Note From The Author—Here's the next chapter. The first scene is slightly goofy but I missed Danny so he starts it out and he's actually in it for a decent piece. I hope you enjoy. Thank you all for the rave reviews and suggestions. Enjoy, and coming up next chapter, the wedding!

Disclaimer—Please, like I'd need to write Stella and Flack getting together if I owned the characters.

"No," Flack said firmly. He sat in the lab break room with his arms crossed, staring at Danny.

"Aw, come on Flack it's cute," Danny said smirking.

Flack uncrossed his arms and picked up the onesie that Danny had left sitting on the table. "I Heart New York? My kid'll look like a tourist."

"He won't look like a tourist; he'll look like he loves his city."

Stella chose that moment to walk in. "Who will look like he loves his city?"

As she sat down next to him, Flack shook his head. "The baby, according to Sherlock over there."

"He?" Stella asked, raising her eyebrows at Danny.

He shrugged. "I've got a feeling it's a boy," he said, grinning.

She nodded. "Uh huh, okay." She picked up the onesie and smiled. "This what you two have been talking about?"

"Yeah," Flack answered, shaking his head again at Danny.

"It's sweet Danny, thanks. I'll see you guys later." She stood up and headed for the door.

Danny, looking very self satisfied, leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. "Boom."

Flack decided he'd just beat the pants off of Danny on the courts and maybe he'd stop smirking. That night after an hour and a half of one on one Danny was still smiling, Flack had joined him and they called it quits with a tie. Laughing, they gathered up their gym bags and started towards their respective transportation. They were joking around, jostling each other, and generally not paying attention and both slammed into a woman on the street. Danny hit his ass and Flack only managed to stay upright by grabbing on to a lamp post. The woman sprawled to the ground and swore as her purse tumbled.

"Damn I'm sorry," Danny told the woman, straightening out his glasses as he stood.

Flack extended his hand down to the woman and was surprised when he saw a familiar face. "Devon?"

"Don?"

Flack helped her to her feet and let go of her quickly. "You okay?"

She nodded, smiling. "I'm fine." She turned. "Danny Messer right?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

They all looked down to see the contents of gym bags and her purse strewn across the sidewalk. As they all knelt to sort things out Devon spoke casually to Flack. "How have you been Don?"

"Really well, I'm…"

She cut him off. "Good, I've been good too. The usual, parties and charity events taking up my time."

Danny and Flack's eyes met over her head and both their eyes rolled clear back. "What are you doing around here?" Danny asked.

"I'm seeing a guy who lives around here." She looked around as if she smelled something nasty. "Not my favorite part of the city but he's…" She trailed off. "Anyway, we're going to an event tonight. But if you ever feel like it Don I'm always willing to…" Devon's hand stilled when she saw the onesie. "Oh, are you and your girlfriend having a baby?" she asked Danny as they all stood.

Neither man cared for the incredulity and edge of distaste in her voice. "Fiancé, and no," Danny told her flatly.

"I am," Flack told her, eyes flashing.

Her eyes widened almost comically and she stepped back from him like she'd been burned. "Wow, I can't imagine wanting to have kids. When did that happen?" she asked.

"Just over five months ago," he responded, his eyes narrowing slightly.

Devon handed him the onesie and adjusted the strap of her bag. "Well… I'd better go… Good luck."

She walked off and Flack shook his head. "No wonder I never got past a fifth date with her."

Danny laughed. "Well, she's definitely not the brightest crayon in the box is she?"

"Nah, all she's concerned about is how she looks and who sees her on her way to wherever she's going."

"Guess she never got the memo about being a grown up huh?"

Flack nodded. "That's a good way of putting it. Come on, let's get outa here."

Stella was sitting at the counter looking at a case file when Don came in. "Hey, you and Danny have a good time trying to out-do each other?" she asked with a smile.

He dropped his bag on the floor and walked over. "Yeah, it was good."

She swatted his hand away when he reached for her. "You're sweaty."

"Oh come on Stell."

"Maybe after you take a shower," she told him, laughing.

Grumbling all the way he headed for their bathroom, leaving Stella still laughing behind him. When he came back ten minutes later she was perusing a takeout menu. "Anything sound good?"

