McDanno - Camp 5O

26

"Mrs. Williams, I can take you back to my house if you would like. I have a room set up for you and Grace. You can sleep on a bed there. I can bring you back early in the morning." Steve said, noting Mrs.William rub her neck for the fourth time.

It was 10:35 pm, Danny had fallen asleep about 15 minutes ago. Stan was supposed to be picking up Grace in half an hour but Steve and Rachel talked it over and she would be staying with Steve for the entirety of Mrs.Williams stay.

Steve looked over at Grace, she was curled up on the seat next to Danny, she was half asleep already. He knew that, just like himself, she will want to stay the night. He assumed the same for Mrs.Williams, but looking at her now, he felt like the best option for her would be to sleep on a bed.

"No, it's fine, you can go ahead and take Gracie. I'll sleep here tonight." She said. She was sitting on the side opposite Grace. She was sitting in Steve's unofficial spot. "Or, actually, I think Gracie would like to stay too. You can leave her here with me. You can go ahead and head home. Thank you for today."

Steve stared at her, unsure of what to do or say. He wasn't just going to leave Danny. Or was he? Should he? He had stayed every night since Danny had been first brought in. But now, his mom was here. Would he be overstepping if he stayed the night?

Danny wasn't awake to offer any guidance, tell him how to play it.

I should go, Steve realized, heartbroken. "Actually, if it's okay, I'd like to stay for a bit longer, just in case he wakes up. So I can say goodbye."

Mrs.Williams nodded.

"Since he moved into a bigger room, maybe we can get cots tonight. For you and Grace I mean. For you to sleep on tonight." Steve said, nodding as he left the room to find a nurse, and a bathroom to think things through in.

It was 11:53pm when Steve felt his arm being slightly shaken. Thinking it was Danny, Steve quickly straightened himself up on his chair, grin wide on his face as he forced himself awake. He was back sitting in his unofficial spot.

"Steve, honey." Said Danny's mom from the cot next to him. "It's late. You go on home. I'll tell Danny you said bye when he wakes up."

Steve looked at her, then at his sleeping Danno, laying right beside him, then back at her.

He took a deep breath. "Actually, Mrs.Williams..." His hand went up to massage the back of his neck, so much for his military strength tactic, "I've kinda been staying here every night anyway, so it's really no bother to stay here another night. Actually, it's what I would rather do, instead of going back home. And anyways, I drive Gracie to school in the mornings, so it'll be easier to do that since she's staying here too." He glanced at Gracie, sound asleep on the cot next to her grandmother's.

The room was only big enough for the two cots, luckily Steve had already gotten used to sleeping on the chair next to Danny. It was a lot more comfortable than many of the other sleeping positions he had had to endure while in the military.

Mrs.Williams stared at him for a few seconds, then at her son, then back at Steve. "Oh. Okay then." She wanted to talk more about it. Offer to go find Steve another pillow and blanket, ask for another cot. Ask him why he felt so indebted to her son that he would stay every night. Ask why Danny and Rachel had given him such faith with their daughter. Ask him why he had picked her up from the airport. Ask him why he was driving the camaro—her son's second love, after his daughter—like it was his own. Ask him why he was sitting so close to her son. Ask him why his head had been resting on Danny's bed. Ask him what Danny had done to deserve such a friendship. She wanted to ask him why she would be staying with him, instead of with Rachel, or at Danny's apartment. Ask why Grace was going to stay with Steve too. Ask him if her suspicions were correct. If he loved her son. If her son loved him. She wanted to ask him so many things, talk to him for hours on end. But her eyelids were getting heavier by the millisecond. Danny had been right, the plane ride had been very long, and the time difference felt like it chipping away at all her energy. She hadn't slept throughout the entire trip there, too worried about her son, too busy talking about him to the lady sitting next to her on the plane. But now, now the jet lag had her feeling horrendously tired and out of sorts. She had barely finished nodding okay when her head hit her pillow and she was snoring.