Hey guys! Thank you for all your awesome reviews, especially to guest reviewer Melissa O'Caan, whom I couldn't thank in person. Here you have chapter 2, I hope you like it! Fortunately I got rid of stupid autocorrect, but bad news is every single mistake you find from now on is my complete and entire fault.
This chapter is an episode tag to episode 5 of season 3 (Mohai), the Halloween one where Danny and Grace end up watching The Notebook with Steve and Catherine. I took the first part from the episode (so dialogues may sound familiar) but the rest is completely mine. I watched it the other day and I decided to do an episode tag. More author notes at the end of the chapter, in case I'm boring you with this one, he he…
Disclaimer: I do not own Hawaii Five-0. All rights belong to their respective owners.
"What's The Notebook?" he asked once everyone was sitting on the couch including his partner.
"You're gonna hate it" answered Steve with a serious face who said he wasn't kidding.
"It can't be that bad", he whispered more to himself than to Steve. Then he turned to Grace, who had overheard the conversation, and asked her again "it can't be that bad, right?".
Then Danny grabbed the popcorns and offered some to the girls and Steve. The former Seal decided to place his arm over Danny's shoulder instead; he lent his back on his friend's arm as if it were the couch, and started preparing his mind for how horrible the movie was going to be in a scale from Titanic (he actually loved the romance, but not the people drowning and freezing in the ocean) to Twilight (one of his worst experiences as a father, although the best part was seeing Grace's amazed face during the whole movie. For that, it was worth it. However, he didn't intended on watching it again, or the rest of the movies of the franchise) while the opening credits appeared on the screen.
Two hours later the screen cut to black while all but one were experiencing a certain post-movie catharsis: Catherine and Grace were hugging each other, the make-up of the second ruined long ago due to the waterfall of tears, making a yellow and black-colored mess of her face, whereas Danny was unconsciously hugging the popcorns bowl, emptied an hour and a half ago, as if it were the most precious thing in his world. Steve had been snoring like a lion since the middle of the movie and apart from turning the volume up no one did nothing to wake him up as they were already inside the movie.
Catherine was the first to react: she got up from the couch and headed quickly to the bathroom to grab some more tissues without saying a word. Grace blinked three or four times until she felt there were no more tears coming out of her eyes, and she smiled when she saw her Uncle Steve so profoundly asleep. Danny was the slowest: he just stayed there, between his beautiful daughter and his annoying partner, still with the bowl between his hands. He was lost in his own mind. First, he was surprised: the movie was the typical "girl and ice-cream" movie, and yet he had enjoyed it. But what had affected him the most was how much it had made him think about his romantic relationships.
He remembered when he first met Rachel back in New Jersey. She was an English girl who had recently moved to the States and wasn't used to driving on the left yet, and he, as a good officer, offered to give her some driving lessons. A year later, Danny and Rachel spent Christmas in the UK and he was brave enough to ask her father for permission to marry her in front of every single member of Rachel's family. At that time, he thought that was the closest to perfection he would ever experience in his life; one year later, he discovered he was wrong. It had been a long day full of interrogating potential suspects to close once and for all a case of drug dealing that had kept them busy for months; they almost had their suspect, but they had to keep digging, which meant more work hours for him. Then, Rachel had called to tell him her blood test were back and gave him the good news. That was the first time the other officers had seen him cry, and he wasn't ashamed of it.
Three months later, Danny was still working on the same case whereas Rachel went to work happier than ever. The young and happy couple had been to Rachel's doctor and had finally learnt they were expecting a baby girl. Danny didn't cry that time, but he still kept his first unborn daughter's picture inside his pocket. Then, Grace and he had followed to lead to the drug dealers and all hell broke loose: his partner had been killed right in front of him, and he had been saved by some lunatics who had decided to bring chaos and death to a wonderful city. When he finally made it out of the building, hurting everywhere, he had to wait three painful hours until a police car noticed him. They took him to an overcrowded hospital but, despite everything, he felt home when he was reunited with Rachel. They hugged each other and Danny cried in public for the second time in his life. Five hours ago, while he felt how the drug dealer's fists were cracking his ribs, he thought he was going to meet Grace's fate. Instead, he was rewarded with more time, time to spend with Rachel and their daughter. He knew he hadn't been the perfect husband, but he loved Rachel and had been given a chance to prove he truly loved her.
