McDanno - Camp 5O

Extra Scene 3 - Laundry

Laundry (after halloween, before thanksgiving)

It was 3pm on Wednesday when Steve's phone lit up. His caller ID read: Danno.

Steve put the paperwork he was holding down and answered. "Hey Danny! What's up?"

"Hey Steve." Danny's voice sounded tired. "Can... Can I do some laundry at yours this weekend?"

"Waters down again ?"

"Yeah. And they said that once the waters getting fixed, we still won't be getting new laundry machines for the next month, if they're getting replaced at all..."

"I'm surprised you haven't yelled anything about a lawsuit already, or, more specifically, ergo I think a lawsuit is in order!"

Danny chuckled, but it came out with a sigh.

Steve wanted to tell Danny he should move out already, but he didn't, because he was scared that part of the reason Danny stayed over on the weekends was because of said crappy apartment.

"You can come over now," Steve found himself saying instead. He was already putting away his papers, as if simply by requesting it Danny would appear in seconds.

It took Danny more than a few seconds to respond, and when he did it was just a "Yeah?"

"Yeah." Steve assured him.

"Um... okay. I'll be over in, um, about an hour? Is that okay?"

Steve's desk was already clear of anything work related. "Yeah, that's fine."

Steve tried not to hover as Danny did his laundry. But there wasn't much else in the house that he would rather be doing than being next to Danny.

He sat cross-legged on top of his dryer as Danny separated and loaded his clothes into the washer.

Danny caught him up on the "sleazy informant guy" case.

Rachel had never liked it when Danny talked about work.

"Not now Daniel." She would cut him off, holding her palms over the ears of Gracie, like their months old baby could understand the cop stories he was sharing.

"Danny, please , it makes me worry too much." She would plead over him at the kitchen table.

And it wasn't that Danny didn't understand Rachel's fears, it was just that when she didn't let him talk about his work life, she also didn't offer him any other way to be heard. He felt like she just didn't want him talking, period.

With Steve, he felt heard. On everything. Work, family, fears, hopes, everything.

They cooked dinner as they waited for the washer.

As Danny moved around the kitchen, he felt hyper-aware of the fact that it was just him and Steve alone in the house.

He couldn't help but think back on his first weekend there. The kitchen. Steve's hands on his waist, heavy breathing on his neck.

He jumped a little as Steve asked him to pass the salt. Coming out of a daze, Danny did, then he helped Steve finish preparing the rest of the meal.

They ate on the couch, laps serving as their tables.

They found a movie playing on TV, the second movie in a franchise they had grown up loving and was still going strong, The Astral Wars.

"You know," Steve said in between chews during a commercial. "You should just leave some of your stuff here, it would be easier. Gracie has."

"She has?" Danny asked, and he wasn't sure why it didn't come out as panicked as he felt it should have.

"Yeah."

"I mean, I know she's left some of her stuffed animals here, some of her toys, drawing journals..."

Steve set his plate down on the coffee table and gestured for Danny to follow him.

They walked into the room Gracie had slowly been claiming as her own.

Danny had been aware of the drawings she had put up, the stuffed animals that lined the bed, the books they had brought and piled onto one of the nightstands, he knew about the blanket from home she had left on the bed.

But, this was his first time noticing her slippers tucked halfway underneath her bed, waiting for her like she was going to be back later that day.

Steve opened a drawer on the closest nightstand and it was filled with hair ties and hair clips, Gracie's.

Steve lifted a pillow on the bed and revealed Gracie's pajamas folded neatly underneath.

Then Steve opened the closet. One third of it was filled with Gracie's clothes.

"Oh." Danny said, staring at the clothes.

"Yeah." Steve replied.

"This is more than she's ever left at my place."

Steve didn't know how to respond to that so he didn't.

The commercials ended and the movie started playing back up again in the living room.

Danny stayed, looking at his daughter's clothes filling in the closet in Steve's first floor bedroom, a bedroom she had begun calling hers.

Steve stayed, watching Danny and wanting desperately to know what he was thinking about.