dann_0 | PSL: Sentinel AU

With the food in front of him, Steve slowly starts to eat. Nothing quite smells or tastes right, but he knows that's a result of the headache, not the food itself. Messing too much with his other senses right now, after being overwhelmed and with his current headache, without the help of a guide though is definitely a mistake. He'll just deal for the time being.

When Eliot's phone pings again, Steve gives up on the food and pushes his dish away half eaten. "Plan for about thirty minutes to get the van from the yard..." He looks at his watching, adding in travel time and estimating time to get the logos. "Yeah I don't see why not." He finishes his coffee in a swallow. "You about ready to go?"

Pulling out his wallet he takes out a twenty dollar bill and leaves it on the table. That should more than cover their breakfast and leave a good tip.

Eliot probably shouldn't be surprised at how easy it is to work with Steve. They're both highly trained professionals and aware of the basics of each other's abilities and limitations, and the whole process is almost ridiculously smooth.

Steve procures them an unmarked van with a minimum of fuss, they pick up the magnetic decals Hardison's already got waiting for them at a nearby print shop then park in an alley for Steve to do a quick job of slapping them on, while Eliot changes into the appropriate one of the uniforms Hardison had packed into the garment bag for him. There's a tablet computer and a small tool kit tucked into the bag as well, so he looks like he's actually prepared to work on the system.

They're in position and waiting when Hardison spikes the system, rerouting the alarm signal so their provider never has a clue it's been activated, then calls them himself to apologize for the malfunction and arrange for an immediate service call. From there it takes less than half an hour for him to con his way in, make appropriate noises about needing to check all the cameras and alarms, and manage to shake his escort as Rachel loses interest in following him from room to room in favor of going back to work on something in the kitchen... which gives him the minute he needs to (jesus, how is this his life?!) retrieve a soiled diaper from the pail in the nursery, shove it into a ziplock, and bury it in the bottom of his tool kit. He kills ten more minutes pretending to check the rest of the cameras, hooks Hardison's tablet up to the system and waits while the hacker reboots it remotely and pronounces their problem solved, then makes his escape with Rachel none the wiser. Though, christ, Steve hadn't been kidding: he didn't even need to pick the kid up to catch the distinctive scent that clearly identified him as Danny's, and it took all of Eliot's self-control not to bristle and snatch the kid away.

Having to retrieve the dirty diaper is almost worth it for the looks on both Steve and his lab tech buddy's faces when he pulls it out and they realize where the DNA's going to have to come from. "Once this is sorted out, Danny'd better appreciate that I went fishin' in a damn diaper pail for that, is all I'm gonna say," Eliot's saying as they head back into 5-0's offices, grinning and bumping his shoulder companionably against Steve's. "'Cause that was some serious toxic waste."

"Who could imagine that a child that small could produce so much... And the smell..." Steve is still trying to get the smell of poop out of his nostrils, but he's grinning as Eliot bumps his shoulder. Besides the headache he hasn't been able to shake since the screaming banshee at the restaurant that morning, they've had a pretty damn good day and he's happy with their progress.

Working with Eliot has been exceptionally easy. Much easier than Steve would have suspected considering they are both sentinels. The territorial competitive nature that he's been lead to believe prevents them from being on the same team just isn't there. It's not only that though. Eliot is simply easy to get along with, even enjoyable to be with. Instead of feeling like they've just met and are in competition for a guide, it feels more like Eliot is an old teams buddy who he worked extensively with but hasn't seen in a few years - they've picked up like no time has passed. Its been companionable and better than he could have hoped for.

"I'm going to owe Fong big time for this!" He jokes. "But you could smell it too, couldn't you? The scent that's distinctly Danny." Steve may have known Danny longer, but he expects Eliot has already ingrained his scent, and likely has a sentinel reaction off of it as well. Reaching the main office, Steve opens the door for Eliot. There's no doubt in Steve's mind that Charlie is Danny's. He doesn't need Eliot or a DNA test to confirm it but he's not really asking for confirmation either. It's more that they are partners in this. This is something that they could do for Danny together, and if they could do this, maybe they could share the guide aspect as well. It's a hope he didn't really have before. A situation that still wasn't ideal, but maybe they could make work.

