A/N: Hey! Guess what? I'm still alive and so is Guardian. Or did anyone actually notice it was missing in the first place?
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters and make no money doing this. I'm just having fun playing with them. All mistakes are my own.
Chapter 83
McGarrett popped out of his office, "It's time …"
"To go get Grace. We know. We'll see you guys for dinner and the after dinner entertainment." Chin and Kono shooed the pair out the door. They would likely be a good twenty minutes early, but nobody in their right mind would suggest they wait.
"No calls," Danny noted as they slid into the Camaro. "That's a good sign, right?"
"As long as it was because she didn't feel the need to call and not because she wasn't allowed to. I'm going to believe that Ms. Jones would have gotten us word if there were an issue, so I'm going to assume that yes. It is a good sign."
Danny looked at his partner closely from the passenger's seat. "You've given this some thought."
"Of course I have. Are you telling me you haven't?" Steve challenged.
"I never said that." Danny smirked. "Personally, I thought we showed great restraint today. We didn't actually enter the school building this morning, we didn't go by to check on things, we didn't even call."
"And we probably stopped ourselves from doing those things several dozen times." Steve countered.
"Like I said, great restraint." Danny laughed. "So game plan for this evening - homework, Alyssa's start, Grace's appointment, dinner, and question review. What am I forgetting?"
"I think that covers it. Makes for a busy evening. Alyssa said she'll just hole up and work regardless of what we're doing and hopefully the review won't take long. Part of me wonders if they will even have received any audience questions. I mean are we really that interesting?" Despite evidence to the contrary, Steve had a hard time believing people were really that interested in Five-0 and their lives.
"You're kidding, right? You do remember that you have quite the legion of adoring fans, right?" Danny teased.
"I think you're exaggerating their numbers." Steve rolled his eyes.
"Only because you remain willfully ignorant." Danny shook his head.
"If you say so." McGarrett goaded him, enjoying their usual banter.
"Oh, I say so. I definitely say so." Danny shook his head at his partner as they pulled into the school parking lot. "Wanna grab a quick cup of coffee since we're here so early?" He pointed to a small coffee shop right across the street.
"Sure." McGarrett climbed out of the car, grabbing Danny's hand as he rounded the front of the vehicle so they could duck across the street.
A few minutes later, the pair sipped their coffee as they leaned against the passenger side of the Camaro. "Hey Danno …" McGarrett started.
"What's up, babe?" Danny turned his head to look at the SEAL, surprised that he wasn't looking back at him.
"Do you think maybe once things settle down that Mom and Dad would watch Grace one evening while we went on an actual date?" Steve's eyes were still fixed on the school as he spoke.
Leaning closer, Danny playfully elbowed Steve in the side. "You know I'm already putting out, you don't have to take me out on a fancy date." He smirked when that made his partner look at him. "Yes, goofy. I'm sure all three of them would think that was an excellent plan. Matter of fact, I'm pretty sure at some point Ma and Grace will order us to do exactly that if we don't suggest it first."
"Knowing Grace she'd manage to plan the entire thing and all we'd have to do is show up." Steve laughed. "Not a bad idea, but I would actually like the chance to plan our first date. Even if we did do things in a completely non-traditional order."
"You mean the part where we moved in with each other, then started sleeping together, and are then going to go on an actual date?"
"Yeah, that's what I mean." Steve shrugged. "Hey Gracie!" He set his coffee on top of the car before leaning down to embrace their daughter. "How was school?"
"It was nice to see everybody. I saw you talking to Nikki's dads. Are they going to come over?" Grace chattered excitedly as she leaned over to give her Danno a hug too.
"Sure are. We sorted it all out via email while you were at school. The three of them will join us for lunch on Saturday. I made sure they knew to bring suits in case you girls wanted to play in the water."
"Awesome!" Grace climbed into the back seat when Danny opened the door for her.
"Let's head home." McGarrett slid into the car, firing up the engine.
*~*~* GUARDIAN*~*~*
As soon as the doorbell rang, Grace grabbed Steve's hand, dragging him with her to answer it. "Excited?" The SEAL asked.
"Yes." She'd zipped through her homework without any prompting as soon as they'd gotten home wanting to have a chance to help Alyssa a little bit before they had to leave for her appointment with Doctor James.
Glancing through the window, Steve could see it was Alyssa waiting on the other side of the door, so he opened without hesitation. "Ready to get started?" He managed not to laugh as Grace immediately reached to help with the supplies the other woman carried. "Need help brining the rest in?"
