Chapter 55 "Cabbage Day"
A/N: (9 April 2017) Dear readers, I am sorry to keep you waiting for this, uh, rather odd chapter. I kept waiting for it to not have to be named Cabbage Day, but it went all insistent. So hopefully you, who have been so patient and kind in reviews, reads, and even a couple new follows, will not conclude that this story has dwindled down to vegetable fluff. There is meat to follow, real meat. I promise! And I value and thank you for your input, each and every one of you!
May you all have a wonderful day, and I promise to get back to non-fluff or at least less weird fluff soon? Everything happens for a reason in my stories. Even cabbage.
Chapter 55 "Cabbage Day"
(Thursday, 29 December 2016, 12:45 p.m.)
Danny and Steve ended up being driven to a small out-of-the-way diner named "Sarge's", which was run by the family of one of Steve's SEAL buddies. Pua had to report to a crime scene, so he dropped them off and promised someone would pick them up and take them to the next destination when they were ready.
Steve's buddy, a huge Hawaiian nicknamed Sarge because of his tough outward manner, but a total softie on the inside, had not made it home from war alive, so his family had been running the eatery in his honor. It was small, with only a dozen or so tables, usually frequented by regulars every day, from breakfast to closing time at midnight. Since it was so hidden between shops frequented by their own regular clientele, everyone knew when a new customer came in.
Danny and Steve were semi-regulars. It was one of their spots, and as such they were greeted warmly and spent a few minutes "shooting the breeze" with the counter waitress, a cheerful woman named Liza, who was Sarge's widow. Danny had fallen into a quiet mood, but he was greeted too, and his health asked after. "I saw all the news reports. I'm so glad you are going to be okay, and have this big lug SEAL to help look after you."
"He's taking good care of me, and I will probably start calling him 'big lug SEAL' from now on," Danny replied, smiling. "He's getting tired of Neanderthal."
Liza laughed. "I like it!"
"Oy," groused Steve, but in a very good-natured way. But then he asked for a very quiet table.
"You got it. Need menu's?"
"Nah," said Steve. "Everything is good. What's the Special of the Day?"
"The Special of the Day is meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, cabbage or green beans, a basket of rolls, and for dessert you can choose between chocolate cake, a brownie smothered in chocolate marshmallow sauce, or apple pie with a scoop of homemade strawberry ice cream on top."
Steve chose green beans and the brownie, while Danny went for cabbage and the apple pie, wheedling if they could fit the cake in there too, since they could probably split it. Liza smiled, and went on her way.
Danny lapsed into silence, his mind a whirl of the conversation he had had with his ex. Steve brought him up for air with one word. "Cabbage?"
Danny's brows didn't even rise. "I always get cabbage here when it's offered. This is the only place I have ever been that does cabbage right."
"I didn't know that there was even a way to do cabbage right."
Danny snorted. "You should try a bite of mine, then. It might enlighten you."
Steve looked horrified. "Danny, cabbage is a vegetable God is sorry he invented. It is like a horrible, mutant lettuce, and you are going to eat cooked mutant lettuce in my presence. I will try not to be sick. What if it is the purple kind?"
"Purple cabbage can be bitter, I agree. But they don't serve purple cabbage here. It's always the green kind. Raw or pickled cabbage, I agree with you. I still cannot figure out why KFC serves coleslaw with everything else they do. I have never in my life seen anyone actually eat it, except you."
Steve's brows furrowed deeply. "I eat it. I always eat it. It comes with KFC, I can't waste it. I like it."
The corners of Danny lips curved down while his brows finally arched and went up. "You do know that coleslaw is raw cabbage, carrots and other stuff, mixed up to be colorful and entirely inedible, don't you?"
Steve looked even more horrified. "I've been eating raw cabbage?"
"You have. And you are insulting my cooked cabbage that God would eat, because you in your life at some point took a dislike to cabbage, but have been eating it all this time in blissful ignorance, so you don't actually dislike cabbage; you just think you do."
