A/N: well, surprise! Bet you didn't expect to see something from me on a Monday night. I didn't expect to be posting anything either... but when I received a very kind review from alexindigo with a gentle nudging and request things changed. hahah. this is actually a 9x04 oneshot for Unspoken... Did I mention it was M-rated? It's a continuation of the post-ep I posted (go read it if you haven't! ;)) so there's some themes that have been carried across. If you've read the previous story maybe you'll pick up on them? I hope so! hehe.

I don't really want to give much away as I hope the story does that itself... so I'll leave you to enjoy it in peace. Hope you enjoy - and Alex, I hope it's what you wanted! :)

Darling you're with me, always around me. Only love, only love. Darling I feel you, under my body. Only love, only love. Give me shelter, or show me heart. Come on love, come on love. Watch me fall apart, watch me fall apart.

- Only Love, Ben Howard.

Stroking the bangs from her forehead, Danny leant across the darkness as he pressed a soft, gentle kiss to the ugly bruise that had formed on her head. She stirred under his lips, but didn't wake from her slumber. And even though he knew that she was stirring, he couldn't stop his lips from pressing soft kisses to her forehead.

The phone call he'd shared with Mac a few hours ago had shaken him. After agreeing on leaving the dishes for the morning, Lindsay had decided on a nice hot shower before bed… leaving Danny to flick through the pages of the book he kept on his bedside table but never read. Just as he had picked up the book, his cell phone had rang, Mac being on the other line with some news that… well, he really wished he could erase from his memory.

But, with that aside, he was just happy she was lying next to him in their bed; the night before had been a long, lonely one without her. Even with Lucy in her place, he hadn't felt the same. He couldn't remember a time without her by his side now, and the one night they'd spent apart hadn't been a pleasant one. Granted they had a few nights a week where they didn't even see their bedroom at the same time… but that was something that he'd grown accustomed to. Lindsay being at work was different to Lindsay being in the hospital.

"Danny," she muttered as she sleepily opened one eye. "What are you doing?"

"Nothin'." He whispered as he shifted back to his side of the bed and settled on his pillow. "I'm sorry, go back to sleep."

"I've got a headache," she complained as she reached to turn the lamp on. "I'm turning it on, you ready?"

"Yeah," he said softly as she switched the light on. He watched her glance to the alarm clock and she sighed heavily at the sight of three am. "You want some painkillers?" he asked as she prepared herself to get out of bed.

"Yeah but you go back to sleep, I'll go get them and I'll be right back. Did you put them in the cabinet?"

"Yeah, top shelf." He said before shaking his head as she got out of bed. He took her hand and pulled her backwards. "Listen, no… I'll go get them sweetheart. You lay down. Is there anything else you need?"

"Nope," she smiled as she watched him heave himself out of bed with just a pair of sweatpants. She absentmindedly licked her lips as she watched him cross their bedroom. "I'm just fine."

"No kidding," he laughed. "I think it's definitely safe to say that you're perfectly fine." He smirked as he stood with his hands on his hips. "You're looking at me as if I'm a piece of meat, Montana."

"I am not!" she implored. "Go get me those painkillers, servant boy."

"Oh, you really wanna play that game?" he smirked as he launched himself back onto the bed and crawled towards her, pinning her body between himself and the mattress.

"Don't tempt me," she licked her lips before pressing a lingering kiss to his lips. "You've yet to make good on that promise of naked Danny, concerned husband."

"Not until you get better," he shook his head as he carefully moved her bangs from her forehead and pressed another kiss to her bruise. "I'm not risking you getting another hairline fracture from smacking your head on the headboard repeatedly."

"And why would I do that?" She fluttered her eyelashes innocently.

"Oh you know exactly why." He smirked as he rolled off her and his feet landed on the floor. "Water or juice?"

"Water," she smiled. "I'm not Lucy, honey."

"Hey, you might have had a craving for a Kool Aid Jammer or whatever we got her this week."

Rolling her eyes, Lindsay watched her husband pad out into their living room barefoot to get her request of painkillers and water. Her smile on her face gradually reduced in size as she thought about the past day and a half. It had been crazy and she could still see the worry etched into Danny's face – regardless of how well he thought he was hiding his concern.

She was still deep in thought when he returned with a bottle of water and her prescription bottle of painkillers. He uncapped the lid for her, passed it to her, then he popped open the lid of the prescription bottle and passed her two tablets.

"You take such good care of me," she smiled warmly at him as she placed one of the tablets by her lips. "I'm lucky to have you." She said before popping the pill in her mouth and washing it down with the water.

"You're lucky?" he snorted. "Shut the fuck up, you're lucky? You've got no idea."

