I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or any characters. No copyright infringement intended.

Notes: Yes, there will be whumpage coming - definitely Danny and likely both the way things are going. We would have been there by now if not for this stupid personal need for DETAILS. ;-) But the muses promise EPIC whumpage when it does occur! (in 2 chapters roughly I'd say).

H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O

Chapter Fourteen

He saw her standing on the beach during his return trip and almost went under in sheer surprise as a wave washed directly into his face. He was stunned by the surprise visit and accidentally inhaled a bit of water from a second mis-timed stroke. She was shading her eyes from the sun and obviously searching for him. She began to wave frantically with both arms when she spotted his head between the next gentle rise and fall of the swells. His swim had been purposefully shortened to not aggravate the tenuous return of a full blown migraine; he'd also been warned about taking his time in getting back to a more strenuous exercise regimen. At first resentful of the restrictions, Steve was now thrilled as he paused mid-stroke to wave back to Grace on his trip to shore.

"Uncle Steve!" Grace was wearing shorts over her bathing suit as she waded in to greet him. She was beaming as he swept her up and she anchored her legs around his waist.

"I missed you." She voiced it as if it were entirely his fault and Steve's grin widened. "Danno said you were really sick. Are you supposed to be swimming?"

Her eyes were full of laughter, but her tone was decidedly severe in case he wasn't yet allowed to go in the water. Loaded with innuendo, it was reminiscent of the "hand caught in the cookie jar" tone from his youth. Forty-two had almost become forty-three full days and Steve smiled into her partially serious face realizing even more how much he'd missed her.

"I missed you too, Grace. And yes, I can go swimming as long as I'm careful. What do I owe this absolutely fantastic honor this morning?" He kissed her forehead before looking over her head to spy Danny and Chin on the lanai. He had assumed someone would swing by to pick him up for the drive back to the offices. However, they - and likely Danny - had obviously coordinated some plan to return his pickup truck and he couldn't be more ecstatic as he set Grace on her feet and grabbed up his towel from the sand.

"We brought your truck back and Danno thought we could stay awhile? If you do feel better?" She ended it on a question and he ruffled her hair happily.

"You bet, Gracie. Stay all day or stay the weekend ... we're going to do whatever you and Danno want!" Grace's face fell slightly and he stopped walking to question her.

"What's that sad look for?" At first he was afraid Danny had reneged and was on the verge of a mere five-minute visit, but Grace dismally explained what was really happening.

"I have to go home tonight instead of tomorrow. It's Stan's birthday." The unspoken complaint was obvious though Grace did love her step-Stan too. She simply had no way of being in two places at once. So, she and Danny would need to lose part of their already brief time together.

"I have to be home by five o'clock to change for his special dinner. We're going to his favorite restaurant and some of his friends are coming too." She was torn and Steve recovered quickly knowing that Danny would be the one needing more molly-coddling in the end.

"I'm sure the birthday party is going to be great fun and it's very very important that you be there." Grace could only nod because the adults were the ones doling out her immediate life plans. Trying to encourage her in the hectic balancing act between parents, Steve gently tickled her ribs. "It's a party .. how could you not want to go to a party!"

"I guess so." He got a tiny smile. "Mommy ordered a chocolate cake, too."

"I bet it's a lot of fun, Grace." His next question shook the sadness from her voice and he had her really smiling again seconds later. "So tell me - how was your movie last night? I want to hear all about it."

She chattered endlessly as they walked back and they were both smiling from ear to ear when they reached the lanai. Chin was laughing about something and giving Steve a meaningful look and he knew by the stern expression on Danny's face he was on the verge of an outburst. Arms folded, Danny's face was quizzically serious as he eyed Steve's wet hair and then pointed to the ocean.

"Really?" Steve grinned foolishly at the sarcasm. Danny squinted as if he could actually measure if his partner still had a migraine.

The one word was definitely the prelude and then Steve had to replay his entire repertoire for Grace's father again. His warm welcome of Chin and Danny was utterly ignored as Danny tugged on the wet towel. Grace giggled as she watched him and then listened as he almost mimicked her word for word.

