With Kono under investigation, Jenna heading back to D.C. and the governor's appointed member, the team's dynamics had really changed. Danny wasn't sure if he liked it or not, but he was determined to go with the flow for the time being. Unfortunately, this case was testing his resolve.
This case was really affecting his partner and Joe. The murder of a fellow SEAL had been made to look like a suicide. Joe had trained the guy and Steve, well, he was a fellow SEAL, brother-in-arms and all that. Danny promised himself that he'd make sure to scrutinize every bit of evidence to make sure nothing was missed. He hated the look on Steve's face when he'd asked him and Lori to go talk to the victim's widow. He was going to make sure he did what he could to make that look vanish.
He let Lori ask Garcia's wife most of the questions, curious to see how good she was at profiling. Without being vain, he wanted to know if she was as good as he was and this was the perfect opportunity to evaluate Lori. He wasn't impressed. Steve had better interrogation techniques; he'd never come right out and state that Garcia loved being a SEAL more than the man loved his wife. Let's kick her while she's down. Jesus, the woman was a victim too. Danny stepped in to prevent any more awkwardness and to hasten their departure.
Danny didn't realize keeping his promise would involve enduring Lori's attempt to psychoanalyze him. As she prattled on about how he was wrong in his assessment that the wife and her boss were not involved and how he was thinking about his own failed marriage because he was scratching his finger, Turk came up with a ways to torture her without leaving any marks, maybe get Steve to induct her into Sergeant Slaughter's boot camp for real. Not very nice of him, he knew, but at this point he'd rather be back in a prison cell in Italy than stuck in a car with her. He also idly wondered if being annoying was a mandatory characteristic for one to become a profiler.
When Chin told them Nick Drayton's prints were on Garcia's whiskey, Danny didn't even hesitate before he headed to confront the man. He was secure enough to say he was wrong. Listening to the bar owner's explanation, Danny knew that he hadn't been wrong. As he pulled Steve off the guy he knew Steve would need a little more convincing but would eventually come around.
All three bullets fired hit their mark, taking down the killer. Danny resignedly looked at Chin. Why did the assholes always have to pull their own guns? Taking a life was the worst part of the job. It always took a few pulls of scotch and a few days to work through it.
Danny knew he was nettling Steve, but he couldn't help it, he was nervous. He'd read more of the page in Steve's file then he let on. Just thinking about Operation Strawberry Field scared the shit out of him. Now, they were about to see something similar, LIVE. He couldn't help but ask, wanting Steve to deny doing anything close to what he'd read and was now seeing. When his partner would, "Neither confirm nor deny," Danny couldn't help but look at him with respect, fear and pity. He would never look at Steve the same way again.