Disclaimer: see chapter one
Author's Note: Thank you so much to those that reviewed the last chapter, even those that have alerts for this story. It makes me so happy to know that people are reading and enjoying this story.
The ride back to Danny's parent's house helped to calm Steve's nerves, as long as Deb and Dennis liked Steve then he knew the rest of the Williams clan would either fall in line or keep their opinions quiet. Plus Steve will do whatever it takes to make sure that this goes well for Danny, because like he's said before Danny deserves something to go right in his life after the past year. And after all the drama going down with Rachel, Steve will be damned if his own blood hurts him. So Steve's ready to charm the pants off the rest of the Williams.
As they reach the house, Danny's the one that actually begins to feel nervous. He's not sure about the reception, if any at all, that he's going to get from his family. He knows that his sisters were shocked, along with Lauren's husband, when they heard that Danny was now in a relationship with a man and he knows that it probably took them some time to fully come to grips with it. But he can only hope that they're okay with it enough not to cause a scene, because that would just ruin the whole trip. Lauren and Elle's opinions and feelings actually matter to Danny, it's a curse of being the eldest sibling, he has always cared about what his younger siblings thought and felt about his life choices; he only hopes that when they see how happy both Danny and Grace are that they accept Steve as a member of the family.
When they pull up the house, they quietly get out of the car as Steve pulls a tired Grace from the car. It seems as if the excitement from their arrival has worn her out because she's fast asleep, her head resting against Steve's shoulder.
"Hey babe, why don't you take her in the house and get her settled before we unload the car?" Danny suggested, his heart completely melting at the adorable sight of Steve moving very slowly and gently as to not wake the little girl. Steve looks between Danny and Grace before nodding and following Deb into the house so she can show Steve to Grace's room for the week.
The moment Deb opens the door she smiles at her family and tells them to be quiet before Steve enters the house still moving as smoothly as possible. He smiles at the family members as he follows Deb through the living room and up the stairs. Elle and Lauren absolutely melt at the sight of Steve's strong frame moving so gently and fluidly with Grace, treating her as if she were a priceless valuable that could break with any movement. It went a long way in showing them how devoted to Grace and Danny he was, and it earned him major points with the girls who merely smirked at their brother as he entered the house.
"I think it's sweet that Steve's so gentle with Grace." Lauren commented as Danny came towards them. He merely shrugged and pulled her into a hug, glad to finally see her after so much time. It was no secret that Lauren and Danny had a special bond; they were the oldest siblings after all. But if Danny had to pick a favorite sibling, a sibling he was the closet to it would have to be his baby sister Danielle.
"Of course he's gentle with Grace Lauren; he knows how precious she is to me and loves her like his own. He'd do anything for her." Danny replied once he pulled away. He wanted his family to know that Steve was important to him and that they should treat him as such. Lauren smiled and kissed his cheek gently as to make him relax a little bit. She knew that he was already expecting the worst to happen and she wanted him to know that they weren't going to turn their backs against him. They had already lost one brother they were not about to lose another one. Once Lauren stepped back from Danny, Elle stepped forward a large smile spread across her face.
"Come here big bro." She greeted wrapping her arms tightly around Danny's frame, beyond happy to finally be in the same room as her best friend. From the moment Danielle was born, her parents knew that she was going to be just like their eldest and ended up naming her Danielle or Elle as she went by in homage to Danny, who was almost ten years old when she was born and he was already doing so much for this siblings and parents. "True happiness is a great look for you and I'm happy with you." She whispered in his ear.
"Thanks Ellie, you have no idea how much it means to hear that." Danny replied closing his eyes and relishing in the warmth and love from his best friend, besides Steve of course. Ellie had been the first person that Danny had confided his feelings in during a marathon Skype session during a rare time that Five-0 didn't catch a case and she has been supportive from the beginning.
Steve came back down the stairs and smiled fondly as he watched Danny and his sister hug in the middle of the living room. The smile on Danny's face made Steve feel incredibly light and almost forget about the drama waiting for them at home. He wanted to bottle up this feeling surrounding them right now and take it back to Hawaii with them so they could always feel this much love and happiness whenever things got tough.
"That's Ellie, the youngest. She and Danny have always been incredibly close despite their ten year age difference. And Lauren, the second oldest is across the room talking with Ellie's boyfriend Henry and her husband Richard." Deb supplied standing behind Steve on the stairs with a warm smile spread across her face, and a slight twinge in her chest. Her entire family was here with the exception of her youngest son Matt, who was off doing who knows what. She and Steve shared a look and Steve sighed reaching out and squeezing her shoulder, she knew instantly that Steve knew all about the pain that Matt's sudden departure had caused and she knew that it had hit Danny the hardest.
"It's so good to see him happy." Steve whispered effectively changing the subject and alerting Deb that there was something going on at home that was hanging over their heads and it was her turn to comfort Steve.
"We'll talk about it later." She whispered back giving him a little shove into the room, therefore grabbing the attention of everyone else in the room. Danny couldn't help but smile at the nervous look spread across Steve's face; it was incredibly heartwarming and endearing to see Steve show such human emotions. Danny met Steve half way and held out his hand to him with the silent promise that he would be by his side the whole time. Steve felt his body relax the moment that his hand touched Danny's and he squeezed his hand with a fond smile spread across his face.
"Everybody I'd like you to meet my partner Steve McGarrett." Danny started sharing another smile with Steve. "Steve this is my sister Lauren and her husband Richard." Steve reached forward with his free hand to shake Richard's hand and Lauren stepped forward giving Steve a warm hug. "This is Danielle, or Ellie, and her boyfriend Henry." Ellie gave Steve a tight hug, with a whisper of approval before releasing him to shake hands with Henry.
