Disclaimer – I don't own Hawaii Five-O. If I did, Steve McGarrett would be shirtless all the time. And they wouldn't be covering up any of AOL's tattoos. I'm just toying with the characters for a while.

Present Day

"I tried to give her a free pass, ya know," Danny explained sadly, twirling the whiskey in his glass again after Steve wrapped up his explanation of the kiss. "I told her she was under extreme emotional duress. She'd been shot, Ray was in ICU, Trainor was dead. I begged her to say it was your fault so we could just put it behind us."

"I took advantage of her Danny, I'm not proud of it, but I'm sure as hell not gonna lie about it now," Steve answered, his voice still thick with emotion.

Danny nodded. "Babe, I was holding the frikkin' sword, so to speak, basically ordering Claire to push your lousy, stupid, jackass, white frikkin' knight in shining Army SEAL armor down on it, but she wouldn't do it."

Steve's anger flared. "Why? Why wouldn't she do that? I kissed her. She didn't initiate it, she didn't ask for it. She shoved me and then ran away."

"Because she knew," Danny replied despondently. "She knew you had feelings for her. She didn't know how strong or how deep they went, but…she knew. She didn't want to tell me because you're…you were…you are…I dunno, whatever, my best friend."

The Commander shook his head in disbelief. "All she had to do was keep her mouth shut and say 'Yes, Danny, I would love to marry you'!"

"You're seriously mad at her for not throwing you under the bus?" Danny asked incredulously.

"Yes," Steve answered forcefully. "I am actually. 'Steve kissed me. I hate his guts.' Two very easy, completely truthful sentences."

"Uugghhhh," Danny groaned, downing the remaining liquor in his glass. "It's my own damn fault."

Steve choked on his whiskey. "How the hell did you come to THAT conclusion?"

Danny waved his glass at Steve, indicating a refill was in order. Steve complied and waited as Danny took a long sip before continuing. "I couldn't just say 'Claire, will you marry me?' No, I had to go on and on and on about how much I loved her…"

"Verbal diarrhea," Steve said with an amused smirk.

"My best and worst trait." Danny agreed. "So I'm on one knee going through this elaborate speech, which was really frikkin' dumb to begin with since I tore my ACL 5 minutes after meeting your sorry ass. And Claire is crying with this huge smile on her face until I started in on the complete honesty we share…"

Steve groaned and Danny pointed at him with his finger and the edge of his glass. "Bingo. The smile faded and the tears weren't happy anymore. I asked her what was wrong and she said 'nothing'. But it wasn't 'nothing', so I pushed…and pushed…and pushed…until…"

"She told you," Steve correctly surmised.

"You know, for a lawyer, she's a crappy liar," Danny said with a snort.

"Not a bad trait for a spouse, though," Steve said gently before taking a swig of his whiskey.

"Yeah," Danny agreed quietly.

The men sat in silence watching the moon play on the waves of the ocean. Minutes passed, hours possibly, before Danny spoke again. "Are you in love her?"

Steve smiled sadly before answering. "My therapist says no. Monsignor Dowling at St. Patrick's says no…"

His explanation was interrupted by Danny's strangled laughing. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, therapist? Are you frikkin' kidding me? You have a therapist?"

The Commander rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, you've been telling me I've needed one for three years, so…"

Danny's laughter continued. "I'm sorry, babe, I don't mean to laugh, I don't..."

Steve fought the smile forming on his lips. "No, no, let it out. I wouldn't want you to injure yourself trying to suppress it."

"I can picture you in church, in the little closet where you talk about your sins…"

"It's called a confessional, Danny."

"Whatever. I can see you doing that but you on a therapist's couch talking about your feelings? No, no way. That is beyond all reason and imagination."

"I kept all my co-pay receipts if you want to see them, Detective."

Danny eyed Steve with an amused, but suspicious expression. "Maybe later," he finally said. "So this therapist, told you you're not really in love with Claire?"

Steve nodded. "That is what he said, yes."

"Then what?" Danny asked, genuinely curious. "What the hell possessed you to think that Claire wanted you to kiss her?"

Steve took a moment to process his thoughts before answering. "I never thought about having a family until you started dating Claire. Don't get me wrong, I love Gracie, you know I do. But the whole wife, 2.5 kids and a dog, man, that just wasn't me. I was quite happy being Uncle Steve. Or at least, I thought I was. You and Claire made it look…easy…natural. One minute, you're a single dad of one amazing little girl who worships you, and the next, you're madly in love and have two incredible kids who worship you. Don't get me wrong, I was attracted to Claire on day one…"

"I would have questioned your manhood if you weren't," Danny interjected.

"She's beautiful, intelligent, compassionate…but, mean as a snake when she wants to be…"

"The first time she busted your balls, I thought 'THAT is the woman I'm gonna marry," Danny said with a grin.

"Yeah, I think that was the first time you told her you loved her," Steve laughed in reply.

"Yeah," Danny said wistfully, looking out across the waves again.

Steve shut his eyes against the awkwardness of the moment. He opened; then closed his mouth several times attempting to speak before words finally came out. "I found myself wanting someone to come home to at night. We'd pull up at Claire's and Cooper would come running out, yelling 'DANNO!' at the top of his lungs and you'd hug him, and go kiss Claire. And, I started aching for something I didn't even know I wanted."

Danny stayed quiet as Steve continued. "The doc asked me a series of questions about Claire – what's her favorite flower…"

"Lily," Danny answered automatically.

"Favorite color…" Steve said, waiting for Danny's reply.

"Blue."

"First kiss?" Steve challenged.

"Ben Masters, on the playground when she was in 4th grade. He was in the 6th grade. Ray tried to have the poor kid court-martialed."

"What happened to her mother?" Steve asked, never having had the courage to ask before.

Danny shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "She, uh, died of a drug overdose in the Philippines when Claire was 3."

"I couldn't answer one of those questions, Danny. Not one." Steve said sadly. "Claire doesn't love me. At best, she tolerates me because I'm your partner, your best friend. If I could go back to that moment and let her go, I would. Danny, I…"

Steve's apology was interrupted by a car engine shutting off.

"That would be Claire," Danny said, attempting to untangle himself from the chair before falling drunkenly back into the low seat.

"How did she know you were here?" Steve asked.

Danny laughed heartily. "I'm sure from all the 'I'm gonna frikkin' kill him' and 'McGarrett is a dead man' threats I was tossing out, it wasn't hard to figure out. She probably came to help me figure out how to make your murder look like self-defense"

Steve heard his front door open. "I know I have absolutely no right to ask, but…Claire has shut me down every time I've tried to talk to her about…it. I need for her to know it's all on me."

The detective eyed his partner warily, the battle of saying yes or no playing out in his eyes. "Yeah," he decided finally. "Okay."

TBC…