Disclaimer: I own no rights to Hawaii Five-0 or any of its characters. This is a work of fan-fiction and absolutely no infringement is intended.

AN: I really enjoyed this episode. The only thing that could have made it better? Danny. So, here he is, supporting Steve in the emotional aftermath of Joe White's death.

"Danny."

He immediately knew something was wrong. "Steve?"

"Danny."

"What's wrong? Are you okay?" He'd only heard that particular tone in Steve's voice once before ... after Wo Fat kidnapped, drugged, and tortured him. When they found him, Steve had asked about his dad and Danny had to tell him his father had been dead for four years. Danny had hoped to never hear that little-boy-lost tone in his partner's voice ever again.

"Joe's gone, Danny. He's dead. Died in my arms. There was nothing I could do." The hitch in Steve's voice, like he was trying to hold back tears, made Danny's heart ache.

"Fuck, Steve. I'm so sorry. I'll be on the next flight home."

"I'm in Montana. At Joe's ranch in Bitterroot Valley. It's going to take a couple days to get everything sorted out."

"What? Montana? Steve, what's going on? What happened?" Danny asked each question in quick succession without giving Steve time enough to answer any of them. "You know what? Never mind, you can tell me when I get there. Grace and I are in L.A., but we visited the last college on her list today and our flight home is in the morning. I'll put her on the flight to Oahu and then come to you. Text me the address, okay?"

"Danny, you don't have to come here. Stay with Grace," Steve told him. Despite his protest, Danny could hear the almost desperate need in Steve's his voice.

"Fuck that. I'm coming, Steven. In the meantime, will you do something for me?"

"What?"

"Will you tell me a story about Joe? Any story you want."

H50*H50*H50*H50*H50*H50*H50*H50

When Danny arrived at Joe's ranch at 10:00 the next morning, his first thought was that he had somehow ended up in a war zone. There were multiple burned out vehicles, the front of the house appeared to have been strafed with automatic gunfire, and the porch looked like it had been bombed. If it weren't for the dozens of numbered evidence markers littering the property, clearly indicating it was a crime scene, no one could blame him for thinking he had somehow ended up in Syria or Afghanistan. Before he could take it all in, he saw Steve break away from a group of people wearing jackets that marked them as law enforcement and start walking towards him. Half-way there, Steve broke into a run. Danny braced himself for the impact, but Steve came to an abrupt halt a couple feet away and looked at him with anguished eyes. When Danny simply opened his arms, Steve closed the distance and buried his face in Danny's neck. He wrapped his arms around his partner and held on as tightly as he could.

He didn't know how long they stood there, but eventually he felt the tension in Steve's body change, so he loosened his hold somewhat, leaving it up to Steve whether to continue the embrace. He felt more than heard Steve take a deep breath and then release it slowly. What he heard next broke his heart.

"Joe's dead, Danny."

"I know, Steve. I'm so sorry."

When Steve stepped out of Danny's arms, all he wanted to do was pull him back in and hold him, to protect him from his grief ... to make the pain go away.

"It's not your fault,

"The rest of my old SEAL team are dead. All of them. If not for Joe and Cole, I would have been killed me too. Sooner or later, anyway." Danny watched as the grief in Steve's eyes was overshadowed by anger. "It was Greer, Danny. She gave us up to Omar Hassan, the son of the terrorist we took out in a CIA sanctioned op she was in charge of back in'02. Joe and the rest of the team are dead because she wanted revenge against me. She was a traitor, Danny, agents died because of her. What was I supposed to do? Let her go because we spent two nights together 15 years ago?". She had to be stopped or a lot more people would have been killed, a lot more agents would have been compromised. This is all on her."

"I know that. She did this and she's going to pay."

The anger in Steve's voice was palpable and Danny knew he had to try and talk him down. Looking at the destruction around him, he was amazed that Steve was still alive. Danny planned to do everything in his power to see that he stayed that way.

"She will pay, Steve. I spoke to Lou and there is a massive federal manhunt underway for Greer already. She better enjoy what little freedom she has while she can because if she survives capture she's going to be lucky if she gets to serve her remaining days in Super Max instead of a CIA black site. Lou also told me Interpol is already moving in on Hassan. "

"They can have Hassan. In some ways I can understand his motivation. He was avenging his father. But Greer? That's personal."

"I know it is, but that doesn't mean you have to be the one to hunt her down, at least not now anyway."

"I don't know if I can leave it up to the feds to find her, Danny. Joe is dead because of her, so are the rest of my old team. How can I sit back and trust someone else to find her? How can I not go after her for them? I owe it to them, to their families, to make sure she pays for this."

