Chapter 1

Hey guys. Here's another one. Have you ever seen the movie Benhur 2011? If you want to see bromance gone wrong that's the movie to watch. And Oh my God, the ending. The forgiveness ending was what!? I watched that part like ten times, if not more. Its a great movie i tell you. I'm not gonna make our boys go through the same horrors but i'm still gonna screw up their little brotherhood just a little bit. Don't worry, i'll put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

I hope you like and review.

And this song, verse by verse.

If you could look inside my life
And use my eyes, would you pity me?
Would you see the desperate nights
And all the lies that brought me to my knees
I keep thinking that I have to make you fall
The way I fell from your betrayal to bring me peace of mind
I will let you move along, just walk away
And wear a cape like you're some hero- (Andra Day. Only way out. Benhur theme song.)

...

He kicked himself. Hard. He shouldn't have seen that. God, he shouldn't have seen that. But his usual curious self, his damned curious self had seen it. But it wasn't his curious nature that had got him in this trouble this time. No Sir, he was not even looking for anything like that. It was pure accident. Screw it, now what's he gonna do? Shit!

"Please God, if I could unsee that I promise I won't ever be curious again." He murmured.

No luck. The image of that piece of paper, that very legal, legit looking document and its contents kept staring him in the face.

Shit! He wanted to hurl.

...

Steve sat on his desk, he had been trying to do his report for the last 30 mins now but he couldn't seem to get his mind working. Why? Danny. His buddy had been acting really strange the whole day. His mind has been miles away all day and it was not because of Rachel. He knew that how? Because Danny tells him everything that would be going on with Rachel or his kids. He's the first person if not the only person he confides about anything. But today, today Steve could not read his mind. What was it that had his friend so strung up? He'd been fidgety and unusually quiet today. Try to ask him about it; he's fine .That's all he says. Normally Steve would push but today, it seemed as if he was the problem. Danny seemed to be avoiding him. He'd barricaded himself in his office ever since they came back from a case. A case, by the way, he almost got himself shot because his head was not in the game. Danny was starting to worry him. Why was he avoiding him? Did he do something? Did he do something to hurt Danny's feelings without even knowing it? How? What did he do? He wiped his face with his hand in exasperation. He felt guilty but he didn't know why. What did he do?

Ok, he was so done with this. He had to go and find out what was happening with his friend. If it was something he did then he'll apologize. He looked across the room at Danny's office. The guy was just staring at his computer, not typing anything. Like he had zoned out or something. Steve got up and walked over to Danny's office.

"Hey." He said as he opened the door, looking at Danny studiously.

Danny looked up with a start.

"Hey." He said back

Steve walked in, and took a seat it across from him. He didn't know where to start so he just went right in. He fidgeted with the paper clip on the desk for a minute and then,

"Why have you been avoiding me?" He asked outright. Looking into Danny's eyes, which for a moment registered shock and what was that..? Fear?

"Um... avoiding you?" a snort and a nervous laugh, "Steve I've been stuck in the car with you the whole day."

"Right, but you were uncharacteristically quiet. And you came straight to your office after we came back which again is very uncharacteristic of you."

"Well maybe I just needed a minute away from you, is that a crime?" Danny said defensively

"Danny what the hell is going on? You can't even look me in the eye and yeah, that's a crime."

"Yeah, well Steven...I have paperwork to do, same as you I should point out. And i can look you in the eye no problem. See?" Danny deliberately looked into Steve's eyes, not giving away anything. But Steve didn't buy it, of course.

He snorted, "Come on Danny tell me. What's going on with you? Did I do something...?"

"Steve..."

"I am sorry. I don't like this man, you know that. This tension between us, I don't like it."

Danny looked away, he couldn't look at Steve anymore. He could not look in his eyes and see that pleading oblivious look in his eyes. He had no idea and Danny felt rotten lying to him.

'It's nothing Steve; I just got a lot on my mind."

'And you've always been able to tell me whatever was on your mind. What has changed huh? What can't you tell me?"

"Steven..."

"Daniel... tell me."

Danny laughed that nervous mirthless laugh of his. "I'll tell you one thing buddy. It is a bad bad thing to be curious. Curiosity is a bad bad thing. The worst. It killed the cat didn't it? That time? FYI, never do it. See no evil, hear no evil,you know?" He said with a grin but his eyes looked haunted.

