Guardian

A/N: This chapter would have been up a bit sooner, but Steve and Danny decided to take a little side trip and demanded I follow. You'll get to read that later though.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters and make no money doing this. I'm just having fun playing with them.

Chapter 52

Not wanting to risk big crowds on Grace's first venture into an uncontrolled public location, Steve opted to take her to the small, family owned running shop. Her new shoes might cost a little more than if they went to a big shoe store, but he'd gladly pay the price.

"You sure this place will have her size?" Mary asked as they approached the entrance.

"Yes. Have a little faith." He held the door open ushering them both inside.

"Commander McGarrett! We didn't expect to see you again so soon. You haven't worn out your shoes already have you?" The man that approached was easily in his sixties, but had an obvious runner's build about him.

"Mikey, how many times do I have to tell you not to call me Commander every time I come in here."

"At least a dozen more." The older man gave him a sly grin even as his eyes drifted to Mary and Grace. Since they were the only three customers in the shop, Mary had led Grace toward a rack of brightly colored t-shirts while they let Steve talk. He leaned closer to Steve, dropping his voice near to a whisper. "Is that your partner's daughter?"

"Yes. That's our daughter, Grace." He might as well get used to explaining it to people, because there was no way Grace would stick to only calling him daddy at home.

"Does that mean you two finally sorted things out?" Steve stuttered, trying to form a response but was saved the effort. "After you brought him in that one time, my wife wouldn't stop going on about what an adorable couple you two would be when you … well you get the picture."

"Seems like that was a popular sentiment." He laughed.

"I was sorry to hear about her mother. It can't be easy for any of you, but I'm sure that's not why you came in today. You shoes aren't worn out, are they?" Mikey sounded concerned that he'd somehow given Steve a defective pair to run out so fast.

"No. No. Nothing like that. Mine are still holding up great. We came to get Grace some good running shoes." They moved closer to the little girl and Mary.

"Decide to start running with the old man here, eh?" Grace nodded. Mikey noticed that while she met his eyes when he spoke to her, she scooted slightly closer to McGarrett. "I've been putting him in running shoes since he moved back here, so we'll take good care of you."

While she didn't leave Steve's side, the little girl did relax some at the news that he had know the store owner for so long.

"Are we going for cute or for fit?" Mikey inquired, causing Grace to give both he and Steve a funny look.

"For adults they always go through a fit assessment to make sure you get the shoes and inserts that will work best with your feet, but sometimes kids are convinced they must have a certain style instead." Steve explained. He could guess what Grace would say.

"Fit." She didn't disappoint, making both men smile.

Less than a half an hour later, they left the shop with a new pair of purple and grey running shoes, a couple of new running outfits with reflective patterns designed into them, and some socks. While Grace had insisted she didn't need anything but the shoes, Mary had convinced her brother that having cool clothes to run in would make it even more fun for the little girl. Mary had won the argument and Grace had conceded defeat with a smile when Steve showed her the cool visibility features built into the clothes.

"Commander McGarrett," an unknown female called to him as he was closing the truck door for Grace. Turning, he saw what appeared to be a reporter rapidly approaching.

"Mary, get in the truck with Grace and stay there." He was relieved she didn't argue, but quickly hopped into the passenger side back seat next to the little girl.

"Commander, I'd like to ask you a few questions." The reporter stopped about two feet from him.

"I'm fairly certain Governor Denning asked that all media be respectful and leave Five-0 alone during this time." He replied sharply. "I'm not interested in answering your questions."

Not unsurprisingly, she didn't back down. "We've heard from Detective Williams's neighbors, or should I say former neighbors, that he has vacated his apartment and moved in with you. Can you confirm this?"

"I've already told you I'm not answering any questions, and if you so much as think about getting near my property to see for yourself I will have you arrested."

"Come on Commander. We don't want to bother the little girl." Steve stood a bit taller at the mention of Grace, his face slipping from the annoyed but neutral look to his 'I'll kill you if you make one wrong move' look. "Our readers just want to know if Honolulu's hottest couple has finally come out of the closet."

"I've already said I'm not answering your questions. We're done here." Steve turned his back and slid into the truck, firing the engine up before she could protest further. "You okay Gracie?" Steve would hunt the woman down if she'd upset the girl.

"Yeah." She'd been afraid when the woman first approached, thinking that she'd start asking questions about what had happened, but she was used to people being curious about her dads. Everyone thought she didn't hear it, but she knew people had been wondering about the two of them since shortly after they met.

"I took a picture of her since she didn't volunteer her name." Mary offered as they pulled out. "Thought you might want to know who was nosing around."

