WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

Disclaimer: The characters in CSI: New York and CSI: Miami do not belong to me. No infringement is intended, no profit is made.

Summary: After her and Danny's difficult break-up, Lindsay Monroe is transferred to the Miami Crime Lab. Two years later and the past comes knocking on her door…

Notes: Well, here we are at the final curtain. Just realised it's been two years since I posted the initial chapter of this story. How time flies, huh? Thanks to all of you who have stuck with it despite having to wait for updates while I battled with writers block and a few real life interferences as well. I would have understood if you'd gotten fed up with me so it's very much appreciated – as are every last one of the reviews. Anyway, enough of my musings, let's find out – for the very last time - 'What Might Have Been', shall we?

OOOOOO

Epilogue – Finding Home

Six months later…

"Jesus, Lindsay! What the hell have you got in here? Goddamn rocks?" Don Flack grumbled as he huffed and puffed along the corridor, dragging the loaded trunk behind him.

Lindsay laughed merrily as she strolled casually along beside him, carrying a taped-up cardboard box full of bed linen in her arms. She threw him an impish grin. "Just my forensic text-books," she told him with an innocent look. "Why? Is it heavy?"

His muttered four-letter response she didn't quite catch, but she got the general gist of it and her smile widened as a consequence. "Maybe you need to work out more," she suggested.

"Bite me, Linds," he shot back with irritated humour. "I thought Mac and Stella were supposed to be helping with this?" he groused after a beat.

"I think they got caught up at a crime scene."

"Well, that's mightily convenient for them, isn't it?" Don remarked acidly as he heaved the trunk the last couple of metres into the apartment, dumped it in the corner by the door and then collapsed onto the polished wood floor with an exaggerated groan. "I think I'm getting old," he lamented miserably.

"You were one of those kids who constantly asked 'are we there yet' on long car journeys, weren't you?" Lindsay commented dryly.

Flack's only response was to grin beatifically up at her from his prone position on the floor. Rolling her eyes in indulgent exasperation, Lindsay glanced across the room to where Danny was standing in the centre of the main living space, an aggrieved and somewhat bewildered look on his face.

"What's up, babe?" she asked, moving towards him.

"I'm surrounded by girl stuff," he said in disgust. He picked up one of the brightly-hued cushions that she'd piled in an untidy heap on his sofa a short while earlier – his nice, sleek, masculine, black leather sofa. "What are these?" he demanded.

"Throw pillows," she explained with practised patience. "I had them going spare so…"

"They're brand new," Danny broke in, turning the pillow over and showing her the price-tag still attached.

Uh-oh – busted! Swiftly changing tactic, she curled her arms around his waist and looked up at him with wide, guileless eyes. "I just thought the place could use a little extra colour," she said, her voice ripe with sugary sweetness. "You want me to feel at home, don't you?"

She leaned forward and pressed her mouth against his Adam's apple, her left hand sliding brazenly into the back pocket of his jeans to playfully squeeze his butt. "I'll make it worth your while," she promised in sultry tones as her warm lips teased the sensitive skin of his throat.

"Oh yeah?" he murmured, threading his fingers through her hair and tilting back her head so that he could look down into her face. "How you gonna do that?"

She smiled up at him, her brown eyes twinkling. "Use your imagination."

"That would be my over-active imagination, right?" he enquired with a grin.

She rose up on her tip-toes so that her mouth was level with his. "Oh, I'm counting on it," she murmured before their lips met in a slow, sensual kiss.

When they didn't look like they were going to break it off anytime soon, Flack loudly cleared his throat to attract their attention. "Erm, excuse me, third person in the room here," he reminded them.

Danny drew back from his girlfriend with some reluctance. The sudden moment of blind panic he'd experienced a few minutes before had vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared. "Please tell me that's all of it," he said to Lindsay, gesturing around the room at the scattered boxes and other paraphernalia. "I can't believe someone so small can have so many possessions."

"It's not that much," she protested, looking around at the fairly modest array of luggage and pack-boxes. "You should see the size of Stella's closet. She had to move some of her clothes into storage to make way for mine when I moved into her spare room."

Lindsay had enjoyed the last five months or so of being roomies with her older colleague. It was initially only meant as a temporary measure while she found herself an apartment, but the arrangement had worked out so well that she'd stayed a lot longer than anticipated.

"No sense tying yourself into a lease unless you have to," Stella had told her with a shrug. "I'm guessing you'll be moving in with Danny soon enough anyway."

