Chapter 11
Right after Danny carried Jenna upstairs, Steve reopened the store, Catherine automatically stepping in to help him. Thankful that one of the requirements of working in the corporate office was that each and every employee had to train and work in a shop for at least three weeks initially and then one week every year thereafter, he let her handle the easier chores while he worked behind the counter.
During a break, he called Chin, letting him know that the shit had hit the fan.
"Man," Chin sighed, "that was probably the worst way for him to find out." It was the mark of a true friend that he didn't mention that he'd wanted Steve to tell Danny everything since Steve had arrived. "What can we do to help?"
Steve sighed. "Be there for Danny. Knowing him, he thinks he's in this all alone, and there's no way he's going to want to have anything to do with me right now. Catherine and I are working at the shop, so he won't lose any income for today."
"I thought you said that he'd gotten a cease and desist."
"From the corporate office, where I'm the President and CEO," Steve reminded him.
"The acting President and CEO," Chin reminded him right back. "Have you talked to your dad about this?"
"I already have a call out to him. I'm hoping he'll call me back before he talks to Victor."
"What if he sides with Victor?"
"Catherine and I are taking steps to make sure that doesn't happen."
Chin paused a second before saying slowly, "So, Catherine."
"She's my VP of Marketing. I'm sure I've mentioned her before."
"And she just happened to be in the neighborhood?"
"No, she came to let me know about Victor."
"The last time I heard, phone calls and texts work between here and the mainland."
Steve felt himself getting defensive. "What're you trying to say?"
"I'm just wondering about Catherine."
"I trust her. There's no way she's working with Victor."
"And you two are close?"
"She's one of my best friends." He smiled at her as she frowned at the old cash register, looking like she wanted to take a hammer to it. He could relate, although he'd gotten used to it in the past few weeks.
"Hmm," Chin said, reminding Steve that he was on the phone.
"What's the problem?"
"Nothing," Chin said. "I have to go give a deposition on a case. Text me if there's anything Malia and I can do, okay?"
"Thanks," Steve said, hanging up.
He had just handed a customer her change when Kono shoved open the door, charging up to Steve, her hands balled into fists. "I could punch you in the face right now."
"I would rather you didn't," Steve said, meaning it. He'd seen her hit a man who'd dropped in on her wave at the beach the other week, and she'd put her entire body into it. It looked like it hurt. A lot.
Suddenly Kono transformed from vengeful goddess to a confused young woman. "I don't get it. Why would you do this to Danny? I thought you liked him."
"I do." Steve caught Catherine's eye and jerked his head toward the kitchen. Understanding, she nodded and continued helping her customer. He took Kono's arm – sighing as she jerked away from him – and led her into the kitchen for the most privacy they were going to have at the moment. "I'd heard that Danny was selling pretzels we weren't actually making, and I wanted to see what was going on."
Kono frowned. "Why did you sic this guy on him, then?"
"I didn't." Steve sighed. "Victor and I have… issues. I think he started asking some questions after I'd been gone for so long, and he learned about Danny."
"Did you tell him that Danny had to make his own pretzels, because he wasn't getting the help from corporate? And those pretzels are popular! If you were smart, you'd put them in all of your stores instead of putting him in jail."
"He's not going to jail."
"Really? Chin said he'd gotten a cease and desist letter, and I could've sworn I saw the shop open for business." She thought a moment. "Who's that woman out there?"
"Her name's Catherine. She's – "
"That's Catherine?"
Steve frowned. He hadn't told Kono about his undercover assignment, so he was sure he hadn't mentioned her. "How do you know about her?"
Kono bit her cheek, obviously debating about whether or not she wanted to explain. Finally, she said, "Danny told me about her."
Now Steve was really confused. "How does Danny know about her?"
"He heard you talking to her on the phone one night, sounding less like a coworker and more like a bed buddy." She narrowed her eyes as she looked at him. "He wasn't wrong, was he?"
Steve ignored the heat in his face. "It's not like that. We're friends who sometimes sleep together."
"You work with your fuck buddy?"
"She's not my fuck buddy; she's my friend."
"A friend you fuck?"
"Could you please stop saying that word?"
Kono huffed a sigh and looked at her watch. "Who's picking up Grace?"
Steve's heart sank. He hadn't thought beyond the store and keeping Hesse from his father.
Shaking her head, Kono said, "I'll take care of it," and headed upstairs.
Steve puttered in the kitchen, shifting dirty dishes, setting out baking sheets, wondering how Danny did all this and while taking care the kids all by himself. He tried not to pounce as Kono reappeared. "How is he doing?"
She ducked her head and tried to dodge him.
"Kono?"
Finally, she looked up at him, tears swimming in her eyes as she whispered fiercely, "You made him cry!" She pushed by him, and he absently heard the bell as she left the store.
