Chapter Text
He was surprised to see Catherine standing in the aisle of the plane.
“Hey, sailor.”
Her smile was gentle and wry, her eyes twinkling. Time, distance, and the first couple of awkward meetings had given way to their united efforts to avenge Joe’s death. Text messages had resumed, gradually, after that -- checking in, checking up -- becoming more common, more comfortable, until eventually Steve found himself confiding in Cath as the most unlikely of confidants.
Meaning, she knew how he felt about Danny.
And she’d insisted that Danny returned those feelings . . . that she’d suspected it, even as she’d found it in herself to walk away.
“I would have said yes,” she’d said, and then later explained . . . “I would have said yes. And we would have broken each other’s hearts, and Danny’s.”
He was still reeling over the emotional good-byes, over leaving Danny on the beach; his gut still churning over the what-ifs and almosts. It took his brain a minute to compute.
“It was you, with the cipher.”
“Well, yeah, but . . . you also didn’t think I’d let you go alone, did you?”
She sat down, slipped her hand into his, and gave it a gentle squeeze. His phone pinged, and he glanced at it, then smiled.
“Danny?” she guessed.
“Yeah. I think maybe he’s started to forgive me for leaving.”
“So . . . you didn’t tell him?”
Steve took a deep breath, then shook his head. “I came close. Really close. He was . . . God, he was devastated, Cath.”
She squeezed his hand again. “I told you . . . hell, Steve, it was obvious to Daiyu Mei. She went after Danny as leverage. You’re each other’s . . . everything.”
Steve fell silent.
“Maybe you should have told him,” Catherine said. She hesitated. “You still could. You could text him right now, before we take off. Give him more details later.”
He thought about it a moment, then shook his head. He responded with a quick text instead.
>>Missed you before I got out of the driveway, Danno.
“No,” he said, turning to Cath. “I’ll tell him when I’m on the other side of this. Danny, he -- I can’t put this uncertainty on him. He almost worried himself into an early grave, after the transplant . . . I regretted telling him about the radiation poisoning to begin with.”
“It wasn’t like you could hide the symptoms indefinitely. He’s a detective, Steve -- a good one.”
“I know. That’s why I had to leave . . . he’d already worried himself to the point of making up reasons to move in, stay close, keep an eye on me. I couldn’t do this to him, not now, not after . . . everything. He can’t compartmentalize, this would have been too much for him to live with. So.” He forced a smile. “I go, get this dealt with, and when I’m better, I go back. Whole, healthy, and able to offer him something more than sitting beside a hospital bed, or hanging out at my house watching me puke and lose my hair.”
“Steve . . . “
“You did the research for me, this is the best option. My best shot. Right? So I go to the Naval hospital in Yokosuka, I fight this thing, I go home to Danny and the rest of the team. You said they have the best research, treatment and success rate, of all the Navy bases.”
“They do, Steve. After Hiroshima, the Navy has dedicated decades of research to radiation induced cancer. Yokosuka has the best survival rate for leukemia on the planet. There’s no doubt -- this is your best shot.”
*****
TBC