I'm not usually this simple minded, but I do happen to believe that souls come together, for whatever reason, and your attraction to, or repulsion of, said souls is based on an innate destiny, fate perhaps, I'm not really sure that's totally out of your control. Think about it, think about the tons of people you pass by on the street everyday, that you don't even notice, or the tons of faces that all blur together in your head. And then think about the select few in your life that you love or hate, that mean something to you, that you are attracted to, and how vast the difference in numbers are. That's what I mean about souls coming together (well my theory/feelings on the subject goes beyond this, but let's stick with the simple things).

And I think from moment one, be it because of fear, repulsion, attraction, love, whatever, Danny and Michelle's souls were meant to cross paths at some point. So I don't think the question is when Danny fell for Michelle, I think that happened long before they ever met, it's when he recognized those feelings, and put actual thought into them. Because I do believe that the converging paths of Danny's and Michelle's souls were on a track towards attraction/love from the moment they collided.

So I think Danny has loved her all along, but his conscious recognition and labeling of those mixed feelings probably didn't begin until the events on that beach on Thanskgiving. I think there was always a potent sexual attraction, since he could never peel his eyes off of her, but part of him began trying to prove himself to her on Thanksgiving. Watch how he stares her down, as Frank thanks him for finding Lizzie and Marina like "see, I'm not the monster you think I am."

Why would he ever need her approval, if she meant nothing to him. But as she opens up to him on the beach, lets him inside her veins, lets him get to her, the instinct in his soul, that instinct that was attracted to her and not to Drew, though Drew a pretty girl, who threw herself at him, that instinct took over and all he wanted was to protect her from the world, to relay that fact to her. She became something much more to him, on that beach.

And as the weeks passed and the sexual attraction grew (after all you don't just kiss someone, or tell them that ink blots look like the two of you making love if you're not feeling a remote sexual attraction to them) and the more she stood up to him, and the more it became obvious that he could get to her, the more invested he became in having her in whatever little way he could get her. By the time he decided to marry her in order to save her, it wasn't a choice, it was his golden opportunity ....

Tracee