Title: By Any Other Name
Summary: It's all in how you spell it. Can Steve bring Danny out of his funk?
Disclaimer: Hawaii Five-0 is not mine. I'm just borrowing the concepts and characters for a little while.
Spoilers: 1.10 Heihei
A/N: I noticed something at the end of the episode and my brain wouldn't let it go…
ooooooo
Sitting across from Danny at Side Street, I can tell that he's still thinking about his ex-wife. He was quiet when we left Rachel's house, and now that we're here, he just takes the occasional sip of his beer then either stares at the bottle or fiddles with its label before sighing and taking another drink. Our order of nachos is sitting there mostly untouched though I make sure to nudge the plate towards him every time I take some to munch on.
I've gotten so used to the sound of his voice filling in the empty spaces of my day when he's around that it's a little unnerving to hang out with a mostly silent Danny. I know I'm not the best conversationalist and I definitely am a disaster at trying to make people feel better, but I can't help wanting to make an effort for the man who is steadily becoming the best friend I've had in a very long time.
My objective for the moment is to get Danny's mind off the 'what ifs', 'might have beens', and any other regrets related to his and Rachel's broken relationship. The problem is that I have no idea what to say or where to start. I've never been in a relationship like that before. Never loved someone enough to want to marry them or have a child with them. And, my mother died before I was old enough to really understand or appreciate the love my parents had for each other.
I have no concept of how to console someone who so very obviously has unresolved feelings for his ex-wife. I understand the idea of unresolved feelings, but just not in the context of love and marriage.
What can I say that won't sound trite? How can I pull my friend out of this funk he seems to be in right now?
I slouch in my seat a little to relieve the discomfort in my hip from the impact on the sand when I tackled one of the robbers yesterday. Coming up with a good distraction won't be ea—
"You OK?" Danny suddenly asks.
"What?" I'd apparently been so intently concentrating on the problem of what to say or how to distract Danny that I'd totally missed what he'd just said to me.
"I said… Are. You. OK?"
I have no idea what he's talking about. I'm fine. It's Danny who's dealing with crap right now. The confusion must have shown on my face because he says, "You get hurt yesterday?"
I shake my head and reply, "I'm fine."
He shakes his head in disbelief, chuckles, and says, "Right."
We both take a drink of our beers and munch some more on our plate of nachos. I'm using the time to figure out what to say to keep Danny's thoughts from spiraling downward again.
Grace!
Danny loves to talk about his daughter – lights up even at the thought of her. There's a definite risk that mentioning Grace might turn his thoughts back round to her mom, but it's worth it if he'll just start being more like himself again.
"How was Grace? Was she relieved to get her computer back in one piece?"
Danny gives me the stink eye for my second question, which I knew he would, but then manages a smile when he says, "She's great. It was nice to have the extra time with her this week." His expression turns sour for a moment before smoothing out again. "Do you, uh, want to see the cool card she made for me?"
"Sure," I reply nodding.
Danny pulls it out of his pocket and carefully unfolds it before presenting it to me like the proud father he is.
When I see the front, I frown. Huh, I think to myself. That's not how I would—
"What's wrong?" Danny interrupts my thoughts.
"What do you mean?"
"That look on your face," he lifts his hand and flails it towards me. "What's that look?"
"I don't have a look."
"Yes. You do. It's a look that says… Well, actually I'm not sure what it's saying, but there was definitely a look."
Hmm… If I play this right, I'll easily be able to distract my friend from thinking about Rachel – at least for a little while.
"You don't like Gracie's card, and now you're trying to decide if you should lie and say it's great, aren't you?" he accuses.
"No. That's not it."
"Then what is it?"
"Well," I pause taking another look at the front, "she's not a very good speller is she?"
"What?" he exclaims and carefully snatches the card from my hands. "What's wrong with it?" he asks genuinely perplexed and definitely distracted from his unresolved issues with Rachel.
"She spelled your name wrong."
"What do you mean she spelled my name wrong?" he questions as he gestures to Grace's card. "She's the one who made the name up! How can she possibly spell it wrong?" he retorts while clenching his fists and barely remembering to keep his voice down to a reasonable level.
