A/N: So here we are guys; the final chapter of this story. I'm not too sure what to say here because let's face it, I haven't completed many stories (see WYHTG, TPTFT etc. :p) so, I guess I just want to thank everyone who has checked in with this story and followed the journey that I took poor Danny and Lindsay on. I hope you guys have enjoyed the story as much as I have loved writing and developing it. It's nice to see it as the finish product, because it really has been a work-in-progress for over a year now, so I'm just really chuffed that the finished piece has turned out the way it has.

Enough of my rambling anyway, I'm just going to take the opportunity to thank everyone who checked in every time a chapter was updated, who added me to alerts and those who have reviewed. You guys are awesome and I have absolutely loved receiving all of your insightful thoughts. They've blown me away every time and all I can say is thank you so, so much!

So, one huge final thank you to: saderia, Alice Quarantine, Meggie, afrozenheart412, rhymenocerous, brendanakai, 18lzytwner, Daisy1966, Gigglesforcsi and josilene.

Two years later.

All In – Lifehouse

There's no taking back; what we've got is too strong - we've had each other's back for too long. There's no breaking up this time. And you know it's okay, I came to my senses, letting go of my defences. There's no way I'm giving up this time.

Bustling in through the door with the bags of groceries, Danny sighed as he heard his wife and daughter battle through bath and bedtime. He had been hoping that in the time it had taken him to run down to the bodega, Lucy would have calmed down a little from the ruckus that had been going on before he had left. He made his way through the apartment, setting the bags on the counter before he took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself to kick some toddler butt. With great effort, he wiped the smile from his face as he tossed his coat over the couch and headed down toward the bathroom; plastering his 'Daddy face' over his features.

"Lucy, can you sit down please?" he heard Lindsay sigh as splashes from the bathtub could be heard from in the hallway. "Lucy! You're getting Mommy all wet, sit down."

Shrieking and giggling could be heard in response.

"Lucy, you better do what Mommy says before Daddy gets back."

"NO!"

"Don't you say no to me, Lucy. Sit down in this bathtub before you fall down."

"NO!"

"Mommy won't be wiping those baby girl tears when you hurt yourself."

"NO!" Lucy bellowed; for what Danny decided to be the last time.

He took a step, allowing Lucy to see him in the doorway. She caught his eyes and instantly stopped what she was doing.

Danny arched his eyebrows at their daughter, silently questioning what she was doing; which rendered her motionless as she stared with wide blue eyes. She'd come to recognise that when Daddy had his eyebrows arched she was in big trouble, and she had pushed the limits too far.

Lindsay moved away from the tub slightly, allowing Danny to take over.

"Lucy, can you tell Daddy when the rules changed and Mommy and I said it was okay for you to stand up in the bathtub?"

Lucy blinked back her tears.

Danny knelt by the side of the tub and picked up the baby sponge that Lindsay had been trying to use on Lucy. "Sit your butt down."

Lucy hesitated, to which Danny pursed his lips.

"I'll say it again, sit your butt down."

Lucy kicked the water slightly, trying to figure out whether Danny was joking or not.

"Alright, I'll tell it to you like this," Danny said as he swirled the water in the tub with his hand. "If you don't sit down in the next three seconds Daddy and Mommy won't even bother making sure you're squeaky clean and you can go straight to bed, make your decision."

Lucy kicked the water before plonking herself down in the shallow bath water.

"Good girl," Danny praised before handing the sponge to Lindsay and sitting up on the closed toilet seat. "I'm'a let Mommy get back to what she was tryin' to do, k?"

Lucy nodded and turned in the water to smile at her mother.

"You hurt my feelings, Lucy." Lindsay said as she resumed bath-time. "A smile isn't going to make Mommy feel better right now."

Lucy's little eyes filled with tears.

"And don't start crying. You know what the deal is when it comes to bath time," Lindsay's tone was firm. "So long as Mommy or Daddy can make sure you're clean you can play for a while after. That's how it's always been..."

"Sowwwee Momeee."

"Mhmm," Lindsay nodded as she rinsed the soap suds from her daughter with an old plastic measuring jug that had been demoted from the kitchen to bathroom duty. "I don't think we really have time to play today, after all that messing around we were doing... It's a shame because both Mommy and Daddy are home tonight."

