"You should ask her out for coffee," Steve suggested, though his entire being protested the very idea.
They'd just come from the Bishop Museum where Steve had the extreme displeasure of watching his Danny bumble his way through a flirtation with the very attractive Gabrielle Asano. Truth be told, his feelings towards his partner had been slowly changing over the last few months. Maybe it was coming within a hair's breadth of losing Danny to the sarin poisoning. Or maybe it was the thought of losing Danny to Rachel and New Jersey that'd triggered his realization. Whenever the shift, he was now sure of two things - that the idea of losing Danny to anything or anyone was unacceptable and that these feelings of his were a bit more than platonic. Shaking his head to get rid of his wandering thoughts, he turned his attention back to his conversation with the Jersey native.
"Every single relationship starts with a cup of coffee. Then it's dinner and a movie. Okay? Next thing you know, you're divorced, your're moving to Hawaii so you can see your daughter every other weekend," Danny ranted.
"You need to talk to somebody professionally," Steve teased his partner.
"I do. You. And now the session's over," Danny yelled.
"No, the session's not over Danny. You need to get back on the horse, and a cup of coffee's a good place to start." This conversation is killing me, he thought as he pulled the car over.
"What are we doing?" Danny asked.
"I need to make a stop just wait here," Steve said to Danny as he exited the Camaro. He didn't like taking time away from the case, but Cath had made it sound important. As he made his way down the foliage lined path, he realized he was still fuming over Danny giving Dr. Asano one of the coins they'd found in their victim's bathroom. Could he be any more obvious about that? he groused to himself.
Steve spotted Catherine sitting on the bench as he rounded the corner. He could tell right away that something was wrong. She looked incredibly nervous - almost scared. What could she possibly be nervous about? Steve thought as he approached. "Cath," he greeted warmly. When she looked his way, he saw what she'd been looking at. There was a toddler, about three years old, wandering around in the grass in front of the bench. She had long-ish brown hair and was wearing a pretty pink floral dress. The dress didn't seem to stop her from rolling around on the grass, though.
Steve took a seat next to Catherine and inclined his head towards the toddler. "Who's this?" he asked, wondering if Cath was babysitting for a friend or something. Hearing his voice, the little girl looked over and her whole face lit up. Confused, Steve watched as she started running towards them. When she got close to them, she started chanting, "Dada dada dada!" She ran into his legs and tried to climb up them. Taking pity on the girl and the struck dumb Navy SEAL, Catherine reached over and picked the girl up and set her on her lap.
Catherine took a deep breath. "Steve, I'd like you to meet Jennifer…. Your daughter."
