Author's note: Danny tells Grace. Thank you to all who have been following and reviewing. I hope that you are enjoying the story.
"Grace, are you even listening to me?" Danny's voice was filled with annoyance. He leaned forward on the ottoman and flicked Grace's knee with his finger to get her attention. "Grace."
"Yeah, Danno," Grace replied through giggles, never taking her eyes off her phone. "I'm listening." She tapped the screen with her thumbs in fluid succession. She pulled her legs up onto the couch and folded them under her. The pillow cradled in her lap was now tucked under her arm as she continued her on-screen conversation.
"Really?" Danny asked in disbelief. He crossed his feet at the ankles, folded his arms across his chest, and blew out a frustrated breath. "Okay. What did I just say?"
Grace barely glanced up from the screen before shrugging her shoulders.
"Could you at least give me the courtesy of prying your nose out of your phone while I try and have a serious conversation with you? Please? Can you do that for me?" Danny knew he sounded agitated but he was beyond annoyed with his daughter's dismissal of their conversation before it even got started. "Who are you even talking to? I told you, I needed to talk with you about something important."
"I'm talking to Will." Grace blushed innocence. "He wants to know if I can go to a movie with him in an hour." She didn't even have to give Danny her puppy dog eye pout before he caved.
"Okay," he relented. "You give me your phone and your undivided attention for the next twenty minutes," Danny laid his palm out flat in Grace's direction, "And you can go to the movies with Will."
Grace's face lit up like a Christmas tree. She grinned wide and dropped her phone into her father's outstretched hand without any further resistance. "Thank you, Daddy."
Danny stared at the phone in his hand and chuckled. When had his daughter grown up? He handed it back to Grace and shrugged. "Maybe you should at least tell him I said you could go."
Grace sent a quick reply to Will and then powered off her phone before handing it to Danny. "You have my undivided attention, Danno."
"When did you grow into such a beautiful young lady?" Danny got up and moved from the ottoman to the couch beside Grace.
"Is something wrong?" Grace asked. Her giddiness was quickly replaced with worry.
Danny released the breath he didn't realize he had been holding. He had already told Rachel earlier in the day about his upcoming surgery and made her promise not to say anything to Grace but to let him tell her instead. The first surgery was hard on everyone. No one could have anticipated the turmoil Danny had experienced from Rachel and Stan for endangering his own life just to save Steve's. Rachel was torn between furious and proud. Furious that his own children may lose their father. Proud that he was willing to put his own life on the line for that of a friend. Now it had all come full circle and Danny's health was still in jeopardy.
"I uh – I," Danny stammered unable to say the words.
"What's wrong, Danno?" Grace's brown eyes pled with her father to tell her the truth.
"I have to have surgery again." Danny offered Grace a brave smile. His heart was beating wildly in his chest and he kept telling himself he wasn't going to cry in front of his daughter. "Apparently my liver isn't growing back the way that it should."
"But I thought that your check-ups were all okay?" Grace's voice held a nervous tremor.
Danny turned on the couch and placed reassuring hands on Grace's shoulders. She was beginning to tremble and Danny could see her brown eyes begin to glisten with unshed tears. "It's going to be okay. I promise."
"You promised last time you were going to be okay."
Danny brushed away the tears that were trickling down Grace's cheeks with his thumbs. "And I didn't break that promise. You hear me? I am fine. My doctor is just a little concerned about the way my liver is re-growing."
"Does Uncle Steve need surgery too?" Grace hugged the pillow in her lap as if it were her life line.
"No. Uncle Steve is fine. He's actually better than fine. You remember when Melissa and I were together and I was stabbed?" Grace nodded, the horrifying memory that she had worked so hard at burying, returned to the surface. "Well, apparently, there was scar tissue on my liver from that stab wound. When the doctor's took part of my liver and gave it to Uncle Steve to save his life, they made the cut near that scar. Because of that previous scarring, my liver isn't growing back the way it should."
"So what are they going to do?"
"Basically the same surgery as before when I gave Steve part of my liver. But this time, they will cut out the part with the old scar tissue so when my liver starts to regenerate, there won't be anything blocking it from growing this time."
"Are you scared?" Grace asked as she wrapped her arms around Danny's neck. Her hugs always seemed to be the Band-Aid that Danny needed when he was having a rough day.
Danny let out one of his nervous chuckles. He couldn't lie to his daughter. "I'm terrified, Monkey."