"Your fiancée?" he asked cautiously. He meant it to be rhetorical, but it didn't sound that way, and the other man just nodded a positive reply. "Is he yours too?"

"No, she had him before we even met." He informed the young man. "She was young and in love, or just lust as she called it. He, her ex, left her when he found out she was pregnant… She was alone. She was just too young and wasn't ready to be a mother, so she gave him up for adoption."

"How'd you find out?" he asked him.

"She told me." He answered. "Before she said yes to my proposal she told me about it. She said she didn't want me to marry someone I didn't completely know."

"Wow." He said. "That takes guts."

"Yeah, one of the things I just love about her." he replies.

"That took a lot of trust." The New Yorker added. "To be able to say something that could risk either hurting or losing someone, that takes a lot of trust. She must really love you."

"She was scared when she told me. She was scared of how I'd react. I had to reassure her that she could trust me. She hadn't even told her folks. I had to let her know that I would accept anything that she was anything that she had to go through in her past. I could understand, and if I didn't I'd try." He explained. "I had to convince her I love her too."

"I'm guessing she was convinced?" The blonde said, referring to the ring.

"Yeah," he answered shakily, fumbling with the gold band. "It took some time, but she finally said yes."

"So what now?" he asked.

"She agreed to marry me." He answered. "So we will."

"Not that… I mean now." He corrected him. "What are you doing now? What are you doing here?"

"Honestly, I don't know." He replied, actually getting a little choked up. He wasn't the type of man who showed his emotions well, so the feign teary eyes, the fidgeting in place and lack of eye contact were the only signs of his confusion and uneasiness, but they were clear enough for the younger man. "She told me she knew the adoptive family lived in Staten Island New York. I checked around, did some research and found this address. Not even sure till now."

"How can you be sure this is it?" he asked.

"It has to be." He answered desperately. "That's Claire's son. I'm sure of it."

"Why?" was all the other man could ask.

"What do you mean why?" he asked.

"I mean why go through all of that?" he asked. "Why did have to go through all that trouble to look for him?"

"I really don't know. I hadn't figured that out yet." He explained. "I only got to thinking about finding him, not sure what to do now."

Danny wasn't certain, but he felt that this guy wasn't the type of person that would be uncetain very often. He couldn't see Mac being unsure of anything. This made it clear that this was really uncharted water for the older man.

"What did you want to know?" he asked plainly.

"I guess I wanted to know what he looked like." He answered. "I wanted to see him for my own two eyes, if he really existed. I wanted to see if he came out looking like her." he added with a smile.

"Do you want to tell him something?" He asked just as plainly. "What do you want him to know?"

"What his mother told me." He answered. "I want him to know that his mom loves him, still does and always will. I want him to know that it was really hard for her to give him up. She couldn't even let him go with out naming him. She knew it may not be his legal name, but she just had to name him. She named him Andrew, after her late father… She would have kept him if she felt that she could, if she felt that it was the best for him, but she knew it wasn't. She knew he deserved better. She didn't want him to suffer because she couldn't take proper care of him… And that not a day goes by that she doesn't wonder what it could have been like to really be his mother… not just give birth to him but actually parent him." Then a teardrop fell from the edge of his chin and quickly wiped it clean.

He could only see his profile, but he didn't need to look at the brunette to know what he was feeling. He didn't need to see him shyly wipe his cheek to know what he was crying. He didn't need anything else but his voice to know that the man next to him meant every word he just said.

"I even thought I could invite him and his parents to the wedding. I thought I could surprise Claire by having her only son as our ring-bearer." He said with a smile, then it turned into a sarcastic frown "I can't believe how I was this stupid. God, what was I thinking." He added.

"What is it? What's wrong?" he asked the now unstable officer.

"I wasn't thinking?" He rhetorically asked himself. "I wasn't. I shouldn't have come." Then he suddenly picked his feet up and walked pass the other man, carelessly shoving him and leaving him standing in the middle of the sidewalk.

"Hey," he called out to him and chased him down the street. "Where you going?"

"Back. I should never have come. I wasn't thinking. This was a big mistake." He said, picking up his pace.

He was now briskly striding down the sidewalk, running away from the man he had dinner with no less than 45 minutes ago. When the younger man kept following him he began to pick up speed. It came to the point of almost running, but not quite, down the quiet and dark streets of Staten Island. He made quick turns, crossed streets to God know where, and the other man could only follow him, and he did. The only sounds that could be heard were of the usual New York urban nightlife and their feet against the pavement.

'What the fuck was this guy doing?' Danny asked himself. He was new to the place. He had no where close to go and the only place he can go to is at least one subway ride away. Why the hell was he running? What was he running from? What the hell happened to him?

"Stop running!" He yells as he grabs the older man's arm. He just shrugs it off and continued his long and quick strides.

He wasn't running away from him. He wasn't actually running because Mac Taylor doesn't run away. He was too proud to run, but he was avoiding this. Avoiding was his only way of dealing with these kinds of situations.

He was the only connection he had, the only person he could trust and talk to right now, and he was running away from him. He was running to no where, and fast. He had no idea what he was doing and where he was going. All he knew was that he couldn't be here. He shouldn't be here. He had to leave.

"Mac, stop." Danny shouted.

Thanks for all the great reviews I'll do my best to write my best... D

For Tenka-Chan: I'm sorry, but Claire's nothing but a silent character. I'm not comfortable with writing for someone I don't know, but I hope you like the direction of the story.