"I bees good! P'ease Mama!"

Lindsay sighed.

"No baby," Danny stepped in. "Mommy and Daddy need to clean up the bathroom from your splashes, and it's late. Maybe tomorrow we can play 'k?"

Lucy's eyes filled with tears as her bottom lip began to quiver.

"And tears won't make me or Mommy change our minds, baby girl."

Lucy huffed and turned to face the wall in the bathtub.

"Are we being too harsh?" Lindsay mouthed at Danny as he reached for Lucy's little towel.

He shook his head as he took his seat again on the closed toilet lid and unfolded her towel. "You have one minute more before it's time to get out Lucy," he told her before turning back to Lindsay and lowering his voice to a whisper. "Our routines get broken enough as it is, the ones we do have we need to make sure she keeps. Bath time is one of those things that she always tries to push the limits with and I think we're doing the right thing with keeping it the same. She knows the rules."

"But we forget she's only little." Lindsay countered.

"But we also forget she's the product of me and you..." Danny smiled at his wife. "She's a little brain box and she knows exactly how to work us."

Lindsay offered him a smile in return.

"We only want what's best for her," Danny reasoned before standing and bending to pick Lucy up. "Right little girl, your minute's up; it's time to get out."

Kicking her legs as Danny raised her from the water, Lucy cried as he wrapped her in the fluffy towel.

He let her kick for a moment or two before holding her away from him so she was suspended in the air. "You kick me again and I won't be impressed, Lucy."

Lucy took one last swing but missed.

"I think it's sleepy time," Danny said, trying to stay calm. "What do we think, Little Bear?"

"NO!" she sniffled.

"Mommy and Daddy are going to have sleepy time though," He smiled as he set Lucy on the floor, trying to keep the atmosphere happy. "It's time to go night night... Right Mommy?"

Lucy glared at her father before shuffling across the bathroom floor to where Lindsay was knelt, and collapsed in a little bunch on her mother's lap. She snuggled into Lindsay's arms as she rubbed her wet hair on Lindsay's top.

"Mama," Lucy sniffled. "Mama wubs me."

Danny smiled as he shook his head. "She does love you." He confirmed as Lindsay dried Lucy.

"Daddy no wub me."

"Daddy loves you with all of his heart, Lucy." Lindsay whispered into her daughter's ear. "And you know that."

"He no wub me."

"I don't when you make me sad like you're making me now by saying I don't love you," Danny teased his daughter. "That's like sayin' I don't love Mommy when I love her very very much."

Lucy glanced up at her mother as if she wanted confirmation of such.

"It's true," Lindsay nodded as she gathered up her little girl and snuggled her to her chest as she stood up. "Now, Lucy is going to bed, and hopefully we can try bath time again tomorrow and it'll be more successful, right?"

Lucy nodded slowly.

Lindsay glanced at her husband before turning back to her daughter and whispering in her ear. "Do you think maybe we could go and give Daddy a little love?"

"Nope."

"I think we can," Lindsay coaxed.

"No!"

"Alright then," Danny shrugged as he picked up a towel and began to soak up the pool of water that had collected by the bathtub. "I'll see you tomorrow night when I get home from work, okay Little Bear?"

Lucy hesitated as she slowly began to realise that she was going to bed without any hugs or kisses from her Daddy. She let out a little sigh before nodding tearfully. "'Tay."

"Okay." Danny shrugged before turning his back to his daughter.

"Mama!" Lucy whispered as she tugged on Lindsay's top.

"What?" Lindsay inquired as she and Lucy headed out of the small bathroom.

"Dada sad."

"He is sad." Lindsay nodded as they continued down the hallway. "Perhaps tomorrow you and him can have lots of cuddles."

"Me Dada." Lucy sniffled. "Daddy! Back Mama, back!"

Turning the corner, Lindsay could see the smirk tugging at her husband's lips as he turned his attention away from the bathroom floor. "What's that Lucy?"

Just over an hour later, Lindsay glanced up from the book she'd been lost in as she watched her husband enter the room. She offered him a weak smile but focused her eyes back to her book almost instantly. "I put the groceries away."

