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.

Steve stood and quickly made his way into the kitchen to intercept Claire before she reached the lanai. "Hey," he said as he stepped through the still open door. The sight before him made his heart sink even deeper into despair and guilt. The tear stained face, the bloodshot eyes, the red, irritated skin flaming around her nose, the angry red rash streaking down her neck – he wasn't sure which part of her current appearance pained him more.

"Where is he?" she demanded flatly, pulling the gray cardigan she wore tightly around her tiny frame.

"Claire," he answered quietly, his voice barely above a whisper. "I'm so sorry…"

She scoffed loudly and shook her head before attempting to step around him toward the back door, but he held out his arm to stop her progress. She instinctively recoiled before she ran into his arm. "What, Steve?" she asked belligerently. "What could you possibly want from me?"

"To apologize," he replied, voice thick with desperation. "It's on me, Claire, every bit of it."

She shook her head angrily at him. "It'd be nice if that were true, but it's not. I knew, Steve. I knew something was not right between you and me and I did nothing about it…"

"What were you supposed to do; Claire?" he argued. "Pull Danny aside and say 'hey, honey I think your partner has the hots for me'?"

"YES!" Claire sobbed. "Anything would have been better than this. You didn't see the agony in his eyes. I did that - just as much as you did. And I have to live with it every day for the rest of my life."

"And I have to do the same," Steve answered. "I didn't just betray him, I betrayed you too. The trust you had in me to be your friend, to be Danny's best friend, to keep him safe so he could keep coming home to you every night. I betrayed Cooper and Grace, the family you guys have built. I betrayed the trust your father had in me."

"I've lost the only man I've ever loved because I was weak," she said sadly.

Steve shook his head. "You've never been weak a day in your life, Claire. You'd been held hostage, your son threatened, your father shot and I took advantage."

"I didn't stop you, Steve," she argued.

Steve let out an exasperated groan before yelling, "God, will you stop this self-flagellation? I messed up. I. Me. Not we. You did nothing wrong."

"Then why did he walk out?" she asked with fresh tears in her eyes. "When I told him what happened, he left."

Steve ran a hand over his face before answering. "Because in that moment, the only thing in the world stronger than his love for you was his hatred of me."

Claire swiped her fingers under her eyes to wipe the tears away. "Yeah, well, he must not hate you too much…you still have a pulse and all your vital organs."

As much as he knew he shouldn't, Steve laughed. "Believe me when I tell you that the only reason he didn't kill me was because he didn't want to raise his kids from jail. Well…that…and I deliberately got him extremely drunk."

A ghost of a smile flitted across Claire's features, so Steve took the opportunity to continue. "I have written and re-written this speech so many times, in the hopes you'd give me a chance. Yes, I fell for you. You are beautiful, and talented; an incredible mother; a ridiculously good attorney. You have this sadistic desire to put my ass in its place as much as possible…"

He could sense Claire's discomfort with the change in the conversation, so he skipped ahead in his memorized discourse. "But, you're not mine, Claire. You never were. And I've slowly learned that you weren't meant to be. I didn't even realize I wanted a family and kids until all of a sudden, Danny had it. I swear to you, I didn't consciously choose to have feelings for you. It just…happened.

"He is my best friend in the world. He's my brother. I hurt him, and I'm going to have to live with that and spend the rest of my life showing him how sorry I am, if he will let me." Tears stung Steve's eyes as he continued. "Danny, Gracie, Kono, Chin, Malia – they're my ohana. I don't know that I can live with myself if you and Coop and your dad aren't a part of it too."

"Whadda ya say, Claire?" Danny slurred. Steve and Claire both spun to find him leaned against the doorway. "Still wanna be a part of this explosively dysfunctional family? There are days I don't want to be a part of it, so I'd totally understand if you said…"

The rest of Danny's sentence was silenced by Claire's lips crushing down on his. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to his chest. Steve heard her faintly mumble "yes" before enveloping Danny in a tight embrace.

Steve watched the couple and smiled, glad that the world felt somewhat back on track. He moved to leave the kitchen and give Danny and Claire some privacy when Danny spoke again. "I'm gonna head home now."

Steve nodded and took Danny's glass from his as he passed. "Hey, Danny?"

The detective stopped and glanced back at the Commander. "We okay?"

Danny shook his head. "No." Steve nod again in understanding.

"But we will be."

The End.