/ / / Gracie \ \ \

Steve pulled up in front of Grace's school behind a silver car and checked his watch; he had another five minutes before the final bell rang. He pulled his phone out and found Mary in his contact list.

"Steve? Hey," Mary answered breathless on the other end of the phone.

"Hi Mary, how are you?"

"Great," Mary said and then disappeared from the phone for a second. "Sorry Steve, I'm in the middle of something. What's up?"

Steve sighed and knew he couldn't tell her anything over the phone. "When do you think you'll be able to get out to the island again?"

"Danny invited me out when his family is there, I'm pretty sure I can make it. I don't think I can get there before then though. Is something wrong?"

Steve nodded as he spoke. "Nothing is wrong, I just wanted to check in with you and make sure everything was okay."

"Great," there was a crash in the background. "Shit, Steve I have to go."

"Okay, bye Mary."

"Bye Steve," Mary said as she hung up.

Steve slammed his head into his steering wheel. The passenger door opened. "Hey Uncle Steve."

"Hey Gracie," Steve said and pulled himself back from the steering wheel.

Grace knelt on her chair and gave Steve a hug and a great smacking kiss on his cheek before she slid down into her seat and did up her seatbelt. "Where's dad?"

"He had to go to the bank so I'm here to get you."

"Are we going home or to Five-0?"

"Five-0," Steve said indicating and moving into the flow of after school traffic. "Just for a while, we're finishing some paperwork."

"Is Chin there?" Grace asked looking hopeful.

"No, he's still at home with Malia. He won't be back for a while."

Grace nodded slowly. "I hope he's looking after her."

"He is, just like Danny looks after you."

"No, like he looked after you." Grace corrected. "Can we stop and get something to eat?"

Steve laughed. "What do you want?"

Grace paused to think for a moment. "Pizza scroll."

Steve nodded and took a left to take them to the bakery that made the best pizza scrolls on the island. He grabbed a couple of other pastries for the rest of his team and bought Grace a chocolate shake as well. Grace beamed at Steve as she settled in the car again and slurped at her drink. Steve drove them towards Five-0 headquarters. When they got there Grace went into the conference room and settled at one end of the desk to do her homework while Steve gave Kono her pastry. He kept something for Danny tucked in his office and ate his own apple Danish as he joined Grace in the conference room with the team laptop to do some of his paperwork.

"Hey Monkey," Danny said when he came back in and pressed a kiss to the top of his head.

"Hello Daddy."

"What are you doing?"

"My maths homework," Grace said with a sigh.

"Good, I'm just going to get some stuff from my office," Danny said and ran his hand along Steve's shoulders on the way out of the door.

"Steve," Grace said when she'd finished her homework and was eating half of Kono's chocolate chip danish. She walked over to stand next to him. "You seem sad, are you okay?"

Steve smiled at her and tucked a bit of hair behind her ear. "I'm a little sad Gracie but I'm going to be okay."

"What's wrong?" Grace asked her eyes getting wide.

Steve wondered what to tell her but Danny tried not to lie to his daughter so Steve took a deep breath decided to tell her the truth. He looked over at Danny who nodded at him and stood up to walk towards him. "When Danny and I went to Japan we found out that my mum is still alive but she had to leave me."

Grace stepped forward and threw her arms around Steve and held on tight. "How horrible."

Steve hugged Grace back and couldn't believe how much better the hug made him feel.

Grace pulled back. "Why did she leave you?"

Danny pulled the chair next to Steve's out and sat down. "There was a bad man after Steve's mum and she was worried he might hurt Steve or his dad or Mary so she went away."

Grace shook her head. "She should have just caught him and sent him to jail like Steve would do."

Danny nodded at her and Steve looked out the window and away from both of them. He could see some dark clouds rolling in with the storm they had forecast.

"The storm is coming," Steve said. "We should all pack up and head home."

"Can we watch again?" Grace asked looking between Steve and Danny hopefully.

"Of course, let's head home. We'll make lasagne and watch the storm." Danny said standing up.

They all packed their things up and said goodbye to Kono, who'd had the same idea, and drove home. Steve made it there before Danny so he turned the oven on and headed upstairs to have a quick shower before they got home. He put his pyjamas on, since they were storm watching, and had made it downstairs to start chopping the onions before he heard the door open behind him.