"Thanks for the life lesson Danno. Now why is that important again?"

Danny sighed in despair, "Just you know, in future kind of thing."

"Ok." Steve said, still waiting for a better answer from Danny.

Danny looked at him contemplatively then sighed in resignation. "It's just... you know I haven't been avoiding you. It's just stuff going on with with... uh Grace..." He had lied outright. No he hadn't lied, there was stuff going on with everybody in his life and Grace, God bless his baby girl, he hated using her for this. But it wasn't as if it wasn't exactly true anyhow. The Grace stuff that is. He needed to give Steve something he could believe to get him off his back. And this was the best he could do. Steve would believe this until such a time when the real truth came out. Besides, this was truth and his misery concerning this subject was quite genuine, though it wasn't the real kicker that had got his mind in a rut.

"What's wrong with Grace?" Steve asked anxiously

"No, hey stand down tiger, she's fine, but you know me. I worry about everything." He sighed. "The boyfriend thing, you know and now..."

"Wait, did you see something?" Steve said with a smirk on his face, taking a deep breath at the same time. This was just Danny being Danny. He was not avoiding him or anything. Poor dad must have seen something. "How much?"

"Steve, I don't want to talk about."

"Alright. I'll have pity on you. Poor you Grace is getting all growns up." Steve teased with sarcasm.

"You'll have your own someday Steven and I hope it's a girl. Then we'll see who'll have the last laugh." Danny said

"What did you see? Was it...?"

"I don't wanna talk about it Steve. Now will you just leave me to my misery please? I need the time."

"Alright buddy. I'll go do my paperwork now. Drinks after?"

Danny looked at him with a smile, not quite meeting his eyes. "Yeah sure."

"Hey, look at me." Steve said with a smile on his face, leaning on his desk.

Danny looked at him as requested, it took some effort.

"Its gonna be ok, I mean the time had to come sometime right?" Steve said

"Doesn't make it feel any better."

Steve just smiled and walked out of the office. A whole lot more relieved.

Danny just looked at him as he walked out. He felt sick. Really sick. He took a breath and tried to calm down. Looking at Steve and smiling at him had been harder than, as he could imagine, climbing Mt Everest. For him at least. For Neanderthal Steve it would be just another walk in the park of course. But this was not going to be easy for Steve at all. This was going to be painful and Danny had no idea how to be there for his friend when the time came. He took another deep breath in despair. It wasn't his place to say anything. He had just had the misfortune of seeing what his eyes should have never seen. He was so screwed.

...

A week later.

"You're killing me here man. You're killing me. This is not right!"

"Danny you started this. You had to go and poke your nose..."

"I started this. I started this? How? By seeing that piece of paper by accident I started this?" he thundered

"Calm down..."

"Calm down? Calm down he says. I've been lying to my best friend for a week now. A week! Do you have any idea how that feels?"

"Danny..."

"Look I know how you Navy types are so emotionally redundant but this has got to be all kinds of wrong. Even for you."

"What would you have me do?"

Danny snorted in derision. "It's been one freaking week and you haven't told him yet. What the fuck shit have you been doing?!"

Joe leaned on his desk with despair, "It's not that simple..."

"Not that simple? Are you serious? Are you freaking kidding me right now? Man I can't even look my friend in the face these days."

"Well you better start Danny. And you have to forget what you saw you hear me?"

"Or what?"

"Or if you let this out. If you speak, you'll hurt Steve in a way that's unimaginable. Do you hear me?"

"So you want to continue lying to him. I am the one who freaking works with him every goddamned day for God's sake! While you are out on some Navy mission or other. I cannot. I repeat, I cannot continue to lie to him Joe. Crap shit! Why did I have to go and see that. Now I can't shut my eyes without seeing that."

"But what's the alternative Danny? Do you think he deserves to get hurt like that...?"

"I think he deserves to know the truth. And if you don't tell him, I will. You have 48hrs Joe. 48 and not an hour more." Danny said with a final note before exiting Joe's office banging the door behind him.

...

So there. Don't forget to review, let me know what you think. See you in a bit.