~H50~
Chapter 5
Steve had driven barely a mile, trying to figure out how to start the needed conversation with Eric, when he glanced to the passenger seat to see Eric nodding off with his head against the door. Deciding coffee would definitely be needed to keep himself awake as well as Eric, Steve pulled into the parking lot of the next all-night convenience store he saw. When Eric didn't even twitch to the silence of the engine shutting off, Steve decided he would just lock and alarm the doors and hope the teen would either be asleep or too drunk to extract himself from the truck before he got back.
A few minutes later Steve was approaching the truck again, balancing the drink carrier holding three coffees and a bottled water in one hand, while shoving his phone back into his pocket with the other hand before he could get the truck door open. Danny had been understandably upset during their quick phone call, but Steve was hoping his friend would have time to calm down a bit before he and Eric got to the house.
Eric jerked awake and upright as Steve slammed his door shut and turned over the engine. Getting back on the road, Steve didn't want to waste any more time since Eric was awake again, so he broke into the silence that still lingered from when they had left the bar. "Eric, hold these drinks. I need you to start drinking as much of that water as you can right now."
As Eric cracked open the 1-liter bottle of water, Steve couldn't hold back his questions any longer. "Eric, I found the pack of Longboards in Danny's car. Did you take those from Danny's house?"
Eric finished the large gulp he was in the middle of, then took a breath. "Nah, man, I picked 'em up in that other convenience store down the road from where you just stopped for the coffee.
Steve's thoughts jumped to the confiscated ID sitting in his pocket, but would save that for later. His tone sharpened with his next inquiry, "One bottle was empty—did you at any time get behind the wheel tonight after taking even one swallow of alcohol?"
"No, dude, I swear. I just drank the one in the lot at the bar after I parked. Wasn't sure if it would help get around the bartender with my ID if he knew I'd already gotten some alcohol somewhere else first. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't—I've seen it go either way for my friends back in Jersey." Eric was still drunk enough that he wasn't really affected by the sharp and intense vibe Steve was giving off at that moment, and his answers had started to ramble on a bit.
At Steve's next question about the fake ID being from Connecticut, Eric didn't even think about all the information he was spilling to the Commander. "Back home my buddies and me wouldn't just use our fakes around Newark and Jersey City and 'Lizabeth. Sometimes we'd go out to bars in Brooklyn or Queens, too—not Manhattan though, most of those are too pricey. And tourists! Man, it is not fun to hit bars filled with tourists. We'd also go up to Boston some weekends. Having an out of state license always seems to help, since the bouncers and bartenders weren't always used to seeing them everyday, and Connecticut was the state that worked the best for where I was using it."
Steve almost did a double take after Eric finally took a breath and cut off his flow of words. Steve could definitely pick out the family resemblance, or maybe just Danny's influence, in the kid's long-winded response. Forging ahead, Steve asked the question that had been bugging him since he'd answered Eric's call. "Why did you call me instead of Danny? You met me less than 24 hours ago, and we haven't spent all that much time together yet."
Steve glanced over to see Eric fidgeting with the drink carrier, then stalling a little by opening the water bottle for another long swallow. "I dunno. I guess I thought maybe you wouldn't yell as loud as Uncle D, and maybe you wouldn't have the urge to re-arrange my face when you arrived…not that Uncle D has ever hurt me or anything, but this would probably be the kind of thing that might finally make him…and you ain't family, but you're Uncle D's partner, so maybe you could give me a little buffer zone without arresting me? … … It might've made more sense in my head before I decided who to call."
"Ya think?!" Steve couldn't hold in his outburst in response to Eric's admission that the reasons no longer made sense.
Eric barely paused with Steve's interjection, "I can't really remember now what all of my reasons were, but I'm pretty sure I was freaking out a little on top of being buzzed. Uncle D can really yell when he wants to…" Eric trailed off a bit, then turned to look out the window and muttered the rest of his words so Steve had to strain to hear, "and he's-kinda-the-reason-I-wanted-to-go-drinkin'-in-the-first-place."
Steve took a moment to digest Eric's run-together mumbling, but managed to get the gist of it. While he could make an educated guess at the core of Eric's issues, he didn't want to delve into them yet. That conversation would take a lot longer than the time they had remaining on the ride. And as much as Steve loved butting into Danny's issues, counseling Eric was something he didn't want to intrude on without first running it by his best friend. Instead, he decided to stick with the original question of why Eric thought he'd be better off with Steve than with Danny.
