Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

January 2014

New London, Connecticut

x

Danny Green stood in the kitchen of the rambling farmhouse where he grew up, hands clenched around the back of the kitchen chair, staring at the envelope sitting on the table in front of him. He had known — they had all known — what they would find from the second that they entered the house. There was something about the stench of death that was instantly recognizable. Even now, with the bodies removed and every window of the house thrown open — thank god it was the dead of winter and there were no flies — Danny could still smell it. Again he focused on the envelope, knowing both that he absolutely didn't want to read his brother's last words and also that he had to. Because there was one mystery that hadn't been solved by returning to the house where Danny grew up, and where his brother Zack had lived with his wife, two daughters and their widowed mother.

One of the girls was missing.

Upon opening up the door and realizing that this was not going to be a happy ending, Burk tried to get Danny to head back outside. After all, this was far from their first rodeo. Sometimes, like in Eric Miller's case, they got lucky and found Eric's mother alive and holed up in her small house on the edge of town. More often, like in the case of Burk's own parents, only the dead remained. Although Carlton had recently learned that his brother Cameron survived, managing to keep half of his own crew alive even after the airdrops stopped. Last night, Carlton casually informed the team that Captain Slattery had offered Cameron the position of TAO on the Nathan James.

The news was an unpleasant shock.

Danny had known that Captain Chandler offered Kara a job as Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, but Danny hadn't believed for a second that Kara would accept. After all, for Kara, the Navy was her life. It was one of the things that attracted Danny to her in the Arctic, to be honest. Kara hadn't been looking to get married and pop out a kid or two until her commission was up and she could rejoin civilian life. With Kara, Danny had seen the possibility of a future. One where they both understood the score and wouldn't end with bitter recriminations about him never being home, followed by divorce papers and a demand for half his salary. Nope, Kara was a lifer. Which is why Kara's decision to leave the Nathan James made no sense. Or maybe that was wishful thinking. Given that Captain Chandler's offer to join him at the White House came with a promotion and a hefty pay raise, why wouldn't Kara jump at the opportunity for advancement?

His stomach twisting, Danny recalled the resignation on Kara's face during that last fight, the one he stupidly started the night before the team left St. Louis for New England, wondering whether he had been ditched along with the Nathan James.

You have two options, Danny. You can keep lashing out at me like a three-year-old who dropped his lollipop, or you can face what happened and try to move forward. Let me know when you decide.

Oh, and since you don't seem to realize this, you aren't the only one grieving.

Those last words were a punch to the gut. He had been there when they arrived in Kara's hometown and found nothing but death. Her father, her cousins, her best friend of twenty years were all dead. He had seen Kara's devastation, had held her as she cried herself dry. He knew he wasn't the only person hurting.

But even that knowledge wasn't enough to break through the anger that held him paralyzed. And now he was contemplating the loss of his family as well. Which, Danny supposed, was why he was still staring at the envelope before him. Because that letter symbolized the last bit of hope that one of them might have survived.

"You want me to open it?"

Glancing up at Tex, Danny actually considered the offer, before shaking his head. "No."

Finally lifting the envelope, Danny slid stiff fingers under the flap. Sure the Arctic was colder, but January in Connecticut wasn't exactly the Caribbean and, with the windows open, the house was now approximately twenty degrees. At least being indoors helped with the wind.

Pulling out the single piece of paper, Danny let the envelope fall back onto the table as he unfolded the letter and began reading.

Danny —

It's funny how weird it felt to write that. But somehow opening this with D or Bro or Asshole just felt wrong. Not when these are the last words I'm going to say to you.

Eyes sliding shut, Danny's hand tightened around the piece of paper, imagining Zack sitting at this very table, writing the letter stream of consciousness, just like his damn emails. Danny recalled the email that arrived while he was at Ramstein Air Base recovering from a gunshot wound.

Good morning, asshole. Heard you got shot. This seemed like a good time to tell you that Mandy's pregnant. Try not to die until after you meet the kid.

Forcing his fingers to relax so he didn't rip the page, Danny opened his eyes, continuing the letter.

If you're reading this, I'm probably dead. Is that a quote from something? Because I feel like it might be. But my head hurts too much to think about it. Look it up for me, will you, once you get the internet back?

A strangled laugh rose in Danny's chest, but the sound that escaped sounded more like a groan. Only Zack could make him want to laugh at a time like this.

I know that its kind of crazy to say that I know you're still alive, but I do. I told Mandy that I would just know if you were dead. She told me that I was nuts but I think part of her believes me. And it makes sense. We've been together from that first second, even if I did give you shit about being born two minutes after me. You know phantom limb syndrome? I figure there has to be some kind of phantom twin syndrome. If you were gone, I'd just know.

Danny thought about Gitmo, the wave of devastation that rolled over him the morning after the Nathan James arrived, even before they knew that Ruskov was planning to blow them to bits. It really had felt as though the world was ending, Danny's grief a physical ache so intense that he could barely breathe. At the time, he blamed it on losing Frankie, but could that have been the moment when Zack died? Was it possible that Danny knew the moment his brother left the planet and simply refused to accept it? Danny checked, but there was no date on the letter.

Or maybe I'm just full of shit and need to think that you're alive because of Chloe. But, god, I hope that I'm right. Because I'm taking one hell of a leap of faith here.

She's not sick, Danny.

This time, his breath caught and Danny straightened. Tex moved, as though to speak, but Danny waved him to silence.

Mandy got it first. We did all the things that they said, each to our own room with all the windows open. But then Mom got sick and Evie got sick. After I got sick, I was just waiting for Chloe to show signs but it's been ten days, Danny. I don't know how it's possible, but somehow Chloe wasn't exposed.

More likely, Chloe was immune. Danny wondered if Zack even knew such a thing was possible. Most likely not. In a town this size, even with five percent immunity, which Rachel said was the high end, two-hundred-fifty people might be immune. Based on the communities they had visited, luck explained just as many survivors as immunity. He had heard hundreds of stories of those who, like the crew of the Nathan James, survived by virtue of being far from civilization when the virus hit hard and fast.

Mom's gone. Mandy's barely coherent. I had to make a decision about Chloe, so I sent her to the Hubbards. Please let them take her.

Their neighbors to the north. Danny's heart leapt, only to be crushed, the slight change of handwriting suggesting that there had been a pause in writing.

Chloe came back a couple hours after she left. The Hubbards are sick too. They sent her to the Silvers, but they were gone. We probably all got infected from that last food delivery. What a choice — starve to death or die of the worst virus known to man. I considered ending it all then, D, I really did. I had the gun in my hand and Chloe was asleep in her room. Quick and painless. She would never have known what was coming. But then I thought about you. And I knew that you would be back to take care of her. I just needed to find Chloe somewhere to go until you managed to get your ass home.

Heart pounding, Danny pictured Zack picking up the gun found by his side — one that he likely used on himself after the others died, his body the only one with a bullet hole — and turning it on his nine-year-old daughter. The idea was unfathomable.

This morning I sent her to the school. It was marked as a safe zone back when this thing started and I'm just hoping someone there is still alive. I'm going to give her two days. If she's not back by then, I'll assume that they could keep her. I would have followed, made sure that she was safe, but we lost Mandy this afternoon and Evie needs me. I can't leave my baby here to die alone.

Tears pressed, but Danny refused to let them fall. He would mourn his sister-in-law and twelve-year-old niece later. The words on the page blurred.

Once Evie is gone and I'm sure that Chloe is taken care of, I'm going to end it. I wish that I could have seen you again, Danny, even just to say goodbye. But I have to think that there's a good reason. There are rumors about some doctor working on a cure and I'm going to imagine that you're with her saving the world. Just like you always claimed you would.

Danny's vision blurred. God, he hoped Zack meant that. That he didn't blame Danny for not being there.

Take care of Chloe, Danny. I'm trusting you. And take care of yourself. Because from now on, you're living for two.

Love, Zack

Living for two. At that, the tears Danny was struggling to control spilled over. How often had Danny said that to Zack before leaving on some deployment? Telling his brother to live it up for both of them — to make up for all the events that Danny would miss? Neither one of them had ever imagined that Danny would be the one left standing.

Brushing the tears away angrily, Danny looked to Tex. "We need to check the school."

An agonizing forty minutes passed before Danny walked through the doors to the familiar high school, the lobby dark and cold. He headed towards Carlton, who was explaining to an unfamiliar woman who they were and asking how they could help, interrupting their conversation. "I'm looking for Chloe. Chloe Green?"

Her face lighting up, the woman gestured towards the doors to the auditorium behind her, turning to call. "Chloe! Your dad is here!"

Already moving in that direction, focused on the fact that Chloe was here — was alive — it took a moment for the woman's words to register. Danny stopped, turning. "I'm not Zack."

But it was already too late. Chloe appeared, dashing through the small crowd of people. She was thin and slightly dirty, suggesting that showers were few and far between, but her face was alight with joy as she approached. Only to come to a crashing stop when she saw Danny.

Forcing a smile, Danny bent down, reaching a hand out to his niece. "Hi Chloe. It's Uncle Danny." But Chloe didn't move, not even to blink, as all the joy drained out of her. Danny took another step forward, uncertain of how to deal with this version of Chloe, so different from the happy and vibrant child he said goodbye to in May. His voice cracked. "I've been looking for you. I'm so glad that I found you."

But Chloe was still staring. Danny took one more step and then her mouth opened. "Noooooo!" The scream echoed in the auditorium as Chloe began sobbing. "I want my daddy! Not you! I want Daddy! I want my Daddy!"

Danny froze, so numb that he didn't notice the confusion around him until Tex appeared, his face inches from Danny. "Hey, Connecticut, you want to fill us in."

And that's when Danny realized that none of them knew. Tex, Burk, Wolf, Miller, none of them knew him from before. None of them understood.

"Zack and I are, were, twins." He managed to croak, swallowing before he continued. "Identical twins."

It was only because Tex was so close that Danny heard the intake of breath, saw the way Tex's eyes darted from Danny to Chloe and back, before he straightened. "Maybe give the kid a few minutes to adjust. That there was probably a hell of a shock."

Nodding, Danny turned, walking back to the lobby. He might have stood there for a minute or an hour, the horrible scene playing out in his mind again and again, before Tex reappeared.

"Well, Connecticut, I've got good news and I've got bad." Tex paused, as though to gauge how reasonable Danny was about to be. Given that Danny couldn't decide how he felt about anything that happened today, he couldn't reassure Tex. He had no idea how he would react either. "The Kid has calmed down but ... she doesn't want to see you."

Despite his numbness, the statement stung. Not that Danny blamed Chloe. She was a child, for Christ's sake. But that didn't change the facts.

"She can't stay here." He looked around. "None of them can. It's January and they've been scraping along on old canned corn with a few space heaters powered from a solar system that doesn't work well during the summer."

Nodding, Tex continued. "There's some lady, Hilary, who has been keeping an eye on Chloe. She said she's willing to go back to St. Louis with us. She wants to head to California to look for her son and his family. They were around LA." Neither man commented on how unlikely it was that Hilary would get a happy ending. "So we've got the travel covered. Just need a plan for once we get there. Because if I recall correctly, you will be shipping out with the Nathan James and even if the Commodore lets you bail, I'm not sure the Kid will be ready for one-on-one time by then."

For long moments, Danny stood frozen, then he pulled out his radio.

Tex raised an eyebrow. "You going to tell me what you're doing?"

At Tex's inquiring look, Danny felt his lips twist. "I'm moving forward."

Chapter Text

June 2014

St. Louis, Missouri

x

Danny stood against the half wall of the veranda, staring at a tiny blinking dot in the horizon, one far too close to be a star. The dot hadn't moved for at least fifteen minutes, suggesting that it was fixed and not a helicopter, but it was in the wrong location for an air control tower and Danny was pretty sure that St. Louis didn't have any lighthouses. He watched as it pulsed again, wondering if President Oliver had established another airfield in the six months since the Nathan James left for Asia. Given that St. Louis was now the capital of the United States, it was certainly possible that one commercial airport was no longer enough. While the population of the United States as a whole was currently twenty percent of what it had been prior to the virus hitting, St. Louis's population had actually grown and, according to Kara's regular reports, traffic was becoming a problem in the area of the White House.

Not, Danny noted, that he could hear any traffic at the moment. In fact, with the power at the White House limited to the generator in the new version of the Oval Office, Danny couldn't hear anything except the occasional rustle of the wind as it moved through the trees. Strange how he never realized before how noisy the world used to be. Even deep in the rainforest, he could often hear the sounds of electric lights and motor boats. Now, however, there was nothing. Even the animal population was still recovering from the last year, when the supply lines failed and everything from squirrels to mice became food. Danny didn't remember St. Louis being this quiet back in December, when they first arrived, but he had been here for only a few days before his team left to spread the cure. And everything from the week he spent here after returning from Connecticut was a blur.

From the moment that Captain Chandler told the crew about the virus, Danny had operated only in the present. After all, thinking about the past hurt and what was the point of thinking about a future when you had no idea what tomorrow would bring? It wasn't until Danny boarded the Nathan James again, days after he and Chloe arrived in St. Louis, that Danny faced the events of the last year. His days were busy, of course, either working on cure distribution or planning their next stop. But that still left long nights alone in his bunk with nothing to do but think.

It was during those nights when he realized just how badly he bungled things over the past year — with Chloe, yes, but also with Kara and even his team on the James — and how much work he was going to have to do to fix things. With the benefit of hindsight, Danny could see how much he needed that time on the Nathan James to get his head on straight. But he could also see how costly those months might be. Because it was during those nights that Danny had begun to glimpse a potential future, one that he wanted to grasp with both hands — even as he realized that it might already be too late.

He had run away from everything — and everyone — in January. Now, as Zack liked to say, it was time to pay the piper.

Danny didn't move when a door opened behind him, knowing without turning who was standing there. When Captain Slattery told him to go home, Kara was deep in conversation with President Oliver and Captain Chandler and Danny hadn't wanted to interrupt. Still, he couldn't leave without at least talking to Kara, expecting — or perhaps hoping — that she would come find him when she was free.

"I wasn't sure where you went," Kara said, her soft voice breaking the silence. "Oliver is settled and Slattery is handling overnight watch. Captain Chandler asked everyone to be back tomorrow at fourteen hundred."

Danny shifted, leaning a hip against the half wall, turning so that he was facing in her direction. But the shadows were too thick to see anything more than the outline of her profile. "I was trying to figure out what the light was."

Kara's head moved, then she stepped closer, her shoulder brushing against his chest as she looked to see what he was talking about. "It's a satellite. We got it up last month, but the orbit is lower than usual. That's why you can see it. Well, and the lack of light pollution."

It took Danny a few seconds to make the connection. "That's how Val and Alisha hacked into the White House feed and stopped the missiles headed towards the Nathan James. You had the passwords for the satellite."

"Yes. Shaw didn't realize that it was operational." She tipped her head, studying him in the dark. "I thought that you might have left. Gone with some of the guys."

Uncertain how to respond, Danny shrugged. "Surprised that came looking for me then."

"Burk mentioned seeing you head up here," Kara replied, before falling silent, offering nothing further.

Danny hoped that his exhaustion, his uncertainty, was hidden by the shadows. "I was thinking that I should go see Chloe."

"It's two am, Danny," Kara pointed out softly. "Even Captain Chandler didn't wake up his kids. I don't think either Debbie or Halsey would appreciate us showing up right now. Besides, you probably want to give Chloe a little warning that you're coming."

Danny blinked, checking his watch to confirm that it was, in fact, the middle of the night. He shook his head. "I guess that I'm still on Hawaiian standard time."

"Probably better to get some sleep and see her in the morning," Kara continued. She turned towards the door. "You coming?"

Without comment, Danny followed her into the building, nodding as he passed Wolf and Miller standing guard before the presidential suite, ignoring a pang of guilt over the fact that he was leaving when his team wasn't. They were almost to the parking garage before Danny thought to ask where they were going.

"I'm hoping the car is where I left it the day I took off with Tex," Kara explained, picking her way through the debris from Cobra's initial breach of the building. They were certainly leaving behind a mess, both literally and figuratively, and Danny wondered how President Oliver would spin his extended absence, followed by an attack on the White House. "Otherwise, we'll be crashing here after all."

Two minutes later, Kara gave a sigh, waving towards a nondescript tan Toyota. Moving at the speed of Toyota, the speed of Toyota, the speed of Toyota. Danny could actually hear Zack's sing-song mocking of their mother's car, her driving, and it was only when Kara glanced over, exasperation on her face, that Danny realized he was humming. "Sorry, tired."

Kara accepted the excuse without comment, sliding into the drivers' seat while Danny folded his frame into the passenger side, wondering if his jeep had made it from Newport News and, if not, how to get it there. The abrupt transition from Asia back to St. Louis had given him no time to get his affairs in order, so to speak, but he could hardly depend on Kara for transportation indefinitely.

Kara didn't speak until they were moving, pulling onto the dark streets, no overhead lights in sight. "Chloe sings the same song. She also informed me that I drive an old lady car and should get something nicer."

The lump in his throat made speaking difficult. "It's something that ... I used to do with Zack."

"I know," Kara said, before softly adding. "You talked about him and Mandy in the Arctic and, now, of course Chloe does too. Sometimes I forget that I didn't actually meet them." She paused. "Things were so hectic before you left, I'm not sure if I ever told you how sorry I was. Not face-to-face anyway. I was really hoping that they made it."

When Kara trailed off, Danny forced the words around the lump in his throat. "Thank you."

Silence fell as Kara navigated the short trip, a mere seventeen minutes passing before they were pulling up to a neat split-level surrounded by trees. Danny took in the house, appreciating the way it was set back from the road, allowing for plenty of space for kids to play in the front yard.

A home for a family.

Kara parked in front of the garage, and he followed her onto the porch, waiting as she searched her pockets for the key. She glanced at him, but like at the White House, the shadows were too thick to see her expression. "I haven't been back since I left with President Oliver. Shaw may have sent people to search."

"You mean trashed the place," Danny muttered.

But when Kara snapped on the hall light, there was no sign of anyone having entered the house since the last time Kara left. Next to the door was a rack with several jackets, Halsey's leashes, and extra pairs of shoes. One side of the entryway opened into what appeared to be the kitchen. On the other side, Danny could see the outline of a couch and a couple chairs, as well as what looked like a computer.

Dropping her bag onto the floor by the table, Kara moved swiftly towards the kitchen cabinets. "Everything in the fridge is going to be spoiled, but I think that I have some peanut butter in here."

Danny stood, leaning against the doorjamb, watching as she located the peanut butter and a box of saltine crackers. Pulling out two plates, she slid one across the bar. Danny sat, waiting as she spread peanut butter on one cracker and then the next, piling them onto his plate. The silence stretched and Danny wondered how Kara could ignore the tension between them. Finally, she lifted her gaze. "You going to eat those?"

"I'm sorry."

Kara shook her head, the corner of her mouth quirking. "For not wanting to eat stale saltines and bad peanut butter?"

"For, well, everything." Realizing that he didn't know what he was apologizing for or, more accurately, he had so many things to apologize for that he wasn't sure where to start, Danny took a breath. "It wasn't fair of me to leave you with Chloe like I did. I'm sorry."

"Believe it or not, that's one thing that I don't blame you for." Kara studied him for a moment, chewing her cracker. Finally she swallowed. "You put Chloe first. That's what a parent does, Danny."

Danny choked. "I'm not her parent."

"Aren't you?" Kara asked, raising an eyebrow. Before he could answer, she went on. "It's late and we're both tired. Probably not the best time to have this discussion."

Danny opened his mouth to protest, the desire to get this resolved now, tonight, almost overpowering. But Kara was right. There was no way that he wasn't going to screw this up given his current level of exhaustion. Popping two crackers into his mouth, Danny pushed away from the bar, glancing around, taking in the doorway to what looked like the living room. He swallowed, wishing he had something to wash the peanut butter down with. "I can sleep on the couch if you want and then, tomorrow, we can figure out..."

Kara circled the bar until they stood inches apart, her hand moving to his chest as she studied his face. "Is that what you want? To sleep on the couch?"

"Hell no," Danny replied.

A smile slipped across her face and Kara's hand dropped to take his. "Let's go to bed."

Chapter Text

Loud thuds woke Danny.

He sat up, confusion reigning until he realized that he was in Kara's bedroom. Well, what he assumed was Kara's bedroom given that he had never seen the room before arriving here in the middle of the night. Down the hall, Danny thought he heard the shower running before someone again began banging on the door.

Sliding into his pants and grabbing his shirt, Danny stepped out of the room, locating the stairs. The house wasn't big, but he was turned around, everything looking different during the day. A minute later Danny managed to get himself down the stairs and yanked open the door, still in the process of pulling on his shirt, expecting some kind of messenger from Captain Chandler. But the man who stood outside the door was clearly a civilian.

He stared at Danny. "Who the hell are you?"

Danny blinked, then scowled. "Who the hell are you?"

The man scowled back, eyes shifting to the side as though to check the house number, and then recognition sparked. "You're one of the kidnapped sailors."

Before Danny could answer, the man pushed past him and went directly to the kitchen. Noticing the lack of hesitation, Danny wondered just how often this man had been here, before reminding himself that it was none of his business what Kara did on her own time. Except... last night he had thought there was still a chance that he could salvage things. An assumption that he was now seriously questioning.

