A/N: Hello again! This is post 6X11, so expect some spoilers!

There's no Retreating from the Retreat

The flight back to Oahu was far calmer than the flight to Maui had been. Steve managed to get them the seats by the emergency exit, so Danny had enough room to stretch his leg and keep his ankle elevated. Steve had smoothed things down with the flight attendant, ensuring her than in the case of an emergency, him and Danny would make sure that everyone got out safely, even with Danny's injured ankle, and even procured an ice pack for his friend, so they both made it back home without any further mishaps.

Steve drove Danny to his place and offered to pick him up on Monday morning, so he didn't have to force his ankle, and took off for home, wanting to take a short swim before he went to bed.

The following morning started without a hitch for Steve, he woke up and followed his usual routine, got out of his place with enough time to stop for some coffee for the team and drove by Danny's to pick him up.

He wasn't happy to see that Danny had taken out his cane again, and that the ankle seemed to be paining his partner still. "Hey, is it still giving you trouble? That sucks, buddy… Wanna stop by the doctor's office to have it checked out?" He asked in concern.

Danny got in the car, wincing a bit once he was settled. "Nah, don't worry. It's not as bad as before. I should be ok by tomorrow." He said with a shrug.

Steve didn't seem too convinced, but let him be. "Ok, suit yourself, man…" He said, starting in the direction of HQ.

The drive was unusually quiet, but Steve wasn't complaining. Once they reached the Palace, Steve got out of the car, reaching for the tray with the coffees. He caught up with Danny, handing him one of the cups. "Here…" He said.

Danny took the cup with a nod of thanks, and followed Steve up to the office.

Chin, Kono and Lou were already checking some information in the smart table when Danny and Steve came in. They looked up with a teasing smile when they came closer, but their expressions fell on seeing Danny's cane. "What happened?" Asked Kono in concern, while Chin brought a chair closer so Danny could sit.

Danny waved away the need for the chair. "Nothing, I'm fine. I just twisted my ankle during a ridiculous exercise at the workshop thing…" He said with a shrug, both of his hands occupied so he couldn't wave them too much.

Lou winced in sympathy, while Chin chuckled. "So, how did it go with the workshop anyway?" He asked in amusement. "Did you have any breakthroughs?" He asked playfully.

Danny looked at Steve with his eyebrows raised, waiting for his response, while Steve grinned. "It went great! The resort was amazing, and we met this chick on the plane… Went out for drinks with her…" Steve said, looking pleased with himself.

Danny's expression fell for a moment, but he recovered quickly. "You went out for drinks, you mean. I stayed in, nursing my mangled ankle…" He said in half-hearted annoyance.

Chin and Lou looked both surprised and amused by their friends' antics, while Kono frowned in thought. "Wait, what about the therapy? Didn't you attend any sessions?" she asked in surprise.

Steve smirked. "Well, there were lots of activities scheduled at the same time, so nobody could really keep track if we were attending or not! We showed up at a couple of things, and the rest of the time we were free to do whatever we wanted!" He finished with a pleased nod.

Danny didn't look that pleased about the whole thing, but it seemed that he was done arguing about it. "Alright, back to business. Anything new we should know about?" He asked, looking at the rest of their team.

Lou sighed, motioning for Danny to move to his office. "Well, something did come up, but I think you'll need to sit down for this one…"

Steve and Kono moved to follow, but Chin stopped Steve and pulled him to the side. "Yeah Chin, what's up?" Steve asked, wondering if it was something related to their latest case.

Chin shook his head, moving to his own office and signaling for Steve to sit in the visitors' chair. "I just want to understand something. You guys were supposed to work in your partner issues, yet you ended up just taking it as a vacation in a nice resort?" He asked in confusion.

Steve nodded in agreement. "Yup! That place was amazing! It was a great idea to go there!" He said with a happy grin.

Chin frowned in thought. "And you ditched Danny to meet with a woman you met on the flight…" He asked in a neutral tone.

Steve tensed a bit, not liking what Chin was implying. "He didn't feel like going out. He said it was ok, that he'd just have some dinner and turn in early…" He said defensively.

Chin's expression didn't change at Steve's explanation. "I'm just surprised. At first it looked like you were really interested in this workshop and it seemed that Danny was only agreeing to go because of that…"

Steve frowned as well, looking away. "No he didn't. I showed him a brochure of the resort, the big pools, the beach, the dolphins, and the huge rooms! He liked the idea of taking some time off out there!" He said a bit defensively.

"Right, because Danny loves spending time in the outdoors…" Chin deadpanned.

Steve ran a hand down his face, suddenly remembering Danny's words about Rachel wanting to go to marriage counseling. He had said no when Rachel had asked, and by the looks of it, he regretted it. Now that Steve had asked, he had grudgingly said yes, but Steve hadn't followed through. He groaned. "Damn… I fucked up, didn't I?" He said, finally looking at Chin.

Chin didn't say anything, but he didn't really need to.

Suddenly making up his mind on what he had to do, Steve stood up, moving to Lou's office, where the rest of the team was. As soon as he entered, Danny passed him a file. "Steve, you've gotta talk to Ellie. Kame's little brother got himself into a mess and we have to help him!" He said in concern, standing up from the chair and limping out of the office and pulling Steve along, even leaving the cane behind in his haste.

Steve took the file, skimming through it while he followed Danny out of HQ.

Before they reached the car, Steve stopped his partner. "Hey Danny, listen… It'll be ok. We'll talk to Ellie and get Kanoa a good deal, ok?" He said, reaching out to squeeze Danny's shoulder in comfort, knowing that the situation was a little too close for comfort for his partner. "And once we take care of that, we're going to sit down and have a talk, ok? I just realized how badly I messed up, I dragged you to that relationship thing, and never figured you actually wanted to work on making this thing better… And I'm sorry. I'll try to be better at it, ok?" He said earnestly.

Danny seemed a bit taken aback by Steve's words, but recovered quickly. "You're actually apologizing? Are you feeling alright? Did you have a stroke or something?" Danny said with a smirk.

"Apology accepted. Let's just try to help this kid and then we'll see what we do. I wouldn't want to put you in the uncomfortable position to have to talk about feelings or any such torture…" He finished, moving to the car.

"Thank you, Partner." Steve said with a chuckle, moving to the drivers' side and bowing to himself that he would put himself through that torture if that's what Danny thought they needed to do in order to make things better. But right now, they had a little brother to protect.

The End

A/N: Thank you very much for reading! I'm still trying to decide if Steve's behavior in the episode was in or out of character for him, but either way I wished he would get a chance to realize how crappy of a friend he'd been, and I didn't see Danny actually saying something, so this was my solution. Also I figured the situation with Kame and his little brother would hit Danny really hard, so I decided to show it as well. I'd love to hear what you think about this one!