Eliot huffs a laugh at Steve's reaction, eyes crinkling with amusement. "You weren't the one that had t'open up a diaper pail full of 'em and fish one out," he points out, grinning easily. He'd almost forgotten what it was like, working with someone who knows what he is and can do, not having to fake at being normal. It's... nice, even if it's not nice enough to ever be worth letting the military find out about him again.

"Yeah." He sobers at the question. "I didn't even need t'get close to him to catch it." And he pushes a hand through his hair, frustrated. It had pinged every possessive, protective instinct he has, to smell Danny on the kid, and leaving him there had been hard. "Kinda wanted to just grab him and run," he admits, frowning and following Steve through the door before heading for Danny's office.

Clasping a hand on Eliot's shoulder, Steve grins. "It's a dirty job, and I'm so very thankfully that you had to do it and it wasn't me!" One diaper was bad enough, smelling a whole pail of them. Steve would have needed a hell of a lot of Vicks to get him through that. He's finding the same, it feels good to be able to be himself without having to hide or watch what he says so others don't figure out he's different and to joke actually about it. It's not enough though to go back to active duty for though, it wasn't the same there anyway.

Steve nods. "Yeah, I understand that. Letting Grace go back to her mother's and seeing how much Danny misses her..." It takes all that he has not to go get her and hide her away just for Danny at times, especially when Rachel messes up their schedule or books fun things for her to do with her friends on his weekends.

Getting to Danny's office first, Steve opens the door and heads inside. The smell hits him right away but his momentum gets him into the room before he's trying to figure out what exactly it is he's smelling. It's Danny, but not in a way he's used to smelling Danny. Second to touch, smell is Steve's strongest sense. When focused, he can break down the different particles in the air and identify individual components. Normally it's not something he'd get that detailed with without a guide but that scent... It teases at him, pulls him in. Perhaps if he didn't still have a headache and his hearing wasn't already off from the screaming banshee this morning, or if he'd been getting any sleep the past couple of nights, or he'd actually spent any quality time with his guide beyond a few minutes on the couch in the last week, not to mention the worry about Charlie's parentage and the new guide/sentinel arrangements that had been playing on his mind, perhaps if it wasn't all of those things combined he may have realized that he was slipping down the rabbit hole known as a zone. But, as it was, he didn't realize any of the usually warning signs. Instead he was completely focused on identifying exactly what that strange scent was.

"Oh fuck you, man," Eliot answers, shaking his head and still laughing. "Joke'll be on you when he gets visitation outa this an' those diapers start gettin' filled in your house." Which... doesn't ache quite as much to think about as it would have just last night, or even this morning. Eliot's still not happy about the fact that he and Danny live twenty-five hundred miles apart, and are likely to continue doing so, or that Danny lives with Steve, but it feels at least a little less threatening.

He pads quietly into Danny's office behind Steve, inhaling deeply as he turns to hang his garment bag up on the back of the door. "Yeah, he talked about her a lot this week. Pretty clear bein' a dad's the most important thing in his life." Which... Eliot had found remarkably endearing, and is one of the reasons he hadn't hesitated to hop on a plane and come help Steve sort this out.

He turns back to Steve, planning to drop onto the couch, bask in Danny's scent a bit, and talk through just how they're going to go about breaking the news to Danny once they have the rest results, but he stops at the sight of the other man just standing there, unmoving. "Hey, Steve."