Watching the swarmy asshole find the cabinet with mugs, before pouring himself a cup of coffee, Danny's black mood grew. "I have no idea what you are talking about. I was never kidnapped."

The man's head tipped. "I could have sworn..." Then he glanced past Danny, face brightening. "Kara, there you are. I heard that Captain Chandler and President Oliver arrived back in St. Louis last night but nobody at the White House will confirm."

Kara stepped into the kitchen, her hand resting on Danny's arm for the briefest of moments before moving to take down two more mugs and filling them with coffee. Handling one of them to Danny, she waved a hand between the men. "Jacob Barnes, meet Danny Green. Danny, Jacob's a reporter who covers White House press. He helped me get Debbie and Chloe out of town when things got sticky and I needed them somewhere safe."

Damn. If this Barnes helped Chloe, Danny probably couldn't kick him out of the house, no matter how tempting the idea. Danny forced himself to nod civilly at Barnes. "Thank you."

But Barnes wasn't paying any attention. He was now grinning, gaze jumping between Danny and Kara, eyes brimming with speculation. "So this is the husband. You never told me that you were married to one of the kidnapped sailors, Kara."

"Not kidnapped," Danny corrected again. He'd accept MIA. After all, he and Burk were out of contact with the ship for several days after the disaster in Korea. But what he went through was nothing compared to what the crew actually kidnapped by Takehaya experienced. It was only after he spoke that Danny realized what else Barnes said.

This is the husband.

His eyes flickered to Kara but she was focused on Barnes, her lips pursed in a way that Danny recognized all too well, and he wondered if she was annoyed at Barnes or him. Most likely both of them, Danny conceded.

"It wasn't relevant."

Barnes gave Danny an assessing glance. "I heard that there was a major incident at the White House last night. Perhaps I can get some off-the-record comments from a member of the team who infiltrated the White House?"

It took Danny a minute to realize that Barnes was talking to him. Apparently the man really did think that Kara was nothing more than an advisor to the President. While he was tempted to explain to the man that he was an idiot, Danny also suspected that Kara wouldn't thank him for doing so. If she wanted to pretend to be no more than a desk jockey, she probably had her reasons.

With Jacob still staring at him, Danny looked pointedly at Kara, who sighed. "I'll be at my desk this afternoon, Jacob. Come by then and I'll give you an official statement, but I need to clear it first. Three o'clock?"

Grinning, Jacob nodded. "Three o'clock."

Danny waited until the man was almost to the door, not wanting to, but knowing that he owed the man, however much he might already dislike him. "Barnes. Thank you. If you ever need a favor..."

Barnes' eyes gleamed. "I'll definitely take you up on that, Mr. Green."

Before Danny could correct him, Barnes disappeared out the door. Danny gulped his coffee, focusing on Kara. "He thinks we're married."

"Did you get a divorce without telling me?" Kara asked, eyebrows lifting.

"Of course not," Danny replied, feeling suddenly jittery. "I meant he knows that we're married."

"Yes," Kara replied, voice giving away nothing. "As does my mother, the crew, President Oliver, the Navy benefits department, the school, and the entire neighborhood. The point of getting married was to make sure that nobody contested guardianship of Chloe. Keeping it a secret would have been counterproductive."

She was right, of course. Danny just never thought about the logistics before. The crew knew they were married, of course, such things never staying secret. But none of them asked for details, and Danny assumed that everyone understood the city hall ceremony was less about until-death-do-us-part and more about making sure Kara had as much legal right to Chloe and Danny's death benefits as possible. He had never considered how to handle the issue with people who didn't know their history.

Which he now realized was idiotic.

"Did you have any problems?" he asked finally.

"No," Kara paused, sipping her coffee. "With so many orphans, people were just happy that Chloe had someone looking after her. Plus, Tom made sure that the marriage license was recorded with the Navy immediately."

Tom. That was new. Danny wondered when Kara and Captain Chandler became comfortable enough for Kara to refer to him on a first-name basis.

Picking up her mug, Kara moved towards the livingroom, still talking. "Believe it or not, getting guardianship over your niece was easier than getting your landlord in Newport News to send your belongings and release your Jeep. He seemed to think that I was some sort of tag chaser. He wanted signed authority from the Navy."

Wincing internally, Danny decided not to mention how often he complained to Roy — the guy who owned the apartment Danny lived in while he was between assignments — about military groupies. Still, he was happy to hear that the guy survived. Tex had always reminded Danny a little of Roy — although Tex was obviously a hell of a lot smarter when it came to women. Dumping Kara into that category of a tag chaser was a major misstep. "Don't worry about it, I'll deal with Roy."

Kara's head swiveled, and a smirk crossed her face. "Oh, it's done. Your things are upstairs in our room and the Jeep is in the garage. Apparently even Roy isn't willing to argue with the Secretary of the Navy."

Our room.

Apparently, Kara must have realized what she said as well, her cheeks flushing slightly as she rushed to add. "Chloe was here when your things arrived. She helped me unpack so I had to put everything in one room. We agreed not to tell her that we only got married because of her."

"Yes."

Deciding that he would get the whole story from Roy later, Danny followed Kara into the living room, taking in the cozy space. In addition to the couch and a rocking chair, there were a half dozen books, as well as a large chest in the corner filled with dolls and blocks. Chloe's things, Danny imagined. They hadn't brought anything from Connecticut, so Kara must have bought the items here. He stopped abruptly, frozen as he took in the photographs on the mantel.

Pictures of Zack and Mandy and the girls.

Chest burning, Danny stared, placing each one. There was a family picture from just after Chloe was born, their first as a family of four. Another one was from DisneyWorld, all of them wearing mouse ears. Danny's throat tightened, realizing that he had taken the picture during their trip last May, just before he left for the Arctic — and likely the last picture of them together. Danny actually smiled as he saw a picture of him holding Chloe on his lap, a Christmas tree in the background, both of them sticking their tongues out at the camera. But it was the next picture that took his breath away. From Zack and Mandy's wedding, it was one of Danny and his brother, both of them in tuxedos with the bowties undone. Danny had his arm slung across Zack's shoulders, as they laughed at a joke Danny could no longer remember.

His eyes flickered to Kara but, before he could speak, she did. "Chloe wanted to put up pictures of her family. It seemed ... like it helped her, so I got a few photo albums sent out from Connecticut."

Swallowing hard, Danny tore his eyes away from the picture of his brother, only to be caught by another one. A picture of Danny and Kara. She was leaning against the rail of the Nathan James, gazing down at him, as he crouched with his hand on Halsey's head, looking up at her. What you couldn't see in the picture, but Danny knew to be true, was that Frankie, Alisha and Carlton were all in the original photograph. Strange how he had never noticed the way he and Kara were looking at each other, as if they were the only two people on the ship.

He lifted the frame, turning to Kara with a raised eyebrow. "Is this from the Arctic?"

xxxxx

Taking a sip of her coffee, Kara settled on the couch, folding her legs up underneath her. Strange how, when she helped Chloe find and print the photographs, she had worried about Danny's reaction to the pictures of his brother, but she never thought about how Danny would feel about a picture of them. After months of being Mrs. Green, Kara realized, the line between what was real and what was a facade had blurred. Just as she had settled into her new role as the President's military advisor, she had also settled into her role as Chloe's aunt and, Kara could admit, if only to herself, Danny's wife. Living here, surrounded by things that belonged to Danny, with a child who looked as though she could be his daughter, Kara had begun to imagine a future. Perhaps not the kind of future they talked about back in the Arctic, when the idea of taking a civilian job and raising a child would have seemed laughable, but one where they could build a life in this new world together with Chloe.

From Danny's surprise at learning that their marriage was common knowledge, Kara doubted that he had been thinking the same thing. She had wondered whether the love, Danny on the bottom of his emails was deliberate or absent habit. She now seemed to have her answer.

"Yes," Kara replied, glad that her voice remained steady. "I had to do some creative cropping, but Chloe wanted to see a picture of the two of us together. She's smart, your niece." Kara smiled as she recalled the way Chloe's eyes narrowed when Kara admitted to not having a picture of the two of them handy. "She demanded evidence that we were actually married. I had to get Val to help me with creative cropping. Apparently, Zack and Mandy had some sort of bet going about you being a dedicated bachelor?"

Danny turned, setting the frame back on the mantel, before he moved to the chair across from her. His gaze seemed far away when he finally spoke. "Zack used to say that I was never going to settle down. He claimed that there was only enough husband material for one of us and he got all of it." His eyes met hers, the corners of his mouth lifting. "Mandy held out more hope. Said that I just needed to meet the right person."

Caught off-guard, Kara blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "We should talk about how to handle things before we go pick up Chloe. I ..." Kara paused, her throat suddenly tight. "I would really miss her if the two of you moved out."

The teasing light in Danny's eyes died, replaced by a look that Kara didn't recognize — almost as though he was feeling as uncertain as she was. Kara snorted at the thought. Danny never lacked in confidence, even when he was dead-ass wrong. Which had happened frequently during those first few months after they left the Arctic.

He leaned forward. "I was thinking...Chloe's been through a lot. I don't want to uproot her again or ... have her think that we split up because of her."

Eyes widening, Kara realized that she never considered how Chloe might respond to Kara and Danny going their separate ways. Ironic, really, given how her own parents' divorce shaped so much of her own childhood. She considered what Danny was saying — and what he wasn't.

"I agree," Kara said finally. "She's been doing so much better. There's no reason to spring more changes in her. Besides, we don't know how long you'll be here. You might get orders again next week. "

"Exactly." Danny met her eyes. "But if we don't want Chloe to know...That means living together, here."

Kara lifted a brow. "That is what married people typically do."

"Good to know. I can't say that I know many married people." The corner of Danny's lips curled. It was one of the things that first attracted her, first made her fall in love with him, the way he never failed to lift her spirits. "What do you think, Foster, can you tolerate living with me for a couple of months on a trial basis?"

"It's Green now," she corrected, but found herself smiling as well. "It sounds like we have a plan."

Chapter Text

"Take the next left," Kara directed.

Really, having Danny drive made no sense. Given that Debbie's house was a fifteen minute walk, there was no reason to take a car at all but, if they were going to, Kara's Toyota was the obvious choice. Upon learning that his Jeep was in St. Louis rather than back in Little Creek, however, Danny had insisted on driving, wanting to know how his precious ride did on the journey to St. Louis. Kara had merely rolled her eyes at first, having suspected that Danny was a bit of a car snob back in the Arctic after listening to him wax on about his Jeep and then become suspiciously polite when she mentioned owning a Toyota. Of course, it wasn't until Chloe got into Kara's car for the first time and asked, apparently seriously, Why does Uncle Danny make you drive a crap car? that Kara realized it was a family trait. Even at nine years old, Chloe knew more about cars than Kara did. Apparently, as teenagers, Danny and Zack used to spend hours under the hood, fixing up rust buckets that should have been taken off the road long before. As she opened up, Chloe told Kara stories that Danny had failed to mention in the Arctic — most likely because they cast his judgment in a questionable light. For example, there was the time when Danny was driving down the street and the engine fell out of his rebuilt Gia or another time when Zack apparently failed to notice that his car was on fire until he was pulled over.

But all of that was history. The most important thing that Chloe forgot to mention was the fact that Danny drove his Jeep like a maniac.

As Danny took the left, Kara grabbed frantically at the arm rest — missing and jamming her hip against the door instead. "So all those jokes Benz used to tell about your driving weren't really jokes?"

"What?" Danny asked, absently, before his eyes dropped to the dashboard. "Oh, sorry. Driving a Humvee gives me a lead foot."

No wonder Burk and Miller whined whenever Danny grabbed the keys. "Mom's house is at the end of the block on the right side. The yellow house with purple trim."

"You didn't want her to live with you?" Danny asked, leaning forward to look for the house. Kara didn't bother to tell him that there was no way to miss Debbie's unique paint job.

"Mom and I get along much better when we have our own space," Kara said, diplomatically. This wasn't the time to get into a discussion of all the reasons Kara didn't want Debbie living with her and Chloe.

But sometimes Danny was more intuitive than she expected. "Worried that she would start drinking around Chloe? I remember you saying in the Arctic that you would never allow people to drink around your kids." When Kara didn't immediately answer, Danny shifted, glancing at her before pulling to the side of the street, his words quicker than usual. "Not that Chloe is your kid. I mean, obviously it's different. I just meant..."

"I know what you meant," Kara interrupted. "And you're right. I didn't want Debbie drinking in front of Chloe." She paused, turning towards Danny and waiting until he met her gaze. "Chloe's an amazing child. It's only been a few months and already I can't imagine life without her. No matter what happens," Kara paused, waving a hand between them, "I would like to remain part of her life."

Danny's eyes flared. "I wouldn't do that, Kara. Not after all you did for Chloe. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been willing to take her."

Kara swallowed, recalling the way Danny's voice cracked that evening in January. She had assumed it was a regular check-in, picking the satellite phone up with a crisp Sitrep. It was only when Danny paused too long, his breathing ragged, that she realized he was calling for Kara and not Lieutenant Foster. She had been prepared for the news that Zack was dead. After all, they were all aware by then how few people survived. Rachel's ninety percent infection rate turned out to be low in many areas of the country, with almost no non-immune survivors from major cities like Los Angeles and New York. What Kara hadn't been prepared for was Danny explaining that Chloe miraculously survived and then, his voice catching in a way that she knew meant he was barely holding it together, admitting that his niece couldn't bear the sight of him.

She had felt her own heart breaking, knowing that it was only a fraction of what Danny was feeling right now.

Which was her only explanation for what she did next, impulsively telling Danny that he could bring Chloe to her house and she would take care of his niece. It was only a week later, after everything snowballed and Kara found herself standing before Russ and promising to love and honor Danny in sickness and in health that Kara realized what she had done. But no matter how much she second-guessed everything about her relationship — or non-relationship — with Danny, Kara never regretted taking in Chloe for a moment. Yes, Chloe needed Kara. But Kara could also see how much she needed Chloe, even if she didn't know it at the time.

A reason to hope.

Kara reached out to squeeze Danny's arm. "Do you want me to go first? Just in case she's not ready?"

Danny's eyes flickered to the house, letting out a long breath. "Probably a good idea. I'll get the gifts out."

Walking briskly towards the front door, which Debbie had painted sunflower yellow, Kara wondered what, exactly, Danny had found that he deemed suitable for a nine-year-old girl. Even as the thought occurred, Kara realized that Danny had been doing this for years. Chloe had even mentioned how much fun they would have when Uncle Danny came to visit, always with gifts for her and Evie — little wire elephants strung with beads from Africa and carved wooden dolls from India and chocolates from Europe. The door opened before Kara could knock, Debbie moving forward to pull Kara into a tight hug.

Kara took a step back. "I'm fine, Mom."

Debbie shook her head. "You might be a grown woman, Kara Elizabeth Foster, but a mother never stops worrying."

And there, in a nutshell, was one of the only things that Kara and Debbie had agreed on in years. Because Chloe might not be Kara's daughter, and she might not be Chloe's mother, but she couldn't imagine worrying about another child any more than she worried about Chloe. Of all of the things Kara imagined forging a bond between her and her mother, having a traumatized child dropped on their doorstep wasn't one on Kara's bingo card, but it had certainly done the trick. Despite all of Kara's worries that Debbie would fall back into old habits, she had been a godsend in helping Kara navigate the last six months. "How's Chloe?"

Debbie's eyes flickered past Kara to Danny, who was now leaning against the hood of his Jeep, face impassive. "Chloe said she's ready. She's been up since dawn, watching for you to get here. I half expected her to run out the door right after me." Debbie's voice dropped. "I think she's worried that Danny will be mad at her for refusing to say goodbye before he left."

Throat tightening at the thought of Chloe worrying that Danny would be upset with her, Kara walked past Debbie, turning right at the entrance towards the family room. Chloe was standing just to the side of the window, where she couldn't be seen, staring out in Danny's direction. Next to her, Halsey sat with his head against her leg.

Kara cleared her throat. "Hi Chloe."

"Aunt Kara!"

Chloe whirled, running in Kara's direction and throwing her arms around Kara's waist. Kara squeezed the child tightly. It might only have been ten days, but they were long days. "I missed you so much."

A moment later Chloe pulled back, a frown marring her face. "Why doesn't Uncle Danny want to come inside and see me?"

Kara bent down until her head was even with Chloe's. "He didn't want to scare you so he asked me to come inside and check with you. Is it okay for him to come in?"

"Well that's crazy," Chloe replied, snapping her fingers at Halsey before she moved towards the doorway. Before Kara could respond, Chloe raced out the door and ran at Danny, smashing into him at full speed with enough force that Kara would have been knocked over.

Danny, however, only laughed, swinging Chloe up in a circle. "There's my Hi-Lo." He set her back down, bending to pet Halsey. "Have you grown another two inches since I saw you?"

"Maybe," Chloe replied, laughing. Her attention turned to the bag Danny was holding. "Are those my gifts?"

Debbie sidled up to Kara. "He's good with her."

"They spent a lot of time together before ... before the virus hit," Kara replied quietly. "Since Zack and his mom lived together, that's where Danny went during leave. That's part of the reason it was so hard when she didn't want to see him, I think. They were close."

Chloe was chattering at Danny as the two approached, Chloe holding what appeared to be a hand-whittled puzzle in her hands. With some surprise, Kara recognized it as one that Danny was working on back in the Arctic, and she wondered if it had always been planned as a gift for his niece.

Finishing her story about why she didn't like one Rhett Barclay who happened to be in her third grade class, Chloe suddenly stopped, reaching over to take Danny's hand. "I'm sorry that I yelled at you, Uncle Danny."

"Well," Danny replied, giving her the smile that never failed to get past Kara's anger, "my ears are still ringing but I think that I'll survive."

"I meant at home," Chloe said, her expression seriously. She scuffed at something on the ground, looking down and then back up. "I never really thought that you were Daddy. You don't even look like him. I was just," Chloe paused and Kara suspected that she was trying to remember something, "projecting. Or maybe disassociating? Yes, that's what it was. Disassociating."

Danny's gaze flew to Kara and she held her breath, giving a slight shrug to indicate that she didn't know what to say either. First, because she wasn't completely sure what disassociating meant and second because she had no idea where Chloe picked up the word. Although it did sound like something the base shrink Kara took Chloe to on a weekly basis would say. Maybe Kara needed to pay closer attention at the sessions.

Kara hoped that Chloe didn't notice how tight Danny's voice sounded, even as he ruffled her hair. "That's okay, Hi-Lo. Your Daddy was a pretty good looking guy. I wish I did look just like him."

Chapter Text

You don't even look like Daddy.

Walking into the White House, nodding a quick hello to Wolf without breaking stride, Danny wished that Chloe was right. Wished that he didn't see his dead brother staring back at him every time he looked in the mirror. Wished that he didn't wake up every morning wondering why he was still alive while Zack was gone.

Why the brother who had his life together was the one who died.

As freshmen, while Danny slept his way through one sorority and then the next, Zack met Mandy and never looked at another woman. Two years later when Danny was struggling to keep a passing grade in organic chemistry after sleeping through that eight am lab a few too many times, Zack was dealing with an accidental pregnancy that resulted in him and Mandy getting married and having Evie before any of them graduated. When Danny was doing his first tour in Iraq, one cut short by a bullet, Zack and Mandy were having Chloe. And when Zack finally finished medical school, Danny was in the middle of another crisis of his own making.

He had successfully made it through SEAL training, but then he immediately put his career in jeopardy by sleeping with another SEAL's wife. Not that Danny knew she was married that night in the bar, but he understood in retrospect that he should have known. There was a certain type of woman who went to Castaways, and it wasn't the kind that you took home to mom. There was no way an apparently nice girl like Elsa would be there for any reason other than trouble — like the kind of trouble you caused when you were married to a SEAL who had cheated on you and wanted to get back at him by sleeping with another SEAL.

Ultimately it didn't matter why Elsa did what she did. Elsa might have lied by omission when she didn't mention that the bed they spent that night in belonged to another man, but Danny was the one who paid in the form of being informally blacklisted for the next several years. It wasn't until he worked his way up to the point of running his own team that the old scandal became more of a cautionary tale than a Scarlett A. Still, Danny never picked up another woman at Castaways, no matter how much Benz teased him.

He might be an idiot, but he never made the same mistake twice.

Except when you do.

Zack's voice teased, and Danny tried to push it aside. That was the problem with knowing someone else as well as you knew yourself— you could have a conversation with them even if they were dead.

This time, though, Zack was wrong. Danny's relationship with Kara was nothing like what happened with Elsa. Sure both had the potential to ruin his career, but hooking up with Kara wasn't the same at all. Danny had known from the moment he met Kara that she was different. Special. For the first time, Danny understood what Zack meant when he said that he just knew Mandy was the one — even though the guy had never even slept with another woman.

Weirdly, Danny thought that the affair with Kara was something Zack would actually understand. Once, late at night when the two of them had been hanging outside drinking after Mandy and Mom and the girls were in bed, Zack admitted that nothing would have stopped him from pursuing Mandy — even if she was married when they met. At the time, Danny thought that Zack was referring to Elsa. Now, though, Danny was pretty sure that Zack was trying to tell him something different.

If you're lucky enough to find her, do whatever it takes to keep her, even if other people don't understand.

