Hey, sorry with the delay again with this chapter - I had writer's block, and I couldn't figure out how to start it. But it's here now. Thanks to angelofjoy and skyflower51 for reading and giving me some advice and feedback, and thanks for all the reviews I've been getting. Glad to know you're all enjoying the story so much. Anyways, enjoy :D
Saturday rolled around quickly and the day passed just as fast. Soon enough, Danny and Grace were standing outside Bethany and Jodie's hotel room again, waiting for the door to open. Bethany pulled it open and stuck her head out, smiling at the two of them.
"Hey, you two," she greeted them as she pulled the door back for them to come in.
"Hey. You guys ready to go?" Danny asked as they walked in.
"Yeah. Jodie, turn off the TV; we're going now," Bethany said over her shoulder. Jodie turned off the TV, stood up and grabbed her i-Pod and followed the others out of the room and down to the car park. They quickly got in and Danny drove away from the hotel and headed towards Steve's house.
Danny glanced at Bethany out of the corner of his eye; he thought she looked worse since the last time he saw her. He looked in the rear-view mirror and saw that Jodie had her i-Pod headphones in, while Grace was staring out the window. As if she felt his gaze, Grace looked away from the window and smiled at him.
Danny smiled back and pulled his phone out of his pocket. "Grace, why don't you call Uncle Steve and tell him we're on our way? Tell him to get the grill going," he suggested, handing the phone to her.
"Okay, Danno," she nodded, taking the phone from him and dialling Steve's number.
Once he was happy that she was occupied with that, Danny looked back at Bethany again. "How're you feeling today?"
Bethany shrugged. "I've been worse, I guess. I feel sick most of the time, but it's not as bad as when I was on chemo. But I actually can't eat very much without feeling like I'm going to throw up."
Danny looked at her sympathetically, and sighed when she finished. "I wish you didn't have to go through this," he murmured.
"Yeah, but it's life, isn't it? Life's not always fair."
Danny nodded, looking back out the windscreen again. "Life sucks sometimes."
Grace leaned forwards in her seat just then, and passed Danny's phone back to him. "Uncle Steve says the grill is on now, and he said to hurry up before he eats your steak," she said with a chuckle.
"Well, if he does, I'll just eat his. Tit for tat," Danny replied, making Bethany and Grace chuckle again.
Shortly after, the Camaro pulled up outside Steve's house, and the four of them walked inside.
"Hey guys," Danny called. "You out back?"
"Yep," came the reply. "Come on through."
They walked through the house and out onto the beach, and found Steve, Chin and Kono sitting around a small bonfire. Steve had the grill going next to him.
"Hey, guys."
"Hey," Danny returned the greeting.
Steve leaned forwards and looked at Jodie and Bethany. "Evening, ladies."
Bethany moved around Danny and approached the team. "Hi, I'm Bethany," she introduced herself. "This is my daughter, Jodie."
"Hi." Jodie gave them all a little wave.
"Hey Jodie, I'm Steve, and these are Chin and Kono," Steve introduced them all.
"Hey Jodie! Come sit next to me," Kono said. Jodie sat next to the Hawaiian woman and tucked her legs underneath her.
"Kitty cat," Steve murmured.
Jodie frowned at him. "What?"
Steve gestured to how she was sitting. "You're curled up in your seat. Just like a cat."
Danny and Bethany sat down next to Steve. "Just like her mother," Danny said and looked at Bethany. "You used to curl up on your seat like that in high school, didn't you?"
Bethany chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, do you remember Frau Schmidt? She said it always amused her how I'd curl up on my chair, and she'd miss teaching me, 'cos no-one sits like I do."
"Ja, ich errinere mich daran. Und auch, wie du mich die Texte durch ganze Unterrichsstunde schicken würde," Danny replied in flawless German.
"Mir war langweilige," Bethany retorted in German as well.
"Hey, no speaking in a language we don't understand!" Steve scolded, glaring at the two of them.
"What? You mean you, Steve McGarrett, Super SEAL extraordinaire, don't know German?" Danny asked in mock disbelief.
"I know Korean and Japanese," Steve countered.
"Yeah, but I know French as well, and French has been voted as the sexiest language in the world, so…" Danny stuck his tongue out at Steve.
Chin rolled his eyes and leaned forwards to see Jodie around Kono. "Don't be fooled by appearances. Danny and Steve may look like grown men, but they're really just kids," he whispered and winked at her. Jodie and Grace giggled.
"I heard that!" Danny and Steve both growled at Chin.
"Well, it's true," Chin shrugged.
Danny rolled his eyes and held his plate out to Steve. "Steak me."
