NOTE: This is set in the TM-verse, and in the future, sort of. This takes place a year after Taylor leaves New York.

83) Take A Bow by Rihanna

'How could you do this? I understand how you could do this to me, but to Garrett? He needs his mom, and you're leaving without a backward glance?'

'No, Danny please, you have to understand, I lo-'

'Yeah yeah you love him, I hear ya. You've known him for three weeks, how can you know that?' He paused as realisation sunk in, and his ears turned faintly red. He felt so stupid. 'It hasn't just been three weeks, has it?'

Lindsay shook her head slowly, tears slipping down her cheeks, mixing with mascara and eyeliners, leaving black tracks down her face.

'Christ Lindsay, how long?'

She spoke, her voice barely above a whisper 'Two years.'

Danny inhaled slowly, trying to get control of his emotion, or he was gonna put a fist through a wall. 'Two years? You been sneaking about around my back for two years?' A thought occurred to him, and his blood ran cold. 'Is, is Garrett...' he trailed off, unable to say it.

'Is he yours?' she finished for him.

He nodded, not trusting his voice to not crack mid-sentence.

'He's yours. I took a test, if he was Trist's, I would have left then Danny. I, I hoped, I hoped he was.'

Danny ran a hand down his face, clenching the other in a fist. Keeping his voice low, Garrett was sleeping in the other room, he hissed through clenched teeth. 'Get out. Get out of my house.'

She looked shocked, and Danny's temper flared. 'Don't look so surprised. You're leaving anyway, it might as well be on my terms. You have until I get back from work tomorrow morning. You can have anything you want, apart from the house and my son.'

'Your son? He's just as much my son as he is yours.'

'No.' He said firmly. 'He stopped being your son the minute you said you were leaving.'

Lindsay burst in broken sobs at that point, not caring anymore. Through the haze of tears, she made her way to the spare bedroom, where she reached under the bed and brought out a suitcase, full of clothes. Carrying it to the door, she stopped and turned back to Danny. She was no longer crying, but there was a quiet sadness.

'I'm sorry it ended this way.' She said, before taking off her wedding ring placing it on the table by the front door. That one gesture just about broke Danny's heart.

'No you're not.' He said, choking back tears. 'You're just sorry you got caught.'

And with those words, Lindsay Monroe walked out of Danny Messer's life forever. Tears misted his vision and he turned and slammed his hand into the wall next to him. The wall splintered under the force of his punch, and something in his hand went crack, but he didn't care.

A small cry from the other room snapped him out of his anger fuelled stupor, and he went into his son's room. The sound of the wall breaking must have scared him, and Danny picked up his son, holding him close, murmuring things in his ear. Gradually, the whimpering slowed, and Garrett Messer looked into his father's eyes, blue on blue and said in a clear voice, 'Dada?'

And Danny's heart broke all over again. 'That's me, G, I'm your Daddy.' He carried his son back down the stairs, rocking him slowly, he looked around the house. Little things everywhere reminded him of Lindsay, the chair in the corner where she rocked newborn Garrett to sleep, the dint in the wall where he put his fist through it, the coffee stain of the cream carpet where Lindsay knocked over his mug the day they moved in.

Pulling his cell phone out of his pocket, he dialled a number that he could have dialled in his sleep. She answered on the first ring, sounding a little stressed. 'Hello?'

'Taylor? It's me, Danny. She left.'

-_-

I know it's short, but I really like this song, and didn't think there was much more that could be said. Still, lucky you, two posts in a week on the same fic! I must be getting soft. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, unless I'm very much mistaken, the next song will be Heartbeat by Scouting for Girls. Anyone says a word I'll set Mac on you.