A/N: Shorter chapter, but it was really needed. All of it. Even if the ending is not my norm.

"So you wanna do dinner before or after?" Adam asked, filling the cat's food dish.

"Before. Faye's going to be here in a few minutes. We don't have time for anything fancy, but we could still call it a date."

"Perfect."

She crossed the room and wrapped her arms around him, resting her chin on his chest and giving him a smile.

"Thank you for going with me."

"Anytime, babe. Plus you promised me a milkshake afterwards so…"

"Seven years together, bribery is my greatest tool."

"And your feminine wiles. Don't forget about those."

"I know you won't."

"You're adorable."

"I do my best," she said with a tip if her head before she backed out of his arms.

"So can you give me a little spoiler?"

"About?"

"Why you got a session with Emily in the evening and why I'm going with you."

She took a deep breath and opened the dishwasher, pulling out a few cups and putting them away before she answered.

"Because I'm not the only person suffering with this right now, Adam."

"Sweetie-"

"I know you say you aren't, but at the very least it's hard for you to see me go through this, and at the very most you're already resenting me for it and anything like that… I just want to head it off at the pass."

"Linds, I'm not mad at you. I'm not resenting you."

"I know you don't feel like you are, and I don't feel like you are, but that doesn't mean you're not. I just… I need you to come with me."

"Okay. I'll always come with you, sweetie. I love you."

"I love you too."

He stroked his fingers across her cheek and spent a moment just looking at her. He'd gotten so used to seeing pain in her eyes, he was almost shocked it wasn't there. At least not in full force, not as it had been for what seemed to be so long. He couldn't really find the words to say at that moment, didn't know how to describe the way he felt about her.

"I could have some chocolate milk please?" Colton asked, running into the room and hopping around their legs.

"Yeah, you can have a little bit."

"Could daddy make it?"

"You don't like my chocolate milk?"

"Daddy makes it with so much chocolate. So much, mama."

"Yeah, daddy can make it for you. Ben, you want some chocolate milk?"

"Yes please. Lots," he requested, coming into the room carrying his backpack. It was stuffed with blankets and toys and he rarely went anywhere without it now. He even tried to sleep with it on most nights.

"When is Faye comin'?"

"In a few minutes."

"She say that she bringin' me a new game to play. A doctor game."

"Oh really?"

"Yep. She telled me last time she comed here. She telled me that when I am a doctor that I will make her better when she gets sick. Because that will be my job. I will know all the medicine. Also I will take care of sick kids. Not just grown-ups."

"Are you just going to do regular fixing or will you do surgery?"

"Well, I think I will do everything. 'Cept I don't wanna to the stuff Sid does. I will just make sure my people don't die."

"Oh, okay."

Adam handed both boys their cups of chocolate milk and they drank greedily, the only noise being their throats gurgling.

"Yummy," Ben reported upon finishing. "Fank you daddy."

"You're welcome."

"Yeah, thanks daddy. Is you guys leavin' us?"

"We're not going to be gone too long, but you'll be in bed before we get back."

"Why can't we go too?"

"Because we're going to do grown up stuff."

"Oh. You not wanna be with us because we're not grown ups?"

"Hey, I never said that," Adam chuckled. "Sometimes grown ups just have to do grown up things, and you shouldn't have to come with us because you'll be bored out of your mind."

"So you want me to stay here and play, right?"

"Yeah, that's the idea."

"Well I could do that I guess. Come on Ben."

"Where?"

"In our room. Gonna play with toys."

"Toys!"

They skipped off into the other room and Lindsay rolled her eyes.

"They're so you, Adam."

"Yep. Coolest kids ever."

The couch was supposed to be comfortable, the room was supposed to be serene, but tonight everything felt hot and sticky. She was sure it was because she was on the spot, because she had never brought someone to a session with her, because she was so scared about bearing her soul for the umpteenth time that she was at least slightly nervous. Adam held her hand and she knew that if he wasn't, she would have been on the verge of a panic attack. He moved a little and ran his other hand over her arm, stopping to trace over her tattoo.

"Lindsay," Emily said finally. "Can you do this?"

"Yeah, I just… I don't know how to start."

"Just tell Adam what you told me."

She took a deep breath and turned to him, knowing that if she could just meet his eyes, she would be okay.

"Adam, I… I love you."

"I know you love me sweetie. I love you too."

"I'm worried about you."

"About what?"

"That you're getting lost in the shuffle. That you're carrying all the weight of this. That you're holding everything together and you're getting torn apart. That someday it's going to be too much for you and you're going to have to walk away," she confessed, trying to keep her sniffles to a minimum. "I don't want you to feel trapped."

He tried to keep his jaw from dropping to the ground as he ran through her words again. He knew she felt guilty, he even knew she had moments of distrust, but he could tell by looking at her that this wasn't just the depression talking. She was still, after all these years, afraid that he would stop loving her. It wasn't that she didn't trust him, it was that she didn't trust herself to be lovable enough.

He couldn't find words to tell her how wrong she was and he just sat there gaping at her for a moment. She finally met his eyes, her expression one of fright that she had hit the nail on the head, that her fears had a foundation, that now they were going to have to wrestle with this demon too.

"Lindsay," he started softly, knowing his voice was enough to cure whatever ailed her most days, but today it may only take the edge off. "I'm not getting lost. I'm not getting torn apart. It's not too much."

"But it is," she protested as the tears came back for round two. "You have to watch me go through this and you know you can't fix it. And there's days when I know you're frustrated and you're tired and… this is hard on you. And you're spending so much time on me and I'm not spending any time on you. I'm not giving you anything back."

