Warning – maybe triggering if you're that way inclined, contains graphic description of methods of self harm
And some AU for Season 2
It seemed, for a few weeks at least, that Danny was spared the double humiliation of Steve McGarrett and Chin Ho Kelly, two men he respected a lot (not that he was going to tell Steve that in a hurry, the man already had a big enough ego) finding out their haole wasn't as strong as they thought he was. But that was only because everything seemed to be spiralling out of control, not just his own life.
Rachel hadn't taken his rejection well, in fact she seemed almost desperate for him to start sleeping with her again, which confused him and worried him too. Why now, when things with Wo Fat were hotting up? Why all of a sudden did she want him again after years if screaming abuse at him?
He didn't waste too much energy on it though, work was becoming a nightmare, Steve was spending more and more time with Jenna and their mutual search, Chin and Kono's family issues were causing them both problems, and the whole string of islands had seemed to erupt in criminality. None of them really had time to think about his odd scars as they all island-hopped, chasing after drug dealers one day, murderers and gunrunners the next.
It was enough to lull the Detective into a false sense of deranged security that he had gotten away with it.
Until one morning when he woke slowly with his clever and observant daughter standing over him.
Danny knew something was up the moment he opened his eyes and he turned quickly onto his back, right hand reaching for the gun he had taken to keeping in his nightstand. He relaxed a little when he saw Grace standing beside his bed in her pjs, holding her favourite stuffed shark that Steve had bought her. "Gracie?" he asked as he sat up. "Are you okay? What is it, Monkey?"
"I heard Mommy talking to someone on the phone yesterday." Grace answered him, her voice small and worried. "She said you had more scars, so you were more stressed. And I remember having a talk at school about stress and worry. What did she mean, Danno?"
Danny sighed and patted the mattress next to him and pulled her up when she climbed up. She snuggled close to his side and he hugged her tightly, resting his cheek on her soft hair. He held her tightly while he thought about what to say to her, he had to weigh up lying to her outright or simply not telling her the complete truth. "Stress does things to me." he explained after a while. "Normally gives me bad dreams and heartburn." he added truthfully. "I've just got more scars now because some people don't want to be arrested." He had decided a long time ago that he wasn't going to lie to his child, but he really didn't want her worrying over the violence his job exposed him to, or the violence it made him cause.
"So they hurt you?" she asked him in a small voice.
He hated to hear the fear in her tone so he gathered her up onto his blanket-covered lap and hugged her tight. "Not a lot." he answered her and pressed a kiss to her cheek. "Uncle Steve, Uncle Chin and Aunt Kono make sure of that."
She nodded and reached out to trace the thin, fading scar on his right bicep, left over from the last cut he had made when Matty had left. "Did someone do this to hurt you?" she asked him curiously.
What to say without lying to her? "Yeah." he admitted in the end. "But it wasn't serious, and it didn't hurt much." Now that was a lie, it had hurt like hell for about a week, as much so he had almost given in and gotten some proper medical help for it. But he had persevered with it, and now it was just a thin, pink line he could explain away.
She nodded and shifted a little so she could kiss his temple. "I don't want you to get hurt, Danno." she told him and laid her head back against his chest. "Neither do I, Monkey." he replied, and kissed her hair. "Neither do I."
Grace nodded and closed her eyes again, falling asleep quickly in the warmth of his arms, his steady heartbeat against her ear. He sat with her for a long time, going through the conversation in his mind. After his initial (and hour long) self-flagellation for deceiving her he then started to worry over what else she had said. Rachel had known about his cutting, she had still been his next of kin in New Jersey when he had ended up in hospital because of his ankle. But whom was she telling on the phone, and why would they want to know?
The game was up for his secrecy when Uncle Steve picked up his beautiful daughter from her school when Danny couldn't.
Grace frowned after her initial delight in seeing him there, and hugged him tightly. "Where's Danno?" she asked him when they let go. "Is he all right?"
"He'll be fine." Steve replied, and smiled reassuringly at her. "He's not feeling too good and asked me to pick you up. I need to take you to him at the hospital."
