A/N: Hey everyone, well it's August and what can I say? Summer has not been the best, it's been cold and rainy for most of it – which isn't normal – and I really haven't been as productive in my writing as I would like to have been, but I had a great time writing this set of prompts. I'm not really sure what made this bunch any better than the other, but this one has its ups and downs and laughs and tears. It was so much fun to write! Hope you enjoy them!
Prompts 361 to 370
I was watching Cake Boss when I wrote this…that's my only excuse.
The smell of a place you love
Steve sat pleasantly in the kitchen of Danny's house as the single father worked diligently at the counter. The smell in the house was warm and comforting, and reminded Steve of a different time.
Grace ran into the kitchen as the timer on the oven announced the completion of the highly anticipated plate of delights.
"They have to cool, Grace." Danny stated as the first tray of chocolate chip cookies came out of the oven.
"How long?" Steve and Grace asked in unison.
"When did I end up with two children?" Danny asked with a laugh.
"But Danno, they are the best when the chocolate is still all melty and hot." Grace stated.
"Well, that's all fine and good but you have to wait until they cool enough so that you can touch them and we can take them off the tray, so you may as well wash your hands and come and roll the next bunch. By the time we've finished filling the next tray, those should be cool enough to touch."
Grace jumped toward the sink to wash her hands.
"Who died and made you so domestic?" Steve asked with a laugh.
"Teasing is just the thing to help you lose out on these delicious cookies." Danny scolded.
"Danno loved to help Nona back when he was a boy back in New Jersey." Grace stated proudly to answer Steve's question, as she rolled up her sleeves and Danny used a small ice cream scoop to scoop the dough into her hands.
"Your Nona is the best baker," Steve said with a smile as he leaned in and watched as the cookies were formed and lined in perfect rows along the sheets.
"No, Nona dislikes baking," Grace stated. "She loves to cook way more, she bakes to make people feel good and welcome and because she can usually get many hand in the kitchen to help her - like Danno when he was little."
"I loved to help with the baking - kneading the dough for bread, or rolling the cookies and lining them on the trays and then smooshing them down with a fork and covering them in sugar so that when they bake they are sweet and crunchy. I like that with bread you get to punch down the dough and then it rises again, and all the little tricks to make pie crusts perfect and flaky. Had I not been a police officer, I might have been a baker. Could you see me making this kind of stuff all the time, and big old wedding cakes?" Danny asked his daughter.
"You make the best birthday cakes." Grace stated with a smile.
"You make cakes?" Steve asked with a twisted smile.
"One more question like that and you'll not get any cookies Steven!"
"What? I said nothing!"
"There was a look."
"Of course, the looks," Steve said with a shake of his head.
"Danno made me a Barbie cake once, and not one of the upside-down bowl cakes where you cut a hole in the centre and just stick a Barbie in and decorate her so that she looks like she's wearing clothing. It was a three tiered red velvet cake that he covered in pink fondant and piped with yellow icing. It had shoes and dresses, and on the top he made a Barbie dream house out of rice cereal and modeling chocolate."
"I used a real Barbie - one of Grace's favourites - as the cake topper in the dream house." Danny stated proudly. "The dress for the Barbie was hand made by one of my sisters because Danno don't sew."
"I don't believe it!" Steve stated in shock.
"I have a picture!" Grace stated as she dropped another ball of dough and rushed away.
"Wash your hands before you get buttery fingers all over everything!" Danny called after her.
The two of them heard the sink in the bathroom turn on and off again and moments later Grace ran in with a photo album and plopped it down on the counter in front of Steve.
"Look," Grace stated and flipped it to the middle of the book and showed off the giant cake that was for her fifth birthday.
The house in the picture was unfamiliar to Steve, but the beaming little girl and her proud poppa stood beside the towering cake.
"Holy, that thing is huge!" Steve gasped.
"It had to feed the whole family." Danny stated with a shrug as he pushed another tray of cookies into the oven.
"Where did you learn to do that?" Steve asked in shock.
"Trial and error, and many years under my mother and my great uncle - for many summers, in my youth, I worked in my Great Uncle's bakery with my cousins. I guess I showed an aptitude because every time we had to make a big cake, he'd call me in on it - even when I was in school. I'd work through my studies, play sports, but I would drop everything when I got a call from my uncle and I'd head over to the bakery to get to work. My cousins have since taken over, and I became a cop, but working with that stuff doesn't leave you. I loved the smell of that place. It always smelled cozy." Danny explained as Grace continued to flip through the album showing off the baking that Danny had done.
There was even a step by step display of Danny in baker's whites building and decorating the giant cake and all the cookies that went home with all the children after the party.
"When was the last time you baked like this?" Steve asked, "Have you done it since you moved here?"