She blinked at his use of profanity before a tiny smile tugged at her lips. "You were worried, weren't you?" she asked him softly.

"I already told you that I was." He said as he put the lid onto the prescription bottle and twisted it tight, making sure that if Lucy happened to come across it, she had no chance in hell of mistaking the tablets for tic-tacs and helping her little self.

"No, really worried." She said as she took another sip of the water.

"I already told you I was really worried." He said as he knelt on the bed and shuffled across back to his side of the bed.

"Hmm," she narrowed her eyes as she watched him lie down on his pillow and close his eyes. She popped the water bottle on the bedside table before turning back to face him. She lay on her pillow and poked his nose, making him scrunch his nose up, like she so often did. "Danny, look at me."

"No," he gruffed, squeezing his eyes shut.

"Danny," she singsonged playfully. "Danny, look at me."

"Why?" he sighed.

"Because."

"That's not a reason."

"Well why isn't a question." She countered before peeling his eyes open with her fingertips. "Tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing's wrong." He furrowed his brow as he shifted and held his arm up so that she could settle into his side. "Things couldn't be farther from wrong… especially now that I know you're safe with me at home."

"Danny…" she sighed as she pressed a kiss to his chest. "Do you think I'm stupid? I know I bumped my head but-"

"Bumped your head? More like had your skull smashed in, Montana!" He cried. "I saw how hard you got hit… there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it either."

Licking her lips, Lindsay couldn't help the smile that was tugging at her lips. She wasn't smiling at Danny's upset or worry, but more at how well she knew her husband. Try as he might, with just a gentle prodding, he was about to reveal all to her.

"You did everything I needed you to do though," she said softly. "I told you that earlier. You looked after Lucy and that's all I would have wanted. I'm fine; other than headaches for the next few days I'm going to be absolutely fine."

"And that's all well and good," Danny said quietly, "but there's something else weighing on my mind."

"Oh?"

"Mac called while you were in the shower."

"Okay…" She furrowed her brow. "And what did he say?"

"That the fucking moron had been in your hospital room."

"Well we knew that, sweetheart."

"Yeah, but he'd gone there with a knife, Linds. He'd gone to kill you."

Danny could feel Lindsay swallow against his chest. "Did he say that?"

"He told Mac. He said he wanted to tell him something else after he'd been put into the cells for the night, so Mac took him back into interrogation or something. I'm not really sure but once Mac got him down there, he thought it might have been a ploy or something… but he just started talking about how he'd gone to the hospital to… well, he said that he had gone to… well, he wanted to make sure you weren't going to ID him."

"Oh…" Lindsay said quietly. "I guess I was lucky then."

"Lucky? Lucky?"Danny implored. "I tell you he was going to kill you, and the only thing you say is that you were lucky?"

"What else am I supposed to say, Danny?"

"I should have damn well been there to kick his fuckin' ass. I thought it was bad when I watched you get mowed into with a damn ice cream cart, but to think that someone could have… it's a lot for me to stomach. I was doing okay before… but now? Not so much."

"Is that why you were kissing me?" she asked softly, looking up at him through her lashes.

He closed his eyes and nodded as he closed the distance between the two of them and pressed his lips against her forehead. "Yeah." He said softly. "Yeah, it was."

Lindsay sighed heavily. "Why didn't you tell me when I got out of the shower?"

Danny shrugged. "You seemed happy and relaxed and I figured that what you didn't know couldn't hurt you… and I thought I'd be fine. I didn't think it mattered because it didn't happen."

"But now that you've had to time to think, it does matter."

"I just can't believe I came so close to losing you. I mean there's been times before, metaphorically and literally… but this, this is definitely the closest I've been and I'll tell you what Linds, if I thought you'd let me, I'd be wrapping you up in cotton wool and never letting you out of my sight again."

"I'm surprised you haven't tried it after what you've gone through." She laughed softly before pressing another kiss to his chest. "Listen, I know that that isn't exactly something you wanted to hear, but there's nothing we can do about it."

"How can you be so logical about it? Linds, he tried to kill you. He went into your room while you were unconscious, fully intending on killing you. Do you not understand that?"

"Oh Danny, trust me, I understand completely… but what do you want me to say? Do you want me to cry? Panic? What? There's nothing that I can do. For whatever reason he decided not to, and thank god for that."

"No shit," Danny muttered as he subconsciously wrapped his arm tighter around her body. "I just… I don't know what I would have done. I was so busy psyching myself up for the worse in relation to your injuries, I didn't even think about what could have happened with that fucker on the loose."

"You didn't know that I'd seen him."

"Yeah and if you hadn't said about me being in the hospital then I still wouldn't know. We might not have even indentified him."