"I can't eat at KFC anymore," 'ew-ed' Steve. "All this time, nobody told me coleslaw was raw cabbage. And you and Kono and Chin all give me yours. Why would you do that?" He was making his 'betrayed by the universe' face.
Danny folded his fingers together on the tablecloth, except for the errant thumb still forced to stick straight up due to his cast. "Because we thought you ate it because you liked it, and we mutually see no need to ruin fried chicken, biscuits, and mashed potatoes and gravy and half a corn on the cob smothered in butter by adding raw cabbage et cetera to it, so we give you ours because you inhale it happily. I did not know you were insulted by cabbage's existence, so I doubt they know either. And how can you say you can't eat at KFC anymore because you finally learned at age 40 that coleslaw –which you have been inhaling at regular intervals and multiple portions to date, and even said you like- is raw cabbage?"
"It's just that now I know. And the corn is smothered in margarine from those little squeezie packets."
Danny made a W with his thumbs and forefingers. "Whatever," he said. "If you discovered it was made of ground bug shells, I could understand. But it's just cabbage!"
"Okay okay okay. But I will have to think about it now. What else has cabbage in it?"
"Sauerkraut, which is cabbage soaked to death in brine," stated Danny, and from the look on Steve's face, he could tell this wasn't helping cabbage's cause any. "Then there's Borscht. Soup (sortof) made with cabbage and beets. Okay, I admit I don't like either of those. Need I go on?"
"And beets?** Oh Lord, save us." They shuddered in unison, and Danny slid into silence again after their water glasses were filled by a very nice waitress named Bessie. She also brought them a basket lined with a linen napkin, filled with rolls and little pats of butter on one side, and margarine on the other. They both thanked Bessie and, while Steve went for the butter, Danny thought of Dr. Cornett and went for the margarine.
Steve realized Danny was once again probably thinking about Rachel, so he again brought him out of those upsetting thoughts. They needed to talk about it, but that could wait for the meatloaf, which was the best either man had ever tasted, which was saying a lot.
"Doc C is not going to like the portion sizes we are gonna get here."
"I won't tell him if you don't."
"Deal." Then Danny sighed. "Steve, Rachel might have just been letting off steam, but she threatened my friends and fiancée, and in case she means it, I'd feel a lot better if everyone is warned discreetly and Becca I am definitely going to protect. I know you are still dealing with your arm and other injuries, so I want you to promise to be careful. I know you will take care of Hannah."
Steve took a buttery bite out of his dinner roll, which was large, crusty on the outside but soft and perfect on the inside. He chewed until it was possible to make a sound resembling a word. "Uv ee avv" (he swallowed) "conections?"
Danny, somehow understanding what Steve had said, blew out a breath strong enough to make the single peace lily and asparagus fern in the bud vase on their table wobble and wave lazily. "I don't know if she has connections, but I'm realizing how simultaneously much and little I know about Rachel."
"I hope they do a psyche evaluation on her. Definitely put her on watch, because she could be a harm to that baby."
Danny nodded, after swallowing his own bite of roll. "I thought of that. Seriously, Steve, the whole thing didn't go as I expected. I still feel nothing for her. We had kids together, and –geez!—Stan probably heard me tell you that I thought I was still in love with Rachel while we were about to go KO from being drugged. How much things have changed in such a short time."
"Rachel still had your emotions spinning like a top. Now, you can see things clearly," said Steve, encouragingly.
"Very clearly. I literally feel like I have a new lease on life, and it will be happier. Rachel is like that song, 'Somebody That I Used To Know', minus the anger in it, and while we have a permanent connection through Grace and Charlie, I still feel nothing." Something entered his thoughts then, and he paused, with his roll raised toward his mouth. "I totally failed to convince her to not take this to trial, though. I guess we will have to wait and see what she decides there."
