A/N: The New York chapters of this story will revisit the original story line of the assault that prompted Jax to leave NYPD and come looking for Danny (from A Little Piece of Jersey and Bits and Pieces of Jersey) . . . so, a bit of non-con warning (nothing too graphic) and language warning (they're back in Jersey, after all!) is in order, I think. This entire story really doesn't make sense unless you've read the first two, so if you're still reading (and if so, gosh, thanks! then you are not in for any big surprises; however, since this could be a triggering topic for some, I'd rather err on the side of caution.

#*#*#*#*#

They used Grover's SUV to drive to the airport, Gracie vibrating with excitement in the back seat. It was her first trip back to the Williams since life as she knew it had fallen apart. Rachel looked anxious until Danny's arm slipped behind Gracie and rested on her shoulder.

"Gracie and I want you to come with us," he said.

"But your family -"

"Will be happy, as long as Grace and I are happy."

"You've got the applications?" Steve asked Jax.

She thumped a laptop bag on the seat next to her. "All bazillion of them. I'm not even sure we'll get through them all on the flight."

"And you're good to go?" he asked, quietly.

"I am good to go," she replied firmly. "Although I'm going to have to borrow some cold weather gear from Danny's family."

Steve grinned. He was rather looking forward to seeing Jax in her element, and was already regretting sending her ahead with Danny. "I could get a flight out tonight," he said.

"We start with a lot of boring paperwork. You'll be bored to death before we get through the first round, and then snapping off the heads of the poor candidates," Danny sniped. "It's a couple days, Romeo, you'll survive."

"Uncle Steve, who's going to feed Pupule when you come to New York?" Gracie asked anxiously.

"Pupule will feed on the souls of the undead," Danny muttered.

"Kono is coming to stay at the house," Steve assured Gracie. "Pupule likes Kono."

Steve helped wrangle luggage and hugged everyone goodbye, even Rachel, who smiled up at him fondly. He kissed Jax and tucked her head under his chin. "You've got O'Connell picking you up at the airport?"

"Yep."

"Okay," Steve said, releasing her reluctantly. "Find us a new task force. Have fun."

He watched until they disappeared through security, his heart feeling strangely fuzzy when Gracie reached out and took Jax's hand and didn't let go.

#*#*#*#*#

"Boss, it's entirely too quiet," Kono complained. "I miss Danny and Jax."

"I know," Steve nodded. "By the way, do you have any idea how to fill these out?" He waved a stack of requisition forms at Kono.

She shrugged. "Nope. I write what I need on a Post-It and stick it on Danny's desk and hope for the best. Grover might know."

Steve sighed and carried the forms into Grover's office.

"McGarrett, what can I do for you?" Grover asked, smiling. "Just caught up on all of Jax's paperwork. The girl is fearless and capable, but she can not type to save her life."

"Requisition forms," Steve said, holding them out somewhat distastefully. "Danny usually does them."

"Gotcha covered," Grover said, taking the forms. "You get everyone off safely this morning?"

"Yeah," Steve said. He remembered that he still had Grover's keys, and fished them out of one of his many pockets. "Thanks for letting us use the SUV."

"No problem. So, Danny convinced Rachel to go along?" he asked, looking pleased.

"He did," Steve confirmed. "I think she's a little nervous, how his family is going to react to them being back together. I mean, she broke his heart, moved his little girl halfway around the world. I hope . . . well. They'll be back in Jersey, back with Danny's family . . ."

"You don't think he'll go back there, do you?" Grover asked, knitting his brows in concern. "Man, I hadn't thought of that."

"I don't know. I hope not. Team wouldn't be the same without him. Jax would take it hard."

"No, no, I see the wheels turning in your head, McGarrett. Don't go there," Grover cautioned. "Don't borrow trouble. Danny has a great job here with Five-O, he has an ohana here now. And Rachel and Grace, they love it here, right?"

"Yeah," Steve said, looking marginally less worried. "That's true. Gracie . . . man, that girl loves the water, and surfing. Did you see her at Thanksgiving? Will and Samantha, too, they're all doing great."

"That's right," Grover said. "So, positive thoughts."

#*#*#*#*#

Danny turned in his seat and made sure that Gracie and Rachel were settled with books and snacks, then cracked his knuckles and neck.

"Okay," he said, "bring on the applications. How do you want to do this? Read over them together, or each read one and share it if we think it has merit?"

"Well, that means going over some of them twice, though, so let's just take one at a time and go through them together," Jax suggested.

"So, when you said you had arranged for a ride from the airport, I thought you meant a rental car," Danny said quietly, as Jax pulled out the first set of applications. "He said . . . O'Connell? That name sounds familiar."

"Patrick O'Connell and I were undercover in an Irish mob case when . . . it was my last case in New York," Jax said. "I didn't show up or respond to phone or text, and Patrick came looking for me. That night."

