2.08


Steve, despite acting to the opposite, didn't really mind the dog being around. He made Danny smile after all, stopped that almost perpetual frown marring his forehead, even for just a little while, which was a bonus. But it also made him unhappy, with the state of his living arrangements at the moment Danny knew he couldn't keep it – which was one reason why Steve kept reminding him about taking the dog to the shelter, the longer Danny had him around the deeper he was going to fall for him.

He also hoped the same would happen with him, he was fast falling in love with his partner, and in lust too, but every time he tried to make a move, something seemed to happen, Catherine called or visited, another woman would make a move on Danny, or something else would shake his partner's foundations.

The dog, Steve thought as he watched his partner look after it, was another load on his partner's shoulders, and however broad they were they could only take so much. The animal was a reminder of just how much Danny had lost coming here, his family, friends, his job, even his dog, and Steve sighed to himself as he watched.

Did Danny even know how much he was cared for? Just how much Steve loved him? How much the rest of the team did too? The Commander didn't know about Lori, but he knew Chin and Kono felt the same way he did, well, hopefully not exactly the same way, he didn't want to have to get rid of the pair of them if they made a move on his partner. But he also knew he would have to do something about it, and soon. Danny couldn't take much more reminding, not only what he had lost but what he had given up when he had stayed here to help his partner, and Steve knew he had a huge hand in that. Danny deserved some good in his life, he was way beyond due, and the Commander decided he had to do something to make him realise just how much he cared about him. Living together hadn't worked, much, Steve knew he had control issues and Danny had been uncomfortable with them, he had hoped in the back of his mind that Danny would have retreated to his bedroom when he had had enough of sleeping on the couch, but no, he had just moved out. To an awful place, even worse than his old apartment, and somewhere where he couldn't have a dog.

But the next day he was surprised to see, or not see, the dog with Danny when he walked in in the morning. "No dog?" he asked his partner curiously. "Did you take him to the shelter?"

Danny shook his head and gave him that half-smug, half-pleased smile, one his partner liked to see on him. "No," he replied. "I gave him to Grace, Rachel didn't like it at first but got used to him." He grinned wider and raised a hand in the air. "Score one for the single fathers of the world."

Steve smiled and nodded, his heart raised a bit: single, Danny had classed himself as single, so there was still hope for him. If only he had the guts to make his move. But would the detective want him, after everything? Only one way to find out … "D…" he began, but Lori, as she had started to do, butted in before he could say anything more.

Monica's medal of valour was a huge gift, massive, Steve found himself speechless first of all, Danny too, but by the time he had put it up on the wall in his office his partner had disappeared back into his own, and the moment had passed. Again.


Danny sat in his office, trying to concentrate on the paperwork piled up next to him and waiting for him in his email inbox, but it was difficult. He had really wanted to keep the dog, Buddy he had called him, something, someone to spend time with, someone who wasn't going to demand anything from him apart from attention, some food and a cuddle every so often. Last night had been probably one of the nicest since Rachel had dumped him, again; with Buddy curled up with him in his crappy bed in that horrible stopgap place, the dog was warm, hadn't cared being the little spoon, and Danny had slept better last night than he had in a long time.

But he knew he couldn't keep him, he'd had to hide from the landlord already just trying to get Buddy inside, and taking him out to pee had been a ninja skill that even Steve would have been proud of.

Grace though, she had fallen for him as soon as she had set eyes on him, as he had hoped, and he had turned up at Stan's mansion that morning with Buddy in the car, timed just right for Grace to be having breakfast before she went to school. Rachel wasn't particularly happy to see him, but he was used to that, and he had ignored her for the happy squeal his daughter had emitted when she had seen him. "Danno!" she had yelled when she had seen him at the door that morning, and had pushed past her mother and leapt at him, arms wide, trusting her father to catch her. He did, he would always catch her, and they had spent some time in the front yard just telling each other about what they had been doing since they had last seen each other. Well, Grace had spoken, Danny had listened, and had steered her to the car where he had kept Buddy, and just so she could spot him on her own.

It hadn't taken long, she was his daughter after all, and noticed things much more than her mother gave her credit for. "Puppy!" she yelled and ran to the car where Buddy was sitting on the driver's seat and watching Danny out of the window. "Is he yours?"

Danny smiled and shook his head. "His name is Buddy," he said to her and reached round her to open the door. The dog leapt out and nuzzled him, and then went to see whom this new person was nearby.

Grace grinned up at her father and buried her hands in Buddy's soft hair at the top of his neck. When it was obvious he liked that, his tail was going nineteen to the dozen, she embraced his neck hugged him tight.

"He doesn't have a home, Monkey," Danny told her after a few moments of watching them bond. "His previous Mom died, and I can't keep him at my place." He shrugged and smiled to himself when Buddy virtually did what he needed him to do – he licked her face and nuzzled her, and she was in love.

"Can I have him?" she asked him, and he mentally punched the air in delight. "We'll be really good, Danno, won't we, Buddy?" she added and hugged the dog, looking up at her father with her best pleading look.

Danny was already persuaded, that was why he had come here anyway. "Your Mom might not like it," he cautioned. "You'll have to ask her."

Grace nodded and let the dog go. She stood and turned to face Rachel who was still watching them from the front door, and as soon as she saw the expression on her daughter's face she groaned. "Danny!" she called across the lawn at him, and strode over to him. "What have you said?"

Danny watched her walk over and shrugged when she got near. "Just the truth," he told her, and if she noticed the acid in his tone when he said that she didn't respond. "Buddy needs a home, I can't have him where I'm living at the moment. They seem to like each other…"

Grace looked up at her mother with the biggest puppy dog eyes she had ever seen from her, and fluttered her eyelashes. "He's got no Mommy, Mom," she told her and laid her hand on Buddy's head. "We're all he's got. Please can we keep him? Please?"