"That's a little premature, Stella," Lindsay had chided, not wanting to tempt fate so soon after her and Danny's recent reconciliation.

Stella had been proved correct in the end however. Over an intimate dinner about a week or so ago, Danny had asked her to move in with him and she hadn't hesitated in saying yes to his nervously-put suggestion.

"There's just one more box, I think," she said now, prompting Flack to let out a plaintive moan. "Don't worry, I'll get it," she said, heading for the door. "And then, when I get back, we can get started on the unpacking!" she finished brightly.

"Your woman's got one hell of a cruel streak, Messer," Don complained once he was certain she was out of ear-shot. "And she's a certifiable slave-driver. Mac and Stella had the right idea backing out of moving duty at the last minute. Wish I'd thought of it."

Danny laughed and then shook his head, his system still reeling from the reality of the commitment he was about to embark upon. "Jeez Flack, look at this place. Remind me why I thought this was a good idea again, will you?"

Rising to his feet, Don crossed the room and lowered his aching body onto the sofa. "Sex whenever you want it?" he suggested blandly.

Danny cocked his head to one side. "Well, there is that, I suppose," he concurred with a grin.

Flack shook his head. "I don't know what you're complaining about, buddy," he said. "There are more important things to worry about here."

"Like what?"

"Like the fact that I'm going to have to find myself a new wing-man for a start. There aren't too many suitable candidates around, let me tell you."

Danny laughed. "What the hell you talking about, Flack?"

"You." He paused for a moment, his expression suddenly serious. "You're gonna marry her, Messer."

It was on the tip of Danny's tongue to deny it, but then his mind flashed back to events of a couple of days ago. He, Lindsay, Mac and Hawkes had been processing a crime scene – one of the worst kinds – a young mother and her four-year-old son shot dead by the woman's estranged and violent ex.

It was the epitome of injustice as far as Danny was concerned. The poor woman had found the courage to escape her abusive marriage, had even started to build a new life for herself and her family, but then had been cut down before she could really make a go of it. Danny couldn't understand how anyone could do something like that to someone they professed to love, and yet he saw it happen all too often.

While Mac and Hawkes were busy with the primary crime scene in the apartment's small living area, he and Lindsay had been hard at work processing the secondary one in the bedroom. They were working quietly and efficiently, both of them determined to claim some belated justice for their brave Vic. It was Lindsay who'd heard it first.

"Danny," she'd said sharply. "Stop!"

He'd halted what he was doing and looked over at her. "What?"

She'd held up her hand for quiet. "Listen."

For a few seconds, all he could hear was the rumble of traffic from the street outside, and then there it was – a soft, snuffling cry. His first thought was that it was a trapped animal, but then the cry had sounded again, louder this time and most definitely human.

Lindsay had made it to the closet doors just ahead of him. Right at the back, hidden behind a mound of clothing was a Moses' basket and inside was a baby that couldn't have been more than a couple of months old. Child Welfare had taken their time in arriving and the baby – a little girl as it turned out - was wet, hungry and fussy. Lindsay had taken charge with astonishing calm however. Finding diapers, wipes and formula in quick succession, she'd tended to the crying child with seemingly effortless skill and tenderness.

Danny had stood at the kitchen door and watched as she lifted the freshly diapered baby over her shoulder and rubbed her tiny back, cooing to her in soft, soothing tones while she swayed from side-to-side in the ancient rhythm of motherhood. He couldn't describe in words the feelings that had run through him in that moment, but it was almost like looking through a window into his future.

Flack was right; he was going to marry her. Maybe not right here, right now, but when they were ready, he'd be reaching out with both hands towards the image that would be etched in his heart and mind forever. The powerful image of woman and child. His woman and someone else's child at the moment, but, in time, his woman and his child; his wife and their baby. Strangely, it was a picture that no longer scared him, instead he found himself eagerly looking forward to the day when it finally became a reality.

The last six months had been a voyage of discovery for them. They'd experienced their ups and their downs, but had somehow managed to come out of the other end of it stronger than ever. The first three months after Lindsay's return from Miami had been the toughest. While they were both thrilled about being back together again, they'd had to negotiate their way through several road-bumps along the way.

In the beginning, Danny had tried way too hard to be the perfect boyfriend. He was so conscious of not treating their relationship in the same casual manner as he had done before, that their time together had become extremely regimented as a result. Gone were the days of simply hanging out drinking beer and playing pool, or catching a spur-of-the-moment movie after work. Pre-arranged dinner dates were now the norm, and there'd even been a couple of trips to the theatre. While Danny had still enjoyed the time he shared with her, he'd missed the spontaneity that they used to have, and had ended up feeling vaguely dissatisfied with their relationship as a consequence.

