Chapter 65 "Past, Present, Future"
A/N: (27 July 2017) Thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, followed. I can tell you how much this means to me: if I'm stuck, reviews keep me going, and if I'm not stuck, reviews keep me going. You are so important to me and my writing.
I had to work out how to handle the whammo news of losing Chin and Kono as continuing characters on the show. They will not be in season 8. I am upset that the race card was ever played since the show has more various races than any other I've ever seen. As for salary, DDK and GP understand (or should) that co-stars are not paid as much as co-leads. Just because they were in the core 4 did not mean they were co-leads. So that's that.
The new season should be good! I am really looking forward to it.
FYI: Mo Morris has a play-by! I didn't even realize it until I saw a sling TV ad, and omg that's Mo! The actor's name is Danny Trejo, and he's famous! Who knew? I must have seen him somewhere, because seriously he is Mo!
CBS owns all things Hawaii Five-0.
Chapter 65 "Past, Present, Future"
(Thursday, 12 January 2017, 3 a.m.)
So much had happened in the past two weeks, thought Danny Williams as he sat out on the old wooden beach chair in Steve's backyard overlooking the ocean. Danny had more or less appropriated the wooden chair that had been there with its twin ever since he had known Steve McGarrett, almost seven years now. Steve always sat in the left chair when there was company, and the right if there wasn't. Now the right chair was Danny's, but sometimes he sat in the middle seat of the covered glider that had been added when he and his daughter, son, and kitten had come to stay with the man who was in every way that mattered a brother to him, an uncle to his children, and who would soon enough be his brother-in-law.
Danny glanced over at the glider, protected and private. How many times had he and Becca, his fiancée, sat there to talk about everything and anything? Or made out? How many times had he sat there with his children, the very almost-fifteen-year-old Grace and the very four-and-a-half -year-old Charlie, as they ate their breakfast before the kids went to school and he and Steve went to work? How many times had he caught Steve and his fiancée, Hannah, needing chaperoning? (Angel, his kitten, turned out to be a wonderful chaperon and guard kitten, as well as his Therapy Animal.) Grace did her homework there as often as possible.
Danny was nursing a cup of tea, and the glider didn't have a place to set it down, hence the chair. Plus, it was a little more private, farther from the house, closer to the waves, even though they were still a good hundred feet away as they tirelessly caressed the sand before slipping back, only to rush forward again.
Today had been stormy earlier, hence there was more force and sound to the waves, which wore little whitecaps. It was also a neap tide, so the water came higher up the sand than usual. The moon was full, and since the storm had moved on, it was as big and bright as Danny could ever remember seeing it.
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He thought about the past ten days, since he had been released from Tripler on the 2nd of January. They had been days of settling in to the realization that he really had no place else to go but Steve's house, with his family, and yet half the city of Honolulu seemed to want to take them in. It was the strangest feeling of having nothing and everything at the same time. And the news crew that had surprised him, Steve, Dr. Cornett, Becca, Hannah, and Chin and Kono as he was released from his official ride in the wheelchair, carrying his kitten, Angel, in her pink and white harness, the pineapple mylar balloon (still holding tight and bobbing high on its red string with the chewed end), and a peace lily plant, while others had already packed the back of Steve's Silverado, and the trunks and back seats of other cars with the bags of cards and letters he had received in the mail.
That news crew had almost sent Danny into a panic, as his and Steve's and Dr. C's noses were still red, puffy, and their eyes in various stages of swollen, colorful bruises. Danny had been given a transparent lucite mask with an all-over pattern of drilled holes in it so his skin of his nose could breathe while it protected him from Angel's habit of touching his nose. Now she could touch it all she wanted, and his nose wasn't in danger of breaking again. (Steve had taken to calling Danny "not-Thor", which made him laugh.)
But it was not something he wanted plastered over newspaper articles or interviews. It was, though, along with the unsupplied reasons for three men having more or less identically broken noses and black eyes.
Still, he had learned something good at that surprise: someone had discovered and leaked to the press that Lou Grover was the one responsible for the Go-Fund-Me page that had brought in a mind-boggling sum of $120,000 for him and his family.