She frowned a bit more and took the hand he offered her in hers, letting him lead her back to the car. "Will he get another scar?" she asked him when he had strapped her in. "Like the new one on his arm?"
Steve frowned too and thought rapidly. Danny hadn't complained recently about getting wounded, the last time he had had something on his arm, that the Commander knew about, was a few months ago now. "Which arm, Honey Bee?" he asked her as he fired up the Camaro and drove away from the school carefully. "His right one." Grace replied after a few moments of thought.
Which wasn't the wound Steve had been thinking of. Something tugged at his memory; of Danny looking like he was in pain when Kono had tapped him a while ago, but he remembered his partner had brushed it off as Kono punching him a bit too hard. Over the time he had known him Steve had figured out a little bit about his partner – the more Danny was hurt, the less he bitched about it. Maybe his arm had been more damaged that they had thought? But Steve couldn't for the life of him think how he could have been hurt that badly for him to not say anything. Unless of course Matthew or one of his associates had actually shot at his partner while making their escape. Biting his lip in sudden anger and worry Steve shook his head. "Not like that, Gracie." he replied, deciding to get to the bottom of it. "He breathed in something bad, but he's getting better now."
Grace nodded, satisfied, and spent the rest of the journey telling him about the project on the marine life around the islands they were doing at school.
Steve stood back and watched as his sleepy partner smiled widely and embraced his daughter when they were reunited. Danny was looking much better than he had done, but still washed out and tired. Steve took the opportunity to study his arms wrapped around his little girl in some detail. Danny was wearing the short-sleeved tee Steve had grabbed from the stash they kept in the trunk of the Camaro for emergencies and it showed his muscled arms nicely. The Commander perused his right one first, and quickly spotted the scar on his bicep, just underneath the hem of the sleeve. It wasn't new, but it hadn't faded completely so it could have only been a month or two old. It was a slice as well, incised like a knife, and he racked his memory for the last time Danny had been knifed. Nothing recent enough to explain that one.
With a frown he studied more, and his concerned brain pointed out some more odd, unexplained scars. The majority were on his upper arms, normally hidden by his button-down work shirts or half sleeved tee shirts, and if Steve hadn't now been looking for them he wouldn't have noticed them. One of the largest he could spot was on Danny's right arm, above his elbow and disappearing under the sleeve of the shirt. From what he could see the scar was almost as wide as it was long, wrapping around his arm, and the skin was tinged pink rather than the pale tan surrounding it. It looked like a graze or a burn and again it was nothing Steve could explain away from their work.
He stared at it and then at his friend's face to study him some more, only to find Danny staring up at him over his daughter's hair.
Danny was adept at schooling his own faces as he was at reading Steve's, so the Commander could only see tired gratefulness in his expression. "Thanks, Babe." Danny said to him gratefully. "For bringing her here."
"No problem." he replied and pulled up a chair to sit beside them. He laid his arm on the mattress beside his partner and rested his chin on them, which gave him a close up view of Danno's right arm now he had let go of Grace. "We had a good talk about marine life around the islands, didn't we?"
Grace grinned, nodded and launched into it again for her attentive father who listened intently, allowing his partner time to gaze at the appendage virtually under his nose.
Danny's right arm was muscled, and Steve knew exactly how powerful they were, he'd been introduced to his fist the very first day they had worked together after all. But he'd not been this close before and he took the opportunity to study. He looked past the blond hair to the soft skin underneath and realised with a sinking heart that Danny's arm was covered in scars, and his hand too. Most of them were patches, as on his upper arm, but there were a couple of silvered lines too, hopefully all on the outside of the limb – if it was an indication of what he thought if was, he hoped there were none on the fragile inside of Danny's arm. Steve couldn't see Danny's left arm from where he was, that was still wrapped around Grace's waist, but he didn't think for one minute that it had less damage.
He really wanted to ask Danny about them, to demand answers and to examine every part of him to see if he had more, but he knew the blond wouldn't answer with Grace there. So instead he ended up sighing and watching him interact with his daughter.
