Because You're Always Right (Part Nine: Rockette Training)
Note: So…ah…we wouldn't be opposed if anyone wanted to start a petition to CBS to hire us, ha! Just kidding. (Mostly! :p) Ya'll are so generous with your reviews and we very greatly appreciate it! Saiko and I have decided, though, that Danny's knee needs to be better on the show. Everyone was deprived by Danny not getting to drive a motorbike. (...Hmm.) Anyhoo...Enjoy! :D
It was a slow, lazy afternoon and no new cases had come across the 5-0 desks for several days. It was astonishing, but they were almost out of paperwork to fill out as well. Steve had parked himself on the opposite side of Danny's desk, both men propped their feet on their respective sides. The fan swirled slowly above them, stirring the edges of the paperwork abandoned. Danny had his head tilted back and his eyes closed while Steve flipped through cold case files.
Movement in the hall caused him to look up and he grimaced at the sight that greeted him through the windows. He started humming the Darth Vader theme under his breath and Danny cracked one eye open.
"Keep it down, would you? You're making me nervous." he mumbled.
"You should be." Steve returned.
Bright blue eyes shifted to where Steve was watching and he frowned.
"What the hell?" he grumbled.
Rachel was waltzing in the front door, stiletto heels clicking against the hard flooring and she was walking almost too fast for the little girl - clutching tightly at her hand - to keep up without running.
As soon as Grace saw her father through the glass door, a grin spread across her face and she took off running towards him. Danny mirrored his daughter's smile. Danny stood and caught Grace as she launched herself into his arms.
"Hey, princess! What are you and mommy doing here? Why aren't you in your uniform?"
"We only had a half-day at school today." Grace said.
Rachel entered the office and stood with her arms crossed. She eyed them both warily. "McGarrett." she greeted flatly.
"Rachel." Steve said begrudgingly.
She turned her cool gaze on Danny. "Stan and I have a charity function. We'll be late so I need to leave her with you overnight."
"You could have called and let me know." Danny said through a fake smile.
Rachel shrugged. "You're always complaining that you don't get to see her enough. This is me letting you see her."
Danny bit his tongue. There was a child in the room. "Awe, thanks, Rach," he answered instead, voice still dripping with sarcasm.
"Don't call me that, Danny."
"Oh, there's so much more I could call you, Rachel," he responded with a shrug.
Her face flushed with anger. She bent down, kissed her daughter goodbye, and then spun around and left without another word to her ex. Danny resisted the urge to flip her off as she tapped her way out.
Grace slid out of Danny's arms as he grumbled and made kicking motions in Rachel's general direction. When she was no longer in sight, he turned to find Grace seated in Steve's lap. She looked up at the dark haired man.
"Is Dad thinking rude things?" she asked in a stage whisper.
Steve tried very hard not to smile as he glanced at Danny quickly.
He nodded solemnly. "Yes."
"Hey! Don't say that to her! She doesn't need to know what I'm thinking." Danny protested.
Steve shrugged before smiling at Grace. "I think you'll make a very fine detective." he said.
"Thanks!" she said brightly.
Danny looked like he might burst. "I just...what does she think we do, exactly?" he demanded.
He waved at Steve and Steve obligingly covered Grace's ears with his hands. She rolled her eyes.
"You can't just leave an eight year old at a police station with a task force! It's dangerous! What if we get a case? What am I going to do?" Danny asked.
"You could ask your boss for the rest of the day off." Steve suggested dryly.
Grace grabbed Steve's hands and pulled them away from her ears. "Can we go ice skating, Danno?" she asked excitedly. "They opened the rink at the mall!"
"Monkey, I..." Any excuse that he might have had melted when blue eyes met large brown ones and they blinked up at him, pleading. "Yeah. Sure, Gracie," he said instead, all initial resolve against the idea melting into a muddle and evaporating so there was no trace.
"Can Uncle Steve come with us?"
She then turned the look on Steve.
"Oh, Gracie I'd love to but..." Steve desperately looked away and to his partner for help, only to find the identical look on Danny's face. "You're kidding me, right? She gets this from you? And you get mad when I teach her stuff."
