"Danno!" Grace cried, rushing to the window. "You killed him!"
Concerned himself, Danny looked out the window, expecting to see blue blood drenching the grass. Instead he watched as a woman, arms raised, slowly use her magic to lower the prince to safety. His heart slowing, he said, "See, Monkey? Princes don't die from something as plebian as falling out of a window."
"That wasn't very nice," Grace said.
"You're right. I shouldn't have shoved the crazy prince out of the window. But he should've followed what?"
"Directions," Grace said with a sigh.
"That's right. You don't follow directions, you run the risk of getting pushed out a window – 'you' meaning royalty like that prince or your grandfather. Not you, my princess. Someone shove you out a window, you let me know."
"But you couldn't do anything about it." Grace's matter-of-fact tone nearly broke his heart.
"I would find a way," he told her. "Believe it. Now." He gave his hair a flick. "Ready to finish the story?"
Grace gave a worried glance out of the window. "But what about the killing dragon?"
"That prince is obviously confused. He thought I was a woman."
She tilted her head thoughtfully at him. "It's because of your long hair."
"Well, somebody who will not be named keeps forgetting to bring scissors with her."
"I pack 'em, Danno. They just aren't in the bag when I get here."
"Of course they aren't," Danny muttered, "because that would be helpful. To me." He sighed. "How about we just have a picnic, and you can show me all the junk food you managed to smuggle out of the castle. We can finish up the story tomorrow."
Grace looked guilty. "Danno. About tomorrow."
H5-0 H5-0 H5-0
The prince was pretty disgusted with himself for allowing someone to push him out of a window, but he'd been surprised. Hand-to-hand combat and true battles notwithstanding, no one, not even the king and queen, touched him. Well, every so often when he kept company with a lady or a gentleman… but even that hadn't happened lately. So part of the reason he hadn't grabbed that man's wrists and broken both of his arms was just surprise. And part of it was that he truly believed he needed the man's help to defeat the dragon.
It had only taken the prince a couple of seconds to know that somehow this man would have a lasting impact on his life. One touch, that first push, confirmed it. That second push, the embarrassing one that got him knocked out of the window, was unexpected, but he'd gotten distracted by the look in Danno's eyes, the one underneath the anger that said Danno was experiencing that same feeling of destiny.
Fortunately, Kono'd managed to keep him alive by slowing his descent, and he was standing by the time he reached the ground.
"Boss, you okay?" Kono asked.
His mind whirling with everything he'd just learned, he forced himself to stop and grasp her shoulder. "Thanks entirely to you. Good work." They swapped smiles, and he moved to his horse.
"What's the plan?" Chin asked as he, Kono, and JennaKaye followed him.
"Did the damsel push you out the window?" JennaKaye asked.
The prince stopped, hands on his horse and stared at JennaKaye until she looked away before pulling off the saddle. "We're going to stay here for the night." He saw Kono open her mouth and added, "I'll fill you in once we get settled."
It didn't take them long to make camp, especially since it seemed that Kono, Chin, and JennaKaye really wanted to know what'd happened.
The prince waited until they had all gotten seated and JennaKaye had dinner started over the fire before he started recounting the story. He could tell from Chin's sidelong looks and Kono's glares that they thought he was enjoying making them wait. And he was. However, he was also using the time to get some things straight in his mind, to grab clues from the things said and things left unsaid. He'd found that self-review before brainstorming with Chin made their conversations even more productive, because he came up with the obvious stuff, and Chin always seemed to be able to delve deeper into the meanings behind things.
He started the story with his straddling the windowsill, confused when his 'damsel' turned out to be a short, well-built man.
"But the hair…" JennaKaye said, surprised. "I mean, it looked, well, really long."
"It was loose, down to his ankles," the prince agreed. "He was talking in this high-pitched voice, but I think he was acting something out with his daughter."
"The sweet little girl who went inside?" Kono asked.
The prince nodded. "Her name is Grace, but he also calls her Gracie and Monkey."
"So what happened?"
Aware that he was fidgeting slightly, he tried to gloss over his initial reaction. "I was…surprised, since I was expecting a woman, so my introduction was less than stellar."
"Explain less than stellar," Chin requested, his eyes intent.
The prince knew each of his words would be measured as carefully as he had done with himself earlier. "It took me some time to realize that there was no damsel."
"That is disappointing," Kono said.
