Disclaimer: see chapter one.
A/N: Hey there, I hope you guys have a fantastic weekend and Memorial day. Thank you to those that reviewed the last chapter you know I love hearing what you guys have to say. I apologize in advance for any errors in this chapter, I'm trying to do like five different things at once.
Steve woke up with a start as he heard a crash coming from downstairs. He sits up and waits wondering if he had imagined the sound when he hears a quieter thud and grabs his gun quietly slipping out of bed and quickly making his way down the stairs. He flips on the light when he hits the bottom stairs and aims his gun at the intruder.
"Damnit Steve you scared the shit out of me." Mary hissed grabbing her stubbed toe and shielding her eyes from the light. Steve looks at Mary and lowers his gun.
"What the hell Mary? Why are you sneaking into my house? I'm pretty sure you have a key to the front door." Steve asks putting the safety back on his gun and going down the rest of the stairs and heading into the kitchen.
"I couldn't find my key." She lamely replied taking the icepack that Steve was offering her and gingerly pressing it against her big toe.
"What's going on?" Danny asked rubbing the sleep from his eyes stopping halfway up the stairs. Both Steve and Mary couldn't help but snicker at Danny's bed head, making him immediately try to smooth his unruly hair.
"Sorry Danny, I couldn't find my key so I tried to sneak in, I forgot that my brother used to be a ninja."
"You should know better than to try and break into Super SEAL's house. I'm convinced he's got booby traps set up around the house to alert him about someone trying to break in."
"Mary did that all on her own with running into every piece of furniture from the back door to the living room." Steve joked the adrenaline finally leaving his body making him feel tired; it was 2 in the morning after all.
"Well Mary it's great to see you and all, but our bed is calling my name and I cannot neglect it. So goodnight or good morning whatever the hell it is and we'll catch up at a more normal hour okay? Steve, lock the back door before you come back to bed will you?" Steve nodded as Danny turned and with a final wave trudged half asleep back up the stairs. Mary turned and smiled at the soft look at spread over Steve's face.
"It's a good look for you." Mary commented testing her toe before slowly making her way over the kitchen to put the icepack back in the freezer.
"What?" Steve asked not sure he heard her as he turned to make sure that the back door was in fact locked.
"Being in love and happy. It's a good look for you, makes you not as scary."
"Thanks, I think. Now come on, I'm tired and I'm guessing you are too." Mary nodded and followed her brother up the stairs once he had checked that the alarm was set and the front door was locked.
The next morning Danny woke up and smiled as he smelled the aroma of fresh coffee coming from downstairs. He looked towards the bathroom expecting to see the door closed the shower running, but the door was open. Danny sat up confused, Steve usually started coffee after his workout so that it was ready by the time that Danny was in the shower, but Steve was nowhere to be found. It wasn't until he was halfway out of their bedroom before he remembered that Mary had shown up in the wee hours of the morning.
Mary looked up from her phone and smiled at Danny with her coffee cup. Danny raised his hand in a half assed wave on his way into the kitchen; he needed caffeine before he even tried having a conversation this early in the morning. Once he had at least a cup of coffee in his system he grabbed a fresh malasada on that found their way onto the kitchen counter.
"Morning Danny." Mary tried to greet as Danny sat down at the table across from her.
"Good morning, Mary. Thanks for the malasadas." Mary chuckled already hearing Steve's lecture about eating such unhealthy food for breakfast.
"Consider it my apology for waking you up this morning."
"Eh, we've all been there. Plus I bet Steve scared the shit out of you." Mary nodded taking another sip of her coffee. "So how long are you in town for this time?"
"I've got a week off and I thought I would check in and see how Steve was doing. The last time I was here was during the whole 'I love him but refuse to admit it phase'. Oh and congrats by the way for being the first one with the balls to admit your feelings, you surprised the hell outta me." Danny smiled and chuckled at Mary. "On the other hand Steve was the emotionally stunted one."
"Yeah but you gotta love the goof. And thank you for taking some sense into your bonehead of a brother. If not for you getting the ball rolling it probably would've taken more than me being shot and falling from a balcony for him to realize he couldn't wait."
"Sometimes even Navy SEALs need a swift kick in the ass to figure it out. So I guess I should welcome you to the family then huh? I heard that Steve met the Williams clan and survived, so it's only fair that I do the same."
"Is this the part where you tell me if I hurt him, you hurt me?"
"More like, you hurt him I send Sam, his Navy SEAL buddy from LA after you. And trust me that man can be way scarier than Steve, I learned that the hard way."
