"You've got two uniforms missing."
They weren't missing at all. There was a set each of BDUs and of Blues hidden in the back of his closet.
"They got ruined on an Op."
"And you never requested new ones?"
"No."
"Even your Blues?"
"It was a bad day."
"Uh huh." But the supply clerk signed the form anyway. And that was it. Lieutenant Commander Steven J. McGarrett was no longer in the military.
505050
Danny Stepped Through the entry way into the pool compound. The metal gate swung closed behind him, but no one looked over at the noise. Steve stood at the edge of the pool, in board shorts and an old SEAL tee. He held his hands on his wet hips and looked down at the young group of men in the pool, and what seemed to be an underwater obstacle course. All of them had their eyes glued to Steve and, if it were possible for them to stand at attention while treading water, they were. Some of them looked smug, some had that look that he recognized on Steve's face when they were on the job. Focused.
Only two of the men seemed distracted from giving Steve their full attention. One looked like he thought he was about to get clubbed by the rest of them. The other seemed worried, his eyes shifting to Clubbed SEAL. It made Danny think back to stories Steve had told about him and Freddie and he imagined Steve having much the same expression directed at his friend.
Clubbed SEAL said something that Danny couldn't catch, his friend's worried look deepened, but he didn't say anything. Steve's reply carried to where Danny stood.
"You are a team. You succeed or fail as a team. The minute you forget that... is the minute you get hurt or killed. Or, even worse, your brother is."
Danny wasn't sure if any of these men noticed the so very subtle changes in his brother or if, despite even their training, only someone who knew him as well as Danny did would notice. And no one knew Steve as well as Danny. His expression showed a hint of sadness, a hint of regret; the emotion in his voice just that much thicker as he must have been recalling his friends lost and wounded.
If they weren't surrounded by a bunch of military guys, Danny would go over there and comfort him. While Steve was more open to that these days, there was a line – one that Danny completely understood and respected. And besides, the guy was at work. Danny was nothing if not professional.
"Reset the course," Steve commanded, "and run it again. Together. The slowest time will be recorded for the entire team and if you don't work as a team, you will run it again. And again." Well, Danny really hoped that didn't happen. He was looking forward to dinner and it was Steve's turn to buy.
Steve sent them on their way and Danny took the time to reflect on the changes he'd seen in his friend over the past few months.
Of course, Danny never wanted to change Steve. He didn't believe in changing people to fit his ideal mould. That's probably why he and Rachel could never work – opposites may attract in some ways, but not in that. No, he never wanted to change Steve. He just wanted the guy to be truly happy. Sure there had always been moments of happiness, of laughter, but they'd always been too brief for Danny's liking. He needed to tease them out of his friend. Things were different now, though. Those moments were more frequent, didn't need coaxing and lasted so much longer – days even. Better still, Steve finally seemed so much more comfortable in his own skin.
The guy's leg was fucked. The wound still hadn't healed quite right. He sported an angry scar and while he wasn't in constant pain, it was sometimes something that could not be ignored. And even now he watched Steve rub his wounded leg as the SEAL (he'd always be a SuperSEAL to Danny. What? Shut Up.) watched his guys in the water. The idiot had probably pushed himself too far in the pool today. In short, he would have been out of the SEALs anyway, even if he hadn't thrown it all away to come save Danny's sorry ass. Of course, perhaps if he hadn't done that, hadn't aggravated the wound, things might have been different.
But just as he didn't believe in changing people, he also knew not to dwell on 'what if's'. He'd done enough of that when his marriage imploded. Besides, Steve was happy now. Who knew when that would have happened otherwise, when he would have stopped running. Maybe he never would have.
Steve had been out of the military for three months now and split his time between volunteering here with SEAL training and working with Five-0. Technically he was back to being Team Lead, but Danny was in charge when it came to the actual Ops. Steve still went out as Danny's partner to crime scenes, to question witnesses. He was still... unorthodox, but he had mellowed a lot. Danny put that down to two things – the courses he'd taken at the Policy Academy on the Navy's dime, and the fact that his friend realized he didn't need to save everyone all on his own anymore. During major Ops and raids – basically anything where they planned on mayhem from the start – his leg benched him and Danny took over. He supported them at HQ, or in a surveillance van, or by running interference with HPD.
And, he never once complained. He seemed to genuinely love his job now. Loved his life. He was happy. Danny couldn't think it enough because every time he did, every time he thought about how that brilliant smile was now mostly in place, instead of 'hardly ever', Danny got that much happier himself.