"Oh thanks, I totally forgot about them." Danny said gratefully ."She's finally asleep; she fought it till the very end. Kept askin' me if I was sad - it just about broke my heart watching her think that I was mad with her."

"She'll have forgotten about it in the morning," Lindsay shrugged. "I wouldn't worry about it."

Silence fell between them as he took a seat next to his wife on the couch and gently placed her feet on his lap. "Linds-"

"Don't, alright." She cut him off, her eyes not leaving her page. "Just don't."

"About earlier," he continued on regardless of her pleas for him to stop. "I'm sorry baby."

"I'm sure you are," She snipped. "Look, just leave it okay. We managed to get through bath time with her none the wiser and she's so perceptive that usually we don't get anything passed her, so as far as I'm concerned everything's fine. I'm done arguing with you."

"That's crap and you know it. You're still pissed."

"So?" Lindsay implored. "When has that ever mattered in the past?"

Danny fought the urge to roll his eyes at the dramatics his wife was giving him. "Babe, come on. At least talk to me about it."

"Don't Danny."

"Come on, Linds." He ran his finger to the arch of her foot, where he knew for a fact she was deathly ticklish.

"Stop it!" she growled.

"Linds... I'm not letting up on it." He continued to playfully tickle the arch of her foot, hoping that she let her defences down a little bit.

"What part of don't and stop don't you understand, Danny?" She questioned, shrugging away from him.

"Linds, I think I need to explain."

"No, you made everything crystal clear." She snapped at him, slamming her book on the arm of the chair. "Whatever it is that you're doing, in secret I may add, has got 'nothing to do with me' and I should 'mind my own damn business'. So that's exactly what I'm doing... so you get back to doing whatever it is you're doing behind my back."

Danny sighed. He knew he was in shit, and he had no other way out but to just tell her the whole truth. As much as he wanted it to be a surprise and for everything to be properly in place before he let her in on his little 'secret', he couldn't keep it up. She'd busted him and it didn't look too good on the horizon; he sure as hell didn't fancy himself as a potential candidate for the couch over the next week. "I blew up and I shouldn't have, I didn't mean it babe."

"Sure sounded like you did."

"I didn't," he sighed. "Listen, there's something I need to show you. I think it'll kinda explain why I was so-"

"Shitty, horrible, mean, unnecessarily snappy, insistent on creating some type of atmosphere?"

"To name but a few!" he mused. "Geez Linds."

"Danny, no." She shook her head. "Don't make a joke out of my feelings, okay? I'm not exactly in a tolerant kind of mood. You hurt my feelings and upset me. I didn't do anything wrong and you were absolutely vile to me. Just leave me alone."

Danny sighed as he realised just how far he'd pushed Lindsay's sensitive feelings when he'd snapped at her earlier. He hadn't meant to be horrible to her. And he wasn't deliberately keeping secrets from her. That was far from it. He'd worked hard over the past two years to let her in wholly and completely, and in his honest (and perhaps slightly biased) opinion he'd done one hell of an amazing job. Now, when something was on his mind, or he was struggling with something, he didn't lock it away but he shared it with Lindsay, and together they came up with solutions and ways for him to deal with whatever it was that had been bothering him.

He was also proud to admit that he'd provided her with the key to every part of him... literally. About a month after she'd returned to New York, he handed her a box and told her to open it. Her heart had been thumping and she'd slowly opened it; completely unaware of what to expect. Her expression had been priceless when she looked up and he had dipped down to one knee in the middle of the fancy restaurant he'd taken her to. She'd taken the key from it's box and fiddled with it between her fingers. Eventually, when she found her voice, she looked to him with about a million questions in her eyes but asked him only one.

"Why are you on your knee?"

He'd laughed and taken the key from her fingers and held it up between them. He then went onto explain that it was the key to his life.

She'd smiled and nodded as she accepted it back from him. She paused then though and furrowed her brow as she went searching in her purse for her keys. She pulled out the collection of key rings and keys and measured her's up with the one Danny had just given her.

"This is an exact replica of mine. This is the key to my apartment."