Eliot walks around so he can see his face, careful to stay out of arm's reach just in case, and grimaces as he sees the blank look on Steve's face. "Fuck." It comes out as a growl and his eyes dart to the open bag on top of his duffel. It might not be the culprit, but he figures it can't be helping under the circumstances. "Hey, man. I'm just gonna close this up, okay." He keeps his voice low, warm, soothing. Trying to be something to focus on, though he doubts it'll do much good coming from him. But it's better than leaving Steve in silence, even if he doesn't really have any idea what the other Sentinel might be hearing, locked inside his own head. "Then we're gonna sit you down on the couch... an' then I'm gonna call Danny, okay?"

He's moving as he talks, basically narrating his actions as he seals the ziplock and shoves it back in his bag, then approaches Steve slowly and from the front. "Just gonna put a hand on your arm and help you to the couch," he tells Steve, and reaches out to match action to words.

Steve's face gets a goofy happy smile to it at the idea of having Danny's son in their home. Children aren't something he's expecting to have of his own but he's very much enjoying being an uncle to Grace. Having another to spoil doesn't sound like a bad thing to him in the slightest.

In Danny's office, Eliot's words fade till he doesn't hear them at all. There's no noise where he's at. It's peaceful and quiet. Visually he has no sense of either. Touch and smell are there but in a far distant sort of way. The scent he's chasing has a taste, a flavor but it's the only flavor on his radar. It's familiar and comfortable. The smell makes him feel relaxed and at ease. He knows he should be able to figure out what it is but... Then, in a sudden change, it intensifies then nearly vanishes. He's chasing those hard to find particles. He needs more. He can have more he just needs to focus.

In the outside world, Steve's face is blank. His breathing is deep and once the baggy closes it becomes longer on the inhale, using his full lung capacity. When Eliot touches his arm he doesn't flinch or react. He is pliable to Eliot's manipulations however and easily moves to the couch and sits when the back of his knees hit the edge and Eliot pushes him into a seated position. There's no indication he's tracking anything at all.

Eliot gets him settled down on the sofa and then crouches in front of him, hands looped lightly at his wrists for a point of contact and searching his face for any indication that he's not completely lost to the zone. Unfortunately it's pretty damn clear that the lights are on but nobody's home, and Eliot curses again under his breath.

"Okay, darlin', just sit tight an' I'm gonna get you some help," he murmurs, rubbing his left hand lightly up and down Steve's forearm as he reaches for his cell phone with his right. Physical contact has always been one of the easiest ways to help him out of a zone, and while he doesn't expect to have any real success with it he can't not try.

He's already got Danny in his speed dial, so it's only a moment before the phone's ringing. He just hopes like hell he's somewhere that he can answer. And that he can drop whatever he's doing with Grace and come.

Danny's with Kono and Grace at the breach, the two girls are talking about surfboards just then. They've been out in the surf a few times already, Danny going with them too. He is proud of his girl and even if he doesn't like the water, she clearly does and he can live with that. When his phone rings and he sees who it is he excuses himself and takes a few steps away.

"Hi babe, missed me already?"

Ah shit, Eliot can't help the way his breath catches and his eyes slip half shut at the sound of Danny's voice. It's like every last fibre of him is straining towards the Guide, and he has to take a slow, deep breath to ground himself again before he can answer.

"You know it, sweetheart, but... that's not why I'm callin'." His voice is rough and a little strained, and he's rubbing his thumb gently over the pulse at Steve's wrist as he speaks, even as he listens for Danny's pulse and the sound of his breathing on the other end of the line. "I need you... I need you t'come to your office. I'll explain why I'm here later, but right now... Steve's gone an' zoned out on me, and you need t'come pull him out of it."

"What? You're in Hawaii? And with Steve? What? Why? Eliot.." He swallows, his mind racing and his heartbeat picking up. "Alright... Alright. Take his hand and place it on your heart or on your belly and try to get him to focus on your breath or your heart. That helps." He walks over to where Kono and Grace is.

