I remember wondering from the beginning whether he was just "targeting" her as the one most likely to give him information about Mick's death or whether he had real feelings for her. During every scene, I would be convinced he really had it bad for her, but then he would do something that made me think it was just a game.

Example: the Christmas at the Mall show -- he apologized for his (off-screen) behavior in class, told her he was "over" Mick's death etc etc. She called him on all of it and said, "it's all a game, isn't it?" and he just stared at her. Aha, I thought. He IS attracted ... and then his cell phone rang and he made it clear he was still trying to find out who killed Mick. I was confused again.

So it went until THE Beach scenes where I swear he looked like he wanted to kiss her much more than he wanted to kill her!! Still, I'm of the opinion that at that point, it was just a strong attraction.

Then, they got married, met Mama Carmen and Michelle stood up to her ... and ... by the time they had the scenes at the Country Club, I think Danny was somewhere close to being in love. Remember, he warned Carmen to back off, saying Michelle belonged with him now and Carmen looked at him and said, in amazement, "you ARE in love with her!" or something like that. Anyway, he was a goner by the time she kissed him at the Lighthouse. Poor dear ... thought he would pass out from it!

The hardest part of this question is the unknown factor of what marriage meant to Danny -- even as a spur-of-the-moment act meant only to save her life. But I think Danny has old-fashioned notions about marriage and family roles and, in his mind, he thought -- okay, she's beautiful, I'm attracted to her, she's smart, got lots of spirit, stood up to The Mother, I can PROTECT her, let's make this work! And once he was committed, the next step was love.

Liz M