He nodded. "Yup." He reached out and drew her off the chair, pulling her into his arms and kissing her slowly. When he pulled away he smiled down at her. "Even better than it sounded."

"Definitely," she told him. She smoothed out the wrinkles she'd made in his t-shirt, a grin on her face. "But you still haven't told me what you want for dinner."

After dinner they lay together on the couch, only half watching the program on the TV. Flack's mind kept straying back to the scene by the basketball court. "Hey Stell, I ran into Devon today."

She couldn't help but tense slightly. "Really?"

"Uh huh; and you know what I realized?"

"What's that," she asked.

He sighed. "She's really kind of an idiot."

Stella laughed. "I could have told you that a while ago Don."

"I'm sure you could have." Feeling the need for further contact he slipped his hand beneath her shirt to rest on the swell of her belly. "It's like she never got the memo about being a grown up. When I told her about the baby it was like I might as well have told her that I was in a monogamous relationship with a Martian."

"She's just one of those girls. All she cares about is getting invited to the next biggest party and looking good when she gets there. She'll never have any concerns beyond that."

He laughed. "I told Danny almost the same thing. I'm glad it turned out the way it did. I got something way better out of it."

"You're sweet," she told him. She turned her head and kissed him. "And I'm inclined to agree with you."

When Stella got to work the next morning she immediately picked up on the unusually subdued atmosphere. She headed straight for Mac's office to find out what was going on. "Mac, is everything okay?"

Mac looked up from his desk, his eyes tired. "We lost a cop last night."

She sat down in the chair in front of the desk. "Who?"

"You, Danny, Flack and Hawkes worked with him the other day. Johnson."

"How did it happen?"

He shook his head. "He was stabbed off duty. They collared the guy who did it but there was too much damage. Johnson died fifteen minutes after they made it to the hospital."

"That's horrible," she said quietly. "He has two kids."

"And now they're left without a father, all because some junkie thought he hadn't gotten all of the officer's money when he held him up."

All day long, Stella couldn't stop thinking about the officer's death. The horrible tragedy of it all only brought to the forefront of her mind how dangerous their job could be. The what ifs kept floating through her mind and it suddenly became incredibly real to her that she or Don could be killed. When she made it home that night Flack was already there, looking weary and saddened.

"I heard about Johnson," she told him, wrapping her arms around him, pressing her cheek to his chest.

He nodded. "He was a good cop, and it was completely senseless."

"Don, I've been thinking about this all day long. We could be killed."

"I've been thinking about it too." He pulled back to look her in the eye. "We need to decide who's going to get custody of the baby if anything happens to us."

Tears sprung to her eyes. "I know. I hate the thought of it, but I know we have to face reality."

"I know, and it's going to be tough."

Stella and Flack debated for a week over who they would ask to be the baby's guardian. There were two clear choices, and they thought long and hard about who they should choose. When they finally made a decision, they thought it was best to just ask and get it over with. They met Danny and Lindsay in the break room the next day.

"We want to ask you guys something," Flack said.

"Shoot," Danny told him.

Stella took a deep breath. "After what happened to Johnson, we got thinking about it and we decided that we needed to have a plan in place for the baby if things go wrong. We were wondering if you two would consent to be the baby's guardians if something ever happens to us."

Danny and Lindsay looked at each other, tears in her eyes. "Of course we will," she assured them.

"Of course," Danny affirmed.

"Thank you, so much," Stella said, tears falling too. "It's comforting to know that everything will be okay if…"

Lindsay covered her friend's hand with hers. "Hopefully it won't ever be necessary."

"We'll all keep our fingers crossed," Flack chimed in. "But thank you guys anyway."

"The little guy will be in good hands if we ever have to take care of him," Danny said.

Lindsay turned her head to look at him. "Guy?" she asked.

"He's got a feeling," Flack said, rolling his eyes.

Stella let out something that sounded suspiciously like a snort. "He's got fifty bucks on a boy in the betting pool."

Danny's mouth fell open. "How did you know about that?"

She smiled as Lindsay and Flack laughed. "The mom genes are coming out Dan. I know all and see all. Don't forget it."

Note From the Author—Okay, so I'm not too happy with the transitions in this chapter. But I've been struggling with it so I'm just posting as is and hoping you'll forgive me and that I'll make up for it in the next chapter. Yay for weddings!