AN: This is my first Hawaii 5-0 story, so concrit would be greatly appreciated!
Disclaimer: The characters belong to CBS and their creators — I'm just borrowing them fo a while.
Shift in Focus
Danny Williams has spent entirely too much time in the past couple of weeks trying to figure out the mystery that is Steve McGarrett. The man's an animal. He gets Danny shot in the first half hour they work together, he doesn't know anything about proper police procedure and he's this weird blend of Hawaiian and haole that Danny doesn't understand. And don't even get Danny started on how Steve stole his daughter's special name for him and turned it into a one-liner to end their cases.
But within two days of knowing Danny, hours after Danny punches him in the jaw, Steve gives him three days at the hotel with the dolphins just because Grace might like them. Steve gives Chin a second chance, and it didn't take Danny long to realize that Steve had seen in minutes what HPD apparently had missed — Chin was a damn fine cop, an honest cop.
So when Kono suggested they all go to the Kukui High grudge match Saturday, Danny didn't think twice before agreeing. He'd been wanting Gracie to meet his new friends, and football was a sport he understood. Not like surfing. And Steve and Chin — well, the two former quarterbacks were probably already going. Trust Kono to come up with a way to make sure the new haole was included.
When Chin introduced himself to Grace as Uncle Chin, Danny's grin got a little wider. And Steve and Gracie bumping fists? Danny hadn't quite understood during their substitute graduation ceremony for Kono what ohana meant, but he was starting to get the idea.
And then there was the shooting and mayhem and Steve telling him to find Grace as soon as they had everything contained and Rachel's totally unjustified flipping out over the phone and the rest of the weekend shot to hell. At least this time, for once, Danny didn't get shot. Shot at, maybe, but not shot.
It isn't until after he's stopped to see Grace and promised her a squishy pink football — he'd let Kono talk her into wanting a real one except he thinks she'd only do that if she can also teach Grace to surf — and he heads back to HQ that he realizes what the governor's car meant and who might have the answer to his question.
"Maybe you're not as alone on this island as you think," Steve says, and Danny follows him down the hall as they follow the sounds to the conference room where the cousins are hiding.
And as he watches Steve's face as Chin tells him that John McGarrett made every game he played in, Danny wonders who, exactly, is the one who was alone on the island. Wonders if John McGarrett and Steve used to watch Chin play for Kukui High when Steve was Grace's age. Wonders if the reason Steve is doing special stuff for Danny and Grace is because he remembers doing special things with his own father and knows how important it is — or because he doesn't have any of those memories and doesn't want to cheat Grace out of her chance at them.
Even as he's giving Steve grief over his jersey number, Danny's putting together the pieces he knows, the things he learned while investigating John McGarrett's death and the information Steve and Chin have let drop since this task force — 5-0 now — insanity started.
As he settles in with the others to watch Steve's state championship game, he makes a note to tell Gracie about this — about Auntie Kono and Uncle Chin and definitely Uncle Steve. Because Steve's right and Danny's not as alone as he thought. He has Grace, and now the others. And yet he thinks that even Chin with his huge family who pretends he doesn't exists and Kono, who stands by Chin even when it costs her, and Steve with his memories of a father who ignored him pressing out everything even if the opposite was true — maybe they are more alone than Danny ever realized. Yeah, he and Gracie can work with that.