Well, this is the end. I hope that you like it. And if you don't, tell me what I did wrong. :)
I'm not sure why I still even say this, but once again, I don't own any bit of this story- other than the storyline of course.
Here it is, so please read and review!
The day of the wedding finally came. Lindsay was a vision in white. Her hair was done up in a bun, with a few curls framing her face. The dress that she wore was strapless and had lacing up the front. The train that went off the skirt was at least 10 feet long. Her bouquet was of roses of every color, with a few white lillies stuck in between.
Danny was dressed in a fitted black tux, waiting at the alter. Finally, music started to play, and the procession began.
Stella and Mac came down the aisle first; Stella dressed in a black, floor-length gown and Mac in a tux. At the front, they parted ways; Mac standing behind Danny and Stella on the opposite side. Next came Flack with Lindsay's sister, and then finally Sheldon with the other sister. Then it was Lindsay's turn to walk down the aisle.
The world around Danny seemed to become invisible. The only thing he could see what Lindsay walking toward him. The music was drowned out by the sound of their breathing, as if they were the only people in the world. Her smile was the brighter than the sun itself, and her eyes held the love that Danny knew that she felt for him. She was perfect.
For Lindsay, looking at Danny showed her everything she wanted. He looked at her with such love and passion that Lindsay almost melted. She could tell that Danny cared about her more than life itself, and would give up anything for her. He was everything that she could have asked for.
At long last, Lindsay made it to the front and stood in front of Stella. The ceremony started.
"Then what happened Mom?" Rose asked her mother. The sixteen year-old was sitting on her parents' bed, anxious to hear the rest of the story. Danny and Lindsay's anniversary was that night, and it was tradition that every year, the story of their relationship would be told to the children. No matter how many times it was told, however, their children never tired of the tale.
Lindsay looked at her children gathered on the bed; first as Rose- their eldest- then to Mackenzie- their second child- and finally to Riley, their youngest daughter. Then she looked at Danny, who -even though he was older- still made her heart flip in her chest. "You finish Danny."
Her husband nodded. "Well…"
"I do." Danny's voice was strong and certain, like he had been practicing how he would say those two words.
"And Lindsay Monroe, do you take Danny Messer to be your lawful wedded husband?" The old priest asked the bride.
"I do." She smiled at Danny, whose heart turned in his chest. You have no idea what you do to me Montana.
"Then by the power invested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife." The priest looked at Danny, and said the words he had been waiting to hear for a long time. "You may kiss the bride."
The kiss was unlike any other of their kisses before. It was gentle and loving, but strong and passionate. People started to cheer, and finally the new spouses broke away. The rest of the ceremony passed quickly, and soon Danny and Lindsay were on their way to The Michelangelo where the Honeymoon Suite awaited them; it was a gift from the rest of the team.
Mac had approached Danny and Lindsay a week before the wedding. "Lindsay, Danny, I need to tell you something." They nodded, and as they did, they noticed that Stella, Flack, and Hawkes had just appeared.
"Sure thing Mac." Danny asked, sounding slightly confused. And he was confused- what could have happened that he and Lindsay would need to know about?
"Well, we decided that we wanted to get you a gift before you go away to France for your honeymoon. So before you leave, we want you to go to The Michelangelo for the night. It's from all of us- you're booked at the Honeymoon Suite in my name."
"And then what?" Riley asked. She has just turned 10, but was mature for her age. She looked almost exactly like Danny, except for the fact that she had chocolate eyes like her mother. Mackenzie looked exactly like her mother but with Danny's eyes. And Rose looked like both of them. Needless to say, they were all beautiful girls.
Danny continued their story. "After that, your mother and I flew to France for two weeks."
"Was it completely romantic?" Mackenzie piped up.
Lindsay laughed, looking at Danny. "Completely."
They barely left the room at all for the first week that they were there. After that, they decided that they might want to spend a bit of time sightseeing.
"Well, Mrs. Messer," Danny started, kissing Lindsay with every other word. "What," kiss "do," kiss "you" kiss "want" kiss "want to do" kiss "today?"
Lindsay laughed. "Danny, stop! We have to do-" He kissed her again, at a sensitive spot on her neck, making her shiver. She put his hands on his chest, pushing him away slightly.
"What were you saying again Mrs. Messer?" Neither Lindsay nor Danny could get enough of her new name, the fact that were now man and wife.
"I was saying-"
"Saying that we should stay here?"
"Yes." He kissed her again, and it was just one more day in the hotel room.
"Gross, Dad! We don't want to hear about that." Riley complained, and their other daughters giggled.
"Yeah Dad, we don't need to hear that stuff. I mean, come on, we just want to hear what happened after the honeymoon." Rose interjected.
Danny and Lindsay looked at each other. "After the honeymoon, huh?" Lindsay asked, tickling Mackenzie, the daughter nearest her. "What about it?"
"Dad said…"
"Danny, hurry! We're going to miss our flight!" Lindsay walked quickly ahead of her husband, trying to reach the terminal in time. The Charles de Gaulle airport was crowded, and their flight was leaving in a matter of minutes.
"Lindsay, calm down! They already said that the plane wouldn't leave until we got there." Danny was calm, but Lindsay couldn't understand why.