Not that Danny planned anything crazy. Back in the Arctic, he imagined a conventional courtship. One where he and Kara dated after the Nathan James returned from the Arctic, he invited her to meet his family over the holidays and hopefully got invited to meet hers as well, after which he would pop the question, and they would have a summer wedding. After everything went to hell, Danny figured that he would be lucky if Kara was talking to him come summer. Even after he asked Kara to take in Chloe, the idea of getting married hadn't occurred to Danny, not until Tex mentioned that it was the best way to make sure Chloe could stay with Kara. And Kara, who was certainly the more practical of the two of them, had agreed.

Gives you something to work with.

Zack did have a point. While getting married hadn't been one of Danny's impulsive ideas, staying married certainly was. Danny wondered whether, if he just ignored the fact that they got married because of Chloe rather than because they, you know, wanted to, Kara would go along with it. She hadn't seemed to mind his suggestion of letting things play out a little longer this morning. The more that Danny thought about the idea, the more he liked it. He could show Kara how handy having him around the house would be. He could take out the trash, for example, and do ... whatever else Kara couldn't do. His temporary brilliance fading, Danny realized that Kara had been doing all of that, and more, while he was gone. If he wanted to impress her, he was going to have to do a hell of a lot better than that.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

"Shut up, Zack."

xxxx

"How's your niece?" Mike asked as Danny entered the small room they had established last night as command. It was surprisingly quiet, only Mike, Tex, and Sasha present. Although Danny assumed that someone was currently watching President Oliver.

"Well, she didn't scream bloody murder when she saw me this time," Danny replied, attempting to make the words a joke. From the lack of laughter, it hadn't worked.

Sasha frowned. "Was she sick when you found her?"

It was only then that Danny realized Sasha didn't know the backstory. The woman slotted into the team so effortlessly that he sometimes forgot that she wasn't with them in the Arctic or St. Louis. Even with Benz there had been a bit of friction when they first began working together, but Cooper was a pro from the start. He might not have trusted her immediately, but from the moment she proved herself to be on the right team, Danny hadn't hesitated to let her watch his back.

Thankfully, Tex saved Danny from having to give an official answer. "Nope. Don't know if you can believe this but Green over there was a twin. Identical. We show up and the poor kid thinks that it's her dad for half second. Then realizes she has to tolerate Green's ugly mug and starts screaming. My ears were popping for days."

Sasha's normally emotionless eyes softened, surprising Danny. Who would've guessed that their intelligence expert had a soft spot for kids? "Is that who you made that chess set for?"

Another surprise. Danny hadn't realized that Sasha knew he whittled at all, much less that he was making a chess set. "No, although Chloe does like to play." Danny turned his gaze to Mike. "Thank you for the suggestion on the dolls down in Argentina, Captain. Chloe seemed to really like them."

Actually, the entire reunion had gone far better than Danny expected, almost like the old days, when Danny would arrive at Zack's house bearing gifts. Danny wondered if it would be different once Chloe was back in the house she and Kara had shared since January.

How he would fit into their lives.

Whether he would fit into their lives.

Mike smiled in that sad way he used whenever he was thinking about his own missing family. "I'm glad she liked the dolls. And that the reunion went better this time."

"She's a good kid," Tex inserted. "Just a tough day."

"For all of us." The words were out before Danny realized what he was saying and he quickly moved to the coffee pot, hoping that Mike had made the brew. In other words, hoping that it was strong as hell. "Actually, that reminds me. Some reporter showed up at the house this morning. Jacob Barnes, or something like that."

"Not the worst one I've met," Tex offered.

Danny narrowed his eyes at the realization that Tex knew Jacob Barnes. Just how much time was the reporter spending around Kara?

Tex wiggled his eyes at Danny. "Although Barnes is always trying to get the KFG to go to dinner with him."

"Damn vultures," Mike offered. "If he's bothering you, Green, you have my permission to shoot him."

"Apparently he helped get Chloe out of town when things were hot," Danny admitted. He might already hate the guy, but Barnes did Danny a solid and fair was fair.

"Fine," Mike sighed. "Just wing him then."

"He wanted an official comment on the operation that went down at the White House last night." Danny let that hang for a minute.

Tex smirked, then his eyes began to twinkle. "I suggest that we have our resident Black Widow take a crack at him. Give the lovely KFG a break."

Danny looked to Mike, who waved a hand. "Admiral Chandler is putting you and Commander Cooper in charge of getting recruitment and training up and running. Figure it out between the two of you how you're going to manage that. Loop in Mrs. Green, since she's the one with the most on-the-ground knowledge of St. Louis. You can coordinate on the Barnes situation at the same time."

Sasha stood. "Let's go find Mrs. Green."

They were halfway down the hall when Sasha asked. "KFG?"

Danny gave her a sideways glance but Sasha's face revealed nothing. "Kara Foster Green."

"Any connection to you?" Sasha asked, and this time the speculation on her face was crystal clear.

Funny, after their conversation this morning, Danny had thought that everyone knew. He lifted his cup, draining the coffee and wishing that he had more. "Actually, she's my wife."

Chapter Text

Kara watched as Danny continued mashing his carrots into his potatoes. She had certainly seen some of Danny's odder table habits in the Arctic, where Bacon bemoaned his tendency to cover everything in salt and gravy and then eat it shovel style. But that made sense. Danny was clearly used to subpar food and eating on a tight schedule. Tonight's mashing effort, however, seemed to have nothing to do with eating and everything to do with Chloe.

Even if Kara hadn't already been certain that Danny was upset about something, Halsey's shifting in the corner of the room would have been more than enough evidence. The dog was normally motionless at mealtime, too well trained to whine or beg for food, even though Chloe had taken to sneaking him scraps after dinner. But, tonight, Halsey was practically vibrating from the effort of remaining in his bed.

The problem, from Kara's perspective, was that she didn't really know what the problem was. Danny and Chloe had seemed to have a good reunion at Debbie's house. Chloe had loved all the toys, especially the dolls, and Kara was touched when Danny, somewhat sheepishly, gave her a set of hand carved chess pieces. Danny stayed at Debbie's house with Chloe while Kara ran out to do some grocery shopping and then it was time for them to head to the White House. Danny had seemed to be in an okay mood on the way home too. On the ride back to the house, Danny and Chloe cheerfully sang moving at the speed of Toyota even though they weren't in a Toyota and Kara wasn't driving, before moving on to more and more absurd songs. Upon their arrival, Chloe had cheerfully shown Danny through the entire house, the two disappearing into her bedroom while Kara was stuck making dinner solo.

Nope, Danny had seemed fine until dinner began, at which point he seemed to draw more and more into himself until all Kara could see was the version of Danny who appeared at Gitmo. Her heart sank as she considered whether Danny's problem was with Chloe — or with her. Perhaps he was realizing just how crazy the situation they were in actually was. Dear god, they had gone from mutually agreeing that they weren't in the right headspace to pursue a relationship to getting married in the space of a couple of weeks. Now they had to deal with the fallout of that decision.

"Chloe," Kara said softly, "I found some ice cream at the store. Could you bring it to the table with three bowls and spoons?"

Danny continued mixing carrots and potatoes. Kara waited until Chloe was gone. "You okay?"

Danny's head shot up, appearing to be actually confused by the question and, for half a second, Kara wondered if she had misread the situation. Hell, maybe jet lag had caught up and Danny was just tired. But then he shot a look at the kitchen, dropping his voice to ask. "Did you know that axolotls can regrow part of their brain? And that they're called Mexican walking fish sometimes? Oh, and they're carnivores and a whole bunch of other stuff that I can't remember." Danny stopped, groaning. "All before we even got to the letter B."

Kara stared at him, blinking as it slowly sunk in that Danny wasn't upset so much as overwhelmed by the energy of a nine-year-old girl. A chuckle escaped, and then another, earning a scowl from Danny until he too began laughing. Chloe skipped back into the room. "What's so funny? Tell me! Tell me!"

Finally catching her breath, Kara leaned over to give Danny's hand a squeeze, before turning back to Chloe. "Uncle Danny was telling me that he's ready for bed and I said only an old man goes to bed at eight o'clock. But I suppose we can make an exception just this once, right Chloe?"

Chloe's head bounced up and down. "Mimi said that you might be tired. She said that you were in Asia and are probably really jetlagged."

"Mimi?" Danny asked, eyes bouncing between Kara and Chloe.

"My mom," Kara explained, handing Danny a bowl of the precious ice cream. "Why don't you take Halsey out and then you can head to bed. I'll play chess with Chloe tonight. Tomorrow you can play the winner."

The relief in Danny's eyes made Kara feel warm all over. "Yes, ma'am."

xxxxxx

Kara was just finishing up the dishes when Danny appeared, Halsey at his heels, glancing around the kitchen before quietly asking, "Is Chloe asleep?"

"Probably listening to music," Kara replied. She gave Danny an assessing glance. "If you want to give her a bedtime kiss, she would probably like that."

But Danny didn't move, his brow furrowing. After a full minute of silence, Kara spoke again. "You want to talk about what's bothering you? Besides the axolotl fact, I mean?"

Danny frowned, as if he was about to argue, before giving her a rueful smile. "This is going to sound stupid, but I was so focused on getting Chloe to talk to me again that I never really thought about what would happen next. When Chloe started talking about me going with her to chess club and meeting her teacher..." Danny trailed off.

"You panicked?" Kara suggested. She dried her hand on the towel, again thankful that the water and power had been restored to St. Louis, making these chores manageable. The first few weeks with Chloe here at the house had been a struggle and Kara let Chloe hang out at the White House far more than she planned to admit, simply because it was easier to take a shower and heat up some canned soup in a place with electricity and running water. She smiled at Danny. "I definitely did once school reopened and I realized that someone had to drop her off and pick her up in the middle of the day. Thank goodness for Mom."

Danny seemed to wince, his voice hesitant as he began. "I am sorry..."

Kara cut him off. "I'm not sorry that you called me. Having Chloe around gave me something to do."

"You mean besides rebuilding the Navy, spreading the cure and saving the President?" Danny asked, and this time the smile he flashed her was genuine.

Laughing, Kara felt herself relax. She wasn't entirely sure what was going on with Danny, and whether his current discomfort was because of her or Chloe or because he was thinking about his brother. But this teasing was familiar, the kind of flirting that began things back in the Arctic, when neither of them had any idea what they were facing. "She was a good distraction — and a reminder of why all of this is so important."

Kara didn't add that there were days in the very beginning, when the virus flareups seemed nonstop and the demands for the vaccine and the cure unending, when Kara had wondered if there was any point to trying so hard. After all, at most, twenty percent of the pre-virus population had survived and half of those didn't seem interested in getting the country back up and running at all. For every step forward — like getting the electricity going — they seemed to take one back. But every time she considered giving up, Kara reminded herself that she couldn't. Because there were little girls like Chloe out there depending on her not just to save their lives, but to make sure that they had food to eat and a safe place to sleep.

A world to grow up in.

She leaned down to pet Halsey, before looking up at Danny. "Having Chloe helped with my mother as well. She needed something to focus on, and I might have killed her if she kept showing up at the White House with bag lunches."

"The two of you seem good," Danny observed.

Kara nodded. "We are." She paused, considering what, if anything, she wanted to say. "Mom and I never had a traditional relationship. She was so young when she had me, barely nineteen, and then Dad left and she started drinking. Half the time I felt like the parent. Helping with Chloe has given Mom something to do other than drink, and it's given us something to talk about that isn't the past. A reset, if you will."

"I don't know how to be a father," Danny said abruptly. Surprised, Kara just stared at Danny, who stared back. "I was the fun uncle. I'm used to swinging in for a visit — a weekend or sometimes a week. I don't know how to be..."

And then Kara understood. It wasn't about Danny as a father, not really. "You mean that you don't know how to be Zack."

Danny swallowed, his throat moving. "He was the best dad. I loved my father, but he was, well, more like me. He worked six days a week and we saw him on Sundays. And I was only fourteen when he died. Mom was the parent who was always around." Danny stopped, but Kara sensed that he was collecting his thoughts. She waited until he spoke again. "But, Zack, he was a natural at the being-a-dad thing even though Evie wasn't planned."

"Kind of like you," Kara said softly.

Danny's head shot up, eyes wide. "What?"

Realizing, too late, just what Danny was thinking, Kara quickly corrected. "No, I didn't mean, I'm not pregnant. Definitely not pregnant."

After a minute, Danny smiled, coming around the breakfast bar to lean on the counter, one arm next to Kara. "I wouldn't mind a little girl just like her mama."

Their eyes met and held and, for just a moment, Kara let herself relax into the idea that this was real. That they would be here, like this, the three of them forever. But if the last year had taught Kara anything, it was that nothing was forever. And right now, the focus of this conversation needed to be Chloe. Kara found herself smiling for a second, before she sobered. "What I meant was that you didn't have much time to adjust to the idea of having Chloe around fulltime."

"More time than you," Danny muttered.

She tipped her head as she studied him. "Do you think that I parent Chloe the way that Mandy did?"

Danny looked at her as though she had lost her mind. "Of course not. You never even met her."

The words stung for some reason, but Kara pushed the thought away. That wasn't important right now. "My point is that I'm not Chloe's mother, but I have been parenting her for the past five months. And, no, I'm not doing things the same way that Mandy did, and that's okay." Danny was staring at her blankly. "You don't need to become Zack, Danny. You don't have to parent Chloe the way that Zack did or Mandy did or even the way that I do. You need to find your own path. It won't be the same as before, but it may not be all that different, either. Chloe's a good kid, Danny."

But Danny was staring past her, out the window. "I don't know if I can do this."

Kara felt sick. Despite the lump in her throat, she managed to ask. "Does that mean you want to leave?"

"What?" Danny's head snapped around so quickly that Kara was reminded of the Exorcist and had an inappropriate urge to laugh. "No! I'm not going anywhere. I just ..." He stopped. "Hell, I feel like I'm Miller and the XO just watched me trip up the stairs. I couldn't make it through a single damn day without worrying that I was screwing it all up."

Thank god.

Kara didn't stop to wonder why the idea of Danny leaving Chloe behind felt so devastating. She knew without having to ask that it probably had something to do with her own father, her own history, but she didn't care. What she did care about was making Danny understand that what he was feeling was okay. She crossed the kitchen to wrap her arms around his waist, head bent back so she could see his face.

"You don't have to be perfect, Danny. Nobody is expecting that, even Chloe. All you have to do is try."

Chapter Text

"What do you think of them?" Danny asked Tex as they stood to the side of the field, watching the small groups of teenagers being run through exercises by Carlton, Wolf, and Erik. On the far end there was another group, composed almost entirely of men closer in age to Tex than either Danny or Sasha, who appeared to be spending most of their time arguing with Cooper.

Tex gave a long sigh. "You've got a choice to make, Connecticut. Do you want teams made up of kids who probably never finished high school or is it worth spending half the day arguing about Cooper's credentials to get some guys who might actually know what they're doing once that muscle memory kicks in?"

Trust Tex to recognize the dilemma in a nutshell. Danny sighed. The vast majority of active military were killed during the initial outbreak of the virus, with even the reserves called up before the government completely failed. While there were some police and firefighters from smaller towns who were spared, most of them were needed for the basic tasks of keeping St. Louis running and the few active military personnel who survived were all deployed in Europe and South America right now, trying to help stabilize the regions. Over the past six months, Captain Chandler had already recruited anyone with useful skills and a decent attitude, which left Danny and Sasha scraping the bottom of the barrel. And that was just for basic training. Lord knew how they were going to get any form of special operations up and running. The only thing they had going for them at the moment was that Sasha convinced her friend Jesse to stay in the United States and help train more helicopter pilots. No, Captain Chandler had been right when he said that they needed to rebuild not just the Navy, but also the Army and some form of National Guard. The problem was that they needed more people — not less — and they needed them now.

Still, as far as a choice went, there wasn't one. Picking men who weren't going to listen to Cooper's orders was a non-starter, which is why Danny and Sasha elected to put her in charge of that group to begin with. "There must be a few of them who aren't sexist arseholes."

"Probably." Tex shrugged. "But you aren't going to know until you get rid of Zwick. It took him all of two minutes to set himself up as top dog and he's not going to do a thing that Cooper says without pushback." Tex considered the man. "Probably isn't going to do a thing that you ask either. He's got a problem with authority. And I should know, since I've got one myself."

Unfortunately, Danny agreed. He initially questioned why the man was even here but fairly quickly determined that Zwick did seem to have a solid dose of patriotism even if he sounded like a Val-clone every time he opened his mouth. It was unfortunate as Zwick served as a Ranger during the first Iraq war and appeared to have a number of skills that would be incredibly useful. But none of that was worth having to deal with a man who might go rogue any minute and, worse, potentially take a team with him. Still, running with just the kids was never going to work either. Danny needed at least a couple guys he could put in a leadership role, and he couldn't keep depending exclusively on Burk, Taylor, and Miller, who could be shipped out at any moment.

For half a second Danny fantasized about sending Zwick to General Utt, who had made a generally unfavorable opinion on the entire crew when he told Burk that he would have never made it as a Marine. Still, Danny didn't dislike Utt enough to add to the man's problems. Utt was a stick-in-the-ass but a useful one. Nope, Danny was going to have to deal with Zwick himself.

"Which ones do you think have promise?" Danny asked Tex finally.

"Johnson, McIntosh, Silver and Myers," Tex rattled off without missing a beat. "None of them seemed to know Zwick before they arrived. They're alone and not willing to rock the boat, but aren't joining in on Zwick's razzing either." Tex narrowed his eyes. "Hard to know with the other ones. They arrived with Zwick but I'm not sure how tight-knit that group is."

Walking across the field, he waited until Sasha was free before approaching. The sixteen men — no women — in the group that she was evaluating fell back as Danny walked over, their eyes darting back and forth from Sasha to Zwick and back. Well, damn, apparently they were all aware that something was about to go down.

He raised his voice. "Commander Cooper, do you have a minute?"

That had been part of their strategy from the beginning — making it clear that Sasha outranked him — but it was clearly not working with at least part of this group. Their eyes were glued on Danny as Sasha turned and headed towards him. He deliberately turned his back on them as Sasha approached, wishing that his language skills were better. He was pretty sure at least a couple of the guys spoke Spanish, which was the only other language Danny spoke fluently. A discussion in Russian right now would take care of any eavesdroppers. "Tex and I want to kick Zwick."

"We need him, Danny," Sasha replied, her voice cool and calm, as though the man wasn't behind them making comments just quiet enough that Danny couldn't tell what was being said. "He's a former Ranger."

"And a hell of an attitude to go with them," Danny replied. He forced himself not to shift, knowing that the men behind him were watching their every move. "We need people that we can trust, Cooper."

Sasha's gaze moved beyond Danny, and he suspected that she was watching Zwick. "Let's give him a week. I think I can get through. It's worth the extra effort."

Danny wanted to argue, but he also recognized the set of Sasha's mouth from conversations with Kara. He wasn't going to get anywhere right now. "Okay if I tell the guy why he's still here?"

That drew an actual smile. "Be my guest."

Danny turned, moving directly towards Zwick, who straightened, a smug smile crossing his face. Danny waited until they were within spitting distance to speak, not necessarily caring if they were overheard but also not wanting to make a production out of this. "I wanted to kick you to the curb but Cooper overruled me. Try to remember who saved your ass and act appropriately."

He was heading back to Tex when his phone began vibrating, reminding Danny that it was time to get Chloe from school.

And, damn if he didn't wish he could change places with Sasha right now. He would absolutely take an authority-attitude-problem over nine-year-old enthusiasm any day.

xxxxx

Danny stood in front of the school, to the left of the double doors, as instructed by Chloe, Kara and Debbie, feeling uncomfortable. Somehow, when giving him pages of directions, neither Kara nor Debbie thought to mention one very pertinent piece of information.

He was literally the only guy under eighty here.

Danny was pretty sure that, at some point, he had gone to pick up Chloe and Evie from school with Zack, and he didn't remember ever feeling like this much of a fish out of water. But maybe he just hadn't noticed, too busy chatting with his brother and looking forward to seeing his nieces. And, now that Danny thought about it, the girls usually went to afterschool care while Zack and Mandy worked. It was only on special days, like when Zack took time off because Danny was home on leave, that he would have been at the school.

The woman next to Danny took another less-than-discrete step to the right, and Danny wondered if it was the fact that he was a guy that was the problem or if it was the uniform. The damage done by the Immunes pretending to be Navy still lingered, it appeared. Upon first arriving and appreciating that, for whatever reason, his presence was disturbing the gathered crowd of women, Danny considered breaking out the charm until it occurred to him that it might be seen as flirting. Lord knows how Kara would respond if that type of gossip got back to her. That was definitely not a problem he needed.

He relaxed slightly as kids began leaving the school, the teacher standing at the door releasing them one by one, only after identifying an adult to pass them off to. The entire procedure seemed very different than Danny remembered — he seemed to recall that it was a free-for-all once the school doors opened — but he supposed that living through the virus changed a lot of things for everyone. Vaguely Danny recalled Sasha studying some graph about how few children under twelve survived the pandemic and the impact the lack of children in that age range was likely to have on the recovery process. To be honest, he hadn't really cared much, figuring that the problem would work itself out once things were more stable and people started having kids again. But there was something about seeing how few children exited the school that struck Danny as just plain wrong.

