I'm back!

Thanks for your reviews, I was really pleased to read them. Appreciate it!

Here goes another chapter for you, there will be one left :) probably a longer one.

Because I was asked about Catherine and why she died: I did think about if I want to write about it or not. And I don't want to spoiler the story but I kind of decided to let it open for your guy's imagination. Maybe you can come up with some kind of ideas or suggestions what may had happened; otherwise I hope you just enjoy it how I decided to write it down :)

It was around midnight when Steve announced they should finish for the day. He had put John to sleep hours ago after they had eaten their pizza for dinner and now, everybody was worn out from the day. Danny had offered to stay for the night with the thought in his head to support Steve with little John, so his friend could get some sleep during the night but Steve declined thankfully. He had gone to bed shortly after 12:30 and had been asleep immediately, not to be awoke again half an hour later. John was screaming through the baby-phone on his nightstand and it took a few seconds to wake Steve's foggy brain. He got out of bed and into his sons room, just to find him standing up in his bed, screaming and crying until his head went red. It wasn't like him to scream like this.

"Hey, buddy. Hey, you alright? What is it, huh?", Steve whispered soothingly, picking him up and putting him close to his body. "Are there some new teeth coming in?"

He rocked him around, paced back and forth; he even tried out the rocking chair. But nothing helped. Steve tried a bottle but John just moved away his head and started crying even more. Slowly, Steve was getting agitated. Yeah, he had some pretty restless nights recently but this wasn't like John. Steve put his hand on his face; he was very warm. A fever? Or just the crying and the effort of not being able to calm down? Steve was bone tired, exhausted and worried. He felt himself loosing control over the situation and that made him upset even more. Catherine would have known what to do, but he? He had no clue. He just wanted to start crying as well.

After another twenty minutes without John stopping to cry, he grabbed the thermometer from his bathroom and put it into his toddler's ear. 102,5. Steve felt the rising panic in his chest. Oh god. He couldn't help himself but grabbed his phone from the nightstand and called a number; despite the fact the clock showed nearly 2 in the morning.

"Hello?"

The voice on the other hand was barley audible, sleepy and sluggish. Steve felt bad to wake his partner but he was on the edge of a panic attack.

"Danny? I, uh… Im sorry."

"Steve?", the voice got clearer immediately, the worry in it not to overhear. "What's going on, is that John crying in the background?"

"Yeah, he… he wont stop, Danny. I tried everything but he wont stop crying. He feels warm and I measured his temperature… its at 102,5. That's very high, isn't it? Danny, what should I do? Do I need to take him to the ER? Im freaking out here right now!"

"Okay, okay… hey! Calm down, okay? Steve, take a deep breath. A fever is not a reason for you to have a panic attack, alright? Does he seems lethargic to you? Do you see any kind of rash on his skin?"

"Uh… Uh, no, there is nothing. He seems normal so far, let alone the screaming and crying and the obvious fever."

"Okay, that's good. He may got an simple infect, okay? It's not unusual for babies, especially in his age. He started walking, taking everything he finds into his hands and mouth… Kids at this age do get a high fever like that, its not unusual either. He's probably fine in the morning, at least tomorrow afternoon."

"Okay… Okay, I, uh… what should I do?"

"Do you want me to come over?"

No, I… I can do this."

"I know you can do this - that's not what I asked, Steven."

"Uh… I could use a hand, Danny."

"Ill be over in 10."

When Danny arrived at his friend's place, he found a desperate Steve, trying to soothe a screaming child on his arms while he looked like he would start crying on his own any second. The moment Danny came in, Steve had already spotted him. "Danny, thank god. I… I don't know what to do. He threw up a few minutes ago and he's still hot."

Danny noticed the rest of baby porridge covering the neck part of his friends shoulder, obviously thrown up by John. They Jersey Cop was glad his friend called him – he didn't think it was something serious but his partner looked so miserable, it nearly hurt him as much as the little boy kept crying his lungs up. "Okay, give him to me. You, take a shower and calm down, okay? You look like youre going to break down any minute.", Danny took the screaming child and waved at Steve, who was more than unsure to leave him with his boy. "Go! I have him, its alright."

While Steve took a shower, Danny managed to give John some medicine especially for babies to fight the fever. It had a very sweet taste and just contained liquid, so nothing to choke on. He already had been using that on Grace back in her toddler age and it had worked well. When Steve came out of his shower, John had finally fallen asleep – exhausted and worn out from his crying marathon. Danny smiled at his friend, as he reentered the room and found his baby boy sleeping in his bed. "He is alright. Let him sleep and we will check the fever again when wakes up, okay? Come on, sit down for a minute and take a breath."

Steve looked at John, then at Danny and nodded. With a deep breath he let himself fall down into the rocking chair behind him and rubbed his face. "I can't believe it. Im sorry, Danny, I… I couldn't think straight anymore."

"Hey! I said it when the little guy was born and I will say it again… You can call me any time, okay? It's not a big deal. That's what friends are here for."

"I thought he was just toothing again.", Steve said softly, looking very upset.

Danny squeezed his shoulder and gave im a slight smile. "I know. That's it, buddy, you are a Dad now. It's your duty to be scared about everything; remember that, SuperSEAL. When Gracie was born, she had her first cold with 8 months. I dragged her to the ER the middle of the night because of a running nose. You can imagine the face of the night nurse there."

Steve had to smile about that. "Well, a year ago I would have laughed about you.", he made a pause, as his smile faded again. "Cath would have known what to do."

"Hey! Don't go there, you hear me?", Danny stood right in front of his his friend, hands on his hips. "I highly doubt she would have known. She would have been a first time mom, like you are a first time dad. It's normal to feel overwhelmed with a child, okay? Let alone he's still a baby. Cut yourself some slack, would you? This is not some competition or one of your crazy NAVY missions."