"Of course Steve would have a buddy out there to check up on you. But I promise I won't hurt him, I wouldn't survive this shit with Rachel if it wasn't for him."
"Yeah Kono mentioned that something was going on with your ex and I'm sorry to hear that. Grace is such a sweet girl that I hate to see her surrounded by such negativity." Danny took another bite of his doughnut and nodded, he completely agreed with Mary.
"It's the nature of the beast with an ex like mine, but we're getting by and Chris Henderson has been a huge help."
"I remember Chris, he was Steve's best friend growing up and he was so cute." Mary gushed smiling at the memories of her childhood spent in paradise, she had such a crush on Chris when she was younger and she couldn't believe that he was still on the island. "Oh man, you should see some of the pictures of him and Steve. Hold on I know exactly where dad put the photo albums after mom died!" Mary exclaimed quickly standing up and flying up the stairs. Danny looked down the beach wondering if he could see Steve as he waited. "Found them!" Mary exclaimed a large smile spread across her tan face. She placed four large photo albums on the table before quickly refilling both their coffees and grabbing the box of malasadas.
Danny grabbed one of the albums and began flipping through them. He smiled at the photos of Steve indeed being held as a child, and Steve was such a handsome little baby. Yet it was hard to see how the sweet happy baby in the photos had become the man that Danny loved. Mary quickly found the embarrassing photos ranging from Steve as a baby to Steve as a young boy and Danny was in tears from laughter.
Steve stopped at the edge of the lanai and grabbed his towel. He glanced into the house and smiled at the sight of Mary and Danny sitting at the table looking over what appeared to be photo albums. It was nice to see Mary and Danny getting along and bonding. But as Steve opened the door and heard Danny's relaxed laughter he knew that Mary had decided to show Danny the more embarrassing photos of himself.
"Good morning." Steve greeted standing a few feet away from Danny and Mary, who both looked up with laughter dancing in their eyes trying to stifle their laughter before failing and falling into another fit of the giggles. Steve's smile fell a little bit knowing that he seemed to be the butt of the joke.
"Babe, you were such a cute baby and a little hellion as a child. It's no wonder you drive me crazy all the time." Danny joked knowing that Steve didn't like it when he thought people were laughing at him. And Danny didn't want to ruin Steve's good mood with his sister here. Steve gave a little smile as Danny got up and made his way over to him wrapping his arms around him and pulling him close. "I apologize for thinking that the photos you claimed to have as proof that you were held as a child were photoshopped. You also look so much like your mom babe, no wonder you're gorgeous." Steve shook his head and looked over Danny's head at Mary who only smiled in return and shook her head at the two.
Steve was about to reply when his phone rang making both Steve and Danny groan, the only reason that Steve's phone rang this early on a Saturday morning was if they had a case. Danny really didn't want to go into work today. "McGarrett." Steve's gruff voice answered his eyes trained on Danny, they both had similar faces and thoughts. "Oh hey Chris, sorry I thought we were being called into work. What's up?" Danny looked up in surprise at the mention of Chris, he had a feeling that if Chris was calling he had bad news. "Um yeah we can meet up today. Why don't you just come to the house? 11 should be fine." Steve answered not giving Danny any clues as to what was going on, he hated only being able to hear one side of a conversation. "Alright we'll see you then." Steve hung up and sighed locking eyes with Danny.
"What's wrong?" Danny's stomach clenched at the thought of there being bad news.
"Chris wants to talk about some things, he says it's nothing bad but still it must be something if it warrants a Saturday meeting." Danny nodded and sighed falling into his open chair.
"I bet it's nothing serious, you guys should really relax. Whatever it is you'll get through it. Plus I'm here so if it is bad three heads are better than one." Danny looked up and smirked at Mary.
"You just want to see if Chris is still as good looking as you remember him. Don't even try to deny it I'm well versed in how McGarrett's work with attraction." Danny chided sharing a small smirk with Steve before he went up the stairs to shower and get ready.
Chris arrived just as the coffeemaker beeped. "Nice timing Chris." Danny joked as he answered the door as Steve got a tray ready for them to take their coffee and treats outside. It was a beautiful Hawaiian morning and Steve thought it would be a shame to get bad news inside. Chris's only response was to chuckle as Danny led him through the living room and towards Steve and Mary.
"Hey Chris, you remember my sister Mary right?" Steve introduced passing Danny a cup of coffee made just the way he liked it. Chris turned towards Mary and smiled extending his hand.
"Hey Mary, I didn't know you were back on the island."