"I think the last 24 hours should be enough to prove that vengeance isn't the answer. And I can tell you from personal experience that it eats away at your soul. She'll be captured and if she's still alive, she'll be brought to justice. You'll get your chance to confront her, but first, let's take care of Joe. He deserves that. I didn't always agree with his tactics, but I know he always did what he thought was best where you were concerned. He helped make you the man you are today and for that, he had my respect. Later, if Greer's still on the run, we'll go find her and put her back where she belongs. Don't let your hatred for her keep you from properly honoring Joe. You'll end up regretting it if you do. Okay, Steve? Can you do that? Can you bury Joe and morn him before going off after Greer? If she's captured in the meantime, all the better, you can confront her across an interrogation table. Less chance of you getting shot that way. "

Danny watched as Steve appeared to think about what he said. He saw him look towards what was left of the ranch house and then turn around to look off towards the horizon. After a few moments Steve seemed to come to a decision and he turned back around.

"You're right, Danny. Joe's a hell of a lot much important than Greer. We'll get her, but first I owe it to Joe to see that he gets the send-off he deserves. Watching him die, I felt so helpless, Danny. It was like when I had to listen over the phone to my father being murdered and there was nothing I could do to save him. At least with Joe, I was there and I was able to hold him as he died."

"Joe didn't die alone, Steve. He was wrapped in the arms of somebody who loved him. That was everything, Babe. That was everything."

H50*H50*H50*H50*H50*H50*H50*H50

It was another twelve hours before Steve was allowed to leave the repeated rounds of questioning and debriefing by the F.B.I, NCIS, Naval Intelligence, and the CIA. They'd swooped in and taken over from the locals an hour after Danny arrived. Because details of the mission in Morocco were classified, Danny, much to his disgust, hadn't been allowed to sit in during the debriefing. He'd spent his time on the phone with Lou and the rest of the team trying to get as many details as possible about what had happened and getting updates from the feds on the search for Greer. He'd also arranged for a motel room in the nearest town, some forty miles from Joe's ranch. He'd only gotten one room because he wanted to be close by to watch over Steve. By the time they dropped down on the double beds, Steve had been awake almost 40 hours by Danny's estimate.

"Why don't you shower and then get some sleep. I don't know how you're even still functioning."

"I'm a former SEAL, Danny. I'm trained to function on little or no sleep."

"Yeah, well, it's not healthy. Go take a shower and then it's lights out, Sailor."

An hour later, Danny was lying in the dark listening to Steve's even breathing. He couldn't tell if his partner was actually asleep or if he was just regulating his breathing out of habit. He hoped it was the former. He'd never seen Steve as upset as he was over Joe White's death. Back when they first met, after John McGarrett was murdered, Steve had still been 100% Navy SEAL and had kept his emotions locked away. He'd been driven by anger and determination to find his father's killer, but he hadn't been noticeably distraught, at least not in front of Danny. After more than eight years, many of Steve's walls had come down. He didn't compartmentalize his emotions quite so much and more than anything, he trusted Danny enough to be honest. Most of the time, anyway. There was still one thing that they had tacitly agreed never to mention. Although, even that was getting harder and harder to ignore.

"Joe was seeing someone," Steve's voice came to him out of the dark. "A pediatrician in Nairobi where he'd been living."

Danny rolled over onto his right side so he could face the other bed where Steve was definitely not sleeping. He could just barely make out Steve's shadow in the glow of the streetlight coming through the curtains.

"Oh, yeah? A pediatrician, huh?" Danny didn't think Steve wanted him to do more than acknowledge that he'd been heard.

"Yeah, I saw a photo. She's beautiful. They looked really happy."

Danny couldn't quite decipher Steve's tone ... sadness, longing, regret ... he just wasn't sure. "I'm glad he found someone, even if it was for such a short amount of time," he replied softly.

"He told me not to wait."

"For what?" Danny asked.

"To find someone. He said not to wait as long as he did to find someone ... to love, to share my life with. That was the last piece advice he'll ever give me, 'don't wait.'"

Okay, now Danny definitely detected longing in Steve's tone. He knew this was the worst possible time have this conversation, but what the hell, they'd waited over eight years already.

"You don't have to wait anymore, Steve. Not if you don't want to. Not if you're ready ... ready to be with me." He saw the shadows move as Steve pushed the covers back and swung his legs over the side of his bed. Danny moved over and held his own covers up as Steve crawled in beside him.

"Roll over, Babe, you're the little spoon tonight. You need sleep and I need to hold you. We'll talk in the morning." Surprisingly, Steve did as instructed and Danny fit his body around him, their height difference mostly negated by the position. Danny kissed Steve's bare shoulder. "You can sleep now. I've got you."

Just as Danny was about to drift off to sleep, Steve spoke again.

"I'm ready, Danny. I love you. We never should have waited this long to be together and I don't want to wait anymore."

"No more waiting, Steve." Danny kissed his shoulder again. "I love you too." One more kiss. "We'll figure everything out tomorrow. Now sleep."

They slept.

Fin.

AN: At least the winter hiatus is a lot shorter than the summer one. Thanks so much for reading.