"Hey," Steve says to Toast as the man approaches the trio. "What're you doing here?"
"Special Delivery," Toast says, whipping a flash drive out of his pocket and handing it to Danny. "Now for the payoff, brah."
"What is that?" Steve asks, mild curiosity showing on his face.
Chin looks at Danny.
Danny bites his lip. "Nothing you need to worry about," he finally says, waving McGarrett's question away. "Come on, Toast, order up and I'll foot the bill."
"Nothing?" Steve repeats in the second or two it takes for him to realize Danny and Toast are already headed toward the shrimp truck. "What—?"
"Steve," Chin says, grabbing his arm, and Danny thinks now maybe he owes Chin a hug, too, when he says, "let it go, it's personal, okay?"
"Personal?" Steve repeats. "Personal that you know about but I can't?"
Danny steals a glance up and yep, there's that face again, that same one from the car when he'd had to take his 'personal' phone call from Chang.
Shit.
The hurt look.
Danny hands Kamekona a twenty and heads back to where Steve now has his arms folded over his chest and has put on his best combo of Aneurism Face, Constipated Ferret Face and maybe a dash of But-You-Are-MY-Partner Face thrown in for good measure.
"It's all right, Chin," Danny says, feeling his heart trying to pound its way through his chest, "I got this."
Chin nods almost imperceptibly, leaving Danny and Steve standing not-quite-far-enough-for-Danny's-liking away from Kamekona, Toast and the picnic table where Mary's giving him a wide-eyed look and Judy's watching them intently. To Kono's credit, she engages Judy in conversation which at least gets her eyes off him as he pulls Steve away by his forearm and slots them between two parked SUVs.
"Danny, what the hell's going on?" Steve asks with that You're-Leaving-Me-Out-Of-Something-Important tone to his voice.
"Look, it's nothing you need to hear about while you've got your mom and your sister over there waiting for you, okay?" Danny says hurriedly, and dammit, he can't make himself meet Steve's eyes.
"Hey," Steve says, reaching out and laying a hand on Danny's shoulder. "Danny, what's going on? Is this about the custody battle?"
Danny sees his out and takes it.
"Yes, okay? It's just…it's just some background digging I did, and it was passed to me through Toast's and my ghost email we used back on that case where I first met him. That's it, okay? Nothing to worry about."
Steve studies him. Squeezes his shoulder harder than is strictly necessary. Danny finally looks up. Nope. Steve doesn't believe him. Or at least, doesn't believe he's getting the whole truth.
Jesus, Danny's usually a better liar than this. "Look," he says, deflating, "I haven't slept much the last coupla days, I'm fighting to get my lawyer as much info as I can in almost no time and I just…" Danny really does deflate, sagging back into the side of the SUV behind him, letting Steve's hand slip off his shoulder. "I'm tired, Steve, okay?"
"I want to help," Steve tells him, so earnestly it kind of breaks Danny's heart a little to think he might soon have intel in his hands that shatters Steve's existence completely. "I'm your best friend, Danno, talk to me."
And the next time Danny meets his eyes, he can't help but want to. Steve's been there for him, he's been there for Steve. He abandoned going to Jersey with Rachel and Grace because of Steve. Steve was there when Grace was kidnapped. Danny was there when Nick shot up Steve's house. Steve was there in the aftermath of Matty fleeing the country, even going so far as to sit solidly right next to Danny on the couch when he'd finally called to tell his folks what had happened.
Now Danny's in a fight he may not be able to win. A fight that, if lost, will remove him from the best friends he's had since he left New Jersey and maybe even before then. Steve, and Chin, and Kono. All this around him, this sun and blue sky, the stupid sand, Kamekona and his wacky shrimp dishes.
"Over that beer," is what comes out of Danny's mouth.
Steve looks confused for a second, then his eyes clear. "The just you and me one."
Danny nods and peers around the end of the SUV to find that Toast, Kamekona and Chin are now sitting with Kono, Mary and Judy at the picnic table, all of them laughing at some tale or other the big guy's weaving, shrimp apron and all.
Steve's still looking at Danny when he returns his gaze to his partner's, looking ten kinds of worried and fuck, that's not what Danny wants. "Don't go back to the office," Steve says, the same worry lacing his voice. "Come back to my place, or at the very least go back to yours. You need to sleep, Danny, you look like three miles of bad road."
"What, not twelve?" Danny asks.
"Not yet, but you're getting there."
Danny's mind races. He certainly isn't going over to Steve's house. But maybe going back to his own apartment isn't such a bad idea. At the very least, whatever Mandy sent him won't be in HQ where Steve can possibly find it. And maybe a quick nap is just what the doctor ordered.
