Danny reached into his wallet to pull out some cash so that he could pay the ice cream vendor. Lindsay stood beside him, happily licking a mint chocolate chip ice cream cone and reminding Danny of a little girl. In his own hands, Danny held a vanilla cone – for which Lindsay teased him for being boring with his choice – and it proved to be very difficult to go through his wallet and hold an ice cream cone at the same time. "Let me hold that for you," Lindsay took it from his hands, and Danny smiled gratefully at her. He finally found a ten-dollar bill and handed to the vendor. When he pulled it out, however, something fell out of his wallet. Danny hadn't noticed it, but Lindsay did, and handing the vanilla cone back to Danny, she leaned over to pick it up. "What's this?" She turned over the small piece of paper, and it turned out to be a photograph of a young boy, about four or five years old, who had the same bright blue eyes as Danny.

Upon seeing what it was, Danny's eyes grew fearful. He hadn't intended on telling Lindsay about him so early on in their relationship, afraid that he'd scare her off. He snatched it away from her and shoved it back into his wallet. By now, they were walking down the sidewalk, neither of them talking.

"Danny…who was that boy?" Lindsay asked, dreading the answer, for she was pretty sure she knew whom it was. The resemblance was just too uncanny for it to be a cousin or nephew.

Danny sighed heavily. "I was gonna tell you soon," he insisted, "but I just didn't think that you'd be able to handle it just yet, what with everything you've been goin' through." He still made not attempt to tell Lindsay the identity of the child.

"He's your son, isn't he?" Lindsay asked quietly.

Danny glanced up at her – he had been avoiding her gaze, choosing to stare at the dirty sidewalk instead – and bit his lip in a gesture not unlike one of hers. "Yeah." He said it almost as though it were a question.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Lindsay managed to keep her voice level.

"I told you, I didn't think you could handle it." They had arrived at their apartment – Lindsay had sold her apartment and moved in with Danny – and Lindsay didn't say anything more until they were alone, with the door shut firmly behind them.

"Why didn't you think I could handle it?" Lindsay burst out.

"Because of Vince!" Danny exclaimed as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"What does Vince have to do with a little boy?"

"I don't know, Lindsay!"

"So are you saying that you didn't want to tell me?" Lindsay spat angrily.

"Yeah, I guess so!" his words were like a harsh slap on the face.

"Do you not trust me?" Lindsay said, her voice wavering slightly.

"Of course I trust you, Linds. I love you, ok, and I didn't want to scare you off or something."

Lindsay raised her eyebrow. "Do you think I'd be scared off by, what, a four year old?"

"Five," Danny corrected. "Damian's five."

"Well, isn't this great. Now we have a name and an age. That's good progress seeing as 10 minutes ago I didn't know he existed." Lindsay retorted sarcastically, folding her arms across her chest. "Do I get to know who the mother is?"

"Linds," Danny pleaded, "Don't be mad at me! I didn't want it to hurt you."

"How would it hurt me? Do you think that I don't know that you're the Infamous Danny Messer?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I hear them talk, Danny. I hear everybody talking about me and how I'm not going to last because the Infamous Danny Messer has slept with half of New York and isn't going to stop until he's slept with all of it. They've even giving you an acronym. They call you IDM. And I've heard that they even have a pool going to see how long I last. Last time I checked they gave me another month before you got rid of me." Lindsay's face began to crumple and the tears that she was trying so hard to hold back burst out.

Danny took her into his arms, and stroked her back soothingly. "This isn't about Damian, is it?"

Lindsay shook her head against his chest. "No."

"Lindsay, I love you. There's no way that you're just one of 'IDMs' next targets, or that I'm gonna dump you in a month, 'cause whether you like it or not, I'm holdin' on to you. You're not goin' anywhere."

Lindsay sniffed, and mopped up the rest of her tears with her sleeve. "I think I'm ok with that."

"Good." He kissed her on the top of the head.

Lindsay lifted her head up off of his chest suddenly. "But he's the only one, right? Damian I mean, you don't have any other kids?"

Danny chuckled, "Nope, he's the only one."

A/N Yay! It's longer. Sorta. I loved this chapter. I've been debating whether I should give Danny a secret, but I decided to. So here you go.

xoxo

Lia