He'd made Danny cry. The man who'd somehow managed to get through his wife's defection twice, bury his dreams of becoming a cop in order to raise a special needs child on his own, move to another part of the world just to be closer to his other daughter, only to bury his ex-wife and raise both girls while trying desperately to make ends meet and turn a day into thirty-six hours, was sitting upstairs crying because of Steve.
He'd enjoyed helping Danny these past weeks, enabling the other man to just stop and take a breath every so often. He'd envisioned himself as a hero of sorts, only to turn around and be the final shot that took Danny down for good. What kind of man did that to a friend?
"You okay?" Catherine walked in and put some dishes into the sink.
"I've just rained hell down on him, and all he's been trying to do is survive," Steve said, trying to keep his voice even.
Catherine squeezed his arm. "We'll fix it."
Steve was determined to give Danny back his shop, but he wasn't sure if Danny would ever forgive him, and that felt way worse.
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Danny spent the next few days in a haze. He woke the girls, prepared them for the day, took Grace to school, watched videos upstairs with Jenna and fed her until it was time to pick up Grace, helped Grace with her homework, fed them dinner, got them ready for bed, read to them, and put them to sleep. He ignored all of the strangers bustling around the shop as they went on their business, sat up until late shifting money he didn't have to pay bills he couldn't afford, fell asleep on the sofa after staring at pages of a book he couldn't focus on enough to read. He couldn't sleep and rarely ate, and he knew his wasn't healthy and couldn't last. He just couldn't bring himself to care. He figured he'd worry about it once they ran out of food, which was going to happen soon. Eventually the girls were going to get tired of eating dry cereal for breakfast and having canned soup for dinner.
They'd both been fantastic, keeping him close with touches and hugs as if they knew he was trying not to fall apart. They didn't know specifics, but the drastic change in routine and Danny's aversion to other people must've put them on guard.
The only question they'd asked was, "Where's Uncle Steve?"
For the life of him, he couldn't remember what he'd said, but it must've satisfied them, because they hadn't asked for Steve since.
His cough had gotten worse, as had the pressure in his chest. His head felt like it was stuffed full of cotton, but he figured that had more to do with the loss of his shop than any physical ailment.
He forced himself up one morning, pausing to get rid of a series of coughs before stumbling into the kitchen. He poured the girls their cereal, stopping to hold onto the back of a chair for a moment for balance. For some reason, he was having a difficult time shaking off his lethargy, but he forged forward anyway, heading to the girl's bedroom.
He only made it halfway before things started to swirl in front of him, and everything went black.
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Steve emerged from the ocean, blinking away the saltwater as he walked up to the lanai.
"Hey, bruddah!" Kamekona said gaily, setting empty metallic trays on two long tables that hadn't been there when Steve had waded into the ocean.
"Hey," Steve said absently. "You're a little early. The party's supposed to start at seven tonight." The party his friends had planned for him weeks earlier that he'd hoped to convince Danny to attend before this whole debacle happened.
"I'm a busy man," Kamekona said. "I'm setting up here early so I can handle my other bid'ness."
"Okay," Steve said absently, not wanting to even ask about the other business.
"How is the little haole? He still mad?"
Steve shrugged, grabbing his towel. "He has every right to hate me."
"Naw," Kamekona said, "he don't hate you. He's just hurt right now. Pretty soon you'll be back to lovin'."
Steve froze. "We're just friends."
"Sure, sure," Kamekona said, obviously not believing a word of it.
Steve opened his mouth to protest it further but shut it when he realized that while it was true that they were just friends, it wasn't because Steve didn't want anything more.
He caught a familiar ringtone, and his heart sped up. Maybe Danny was ready to talk to him, if not forgive him at least yell at him. It'd be a good change from the way Danny ignored him, which hurt much more than he would've guessed. He ran to the table on the lanai and picked up the phone.
"Uncle Steve?"
"Grace?" Steve forgot the towel and focused on the teary sound of Grace's voice. "What's wrong?"
"Danno's on the floor, and he won't wake up!" She started to cry, which in turn seemed to start Jenna's crying in the background.
"I'll be right there," he promised, rushing into the house. "Do you know if he's breathing?"
"He's doing this – " she made a wheezing sound.
"Okay. I'll be right there."
"Don't hang up," Grace pleaded.
"I won't," Steve promised as he took the stairs two at a time. Frantically, he tried to think of something to get the girls to do to keep them occupied. "Can you ask Jenna to go get a blanket so Danno's not cold?" He grabbed some clothes as Grace repeated the instructions to her older sister. "I'm going to put you on speaker while I get dressed, okay?"
"Are you in your pajamas?" Grace asked, quiver still in her voice.
"I just got back from swimming," Steve said, pulling on his jeans and throwing on a t-shirt.
"You went to the beach already this morning?"
"I have a beach in my backyard," Steve told her, grabbing the phone and heading back down the stairs.
"And you swim there everyday?"
"Just about," Steve told her as he grabbed his shoes and sat in a chair in the living room to throw them on.
Catherine looked up from her coffee on the sofa. Her bed head was pretty impressive. It wasn't as spectacular as Danny's, but it put in a good showing. "What's up?"