So Danny, surrounded by his Ohana, which had grown to include the Cornetts, while he stood with the wheelchair now behind him and his arm around the waist of Becca, making this their debut as a photographed couple, since he had introduced her as his fiancée, Becca Cornett, had given an impromptu thank you speech to the amazing people of Honolulu, and indeed other places, for money and cards had come from all over the United States, even the world. He felt staggered by the generosity of people, and by Lou. By his Doctor, who was too tall to hide behind anything or anyone, and by his brother and partner, Steve McGarrett.
And then it was off to Steve's house, with waves and hugs for other doctors and nurses, and even Janice / Wow made it on camera!
So had Angel, especially since Danny had been holding her and her favorite plush bunny toy, until Angel hopped onto his shoulder, and while Danny talked he used his hand holding the toy for emphasis, until finally Angel captured it and hugged it, and that definitely made the on-air edit.
Danny thought, too, of the New Year's Eve party, kept low key since Danny was not yet released from the hospital, since his PTSD was being evaluated and need for medication mulled over by those whose job it was to figure that out. Dr. Cornett had final say on anything, and between him and the two psychologists who specialized in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, it was decided that Danny take a mild anti-anxiety medication, keep a journal religiously, and had daily 50-minute appointments with his therapist for two weeks, and then they would see how it went, with the idea being that he could scale back to once a week, then as needed but once a month scheduled. He felt good about that, but still the party was on the somber side, until nearing midnight, when everyone coupled up, and kisses were shared as 2017 was ushered in, and Danny slipped the pearl necklace around Becca's neck after their kiss full of promise, love, and happiness. Her hand came up to feel it, and the kiss she gave Danny was an epic poem of love, which had earned tears of joy and a long hug for both of them from Grace, and a scrunch-faced "ewwww!" from Charlie. Then everyone was hugging everyone, and the fireworks lit up the starry sky. Steve and Hannah, Isaac and Sarah Cornett, Kono and Adam, and Chin and Abby had all stood together, along with the rest of their Ohana, and watched the fireworks, which inspired Danny to whisper to Becca, "These aren't nearly as good as your kisses." So they spent most of the show making their own, and Danny fell in love with Becca anew every time he saw the glow of love in her eyes.
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The days immediately after settling in to Steve's were full of visits to lawyers, insurance agents, and a gut-wrenching drive to the hole in the ground and cleared area that had once been his house. He had hoped he might find something in the rubble, but it was gone. After that, they had gotten permission to retrieve the things Grace and Charlie most wanted from the Edwards home. Officer Pua Kai had driven Danny, Steve, Grace and Charlie over, while Kono and Chin followed in their own cars, not knowing how much the kids might want to bring back.
It had turned out to be not that much, mostly clothes, toys, books, Charlie's favorite soup mug, and photo albums Grace kept of pictures that mostly excluded her mom, and entirely excluded Stan, but were full of Danny. Grace had her necklace collection from her Danno, while Danny thought to collect all their important documents and school papers, as well as their baby clothes, since in Grace's case especially those went all the way back to New Jersey. Danny sniffled and tried very hard not to cry when he looked at Grace's satin and lace Baptism dress, with the little bonnet and tiny shoes, and remembered how proud he was when he had held her as she squirmed just a little bit, and coo-ed, and yawned enormously during the ceremony. He did shed tears when he found the beautiful bridal-style dress and veiled tiara and shoes and gloves for her First Communion, and he had pictured her walking down the aisle as a grown lady, her groom awaiting her at the altar. And now she was almost fifteen, and starting to notice boys, and was literally having a difficult time deciding between the tall and handsome Nehele, who Steve was Big Brother to, and Will Grover, Lou's eldest son, who wasn't as tall but was just as handsome, and had the slight advantage of going to school with her. Danny was waiting with bated breath to see which of the two young men won her heart. He had approved them both.
With Steve hovering and acting as another set of arms to hold things, he had also taken the little white suit Charlie had worn at the Baptism he had not even been invited to. Charlie might want the suit someday for his own son, if he had one. He tried to think in terms of what his kids might want in the future, that they were too young to think about now.
