A/N: Wow! I'll admit I posted chapter 83 shortly before heading to bed and rather expected that after being MIA for so long people would have given up and moved on - instead my inbox exploded with a bunch of you confirming you're still here. YAY! Thanks so much for sticking it out. I'd love to respond to every single review, but given time I could either do that or write a blanket pre-chapter note thanking you all and get the next chapter out. I thought you might prefer the chapter.
Alas, we get to see some of the more ridiculous questions that came through for the interview. Most of the questions that will actually be used for the interview will not be covered in this chapter since they will be covered in that chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters and make no money doing this. I'm just having fun playing with them. My beta reader is awesome, but all mistakes are my own.
Chapter 84
Pulling into the driveway, McGarrett navigated through the other vehicles to park. "Looks like the governor is here already."
"Not surprising. We did tell him to come for dinner." Danny climbed out of the car, giving Grace a hand as she unfolded from the back. "You keep growing and we're just going to have to take the truck everywhere."
"I'm only nine, Danno. I'm gonna keep growing." Grace patted her dad on the shoulder as she took off toward the house.
"I should resign myself to being the shortest person in this family now, shouldn't I?" Danny wrapped an arm around Steve's waist as they followed behind their daughter.
"It's a possibility." Steve squeezed Danny's arm, his own arm slung around his partner's shoulder. "But you probably have a few more years before she makes that a reality."
"I can hope." Danny slipped free so they'd fit through the door, lacing his fingers through Steve's so he didn't have to completely let go of his partner.
"Welcome back." Kono's head popped around the corner from the kitchen. "Grace just went up to wash up for dinner. You've got five minutes before it's on the table."
"Yes, ma'am." McGarrett gave her a quick salute with his free hand. "I guess we have our orders." He followed Danny up the stairs. A few minutes later, they popped their head into Grace's bedroom to see what progress had been made before following the sounds of their ohana back to the dining room.
"Looks like you've been busy," Steve greeted Alyssa as they entered the room. "Are you still planning working more after dinner?"
"Yeah, I thought Grace and I could get a bit more done before she needs to head to bed."
"Something tells me dinner will be quick tonight." Beth laughed as she sat down across the table. "I know someone is anxious to help with her room." She nodded her head toward where Grace sat chatting with Catherine.
Everyone settled in around the table, quickly filling plates with spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread. Knowing there were things yet to do that evening, the usual lively banter around the table was kept relatively calm. Within half an hour, plates were empty and Grace looked like she was ready to grab Alyssa and make a break for her room any second.
"Why don't Paul and I knock out clean up while you lot get to what you're supposed to be doing?" Beth decided to put her granddaughter out of her misery.
"I'll help." Catherine rose and started grabbing dishes.
"You're welcome to join us when you're done." Steve offered. It had dawned on him earlier in the day that they might not want Grace to hear some of the questions. Thankfully Alyssa had promised that she worked best with music on and would make sure that she and the little girl were having enough fun that she wouldn't overhear anything.
"Will do."
A few minutes later, Governor Denning and the Five-0 team were settled in the living room, beers in hand.
"I had George do a cursory sort of the questions. I think he thought he was being clever." Sam handed copies of the questions to the other four.
"Acceptable, consider, probably not," Danny let out a barking laugh, unable to finish reading the final fourth category.
"Fuck no," Kono picked up where the detective left off. "I like George's style."
"All the time he's worked for me, and I've never seen that side of him. I think he was trying to impress you guys." Sam snickered. "So where do we want to start?"
The room fell quiet for a second, everyone listening to make sure the music was going upstairs before they started. Once they confirmed it was, Steve turned back to the others. "I say we start with the fuck no category. Might as well knock the worst out first so the rest is in perspective."
"As twisted as that logic is, the neanderthal is probably right." Danny gave McGarrett's leg an affectionate squeeze.
"Shit!" Kono squeaked as she read the handful of questions George had put under that grouping. "People are way to interested in your sex life." She pointed at Danny and Steve. "What kind of people think it's okay to ask this?"
Chin looked down at the page in his hand, trying to contain his disbelieving laughter. "We're gonna need more booze if these questions don't get better." He shook the page in front of him. "But hey, there's at least one offer for a threesome if the pair of you are interested."
"No. Not interested. I don't share well." Danny glared at Chin even though he knew it wasn't his question.
"What the fuck?" McGarrett growled. "Some pervert wants us to tell them if we've explained gay sex to Grace."
"I haven't explained sex to Grace at all. No. Not even. She's nine!" Danny stared at the paper in outrage. "Please tell me these questions get better!"
