For Steve

[sluttylyingliar]

She swears. She swears she wasn't snooping. She was minding her own damn business and watching fucking Housewives of Beverly Hills and then it was just there. She thought it was just a regular episode of the Steve and Danny EyeFuck Parade and had half thought about going to find Danny, to point to at least five instances that to her at least, proved those two were screwing back home. That was before it all went to shit. Before Danny's kid was kidnapped. Before she made herself sit through the whole damn mess because she had to know what happened. For Danny's sake. 

But now what? She can't just leave the thing lying around. But she has no idea if Danny should know. It would torture him. It would absolutely ruin him and he's happy and Grace turned out to be okay so it doesn't even seem worth it. If there's been any maturity gained in the past two years, however, it;s that she knows it's not really her decision to make.

So she runs off to find Steve, instead. It's probably disturbing that she knows their schedule this well but she speeds over to his office, reel stuffed into her bag. 

She quickly shuts the door behind her, and pushes sweaty hair off her face before Steve can even say hello.

"We need to talk," she bites out, letting out a shaky breath.

Comments

[newkindofcop]

Steve looks up from the paperwork he's got in front of him - a new hut request someone's just handed in - and frowns, looking Rachel over to try and discern whatever happens to be going on. She's sweaty and breathless, and he immediately moves to find her a chair, drawing her into the seat so she can rest first.

"Catch your breath," he murmurs, covering one of her hands in his. Whatever it is, it can wait until she's breathing easy again.

[sluttylyingliar]

She awkwardly lowers herself into a chair and takes a deep breath, holding Steve's gaze.

"A reel showed up. I didn't even know what I was watching at first, I swear," she spits out. "It's you guys. Something happened and I don't know if Danny should know."

[newkindofcop]

"Okay, it's fine," he promises, his eyes meeting hers. Whether or not she intended to watch it is irrelevant, and he's not going to hold it against her for doing so. What matters now is what she saw - which was clearly important enough for her to run over here first thing.

"Tell me what happened."

[sluttylyingliar]

"Okay," she says, slicing a hand through the air as she tries to get it all straight. "Okay, so Danny had this like, partner in New Jersey who stole drugs or something. And he gets him put in jail and then the guy gets out after like, a bunch of years. And he comes after Danny. And he kills this friend of his and comes to Hawaii..."

She trails off for a second, taking a deep breath. "He kidnaps his kid. Grace."

[newkindofcop]

"Okay. So you're saying this - former partner of Danny's, whoever he is, comes back to Hawaii on a revenge kick," Steve echoes slowly, trying to ignore the sensation of feeling as though someone's just pummeled him in the stomach.

"Did you watch to the end? Did you see how it all plays out?"

[sluttylyingliar]

"Yeah, yeah," she breathes. "So the guy tells Danny he's gotta shoot his ex's husband. Dan or Stan or whatever his name is or else he'll kill Grace. He does, just in the shoulder and you guys swoop in and you find Grace in this storage unit. She's okay, I think. It ended there...what do we do?"

[newkindofcop]

"I - I don't know," Steve admits, swiping a thumb over his temple as he tries to figure out how to take all this in. They get Grace back somehow, which is the important thing, but it doesn't lessen the blow of what happens in the first place, of how Danny is going to feel once he knows about it happening.

"We have to tell him. If we don't, and he finds out, and he knows we knew - I can't lie to him, Rachel."

[sluttylyingliar]

"You're his fiancee," she says with a tense shrug. "I think it's your decision, not mine. I'll go with what you think is best. I just didn't want to go straight to him without you knowing anything."

[newkindofcop]

"Look, I - I've got to figure out how I'm going to tell him about this, but I'm going to tell him. Sooner or later," he promises, looking over at her. "I don't want you to have to keep this secret, either."

[sluttylyingliar]

"I've got the reel," she says, pulling it out of her bag and handing it over. "I didn't want anyone else to find it. Do you think he'll be pissed I didn't go to him first?"

[newkindofcop]

"Honestly? I can't say for sure. I know there's no way he'll be happy about it," Steve admits, turning the reel over in his hands. There's a long beat where he just considers burning the damn thing, but he doesn't know that won't make it pop up again, possibly for Danny to find.