"I make you two cakes," Danny said with a wave of his hand, "because no one on this island was going to make a hand gun and a grenade, so I did it - before I had a proper kitchen to do it. I commandeered Chin's kitchen."
"You made those?"
"How do you think I snuck it into the trunk of the Camaro? I had to have made it because had I tried to go to a bakery to pick it up you would have known. The second one Chin picked up from his house after you ruined the first surprise, and yes, I had a feeling you would catch on so I did make two cakes from the very start!"
"Aside for the added salt, the cake was delicious!" Steve admitted.
"I don't make no crap cake!"
Grace beamed pleasantly, "we should make a cake."
"Now?" Danny asked as he picked cookies off a cooled sheet and placed them on a plate before Steve and Grace.
"Well, maybe not now, but soon."
"Max's birthday is next week," Steve stated with excitement.
"I could make an Enterprise cake relatively easily." Danny said with a shrug.
"You could make The Enterprise?" Steve asked in shock.
"Yeah, a little modeling chocolate and a twenty inch round and you're good to go."
"This I gotta see."
"You plan the party and I'll bring the cake."
I was still watching the food network while writing this prompt as well…maybe that's why it was so fun! In my mind, the one time Danny burnt the Frittata was because of trial and error. He'd be a great cook once he got the logistics of the dish down.
What you ate breakfast
"Come on Danny, I'm starving," Steve stated as he burst into Danny's office.
"I told you to go on alone, I'm not hungry," Danny stated and his eyes fell back to the paper work he'd been diligently filling out.
"That was an hour ago!" Steve said impatiently. "How are you still not hungry?"
"I had a good breakfast this morning with Grace," Danny answered with a shrug.
"What did you eat?
"Why am I the subject of this interrogation?"
"It's time for lunch. We have lunch at this time almost every day. So I ask you - why are you not hungry?" Steve asked suspiciously.
"I'm not hungry, because I didn't sleep well last night, so I got up early and made a good breakfast of all my favourite things - which happen to be Grace's favourites as well - and we ate like kings this morning. I was actually so stuffed I almost fell into a food coma and there is no way I want to eat anything else now." Danny explained.
"Why didn't you sleep?"
"The neighbours had a party late into the night and then their guests - who never went home - left early this morning."
"And what did you make that was so delicious that you nearly induced a food coma?"
"Stuffed French toast with bacon and berries," Danny said with a grin of satisfaction.
"Stuffed French toast?" Steve asked in confusion.
"Yeah, have you never had it?" Danny asked.
"No, never even heard of it."
"Well, I'm not really surprised that a naval brat like you wouldn't have all the fancy gourmet things that I was brought up on."
"That's offensive."
"It was meant to be." Danny said as he stood and grabbed his keys.
"Where do you think you're going?" Steve asked as he stood between Danny and the door.
"I'm taking you back to my place where I have leftovers and you're going to try the stuffed French toast."
"Oh good, because I'm starving!"
"Did you not eat?"
"I had oatmeal this morning."
"No wonder you're hungry."
"Sorry I wasn't brought up on all those fancy breakfast foods you've been so very privileged to consume."
"It was just my mother's way. We were never going to go hungry - that's for sure."
"I still don't understand how you stuff French toast..."
"You take two pieces of bread and you put a cream cheese sweet mixture between them - like a sandwich - and then you treat that like French toast in all the traditional ways." Danny stated.
"That sounds so good."
"It is, almost as good as BP and J, French toast."
Steve's jaw dropped - literally - and Danny laughed.
"I'm so hungry." Steve stated as he followed Danny out.
"We had better get you fed."
This one is a little darker and was inspired by all those stories in the news recently about the women that had been abducted and held captive for years and years and then found alive because one of them was able to break out and get help.
Pregnant and lost
Steve watched carefully as Danny stood with a woman in his arms. Darkness had fallen - the flashing lights of emergency vehicles strobed to illuminate the darkness.
Steve had put in the call for help as he and Danny had been investigating the disappearance of the young woman who was eight months pregnant and taken from her home.
She was staying with her parents, after having separated from the father of the child, and had been threatened by the her ex over the baby and custody - enough that the authorities were contacted. After the disappearance, however, the ex was cleared of the crimes because he had been in custody at the time - for unrelated crimes - and Five-O was called in to take over the high profile case.
After spending most of two days following leads and running into dead ends, Danny and Steve happened to be following a rural road when the woman appeared out of the darkness, stumbling, disoriented, and clearly distressed, and waved down the car to get their attention.
Danny was the first out of the car - as Steve was driving - and by the time Steve had reached the two of them, the woman had fallen into Danny and started sobbing.
The sobbing continued for a long time before Danny or Steve could get anything out of the woman, until finally, and after Steve had already made the call to get emergency personnel out to their location - and back-up to go into the jungle - the woman started to tell her story.