"Hi Kono. I need to drop by the office, Steve's having a rough day." Kono knows enough to know what that means. "Mind watching Gracie for a bit?" At Kono's affermative he crouches down to Grace. "Hi monkey. Danno's gotta go see uncle Steve for a bit, but Auntie Kono will take you to Kamekona's for some shaved ice, alright? And then when we get home you can have anything you want for dinner. Deal?" There is an excited "Yes!" from someone who can only be Grace.

Then Danny grab his stuff and his keys, well the keys to Steve's truck and heads towards it. He pulls a shirt over his boardshorts. "You and I are going to have a serious talk, Eliot. You know that right? Steve's in the office?"

"Take a breath, sweetheart," Eliot murmurs at the sound of Danny's heartrate picking up. "He's safe, I got him, he's just zoned."

He does as Danny suggests, lifting Steve's hand and settling it over his heart, making sure to keep his own breathing deep and even as he listens to Danny's conversation. His breath catches a little at the sound of what must be Grace's voice, frustrated at the idea of ruining Danny's afternoon with his daughter, but even moreso at the knowledge of what he's missing with his son.

"Yeah, well, that was gonna be happenin' anyway," he points out quietly, sounding resigned as he glances up at Steve's face to see if there's any indication that hearing Danny's voice through the phone is helping him at all. "Yeah. He's safe, I just doubt I'll have much luck trying t'pull him out of this. I'm gonna put this on speaker, in case hearin' your voice helps him."

Steve doesn't hear Danny through the phone at all. In a zone, his focus is reduced to what he zoned on and a distant sense of touch. The scent isn't as strong, but its still there, hanging faintly in the room and Steve is determined to figure out what it is. To the point where he's mentally lost in a world of broken down particles.

Internally he has no conscious awareness of what's happening externally. Unconsciously however he can feel the heat from Eliot's body under his hand, causing his fingers to gently twitch. The heartbeat is felt underneath those fingers, along with the rhythm of Eliot's breathing and slowly Steve's breathing starts to change to fall into sync with it. It's not an instant transition, but that takes place over several minutes. Once his breathing adjusts his heartbeat follow suit.

Danny mutters something as he jingles with the car keys. "I'll be there in ten minutes. You think you can keep him there that long? He doesn't usually do much. At least not outwardly." But it isn't hard to tell that Steve is going through hell whenever he zones.

The truck's engine roars as Danny turns to drive out. "Hey Steve, babe, can you hear me? I'll be there in a second alright, don't do anything stupid. Eliot will take care of you." He drives fast and more than a little dangerously to get there, Steve's bee a bad influence. But it is only seven or so minutes when he runs up the stairs to their offices. Once he is inside he glances around, at first going for Steve's office and then frowning when he sees them in his. He ducks inside and places a hand on Eliot's shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze. He might be curious and frustrated, but he is also glad to see the Sentinel.

Then he turns his attention to Steve, moving to sit on the couch next to him and reaching out to pull him close, to pull his head onto his shoulders. He knows Steve likes the scent of him. "Hey babe, I'm here, I got you. You're safe." He strokes Steve's neck with one hand and with the other reaches out to place it on Eliot's shoulder again, making sure he knows he is not forgotten.

"We'll be right here, he's not going anywhere." Even if Steve manages to snap out of it, which seems unlikely, they'll be waiting here for Danny's arrival.

Eliot switches the phone over to speaker and sets it on the arm of the couch, then focuses on Steve as well. Uses one hand to hold Steve's pressed over his heart and curls the other back around Steve's wrist, gently stroking over his pulse. He takes some comfort from the fact he can feel Steve's breathing slowly syncing with his, and then his heart rate following. He doesn't say anything else, though, knowing Danny's voice is infinitely more likely to help than his own.

He considers going to find something in the office that smells particularly strongly of Danny, but he doesn't want to lose what progress he's made in Steve seeming at least subconsciously aware of his presence, so he's still crouched on the floor at the other Sentinel's feet when he hears Danny's footsteps approaching, familiar already, and then his heartbeat once he reaches the hall to 5-0's office. He draws in a slightly shuddering breath as Danny opens the outer office door and he can catch his scent, fresh and sharp... and frustrated, worried, and confused.