Danny heard his sigh and moved his arm from under his nose so he could gently massage the nape of his friend's neck with his fingers. He hadn't noticed Steve's study of his skin, and had misinterpreted his sigh as tiredness and worry about the sarin, and he simply wanted to comfort him.
Steve didn't really get a chance to confront Danny about his fears until much, weeks later. He had been surprised to return to the hospital later that day to find Rachel asleep, her head resting on Danny's strong shoulder. Almost as surprised as Danny looked. "I don't know." Danny whispered at his partner's frown. He did look floored and Steve took pity on him and grinned.
"We got the guy." he told his partner instead, giving Danny the information he knew he could process. "Some stupid business deal. We got all of the stuff too." He refrained from telling him how they had gotten the guy and how petrified he had been watching him die. The only thought running through his head at that time was that that could have been Danny, and he could so easily have lost his partner and best friend that day. "Did the Doc say when you can go home?" he asked him instead.
Danny shrugged the one arm he had free. "Tomorrow, probably." he replied. "Depends on some sort of lung test."
Steve nodded and put his worries about unexplained scars to the back of his mind. Instead he simply listened to Danny talk for a while and waited for him to go to sleep again before he left him there.
It was actually a couple of days later when Steve managed to sit down with him somewhere and talk properly, even for a few minutes. "I don't know what's going on with Rachel." Danny admitted, his opener going straight to the point. "I was stupid once and slept with her after Matty had left, but that's it. I shouldn't have, I only went over there because she knew Matty as well. She told me she was lonely, that she and Stan were having problems." He sighed and raised his hands in a question. "And it felt pretty good to shaft him. At the time." he admitted. "I know that makes me an asshole."
Steve shook his head with a fond smile. "That makes you a guy, Danny." he argued. "But don't forget, she's not the only fish in the ocean. You may be surprised about how many people are available, you know." he added. "And how close they are."
Danny frowned at him, trying to decipher his cryptic remarks. "If you're coming on to me Steve, now is not a good time."
Steve shrugged and leant forward so he was pressing his forehead against his partner's, and cupped his face in one large hand, lightly caressing his cheekbone with his thumb. "You'll let me know when it is a good time. Won't you?" he asked him quietly.
Danny huffed with laughter and made the small move it took to lightly kiss his lips. "Yes, Smooth Dog." he assured him, fondly amused too. "When I'm ready, you'll be the first to know."
And then the crap had really hit the fan while the pair of them had been standing right in front of it.
Steve seemed to have all the time in the world now to brood about his predicament while he was caged in solitary, but when Danny had come to see him and looked so bad he realised that he had other things to worry about too. He couldn't see his partner's arms, under those stupid shirts he wore, which, he realised, was probably why Danny wore them. He got very angry when Danny had told him he'd been fired – all his partner had ever wanted to be was a cop and a corrupt official had taken that from him. He didn't dare ask his friend if he had any new wounds just in case he upped and left Steve there, trapped behind three inches of Plexiglas. But Danny's tells were his lovely blue eyes, and they showed him how much pain he was in, exactly what he was suffering, and he had to do something to alleviate that. So he took the chance Hesse gave him and embraced it with both arms, concentrating on getting back to his partner.
Danny sat in his apartment when everything had calmed down and his partner had been exonerated, and started at his jar. It as early in the morning, he'd woken with a start from yet another nightmare; this one where Wo Fat was standing over Steve's prone form in the Governor's mansion and shot him as calmly as he had shot Jameson. It would have been so easy for the guy to do that, on the video it was obvious that Steve out cold, and Wo Fat had aimed the weapon at him after he had killed Jameson. He had changed his mind and decided to frame him instead, for which Danny was grateful.
