When Danny rolled over in his plush bed and found the space next to him vacant, there was no confusion as to the whereabouts of his wife. All he had to do was follow the smell of olive oil getting too hot in the pan.

He was greeted at the bottom of the stairs by a thin haze of smoke, the sound of cloth waving and snapping in the air, and a string of harshly whispered profanities. The familiarity of it all overshadowed any possible worry the scene may have garnered in the past. After over two decades, Danny had lost count of the number of times he had entered their kitchen to find Mindy amid a cloud of smoke, wildly disposing of the burnt evidence of her failed culinary misadventure. This time, while he couldn't immediately spot any charred food, he did notice the curling opaque wisps emanating from the skillet while his perturbed wife flapped a plaid dish towel towards the small window above the sink, attempting to usher the smoke out of their home.

"Min," Danny called out gently, quickly stepping towards the sleek black stove and pushing the 'off' button. He quickly moved the cookware to a cold burner and turned on the overhead fan just above the range top.

Mindy sighed. "I didn't want to wake you up. I got hungry and was trying to make a grilled cheese when I got a bit distracted."

Danny looked at the pan and pointed at its contents. "And you're using olive oil? For grilled cheese? Sweetheart, I know you're not the greatest cook, but-"

"Okay, it didn't start out as grilled cheese," Mindy confessed as she tossed the towel in exasperation. "I started to make that breaded eggplant that Nia taught me how to make before she left, but I got through slicing half of the eggplant before I got impatient. I figured a grilled cheese toasted with olive oil wouldn't be too different from one with butter, yeah?"

Danny was no stranger to this brand of thinking, living through disastrous meals where she replaced regular milk with almond milk, or one instance when she made a holiday ham and improvised with a roll of pineapple Lifesavers candies after forgetting to purchase the pineapple rings for the garnish. He smiled, knowing that this wasn't the worst idea she's ever had in this room.

"You know, I would have made you something had you just woke me up." He leaned back against the counter and crossed his arms over his pajama-clad chest.

Mindy adjusted the belt on her satin robe and settled next to him. "And be made to endure another lecture about fried food and the aging metabolism? No thanks."

They wore mirrored smirks, finding comfort in their usual banter after a day filled with melancholy.

"I miss her," Mindy said with a whisper.

Danny wrapped an arm around her shoulders and gently kissed her temple, close to the corner of her eye. "Yeah, me too. She's gonna do so well in California, though. And she has family out there and she'll make a ton of friends…"

Mindy rested her head on his shoulder. Up close he could see that she stopped dying her roots and had begun to allow some of the gray to surface at her hair line. This sight caused a swell of affection for her, reminding him that yes, they were actually growing old together, just as he had dreamed.

"I found her little 'to do' list while I was cleaning up her room," Mindy said softly, followed by a tiny sniffle.

"You mean the one that said, '1. Send updated transcripts. 2. Get Sir Barkley groomed. 3. Teach mom how to make the eggplant without setting the house aflame'?"

"A little dramatic, I feel," she replied with a low chuckle.

"Well, she is your daughter," Danny replied, his voice steady with certain pride he felt whenever he talked about the child he had raised with the love of his life. Even in his late fifties, there were still times when he was awestruck by his reality, and he wondered if it all would have still come to fruition had he abstained from the trip as originally planned. He shuddered at the possibility of him getting in the way of his own happiness.

"I also told her to take a picture of every single celebrity she sees," she continued.

"Well, she'll be in Irvine, not L.A."

"Close enough."

He rubbed her arm tenderly with a sigh. "So, what do you want to do this week? Maybe we can invite Jeremy and his wife over for dinner?"

"That might be nice," Mindy agreed wistfully. "I was thinking about looking around the house and seeing what we can get rid of. It's getting a little cluttered; it wouldn't hurt to minimize a little."

"I don't think I've ever, in all the years that I've known you, heard the word 'minimize' come out of your mouth. Our wedding registry was thirty pages long. Bed Bath & Beyond had to bind them like a book just to keep it together."

"That's your fault!" Mindy exclaimed, pulling away in order to stand in front of him. "It's mostly your stuff I'm tripping over! You've become a little hoarder in your old age!"

"Okay, 'hoarder' is a bit of an overshot. I'm a man of few, but classic, possessions. You just don't like them."

"I don't like them because they're useless!"

"That's a lie! Name one thing!" Danny placed his hands on his hips and waited. Mindy immediately turned towards an old CD player in the corner closest to the refrigerator.

"Well, we can start with that relic over there," she pointed. "I feel like it's going to fall apart with a strong gust of wind."

"What?!" Mildly offended, Danny stepped around his wife and made his way over to the CD player. "This thing is a treasure. It's sturdy, the sound quality is adequate, and this 'relic' has provided the soundtrack for all the most important Lahiri-Castellano moments. Our proposal, Nia's birth, her first dance recital in the living room," he ticked off on his fingers, "and it still works! Watch."

He pressed the 'play' button, which only elicited a strange clicking sound. "C'mon, you dumb…" Danny mumbled before smacking the top forcefully. The music of Frank Sinatra erupted from the speakers, sounding only slightly warbled as the crooner began to sing of love at first sight.

"See there?" Danny taunted with pride.

Mindy laughed. "Oh, God, Danny that sounds awful."

He shook his as slinked rhythmically towards her. "Nah, it just sounds like it has a lot of character. You like a lot of character, remember?"

Danny reached out tugged her by her robe until she was almost flush against his body. She smiled wide as he slid an arm around her waist while the other grabbed her hand gently. As he felt Mindy's hand come to rest at the nape of his neck, they started to sway in time to the music. Gazing into her eyes, he wondered how they managed to maintain their same luster all these years, shining brightly as they did during her days as a young resident. He felt like time had dulled a lot of his sharp edges, making him just a little grayer and a bit softer while she seemed to glow even more brilliantly than ever before. No matter how many times she assured him that he was still especially handsome, using words like "distinguished" and "Clooney-esque," he never believed that he would be able to catch up to her beauty. He was more than happy to lag behind.

He led their simple movements, remaining in one spot while they gently rocked and rotated to Sinatra's sultry vibrato.

"Okay, the player stays," Mindy agreed just above a whisper. "We'll visit the topic of your baseball cards later."

Smiling, he shifted their conjoined hands so that they sat just over his heart, then rested his chin at the top of her head as she laid his cheek against his chest. They both sighed, the debate over the validity of the player forgotten. Danny began to hum to the music, praying that his feet and hips would stay in good enough shape for them to be able to dance in their kitchen for the next thirty years.

A/N: Well, this has certainly been a labor of love. I cannot tell you all how much it means to me to have received the kind of support I've received from you wonderful, wonderful people. I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to write this and I'm hoping that I can come up with something new soon.

This moment was inspired by a prompt I received on Tumblr: "I really would be interested to read a fic that has mindy/danny with OLDER kids, middle school or high school age. I don't think there is one like that at all." I just wanted the person who left that prompt to see that I did try to offer at least a snippet of that time, even though it is nowhere near the full-fledged fic this prompt deserves. I did, however, think this was a lovely place to end things.

I hope you all enjoyed this story! Please feel free to leave a review and again, thank you to everyone who read, reviewed, followed, and favorited this story! I cannot express my gratitude enough!

Until next time, Hollaatchyagirl!

Phunky