[sluttylyingliar]

"I can deal with Danny mad at me," she says with a nod. "I just hope he understands why I did it. Eventually."

She leans back with a sigh, pushing her damp hair out of her face. "I'm sorry. I know it's hard on both of you that Grace isn't here."

[newkindofcop]

"Harder on Danny," Steve replies, almost instantly. He knows that he and Grace have somehow fostered a closer connection - at least, the version of himself that's back home has - but it's nothing compared to the love Danny has for his daughter. Not even close.

"He might be mad, at first, but maybe once we tell him? Once we tell him it's all okay now? It might be hard to gauge just how far into the future this happens, but maybe, judging by the timeline - " He glances down at the reel. He's going to have to watch it now.

[sluttylyingliar]

"Do you want to tell him by yourself or do you want me there?" she asks, biting her nail before plowing forwards. It's not like Steve's not gonna find out. "There's something in there about Rachel having another kid? A baby. And...like maybe they didn't know who the dad was at first?"

[newkindofcop]

"Do you want to be there?" he asks, looking over at her as he sets the reel aside, down next to his boot.

"Yeah. Danny already knows about that part. We, uh, sort of found that out through another one of these reels, a couple months back." He'd had good intentions at the time, trying to show Danny that things were alright, and then the bomb had dropped right when they were least expecting it.

[sluttylyingliar]

"If he's mad I don't want him to think I'm hiding from him," she says, blowing out a short breath. "But seriously, Steve, if you want to do this privately, I'm fine with that. It's your call. No one knows Danny as well as you do."

[newkindofcop]

"I don't want that either, Rach, or for him to think that we in any way deliberately tried to hide this," he replies, scrubbing a hand over his jaw.

"Maybe I can figure out a way to approach him about it."

[sluttylyingliar]

"You'll need to watch it first, and do it pretty quickly," she advises, resting a hand on her belly. All the excitement has the kid stirred up.

"I can't lie for shit to Danny and he'll know something's up if he talks to me. I think you should go watch it, and then let me what you're gonna do."

[newkindofcop]

"Okay," Steve agrees, glancing from her face to her belly, his jaw tensing visibly. The last thing he'd wanted was for her to get dragged into all of this.

"I'd ask if you wanted to come with me, but I think you might've had enough excitement for one day," he points out, nodding towards her hand.

[sluttylyingliar]

Rachel offers up a small smile, patting her stomach once before sitting up. "I'm fine," she assures him. "But I think you'll want some privacy." She knows Steve is a lot like Raylan in many regards, including their distaste for other people watching them get emotional. "I'm so glad he has you here, Steve. Really glad."

[newkindofcop]

"Hey, that makes two of us where you're concerned, alright?" Steve asks, reaching out to take both of her hands in his own, giving them a small squeeze.

"Thank you. For bringing this to me. For caring enough about him to want to protect him from this."

[haolehothead]

Danny's starting to wonder where the hell Steve wandered off to. He rubs his fingers through his shorn hair, checking all the usual places, but he doesn't find him until he gets to the rec room. "Hey! There you are, what the hell are you doing, why aren't you home, I made dinner for us," he says, jutting a thumb over his shoulder.

[sluttylyingliar]

Rachel's been sort of hanging around the compound like a creeper for a while now. She was pretty sure Steve was going straight to watch the reel and is across the way in the kitchen, fiddling with a half cup of coffee and waiting for...something.

She knows this isn't her fault, but she can't help but feel shitty about the whole thing. Poor Danny.

[newkindofcop]

Steve's sitting on the couch in front of the screen as the reel comes to a close, leaning forward to prop his elbows on his knees before he runs his hands over his face. When Danny enters all of a sudden, he quickly rises to his feet, turning around to block the screen from view, one hand notching at his hip as the other scratches at the back of his neck.

"Yeah, sorry, sort of lost track of time," he admits, barely meeting Danny's gaze before glancing away.

[haolehothead]

Danny juts a finger in Rachel's direction, staring at Steve warily as he steps forward, pressing a kiss to Steve's lips briefly before easing away. "...okay, what'd you do?" he demands. "You've got guilty-Steve face on and that's never a good thing."