I do NOT own anything, but the plot.

Thank you for reading and reviewing!

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

I did warn of intense Steve angst - and I'm an intense lover of writing it!

Nalo a loaʻa

-loosely translate to "lost and found"-

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Danny lingered at the foot of Steve's bed, watching his best friend process everything that happened.

"She did the right thing."

Steve's words broke the silence as his eyes stayed firmly stuck to the ceiling.

"Steve..."

"Getting away from me ... she did the right thing."

Steve wanted to break, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. There was something about shattering that always scared Steve; not just for the vulnerability of it all, but for the fact that he knew he would never be able to recover. There was no going back.

"You don't mean that," Danny uttered, unsure of how he truly supported his partner. "What she just did…"

"Is end everything we had," Steve cut him off with a dead tone.

And for a moment, Steve went completely silent. Every ounce of energy he had gained over the last few days, was leaving his system and he was sweating at the exertion, but as his adrenaline dropped, his despair pushed through, catching him in a second wind. Suddenly, Steve went from still and desolate to feral, ripping at the wires connected to him, throwing the blanket covering him so he could start fighting with the brace around his legs. Ignorant of the tube in his side wound, the catheter or the IV trapping him to the bed.

"I need to leave," he said as shaky fingers struggled to free his leg ignorant of Danny's quick attempt to stop him. "I can't stay here any longer. I need out."

"Hey, hey, hey. Buddy, stop," Danny said, encasing his hands around Steve's biceps. "You're going to do damage."

"Already done that," Steve sniped bitterly. "What's a bit more?"

"Hey, I know what you just did was hard and you saying she did the right thing is a whole heap of bullshit."

"It doesn't matter," Steve admonished, his jaw tightening as he went slack in his best friend's grip. "She did the right thing."

"I can see this isn't what you want."

"What's it matter what I want, Danny?" Steve asked, the desolation that hit was too much to bear. "She's having the life I always wanted with her, but she's right, she has to protect that baby." He froze for a moment. "She has to protect our son."

"From you, though?"

"From anyone who poses a threat," he answered his best friend. "You always call me a danger magnet. I see it now."

"This isn't a time for that word, you Numnut!" Danny disputed, trying to keep his anger on lockdown. "Being a father does not warrant you believing you would harm that child."

He finally let Steve go, standing up to start pacing. With Steve in a hospital bed, Danny had to take charge, be his partner's backup, right all of the wrongs. The energy in him was nervous but he could feel his adrenaline kicking back in.

"That's because I wouldn't," Steve said, the void that had slowly been repairing was now ripped wide open. He watched Danny pace, his head hurting from the motion. "I would do anything for my family, Danny. Absolutely anything."

And while Danny knew that to be true, he couldn't stop himself from seeing everything that had walked out of the door with Catherine when she left no more than three minutes ago.

"Even abandon it?"

"I'm not abandoning it. If Cath wants to do it alone because she can't trust me, I have to respect that."

Steve hated being diplomatic over this matter, but he knew if he wasn't, then there would be no turning back. He couldn't push himself passed the point of no return.

He had to keep his emotions at arm's length.

"My choices are never going to let me have a happy life." Falling fully into the pillows, he gazed at his leg, trying to steal his own attention. "It's about time I accepted the damn truth of it all."

For a while, Steve thought he could be happy with Danny by his side and Charlie and Grace in his life. If that was his one taste of helping to bring up a child, he'd take it and do it with pride.

"If all of this has proven anything it's that I deserve to do this alone."

"What?" Danny gasped, frowning. "Steve, what?"

"All I do is hurt people, Danny. What good am I to anyone if all I ever do is hurt them?" Gazing up at his best friend, Steve didn't know what to do. "I'm not worth anything when I've lived the life I have."

"No, you listen to me," Danny argued, walking around the bed. "And don't talk. You don't get to talk. You only get to listen."

"Danny—"

"No! It's my time to talk so shut your mouth you son-of-a-bitch," Danny said, his voice rough, his tone tight. "And when I'm done, I'm going to get your lovely nurse Sarah to come in here and hook you back up to those machines and sedate your ass. Okay?" He waited for Steve to reply. "Okay, Steven?"

"Okay," Steve replied, softly.

"I have seen you with Grace and with Charlie. When I first met you, I would've said you were emotionally inept. Hell, I remember you with that child outside Kamekona's the very first day you shanghaied my life... hate to say it, Buddy, but you shouldn't have been allowed around children."

"You let me meet Grace," Steve argued.

"Yes, why? Not because I'm stupid, you schmuck, but because I knew you were going to be here for the long haul. And that perfect little angel of mine proved more beneficial because she enabled you to let your guard down."

"She was eight, Danny."

"Yeah, and one day your son is going to be an eight-year-old boy with the best damn father I know."

"Danny..."

"Want to know why I know you'll be the best damn father for him?" he asked, rhetorically. "Because I've seen how you've taken broken people and healed them. You took a desperate dad, a disgraced ex-cop and an ambitious rookie and you brought us together. You Ohana'ed us, Babe. And since then, you've brought more and more people into the fold ... Jerry, Lou, Max, hell even Adam. And when she was here, Cath was a massive part of it all." He barely stopped for breath but wanted to be sure Steve was still listening. "So, you see, I know things, Steven, and one of them is that kid is downright lucky to have you as its dad. Just like Charlie and Gracie are lucky to call you their Uncle Steve."

There was a silence between them, a moment of held breaths and beating hearts, but it was Steve's quiet tone that made the loudest sound.

"I really wanted a chance, Danno," Steve admitted, hanging his head as he broke down. "Just one chance to prove myself."

Danny couldn't stand idly on the side-lines any longer as Steve started to sob unceremoniously. As his partner's injured body started to curl into itself, Danny reached for him, pulling him into his arms to comfort him the best he could.

"Babe, you will get it," he soothed, holding him tighter than he ever had before. "I don't know when, but I do know you'll get a chance ... and I'll be by your side when it happens."

Steve sniffed, trying to control himself.

"I think I would have made a really good dad."

Placing his head to Steve's forehead, his hands bracing his partner's head, he squeezed as if to show Steve he wasn't alone, give him an anchor in the chaos.

"Too right you would, Babe."