hey all :)

thanks for all the comments ! it really made my day to come back to such a good response after only one day of being up and only one chapter being written.

this is the second chapter, sorry, but its another cliffhanger, and unfortunately its not going to be updated until late next week because im gettin out of here and going on vacation for spring break :)

but dont worry, i'll have my pen and paper with me so i can update as soon as i get home. i hate leavin you all hanging !

as always, hope you enjoy the next chapter, and if you have any questions, feel free to PM me :)

ps--if im not mistaken, are some of you commenters from DLchem ? i have this posted over there too, and i thought i recognized some of your names...

enjoy ;)

Chapter 2

Her cell phone had been going off for over an hour now.

After she had received the initial message, she had tried to distract herself by doing busy work around the house. After turning the movie off, she put Bailey to bed, making sure she was tucked in extra tight and that her Batman night light was on. She tidied up the clothes that lat strewn across the floor and reorganized the books on the bookshelf, as well as the stuffed animals in the basket at the end of the little girl's bed. Not wanting to wake the sleeping child, she finally left her room and returned to the living room where she set to work on the various blankets and pillows that were out of place, not to mention the empty popcorn bowl and juice boxes that were on the ground in front of the couch.

After doing all the dishes in the dishwasher, she finally came to the conclusion that the only way to stop the continuous messages was to reply. Staring over at her phone, she contemplated turning it off for the night.

"No," she thought out loud, "I have to do this."

12 New Text Messages from Danny Messer.

"God, he doesn't give up, does he?" That was something she had always liked about him. As much as it had often annoyed her, she loved how persistent he was; never giving up until he got what he wanted. And as much as it scared her now, she couldn't help but nervously laugh before reluctantly picking up her cell phone.

As she opened it up, the tears began to fall before she had even read the first message.

Montana,

I'll bet I'm the last person you'd ever expect to hear from, huh? Well, truth is, I can't stop thinking about you. Ever since I left, you've been the one and only thing on my mind. I don't know how I've done it for four years, but I just can't do it anymore. I gotta see you Linds.

x D

She dropped the phone.

Without even realizing the enormous clatter it made as it bounced from table, to chair, to floor, she buried her head in her hands, curled into a ball, and began to sob. She couldn't do it. She wasn't as strong as she had thought she was. After everything that had happened, for him to just contact her out of the blue like this was too much for her to handle.

It had been a good fifteen minutes before she regained enough of her composure to look up. When she did, a sleepy looking Bailey was standing before her, holding a teddy bear in one hand and gently stroking her mother's hair with the other. Lindsay hadn't even noticed her standing there; the clatter from the falling phone must have awoken the sleeping girl.

"It's okay, mommy, don't be sad. Nemo's okay, he was only pretending to be dead so the dentist would flush him down the toilet and he could be with his daddy again. You don't have to be sad anymore, right?" Bailey said with a worried look in her eye. The little girl was now wiping the tears away from Lindsay's eyes, which only made them fall just as hard. Pulling Bailey into her lap, Lindsay tried to regain enough sanity to calm the child down.

"I know sweetie, I know. It just gets me every time. But I'm all better now, see?" she replied half-heartedly, trying to stop her tears long enough to convince Bailey that all was well.

"Okay then, good. Cause I hate seeing you sad mommy. It makes me sad too."

"Aww, baby girl," she said as she pulled her closer into her chest. "Do you know how much I love you?"

"More than the stars," the little girl replied as she let out a yawn.

"That's right," Lindsay said, "more than the stars."

Noticing that she had drifted back off to sleep, Lindsay carried Bailey back to her bed, and placed a light kiss on her forehead. She sat on the edge of the bed, watching her tiny chest rise and fall. How lucky she was, Lindsay thought, to be so carefree and completely oblivious to the world around her. She waited five more minutes before she quietly closed the door and returned to the kitchen. By this time, it was 1:45 AM, and she was completely exhausted. Picking up her phone, she closed out of the text messages and turned the phone off. She had had enough for one night. She would deal with this tomorrow. Making sure the doors were all locked up for the night, she shut off all the lights and retreated back to room for a night of restless sleep.

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After a mere two and a half hours of sleep, Lindsay awoke to the sound of tiny footsteps scampering across the floor. It was Saturday, her day off, and the only day of the week that she could have entirely to spend on her and Bailey. It was only 7:30, but she knew Bailey had been looking forward to this day all week. Forcing herself out of bed, she pulled on her robe and made her way to the kitchen where she saw the little girl kneeling on a stool by the phone, immersed in conversation.

"…and we're gonna have chocolate chip pancakes with lots of syrup, and maybe even whipped cream, and then we're gonna go to the zoo and see the dolphins and the tigers and the bears! But mommy said if it rains, we could go to the movies or maybe the museum or something. Doesn't that sound like fun?!"