"We would have," Lindsay said softly as she laid a hand on his chest. She sighed heavily. "Danny, your heart's beating a mile a minute… calm down."

"I can't." he whispered. "I'm stressed."

"Don't be," she laughed, angering him further. When he huffed and shuffled away from her, she scowled as she shifted in her position and laid on top of him, pinning him to the mattress. She took his face in her hands and held him in places as she looked into his blue eyes. "Are you listening to me?"

He sighed heavily before nodding. "Yeah."

"Calm down," she said sternly. "Just calm down, okay? I'm here and I'm safe. Nothing's going to happen to me, okay? I get that you feel like you need to protect me, and I love that about you, but Danny, I'm fine. You're stressing yourself out for no reason at all. I understand why you're upset, but there's no need for your heart to be racing as fast as it is. You're scaring me. You need to calm down."

"I don't mean to scare you, Montana, I just… you have no idea what this feels like."

"I have no idea what this feels like?" she repeated in a high pitched voice. "Oh, I don't know what this feels like? How about we cast our minds back to when Shane Casey and you were playing fisty-cuffs in a damn lighthouse? You want to talk about that? Okay, I was stood at the bottom of the lighthouse watching Shane Casey dangle over the side. That could have been you, Danny. You could have been the one dangling over the side… but you weren't. You were safe, and as horrible as that night was, I made it through… did I ever say anything about it though?"

"No," he shook his head.

"Okay, so if you wanna talk about feeling utter despair then let's talk, okay? Because I can teach the master-class of how to be a worried spouse…"

"I know I've put you through the ringer too, babe. I know, I just… I'm supposed to protect you."

"You did." She implored. "You protect me everyday, Danny. Whether it's from somebody's elbow on the subway or whether it's a bullet heading in my direction. Knock this shit off, okay? You're frustrating me now… you're like a broken record. I'm here, I'm safe and what Mac told you is out of your control. In fact, I'm pissed at Mac for telling you. He knows what you're like for goodness sake. For whatever reason, he admitted to it and it'll be added to his growing list of offences. Good for him for being honest. But it's three thirty in the morning and if we're done here, I want to go to sleep."

Realising he'd been acting like an idiot, Danny sighed heavily. "Linds listen, I'm sorry I'm being a jerk… don't go to sleep angry."

"I'm not angry, Danny." She scoffed as she rolled off him and settled on her pillow.

"Oh, okay." He smirked as he shuffled towards her. "Sure thing."

"Don't." she spat as she pulled the covers over her and settled on her pillow. "Alright, just don't… I have a headache as it is…"

"Lindsay," he singsonged as he pressed a kiss to her shoulder. His lips then travelled from her shoulder, up her neck before grazing her jaw line and finally resting on her lips. His hands had moved to the top of the duvet and despite some initial hesitance, she almost instantly allowed Danny to remove the duvet from her body as he edged his way on top of her.

"I thought you said we weren't having sex tonight," she whispered against his lips as he moved to turn the lamp off.

"We weren't." he said as his fingers found the switch but just as he was about to turn it off, Lindsay's hand stopped him.

"Leave it on," she whispered.

Danny playfully wiggled his eyebrows before his hands travelled down Lindsay's body to her tank top and pulled it over her head. Once it was free, he pressed a lingering kiss to her bruise before burying his head in the nape of her neck.

"I'm so glad you're okay." He whispered against her skin, sending chills down her spine. "I'm also glad you're not mad with me." He chuckled.

"I just don't want you to worry about me." She whispered as her nails dug into his arms.

"I know." He whispered as he began a trail of kisses down her neck, to her shoulder, down her chest, across her stomach and finishing just above the waistband of her fleecy pyjamas. "You're so sexy." He whispered against her skin.

"I have penguins on my pyjamas." She giggled, her stomach muscles vibrating underneath Danny's lips.

"So?" he implored. "Doesn't make you any less sexy." With his teeth, he began tugging on her waistband, but found himself laughing when he realised that his teeth weren't removing the fleecy pants anytime soon. Releasing his hands from where they hand been tickling her sides, he promptly pulled her pyjamas down her legs and tossed them behind him randomly. He quickly shed his own sweatpants and settled in his regular position on top of her, protecting her from everything else in the world. She was his with nothing separating the two of them,

"Are you sure?" he whispered as he nudged her legs further apart. "I can always go and take a cold shower if your head hurts."

Lindsay boldly licked her lips and reached down to his prominent erection that had become a pressing issue during their teasing kisses. She positioned him at her core and thrusted up towards him, pulling him in both physically and emotionally; all the while making sure that she didn't break eye contact with him. "Does that answer your question?" she whispered as she reached for his hands and laced their fingers together as he edged further inside of her.

