thanks so much for the reviews and follows! :) really glad you liked it, hope you like this update :)

summary: It's always been hard for Steve to be away from his wife and kids, but it's especially hard now that Alexia's divorced him. He's doing everything that he can to make it up to her, but nothing seems to be working.
Leave it to someone else who found themselves in the same position though to try to make a difference.
(idea by HelenBeacham, thank you! i'm setting this right before chapter 6 with julia's soccer game)

That Guy

2010

"Can I talk to you?" Danny asked when Alexia opened the door for him that afternoon, after he had been knocking like crazy. Alexia was home from work that day, the girls in school and Steve was obviously still at work. That night they were all supposed to go to Julia's championship soccer game together.

"Ah, sure," Alexia shrugged, not sure what he was doing there. "Shouldn't you be at work?"

"I said I was taking lunch, seeing Rachel," Danny explained as he came inside.

"Jeez," Alexia started to joke. "Danny, if Steve finds out you're sneaking around to see me..." She let it trail off, making the joke that something was going on when something never would happen with them. "He'd probably kill you and make it look like an accident."

"He's what I want to talk to you about," Danny went on, following her to the kitchen where she was pouring iced tea. He had enough of this, hearing about Alexia day after day from his partner, and it had only been a month.

"Ok, shoot," Alexia told him.

"I think you're making a mistake," Danny told her and she looked at him in confusion.

"Um...ok?" she asked.

"Steve was talking to me about you today-"

"He talks to you about me?" Alexia interrupted now, raising her eye brows.

"Daily," Danny told her now. "And you know what I learned today?"

"Apparently more than necessary," she commented as he was flying into one of his rants that was usually reserved for hating the island or arguing with his ex-wife.

"He told me you two have been together since you were sixteen," he informed her. "Is that true?" She shrugged, then nodded. "You've had that poor guy whipped since you were sixteen?"

"Steve's not the only victim in this Danny," Alexia told him now. Steve wasn't just the poor guy, he was the one who kept choosing work in her eyes, leaving her to take care of their daughters and explain why dad wasn't home again.

"No, I know that," Danny said sympathetically. "And I know it's hard but..." He couldn't really wrap his mind around it. "I mean, sixteen Lex? Do you even know how rare that is?" He looked at her seriously. "Have you ever even kissed another guy?"

"Yeah," Alexia said like it was obvious and he raised his eye brows at her. "One," she muttered. She had kissed one guy in ninth grade at a dance; it was when she first started cheering and the older girls told her to do it as a dare. Alexia had never had much experience with guys before Steve. While Steve had gone out with a couple girls before her, he'd never gone past kissing them good night.

"Wow," Danny said. It wasn't like he got around but only being with one person, having kissed only one other person in your entire life, that really amazed him. "That's so romantic, it's disgusting. It really is," he told her and she snorted a laugh.

"Danny," she said seriously now, shaking her head. "It was great. Was," she repeated. "But, being with someone for that long isn't enough some times."

"I get that," he agreed. "Trust me, I see what you're saying. But you don't know what it's like to be that guy." He motioned to himself. "I've been that guy, all right? I've been the one coming home from a job I love just to get chewed out for doing it."

"You came home every night," she interrupted.

"Let me finish," he told her and she was quiet. "I've been that guy with the door slammed on him, the phone hung up, sleeping on the couch, whatever you wanna list off. I've been that guy afraid of what's going to happen to my wife and kid if something happens to me on the job. I've been that guy accused of being too busy and not caring enough when, the truth is, my family's all I've thought about from the moment I wake up till I go back to bed." Alexia still didn't say anything.

"I've been that guy, who's crazy in love with a woman...just to have her ask me to leave and tell me there's nothing I can do to fix it," Danny finished.

"If we mean so much, then why not quit?" Alexia asked now, blinking back her tears. It was a question she struggled with for years. Was it really worth the fighting and risking their marriage? Didn't she, Julia, and Lucy mean anything? Was asking him to come home too much?

"Being that guy," Danny continued. "Means hoping your girl will understand and support you." He shrugged now. "Like he supports you." She bit her lip, shaking her head.

"I don't leave for weeks at a time," Alexia said defensively.

"No, you just won't let him come back," Danny said now. Alexia didn't know what to say now. "You wanna know what I think?" Danny asked her.

"You don't know enough about the situation to think anything," Alexia said to him. He had no idea what she grew up with, what happened to her dad, what she feared for her daughters.

"I know you're both my friends," Danny argued now. "I know I've never seen anyone talk about his wife and kids the way Steve goes on about you and the girls." Alexia just shook her head again. "I know you're being an idiot," he told her bluntly. Steve would argue with her like crazy about the divorce, but he'd never called her any names over it.

"Excuse me?" Alexia asked.

"You're just going to give up on someone that loves you that much?" Danny asked.

"It's more complicated than that," Alexia argued.

"Please, explain it to me," Danny told her. "What, did he hurt you or something?" he asked in disbelief. "You tell me he did and I'll go arrest him right now."

"No!" Alexia snapped at him.

"So, he's never hurt you or the girls?"

"No!" she said, not believing Danny actually asked that, but she figured it was to prove a point. "Danny, never."

"Ok, what then, is he mean?" Danny asked now. "Is he a drinker, what is it?"

"It's not that-"

"Does he see other women?" Danny continued to prod.

"No," she rolled her eyes.

"What, then did you just fall out of love with him then?" he finally asked.

"No!" Alexia snapped, maybe a little more than she meant to. She felt herself blushing red as Danny raised his eye brows at her. "No..ye...dammit Danny, I don't have to explain-"

"So, he's never done anything to hurt you or your kids," Danny clarified, cutting her off. "He's done nothing but take care of you and be good to you for almost twenty years." He motioned to her. "You just admitted to being in love with him still." She opened her mouth to protest but he stopped her. "You're leaving him because his job scared you? A job, I'd like to add, you knew he was going to go into since you were a teenager. A job that he's not even at anymore!" He looked her over.

"How much sense does that make?" he asked her after she was quiet, crossing her arms over herself, avoiding looking at Danny. While it had gotten pretty brutal, this confrontation with Danny did make her realize one thing.

She was an idiot.

Her conversation with Danny was all Alexia could think about during Julia's soccer game. She was still in love with Steve. She had been angry with him, sure, but she never stopped loving him. In all her attempts to get him to sign, she had somehow lost sight of that. He wasn't a SEAL anymore, he was home and wanted to fix things, which was what she had wanted all along. He had given her what she wanted and she handed him the papers to sign anyway? She no longer thought she was an idiot, she was mean.

And there Steve was, watching Julia's game, balancing Lucy on his shoulders and being the perfect father he always had been. He ignored work to focus on Julia's game, going over to hug her when it was over and she scored the game winning goal. There they were on the football field, where they first became a couple, and he was smiling at her just like he did when they were teenagers. She felt like she was going to throw up. How was she that blind? The next day, after staring at the papers she spent months trying to get him to sign, she threw them right into the paper shredder.

thanks so much for reading! :) really hope you liked it. i hadn't intended it to turn into quite the confrontation between danny/lex but once i started writing it, i liked how it turned out, i hope you did too! please let me know what you thought! :)

i'm not sure what i'll be posting next, i have a few chapters i've started working on so we'll see :) ideas welcome as always!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!