That was the only thing he was grateful for; his apartment building had been sold, Steve was spending more time with Weston, Kono was still suspended, and Rachel had just told him the baby was not his. The only thing he could control was this, in front of him in his silver jar he'd gotten out and placed on the side in the bathroom. He had bought more supplies a couple of days ago, more cheap razors, more dressings and such to deal with the aftermath. As usual the urge to cut had been increasing over the past couple of weeks until now when they were so strong he was now struggling to breathe past the need to the pain in his chest. Other times he had had something to stop him, most of the time it had been because Grace was coming to say with him and that had caused him to pause. Now though he had nothing to stop him, and he reached for the jar and fished out what he needed. He was well versed at what to do now, he'd been doing this for so long it was only moments for him to stand over the sink, plant his left hand in it and lean on it a bit to harden up his muscles again.
This time he really made a mess of his arm, using three razors before he started to feel better, to feel less like an abject failure. His blood splattered around the basin with the force of his anger digging the blades into his flesh, he watched the warm, viscous fluid mix with the water and disappear down the plughole. He finally stopped when the pain of the last pass of the third razor shocked him into dropping it into the basin with the other two and he sat down heavily onto the toilet seat again. He breathed deeply and wiped his tearing eyes on his right shoulder, and simply sat there for a few moments, eyes closed as he calmed down. "How the hell are you gonna hide this one, asshole?" he murmured to himself after a few moments and opened his eyes again, studying the wound.
This one stretched from the top of his arm, past his elbow to the middle of his forearm, with the majority if the damage on his elbow. He wasn't going to be able to hide this for long, he knew from past experience that bending his arm was going to be a problem for a week or so. Probably something else Steve could push him aside for and spend more and more time with Lori Weston. He had noticed the progression and told himself that his partner had new, better people to play with now, which was another reason for his need to hurt. At least now Danny knew he could feel something other than self-loathing, even if it was just pain.
He couldn't just sit there all night and watch as his blood started to congeal on his arm though, even now the usual reaction was setting in – his other hand was shaking, he felt cold to his core and knew he would start to shiver soon, all of which he preferred to deal with in bed. So he patched himself up as well as he could, cleaned up as much of the mess as possible and dragged his sorry butt back to bed.
Danny was okay for a couple of days after that: he stayed in his office, catching up with mountains of paperwork and checking Denning's new requirements against his previous reports so he could get them signed off without too much of a problem. As he had thought he could barely move his arm on the first day and he had tried to hide it from his team mates, with varying degrees of success.
Chin had noticed he was favouring it when Danny emerged at lunch time to get some more coffee, and despite the Detective's own determination to stop hiding from his friends, he found his mouth saying something else. "I just slept a bit awkwardly, Chin." he explained as he poured himself some Kona from the pot. "I've taken some ibuprofen, it'll be fine." He must have pulled it off he thought, because the other detective nodded.
"If it keeps giving you problems I know someone who can do some acupuncture or massage, brah." Chin told him. "You want to get some lunch with us?"
Danny's stomach flipped unpleasantly at the thought and he shook his head. Besides, he knew Chin's 'us' meant him and Kono and he didn't want to intrude on their time together. Her family had decided that she was in trouble because of Chin Ho and were making it very difficult for them to see each other, let alone the rest of the team. "No thanks." he replied with a smile. "I brought something in. But give her a hug from me?" he asked. "Tell her I love her, and I'm trying my hardest to sort this crap out for her."
Chin grinned at him, indicating he had said exactly the right thing. "Will do, brah." he replied. "Don't forget to eat too."
Danny nodded and watched him go and sighed in relief. He was alone in the office, Steve and Lori had gone out earlier and weren't due back until later and he let himself relax just a little. He took his coffee back into his office and quickly checked his arm over, gently pulling up his sleeve so he could look. As usual the wound was seeping some clear liquid into the dressings he had put on, but there wasn't so much at that time, and he had worn a thicker shirt, just in case eagle eyes saw the dressing pads through it. So far he had gotten away with it, he wasn't holding out much hope of that continuing.
