a/n: The last few fics I've posted were written because they came to me and I had to write them down. This was written because I was hosting a twelve-hour write-in for NaNoWriMo, but I'm not actually doing NaNoWriMo. :) I didn't have any blogging to catch up on, so what could I do? I decided... fanfic. So because I came up with all this because I needed something to write, I'm not sure how it's going to go. I didn't even have any ideas!

In the end I chose to do a track listing fic based on Bon Jovi's "Keep the Faith" (it was going to be "New Jersey", but the song titles on Faith fit more.) I thought about using this idea to add timestamps or additional parts to other series or stories I've posted. In the end, however, I decided to write a new McDanno story.

Unless noted, each chapter will be a short dip in the pool as we progress through the McDanno relationship, starting with episode 7x08. Also unless otherwise noted, I used the song titles themselves simply as prompts for each chapter, I didn't take the lyrics and fit them to the story or vice versa. This isn't a song-fic. There will be 14 chapters that includes two bonus tracks as listed on Wikipedia. As of posting the first chapter, I have six already written. Hopefully I won't fall too far behind!

I hope that all makes sense!

Steve practically stumbled into his house as dawn began to peek over the horizon. He barely remembered to close the door behind him before falling onto the couch. He narrowly missed the card table still set up in the middle the room, didn't notice that the rest of the guys had otherwise cleaned up the place for him after Five-0 had bolted from his house. All he knew was that adrenaline crashes were a bitch, especially lately, and he needed to be horizontal.

Well, he knew two things: one, adrenaline crashes were a bitch and two, Danny and Grace were okay.

He had refused to leave the scene until everything was squared away. All the evidence collected, he and Chin had interrogated the subjects they hadn't killed just so Steve could blow off some steam. They'd let Danny and Lou go so they could be with their kids. Throughout the take down, he hadn't let himself think too much of Danny and Grace being inside, being the targets of these assholes' wrath once they'd been discovered. He couldn't let the images of torture and death and fear materialize in his mind.

Once the bullets had stopped flying, however, his only thoughts had been of his partner and his partner's daughter. If they had been hurt at all... as that fear came back to him on the couch, Steve squeezed his eyes shut, pressing the heels of his hand into them. That did nothing to block out the images that came into his mind when he'd first got Lou's frantic call about shots fired at the dance. The dance Danny was at, unarmed. The dance Grace was at. Somehow, he'd managed to call up his training and push the panic away, or at least channel it into mobilizing and into battle and into making sure everyone that mattered got out of there alive.

So yeah, when the bullets stopped flying and he hadn't seen Grace right away, his heart had dropped into his gut. If anything had happened to her, he wouldn't be able to—but then he heard her voice and he had her in his arms and Danny was there and neither of them were injured.

He could breathe again.

Danny had hung back at first and Steve wondered why. Did Danny blame him? Steve blamed himself, even if, logically, there was exactly zero he could have done to prevent any of this from happening. It's not like that had ever stopped his guilt complex before. At least, not when it came to Danny and Grace.

God... if anything had happened to them... The thought was stuck on repeat in his head, like a needle stuck on a record.

And then Danny had looked at him like he'd never looked at him before, came out with that ridiculous line about choosing a base and Steve had practically crumpled into his arms. Relief and...

Belief. That maybe Danny had really meant it the way Steve wanted him to mean it. That after all these years this thing that they had been dancing around might actually happen. For the first time, Steve didn't just want, he allowed himself to want.

But anything else would need to wait. Grace was shaking like a leaf and the sound of the ballroom finally pierced the haze of relief in his mind. Sobbing teenagers; groaning men; Kono and Chin barking orders, allowing their boss to take care of more important things; Lou's voice, somehow gruff and gentle at the same time, as he comforted his son; the other chaperones trying to work through their own shock and try to calm the students. Steve had closed his eyes, squeezed Danny's shoulder, kissed the top of Grace's head, and kicked them and the Grovers out. He put everything behind them and get back to work.

He could have lost everything tonight. He could have lost Danny and Grace. He could have lost the two most important people in his life. If that had happened...

He mentally smacked the turntable.

That hadn't happened. They were alive and well. He still had his friend and his friend's daughter and that alone was enough to make his heart soar because even if nothing else ever happened, if Danny's looks and words had just been relief, if all they really were and ever would be were best friends, brothers, he never wanted to lose that. But for the first time in his life, Steve felt like he may actually get everything he wanted. He could believe that he would get a happy ending.

Unlike all the other times Danny had been in danger, tonight Steve fell asleep easily and was not plagued with nightmares fueled by fear or guilt or the past, but dreams fired up with love and happiness and hope and the future.