Steve nodded and looked around them. From their table for two in the back, he could see all the other diners if he looked between the fronds of a fern tree which blocked anyone from really seeing them clearly. "Do you have anything else on your mind, besides rings?"
Danny pursed his lips, and ended up sucking on this lower lip. Steve had seen Charlie do that recently, and he wondered if Danny picked it up from his son, or his son and picked up the habit from his dad. "So what else do you have on your mind?"
Danny ate a bite of his roll, which quietly drove Steve into purgatory because he really wanted to know, since when Danny was slow to answer, it meant whatever it was was really big. Danny realized his delay was testing Steve's limit to not ask again. So he cleared his still-husky throat and put down the rest of his roll. "What if I blow my second chance? I'm not very good at … I mean, all those cards and letters and flowers and balloons, the money from total strangers because I did my job and saved my best friend's life, when really it was the surgical team, and didn't die when Stan did his best to make me, and blew up my house, and I lost all my stuff, but nothing that can't be replaced. And it just makes me realize how much I have that could never be taken from me, not by Stan or Rachel or anyone. I'm used to, deep down, being sad. And now, I don't feel sad, and I hope this lasts. Becca is so happy, and even if I don't know what to say to all these strangers who are being so kind to me, I hope this lasts."
"You mean feeling not sad, and Becca, and kindness shown you, and all of that lasts?"
Danny simply nodded.
Steve, who had managed to finish his roll by virtue of taking huge bites, used his napkin to wipe his lips. "I have noticed a change in you since we almost lost you. The drug mix-up thing."
Danny smiled and his eyes glinted. "I almost asked which 'almost lost you', but I know what you mean." He paused to gather his thoughts and glanced out the window, without seeing a thing that was on the other side of the glass because he was seeing his thoughts. "I feel so different. I always thought I would die from my job, or your driving, or Grace being on a date, or someone crazy from the past wanting revenge, or feeling like I'd died because someone I loved died. I never expected to react to a drug I wasn't even supposed to get. I expected to go by violence or heartbreak. And instead, people I don't know are pouring out their hearts to me and sending checks and gift cards and telling me they care that I didn't die. And Rachel couldn't even begin to make me lose my temper. One day I'm deep in PTSD, and while I know it's not gone, it's so much better. Am I still me? Who is this Danny Williams?"
Steve smiled gently, and hitched his sling a bit so the strap against his neck was a little more comfortable. "See, people are either 'glass half full' or 'glass half empty', when it's the same thing, just a shift in attitude. But when you go from half full to full full, that's a change to rejoice in. And I think that's what you're experiencing."
Danny nodded, a small nod. "That's exactly what I'm experiencing. I didn't feel this in the box, maybe was starting to feel half full with the rescue. But then came Mo's phone, and Stan being a depraved jerk, and losing my house and things, and feeling that was the story of my life, on steroids. If it can go FUBAR, it will go FUBAR. But now, I know it can go there, and be fixed, and the only thing that matters is the good we do, the love we show, the love we accept, and grace, the kind from the guy Upstairs. The kind where the doc finds the antidote to the med in time and you get a fresh start, and realize things that have been right in front of your face all your life, but somehow you didn't see them. I do now. I used to see the guy who might one day be in one of our cases, and now I see people who offer a cop stranger some help because they believe that he has helped them, or people he or she cares about. That's what I see now. And I like this version of me better. I just hope it lasts. Because when my time comes, I want to die seeing good in people rather than bad. I'm glad I got another chance at life, so I could see this instead of what I used to see."
Steve was glad to hear all this. "I know you passed a big test today, if this was going to be temporary. Temporary equals you getting mad at Rachel today. Or maybe we should make sure Doc C keeps you on these meds forever."
"It's not meds!" groused Danny, but with good nature. He barked a small laugh. "Maybe it is meds. But I want to stay like this."
Steve let his own eyes sparkle. "I love you either way. But I can't wait to see how this changes your reaction to my driving, or the stress of picking the right ring, or the first time Becca does that female hands-on-hips thing that equals Danny is in the doghouse."
