(wo)Man in Love

a/n - so this was supposed to be Grace's observation of her men and their love for each other. And it touches on that a bit. Instead, it turned out to be more about her relationship with Steve. But I still liked it, so I didn't scrap and rewrite.

"Steve!"

Grace smiled when she saw her... dad's boyfriend? standing next to his truck. She sighed. He hadn't been 'uncle' Steve since he and Danno had told her they were together. It maybe frustrated her a bit that she didn't know what to call him.

She never had that problem with Gabby or Amber... Melissa, whatever. She called them by their name and they were just her dad's girlfriends. NBD

But Steve was more than that. She knew he was more than that to her Danno. And not just because they'd actually moved in to Steve's house a couple months after getting together. Steve cared about her as a person, not just because she was his boyfriend's kid. He'd cared about her long before they'd become a thing.

Steve and Danno weren't married, but he was permanent. She knew that. Like a Step-Steve, but that didn't feel right now anymore than it had that night she'd tried it out for the first time.

Step-Stan worked for Stan. It was sort of impersonal, sort of like their relationship. She knew he cared about her and she had thawed to him when she found out what had happened to him when she'd been kidnapped; that he'd been hurt trying to protect her. But he still wasn't free with his affection; she was still just Rachel's daughter. And since everything with Charlie, well, she wasn't so sure how permanent Step-Stan would actually be.

But Steve, he gave his love freely, always had, which was surprising when her father had told her more about him, when she'd got a bit older. And he'd always been like that with both of them.

Stan felt like 'Step-Stan'. Steve felt like 'Dad'.

And it wasn't just how he treated her, and Charlie too - after all, Danno wasn't the only one that just flipped a switch when he found out about Charlie, instantly falling in love with him - that made her think that.

Even in movies, she'd never seen people in love look at each other or treat each other like Danno and Steve, even before they'd got together. The looks they gave each other, the little touches, the complete lack of personal space, the 'I love yous' and 'babes' and snark, everything they did for each other.

Grace was getting a bit old for fairy tales, but that was exactly what this was, as far as she was concerned. The Knight in Shining Armour saved the other Knight in Shining Armour, except there were guns instead of swords and Kevlar instead of chain mail and grenades in the saddlebag of a dark stallion named Camaro.

She giggled.

"Whatcha laughing at, kiddo?" Steve asked, ruffling her hair.

"Nothing."

"Uh huh."

He started pull the seat aside so she could climb in the back, then seemed to remember that she was old enough to sit in the front now. He fixed the seat and moved aside with a sheepish grin.

"Sorry."

"That's okay."

She realized this was the first time he'd come to see her alone since... since Danno had been arrested. Her smile faltered a bit as she slid into the seat.

"Everything okay, Gracie?"

"Where's Danno?"

She watched something approaching aneurysm face appear – maybe he had just realized the same thing? Then it disappeared and he smiled down at her, put his hand on her shoulder.

"He's fine, Grace. He got held up in court giving evidence on one of our cases. He's gonna meet us at home, okay?"

She was not expecting the flood of relief that washed through her. She looked up at him and he looked worried, like he'd done something wrong. That was not a face he should ever wear. She was sure her father would agree... unless he actually did something wrong.

Like if he put pineapple on Danno's pizza or something.

She smiled at him and nodded. "Okay. Sorry."

He squeezed her shoulder. "Hey listen to me, okay?" She nodded. "You have got nothing to be sorry about, you hear me? That whole thing – a lot of stuff you've had to deal with – it's not so easy to forget, yeah? I think about it a lot too. If you ever need to talk about it, you know you can talk to your dad, right?" She nodded again, tears starting to make her vision blurry. "And if, for whatever reason, you don't want to talk to him, you know I'm always here for you, okay? Always."

She could only nod. He smiled at her, sniffed suspiciously himself, which caused him to smile more, and pulled her closer to kiss the top of her head.

Just like he had done since she was eight, only months after meeting her. Before that first meeting, Danno warned her that it was okay if Steve scared her a little bit, because he wasn't good with kids, and if that was the case, then she should let him know. He wanted her to meet his friends, but he didn't want her to be uncomfortable.

Grace had always wondered if there was a second Steve she was supposed to have met at that football game, but maybe hadn't shown up. Like the thought of meeting Danny's kid had scared him away. The only explanation she could think of was that Steve had loved Danno even back then. The thought that they'd waited so very long to admit their feelings to each other made her a little sad.

Steve closed his door and the sound knocked her out of her memories. He looked over at her, like always, to make sure she was buckled in.

"You know I love you, Gracie, right?"

"I know. I love you too, Dad."

Steve fumbled the keys before he got them in the ignition.