At the end of the week, Danny and Steve were on the lanai at Steve's house. Grace was due to come home the next day. Joan had already been put to bed and the two men were just listening to the sound of the ocean and the hum of the baby monitor as they enjoyed a beer together.

Danny, always quick to anger, was also quick to forgive. He understood why Steve had done what he had. He had forgiven Chin immediately, after all he was only doing as instructed by his boss.

Steve had to work a little harder for Danny's forgiveness. While he understood Steve's motivation, he wasn't about to let him off the hook too easily. Malasadas or cocoa puffs in the morning and garlic shrimp or pizza (from the place that didn't suck) in the afternoon all during the week went a long way towards achieving his official forgiveness.

Danny had finally finished outlining all his problems to Steve. He liked his house, but, he knew he was just one major problem away from disaster.

"It's funny Steve, Chin was right. God, we should probably have that stitched on a pillow as often as we say it." Danny laughed sardonically and continued.

"I am house rich and cash poor, just like he said. That damn place has easily doubled in value, maybe a little more since I bought it. But, the bills keep coming in. Plus, Grace is getting older and is going to want to do more things and go more places. Already there's a big trip her class is planning next year. There's a couple of big Cheer Camps too. If her troupe does well, they'll be traveling. The list of things just keeps growing. In a few years she's gonna need a car. Before you know it, she'll be off to college. Stan already told Rachel that she or I will have to be responsible to cover any new expenses. He said he's not giving any more money than what he's already committed to, and let's face it, he's not responsible for Grace. I make a good living, but it just never seems like enough."

Steve had a germ of an idea, but he had to think it through himself before he brought it up to Danny. While they had a great friendship, he wasn't quite sure it could survive what he had in mind. But, he had hopes it might work.

They sat out on the beach until midnight, aimlessly chatting over a few beers and mending a friendship that was too important to both men to have anything go wrong with it.

Danny ended up crashing at Steve's. In the morning, Steve nudged his leg where he was sleeping on the couch.

"Whazzup?" a groggy Danny said.

"Hey, I just put the baby monitor on the coffee table. Do you mind keeping an ear out for Joan while I get a swim in?"

"Go" Danny flopped his hand at him. "No wonder you've been such an absolute ass if you've been missing your fifty mile swim every day. I've got the kid, get outta here."

Steve emerged from the ocean feeling brand new. Danny was right. He had been severely out of sorts lately. He wasn't listening to the advice of his team. He had lost his sense of humor. He was going off a little more half-cocked than usual.

He hadn't realized he had depended on his morning fitness routine so much, until he didn't have time for it anymore. He had been doing some form of exercise in the morning since he had been fourteen years old. It wasn't just the fitnesss routine. It was that every minute of the day that he wasn't at work was devoted to Joan. Acclimating to living with a child had been harder than he ever imagined.

He walked into the kitchen and found Danny and Joan sitting at the kitchen table eating. Joanie smiled a happy, sticky smile at him and chirped around a mouthful of food,

"Pancakes Unca S'eve! Danno make em!"

"Lucky you, sweetie."

"Oh, lucky you too, babe. Yours are keeping warm in the pan on the stove. There's a plate and silverware on the counter for you."

"Thanks, man. Nothing like a carb load after a good swim."

"No problem. I'm passing the Kitten baton and running upstairs for a shower, and yes, for your information, it will be more than three minutes, I may take as much as ten. When I'm done, I'll give little Miss Sticky a bath while you get your shower."

Several weeks later, after a terrible case where Danny and Steve had barely been home all week and Rachel had juggled all three children every day, they were once again sitting on the lanai, thankful that the gruesome case had finally been successfully closed.

During the past week, on the nights that they weren't sleeping at 5-0, Danny had ended up sleeping at Steve's. It just didn't make sense to drive home, grab a couple of hours sleep, then just have to come back to pick the big guy up in the morning anyway.

The men had spoken to Rachel from the office and had arranged to get all three children on Saturday and keep them overnight and into Sunday, so that she could finally get a little break.

As they sat looking at the moonlight and drinking their Longboards, Steve glanced at Danny and figured no better time than the present.

"Hey, Danny! Why don't you sell your house and you and Gracie move in here with me and Joan?"

Danny choked on the beer he was swallowing and spit it out, coughing.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Well, think about it. There's the master and three bedrooms upstairs. Joan has one, and you and Grace could have the other two. She's not even home every night, she's at Rachel's a lot. You could sell your house. You said it's at least doubled in value. You can pay off your mortgage and your credit cards, and still have a nice chunk to put down on another house when you got your financial feet back under you."'

"Plus, to tell you the truth, it's a lot harder to be here with Joanie than it was to be alone. I can't go for a swim or a run, hell, I'm afraid to take a shower or spend too much time in the john, wondering what she's getting into when I'm not watching her. It's exhausting, and it would be helpful to me if someone else were here to, you know, help out with that."

There was a long, deep silence. Steve figured that Danny was so pissed that he wasn't even able to formulate a response to his suggestion. Then, very quietly, from Danny's place on the lanai,

"Man, you know there is no way we are ever going to get people to stop with the married comments when we're living together."