"It's the key you gave me for emergencies," he said.

"Okay," She'd said cautiously, "Well, why are you giving it back?"

He'd offered her a smile before explaining. "Because I don't need it anymore-" He'd then paused and shook his head. "I've got a new key for you."

"You do?" she'd questioned him with puzzled eyes.

"Yeah." He dug in his jacket pocket and pulled out a key on a single key-ring. "That's a key to my new apartment... that I want you to move into... with me."

Her mouth dropped as she accepted the key into the palm of her hand. "What? Really?" she asked breathlessly. "Seriously?"

He nodded. "I signed the papers yesterday. My lease doesn't start for a month, but yeah. I figured with our new start, a new apartment would be a good idea... Remember I showed you those pictures of the two apartments I'd been looking at?"

"For your friend." She added.

He smirked. "See, I'd narrowed it down to those two and I wanted you to have the final say on which one you liked more."

"I knew there was something fishy about that." She narrowed her eyes at him.

"There's something else though too."

Taking a deep breath, Lindsay let out a disbelieving giggle. "I don't know how many more surprises I can take."

"Well," he smirked. "See the thing is-" he trailed off, adding suspense to his surprise.

"Spit it out!" she cried.

"The paperwork isn't actually complete yet; the landlord asked me if it was just going to be my name on the contract, and I got to thinking... I know your lease is a month to month thing, and if you wanted to, well, I figured you could-"

"I could what?" she smiled, refusing to take pity on him as he struggled with his sentences.

"Not renew your lease and sign the contract with me."

Her eyes filled with tears as her eyes soaked in his image. It was blindly obvious that he was deadly serious about this. She could feel her heart racing and her chest constricting with emotions over the thought that he'd clearly put into this.

"I'm sorry," he blurted out after a few moments of extended silence. "I sprung that on you and I didn't even ask, I just heard it back and it's a really stupid idea. You only just got back and we're really only just starting back up properly and I-"

"Actually," she smiled, looping her fingers in the collar of his dress shirt, she pulled him towards her and placed a soft kiss to his lips. "It was pretty cute." She paused for a second and pulled him even closer. "However, if you ever freak me out in the middle of a restaurant on one knee ever again, I'll have no other choice but to kill you."

"So, are you saying-?"

"I'm saying yes," she had nodded, cupping his cheeks with her hands and pressing her lips to his.

Applause erupted around them as fellow diners assumed that Lindsay had just accepted a marriage proposal. Thinking quickly on her feet, Lindsay swapped her Grandmother's promise ring from her middle finger to her left ring finger and admired it. Flashing a smile and a shrug in Danny's direction as he stood from where he'd been knelt on the floor.

Granted he hadn't really planned on getting down onto one knee, but that display had gained them a free bottle of wine on the house and a fifteen percent discount on their dinner... and with the bill that he'd been presented with at the end of their meal, the fifteen percent discount was a Godsend.

Although he'd momentarily regretting springing the idea onto her in the middle of a busy restaurant, the sentiment had worked, and after that night Danny found it a lot easier to bear all to Lindsay. Sharing his living space opened him up to the idea of sharing his heart with her too.

He knew that she appreciated the fact that he didn't bottle his emotions up like he had in the past. They both had known from very early on in their third attempt of a relationship that they had a lot to talk about. And although it had been hard living together and making adjustments to being around one another constantly, he'd told her things that he never thought he'd get the chance to say. It had taken guts, but he'd shared with her everything that he'd been feeling when she moved away. He told her how he felt when she walked out of his life. How he'd been desperate to tell her how he felt but he'd never gathered up the courage. He told her that he remembered the last words she'd said to him before she'd let the office door shut. He told her that he constantly had to fight the overwhelming urge to board the next flight to Chicago and fight for her. Bring her back home with him, where she belonged... but he never had because after much internal discussion with himself, he realised and understood that she needed to be able to move on if that had been what she wanted. It wasn't fair of him to hone in on her when she was with Patrick. That's why he'd backed off and let her go. He'd realised that his turn was up with her and it had been someone else's turn to make her happy. If he loved her, he thought, then he could do that for her; one last act of affection of putting her feelings and needs before his own. He just lucked out when it turned out that she came back to him.