As the other kids and parents began leaving — several of them shooting Danny suspicious glances as he continued to stand there without a child — and Danny had begun to wonder if he somehow went to the wrong school when Chloe skipped down the stairs, hand in hand with a stern looking woman of about forty. "Hi Uncle Danny!"

"Mr. Green?" the woman asked, a tinge of suspicion coloring her voice.

Assuming that this had to be Chloe's teacher, he gave her his best charming smile. He reached over to ruffle Chloe's hair. "Hi kiddo. Yes, I'm Chloe's uncle, Danny Green. You must be Mrs. Jenkins."

Chloe reached for Danny's hand, but the teacher didn't release her. If anything, she was studying Danny even more suspiciously. "Chloe, I thought that you said the picture you brought to school was of your father? Maybe you got confused and brought a picture of your uncle?"

His smile vanishing, Danny realized what was happening and wondered just how many times he was going to be mistaken for Zack. Chloe began laughing, her voice a high-pitched squeak. "I tricked you, I tricked you!"

Danny shot what he hoped was an apologetic smile at the other woman. "I apologize. Chloe's father Zack was my brother."

"Daddy and Uncle Danny are twins," Chloe announced, still giggling. "The identical kind, not the other kind. Daddy explained all about it to me. With fraternal twins, that means there were two eggs and they made two babies. With identical twins, there was one egg that split in two and one egg got all the cool genes and the other egg got the lame genes. So Daddy got all the good ones and Uncle Danny got the lame ones."

As Chloe giggled hysterically, drawing a reluctant smile from her teacher, Danny leaned towards her. "Sorry. I just got back from Asia last week and we're still trying to figure this all out. Danny Green. Chloe's uncle. You've met Kara, my wife, and Debbie, my mother-in-law."

The smile flickered, but then the woman nodded. "Sorry for the confusion. We're happy to have Chloe back at school. We worried when she left so abruptly."

Momentarily blanking on whatever story Kara had told the school, Danny just nodded. "Sorry about that. Things were a bit chaotic."

"So I hear." From the way Ms. Jenkins glanced at his uniform and then back to Danny's face, he wondered how much Chloe might have told her teacher about where Danny had been for the past six months and what he was doing. Rather too late, Danny remembered Zack bemoaning the fact that Chloe could not keep a secret to save her life.

"Okay, kiddo, time to go," Danny said, thankful when Ms. Jenkins finally released Chloe's hand. He waited until they were around the corner and in the Jeep before he gave Chloe what he hoped was a stern look. "Not funny, kiddo."

"You're such a spoil sport," Chloe replied, arms crossing over her chest with a pout. "Daddy told me about all the times that the two of you pretended to be each other and played tricks on people. He said it was hysterical."

Unfortunately, Chloe was right. Danny and Zack had enjoyed playing tricks on people who thought they were talking to one twin, only to find out that they were actually talking to the other. It worked best with people who didn't realize that they were identical, because it was funny to see their faces when he and Zack were standing next to each other. Danny hadn't even minded the inevitable confusion at times. At least, he hadn't until that day in Connecticut. Danny wasn't sure that he would ever be able to forget the look on Chloe's face when she realized that it was Danny rather than Zack standing in that auditorium. Maybe because that was the moment when it hit Danny that he and Zack would never be able to play that trick again.

"It was funny," Danny said after a few minutes. "We played a lot of jokes on people." He paused, glancing over at Chloe. "I miss him too, Hi-Lo. Every single day."

"But you didn't see him every day," Chloe pointed out. "Mommy used to claim that we were lucky to see you once a year."

Although Chloe had sounded factual rather than accusatory, the statement still stung. Because it was true — Danny hadn't been there very often. But there was still something about knowing where Zack was, in the house they grew up in, doing the same thing that he'd been doing for years, that made being far away easier for Danny.

Less lonely.

"Oh, I didn't need to see your dad to get in trouble with him," Danny replied, resolutely pushing aside the grief that threatened to overwhelm him. After all, if Chloe could talk about her father, so could he. "Did Zack tell you about the time I left a series of messages on your mom's voicemail asking her to send me money to get out of jail and she got mad at your dad?"

"No!" Chloe actually bounced on her seat. "Tell me! Tell me! I love Uncle Danny stories!"

Uncle Danny stories. The fun uncle, the crazy uncle, the one who became the subject of bedtime stories. Danny swallowed again, wondering how he was ever going to come close to filling Zack's shoes.

Chapter Text

"Danny! Good to see you again." Jed reached out to take the stack of boxes that Danny was carrying, all laden with food that Bacon gave him upon learning that Danny was headed over to the Chandler house for the day.

"You as well, sir," Danny replied politely. Although Kara had spent a lot of time with the Chandlers over the past six months, Danny had spent very little social time with any of them.

"Jed, please," the man replied, chuckling. He nodded towards Chloe, who was showing Sam the picture of a dinosaur shark hybrid that she had drawn that morning. Only a year apart in age, the two liked many of the same things. "Who knows, maybe we'll actually be related in about fifteen years."

Having no idea how to respond, Danny was relieved when Sasha appeared, holding out a beer and grabbing his arm, steering him towards the corner of the yard where Tex sat in a lawn chair with Miller on one side and Burk on the other. Danny took the beer, glancing around the yard. "How many people did the Captain invite?"

Sasha rolled her eyes. "Basically everyone he knows. Originally this was supposed to be a small gathering of people who officially did not want to celebrate the holiday. But then it morphed until..." Sasha shrugged. "I just hope there's enough food."

The holiday.

All day, Danny had been pushing it out of his mind and hoping against hope that Chloe wouldn't know what today was. After all, it was unlikely that anyone — including teachers at school — were going to make a big deal out of Father's Day when so many children had lost their entire family. He took another swig of his drink, reminding himself not to go overboard. Although Debbie hadn't slipped, according to Kara's information and Danny's observation, she had deliberately chosen not to come today due to the presence of alcohol and Danny didn't want to upset Kara by drinking too much and reminding her of her mother. Not when he already had to track her down this morning, finding her in the shower crying, not just about the loss of her father but also how horrible his death had been.

Danny understood that she didn't want Chloe to see, or know, how upset she was, but Danny hated that Kara felt the need to hide. He wondered how many times Kara had done the same thing over the past six months.

"Bacon said he could rustle up some more grub if you wanted," Danny replied absently, before glancing at Sasha. Over the weeks of working together, he had found that they had more in common than he would have expected, yet he knew almost nothing about her background. "Is today a hard day for you?"

Sasha gave him a sad smile. "Yes, but it's not new. I lost both of my parents years ago." A moment later she added, "Only child."

"So hard but different hard," Danny summed up, using an expression that Sasha used only yesterday to explain why she still hadn't kicked Zwick out of the accelerated training program yet. Three weeks in and the guy was still a prick. "Same here. My dad died when I was fourteen." He gave her a wry smile. "Not an only child."

Sasha tipped her beer at him, her lips quirking, her eyes moving around the crowd. "Actually, next week is my hard day." She took a drink. "My wedding anniversary."

"I'm sorry." The rote words were rolling off his tongue even as he registered what that meant. He hadn't even known that she was married. But Danny supposed it wasn't the type of thing you just dropped into casual conversation. Still, since Sasha mentioned it, he figured that it was safe to ask. "Married long?"

"Less than a year before I left for China," Sasha replied, blowing out a long breath and shaking her head. "We postponed our honeymoon because Nicholas was a doctor and couldn't get enough time off. The trip to China was supposed to take a week, and then we were off to St. Lucia. Obviously, that didn't happen. He died in the first wave of the virus to hit the US."

Danny thought about what he would have done if he left on the Nathan James in January, only to return to find Kara and Chloe dead. Shaking off the immediate nausea, he observed neutrally. "So you stayed in China?"

Sasha shrugged. "Someone needed to. It made sense to let people with families go home."

"We're loners, aren't we?" Danny said, not thinking.

Arching an eyebrow, Sasha observed, "Not sure you want your wife hearing that."

"I didn't mean it like that," Danny said quickly. Although how else he could have meant it wasn't obvious, even to him. He sighed. "Guess I'm not used to having other people to answer to."

"Seems like something you need to work on," Sasha replied, she took a sip of her beer before adding. "Unless you're planning on a divorce? I heard there was a betting pool on how long it would be before Kara kicked your ass to the curb." She glanced at him, not hiding her smirk. "Nobody seems to think that you would be stupid enough to pull the trigger. Consensus is that you married up."

If it had been anyone else, Danny would have bitten their heads off. But Sasha had a way of saying things...

"They're going to be waiting a while to see who wins that bet," he said, sipping his drink and making a mental note to make his opinion about bets involving Kara perfectly clear to the guys. He might be fair game but she — and Chloe — needed to be off-limits.

"I figured as much. That's why my money is on you still being married come the end of the year," she was clearly laughing at him. "And, for the record, Green, I don't like losing."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "You know, you've never mentioned just how you and the Captain met. The first time, I mean."

This time, Sasha gave him a real smile. "Maybe one day I will."

xxxxx

"Just leave me alone!"

Every eye turned as Chloe shoved at Ashley, then raced across the room and out the door of the house. Kara sat, frozen, not sure what had happened. Chloe seemed fine all afternoon, not even appearing to know what today was, a fact for which Kara was thankful. Finally Kara stood, giving the room an apologetic glance. "Sorry about that. Let me go talk to Chloe."

"I didn't do anything," Ashley wailed from across the room and Kara hesitated, wondering if she should stay and try to smooth things over.

"Nothing to worry about," Tom said, nodding a head towards Ashley. "Kids can get upset for tons of reasons, and Chloe has some good ones to be upset today. I'll go talk to Ashley."

Outside the house, it took Kara several minutes to find Chloe, huddled at the base of the tree where Jed had set up a rope swing for the Chandler children. More relieved than she planned to admit that Chloe hadn't gone further, Kara sat down next to her. "Hey Chloe. Want to talk about what's wrong?"

Chloe didn't lift her face from where it was buried in her knees. "Leave me alone."

"I can't do that," Kara replied quietly, remembering all the times that she told Debbie to leave her alone. Yet, Kara always remembered being upset when Debbie did as she was told. Funny how kids were like that. "But we don't have to talk if you don't want to. We can just sit here."

Several minutes passed before Chloe spoke again. "I want to go home."

"Sure." Kara began to stand. "Uncle Danny should be back with the food any minute and..."

"No, I want to go home. To Connecticut. I want my mom and my dad and Evie and..."

Now Chloe was sobbing, her small body shaking, and Kara abruptly understood. Something that happened today had broken through Chloe's carefully reconstructed life. She wrapped her arms around the child, rocking them back and forth slightly. "Oh, honey, I wish that I could take you home. I really do."

"Why didn't Daddy come find me?" Chloe demanded, her head popping up suddenly. "He said he would. He promised, Aunt Kara. He said that I had to be really, really good and find the school and once he and Mommy and Evie were better that he would come get me. But he never did!"

God. Kara couldn't imagine what it was like for Zack, sick himself and caring for a mother, wife and daughter who were dying. Kara had no doubt that he said whatever he needed to say to get Chloe to go to the safe zone and stay there, never considering the emotional impact of a broken promise. No wonder Chloe reacted so very badly when Danny arrived. She had understood, without being told, what Danny's appearance meant.

Her family was gone.

"He wanted to come," Kara reassured Chloe. "He did, Chloe. He just got too sick. That's why he sent for Uncle Danny."

"Ashley lost her mom, but she got to keep her dad and her grandpa and her brother. I didn't get to keep anyone. They were all sick too. Why couldn't Uncle Danny bring us the cure in time?"

So that's what happened. Kara didn't fault Ashley. She was a child herself and had no reason to hide how sick she and Sam were. Besides, it was unfair that Chloe lost so much. No child should have to endure what she had endured. There was nothing that Kara could say to make any of this better.

Except, there was a way to make it worse, she realized, as she looked up to meet Danny's tormented eyes. He set down the pile of pizza boxes he was holding, apparently having seen them while making the trip from the Jeep to the house.

"I tried, Chloe. God as my witness, I tried." Danny bent down next to Chloe, and Kara could see the tears he was fighting. "And I miss your Dad — and your mom and Evie, but especially your dad — every minute of every day. I will never not miss him. Remember what he used to say? The two of us were like six of one..."

Chloe's head popped up, and despite her puffy and tear-streaked face, she smiled. "Half dozen of the other." Her smile faded. "Daddy said Evie and I were like that. We would always be together, even if we were far away, like you always were. He said he could just tell when you were in trouble." Chloe turned to Kara, her voice dropping. "And Uncle Danny was always in trouble. Daddy said so."

The torment on Danny's face was physically painful, and Kara reached out to grasp his hand, before turning back to Chloe. "You and Uncle Danny both remember your Dad and Mom and Evie. They're still alive in both of your hearts. No, it's not what you want, but maybe it would help for you to talk to each other and share stories. Maybe you can tell me some things about them that I don't know."

Chloe's face scrunched up for a moment, before she nodded. "I guess that would be okay. Uncle Danny?"

Kara could see him wavering, not sure he wanted to do that — maybe not even sure that he could talk about Zack. And half of her expected him to walk away, to leave her again.

To leave them.

But then he smiled at Chloe, standing up and scooping her into his arms as though she were a toddler. "What do you say we see who can tell the craziest story about your dad?"

Chloe giggled and then whispered something in Danny's ear and, despite the way his eyes closed for just a moment, as though the memory had hit him like a brick, Danny was smiling when he turned toward Kara. "I think it's time to go home."

Chapter Text

"Check mate."

Danny stared, incredulously, at the board. Had Chloe just beaten him, fair and square? He had been prepared to throw the game but the idea of her actually winning..

Kara started laughing. "I told you that she had gotten good."

Smirking, Chloe began picking up the pieces, rolling each other around in her hand like a cigar and pretending to blow on them the way someone would with chips in Las Vegas. "I even beat Uncle Tom."

"Do you know how Jed's surgery went?" Danny asked Kara, before realizing that he probably shouldn't have done so in front of Chloe. Jed's failing pacemaker had been a source of stress for the Chandler children, and by extension, Chloe. Locating a new pacemaker had been challenging but even worse was finding a surgeon capable of implanting it. Eventually Doctor Milowsky performed the surgery — despite having done it only a handful of times twenty years ago, before he transitioned to research full-time.

The only thing harder to find than trained military personnel, it appeared, were doctors.

Chloe was the one to answer. "Sam came back to school yesterday and said that his Grandpa was finally home from the hospital." Chloe turned slightly, her hands wringing. "People usually die in hospitals."

"That's not true, kiddo. Hospitals are where people go to get better," Danny rushed to correct.

Kara, on the other hand, continued shuffling the cards she was holding for the next game and, too late, Danny remembered Chloe's therapist telling him not to dismiss her concerns. Danny had met with the man twice now, the first time an update on Chloe's progress and then second more focused on how to address Chloe's lingering fears about being left to fend for herself. Concerns that, unfortunately, had been exasperated when Chloe and Debbie went into hiding. Danny had questioned why Chloe spent so much of her twice weekly sessions complaining about doing the dishes rather than talking about how she lived through a pandemic. The therapist — Danny couldn't bring himself to think of the guy as an actual person with a life outside of that office — had simply smiled and suggested that Chloe's focus on her current life was both a good thing and very common in young children. Danny half thought that the guy was messing with him.

Kara's voice was calm when she spoke. "During the pandemic, people died in hospitals because there was no cure. But Grandpa Jed needed a new pacemaker. That's something that a doctor can fix. Even better, if someone does get the Red Flu now, we have a cure."

Yup, that was a much better response.

Again, Danny wondered when — or if — he was ever going to get the hang of this parenting thing. As Kara dealt the cards for a game of hearts, Danny decided a change of topic was in order. "Your birthday is coming up soon, Chloe. What do you want to do?"

Chloe frowned over her cards. "Your birthday is first, Uncle Danny."

Danny set down a card. He had prepared for that reaction, thankfully. "I thought that this year I might skip my birthday."

"Because it's also Daddy's birthday?" Chloe asked, her voice merely curious. It had surprised Danny, at first, how Chloe could mention Zack and Mandy so casually. As if they were in the other room rather than dead. He asked Kara, who shrugged and said that Chloe seemed to enjoy talking about her parents and sharing memories. But it was only recently that Danny noticed how little Chloe talked about Evie.

He wondered if that was because she was having a harder time with her sister's death in the same way that Danny struggled more with losing Zack than he had with the loss of his mother. Not that he didn't miss his mother, but he didn't feel the same devastation. Or, Danny considered, maybe he just hadn't really processed that his mother was gone. After all, it wasn't unusual for Danny to be away for months and not to speak with his mother the entire time. That's what Kara would probably say, telling him that he wasn't dealing with the loss, the way she had back in Cuba.

Danny shoved the uncomfortable thought away, leaning closer. "Don't tell Aunt Kara, but I'm about to become an old man. Thirty-five. I was hoping that she wouldn't notice."

Chloe giggled, dropping her voice to match Danny. "I won't tell her if you don't." She raised her voice back up to normal volume. "You need to take Uncle Danny out to dinner for his birthday, Aunt Kara. Mommy and Daddy used to get a hotel but I don't think they have hotels any more." Chloe paused, clearly thinking, then perked up. "I can stay with Mimi. Then you'll have the house to yourself."

"That sounds like a great idea, Chloe," Kara said. But from the way Kara discarded the wrong card, Danny could tell that they had rattled her. Vaguely, Danny wondered if Kara even knew when his birthday was. Last year in the Arctic, Bacon usually made a point of doing something special for birthdays, but Danny was too new for the crew to realize that his had come and gone until it was too late. Not that he had grounds to complain if Kara didn't remember his birthday. He had forgotten that hers was in March until two days after the fact and definitely hadn't remembered to send a gift. Well, crap, now that he was thinking about it, Danny realized that he should probably do something to make up for that. It was too late to plan a birthday surprise, but maybe Kara would enjoy a date or two. Actually, with things with Chloe going better than expected, Danny should probably spend a little more time focusing on Kara and figuring out how he was going to convince her to make their temporary situation more permanent.

Of course, spending time with Kara alone exponentially increased the odds that he would mess everything up by accidentally saying the wrong thing.

Then don't say the wrong thing, jackass.

Missing Zack more than he thought possible, Danny dropped his cards to the table. "Anyone else want popcorn?"

"Me, me!" Chloe immediately yelled.

"Let's get the pan out, then," Danny ruffled Chloe's hair. "And then we can talk about what you want to do for your birthday."

xxxx

Alisha stopped in the middle of picking up her coffee cup, turning to look at Kara directly. "I'm sorry. I thought that you just asked me for ideas of where to take Green out to eat for his birthday."

"You heard correctly," Kara replied, scanning the small coffee shop for a place to sit. Although they would have been guaranteed a seat at Bacon's newly opened restaurant, there were times when Kara needed a break from the crew. Even if, she acknowledged as she took a sip of her drink, the coffee here was worse than the crap they served on the Nathan James when Mike wasn't around. Sighting a couple leaving a table in the corner, she made a beeline to it and snagged the seats just before another woman went to sit. Kara ignored the dirty look that the other woman shot her as Alisha walked sedately across the room.

Wiping off the table with a napkin, Alisha pinned Kara with an impatient look. "You're taking your fake husband out to eat for his birthday because the niece you're playacting for thought it would be nice for the two of you to have a night alone. When you will, presumably, chit-chat about work and how to get a divorce?"

"He's not my fake husband," Kara replied out of habit, not taking offense. After all, Alisha had been nothing but supportive when Kara agreed to take Chloe in. As Alisha pointed out to Debbie the night before Danny arrived back in town with Chloe in tow, it wasn't as if Danny was dumping a love-child on Kara or abandoning her pregnant ass. No, he was trying to do the best for his niece and if there was ever a time calling for desperate measures, that had been it. Alisha had given Tex the side-eye when he suggested Kara and Danny tie the knot but, again, she hadn't tried talking Kara out of the decision — merely noting that she hoped Kara knew what she was doing before going to find a judge willing to perform a courthouse ceremony.

"Which is why the divorce won't be fake either," Alisha pointed out. "I'm not even going to pretend that an annulment is a possibility. Green has been in far too good of a mood to be suffering from blue balls."

Kara frowned at the snappy comment. "What has you in such a piss-poor mood?"

Alisha sighed. "I got confirmation yesterday. About Sarah."

"Oh Al," Kara reached across the table to touch Alisha's hand. "I'm sorry. Did you find out what happened?"

Alisha's smile faltered, and Kara could see tears in her eyes. "She went to Norfolk. Isn't that crazy? I assumed that she was in Wisconsin with her family but she must have gone to Norfolk to wait for me. Her name was on the base hospital list. I didn't check because I never imagined that she was there."

Kara wished that she had words, something to say to help Alisha. But she didn't. Just like she hadn't had the words to help Danny when he lost the team. Kara felt a lump swell in her throat. Back then Kara hadn't imagined — couldn't have imagined — how terrible things would get. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, she could see how naive she had been thinking that Danny could move on after what he saw on that cruise ship. He had understood, far earlier than Kara, that the world they left behind was gone. Kara didn't think it had hit her, for real, until the day she joined the team on a trip to her hometown in Kansas.

Where they didn't find a single survivor.