It was a story that had been told too many times already, but was still horrific and terrifying. She was taken, locked in a shed and made to believe that everyone though she was dead. Danny and Steve had dealt with a similar case before, but it had involved younger females.
What the captor really wanted was the baby, and the shed that the woman was held in, was equipped with everything that the captor would need to have the woman give birth, and in all likelihood, once the baby was born, the captor would disappear leaving the mother without medical attention and stealing away.
But this mother knew what it meant to survive. She's escaped the confines of a terrible relationship once, she was determined to do it again, and as the ambulance arrived she told Danny and Steve everything they needed to know, in the darkness of the jungle, to find the place she was being held in and how she got away.
"There was an edge in the plywood floor of the shed that I kept stubbing my toe on. I was able to lift it with the help of some of the equipment in the shed and from there I would dig. It didn't take long. I was determined and in the darkness of the shed I found things to clean myself. He would check on me twice a day, bring me food and told me to ration the water. When he'd leave I'd pull back the plywood again and continue to dig in the dirt. Then tonight, after his last visit, I slipped out into the darkness and into the jungle. I didn't know where I would go, or if I would ever find my way out of the jungle, but at least I wasn't with him or trapped anymore, and then you found me. I had to do it to save my baby from a lifetime of captivity."
"We're going to find him as well." Danny vowed as the HPD back-up arrived and the paramedics took the girl away - with a guard of HPD officers to lead them through the night.
It didn't take long to find the shed, and then the house, and the man curled up in his bed - oblivious to what had happened.
I've already written a similar story to this one, so I thought I would give it a shot with Chin and see how I feel about it. I like Chin!
Getting hit by lighting
Chin and Charlie stood in a busy central shopping centre - a centre that was now quiet and deserted.
Max was hunched over a body in the centre's, open air, food court area. Shops and fast food restaurants lined either side of a long courtyard with benches and staircases to an upper level. The workers from the centre stood in the windows of their shops, or along the counters in the food court, and watched as the investigation started.
"So, what can you tell me Max?" Chin asked after a long moment spent listening to Charlie Fong as he spoke about the lack of evidence in the shopping centre.
"I'm beginning to think this wasn't a body dump." Charlie admitted.
"This man was struck by lightning!" Max stated as he followed the scorch marks down one side of the man's body all the way to his bare feet - his slippers were found near the body and bagged as evidence.
"But it's a clear day!" Chin stated as he looked at the sky. "How is that even possible?"
"There were isolated thunder storms all around the islands today. Lightning, though predictable in that it will usually take the path of least resistance to the ground, can travel miles from the clouds that produce it. This man was just very unlucky today." Max explained.
"How many people were in the centre to see this happen? How did only one person get hurt? This seems like the most impossible scenario."
"Improbable, maybe, but not impossible. We don't understand enough about these acts of God, to be able to tell you why they happen as they happen, but I can tell you that this was not a murder. This man was struck by lighting. He died of cardiac arrest because the lightning put way too much electricity across his healthy heart and shocked it out of rhythm. He was just the one unfortunate person that put off a stronger electrical current than most and the Lightning chose him."
Charlie and Chin looked from one another and then back at Max.
"You boys are finished here. There is nothing to investigate." Max said with a sigh and motioned for his assistant to help him with the body. "I'll confirm my conclusion and make the appropriate calls."
"I had better get back to the team then," Chin said as he looked around. "I'll have HPD clear the shops and re-open the centre as soon as the body is gone."
"I'll speak with the centre management - something has to be done so that this doesn't happen again." Charlie stated.
"The likelihood of this ever happening again are the impossibility that you were looking for," Max stated, "but then again, you never know what nature has in store for us."
In my mind, SO much more could be done with the Danny and Rachel relationship and it could be ever so awkwardly entertaining to watch.
You have just been caught in bed by a jealous spouse. How will you talk your way out of this?
"Look out," Steve stated to Chin as he caught a glimpse of a dark haired woman who moved with a purpose toward Danny's office.
Lucky for the Jerseyan in question - he'd stepped out with Kono to scout out a location for a raid while Steve and Chin were working the HPD angle for their operation.
A quick scan of the office and Rachel's eyes locked on Steve and she marched with a purpose into his office.
"Hello Rachel," Steve stated as Chin ducked out of the office and fled toward his own.
"Hello Steven. Where is Daniel?" Rachel asked shortly and void of emotion.
"He stepped out on an investigation. Is there anything that I can do for you?"
"I just caught Stanley in bed with another woman." Rachel stated and folded her arms over her chest.
"Oh..." Steve stated and got really uncomfortable, really quickly.
"Indeed," Rachel said and tapped her foot impatiently, "with Grace's teacher."
"Isn't Grace at school today?" Steve asked struck by the information.
"I called the school to see what was going on, and they said the woman had called in sick this morning." Rachel exclaimed as if it were all Steve's fault. "She's sick all right! I told them that I'd just caught the woman in bed with my husband, they said they couldn't do anything about it."