"What are the odds that we could find another damsel in distress in another tower?" JennaKaye asked, stirring the large iron pot on the fire.
"He may not be a damsel, but I'm not convinced that he doesn't need my help – our help," the prince said.
"And we are where we're supposed to be," Kono said. She looked at the prince. "I confirmed it while you were up there."
"What makes you think he needs help – or deserves it?" Chin asked.
"It was the things he said when he wasn't trying to shoo me." The prince almost laughed at the memory of the blond waving his hands around. "The guy talks constantly, with his hands moving everywhere." He looked up and found them all staring at him. "What?"
They all suddenly found the fire extremely interesting, although he could have sworn he saw Kono swing an amused glance at Chin, and the corner of Chin's lip seemed to twitch. "What!?"
"Nothing," Chin said. "What things did he say?"
"Right," the prince said, returning to his thoughts. He scratched absently at his temple. "He has no idea how or why that window appeared, and he doesn't seem overly fond of magic. But then again, he doesn't seem overly fond of anything other than his daughter. He spent half the time calling me, 'Magic Man' in this disdainful tone of voice and 'Crazy Stranger' the other half." He shook his head, chuckling.
"You didn't introduce yourself?" Chin asked, shocked.
The prince only then realized his breach of etiquette. Manners had been the first thing he'd been taught, long before brushing his teeth and going to the bathroom. He'd lived it for so long that it wasn't second nature; it was first, right up there with breathing. "I did introduce myself… eventually," he said weakly, noting Chin's lifted eyebrow. "Anyway, he doesn't seem to spend much time with Grace – being with her was of the utmost importance. Concern for her and their time together colored everything he said and did." He thought a second. "At one point, he mentioned getting stuck in there."
"What else?" Chin asked.
"He said 'intel' like it was natural. That and the way he held himself makes me think he has had something to do with… the military or some town constabulary."
"I wonder how long he's been in there." JennaKaye mused.
"I think it's been a long time," the prince said. "After I'd introduced myself, he got really upset – royalty has done him wrong."
"Wrong like killed his family or -"
"Wrong like stuck him in a tower for years," The prince finished for Kono. "But he looked to Grace to confirm that I wasn't his prince."
"What do you mean, not his prince?" JennaKaye asked.
"The tower must be on Jersey," the prince said, shrugging.
Chin rose. "What are we still doing here? This could cause an incident!" He looked at Kono. "How did you not know this?"
"The border in this area is…fluid," she said, shrugging. "Besides, you think they would fight you and risk having it known that they've kept someone against his will in a tower for a really long time?" Her tone was unconcerned.
"He could've done something bad and is being punished for it," JennaKaye suggested.
"Royalty parades its miscreants through the streets as a warning to others. They don't hide them away in an invisible tower on the edge of their land."
Kono had a point, but the prince'd known that Danno wouldn't harm him from the moment the man had warned him away from his daughter. He ignored Chin's voice in his head reminding him of the push out the window. That didn't really count. "He told me to shoo." The prince still found that funny.
Kono cleared her voice as JennaKaye served a bowl of rabbit stew to the prince. "So what do we know?"
"He has a daughter who doesn't seem to live with him," JennaKaye said.
"He's been banished in the tower for some time," Chin added.
"Probably long enough for his hair to grow down to his ankles." JennaKaye added. "I bet that it's heavy. Do you think it gives him headaches?"
"We didn't get that far," the prince said after a pause. "He has a thing against royalty. Oh. And he doesn't know anything about a key to slaying a dragon."
Chin blinked at him. "That's the whole point of our being here."
"Yes, but now that we're here, we can't leave without helping him."
"And we're where we're supposed to be," Kono repeated.
The prince pointed his spoon at her. "We're where we're supposed to be."
"I just meant that it was interesting that the key was the last thing you mentioned," Chin said way too innocently.
H5-0 H5-0 H5-0
The next morning, Danny watched his daughter slowly wake and stretch, her entire body going stiff before relaxing again. She turned her head and smiled when she saw him watching her. He was thankful that she didn't think it was weird; but then again, he had been doing it all her life. First, he couldn't believe he had helped create something so precious and fragile. Then the worry set in – was she still breathing? Was that a cough? He didn't have any medicine or any way of getting help if she choked on something or maybe cut herself, and he had worried about that. The worry was still there now that she was older, but the specific causes for concern had changed. What if thieves set upon her on her way to or from the tower? What if her horse got spooked and threw her?