"He's the one who . . ."

"Had O'Neil in restraints, yeah. Looked the other way when I got a few extra hits in," Jax said.

"He was sitting on our side of the courtroom for the hearing," Danny remembered.

Jax nodded. "He and Sergeant Mitchell were pretty much my only friends in NYPD. Hope you don't mind that I called him?"

"Of course not," Danny said, reaching for the first application. "Now, Steve, on the other hand . . . " he teased.

Jax laughed. "Steve seems to have taken a liking to Patrick already. I'm sure he'll like his boyfriend, too, so I think we're safe."

#*#*#*#*#

Steve sighed as he poured food into Pupule's bowl.

"Mooowroow?" the cat vocalized - loudly - looking at the front door.

"She's not coming home tonight, buddy," Steve said.

Pupule glanced at his food, and then turned away from it, rearing back on his hind legs and stretching his enormous paws up to rest on Steve's knees.

"Roowwwww," he stated mournfully.

"Aw, buddy," Steve said, bending down to scoop up the cat. "I know, I miss her too."

SEAL and feline swiveled their heads in unison at a soft knock on the door. Still holding the cat, Steve opened the door to reveal Chin, standing with a large pizza box and six pack of Longboards in hand.

"Brah, that is really kind of pathetic," he said, smiling and nodding at the cat. "I'm glad I came."

Steve laughed as he held the door open for Chin to come inside. "Me too, brother. Me too."

#*#*#*#*#

They were within the last hour of the flight and the last ten applications when it happened.

"Holy fucking shit," Jax breathed, her hands shaking as she opened the file folder.

"Jax, what the -" Danny stopped short as he scanned the page. "Martinez? That Martinez? He's still on the force, and applying for -" He carefully closed the folder and put aside his thoughts about Martinez, and focused instead on Jax.

"Babe, are you with me?" he asked, turning slightly in the seat. They'd discussed potential triggers with Lieutenant Allen: sights, sounds, even smells . . . but never in his wildest imagination had Danny thought that they'd come across the face of one of Jax's former assailants in the stack of applications for the new task force.

"Let's, um, move on to the next application," she said hoarsely.

"Jax, honey, you don't -"

"Yeah, Danny, I do," she said. "Let's get through the rest of these. Please."

#*#*#*#*#

Steve and Chin were comfortably digesting a healthy serving of pizza and beer, chatting and catching up with a movie playing absently in the background. Pupule had settled on the sofa next to Steve, and aside from a few dramatic sighs in the direction of the door, seemed reasonably content.

Chin smiled broadly when Steve's phone chimed out with Springsteen's cover of Jersey Girl, and Pupule hissed in frustration as he was unceremoniously dumped on the floor in Steve's haste to grab at his cell.

"Oh," he said, disappointed. "Text message."

Landed safely. Late here - talk tomorrow?

Steve frowned and glanced at his watch. It was around eleven pm there, but it would only feel like six pm to Jax. He typed out a quick reply.

Sure - everything ok?

"What is it, Steve?" Chin asked.

Steve rubbed his face. "They landed safely. I guess they're getting through traffic to Danny's folks - they were going to crash there tonight and spend some time with Danny's family tomorrow, and then get hotel rooms closer to the city and start the interviews the following day. Probably getting Gracie settled; she's staying with Danny's folks the whole time." He glanced down again as his phone vibrated.

Yeah - Danno says hey.

"It's a long flight. With a young child," Chin reminded him. "I'm sure they're fine."

#*#*#*#*#

Danny spun on O'Connell the minute Rachel and Jax took Gracie into the airport restroom.

"O'Connell, I'll thank you properly later, for going after Jax that night," Danny said, his voice urgent, "but right now I just need to know one thing - how in hell is Martinez still on the force, much less applying for this position?"

Patrick looked positively disgusted. "You're fucking kidding me."

"No, I am not. We pulled his damn application out about an hour before we landed. No warning, just - there it was," Danny hissed.

"Danny, look - we both know what happened that night, but Jax . . . she never let them put anything official in the records. She never filed charges. There was a lot of reading between the lines, and O'Neil - when he had you hostage in that elevator, he made it pretty sickeningly clear what went down, but . . . I arrived at the scene alone, and by the time my back-up got there, she'd hauled herself up, buttoned up, and was proceeding to beat the crap out of O'Neil. Martinez . . . Danny, I didn't actually *see* anything. I yelled out NYPD, had to break down the door, and that gave them enough time to scramble. Was - I mean, I know O'Neil, but Martinez . . ." he stopped short, swallowing hard.

"He restrained her for his buddy," Danny said. "Shit, it's not my place to say. Jax didn't even remember it until a case . . ."

"I understand, Danny, I won't say a word," Patrick said. "I'm sorry. Obviously, you're not going to interview Martinez."

