Disclaimer: I still do not own Hawaii Five-0, or any of the characters, places, or events contained therein. Which, as we all know, is clearly for the best.
Note: Well, I wasn't actually sure if and/or how I was going to continue this little bit of heart-warming fluff, but, as a general rule, if I get more than ten responses to a chapter of something I'm writing, and there is anything more left to be written, I will do my best to follow up with another chapter. As you can see, the reviews came in, and so I kept writing. In accordance with the title, I'm continuing on the theme of "waiting." There are other angles from which I'm considering approaching that idea, so if you'd like to read more, just drop me a line! Thanks for your thoughtful reviews so far! Yoroshikuonegaishimasu!
Waiting
The battle was not going well. Lt. Commander Steve McGarrett was suffering defeat after agonizing defeat and he was beginning to despair of any hope of victory.
"War!" his opponent shouted in delight when they put down matching cards, and then she cringed and looked with trepidation toward the door. A particularly nasty nurse had already stopped in once to warn them not to make a ruckus.
McGarrett stifled a half-grin at her antics, but the little girl caught it.
"It's not funny!" she intoned in a loud whisper. "We could get kicked out!"
He raised an eyebrow. "Oh I don't think so. Visiting hours are visiting hours and not even nurse Ratched over there is gonna get rid of us until our time is up!" He ventured a conspiratorial grin but then frowned when he saw her wide eyes staring up and to his right. His eyes mirrored hers. He flicked a finger up, pointing over his right shoulder. Is she...? he mouthed. Grace nodded solemnly.
He spun around with his best apologetic smile. "I'm sorry Nurse..." he looked desperately for her nametag.
"Ratched?" deadpanned the middle-aged woman who was standing there with crossed arms and a scathing scowl.
"Fitz!" he found it a moment too late. "Nurse Fitz, I'm..." he looked at the little girl across from him who was staring very hard at her own lap doing an admirable job of looking ashamed, "we're very sorry. We'll keep it down from now on, I promise."
The irritated nurse sniffed. "See that you do." She intoned imperiously. Then she turned on her heel and left as quickly as she'd come.
After a moment McGarrett turned back to Grace and blew an exaggerated sigh of relief for the little girl's benefit.
Well, mostly for her benefit.
The arrangement he'd made with Rachel to spend visiting hours in Danny's recovery room with Grace was not something he wanted to jeopardize, not for a second.
It gave McGarrett welcome relief from the guilt and regret, the mental playback of the event that put his partner here in the first place, and the self-doubt that pounded him with questions about what he could've (should've?) done differently. Alone, he was tormented; with Grace present he found distraction, and the comforting knowledge that he was able to do something for Danny. He knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that anything he did for his partner's daughter he did for the man himself.
For Grace, well, it gave her the chance simply to be there. While Rachel was willing to stop in with her for the occasional visit, she couldn't bring herself to stay in that room for longer than a few minutes. The pain and anxiety, the very things that had driven her and Danny apart were real and present for her in that room. With Steve there she could retreat to comforting conversations with Stan, content in the knowledge that no power on earth could harm her little girl with the overprotective SEAL in the room.
Grace broke into giggles at McGarrett's expression of relief and he gave her a fake frown.
"You know, a little more warning would've been nice," he chided.
This only succeeded in prolonging her laughter, and before its volume could cause them more trouble, he handed her the pillow that they had earlier designated 'the laughing pillow'. She buried her face in it and let out the rest of her giggles as he sat back and shook his head in wonderment. These Willamses certainly were an expressive bunch.
Finally she looked up from the pillow with a grin, "It's just like Danno says." She fought back another giggle. "You make reeeeeally funny faces!" The look of shock that spread over Steve's features sent her right back into the pillow. He shook it off and turned to glare at his unconscious partner. "Traitor." he whispered at the detective.
The laughter subsided again and McGarrett tapped their makeshift table. "Hey, weren't we in the middle of a war?" he asked, hoping to keep her away from the subject of his 'faces.'
"Uh huh." She said, nodding slowly, as if to a child younger than herself. "And I already went. I'm waiting on you." She imitated his tap, indicating the cards she'd already laid down.