I know I need to be careful calling Grace's abilities into question, but decide to fan the flames anyway. It's a reckless plan, not thought out at all and could fail spectacularly, but I decide to go with it anyway.
"She's what? Eight? She still has plenty of time to improve her—"
"Stop," he says holding his hand up in front of my face. "Stop right there. You think Grace spells the name that she made up for me wrong?"
"Yes."
"You do realize that it's my kid you're putting down?"
I nod and shrug. "I'm just saying…"
"Don't," he snaps as he finishes his beer then takes the last bite of nachos.
I get the waitress' attention and signal her for two more beers and another plate of nachos.
While waiting for our next round, Danny pointedly ignores me and instead takes the time to observe some of the other patrons. I'm actually pretty surprised that he hasn't either left or hit me by now. Every so often, I catch him looking at me from the corner of his eyes. He seems determined to not talk about it, but I know he's curious.
When the waitress leaves after dropping off our order, his eyes dart my way once more. He heaves a frustrated sigh and takes a gulp of his new bottle of beer. That's when I know that he won't be able to help himself. He has to know—
"OK. I'll bite. How would you spell it?"
"Well," I begin, making a point to pause as if considering my answer. "When I first saw the card, I honestly didn't think Danno was spelled that way. I've never written it down or anything, but in my head I always see it as being spelled with two N's."
"Two N's?" he confirms.
I nod in the affirmative.
"Does it really matter how it's spelled?"
"I guess not," I reply, slightly dejected.
Grace did make up the name so technically her spelling is the correct one. But, in my head, I just can't see it spelled without that second N.
"Seriously!" Danny exclaims bringing me out of my head space. "You're going to get all Pouty Face just because the 'proper'," he mimes a pair of air quotes, "way to spell Dano is with one N and not two?"
"I don't have…'pouty face.'"
Danny lifts a hand in surrender and rolls his eyes. "Whatever. Keep telling yourself that and maybe someday it'll be true."
"Shut up Danno!"
"Ha! See! Just now when you said Dano, you were picturing it with two N's weren't you?" He laughs and I look away because he's absolutely right in his accusation.
I can't help how my mind chooses to see, hear, and spell Danny's nickname. I look back at him and he actually looks, if not happy, then at the very least amused and not in a depressed funk anymore. I'm mentally high-fiving myself for a successful op when he says, "You know, I'm kind of glad this was brought out into the open."
"Why's that?" I inquire, grabbing another bite of nachos.
"Well, for one thing, it makes things a little less awkward," he answers and I lift an eyebrow in askance for clarification. I'm really not getting what he means.
"You do realize that when Grace calls me 'Dano,' it's essentially the same as her calling me 'Daddy' which she also uses. You—" he says vaguely waving a hand in my direction, "You calling me 'Danno'… Do you get now why that's just plain awkward?"
I nod and open my mouth to speak, but he holds up a hand in my face to stop me.
"But," he continues sort of pointing at me, "knowing you spell it different somehow – don't ask me why – makes it less, and I mean only very slightly less, awkward." He smiles a bit and takes a long pull of his beer before grabbing a nacho drenched in cheese and sour cream.
"Does that mean I can call you Danno all the time?"
Danny swallows his food and doesn't even hesitate before he emphatically says, "No!"
I shake my head in amusement and argue, "But it's a term of endearment, a nickname to call my friend!"
"I don't care."
"You call me 'Steven'," I counter.
"That's your name," he throws right back like I don't know what my own name is.
"Yes, but I go by 'Steve' so, to me, 'Steven' is a nickname, and you're the only one who calls me that anyway!" I smile feeling like I've won my argument.
Danny chuckles for a moment before his face turns serious, "Thanks, man."
"For what?" I ask, genuinely perplexed before remembering my objective to bring Danny out of his quiet funk.
"Steven," he admonishes.
"Danno," I reply calmly.
"Shut up," he says laughing.
I can't help but laugh out loud with him.
Mission accomplished.
ooooooo
The end.
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A/N: I wrote this about a week and a half ago and am just getting around to posting it. No beta on this one, so I hope there weren't too many mistakes…
Thanks for reading!