Hello all. So, I am slightly in love with this tv series, and had a brief moment of inspiration that took the form of...well...this. It's rough, I essentially spent 15 minutes writing it and then posted it before I could change my mind. Just a little blurb. Please review and let me know what you think!

"No, no, it's fine, everything's fine, I just need, think, I just need to think,"

Daniel was pacing the floor of the room, his hands jerking into the air, his hair, and then wringing themselves together.

Kate watched in a mix of worry and compassion, as she had come to understand that Daniel was having a hard time after the anxiety of all the unknown faces of the crowd earlier left him shamed, flighty and embarrassed.

Just as Daniel turned on his heel to pace the length of the floor anew, he found himself face to face with Kate, who had grabbed his wildly gesturing hands in her petite ones (who would have thought something so soft could handle a gun?), and caught his gaze.

"Daniel. I'm sorry, I didn't think earlier when I brought you with us, didn't realize how it could backfire on you. I'm so sorry. But trust me, it's ok. Everything is fine. I don't think any less of you, there's no reason for me to. I promise. Sometimes, the world comes across to you differently than the rest of us, and I forgot that. You don't need to pretend that you're okay, it's okay to be not fine all the time. No one is fine all the time. Ask anyone."

His eyes, fixed on her, taking in her expression, dropped with his head as he sagged, a shaky gust of breath leaving him as the tension his body had adapted to hold himself together leaked away.

"I know. I know, I just, haven't, really, been around that many, unknown people in a while. I panicked. I wasn't, I wasn't sure, how..."

"How much of it was real?" Kate asked softly, and Daniel bobbed his head as it hung between them. Kate nodded, though he couldn't see it, and gently released his hands, bringing hers up to the sides of his face, guiding his gaze back up to hers. She rested her forehead against his, locking her eyes with his shamed, tired ones.

"It was a stadium full of people, Daniel, it was real. And if you decided to make up a couple extras to add to the mix, what does it matter?"

He let out a breathy chuckle at that, and she smiled at him. He sighed again, and slowly lifted his head out from between her soft, grounding hands. However, before Kate had fully dropped her hands to her sides she was swallowed up in Daniel's arms, his jaw resting against the side of her head.

"Thank you, Kate."

"Don't worry about it."

Review!