Steve hadn't changed so much as finally settled into his life. Finally allowed himself to be happy, to forgive himself, to put aside the things that he'd had no control over in the first place.
Hell, Danny didn't even care that he still barely got to drive his own car, and it was even worse now that they lived in the same house.
Danny was pulled from his reverie by the whoops and hollers of the SEALs' cheers, and the splashing of the men getting out of the water with a surprising lack of grace. He figured that all SEALs would look like Steve did in the water. Maybe they were just too excited.
"That's your best time of the day, boys. Take off. I'll see ya Monday." They all said their thanks you and goodbyes, informal but still never forgetting the 'Sir'. Good thing, too, or Danny might have something to say about it. Informal and joking was fine and good, but Steve deserved respect.
"Great speech, babe," Danny said, finally walking towards his friend once the last of the SEALs had left.
Steve raised an eyebrow, moving over to a shelf where his phone, badge and gun lay and grabbed a nearby towel to dry off. "That was hardly a speech. It was like two sentences."
Danny shrugged, grinning. "Short, to the point, got a perfect message across, rallied the troops or whatever. Actually, I revise my comment: it sounds like the perfect speech. Perhaps you should give speech writing classes or something as well."
SuperSEAL laughed. "I think I'll pass on that one. Thanks, though."
He picked up his phone and noticed a text message. "Huh."
"Everything all right, babe?"
"Huh? Oh yeah. It's just Tom. Wants me to call him. I'm gonna go get changed—"
"Thank you for that."
Steve smirked. "And I'll call him from the car on the way to dinner. Meet me out front?"
505050
"Hey Smooth Dog, long time no speak."
"Yeah, sorry, it's been crazy around here."
"You know you're supposed to relax when you retire, right."
Danny piped up. "I've been trying to tell him that for months. The Neanderthal won't listen." All three hey laughed at Steve's expense.
"How's it going, Tom?"
"Pretty good, actually."
"Don't sound so surprised, man."
"Well, we don't have you here anymore, so things are a lot more boring." Yup. Danny could relate to that.
"Ha. Ha. How's the—"
"Team's good, too, Steve." Danny could hear the laughter in his voice. Steve was pretty predictable. "But that is actually why I'm calling."
The Detective was ecstatic that he'd started off by saying the Team was good. Otherwise, he'd probably be having a heart attack right now. Steve was doing so good, but who knew what would happen if something happened to his Team while he wasn't there.
Hi friend, however, looked like he'd blocked that sentence out. He sat ramrod straight in the driver's seat, hands white knuckled on the steering wheel. Danny reached out to rub a hand across his shoulder.
"What happened," he finally ground out.
Tom's voice was instantly serious. He must have realized what Steve was thinking. "I said the Team's good, man. Relax."
"I'm relaxed." Silence on the other end of the line. "Okay, fine, I'm relaxed now. Mostly."
"Go ahead, Tom," Danny instructed.
"I just wanted to call you about Tex. And before you say anything, yes, he's fine. Other than starting to develop a bit of arthritis, nothing's changed. That has, however, moved up his retirement date."
A smile spread across Danny's face. Steve noticed and raised a questioning eyebrow. This couldn't be more fucking perfect if he'd planned it himself, because Danny could see no reason why Tom would call to specifically tell him about this. No reason except one.
"That sucks, man," Steve was saying. "How long you guys got? I know you thought you'd have another year with him at least."
"Yeah, we're sending him home next month. He's still great, a prime candidate for adoption. But you know what he's like, I thought he'd love to be with people he knows. My sister's allergic pretty bad though, and my parents are really too old to take care of him. I, uh, I was thinking..." He trailed off, like he wanted Steve to fill in the blanks, or maybe he was worried Steve would say no, or feel too guilty to say anything other than 'yes' if Tom right out asked.
Steve, however, seemed to only just be catching on to what was happening. Danny watched the surprise flit across his face, hope and excitement settling in after that. He turned to Danny and... sweet fuck that smile went all the way up to his hairline.
Looks like Danny was finally getting another dog.
"Steve?" Tom asked.
"You... you want me to take him?"
"Well, only if you want. You're familiar with MWDs and especially Tex. You've got that awesome yard for him to play in... I just thought—"
"No, you're right. Can I, uh, can I get back to you? I gotta talk it over with Danny." The Detective raised an eyebrow at that, but said nothing for the moment.