Lucy, their daughter, had been a surprise. A fantastic and adored surprise, but a scary surprise nonetheless. A missed pill somewhere along the line, mixed with some antibiotics, and a night of passion had brought them to a Doctor's office just three months after Lindsay had gotten back. And rather than run away from the fright and responsibilities that he felt being pushed down onto his shoulders, he brushed it all off, grasped onto Lindsay's trembling hand and squeezed it tight. She had been just as scared as he was; but if he was going to make it work between them like he'd promised her, he couldn't be running off to collect his thoughts. Not when she needed him.

It wasn't until they heard their daughter's first heartbeat over the monitor, that Danny realised the prospect of becoming a father wasn't scary anymore. His daughter's heartbeat was anything but scary. Magic, if he had to find a word to describe it.

With the news of his daughter, Danny had been made to re-evaluate a lot of areas in his life. He loved Lindsay. He always had, and he knew now that he always would. She was his soulmate and the love of his life. He spent practically every waking moment with her, and spent every night buried under their comforter, in their bed, in their apartment with her. She was the mother to his unborn baby girl. She was sacrificing her body for their daughter, accepting all the changes, cravings, aches and pains with nothing but a smile. And she was his girlfriend. It was just... he wasn't sure how he felt about her just being his girlfriend.

So with what she'd warned him with before; if you ever freak me out in the middle of a restaurant on one knee ever again, I'll have no other choice but to kill you. He'd considered ways that he could maybe ask her to marry him. He had elaborate ideas ranging from the top of the Empire State Building; a scavenger hunt, leading her to him waiting for her in their candlelit apartment; a midnight picnic in Central Park; the tiger enclosure at the Bronx Zoo... except, none of those ideas felt right.

He'd carried the ring around with him for weeks, desperately looking for the right moment to ask her. He'd been close to asking her a few times, but he'd always chicken out right at the last second. One morning however, it had felt right. The right time. The right place. He'd woken before her on the morning of one of her scheduled ultrasound appointments; therefore giving them a rare morning off together. Anxiety and nervousness had taken up full residency in the pit of his stomach as he'd turned and pulled open his drawer and reached for the well hidden box. He toyed with it for a few seconds before collecting it in his hand and shutting the drawer.

He'd closed his eyes and settled against their headboard for a second as he took a deep breath or two, steeling himself for what he was about to do.

He didn't want to wake her, so he pulled the ring from the box and slipped it onto her right hand carefully. He pressed a kiss to the ring and ran his fingertips over her arm, tickling her slightly and making her stir from her slumber.

Her eyelashes fluttered for a few seconds before her brown eyes peered up at him and she offered him a smile as he towered over her.

"Mornin'," she drawled.

"Morning baby," he smiled. "How you feelin'?"

"Excited." She smiled brightly. "I can't wait to see her today, what are you doing up so early?"

"Couldn't sleep," he shrugged noncommittally. "Too excited I guess."

She offered him a smile and stretched, letting out a huge yawn. After her stretch she reached out to his hand, but fell short on taking his'. Her eyes had been drawn to the ring on her finger and as a result, she'd stopped in her tracks and could do nothing but simply stare at the beautiful ring.

"What's this?" she blinked down at her hand as she brought it closer to her face.

He took a deep breath. "I want to make sure this is what you want. I don't want to make you feel like we're moving too fast, but I really want this... I want us Lindsay. I want you, all of you, forever. But, if you want it to be a promise ring for the future because you're not ready just yet, then that's what it can be. If you want me to put it away for later then that's okay too. It can be whatever you want it to be, Linds."

"What did you buy it as?" she asked, trying to keep her tone steady.

"I bought it as an engagement ring." He admitted. He slipped the ring from her finger and held it between his fingertips in between them. "I love you, Lindsay. I've always loved you. I love our baby; there's just one thing missing from our life..."

She didn't bother fighting the smile on her lips. "So what is it that you're saying?"

He shook his head and smirked at her stubbornness to meet him half way.

"I love you Lindsay, will you marry me?"

There was no hesitation from his girlfriend. "Absolutely," she whispered.