He glances up when Danny enters, working hard to keep the sudden, vibrating tension at bay. The need to get up and go to him. To touch. To taste. He stays where he is, though, breathing still careful and steady and deep, Steve's hand pressed to his heart which hasn't so much as skipped because he won't let it. His eyes drop half-shut, though, and he leans almost imperceptibly into the touch for the fraction of a second that Danny squeezes his shoulder... and then he sits back on his haunches and looks away as Danny sits on the couch and pulls Steve against him, settles the taller man's head on his shoulder and strokes his neck.

Eliot called Danny here, he knows he needs to be here, needs to help Steve, but that doesn't make it easy. He's about to take Steve's hand from his own chest and press it to Danny's, to stand up and move away and give the pair of them privacy for this, when Danny's free hand drops onto his shoulder again and he freezes in place, chin dropping to his chest and breath shuddering out raggedly. He should stand up, should leave, but he can't make himself move away from that touch, and what he finds himself doing instead, without conscious volition, is shifting to lean against Danny's legs, Steve's hand still pressed lightly over his heart.

Danny's voice doesn't penetrate down to Steve's conscious self. He's too deep in the zone, still too focused chasing after a scent that is slowly starting to fade. At the same time subconsciously he feels safer and taken care of, some of the worry of losing the strength of the scent dissipates. A further sense of security comes with more contact at his wrist. Everything is going to be alright. Consciously he doesn't know why he feels that, he just does, but he doesn't lose his focus.

The change in position doesn't register for him, now leaning into Danny, but the strength of scent does. Guide. His guide. And his breath deepens momentarily but when that takes him out of sync with what he's feeling under his hand, it's corrected on the next breath. It's not until the feeling of skin on skin, as Danny strokes his neck though, that he starts to show signs of coming out of the zone. He whimpers lightly, turning his head into Danny's neck so that each inhale pulls in more of his scent, but his breathing stays in sync with Eliot's. His hand, over Eliot's heart twitches, falling into time with the sensation.

That scent he was chasing is here in this room. A combination of the equally strong smell of the two men along with the scent of something else. A musk, heady and rich. He wants that. Wants this and with that thought he's able to let go of the intense focus he had on that foreign scent. Leaning more into Danny, pushing his nose under his neck while exposing his own neck more for further caress, and flattening his hand against Eliot's chest, he sighs out a content hum on an exhale. He's still not with them, but his breathing and heart beat are still matched with Eliot's, and he's responding to Danny's scent and sound of his voice. The touch of both men are providing him an anchor, beckoning him to come back to the present.

Danny smiles softly as he can feel Steve softening. "There you go Steve, I got you. Eliot got you too. You're safe here. Come back to us hm? There you go. You're doing great." At that last he looks down at Eliot, his hand sliding to Eliot's neck, stroking the same soft way. "You're doing good too, Eliot." He continues talking, repeating the same words, keeping his tone the same. And he continues the stroking. Yeah he might he confused as to why Eliot's here and worried about Steve but having them both here within easy reach gives him a sense of calm and safety and completeness he hasn't been able to find with either one of them alone since he met Eliot.

He knows he's head over heels for both of them, he knows he needs both of them. But he also knows this isn't about what he wants or needs. They have to figure out what they are comfortable with, how much they are willing to share. But that doesn't mean he can't enjoy this.

Eliot finds himself turning helplessly into Danny's touch, and he has to actually focus to keep his breathing from going ragged, to keep it steady and even for Steve to continue anchoring to it. He shouldn't be here, not when all he wants is to pull Danny down into his lap, to bury his face against Danny's neck and breathe him in while he refreshes the mark he left there. Not when he can't help tipping his head for Danny's touch in such a way that to almost inevitably lead Danny's caressing hand to drag over the mark Danny had left bruised into his skin. But he can't move, can't leave, can't do anything but turn his face into Danny's thigh and breathe as Steve's fingers flex gently against his chest.