After several uneventful but certainly awkward visiting rounds together with a still-unconscious Danny, they had decided that they needed something to do, and cards had been Steve's default suggestion. Grace had been skeptical, having played many games in her short 8 years of life, none of which had involved playing-cards, but Steve had managed to dredge up the memory of one of his favorite childhood card games and she quickly took a shine to it, especially when she discovered that she could beat 'Uncle Steve' almost every time they played.
"Oh," said McGarrett, surprised to see that she'd already laid down her cards. "Oh..." he said with dread as he saw the final card that was face up- a queen.
Grace grinned at his predicament, a queen was going to be hard to defeat. He laid his cards down one by one till he got to the last, and then he looked up with exaggerated anticipation.
Grace looked from the card to him and back again. "Go ahead," she encouraged impatiently.
He flipped up the card to discover...a four. "Aw...not again." He groaned softly as he hung his head in defeat.
Grace giggled triumphantly as she scooped up the cards she'd won and added them to her ever-growing pile.
"It's because you picked him for your team," she said knowingly, inclining her head toward the still figure in the bed to McGarrett's left.
"What?" asked McGarrett, startled by what, coming from almost anyone else, would've sounded like an accusation.
"Your bad luck." She said brightly by way of ambiguous explanation.
His brows furrowed and he ran a hand through his hair, "Well, yeah, I guess I am. I mean, this wouldn't have happened..." He trailed off, looking down at his dwindling stack of cards, at a loss for how to escape this suddenly awkward conversation.
Grace, however, said nothing further and he was forced to look back at her after a long moment.
He was met with a piercing gaze under a frown of absolute disapproval.
"I mean" she pronounced and pointed at him, "You're having bad luck because you're playing with him on your team and he is really unlucky at games!"
"Right!" He said, at once relieved and embarrassed. "Yeah," he gestured at his partner, avoiding the girl's eyes, "this guy's a total jinx. Next game- he's on your side, and then I'll have a chance."
He leaned in to put down his next card, but instead of answering with a card of her own both of the girl's hands darted out and captured his hand, holding it fast.
He looked quickly from his hand to her face which was screwed into the same devastating frown.
"You need to stop feeling bad about Danno." She said with the forceful determination of a child trying to express something terribly important that she didn't fully understand herself. "You're not bad luck, ok? Danno says he's lucky to be on your team! He told me you're the best partner he ever had." Her eyes shone with sincerity, and no amount of guilt or self-loathing could tear him away from the love and forgiveness in that gaze. "So no more being sad! Got it, mister?"
He nodded solemnly, not breaking eye-contact, but not quite ready to trust his voice. He slowly sat back, drawing his hand away, but she gave it a firm tug and narrowed an eye. "Got it?" She repeated.
"Got it." he answered with a tentative smile.
"Good!" She gave him a satisfied grin and released his hand to snatch up her cards with relish.
At that moment, from somewhere to his left, a weakly thrown punch came and connected with his shoulder. He looked over in surprise to see a groggy but conscious Danny looking over at him and pointing an unsteady finger at his daughter.
"Don'"... he coughed slightly, trying to find his voice, "Don't listen... to a word she says." Even though it had been said softly, McGarrett heard the smirk in his partner's voice.
"DANNO!" Grace exclaimed and leaped up, pile of cards scattering over the floor, forgotten. She rushed to her father but was brought up short by a small warning-cough from Steve. She looked at him, nodded sagely, and then made the last step over to Danny's side with the fluid calm of a dignitary. Slowly and carefully she wrapped her arms around the parts of his chest that were bandage-free and nuzzled into him.
"Monkey." He said into her hair as he planted kisses on the top of her head and stiffly but surely began wrapping his arms around her.
Steve's smile started as a half-grin but in moments it consumed his entire face as he gave Danny's good shoulder a light squeeze.
The man who had spent the last several days looking like death warmed-over, but who now sported an armful of elated eight-year-old, looked up at his friend and murmured a warm, "Thanks."
"Welcome back partner," McGarrett just beamed, "We've been waiting for you."