Sam thinks it's a good time, a good place to talk to Danny. Jordan and Woody just left, and now it's just them at the Montecito entrance, them and the random people walking in and out of the casino, them and the unsaid things and their buried feelings.

"Danny..." she starts

"Yeah?"

He turns to look at her, his hands in his pockets, and his tie loose. For a second she wonders if it's Jordan who did it, if she played with his tie, because Sam knows, it's Mike who told her that Danny kissed the woman, and she swallows down the hot jealousy because she has no say in his life anymore, she has no right on his heart anymore. This is none of her business. So she lets her eyes meet his and plays indifference.

"I wanted to say thank you for what you did on the plane. It was between me and my whale and you didn't have to get involved but you did, and well... thank you. I appreciated it, you having my back and all," she's scratching her eyebrow, almost embarrassed.

But she sounds genuine, sincere, thankful even, and Danny offers her a soft smile in return, looking down at her with gentleness in his brown eyes.

"No problem."

He wants to touch her, to hold her, but all he does is brush some of her hair off her face with slow, careful movements, tucking it behind her ear, her skin cold against his warm fingers. Her breath hitches and he pretends not to notice.

"I wasn't going to let him hurt you, Sam… I would never let anyone hurt you," he adds as he removes his fingers off her. "Even if we're not together anymore."

She nods, looks away, suddenly uncomfortable with the attention is giving her. Her sight lands on a couple waiting a few stairs below. They're holding hands, the woman laughing at whatever the man said, then he lowers his head to press his lips upon the woman's.

Sam turns back to Danny and she notices he too was looking at the couple. Her eyes briefly grazes at his lips and she realises she misses him more than she lets it show. She misses his unfunny jokes, his weird dance moves and his faint stubble against her skin in the morning. Mostly, she misses her friend. If she can't have him as boyfriend, she still wants, needs him as her friend.

She takes a shaky breath before speaking.

"I don't want you to be angry at me anymore. I know I screwed up, I fucked up. And being sorry doesn't fix anything but I still am. I am sorry, Danny," she tries to get control of her breath, even curve her trembling lips into something resembling a smile. "I'm not asking you to forgive me, or to forget but can we just put our messy love story behind and be friends again? I miss my favourite friend."

Sam doesn't have green eyes but still, she has hope glistening in her brown orbs. She's also a bit anxious, a bit nervous because her teeth are chewing her lower lip, and she is looking at him with fear, fear of rejection, fear of abandon? He doesn't know but doesn't like it. Sam, Danny loves her confident and brillant.

So he smiles at her, slowly, wholly, to appease her worry and gently, with his thumb, he presses away the crease in the middle of her brow. He doesn't like it when she frowns, it makes her look too serious, too dangerous. She's far cuter when she is not tense.

"We're still friends," he tells her, looking at her in the eyes as if to make her understand that he means it, as if to make her understand she still means an awful lot to him. Then he grasps her hands, raises them to his lips, and brushes tender kisses along her knuckles, never once taking his eyes off of her. "We're still Sam-and-Danny."

"Yeah?" For reason Sam finds her eyes brimming with tears when she asks and she curses silently. Danny still can make her emotions go all over the place, and she swears, someday she'd kick him for making her feel so much all at once.

"Yep," he confirms with a caring tone and soft eyes. He lets go of one of her hands to edge a tear off the corner of her eyes with his thumb. "We're infinite, remember?"

"Yeah, we are," she says, feeling his warmth engulfing her just by holding her hand in his. She wants to entwine their fingers together, but she refuses to move, scared to ruin the moment, a moment she's been craving for weeks. "You're still my guy."

He chuckles. "Good. 'Cause you're still my girl."

Eventually he lets go and when he does, she still can feel him on her, the sensation tingles the tips of her fingers, it makes her feel giddy and stupid. Her lips quirks, almost like a smile.

"See you around, then, Pretty Girl Marquez," he winks at her, and starts walking away from her.

She waves at him. "Sure, see you around, Pretty Boy McCoy."

She takes a deep breath, and her heart no longer feels heavy in her chest. She's just got her friend back.