The touch of Danny's fingers on his neck, the feel of Eliot's fingers around his wrist, the scent of his guide and the heartbeat under his palm gets him so far but then he wants more. He wants the sound of his guide's heartbeat in his ear and he moves his head to further down, onto Danny's chest but it isn't in sync with his. It's not in sync with the beating under his hand. He wants... No, he needs more contact, more skin on skin contact but it's not being offered like it used to and there's a feeling holding him back from taking it like he wants. Whimpering at the confusing information he's getting from his senses, he starts to tense.

The scent, it smells like his guide, but it's not like it's supposed to be. Was this a trick? Did the military figure it out? Was he back with them? Growling at just the instinctual worry he tries to fight his way back to the surface. This was no time for zoning. If he or his guide was in danger, he didn't have time to be zoned. He knows this feeling. He's been indirectly trained to fight his own way back when things didn't make sense. The Navy would force him into a zone and attempt to leave him there. Sometimes it worked and sometimes he didn't drop down far enough, only made it to where he is now and he'd be with it enough that instinct would kick in.

He's not thinking. There's still no conscious thought. He's operating completely on instinct, emotion and feelings, but they're not making sense. The peace bubble he'd found himself in is collapsing.

Danny blinks in confusion at the growling he finally lets go of Eliot and instead takes Steve's hand from Eliot's chest to his own. "Eliot, do me a favor. Take a step back, hm? The desk or so should be good." The last thing he wants is for Steve to lash out at Eliot. He can't keep his voice entirely even, even if he is doing is damned best. "Easy easy, Steve. It's just me and Eliot. You're in the office, you're safe. I promise you're safe." Danny strokes down along Steve's spine. "Relax, breathe with me. I got you.

Eliot's head snaps up at the whimper, but it's the growl that gets his hackles up and takes him from uneasy but unthreatened to tensely on guard. Danny has to actually work to take Steve's hand away from him, but it's because Eliot's already halfway to his feet, prepared to drag Steve off the couch by it if he has to, to get him away from Danny before he can do any damage. And when Danny does pull Steve's hand away and settles it over his own chest Eliot bares his teeth in a snarl, not showing any sign that he's willing to even think of moving away. There's no way in hell he's getting out of arm's reach of Danny, of his Guide, right now. He will absolutely destroy anything or anyone that poses a threat to Danny, no hesitation and no question.

The tension in the air is thick enough for Steve to feel even in his zoned state. The smell of Danny fills his nostrils and he recognizes his guide but there's other scents that feel too overwhelming to identify. Pushing himself more into Danny, he knows he can trust his partner to guide him fully out of this and into whatever situation he's about to wake into. Danny's uneasiness though becomes his as consciousness starts to take hold and instinctively he growls out a low warning, threatening whatever has caused this tension to back off.

Awareness does not clear up his confusion. He has Danny, becoming more and more under him with his head over the other man's heart. The scent and the heartbeat are both recognized, but his senses all feel muddy, sluggish and off. Like he's underwater or his brain has been stuffed with cotton. He feels the tension and he's ready to attack but he has no idea what the threat is. His training has him holding off from just lashing out but he's tense and ready should he need to. Danny just needs to give him a direction.

The headache pounding behind his eyes make it hard for him to think. Memories are distant and he's not fully certain where he is or why they are in this situation. He feels Danny's stroke down his spine and he presses into it but he wants and needs more. There has to be a reason why Danny isn't giving it to him like he usually would and in his current state assumes it's the situation. Danny's tone register more than his words, the uneasiness clearly received where meaning is not yet taking hold. Once he recovers from the zone he's going to need to recalibrate his senses.

"Danny?" His voice comes out on a whisper, cautious and uncertain. He wants to ask what's going on but if they aren't in a 'safe' location he doesn't want to give his vulnerability away.