"I'm actually only visiting for the week." Chris nodded and both shared a small smile, Mary could feel her childhood crush coming back with a vengeance. Chris was even more handsome then he had been all the years ago and Mary felt her heart beat a little bit faster.
"That's a shame, I couldn't imagine being able to spend any long lengths of time away from this place. It really is paradise on earth." Mary only nodded reminding herself not to giggle like a little girl. "And I'm sorry that I had to interrupt the family reunion, but I didn't think that this should wait until Monday."
"We appreciate it, would you like some coffee or malasadas?" Steve offered as Chris took a seat across from Mary. Chris took a cup of coffee and waited for everyone to be settled before starting in why he was there.
"I talked to Rachel's attorney about her reaction to our thoughts of changing the custody agreement and he and I went back and forth for a couple of days trying to figure out how to deal with this situation. Rachel doesn't seem to see a problem with her reaction, she thinks that she has very right to try and talk to you since she is Grace's primary caregiver, but I was quick to remind Harold that she was in fact harassing Danny. So Rachel then said that if you couldn't talk to her then she didn't see how you would be able to pick up Grace for your scheduled visits, since that would require you to speak with her. And let me just say Danny that I can see why you are so quick to lose your temper with her, she can be a very infuriating woman when she doesn't get her way."
"So she's trying to eliminate my visitation because I won't let her yell at me?" Danny asked after checking with Steve to make sure that he had heard Chris right.
"Yes, I actually laughed when Harold told me that and I think even he found it a little ridiculous. So he and I took some time to work out a way that you don't have to talk to Rachel unless absolutely necessary and still get to spend your agreed upon visitation. On the days that Grace is supposed to be with you, their housekeeper will greet you at the house or meet you somewhere if necessary and this would probably just be for the weekend visits because you already pick Grace up from school on Wednesdays." Steve and Danny nodded. "I assume that you've had some contact with Helen right?"
"She has a slight crush on Steve; she always smiles and giggles when she sees him at the house. I have no problem dealing with her because she's such a sweet woman." Chris nodded giving Danny the paper with her contact information on it for them.
"We're still agreed that we're going to wait on actually filing the paperwork for joint custody right?"
"Yes, I want to see if we can't make this arrangement work and if Rachel causes more problems then I want to go ahead with the petition for joint custody. The less waves I have to cause for Grace right now the better." Steve nodded giving Danny all the silent support he could. He was standing behind Danny all the way in whatever he felt was best for Grace in this situation.
"How is Grace doing?"
"She's doing well, she sees Victoria every other week and they're finally starting to talk about the divorce and how Grace feels about things going on between Rachel, Steve, and I."
"She told me that she likes talking to Victoria because she isn't afraid to hurting anyone's feelings with her. You can tell that she's not carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders and she seems a little bit happier."
"That's good, I'm glad that she's opening up about it. And I know you don't want to hear this, but if we do go to court I'm going to call Victoria to talk about Grace's feelings on this whole affair."
"I know, and I understand. I think it's about time that Grace get to have some input into this whole mess. She's the one that will be affected the most and I want to make sure that we know what she would want." Chris nodded and finished off his coffee.
"Let's hope that things quiet down for a little bit, but if not don't hesitate to call. I'll let you guys get back to enjoying your weekend. Mary it was great seeing you again, we should catch up before you leave, here's my number." He quickly jot down his number and slipped it towards Mary before turning back to Steve and Danny. "I'll check in with you guys next week after Grace's visit so we can see how it went. Hopefully I won't have to hear from you before that." Steve and Danny stood shaking his hands with Steve following Chris to show him out. Danny turned to Mary and smiled at her.
"I knew it, you've still got a thing for him." Danny commented ducking to miss the balled up napkin that Mary had thrown at him. "Hey! Do not throw things at me!" Danny picked up his own napkin and chucked it at Mary hitting her in the face.
"I can't leave you two alone for a minute." Steve commented shaking his head as he picked up the tray carrying it back into the house. "I'll say it again; I think it's sad that I'm the adult in this situation." Steve called behind him a large smile spread across his face for a moment he wished that Mary was here all the time. Mary and Danny looked at each other before each exclaiming that the other started it. Steve laughed at the child like tones each had, yeah they were in a really shitty situation right now but that didn't mean that it was going to completely take over their lives. Rachel would be pissed if she knew that for the first time in awhile, she was not the center of their world right now.
A/N 2: like always let me know what you thought, Mary's potential romantic involvement with Chris was purely accidental it just happened as I wrote this. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and have a great day ~thatredheadgirl~