The third time he cried in front of other people was in Grace's funeral. Rachel didn't want him to go as he had been recovering from his injuries but Grace had been his partner, the one who had had his back right until her very death. He owed her. He had tried to look in one piece but once he saw Mrs Tilwell first tear and he felt the depressing atmosphere in the room, he couldn't control himself. Luckily, he wasn't alone. Rachel tried to comfort him giving him her hand and Danny took it. Rachel was his anchor and he thanked God for that. He would be so lost without her.
Time passed and he lived the happiest years of his life. The baby girl, whom they named after Danny's ex-partner, had grown up into a beautiful seven year-old girl. And even though the couple had faced some crisis in their almost ten-year marriage, they had overcome them for their daughter's sake. Until the last one. Danny didn't even remember how it started, but he remembered his guilt, his shame, when he saw Grace's scared face watching them being the door. And then, some days later, the soon-to-be ex-couple were talking to little Gracie about some future changes in the family. Danny loved her so much he held back the tears until he locked himself in the bathroom. He thought he was alone, but he was not: Grace had been hearing him on the other side of the door. That same night, he was forced to say goodbye to his daughter and spend the night in some crappy motel room. But he wasn't alone: Matty had called him that evening and he had been so scared to hear his brother so emotionally destroyed that he didn't want to leave him alone for the night and instead he spend it sitting on the most uncomfortable chair in the world just to make sure his brother was going to be okay. He didn't call their parents; he just grabbed some beers and headed to Danny's motel room after work. A few hours and beers later, Danny didn't even care anymore and opened up to his brother. That was the fourth time Danny wasn't ashamed to be seen crying in public. Fortunately, he had his baby brother with him.
Some months later, Rachel's lawyer (not even Rachel) had called him. He was shocked whe he first heard of Mr and Mrs Edwards (when had that happened?!) but he was even more shocked when he heard they were moving to Hawaii. First, they divorced and he was made to be apart from their, from his, daughter. But moving to Hawaii was just too much. He didn't cry though, but he got prepared to move too. He had already accepted their marriage couldn't work but he had a daughter and wanted to be her father, so he found no other choice. The beginnings were difficult, and the weather didn't help. But he had met Meka, his first friend there, and was gradually becoming used to living there. Then he met Super-Seal and his team, and they became their support there even though he didn't like McGarrett at first. They were the only reason he didn't cry when Meka died: despite having a bad time (in those six months they were partners, they had become really good friends), he knew he have the Five-0 team by his side.
With the years, they had gone trough a lot together. But more importantly, they had become a family, or ohana as Hawaiians said. That's why he had gone to Steve's house with Grace: for her, it was to go grab some candy with her dad as if it were Halloween, but for Danny was more than that. They could have gone to any other house just for that, as they imagined Steve had already eaten all the candy. For Danny, it was to just spend some time with friends outside work. He hadn't felt really bad when Catherine told them to stay and watch a movie together, and he had been amused when he saw Steve's pissed face. They were just going to enjoy a movie night together.
But that was what shocked him the most. It was just a random movie. Why was he crying? Catherine returned to the living room and offered Grace and him some tissues.
"Thanks".
"No problem" said Catherine while she took the bowl from Danny's hand and left it in the kitchen.
Danny got up from the couch and helped cleaning the room until he saw Grace's face. Then he took her to the bathroom and started cleaning her with water and soap. He did it sweet and tenderly, remembering baby Gracie's bath time many years ago. This ten year-old Grace had the same radiant smile even though she was almost an adult woman.
"Are you okay, Danno?"
"Why are you saying that, monkey? Of course I'm fine" he looked surprised but he smiled when he saw his daughter's concerned face.
"I'm sorry you had to watch that movie. I know you wouldn't like it"
"No, monkey, I did like it." Danny continued cleaning Grace's face as if they were talking about the weather.
"Then why were you crying? I never saw you crying with a movie before. Not even with Twilight" she remembered her father's face at the end of the movie, how disgusted he looked. She also remembered his face when she made him watch The Princess Diaries, and she also remembered the time they watched Titanic together. He had had different reactions for each movie, but she had never seen her father cry.
"That's because Twilight was so horrible that I forgot how to do it" father and daughter laughed at that comment. Danny took a moment to look at his daughter's beautiful brown eyes, those eyes which were just like Rachel's. "I'm fine, monkey. I just didn't imagine it would be such a nice movie"
"It's great, right?" she smiled. Danny had to spend the next ten minutes hearing his daughter talk about how awesome Ryan Gosling was, and he even had time to learn half of the guy's filmography until Grace's face was completely clean. Before leaving the bathroom the girl hugged her father and kissed him in the cheek. "Thanks, Danno".