Her father and stepmother were both gone, along with her aunts, uncles and cousins and even her childhood best friend. From the bits of information that Kara was able to piece together, she learned that the town was infected by the town mayor who went to a conference in Wichita designed to provide information about the virus and how to stop it. Worse, once the presence of the virus was confirmed, the National Guard moved in and enacted a barricade to ensure that nobody went in or out.

None of them had a chance.

Standing there, looking at the mass graves with only a few hasty crosses to mark them, Kara had felt empty. It wasn't simply that they were all dead. It was also the realization of how hopeless they must have all felt as one person after another died, knowing without any doubt that their fate was sealed. Strangely, that was the first thing Kara thought of when Danny called fifteen days later to tell her that his brother was dead, but one of his nieces had survived. Kara wondered how Zack found the courage — the optimism — to send Chloe down the road to find help. That was the real reason she agreed to take Chloe without hesitation. Or, at least part of the reason, no matter what anyone else thought. It wasn't about Danny, not entirely. It was because Zack put his faith in humanity in humanity to take care of his child, and she couldn't betray that act of faith and trust.

Recalling herself to the conversation, Kara squeezed Alisha's hand again. "Of course she came looking for you. Sarah loved you, Alisha. That was always clear."

Alisha snorted. "You never even met Sarah."

"I didn't need to meet her to know that she loved you," Kara argued. "And I'm sorry. I was really hoping for a different ending."

After everything that had happened to Alisha since the Nathan James left Norfolk a year ago, Kara had wanted her friend to find her girlfriend more than anything. Alisha deserved a little bit of happiness.

"Speaking of people who love you," Alisha said, clearly changing the topic, "what's going on with you and Green anyway? Because you're certainly looking very cozy hanging out in that house together playing family."

Kara struggled not to squirm. "We're ... not going to make any changes until we know what's happening long-term. As far as work, I mean. It's not fair to Chloe for her and Danny to move out, only for him to get deployed again a week later and have her move back in."

"So you're putting your life on hold for Chloe?" Alisha asked, head tipping. "Or for Danny?"

"My life's not on hold," Kara argued. "We're just figuring things out."

Alisha snorted. "You're so far down the rabbit hole that you can't see what's happening in front of your nose." She sighed, shaking her head. "Look, Kara, I like Green. And I think he cares about you or I would have told you to shut down his crazy marry-me-and-take-care-of-my-niece idea in half a second. But the two of you need to talk and make sure that you're on the same page so that you don't end up with your life in tatters."

The again hung between them.

Kara swallowed, pretending to drink her coffee to avoid meeting Alisha's eyes. Nothing that Alisha was saying was surprising. It was ridiculous that she went from a shipside affair to broken up and barely speaking to getting married and taking on a child without the two of them hashing anything out. But she was terrified that if she pushed for a commitment ...

She looked up, meeting Alisha's eyes. "What if he leaves and takes Chloe?"

Alisha sighed, leaning across the table to touch Kara's hand this time. "I don't think he's going to do that. At least, I don't think he would stop you from seeing Chloe. As for the other, well, then you pick up the pieces and move on. Kicking the can down the road isn't going to change anything."

"I know." And she did, truly. But just the idea of losing Danny and Chloe now, when she could finally see the hint of a future, was terrifying.

"Oh, and whatever you do, don't take Green to the Hangout," Alisha added. "If that isn't a phone-it-in birthday dinner, I don't know what is."

Laughing, Kara shook her head. "Got it. No Hangout. I'll think of something else." She lifted her coffee. "Now update me on the new electronics systems and how you've managed not to kill Val."

Chapter Text

"A date with the missus?" Tex teased when Danny dismissed his training group an hour earlier than usual. Although the kids looked slightly suspicious when Danny told them to take the night off and get some sleep, he meant it. After all, he was hoping to be out late tonight himself and didn't have any intention of doing a surprise inspection at 0500.

"Just dinner," Danny replied, focused on packing up the gear he had dragged out to the small clearing they had established as a usable obstacle course. "Chloe is staying with Debbie."

"Just dinner," Tex mimicked. "Where are you going?"

Shrugging, Danny offered. "Probably the Hangout. Kara's planning it but it's not like there's many options."

Tex stopped dead. "The Hangout?"

"What's wrong with the Hangout?" Danny asked. "Bacon's food is good, at least."

"Oh, Connecticut," Tex said, then started laughing as Sasha appeared at the edge of the clearing, a frown marring her face. "Uh-oh. Looks like the boss is not happy."

Danny sighed, waiting until Sasha got close enough to ask. "Laurens said that you released them early? Everything okay?"

"Green needs to get home for a hot date," Tex interjected, wiggling his eyebrows.

Ignoring the comment, Danny said. "I have plans tonight. I put it on the group calendar in the office."

Sasha frowned. "Is it a special occasion?"

From the way that Tex stiffened, Danny realized that he must know — or have guessed — the occasion. "No." The word came out sharper than Danny intended and he corrected, not wanting Sasha to get the wrong impression. "Early birthday celebration."

There was a short silence while Sasha processed that information. Then she raised an eyebrow. "With or without the kid?"

"Without." Tex waggled his eyebrows. "Hot date, I'm telling you. To the Hangout."

Danny frowned at him. "Not a hot date. It was Chloe's idea anyway. I couldn't exactly say no."

That got both of their attention, and Tex began hooting with laughter. "Ah, there's that romantic guy I met back in Cuba. Cooper, you should have seen him, insisting that it was totally over between him and the lovely KFG even as he mooned all over her like a sick puppy."

Sasha didn't answer, simply staring at Danny until he offered, "There was nothing going on in Cuba or after. No fraternization."

Sasha's eyebrow went higher. "Until you got married?"

"Because of Chloe," Danny rushed to explain.

As Tex began shaking his head in despair, Sasha blew out a breath. "I'm going to need a much better explanation if you plan to take the day off tomorrow, Green."

Danny frowned. "I'm not taking off tomorrow." When they both continued to look at him as though he was insane, Danny amended. "I guess we may be out late so I might skip PT but ..."

Sasha shook her head, groaning. "I hate to agree with Tex as a matter of principle, but this time he's right. You're clueless. First, we're going to talk. Then I'm going to have Tom put both you and Kara on leave for the next thirty-six hours. Something tells me that you're going to need every minute."

"You're going to tell Tom?" Danny asked, trying to deflect.

But Sasha was having none of it. "Don't even try."

xxxxx

"We aren't going to the Hangout?" Danny asked when Kara directed him to turn left, rather than right, at the end of the street.

Kara gave Danny a dry look. "I figured that you wouldn't want the entire crew watching us all evening. Stopping by the table to see how things were going. Asking us what we were celebrating. Suggesting where we could go next. Studying us like we're the prime attraction at the zoo."

Danny groaned. "Have they always been this annoying?"

"Yup," Kara chuckled. "Remember how bad your team was in the Arctic? Benz was constantly underfoot and then he would claim that he was just trying to give us cover. As if him following us around wasn't attracting more attention."

When Danny didn't immediately answer, Kara was afraid that she had mis-stepped by mentioning Frankie, but then Danny chuckled. "God, Frankie could be such an idiot. Always the best of intentions, but he was clueless around women. Almost as bad as Miller, if you can believe it."

"I can believe it," Kara muttered. "Actually, I think Benz was worse. Remember when he hit on Maya even after she told him that she had a boyfriend?" Before Danny could answer, she added. "Turn right here and then head out into the country."

Following the directions, Danny asked, "Since we aren't going to the Hangout, where are we going?"

"There's a place about five miles out of town. Before the pandemic, it was a working farm where they served breakfast — pancakes and that sort of thing, and rented out a few rooms. But recently they reopened around the clock serving new arrivals. I've helped them source funding and supplies a few times and they always offered to save a table for me. I decided to take them up on the offer."

Danny snorted. "So we're having dinner at a food kitchen?"

"It's not..." Kara stopped, realizing that she basically had described a food kitchen. "Fine. Sort of. But it's nice. And more importantly, private."

"Amen." Danny paused, then added. "Easier to talk without an audience."

Hoping that she wasn't misreading the situation, Kara reached over to set a hand on his leg. "Especially when that audience is either nine or has the subtlety of a nine-year-old."

Danny threw back his head and laughed and, for the first time in months, Kara felt like she was seeing the man she met last year in the Arctic. The guy who could always find a way to make her smile, no matter how shitty her mood. Alisha had been right. Getting out of St. Louis and away from the crew was exactly what they needed tonight.

And hopefully Danny would like the rest of his birthday gift as well, the spur-of-the-moment, last minute change Kara made after learning that there was no need for either of them to be back in St. Louis first thing in the morning.

xxxx

Danny was pleasantly surprised when they pulled into the parking lot to find that the place appeared to be more of a bed and breakfast than the dinner he was anticipating. Sure, there were plenty of people hanging around, either sitting picnic tables or wandering around the grounds aimlessly, indicating that they either lived here or were staying for a while, but the farmhouse itself seemed nice enough and, as Kara had pointed out, at least they wouldn't have the crew breathing down their neck.

He was even more impressed when they entered the main building. Inside were actual tables, with real chairs and table clothes and even what appeared to be candles. Danny was abruptly very glad that he had put on a button-down shirt and grabbed a blazer, even if he had told Sasha that she was nuts when she told him that his Carhartt's and waffle shirt weren't going to cut it. Kara spoke to someone at the door who seemed to know her well, if the smiles were any indication, and then turned to introduce Danny.

In fluent Spanish.

Danny had no idea that Kara even spoke Spanish. But, from the fact that she hadn't hesitated in using Spanish in front of him, Kara clearly knew that he spoke Spanish. His confidence dimming slightly, Danny wondered how the hell he had missed the fact that his wife spoke at least one other language.

He was so focused on the discovery that it was the first thing he blurted out once they were seated at a table located in a corner, a spot with both maximum privacy and a view of the entire room. "I didn't know that you spoke Spanish."

Kara paused in the act of picking up her menu — which was a piece of paper with food options written in neat block print. "I was stationed in Rota for a year."

Now Danny was more confused. There were plenty of people stationed in Rota, and few of them bothered to learn the language. "You're good with languages if you picked it up that easily. Do you speak anything else?"

But Kara was fiddling with her menu. After a moment she sighed. "My grandmother, my dad's mother, was from Mexico. He was fluent. When I was little he always spoke to me in Spanish. I didn't use it much after he left but it came back quickly in Rota. It's come in handy recently."

That, Danny could believe. During the time the Nathan James was working its way around Cape Horn, there were days when Danny didn't speak a word of English from the moment he left the Nathan James until the moment he returned. But he didn't want to talk about work tonight. "Your parents split when you were eight, right?"

Kara gave a tight smile. "Yes. I didn't see my father much after that. He had someone else. He moved out and they got married pretty much right away and he forgot that he had a daughter for the next ten years."

"Clearly he sucked," Danny said, realizing too late that it wasn't the nicest thing to say about a man who died only a few months ago.

Thankfully, Kara laughed. "He did. He even admitted that he sucked when we finally patched things up."

"How did you get back in touch?" Danny asked, hoping that this wasn't something they talked about in the Arctic and that he had forgotten. But while he knew that Kara's father left her and Debbie, and he knew that, at some point, Kara and her father started talking again, he didn't recall talking about any of the specifics.

Kara shrugged. "He tried calling a few times when I was in high school, even showed up at my high school graduation. I wouldn't talk to him. But when I was in the Naval Academy, it occurred to me that he could die sometime when I was deployed." She paused, as if it had just hit her that her father had died while she was deployed and Danny reached over to squeeze her hand. Kara gave him a tight smile. "Anyway, it took a while, but eventually I decided to call him back. We started having lunch when I was in town."

"How did you get along?" Danny asked, curious.

"Fine." Kara shrugged. "It wasn't the kind of father-daughter bond that my friends would talk about. But I'm glad I got to know him again as an adult. It gave me some perspective on what happened." She paused, looking up. "He wasn't a bad guy. He and Debbie were polar opposites, and I got caught in the middle of that mess, but he had some good points." Then she flashed him a smile. "Not every guy can be like you."

Danny was trying to process what that meant as their server arrived to take their order and once again surprised Danny by having wine available. He cocked an eyebrow at Kara. "You want to drink and I'll drive?"

"Actually," Kara said, not quite meeting his eyes, "if you want to stay, they have a cabin that's open. Debbie is already planning to take Chloe to school tomorrow morning, so she won't be worried if we don't make it back."

The question hung for half a second before Kara added, "Unless you need to be back at work early, of course."

It took Danny another three seconds to realize that Kara was proposing an overnight — and was giving him an out.

As if he needed that.

Danny found himself smiling, grinning actually. "Sounds good to me."

Chapter Text

Kara turned to the server. "We'll have a bottle." After the server disappeared, Kara leaned across the table to add. "Tom said that you and Sasha were doing paperwork tomorrow, and didn't need to be in by a specific time so he gave me the day off."

Since that had definitely not been Sasha's plan before she spoke to Tom, Danny was convinced that Sasha, or perhaps Tex, was doing a bit of matchmaking. "Sasha told me not to bother coming in."

"Perfect." Kara's smile was worth whatever ribbing he was going to take upon his return. Then Kara returned to the prior topic. "The stuff with my dad...that's one of the reasons why I said yes about taking Chloe. You got thrown into this crazy situation and were still trying to do what was right for her." Kara looked away. "You're already a better dad than I ever had. I mean that, Danny."

He blinked, then nodded, acknowledging her statement, even though every part of him wanted to argue. All he had done for the past six months was screw things up. He wasn't going to do that tonight. "What was the other reason?"

Kara fiddled with her fork. "Zack. He sent Chloe to the safe zone blindly, trusting that someone would take care of her. I didn't want to let him down."

"I should have stayed here," he said abruptly. "Taken care of her. That's what Zack would have done."

Kara raised an eyebrow. "You mean, because that's what Zack did when Mandy got pregnant?"

"Yes."

"You know that it's different, right Danny?" Kara's voice was soft. "If you stayed here, who would have taken your place on the Nathan Janes? Because I can tell you the answer to that. There wasn't anyone, Danny. Those ships were operating with a bare-bone crew. There was nobody to spare to put on the ground teams. If you weren't there, it would have just taken longer. Time that those people didn't have."

Danny knew all of that, had heard it from a dozen different people. Hell, he could see it himself as he attempted to scrounge up enough people to send out more teams back in January. Still, he couldn't quite meet her eyes.

"That's not why I left, though." The words hung in the air, and Danny hoped he wasn't ruining everything by admitting the truth. But isn't that what he had decided to do? Put everything on the table and then see if Kara was still willing to stick around? "I was a mess, Kara. I needed time to get my head on straight. So I dumped Chloe on you and I left. Not because they needed me, but because I needed to get out of here."

Kara gave him a sad smile. "I know that, Danny."

"You do?" He felt dumbstruck and yet, there was a relief in having admitted the truth and not having Kara immediately walk away. He wondered how he would have reacted if, when he made that call to Kara from Connecticut, she had said no.

He was pretty sure he wouldn't be sitting here right now listening to her side of the story.

Just then, their wine arrived and the server made a production of opening the bottle and pouring the glasses. Given how difficult it was to even find wine these days, Danny didn't want to be a jerk by rushing the man, but he really just wanted to tell him to get lost. And then, when the guy pouring the wine was finally done, someone came by to drop off their appetizers. While Danny's mouth was watering from the mere smell of the meatballs, he would have gladly sent them back if people would just leave them alone for five minutes.

For the first time, Danny wished that they were back in the house in St. Louis, just the two of them, where they could simply talk. This was almost as bad as going to The Hangout. Maybe worse, since here Danny couldn't tell the people to get lost the way he would with Burk or Miller.

Fortunately, Kara didn't try to change the topic once they were finally alone. She picked up her fork to scoop up a beet from her salad and then looked up. "We were all messed up after everything that happened, Danny. You were hardly the only one to escape into work. We all did. If you had stayed here with Chloe, you would have ended back up in the field anyway. You would never have been able to stay away. "

Danny blinked, protesting. "I could have trained the teams, like I'm doing now."

She shook her head. "There was no training. We were putting everybody out the second we could. Tex made it work because Kat traveled with him, but Chloe was too young. Who would have watched her while you were gone?" Kara asked. Danny would have liked to protest but he couldn't — something Kara clearly knew because she continued. "I couldn't do it alone either. I had help from Debbie and Jed and even Tex on occasion."

"So not me being a toddler who dropped his lollipop?" Danny asked, but his attempt to make a joke fell flat.

Kara sighed, picking up her glass and taking a sip before meeting his eyes. "That wasn't fair of me. I was lucky. I found my mother in Norfolk and I wasn't on the ground teams. I didn't understand. Not really. Not until we got to Kansas."

"Your dad," Danny said quietly. God that had been awful. He had been too numb by then to truly consider what those people went through, stuck in a quarantine zone being enforced by the military. Some would almost certainly have tried to run. Danny wondered whether the guards looked sideways or followed orders. He tried to imagine what he would have done if he had been here when everything went down and he was one of those people enforcing the quarantine. Knowing that every single person on the other side of the line was about to die. But also knowing that holding the line was the only way to prevent more people from being infected.

The choice was unfathomable.

Randomly, Danny wondered whether Zwick had been thrown into that type of situation. It might explain some of the guy's issues with authority.

Kara nodded, then added, her voice a whisper. "Yes."

"Zack died in October," Danny offered. "He almost made it. Just a couple more months and..."

"There's nothing you could have done," Kara replied. "Just like there's nothing I could have done for my father, even if I was here." She met his eyes. "I've thought a lot about it. I would have enforced that line. I couldn't have lived with myself if I let someone leave and they infected more people."

Danny didn't answer the unspoken question. Instead, he said, "Zack left me a letter. Did I tell you that?"

"No." Kara tipped her head before taking another bite of her salad. "What did it say?"

"He said that he knew that I was still alive. He was convinced that he would have known if I died. That he would have felt it." Danny pushed his meatballs around the bowl. "It made me wonder...well, if he was right. I thought it was all about Frankie, the way that I lost it at Gitmo. But maybe it was more than that. Maybe..."

Kara wasn't slow. "Maybe that's when Zack died too."

"Yes." Danny popped a meatball into his mouth, barely tasting the thing. "I'm not trying to make excuses. I screwed up, both with you and with the Captain. But..." Danny stopped, wishing he was better with words, before going back to pushing his meatballs around. "Zack and I were together from the moment we were born. No matter what else was going on, I knew that he had my back. I never doubted that — not for a single moment. And then, all of a sudden, I was alone. I ... I don't know how to live without Zack, Kara. It's like half of me is dead."

When Kara didn't respond, he finally looked up, to see a tear rolling down Kara's face. Swiping it away, Kara leaned over to take his hand, her voice fierce. "I don't expect you to have all the answers, Danny. All I want is for you to let me be there as you figure them out. It's all I've ever wanted."

His heart lurched. "Even now? After everything?"

"Even now," Kara replied, her lips curling. Then she sobered. "But, Danny, you can't shut me out again like you did back then. I have to know that you're not going to walk away again. I can't..." she paused. "I can't watch you do that to Chloe."

Danny turned his palm, squeezing her hand, understanding that this was about more than just what happened back in Cuba. "That's not going to happen. I know that we got married for the wrong reason..."

"No," Kara interrupted. "Not for the wrong reason. Just maybe not for the right one."

"But I want to give this — give us — a chance," Danny continued, needing to finish and get everything out on the table. "A real chance. Not just for Chloe, but for me."

And not screw it up this time.

Kara smiled. "Me too."

Suddenly, the meatballs tasted a hell of a lot better. He grinned at Kara. "You didn't know when my birthday was before Chloe said something, did you?"

Rolling her eyes, Kara speared a beat. "I forgot temporarily, that's all. Besides, it's not like you did anything for my birthday."

She met his gaze as she popped the beet into her mouth and, in the next instant, they were both laughing. Tension broken, Danny leaned forward. "How about we celebrate both of our birthdays tonight?"

Kara raised an eyebrow. "I took you out to dinner and got a room for the night. What did you get for me?"

Danny bit down on his lip. "Oh, I think I can come up with something."

Laughing, Kara rolled her eyes again as their main courses arrived. "Oh, you are going to pay for that."

"I look forward to it."

xxxxx

Kara woke up slowly, snuggling back against Danny for several long moments before a niggling sense that she was forgetting something forced her to consciousness. She blinked at the sunlight streaming through the windows of one of the farmhouse cabins. The room was comfortable, although Kara suspected that the mattress was past the point of needing to be replaced. Unfortunately, furniture hadn't yet risen to the point of priority for the reconstituted government so, unless they happened to still have some pre-virus mattresses stuck in a backroom somewhere, it was unlikely to be going anywhere anytime soon. Kara made a mental note to have Tex check a few Costos.

Checking her watch, Kara was surprised to see that she had slept until almost eight o'clock. Since, on a normal day, she woke at five without her alarm, she hadn't expected to sleep so late. But she supposed it was the combination of finally talking to Danny and then being up most of the night enjoying the fact that there was no nine-year-old down the hall who might interrupt at any moment. Recalling, first, that Chloe was with Debbie and therefore already at school and, second, that neither she nor Danny had to get to work anytime soon, Kara relaxed back against the bed. She turned her head towards Danny to see if she had woken him and found him studying her. He had a five o'clock shadow across his chin and the shadows under his eyes were more pronounced than usual, ironically most likely because they had slept late, but his eyes seemed calmer, somehow.

