sluttylyingliar | For Steve

For Steve

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.

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Rachel carefully sets down her coffee and stands up, taking a deep breath. She can't let all this fall on Steve.

"I found it," she says, crossing the room to stand next to Steve. "I wanted Steve to watch it first, so he could talk to you about it."

Danny's brows furrow as he looks from Steve to Rachel, confused as to why they're acting like this. He's got a sick feeling starting to build in his stomach, because..."The last time you found a reel, you were so excited, you couldn't wait to drag me away to watch it," Danny accuses Steve quietly, his chin tucked to his chest. "But you don't look happy this time."

"Danny, I just want to preface this by saying that everything's fine, alright?" Steve murmurs, his voice low and even, trying to keep the situation from escalating before it even starts.

"Look, just - what do you remember about a guy named Rick Peterson?"

Rachel bites her lip and keep silent, eyes darting back and forth between them, so fucking glad Steve's taking the lead on this. And that Danny doesn't seem pissed at her, yet.

"Rick?" Danny echoes, shaking his head. "He was my training officer for a while, back when I was first on the force. My testimony put him away after we found out he was a bent cop." Danny's starting to get a bad feeling about this. He presses his lips tightly together, trying to take deep breaths. "What -- Steve, what happened?"

"He got out," Steve says, matter-of-fact and to the point. He can't beat around the topic any longer, and Danny needs to hear it straight. "He got out and he was on a vengeance kick, Danny, he - "

He has to bite back the words for a second before they come spilling out faster than even he's anticipating. "There was some sort of sick, twisted plan involved, trying to get you your happiness with Rachel again, forcing you to try and take Stan out of the picture - he stalked you. He followed you, figured out what he needed to do to push you in any direction he wanted. He took Grace."

"And you get her back, Danny," Rachel quickly says, holding a hand up. "We both watched to the end so we know you get her back."

The mix of horror and pure fury that assaults him has him completely stunned, at a loss for words as he tries not to completely lose it. As it stands, his eyes are watery and he can't speak past the lump in his throat. All he can do it press a palm out, pointing a finger desperately at Steve. "He took her? He took my..." He turns around, a shaky breath exhaled as he bows his head forward, pressing a hand to his eyes so they don't see him completely losing it.

"We got her back, Danny," Steve whispers, reaching over to gently clasp his shoulder. "You, me, the rest of Five-O - there wasn't anything that was going to stop us from getting your little girl back to you and Rachel, alright? Peterson's going to be rotting in a jail cell for the rest of his life if I have anything to say about it." The amount of tension in his jaw is enough to hurt, but he forces himself to relax - if not for his own sake, then at least for Danny's.

"I'm so sorry, Danny," Rachel whispers, feeling helpless and completely over her head. She knows Danny is a little desperate to get back to his kid at the best of times, and can't fathom what this feels like. "No one else has seen it. It found me, and then I showed Steve. I promise."

He draws in a breath, letting his hand fall down as he gestures to the reel. "I need to see it," he says. "Steve, Rachel, I love you. I trust you, but I need to see with my own two eyes that my baby girl is safe," he's practically pleading, now. "I need to make sure she's safe and I can't do that from here, but I can watch and make sure she is."

It's a better reaction than Steve's been anticipating and he nods instantly, moving over to wind the reel back to the beginning so Danny can see this all go down for himself. "Do you want us to stay?" he asks, glancing to the couch. "We can stay, if you want."

"Or just I can go, Danny," Rachel offers, knowing her place in all of this. "If you want some privacy with Steve, I'll go."

"No," he says sharply, taking a seat on the couch and feeling like he's about to put himself through hell. "No, you're both staying." He's killing himself by watching this, he knows, but he has to. He has to see what happens, he needs to see Gracie safe in his arms.

"Then we're not going anywhere, Danny," Steve murmurs, crossing the room to sit beside him, though he's not about to crowd his space. He knows Danny will want them close, but not to the point of feeling stifled.

Rachel settles in on the other side, framing Danny in and sitting a little farther out than Steve. She leans back, certain her belly won't take another hour of leaning forward in horror and watches Danny as the action starts to unfold.

Danny sits, stonewalled, as he watches both his friend die, watches his ex-scumbag partner kidnap his baby girl, and watches himself shoot Stan. It only goes from bad to worse with every moment and suddenly, he doesn't even know what to do. He feels sick. That voicemail to Rachel, his need for Grace to be safe. He wants her here with him more than he ever has, and by the time he sees her safe, he feels absolutely numb.

"I just-- both of you -- I need you both to go," he says, evenly.

It's even harder to watch the second time, and that isn't even taking into account the fact that he's got the real-life version sitting right next to him, going through every emotion as it happens, every feeling.

"You sure?" He sits up from where he's been leaning back against the couch, watching Danny's face more than he has the screen this second time around. "Danny."

"Hey, I'll go," Rachel says softly, slicing a hand through the air. She levers herself up to her feet and shoots Steve a look hoping it conveys stay with him or take care of him or something of that nature.

"I'll go straight home so you can find me if you need anything, okay?"

Danny keeps steady, even though it's killing him. He wants to scream, he wants to do a million things (like shoot Rick, like kill Rick), but he can just sit here steadily. "Both of you, just, go. Steve, don't be at the house for a few hours," he gets out, voice so soft, it's almost hard to hear.

"Danny, I don't - "

He feels helpless standing here, looking over at Rachel, and realizes his face probably more than makes that clear at this point.

" - I can't leave," he says, quiet and insisting. "I won't leave you to deal with this alone. It's different, now that we're - it's what I'm supposed to do for you. Be here."

This is rapidly entering not your place territory so Rachel nods to Steve and squeezes Danny's shoulder before leaving as quietly as she can. She takes a few steps outside the rec room before leaning against the wall and squeezing her eyes shut, hoping to hell that Danny lets him stay.

Danny gives Steve a helpless look, not sure how he can even begin to put this into words. He doesn't want to feel like this, he doesn't want to feel any of this. "You just watched me pour out my heart to Rachel, you just watched my baby girl get kidnapped, you watched my scumbag ex-partner torture me. Steven, I can't process this with you staring over my shoulder. I need to get through one hurdle at a time right now."

"Then I'll look at the goddamn wall if I have to," Steve replies, his voice rising, becoming more insistent even if he stays well below the barrier between yelling and normal conversation. "You think I would've let you go through any of this alone if we'd lived it out ourselves? Some versions of us did, but I'm going to tell you right now, Danny, I wouldn't have done it any different. I would've been there every step of the way, finding out everything I could about this son of a bitch, stopped at nothing to make sure Grace made it back home to you and Rachel, and I'm going to be here for you, now."

Danny's been holding it back, the desperate need to let it all out, but the minute Steve's done, the minute, Danny can't even try. His eyes are shiny with tears, he lets out a choked cry, and just wants to be back home, more than any other time. "He took my baby, Steve, he took -- he took her," he says, that edge of panic still in his voice as he claws at the air, the anger mixing with desperation.

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