But did he want to keep on hiding? He had managed it for years from his family, expecting a whole lot of recriminations from them, but when his mother found out she had been surprisingly ambiguous to start with. When she had processed it all however, she had dumped him in her car, driven him out to the beach away from crowds and they had talked all afternoon. She had actually listened to him, and Danny had explained, as much as he could, rather than using his words to divert her attention. It had been cathartic for them both, she had promised not to demand he stop or get embroiled in therapy and anti depressants, and he had promised to call her when the urges got too much for him. They had both kept to that, and Danny had called her a couple of times when he had been sitting, staring at his silver jar and perceived redemption within.
But then he had had to tell her he was moving 5000 miles away to the middle of nowhere since her ex-daughter in law had taken her grandchild away and their relationship had soured a little, even more so when he had called her to explain about Matty. She had gone ballistic at that one, yelling her pain and anger at him down the phone, demanding he explain why he had let Matty get into so much trouble, why he hadn't helped him more and why he had let him go. He'd let her yell, she didn't accuse him of anything he hadn't already blamed himself for, and he hadn't even mentioned his need to cut over it.
He stared at the dressings on his arm for a moment before he recovered it with his sleeve and spent some more time going through possible outcomes of the conversation with Steve. None of them were good! How would he even broach the subject? "By the way Steve, I'm a cutter and no, it doesn't mean I'm suicidal." was probably not going to go down very well. He could see Steve going through his things, chucking out everything sharp, forcing him into therapy that he didn't want and probably checking him over daily for any new cuts – in the middle of their offices, with everyone looking on. It was enough to make him shudder with horror and humiliation, and carry on hiding for as long as he could.
It was difficult though, he hated lying to his team, especially Steve, he despised the thought that he had let him, let them down, as if he had failed them for not being able to deal with his troubles. Steve had been forced to listen to his father being murdered, had found out his mother had been murdered too, had dealt with his sister being kidnapped and the betrayal of Jameson with laser-sharp focus, seemingly able to shake it all off and carry on.
Chin had spent years being classed as a dirty cop by friends, family and colleagues alike, losing them all, all to protect his uncle with a strength of loyalty that astounded Danny.
And Kono seemed to be dealing with her suspension from a job she had always wanted to do through no fault of her own with a tenacity he could only hope to attain.
So what gave him the right to lay any of his issues on them? He should be stronger than this, he told himself. At least Grace was safe away from here, one of his many fears had been Wo Fat would use her against him, and he could speak to her on the phone every so often. Finding out the baby wasn't his had almost ripped his heart out from his chest, but he had thought he was getting over that. He was tired all of a sudden worrying about it; he knew they would think of him as a failure so he decided he wouldn't mention it. And if they found out or questioned him on it, he would deal with it at the time, he always did.
Steve returned to the office with Lori in the middle of the afternoon and made his way directly to Danny's office. He could see his friend was in and swamped by paperwork, and he smiled fondly at him. He walked in and sat down in the chair the other side of the desk to him, and stretched out his long legs in front of him. "Danno." he greeted him, knowing full well his partner would not say anything until he did, even thought he knew he was there.
Sure enough the man in question looked up only when his name was mentioned. "Steven." he replied with a smile as he checked him over. "No injuries? No fire fights?" He nodded towards the police scanner within arm's reach of them. "I've not heard anything on that so I can tell you've not blown up the islands."
Steve grinned a little wider, one of the ones that made Danny's day. "Not yet." he replied, amused. "But the day's not over yet."
Danny rolled his eyes and sighed theatrically. "So true." he agreed. "Did you get any more intel?" he asked him, ready to get any diversion from the paperwork and his own thoughts.
Steve shook his head and his smile faded to a pout. "Weston didn't let me throw the guy into the ocean." he complained with a shrug. "It's not my fault the guy can't swim."
Danny found himself actually laughing at his expression and words in real amusement, something he hadn't had the urge to do in a couple of weeks. "I really want to pat you on the head right now and tell you everything will be fine." he explained to him fondly.
Steve's grin returned and he scooted forward, using the wheels on the chair to move next to his partner. He then surprised him by embracing Danny's trim waist and pressing his forehead to his sternum. "Hold me!" he pleaded and grinned a little wider.
