I do NOT own anything, but the plot.

Thank you for reading and reviewing!

I'm not done with the angst, so I would buckle up ... you're still in for a real ride!

Nalo a loaʻa

-loosely translate to "lost and found"-

CHAPTER ELEVEN

"Steve?"

Steve heard his name pierce his drunken stupor, but it wasn't enough to force himself into consciousness. The alcohol in his veins was numbing him enough, keeping his emotional pain at bay so he could finally cope with it all.

"C'mon, Babe, open those baby blues for me."

Danny's encouraging voice was almost enough to rouse Steve, but he was reluctant, not yet willing to fool himself that Danny's nurturing nature were genuine. On the other side of consciousness lay paths of destruction so littered with turmoil Steve was too wrecked to even think about navigating them.

"Steve! You're showing me up, man... laying against my car, drunk off your face. I have appearances to keep up... ones that don't involve my drunken ass partner ruining."

"Not y'r p'rtn'r," Steve slurred, slowing coming to. "I g't it, D'nny."

"You get absolutely nothing, you Neanderthal, so wake up and we can make sense of some stuff."

Danny almost grinned when Steve listened, his eyes half-mast but looked him dead in the eye. After a quiet evening with the kids, Danny hadn't expected this turn of events. Stupidly, he wanted a night with Grace and Charlie, some calm before he fought his way into Steve's life.

Steve had other ideas – as always.

"What are you doing here, Steve?" Danny implored, cocking a brow. "And drunk as a skunk for that matter, too."

"I had nowhere to go, Danny," Steve admitted in a low moan. His slurring was minimal now as he woke up more, but his voice was loose with alcohol. "I didn't know where else to go, but I got here and I-"

Steve stopped himself before he could say anymore. He turned his head away from Danny, gazing back up the drive, mentally retracing his steps, frowning when the cab wasn't idling on the street.

"I had nowhere to go."

His words were whispered into the early night air as if they weren't really spoken to anyone but Steve himself.

"Steve," Danny tried, his hand still resting on Steve's shoulder.

"Nowhere to go," Steve mumbled more to himself as he started to push Danny away. "I need to leave."

And that was the truth because even though Steve had found a home with Danny and his kids, it no longer existed. Nothing he cherished did anymore and being here was wrong. Although Danny was talking to him now, there was an icy edge to everything, and after all, Danny's own words were that the kids didn't want to see him. Grace didn't even want him here - she didn't even want him home. Steve had screwed up all their lives just by surviving and he didn't have a damn thing to say about it either way.

"Shouldn't have come here."

With that said, he started to move, to shift on the spot, pushing Danny away. With legs like jelly, Steve struggled to stand but grappled back onto Danny as if it would help him move more stably.

"You're in no fit state to go anywhere."

Danny forced him to admit defeat, gently resting his arm on Steve's to force him to settle. Steve's head lulled forward for a moment, weighted with his alcohol consumption and despair. He was too intoxicated to go anywhere or to function fully and that left Steve in a state of misery he wasn't fully cognizant to deal with.

"I just wanted to come home, Danny."

Glassy eyes met Danny's stern ones, and he felt his resolve shift. The pain Steve was in was usually so well hidden but right now it was palpable and real.

"I've lost everything, and I-I don't know if I can do this anymore."

Danny didn't allow his heart to break, he remained strong in the face of Steve's evident grief.

"Babe, you've not lost everything... you've just got to give us time."

Steve stilled enough to match Danny's stance, but the look he gave Danny was not one the blonde detective was prepared for. Steve looked every bit of the broken man he was trying so desperately to hide. It was then that Danny took into account the full repercussions of what the last five months had done to Steve.

"I don't have time when I feel like I'm falling apart every time I breathe."

Danny couldn't stop himself. For every ounce of anger he had, he realised that living with it was pushing his best friend further away and hadn't Steve suffered the most?

In that moment, he was done with the hurt, the rage, the abandonment issues because Steve was home and that was a much better outcome than most got when one of their own was declared dead. Wrapping his arms around his partner, Danny drew him close to his body, his arms a protective vice around Steve's now shaking body.

If he could hold Steve together for even a few seconds, Danny would call that progress.

But what broke Danny the most was not the way in which Steve didn't resist his embrace, but the way Steve was pleading and sobbing because while he was apologising into his chest, Steve was also begging for the one thing he needed most in the world right now - Ohana.

"I j-just wanna come home, Danno."

"You are home, Babe," he soothed, rocking Steve as if he were soothing Charlie after a nightmare. "God, you're finally home." He rocked the man, soothing as only he got with his fatherly instinct. "Let's get you inside... you need to sleep this off."

"I can't," Steve refused, pushing Danny away. "It's not fair."

"You can sleep on the couch. You're too drunk to go anywhere, right now, Steve." With that Danny moved, shifting to get ready to drag Steve up with him. "Get up, you big lug," Danny ordered as he started to stand.

As if to show willing, Danny put his hands under Steve's armpits to lift him up. He felt his ACL twinge as he pulled Steve up, but it wasn't enough to stop him moving the SEAL. Danny grunted against lifting the deadweight, but didn't give up.

"C'mon, you giant oaf, work with me here," he almost begged, forcing Steve to stand.

Making into the house was a mission in itself with Danny having to support most of Steve's weight and stature against his own. When he made close enough to the door, he grabbed the frame for stability, noticing that Steve was very close to passing out

"Just a few more steps, Bud," he coached encouragingly, hoping Steve was listening.

To Danny, all he had to do was round the couch and throw Steve down onto it. It wasn't that hard a feat, but with Steve smelling more than a brewery on a good day, this really was a mission impossible. Wordlessly, he dragged Steve across the living room, to force him down onto the sofa and as Steve fell down, Danny pulled the man's boots off as he settled against the cushions. Standing back, Danny felt a presence and wasn't even aware of Grace until she arrived with a comforter, quickly covering her uncle's form.

"Thanks, Monkey."

Grace's smile was almost a grimace as she reluctantly looked at Steve and took a few giant steps back. Already, he could feel the uncomfortableness radiating off his teenage daughter and he hated it.

After Steve had left the office, he had tried to make sense of everything, but all he wanted was his home and his kids, so he could decide what the next steps were.

"You said he wasn't going to come over," Grace fretted, her eyes yet to leave Steve. "You promised."

Danny felt his heart pang painfully. He felt like he was letting his daughter down, but he knew Steve wasn't in any fit state to go anywhere.

"I know what I promised, but he found his own way here."

There was a form of finality that Grace seemingly accepted about that as her gaze turned back onto Steve and she stared at him from her spot next to her father. Steve was already out like a light, but he didn't look calmed by sleep. Grace had never seen her uncle look so tortured in his sleep and there had been ample times her father and Steve had dozed off when spending their weekends together.

"I didn't think seeing him again would hurt so much."

Danny didn't say anything, just pulled her tight to his side and kissed the top of her head because he knew feeling that all too well.

"Let's go to bed, Monkey," he coerced softly. "We'll deal with this tomorrow."