And then Danny smiled, and Kara forgot about everything else as she wrapped her arms around his neck, enjoying this simple moment between the two of you. She leaned forward to brush her lips across his. "I love you."

She had never said it before. Not in the Arctic, where she still wasn't entirely sure that their totally inappropriate relationship was going to survive longer than it took for Danny to walk off the Nathan James, no matter what he said to the contrary. Their fight after the Nathan James left Cuba when Danny yelled those words at her certainly hadn't been the right moment to respond. The idea of telling him after the Nathan James arrived in St. Louis had occurred to her, as a way of breaking the tension that had grown between them. But in the chaos of initially spreading the cure, finding out her father and his family were dead, and then figuring out what to do about Chloe, the idea of throwing such a charged declaration into the mix felt like a disaster waiting to happen. After weeks of Danny's emails being signed love, Danny, she considered doing the same but, again, something stopped her.

Now, watching the smile that lit not just Danny's mouth but also his eyes, Kara understood why she had waited. Because she had wanted this. A moment in time when the outside world felt far away and they could just be here, together, and happy.

"I love you too."

Chapter Text

Danny was whistling as he swung out of the Jeep and headed towards Chloe's school. He and Kara might not have gotten much sleep last night, but it had been worth it. For the first time since he arrived in St. Louis, or perhaps for the first time since he learned about the virus, Danny thought that everything might just work out. Things with Kara seemed to be back on track and, while there were still moments, Chloe seemed to be adjusting more and more to life here in St. Louis.

Or maybe he was just getting better at this substitute-parent thing.

This time when he took his spot near the school entrance, there were a few nods. Nobody approached him, but Danny now understood that it had nothing to do with either him or his uniform. The virus had impacted them in ways that he never would have imagined, and one of those ways was the slight suspicion of others that now seemed prevalent. Trust was more difficult when you had seen neighbor turn on neighbor over the last can of beans, just as helping a casual acquaintance felt much more dangerous when doing so might result in the death of your entire family.

"Hi Uncle Danny!" Chloe called, tripping down the steps.

Danny gave Mrs. Jenkins a wave as he took Chloe's hand. "How was Mimi's house?"

"Mimi let me stay up late and watch a movie. We had pizza and popcorn. I suggested that we play a game of chess but Mimi doesn't know how to play!" Chloe shook her head. "Can you believe that?"

Danny had no problem believing that Debbie did not play chess. He opened the door to the Jeep, tossing Chloe's backpack into the back seat. "I guess you'll have to teach her."

"That's a great idea!" Chloe replied, practically bouncing up and down. "Where did you and Aunt Kara go for dinner? What did you eat? Was it good? Aunt Kara sometimes takes me to The Hangout for lunch and Bacon always makes me macaroni and cheese just the way I like it."

Danny chuckled as he imagined Bacon making Chloe macaroni and cheese from a box, which she continued to insist was the best kind. "Slow down, Hi-Lo. Let me answer one at a time."

Chloe was still asking questions when they arrived at the house. As Danny leaned into the backseat to get her backpack, Chloe gasped. "I almost forgot! I made you a birthday card."

"Do you want me to look at it now or later?" Danny asked. He and Kara had deliberately planned their birthday celebration a week early so that they would be here, with Chloe, for Danny's actual birthday — which was also Zack's birthday obviously. But he wasn't sure yet how Chloe imagined that day going.

"Now!" Chloe pulled something out of her backpack. She grinned as Danny took the small book, clearly made out of folded paper. It was immediately evident that she had put a lot of work into each page, outlining the pictures with pencil and then coloring them in. Underneath each picture were the words Uncle Danny loves...

"I drew all of your favorite things!" Chloe explained, bouncing up and down. "There's Aunt Kara, and Halsey. And that's you in your uniform. Then I drew the Yankees, because you love them. Also, a bunch of green things, since green is your favorite color. We're the green Greens! Oh, and those are the people from Game of Thrones. Although I don't really know what they look like since I wasn't allowed to watch that show."

As Danny flipped through the pages, listening to Chloe's chatter, he felt himself growing colder and colder, until he was completely numb, the sense of contentment he had felt thirty minutes earlier gone as though it had never existed. There was a pause, and Danny glanced up to see Chloe looking at him expectantly. Her smile dimmed slightly. "Don't you like it?"

Danny thought about how much work Chloe put into this book, forcing himself to smile. "I love it. You're getting really good at drawing dogs, too. I'm super impressed by how you drew Halsey." He narrowed his eyes at her, before reaching forward and pretending to grab her nose. "Now the big question is where I should put it so everyone can see."

xxxxx

Danny was in the bathroom when he heard Kara come in. He quickly finished brushing his teeth, slipping into bed. Although they were supposed to have the day off, Kara had gone into the office for a few hours while he picked up Chloe, and had seemed exhausted when she got home.

"I saw the book that Chloe made you for your birthday," Kara said as she changed into her pajamas. She chuckled. "Kids are so funny. Imagine thinking that you actually liked the Yankees."

"It was Zack's favorite team." Danny heard the bitterness in his voice.

Kara turned towards him, studying him for a moment, before sitting on the edge of the bed. "Kids goof stuff like that up all the time, Danny. Remember when Chloe told Burk that my favorite drink was milk because that's what we always have in the refrigerator?"

Danny swallowed, wanting to believe that's all this was. But he knew better. "Zack loved the color green. He had a dozen green shirts and wore them all the time. He thought it was hysterical to be a Green in green. And Game of Thrones was his favorite show. He read all of the books. I've never even seen it. But Chloe thought that was me. She's forgetting him, Kara. Or," Danny swallowed, wondering if this was worse, "she's ... blending us. Turning us into one person."

Her hand settled on his, and Danny turned his palm until their fingers intertwined. "She's only nine, Danny, and he's been gone almost a year. That's a long time for a child. More than a tenth of her life."

A tenth of her life.

The words echoed in Danny's head. He had never thought about it that way. He had Zack for more than thirty-four years. He could reach sixty-eight and still have spent half of his life with his brother. Chloe would have spent the majority of her life as an orphan before she turned eighteen. By the time Chloe turned thirty-five, she would have lived longer than not just her sister but also both of her parents.

"The person she's describing in that book. It isn't me," Danny said, struggling to explain. "Zack, well, Zack was the one who did everything right. Got married, had kids, did his time in the Navy and then got a safe job back in Connecticut. I was the rebellious one. The one who was always in trouble for pulling pranks. The girls actually used to beg for Uncle Danny stories to make them laugh. And now..."

"And now?" Kara asked softly.

"I feel like I'm stealing his life," Danny admitted.

"You aren't stealing his life," Kara corrected. "You're creating a new one." When he didn't respond, Kara continued. "For what it's worth, the Danny that you're describing isn't the one that I know either — not even the guy I remember from the Arctic. Maybe it was you, back years ago. Or maybe you filled that role around your family because you could. You could be the fun uncle because you didn't need to be a parent. But it doesn't define you."

Danny's jaw tightened. "That book should have been for Zack."

"Yes," Kara said softly. "You're right. It should be Zack getting that book. And Chloe should be in Connecticut with Zack and Mandy and Evie right now. And we should be in Norfolk celebrating your birthday with Benz, Berchem, and Smith. None of this should have happened, Danny. None of it. But it did and all we can do now is pick up the pieces and move on the best that we can."

Danny's chest felt so tight that he could barely breathe. "Kara..."

But she wasn't done, her eyes glued to him. "You can't keep punishing yourself for surviving when Zack died, Danny. It's not fair to you or to Chloe."

"Not fair to Chloe?" Danny repeated, frowning at her.

Kara sighed, looking down at their hands, before meeting his eyes. "Chloe looks at you and sees you, Uncle Danny, not her father. Because you're the one who is here. But you look at Chloe and still see Zack's child. You need to start seeing her as just Chloe."

"You mean that I need to accept that Zack's dead," Danny said flatly.

He heard Kara's sharp intake of breath. "Yes."

"Because it's not fair to Chloe." Danny nodded. He understood that, even without Kara telling him. He wanted Chloe to be happy, not spending all of her time thinking about the family she lost.

"No Danny." When he looked up, Kara's eyes were teary. "I mean, yes, it's not fair to Chloe. But it's also not fair to you. You can't spend your life feeling guilty that you lived when your brother died. Or that you're now Chloe's dad instead of her uncle. Or even that you are no longer the person you became when you were around Zack. If you can't accept that, it will destroy you."

"That's who we are — who we were, Kara. Danny and Zack. Zack and Danny. Six of one and half of the other." He drew in a breath, his chest tight. "I don't know who I am without him."

Kara leaned forward to wrap her arms around him, and that's when Danny realized that he was crying. "You may not know, but I do. You've always just been Danny to me."

As his arms closed around Kara, Danny wondered if he could ever see himself that way.

Just Danny.

Chapter Text

"Look, Uncle Danny! Look at the bounce house!" Chloe shouted, jumping up and down as though she was already inside the thing.

Danny grinned at her, glancing around the small festival that Chloe had chosen to attend for what Chloe had taken to calling Chlony Day rather than his birthday, wiggling his eyebrows. "Think that they'll let me jump."

"You're too big!" Chloe responded, running towards the display.

Danny checked the sign near the bouncy house, confirming that they were accepting newly printed banknotes. When the entire banking system went down, people grabbed as much cash as possible. It turned out, however, that the United States never actually printed enough cash for daily use, depending in large measure on credit card and other bank transactions. While President Oliver had managed to get the banking system up and running again, there simply wasn't sufficient infrastructure to turn back on credit cards. Instead, President Oliver decided to print additional banknotes — and immediately ran into a problem. None of the paper that dollar bills were printed on seemed to be available, likely hidden somewhere deep in the Department of the Treasury in Washington, D.C. So, instead, Danny and Kara were both being paid in the new currency, printed on slightly yellow paper that not everyone accepted.

A few minutes later, Chloe was happily jumping in the brightly colored blow up and Danny was standing to the side, enjoying the slight wind that made the heat a little less oppressive. As far as birthdays went, this actually hadn't been his worst, having spent more than a few deployed and at least one getting shot at. There had been no mention of birthdays or celebrations or cake. Instead, Danny told Chloe to pick whatever she wanted to do for the afternoon and then they would head home to make pizza with Kara for dinner. Danny had expected to be miserable the entire day, spending the entire time thinking about Zack. But other than a moment this morning when he woke up and his first thought was that he needed to call his brother, the day had been good.

Tonight, Danny might even be willing to look at those photo albums Chloe loved to flip through, the ones filled with pictures of her.

"Zack! Hey, Zack! It's me, Craig!"

Danny wasn't sure how long the man had been calling before the words penetrated. He was turning towards the voice when the man grabbed his arm. Instinct had Danny catching the stranger's wrist and twisting it behind his back, watching the way the man's excitement flipped into confusion.

"Zack, it's me, man. Craig. From New London. What's wrong with you?"

Shit.

The last thing Danny needed, especially with Chloe here, was a fight. Dropping the man's arm, Danny quickly checked that Chloe was still jumping. "My name isn't Zack."

"Is there a problem, Commander Green?"

Danny fought a scowl as Marcus Welker appeared. While the man had never been a particular problem, he was part of Zwick's crew, meaning that Danny didn't completely trust him. Especially in a situation involving Chloe.

The stranger's bewildered stare swung from Danny to Welker and back. "What the hell's going on? I've known Zack here for ten years. Don't you remember me? Craig Tucker."

"I'm not Zack," Danny replied shortly, searching for Chloe in the hope of making a quick escape. They were attracting far too much attention, and he could feel the back of his neck growing hot.

He needed to get Chloe out of here.

"But..."

Welker stepped closer to Craig. "I don't know what you're smoking but push off. This here's one of the guys from the Nathan James. Commander Daniel Green."

"No, that's Zack Green," Craig protested again, his voice belligerent. "I would know him anywhere."

In the worst of timing, Chloe picked that moment to come skipping up. "Uncle Danny! Can we get ice cream?" Catching sight of Marcus, she smiled. "Hi Mr. Welker. Is Little Mark here?"

At the sight of a child, Craig backed off slightly, his expression fading from confusion into sadness. Still, Danny wasn't taking any chances, shifting so he was between Chloe and Craig. Puzzled by how Chloe knew the guy but deciding that Welker was the lesser of two evils at the moment, he made a snap decision. "Chloe, can you go stay with Mr. Welker for a minute? Then I'll get your ice cream."

"How about you go find Little Mark and I'll get both of you some ice cream," Welker said. "Sound okay to you, Commander?"

Danny wasn't sure if Welker was being annoying or respectful by using the shiny new title that Slattery dumped on him last week, but Danny decided that he didn't care. "Sure. Just stay close."

Craig remained quiet until Chloe was gone, but Danny could see that his face was now somber. Realizing how close they still were to a number of families, Danny nodded towards a quieter area. When Craig turned, Danny fell in beside the man. "I'm Danny Green. I suspect that you knew my brother Zack."

"You look just like him," Craig said quietly, frowning as though he still couldn't quite believe what he was seeing.

Danny sighed. "We were twins. Identical twins."

"So...he didn't make it?" Craig asked, but there was a twinge of a question in his voice. "Was the little girl his daughter? I only met Mandy and the girls once but she looks just like her Daddy."

"Yes, she does." Danny swallowed. "Only Chloe made it. How did you know Zack?"

"We were both stationed at New London for a while. Our paths crossed a lot about five years ago, when I was doing IT for the hospital there. I saw him less after I transferred." Craig scuffed his foot. "Sorry I grabbed you back there. I was just so damn happy to see someone that I knew..."

Danny felt abruptly sorry for the guy. "You have people here in St. Louis?"

"No." Craig hesitated, then continued. "I lost my wife early on, we didn't have kids. Pretty much everyone I knew from before is dead. People say that I'm lucky but, damn, it doesn't always feel that way. I heard that there were jobs and food and I figured, no reason to stay in Connecticut."

Danny wondered if the man was immune, and simply didn't want to say that he watched everyone he loved die. Danny pulled a card from his pocket. "You said that you worked in IT?"

"Yup. What's that?" Craig asked, even as he was taking the card.

"I have some friends who are always looking for computer experts," Danny explained. He had no idea if this guy was actually any good at what he did but the nice thing about Val was that she didn't care about telling people that they sucked and to get lost. He had done his good deed for the day. "I have to get back to Chloe. Good luck."

"Thanks." Craig still looked sad, but perhaps a little better than he had a few minutes before.

Still rattled, Danny waited until the man disappeared into the crowd before going to find Chloe. He quickly located Welker, Chloe and a boy who looked to be about Chloe's age who Danny assumed was Little Mark. He smiled at Chloe as he approached. "Hey there Hi-Lo. How's the ice cream?"

Chloe wrinkled her nose. "I asked for mint chocolate for you, but they don't have any. Only vanilla and chocolate. Sorry, Uncle Danny."

Since the ice cream was likely made by hand, Danny wasn't surprised. He nodded towards Little Mark. "Introduce me to your friend."

"Oh, I forgot." Chloe beamed at the boy. "Uncle Danny, this is Little Mark. We got to school together but I'm in third grade and he's in fourth grade with Sam. Little Mark, this is my Uncle Danny. He was on the Nathan James, but I'm not really supposed to tell people that. But your dad already knows." Chloe's face scrunched up. "It's okay to tell people who already know, isn't it?"

"How about we just don't say anything in public," Danny replied, feeling uncomfortable. He had agreed with Kara that keeping a lower profile was a good idea, but he didn't want Chloe to think they would be upset with her for slipping. He smiled at the boy. "Nice to meet you, Little Mark."

Welker reached over to tussle the boy's hair. "I've been telling my boy here all about the training we're doing here. Getting ourselves ready to go kick some Red Flu ass."

Chloe's eyes popped and she leaned towards Danny, whispering. "He said a bad word!"

Fighting a smile, Danny leaned down. "Grown-ups can do that. Just don't tell Aunt Kara."

Shrugging, Chloe jumped up. "Can we go see the animals?"

Uncertain if she was talking to him or Little Mark, Danny hesitated. Little Mark did not. "Let's go."

Danny trailed behind, Welker next to him. When he was certain that Chloe couldn't hear, Danny spoke quietly. "Thank you for watching her. That guy was fine, but you never know."

"Yeah, I get it." Welker finished off his ice cream and pitched the cup into a trash container. "I lost my wife in the riots. Never could have imagined that happening somewhere like Wichita."

"I'm sorry."

Welker shrugged. "Happened to all of us. The woman I've seen with Chloe. Is that your wife or your sister-in-law?"

"My wife," Danny replied, uncomfortable with the conversation even though it was obvious Welker was simply trying to figure out if Chloe had lost her mother too. Deciding that this was too good of an opportunity to pass up, he asked. "What's Zwick's deal?"

"Zwick?" Welker didn't seem surprised. "Well, he's kind of an ass. But not a bad guy at the end of the day. Mostly he just doesn't trust anyone. Not after what went down."

"Trust runs two ways," Danny pointed out. "He's asking us to take a chance on him too."

Welker chuckled. "Sure, but he doesn't see it that way. He's coming around. Plus, he needs the job. His wife's sick and they have a bunch of kids. Military gives you the best health benefits you can get. Plus, actual cash."

While Zwick was far from the only person to sign up for those reasons — hell, most of the kids that Danny was training joined because it was the only real option they could see that resulted in a roof over their head and a full belly — Danny wasn't feeling reassured. "Think he'll scat as soon as she's better?"

"The wife?" Welker asked, as though surprised. "Oh, it's not the Red Flu. She's got liver cancer. Probably needs a transplant but the chances of that happening are about zilch."

Welker was right, but Danny made a mental note to tell Sasha to loop in Doctor Milowsky. The man still had some connections and might know of some treatment options that hadn't been discussed yet. Deciding a change of topic was in order, Danny moved the conversation over to Little Mark and how he was doing at school and how thankful both men were that school was running over the summer given how chaotic the last year had been. Thirty minutes later, they parted with the kids begging to get together the next week and Danny proposing an outing involving the Chandler children that seemed to have impressed Welker. Assuming it happened, Danny planned to have Sasha stop by. This might be their opportunity to break through to the trainees.

Chloe took his hand as they left the fair. "I'm sorry that man thought you were Daddy. It must have made you think about him, and I know that you didn't want to think about him today."

She had been taking care of him.

Stunned, Danny stopped walking. All day, he had been trying to keep things light for Chloe, and she had been doing the same for him. Maybe he had been doing this all wrong. Perhaps the better option would be to face Zack's ghost head-on. He knelt down next to her. "I was thinking. When we get home, how about we look at the old photo albums? The ones from when your dad and I were kids and celebrated our birthdays. What do you think? Good plan?"

Chloe beamed. "Good plan."

Chapter Text

With a gasp, Kara tossed her head back as Danny placed a lingering kiss on her collarbone. His hand moved to her waist and Kara lifted a leg, wrapping it around his thigh and pulling him closer. This week had been a bear, and it had been too long since they had the energy to do anything more than fall into bed at night and drag themselves up in the morning. Danny's head dipped to her breast.

Which gave Kara a perfect view of the door to their bedroom swinging open.

"Gah!"

In a flurry of arms and legs, Kara scrambled for the bedsheets. Her panic had instantly reached Danny, who jumped out of the bed, spinning around to face ...

"Chloe?"

His voice was shocked and Danny's hands immediately dropped to his crotch even though he was still wearing his underwear, thank god. Feeling around for her shirt while holding the sheet, Kara was just thankful that they hadn't hit the point of losing the rest of their clothes. Chloe swayed as she walked towards Danny. "I don't feel good."

The last word was barely out of Chloe's mouth before she bent over and vomited all over the floor.

xxxxx

"Well," Tex said as he settled himself on the kitchen bar stool, "good news is that the kid is so sick she probably won't remember seeing you in your birthday suit."

Danny barely stopped himself from spitting coffee all over the counter. "I wasn't naked," he hissed, checking to make sure that Chloe wasn't close enough to overhear. "But we were, you know, when she walked in. Do you think she knows what we were, um, doing?"

Tex didn't bother hiding his mirth. "Do I think a nine-year-old girl knows about sex? Beats the hell out of me. I went from giving kisses to teddy bears to getting yelled at for buying the wrong tampons. Who knew that the things weren't all the same?"

Danny took some comfort in the fact that he did know that there were different types and sizes of tampons, not that there was much use in the skill these days when just finding tampons was half impossible. "What if we traumatized her for life?"

"We didn't," Kara said, walking into the kitchen and giving Tex a half hug. She shot Danny a look that could be interpreted as either exhaustion or irritation. Danny decided to treat it as exhaustion and poured her a cup of coffee. "Once I convinced her that she didn't have the Red Flu and wasn't going to die, she wanted to know if we were trying to have a baby."

This time Danny did spit out his coffee, thankfully hitting the counter rather than his wife, who was now definitely irritated. As Danny grabbed a sponge, she turned to Tex. "Thank you for bringing over supplies. What did you find?"

Still chuckling, Tex began emptying the bag. "Rios didn't have any of that pink stuff we used to give Kat, but he sent over some Pedialyte. I stopped by the store and got a bunch of crackers and some chicken noodle soup. Not the good kind, but the kid probably won't care. Rios said that keeping her hydrated was key and to call if she seemed to be getting worse."

"Sasha said Sam and Ashley are sick too," Danny added.