Lindsay had eventually solved his dilemma for him with an impromptu visit late one night. She'd been working the late shift and had shown up, unannounced, on his doorstep about an hour before midnight. Claiming a stressful case and a difficult day, she'd beseeched him to help her relax and unwind and he'd taken up the challenge without a pause for thought.

He couldn't say where they'd gone that night, it didn't really matter. Their time had mainly been spent re-discovering why his birth place was so often termed 'the city that never sleeps.' They'd wandered the streets and aimlessly ridden the subway, then enjoyed a burger at an all-night diner before taking a long stroll through Central Park. When the breaking dawn had announced the start of the new day, they'd sat cuddled together under the shade of a tree and watched the sun rise over New York's famous skyline.

"This is nice," Lindsay had remarked casually, nestling her head against his shoulder as they absorbed the peaceful calm of that quiet first light.

He'd turned and pressed a kiss into her hair. "Yeah," he'd agreed.

"We should do stuff like this more often," she'd suggested, her voice drowsy with fatigue.

And just like that their relationship had turned a corner for the better. A week and a half went by before Danny realised the true extent of his girlfriend's deviousness. In light of new developments and the need for a fresh eye on things, Mac had asked him to re-examine some of the evidence that she'd been working on that day. It had taken him only ten minutes to reach the conclusion that her professions of an emotionally taxing case were considerably embellished. No wonder the manipulative minx hadn't wanted to talk to him about it!

"I was wondering when you'd finally figure it out," Lindsay said when he confronted her with his discovery later that same day. "That was seriously slow on the uptake, Messer. I think I'm kind of disappointed."

She threw him a sunny smile to let him know she was only teasing. "I just wanted to remind you that our relationship is as much about friendship as it is about romance," she explained, her tone serious now. "It's what makes you so special to me, Danny. You rock my world; remind me every day why God made me a woman. But, if I've had a rough day, I want to know that I've got my best friend around to make me feel better too. Romance doesn't always cut it on days like that. A good friend though?" She smiled affectionately at him. "Never fails in my experience."

"I guess I was trying too hard," he admitted, cupping the side of her face in his hand and lightly brushing his thumb over her cheekbone. "I just wanted everything to be perfect."

"I know you did," Lindsay replied, pressing a soft kiss to the centre of his palm. "But that's kind of unrealistic, don't you think? I don't need hearts and flowers all the time, Danny, I never did. I want someone who is going to be my partner in every possible way, someone who'll stand beside me through the good times and the bad."

He nodded. "I think I can handle that."

She smiled. "I never doubted you could for a second."

"So," he said, edging a little closer to her on the couch. "I remind you every day why God made you a woman, do I?"

"Don't get too big for your boots," she told him as he pressed her back against the cushions, "It doesn't take all that much."

He laughed as he settled his weight over her. "I love you, Montana."

"I know," she whispered as her lips found his. "I love you too."

Overall, probably the biggest obstacle they'd faced was Lindsay's lingering doubts about the strength of his commitment to her however. While she didn't go as far as interrogating him about his whereabouts when he wasn't with her, she did expect to be kept informed about where he'd been if it wasn't work-related. He'd put up with it because he knew that it was a situation he'd brought upon himself, but it worried him nonetheless. If she couldn't trust him, where did that leave them?

Gradually though, as she'd grown more secure in their renewed relationship, Lindsay had slowly begun to loosen up and no longer needed a play-by-play of the time he'd spent apart from her before she could relax enough to enjoy his company. The last two months had shown the most significant improvement in that respect, and it was partly that that had finally made up his mind about asking her to move in with him. Before then, he'd been holding back because he hadn't been certain that it was a step that they should be taking when they still had lingering trust issues to resolve.

He should have realised Maya was a factor but he hadn't – not until recently anyway. True to what she'd told him when they'd first decided to get back together, Lindsay had tolerated the continued presence of his ex in his life, but she'd obviously found it a lot more difficult to handle than she'd let on. It wasn't as if he spent a huge amount of time in Maya's company, but they did still have some mutual friends in common. Plus, her neighbour had continued to make a nuisance of himself, despite a visit from an officer from the nearby precinct. A restraining order and some thinly veiled threats from himself and Flack had eventually resolved things, but Maya had remained distinctly jumpy about the whole situation and he'd felt obliged to check in on her every once in a while because of that.