"Thanks, sis. Can you send it to Chin? He was planning on stopping by HQ this morning, so he may still be there and can run facial rec for us."

"Sure thing."

While she emailed the file, Steve dialed the Hawaiian's cell number.

"Everything okay?" Chin answered on the second ring.

"Yeah. We're fine. Mary's emailing you a picture. We took Grace to Mikey's to get shoes, and some reporter cornered me in the parking lot."

"Is Grace okay?"

"Yeah. The questions were around Danny moving in with me. Apparently the woman has been snooping around Danny's place, and must have eyes somewhere near my house to have known where I went."

"I'll run facial rec and see what I get. If she's that annoying, someone is bound to have complained about here before and landed her in the system. I'll send you and the team the info as soon as I have it."

"Thanks Chin. You coming for lunch?"

"Yeah. I'll head over as soon as I finish this."

"Okay. See you soon." Steve disconnected the call. "So much for a quiet outing."

"That wasn't too bad." Mary tried to keep him from getting too aggravated.

"It's okay, Daddy. At least she was nice about it." Grace had a point. While the woman had been persistent, she hadn't gotten aggressive and aside from the initial yell to get his attention had kept her voice at a reasonable level. What bothered him most wasn't her behavior in the parking lot, but that she knew where to find him.

Pulling into the driveway several minutes later, they were the first ones back home having had the easier of the two errands to run. As they headed toward the door, Mary and Grace walked just ahead of him.

"Why don't I help you get all your new stuff put away?" Mary asked Grace.

"Okay." Before they headed up the stairs, she gave Steve a tight hug. "Tell Governor Denning I said hi." Not giving him a chance to say anything, Grace scurried up the stairs.

Mary followed more slowly, shaking her head. "She's going to be just like you and Danno. I hope you know that."

Checking his phone, Steve saw that Chin had emailed him the information while he was driving. Popping the file open, he wasn't surprised to see the woman worked for one of the local gossip websites. He didn't think any of the reputable press outlets would have condoned reporters disregarding Denning's request to leave them alone.

Hearing a car door, Steve stepped back outside to see if it was Chin or Danny and his mom.

"Hey brah. Hope you don't mind, but I let Duke know about your run in and shared her info with him. He caught me as I was leaving. He's going to do a bit of digging and see if he can find anything useful. You call Denning yet?"

"Just getting ready to. You know, Grace told me to tell him hi and I hadn't said a word about calling him."

"She's a smart one."

Steve nodded as he found the governor's number and waited for someone to answer.

"Is Governor Denning available?" Steve asked when the governor's new assistant answered.

"He's in a meeting right now. If you'd like to leave a message, I'll give it to him when he's available."

"Yes. Just tell him that McGarrett called, and ask him …"

"Commander McGarrett?" The woman interrupted.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Oh my gosh. Commander, hold on just a second and I'll get him." Before he could tell her that a message was fine, she'd put him on hold.

"Commander, what happened?" Governor Denning was on the line in less than thirty seconds.

"Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt your meeting. I was just giving your assistant a message."

"Don't worry about it. She was under strict orders to make sure I received any calls from your or your team directly. Now what's happened. I know you didn't just call to say hello."

Steve quickly relayed the information about the reporter from the morning. "Duke is looking into it, but I know you asked to be kept informed if anyone caused a problem."

"I'm glad you called. I'm familiar with the site. They tried to stir up trouble for me just after I took office. I don't like the idea that they're following you. This meeting is just wrapping up, and I have a couple of free hours for lunch. I'll connect with Duke."

"Thank you sir. By the way, Grace said to tell you hello."

"How's she doing?"

"Pretty well all things considered. If you really are free for lunch feel free to swing by and grab something here, so you can see for yourself."

"I just might do that."

Finished with the call, Steve and Chin headed back inside.

"So what's on today's agenda?" Chin asked as Mary and Grace descended the stairs.

"I thought we might try to get those paint samples up on the wall. Otherwise, we'll never get the room painted." This was the first chance he'd really had to think about it.

"Well, let's go." Grace turned around and headed right back up the stairs.

Grabbing the samples and foam brushes, Steve followed. "You heard the boss. Let's go." He poked at Mary as he passed her at the bottom of the stairs.

Standing inside Grace's bedroom, they surveyed the area. "Alright. We have two options for the accent wall, and two of the other walls. How do we want to do this?" Chin inquired.

"I'd say we put the accent wall colors on the intended accent wall." He turned to Grace. "Which wall is the accent wall?"

Grace looked to Mary, hoping she might have an idea.

