As he walked through the front door Danny sighed, as he found no sign of his partner when he called his name. He hadn't spoken to him since Steve rang to tell him what was happening with Doris, but that was almost two days ago. Danny was reluctant to leave his father while he was recovering from surgery but Clara all but forced him to go back to Hawaii, telling her son to "Go and look after your man, Daniel, for goodness sake!"
Danny stood in the kitchen with his arms folded and huffed. He hoped that wherever Steve was, he was safe and not launching grenades or shooting inanimate objects. But as he gazed out of the window, he spotted a familiar figure in the distance and breathed a sigh of relief.
Making his way across the lanai and onto the private stretch of beach, Danny lowered himself and sat next to Steve. "Hey."
"Hey, yourself." Steve turned his head to look at him, loosely hugging his knees to his chest and his bare toes buried in the sand.
Danny shuffled closer until he was pressed against him, shoulder to hip. Steve visibly relaxed and let out a sigh of relief at the contact. Danny waited patiently until Steve told him everything that had happened, from Cath coming to inform him about his mother, to breaking her out of the Moroccan prison with the surprise help from Chin, Kono and Lou and the conversations with both Doris and Cath on the runway before they left.
"How was it, seeing them again?" Danny tentatively asked. Steve frowned and stared out at the ocean.
"I hate people who lie." He sighed, focusing on the hand that was now on his bare forearm, the sleeves of his black jumper rolled up to his elbows. Steve briefly smiled at Danny. "Especially when I don't know why they lie to me."
Danny rubbed circles on Steve's back with his free hand as he continued. "Cath said that she would have said 'yes' if I'd proposed, Danny. Even though she knew that she wouldn't be staying here, and didn't tell me about the CIA. And don't even get me started on Doris." Steve sniffed, blinking back tears as he looked at Danny. "What did I ever do to them, Danny? Why do people leave me and lie to me?"
Danny couldn't stand hearing his voice crack as he spoke. The hand on Steve's arm moved up to cup the side of his face. "Hey, you listen to me, babe. It's not your fault, and it's their loss not to have you. You've got too much soul to be handled by someone who has never been passionate." Danny said, looking right into Steve's eyes. "Besides, if she had said 'yes' then we wouldn't be together now, would we?"
Steve smiled at Danny, the first time he's truly smiled since all of this began. "No, I guess not." He whispered as he leaned in to finally kiss Danny, before pulling back to rest his head on Danny's shoulder. "I love you."
"Love you too, babe." Danny said quietly into Steve's hair.
Steve relaxed into Danny's side, feeling content in listening to the waves crash against the shore. "I wish you were there with me in Morocco, Danny." Danny hummed his agreement. "It would have made everything better."
"Believe me, I wish I'd been there too. I'm so…" Danny cleared his throat, willing his temper to fade. "I'm so angry at Cath - for lying to my face, for lying to you. She lied and left you, same as Doris."
"You don't lie or leave though, Danno." Steve murmured into Danny's shoulder, fingers drawing random patterns on his jeans.
"No, and I never will, babe." Danny ran a hand down Steve's chest, feeling and following the path of the raised scar of his liver transplant through the thin jumper, before covering Steve's hand on his trousers with his own and twining their fingers together, his other hand wrapped around his shoulders.
Steve closed his eyes momentarily, feeling the last of his anger and frustration recede just like the waves he and Danny watched rolling back into the sea. He could feel himself coming to terms with the fact that loving someone requires a leap of faith, and a soft landing is never guaranteed.
Except with Danny, Steve thought to himself as he let the warmth from Danny's body bleed into his, smiling as he listened to his lover tell him about his father's successful surgery.