Rachel sighed and looked down at the dog. He was lovely, she had to admit, he was sitting down next to Grace, tail wagging calmly, he looked clean and well groomed, and she could see why Danny had fallen for him. But still … She grabbed Danny's arm and pulled him away from their child while she played with the dog, and stopped the other side of the car before she started on him.

"Why are you doing this, Danny?" she hissed, annoyed. "You're only going to upset Grace."

He shook his head. "You are going to upset Grace," he corrected her. "You've got this huge house, huge grounds, he'll be great here. And he can be company for her when you go off and leave her with the help," he added, not hiding his disgust at that.

Rachel didn't call him on that, she knew he was right to hate that, and they did leave Grace alone when all she really needed to do was call the man in front of her and he would come running. But it was so difficult some times to watch father and daughter together walk away from her, they were so good together, he was such a good father, and some times she felt so guilty for ripping them both away from their lives in New Jersey because of her own fears. She calmed and glanced back at the two in question; Grace was hugging Buddy she thought Danny had called the dog, they were both watching the adults closely, and Rachel knew who both of them would side with if she started. And it wouldn't be her. "Why are you doing this to me, Danny?" she asked him quietly, again.

There was so much he wanted to say to her, so much he had stored up, but when he also looked over at Buddy again there was only one thing on his mind. "You killed my dog," he told her bleakly. "Among other things. The least you can do is look after this one."

Rachel looked away from him, anywhere but him, and found herself nodding. Danny had adored that dog, he'd helped rear her from a pup when her mother had rejected her, sat up with her for long nights when she was unwell, spent hours walking and playing with her, and it was watching Danny with the dog that reassured Rachel that he would be a great father. She hadn't been wrong about that, but she had been so angry when they had split that she had been cruel beyond words, she knew that now. She had ripped him apart when he had found her and Stan in their bed, she knew that, and then she had let Stan's lawyers stamp on what was left of him by taking his child and his dog as well. But time had softened her, she had been furious that he hadn't turned into the man she had wanted him to be, and had taken than out on him. The dog had died because of her, she knew that, because she had been too selfish to let him be the man he wanted to be, rather than what she had wanted from him, and she had… betrayed him when he had fought her on it. He'd loved that dog, but he hadn't been able to see her for the last six months of her life, she had died in alone in a kennel, and Rachel hadn't had the courage or respect for him to tell him herself, she had gotten Stan's lawyer to send him a note.

Danny had turned up at their doorstep two weeks later, glared at her in fury and hatred, and had taken Grace who had been so happy to see him.

So she didn't argue with him now, because he was right – she had killed his dog, and she had killed other things as well. But at least now he seemed to be getting over some of the things she had done to him, if what Grace was telling her was true. She couldn't help some of it, she spotted that he had made sure he did not look at her growing belly, he had been so very silent when she had admitted that she had probably got the dates wrong and the baby wasn't his after being so ebulliently happy when she had first told him it was.

She had played with him, and she did deserve some retribution from him in return. The dog was the least he could do, and she knew it to, so she didn't fight him, for once. "All right," she said after a few moments and looked up at his slightly smug smile. "What did you call him?"

"Buddy," he replied, and before she could say anything else he walked away from her back to Grace and the dog in question. She could hear Gracie's squeal of delight from there, and she turned to face them to watch.

He had knelt beside them both, a strong arm around each of them, and she knew then that, whatever she did to the contrary, both Grace and Buddy were always going to be Danny's. She could live with that.


Even though he'd had a minor triumph that morning Danny still missed Buddy, having him around in the office had been good, stuffing Steve in the back of the Camaro while he drove and the dog was shotgun had been great, the look on his great goof's face when he had told him to get in the back and get over it was one he was going to savour for a while to come. He could see it now, the disbelief that A) Danny had snatched his car keys back from him, and B) had usurped him from the passenger seat into the back was great. And then aneurism face :3.5 had appeared every time he had looked in the rear view, making him grin. But, this time, he thought to himself, at least he had the opportunity to go and get Buddy again, whenever he had Grace and somewhere to stay with him, so he could do that again. And it was the thought of that that put a soft smile on his face when someone walked into his office and put a mug of steaming coffee in front of him.

"What's with the face, Danno?" Steve asked him as he sat down in the chair in front of his desk with his own mug.

Danny looked up at him with a wider grin and took the gift he had come bearing. "Just the look on your face when you were in the back of the car," he explained to him. "You were pouting,"

"I was not!" Steve protested, amused. "SEALs don't pout! And besides, my legs are a bit longer than yours, in case you hadn't noticed." he added. "I was almost folded in half in the back."

Danny laughed at him and leant back in his chair, watching him with a grin. "You'll be pleased to know I have unlimited access to Buddy now," he informed him, amused. "I can pick him up any day, so you might want to start bringing your own car to work if you don't want to be tucked in the back of mine again."

Steve shook his head and grinned at him over the rim of his own mug and watched as his partner sipped his own brew. It was quite rare to see him so relaxed and happy, the SEAL thought to himself as he watched him, so he was going to enjoy even this little interlude. "I don't know about that, Danno," he retorted, knowing exactly what the response was going to be. "Why should I bother filling mine up with fuel when I can use yours all day?"

One…two…three…and he's off!

Steve sat back and watched as Danny started on one of his rants, the same sort of thing, arms waving, pointing, plenty of "my car, Stephen, not yours, mine!"s, a few unusual words, a couple he had to try out himself. "Obstreperous, Danny, really?" he queried when it seemed his partner was losing steam somewhat.

"Yes, Stephen, and of course that would be the only thing you would take from that!" Danny retorted, and he was off again, and Steve sat back and enjoyed the show.

End