"The accent wall will have the mural on it, right?" Everybody nodded at Mary. "Then I would suggest the wall without any doors or windows so it's a full, uninterrupted canvas. Albeit my old dresser is a rather big distraction on the wall at the moment."

"We planned on new furniture anyway. Something more appropriate for the new look. Have you thought about what color you'd like?" While Steve preferred wood tones, he knew that wouldn't necessarily look right in an underwater themed room or be popular with a young girl.

"Something simple and white might be good."

"I agree." The Seal backed her decision. "White would look good. Maybe we can find a set that includes a desk too." Moving around the room, contemplated placements. "This is just one idea, but we could put a desk along the accent wall, the bed and nightstand similar to where they are now, and the dresser and mirror over on the wall with the closet. What do you think?"

"It would be neat to see the painting while I'm at my desk." She nodded her head as she turned slowly around the room, seeming to visual his suggested placements. "I think that will work."

"Okay. So we'll put the accent samples over here. Probably best to put one set toward the middle and another toward a corner so we can see the color next to it's possible mates." Chin started pointing.

"We're home." Danny's voice called out from the main floor. "Where are you guys hiding?"

"We're in Grace's room." Steve called since he was closest to the door. "Need help with the groceries?" He didn't get an immediate response. "I'll be back. You guys carry on." He jogged down the stairs, catching a worried looking Danny.

"Is she okay?"

"Relax. We're getting ready to test out the paint colors. Grace is just fine, though we do need to chat about the reporter we ran into outside Mikey's." Usher his partner back outside to grab more grocery bags, Steve explained everything, carefully assuring Danny that Grace was just fine.

"Aside from the fact some jerk is creeping around and following you, this does bring up something we need to consider." Danny stopped, staring at his partner.. "Breathe babe. Are you okay?"

Steve opened his mouth, but wasn't sure what to say. Part of him had expected Danny to rant about Steve putting Grace in the position to face a reporter in the first place. His calm acceptance of what had happened and how Steve had handled it was a bit baffling, but now his mind was scrambling to figure out what other things this brought up.

Giving up on getting a coherent response from the Seal, Danny decided to keep going. "What I mean is, we need to figure out how public we're going to be." He let the words hang there for a moment, waiting for Steve to think about it.

"I'm not hiding us Danny. That's not fair to Grace, and it's not fair to either of us." He looked a bit hurt that Danny might not want people to know.

"That's not what I want either, babe, but we need to figure out how we want to answer questions like those when they come up, because they will come up."

"I know. You're right." Still standing next to the open trunk full of grocery bags, Danny leaned against his partner's chest. "We know we have plenty of support with our decision. I'm sure there will be idiots with other opinions, but that's there issue not ours."

Kissing the top of Danny's head, Steve nodded. "Why don't we get the rest of the groceries in the house before they cook in there. We can figure out our PR plan later. Since we're agreed that we aren't hiding, it might be a good idea to discuss it with the entire team. No doubt our decision is going to impact them too."

Grabbing the rest of the bags, the two were headed toward the house before Danny responded. "That's a good thought oh wise and fearless leader."

Beth met them at the door, seeing their hands full, she held it open as they shuffled inside. "Anything left in the car?"

"Nope. I just need to pop out and close the trunk."

"I'll do that while you two start unloading." She was out the door before he could object.

By the time the groceries were unloaded, the three went upstairs to find a collection of large bluish green squares painted on what was previously solid beige walls.

"I thought there were only four samples?" Danny cocked his head in confusion when he counted ten different squares.

"There are, but we wanted to see it in a few different lights." Mary explained as if this should be common sense.

"Got it."

"Give it an hour or two and we should be able to get fairly good idea of what they'll look like." Chin wrapped the used foam brushes in the bag to contain the mess.

"Anybody care for some lunch while we wait?" Beth offered, knowing the crew would likely be getting hungry. "Kono just texted and said they were on their way back." The doorbell range before they answered, but the group took it as their cue to head back to the main floor.

Steve trotted over, peering through the side window before opening the door wide. "You're just in time, Governor. Mom was getting ready to feed us."

"What did I tell you about calling me Governor when I'm here?" He said with mock severity. "Good afternoon, Grace."

"Are you eating lunch with us?" She seemed pleased to see him again.

"I thought I might." Without further discussion, Grace grabbed both their hands and led them toward the kitchen. The two men shared a laughing look, but followed quite willingly. After all, there wasn't much they wouldn't do for that little girl.

/ GUARDIAN /

I hope you enjoyed. Please take a few seconds to leave a review. And for those that have mentioned wanting scenes with the redecorating of Grace's room - that was just the tip of the iceberg. No way will things stay that neat and calm with an entire room to paint ;)