Steve lifted the meat off the grill and put it on his plate. "What do you want, ladies?"
"I'll go for a steak as well, I think," Bethany answered, holding her plate out as well.
"Can I have a burger, please?" Jodie asked.
"'Course you can. Bun or no bun?"
"No bun, please." Steve placed the burger on the plate and handed it to Jodie, and did one for Grace as well, knowing what she liked.
"So how do you like Hawaii so far, Jodie?" Chin asked around a mouthful of steak.
"It's nice, I guess," Jodie shrugged. "Mom and I haven't really been here that long, so we haven't seen much or gone anywhere yet."
"Have you been to the beach yet?" Kono asked.
"Not yet."
"Okay, we are changing that tomorrow, then," she decided. "Tomorrow, we are going to spend the day at the beach. Have you ever been surfing before?"
"No. I want to try it, though."
"All right then, I'll start teaching you how to surf. Gracie, you and Danno want to come?"
Grace bobbed her head up and down. "Yeah! We haven't been surfing in ages! Can we, Danno, please?"
"Sure we can, Monkey," Danny agreed, smiling at his daughter.
"Okay then, I guess it's a plan," Jodie said, smiling slightly.
"Great!" Kono exclaimed happily. "You're going to love surfing, Jodie; it's so much fun!"
"It really is," Grace added. "And Auntie Kono's a great teacher."
"Well, just a head's up, you're either going to be teaching me for the rest of your life, or give up on me within a few weeks. I have such terrible balance, so I probably won't last long on the board before I end up in the water."
"Well, like Grace said, Kono's an excellent teacher," Chin interjected. "She'll have you surfing like a pro in no time."
"Well, we'll see how it goes," Jodie said, taking a bite out of her burger.
The rest of the evening passed quickly in the same fashion, with everyone getting to know Jodie and Bethany better. As well as arranging to go surfing tomorrow, Kono also managed to set up a day where she, Grace and Jodie were going to go shopping together, and somehow Steve also managed to convince Jodie to attend a Japanese martial arts class, much to Danny's annoyance. The two of them were currently engaged in a heated debate about it.
"No! They are not learning judo, karate, krav maga or whatever else! I am not going to let you turn them into you!" Danny ranted, waving his arms around and glaring at Steve.
"Why not? It's self-defence; they can learn how to defend themselves and it'll be fun as well," Steve argued.
"What's so fun about beating on people and giving them a new black eye or broken rib every week?" Danny retorted. "I mean, I'm all for self-defence – I don't want anyone to touch those girls – but seriously, what could they possibly get up to that requires them to rip a man's balls off?!"
"Well, when they start dating, and they-"
"No, no, no, no, no!" Danny interrupted, holding his hands up to stop Steve. "Don't even go there. Do not go there. Neither of you are dating until you're thirty," he added, pointing at Grace and Jodie.
Bethany looked at him incredulously. "Danny, don't you think you're overreacting a little?"
Danny looked at her evenly and answered, "No, I don't. I'm happy for them to learn a little self-defence, on the off chance that they do run into trouble, but I don't see why they have to learn how to kill a man with a single blow like this nutjob does!" He jerked his thumb at Steve.
The others were watching the argument with great amusement, and had been giggling away at Danny's words. Kono came up with an idea that she hoped would satisfy Danny.
"What if I teach them a few things?" she suggested. "Not too much, so they don't 'turn into Steve'," she said, using Danny's words from before. "But enough that they know how to get away from someone, should they run into trouble? And once they're older, then they can decide whether they want to carry on with it or not. How does that sound?"
Danny thought about it for a moment before looking at Grace and Jodie. "Do you girls want to do that?" They both nodded with a smile, so Danny nodded at Kono. "Okay, then; you can teach them some basic self-defence. Just how to get away from creeps." Kono nodded and crossed her heart.
Chin chuckled. "Ah, the rantings of an overprotective father." Everyone burst out laughing at that.
"If you think he's overprotective now, wait until Grace is a teenager," Bethany said, smirking at the blond detective. "Jodie's only one year in, and I've already had to deal with tantrums." Danny groaned and leaned his head back.
"Don't worry, Danny; you've got us to help with the teenage years," Steve reassured him, smiling at him.
"Oh, goodie," Danny snarked. "By the way, you're not helping pick out the colour scheme for Jodie's bedroom."
"Why not?" Steve demanded indignantly.
"'Cos knowing you, you'll just turn it into some weird shrine to the Army."
"Navy," the rest of Five-0 corrected immediately.
"Eh, same thing." Danny waved his hands dismissively and went back to eating his steak.
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