Title: D is for Direction
Author: stellaluna_
Rating: PG for language
Pairing: Danny/Don
Summary: Written for hannahrorlove.
Disclaimer: None of these are mine. Characters are the property of Anthony Zuiker, Jerry Bruckheimer Television, CBS, and Alliance Atlantis.

***

It's late and dark and the bar is nearly empty, and the bartender has some old, soft blues song on the stereo, all sax and smoke, and Danny is staring down into his beer, trying to make the words come. Flack watches him and toys with his own glass, running his finger along the rim and collecting some of the moisture that's gathered there. He waits, not wanting to push Danny into talking, not before he's ready. Flack knows him well enough to know that he won't be able to force him to talk.

If he tries, Danny will either clam up and change the subject to something impersonal and innocuous, or will find an excuse to lose his temper and storm out. Either way, pushing the issue is a lose-lose situation. Flack sits and waits and listens to the music. He thinks he can almost recognize it, either the song or the singer or both, but identification slides just out of his grasp, like something on the tip of his tongue, something that he could recall if things were just a little bit different.

"I don't..." Danny shakes his head. "I just don't know anymore. And it's not..."

"Not what?" Flack asks after a moment, deciding that this mild prompt will be safe enough.

Danny pauses again, but his mouth works. He keeps his eyes on his beer. "How can you tell if you're doing the right thing?" he says at last. "How do you know you're going in the right direction?"

"I don't know," Flack says. He rubs his forehead. "That's not the kind of thing I can just go ahead and quantify, you know? What exactly are we talking about here?"

"Everything. Nothing." Danny gives a shaky little laugh. "How long you got?"

"How long you need?" Flack asks without hesitating. "All night, if that's what it takes."

Danny looks up for the first time, and his eyes meet Flack's. Flack looks back at him, trying to be calm, trying not to let too much of his worry show on his face as he wills Danny to see the truth of this statement.

"Okay," Danny says at last. "Okay."

The old song ends and a new one starts, more of the same soft humming blues, and Flack waits while Danny tries to find the words.

***