Grace didn't mind Catherine, the lady was a good person and she worked hard to keep America safe. She was kind of pretty and she was smart but that didn't mean Grace liked her either. It wasn't anything the woman had done to her, Grace just didn't understand.
She knew Catherine did a lot of favours for Steve, for Five-0. She knew that the woman had been instrumental in helping on more than a few cases. But that was the thing, each favour had a price. Grace had seen her Uncle Steve get ready to take her to dinner. She'd sat on the edge of his bed more than once and helped him pick out a tie (Danno would deny the existence of any ties belonging to Uncle Steve but her Uncle did actually have some, he just didn't wear them because they lived in Hawaii). Grace had waved him goodbye from the lanai and promised to make sure Danno wouldn't smoke out the house again while he was gone.
Steve and Catherine joked about it a lot, the fact that Steve owed her too many favours to count. Maybe Catherine had them tallied away on a piece of paper. Grace didn't like it when Catherine brought it up because she hated the way it sounded like Steve was in her debt. In a way he was but why keep track of something silly like that when you loved someone? Wasn't that what love was about, helping the people you cared about and not expecting something back?
Danno never kept count. Sure he commiserated with her over how Uncle Steve never seemed to bring his wallet (Danno always had it shoved in his pants along with his own now) and how he was always getting them shot at but she had never seen him say anything to Steve about the fact that he owed him. Usually there was a sigh and and her dad would say 'Steven' in a funny voice but she had never heard him say the words "you owe me".
Sometimes Uncle Steve showed up with coffee (and a hot chocolate for Grace) or took them out for shave ice and paid without even looking at Danno. He let them use his private beach and he even taught her how to play football with Uncle Chin. He had tried to help her with baseball but that hadn't gone too well, but it had been funny to watch him argue with Danno about it. On her eleventh birthday he told her about how he had paid for the hotel she and Danno had stayed at when she was seven, the weekend she'd gotten to swim with the dolphins. They'd only just met and Steve had apologised for getting Danno shot with a hotel room. He'd also told her that he was glad he had done it and that he never expected anything back from Danny, he just wanted a good partner. Steve did nice things for her and Danno and her dad never said anything, he'd just give him this smile, one that Grace had never seem him give anyone else, not even her mom. Grace wanted to ask about it but Steve never seemed bothered by the fact Danno never said thank you.
Danno never believed in favours and he'd passed his belief on to her about it. You help people because you love them and when the time comes, if they are a good person and they love you too, they'll help you. Sometimes you didn't need people to help you back, sometimes they did it even if you didn't help them first. Either way it didn't matter, it wasn't about keeping score.
That's why she didn't understand Catherine. The lady cared about her Uncle Steve, she knew that much. But why did Steve have to owe her all the time? What was the point of looming it over his head?
Favours were stupid and so was Catherine. Grace knew it was mean but Uncle Steve should be with someone else, someone who understood. Someone who knew he forgot his wallet a lot and how he liked to commandeer everything like it was his own. A person who could accept it and the fact that he was a crazy Super SEAL. Someone who was actually around all the time, to make him smile when he missed his family. A person who knew Uncle Steve would do nice things but in his own way, because Grace knew he liked to surprise people.
Grace was only twelve but she knew four things;
1. Catherine and Steve wouldn't last forever.
2. Danno cared about Uncle Steve just as much as Steve cared about him.
3. Kono was really good at teaching people how to surf
4. Favours were stupid.
