Danny pulled up outside Steve's day centre, turned the ignition and slumped back in his seat. He thought about how challenging the last two weeks had been and sighed.

Telling Steve about Aunt Deb was one of the hardest things he's ever had to do. Mary and he explained to him that she was 'with the angels now', like he'd explained to Grace when her grandmother died when she was younger; Steve didn't understand at first, but later it sunk in and Danny held him as he cried himself to sleep.

Climbing the mountains of Hawaii was the last thing on Deb's bucket list. They had all taken Deb's ashes up one of them, Joan strapped to Danny's back, before Danny and Mary met with Kawika on the beach later that afternoon and watched as the Hawaiian native paddled out to sea with Deb's urn. Mary and Joan went back to Los Angeles a few days later, after promising to return more often.

Shaking his head as he returned back to the present day, Danny climbed out of the Camaro and headed inside. It was just after lunchtime, and Danny had managed to wrap up his witness statement early, so he decided to come and surprise Steve. As he entered the building he could see everyone was sitting around a large table and working on jigsaw puzzles, but as he approached he realised that a certain someone was missing.

"Hi Alani, where's Steve?" Danny asked as he came up to where she was washing up their lunch things. "He normally likes doing puzzles at home, figured he'd be right at home doing them here."

Alani bit her lip. "He's down the hall, Danny." She glanced down the corridor. "Been in there since they started about half an hour ago."

"Why?" Danny frowned.

"Because… Okay," Alani sighed, and Danny had a feeling that something was very wrong. "Steve's been coming here for a little while now, and he hasn't really… made any friends." She said, only meeting Danny's gaze as she finished speaking.

Danny closed his eyes. "Oh, no…"

"I'm so sorry, Danny." Alani rubbed his forearm as Danny glanced in the direction of where he knew Steve was. "We've tried to help him interact more with the others, but it's like being the new kid at school and everyone's got their own friendship groups. It's mainly an issue when it comes to working in pairs or groups because we've currently got an odd number."

"What are you saying? Steve's always by himself?" Danny's eyes widened. "That's never come up on any of his reports-"

Alani shook her head. "No, no, Danny! That's not what I was saying. He participates in group work just fine, as long as it's something he's interested in - we both know how stubborn Steve can be." Danny hummed in agreement. "But if we're doing something that involves splitting up into pairs and a three… Steve doesn't exactly have a wide choice of people to choose, if you know what I mean."

"So he has to work on his own?"

"We always offer to pair up with him; sometimes he wants to. But sometimes Steve just doesn't want to be a part of whatever we're doing. He used to sit by the window but now we've got our sensory room he likes to go there." Alani sighed forlornly. "I tried to get him to come out and do some painting with me but, well…" She gestured down the hall.

Danny ran both hands through his hair, resisting the urge to pull some out in frustration. "Okay… I'll see what I can do. Thank you, Alani. I know he can be hard work sometimes, but I'm very grateful but all that you guys do here."

"Don't worry, Danny." Alani smiled as he walked down the corridor.

Danny sighed as he quietly opened the sliding door to the sensory room and spotted Steve lying on a thick, soft rug and buried under a large blanket with only his head sticking out. He made his way across the room, stepping over various toys until he sat on the floor next to Steve. "Hey, babe."

"Hi." He mumbled.

"What are you doing in here, buddy?" Steve shook his head.

"Safe here."

Danny nodded. "Okay…" He rubbed Steve's shoulder through the soft blanket. "Didn't you want to do the puzzles with Alani?"

Steve shook his head. Danny huffed out a breath as he sat back against the wall, his thumb still rubbing circles on Steve's shoulder. He'd had similar conversations with Grace back in the day - and now with Charlie.

"No friends." Steve said quietly after a few moments. He gently butted his head against Danny's thigh and left it there, hiding in face in the blonde man's slacks. "Why, Danno?"

Danny bowed his head to gaze down at his friend. "Because…" His tongue darted out to wet his lips as he pondered what to say, how to explain it to Steve so that he'd understand. "Because, they don't know you that well. Do you talk to anyone?"

Steve wrinkled his nose. "Once. Told me to go away."

"Oh. Well maybe try someone else?" Steve bit his lip and tightened his grip on Danny's pant leg. "I know, meeting new people is tough, buddy. But it can't be nice for you to be left out of things, and I don't like the thought of you being on your own."

"Okay, Danno… I try."

"Good." Danny managed to coax Steve into sitting up, and sighed as he brushed the man's tears away. "Now, how about we go and join everyone, huh? I know you like it here but we can't stay all day."

"Danno stay, please?" Steve asked.

"Of course I'm staying! I'm not leaving you while you're sad, Steve." Danny said as he pulled him into his arms for a hug, before prizing Steve's iron grip off of him and helping Steve to his feet.

Steve instantly slipped his hand into Danny's as they walked back into the main room, where Alani welcomed him back and said that everyone else was still around the table doing a large puzzle as a group. Steve stopped to stare at the jigsaw pieces on the table, chewing at his lip.

"Hey," Danny squeezed Steve's hand to get the other man to look at him, before nodding at the table. "Wanna join in? I'll come with you."

He breathed a sigh of relief when Steve smiled that sunny smile of his at him before going to sit in the spare seat at the table, Danny following him. Steve was nervous at first as people looked at him when he started adding pieces to the puzzle, but slowly came out of his shell as the people around him began making conversation with him.

Danny sat next to him and couldn't keep the grin off of his face as he watched Steve take part in the group activity, occasionally helping him find the right shaped piece to go in the puzzle. Once it was completed he patted Steve on the shoulder as he stood up, smiling down at him when Steve craned his head back to look up.

"I'll be back in a bit and then we'll go home, 'kay?"

"Okay, Danno."

Danny quickly kissed Steve's forehead before going over to where Alani was standing, noticing that she was glancing at Steve with a fond expression.

"I was beginning to think that he'd never make any friends here." She whispered as Danny stood next to her. "Thank you, Danny."

Danny frowned. "But... I didn't do anything?"

"Well, whatever you did, he seems much happier now. Maybe Steve just needed you, he was real upset earlier." Alani said. Danny hummed in agreement as he took Steve's rucksack from her and slung it over his shoulder, his free hand reaching out to take Steve's as he came over to them.

"You ready to go, babe?" Danny asked.

Steve nodded, holding tight to Danny's hand as he looked at Alani. "Bye 'Lani! Sorry I went away."

Alani patted his shoulder. "It's okay, Steve. Everyone needs to chill out once in awhile! I'll see you tomorrow."