"I certainly won't turn it down." Alyssa grinned before turning toward the rest of the group. "Hey everybody!" She waved before looking back to Steve. "Back of the car is already open. The four totes need to come inside."
"Got it." The SEAL stepped toward the door. "You two can start getting set up. We'll have to leave in about 45 minutes, but you're welcome to keep working. Like I said earlier, it's likely to be a bit chaotic around here today."
"We'll help." Chin offered as he and Danny approached.
"I operate well with chaos. If it's too crazy I just pop in my earbuds and tune it out." Alyssa called over her shoulder as she followed Grace up the stairs.
By the time the men returned with the rest of the supplies, Alyssa and Grace were already looking at some sketches the painter brought with her.
"It's gonna look so awesome!" Grace practically squealed with delight at what the artist had come up with. "This will be the coolest bedroom ever."
"Wow!" Danny looked at the drawing. "She might be right." The other two men agreed.
"Make sure you're ready to leave at five." Steve reminded Grace before they cleared back out. He'd told Alyssa when they spoke earlier that they would stay out of her way, but if she needed extra sets of hands at any point all she had to do was holler.
"Got it." Grace confirmed as Steve was stepping out of the room before turning back to Alyssa. "Have you done a lot of rooms like this?"
"Nope. I've done murals all over the place, but I've only ever done one other room in a house. I know a lot of kids that would probably love something like this, but most parents aren't quite so open to the idea." She grinned at Grace, easily seeing why Steve and everyone else seemed to adore her so much.
"I couldn't believe it when Daddy told me the idea. My old room was all pink." She practically spit the last word.
"Not a fan of pink, eh?"
"You could say that. Hasn't been a favorite as long as I remember, but having it everywhere I turned the last few years …" Grace stopped herself. "But yeah, it's not a favorite."
"Well, lucky for you there are plenty of other colors for fish. Have you ever seen a mandarin fish?"
Grace shook her head. "I don't think so."
"Hang on, I'll show you." Alyssa grabbed one of her resource books. "They are only about two and half inches long, but they are some of the coolest looking fish I've ever seen." She showed Grace a picture.
"Oh wow. Are you going to put any of them on the wall?"
"I thought I might. They usually hang out in pairs near the bottom, so we'll probably put a set there and there." She pointed to two areas on the drawing. "That should put them where you can see them once the desk is in place, right?"
"Looks like it." Grace smiled. From the picture it looked like Alyssa had planned things carefully to make sure that there would be things behind the desk in case she ever moved it, but it wouldn't be hiding of the really cool parts of the mural. "So where do you start?"
"I'm going to draw outlines of the bigger elements on the wall to make sure everything fits right. If everything checks out, then I'll move on to painting those. Once they're up, we start filling in all the other details." Alyssa pointed to various parts of the picture. "My plan for this evening is to try to knock out as much of the outlining as possible. If all goes well, by the time you get home from school tomorrow there will be a few recognizable pieces on the wall."
"I can't wait to see it!" Grace watched as Alyssa pulled out a few pencils, consulted the drawing again, and then set to work sketching. She was enthralled with the process. By the time she needed to head downstairs to leave, there were two large dolphins and a big section of coral outlined on her wall.
"How's it going up there?" Beth asked as the trio got ready to leave.
"So far so good." Her granddaughter answered. "It's gonna be so cool!"
"Glad to hear it." She smiled. "We'll have dinner ready when you three get back."
"We'll be back." Steve held the door open as the other two walked out before following them.
*~*~* GUARDIAN*~*~*
"Evening doc." Danny greeted Dr. James as she held the door open for them. "How are you?"
"I'm doing very well. How about the three of you? That smile makes me think your first day back to school went well." She addressed Grace.
"It did. Everyone in my class was really nice and Nikki and Katie were really happy that I was back." Grace answered as they went through the second door.
"I bet they were." The doctor nodded as they headed toward their usual area, turning to face Danny and Steve as Grace headed over to one of the tables. "Anything I should know about or are you two okay to find your way to the waiting area?"
"Nothing that we're aware of, so we'll just head back." Danny answered.
"Okay. Barring any surprises or anything specific that Grace wishes to discuss this evening, I'll do my best to wrap up pretty quickly so you three can get back to your dinner."
"That works for us." While they would both stay all evening if Grace needed it, the idea of being able to get home fairly quickly was appealing given that it was the first day back to some version of normal for all of them.
"In that case, you know where to go. I'll come get you when we're done." Dr. James dismissed them before turning to her patient. "So Grace, is there anything you'd like to tell me about today?"