"Swimming? Are you cleared for swimming? Because I don't remember that being the case .. so soon. You've been under the weather ... especially after the whopper of a migraine you had yesterday. Is a near drowning going to be your encore performance?"

"Yes, Danny. No, Danny!" Eyes raised towards the heavens, Steve looked to Chin who was laughing openly by that point. With an ever-increasing smile, Steve joined him much to Danny's continued aggravation.

H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O

That Monday morning, Steve softly cursed under his breath when he saw the Camaro already parked in the lot and he had a brief unsettling thought that Danny might have actually slept over at the offices Sunday night. He, Chin and Grace had stayed with Steve for the bulk of the day on Saturday. After having brought two boxes of the obligatory pastries for breakfast, they all piled into the truck to gather more than enough food for an elaborate mid-afternoon barbecue.

Danny had been amused as Grace fell asleep in the lounge chair after eating two hot dogs. The visit had been a balm to the entire team, especially when Kono arrived also unexpectedly. Running late at that point, Danny only gently woke his daughter to leave for her mother's house with a briefly unhappy expression that only Steve recognized. Then no one had heard from Danny for the short balance of the weekend. With the fairly necessary change in his visitation schedule, Steve didn't doubt that Danny had actually gone into the office to work. Once again he needed space and once more, he dove into work. Seeing the Camaro earlier than his own arrival irked him slightly as he made his away upstairs.

As he entered the main area, Steve felt himself duly measured when he strode into his office.

"You look good." For some reason, Danny's quiet comment rubbed Steve the wrong way and he had to stop himself from reacting negatively. Especially when he found the obligatory paperwork neatly stacked on his desk as Danny leaned casually in his doorway before he could even take a seat behind his desk. For the amount of documentation waiting for review, he was positive now that his partner had buried himself in the Jameson case.

"You've been busy." Choosing to allow his partner the distraction from his visitation woes, Steve remark was dry and only meant for the short stack of files. "What is all this?"

"The old man's going to be at the apartment this morning. He wants HPD's permission to rip the place up and begin renovation. A unit stopped at Max's request to get more samples and fibers from the carpet and they ran into the landlord who got right on the phone because he thought we were done." There was a hint of amusement in Danny's voice regarding the idea of the tiny apartment actually being renovated. The entire building known as Vernon Fields would need to be razed for any significant improvements to ever be made.

"I'd like to take another drive out there before we grant him permission." They had no real reason to bring the elder Jameson in, but the impromptu meeting afforded them an opportunity to personally meet the man and Steve readily agreed. Eric Jameson's purposeful avoidance was one of the major issues that most bothered Danny thus far in the case.

"Is he expecting us?" Steve asked. The small devious grin was welcome, made more special by the tilt of Danny's eyebrow. "Nope. Not exactly, but this happens when one doesn't return official calls."

Danny paused to add another concern. "I did receive an interesting message from Michael Jameson though. He sounds a bit anxious in the voicemail and wants to meet with us today, too. He picked a JoJo's Cafe near the wharf as the meeting place. What's your opinion on having Kono and Chin meet with him while we visit his father?"

'Perfect plan." Steve agreed as he thumbed through files on his desk. They waited for Chin and Kono to arrive to run through the day's plans and a quick recap. After the four had met and shared notes, they split up to go their different ways.

Mid-way down the stairs, Steve coyly targeted the keys held loosely in Danny's fingers. Timing the conquest, he grinned at the stunned 'hey!' before striding quickly out to the Camaro.

"I don't recall forgiving you. Not entirely." Danny growled in mock annoyance.

Instead of immediately replying, Steve shrugged and leered happily over the hood of the car while swinging the keys back and forth temptingly. "My turn!"

He made a show of moving the seat back and rubbing his hands over the steering wheel. With a huge grin, Steve started the Camaro as Danny patiently huffed about his childish antics. But once they got moving, Danny called Mr. Eric Jameson as Steve neared the end of the forty-five minute drive back out to the run-down complex. From Danny's annoyed words, he could tell Jameson was not entirely pleased that they would be meeting him on his property.

