Author's Note: This popped into my head while going through my nightly 'Get-Ready-For-Sleep' routine a few days ago. There's a hurricane that is soon to affect Hawaii, and while we know that our #H50 Ohana has stopped filming until Monday at least, I couldn't help but wonder what Steve would be doing during the preparations.
Disclaimer: Hawaii Five-O, as well as the characters found within the series, are owned by CBS Productions, K/O Paper Products, and 101st Street Productions. No profit is being made off this work.
Hawaii Five-O
"No."
"Steve-"
"Danny, it'll be fine."
Danny huffed through the phone. He knew Steve was pigheaded and halfway certifiable, but this was bordering on fully insane, not to mention life-threatening. "Steve, let me try to explain this to you, okay? I'll use small words, I promise; there is a really big, really powerful, very dangerous storm called a hurricane that draws all its power from the water. You live on the ocean, Steve, remember? The Pacific is your back yard. So, it is absolutely, positively, one hundred percent not a good idea for you to be at your house tonight when this thing blows through."
"Danny, this house has stood for more than fifty years." Steve was infuriatingly calm, almost nonchalant, as if a massive, category four storm wasn't barreling down on Hawaii at the moment. "I'm sure it can withstand some heavier than normal rain and wind. Besides, we're on an island – the ocean is the backyard everywhere."
"Steve, I'm telling you; pack a bag, board up your house, come over to my place for the next few days." Danny leaned his forehead against the wall of his kitchen, closing his eyes. "Please?" He added, helplessly.
"Alright-"
Danny's eyes snapped opened. "Really?"
"No, I mean, alright, I gotta go and get a swim in before the surf gets too rough. I'll talk to you later, buddy."
"Steve, no, don't you hang –"
The silence of the phone going dead was the only sound that greeted Danny's ear as he dropped his cell down and tossed it on the kitchen counter. "Stubborn asshole," he grumbled, running a hand through his hair as his son came down the hallway.
"Danno, I'm hungry," Charlie looked up at his father with the huge eyes that he'd inherited from his mother, as if he wouldn't be rewarded with food if he didn't beg hard enough.
"Yea? You want a snack, buddy?" Danny rested his hand gently on the boy's head, scratching through his silky soft strands delicately. An idea was beginning to form as he looked at Charlie, and he couldn't help his heart doing a little flip as his son nuzzled into his large palm. Danny could tell Charlie was going to be exactly like him when he was older; tactile and affectionate in his communication.
"Alright, go uh, go put your shoes on and we'll run out and grab something." As Charlie scampered back to his room, Danny walked the hallway until he was in Grace's doorway. His daughter was currently sprawled on her bed, her nose in her phone. It was a pretty standard position to find her in these days. "Hey, I'm taking Charlie out for a bit. We're gonna grab some food; you want anything?"
Grace, bless her raising, was kind enough to give her attention to her father and actively think on his request. "Where are you going?"
"Probably just the car-hop burger joint a few miles away. Oh, and the grocery store. I want to get a few more things before the storm hits." Danny lifted his eyebrows and tilted his head to the side, a thought striking him. "You have enough uh… female stuff?" And like a good father, he allowed Grace her chuckle and chortle as she ducked her head and shook it. "Yes, Danno, I'm stocked up." She gave him a bright smile.
"Good. Good, alright, well then," the detective clapped his hands together as he heard his rambunctious five-year-old run into the living room. "You'll have the house to yourself for a little bit. Try not to have a party. And no inviting Will over," he added on. The only response he got was an eye roll and a "Daaaaad", but it was enough. He grinned and waved at her before heading into the living room to collect Charlie.
"Let's go, let's go, let's gooooo!" Charlie was, apparently, very excited for his impromptu snack, and Danny couldn't blame him. Just in case a rain band decided to make its way over them while they were out, Danny grabbed a rain coat for Charlie and an umbrella for himself. "Definitely my kid. I wanted to eat all the time when I was five too. Hey," he looked down at Charlie as he opened the door and ushered him outside to the car. "You wanna drop by Uncle Steve's?"
Hawaii Five-O
To say that Steve was immediately suspicious upon seeing Danny in his dining room petting Eddie and teaching Charlie how to properly greet a dog was an understatement. The fact that Danny had gotten for him one of his favorite indulgences – a double stacked burger with bacon, cheese, special sauce, and veggies only heightened his radar that something was rather off about this visit. But, instead of inquiring as to the reason of the social call, Steve instead dug out a plate and some napkins and set them in front of Charlie, who was seated at the table patiently awaiting his long sought-after snack. After helping the boy to carefully unwrap his food and leaving him to it, Steve gave Danny a once over and dug into his own burger. He couldn't help the satisfied groan that escaped.