A month ago, Maya had left New York to relocate back to her home state of Iowa, however. An offer of a teaching position had come up, and, although it was a little ahead of her anticipated schedule, it had been too good of an opportunity for her to pass up. The difference in Lindsay after his ex-girlfriend's departure had been starkly apparent. Her whole demeanour had changed almost overnight. She'd seemed so much happier in herself and her confidence levels improved ten-fold.

"You said you were okay with it," he'd accused when he'd found the nerve to bring the somewhat taboo subject up with her.

Lindsay sighed. "I was okay with it," she said defensively.

"Lindsay…"

"Look, I needed to prove to myself that I could handle it, okay?" she interrupted. "It's been hard sometimes, I won't deny that, but my trust in you has grown a lot stronger because of it. Yes, I've needed some reassurance along the way, but it's not like I've let it overwhelm me. I can handle other women flirting with you because I know that it's me that you're coming home to at night. With Maya, it was a little different – because you had a previous connection with her, because she mattered to you, she was more of a threat and that was harder for me to deal with."

"You should have said something."

"And you would have severed all contact with her, I know," Lindsay rejoined. "But what would that have achieved, Danny? We'd have just been avoiding the problem in the end."

"So what? It was test? Is that it?"

"In a way," Lindsay said, "A test of myself more than you though. I haven't once seriously doubted your fidelity since we got back together, but I can't just pretend the past didn't happen either. It has made me question you sometimes even when I knew those feelings weren't entirely rational. Now that Maya's no longer living across the street, it's gotten easier." She shrugged in a self-deprecating manner. "I guess that's more obvious than I realised, huh?"

Danny sighed. "Lindsay, I love you and I understand where you're coming from, but there was no need for you to put yourself through that. I always knew I had to earn back your trust. I'm not stupid enough to believe the problem was just going to go away simply because I said I was sorry. It was down to me to prove that you could trust me again, not the other way round."

"This achieved the same result," Lindsay returned. "And, despite appearances, it was the best way to handle it. You've had some level of temptation on your doorstep for months now. Maybe you don't view it as that, but, to me, that's the way it was. It wasn't easy knowing it, but I coped with it a whole lot better than I thought I would. And you've proved your commitment to me at the same time too. If all you'd done was break off contact with her, it wouldn't have had the same effect, believe me."

Danny was silent for a moment, suddenly realising what she was trying to say. The circumstances weren't exactly the same but they were similar enough to bear comparison. Rikki Sandoval had lived down the hall, Maya across the street. Rikki had needed his support over the death of her son, Maya because of her troubles with over-solicitous neighbour. Three and a half years ago, he'd allowed his guilt over Ruben to come between him and the most important person in his life. Maya, in contrast, had always been of a secondary concern to him. This time around, Lindsay had come first and foremost without compunction. Despite what she said, it had been a test and he had passed with flying colours without ever being aware of it.

He sighed. "I still wished you'd talked to me, Linds."

"I know and I will from now on, I promise, but I needed to do this for myself, Danny. Please understand that."

"But you've been unhappy..."

Lindsay shook her head in denial. "No, no, I haven't. I've had to fight some unwarranted suspicions every once in a while, but I was never unhappy. I am relieved that she's not part of your life anymore, but I don't regret that she was. It's a valuable lesson learnt for both of us, I think. Plus, it's re-cemented my faith in you and that can only be a good thing."

"Okay, all right, Just talk to me next time though, will you?"

"What next time?" Lindsay enquired, her eyebrows lifting. "There isn't going to be a next time, you hear me? It's just you and me from now on, baby, so you better get used to it."

Danny laughed. "I didn't mean it like that. And I'm trying to be serious here."

"I know, I'm sorry. It's good that we talked about this, honestly. But we're doing okay, you know? We're working at it and I think we're mostly back on an even keel now."

Danny couldn't disagree with her on that. Maybe they still had a few kinks to work out, but they were finally ready to move onto the next chapter in their lives. Moving in with a woman was a first for him actually; he'd always jealously guarded his personal space before. The fact that he was - for the most part - looking forward to it was telling in itself.

"Hello? Earth to Messer."

He blinked when Flack waved a hand in front of his face. "W-what?"

"Took a little side-trip into marital bliss there, huh?"

More like the stepping-stones towards it, but he wasn't about to admit that. "Stop goofing off, Flack, and help me move some of this stuff into the bedroom."

"Which ones?"

"The boxes labelled 'Bedroom' might be a start."

