Truth Be Told-part 2
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New Year's Eve
"Yo Steve! I'm here" Danny yelled out as he entered through the front door of Steve's house.
"Danny?" Steve's voice rang out from the kitchen. "You're early!"
"Look at that. You can tell time! You're a genius partner! I'm tellin' ya!" Danny made his way over to the couch and set his overnight duffel down. He turned back toward the kitchen just in time to see Eddie bounding toward him, with Steve close behind.
"Eddie! No!" Steve called after the dog. Clearly afraid the excited pup would jump up on his still recovering partner. But he needn't worry. When Eddie reached Danny, he immediately stopped, sat down and gently began licking Danny's outstretched hands.
"Hey buddy!" Danny replied, easing himself down on one knee to greet the dog. "Did you miss me? Huh? Did you miss your Uncle Danno?"
Eddie responded with gentle kisses on the detective's cheek.
"Did he miss you?" Steve replied. "Let me tell you something. Every day I took that dog to the Palace he circled the entire office looking for you. One day I even found him curled up on your office chair."
"That's because he loves me very much. Don't ya boy?" Danny said, scratching to dog behind his ears and leaning over to kiss the dogs head.
"All right Eddie. That's enough." Steve said as the dog continued to smother his partner with puppy love. "Go play."
Eddie obeyed and ran off to do whatever it was he did to occupy himself when he wasn't being smothered with attention. Danny held a hand out to his partner.
"Hey, help me up. I'm getting old."
"Shut up with the getting old crap." Steve replied, pulling Danny to his feet. "You're recovering from gunshot wound. How are you feeling by the way? Did you rest today? It's going to be a long night"
"Yes. I rested." Danny groaned pulling his arm from Steve's grasp.
"And are you still doing those breathing exercises the Doctor told you about? Because you gotta keep up with that Danny."
"Would you stop!" Danny snapped at him. "I did not come over here to get a lecture."
"I'm not lecturing!" Steve insisted. "I'm just concerned."
"Well don't be. I'm fine."
Steve tilted his head and inspected his partner's appearance.
"Well you still look tired to me."
"That would be because I am tired." Danny replied. "But it's New Year's Eve and there was no way I was going to miss the party so…I'll deal."
"Come here." Steve said, pulling Danny into a hug. "I'm glad you're here buddy."
"Thank you." Danny replied returning the hug.
"OK…I gotta finish up some things in the kitchen. Come keep me company. I made Gramma William's chicken cacciatore using the recipe you gave me and I need you taste test it for me."
"Sure." Danny replied, following Steve into the kitchen. "And you know…maybe we can talk while you're doing that?"
"Talk?" Steve replied quizzically. "Sure we can do that. Hey! You want something to drink. I got juice, ice water…"
"I'll take a beer." Danny replied and when Steve gave him a look he added, "Seriously? It's New Year's Eve. You're going to make me drink water all night?"
"No. Of course not but it's still early you know? The rest of the crew won't even be here for another hour"
"Would you just get me a beer!" Danny hollered at him.
"Alright! Alright! Damn!"
Steve grabbed two beers from the fridge, opened one and set it on the counter in front of Danny, who had taken a seat there.
"Thank you!" Danny said, taking a good long sip.
"Please pace yourself." Steve begged then rolled his eyes as Danny ignored him and nearly down half the bottle.
"Suit yourself." Steve said, taking a sip of his own beer. "But that beer has gotta last you for the next hour."
Now it was Danny's turn to roll his eyes.
"Whatever. Can we talk now please?"
"Yeah we can talk." Steve replied, but avoided eye contact with Danny. "What do you want to talk about?"
"What are you? A moron? I wanna talk about what we talked about in the hospital. You know…when I woke up and you said…"
"Yeah Danny. I know what I said."
"And…"
"And I don't think now is a really good time. I mean, the rest of the crew is going be here any time now and…"
"Forty-five minutes." Danny interjected. "They aren't going to be here for another forty-five minutes. We got time."
Steve sighed and took another sip of his beer.
"Fine. Listen, I am sorry. OK? I never should have laid that on you like that under those circumstances. And I completely understand if you don't feel the same way."
"Whoah! Slow down." Danny demanded. "Who said I don't feel the same way?"
"So you do?"
"I don't know." Danny replied. "I mean…this is all very confusing."
"How so?"
"Well you're with Lynn and I'm with Melissa."
"Yeah." Steve sighed again.
"Do you love Lynn?
"I thought I did. But…I don't know man. Call me crazy, but I'm happier spending time with you! Even though you drive me absolutely crazy 80% of the time.
"Just 80% of the time huh? I'll have to work on that." Danny joked.
"Danno…I'm being serious." Steve groaned.
"Sorry. I'm flattered. Really. I mean…you'd rather spend time with me? We're not even having sex!" He chuckled.
"Well, I haven't been having a whole lot of sex with Lynn recently either so…"
"Yeah…I had heard that."
"Well what about you pal?" Steve asked him.
"What about me?"
"Well according to Melissa…"and off Danny's look he added, "Yes! Your girlfriend talks too. And according to Melissa, getting you to say 'I love you' is like getting Jerry to admit the JFK assassination was a one man job."
"I have relationship anxiety! You know that."
"You say you love me all the time." Steve reminded him
"Well I know that."
"So…?"
"No, I mean…that's the difference in the two scenarios. I know that I love you…therefore I can say it and mean it. I guess just don't know how I feel about Melissa."
Steve took another sip of his beer and thought on this a moment.
"OK. So you and I clearly have an emotional connection that we don't have with the girls."
"I would agree with that." Danny replied. "But what about the uh…"
"Physical attraction."
"Yeah. That."
"OK this is getting awkward." Steve said, turning his back to Danny and making his way across the kitchen.
"Ok you know what?" Danny said jumping up from his stool and made his way over to Steve. "We don't have to figure this all out tonight. OK?"
Steve nodded.
"You're right. I mean…We made a lot of progress right here."
"We did." Danny nodded. "Come here! Give me a hug. We'll talk more later."
Danny pulled Steve in the two wrapped their arms around each other as they had done hundreds of times before. But it wasn't the same. And they both knew it. They could both feel it. It was so much more. Luckily, before they had time to think about what was going to happen next…the doorbell rang and the boys quickly separated.
"Someone's here!" Danny exclaimed.
Steve looked at his watch.
"They're early."
And then they both added in unison…
"Thank God!"