Danny's expression turned into a slow grin. "The look is helpful. You teach her how to duck and roll like some sort of ninja and she doesn't need to be getting any big ideas about playground justice or whatever."
Steve risked another look at the little girl and lost the fight. He sighed. "Fine. I'll watch."
Grace cheered and bounded towards the door.
"You'll end up on the rink," Danny swore.
"Absolutely not."
Grace's school had been one of the few to let early that day for a teacher in-service and the rink was shining and sleek with only a few people skating happily around it. The cold air hit them when they approached it and Grace immediately ran up to the desk and told them she needed three pairs - holding up three fingers for emphasis - of skates. One for her, one for her Daddy, and the third for Uncle Steve. The lady behind the desk gave the two men a smile and Danny really wasn't sure what it meant.
Steve frowned as she handed over the skates but couldn't bring himself to tell her to take his pair back. He hadn't been ice skating since he and Mary were kids. The clerk grinned at them again and he shook his head.
"We work together. Colleagues." He said as Grace began dragging Danny away to the seats to lace up their boots.
"Sure, hon. Whatever." She turned to the next customer and Steve shook his head again.
Grace proved to be much more adept at the thin laces and had hers on in no time. She sighed as she waited for her two grown ups to move faster. "Come on, you guys!"
"You think this is a good idea just getting over a bummed knee?" Steve asked as if the thought just struck him.
"You gonna go skating with her yourself?"
"No."
"Thought not." Danny finished lacing the skates up. "I have a brace on. It should be fine."
Steve snorted to say that he didn't believe him and tried to stand, finding himself seated again almost immediately, his balance completely off on the thin skates.
"Come on!" Grace called again, motioning for them to hurry up.
Danny held out a hand.
Steve looked at him. "What?"
"You can't sit there all day. I'll help you to the edge of the rink."
"I am not holding your hand to get to the rink."
Danny rolled his eyes. "You just can't accept help from anybody, can you?"
"I don't need help! If I needed help I would ask for it."
"You would gnaw your own arm off to get it out of a bear trap before you asked for help."
Steve paused. "That's disgusting."
"Are you going to move or not?" Danny demanded.
Steve slowly got to his feet and took a few awkward steps forward. Danny chuckled at the sight.
"Really? Because, you know, I've got a bummed knee and I'm moving better than you."
"Shut up."
The blond grinned widely.
"You two are slow. I already made three laps," Gracie said as she stomped her way up to them.
Her father gave her a knowing look. "Fibber. I only saw two. Right, Steve? Oh wait. You would have been too busy trying not to eat the floor to know."
"Two and a half. She doubled back." Steve grumbled, taking another couple of steps forward. He afforded Grace a quick wink and she grinned. She held out her hand.
"Here." She said expertly. "I'll help you."
Steve pointed at Danny and said, "Shut up," before taking the little girl's hand.
Danny watched his daughter walk slowly enough to allow for Steve's ungraceful movement, encouraging every step. His partner glanced every now and then at the upcoming rink and the ground, but mostly kept his eyes trained on the little girl, listening as though every word she said was the most important sound to ever hit his ears. He smiled softly. When they reached the entrance Grace looked back.
"Come on, Danno." she said exasperatedly.
"Yeah, come on, Danno." Steve echoed, grinning.
Danny grinned and shook his head, the sight far beyond what he would have expected when he'd first started working with Steve. He shuffled his way towards the ice, slow, but certainly more graceful than his partner. Eight years he'd been a father of a little girl that loved to ice skate. He'd had practice.
"Watch out for that first step," he started to call out as Grace and Steve made it over the lip and on top the ice, but the dark haired man turned and took a death grip on the side bar, eyes going wide as he struggled to stay upright. Danny nearly fell over laughing.
"Shut up, Danno!" Steve growled in response.
"Oh, I wish I had a camera," the other laughed as he stepped out.
Karma was feeling playful, and it had been a while since he'd taken Grace skating. The first step was slicker than even Danny remembered and with the brace encumbering his movement he pitched sideways, grabbing on to Steve to keep from hitting the ice and almost taking his partner down with him. Steve half turned to keep him upright, hanging onto the wall with his other arm for all he was worth. Eventually they righted themselves.