"They do, I promise." Sam spoke up. "Though Steve definitely had a point about the other questions being put in perspective by starting with the ones that were so far out of line no rational human being would ever expect you to entertain answering them. I should note that those questions were noted as inappropriate by the station before they sent them over, but they included them based on our request."
"Good to know that they are both not completely nuts and that they did as we asked." Steve shrugged, trying to shift the conversation to a more positive frame before he caved to his desire to find out who had dared to ask such ludicrous questions and teach them some respect.
"Moving on before you two kill someone," Chin spoke up. "The first one in the probably not bunch isn't that bad. They want to know if you two will be having more kids and if so how many."
Danny and Steve both stared at Chin for a moment before turning to stare at each other. "We … I … uh." Steve stumbled.
"I think what he's trying to say is we haven't even talked about things like that yet, so I don't think we'll be giving a bunch of strangers any answers." Danny gave Steve a quick smile. "Relax, babe. Pretty sure we get more than a couple of weeks to figure out the answers to shit like that."
"Yep. Other boss is right about that." Kono smirked. "Though we if get a vote, I think it'd be a blast to have a little McDanno or two running around here."
"Um you do realize …" Danny wasn't even sure how to finish that question.
"Yeah. I know, but still even if it only has one of your genes, if the two of you raise a baby from day one I bet it'll have plenty of both of you."
"She's probably right." Sam laughed. "I can think of worse things to happen to the population of Hawaii."
"Anyway, moving on." Danny shook his head. "They want to know if our relationship is just a reaction to the stress of the recent situation. You know, I'd actually be okay answering that one in some fashion. Maybe not exactly as it's asked, but we know we've gotta talk about us some. Making it clear that this has been developing for a long time seems reasonable."
"Yeah, I'm okay with that." Steve smiled at Danny, both men remembering the many moments that had come before.
"Okay, I made a note on that one." Sam nodded. He was keeping track of any comments and changes to the list.
"Who made the first move?" Kono read another question. "Think they'd believe us if we told them it was Danny's mom?"
"There's no telling what they will decide to believe." Chin pointed out.
"Honestly, I don't know that I really want to get into that kind of detail on television. I know you lot know all about how we finally got together." Danny gave Chin and Kono a pointed look. "Don't bother feigning innocence, I have no doubt you two were in on it."
The cousins looked properly guilty, though clearly not remorseful and Governor Denning just laughed at the four.
"Is Grace bothered by us?" Steve read the next question in the probably not list. "Well obviously we know she's not, but that's still a rather inappropriate question for the interview."
"Agreed." Danny seconded, the other three nodding in agreement as Sam marked it appropriately on his copy. "Lovely, they want to know if we've always been gay."
"Aren't you technically both bi?" Kono countered, rolling her eyes at the question. "Not that it's really any of their business."
"Correct on both counts." Danny concurred. "That's not really a question we want to be answering on television, especially at this stage."
"Agreed. It's not like the answer to that makes any difference. I really don't get people's obsession with knowing if it was some sudden revelation or if we've always known. Nobody asks that question when it's a man and woman dating."
"You're right. Don't believe I've ever had somebody come up and ask me if I've always been heterosexual or if it's a new thing when I start dating someone." Kono's face gave away her general annoyance with the question.
"So that one is a no go." Denning exed it out on the list before finishing off his beer.
"You guys ready for another round?" Cath came in the room, hands full of several of the beers Sam had arrived with earlier.
Everyone grabbed a bottle as she made a quick round through the room before plopping down on the floor and leaning back against the chair Chin occupied.
"Would you rather sit in the chair?" The Hawaiian asked immediately, already starting to stand.
"Nah. I'm good here." Catherine looked up at him as she took a long drink of her beer. "So where were we?"
"I think we got through the worst." Chin handed her his copy of the question, pointing to the ones they'd already reviewed. "It's amazing the things people will ask when they don't have to look you in the eye."
"You aren't kidding." Catherine skimmed over the questions. "Well at least the majority of them actually appear fairly reasonable."
"True. We started with the bad ones. Figured we might as well end on a high note." McGarrett explained, looking over the paper. "Only two more left in the probably not. One asking how Grace is handling her mother's death and the other wanting details of the night Rachel was killed and what happened to Grace." The SEAL's tone made it obvious he wasn't keen on addressing those questions.
"I think a general statement that Grace is back in school and doing as well as can be expected is as much as they're getting out of us there." Danny spoke up. "As for the other, I think we address early on that we will not be getting into specifics of what happened as divulging those details will serve no purpose other than to potentially upset those close to the situation."