"Seriously? They're all labelled?" Flack let out a delighted guffaw. "Oh my, are you going to be under the thumb or what?"

Danny ignored that and picked up the nearest box. Don has been ribbing him along the same lines for almost a week now, but he knew it was only his friend's way of showing he was happy for the two of them. If he'd not been making the most of this golden opportunity to poke fun at him, Danny would have been a lot more worried.

When Lindsay returned with the final pack-box a few minutes later, she was not alone. The re-enforcements had finally arrived.

"Please tell me that's pizza I smell," Flack said, rushing forward with an eager look on his face. He took the top box off the stack that Hawkes held balanced in his outstretched hands and lifted the lid to inhale the rich, spicy scent. "Mmm pepperoni too," he said. "You're my best friend forever, Hawkes."

"Where should I put these?" Mac said, holding up the stack of paper napkins and two bottles of soda.

"In the kitchen," Lindsay said. "I'll get the plates."

"Plates?" Flack said around a mouthful of pizza. "We can just eat from the box, can't we?"

Lindsay exchanged a look with Stella, who carried a third bottle of soda and what looked and smelled like a bag of freshly-baked cookies in her hands. "Men!" the older woman observed acerbically.

"You get any of that on my nice, clean floor, Flack, and you'll be cleaning it up yourself," Lindsay warned as she went through into the kitchen with Mac, Stella and Hawkes close on her heels.

"Plates! She'll be having us use knives and forks next. I swear, Danno, it's gonna be like living with your mother all over again."

Danny just smiled, knowing that compared to a lot of women, Lindsay was remarkably easy-going. He was considerably more domesticated than his friend anyway, thanks to his mother's strict house-rules. If he had to use plates to eat pizza from now on then so be it. The benefits far outweighed the disadvantages as far as he could tell.

Plus, it was nice to see her making herself at home, retrieving crockery and glasses from the cupboards and ice from the freezer for their guests. They'd debated about looking for an apartment of their own, but his place was conveniently located, big enough for two and had the advantage of being rent-controlled as well.

Despite his protestations to the contrary, he was rather enamoured of the little feminine touches that were gradually transforming his apartment into their home. Small items had kept appearing over the past week – two new sets of thick, fluffy towels in the bathroom for instance, a multi-coloured glass bowl filled with sweet-smelling potpourri on the low coffee table in the lounge, a couple of scented candles on the dresser in the bedroom, plus the smuggled-in cushions from today of course. She'd also dragged him out to purchase new bed-linen, and had convincingly persuaded him that a painting on the bare wall near the door in the main living area was an absolute must. They were going shopping for one on their next day off apparently.

In spite of all the changes being introduced, there had been no mention of the removal of any of his own belongings as per Flack's doom-laden predictions, however. His pool table wasn't going anywhere, his lucky bat and mitt from his minor league playing-days still held pride of place in the glass case on one wall, and his eclectic collection of books, CDs and DVDs had been left fully intact. Lindsay and her belongings had simply slotted themselves seamlessly into his life and home rather than completely taking over it. Two were effectively becoming a homogenised one and he couldn't have been happier at the prospect.

In fact, it was this homogeny that was the main theme of his personal house-warming gift to her. Standing in his bedroom the day after she'd agreed to move in with him, he'd been struck by a sudden inspiration. He had scoured the internet for what he wanted and it had been delivered late yesterday afternoon much to his relief. He'd been getting a little worried that it wouldn't arrive on time. He'd nervously opened the package and then quickly relaxed the instant he'd viewed its contents. It was perfect; exactly what he'd been looking for. He'd been slightly concerned that the reality wouldn't match up to the potential he'd seen on the computer screen, but he needn't have worried. It was everything he'd hoped for and more. Right now, it was stashed at the back of his closet, ready and waiting to hand over when they regained their privacy later on that day.

"Danny?"

"Mmm?" He blinked a couple of times and then smiled down at Lindsay as he took the plate she was offering him. "Thanks."

"You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, just thinking."

"About what?"

He leaned in close to her ear. "Later," was his simple, yet significant response.

Lindsay felt a warm flush wash through her from the top of her head to the tip of her toes. Picking up the slice of pizza on his plate, she fed it to him with a firm hand. "Eat," she commanded. "Think later."

He chuckled knowingly and she turned away, lest his unsettling effect on her senses became too obvious to those around them. This was a pretty momentous step for them. Over the past six months, she'd been scared to hope that this day would eventually arrive. She was nervous about the adjustments they would each have to make, but she knew it was the right choice for them. They'd worked hard to iron out their issues and had now reached a point where she was confident in their ability to sustain their relationship for the long term.