"All right. After lunch I'll head home, okay?" Danny says. "Happy, Mother Hen?"
Steve half-smiles at him. "Yeah, now let's go eat. Cold shrimp is disgusting."
"Most of what Kamekona makes is disgusting."
Steve laughs.
Danny can't quite bring himself to.
And now he's got to sit down at a table with a woman he knows isn't all she's cracked up to be. The look he gets from Mary Ann as Kamekona gets up to make room for the partners is almost more than he can take at this point.
But he gets through half a container of plain old Shrimp Scampi before making his excuses and getting a knowing look from Kono as he heads for his car. He hears Steve telling Chin and Kono that he made Danny go home because he's so exhausted, and hears Judy ask something in response, which Steve answers, but he doesn't know what either of them said.
And at this point, doesn't care. Because the more he looked at Judy McGarrett, the more his gut twisted until he was sure his Scampi was going to be all over the beach in a matter of seconds if he hadn't gotten up and left.
When he gets back to his place at long last, some twenty minutes later, Danny's seriously doubting whether he can make it into the apartment. But he does, and manages to toe his shoes off before faceplanting on the nice, soft, non-pull-out couch in his living room.
He doesn't even lock the door behind him.
Which is why, he tells himself some indeterminate amount of time later, waking with the distinct impression that someone's got eyes on him, there is a large, looming figure standing between his couch and his front door. A large looming figure that at first, as he blearily rubs sleep out of his eyes, he thinks might just be the devil himself come to cart him to Hell for all his misdeeds, but which, it turns out in the end, is none other than "Steven." Which, you know, not much difference between the two, really, at times with his whole "You are the backup" thing.
"Daniel," Steve replies with his formal voice in use.
"Why are you in my apartment?"
"Because I wanted to make sure you were all right and so I took Mom and Mary home and came right over only to find that you, a cop all the criminals on this island know the name and face of, were laying in a very passed-out state on the couch just inside your apartment door."
"I know where I'm laying, I'm the one laying here!" he protests, sitting up and running a hand through his hair.
"Just inside your open apartment door," Steve hisses, eyes narrowing. "What the hell, D? Did you not sleep at all last night?"
Danny opens his mouth. Shuts it. He fell asleep without even closing his door? What the—? "Why are you here, McGarrett? Don't you have your mother to spend some time with?"
Okay, that came out sounding petulant. Danny sighs.
"Yeah. But I also have a friend who needs me. So I'm here. Mom'll be there when I get back. Spill, Danny," he says, sitting down right next to him, closer than he needs to be like he almost always is.
"Can I at least pee first?" Danny asks, hiking himself up off the couch and heading down the hall. "Christ. Beer, McGarrett."
"Yes, sir," he hears Steve reply, so he flips him off as he heads into the bathroom, hoping Steve sees it.
And while he's in the john he whips both flash drives out of his left pocket, looks wildly around, then opens his medicine cabinet and the box of Barbie band-aids therein. Quickly he stuffs both of them in amongst the bandages, closes the box, and puts it back, quietly shutting the medicine cabinet door.
Only then does he get down to the business of relieving his bladder.
He hears some clanking out in the hall. Figures Steve would actually try to come back here, like Danny's incapable of taking a leak without falling in or something. He sighs, shakes his head, washes his hands and is drying them when the expected tap-tap-tap comes on the door.
Danny whips it open, startling Steve which, hey. He startled a SEAL, that's pretty damn good. "You want to hold it for me next time, Steve-o?" Danny asks.
Oh, the myriad of faces that flit across that mug make even Danny laugh, and eventually Steve joins him and then they go and sit on the couch, comfortably leaning back, sipping on their beers and not saying a word.
And then Steve has to go and speak.
"So," is what he says, and really, leaning forward to put his beer on the coffee table, you know, that isn't such a big deal.
Except that Danny's laptop is sitting on the coffee table.
And Danny's notebook is sitting right next to it.
And the notebook is flipped open.
And Danny's writing is on it.
And the first thing written at the top is Steve's DOB.
Danny freezes when he realizes Steve's looking right at it.
Feels like he's going to throw up when Steve leans forward even further to get a better look.
And thinks maybe he'll use his own gun to put himself out of his misery when Steve turns his face back to Danny looking every kind of suspicious that there is.
Then Steve picks up the notebook and gets a better look at the scribbling.
Steve is quiet for a moment. Once again, Danny is not breathing. This cannot be good for his health.
Steve looks at him. Concern? Pain? Confusion? What-the-fuckery? Yes, sir, all present in the eyes of one Lieutenant Commander, sir.
"Danno?" Steve looks back down at the notebook, then back up at his partner. "What is all this?"
Danny has a really bad feeling his life just went from bad to worse.