"But we don't want to make those people wait any longer than they already have! Besides, what if the pilot doesn't get the message and leaves anyway?" Lindsay was so stressed out that she was almost crying. The morning had been hectic and hellacious; first Lindsay's suitcase broke minutes before they were supposed to leave. Danny raced to the shop next to their hotel and purchased a duffle bag for her. The duffle bag didn't end up being large enough to fit all of Lindsay's shoes into, and in the van on the way to the airport, husband and wife switched suitcases. If that wasn't bad enough, Danny didn't have exact change for the taxi, because he had left a few Euros on the nightstand. Therefore, the cabbie had to wait while Danny ran into the airport to use an ATM. After successfully locating one, Danny learned that it was out of order, and that the other banking machine was through security. After much haggling, a security officer escorted him through security to the machine and back again to Lindsay.
After finally getting out of the taxi and to the check-in counter, Danny and Lindsay were told that their flight was leaving in 10 minutes, and that their bags would never make it on. After Danny pulled the "scary cop" and told the poor woman helping them that they had to be back in the States with their bags for a CSI thing (Lindsay cringed when he said "thing"… how much less descriptive could he be?), the flight attendant assured them that both their bags and them would be on the flight. Then, it was only a matter of getting through security, and then on to their gate.
Of course, the line for security was horrendously long, and only Danny made it through without beeping. Lindsay got the full treatment.
"Are you sure that you took everything metal off your person, Miss?" The security personal helping Lindsay asked her. Lindsay, by this time, was just getting more and more aggravated.
"Yes, I'm positive! I took off my belt; I took off my badge, phone, and pager and put them through the scanner. I can't take off my bra, though we've established that it beeps, as do the rivets on my jeans. If you wouldn't like me to remove my pants, then I can, but I don't think that it would help." The woman helping her spoke very little English, but most of the passengers behind Lindsay in line did. And all of those people were turning deep shades of red at Lindsay's previous statement. Danny, on the other hand, found it very hilarious, and was having trouble not laughing. The looks that Lindsay was shooting him didn't help matters.
"Please Miss, it's no use to get angry." The timid French woman helping her said, in an effort to calm the irate woman down.
"But you won't let me through! I'm going to miss my flight!" Lindsay was reaching hysterics, but Danny wasn't allowed to help her. Cursing, he just stood by and waited.
After managing to figure out the problem- Lindsay had coins in her pocket that she hadn't realized were there- the couple raced toward the gate as fast as they could.
Now, Lindsay was racing ahead of Danny, and it was all he could do to keep up. "Lindsay! Lindsay, slow down!"
"Did you and Dad make it on the plane?" Even though Riley had heard this story a million times, they always asked the question.
"Yeah, we made the plain." Danny answered Lindsay's question.
"And what happened after that?" Mackenzie asked, always the curious one. Both Danny and Lindsay knew that one day, she would become a CSI like her parents; there was something that drove her to figure out the clues, to solve the riddles.
"After that, we got home, and continued working. A year later, Rose was born, then two years after that, we had Mackenzie, and four years later Riley came."
The three daughters looked at one another, contemplating something. "So that means you have been married for seventeen years?" Riley asked in disbelief, almost as if she couldn't imagine how long that was.
"Yep, we've been married for seventeen years." Danny and Lindsay looked at each other with love in their eyes.
Riley piped up again, ruining the romantic moment. "Wow! You're really, really old!"
They all laughed, and after a few more minutes of talking, the parents pushed the children out of their room, telling them it was time for them to get ready for the day ahead.
After they had left, Danny took Lindsay's hand and gave it a kiss. "Ya know, even though we've known each other for all these years, I've never loved you more. You're still as beautiful, charming, loving, and passionate as you ever were. You're still the love of my life, Montana. And I still love you."
Lindsay smiled and kissed her husband on the lips. "And Danny, you're still the romantic man I knew you to be."
Danny smiled. "Now, don't let anyone hear you say that." He looked at her with a smirk on his face, and then whispered, "I've got a reputation to uphold."
Lindsay laughed at him. "And what's that reputation, Danny?"
He leaned in and kissed her again. "The role of wonderful father that will do anything to make his family happy. The role of a man that is so in love with his wife that his heart still flips in his chest when he sees her, just like the first time he ever laid eyes on her. The role of tough-guy CSI that was once a notorious player, and is still the most stubborn guy on our team. But not romantic." He smiled. "Never romantic."
Lindsay smirked at him. "If you're not romantic, why do you still bring me two dozen red roses on my birthday and anniversary? Or the fact that you line our bedroom with candles every year on our anniversary with rose petals on the bed- which you even clean up in the morning." Her tone was light, but her eyes were serious, and Danny could tell that she loved the fact that he was romantic; that he was hers. "Or the fact that you still tell me everyday how much you love me, and how beautiful I am. Do you now agree that you are, in fact, a romantic man?"
Danny laughed, and kissed her once more. "No."
"So you don't have candles for our bedroom this year?" Lindsay asked, laying her head against him. He put his arms around her and pulled her in even tighter.
"Oh, I do. But I'm not romantic. I'm just Danny. And you're Lindsay. And that's how it is. Danny and Lindsay, Lindsay and Danny. That's just how it's meant to be."
That's the end. I hope that it turned out as well as you could have hoped for. Thanks for all the reviews, and thank you to all the people that diligently followed this story:)
Charlotte