Danny's eyes snap to Eliot's face when the older Sentinel growls and his heartbeat picks up. "Easy Eliot. Easy easy. It's just Steve. He's just confused alright. You're both safe here, I promise. You're safe Steve. You're here with me and Eliot. We're in my office." Steve's little growl makes his lick his lips and then he takes a deep breath. He is just making it worse. They are reacting to him. And he knows that.

So he closes his eyes briefly, trying to slow down his breathing and relax. "Easy easy, both of you. There is only the two of you here. No danger nothing is going on. Come on Steve, easy now," Once Steve's hand is over his chest he reaches out to Eliot to take his hand. "Easy Eliot. He's not dangerous, and I know you don't want to hurt him."

Eliot knows, intellectually, that he's the source of the tension here, that Steve must be reacting to the confusion of his presence, but his brain isn't what's in charge right now. He's operating almost completely on instinct, possessive and protective at even the hint of a threat to Danny, and the only reason he's not lashing out already is over fifteen years of hard fought, brutally earned experience in keeping himself under control. Zoning has never been his greatest challenge, he's always been more prone to feral rages than to getting lost in his own head, and with a Guide to defend his protective instincts are on a hair trigger.

It's only Danny's voice that's keeping him in check in the first strained moments, steady and calm and reassuring even if his heart rate gives it the lie. His gaze flicks from Danny's hand smoothing down Steve's back to Danny's face to Steve's head resting against Danny's chest, though, and his teeth stay bared, his body vibrating with tension, ready to move. To fight. He's already lost one Guide, so close to a bond, he's not going to risk this one.

But Steve doesn't move, and when his voice comes it's quiet and uncertain, and when Danny reaches for his hand Eliot lets him take it, grip almost painfully tight as he continues to watch Steve. He knows Danny's right, knows Steve's not a threat to him, that he doesn't want to hurt the other Sentinel, but it's hard to remember that in the face of the deep, visceral fear of losing Danny.

He squeezes Danny's hand tighter for a fraction of a second, grip almost crushing, and then yanks his hand abruptly away, backing up a few steps at the same time. He needs to be in control, dammit. "I'll be-" He waves a hand vaguely towards the door, voice a harsh rasp and gaze focused with feral intensity on Danny's face. Just Danny. No threat. He doesn't need Eliot's protection. He needs Eliot to get the hell away like he should have from the start. "Call me. If you need me." And then he spins and stalks from the room, slamming the door shut behind him.

It's a slow process and Steve feels like he's clawing himself out of a deep dark hole where he has to fight for every inch of ground gained. The zone is still pulling heavy on him and the tension in the air keeps the threat of going feral a real possibility but he needs know what the hell is going on.

When Eliot speaks the sound of his voice registers and twinges a memory. Hoping that will clear things up he reaches for that and when things fall back into place he groans. Eliot. Charlie. They're in the office. He doesn't remember Danny being there but knowing he zoned he can guess that Eliot called Danny. It explains the tension and why he can't get the relief that he needs.

Taking a shaky breath he tries to push away from Danny. "S-sorry." Every instinct is screaming at him to curl into his guide, to overwhelm himself with Danny's touch, smell, taste and sound, but Danny isn't his guide and he can't have what he needs. Nausea rolls in his stomach and this time when he pushes away he's successful in getting himself back into a seated position. He's pasty pale and he keeps his eyes closed as he takes deep breaths trying to calm his stomach.

His senses are a mess, he's still not hearing right and the only smell that doesn't seem overwhelming is Danny, but the sound of the door slamming is impossible to misinterpret and with one of the unidentified scents suddenly not as strong he realizes that Eliot has left the room. Swallowing he tilts his head in Danny's direction, keeping his eyes closed - he doesn't need to add more confusion to his already scrambled senses, and slurs out, "You shou go aftr 'em."

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