hatesparadise | MCA #0, Late, Late Thursday Night

Danny couldn't help but laugh. "I'm pretty sure you've complained about those dress shoes more than once."

"Oh, I was sprinting through the docks in them," Steve said with a snort. "Didn't fall on my ass once, which should've been a tip-off."

"Was I wearing slippahs too?" He even did his best at a Hawaiian accent for the word!

Steve chuckled. "No, but nice accent."

"Sorry I can't be as surfer as you, brah." Was this working to relax Steve at least?

"Well, you'd have to surf to be surfer," Steve teased softly.

"Oh, I don't surf enough with you? Is that it?"

"You've finally figured it out," Steve agreed, nudging Danny's shoulder. "My brain had Kono as a surfing star peddling lipstick or something. I'll never tell her because she'd never stop hitting me."

"Tell her she was a surf start who beat up bad guys instead,"Danny suggested with a laugh.

"Or maybe I just won't bring it up at all," Steve said. "Chin was going to be the next Chief of Police."

Danny sighed and nodded at that plan to not mention it to the team.

He reached for Steve's arm again to see the bruised left there from both the hospital and his imprisonment. "We'll need to talk about your dad eventually."

And Steve's relaxed posture disappeared entirely. "We do?"

Here he was, desperately hoping everyone would just...ignore that little breakdown.

"Yeah, babe," Danny said, turning the inspection of Steve's arm into some shameless hand holding. "You can't bottle it up."

Steve bit back an, "Oh, watch me," which was progress of a sort.

"I don't know what to say," he said.

"You knew to the day when we met in therapy," Danny said. "And I'm not too slow to not realize it's because it was the same week your father was murdered."

"Maybe it's because you made that much of an impression," Steve said.

It was both.

"Steve," he began before taking a deep breath. "It's okay to not be over it. He was your father."

It had been Freddy and then his dad and then his mother returning and almost no time to adjust.

And Mary flitting in and out, and Deb's diagnosis, and Joanie showing up and yeah, Steve had been flailing for a while. Steve's hand tightened on Danny's.

"The drugs had me thinking you'd gotten there in time," he murmured after a very, very long pause.

"Steve," Danny sighed, sounding very much like that broke his heart on Steve's behalf.

Steve sniffed because allergies, okay. "Good drugs, as you said. I hadn't shaken it off when you found me."

"I wish I coulda saved him too," Danny admitted, leaning his head against Steve's shoulder.

"He would've liked you," Steve said. "Maybe more than he liked me."

"Well, you managed to steal my ma's heart, so don't sell yourself short there," Danny replied, giving Steve's hand a squeeze. "The hardest thing we do is realizing our parents are flawed people."

"It's not that hard with Doris," Steve muttered.

"Well, you got us now," Danny said firmly. "The team. Me. Grace. Mary and Joanie."

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