Steve took the phone off speaker and put it to his ear. "Danny's unconscious in the apartment. Can you call 911 and have an ambulance meet me there?"
Concern on her face, Catherine nodded and reached for her phone.
"Grace, are you still there?"
"I'm here."
"How's Danno?" He grabbed his keys and jumped into his rental truck.
"He's still making that noise."
"Where's Jenna?" Steve jumped when the passenger door opened, and Catherine hopped inside, a folded pile of clothes on her lap, the phone at her ear as she talked to the emergency dispatcher.
"She's right here. She put Danno's blanket on him." She paused. "Uncle Steve, I'm scared."
"Everything's going to be okay," Steve said, hoping he was telling her the truth. "Once he gets better, I'll bring you to my house."
"We can go swimming in your ocean?"
"You sure can. You think we can get Danno out there too?"
"I don't know," Grace said. "Danno doesn't like to swim."
"We'll work on him, the three of us, see what we can do, okay?" Steve took a corner fast, his truck almost on two wheels, before he regained control. To her credit, Catherine just inhaled sharply and hung on.
The rest of the drive was a blur, Steve trying to get there as soon as possible without an accident while keeping Grace and Jenna occupied with things they were going to do at his house once Danny got well.
As far as he was concerned, Danny was going to head straight from the hospital to his house, and the three of them were going to stay with him as long as he could keep them there.
"We're here, and I'm coming in," Steve said, parking awkwardly outside of the shop and shooting out of the truck. Thankful he'd kept the key Danny had given him, he unlocked the door and turned off the alarm, waving at Catherine when she told him that she'd wait for the paramedics.
"Gracie, Jenna, I'm here," Steve said, turning off his phone and shoving it into his pocket.
Jenna ran down the steps and jumped into his arms, Recording Rita smacking him in the back as she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, burying her face in his shoulder. He carried her up the stairs, only putting her down so he could kneel next to Danny.
Each breath seemed to be a struggle for Danny, and Steve berated himself for not ignoring Danny and coming over anyway, forcing him to talk it out, forcing him to accept Steve's help.
"Danny." He gently rolled Danny from his side onto his back, noting the sweat on his face.
"Steve!" Catherine called.
"Up here!" He yelled back. He turned to Grace. "Can you show Catherine and the paramedics up here?"
She nodded and hopped up, her footsteps making pounding noises as she thumped down the stairs. "We're up here!" He heard her call.
A few seconds later, Steve had to step aside in the small room, Grace on one hip and Jenna wrapped around his legs, as the paramedics worked on Danny. Grace hid her face in Steve's neck, but it could've been worse, Steve thought, as they hooked a nasal cannula under Danny's nose, which seemed to help his breathing some.
Steve was thankful for his large truck as he put the seatbelt on Jenna and let Grace put on her own. Catherine had decided to stay and open up the shop in a few hours, promising to call if she needed some tips on the espresso machine or the ovens. Thankfully, she'd learned a lot the last few days working there, so Steve was sure she'd be fine.
On the way to the hospital, he called Kamekona. "Hey, sorry I took off and left you there."
"Little haole's ma'i?"
"Yeah, we're following the ambulance from the shop now."
"You need someone to work his shop? I got cousins who do coffee and donuts and stuff."
"I think Catherine can handle it for now, but thanks. I don't know about the party tonight – "
"No worries. I'll call my cousin, Benny, and the whole island'll know in, like, ten minutes, fifteen if he's out fishing."
"I'm sorry about – "
"I got your back. You just take care of your ke aloha."
Steve sputtered, involuntarily looking down at the girls before he said, "He's not my ke aloha."
"Fine, your makamaka, then."
Steve sighed, giving up on that at the moment. "We're probably not going to be able to see him anyway, since his next of kin are minors."
"I'll take care of everything, see you at the hospital."
"You don't have to do that."
"You and the keiki are gonna need somethin' to eat, and that hospital food'll make you sick."
The fact that he knew Kamekona was serious actually made Steve smile a little bit. "You're a good man, no matter what anyone says about you."
Kamekona harrumphed before hanging up the phone.
"Is Danno going to be okay?" Grace asked, lifting large, tear stained eyes to him and pulling against the seatbelt to snuggle against his side.
He wanted to promise that Danny was going to be good as new, but he couldn't make himself say the words. He didn't want to give them false hope, but he couldn't talk to these girls like they were adults. He tried to think of what Danny might say in a situation like this. "They're going to do their best at the hospital, and I'm going to be with you both every step of the way."
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jenna lean her head against Grace's shoulder as she clutched her doll, and a wave of protectiveness washed over him. He realized that he'd kill for these two little girls, and he finally understood how Danny'd been able to bear everything. They were worth it.
And that's when it occurred to Steve that Kamekona had never asked which hospital.
A/N: Translations:
haole: foreigner
makamaka: intimate friend
ke aloha: beloved
maʻi: sick
keiki: children