"Well, lawfully, they really can't." Steve said and was yelled at again.
Out of the corner of his eye Steve saw Danny and Kono return to the office and they were stopped by Chin. Kono ducked away, Danny took the file from Kono's hand and made his way toward Steve's office.
"Here," Danny stated as he walked in, interrupting Rachel's rant, and rescuing Steve all at the same time, "the place looks good. We'll have a good vantage point and cover for the stake-out."
"Daniel!" Rachel shrieked.
"Rachel, what now?" Danny asked and nearly rolled his eyes at his ex-wife who had dragged him through the ringer more times then Danny wanted to think about. "This is my place of employment. Unless you are in grave danger, you signed a court document stating that you would leave me alone - aside for the times in which we hand over our child to one another."
"This involves Grace."
"Grace is at school."
"Grace's teacher was caught in bed with Stanley!"
"By whom?"
"By ME! They were in my bed!"
"Then who is teaching Grace?"
"A substitute."
"Is she or he qualified?"
"The school assured me that she was."
"Then what is the problem?" Danny asked with a shake of his head and his hands on his hips.
"Did you miss the part about me catching Stanley in bed with Grace's teacher?" Rachel shrieked.
"What do you want me to do about it? Stanley was aware of the fact that you and I had an affair, and since said affair, you went back to Stanley - which means that my dealings with you, aside for those that involved the well-being of our daughter and the legal agreement that pertains to her, are null and void. So I ask you again - what do you want me to do?"
For the duration of the conversation Steve sat as his desk flipping through the file Danny had given him - awkwardly - and trying not to make eye contact with either of the exes.
"I can't have an affair going on in my house, right under my nose, between my husband and the teacher!" Rachel stated and there was anger that rose in her face now.
"It's not my house. I'm not married to the man, and as far as Stanley's business is concerned, I can't tell him who he can and can't see." Danny stated and shrugged. "What exactly do you want me to do about this whole situation that you've gotten yourself into?"
"I thought you would help me, Daniel." Rachel stated.
"Help you by doing what exactly?"
"I don't know!"
Danny's movements mimicked Rachel's frustration - almost mockingly.
"What should I do Daniel?" Rachel asked after a long moment of rubbing her brow, pacing the office in frustration and yelling at Steve to "Stay right where you are Mister!"
"I don't know, Rachel. I'm not the one in the situation. I'm not the one that should get involved anymore. The last time was the last time for me. I don't know what you want me to do, or why you thought I would be the person to help you in this situation - hell, we haven't even said three words to each other in any of our meetings leading up to now. It was clear you didn't want me interfering in anything involving you and Stanley, so why are you asking me this."
"Because you're all I have on this island!" Rachel yelled and sobbed.
Danny stopped and watched as Rachel broke down, fell onto the sofa in Steve's office and sobbed.
"Rachel, I'll always be here," Danny said more gently now. "I'm not going anywhere. This island is where I belong and where Grace belongs, but what you have to do is decide what you want to do with Stanley now that he's been caught red handed. You need to make those decisions - I can't make them for you."
"I know," Rachel sobbed.
"If it were me, I'd march into that house and kick Stanley out. Then I would march into the Christian private school you wanted Grace to go to, and I'd tell the principal that one of his teacher is sinning, committing adultery, and breaking one of the commandments, and that behaviour is unacceptable around our daughter - especially with her step father. Then, as you have very good representation, I'd take Stanley for all his money and leave him, but that's just me," Danny said and there was something malicious in the way he said it.
"But I cheated on him and he forgave me," Rachel said unconvincingly.
"Sure, but Grace has had the same teacher for almost three years now. How long has this been going on?" Danny asked.
"Stanley met the woman when we first came to the island and decided on that school!" Rachel gasped.
Danny shrugged.
"I have to get to the bottom of this." Rachel stated - anger taking over again. "She even visited him in the hospital when you shot him!"
"That should have been your first hint," Danny stated.
"That's it! I'm done playing nice!" Rachel stated and stormed out of the office.
"You love to stir that pot, don't you?" Steve asked when Rachel was well out of the office.
Danny simply smirked and tapped the file on Steve's desk. "Come on, we have work to do."
Before we begin, let me just say that I am not okay with the recent developments involving Danny's Silver Camaro and season 4 of Hawaii Five-O. Not OKAY!
Take one aspect of routine life - such as grocery shopping or putting gas in the car - and remove it. What happens when a character stops doing that? Why would he do so?
Danny progressively got more and more grumpy as the days went by.
Steve, in his infinite wisdom, had nearly totaled the Camaro - leaving Danny without a vehicle for the foreseeable future - which caused Danny to despise his partner more and more as each day progressed.