Kara raised an eyebrow. "Just how much time does Cooper spend at the Chandler house?"

From what Danny could tell, the woman was either there or at work, but he figured it really wasn't his business so he shrugged. "Sasha also said that none of us should come in until everyone is symptom free for 24 hours."

"Guess that's my sign to skedaddle," Tex said, backing towards the door. "Maybe I'll put Zwick in charge of the kids, just for the hell of it."

As Tex disappeared out the door, Danny turned to Kara. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired," she admitted, her shoulders slumping. "And a little nauseous. I can't tell if I'm actually sick or just grossed out from cleaning up puke all morning."

"Head to bed and get some sleep," Danny said, hoping for the latter. So far he felt fine, but he knew from past experience with the stomach flu that it didn't mean much. "I'll keep an eye on Chloe. Is she sleeping?"

"No, watching a show on the tablet," Kara replied. "I'm sure that she would appreciate some company."

Nodding, Danny grabbed a container of Pedialyte and moved towards the door, only to pause. "What did you say when she asked if we were having a baby?"

And, for the first time since Chloe walked into their room that morning, Kara smiled. "I told her that she needed to talk to you."

Groaning, Danny headed towards the stairs.

xxxxx

Danny walked into the room quietly, just in case Chloe was asleep, but as Kara had said, she was curled up in her bed watching a movie on Kara's tablet. Kara had not mentioned that Halsey was on the bed next to her, the dog slinking off as soon as Danny entered, knowing that he wasn't supposed to be on the furniture.

Deciding to ignore the dog on the grounds that Chloe was sick and arguably needed comforting, Danny sat down gently on the edge of the new dinosaur comforter that Chloe had chosen as an early birthday gift. He had been expecting her to go for something pink or flowery, but according to Chloe dinosaurs were super cool. Of course, Chloe found dozens of things super cool, as evidenced by the variety of posters that hung on her walls. A picture of Van Gogh's Starry Night hung next to a cat falling off a branch with the slogan Hang in There and some of Chloe's artwork from school. Danny hadn't asked Kara where the posters came from, but he suspected Costco.

"How are you feeling, Hi-Lo?" he asked quietly.

Chloe set the tablet down, sighing. "I don't like being sick."

"Nobody likes being sick," Danny replied. "You aren't puking anymore. That's a good sign."

"I guess," Chloe muttered. Then she brightened. "Can I have miso soup? Mommy always made miso soup when I was sick."

Kicking himself for not remembering Mandy's routine, Danny grimaced. "I only have chicken noodle soup, kiddo."

"Oh." Chloe's excitement fled. "I guess that's okay."

Danny held out the drink. "Start with this. To make sure you can keep it down." He waited as Chloe obediently took a sip. "What movie are you watching?"

"Ivy and Bean," Chloe replied. "The one where Bean digs up the backyard looking for fossils and gets in trouble for making a mess."

Danny had no idea what Ivy and Bean was. "Is it new?"

The question was idiotic — there were no new movies being made — and Chloe clearly knew it. Chloe frowned at him, then cracked a smile. "You're silly, Uncle Danny." She tipped her head. "If you and Aunt Kara have a baby, will the baby be my brother or my cousin?"

"Chloe, we aren't having a baby," Danny sputtered.

"I know." Chloe waved her hand. "Aunt Kara told me. And I know all about sex. It's when you like someone so much that you want to kiss them all the time. Even on the lips. Like Mommy and Daddy. And you and Aunt Kara. Sam told me that his dad likes to kiss Sasha too and sometimes she even sleeps over."

Well, that was interesting.

"It would be fun to have a brother. I've never had a brother," Chloe continued, before nodding firmly. "You and Aunt Kara should have a baby boy."

Forcing himself to focus, Danny answered. "If Aunt Kara and I had a baby, it would be your cousin. But we are not having a baby."

Chloe sighed, her face falling. "I guess having a cousin is okay. Not as good as a sister, though. I miss Evie. She used to read stories to me when I didn't feel good, even after I got big enough to read the books myself. When Grandma got sick, Daddy made us go to our own rooms, but Evie read to me through the wall the first few days. Then she stopped." Chloe fiddled with her book. "That's how I knew she was dead."

A lump grew in Danny's throat as he imagined Chloe sitting by the wall in her room, waiting for a voice that would never come. "How about if I read to you for a little while?"

"That would be nice." Chloe snuggled back in her bed, pulling the covers up to her chin. "Can you read Ivy and Bean? The one about dancing."

Realizing that it was both a movie and book series, Danny found the appropriate book and settled down to read. Thirty minutes later, Pedialyte gone and Chloe apparently asleep, Danny set down the book and headed down the hall to his room.

He stretched out on the bed next to Kara, not bothering to get under the covers. A moment later she rolled over, resting her head on his chest and wrapping an arm around him. "You okay?"

"Chloe asked me about us having a baby. She wanted to know whether it would be her brother or her cousin." Danny released his breath in a whoosh. "And then she said that she missed Evie. She told me that, after they got exposed, Evie was reading to her through the wall and then she stopped. I think that's the first time Chloe's talked about what happened."

Kara was silent for a moment, her hand running up and down his arm gently. "Being an only child is different. I remember going to visit friends and not understanding how they could be fighting with their siblings one minute and then best friends the next. Evie was there from the moment that Chloe was born. I imagine it's been tough for Chloe to get used to not having her sister there anymore."

Strange how Danny never considered how much harder losing Evie would be for Chloe since they had never been separated. Danny remembered those first couple of years after college, when he was in training and Zack was busy with Mandy and Evie and then Chloe.

How much harder would the past year have been if he wasn't already used to going months without seeing or talking to Zack?

Chloe had gone from seeing Evie every day to never seeing her again, without so much as the opportunity to say goodbye. Danny didn't know if that was worse than losing her mother or father, or just another terrible tragedy.

"It is weird to think about," Kara murmured.

"What is?" Danny asked, shifting to slide under the covers and curl up to Kara.

"Genetically, Chloe would be a half-sister to any kids you have," Kara pointed out, her voice soft, as though she were half asleep.

Danny froze. He knew, of course, that having identical DNA meant that, from the perspective of genetics, science couldn't distinguish between him and Zack. In fact, at one point Danny considered having Chloe entered into the database as his daughter, knowing that their DNA would match and it would avoid any guardianship problems. But he had never gone as far as considering what that meant in terms of his own children.

His own children.

When was the last time he even considered the possibility of having kids? As the years went by with no long-term prospects, Danny pushed the idea of a family far into the future. Even after meeting Kara last summer, they hadn't talked seriously about children. Hell, Danny didn't even know if Kara wanted kids.

"Kara?"

There was no response and, when Danny lifted his head, he could see that she was asleep. Deciding that the answer to the question could wait, Danny wrapped an arm around her waist and closed his own eyes, allowing her steady breathing to lull him to sleep.

Chapter Text

Danny watched Chloe as she played a rousing game of Simon Says with Sam, Little Mark, Ashley and, perhaps most surprising, Kat. Tex was telling them to do things like jump and then scolding them for coming down, the kids arguing with him good-naturedly. As Chloe's laughter spilled across the yard, Danny made a mental note to thank Tex for keeping things light on a day when things could so easily go sideways.

A day when Danny himself felt like he was walking on eggshells, waiting for the other shoe to fall.

Mandy had always made a big deal about the girls' birthdays, decorating their doors overnight with balloons and waking them with French toast. There was always a family celebration on the day of, and then a friend party a few days before or after. Danny had made both girls' first birthdays, which Zack insisted was important, but otherwise it was hit or miss depending on his schedule and where he was stationed. The parties were always at some location like a trampoline park, and Danny hadn't seen the need to prioritize going when he would see his nieces for a total of five seconds before they took off with their friends. Frankly, although he never told Zack as much, Danny thought that Mandy needed to rein it in a little. After all, they had a birthday every year and what was Mandy going to do when the girls turned eighteen or twenty-one?

Except Evie would never turn eighteen or twenty-one or even thirteen. Somehow, in retrospect, Mandy's birthday parties didn't seem so unreasonable.

Looking around the backyard, which was filled with mostly adults, Danny wondered if he and Kara made the right choice to keep things small. They had invited only people they knew personally, which meant that there were only a handful of children present. Even Little Mark was a last-minute addition, Danny not wanting to exclude the boy after Sam started talking about the party in front of him.

But no matter how well things appeared to be going, Danny couldn't forget Father's Day, when one wrong comment resulted in Chloe breaking down in tears. She might not be showing it, but some part of Chloe had to be thinking about past birthdays and who was here.

And perhaps more importantly, who wasn't.

Danny certainly was, even as he and Kara arrived in Chloe's bedroom to sing her awake and present her with the donuts that Danny got from Bacon. She hadn't seemed upset by the variation in Mandy's tradition, excitedly jumping around the house singing a song that was basically I'm ten, I'm ten, I can't believe I'm ten on loop and talking non-stop about the party and her cake, which Bacon had also made and appeared to Danny to be layers of pink frosting held together by wafer thin layers of cake. As Kara pointed out, it was basically a pile of sugar.

Sasha sidled up to Danny. "Chloe seems to be having fun."

"Yes, she does," Danny replied. He paused, a thought striking him suddenly. "I wonder what they did last year."

"Things were bad by then," Sasha confirmed.

Although she had been in China rather than Connecticut, Sasha still had more insight than Danny, who hadn't even known about the virus a year ago. Which, he supposed, is why it never occurred to him that Chloe hadn't had a birthday party last year. Chloe only got nine birthdays with Zack and Mandy and Evie. Of the nine, Chloe probably didn't remember more than four or five. And the last one she had with her parents and sister would have been nothing like the events that Danny remembered, with no friend party and probably no balloons or French toast or even birthday cake. Danny understood, from his meetings with Chloe's therapist, that most adults remembered little from the time before they turned ten. Chloe losing those memories as she aged was normal. Yet the realization that Chloe wouldn't remember the party at the trampoline park or the petting zoo or the one where the magician pulled a real bunny out of the hat was sobering. Hopefully, even if she didn't remember the details, Chloe would never forget how much her parents loved her.

Nothing had ever been too good for their little girl.

Sasha's eyes flickered across the yard. "I wasn't expecting to see Welker here."

Danny shrugged, noting that the man was talking to Jed. "He's not so bad. Better than Zwick, anyway. And Chloe likes his kid."

Sasha chuckled. "Zwick's slightly more tolerable now that Milowsky went to see his wife. I guess the personal touch helps."

"I still think we should kick him," Danny muttered.

Before the old argument could continue, Kara waved Danny towards the picnic table. Assuming that meant it was time for cake, Danny headed in her direction, feeling his shoulders tense. He paused next to Kara, keeping his voice low. "Are you sure we should make a fuss? We could just let her play."

Kara's eyes were solemn but firm. "This is what she asked for, Danny. A party with cake and singing."

"Yes, but..." His voice faded away as he thought about all of the reasons why this was a bad idea. "It hasn't even been a year."

Although would next year be any easier?

How about when Chloe turned thirteen or twenty-one or thirty-five?

At what point would the memories not overshadow every event?

Except, Chloe wasn't letting the memories overshadow the event. That was Danny. He swallowed. "Sorry, you're right. Let's get everyone to come over to sing."

Kara reached out, her hand on his arm. "I get that it's hard, Danny. But it's important to still celebrate milestones."

"I know." And he did, having heard the same lecture that Kara did about the importance of not making Chloe feel guilty for wanting to have a party and being excited about cake and presents.

"Chloe! Are you ready for cake?" Kara called.

Two minutes later, the kids were seated at the picnic table, Sam and Little Mark on either side of Chloe. She smiled, turning to grab Danny's hand. "I told Aunt Kara to give you a really big piece, Uncle Danny."

Danny fought the urge to gag at the mere thought of eating the pile of frosting disguised as a cake sitting in front of his niece. He squared his shoulders. "I can't wait."

Turning back to her cake, Chloe bounced in her seat as Kara lit the candles. "We're all going to have pink tongues!"

xxxxx

Hours later, as Danny carried Chloe inside as if she was still three rather than ten, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Today had been a good day.

Chloe was right — their tongues had turned pink from the frosting, and Kara had taken pictures. Then there were presents and more games and by the time they said goodbye to everyone, Chloe was practically asleep on her feed. As Danny started up the stairs, Chloe leaned her head against his shoulder, her arms wrapped around his shoulders.

"I had so much fun with Sam and Little Mark, Uncle Danny. And the cake was so yummy. I have to thank Mr. Bacon when I see him. And Uncle Tex is great at Simon Says. Oh, and the balloons were so awesome, and I love the shirt that Kat gave me. I wonder if she'll let me borrow the nail polish that she used. It's so pretty."

Danny settled Chloe on the bed, her eyes already half closed. Given the amount of sugar that Chloe had eaten today, he really should make her brush her teeth, but Danny didn't want to wrangle her out of bed and down the hall. He figured that one night wasn't going to hurt.

Chloe's eyes popped open suddenly, and she gave him the dazzling smile that she inherited from Zack. "Best birthday ever."

He froze in the middle of tucking in her blanket, not moving as Chloe turned onto her side, eyes slipping closed as her breathing evened out. Danny sat on the side of her bed, the realization that Chloe hadn't spent the day thinking about her parents or Evie or past birthdays slowly sinking in. Instead, Chloe had been having fun.

After a few minutes, Danny forced himself to stand and walk down the hall to help Kara clean up, reminding himself that it was a good thing that Chloe hadn't spent the day thinking about the past.

Because thinking about the past hurt, and if Danny could take on that hurt for Chloe, he would.

Chapter Text

Kara smiled as she watched Chloe run from office to office to give each person a huge hug. Back when Chloe came to live with Kara in January, she used to bring the child to the White House frequently. At the beginning, especially, Kara had been cautious about allowing her mother to take Chloe for a long periods, always a bit worried that Debbie's sobriety wouldn't stick. But since the Nathan James returned, they had finally fallen into a routine, one where Chloe spent her days at school, and then Debbie picked her up and took her to the house until Danny or Kara were out of work. In fact, it had been months since the last time that Kara needed to bring Chloe with her to the office.

Today, however, was special. Debbie was off somewhere with Peter, and Danny was running exercises, hoping to get a few teams ready to go into the field by the end of next week, so Kara planned a girls' day. She and Chloe were going to a paint your own picture place and then out to dinner, just the two of them. Unfortunately, Kara hadn't quite finished her work before she needed to pick Chloe. Fortunately, Chloe didn't seem to mind coming to the White House, spending the time catching up with the people she knew, like Alisha, and charming the people she didn't, like Jessi. Kara had yet to meet the person who could resist Chloe.

Alisha smiled at Kara as Chloe took off down the hall. "I don't know how you keep up with that one."

Kara shook her head as she continued towards her office, Alisha trailing behind. "I don't. I suppose that's why kids need two parents. Chloe has more energy than Danny and I combined."

Her head tipping to the side, Alisha studied Kara. "You seem good." When Kara frowned, confused, she added. "Like you're happy."

Surprised, Kara took a moment to consider, really consider how she felt — only to realize that Alisha was right. She was happy. Maybe not in the same way that she would have been before the pandemic, when she didn't understand what it felt like to live every day with the shadow of loss hanging over her, but still happy. There were definitely moments when the grief felt overwhelming but, from day to day, Kara loved the life she had created with Danny and Chloe. She found herself smiling. "I guess I am."

They both stood silently for a moment, before Alisha spoke. "I'm glad."

Seeing the shadow in Alisha's eyes, a sure sign that she was thinking about Sarah, Kara decided that it was time to lighten the mood. "Oh, and don't think you're getting away without telling me how your date with Val goes tonight."

"It's not a date," Alisha protested, rolling her eyes. "We're working on a personal project together."

Kara raised an eyebrow. "You think that's going to work on me? Because when I said that about Danny you just about fell out of your chair laughing."

"Well, you were a terrible liar." Alisha shrugged, before turning around with a casual wave. "But, if you don't hear from me until tomorrow, don't worry."

"I won't," Kara called down the hall, before sitting at her desk, still smiling.

She was almost done with the report that Mike needed for his meeting this afternoon when he entered her office. "I thought you had the day off."

"Just finishing up those reports," Kara explained.

Mike reached over, grabbing them. "All done. You're off. Enjoy the time with Chloe."

Chloe picked that moment to spin into Kara's office. "Uncle Mike!" she yelled, throwing her arms around him.

Mike returned the hug, and if Kara hadn't been watching him so closely, she might not have seen the sheen of tears in his eyes. He stepped back. "I heard that you and Aunt Kara were doing underwater basket wearing today."

"That's not a thing, Uncle Mike," Chloe replied, giggling.

"It's not?" He demanded, all fake shocked, and even Kara laughed.

"We're going painting." Chloe explained.

Mike gasped. "Without me?"

Having heard Mike's opinion of today's entertainment, Kara knew very well that Mike was acting but Chloe looked torn. "If you really want to come Uncle Mike..."

"No, no," he interrupted. "I have to work. But you two have fun. I can't wait to see what you made."

All smiles again, Chloe grabbed Kara's hand. "We'll send you a picture."

xxxxx

Kara smiled at Chloe as they found their seats at the painting workshop. Chloe had brought the flyer for the event, a fundraiser for the school, home two weeks ago and had been talking about it ever since. Kara had initially thought that Chloe would want to go with her friends and had considered asking Alisha to join them. But Chloe had insisted that they needed to do it together, just the two of them and, although Kara had spent plenty of time alone with Chloe over the past nine months, today felt special.

Their first mommy-and-me date.

Not that she was Chloe's mother — Kara wasn't trying to supersede Mandy. Still, she couldn't quite hide her excitement. She had always wanted to do things like this as a kid, but between Debbie's work schedule and social life, they had never been time. In retrospect, Kara also wondered if money had come to play. Upon reaching her twenties, Kara had gone to several wine and craft nights with her friend Jen, and they had talked about how they couldn't wait to do the same with their own daughters.

Pushing away the thought — there would never be another paint night with Jen, either with or without children — Kara took a look at the painting options. From what Kara could tell, the templates looked pretty much like paint-by-number, meaning that there was no way to mess the pictures up. "Look at this seal, Chloe. Isn't it cute?"

"I'm going to paint the owl," Chloe announced, selecting her template before gazing longingly at Kara's cookie. Kara passed it over. Upon their arrival, they had each been given a cookie, along with the option of beverage. Kara bypassed the offered wine in favor of her fourth cup of coffee for the day.

"The owl does look super fun," Kara said, drawing the words out as if she was considering. "I think I'll make an owl too. Then we can match."

"Yeah!" Chloe shouted, before focusing on her picture. "Do you think my owl should be green or blue?"

Since Kara had planned to make her owl brown, as the numbers directed, she had to take a moment to think. "Blue, definitely. Maybe it's night and so the blue owl is reflecting in the moonlight."

"Oh yes! Because the owl is hunting and looking for purple mice," Chloe began, before launching into a long story involving owls and mice and, strangely, an orange kangaroo. Kara settled into her own chair, sipping her coffee as she painted, enjoying the one-on-one time with Chloe.

xxxxx

Two hours later, Kara carefully carried the pictures inside the house, setting them on the table. The afternoon had been fun, albeit a bit messier than she was anticipating. Chloe was still chatting excitedly about the birthday invitation she received on the way out the door from a classmate, who was turning ten. The mom, not somebody Kara had met before, had smiled as the two girls squealed with excitement over the party, which was pink pony unicorn themed.

Then the woman turned to Kara. "I'm Jennifer, by the way. We just moved to St. Louis, but it seems like our daughters are already best friends. Maybe we could get coffee sometime."

Jennifer.

Jen.

Her best friend from Kansas.

Her dead best friend from Kansas.

Kara had stumbled through an answer, not wanting to offend the woman, but also needing to get out of there, and gotten Chloe to the car. Now, as she set down the pictures, Kara took a deep breath. She needed a minute, just a minute to herself.

"Hey Chloe, I think I'm going to take a quick shower and then we'll go get pizza for dinner. Maybe we'll even bring back some extra for Uncle Danny. Sound good?"

"Sure," Chloe responded absently. "Do you think my owl picture would look better over my bed or my desk?"

"Oh, definitely over the desk," Kara replied. "Or we could hang both of them up together in the living room."

Chloe's eyes lit up. "I vote for the living room!"

As Chloe ran off, Kara made her escape, snapping on the shower. As a steam billowed, Kara sank to the floor of the bathtub, letting the tears she had refused to shed in front of Chloe fall down her face. Today had been everything that she and Jen used to imagine back when they were in high school and talking about their futures. They would both be married to hot guys with plenty of money and have two children, a boy and a girl. They would both have amazing careers too, of course, and perfectly balance their home and work life. By the time Kara shipped out on the Nathan James for the Arctic, Jen had seemed like she was well on her way to that future they imagined. She was married to a man she adored and working as a teacher at the elementary school in their hometown. In their last conversation, Jen confided that she was now trying for a baby.

And then the Red Flu arrived and destroyed it all.

Every single person in Kara's hometown had died while Kara was still in the Arctic, before she even knew what the Red Flu was. Kara had meant what she said to Danny. She would've enforced the quarantine, even knowing that her own family was stuck inside — because the quarantine worked, saving thousands of lives. But today, perhaps for the first time, Kara had wondered what she would have done if she had been in Connecticut instead. If she could have watched a nine-year-old girl approach the safe zone — a nine-year-old who was alone and didn't seem sick — and told her to turn around and leave.