It seemed as they settled in for the family to get to know Steve better that they liked him and his relationship with Danny which was a large weight taken off of his shoulders. But no matter how happy he may be to see Danny surrounded by his family, the nagging voice in the back of his head wouldn't let him forget about the drama going on back at home with Rachel. He's worried about what she's using this time to do and when she's going to hear about Danny's petition for joint custody. Although he's hoping that she does find out about it while they're gone because Steve really doesn't want to deal with that outburst.
"Hey babe, where are you?" Danny jokes lightly shaking Steve's shoulder. Steve, who was looking out the window, turns to Danny with a sheepish smile spread across his face and chuckles lightly, but Danny knows just by the look in his eye where Steve was. Rachel's in the back of Danny's head too and to know that Steve's also worried about it even though they're so far removed from it, it's still there looming over them like a black cloud that they can't escape.
"I apologize sometimes when Danny's talking for a long time I zone out." Steve joked squeezing Danny's hand as a signal to enjoy the moment right now; they'll worry about Rachel when they get back to Hawaii.
"Your sense of humor's improving Super SEAL, I'm proud." Danny smiled cheekily at Steve and they have the whole family in stitches at their playful banter back and forth. It was refreshing for both of them to feel such happiness without the threat of dangerous cases and situations. It was the first time that Steve actually left that he and Danny were in a normal relationship, in which they could have drama free moments and still be happy.
Later that night Steve and Danny found themselves sitting in the kitchen with Dennis and Deb catching up over coffee and Steve knew they needed to tell them about the current drama going on with Rachel, but he wasn't sure how to go about it.
"So how's Rachel handling your relationship?" Dennis asked as Deb placed a steaming cup of coffee in front of him. Both Danny and Steve shared a look trying to figure out how they were going to explain it, when Steve just bit the bullet and opened his mouth.
"If I was pressed to define her actions and attitudes, I'd say horribly. She's jealous and upset that Danny's finally moving on and happy with me of all people. I think she enjoyed it when she had such power over Danny because he was still in love with her, but then I came along and took her power away from her. But she still uses Grace as a pawn in her game to hurt Danny and she's angry that I'm not going anywhere and that I'm going to fight with everything I have to keep them together. She's not going to take my family away from me again." Steve replied referring to the affair last year. Danny looked down at the mention of his affair with Rachel, it wasn't the proudest moment of his life and he'd like to forget the whole mess even happened.
"She's trying to take Grace away from me, us, and there's no way that Steve or I will ever allow that to happen. We've hired a really good attorney, Chris, who not only managed to get Rachel to let Grace come with us this week, but also says that we have a pretty good case for joint custody." Danny took a deep breath finally dropping all his guards about the situations and letting even Steve see how much this whole situation is really affecting it. Steve didn't even need to look at Deb to see her anger, he could feel it from across the table and it was a welcome feeling to know that he's not the only one that doesn't like Rachel.
"How does Grace feel about all of this?" Deb asked a definite edge to her voice.
"Chris suggested that we take her to a counselor to talk about it to someone who won't have their feelings hurt, but you could tell the day that Rachel and I had the huge fight that led to her wanting to change the custody agreement that she was upset. I mean she called Steve in tears because she was afraid that something bad was going to happen, so it was sobering to know just how upset this whole thing makes her." Danny closed his eyes feeling tears prick at the back of his eyes as he thought about how this was affected Grace. He tried so hard to be the best parent to her and knowing that what was going on between Rachel and he was upsetting her hurt him to the core.
Deb reached over and grabbed Danny's hand, tears in her own eyes at the pain in Danny's voice. Steve sat there shocked by the utter despair and sadness in Danny's tone. Laying his hand on Danny's shoulder he pulled the blond towards him and wrapped in a tight hug, as tight of a hug that he could since they were both sitting. But Danny appreciated it nonetheless and wrapped his arm around Steve's waist. "It's going to all work Danny. Grace would never be able to not have her Danno; she loves you too much to ever let Rachel not let her see you." Deb comforted rubbing her hand up and down Danny's arm, feeling his body relax.
"Let it out Danny." Steve whispered rubbing his hand soothingly down his back as Danny took a few shaky deep breaths buried in Steve's chest, talking about it with his mom made it all seem real and the gravity of his fear was finally coming out. Steve continued rubbing his back, even moving his chair closer to Danny's so he could stay wrapped in Steve's arms.
"No matter how much money it takes, I'm not going to let her win. She's hurt Danny enough that I will not allow her the satisfaction of taking the most precious thing in his life away from him." Deb smiled and reached across the table grabbing Steve's clenched fist and squeezing. It made her extremely happy, beyond words almost, at the amount of love Steve had for her son. As a mother to see her son so happy and cared for made her feel so much better about him being so far away from her.
"We know you will son." Dennis finally spoke and clapped Steve gently on the shoulder. "And that's more than we could ever ask for." And with that Dennis was finally giving his approval over Danny's relationship. He knew his oldest son didn't need him to approve of his relationship, but he could tell from the way that Danny's shoulder's relaxed that he still wanted his father to accept his relationship. At the end of the day, Dennis and Deb just wanted their son to be happy and have someone that would love him for everything he was and Dennis knew that Steve wasn't going to pull a Rachel and run when things got too tough.
Now that they had the drama out of the way, they could focus on making the most of this vacation. And Steve could give Danny this surprise for his birthday, a surprise that Danny would love and appreciate for some time.
A/N 2: So what'd ya think? I didn't show much interaction between Danny's sisters and Steve, because it didn't fit the big picture of the story, but if you guys want to see more of them let me know and I'll figure out how to work them into the story. Don't hesitate to let me know what you thought was good or needs to be changed; I look forward to hearing what you guys thought about this story. Until next time ~thatredheadgirl~.