dark–outside as well as in--by the time Danny pulled up to the house. He stumbled quietly through the living room and towards the bedroom only to find the door closed. On a good day it might have been possible to interpret the closed door several different ways, but there was no mistaking the meaning of the bedding piled on the floor in the hallway. Danny was not welcome in their bed tonight. A glutton for punishment he decided to try the knob, but just as he suspected it was locked. Mary wasn't pulling any punches and he couldn't really blame her. As he reached down to pick up the pillow and blankets he heard her soft, tired voice on the other side of the door.

"Danny?"

"Yeah," he responded, hoping that she might change her mind and let him in.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes."

There was a long pause before she finally responded, "Then I'll talk to you in the morning."

Danny nodded his head, resigned to his fate–at least for tonight. Excuses weren't going to matter at this point because nothing was going to take away her disappointment that he missed today.

----
Danny was still awake hours later, the flickering TV casting a surreal light over the darkened living room when he noticed her staring. He wasn't sure how long she'd been standing in the doorway, but when he met her eyes she moved tentatively into the room. Sitting down on the ottoman, she turned to face him–her silence begging him for an explanation.

"Delinda and I went to meet a supplier about some chairs for Mystique. He didn't show up and we got locked in this stupid storage building and couldn't get out. My cell wouldn't work so I didn't have any way to call."

Mary remained silent, only nodding her head as her eyes glistened with unshed tears.

"I know these last few weeks have been hard on us. I haven't done a very good job at balancing everything and I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry if I've been riding you about things, Danny. I don't want you to think of me as a nag."

Danny pushed himself off the couch, moving on his knees until he was in front of Mary. He slowly ran his hands up her thighs and around her waist until they rested at the small her back.

"I don't think that. I know you've been trying to help, but I've just been so stressed that I couldn't see that. I'm so sorry that I upset you and I don't want us to fight…ever."

"Danny, we can be mad and we can fight–it's part of every relationship, but I don't ever want to feel like I did today. I don't ever want to feel like you might not be coming back," tears slid from Mary's eyes as she hiccupped, trying to hold back a sob.

"Hey," he said, wiping the moisture from her skin with his thumb, "I told you when we got married that you were stuck with me. No matter what happens I'm not going anywhere so you better get used to it." Mary smiled a little at Danny's attempt at humor as he pulled her closer, settling himself between her knees and cradling her face in his hands.

"You are the most important thing to me, but I just got so caught up in trying to do a good job and be there for everyone and I was pissed that I was failing–pissed at myself. The one thing I promised Ed when I took over everything was that I would always put my personal obligations first and I haven't been doing that, but I promise I'm going to try harder." Mary tilted her head up so she could nudge his nose with hers and Danny sighed in contentment at her soft Eskimo kisses before he leaned back again to look in her eyes.

"How did the appointment go?"

"It didn't really. The baby's fine, but I didn't find out. I didn't want to know if you weren't there."

"I promise I'm going to make this up to you."

"It's okay."

"No, I promise," he assured her and she smiled at his insistence. "So, can I come to bed?"

"Yes, but I need to tell you that it's purely a selfish move on my part," Mary teased as she reached for the remote and turned off the TV.

"Oh really?" Danny asked, helping her to her feet.

"Yes. Fortunately for you I can't sleep when I'm mad at you."

"Well, that's good because I can't sleep when you're mad at me either," Danny put his arm around her shoulders, grabbing his pillow off the couch and leading her to bed.