When she rang him at three in the morning in floods of tears he was instantly on alert. She usually rang him to see if he was still alive, not to cry down the phone. After she told him where she was he broke every kind of speed limit to get to her.

When they were at his house he made he some hot chocolate, the kind he especially bought for her and kneeled down in front of her, placing an ice pack at the side of her head.
"Gracie what happened?" he asked, she looked down and twiddled her thumbs.
"Gracie?" he prompted and she coughed.
"ST-st-step Stan, he- we got into an argument and I locked myself into my room." She began to breathe heavily.
"He kicked the door open and it hit me, by accident. We yelled at each other and I kicked him on his knee and ran off" Steve tried to control his anger. He was going to rearrange Stan's face if the next answer wasn't what he wanted to hear.
"Did he hurt you, physically?" she shook her head.
"It was stupid, he said that I'd upset mummy because I wanted to cancel our weekend to spend my time with you and Danno" Steve felt his cold heart warms slightly.
"Why on earth would you do that sweetie? Danno and I wouldn't want to disrupt any plans" she looked at him incuriously.
"Uncle Steve I see you less than Danno and I never know if Danno or you will come home. I didn't realise that when I said yes to mummy it was on my weekend with Danno, I wanted to see Danno because I love Danno. Mummy said she understood, Step-Stan's just making a big deal out of nothing!" she said, exasperated. Steve laughed.
"I'm sure he is Gracie but I'll tell you what, I'll ask the boss if you can come around more often, I might even let Danny have more days off so he can see you more but right now I want you to go and see if you can find the clothes you left last time you slept, they should be at the back of my wardrobe and I'm going to ring Danno and tell him you're safe ok?" she nodded and ran off, Steve felt his heart constrict and he knew one thing, step-Stan wasn't going to get away with hurting Grace Williams.

When Stan opened the he did not expect the punch in the face he received.
"Stan Edwards, I swear the only reason you aren't dead right now is because I refuse to let Danny kill you, it might affect him badly with his custody battle but if you ever make grace cry I will rearrange your face and if you ever lay a hand on Grace I will put you six feet under. Good luck explaining to Rachel why she will now have even less time with her daughter, I don't pity you." He then left Stan with a black eye and a very real threat.