Danny shifted his stance. Just a bit. Just enough. Hopefully not too much to be noticed, but dammit, there was no way that noise couldn't have an effect on him. "Good?"
"Definitely." Steve nodded as he grabbed a few napkins and held them under the burger, ignoring the dog who was sitting at his feet, just waiting for a tasty bit of burger to drop into his willing jaws. "Thanks, man." His partner 'cheered' him with his own sandwich. "No problem. I figured while we were heading out to pick up some last-minute supplies, provisions, stuff like that, that you wouldn't mind a drop in."
"I do not mind a drop in, especially when you drop in with burgers."
Both men continued eating, Danny glancing at Charlie every so often to make sure his son was actually chewing his food and not inhaling it. Steve took Danny's sandwich wrapper into the kitchen and when he came back, he had a beer for himself and for Danny, who, like Eddie, had moved to sit by Charlie. Steve plopped the beer bottle in front of his partner and was just about to have a seat himself when Charlie spoke.
"Uncle Steve?"
"Yea, buddy?"
"Are you scared of hur'canes?" The boy had actually stopped eating, a fry dangling in between his tiny fingers as he looked up at his uncle. Steve shook his head. "Nah. Storms are fun, Charlie, and some of them are really pretty." He ignored Danny's frown. "Why do you ask?"
"Cuz the teachers at school were saying that we're not gonna be at school tomorrow because there's a really big storm coming with lots of rain and thunder and wind and lightening. My teacher said the wind can blow so hard it can knock down trees!" Charlie looked equal parts amazed and terrified, and Steve didn't know whether to grin or to sooth the kid. Danny, for his part, just kept quiet, nursing his beer and listening to the conversation unfold. The SEAL's inner radar was pinging on his periphery once more. Something was going on here, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it…
"Danno says we don't have to worry about the storm, but I don't like storms Uncle Steve. And this one is supposed to be really loud."
"Ah; you don't like the thunder?"
Charlie shook his head vigorously from side to side, and then leaned forward, almost conspiratorially towards Steve. "Can you stay with us until the storm's over, Uncle Steve? Please?"
Danny would never, ever forget the look on Steve's face as he balked at the question, and simultaneously understood exactly what was happening. "Well, Charlie I'd kinda planned to stay here at the house…" The man's halfhearted, feeble attempt at explanation and placation was nothing in the face of a five-year-old sliding down from his seat and coming to wriggle himself in between Steve's legs; Charlie's tell that he wanted to either be picked up or hugged. So, Steve did just that. He did just that while turning Charlie around and glaring at Danny, who was the picture of innocence, as Steve lifted the boy to sit on his leg, but he still did it.
"Danno says that more people staying together in a storm is good, and that there's more to do, and everyone stays safe that way." Charlie may as well have been a priest reading from the gospel of Danno, with Steve being his willing congregation. And, like a good member of the flock, Steve was soaking up every word. He absolutely ignored Danny trying to hide his laughter via his beer bottle and sighed inwardly, knowing that he was utterly defenseless in the face of Charlie's big, brown eyes and innocent, hopeful look.
"Yea, buddy, I'll stay with you for a few days, okay?"
"Yay!" And as Charlie threw his arms around Steve's neck and squeezed tight, Steve figured that this bit of thanks was worth his backing down.
"Good job, buddy," Danny got up and walked around the table to gather his son's trash, knowing he was done eating, and headed into the kitchen to throw it out, a smirk on his face. His kid had more than earned his home-made hot fudge sundae that had been promised to him if he could get his Uncle Steve to agree to leave his house and stay with Danny until the hurricane blew over. He didn't miss the rapid patter of feet heading into the bathroom just across the hallway, and he definitely didn't miss the feel of a six-foot, 200-pound solder standing just inches behind him, hardly touching, but his presence making Danny feel as if he were being pushed against the counter.
"That was low, Danno."
"No, that was necessary, Steven," Danny turned around, looking at his partner and pointing over his shoulder out the window. "You see that? Right out there? That ocean is probably going to be in this house at one or several points over the next 24-48 hours. This is the absolute last place you should be, okay, babe? I saw what Hurricane Sandy did to the Jersey Shore; there was storm surge for miles, people's homes were literally washed away or covered in sand. People died in that storm, Steve, because some of them chose to ride it out." He pushed off the counter and turned around, flipping the handle on the faucet to the sink up and washing his hands. "I refuse to let that be you, okay? So please, go pack a bag, bring whatever toys you want to bring with you, and let's go, alright? Please?" He glanced over his shoulder again.