"Has Danny ever told you about how I run Five-0, and what I did before I came back to Oahu to run the task force?"
"Yeah, sure. He calls you crazy, but usually effective." Eric paused to take a drink from his coffee cup. "And you used to be a SEAL in the Navy. What's that gotta do with pickin' me up from a bar?"
"Obviously Danny has watered down most of his complaints, or you just weren't paying attention. With Five-0, I was given immunity in how I decide to catch and interrogate hostile suspects. My background is in intelligence and apprehension of terrorists, and just like Danny I can be loud, demanding and scary when I want to be." Eric just quirked an eyebrow, like he couldn't totally see the 'scary' part of Steve yet.
"In waking me before two in the morning after just clearing a case, you have not endeared yourself to me. Since Danny is Ohana, I was already planning to include myself in some of his efforts to help you straighten out your life. But now you have pulled me in with a personalized invitation and I definitely plan to be directly involved, however Danny will let me, in what he decides for your punishment."
Eric looked back down at the tray of coffees as Steve continued. "And since you dragged me into your mess just to try to get around Danny, I feel I have the right to see if Danny will mind me adding my own ideas for retribution to anything he deems necessary after this stupid stunt you pulled tonight. And trust me when I say I won't be going easy."
Eric looked up again at the end of Steve's proclamation, and blanched when he noticed that they were pulling up into Danny's driveway. The living room light was shining through the night that surrounded the otherwise-dark house. "Aww Steve! I thought you weren't gonna call Uncle D!"
Steve threw the truck into Park, shut off the engine and re-claimed the drink carrier holding the remaining two coffees. "Never said that. I agreed to not contact Danny until after I had picked you up—and I didn't. I did, however, call him from the convenience store where I purchased the coffee."
The steel returned to Steve's voice as he turned to Eric and continued on, "Now, you will start to show a little respect to both myself and Danny, as being respectful to your elders never hurt anybody and you are already in deep shit with both of us. Until I indicate otherwise, you will only refer to me as Commander or Sir." Eric sputtered a little of the coffee that he had just taken a drink of. "No more 'bro' or 'man' or 'dude' or 'aww Steve'—it will be 'Commander' or 'Sir', and I will be requesting that Danny set aside some extra time for me to train in a workout with you tomorrow, where every infraction to those honorifics will add on more reps. Do you understand?"
After just a small pause, Eric let out a hesitant, "Yes".
"Yes, what?"
Eric shifted uncomfortably. "Yes, uh, Sir."
"Better. Now for Danny—until he says differently, I want you to stick with a full 'Uncle Danny' or 'Sir'. Respect is going to be the key here, and sarcasm and whining of those titles will not be tolerated either. No more 'Uncle D' until Danny says your punishment from him is complete." Steve paused and waited for an answer from the shocked teen. "Did you get all that?"
"Yes…Sir."
Steve knew the honorifics were a new concept for Eric. Not really an unknown idea, just one that nobody had forced on him before. With that in mind, Steve did not mention the hesitation in Eric's response. "Alright, I want you to say back to me the highlights of what I just laid out for my expectations of respect. I need to know that you at least heard them tonight, even if you need the reminder when you wake up hung over in the morning.
"Okay, um, only call you Commander or Sir, only call Uncle Danny by that or Sir. …No sarcasm or whining when I say your names. And not calling you guys by one of those names will lead to lots of exercise."
"That's a good start. Now we will go into your uncle's house and we are all going to discuss tonight's actions…and possibly also some consequences. It's a good bet that recent past behavior is also on the table, though we might wait for a decent hour of the day to delve into that can of worms.
"One last thing I want you to think about for me. If Danny had woken up on his own for some reason tonight and found that both you and his Camaro were not at home, do you think he would only be mad? Or do you think he would also be worried sick about you. As it is now, Danny will mostly be just angry. Oh, he'll worry about all the possible what-ifs, but he now knows that you were found safe, and that you were with me for the trip back here. Be very glad that anger is the main emotion you are dealing with this morning." As Steve finished talking, Eric had the grace to look ashamed at the thought of Danny worrying over him.
Steve reached out and laid a hand on Eric's shoulder to regain his undivided attention. "When we get in the house, you are going to apologize to Danny. Then you are going to shower and brush your teeth, get into the clothes you will sleep in, and you will be back at the dining room table within fifteen minutes to talk to us. Now let's go inside, and remember to be respectful."
~H50~
To be continued…
A/N: Next up, Danny gets caught up on the night's events.