Danny laughed again and embraced him back, very pleased Steve was looking down so he didn't see the wince of pain and slow movement of his arm. He hugged him tightly and laid his cheek on the crown of Steve's head, smiling at him fondly. "Everything'll be all right, Stevie." he said to him, amused. "I'm sure she'll be persuaded soon enough."
"You would have let me throw him in the sea, wouldn't you, Danno?" Steve asked, well, wailed would have been a better description.
Danny winced again in pain, because of that nickname now, but he didn't let him go, any touch he could get from him now was a bonus. "I don't know, Steve." he replied, trying to keep his voice light. "Depends on how deep the water was."
"Which is exactly what I said." Steve agreed and raised his head again but didn't move away. He studied his face for a few moments, taking in the pinched look in Danny's cheeks, lines on his forehead that weren't there before, dark circles under his eyes and didn't like it very much. Words were never his friends though, he was a man of action, so he shifted the chair, and himself a little closer and pulled him close to his chest in a tight hug. "I need you with me, Danny." he assured him quietly. "I hate that you're feeling crappy and I can't do anything about it."
Danny was a bit surprised at his actions but he would take what he could get from him. He buried his face in Steve's neck and hugged him back. "This works." he assured him, and leant against him, borrowing some of his strength for a while. "Definitely works."
Chin looked up to see Weston standing near him, frowning into Danny's office. The look on her face was not negative, as such, but more surprised and uncertain. He followed her gaze to see Danny and Steve just letting each other go and sit close next to each other. They were smiling at each other, and as they watched Steve slipped an arm around Danny's waist and pulled him closer, if possible.
Chin grinned and cleared his throat to divert the newcomer's attention from the other two in what he hoped was going to be a tender moment. It looked like Steve was finally going to make his move, past time too, and the Lieutenant really didn't think they wanted an audience.
Weston looked up at him and stepped over to where he was but the tech table, trying to shake off the image she had seen. Instead she smiled at him and they put their heads together to work on their latest case.
A couple of hours later Danny found himself on Steve's lanai, beer in hand, doing something he hadn't done for a while: just sitting, watching the ocean, Steve sitting beside him with a matching beer in his hand. The only difference than before were the chairs were closer together and Steve's spare hand was on Danny's, on the sailor's thigh, their fingers interlocked. He was mellow enough to almost, almost forget his arm, the one holding the beer bottle, and he turned a little so he could see Steve's face. His partner was looking out towards the ocean, his bare feet digging into the cool sand, his legs relaxed in front of him, slouched in the chair with a small smile teasing the corners of his mouth. He pressed the top of his bottle to his lips and drank some before he turned to face his companion. "Danny." he said to him fondly. "Are you gonna tell me what happened while I was inside?" he asked him curiously. "You must have been busy."
Danny snorted in derision. "Understatement, Babe." he replied and forced his arm to move so he could drink some beer too.
Steve noticed he wasn't moving it as well as normal and he frowned. "What's wrong with your arm?" he asked him quickly, sitting up a bit. "Danny?"
The man in question stared at him for a few moments, thoughts running through his brain. What did he say? The truth? How would Steve take it? Probably not well, Danny thought quickly. And he couldn't put his friend through it, Steve had a propensity to blame himself for everything and everyone, and he would take this on his shoulders too, whatever Danny said to him. Danny could see the slope of those shoulders now, they looked strong but he knew they could only take so much. So he shrugged and glanced down at the offending limb. "I think I pulled a muscle or something." he replied as blithely as he could. "I think I slept on it too." he added, mirroring what he had told Chin earlier, in case they conferred. "It's fine, it'll be okay in the morning."
"I can rub it better for you." Steve offered and wondered at the brief moment of panic that flashed through his partner's eyes. But before he could question him on it Danny's phone rang. It was a different ring tone than before, something he'd not heard assigned to anyone else. Then he listened to it and realised who it might be, and tried to pull his hand away from Danny's. It was the "I'm a bitch, I'm a lover, I'm a child, I'm a mother" chorus that suggested it might be Rachel, and the first words out of Danny's mouth when he answered it confirmed it.
