Chapter 12: Celebrating with Family

For whenever two or more of you are gathered in His name,

There is love.

It was a simple wedding.

Danny was fully recovered and cocky with it, as Lindsay had predicted. Lindsay still saw him leap across the alleyway whenever her eyes closed.

Danny was wearing a new dark suit with a blue tie. Lindsay was dressed in a gown of white linen with a jacket made of lace and a fingertip veil. They spoke their vows in front of a priest in the small church around the corner from the police station. Mac gave away the bride. Stella, dressed in blue linen, stood beside her. Flack stood with Danny and tried, with little success, to keep him calm.

Danny's family was sitting in the pews on the groom's side. Louie wasn't there, but Danny's parents were. His mother cried. Most of the lab staff and members of the police force sat on the bride's side to balance things out. No one from Montana came.

The church was filled with flowers. It was filled with music. It was filled with love.

The reception in the back room at Murphy's was full of food, of laughter, of talk, of family: the sort a person grows up with, and the sort a person creates through life.

It didn't take long, Danny thought in a daze, to change your life. A few words, a promise given and returned, and he was a new man.

It took a long time, Lindsay thought, smiling, to change your life. A journey across the years, across the country, across the pain, a promise made to be kept, and she was a new woman.

It took a lot of work, Mac thought, to keep things on an even keel. Perhaps, he admitted, looking around him at the reception guests as he toasted the bride and groom's happiness, he had kept things on too even a keel. Life unbalanced by love and desire had its charms. And he added a secret tip of the head to Peyton.

It would take a lot of convincing, Don thought, to talk his Stella around to sharing what Danny and Lindsay had. Living together was enough, she'd argue; she didn't need a ring and piece of paper to prove she loved him. But tonight he had a ring in his pocket, and he would try to convince her to start a new life with him.

It didn't take long, thought Stella, for the world to turn itself right side up again. Danny and Lindsay looked so happy, as if they had no doubts about what they were doing. She knew Flack had bought her a ring, and she had her arguments in place. But tonight, with Danny and Lindsay glowing in front of her, she may just let him talk her into it.

When it came right down to it, life was simple: friends, family, and love combined to create a light to hold back the darkness.

The End