Steve fidgeted under Danny's pleading look until his shoulders dropped eventually, and a heavy sigh escaped him. "Danny, the house is all I have left of my family. All this stuff in here – the drying cloth hanging on the stove was my mom's. I'd dry dishes with her after dinner almost every night. The kitchen table was made by a friend of my dad's and it's the only one we ever had because it was so well made. All my parents' things, their books…" Steve swallowed. "My dad's car. Everything I have of them is here, Danny; it's all I've got."
Quiet descended between them as Steve continued to stare at the floor and Danny chewed his bottom lip in thought. Only Charlie coming into the kitchen and tugging on his shirt brought him out of it. "C'mere buddy, you're gonna watch a movie for a bit in the living room."
"Can Uncle Steve watch too?"
Danny ambled out of the kitchen while steering his son towards the sofa in front of him. He was slightly amused that Eddie was following them. "I gotta talk to Uncle Steve about coming over for the next few days but that shouldn't take long. Here, you know how to use the remote." He picked it up from the entertainment center and turned the television on, picking Netflix from the menu and then scrolling down to the menu Steve had made especially for Charlie with all of his favorite movies and shows on it. "Pick something to watch for a little bit with Eddie here and I'll be back." He dipped a kiss into Charlie's hair before heading back to the kitchen, seeing Steve bent over the island, resting his forearms on the surface of the prep table. Tentatively, Danny lifted a hand and gently slid it to softly grip the back of Steve's neck, hoping that it was received in the spirit it was intended; reassuring, with just a hint of apology.
"Okay," Danny cleared his throat quietly, squeezing his partner's neck lightly. "Okay, here's what we're gonna do." He slipped his other hand into his pocket and pulled out his phone, scrolling until he found Junior's number and dialing.
"Detective Williams, everything okay?"
"Yea, Junior everything's fine, except I need a favor."
"Yes Sir, whatever you need."
God, this kid with the 'sirs'. But Danny didn't really have the time to address that right now. Again. "Can you come by Steve's and pick up Charlie and drop him off at my house with Grace? Let her know I need her to watch her brother for a little bit."
"Can do, Mr. Williams. You sure everything's alright?"
"Yea, everything's fine, Junior, I just need to help Steve get his house ready for the hurricane before it blows through." Steve furrowed his brow and squinted at him, as though he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Danny continued on. "We gotta board up the windows, make sure the important stuff's off the floor, move his dad's car over to my house so it doesn't get flooded, that kinda thing."
Danny's stomach most certainly did not flip at the simultaneously grateful and relieved look Steve was giving him right now. His heart was absolutely not completely melting at the look in his partner's eyes.
"I have some left-over plywood I was using to help some veterans board up their houses. It should be enough for Commander McGarrett's house."
"That'd be great, man, thank you."
"No problem, Sir. I'll get the plywood loaded up and we'll be on our way."
Danny didn't give a second thought to what Junior could have meant by 'we' and slid his hand from Steve's neck as he disconnected the call. "C'mon, babe. Let's get all the important stuff upstairs. Junior's coming over to pick up Charlie and take him back to my place. He's gonna drop off some left-over plywood so we can board up your windows and then you will follow me in your dad's car over to my house. Good?"
Steve was looking at Danny as if the sun rose and set with every word coming out of his mouth. He nodded mutely as he stood up straight, hesitating for a moment before shuffling forward and wrapping his arms around Danny in a tight, yet all too brief (for Danny at any rate) hug. "Thank you, Danno." Steve spoke close enough to Danny's ear that the blonde had to suppress a shiver, and he was mostly successful, but not enough, obviously as Steve pulled back and looked at him. "You okay?"
"Yea, just… a chill. Got one," Danny cleared his throat and rubbed his hands together. "Alright, where do we start?"
Hawaii Five-O
By the time Junior and Tani – So that's what Junior meant by 'we,' Danny thought – got to Steve's, the duo had been able to move the kitchen table, Steve's fathers' desk and chair, various books, photos, and other items upstairs into both Steve's room and the guest bedroom. The piles of papers and files that had belonged to Steve's father were shoved into Danny's car and the Mercury. "There's no way I'm leaving these here," Steve had said, forcing the door to the Mercury closed, "they're way too important." The beloved Adirondack chairs that sat near the shore with it's little table, as well as the grill and any other patio furniture were also moved inside and upstairs.