Grace, Danny noted, had only taken the special occasion dresses he had bought for her, none of the ones from Stan, while Charlie had chosen the toys given to him by Danno, with only one being from Stan and Rachel: the model firetruck with the flashing lights and extendable ladder. He knew the choice of that toy had not had anything to do with who had given it to him, simply that he loved it.
The kids went back to school, Hannah went back to teaching kindergarten, and she and Becca were over at Steve's so often, they might as well have brought luggage! They did leave swimsuits and a change of clothes.
And then there was the interesting visit Danny (with Angel) and Steve had paid to Becca and Hannah's shared apartment in a highrise building somehow contriving to be within 20 minutes (including traffic) from the Cornett house, Steve's house, Tripler, and Sacred Heart Kindergarten, attached to the school Grace attended.
Now that had been memorable, because there they had met Becca's 7-month-old male kitten, Clarence, a bouncy pale gray and white fluffball twice Angel's size. She had taken one look at him and her hair had gone bottlebrush everywhere poof as she turned into the Arch of St. Louis, minus any growling, and danced slowly toward him on her tippy toes.
Clarence had taken one look at this feisty little lady, and up went his tail, and he sidled toward her carrying his favorite battered mouse toy, which he dropped at her feet. She promptly smacked him on the nose with one paw (no claws extended), which made Clarence drop belly down before he rolled over to show off his adorable tummy (and, Danny thought, Other Things, since he had not yet been neutered). Angel did not whack him again. Instead she sniffed the toy offering while her fur relaxed. Then she gave Clarence another, gentler smack, sniffed him, rubbed her face against his face, inspected his Other Things, and they were inseparable after that. He led her over to his food dish, and stood back for her to eat, which she did, until she made a chirp sound they had never heard her make, apparently the love call of a pre-adolescent kitten to her chosen eventual mate, and Clarence rubbed her face and they ate together out of his food bowl. Danny, frowning and brows furrowed, had said, "I think I have a son-in-law."
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It was a beautiful night. The main reason Danny was seeing the moonlight silver everything it touched, and the waves singing their love song to the sand, was that he had awakened from a disturbing nightmare after barely two hours of sleep. The nightmare had been a variation on the usual nightly fare now, featuring Stan Edwards and things he kept to his journal and therapist, and very occasionally Steve or Dr. Cornett. He had not told Becca about the nightmares. She would know soon enough.
He had come outside a little before 2 a.m., with the journal the PSTD therapist had encouraged him to keep about his nightmares. In his dark blue drawstring pajama pants, white T-shirt that was a hand-me-down from Steve and only a few washes from being thrown in the trash, and flip-flops, with a towel draped around his shoulders to give him a little warmth, he had written in the journal steadily for 45 minutes, words pouring onto the page, using a lighted pen to augment the moonlight. Danny wrote in it about everything, because there were so many changes to his life since the night Stan Edwards had tried to kill him and Steve, on 20 December 2016, not even a month ago.
Not even a month ago. Now he was ten days out of the hospital after almost ten days in the hospital with infections and the need to recuperate from all that Stan Edwards had done and tried to do to him. Stan was dead of an aneurysm and blood clot, three other men were dead by Stan's direct actions, Steve had been injured and still wore the cast on his broken right arm and bruising in several other places. Rachel was being tested for a plethora of possible conditions while kept in the psyche ward of Queen's Hospital because she had tried to harm her baby, and the doctors suspected an acute hormone imbalance, and if she was not very lucky, the baby was going to have a hard time growing to a healthy size. Luckily, he had a home once he was born: Jason Black's family had sued Rachel for custody and full parental rights.
He reached under his chair and coaxed the sleeping kitten into his lap, where Angel was only too happy to be. He petted her while she purred and curled into a circle, then closed her blue eyes and fell asleep. She had grown in the past three weeks, but was still quite small, even if she wasn't expected to be big at only three months old. The vet said she would always be a small cat. But she had filled out a bit, and her fur was silkier now that she was being properly fed. She had been so skinny, and now she was healthy, and had two weeks of Therapy Training under her belt. She was turning out to be a Godsend not just to Danny, but to the Task Force in general. Her record at picking out perps amongst persons of interest was 100 percent!