Some four and a half years ago, she'd fallen hopelessly in love with her best friend and it had been a lesson in both happiness and heartache for her. They'd come a long way since then and sometimes she was genuinely amazed that they'd made it this far. They'd had so much stacked against them at times, but love had won out in the end. Neither of them had been able to let go, despite the time they'd spent apart, and now, here they were, ready and willing to move things onto the next level. After that, well, who knew? But she was no longer concerned about it. What will be would be, and she would follow wherever fate chose to lead them from now on.

Much later that night, she relaxed back against the pillows of their bed, her breathing uneven and choppy and her body zinging with the aftermath of pleasure. "Oh my!" she said with a shaky giggle. "I thought moving in together was supposed to kill the passion."

Danny laughed as he lounged on his front beside her. "No, that's getting married," he quipped.

"Oh well, remind me never to agree to marry you then," she returned with a smile.

It wasn't awkward that was the thing. The word 'marriage' didn't hang like an invisible barrier between them; it was an accepted part of where they were going. They could talk about it in abstract terms, make jokes about it like this, and it didn't strike fear into either of their hearts when they did so. They knew they weren't quite there yet, but they were on their way and that was all that mattered.

"I've got something for you," Danny announced, rolling away from her.

"I think you already gave it to me, babe," she replied with a naughty twinkle in her eyes, "Twice as I recall."

"Not that!" he said with a laugh, and then reached into the closet and pulled out a brightly-wrapped square package. "This."

Lindsay sat up, tucking the sheet around her. "What is it?"

"A house-warming present."

"Danny…" She felt her heart skip a beat. "You didn't have to do that."

"I know, I wanted to," he said as he rejoined her in bed and handed over the present. "I had this idea and… well, why don't you open it?"

Her heart in her throat, Lindsay tore away the wrapping and the bubble-wrap underneath. "Oh!" she said, her eyes filling with tears as she withdrew the framed photograph. "Oh, it's beautiful."

It was a professionally done landscape of the mountains of her home state, the artist's eye a virtual mirror of her own memory.

"Accordingly to the photographer's website, it's somewhere not far from your parent's property," Danny said, resting his chin on her shoulder.

She nodded, her emotions raw. "Yes, yes, I know where it is. I used to…" She broke off to swallow the lump in her throat. "It's a special place."

She turned her head and pressed a heartfelt kiss to his lips and then glanced up at the wall above the bed. "It matches," she said.

He nodded, looking up at the framed photograph hanging there – a similarly nostalgic study taken in Central Park with the city's skyscrapers providing a unique, silvery back-drop to the warmer hues of nature beneath. "That was the general idea."

"So where are we going to put it?" she asked.

"Up there," Danny said. "There's enough room. It's our bedroom now not mine. This photo was meant to reflect that."

Lindsay smiled, the tears glistening on her cheeks in the golden lamplight. "I never knew you had such a romantic soul," she teased. "You're ruining your play-boy reputation, you know."

"I think that got shot to pieces a long time ago," he told her wryly.

Lindsay laughed. "I love you."

"Oh yeah?" he said, deliberately dragging the sheet away from her body and pushing her back against the pillows. "Prove it."

Never one to pass up a challenge, she took him at his word and proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

The very next morning, Lindsay directed proceedings while Danny fixed the two pictures side by side on the wall. When he was done, he hopped down from the bed and came towards her.

"Looks pretty good, huh?" he said as he wrapped his arms around her from behind and rested his chin on her shoulder.

Laying her hands over his, Lindsay leant back into his embrace. Contemplating the two uniquely different and yet strangely harmonious photographs in front of her, she knew that, at long last, she'd finally found home.

"Yeah," she agreed softly, "Like two halves of the same whole."

"Just the right combination," Danny murmured, his lips nuzzling intimately at her temple. "Like us."

"Like us," she concurred and then lifted her face to accept his offered kiss…

THE END.

A/N2: Well, that's it. Hope you enjoyed it.

If you liked this story, watch out for my new one 'Hold Me Now' coming very soon. D/L of course, and slightly more angst-y than this one. I'm not one for writing multi-chapter stories where everyone is shiny and happy all the time though. I tend to leave that for my one-shots. There's got to be some obstacles to overcome because the drama is usually in the way around them.

Okay, I'm signing off for now, but I hope to see you all again very soon.

CharmedBec x