Even Charlie got in on the act by collecting all the DVD's and books and pictures he could and running up the stairs with them to place lovingly and carefully on Steve's bed. The man looked completely stunned as he watched the five-year-old rush back down to the living room and Danny could only clap his friend on the back and chuckle quietly to himself. Danny had gotten used to the unique brand of magic both of his children carried a long time ago, but Steve would need a lot more time to accept, really, truly accept, that Charlie and Grace adored him as if he were a second father to them.
When the knock at the front door came, Danny headed down to answer it, leaving Steve and Charlie to finish putting what they could in his room.
"Hey Mr. Williams," Junior had a slightly more boyish smile on his face than he normally did, and when Danny looked just over the kid's shoulder, he saw why. "Hey Junior, Tani, thanks for doing this last minute."
"No problem," Tani shrugged. "I was just helping him stock up his apartment anyways. We had a few more things to get so it worked out."
"Uh-huh." Danny wasn't buying that explanation for a minute, but he wasn't about to call her on it, mostly because he didn't have that kind of time, but also because he knew Tani wasn't afraid to do the same to him. The woman was ridiculously perceptive, and he hadn't missed the looks she'd given both him and Steve when they were all stuck in the quarantine room together nearly a year ago, nor for weeks when Danny had returned to work after being shot, nor when Steve had (stupidly, Danny still contended) voluntarily boarded a Russian sub.
Danny was still debating on whether that last one had actually happened or whether that day had just a crazy dream.
"Is Commander McGarrett riding the storm out with you, Sir?"
The 'sir' thing had to stop. "Junior, I am in old pants and a t-shirt and we are not on duty. You can call me Danny, man, it's okay. I'm not gonna shoot you if you do." Danny actually waited for Junior to at least nod his head that he'd heard him, but he wasn't going to hold out for actual comprehension at this point in time.
"Would Commander McGarrett-"
"Steve," Danny smoothly interrupted. Junior fumbled. "… would he like one of us to drive his truck over to your house?"
A good idea if Danny had ever heard one, and he called Steve over to ask him exactly that, the answer to which was Steve handing Junior the keys and thanking him profusely before returning to his moving and packing and securing, while Danny gave Junior and Tani a hand with the plywood they'd brought.
Once everything had been unloaded from Junior's car, Danny managed to corral Charlie who still had picture frames belonging to Steve in his little arms. "But Danno I – I gotta help Uncle Steve with all this stuff!"
"Nah that's okay buddy, you did such a good job we're almost done. All we gotta do now is board up his windows with all this wood Junior and Tani brought by and we'll be leaving pretty soon." Danny was also no fool; his kid was getting tired, very tired, and an exhausted Charlie often meant a crabby Charlie if he didn't get a nap in.
Not that Charlie got that trait from him or anything.
It wasn't long until Charlie said goodbye to Steve and he, Junior, and Tani were off, Junior driving Steve's truck and Tani driving Junior's car, leaving Danny and Steve to board up the house. As it turned out, there was enough for most of the windows, save the large one in the living room and the front door, both of which Steve was willing to replace if he had to in order to double up on the downstairs and upstairs lanai patio windows and doors. They'd just finished when they both noticed the wind beginning to pick up. The cloud bands were becoming definable over the water with pulses of lightning blinking through, and Danny caught Steve watching the storm slowly but surely roll closer over the water.
"It's almost beautiful," the sailor muttered, transfixed on the rapidly angry ocean in front of him.
"Yea, that's the SEAL talking in you, sailor." Danny picked up the tools. "C'mon, let's get your car and your dog and get over to my house."
He could see the reluctance in Steve's stride, his shoulders, the way he slowly moved through out the rooms to get to the garage, almost as if he were saying goodbye, and Danny couldn't help but feel heartbroken for the guy. Once Steve had explained why he was so hesitant to leave initially, it had made perfect sense. The house and everything in it were the last things Steve had that could have possibly depicted what had been a normal life before his father had been murdered and his mother had shown up alive after twenty years of making everyone believe she was dead. The whole house was a frame by frame of 'what could have been'. And maybe perhaps a bit of 'what could be possible'.
Danny shoved away thoughts of what could be possible in this house, particularly possibilities that included him, and headed into the garage, putting the tools away as high and carefully as he could while Steve did a final check and locked up, setting the alarm.
House secure, Mercury in the driveway, garage door closed and locked, and Danny and Steve, with Eddie in tow, peeled off, one right after the other, leaving the house behind. It wasn't long before they were both pulling up in front of Danny's house, both men parking their cars on the curb right behind Steve's truck where Junior had left it. Danny hopped out of the Camaro and waved Steve forward, receiving a look of confusion from his friend in return.