Maybe 99 percent, thought Danny, although technically her one aberration was not a perp. One did have to subtract her dislike for Steve's elderly neighbor, Mrs. Benson, who called Danny "Steve" and Steve "John", and who had one tiny micro-dog, and one gigantic Mastiff the size of a pony. One could not blame a small cat for disliking the owner of such disparately sized dogs, especially since she had an uncanny habit of intruding into "John's" backyard with the now oft-asked question of when was "Steve and his brood" going to move back out, and an unexplainable newly-acquired dislike of "Steve." Danny scowled, and wrote a bit more in the journal, because Mrs. Benson's dislike of him extended to his children, his fiancée, and his kitten. She had sicced the Mastiff, Big Boy, on Angel once, and only the kitten's blur-fast run for the house, and Danny's interception of the pony, who had bitten his arm before he had gotten hold of the huge beast's collar and yanked her back.
Nobody messed with Angel. Now Steve's back yard had a 6-foot high wooden post and wire netting fence with a gate in it, so the view was not obstructed, but Mrs. Benson couldn't walk all the way up to the back door with her dog(s) and accost Danny, as she had taken to doing.
She didn't much like Hannah, either. She only liked "John".
But she was not the stuff of nightmares. Irritating, in that way that begged for patience, for her Alzheimer's was getting worse, but not nightmarish.
Danny reached for his half-drunk tea, and it had passed the point of being even a little warm. He wasn't really thirsty anyway. He thought about going back inside, but the sound of the waves soothed him now, as it had not for the longest time. While he fought the charms of Hawaii for so many years, he had fought also everything he was now coming to love about Oahu, and the State of Hawaii in general. He had hated the waves and their tireless slipping up and back on the sand. The salt breeze had become a balm to him, a healing agent. He loved the feel of the breeze on the silky golden hairs on his arms and body, and in his disobedient inch-long hair style. It took so much gel to get his growing-out hair to behave that he had stopped bothering with it at all, and was just letting it grow. He usually wore a baseball cap, but had forgotten that as well.
Suddenly Angel woke with a growl, and did her best Arch of St. Louis, while staring over at the edge of the fence, where it met the end of the shrubs. Danny's eyes snapped over in that direction, and even though the hour was either way too late or way too early, there stood Mrs. Benson, barely visible, in fact hiding, watching him while her little micro-dog Teacup just slept in her arms. She was wearing a sand-colored muumuu, and if Angel had not alerted him, he would not have noticed she was there.
He wondered how long she had been watching him. It raised the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck, like it had turned Angel's tail into a white bottlebrush and body doubling in size as her fur stood on end. Her low, rumbly growl was pretty impressive and scary, coming from a little kitten.
He raised his hand to wave, but stopped the friendly gesture abruptly, pulling his hand back to clutch Angel to him. Had he just heard Mrs. Benson hiss at him to "go home" in her thin, reedy voice, before turning and going presumably home herself?
He shook his head. It might be time to talk to her sons about taking her to her doctor, to see if her medications needed adjustment. Her symptoms were definitely getting worse. Danny felt sorry for her as he turned his attention to the still-bristled Angel.
Who continued to growl, and watch the fence.
Danny finally got up and took Angel inside, and then walked down to the gate, and let himself out. He went over to the end of the fence, and there behind the shrubbery was the tiny, elderly woman. "Mrs. Benson, can I walk you home?"
"No!" she hissed, rudely, and suddenly her hand came up and slapped his face, connecting surprisingly hard. Danny was shocked, even moreso when Mrs. Benson spat out, "Bastard! Why don't you go back to the mainland and leave John to me? You and all those vermin you brought back with you! Take 'em all back!" And then she shuffled quickly away from him, heading now for her house two yards up, Teacup peering briefly over her shoulder, looking as confused as Danny felt.