"Yeah, just don't wait too long. They're going to start the paperwork on Monday to send him home and get ready to find him a new family. If I already have a place for him by then, Tex won't have to go through all that."
"Yeah, of course. I'll get back to you Sunday night, if not before. And Tom? Uh... Thanks man. It really means a lot that you'd think of me for this."
"Are you kidding? You're the only choice, man." They said their good-byes and Steve ended the call.
The car was silent for a minute and then they were arriving at the restaurant. It wasn't until the waitress had walked away with their food orders half an hour later that They had a chance to talk about it.
"Steven?"
"Yeah, Danny?" And bloody hell, the guy actually looked worried. Did Steve think he wouldn't allow it or something? How did Danny even get a say in this anyway?
"Why didn't you just tell him yes on the phone? Why did you want to talk to me first?"
"Well, it's not my house Danny." Danny just narrowed his eyes at him. That was pretty much the only thing they'd actually fought about since Steve got back. He refused to put the house back in his name. "Okay, whatever. But you live there, too."
"You know I like dogs, babe. Until I met your Team, I thought you were the one who didn't like them."
"Well, I wasn't sure you'd trust him around Grace." Every time he pulled the Grace card, Danny loved his friend just a little bit more.
"To be honest, Steve, I don't really know this dog. But why wouldn't I trust him? I trust you."
Steve narrowed his eyes, but his lips twisted into a grin. "Did you... did you just compare me to a dog?"
"Well, Smooth Dog, you are an animal, and I'm sure you've seen and done more than he has. But that's not actually what I meant. I trust you. If you trust Tex with Grace, then that's good enough for me."
Steve's smile grew even more. And really, as excited as he seemed about this, Danny would do anything to make this happen for his friend. It was probably the best thing to happen to him in a long time.
"This will be great, babe. You'll be able to take care of your Team."
His grin turned a little goofy. "Yeah."
"So you gonna call the poor guy back, or make him sweat out the entire weekend?"
The SEAL laughed. "I'll call him when we get home."
The waitress came by with the drinks they'd ordered. Steve ran his fingers through the condensation on his glass. Danny recognized the 'I'm going to blow shit up now' face; which often simply translated into 'Danno is not going to like this' face.
"What, babe?"
"What?"
"Hey, I asked you first. What's with the face. What's got you thinking so hard."
Some more patterns through the glass. "Do you think Rachel would let you take Grace to the mainland? Just for a couple of days."
"She'd better if I asked. She takes Grace all over the damn place."
"What about if it's not your weekend?"
"Well, again, Rachel's done that to me enough times. I could just remind her of that fact. If she's being a bitch – although she hasn't been for quite a while, actually – I might have to switch weekends or give something up but I really don't see it being a problem."
"Oh, well, I don't want to do anything that would take away from—"
"Babe! You wanna maybe tell me what you're planning?"
Steve finally looked up from his glass, a crooked smile on his face. Seriously, the guy was like an adorable five year old sometimes.
"I was thinking that when Tex comes back stateside, we could maybe take Grace to go see him before we one hundred percent agree on anything. I don't want to bring Tex into the house if he's gonna scare her, or she doesn't like him."
"Steve." Danny reached out and tapped his wrist, a gesture that he'd started doing months ago without even realizing it, but seemed to calm his friend when he started going down these kinds of rabbit holes. "Grace trusts you, too. Okay?" Steve nodded and Danny sat back in his chair again. "But that sounds like a great idea anyway. I haven't really been able to take her a lot of places the last couple of years. It will be nice to take a little trip with her. Where'd we be going?"
"Well, the dogs usually go back to the training facility in Texas—"
"Seriously? Tex comes from Texas? Could they get any less original? Please don't tell me they're all called Tex."
Steve laughed. "I don't actually know why they called him Tex. I'll ask Tom. But no, they don't all have that name. Anyway, they'd usually go to Texas, but I'll see if we can meet him in Coronado."
"Grace would like that. She'd love to see another place you've lived. I would too, actually."
He was rewarded with a thousand watt smile. "I'll try and make that happen then. And I want Grace to be honest. Not that I think she'd lie of course," he hurriedly amended. "But if she's really not sure, that's okay. At least we'll know before he gets into the house. I'll have time to look for a new place or something. Shut up. It's not up for discussion."
Danny picked his battles, didn't mention anything about the house. But he was happy that Steve would still take Tex, no matter what. Danny couldn't wait.