This one-shot is based on one of the drabbles from 'Bittersweet.' I really hope that the guys are in character.

I don't own the Oceans franchise.

Danny stands in the doorway and watches Rusty. The kid is sitting at the table, staring into space. He's only known the kid for a matter of months, but he already loves him.

The room makes Danny feel uncomfortable. The furnishings are a deep mahogany, and the heating is on full blast. It ought to feel cosy, but it doesn't. It's too clean, and the only photos on the wall are by obscure artists that he's never heard of landscapes and flowers.

Rusty downs yet another whisky, and Danny makes a mental note to himself to deal with that later. Rusty's been drinking far too much recently, and it's starting to worry Danny. He's been around people with drinking problems before, and he doesn't want to see Rusty fight the same battles that they had had to.

It doesn't take long for the tears to arrive, and instantly he's at Rusty's side. And the expected embarrassment and awkwardness isn't there. But there is desperation and vulnerability and trust. The fingernails digging into his arm don't matter, because they're nothing compared to the pain that Rusty's going through. And Danny wishes that he could take all the pain away. The sobs echo around the room, each one sounding worse than the last. And not for the first time Danny wishes that it was different. He wishes that Rusty had been blessed with different parents; he wishes that someone had watched out for Rusty when he was a kid.

"I'm being stupid." Rusty pulls away and reaches for the whisky.

"Drink any more of that and I'll have no choice but to agree."

The hand is snatched back immediately. "I meant-"

"I know. How?"

"Danny, I'm grieving for a man who-"

"You're grieving for your father."

"Yeah, the father who used to-" Rusty breaks off, chocking back another sob.

"Okay then, you're grieving for who your father could have been. And that's nothing to be ashamed of Rus."

"He just-"

"You didn't deserve what he did to you." Danny pulls Rusty towards him once more, and smiles slightly when he feels him relax into the embrace.

"Being back in this house, it's bringing back memories."

"Of what?"

They turn as one, and Danny feels the way Rusty instantly stiffens at the sight of his own mother.

"Just memories, Mom."

And all of a sudden, Danny can't hold the anger in any longer.

"Would you like to know what Mrs. Ryan?" Rusty's grip on his arm tightens, but Danny's had enough of watching Rusty suffer in silence. "He's remembering the way his Dad used to hurt him, and the way you, his own mother used to stand by and watch."

"Danny." He doesn't miss the warning and fear that is all packed into one word.

"And he's remembering all of the pain that his parents, the people who were supposed to protect him and care for him and love him, put him through. And I have no idea how you can just stand there as if nothing has happened-"

"And we're both gonna leave right now."

"No, Rusty, we aren't, we're going to sort this out."

"I didn't ask you to say anything, you had no right-"

"I'm your best friend, that gives me the right."

"No, it doesn't. Nothing does. For-"

"You've been quiet for way too long, Rus."

"It's lies, all of it." Rusty's mother seems to have regained her voice.

Finally, after years of silence, Rusty turns his anger on someone who deserves it. "No, you're the liar, you aren't my Mom, you're-. " He stops shouting abruptly, and turns towards Danny, who catches him as he falls.

Rusty clings onto Danny like a lifeline, but he refuses to cry, not in front of him Mom. And there's warmth and love and safety.

And Danny knows he's forgiven.