"Put the Mercury in the garage," Danny directed, and he wasn't surprised at all to see the befuddled expression on the other man's face. "If our cars get any damage, HPD's body shop will take care of it, but they won't fix up your car if it winds up floating down the road and gets wrapped around a telephone poll, so," Danny pressed a button on his fob and the garage door opened slowly behind him, "put your Mercury in the garage and then come and help me get these boxes out of my car."
Hawaii Five-O
It wasn't more than three hours later that the first heavy bands of the storm began to make their presence known as sheets of rain, and sometimes hail, pelted the roof of Danny's house. Both he and Steve were thankful that they'd managed to squeeze both the Camaro and the Silverado underneath the carport, with only the edges of the sides, front, and back not covered, even though it had taken ten straight minutes of arguing with Steve on only putting the Camaro underneath the protective roof.
"There's enough room for both our cars, Steve, even your macho-neanderthal over-compensating truck," Danny had finally told him, absolutely exasperated by that point. "Now, would you please park your truck under here, huh?"
Now, as the winds blew the palm trees outside this way and that, Danny was fairly certain that anything outside, including vehicles stored underneath carports, was fair game for the hurricane, and they were only in the very early stages. He peeked through the window in his kitchen for the umpteenth time as burgers and hotdogs cooked on an indoor grill behind him. "Well Eddie, buddy, you should be glad you're in here with us and not out there with that." He looked down as the dog let out a begging whine, Eddie's eyes and nose going to where he knew the meat to be cooking. Danny had decided to forgo boarding up his house as he wasn't directly on the water, or even five miles within the ocean, but as he witnessed a very tall, very thick palm tree sway in the harsh breeze, he began to second guess that decision. He heard footsteps behind him and looked over his shoulder to see Grace entering the kitchen, phone in hand as if she was physically incapable of putting it down.
"What's this?" Danny poked some fun at her. "My beautiful daughter has decided to bless me with her presence; what happened, you have a fight with Will? Nothing happening on Facebook? Watched all your Youtube videos?" He snickered at Grace's clearly unamused face. "I can always go back to my room," she retorted casually back. It was something Danny was starting to notice more and more about her, the biting, sarcastic wit that she must have inherited twice over from him and her mother. He shook his head and she grinned, padding forward in bare feet to give him a hug. "Is Uncle Steve staying until the storm passes?"
"Yep."
"How'd you get him to change his mind?"
"Well…" Danny hedged a bit, but then decided to go ahead and cop to his dastardly plan. "I may have amped Charlie up a little bit about the hurricane and gotten him to ask Steve to some stay here instead of trying to ride out the storm at his place."
"You mean you got Charlie to do his begging routine that you and Mom always tell him not to do when he really, really wants something." Grace snickered as she breezed past her father and opened the fridge, pulling out a soda. When she turned, she pierced Danny with a look, one which made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. Jesus, she looked like Rachel when she did that, and Danny loved his daughter, loved her very much, would kill for her and die for her at a second's notice, but he hated, loathed that look she was giving him right now. It made him feel out of sorts, on edge and absolutely exposed. "Any reason why you're looking at me like I'm some kind of suspect in a crime?"
If possible, the look, the one that said Grace knew something that she technically wasn't supposed to know but did, intensified. What was it the kids said? Over 9,000 or some shit like that? Danny decided that, yes, that was indeed the correct meme for this situation. "Would you stop giving me that look?!"
His daughter, his sweet, innocent, pure and perfect daughter now held the expression of the guiltless. "What look?" She turned, looking at the burgers and the hot dogs on the grill and rotating them a bit.
"That face."
"It's just my face," Grace looked over her shoulder at him as if he were slowly going insane, but there was still the hint of that look in her eyes. "These are almost ready; can we eat in the living room?"
"Sure," Danny answered slowly, watching as she reached up and to the side to open the cupboard and pull down four plates to place on the counter next to the grill, quickly thereafter turning around to start pulling hamburger and hot dog buns out of the packaging and place them on the plates. "Is Uncle Steve going to sleep on the couch tonight?"
Danny choked; he choked at the seemingly light manner in which the question rolled off her tongue, he choked at the question in and of itself and the implication he was sure he heard between the lines, and he choked at the image he got in his head of rolling over in his bed to find Steve sleeping soundly next to him. And all the while, he was aware that Grace was watching him, those big, piercing brown eyes seeing into his soul as only she'd ever been able to. She was smiling a little as he shuffled towards her, away from the entrance into the living room so that he could speak in low tones.
"What do you mean, Grace?"