"Hello, earth to Danny?" Lindsay nudged him.

"Huh? What?"

"You seemed a little lost in your own world for a minute there." She chuckled, despite her annoyance at him. "One minute you were demanding I listen to why you were so mean to me and the next you were just staring at me with a dazed look on your face."

"I was just thinking about us. How far we've come; I'm proud of us."

She nodded thoughtfully. "It's been quite the ride," she smiled, twisting her wedding band on her finger. "I wouldn't have had it any other way though." She paused and the smile on her face fell. "However, that doesn't mean that I'm any less mad with you though. You really hurt my feelings earlier. I was only showing interest in whatever it was you were looking at."

"I know baby, and about that... don't get mad with me, okay? And let me explain first."

She took a deep breath and nodded, concerned about what she'd just agreed to.

He stood from his place on the couch and padded the short distance between their living room and the small breakfast bar where his laptop still sat. He opened the lid and powered up the handheld item as he made his way back to Lindsay. He kept it the screen out of sight while his fingers tapped the keys and he manipulated the mouse.

"Alright," he sighed, taking a deep breath. He slowly turned the laptop to face her and then handed it to her. She took it wordlessly and let her eyes scan the screen. He sat back silently as he waited for her reaction to what he'd just presented to her.

"What's this?" She asked, her eyes still searching the words on the screen in front of her for some form of answer.

"It's the Sergeant's exam, well the prep test. Almost like a –what to expect on the day- kind of thing." Danny explained.

"Are you thinking of taking the Sergeant's exam?" she questioned.

"Yeah," he nodded. "What do you think?"

"I'm a little shocked and confused." She admitted. "Where has this come from?" She asked.

"Well, I know that you miss working full time but with the amount of guys Mac's got he can't give you that. And well, I got to thinkin' and I figured that if I wasn't there, there would be a full time position there for you. You've been waiting a long time to get back in the lab properly and-"

"Danny, you can't go for the Sergeant position if you don't genuinely want it. Hell you can't leave the lab just so that I have something to do during the day. We have Lucy to think about and me working part time fits perfectly. It'd be silly to change what we have, wouldn't it?"

"Well, not exactly," he admitted. "I've been thinking about this for a while."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Lindsay implored. "Danny, this is great."

"Well, I know it'd be a great opportunity, but I don't have much time kicking around as it is, and the last thing I thought that we needed was me having even less time to spend with you guys. I love you both so much and a lot of the time I feel like I miss out on special things with you two because I'm stuck at work."

"We know that you would be here if you could though, Danny. Maybe we could talk to Mac... we could maybe divide our hours more evenly?" she suggested. "Give me more hours, give you more time off."

"I already thought about that." Danny said. "But, have you seen what a Sergeant makes Lindsay? A hell of a lot more than what I'm on now. So with that, and you being able to take on a full time role, we'd be better off financially. Not to mention that it's something I've always envisioned myself doing... and I think it'd be good for us."

"Good for us?" she asked with an arched brow.

"Yeah," he nodded. "In a few years we'll be able to buy a house somewhere... or at the very least buy an apartment. Get somewhere bigger. Lucy can go to day-care. Mac's already said he'll work with us and get you on shifts that would coincide with Lucy as best as he could. Abby said on numerous occasions that she's more than willing to work with us so that she can have you as her partner. You know how I'm a pain in her ass. She adores you. I think it could work really well."

"You've been... you've been thinking about all of this?" she asked, slowly edging towards him on the couch. "Like, you've been seriously thinking about it all?"

Danny nodded as he took the laptop from her and pulled up a recently viewed webpage. "I know this won't be on the market when we get round to lookin' but I'd love something like this for us." He turned the screen to face her and she couldn't help the attack of butterflies and emotions that overcame her when she realised what she had been presented with.

"That's a three bedroomed house Danny, in a residential neighbourhood with a picket fence and a driveway."

"I see that," he smirked. "What, you surprised or something?"

"Well, yeah!" she spluttered, tears welling in her eyes. "I had no idea what you were doing three hours ago... if I had known that you were planning our future I might not have been so harsh on you," she blushed. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't want to get your hopes up in case something happens and this doesn't work out for us. I don't want to put your hopes into me for me to just fail."