Lindsay chuckled at the enthusiasm in the young girl's voice. "Who are you talking to, sweetie?"

"It's Uncle Flack! He says we're gonna have a lot of fun today."

"Well, he's right, we sure are, aren't we kiddo? But if we're going to do any of that fun stuff, we'd better get ready first."

"Okay. But Uncle Flack wants to talk to you first. He says it's 'portant. I'll get the chocolate chips ready while you two talk," she said, trying to be as serious as a four year old could be as she handed her mother the phone.

"That kid is a trip," came the voice of Don Flack for the other end of the line.

"I know, you gotta love her," Lindsay replied, smiling as she glanced over at her daughter, who was now skipping around the kitchen, humming some made up tune as she gathered the supplies to make her favorite Saturday morning breakfast.

"So what did you need? And more importantly, what are you doing up at 7:30 on a Saturday morning? Don't you usually sleep in on the weekends like a normal person?"

"Actually Linds, there's something I gotta talk to you about." She could sense the nervousness in his voice as he spoke.

"Okay, what is it?"

There was a long pause on the other end of the line, and Lindsay began to become worried.

"Don, what is it?"

"…Okay look, I don't exactly know how to tell you this, so I'm just gonna come right out and say it. Linds, he's here. He's at my apartment. I know I told you he wouldn't be here for another week or so, but he showed up last night on my doorstep half drunk looking for a place to crash. And he hasn't stopped talking about you. All he wanted to do at 3 o'clock this morning was to go and see you. I've been up with him half the night crying. He misses you Linds, and he's really bent out of shape about all of this. I know he's the last person you wanna see, but I don't know how long I'm gonna be able to keep him away from you. I'll try my hardest, but he's a big boy, and you know in the end he's not gonna listen to me."

Lindsay's face went white as a sheet. It took all her strength just to keep herself standing. The little girl rummaging through the refrigerator was the only reason she wasn't currently on the floor in a ball, like she had been the night before.

He was closer than she thought.

There was no way to stop him now.

Sooner or later he would come knocking on her door like a lost puppy, wanting to explain himself, begging for her forgiveness.

Oh how she wished it would be later rather than sooner.

"Hey Linds, look, he's waking up again, and he's got one nasty hangover. I gotta go. But don't worry kid, this is all gonna work out in the end, I promise you. Just go enjoy your day with that beautiful little girl of yours and don't worry about any of this. I've got it all under control. You'll be fine, I swear, okay?"

She'd be fine?

She almost laughed back at him.

She would never be fine, especially now that he was back in her life. They had let too much happen to let things between them ever be the same again, she was almost certain of it. But she was going to take Flack's advice; she would spend the day with Bailey and try to put all of this behind her. For today at least. If anyone could get her mind off of Danny, ironically enough, it was his daughter. The cheerfulness and bright outlook the child had about life was all Lindsay needed to get her through a tough day. That was what she had always looked forward to coming home to after a long day at work. Especially in the beginning, when Bailey was and infant and she thought things couldn't get much worse, the child had proved her wrong, and had showed her that there was still hope, still so much more to live for, and that she shouldn't let one little mistake bring her down.

"Lindsay? …Flack, is that Lindsay?"

She faintly made out his voice in the background of the call.

It was all suddenly real to her. Hearing his voice had put all things into perspective. Her heart rose into her throat as she tried to hold back the tears. It had been so long since she had heard him say her name, but now, now was not the time for it to happen.

"Hey, Monroe, I really gotta go. Hang in there kiddo, you'll make it through this. You're tougher than anyone I know. Stay strong for that little girl of yours."

"Thanks Don…" was all she could muster.

"Monroe? That's Lindsay, Don let me talk to her, let me talk to her--" was the last she heard of him when the phone clicked off. Not wanting to break down for the third time in 24 hours, especially not in front of Bailey, she mechanically went to work on making the pancakes.

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Danny Messer was on his knees, pleading with Flack to let him have the phone.

"Don, you don't understand, I gotta tell her how sorry I am," he said in between sobs. The tears were still fresh on his face from the night before, as was the scent of alcohol on his breath and down the front of his shirt. In short, Danny was a wreck. And he had no one to blame but himself.

"I can't let you do that Messer. You've put this girl through hell; you can't just waltz back into town and expect her to want to see you again just like that."

"Flack, I gotta see her, I just gotta…I love her Flack…I love her…"

With that statement, he curled up at Don's feet as fresh tears sprang from his eyes.

"I know Mess, I know."

Don patted him on the back, and pulled up a chair from his kitchen table. As he straddled it backwards, he put his head in his hands and let out a long sigh.

They were his best friends.

He had to help them fix this, he just had to.

But how in the hell was he supposed to do that?