Steve, in way of an apology - not much of an apology in Danny's mind - had been diligently chauffeuring Danny and Grace anywhere they wanted to go in the newly re-introduced, and liberated from the garage, Marquise, but even this wasn't helping.
"I just don't understand what the problem is. You have been in a vile mood for days. I said I was sorry about the Camaro. Could you just let it go?" Steve asked one afternoon about a week and a half into Danny's days without a car.
"It's not about the Camaro, well it is, but not because you totaled it." Danny stated grumpily.
"It's not totaled. It's fixable. You even get a nice new paint job - your choice. Its win all the way around! And it should be ready by the end of next week. So why, I ask you, are you so miserable?"
"Because this one little thing - little to you maybe - has thrown off my whole routine and it's driving me crazy. I just want normal back!" Danny stated loudly in frustration.
"It is normal that I drive you all over." Steve said with a shrug.
"Sure, once work started, and during those hours in which you drive my car, I'm frustrated but it's normal. Now you are driving that monstrous old beast and I have no choice but to ride around in it. That was straw number one."
"Hey, don't talk about my baby that way!"
"You could have driven the truck! The truck at least has some familiarity and normalcy to it!" Danny grumbled.
"But the Marquise has so much more swagger."
"No, it doesn't," Danny said with a shake of his head, "it's just old, but that's not the worst of it. It's not just my work routine that is all fucked up! You've managed to screw up my home routine as well, and now because I now have to do all the things that I would usually do in my normal - not a Five-O at this moment - life. I have to get groceries with you. I have to wait for you to pick me up in the morning and you never show up at the same time. I am relying on you because you are too stubborn to just give me the truck for a couple of weeks, and when I said that I would just rent a car while mine was in the shop, you told me I was being ungrateful. This was straw number two!" Danny practically yelled at his partner now.
"The truck just isn't a good vehicle for city driving. We need it for when we go out into the jungle and stuff."
"But you are driving the Marquise so why does it even matter if I borrow your truck for a few weeks?"
"You wanna drive the Marquise?"
"NO!"
"Then don't complain because I offered that to you."
"Because you are too possessive of your truck and I can guarantee that if I said yes, I'd drive the Marquise, you still wouldn't let me."
"But I knew you'd say no, so that's why I offered it."
"My point exactly," Danny yelled, "But that's not all, no, there is one more straw - the straw that broke the camels back. The real reason why I am grumpy and grouchy and going to take it out on you from here into forever, and that reason is, when the dealership told me that the body work was under warranty and so was the paint job, because we are covered through the police force, you piped up and told them - without consulting me - that a black Camaro would be so much more sexy. Black. In sunny, hot, sweltering Hawaii. Really? I didn't even have a say in this and it's MY car! Black. And you say I chose the colour but really it was you. Of all the colours and all the custom paint jobs I could have settled on, you put in your two cents and chose black. BLACK!"
"Black is sexy, and stealthy. Come on you're going to love it. You're not really made about that!"
"Yes I am!" Danny yelled in Steve's face and stormed off toward his office – locking the door behind him and shutting all the blinds so that he didn't have to even so much as look at Steven.
"Man, someone spit in his corn flakes this morning!" Steve said with a shrug as Chin came out of his office to see what all the commotion was about.
"It was you, wasn't it?" Chin accused.
Steve shrugged and walked toward his office to avoid yet another confrontation.
Sometimes manipulation can be so much fun!
Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. Write some other short rhymes or mnemonics about historic events or important facts that a school kid might have to learn.
Danny sat at his desk in the silence - just enjoying the silence - when his partner walked in cautiously and eyed Danny with trepidation.
"What has brought on aneurism face?" Danny asked as he looked up at the intrusion.
"This isn't aneurism face. This is the is-my-partner-about-to-blow-a-gasket face." Steve corrected.
"Why would you assume that I was about to blow a gasket?" Danny asked.
"Because you've been working quietly in here all morning."
"Work is what you're supposed to do when you come into the office." Danny retorted.
"Yes, but you've been stewing."
"No, I haven't, I've been working - catching up on paper work. Covering all of our bases and making sure that I was as productive as I possibly could be while we have a little down time." Danny explained almost as if Steve were a school child. "Now, unless you've caught a case, or started a chase, I'd kindly ask you to leave so that I can continue with my paper work." And with a sweeping motion Danny directed Steve's attention to the mountains and piles all neatly lined up on his desk.
"All right," Steve said with a sigh and left the office.
Danny rolled his eyes, shook his head, and got back to work.
Several hours later, as Danny had worked through lunch - rather he ate the lunch he'd packed for himself at his desk blissfully enjoying the silence and his productivity - Steve knocked and walked in again.
"What has brought on aneurism face this time?" Danny asked as he looked up and folded his hands over the file in front of him.
"This isn't aneurism face. This is the why-have-I-spent-the-last-three-hours-studying-wit h-Grace face."
