I should be writing the continuation to my other H50 series, but the words are stuck, so you get this instead. Sorry. Might continue, might not – I'm moving this weekend, and that's likely to put a serious crimp in my writing for a bit. Rating is for language only - no nookie. :(
It's just like the day his baby girl was born all over again, this waiting – the nerves, the anticipation, the not-knowing, or having any control of the situation. It's killing him, second by second, to have to sit out on the cold bench, and just wait for the call to enter the courtroom. To have somebody else sit in judgement on his parenting rights and decide for him whether he has to move again or not. Because there is no way in hell he is staying here in Hawai'i if Grace is moving to Las Vegas. No way.
It hurts to even think it, but Hawai'i is home now. Truth be told, it has been ever since Danny met one insane SEAL hell bent on vengeance for his father's murder. It took a little while to recognise, sure, but the truth is there for all to see. Steve is family, as sure as Chin and Kono are. It will take nothing less than torture by pineapple to have him admit it out loud, but he knows that they are all aware of it anyway. Danny doesn't need to say it aloud. His actions have shown them how much they mean to him, to both him and Grace.
Still, it's a bit of a shock to see Steve all dressed up in a suit, ribbons and shit gleaming in the reflected sun streaming through the high windows. Danny wasn't really expecting to see him there, and not all gussied up in his dressy battle armour, white cover tucked neatly under one arm as he walks over. It's actually rather intimidating, in a Christ-he's-hot kind of way. It's always been there, the ridiculous level of attractiveness that McGarrett possesses, but at this moment, it's glaring at Danny, and every other person within the building. If they're not outright staring, they're taking surreptitious glances, and if they aren't, they're idiots.
Still, when the man sits down next to Danny, he can't help ribbing him about wearing a tie in Hawai'i, because hello, didn't he put up with enough of that shit himself for nearly a year from Steve and the others before losing his own? Turnabout is fair play, after all. Fuck, but McGarrett makes a tie look good, though. Danny has always harboured this thought in the back of his head that if he ever caught Steve wearing a tie, it would be a close call whether or not he'd use it to strangle the bastard, just on principle. His fingers are still itching to wrap around the material, but for entirely different reasons now.
He really hopes that Steve can't tell – except he probably can, he doesn't miss a goddamned trick – but his fingers are shaking something fierce as he straightens the tie around Steve's neck. It probably doesn't need quite as much tugging and tucking as he's giving it, but once he's holding the silk, he doesn't want to let go. It's a tether to reality, to life as he knows it.
Steve is his anchor, and the tie is merely the chain that stops Danny from floating away in the continual shitstorm that is his life.