And just like that, her coy act dropped, and she was his Gracie once more. "I've kinda had a feeling for a while that you maybe kinda think of Uncle Steve as more than just a friend," she murmured quietly to him, mindful that Steve and Charlie were in the next room over.
Danny had never lied to his daughter before – he may have fibbed a bit to keep her safe, but he'd never outright lied to her, and he was ashamed to admit that he was considering doing so now. However, that thought was gone as quickly as it flashed through his mind, and instead he asked, "What do you think about that?"
She hesitated a bit, all playfulness gone now. "I… don't know. I mean, I don't think I care that he's a guy and you're a guy. It's kinda weird because I've only ever seen you interested in girls And it would be a little strange watching you guys be… you know, like that with each other." Danny nodded, encouraging her to continue and remaining quiet as she did so. "I mean – I love Uncle Steve, Danno. I just… I don't want you two to start something and then it not work out."
Because then I'd lose someone else was what was meant to finish that sentence. Danny heard it as clear as he heard the rain pelting his roof. He slid next to her, hugging her tightly and pressing a kiss into her hair. "S'okay, Monkey. I understand."
"Does he know?"
Danny shook his head against hers. "No, he doesn't. I haven't decided yet if I'm gonna tell him."
"Why?"
"Well, because of some of the stuff you've already brought up; I've uh, only ever liked women, so I don't really know if this is some kind of temporary thing or of it's the real deal. He's my partner at work, and I don't want to do anything to mess that up; we depend on each other a lot in that job and if something went wrong, well…" Either he, or Steve, or both of them would be looking for a new job. "And then there's you and Charlie to consider. I've made a lot of mistakes over the years when it came to who I was seeing, who I was in a relationship with and you and Charlie have had to see and learn a lot more than you should have about me and your mom and some of the stuff that went on. You guys…" he grinned, thinking of the big goof in his living room, whom he could hear playing some kind of rambunctious game with his son, "you two mean the world to Steve, okay? He loves you both so much and I know you both feel the same way about him, and I don't want to mess that up for you two." He smiled at her, though it was a bit sad. Nothing could ever be easy for him in the romance department.
He and Steve excelled at having that in common.
Grace was quiet for a few minutes more before she spoke. "If you tell him and you guys start dating, would he be like a Step Steve?"
"He'd be whatever you want him to be, Grace, whatever you'd allow him to be, whether I tell him or not, whether anything ever happens or not."
She nodded. "I think it'd be weird at first but I also think I'd get over it. It would just take some getting used to, you know if you guys start dating, and sleeping in the same bed, and hav-"
"Please, do not finish that sentence, if you love me," Danny groaned. He absolutely did not need to go there right now, not in the kitchen, not before dinner, and not with Steve playing with his five year old son in the living room. Grace blushed a little and had the good manners to looks somewhat sheepish. "Sorry Danno, but you know I know about that stuff now, right?"
"I was hoping you wouldn't learn about 'that stuff' until you were 40."
"Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!"
Danny was a solid guy. He may be short, but he was a short wall of pure muscle. However, that mattered not to the aforementioned five year old who had barreled into the kitchen at full speed to slam into his father and wrap his arms and legs around his knees. "Help! Help, I got an octopus in here! It must have swam in from the ocean!" Danny welcomed the abrupt change in topic as he leaned down and tried to pry Charlie's grip loose amid Eddie's excited yips and yelps. "Steve, we got a sea creature in here, we need to throw him back out, right?" His son's high pitched giggles were music to his ears as Danny hefted the boy up and into his arms as Steve rounded the corner into the kitchen. If Danny didn't know better, he'd say the SEAL looked almost winded. "I think you wore Uncle Steve out, buddy; good job." Danny switched the sides he anchored Charlie on. "You ready to eat?"
"Yes!"
Within ten minutes, they were all sitting in the living room, plates full of burgers, hot dogs, beans, and potato salad. In twenty minutes, Charlie's eyes were beginning to droop and ten minutes after that, Steve had to take his plate from his lap and put it on the coffee table lest its contents spill out onto the carpet.
"I'll take him," Danny got up, putting his plate next to Charlie's and picking the boy up, "I think we worked him too hard today at your place." He grinned down at Steve who was looking up at both of them with so much warmth, and something else that Danny couldn't place. "Back in a bit." Grace watched her father leave with her brother and reached over towards Charlie's plate, taking the hot dog he'd neglected to eat and putting it on hers.
"Shameless," Steve snickered, shaking his head at her.
"He's going to bed, he's not going to eat it!" She laughed at him, reaching for the mustard and coating the hot dog liberally with it.