And he still watched her at night to make sure she was still breathing.
He wondered if he'd be so focused on her if he had the worries of life to handle as well, keeping a roof over his head, working to provide for his family. What little he could recall of the men he used to work with, the ones with families, was that they'd spent a lot of time complaining. Their wives nagged, their children were ungrateful, their dogs lazy. Would he have become like them if he hadn't gotten cursed?
"Morning, Danno," Grace said around a huge yawn.
"Good morning, big mouth," he teased, smiling at her "oops" before she used her hands. "Go brush your teeth and wash your face so you can eat before you leave." He turned away from her and started pulling out bowls so she wouldn't see his face. She'd broken the news to him the day before that she could only spend the night, because the castle was having some sort of ball, and she needed to be there.
It was like the room had just disappeared, sucked right out of the window and into the darkness.
He'd wanted to scream, to hit somebody, to throw things, but he didn't want his daughter to see That Guy. He didn't want her to think of her Danno and picture someone angry and hurtful and destructive. As it was, she'd watched him push a prince right out of a window just a little while earlier. So he'd swallowed down the emotion and pulled her in for a tight hug, feeling her exhalation of relief right before she hugged him back just as tightly.
"We're just going to have to have the best indoor picnic ever to make up for it," he'd said, the act of forcing levity into his voice, one of the more difficult things he had done.
So he sat them down on a blanket and did his best to exclaim over the sugary treats she'd smuggled out to him, letting her throw raisins in the air so he could try to catch them in his mouth. He made her laugh, and by the time she'd taken her shower and snuggled into bed, she'd looked like the carefree child she deserved to be.
He felt her return to the room and brought out cereal and fruit, handing her some of it so he could carry her glass of milk to the table.
She no longer asked him why he didn't eat breakfast. His, "I'm not hungry" really meant "I can't eat, because you're leaving me", but he hoped she didn't know it. The last thing he wanted was for her to feel guilty about him, because no matter the disappointments and the worry, he wouldn't change having her in his life. The truth of it was that she was the reason he tried every day, the reason he rose and showered, ate and read, exercised and dressed. If not for her, he would've gone crazy long ago and sought out the escape.
So that was what he focused on, his Monkey sitting across from him eating breakfast and telling him what her tutors had been teaching her. He gave her a few facts she could use to knock them off their guard a bit – she enjoyed surprising her elders with unexpected knowledge from her dad, and she promised to tell him how they reacted on her next visit.
They gathered her things, their conversation drying up, Danny still trying to be positive for her sake, as he always did.
"There's this boy who uses the weapons room," Grace said as they started down the stairs.
Danny tried not to tense. He knew she would see it in his back. He'd known she would eventually start talking about boys, but she was only ten years old! "Yeah?" He said, impressed that he didn't sound as wound up as he felt.
"He's training for the army. They're teaching him how to take care of the weapons."
"What's his name?"
"Marcus."
"So, what about this Marcus?"
"He seems nice, maybe."
Then a thought occurred to him. He stopped and turned around, catching her as she almost bumped into him. "I don't really hear you talk about your friends anymore. You do have friends, right?"
She shrugged half-heartedly, her eyes lowered.
"Does…" his mind searched for the name. "Maggie still work there? She used to bring your mom her food and… stuff?"
"Mommy's maid?"
"Yes. Tell her that I said you need some friends your age, little girls you can play with. Okay?"
She nodded. "Okay."
He couldn't stop himself from kissing her on the forehead. "Good girl." He hoped Maggie still had the opinionated, independent spirit from years ago during the short time he had known her.
"Let me know how it goes, okay?"
She nodded.
They finished descending the stairs, and he gave her a huge hug as the door formed. "I love you. Listen to your mom, and fo -"
"-Follow directions," she said, giving him an impish grin. "Or you'll push me out the window."
"Not funny, Monkey!" He grinned back at her as she waved and walked through the door, which closed behind her and disappeared.
Walking back up the stairs took twice as long, and Danny wasn't surprised but was disheartened to find that the window had disappeared as well. He collapsed on the wooden bench and leaned forward, elbows on his knees, hands behind his head. Forget about waiting for Grace to arrive. This – this was the worse time of all, right after she left, and all he could hear was the thump of his own heartbeat.
"What happened to all of the nice furniture?"