"Baby, you wouldn't fail," she said, stroking his cheek affectionately.

"There's no guarantee that I'll get it, Linds."

"So what?" she shrugged. "It's no big deal; if you don't get it, you don't get it." she reasoned. "So long as you try your best that's all I can ask from you. I'll be proud of you no matter what happens. Whether you get it, whether you don't... the fact that you've tried is enough for me. And I'll do whatever I can to help you, you know that."

He smiled and nodded. "I might need your help with some of the questions, fine tune some of the details, that kind of thing."

She nodded, "Anything I can do to help." She then paused and narrowed her eyes at him; not in an angry way but in a thoughtful way; it seemed to him like she was just realising how much she loved him.

"What?" he grinned at her.

"I can't believe you're thinking about our future like this." She smiled brightly. "What else have you been thinking about?"

He shrugged, not wanting to share all that he'd been thinking about with her out a fear of embarrassing himself.

"No, go on," she smiled. "Tell me."

"Well," he sighed, relenting. "I'm glad we had the chance to make another go of us. I don't know where I would be if you hadn't have come back. I mean we wouldn't have our beautiful daughter. I wouldn't have my gorgeous wife... and you wouldn't have this screw up of a husband."

"Hey!" she chastised him by elbowing him in the side. "Don't talk about my husband like that. He's tried really hard to mend my broken heart over the past few years. He's done a good job too. He's a caring husband and he loves me a lot... and he's a brilliant father to his baby girl. His daughter worships the ground he walks on. And I will have you know that I have it on good authority that his daughter and wife love him very much; so you back off and leave him alone."

He took the laptop from her and shuffled closer to her on the couch and wrapped his arm around her, prompting her to snuggle into his side. "I love you too, baby." He smiled, and then decided to add: "So I'm forgiven?"

"Just this once," she smirked at him before leaning up to press a kiss to his cheek. She snuggled even further in his side and clasped their hands together; his fingers sliding through her's perfectly. She smiled as she gazed down at her wedding band and engagement ring that glistened in the dull light of the room.

A lot had changed in Danny Messer and Lindsay Monroe's life from that infamous argument years ago. He'd grown and she had found ways to penetrate the walls that he built around himself. Together, they managed to find a common ground where they were more understanding and perceptive of the other's feelings. They understood when they needed to push, and when was the best time to back away and wait for that little voice from the other, pleading for a bit of help.

Maintaining their relationship was tough and sometimes they both felt like they'd had enough; like their only option was to throw in the towel and call it a day on their marriage. But then they'd remind themselves of how they felt back when everything was slipping through their fingertips. And when that would happen, they'd grip onto each other, unwilling to let go of something that they'd fought so hard for. It had taken a lot to find their place, but they'd gotten there. Eventually. They both knew that when it came to their love for one another, they'd always find a way to make it work. They had no choice; their alternative of being away from one another didn't work for them.

Their love was up against the odds. But love, they had come to realise over time was more than just part of a sentence that they said to one another at various points throughout their day. Their love was sustained through their dedication and determination to make their marriage work. Things could get tough. Things could get loud and angry and frustrated. Things could get tearful and hurtful. But so long as they had each other's back everything would be okay; whether it would be a minute later, an hour later or two days later. Tears would be swiped away and apologises would be made... and Danny would carry his pillows and blanket back to their bedroom and retake his side of the bed.

They were all in with everything they had; holding on to everything that they were with tight grips because neither of them was willing to let their relationship slip through their fingertips.

Not again, not ever.

Now I'm positive that you do not need this explaining, because well.. yeah, but I just wanted to put out there that I wanted to convey that no matter what had happened Danny and Lindsay would end up doing the same things that they have in the show, such has have Lucy and Danny go for Sergeant because I'm a huge believer in your life is mapped out for you... so yeah, just something I wanted to show. I know Danny isn't a sergeant any more but felt it was important to keep it in even though I wrote this a while ago.

That's it anyway, folks. I really hope you like where we've ended up. I think it's a justified ending and I hope you think so too. I'd love to know what you think.

Thank you so much for reading.