Each day that passed felt like a lifetime for Steve, waiting to hear from his lawyer if the trial would go ahead. He'd wake from a fitful sleep and drag his weary body to the shower - to Danny, Steve walked as if he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, when it actual fact it was the weight of his ordeal. But to Steve, they were both one and the same.
Then Steve would go straight back to bed. Sometimes he'd eat something if Danny nagged him hard enough, and other times he'd venture downstairs for a few hours. But after a short time Steve became quiet and withdrawn again after Danny's best efforts to distract him, and he was so quiet that at one point Danny forgot he was even in the house.
Danny felt powerless to help his best friend through his ordeal. He didn't know what else he could do to help Steve, when he'd exhausted all avenues he had available. Grace and Charlie were due back tomorrow from their time with Rachel, and their friends was coming round for a grill, and Danny hoped that they could succeed where he felt that he had failed.
The next day, Steve was sitting on the beach in his trunks staring out at the waves when he faintly heard the lanai door open and three pairs of feet padded across the grass and onto the sand. He smiled up at Grace and Charlie when they arrived next to him, already dressed for a swim, and happily accepted the little boy onto his lap when Charlie instantly clambered onto him. Grace sunk down next to him and Steve smiled when she lifted his arm and settled against his side.
"Missed you guys." Steve kissed the top of their heads, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Danny lower himself to the beach on his other side and sling an arm around his back. Both men listened as Charlie told them about what they'd been up to during the week at Rachel's, and Steve felt himself almost start to float away in relief.
Before this week, he felt as if things were slowly getting better, that maybe he'd be okay. But when Danny told him about the trial Steve felt like his world was over, that he'd never get back to how he was no matter what. Until that point, Grace, Charlie and Danny were the only things that even made a dent in his depressive state. They made him feel whole again, but he knew that he couldn't carry them around with him forever. While Steve wanted to get better for their sake, to not be a burden on his family, he wanted to recover for himself. He wanted to go back to work, back to putting criminals like Santino and his gang behind bars. It's what he did, what he was good at.
Steve knew that's exactly what he'd be doing if he testified - his words along with the evidence would more than do the job of locking them up - but the thought of standing in front of a room of 90% strangers and admitting what happened to him still made him want to run a mile.
"It's gonna be okay, babe. You do know that, right?" Danny whispered into his ear as Grace slipped out from under Steve's arm and stripped down to her bathing suit before heading into the sea, while Charlie was occupied with covering Steve's bare legs in the sand with his hands.
Steve smiled and nodded before turning his head to look at Danny. "Yeah… I know." He softly pressed his lips to Danny's, resting their foreheads together after breaking apart for air and hugging Charlie close to him. "I know it will."
"Don't be sad, Uncle Steve!" Charlie turned around in Steve's arms and smiled up at him. "Danno's the greatest, he'll make it better."
"He really is the greatest, isn't he?"
Danny blushed at Steve's reply and rubbed his son's back. Steve took a deep breath, before letting it out as he got to his feet with Charlie still in his arms.
"Where you goin'?" Danny squinted up at them, feeling his heart turn to mush when Charlie wrapped his arms around Steve's neck and relaxed against his tanned torso.
"To join your daughter for a swim," Steve smiled at him. "Coming?"
"Too right I am, I need to cool off before the grill later." Danny stood and kissed Steve again. "Just need to go and get changed. And babe?" Steve cocked his head to one side. "They're our kids, babe. We're a family, us four."
Steve cupped the side of Danny's face and beamed back at him, his eyes drifting down to his ass as the blonde man wandered back into the house.
After a rather intense water fight (which Danny won, regardless of what anyone else says) it was time to get the grill going. The whole team turned up and brought plenty of food which Steve happily started cooking. Everyone else was mingling and talking, Grace and Samantha were busy taking selfies and the occasional photo of everyone else, but Danny only had eyes on one person.
Steve was busy turning the various meats on the grill, occasionally looking up to make conversation when someone asked him a question. Danny looked over when he heard Steve's voice, and frowned when he saw the other man speaking mostly one word sentences into his cell phone before pocketing it. To Danny, it was like Steve was moving in slow motion, and he left Lou and Chin to make his way over to the decking.
"You okay, babe?" He asked, one hand between Steve's shoulder blades. The taller man nodded, the motion so quick and subtle that if Danny had blinked, he'd have missed it.
"That was my lawyer," Steve said quietly, and Danny felt his heart start to rise up in his throat. "He's heard from Santino's team." Steve then suddenly clamped his eyes shut and bowed his head, hands gripping the metal tongs and grill so tight his knuckles were white as he choked back a sob.
Fuck… Danny quickly pulled the man into his arms, face tucked in his neck so that Steve could muffle his cries. With his hand on Steve's neck, Danny could feel the man's jugular pulsing rapidly under his fingertips. "I'm so sorry baby, but don't worry, I'll be there with you every day when you say your bit." Danny whispered, wincing when fingers grabbed his skin through his shirt. "Maybe you can give your evidence via video link? Least then you don't have to see them…"
Steve shook his head, spreading tears on Danny's shirt. "No…"
"I get that you wanna show that you're still standing babe, but remember how you were last week? Please, Steve, don't put yourself through being in the same room as them."
Steve let out a harrowing sigh, and Danny braced himself when he unfolded himself and stood tall. Steve looked worryingly pale, and Danny opened his mouth to order him to go inside and rest for a bit, but then Steve uttered three words that briefly made him wonder if something had been slipped into his drink when he wasn't looking.
"They pleaded guilty."
Danny blinked once, twice, before barking out a cross between a laugh and a sob as he hauled Steve back to him for a strong embrace.
"Guilty, Danno." Steve said, his voice muffled by Danny's collar.
"I know baby, I'm so happy for you. It's all over now." Danny pressed kisses into his hair, rocking them both gently from side to side. He pulled back to take a closer look at Steve when he felt him stumble against him, and raised an eyebrow when he noticed how suddenly clammy Steve's skin was under his fingertips. But then his eyes closed, and Danny had just a split second to catch Steve and lower him to the floor.
"Woah, what's goin' on?" Chin suddenly appeared by Danny's side while everyone else gradually begun to realise what was going on.
Danny quickly shucked his overshirt, bunching it up to place under Steve's head as a makeshift pillow. "I dunno, Steve's just fainted!"
"You get his chest and I'll grab his legs, let's get him inside." Chin instructed. Danny nodded, and together they managed to carry Steve inside his house and deposit him on the couch.