everyone_takes | [Danny]

It's been a couple of weeks now. Long enough that Kate's not really mad anymore. Long enough that she even sort of gets what Danny was trying to say to her that day in the Compound, but she's still a little hurt. It's not even about what he wants her to do, in the end. It's about feeling like she wasn't listened to at all and it reminds her just a little too much of how things used to be at home sometimes.

Still, class has been awkward as all hell and she knows that she's going to have to be the one to go to Danny. He basically told her as much, after all, and she figures that makes sense, even if it makes her super uncomfortable and even if she has no idea how to start. It's like she wants to be an adult and calmly tell him why she was upset, but that's hard. It's hard because it's super vague and she feels pretty stupid about it now.

But she still has to try. She knows that much, which is why she's at Danny's place that afternoon. Right now she's going to be an adult, she's going to talk to him, but she's also going to tell him why she's upset. Because she deserves to be heard.

"Danny?" she calls, knocking lightly on the door. "Are you here?"

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"Good, because I can only take so much yelling." And with everything that's been going on, it might be worried yelling, but it still tends to mean raised voices in his general direction. "Listen, I might not be around as much, okay? But if you need me, you find me or you find Steve and I'll always make time for you."

"Why? What's going on?" she asks. Danny's a pretty busy guy, she knows that, but he's never warned her about being busy before and she has to wonder if there's something happening. Especially since he seemed so tired when she first showed up at his place and wanted to go for a walk rather than stick around. "Is everything okay?"

"Steve and I took in a little girl that we found," Danny explains, unable to help the small grimace he gives when he thinks about the circumstances they found her in and how he hopes never to have to do that again. "She's wonderful, she is, but...it's nerve-wracking, being a Dad again."

"Oh, come on," she says and she only just manages to keep herself from rolling her eyes. It's not that she thinks Danny's being stupid, because being a parent is probably the most terrifying thing that anyone has ever done, as far as Kate's concerned. But he's so obviously good at it.

"You're like, made for that sort of stuff," she points out. "My dad was pretty awesome and you're equally as awesome, for sure."

"Acting as a responsible adult person," he clarifies, wanting this out in the open, "is so incredibly different from acting like a parent." As far as Danny's concerned, there's whole leagues of different. "Plus, she's only about eight, maybe nine. There's a lot of things that I haven't had to be responsible for creeping into my life again and it's...fucking terrifying. I wanted this. I still want it. It's scary as hell, though."

"Well, yeah. Kids are terrifying," Kate agrees. The thought of ever having one of her own is absolutely the scariest thing she can think of and it's definitely not something she's planning on doing in the next little while. Maybe not ever. But if anyone's good at it, it's Danny. "But scary or not, you're still good at it. Trust me, I know these things."

There aren't many people who she'll say that about, but she means it now.

"Well, I'm going to trust you," he says, giving her a little check with his shoulder, unable to hold back his smile that much. "Because you seem to know what you're doing." And beyond that, he does trust her and he values her opinion. "So, when you've got a piece of paper that says you are capable of shooting a gun, you should see me. We'll actually get that thing loaded."

Kate gives a nod at that and although her smile fades a little bit, it's mostly because she's nervous about finding someone. It isn't going to be easy and she's not really looking forward to it, but she'll do it anyway.

"Okay," she agrees. "I'll do that. I'll find someone."

[Danny]

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