"I used to do that to Mary all the time when we were younger, only she'd actually have intentions to come back and her food would be gone."
"Now that's shameless, Uncle Steve; at least I know Charlie's not coming back."
"Hey, I was eight years old, I was growing. I needed more food than her anyways," Steve defended himself, tucking into his second burger of the night and third of the day. "When all of this is over I'm going to have to literally swim around the island to burn all this fat off."
"You do that every morning, though." Grace smirked at him, and Steve saw so much of Danny in her at that moment that he almost responded as if she were him. He caught himself though, just in the nick of time.
"Uncle Steve?"
He looked up at her, noticing the change in her tone.
"What would you do if someone that you didn't expect told you that they liked you?"
"That they liked me? As in they wanted to date me liked me?" Steve brushed a hand over his mouth. "Well, I dunno, Gracie; I mean, I guess it would really depend on who it was, you know?" He looked at her. "Why, did someone tell you they liked you and you weren't expecting it?"
"Not exactly," she fidgeted a bit, and tried covering by lifting herself to grab some of Charlie's abandoned potato salad. "Just… this person told me that they thought they liked their best friend, but the person is a guy, and his best friend is a guy too, and he hasn't told him because… well, you know obvious reasons." Not a lie. All true.
Steve nodded his head slowly. "Well, I guess my first thought is that if the two are really best friends and they really care about each other then something like that shouldn't matter. It might be a little awkward, especially if the feelings aren't returned, but that's to be expected."
"Would you care?"
"What, would I care if a guy told me he liked me?" Steve shrugged. "I don't think so, no. Probably not. You know, when you spend a lot of time on a submarine or on a ship in the middle of the ocean, really anywhere that you're not able to move around freely or where you're confined, you see and hear a lot of things that you might not if you were based on land or if you were back home."
"Like what things?"
Oh God where was Danny when Steve needed him? How the hell did he keep this a family friendly conversation while still trying to answer her question? "Situations where people of the same sex might lean on each other a little more than they normally would," he finally decided. That was safe enough, right? "So, to answer your question, no I don't think I'd care. I might be surprised, but I wouldn't be insulted or disgusted or anything like that." He watched her nod her head thoughtfully as she pushed the food around on her plate. "What if it was your best friend though, what would you do then?"
"Uh… well," Steve swallowed, "you know my best friend is your dad, so… I don't really…" he trailed off, his brow furrowing as he studied her quietly.
It took only three seconds for her to drop her gaze back down to her plate when he looked at her long enough. "Gracie, who was it that you said you were talking about?"
Again with the fidget, and this time Steve caught it. "Just a guy I know," she pursed her lips and took a huge bite of her hot dog, conveniently disabling her ability to talk for a bit, which was fine. Steve wasn't going to press her anymore. That wouldn't be right or appropriate. So, he followed her lead and finished his food, and was glad when Danny still hadn't reappeared from putting Charlie down, because it gave him the chance to stop Grace when she stood up.
"If it were my best friend, I'd think about it." He looked up at her, feeling that she needed that reassurance at the very least. "It would seem wrong not to after they put themselves out there, taking a risk like that, you know?" And while Grace had built up a pretty good poker face over the years, a blind man couldn't have missed the tension that drained out of her shoulders and back as she smiled gratefully at him before taking her plate and glass into the kitchen. When she came back in the room, it was to walk over to Steve and lean down to hug him. "Love you, Uncle Steve."
"Love you too, Gracie."
He watched her as she headed into the inner sanctum that was every teenager's room and Eddie was right on her heels, padding down the hallway until Steve heard Grace's door shut quietly. He heaved a big sigh and leaned back against the couch thinking to himself for a few minutes before getting up and gathering the dishes to take them to the kitchen. He could hear Danny coming out of the bathroom with what Steve could only assume was a squeaky clean and utterly exhausted child and started in on washing the dishes. Steve ran through his conversation with Grace what seemed like a thousand times in his head. She'd been talking about Danny, he was sure of it; the inability of her to meet his gaze when he'd brought up the fact that it was her father who was his best friend, her evasive answers when he asked specifically who it was that she was talking about, using the precise terminology of 'best friend' at the beginning of the conversation. The question was why? Why was she talking about Danny?
Was it possible? Well sure, it was possible, anything was possible. Steve's life had been a running proving ground of what was possible. Admittedly, he and Danny spent most of their time together, be it at work, after work, at the restaurant, or on the weekends. Steve was a regular fixture during weekends when Danny had the kids, and happily so; he loved those weekends more than his own life sometimes. It was the closest thing he had to a family – scratch that, they were his family, all three of them. Somewhere down the line, Danny, Grace, and Charlie had become his family. Every part of Danny's life had somehow become Steve's life too.