"Rachel, are you all right?" Danny said quickly, his phone pressed to his ear. "How is Grace?" He had dropped his bottle and grabbed his phone with that hand so he could keep hold of Steve's with the other one. He hadn't told his partner everything that had occurred, he'd not had enough time, but he wasn't going to lose their newfound closeness because of one phone call. So he squeezed his fingers around Steve's and held on while he listened to his ex wife's greetings. She assured him they were both fine, and paused a little in surprise at his next question. "And how's Stan? He still with you?" He even sounded sincere!
Steve stared at his partner for a few moments in shock while he processed that little titbit. He knew Grace and Rachel had left for New Jersey when the shit had hit the fan, but Danny hadn't wanted to talk about so he hadn't pried. And now to find Stan was with them? He settled down to watch Danny's reactions, hand still held tightly in his own, offering whatever comfort he could.
Danny noted when he stopped trying to pull away, but ended up frowning anyway. "Steve's fine." he answered when she asked. "Where are you?"
Then she hit him with a bombshell. "Danny, Stan and I have decided we want to try again, to spend some time alone with each other." she explained. "We, including Grace, were wondering if you wouldn't mind having sole custody of Grace for a while?"
Steve refused to grimace when Danny's grip on his hand became painful.
"Of course I wouldn't mind!" the blond said firmly down the phone. "When? How long for? Do I have to go anywhere to pick her up?"
The Commander's brain was running possible scenarios though this mind at Danny's side of the conversation that he could hear, and only one of them lead to his partner staying in Hawaii with him.
"Tomorrow?" Danny queried, eyes wide in shock as he stared at Steve. "What time?" A pause while he listened. "I'll be there." he agreed and smiled, wide and heartfelt. "Thanks, Rachel." he said, something Steve hadn't heard him say before. "Can I talk to her?" Another pause, and then: "Monkey!"
Steve could hear Grace's shriek from there! Then he listened carefully to find out where he would lose his best friend to. "Uh huh." Danny said. "Yes, I know." and "Yes, Babe, it's fantastic!" and he meant it too. Then with a shy smile at his partner Danny nodded. "Yes, Monkey, he's here. Hang on." Then he stretched the little he needed to hand the phone over to his SuperSEAL. "Someone wants to talk to you, Babe." he told him fondly, and then settled back to listen.
Steve took the phone, pressed it to his own ear, and spoke. "Hello?"
"Uncle Steve!" Grace shouted at him. "Are you okay? Not grounded anymore?"
"I'm fine, Honey Bee." he answered her with a smile. "Your Danno sorted it out for me. Where are you? Are you okay?"
"Fine." she replied. "Better now. Isn't it great, Uncle Steve? I'm coming back to Hawaii to live with my Danno again! Can we stay at your house though? I've got a lot of things and Mommy says it won't all go in Danno's apartment."
He gaped in surprise for a moment before he grinned as widely as Danny. "Gracie, I would love it if you and Danno moved into my house with me." he agreed easily. "You're right, your things won't all fit into his tiny apartment." He grinned at Danno's eye roll and squeezed his hand to comfort. "When are you coming home?"
"We're at the airport in Newark now." Grace replied, all excited and happy. "Step Stan says the flight will land home at 8am. Can you pick us up in your truck?"
He found himself nodding his agreement without thinking about it. "Yes, Honey, we'll be there." he told her firmly, something he was definitely going to make sure happened. "It's not too late here so Danno and I can get some of your things from his apartment now." he assured her, making Danny frown.
After a few more minutes of conversation, swapping the phone with each other, it was arranged. Grace had her Danno wrapped lightly around her finger and what she said, went. So the boys spent a pleasant, mostly until Steve found most of Danny's stuff was stashed in boxes already, moving the pair of them over from that cupboard to the McGarrett house.
