A/N: Not sure how I feel about this one, but I like it okay. Hope you like it too. Enjoy!

Kono relaxed into one of the chairs in her parents' lawn with her beer in one hand. The family cookout had been fun, but she was glad for the peace and quiet now that the party had mostly dissipated. She just closed her eyes and enjoyed the alcohol-induced buzz spreading through her limbs. Another bottle clicked against her own and she opened one eye to see Chin sitting down next to her.

"Hey, Cuz. Have fun tonight?"

"Surprisingly, yes," he replied. "I guess they're starting to warm up to me again since McGarrett decided to give me a badge."

"Well, everyone loved and respected his old man," Kono reminded him. "It's not really that surprising they put that same faith in Steve. It also helps that you saved Sid's life."

Chin chuckled as he sipped from his bottle. "Kono, you'd tell me if something was going on with you, right?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I mean, you'd tell me if something was going on with you and Danny, wouldn't you?"

Kono nearly choked on her beer. "What? Where the hell are you getting that?"

"Kamekona said he saw Danny kiss you last week."

"Well, Uncle has a big mouth, and he is...misrepresenting the facts."

"Is he?"

"Yes, he is," Kono insisted. "Danny kissed me on the cheek, that's it."

"That's it?"

"Yes."

"Why'd he kiss you?"

"Why does that matter?"

"Because it does," Chin insisted. "Because things like this tend to go bad, especially in a small team like ours."

"Nothing is going on," Kono told him firmly. "If something does happen, you will be the first to know. Okay?"

"Okay," Chin finally relented.

Getting shave ice at Waiola after Grace's surfing lesson had somehow become a tradition. Danny never got his own cone, but instead entertained himself stealing bites from both Grace's and Kono's. They laughed, but Kono felt mildly uncomfortable after her conversation with Chin from the previous night. She felt she was doing a pretty good job of hiding it, but Danny noticed when she flinched after he brushed her arm with his.

"Why are you so jumpy?" he asked her.

"I'm not jumpy."

"Yes, you are," Grace interjected.

Kono opened her mouth to reply, but she paused when Danny groaned loudly.

"What?"

"Look, Monkey, it's your mom," Danny said with obviously forced excitement.

Kono followed Danny's gaze to see a beautiful, well-dressed woman with long, chocolate hair piled on top of her head. She reminded Kono greatly of Grace. The woman smiled as her daughter jumped up to give her a hug.

"Mommy, come meet Kono," Grace said, pulling her along behind. "Kono, this is my mom."

"Rachel," the woman supplied unnecessarily.

"I've heard a lot about you," Kono said politely as she stood up to take the woman's hand.

"Well, I hope it hasn't all been completely terrible," Rachel said glancing down at her ex-husband.

"Oh, no, nothing terrible," Kono assured her. Danny covered his mouth with a hand to hide his enormous grin.

"But you work with Danny, don't you? In that special, little task force?"

"Try not to make us sound like we ride the short bus, Rachel."

Rachel kept her eyes focused on Kono. Kono, in turn, fidgeted with the loose threads of her sarong.

"Daniel, may I speak with you, please?"

Danny rolled his eyes and stood up, following his ex a few feet away from where Grace and Kono were sitting. "Only my mother and my grandmothers are allowed to call me Daniel. What are you doing here, Rachel?"

"I came so I could take a walk with my daughter before we go home," she replied. "I also wanted to see about her."

"Kono's been teaching Grace how to surf for months, and now you suddenly want to have a problem with her?" Danny asked incredulously.

"Well, Gracie's just been raving about her so much, and after she told me about how you visited the woman after she got shot—"

"Rachel, she's my partner."

"I thought that crazy man was your partner."

"I can have more than one partner, Rachel."

"Of course you can, Daniel, but she is actually quite young, and beautiful, and, you know, you used to have rules against this sort of thing."

"Don't call me Daniel! And you lost the right to judge me three years ago when you filed for divorce," he told her, the volume of his voice rising dangerously.

He glanced over his shoulder to find Kono uselessly trying to distract Grace. He took a deep breath and looked back at his ex-wife. "I trust Kono with my life. I have to. There is no one else I would trust to teach Gracie," he told her. "I know my opinion doesn't matter to you, but Grace would be devastated, so don't take these lessons away from her, please?"

"Oh, please, Danny! I wouldn't do anything that would upset Grace," Rachel assured him. "Just remember: you have rules."

Danny kissed his daughter before she left with his ex-wife and he sat down next to Kono. She let him steal from her cone without question for a couple of minutes.

"So…what, exactly, do you have rules about?" she finally asked.

"You heard all of that?"

"Neither you nor your ex are quiet people."

Danny chuckled mirthlessly. "I guess not," he admitted before stabbing his spoon into the remainder of the shave ice. "The first thing you need to understand is that Rachel is, you know, completely insane."

"I know, Danny," Kono replied sarcastically.

"Well, she came down here to check you out because she thought something was going on between us," Danny muttered quickly, staring at his hands folded on the table.

Kono scratched the back of her head nervously and said, "What did she mean when she said you had rules?"

"I, um, I…don't get involved with people I work with," Danny said, looking up at her, his blue eyes suddenly vulnerable. "It's this rule I've had since the IHOP."

"IHOP? Really?" Kono asked, her laughter cutting the tension.

"You get threatened with a broken plate and you'll be against workplace romance too," he told her, smiling.

"You're joking, aren't you?"

"About the IHOP, yes," he replied, laughing. "But I don't get into, you know, romantic situations with people I work with. It's the job. Either the job screws up the relationship, or the relationship screws up the job and ends someone's career or their life."

"It's okay, Danny. I get it. Family of cops, remember?" she replied.

"Very true," he agreed.

He watched as she sighed silently, bit her lip, and looked away. "Something wrong?" he asked, taking another bite out of her cone.

"Yeah," she said, plastering on a smile. "You ate all my shave ice."

"You wan' me get you another one?" he asked with his mouth still full.

Kono grinned genuinely and said, "Yes, please."