When they went out of the bathroom, Grace helped Catherine in the kitchen whereas Danny decided it was time to wake up his Super-Seal friend, the roaring lion that was still sleeping on the couch.
"C'mon Sleeping Beauty, wake up. Don't make me kiss you"
Although Danny thought his threat was the responsible for making Steven open his eyes, it was really the giggles from the girls coming from the kitchen.
"What? Did I miss anything?" Steve asked with a confused expression on his face.
"Yeah, you did. The whole movie" answered Danny with amusement.
"So... It has already finished, right?"
"Right"
Steven threw his fist into the air triumphantly; he had successfully escaped from that horrible two-hour cinematic nightmare called The Notebook. He was going to get up from the couch when he noticed Danny's red eyes.
"Wait, hold on."
"What?"
"Did you cry? Really?"
"Oh, shut up, Steven"
Danny turned and showed his back to his partner before heading to the kitchen to help Catherine and Grace, but Steve was faster; the former Seal took him from the elbow and made him turn again.
"What?" Danny asked when Steve and he were face to face again.
"Are you okay? I know I told you the movie was horrible, but you could have just fallen asleep like me, you know"
Danny sighed and shook his head.
"I really enjoyed the movie, it's none of that" he met his partner's eyes and he knew Steve had already figured that and wanted him to keep talking. Danny made sure Grace was still in the kitchen and couldn't hear them before continuing. "It's just... When Rachel and I were together, even though I couldn't stop thinking in the day she was going to ask me for the divorce... Well, I guess we went through so much together that part of me thought it would be both of us against the world forever"
Before any of them could answer, a strong noise came from the kitchen. The boys didn't have time to ask the girls if they were okay when they heard Grace's voice.
"I'm sorry, Uncle Steve, I think I just broke your mom's dishes"
"Are you guys okay?" asked Steven with a worried expression on his face.
"Yeah, we're okay" he sighed with relief when he heard Cath's voice. "But we could definitely use a hand here"
"We're coming" said Danny
Steve and he were heading to the kitchen. Danny thought his friend had let go of their previous conversation when Steve broke the silence before joining the girls in the other room.
"You know what, Danno? I almost believe you for a moment"
"What?" He didn't understand anything but most of all, he hated Steven's stupid grin. It made him nervous when he looked as if he knew more than him.
"What you were saying before. About you crying."
"Oh, that" Danny rolled his eyes. "You just can't leave it be, can you?"
"I didn't know you were such a softie, my friend."
The guys entered the kitchen and met the girls' guilty eyes. But they didn't see their faces changing from guilt to curiosity when they saw Steve's and Danny's expressions. It seemed Danny wasn't going to answer him and instead started cleaning the mess, when he turned to his daughter.
"Hey monkey, what was that movie you wanted to watch? The one with the shinny vampires?"
"Breaking Dawn? They are two movies, Danno"
"Two? Why do they...? Never mind." he waved his hand. "Have you already watched them? No?" he asked when Grace shook her head. "Then why don't you take your Uncle Steve to watch them with you?"
Grace opened her eyes and look at both Danny and Steve. The first looked as if he was remembering the best joke he was ever told, whereas the seconds looked as if he had just mistakenly opened Pandora's Box and didn't know how to close it.
"Is that okay, Uncle Steve? Do you want to watch them with me?"
Danny and Catherine looked at Grace and then Steven, far more entertained than with a tennis match.
"Of course, Gracie. I wouldn't miss them for anything!" the look he gave Danny, though, said there was going to be lots of paperwork waiting on his desk for a very long time.
When Steve was distracted by Grace's monologue about how awesome the Twilight saga was, Danny turned to Catherine.
"I didn't know your boyfriend was such a softie".
So what do you think? Did you like it? I hope I didn't make Danny too out-of-character; when the idea for this chapter came into my mind, I remembered him crying while watching Enemy Mine just because it reminded him of his experience as a father. So I thought a movie such as The Notebook would remind him of his unsuccessful marriage and he would be, as Spock would say, emotionally compromised.
Anyways, thanks to those who also followed and/or favorited this story, and please don't forget to review!