"You didn't enjoy it?" Danny asked. He'd seen his daughter arrive, she'd walked right into his office with her book bag, but out of uniform because it was a professional development day, and he'd sent her across the office to Steve who seemed bored out of his mind.
"I would have liked a heads up."
"Oh sorry, it must have slipped my mind." Danny said with a shrug. "By the way, thank you for helping her, you're so much better with war history than I am."
"I spent three hours making up rhymes so that your daughter would pass a history exam."
"She remembers better with jingles and rhymes, so thank you." Danny said again.
Steve rolled his eyes, "Well, now that we've finished rhyming, I'm taking her down to the harbor to the base so that she can see some of the history she's learning about first hand, and because I'm navy, she'll get to go places most people don't. Would you care to join us?"
"No, no, you two have fun, please don't let her shoot any guns, but have a good time and I'll stay here and toil while you enjoy the day. This will be all finished and ready for your signature when you get back. I promise!" Danny said with a smile.
"You planned this." Steve stated accusingly.
"Not at all, it's just a happy coincidence!"
"Coincidences take too much planning!" Steve retorted.
"Okay, I'll admit, I knew you would be the better teacher of war history than I would ever be, and you'd be far more interested in it than I am. SO yes, I did coax Rachel into dropping her off here for your help, but that's all I did. This whole Pearl Harbor excursion is all you, my friend, and I give you my blessings, but first check and see if Grace has her sunscreen. If she doesn't there is some in the glove compartment of my car. You might want to grab that and make sure she wears it."
"Give me your keys." Steve said in defeat as he held out his hand.
Danny pulled the keys from his pocket and dropped them into Steve's outstretched hand,
"Taking your car, bye!" Steve stated excitedly, as if he were a teen taking dad's car for the first time.
"Go ahead," Danny said with a wave of his hand and a roll of his eyes.
"You did too plan this!" Steve accused.
"I did not!"
"Yes you did, or you would fuss over me taking your car and your daughter."
"Fine, it was Rachel's idea. I just agreed to play along."
Steve glared at his partner.
"I'm serious. I'm telling the truth. She said to me, 'Daniel, Grace is struggling with her history this year. She's not at all interested in wars, so do you think Steven would be able to help her feel a little more confident?' and I replied that you would but that if you went overboard our daughter would join the navy before the end of the day. Rachel hesitated and decided that Grace's schooling was more important and that she would accept any help that she could get. And that is the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God." Danny explained and crossed his heart.
"All right, I believe you." Steve stated with his hands on his hips. "I'm taking the rest of the day off. This work better be all finished by tomorrow morning." he ordered, walked out the door and left the office all together with a skipping Grace by his side.
"Man, he runs a tight ship," Danny mocked once Steve was out the door and fell back to enjoying the blissful silence of his office.
Does anyone else see Steve as the jealous type?
Time magazine has just named you "Person of the Year." Why?
"I just don't understand!" Steve stated angrily.
"Me either." Danny said as he put the magazine down on his desk.
"Why would they pick you and not me?" Steve asked as he snatched up the magazine.
"Wait. What?" Danny asked as he spun on his partner.
"I'm serious!" Steve said and threw up his hands. "I started this task force. I'm the leader. What makes you person of the year and not me?"
"Really? Did you just say that to me?" Danny asked indignantly. "Some friend you are."
"I didn't mean it like that," Steve grumbled and dropped into one of the chairs in front of Danny's desk.
"Don't feel back, it's not like it's an important honour. This was a look at Hawaii and there are about twenty other people in that magazine. Kamekona is in there as person of the year under entrepreneur. They just glorified the fact that I'm Haole. It means nothing."
"Kamekona got chosen and I didn't?" Steve gasped.
"It's not that big of a deal. It's not like we made the big celebrity issue of this magazine. We just made the knock off, Hawaii only, issue."
"Are you saying that I would make the celebrity issue, or that I'm not good enough for either?"
"Oh God, would you get over yourself?"
"I'm being serious! What is it about you that is so much better than me?"
"Well, aside for the fact that I'm amazing, maybe you should read the little write up about me," Danny stated, "because, heaven forbid, you should be happy for me, or else you're a really crappy friend. I'm leaning more and more toward the crappy friend part at this moment." he huffed and turned his attention toward his computer and ignored Steve's raving.
"All it says is that you are a transplant that has embraced Hawaii and who has devoted his life to the service and safety of the people, because of that you were named one of the important people, but what I don't get is why name just you? Why not name all of us because Five-O is a team, and there's no I in team Daniel!"
"Maybe I was singled out in the group because people know you have a personal vendetta and you run off and are reckless most of the time, where as I'm the one that brings you back to reality and leads while you're off your rocker. It's what partners do."
"What about Kono and Chin then?" Steve asked accusingly. "What about them?"