He felt the warmth drip onto his almost-dead T-shirt. Damn. His nose had been clipped a tiny bit, and was bleeding half-heartedly on one side. He had forgotten to wear his clear mesh nose guard. More stuff to write about in his journal, but later. He knew from experience that if he didn't get back inside, Angel would wake the house. She would be having a fit at the backdoor.
Danny used one hand to pinch his nose to stop the bleeding, and the other to snag his journal and pen, and his teacup, the contents of which were poured out on the grass. He nudged open the door and quieted Angel, only to find Steve coming down the steps, wide awake, wearing only his pajama pants. "I heard Angel," he said quietly. "What happened? Your nose is bleeding."
Danny told him.
"Mrs. Benson? She hit you?"
Danny nodded. They had moved into the downstairs bath to get a cold washcloth to clean Danny up, and the nose clamp to stop the bleeding, while Angel rode Danny's shoulders like the pro she now was. "Steve, she is creeping Angel out, and if I'm honest, me too."
"Yeah," Steve agreed, helping Danny out of his officially now dead T-shirt. Danny didn't even mind as his best friend swabbed blood off his chest with a cold washcloth. "I'll talk to her kids tomorrow. She needs someone with her full time."
"I'd just nod and agree with you," Danny said, reasonably. "But she is spying now, and I got kids and a kitten to protect. I'm starting to feel guilty about being so much trouble. You already had to put up that fence."
They had moved back out to the kitchen, now, and Steve was putting on more water to heat for tea. "Nah, the fence was becoming more needed as more and more people think looking into my windows is a cool idea now that the famous McGarrett has this less-handsome houseguest. The alarm company is tired of sending people out. They might rent a spot and set up a tent in the back yard."
"Who says you're more handsome?"
"No less an authority than Hannah Cornett."
"She's biased!" Danny and Angel both swatted Steve, and the two men quietly laughed. "So, you going back to bed, or you want to talk about what got you up in the first place? Besides, we have Operation Valentine's Day to finish planning."
"Yes we do," said Danny, keeping his now more enthusiastic voice down. "Nightmare, usual stuff, nothing to discuss. But OVD is a yes! Are you sure we should do this together? It's gonna wind up on YouTube, like that ambush interview when I got released from Tripler. My puffy red nose and shiners are enshrined on the internet for the world to see!"
"With over a million views, and my honker and colorful eyes are just as famous because some sick cameraman was ordered to widen the shot every time I stepped another few inches away from you!"
"Fair is fair. Commander McGarrett has his fans too."
Steve pursed his lips, which looked funny on him and almost made Danny laugh. "Okay okay okay, Danny. So, about Valentine's Day, when we both officially exit the market of eligible bachelors. Are you sure we should do this in one, you know, thing?"
Danny smirked, while Angel finally wandered over to the couch and flopped down, relaxed again. "Steve. Let me ask you one question. Do you want one more video, under the headings no less of Most Romantic Proposal Ever and Puttin' A Ring On It on YouTube, or two? You know someone's gonna film it. It's choreographed!"
"That's two questions."
"No, I asked it as one question and made two declarative after-comments." He huffed. "I do not like my tea water burnt!"
Exasperated but still distracted, Steve huffed right back, in his 'I am dealing with a childish prima donna' voice. "Take the little teapot off the burner and pour the nice steaming just right water over the teabags! Do I have to do everything? My arm is still in this damn cast! I got out spoons and milk. I can just re-use your teabag. I got you a new one since I know you'll throw that perfectly good one out."
Danny rolled his eyes. "You are going to re-use my – omigod, I hope Hannah knows what she is getting into. Neanderthal."
"Over-reacting child."
And the insults went downhill from there, until Steve hit low with, "Stan magnet."
Danny's face took on a stricken look, his hands started to shake, and he carefully put the teacup on the counter and walked in the direction of the armchair, not the couch. Angel hissed at Steve, and Steve turned sheet-white and threw his arms around Danny before he reached the chair, holding him tight, risking Angel's wrath. While Danny didn't move, Steve was apologizing with sincere contrition. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, soooo sorry, Danny, I didn't mean that, I really really really didn't mean that, I'm so sorry, oh God I'm sorry."