"This is why I wanted to watch." Steve grumbled.
Grace skated by them, laughing. Danny motioned to his daughter.
"And that is why you can't just watch. Grace! A little help here, ice monkey?" he called.
"You're funny!" she announced, her long hair swaying as she skated and laughed at the two officers.
Danny grinned and straightened, shaking his head as Grace skated away, more interested in the open rink than helping her father and Steve. Steve leaned against the railing, managing to swivel around so that he could at least watch from where he was at. Danny inched his way so that he was standing next to him, both latched tightly to the side bar behind them and eyes trained on the perfectly composed little girl skating as if she were a pro.
"You can do this." Steve said. "Go on."
Danny looked at him skeptically. "The whole brace thing might be more of a deterrent than I thought. Besides, I can't just leave you here clinging to the railing like a barnacle on a sinking ship."
"For that, I may let go and throttle you. Go." Steve insisted.
After giving him a long stare, Danny cautiously let go of the railing and after a half lap of hesitation, found a rhythm that worked for him. Grace joined him, thrilled that he had finally made it to actually skating. If he was going too slowly for her she never mentioned it, but grabbed onto his hand with her tiny one and swung it as they skated, grinning brightly.
After several laps Danny scooted back to his spot that he'd been in before, laughing as Steve stiffened.
"I'm not planning on knocking you over," the blond promised and his partner shot him a look that said he didn't entirely believe him.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, knee just isn't letting me go very far. She's fine, as long as we watch."
As if on queue Grace turned around and waved at them both. Danny's face lit up and he waved back.
"You know, you never told me what happened," Steve said slowly, never taking his eyes off of the little girl.
"What happened with what?"
"Between you and Grace's mom."
"Probably because it's none of your business," Danny replied flippantly.
After a moment of silence between them with Grace calling for them to watch her try to spin, her falling, laughing, and trying again, Danny sighed.
"We were college sweet-hearts, got married, and not long after Gracie was born I got hurt on a case." He shrugged, a distant and almost sad expression playing out on his expressive features. "It just kinda puttered and went downhill. Not entirely sure Stan didn't come into the picture around that time too, but that's just looking back at it."
Steve's heart twisted for his friend. If he knew one thing about Danny it was that he did nothing half-heartedly and knew he would have poured his entire heart and soul into loving Rachel, just like he poured his heart and soul into loving little Grace.
"I'm sorry." He said quietly.
Steve's voice seemed to bring his partner back to the present.
"What for? She's a total bitch."
Even as the words left his mouth there didn't seem to be the force that was usually there and he gave a somewhat sad smile until he saw his little girl go flying, having taken a turn too quickly. A heart beat of a moment passed by and as soon as the sound of a little girl crying filled the area Danny was skating as fast as he could to her side.
"Grace!" Danny called frantically. He slid to a stop and knelt on the ice beside her. "Hey, it's okay. Danno's here. Did you hit your head? Let me check your head." he said, tickling her ribs. She gave a small giggle through her tears. "Oops, not your head. What about this?" he squeezed her knee eliciting another giggle mixed with a hiccup. He finally ran his hands over her head checking for bumps and sighed with relief when he found none. "That mean patch of ice jumped out and startled you, huh?" he asked, kissing her forehead. She nodded, still sniffling for effect.
Steve had miraculously made it over to them in wobbles and starts. "Is she okay?" he demanded. He didn't realize he didn't know how to stop until it was too late, and Danny only had time to get half a warning out before Steve collided with him, sending them both to the ice.
Grace was rolling on the ice, laughing hysterically. She watched Steve and Danny grumble and shove at each other, trying to sort out what limb could go where without danger of a ice skate winding up in a bad place and waited until they were almost situated to tackle hug them both, sending them sprawling back to the ice again.
"This has been the best half day off ever!" she announced with a bright laugh.
"Better than where Mommy and Step-Stan take you?" Danny asked, not really being able to stop himself.
"Yeah! A million times better!"
Danny grinned, hugging his daughter to him. It was the best half day off ever.
No question about that.