I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or any characters. No copyright infringement intended.
Notes: oh dear ... what does Danny think?
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Birthday Wishes - chapter three
"He called in sick?" Danny said. He and Kono were sitting in his office. Three birthday cards were perfectly lined up near his desk phone. One from a group down in HPD, one signed from his team, and of course, one from Grace. But he was confused by Kono's relayed message and his fingers were drumming an impatient tattoo as he stared at her in disbelief.
"He called in sick?" His tone was thick with a heavy dose of sarcasm as he leaned forward to be sure he'd heard correctly. "Steve … our Steve … super SEAL McGarrett, himself … called in sick? This is a joke, right?"
"It's not a joke, Danny," Kono replied calmly, though her peeved expression communicated her own level of annoyance. Where Danny was utterly perplexed though, she was downright mad. "He's leaving me to handle this issue with HPD by myself this morning. How do you think I feel about it?"
"I'm sorry. But Steve McGarrett called in sick?" Danny barely heard Kono as he repeated what she'd said for the umpteenth time. His eyes narrowed suspiciously as he stared at her dark, bowed head so intently that she finally felt his gaze and looked up.
"What?" She asked, her lips pursed whitely in kind, eyes narrowing back at him just as severely. "I have to review these files and then get over to Duke's office. So what's the problem?"
"He's my partner. Why'd he call you?" Danny pointedly demanded. "If he was going to be out today, he should have called me. So my question stands ... why did he call you?"
"What? Why does that matter?" Kono burst out defensively. She slammed the paper file closed, papers nearly falling out in her haste as she glared back at him. "Are you going to tell me that Steve can't call me once in a while? He knew you had Grace this weekend and had to drop her off at school this morning. Maybe .. he was being thoughtful, Danny. Maybe he even knew I'd be the first one in the office!"
Danny's loud snort sent the paper he'd been reading ruffling across his desk. His palm slapped it hard to forestall a fall to the floor as he leaned forward in askance. "Thoughtful? Are you serious?"
"Oh, and now Steve can't be thoughtful ... or not feel well?" Kono snarked back sharply. "The man is sick, Danny, cut him some slack!"
"That's right! He called in sick, Kono!" Danny exclaimed, the dark scowl saying just how thoroughly sarcastic he might become. "Steve called in sick ... on my birthday! How exactly is that being thoughtful! In fact, don't you think it's just a little bit odd?"
"Odd? Are you saying he planned to be out?" Kono almost growled her objection. There was no way on earth that Steve would be that low as to intentionally call in sick on Danny's birthday. Plus, there was absolutely no reason for it. "Are you really saying that Steve got sick on purpose; or worse yet, that he's not really sick at all because he wanted to avoid your birthday? That's the stupidest think you've ever said!"
"Well, that's the question isn't it?" Danny argued as he ignored her remark to lean back in his chair. "He's avoiding me ... on my birthday."
He couldn't remember a time when Steve had been actually sick; not even a head cold. Barely a sniffle. And if there ever had been the threat of something, he'd have downed over-the-counter meds and shaken the entire thing off in a heartbeat. In fact, Steve could get the snot beat out of him and still come to work the next day.
He could take a bullet, argue with a doctor, and still be in the office ... the very next day.
"Do you think he's really sick?" Danny asked in a somewhat offended tone. "Or ... faking?"
"Why would he fake being sick on your birthday? He definitely sounded under the weather to me," Kono replied with as much honesty as she could muster. "He sounded awful, Danny. His voice was all raspy and he said that he was up all night. He said that he was going to try to go back to sleep. He promised that he'd call us ... he asked that we don't call him unless it's critically important. So yes, it's probably safe to say that Steve is actually, truly and really sick! I'd bet that he forgot it was your birthday and he's going to feel really bad about it when he remembers!"
"Uh huh," Danny dead-panned before dramatically rolling his eyes toward the ceiling. "When he remembers? Nice."