In fact, as he analyzed the facts even further as he swished a sponge over the soapy dishes in the sink, Steve was finding it difficult to imagine his life any differently. He couldn't imagine, didn't want to think of not spending time with the kids and Danny. It was inconceivable to him that he and Danny wouldn't spend Friday and Saturday nights together either at his place watching the ocean or at Danny's house watching a game. And the restaurant? As stressful as starting a business was, Steve wouldn't have wanted to do it with anyone else but Danny. The hours they'd spent there together, painting and sanding, and bickering over décor and ambiance, and which industrial ovens and tables and fridges to purchase were some of the happiest memories Steve had, and God knew he craved and hung onto any memory that was a happy one; he had so few after all, yet almost all the ones that he did have featured Danny prominently somewhere in them.
Steve glanced down into the sink and realized he'd finished all the dishes while he'd been musing.
"Hey, if you wanna sleep in my room tonight, that's fine."
Thank God Steve hadn't been holding a plate because he'd have dropped it right into the sink. "Huh?" He looked over his shoulder at Danny, eyes wide. "I'm – excuse me?" Danny raised a brow at him, heading over to the fridge and opening it to grab two beers out of it. "Charlie's never been through a hurricane before, so I'm gonna sleep on the couch since I can hear a little better out here if he starts to cry. You can take my bed instead."
"Oh," Steve about kicked himself. Hard. "Yea, that's fine, thanks man. I think Eddie's already bunking with Grace." He slid over a bit to look out the window. It was dark now, and the only way he could see the rain was via the porch light Danny still had on. "I'll take him out back before we head to sleep so he can do his thing. Hopefully it calms down enough."
"I'm just hoping when we lose power that Charlie's already asleep," Danny opened both beers and handed one to Steve, cool steam wafting off the lip of it while taking a drink of his. "He hates storms, hates it even more when the power goes out." He looked over the kitchen. "Thanks for cleaning up."
"Thanks for dragging me over," Steve returned, cheering his partner and helping himself to a long pull. Save for the smacking of the rain and wind against the roof, windows, and siding of the house, it was quiet for a while, just the two of them in the kitchen, Steve near the stove, Danny near the entrance to the living room, drinking their beers and watching the storm.
"Game or movie while we still have the chance?" Danny broke the silence, and Steve nodded, grabbing two more beers from the fridge as he walked towards the living room to follow the other man in to settle down on the couch.
Hawaii Five-O
Steve wasn't sure when he'd fallen asleep or why he was waking up currently, but he was almost positive that the lights had been on when he'd dozed off.
Ah, the power. Score another point for the Danny Was Right column. The namesake of said column was slumped over next to him on the couch, chin resting awkwardly on the cusp of Steve's shoulder. Both their necks were going to be killing them in the morning, that was sure.
"Uncle Steve…?"
And there was the reason for him being awake. Charlie. Steve shook his head and blinked his eyes open to focus on a blonde haired child with wide eyes who was decidedly unhappy and looking close to panicked tears as only a little kid could look. "What's up, buddy?" Steve, instead of leaning forward, reached out an arm and tugged Charlie towards him carefully.
"Too loud," Charlie whimpered, looking towards the window and out at the storm, and Steve had to admit, it wasn't the most comforting of noises being made. Where the winds had simply been blowing earlier, they were now howling, the different grooves of the housing making the wind shrill at points, and the rain was now beating against the windows and roof at every angle-
A clap of thunder boomed over head and Charlie took it upon himself to launch into Steve, scrambling against his chest and trying to hide his head, paying no mind to his father, who was also now waking up.
"Wha…"
"Charlie," Steve murmured quietly. "Lay down over there, Danno, come on," Steve pushed Danny towards one end of the couch and was thankful that the other man didn't argue. Once Danny was settled on the other side of the sofa, Steve nestled down between him and the back of the couch, taking Charlie with him. The boy was still hiding his face in Steve's chest and Danny's outside arm came up to wrap around his son's body, bumping into Steve's right arm which was doing the same. Steve felt his partner stiffen a bit beside him then, as though he was just now realizing their positioning, what they were doing.
"Don't worry about it," Steve whispered into Danny's hair. "We'll talk in the morning. Go back to sleep." He felt blonde hair move against his face in a nod and, pulling the blanket from the couch over the three of them, settled in, falling asleep within minutes while a storm roared outside, and peace, at least within Steve, finally reigned within.