"Funnily enough, it does." He smirked as he slowly began a rhythm between the two of them. "God I've missed you." He whispered against her temple as he pressed a kiss to her hairline that had been covered in blood just hours previous.

"I don't know what you mean," she rasped before biting her lip as he languidly moved within her. "We had sex the other day."

"Not like this," he said, increasing his rhythm.

Rendering her speechless with his new take on their pace, Danny felt his insides twist as he listened to her soft moans and begs for more of him. He squeezed her hands as he dipped his hips lower, inserting more of himself into her core and he felt the strike to his chest as he heard her call out his name as he hit the spot that often warranted that response deep within her.

"I love you," he muttered against her lips as he peppered them with a series of quick kisses that were set in time to his motions of thrusting. "So much, Montana…"

"I love you too," she replied quickly as another hitch to her voice caused a momentary speech impediment in her. "More," she whispered. "Harder."

"I don't wanna hurt you." He replied.

"I know you're holding back though," she informed him. "I can feel it. You're only half here," she added. "Give me everything, Danny. I need all of you… I need to feel you giving me everything."

Danny licked his lips as his eyes settled on the face of his wife. Her cheeks were rosy and her lips were swollen from their kisses over the past half hour. Her hair was spread across the pillow haphazardly and she could barely keep her eyes open with every thrust between them.

He wrapped his arms around her body before pulling her towards him and he then shuffled them both down the bed. He then arched himself over her body. He grabbed her hips and spread her legs wider before laying his hands above her head to create a barrier between her fragile head and the wooden headboard.

It was then that he gave her everything.

He thrust desperately into her; his movements and actions showing her how much he'd needed and how much he'd missed her while she was in the hospital. He could feel the beating of his heart increase with the promise of his finish imminent… and he just couldn't let that happen yet. Leaving one hand to protect her head from the headboard in his rapid thrusts, his hand automatically travelled the path down to her sweet spot and began its gentle nudging that she needed to fall over the edge.

Her asking him to leave the light on originally had confused him at first… but now, he was thankful she'd asked him to leave it on. Watching Lindsay come undone underneath him had been exactly what he needed. He needed to watch the most special person he had in his life give him everything and be vulnerable with him… she trusted him with everything she had and had given him the power to pleasure her in ways that he knew no one else ever had. Hearing Lindsay cry his name was one of his favourite life affirming moments and it reminded him that this was him set for the rest of his life. His name had never sounded better than when Lindsay whispered it… or screamed it as she sometimes did. Nobody else had ever said his name so sexily or beautifully before. It was just a name… but falling from Lindsay's lips as she came undone around him was something that would never cease to make his insides tighten.

Her hands gripped tightly onto the arm that was nudging her over the proverbial edge and he knew she was almost there. Her breathing was becoming rapid and her eyes were fluttering shut. The bruise on her forehead stared up at him, and taunted him almost. The bruise could have begun a string of events that ended everything. It could have taken these moments away from the both of them…. but it hadn't; he was here, loving Lindsay in their unique and intimate way that they had perfected over the years.

"Danny, I'm so close." She whispered. "Keep goin'-"

"Not gonna stop," he replied breathlessly, desperately fighting his own release as he worked her over the edge.

"I… I… I… oh god, oh Danny. Fuck," she whimpered as she tightened around him. He swallowed as he increased his pace to give her an orgasm to numb the pain of her headache if they painkillers hadn't already kicked in. "I- I- I'm gonna."

She didn't have the chance to finish her warning before he felt her intimate muscles contracting around him. He lapped up the moans and gasps escaping from her mouth. Within seconds after her orgasm, he climaxed and spilled everything he had into her, crying her name as he did so.

She took his hands in her's and squeezed them tight as he came, calling her name as a mantra over and over. With heaving chests, Danny collapsed on Lindsay and together they fought for their breath after their impromptu, but passionate lovemaking.

"How's your head?" he asked as he pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose, his chest still heaving.

"Okay," she smiled as she locked his lips with her own. "Better now." She added.

"Good," he smiled as he pulled out of her and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "That was pretty good, if I do say so myself."

"That's the best kind," Lindsay whispered as she waited for Danny to settle on his pillow before shuffling towards him and resting against his chest. Instantly she felt her eyes fluttering shut.

"What's the best kind?" He smirked as he pulled the duvet cover over them and settled with Lindsay tucked into his side.

"That's the best kind of sex," she said, "The life affirming, god I love you, kind of sex."

"Yeah," Danny smiled as he pressed a kiss to Lindsay's temple before running his fingertips over her bruise. "Yeah it is."

there we have it. hope you guys liked it - I'd love to know what you thought - drop me a review if you like ;) ! thanks for reading.