He knows about the kid, and the ex-wife. He knows that Danny is absolutely going back to Hawaii, and he knows that he can't leave Parker or Hardison or the pub. This is the first time in... hell, it's the first time ever that he's had a life, had a family, and there's no way he can walk away from it. But he wants. Christ, he wants so damn much he can hardly breathe for it, and he huffs a broken laugh.

"Fuck man, I've been hangin' by a damn thread for years," he admits hoarsely. "Barely clawed my way outa being a feral headcase." And he's been clinging to his sanity, his humanity, tooth and claw ever since. "Havin' them, it helps, but-" He shakes his head. "I never wanted them t'know." They know some of the things he's done, and can probably guess at a lot of the rest, but they've thought it was the bad choices of a man, not of an actual monster. He's still waiting to see the fear there now that they know what he actually is, and how precarious his grasp on his control actually can be. It hasn't happened so far.

"How can you be so damn easy 'bout this with your bondmate?" he asks, finally looking directly at Steve, brows furrowed and everything about him still telegraphing tension and confusion, with a vague, barely perceptible sheen of hope showing through.