Danny sighed. "I can tell you that if Steve McGarrett gets wind of this, we'll be conducting a very thorough interview."

"You want me to help with that interview, or distract Jax while you and Steve take care of it?" Patrick asked.

Danny half laughed until he realized that Patrick O'Connell was deadly serious.

#*#*#*#*#

Jax padded quietly downstairs to the Williams' kitchen, carrying her boots and placing them at the door.

"There's coffee, babe," Danny said, smiling up at her from his spot at the kitchen table, the Times spread out in front of him.

"Danny," Jax whimpered, "what the hell time is it? I feel like I've been roofied."

"I know, the time change is pretty brutal," Danny said sympathetically. "It's eight thirty am here, three thirty am in Honolulu. Your body is caught somewhere in the middle. Now you understand why I suggested a day to relax."

"I thought it was unnecessary," Jas admitted. "But I'm glad you did. Plus, I need to go into the city, to take care of Steve's Christmas present."

"Oh, that's right," Danny said, grinning. "The surprise gift that had to come from New York. Are we going to have trouble getting it through customs? And do you need a driver? You won't get lost?"

"Nope," Jax said grinning. "It will go through customs just fine. And I don't get lost in Jersey, Danny, I grew up here. And the city - it makes sense. There are numbers, and directions. And the subway."

"Sounds fun," Danny said. "I'd go with, but I want to get Gracie settled with my folks. She hasn't seen them in a while. I'll stick around here today, set up the first round of interviews for tomorrow."

"I should help -"

Danny waved her off. "No, it's just a few phone calls and emails. I'll take some time after Steve gets here, maybe take Gracie and Rachel on an outing. There's one thing you need to do today, though."

"Yeah, okay?"

"You need to think about how we respond to the Martinez application."

"He doesn't get a spot," Jax said immediately.

Danny gaped at her, incredulous. "He doesn't get - of course he doesn't get a spot, Jax. That's not what I meant. I mean - he shouldn't still be on the force. You know that. I thought we were working past the denial and avoidance."

He cringed at the look on Jax's face; realized he had gone way too far. And way too early in the morning.

"We. We? Don't let the fact that you were tasked with keeping me from losing my shit go to your head, Williams," Jax said, her voice low and with a lethal edge to it that Danny had forgotten she possessed. "There was no we that night; so I will deny and avoid if I want to. Got it?"

She turned away from Danny and busied herself with rinsing her cup in the sink; a dead give-away that she was struggling to control her emotions, because really, when did she ever stop at one cup of coffee if there was more in the pot?

Danny sighed and stood up, carefully making a bit of noise, and wrapped his arms around her.

"Babe, I'm sorry," he said. She stiffened and resisted, but he was persistent. "Hey, no, I'm not going to push. I'm sorry for what happened, and I'm sorry you had to come across that yesterday, and I'm sorry for the way I just handled it. That's all. Come 'ere."

She turned then, allowing herself to accept his efforts to comfort her - she was pretty sure, anyway, that's what Lieutenant Allen would have instructed her to do. He tucked her head under his chin and rubbed her shoulder.

"You gonna tell me what Steve's gift is?" he murmured hopefully, making her laugh.

"Nice try, Danny," she said, squeezing his arm in a silent thanks.

Rachel and Gracie appeared in the kitchen, both looking delightfully sleep-mussed and vaguely confused.

"Auntie Jax, are you okay?" Gracie asked, concern filling her voice, her brown eyes wide.

"I'm okay, Gracie," Jax said, stepping away from Danny and holding out her arms to Gracie. "I just need a couple extra hugs. Think you can help with that?"

Gracie beamed and launched herself at Jax, wrapping her little arms tightly around her neck.

"Does that help, Auntie Jax?" she asked solemnly, after a moment.

"So, so much," Jax assured her.

While Danny helped Gracie pick out a box of cereal from the pantry, Rachel placed a gentle hand on Jax's shoulder.

"Are you okay?" she asked quietly.

"It's fine, Rachel," Jax said. "Just a work-related thing that threw me a little. How are you? With, you know - all of this," she said, gesturing vaguely to the Williams home.

"That's something I wanted to ask you, actually," Rachel said. "Did I understand correctly that you're going into the city today?"

"Yes, I need to take care of a gift for Steve," Jax said. "Why?"

"Please," Rachel said, her voice a bit wavery. "Take me with you?"

Jax hesitated; Steve's gift was something that she had really wanted to attend to alone; but the look in Rachel's eye and the break in her voice indicated that this wasn't a casual request.

"Is Danny's clan a bit much for you?" she asked sympathetically.

"Yes, just a bit, because - well, I was the bitch who broke his heart and took him and their grandchild away from them, you know," Rachel said, "but mostly because - oh, bloody hell - I think I need to get a pregnancy test."