Once they got to Steve's place, he stopped the truck and got out, starting towards his door. He looked to the side, expecting to see Danny, but he wasn't there.

Looking around, he noticed that Danny had not gotten out of the truck. On closer inspection, he could see that Danny was still sitting in the truck, his arms crossed in front of his chest and he was not looking at Steve.

Steve opened the door on Danny's side, wondering what had ticked off his friend. "What's the matter, were you expecting me to open the door for you, My Lady?"

Danny glared at him. "No Steven, when you dragged me all the way here against my will, you never said anything about having Chin and Kono over!"

Steve looked towards Kono's car and Chin's bike parked next to the truck and then back to Danny. "What's wrong with them coming over?"

Danny shook his head, still not looking at Steve. "Nothing, maybe I should just go home." He finished with a small sigh.

Steve put his hand on Danny's shoulder, trying to get him to look at him. "Go home?"

Danny brushed his hand down his face, finally looking at Steve. "Yes! Go home!" He pointed a finger in Steve's face. "I know you, and this is not just an unplanned visit." He kept speaking, while pointing at Steve's house. "You probably already have some kind of party-luau-thing all set up in your backyard, with Kono and Chin wearing the appropriate costumes! And all I was expecting of this night was a couple of beers and a dark corner to sulk in peace!" He drew another sigh, his hand moving to his forehead again. "Now I'll only spoil the entire fun hula dancing you had planned with my awful mood, which will make me feel even worse about life in general. So, yes, I think it would be better if I just went home." He said finally, moving his eyes away from Steve again.

Steve crossed his arms around his chest, studying his friend. "I have to admit you're good. It's not a coincidence that Chin and Kono are here. We were just hoping to unwind after a tough case."

Danny lifted his hands, waving them around. "You see? I'm not a detective for nothing!"

Steve nodded. "You're right. You're a very good detective. So, detective Williams, if I told you that nobody would mind if you went in, had a couple of beers and retired to a dark corner in peace, that it wouldn't spoil the whole mood, that neither Chin nor Kono are going to force you to participate in any merrymaking if you don't feel like it and that there will be no hula dancing, would you come in for a while?"

Danny finally looked at him, raising an eyebrow. "You promise there will be no forced merrymaking?"

Steve lifted his right hand and tried to look convincing. "I promise."

Danny rolled his eyes, finally getting out of the truck. "For your information, the prospect of seeing Kono in one of those coconut outfits would have worked in your favor, but the lack of them doesn't mean that I won't be staying for a while."

Steve chuckled, slinging an arm around Danny's shoulders and leading him inside.

They entered Steve's house, finding Chin watching the grill and Kono taking some beers out of the fridge. "What took you so long, guys?" She said, handing a beer for each of them.

Steve shrugged. "We got caught up in something."

Kono shook her head, smiling. "Alright, keep your secrets." She moved towards the lanai. "Go on outside, the food should be ready soon!"

Steve moved towards the grill, to greet Chin and check how the food was going. Danny stuck to his original purpose for the evening and looking at Steve nodded towards the chairs farther down the little private beach. "I'll be there if you need me."

Steve and Chin nodded. "We'll yell when the food is ready." Said Steve.

Danny sat on a chair overlooking the beach, slowly drinking his beer. He didn't want to close his eyes, because he kept seeing Gracie's face on the little girl they found locked inside that trunk. He knew he was having trouble dealing with this case, and that bottling it all up inside wouldn't help, but apart from Matt, he was not used to sharing his burden with anyone else.

He never used to share his worries with Rachel, which, he figured must have helped on how their marriage turned out. He never discussed it with his parents either, since they were worried enough already with his choice of career. His coworkers usually had their own demons to deal with, and how they dealt with them was each man's own business. Matt always managed to break his defenses out of pure Williams' stubbornness, and only because he managed to get his big brother drunk enough to drop his tough guy façade.

It stood to reason that once he moved to Hawaii, and once Matt had left the picture, he would deal (or not deal) with his demons on his own; finding a dark joint where he could get drunk, trying to distance himself from Grace until he had managed to regain control, and generally shutting everyone out.

He didn't want to be rude with his team. He had noticed long ago that Chin had taken as his own mission to help Kono keep her sanity intact when the cases got too bad, and Kono in turn was all the family Chin had left. On the other hand, Steve probably had some top secret SEAL technique to get over the tough cases. None of them needed him to spoil their mood.

He just kept staring at the sea, drinking his beer and brooding quietly.

Twenty minutes later, a female hand holding a plate with a steak on it appeared in front of his eyes. Danny didn't take the plate, still looking at the ocean. "Thank you Kono, but I'm not really hungry tonight."

The hand deposited the plate on Danny's chest, and he had to hold it to keep it from toppling to the side. "Daniel, you know that it isn't every day that I am willing to bring you food! You should take advantage of the occasion." The voice that answered him made him whirl around on his chair.

Rachel was standing next to his chair with her arms crossed across her chest.

Danny gaped at her for a few seconds before he finally managed to come up with something to say. "Rachel? Wha – How – What? What are you doing here?" He stood up, leaving the plate on his chair.

Rachel raised an eyebrow. "Well, I thought it would be obvious. Steven invited me."

