I know I'm really sorry its been ages, I didn't mean to leave it on a cliff-hanger for so long. Here is chapter 9, I hope you all enjoy it. The good news is that we are now approaching stuff I wrote originally so updates should be faster.

I would like to say thank you to prplerayne who read this through for me and changed some of the grammer.

Chapter 9

Shit.

Danny ran his hands through his hair, creating rivets through his already dishevelled locks and then clenching his fists. He began working his way through the crowds, following the gaps that had been created when Lindsay and Robbie had sped out earlier.

He's her date.

Must not hit him.

She might like him.

His thoughts were all over the place. He had no rights over her, he knew that. Technically she was his date and although he had been acting kind of forceful and pushy there was not a lot he could do about it. And the sad truth of it was that it was not uncommon for men to hurt the ones they claimed to love.

Danny had vague memories of his father being less than nice to his Ma, but he always swore that when he grew up he would be a better man than his father, and he had seen first hand what a loving relationship should look like, with Mac and Stella. They had met through his mother, actually. Stella was also an immigrant, who lived on another street on the Island. She was a friend who helped out when he and Louie had been little. Mrs. Monroe had introduced them when Mac had been looking for someone who could help him run the new office for his business, and it had been love at first sight. Over the years, the feeling had never seemed to wane for them, but grow stronger.

He was almost at the door now, skirting around the final few dancers blocking his path. He paused on the threshold of the plain wooden door and peered out, willing his eyes to adjust to the darkness after the well-lit hall. The moon was quite full now, it being almost midnight and he could hear shouts that the dance was winding down behind him. After a few moments he managed to make out the shapes of the buildings that surrounded the centre of the small village. Not seeing them in the immediate vicinity he took off in to the darkness to find them.

It didn't take long for him to spot them. Rounding the corner to the back of the building he came across Lindsay, her back pressed to the whitewashed wooden wall with Robbie looming over her, one hand braced against the wall above her head and the other clutching her arm. Robbie had his mouth forcefully pressed against hers in what seemed to be a very vigorous kiss, and Danny paused for just a moment, unsure as to whether his interruption would be welcomed.

The small sob from her tiny body and the subsequent tightening of his fingers around her arm answered that question for him and he began to run towards them at full pelt. As he approached, Lindsay seemed to manage to free her arm from his grip and forcefully shove Robbie away from her body. Danny skidded to a halt beside them and grabbed Robbie by the neck of his shirt wrenching him away from Lindsay and pushing him to the ground.

"What the hell do you think you are doing," Robbie spat at Danny from his prone position on the ground.

"She was trying to say no" Danny shot back. "She didn't want you to do that, you piece of crap. You told her father you would look after her. Didn't your mother ever teach you some respect?"

"What are you her brother or something".

"No I'm not, but I do care about her welfare and she's never going to see you again, so why don't you just crawl back into whatever hole you slithered out of in the first place, and don't ever go near her again! Do I make myself clear," Danny stopped yelling and his voice took on a dangerous, icy tone as he continued, "and if I ever see or even hear of you coming near her again, I will make it my personal business to make your existence so unpleasant, that you will wish I had killed you, here and now."

Robbie made it to his feet, but looking at Danny's blazing face and the look of pure loathing that Lindsay was throwing at him, decided to give up. He spat in the ground at their feet and took off again around the front of the building.

Danny turned back to Lindsay preparing to check she was okay, only to be met with a face so furious it was the incarnation of the phrase 'if looks could kill'. Lindsay turned on her heel and took off around the building into the darkness.

Danny managed to locate her quickly, she having stopped dead in front of the door to the hall where the dance took place. The door was closed, locked, and all the lights inside had been turned out. In the darkness of the late hour, Danny and Lindsay were the only people around. The Dance had obviously ended and everyone headed off whilst they were out the back arguing. He watched Lindsay sit so dejectedly on the front step that he thought it might be safe to approach her.

BOY was he wrong.

"Leave me alone Danny", she spat when he approached her. He could see the anger and frustration written vividly on her face.