"Chin was named last year," Danny said with a shrug, "and Kono's been named before because of her surfing."
"So why haven't I been honored?"
"Because you're a whiny baby about shit like this and so you don't deserve it." Danny stated angrily. "Besides, its not up to us to nominate ourselves. Someone has to nominate you and then people have to go to the website and vote, and when I found out that Grace nominated me and wrote up this lovely little write up - yes that's what Grace wrote when she nominated me - I told her she better get her whole school to vote for me and they did."
"This is all Grace's doing?" Steve asked and he seemed to calm down.
"Yes," Danny stated.
"Well, you can't argue with Grace," Steve said with a sigh.
"I'll tell her to nominate you next year."
"Deal!" Steve said and threw the magazine back onto Danny's desk, "congratulations - most important person."
"I prefer Worlds Best Dad." Danny stated and held up a coffee mug he'd been given for Father's Day - Steve had gotten a Worlds Best Uncle mug too.
"She's a smart kiddo that Gracie."
"I should nominate her next year."
"I'll vote for her!"
This would be the day of Danny's nightmares. He would be so angry. Daddy Danno everyone. I hope you like it!
It's a big, raucous house party of drunken high-school students. Describe the scene in three ways: as one of the teens attending the party, as the police officer called to the scene, and as a parent of one of the teens.
Steve had never seen Danny look so angry. In a similar way, he'd never seen Grace look so frightened and upset either, and the rest of the teens and tweens looked about ready to die, cry or run away at the sighed of the cop, and father, who stood before them.
It all stated when Steve and Danny were out in the Camaro just listening to the police radio and waiting for the call from Grace to go and pick her up from the 'Birthday Party' she'd been invited too. Then suddenly HPD were called out to an address Danny recognized for a noise violation and the suspicion of underage drinking, and for the first time in their partnership Steve was convinced he made the wrong decision in letting Danny drive for the evening. Before he knew what had happened Danny was responding to the call and they were pulling into the driveway of the house they'd dropped Grace off at only hours earlier.
"He's your dad?" Some adolescent hoodlum asked as a very embarrassed Grace stepped forward to try and talk her father down from the rage that had taken over. "Your dad is Five-O."
"Yeah, I thought everyone knew that." Grace stated.
"You. Car. Now." Danny ordered and without hesitation or argument Grace ran passed Steve and out to the waiting Camaro. "What the hell is going on here?" Danny yelled and his voice boomed over the loud music and off the walls.
The music cut out and everyone - meaning every last person in the house and in other rooms - stopped what they were doing and stared. Some lined the halls, some lined the stairs, and some even peeked through the railings of an upper level loft.
"Who's house is this?" Danny yelled his question - causing several of the young teens to jump and back away.
"It's my house," A boy - whom Danny didn't recognized - stated as he stepped forward and all the others stepped back and crowded into each other now.
"This party is over," Danny stated as he never took his eyes off the boy in front of him. "Everyone get out now before I call in more HPD and all of your parents - don't think that I won't do it." Danny threatened as he held out his cellular phone.
Steve loomed by the door as the mass exodus occurred.
"You, don't move." Danny stated as he pointed at the boy in front of him. "He's not to move," Danny ordered as he turned to his partner and then Danny took off and marched through the house.
Steve stared at the youngster before him - who seems to tremble even more now that he was in the direct sight of the Commander.
"Mom and Dad are off the island for the weekend, aren't they?" Danny asked as he came back to where the boy stood and Steve stared.
"Yes."
"Yes sir," Danny stated and glared at the boy. "You will address me as sir, or Detective Williams. Do you understand?"
"Yes sir."
"Steve, please call the contact number on this paper," Danny stated as he passed the paper over his shoulder to his looming partner.
Steve did as he was told and held his cell to his ear.
"Were they aware of this party?"
"No sir."
"Then it is safe to assume that they weren't aware that you were spreading the wealth of the liquor cabinet with minors - which is illegal."
"No sir."
"Nor did they know that you were reported by the neighbours for a sound violation."
"No sir."
"Well, their going to know now!" Danny stated as Steve's call to the parents finally connected with one of them.
"You're mother wants to have a word with you." Steve stated and held out his phone.
The boy brought the phone to his ear and yelling could be heard - loud and clear - through the now silent room, and the phone wasn't even on speaker.
"You watch him," Danny stated to Steve as he turned toward the door.
"Where are you going?" Steve asked over his shoulder.
"It's time for me to be the disciplinarian. I hate this part of parenthood, and I don't have to do it often, but Grace should have known better." Danny said with a sigh and walked past his partner and out to the car.
Grace sat in the back seat quietly staring at her hands. There were tears in her eyes and her cheeks were red from embarrassment. Danny fell into the driver's seat and stared straight ahead of him as he closed the door and they were both very silent for several moments.