"We're pulling in now." He had purposefully timed it so they would be arriving and Danny relayed that fact calmly to the raspy voiced, elderly man before ending the call. The loud, angry tone echoed in the cabin of the Camaro and Danny smiled smugly. "Well, he's certainly not happy about our visit. He sounds ancient, too."

"I actually haven't met him in person. Duke has during standard questioning and he said he's not cooperative and not at all what he sounds like." Pointing as Steve parked the Camaro, Danny commented on the small dark blue pickup truck. The vehicle had a beat-up white cap that was missing it's rear upper hatch door. A ladder was fastened to one side and the tail gate was down to reveal a mess of old tarp and what looked to be nothing more than junk in the short bed.

"That's got to be Jameson's truck." A small beat-up Honda Civic was parked nearby and they could smell something cooking from one of the apartments. As they got out, they took stock of the three workers leaning up against the landlord's vehicle. Coffee in hand, they were joking and laughing with each other in the shade. When the men noticed the Five-0 officers, they waved off-handedly and one moved to take the ladder down from the truck.

"Our Mr. Jameson is quite impatient about getting this cleaned up." Steve made a face though as he watched the three workers outside the truck by its short bed. Dressed almost identically in stained, white coveralls, the men were laughing and smoking as if waiting for permission to begin their renovation. He stopped to study their attire and filed away the lack of logo identification on what looked like painters' or handyman's protective clothing.

"What's missing?" He caught Danny's eye and his partner followed his nod. It could be nothing or it could be something and both were on their guard. Unable to quite put their finger on it, the three seemed out-of-place in the small lot and something was definitely missing from the picture. "Interesting. Let's see what's going on with our new friend."

The scent of a homemade pasta sauce was lingering strongly at the foot of the short staircase to the upper floors and Danny inhaled the air appreciatively. "Someone can certainly cook."

The strong scent of tomatoes and basil stayed with them down the hallway but Danny made a disgruntled face when he saw the balled up yellow tape lying on the floor. They could hear talking from inside the vacant apartment and Danny knocked loudly.

"Mr. Jameson. Five-0. Open up please." The muffled conversation ceased instantly as the door swung open quickly and Danny tried not to gawk.

As for Jameson's impressive size, Duke hadn't been kidding. Danny came face to chest with the formidable proprietor of the dismal Vernon Fields property as he was forced to take three steps backwards and directly into Steve. Another man in white coveralls was standing behind the large elderly man. He wasn't completely dressed in the jumper and the long white sleeved arms were hanging down. Along with his cocky demeanor, the expensive black button-downed shirt was utterly out-of-place for the man's supposed job.

Danny measured both men and instantly didn't like what he sensed. He especially was on guard with the partially uniformed and apparently faked handyman sharing the same space with the Vernon Fields' property owner. The uncomfortable feeling about the men outside in the parking lot intensified as he felt the strong potential for being surrounded and trapped.

"You the ones who called me back after the first two cops showed up unannounced? I just wanted to know if I could clean this stuff out of here. Why'd you bother driving all the way, the hell, out here? Didn't they do enough? Aren't you done yet?" His accent was thick, nondescript and decidedly blue-collar. Jameson could be from any part of the States where education was lacking, the neighborhoods rough, and hard labor the norm. He eyed them with a nasty glare while puffing steadily on a large cigar. His voice was rusty, old and phlegmy but his eyes were much too brightly clever as he studied them in kind.

Clearly hostile and wishing them gone, Eric Jameson folded his thick arms over an even thicker, muscular chest. "So? What do you boys want now?"

The antagonistic attitude raised Steve's hackles and Danny felt him swell up in a tightly controlled anger behind him. Using his own body to block the surge of power, Danny glowered threateningly while settling his hand on the butt of his gun to share a very blatant message with Jameson.

"We seem to be getting off on the wrong foot. That would be a shame." Rubbing his fingers over the holster, Danny was sarcastic as he offered the man one small chance to cooperate. "I think you might want to rephrase that."

~ to be continued ~