Could she have sent Chloe away?

Kara didn't know how long she stayed in the shower before she stood up, snapping off the water. The bathroom was filled with steam and Kara stumbled a little climbing out of the tub. Black dots crowded her vision, and Kara acknowledged that four cups of coffee on an empty stomach had perhaps not been the wisest choice. She would grab some crackers before she took Chloe out to eat. Wrapping a towel around herself, Kara felt herself pitch to the side. She reached out to brace herself on the counter but missed. As she hit the floor, Kara heard Halsey barking, and she tried desperately to clear her head. She couldn't pass out, not now.

She couldn't do that to Chloe.

Chapter Text

Danny was standing, arms crossed, watching as the members of the training program struggled their way through the exercise he had assigned. Today was the first time he put members of the accelerated program in charge of groups of eight new recruits, and the results had been bad enough that, under regular circumstances, Danny probably would've kicked them all back to basic training.

He didn't expect perfection but losing half your team because you didn't notice them lagging was completely unacceptable. He was considering ripping Johnson a new one when Tex appeared. "We've got a little situation, Connecticut."

"Where the hell are you going, Johnson?" Danny bellowed before turning his attention to Tex. "Who wants to kill us today?"

"Actually, Chloe called." Tex said calmly. "Kara fell getting out of the shower. Chloe panicked and called Jed, who called Sasha. She sent me to get you."

Danny felt his blood go cold, whipping out his phone even though he knew there was no reception. "Damn it."

"She's okay, Danny," Tex said, both hands out as if he expected Danny to suddenly bolt. "Rios met Jed at the house. Cooper said Kara's awake and talking but we figured that you'd want to check on them for yourself. Jed was going to take Chloe home with him until you got there."

Danny turned, already jogging towards the remote command station where he had parked the Jeep. "Take over the class."

"No way you should be driving," Tex replied, catching up with Danny far more easily than Danny would expect from a man his age.

Danny stopped, hands on hips, seeing that he and Tex had already drawn plenty of attention. Scanning over the teams, Danny made a snap call. "Welker, take over! I want a report tomorrow at 0800 and I better hear that every damn team made it through the course or we'll be doing this again Saturday and Sunday."

Danny was pretty sure that Zwick was going to bitch but, before anyone could react, Tex added. "Actually, I'll be taking that report. Commander Green is unavailable until I inform you otherwise. Any and all complaints can be directed to 1-800-suck-my-dick."

xxxxx

"She's pregnant, isn't she?" Danny asked thirty minutes later as he paced back and forth across the living room waiting for Rios to finish with Kara. Danny had initially joined them but after the fifth — maybe sixth — time he asked Rios about pregnancy tests, Kara kicked him out. Danny's next plan was to go get Chloe, but Sasha squashed that idea on the grounds that the kid was traumatized enough without having to watch his frantic pacing. "That's it. She must be pregnant. Why else would she pass out?"

"Stress, dehydration, hitting her head, lack of sleep, hyperventilating, excess caffeine, stroke," Sasha paused. "Shall I go on?"

"It's none of that," Danny insisted. "She was fine this morning."

Sasha rolled her eyes. "When was Kara's last period?"

Danny considered. "Ten days ago? No, nine."

Tex snorted. "Keeping track are we?"

"So not pregnant," Sasha replied, ignoring Tex. When Danny opened his mouth to argue, she threw up a hand. "I refuse to argue over basic biology."

"Why are you so sure she's pregnant anyway?" Tex asked. He wiggled his eyebrows. "The two of you planning to give Chloe a little brother or sister? Because I seem to recall her asking for a brother."

Sasha looked back and forth between them. "Do I want to know?"

"So Green and the missus are having a little bit of adult time and ..."

"Stop talking, Tex," Danny interrupted, before adding. "Mandy, my sister-in-law, passed out at a New Year's Eve party. That's how we found out she was pregnant with Chloe."

"That doesn't mean it's the only reason for a woman to pass out, Danny." Sasha let that sit for a minute. "Just give Rios a few minutes."

Danny nodded, knowing that Sasha was right, before going back to pacing. "What were the other things you said? Stroke, hitting your head, excess caffeine... Actually, that one fits."

Sasha shook her head as she stood. "Shocking. The woman requires caffeine to tolerate you. I frequently feel the same way."

xxxxx

"To get it out of the way, I'm not pregnant," Kara said from behind him. Danny spun to find Kara standing in the doorway, her hair still slightly wet and hanging around her face, but otherwise looking the way she did normally. Danny glanced past her to Rios, who nodded slightly.

Danny relaxed for half a second before it occurred to him to ask. "So why did you pass out then?"

Ignoring the question, Kara's gaze moved to Sasha and Tex, her voice softening. "Thank you both. I feel terrible for scaring Chloe that way. I really, really appreciate you being there for her."

"Kid has balls," Tex replied, but the tight hug that he gave Kara belayed the levity in his voice. "You gave us a scare there, darlin. All of us. Try not to do it again, okay?"

Kara returned the hug. "Next time I'll try not to be so dramatic."

Sasha stood as well, although she skipped the hug. "We'll give you some privacy. If you want, we can feed Chloe dinner and then bring her home. I'll make sure to tell her that you're okay."

Kara looked like she might protest, so Danny jumped in. "Thanks. That way we can talk to Doc before she gets home."

Kara glanced at him, clearly annoyed, before curling up on the couch. Danny was still too keyed up to sit, continuing to pace until the front door closed behind Tex and Sasha. He turned to Rios. "So what happened?"

Rios cleared his throat. "My best guess is that Mrs. Green's blood pressure dropped for too long. That can happen after a long, hot shower."

"Think warnings on hot tubs," Kara added.

Danny looked back-and-forth between them. That seemed ... too simple. Plus, he had to wonder just how long Kara was in the shower, and why. "So Kara's okay then, really?

"Really," Rios replied. "I always tell people to take it easy and call me if there are any further symptoms. But I saw nothing to indicate a more serious issue. Oh, and both pregnancy tests came back negative."

Danny could've sworn that there was a curl to Rios's lip, but he didn't care. "Thank you, Doc."

A minute later Rios was gone and Danny sank down on the couch next to Kara feeling like he had just done a 20 mile run, followed by a five-mile swim, and 500 push-ups. She turned towards him. "Sorry to mess up your day. I know you were running a major exercise."

Danny snorted. "It was a disaster anyway. We've got a few people with skills, but none of them are working together. How can I send out a team when they can't manage a five-mile course without falling apart?"

"They'll figure it out," Kara said softly. "Remember back on the Nathan James when you were training Miller? Did you ever imagine he would become your right-hand man?"

Strange, how Danny had forgotten how bad Miller, and even Burk, were back then. Shaping a bunch of sailors into Marines had seemed like an impossible job, yet it had worked. He would have to think about that some more. But for the moment, he had other priorities. He reached out, taking Kara's hand. "I was really worried. I'm glad you're okay."

"And not pregnant?" Kara teased.

But Danny didn't respond in kind. "You were in there crying, weren't you?" The words came out almost as an accusation, and he saw the hurt flash across Kara's eyes. He fumbled for the words. "I didn't mean it like that ... I mean ... you don't have to hide, Kara." Kara glanced away, and Danny knew that he was right. He reached over to take her hand. "Why were you crying?"

Kara didn't respond immediately, and when she did look up, her eyes were bleak. "Nobody in my hometown survived — not a single person in the whole town. What if there was someone who was immune? Someone who died not because of the virus but because someone like me enforced the line without exception?"

Danny didn't hesitate, wrapping his arms around Kara. "That did not happen. That wouldn't have happened."

"How can you know?" Kara whispered, before sighing. "You can't know that."

"I know because that's not who you are," Danny replied. Kara remained silent and Danny tried desperately to think of a way to make this better. He was no Tom Chandler, always coming up with the right words. "When I called you that night from Connecticut, you had no reason to even talk to me. But you didn't hesitate Kara, not for a minute. You took in Chloe and gave her a home and a family even though nobody would have blamed you one bit for walking away. In fact, most people probably thought you were a little crazy for taking on a kid who wasn't related to you. That's who you are, Kara. Yes, you would have held the line, but you wouldn't have abandoned Chloe either. You would have found another way."

There was another long pause. "Maybe."

Danny narrowed his eyes on her. "You don't believe me."

"No," Kara admitted before looping around his neck, curling up against his chest. "But it's nice to hear anyway. Nice to know that you believe in me, even if I have my doubts." She glanced up then, giving him a teary smile. "And thank you."

Danny was completely lost. "For what?"

"For calling me that night," she explained. "For giving me a reason to keep going." Then she smiled, her tone taking in a teasing edge. "Even if a few people did suggest that I was crazy."

"Thank you for not listening," Danny teased in return. He sat back on the couch, pulling Kara with him until they were laying there, their limbs tangling. He buried his head in her hair. "I may not always know what to say, Kara, but I'm here. You aren't alone."

Chapter Text

An hour later, Sasha pulled up in front of the house, waiting until Chloe reached the porch before driving away. Chloe smiled at Danny, but it wasn't her usual million-watt smile.

Danny knelt. "Want a hug?"

"Yes," Chloe replied, before her entire face crumbled and she burst into tears. "Is Aunt Kara going to die?"

"No, Hi-Lo, no."

Danny swept Chloe up, holding her tight, the way he used to do when she was a preschooler. He moved into the living room where Kara had been setting up for a pizza and game night, Bacon's handmade and personally delivered pizza in the oven waiting for them. Danny sat on the couch, shifting Chloe to his lap. Halsey appeared, shoving his nose between Danny and Chloe, getting as close as he could without actually getting on the couch. The dog looked up, whining at Danny, the message not hard to understand.

Do something.

Danny met Kara's gaze, feeling helpless. "Chloe's afraid that you're going to die."

At the words, Chloe sobbed harder.

"I'm so sorry, Chloe. So sorry that I scared you." Kara came to sit with them, stroking Chloe's hair. "But I'm okay Chloe, thanks to you. You took care of me."

"Aunt Kara just got dizzy," Danny explained. "She just didn't eat enough and got dizzy. That's all."

"Mommy said she felt okay too and then she died, and Grandma died, and Evie died, and Daddy died." Chloe was sobbing so hard that the words were hard to understand.

Danny rubbed his hand up and down her back. "I know sweetheart. But they had the virus, and we didn't have the cure then. Aunt Kara's fine. I promise."

But instead of being reassured, Chloe cried harder. "Daddy promised too. He promised that if I was good and stayed in my room that it would all be okay. But it wasn't. I kept tapping for Evie over and over, but she stopped tapping back and then Daddy said I had to go to the school until Mommy was better but none of them ever got better. And Daddy never came to get me even though he promised, Uncle Danny. He promised that he would come find me and Daddy always keeps his promises. Why didn't he come?"

Chloe's voice broke on the last words, sobbing so hard she was shaking. Halsey was now up on the couch next to them, licking Chloe's hand, while Danny sat, frozen, uncertain how to respond. Because Zack had lied — deliberately — saying god knows what in order to get Chloe to go to that safe zone and stay there. Perhaps even worse, Zack had made the decision to take his own life after Evie died, a choice that even Danny struggled with, wondering whether Zack could somehow have held out long enough for the cure to arrive. But, for the first time, Danny considered how Chloe would feel if she found out that Zack never came looking for her, never even tried to keep his promise, no matter how futile that attempt was likely to have been.

Danny couldn't destroy Chloe's memory of her father that way.

"Sometimes we say something and we really, really mean it, Chloe," Kara said softly, her eyes on Danny rather than Chloe. "But no matter how hard we try, we can't keep our promise. I'm sure that's what happened to your Dad."

"He tried," Danny rushed to add. "I know he tried because he..." Danny was about to mention the letter that Zack left when he remembered what Zack had said.

I considered ending it all then, D, I really did. I had the gun in my hand and Chloe was asleep in her room. Quick and painless. She would never have known what was coming.

Zack had written that letter for Danny, not for Chloe. Brother-to-brother, yes, but Danny could also see that it was more than just that — it was father-to-father. Because Zack knew that he was dying, and he was relying on Danny to take his place. Zack was passing the torch, so to speak.

And Chloe could never know.

Then and there, Danny made the decision to never tell Chloe about that letter, or what really happened in those last days in Connecticut. After living through the nightmare of the vaccine trial, Danny could understand what drove Zack to consider, and eventually do, things that neither one of them ever would have thought possible before the pandemic. But how could Danny explain that to Chloe? She would never understand Zack's choice to end things on his own terms, rather than holding out to the bitter end in the hope of being reunited with her, and Chloe's memory of her father would be tainted forever.

Take care of Chloe, Danny. I'm trusting you.

Zack had trusted Danny to do what was best for Chloe — even if that meant never telling her the truth. He forced himself to speak, the words bitter on his tongue. But this was no longer about him or even Zack.

It was about Chloe.

"Your dad did everything he could to keep that promise, Chloe. I know because I would have done anything to keep that promise, and me and your dad, we're six of one ..."

"Half dozen of the other," Chloe finished.

Danny looked up to see a tear sliding down Kara's face. She nodded slightly, and Danny knew that they were in agreement. A pact, as it were, to never tell Chloe what really happened in Connecticut at the end. The guys knew, of course, but Danny didn't think that it would take much convincing to get them to keep their mouths shut.

Chloe hiccupped. "I thought you were going to die today, Aunt Kara. And then I thought maybe Uncle Danny wouldn't want me around anymore. Because his work is so important. Daddy always said so. That's why Uncle Danny was gone so much, because he was doing important things."

"That will never happen," Danny said instantly. "You and Aunt Kara are the most important people in the world to me. I would never let either of you go."

His head lifted, meeting Kara's eyes, hoping she understood what he was saying. Zack might be gone, but Danny wasn't alone. He had her. Kara reached out, her hand covering his. "You are the most important person in the world to both of us, Chloe."

"I'm scared," Chloe admitted and Danny wondered how long she had been holding that in. "I'm scared that the Red Flu will come back. I'm scared that you'll both die and I'll be all alone. But it will be worse this time because I don't have another uncle."

"I worry about that too," Kara said. She moved closer, wrapping her arms around Chloe. "I worry about something happening to you or Uncle Danny every single day."

"You do?" Chloe's head was still buried in Danny's shoulder, the words muffled.

"I do," Kara confirmed. "And Uncle Danny worries about both of us."

Danny wasn't sure this was the right way to handle this. Chloe was already a mess after what happened to Kara and now they were talking about hypothetical situations that would never happen?

Except for Chloe they weren't hypothetical.

Chloe lifted her head, her hand tangling in Halsey's fur, and she seemed calmer, somehow. What the hell did Danny know about kids anyway?

"I do," he admitted.

"What happens if you die like Mommy and Daddy did?" Chloe choked. "Would I have to go live in the orphan home with the kids who don't have any family at all?"

"If something happens to me and Uncle Danny," Kara quickly reassured her. "You would live with Mimi. Or maybe with Uncle Tom and Aunt Sasha. Or Uncle Tex and Kat. Or Uncle Carlton or Uncle Mike or ..."

Chloe giggled. "I can't live with Uncle Mike. He snores so much that he shakes the whole house. He told me so."

Danny spoke softly. "You have so many people who love you, Chloe, that you will never be left alone again. Never." Danny paused, considering. What would he say to one of his guys in this kind of situation? "I'm so proud of you, Chloe. For helping Aunt Kara and calling Grandpa Jed. You did exactly the right thing."

"That's what Daddy always said to do." Chloe was still sniffling, but her tears seemed to have stopped. "He said in an emergency the most important thing is to stay calm. And then to triage." The word triage came out garbled, but Danny didn't say anything. "That's when you figure out who is hurt and how you can help them. I didn't know what was wrong with Aunt Kara, but I knew that Sam could help, so I called him and he got his grandpa."

"You did exactly the right thing," Kara said. "And I'm so, so sorry that I scared you so much and messed up our special day."

"And thank you for telling us what you were afraid of," Danny added. "That takes a lot of courage."

"Maybe we can have a make-up," Chloe said, face brightening. "Maybe we can do something fun tonight and then we can stay home together tomorrow and do something special. All of us. Even Uncle Danny."

Danny was supposed to be running exercises and Kara must have paperwork coming out of her ears. Plus, Chloe had school. But when Danny's eyes met Kara's, he knew that none of that was going to get done tomorrow. "I think that sounds like a plan."

"Bacon sent pizza. Then we could all make popcorn and watch a movie together," Kara added. "Maybe that Ivy and Bean show you like."

"Can we watch it upstairs in your room?" Chloe asked, the smile she gave Danny so much like Zack that Danny felt a lump form in his throat. "And maybe I can sleep with you. Just for tonight. I know that I'm too big to sleep with my parents now that I'm ten. But maybe just once."

Danny heard Kara's voice catch and realized what Chloe said.

My parents.

Danny glanced at Kara, but her attention was on Chloe. His voice was gruff when he spoke. "I think we can make an exception, just for tonight. What do you think Aunt Kara?"

She looked up then, her eyes shimmering with tears, and he knew that she felt it too.

Tonight, they felt like a family.

She smiled. "I think that sounds perfect."

Chapter Text

Danny's eyes blinked open and he took in the weak light coming through the window. It was still early, then. Wondering what woke him, he turned his head on the pillow, seeing that Kara was also awake. Between them, Chloe snored lightly, the sound echoing in the quiet room, and Danny felt himself smiling.

"She did that as a baby," he explained to Kara when he caught her inquiring look. "She didn't cry much but when she did, watch out. She would scream herself to sleep and then snore. We called her Snorey for a while until she made us stop."

Kara's smile warmed something inside him. "I can understand why she didn't like that nickname."

None of them had changed into pajamas last night, watching movies until they fell asleep, and Kara was still wearing the same clothing that she had put on after Rios left. It had been less than twenty-four hours and yet Danny felt like a million years had passed. He thought back to that day in Connecticut, how there had been the before and after. Yesterday had been the same, with everything shifting once again. For better or worse, Danny was no longer the same man who walked out the door yesterday morning.

Instead of an uncle, he was a father.

Kara was a mother rather than an aunt.

They were a family.

Or maybe that happened back in January, when he walked into that auditorium, and it just took Danny this long to stop fighting it.

Kara turned on her side to face him. "How did Hi-Lo come about?"

"Evie couldn't say Chloe so she called her Lo. She would yell Hi Lo, and I thought it was funny, so I started repeating it." Danny explained, although thinking about Evie was bittersweet. He frowned. "I'm not sure Chloe knows that's why I call her Hi-Lo. Nobody else did. Even Evie stopped as she got older."

"You should tell Chloe," Kara replied softly. "I think she would enjoy that story."

Chloe twitched suddenly, wiggling onto her side to face Kara, who curled her arm around the child. Danny reached out, his hand resting on both of them.

"I think that we should adopt Chloe," he blurted. Her eyes flashed to his. "We should make it official. Just in case something happens to one of us. I think she would like that. Plus, it's security, for both of you."

Kara's eyes grew teary. "I would like that."

"And," he paused, the words coming slowly, "I think we should arrange for a grave. Maybe even have a funeral. Give her some closure. What little we can."

They both knew that the bodies had been cremated in the spring — a necessity when the weather warmed to avoid disease and decomp. But a grave would give Chloe, give both of them, a place to visit and grieve. Because Danny would never go back into that house voluntarily. As far as he was concerned, it was a tomb.

"I think that's a good idea," Kara replied softly. Then she asked the question Danny was avoiding. "What about the letter?"

Zack's last words.

But more than that, the letter was the last piece of paper that Zack touched, the last tangible piece of his brother that Danny had left.

And Danny knew what he needed to do.

"We'll burn it."

"Are you sure?" Kara stretched her hand out to touch his face. "You don't have to make a decision right away."

Again, Danny thought about Chloe finding that letter, reading what Zack wrote. He never wanted her to know what Zack said, what he thought about doing, or what he ultimately did. Danny might understand, as much as anyone could, the position that Zack was in, but he didn't think that Chloe ever would. The only way to make sure that she never found out what really happened was to destroy all evidence.

Zach would have understood.

"I can't let her see it," he replied over the lump in his throat. "Ever."

Kara was silent for a moment. "We could bury it."

Danny paused, considering, before nodding. His brother's body might be gone but placing that letter in the grave meant that some piece of Zack would be there. Perhaps they could include something for Mandy and Evie too.

Danny swallowed. "I couldn't do this — I can't do this — without you Kara."

Kara threaded her fingers through his. "And I wouldn't want to do it with anyone else."

Chloe wiggled again, giving another snore as she turned over to face Danny. He pulled the blanket higher, so she was covered. "Think that you might want to have that little brother Chloe was asking someday?"

"With you?" Kara asked, drawing a chuckle from him before she met his eyes, smiling. "Yeah, I would."

Kara's smile made him melt. If Chloe wasn't in their bed right now...

But that wasn't going to happen, and Doc Rios had told Kara to rest. Glancing out the window again, Danny made a decision. "It's early and Chloe has lots of plans for today. We should get some more sleep."

Kara squeezed his hand before settling into the pillow, eyes closing. As Danny watched, Chloe snuggled back against Kara, the two of them forming a single lump under the covers.

His wife and daughter.

Danny let himself relax, knowing that, for the moment, his family was safe.

I'll take care of her, Zack.

I promise.