Steve sighed again, his eyes closed and his head leant back. Danny watched him and he knew the expression on his friend's face very well. It had been more than once, Danny had found him crying over what seemed like irrational things: John wouldn't take his bottle over the day or the scumbags from youth welfare office would show up for their yearly check. Usually, those were things Steve wouldn't let near to his chest but Danny knew, most of the time it just had been an emotional reaction to the overwhelmed feeling his partner got from time to time. He will never forget the moment in hospital when the nurse put the baby in Steve's arms, not an hour after Catherine had died.

-flashback-

Danny watched the little bundle of a human, placed in his best friend's arms from the nice nurse. She smiled at him and assured "He is doing very well! You can hold him, I will back later to give him a bottle."

Steve didn't really recognise what she said to him. He was staring down on the infant in his arms, whose eyes were looking right back to him. Those eyes, he had from his mum. No combat, no torture and no fight against the Taliban had Steve given a feeling like the one felt had right now: helplessness. Overtaxing. Anxiety. As he looked in the shining eyes from his son, shifting in the little blanket he was wrapped in, tears were starting to run down Steve's cheeks. Danny stepped in and squeezed his friends shoulder in an attempt to comfort him.

"I… I can't do this, Danny, I can't.", he softly sobbed and looked at his partner. Danny never had seen such a desperate look on his best friend's face. There was always this stoic, no-feelings-granted face on his partner and apparently, it took the birth of his child to finally break down these walls.

"Of course you can! Besides that, you are not alone, are you? We are all here for you. You don't have to go through this all by your own."

"Danny, I… I have no clue about this. I can shoot down a man from a distance of two football fields away but I have no clue how to raise a child.", Steve sniffed, not sure if he was crying over his dead lovely Catherine or the fact he was a single father now, facing the task of having the most vulnerable and most important responsibility ahead of him from now on for the rest of his life. Maybe it was a little bit of both.

"Do you think I had a clue about that when was Grace was born? Hell, no. I didn't know anything. Everything I did felt wrong, didn't matter what it was. I called my Mum 3 times a day at least, just because I was scared to do something wrong."

"But you are a great Dad."

"Because I grew on it. And so will you! What does make you think you wont? Steve… I know, this is hard right now and you are grieving but please, don't take out your grieve on your abilities in taking care about your kid! Don't do this, this wasn't your fault. Just look at him and tell me you don't feel anything."

And Steve did, he looked. He looked down at his son and a warm, fuzzy feeling was flowing through his whole body. He was rocking the infant softly from side to side, trying to gather his feelings and emotions. "He… He is beautiful.", he whispered barely audible.

"Yeah, well… that is one point where I may doubt it's really your baby.", Danny stated, falling back into his usual mocking. Steve had to laugh between a sob coming out of his throat, not moving his gaze from the bundle in his arms. Dannys smile came back and he stroked his knuckles very gently over the little check of his best friend's baby. "Everything will be fine. You can do that. We can do that, I promise you."

Danny had been successful to help Steve calming down a little. So, 20 minutes later, he and Steve went outside into the hospital hall which was filled with their whole ohana waiting for some news on their new addition to the family. Everyone stood up as they noticed Steve coming up to them, holding a little bundle of a human in his arms.

He smiled at them, still teary eyes and whispered. "Guys, meet John Ethan McGarrett."

-back to present-

Danny had loosen up his tensed position and softened his gaze after he had returned to the present. "You know what? You, lay down and get some sleep. I will take the couch and the baby-phone. If something changes to worse, I will wake you, I promise."

"What? No, you didn't sleep either!", Steve protested, even tho it was a very weak protest. He didn't even have the energy left to argue with Danny, what a shame.

"Maybe but on the contrary to you, I had some sleep in the last weeks. I can endure one night, you don't. Not anymore, if you don't want to change into a zombie during the day."

Steve sighed and pinched his nose again, feeling a headache incoming. He knew, Danny was right. If he couldn't get some sleep soon, he will be useless for his team. So, he agreed and went to bed. Not convinced to be able to fall asleep, he found himself out like a light a minute later.

The rest of the night was pretty calm. John had woken again once and Danny coaxed him into some more medicine. The fever went down a little and he even drank a little from the bottle, before he had fallen sleep again. Danny rested on the couch and in the morning, he took John from his bed downstairs for some breakfast. He still had a slight fever but he obviously felt way better than during the night. Danny fed him and called the team for an update; letting Steve sleep. Chin and Kono arrived a little later, Steve still in bed and dead to the world. The three of them started working; Danny checking John's fever every 30 minutes and around midday, it had already broken down and the little guy was back to his old-happy-himself. Steve slept until 10 and this time, nobody had mocked at him for that as they usual would. They all knew this stuff had taken a toll on the former SEAL. Besides the fact John had been better in the morning, another positive message of the day appeared the upcoming evening. Their work had been successful: they were able to identify two men from the cartel, important enough to get some intel from Interpol. The Governor was pleased and rewarded his team with the next two days off. That was the evening when the team gathered at Steve's place to have a barbecue and Danny found his partner curled up on the couch around 8pm, sound asleep and a little human bundle cuddled up against his side, slumbering as well while sucking on his dummy. Between the two of them, Danny spotted the stuffed elephant the toddler barley left out of his hands. He smiled at the sight in front of him and his gaze fell on a photograph, placed on the table next to the couch. It was a picture of Catherine. Steve had placed it here after she had died and had put some candles around it.

"They are both alright, you know? Your sailor boy has grown into his father role, these two are inseparable. Don't worry too much, okay? Your little boy does him good.", he whispered to the picture and smiled. Like Catherine smiled back to him from her photograph.

End of chapter for today!

Next and last one's probably coming up on Friday :) Reviews appreciated!