Danny's whole face lit up in mirth. "I read an article that says how to keep out of the doghouse."
Steve chuckled. "Oh? How?"
"Have a florist on speed dial, and keep a stash of little things she will like, so when she calls you an insensitive jerk or whatever it is, you are prepared to prove that you love her and agree with her that you deserve the hands on hips, even if you don't really think you do. And as a last resort, have a really comfortable couch."
This brought forth a laugh. "I'll keep those in mind, but especially the comfy couch one, since if Becca or Hannah read that article, too, we would still end up needing Plan Couch."
They were in good spirits when their lunch and tea arrived, and with his eyes tight shut, Steve tried a bite of Danny's cabbage, and after he had chewed it to death and swallowed it without looking like a man on verge of de-eating, he furrowed his brows as only Steve McGarrett could.
"So?" asked Danny, forcefully. "Good? Bad? Poisonous? I can't tell. Your eyebrows are doing this weird, scrunchy thing."
Steve finally said, after trying another bite of the cabbage, "I may have been doing this vegetable an injustice, based on this and coleslaw. I may have to try sauerkraut and borscht."
Danny frowned. "Don't get carried away. Remember the beets in the borscht."
"I saw an ad for beet chips."
"Please don't say another word about beets until after we finish the meatloaf and dessert?"
In banter the two men finished their lunch, and when it was time to get their check, Liza informed them that it was paid in full, courtesy of an older couple who had recognized them when they came in, and paid for their meal. She unfolded a note and laid it on the table, so both could read it. "Officers, thank you for all you do for Hawaii, and enjoy your meal. God bless you." She also pulled out an envelope from her apron, and handed it to Danny. In it was a twenty-dollar bill, crisp as if it was new-minted. "To help you get back on your feet," said the note, written in a very neat feminine script. Danny kept reading the post script. "We run a veggie stand (organic only) in summer. Come by any time for free cabbage! See the attached business card."
"Awwww! That is so kind," said Danny, eyes glistening. "Are they still here so I can thank them?"
Liza shook her head. "They left twenty minutes ago. They heard you order the cabbage."
Danny gave Liza a hug, and realized that with the glass full approach to life came a propensity to tears of gratitude and happiness. Steve kept smiling brightly, and he covered the tip for the waitress, Bessie, who had cheerfully kept their water glasses and tea cups full.
And so the afternoon continued. Duke came by to ferry them to the jewelry store, where he dropped them off. Pua would be by when they were done, to sneak them back into Tripler, still beset by media.
They found beautiful rings, with sentimental value for each couple, and Steve laughed when Danny's extra gift to Becca and Grace, in slightly differing styles and colors, turned out to be earrings of porcelain cabbage roses. The jeweler, recognizing them, gave them both a 50% discount on their bills, and was delighted with each man's choice.
Danny's 'Cabbage Day' did not end at the jeweler's, either. Dinner was meatloaf and coleslaw. Steve instantly asked if he could have a tray, too, and the nursing staff obliged, and he willingly ate Danny's slaw as well as his own. More bags of mail had come, and Danny felt his heart full to bursting with good will, while Steve watched his partner with his own full heart.
Becca and Hannah came by, with Becca's scrubs top featuring vegetables, including the now inevitable cabbages.
It had been a good day, forever after referred to by Danny as "Cabbage Day."
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** No offense to all cabbage, coleslaw and beet and borscht lovers out there! I love cabbage, but not cole slaw, and do not admit that purple beets are anything approaching edible, even though I have had them a (very) few times (cooked) in my life, willingly! I just can't get past how purple they are, and as for borscht …..uh. First time borscht is okay, but after leftovers for 5 days, seriously I can't look at it anymore. I will spare you the long version of this story. I live by the adage that you eat what you like, and I will eat what I like, and I won't insult your food if you don't insult mine. 😃 I have a feeling Danny and Steve could really get into this food thing!