"When were you going to call me to get you out of this situation?" Danny asked and his voice was almost a growl.
"I didn't drink anything."
"You don't get to argue. You get to answer my questions. When should you have called me to get you out of this situation?" he asked, changing his question slightly.
"The moment I knew there was alcohol and minors." Grace answered.
"And why didn't you call me?"
"Because I wanted to stay with my friends and be cool."
"Were any of them smoking at this party?"
"Yes sir."
"And you still didn't call."
"No sir."
"And were they smoking an illegal substance?"
"Yes sir."
"And you still didn't call?"
"No sir."
"And how do you think I heard about this?"
"Over your police radio."
"That's right, and how do you think that makes me feel?"
"Badly," Grace said and her voice shook.
"That's right because I was sure I brought you up better than that. I thought you knew what was right and wrong at your age, and I figured that you would have more respect for me - your father and a well respected police officer on this island. But I didn't get a call. I didn't find out from you that you could make the right decisions - I heard it over the radio because of a sound violation. Now where do you think my trust is?"
"Gone." Grace stated and sniffled.
"I don't care who these people are Grace. You know what is right and what is wrong and you know when to get yourself out of illegal situations. As it is, had anyone else showed up here, you could have been in way more trouble than you are right now. Do you understand me?"
"Yes sir."
"You're grounded for a month - no parties, no friends, no nothing, and give me your phone right now." Danny stated and held out his hand without turning to look at his daughter. "And that's just what I am going to do. You just wait until your mother hears about this."
Grace placed the smart phone in her father's hand.
"Wait until your mother hears about this." Danny repeated with a shake of his head and climbed out of the car once more.
Steve stood in the doorway. Cowering beside him was the boy whose parents own the house.
"What did your mother have to say?" Danny asked.
"She says I have to go stay with my grandparents until they get back. Then I have to pay for all the alcohol that is gone and any damages that were done."
"And he has to clean the house - top to bottom - before his grandparents come to pick him up. They are on the way." Steve stated when the boy had fallen silent.
"Well get to it. I better be able to see my reflection in that kitchen marble!" Danny ordered and pointed the boy back into the house.
"Yes sir!" the boy stated and ran away from Danny and disappeared into the house.
"We'll stay here until the grandparents get here to pick him up." Danny stated when the boy had left him and Steve alone.
"Good plan. I learned a thing or two about cleaning in the navy." Steve said with a nod and a sly kind of grin. "The mother gave me permission to kick his butt."
"Then get to work. Grace may as well help." Danny stated and motioned for Grace to come to him.
Grace got out of the car slowly and walked with her head down to her father and his partner.
"This house has to be cleaned before whatever his name is, is picked up by his grandparents. We aren't leaving until they get here, and you are going to help clean up. Now get to work." Danny ordered.
Grace handed her hand back to her father and disappeared back into the house.
"I've never seen you this angry." Steve said as he and Danny stood in the doorway.
"I've never been this angry." Danny admitted and walked past Steve and started yelling orders at the minors once more.
Steve would try to do this. Good thing he has Danny to talk him out of stuff.
Write an acceptance speech for your party's nominee for governor.
"No. No. No!" Danny stated. "You cannot be the one to write the acceptance speech for Denning. One, he has people on his staff for that kind of thing, and two, it's just wrong and a conflict of interest!"
"Why? If he gets re-elected it's going to be because of us. So why shouldn't I help him out in any way possible?" Steve asked.
"Just because one of his campaign platforms had a lot to do with the crime rate and the benefits of this task forces, that doesn't make you an expert on campaigns or people who should or shouldn't be governor." Danny explained. "Don't you have better things to do - like keep the crime rate falling so that the governor has something to debate with his opponents?" Danny asked and tried to sway Steve to his way of thinking.
"Yes, I suppose I could do that, but it wouldn't be a bother if I happened to write down some beautifully crafted prose for Denning to use."
"Who died and made you Shakespeare?" Danny asked mockingly.
"I write press release all the time!"
"Because that's in your job description - but being a speech writer for the governor is not!"
"Maybe I should be the one running for Governor!"
"No, that is a worst idea than you writing his speeches. You'd have to give up leadership of Five-O. You'd have to wear a suit and ties, and you'd have to be politically correct at all times."
"Yeah, that doesn't sound like fun."
"No, not at all, so stick to Five-O and let all that political business fall to someone else - including the speech writing."
"Okay, I will. We should get back to keeping the crime rate low so that the Governor has some reason to promote us." Steve stated and headed out the door toward the smart table and Chin and Kono who had never stopped working.
"Man, why didn't I think of that?" Danny asked with a roll of his eyes, as he too joined the team to get back to business.
Well that's all for now - lots of Grace in this set and lots of fun. Tell me which ones are your favourites! I love hearing from all of you. You guys are the best readers a girl could ask for!