"Sweetheart, don't you understand that you are giving me something back? You're giving me you. I'm not the only one working here. You're trying so hard to get back to where you were before. You're giving me my wife back. Do you see that?"

She cried so openly, so brokenly and for a moment he wondered if he could ever convince her. He wanted to hug her but he knew that comfort was too easy and she needed to hear him right now. Carefully, he took both her hands in his, ignoring the room, ignoring Emily, ignoring everything but Lindsay. He moved down to the floor, on his knees, needing her to be above him, needing her to look down through her shame and see him.

"Lindsay. I love you. Forever. I don't care what we have to go through, or how bad it is, or how much work we have to do. It's always going to be us together. You're never going to do it on your own and neither am I."

She tried to catch her breath and he reached up to brush a few tears away before clamping his hands around hers again.

"Sweetheart, have I ever walked away? Have I ever left you, even for a little while? Have I ever stopped loving you?"

"No."

"Then why would I do it now? We've been through hard things, baby. Really hard things. Why would I go now? Why would I wait until now when things are getting so much better? Why would I ever leave you when I know that we are the only thing that keeps each other afloat? I wouldn't, Lindsay. I can't and I won't. Ever. Because I love you. Every single day, every moment, I love you."

She would later want to say that she suddenly just remembered what she had known and accepted all along, in his depth of love and devotion to her. But the truth was that for the first time she finally understood it. She accepted it in that moment and didn't question it in her mind, wondering how long it would last. It was forever.

Adam had always been a man of action, showing her how he loved her even more often than telling her. He loved with a ferocity that was unfathomable and as moments in time flashed back to her, she felt even more fully enraptured than she had when they were happening. It was a revelation that should have happened years ago, but for some reason she hadn't allowed herself to claim it. Sure, she knew how much he loved her, she knew that when her chest felt full to bursting with love for him, that he felt much the same way. She felt absolutely unequivocally loved every second of every day. She knew it and she felt it, but it wasn't until now that the knowing and the feeling married together and she consciously realized that he wasn't going anywhere. Nothing she could do, no circumstance or twist of fate could tear them apart. He would never let it.

It was nearly paralyzing and she just sat there with tears running down her face, wondering how this had happened, how she had let that speck of doubt remain in her mind, how he could love her this much. It was so much to think about and she felt her body trembling slightly from the gravity of it all.

Slowly he leaned up and pulled her into his arms, holding her against him, hoping the rhythm of their hearts and their breathing would drive out the stiffness in her body. It took a moment but she soon let herself collapse into him, crying in such state of surrender that he felt his own tears spilling over. Finally, finally, the smallest little speed bump between them had been completely obliterated. It had taken lots of work and love and frustrations, it had taken seven years, a marriage and two kids, but it was so worth it.

"I love you," she whispered, her voice cracked and throaty. "I'm sorry it took me so long. I'm sorry. I knew it all along, I swear I did. You love me. You love me so much."

"I do."

They stayed that way for a long time, neither one of them wondering what came next or even what all of this meant. It was more a moment of joy in the fact that they were finally at their full potential, their pinnacle, and it wasn't all downhill from here. It was simply beautiful.

"Whoa."

"Wow."

"Was that…?"

"Yowza."

"Did not know we could do that," she said finally staring up at the ceiling as her breath caught back up to her. "I mean, I knew we were good, but that…"

"Bam."

"I can't even…"

"Pow."

Slowly and with great effort, she dropped her head to the side, smiling when her eyes met his.

"You sound like a Batman comic."

He managed a crooked grin.

"Bazinga."

She smiled and let her eyes slide closed as he expended the very, very last of his energy reserves and scooted closer to her.

"Holy Toledo," she muttered as he tucked her hair behind her ear.

"Hey, I just want to let you know that I did not give you that hickey."

"Oh, so it was someone else? You're okay with that?"

"I just don't want to get involved when someone notices."

"It's visible? Adam I have to work tomorrow!"

"Not my fault you're so hot."

"Is it my imagination, or did we knock a lamp onto the floor?"

"Dang."

She giggled and rolled over to face him, running her hand over his short beard, smiling when he pressed his lips to her palm. They took a moment to get lost in each other's eyes, even in the darkness as all the emotions of the day, good and bad caught up with them. His hand slid over and rested against the small of her back while she nuzzled into his chest, dropping a kiss to his warm skin.

"I love you," he whispered. Her breath caught in her throat, almost as if he had said it for the first time. It was almost like the first time really, for how new it was to hear it without her doubts hanging on. It wasn't like they had been prevalent, or that she had always noticed them, but they were there in her subconscious, eating away at the beauty of it. But now, it was coming to her whole, and it was almost overwhelming.

"I love you too."

He reached up and grabbed her hand, sliding his fingers between hers and touching their foreheads together. They closed their eyes and breathed deeply, even as their hearts were still racing.

"We've got the whole world, baby. Nothing is ever going to take us from each other. Ever."

"I know," she said softly, giving him a smile he had never seen before. "Hold me tighter."

He let go of her hand and brought both arms around her, holding her the way he had thousands of time before, but the same way that never got old, that she never stopped craving. They could both stay like this for hours, only letting go for the sake of limbs that were falling asleep.

Slowly he reached over and adjusted the blankets as best he could, cocooning them together, knowing they would probably not move from this spot all night long. She sighed against him and he knew her eyes were slowly sliding closed, so he leaned down for a goodnight kiss, lingering a little longer than normal because he couldn't bear to break it.

"Sleep. I'll be here forever."