"We can still go out for lunch together, Danny," Kono offered, her patience barely in control by that point. "The three of us can go - me, you and Chin - and then we'll go again when Steve's feeling better. It'll be like a double celebration. Get over it, brah!"
"Sure," Danny said, only slightly mollified by her continued stance and the way she dared him to continue down his current path of argument. With a pensive shake of his head, he quieted down and tried to shrug it off. The team could hold down the fort for the day and Kono was right, they could easily find another time to celebrate his birthday. But now, his birthday wasn't really the point.
Steve McGarrett, himself, had voluntarily taken a sick day.
"Hell hath frozen over," Danny muttered under his breath. "Or, maybe he shot his foot off cleaning his gun."
"Danny," Kono sighed in frustration. She'd heard him and was shaking her head in disgust as she got up, roughly pushing the chair back before leaving his office. In the doorway, she glared at him again before offering her parting remarks. "Why are boys are so stupid sometimes?"
"I heard that!" Danny griped.
"You were supposed to!" Kono growled back, only stopping when Danny gestured wildly from where he remained seated.
"But I'm telling you right now, Kono. If he doesn't call after lunch, he's getting a personal visit!"
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Steve closed his eyes after ending his connection with Kono. He was tired and had a headache to boot, so it wasn't too difficult to play possum. She'd also been genuinely concerned about the gravelly nature of his voice during their short call. However, he could only imagine what Danny would say when he learned that he'd called in sick for the day. He didn't envy Kono for the rant which Danny would likely lob her way.
Steve groaned as he rubbed his burning eyes. He'd actually called in sick ... on Danny's birthday.
"He's going to kill me," Steve muttered. The very day the entire team was supposed to take the birthday boy out to lunch and Steve had the gall to call in sick.
The excuse wasn't going to fly and he could just imagine the astounded look on Danny's face. He could literally hear the rant in his own head. In fact, Steve had just created an epic fail for himself if the damnable Funfetti Cake Batter Cookie Dough Brownie Layer Cake wasn't absolutely, utterly a fine work of tasty art.
Sometime during the wee hours of the morning and needing a break from his gourmet undertaking, Steve had begun to nod off standing up. He'd then taken a calculated risk by actually going to bed. He'd only woken a few minutes earlier, foggy-brained and still very tired. However, he only had a few more steps to follow in the process to complete Danny's birthday cake and taking that well-deserved mental break seemed like the best option to avoid the potential of any last minute mistakes.
But making that executive decision had left him only one option to ensure having enough time to put the finishing touches on the cake ... and that was to call in sick to work.
"Okay," he muttered under his breath as he stalked back into the kitchen. "I got this."
The truly most difficult parts had been conquered. His brownie cakes had been perfectly baked from scratch. With a few false starts, the cookie dough filling had eventually followed suit with barely enough of the remaining whole white chocolate chips to satisfy the recipe. Topping it off, he'd finally melted down and then assembled the ingredients for a tasty chocolate ganache which had reached its exact consistency. So hours later and by some divine miracle, his cake was assembled and in the fridge.
It looked - good. His birthday cake looked even damned better than just plain good and he was proud of having gotten so far. But it wasn't done; not quite yet finished for its final homemade frosting which required another go at the microwave using a few persnickety ingredients.
"Chocolate frosting and the final bit of decorating. I can do this ... I can." Steve heaved in a deep breath as he opened his iPad to the recipe. The frosting shouldn't be too difficult, but this was the most important step. Not only did it have to taste good, it had to look even better. And the concept of piping the chocolatey confection in pretty swirls across the top of his masterpiece was a daunting concept.
"Okay, okay, okay," he muttered as he started to pull the remaining ingredients together. "Here we go. Step one is simple ... first ... don't get ahead of step one, McGarrett. Just focus on making the damned thing the right way."
Butter, shortening, powdered sugar, cocoa and milk were soon displayed across the kitchen counter in order of need and Steve inhaled another deep breath as he got down to business.
~ to be continued ~