"You're upset, I get that, but I was just trying to help!" He tried to keep his voice calm, to not let his feelings get the better of him, "I didn't think he was treating you right".

"I was handling it, Danny, and what right do you have to tell him that I don't want to see him again?"

"Well it didn't look like you were handling it from where I was standing", he shot back, "I'm sorry if I upset the boy you like but I happen to think that you don't treat a woman like that".

"I don't like him", she shot back, "but I was dealing with it and I would have made him stop just like all the other times. Don't you understand how much worse you have just made this?" She was shouting now, he could hear the desperation in her voice.

"Obviously not, so why don't you enlighten me," he burst out.

There was silence then. All he could hear was her gasping for breath, her chest heaving trying to get her emotions under control.

"Look around you Danny", she said in a voice so small he was not sure he had heard it at first. "I don't fit in here, and everyone knows it. I feel so trapped and isolated in this community because I haven't settled down with some milksop farmer and had a gaggle of babies by now", she laughed tearfully, "did you know I was the only girl who graduated from my class in school because the others had all left to get married by then?"

She looked at him imploringly asking, "is it really that unreasonable that I might want something else from my life? Don't get me wrong, I want to have all that, but not right now, I want to see more than this county before I die. Anyway, the boys all thought I was weird at school, and now I'm just considered to be a snob. They think I consider myself above them and that I'm some sort of freak. You must have seen how all the men on the farm treat me?"

Danny nodded his head, remembering some of the hostility he had sensed directed towards her, now understanding their motivation. Lindsay refused to conform to what they thought a woman should do and so they ostracised her.

"I said I would go out with Robbie again, after Jem set it up. I thought it would help how the others saw me. I didn't think he would try to do that. He seemed to think that me going out with him meant I had accepted my life here as permanent."

Danny suddenly understood now. Robbie would spread stories about what he had done here tonight, that Lindsay was just a tease, or worse that she was easy and they had gone further than they had. He didn't regret what he had done but he realised that it might make matters for her worse.

She seemed to have run out of steam, staring blankly ahead.

"I'm sorry", he said softly. She smiled through the tears threatening to fall in her eyes.

"I was supposed to go home with Robbie", she said, not looking at him as he closed the distance between them, "Jem wouldn't know to wait for me."

"Yeah well," replied Danny with a laugh, "I was supposed to be getting a lift with him and he completely forgot about me". The absurdity of the situation seemed to strike Lindsay as well, and she forgot about her sadness momentarily to crack a smile and look at him. He joined her on the step, both of them staring out into the endless darkness.

"My brother had a lot to drink tonight, and how many of you were there crammed in that truck anyway? They must have just forgotten about you." Danny nodded in acceptance and ran his hand through his hair.

"Listen I was thinking", he said carefully, "how about you let me take you out sometime." When she didn't answer straight away he quickly added, "it can be an apology if you want, for making more trouble tonight."

She turned her head and smiled at him cutting off his ramble, a full-blown smile despite her watershed eyes and flushed cheeks.

"I'd really like that Danny, and it doesn't have to be a thank you".

"You really don't like Robbie?" The darkness steeled his resolve to approach the subject once again.

"Not at all", she answered him firmly. There was a pause and then she said in almost a whisper, "I like you Danny".

Danny whipped his head around to look at her. She had turned to face him, a look of apprehension marring her features.

"I really like you too".

They sat there a little longer, both taking in the moment, realising how special it was.

Danny grinned into the darkness, taking a deep breath and finding his resolve.

"What do we do then, Montana girl? You ever been in this situation before?"

"Um, no", she deadpanned. "Don't worry, its only five miles and the moon is full. We should make it back in a few hours".

Danny watched her stand up; her profile was silhouetted by the moonlight and she slowly held out her arm for him to take.

"Are you with me", she asked with the oddest look on her face.

Danny paused for one moment before taking her hand and getting to his feet.

"Always."

Once again sorry about the wait, and please review.