"He invited you…" Said Danny, sounding unconvinced. Looking towards the house, he found his team conveniently engaged in conversation. He looked back to Rachel, glaring. "Whatever happened to that important business dinner to which you had to drag Gracie to, huh?"

Rachel shrugged. "There was a change of plans."

Danny lifted his hands in question. "Change of plans? What change of plans? More to the point, where is Gracie, and what the hell are you doing here?"

Rachel stiffened. "I am here, because someone came to me to tell me that you were having a hard time…"

She was interrupted by Danny. "And what the fuck do you care if I'm having a hard time, huh?"

She raised her voice to match Danny's angry tone. "What do I care? Of course I care! You're the father of my daughter! We were married for 6 years! You are-were the best friend I had!"

She took a deep breath to calm herself, and was glad when Danny didn't interrupt her. "I know I'm the reason you had to come to Hawaii… I know it's my fault that you had to leave everything behind and come over here, to a place you hate, in order to be with Grace. I know that other than Grace, it feels like you are all alone here, and It's my fault, and I'm sorry. I can't tell you how sorry I am for your unhappiness, but you are determined to remain alone. You never let me help you when we were married, and I should have insisted, I should have tried harder, and I know it's part of the reason why we didn't work out, but now I can't let you keep doing this…"

"And what is it that I'm supposedly doing?" Asked Danny in an angry growl.

Rachel raised an eyebrow. "You're doing what you always do. You're always available to help everyone, you are always there to provide comfort, advice or protection to anyone that needs it, but when you are the one in need of comfort, you pull away! You don't let your friends and family help you when you are in need, you'd rather suffer alone than sharing your burden with them… I bet that the only reason Matt ever got you to talk was because he kept pushing you until you finally gave up pretending, and I should have done the same thing back then. Well, I'm doing it now. I'm not going to let you keep doing this. You have a team, they consider you family! And they are going through the same things that you are, and they are willing to listen and help, and… And you have me… I may not show it very well sometimes, but I care about you, and I'll always be there if you need me… I'm not going to let you shut us out again Danny…" She said, her voice breaking near the end of her tirade.

Danny sank down to the chair, holding his head with his hands. He took a couple of deep breaths and lifted tear filled eyes towards Rachel. "You're still a good friend, Rach."

She moved quickly to his side to gather him in her arms.

They talked quietly for about half an hour. Danny told her a little about the case, not going into too much detail, but he promised to let his team help. They talked about getting used to live in Hawaii and about Matt. When Danny yawned for the 10th time, they both decided it was time to go back to the house.

Chin, Kono and Steve were still standing near the grill, having some beers when Danny and Rachel came back. If they noticed their red rimmed eyes they didn't mention it.

Danny looked at them self-consciously. "Listen, guys. I'm sorry if I've been an ass lately."

Kono moved to hug him. "I'll settle for you not being a stubborn ass…" She said, while Chin patted him on the back.

Danny turned to Steve, raising an eyebrow. "McGarrett. You staged a fucking intervention on me."

Steve looked surprised. "I did? Well, that's what family is for, isn't it?" He said, with a smirk.

Danny smiled tiredly. "Yeah… it is…" He shook Steve's hand.

"Listen guys, I'm going to head home, it's been a long week…" He said, stifling another yawn, but was stopped by Rachel's hand on his arm.

"Danny, someone else wanted to see you tonight, but you took far too long to get here." She said, steering him towards the guest room. Once they opened the door, he saw a familiar figure curled up between the blankets.

"Gracie." Breathed Danny.

He moved silently towards her, leaning forwards to place a soft kiss on her forehead. Just as he was about to pull away, Grace turned, and with a softly muttered "Danno" she took hold of her father's arm, pulling him to lie next to her. Danny tried to wiggle to get out of the bed, but she wouldn't have any of it.

Steve was looking from the doorway. "You know you can crash in here whenever you want, Danno."

Danny looked to Rachel for confirmation, noticing her smile. "Stay with her, you know she loves to wake up with you near… I should get going, would you mind having her until Thursday?" She said.

Danny smiled too. "I'd love to… You are going on that vacation…" He said, looking sadly at his little girl.

Rachel caught his attention again. "Danny, we'll be back from our trip on time for your next weekend with Grace, alright?"

Danny blinked confusedly. "You will?"

Rachel sighed. "Of course! I never intended to keep her away from you for too long…"

Danny took a deep, relieved breath. "Thank you Rach…"

Rachel smiled. "Get some rest… we'll talk in the morning… Goodnight…"

As Rachel moved away, Danny turned to Steve. "Thank you too, man… for everything…"

Steve shrugged. "It's nothing you wouldn't have done for us, Danno… Get some sleep, man. You look like death warmed over."

Danny chuckled, toeing off his shoes and finally lying down next to his little girl. "Goodnight…"

He was surprised to realize that even though he woke up that morning feeling like he couldn't be farther away from home, now, just a few hours later, he found himself feeling like home, with the best family and friends he could have ever hoped for. With a contented sigh he closed his eyes, letting sleep claim him.

The End

A/N: If you reached this point, thank you so much for reading!

This story was supposed to be a short two chapter thing about the team getting together to support Danny in a bad time, but got a bit longer than initially planned. I hope you enjoyed the story, or at least were not too nauseated by the sappy ending!

Feel free to leave a review, whether you liked it or not.

See you around!