A short little thing to say Happy Valentine's to all the lovely people who read and comment or show their love for this story. I appreciate it so much, thank you!

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Danny hung up the phone and grabbed Steve's hand to yank him through the living room and towards the stairs.

"You know," Lily said. "You should be a little more subtle about your amorous activities, Danny."

Danny stopped and looked at his Nana. "Not what's happening, Nana."

Lily shrugged. "Idiot."

"Grace and Kono have found a cake topper that 'looks just like us' and have bought it, I'll get Kono to send me a photo," Steve said changing the topic.

Lily turned to Steve and beamed. "You good boy."

"Not me," Steve said. "Kono and Grace are pretty handy."

"We'll be down soon to help you cook," Danny said tugging on Steve's wrist again until he was following Danny again.

Danny walked up the stairs and into their room before he pushed Steve onto the bed and closed the door behind them.

"Were you seriously trying to avoid talking to Grace?"

"No," Steve said folding his arms over his chest.

"Babe," Danny said sitting next to him. "You don't need to worry about her being annoyed at you."

"I'm annoyed," Steve said. "I feel like were cheating at Christmas, I like your family, it's overwhelming but I like them and then I think Grace should be here."

Danny took a deep breath. "Yes she should, but, since she's not she wouldn't be annoyed at you for not being able to get us to Vegas."

"I know," Steve said but his posture tightened even more.

Danny threw his arm over Steve's shoulder. "I have a surprise for you."

Steve twisted his head to look at Danny. "What?"

"You remember when you and Nana got into that 'discussion' with a woman about whether or not she cut in line?"

"Yeah, we lost you and then you came back later." Steve said watching Danny closely.

"Well," Danny said. "I left the two of you to it and decided to go and grab something I saw in a shop window."

"What?"

"Ha!" Danny said with a huff. "Like I'd tell you."

Steve smirked. "You bought me a Christmas present?"

"Maybe."

Steve pushed Danny back and kissed him. "You got me a present?"

Danny shrugged underneath him. "You'll have to wait until Christmas morning to see if Santa brought you anything."

"Huh," Steve said pulling back. "I didn't know Santa was so short."

Danny pinched him and with a laugh they laid back in the bed and made out like teenagers with a house to themselves.

There was a knock on the door. "Danny?"

"Oh no," Danny said at a whisper pulling away from Steve. "It's my Mum! You need to get under the bed."

Steve let out a loud bark of laughter and pulled away from Danny completely. He opened the door to find both Danny's mother and father standing on the other side of the door.

"Ma, Pop," Danny said standing up. "We were just studying."

Lizzie laughed at him. "We want to talk to you."

The smile fell of Danny's face. "What's wrong?"

"We overheard the phone call with Grace, and things have been said before so we want to know, what's going on with Doris?"

"So, this isn't about me having a boy in my room?" Danny said with a smile. "Let's go downstairs and talk."

"I'm sending Molly to take your Nana to the hairdressers and Ryan and Harvey are going down the pub for a drink," Chris said quietly.

"So organised," Danny said and stood to straighten out his shirt. "We should have coffee."

"I also have some cherry, vanilla butter cake," Lizzie said turning and heading down the stairs, followed by everyone else.

"I want to show Steve off to the people at the hairdressers," Lily said and she walked out of the door. "The photos aren't nearly as good as he is, and they don't show his backside."

"How far away is her hairdressers," Steve asked Chris quietly.

"Couple of blocks," Chris said.

"Lily," Steve said coming down to stand next to her. "I'll run down so you can show me off in a little while, how long will you be there?"

"An hour," Lily said looking at him carefully. "You'll run?"

"If you ask really nicely he'll even flying tackle someone in front of the hairdressers to show off."

Steve shook his head.

"Or he could hunt and kill a wild boar – that idea went over really well on Grace's camping trip."

"It's a valuable skill when you are living in Hawaii," Steve said.

"I don't know about the boar thing but the flying tackle sounds interesting," Lily said before she turned and started out the door. "You better be there hot stuff or I might not come to your wedding."

"We would need to lock her in the basement to keep her away," Chris said leaving the front room and heading for the coffee and cake.

Lily left and Lizzie lead them into the kitchen, she poured everyone a cup of coffee and cut the cake before she sat down.

"Right," she said. "I want to know it all, what's going on? Why does Grace dislike Steve's mum?"

Danny took a deep breath and opened his mouth to speak but before he could say anything Steve started talking. Danny turned to watch him, Steve was sitting rigidly and talking the clipped tones that make Danny feel like he was sitting in on a debriefing rather than a conversation, he looked at his parents who were both sitting back, not relaxed but willing and happy to listen and wait for Steve to get this all out.

Steve was clinical and brief in his explanations and yet very detailed and he left nothing out, even the things that painted him mother in a negative light. Danny wondered if this was something of a catharsis for Steve to say all of this rather than keeping it inside. Danny was used to reading Steve, and, when needed, pushing for information, but occasionally Steve would do this and he always seemed more relaxed when he was done so Danny held down on his desire to share more information and listened instead.

"Well," Chris said when Steve was done. "Good thing you're joining our family now."

Danny watched Steve drop his head and could almost see how much his father's words had meant to Steve.

"Exactly," Lizzie said giving Steve another piece of cake. "We don't think we can take anyone's place but we are very happy you're going to be part of the family."

"Thank you," Steve said and stood. "I should get down to Lily's appointment," and then suddenly he was gone.

"Oh," Lizzie said. "He is a skittish one."

Danny nodded and took Steve's piece of cake. "He is but by the time he comes back he'll feel better."

"Alright," Lizzie said looking at her son knowingly. "Now tell me what he left out."

/ / /

Okay, so I'm catching up on H50 so I can know what's happening and I love Alex O'Loughlin and I think he does a great job with the American accent but sometimes I can hear that it's just not comfortable, and it's only on some words, and heaps of people from other countries in the same situation do it but each time I hear it it makes me smile and like him even more. The words I notice are MOM and ASS. They keep giving me things to write about…dress blues…and RL is too busy for me to write as quickly as I want to. *sad face*