"It went a lot easier than I expected. I'm pretty sure they talked to all the other students before I came back, because aside from Nikki nobody said a word about it. And she didn't really bring it up, it just kinda got mentioned when we were talking." Grace explained. "Speaking of, she's coming over on Sunday with her dads. Daddy and Danno met them today and invited them. She's super excited since we never got to see each other outside of school before. I wasn't allowed to have anyone over before and it was always too much trouble for them to let me go over to someone else's house. Though I never really understood that since Nikki's dads offered to pick me up from school and bring me home the one time we tried."
"Well, I'm glad you're getting to do something with her now. I bet that will be nice." Dr. James was pleased that the men were quickly establishing that they wanted Grace to have friends her own age and be able to have some of the normal things kids liked to do. "I bet you'll be able to have a sleepover sometime soon. I used to love doing that when I was your age."
At the mention of the sleepover, Grace launched into a full update of everything with her room. The doctor smiled fondly as the little girl explained how it was all coming together and was going to be the coolest room ever.
"It sounds like it just might." Dr. James laughed. "So is there anything else we should talk about?"
"I do have one question if that's okay?" Grace looked up rather seriously.
"It's always okay to ask me questions, Grace. That's part of why I'm here."
"I have a friend at school that I'm worried about. I think something might be wrong, but she won't talk to me or anyone else about it."
"What makes you think something is wrong?" Dr. James could tell her patient was genuinely concerned.
"Katie's always been quiet, but Nikki said it got even worse while I was out. We've got some shy kids in our class, but this is different. She never wants to talk about anything that happens outside of school. It's just … I don't know. It's just weird and I'm worried about her."
"Sometimes when something is really wrong, people are scared to tell someone else. They may think it will make them look bad or they may be afraid they'll get in trouble. It's important to just keep trying. Keep spending time with her, and keep being a good friend. Eventually she'll learn to trust that she can tell you things and you won't be upset with her. Most importantly, if you ever get any indication that she's being hurt you make sure you tell an adult."
"I know. If I knew what was going on, I could get Danno and Daddy to help fix it, but they can't just show up at her house because I get the feeling something might be wrong. I'll keep trying though. You're right, at least then she'll know I care."
The pair continued to talk for a few more moments before the doctor went to get her dads.
"Well gentlemen," she paused when Danny snorted from his sudden laughter. "Come on Detective Williams, I know the pair of you can be gentlemen when it's called for."
"I should be worried that you figured us out so fast." The Jersey native retorted. "So how did things go?"
"She's doing wonderfully. I think if all is well at Saturday's appointment we can probably drop to just having those appointments. That way Wednesday evenings will be a bit less insane for the three of you."
"As long as you think that's what's best for her. We'll be here as often as she needs, I don't care what it does to our schedule." Steve replied wanting there to be no question about their priorities.
"I appreciate that Steve, and believe me I would not suggest it if I didn't feel she was in a good place for it. And even when we do move to once a week, you still have my phone number so the two of you or Grace can reach me any time if needed, and we can always have extra sessions as needed. Now, there is one more thing I wanted to mention. Have either of you heard Grace mention her friend Katie?"
"Yes." Both men agreed before Danny elaborated. "Very quiet girl. I think Grace is a bit worried about her, but hasn't been able to get anything out of her."
"Agreed. Grace and I spoke about her not long ago. I know she's been worried, so I try to make sure I'm getting updates in case something gets said that Grace doesn't necessarily put together but might be enough for us to justify an appearance to check on things. Of course, as observant as she is, I doubt she'll miss anything. Why do you ask?" Steve was interested to know.
"She asked my advice on how to handle the situation. It's clear she is very concerned for her friend."
"Thank you for letting us know. Given that and what we already knew, we'll try to figure something out sooner rather than later. I don't like the idea of one of her friends being at risk."
"Me either." Steve agreed with his partner.
"That's good to hear. I figured you two might already be on top of it, but wanted to share the concerns. On that note, why don't you two go fetch Ms. Grace and head home?"
"Yes, ma'am." Steve agreed without hesitation as he ushered Danny toward the hall.
*~*~* GUARDIAN*~*~*
A/N: So hopefully my long absence from this fic hasn't left me slaughtering it on my return. I actually reread the entire story before trying to sit down and write another chapter. Now I just have to keep my fingers crossed that the muse will continue to cooperate so I can get to the intended conclusion of this initial story without another month's long hiatus.
In the mean time, reviews / comments do wonders to keep me motivated and focused! ;)