"Well said." Sam nodded along as Danny spoke. "If it's okay with you, I'd like to ask Ms. Mahelona to address that point when she tees up the interview. I know she stated she had no interest in getting into specifics around that for those very reasons."
"Good idea." Steve agreed. "The rest of the list is fine with me. You guys agree?" He looked around to the rest of his team, getting easy agreement from all of them.
"Well, since you know the questions, I might recommend you spend some time considering your answers and possibly discuss as a team tomorrow if things are still slow. Having had to deal with plenty of media crap in my day, it's always a good idea to feel prepared though you don't want to come off rehearsed or staged."
"Any other tips for those of us less experienced with stuff like this?" Steve asked, more than willing to get any helpful tips from the governor.
"Avoid looking like you're going to kill someone, be professional, but try to be a bit approachable to. Be willing to talk and give answers, but if anything goes sideways and crosses a line, stand your ground. You four shouldn't run into any issues. She's been vetted carefully and is a staunch supporter both of Five-0 and me. She understands the goal is to give you an controlled environment to share what you are willing and cut off the race between the more unscrupulous types to try to get the dirt."
"Got it. Don't intimidate the nice interviewer, but don't be a push over." Steve summarized.
"Yeah, that covers the basics." Denning laughed. "I am going to try to be on hand, but have one meeting that is proving a challenge to move. Either way, George will meet you at the studio Friday morning and will stay on hand until you leave."
"Once upon a time I would have assumed that was because you didn't trust us." McGarrett quipped.
"Does that mean you understand otherwise now?" Sam asked, curious to know the answer.
"Yes. It does."
"Sounds like the music just turned off upstairs," Beth interrupted as she walked into the room.
"Great timing, I think we just wrapped up." Kono hopped up, grabbing the papers from the others. "I'll just stick these in your office for now." She headed into the other room, not wanting to leave them sitting where Grace might see some of the more questionable things on the list. Kono was back with the others in just a few seconds. "I'll take them with me when I leave and bring them to the office tomorrow. That way you don't have to worry about having them with you when you're taking Grace in the morning."
"Thanks, Kono." Danny pulled himself off the couch as he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. "All done for the night?"
"Sure are." Alyssa had her bag slung over her shoulder. "If it's okay with you guys, I'll be back around nine tomorrow morning."
"They'll be gone dear well before that, but Paul and I will be here so that's just fine." Beth assured her.
"Great. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Governor, it was a pleasure to meet you." She shook Sam's hand before letting McGarrett escort her to the door. "You've got quite a lovely family these days. Your father would be thrilled to see the house this full of life again."
Steve stared down at her, struck silent by her assertion for a long moment. "I sometimes forget that you were around when he was still here. It's been so long."
"I know, and I know you two didn't have the best relationship, but he did love you. He'd be happy to see you now." With that she gave him a tight hug before walking down the sidewalk.
"Daddy," Grace's voice interrupted his thoughts before she appeared at his side. "Are you okay, Daddy?"
"Yeah, Gracie." He reached down, swinging her into his arms. "She just reminded me how lucky I am."
The little girl didn't say anything else, just wrapped her arms around his neck, resting her head on his shoulder as they rejoined the others.
"Alright Monkey, it's bath time." Danny reminded her.
"Yes, Danno." She gave Steve a quick kiss on the cheek before letting him set her back on the ground. "Since it's already kinda late, can we read the next chapter tomorrow night?"
"Good idea, sweetheart." Steve ruffled her hair.
"Works for us." Kono nodded, answering for her, Chin, and Catherine.
Within a few minutes, Grace had given everyone hugs and headed upstairs and the others had cleared out for the night, leaving Danny, Steve, Paul, and Beth standing in the living room.
"On that note, I think I'm going to call it a night." Beth yawned. "I'll fix breakfast in the morning." She gave both her boys a hug before grabbing Paul's hand and leading him up the stairs.
Danny closed the short distance between him and Steve. "So what did Alyssa say that had you looking all thoughtful?" His hands rested on Steve's abs as he spoke.
"She just said she thought Dad would be thrilled to see the house so full of life again." Steve leaned into Danny's touch. "She's right. For all that he was shit at showing it, I know he loved us. He would have loved you too."
"I wish I could have had the chance to know him." Danny's hands slid around Steve's waist, pulling him closer.
"Me too." Steve leaned in, letting his head drop to lean against Danny's. "I love you."
The pair stood in the darkness of the living room for several silent moments, simply sharing that moment.
*~*~* GUARDIAN*~*~*
A/N: Review and comments are always appreciated.