I do NOT own anything, but the plot.

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As always, thank you and I hope you continue to enjoy what's to come!

There's still a lot to come...

Nalo a loaʻa

-loosely translate to "lost and found"-

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

"Hey Steve?" Danny asked, looking up from his phone. "Got a question for you."

Steve tore his gaze off the ceiling and looked to his partner. With his headache keep coming and going, Danny had agreed with Sarah to keep the room as calm and quiet as possible. With Grace and Charlie at school, and Five-0 on standby for a visit, Danny used the quiet Monday morning to keep Steve as comfortable as he could.

"Why were you so shocked to see us still here when you woke up yesterday?"

Dread filtered Steve's system as he lay there looking straight at Danny. It had been weeks since he had been home, and while Steve wanted to hide his emotions wherever he could, he knew that came with its own bag of repercussions.

"I meant what I said," he started and gulped, pushing himself up a little with a pained grunt. "I didn't want to do that to you again."

Because in that moment back in his front yard, Steve thought he was dying.

While his friends fought for him, he could feel himself slipping away.

"You remember that?"

"Remember it?" Steve asked, chuckling dryly on the memory. "I keep reliving it, Danny. I didn't want Grace to see that, let alone deal with it. And for that, I'm sorry." He shuddered on a breath. "And after the warehouse explosion, I didn't want you waiting around in case it was bad news."

Danny watched the overwhelming amount of turmoil ripple across Steve. His partners eyes dropped, looking down toward the foot of the bed rather than his way.

"You are such a dim-witted schmuck, you know that?" he asked, no malice in his tone. "We knew the circumstance of what happened, but you taking a bullet on your own doorstep wasn't something we'd leave you to deal with."

"Just thought you should've," Steve said with a nonchalant shrug.

"Why?" Danny asked, leaning forward. "Why should we have?"

The silence answered more than Steve ever could, but Danny was a man of words, and he would rip them from Steve syllable by syllable if he had to.

"Because last time nearly broke you. I saw how broken you were at me coming home, it just served a taste of what it was like before."

Broken. Such a simple word but that really summed up how they were in the aftermath of Steve's supposed death. Especially Danny. He hadn't felt whole since that day. Well, not entirely until he finally sucked up his pride and went after his best friend.

"I can't imagine how hard that was for you to deal with, Danny." Now wringing his hands, Steve felt nervous. "Sometimes, I feel like I'm not worth the stress or the heartache. The last few weeks seemed to cement that idea."

"Steve-"

Shaking his head, Steve refused to let Danny talk.

"With the team not talking to me and Cath and Mary all but disowning me all I could see was this path of destruction I left behind me and I just wondered if coming home was worth it."

Danny reached for Steve, unable to let him lay there playing this intense blame game.

"You are worth coming home … and Cath and Mary didn't disown you," he argued in one breath.

"They both told me not to call them again. One will call me, the other doesn't want to hear from me again. Don't know what that constitutes to you, but to me, that's the result of a real fuck up." Massaging his head, Steve tried in face to watch the cut on his hair line, the bruising on his face, and tried to temper down the ache. "And now look where we are."

"Hey, don't go getting yourself worked up, you heard what the doc said about your blood pressure." Danny's voice was soothing, soft like how he spoke to his kids. "You hit a low, Steve," Danny observed.

"Feels like low doesn't even cover what it's been like."

Danny felt his heart cramp at Steve's admission. The idea that Steve had been at his absolute lowest and all alone to deal with it forced a guilt into Danny that he didn't think was possible.

One by one everyone Steve had come to care about and rely on had turned their back on him, and Danny was just as a culpable as the rest of them.

"Cath ..." Steve broke the sudden silence. "She told me what she thought of me."

"I told you what I thought of you. Didn't mean I was right, or it was true."

"No, Danny," Steve said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "This was different. She's moved on. She told me quite clearly that she had to."

"Huh," Danny started, looking confused. "The girl that cried at your grave side is definitely not one that would move on so quickly. It's been barely six months, Steve, there's no way."

"It doesn't matter," Steve replied, flexing a little to dissipate the pain in his side. "I don't think she'll forgive me anyway, so maybe her moving on would be better, you know?"

Danny read every note of heartbreak on Steve's face.

"You still love her, don't you?"

"Doesn't matter," Steve whispered. "I let her go once, and then my past fucked up the rest."

In all honesty, he always thought Catherine would be the one who would understand him the most. Given their time in the navy, he always thought she'd just get it. Get him. The pedestal he placed her on was one he fell from first.

"Even Mary doesn't want to know," Steve admitted, grimly. His eyes then widened, and he looked at Danny in abject terror. "Please tell me you didn't call her."

The last thing he wanted was his sister and the anger she would surely bring to the island.

"No, I know what Baby McGarrett is like in an emergency and as your medical power of attorney, I get to make the calls."

"Good," Steve sighed. "She'd probably tell me it was a tactic to get her talking to me again. I have to work for her forgiveness."

"Well, you did ours," Danny mused, a slight curl on his lips. "But we share an office space, and my daughter happens to love your backyard better than mine or Rachel's combined."

"It is a good backyard," Steve agreed and let his head lull to the side. "You ever wonder what it would be like if I just didn't come back in the first place?"

"Yeah, all the time," Danny admits, grinning softly. "I'd be in a shit job, living in a shit apartment, and I'd have shit custody agreements. Hell, Grace could even be in Vegas."

"You also wouldn't have been shot on the first day of knowing me."

"Semantics, Babe," Danny admonishes with a shrug, a pleasant little smirk growing in his lips. "Because while I might've been shot, I also got to punch you and seeing a SEAL drop was well worth it."

"You hated me," Steve chagrined, and let his eyes drop away from meeting his best friend's. "Everyone always ends up hurt because of me."

"That's not true," Danny argued.

"Danny," Steve started, his body tensing with his argumentative nature.

"Calm down, you animal, you're gonna pull your stitches."

"Danny," Steve started again. "You don't understand ... Hesse killed my dad because of me. Freddie died because of me. You got shot that first case we worked because of me. Wo Fat got you with sarin ... the shit I've dragged you into ...the places..."

"Babe," Danny cut him off with a sigh, rubbing his brow line. "Look, bad stuff happens, but that doesn't make you the bad guy. You had a duty to serve, Steve. You did your job at making this world safer, like you do your job to make this island safer for kids like Grace and Charlie. People acting out revenge plans doesn't make you dangerous or the issue." Seeing Steve's doubt, he reached out for his partner's hand, determined to get him to listen. "What happened here, yeah it sucked, but we got you back and that makes us a lot luckier than most."

Steve remained quiet but dubious.

"You really are a sensitive little ogre when you want to be, aren't you?"

The SEALs eyes shot open in dismay. "What? No, I'm not!"

"We barely knew one another, and you sent me and Gracie off a weekend away, allowed her to swim with dolphins. That was just the start." Danny wagged his brows at Steve knowingly. "Like I said before... half-baked cookie."

Steve chuckled at that comment, shaking his head in dismay.

"Now, in regard to the issue with Cath and Mary, you have me as a buffer. You have the kids and the team who will do anything to help you out whenever and wherever you need it." With a flash of a smile, Danny seemed to stand strong on his stance. "You once told me I wasn't as alone as I thought I was ... now's my turn to repay that sentiment."