"Grace, go and have a shower and I'll start cooking."

Grace nodded and bounced off to have her shower. Danny walked in behind Steve and kissed the back of Steve's neck before he pulled out the big pan and set to warming the sauce he'd made the night before. Steve chopped as he was told and had just cut the buns for garlic bread when Grace came back in with her pyjamas on and her hair pulled back in a ponytail.

"You didn't tell Steve did you?" Grace asked hurriedly.

Danny shook his head.

"Tell me what?" Steve asked.

Grace grinned at him and disappeared out of the kitchen. Steve looked at Danny who was determinedly not looking back. Grace came back with a familiar cake box. "I'm sorry about your mum so we got you cake."

"With butter frosting?" Steve asked.

"Of course," Grace said like he wasn't very smart if he thought she wouldn't remember that was his favourite.

"Thank you Gracie," Steve said and hugged her. She beamed and put the box on the counter.

"Am I too late to layer the sheets?" Grace asked.

"Nope," Danny said. "You can do the garlic bread too if you want."

Grace nodded and went to stand beside Steve.

"What do I need to do then?" Steve asked and Danny set him to grating cheese as they started to put the lasagne together.

When Danny and Grace no longer needed Steve he set the table next to the big window, he could see the dark clouds had stolen the last vestiges of daylight and knew that by the time dinner was ready they would be able to enjoy the storm. He could hear Danny and Grace talking quietly in the kitchen as he worked. Not long after Grace's room had finished Hawaii had a big storm that lasted all night, Grace had been over and she and Danny pulled him into what they called storm watching which basically consisted of warm food, pyjamas and watching the storm. Grace said they'd done it in New Jersey though the storms there were never as good as they were in Hawaii with so much more open space. He ducked outside to make sure everything was secured and by the time he came back inside Danny was upstairs showering and Grace was curled up on the couch watching a cartoon.

"Uncle Steve," Grace said. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course you can." Steve walked over and sat down next to her.

"Would you ever leave Danno because of someone bad?"

Steve shook his head but couldn't say anything.

"Good," Grace relaxed. "I don't want you to go anywhere."

Steve threw his arm along the back of the chair and Grace smiled up at him before she moved so she was resting against his side. "I don't want to go anywhere; you and Danno are my family."

Danny came in a few minutes later and smiled at them before sitting down on Steve's other side. He rested his hand on Steve's knee. "What are we watching?"

Steve shrugged.

Grace looked at his dad. "Total Drama dad, you've watched it with me before."

Danny nodded and when Grace had stopped looking shrugged at Steve.

They ate dinner while the thunder and lightning rolled in from the sea and the rain beat down hard enough to make them all talk a little louder. After dinner they sat back on the couch, which Steve and Danny had dragged over near the window, and ate Steve's cake.

"Okay Gracie, bed time." Danny said as the storm seemed to have slipped past them. She had been yawning for a while but with no school tomorrow there was no rush.

Grace nodded and gave Steve a longer hug than normal before she went to bed. Danny came back with two bottles of beer and turned all the lights off so they were in the dark except for the irregular flashes of lightning.

"How are you babe?"

"I tried to call Mary today but I couldn't say anything. She said she was going to try and come when your family visits so I'll try to tell her then."

Danny nodded. "I think that's a good idea."

"If we can get her back before then, I'll tell Mary."

"Okay, Grace was worried about you all the way home."

"Thank you for the cake."

"Grace suggested it," Steve could feel Danny relaxing against his side as he spoke, slowly sinking into Steve. "She's a Williams, if someone is sad feed them cake. My mother would be so proud."

"I can't wait to meet her," Steve said ignoring the pang of jealousy.

"She'll love you. She already thinks you are amazing."

They lapsed into silence as they finished their beers.

"Grace asked me if I'd ever let a 'bad guy' drag me away from you."

Danny turned until he could look at Steve. "The idea of your mum leaving you makes her sad, makes her think about not having us I suppose. I knew she was worried about having to leave Hawaii, I told her that we'd come if she does."

"I told her I wasn't going anywhere," Steve said. "I told her that I wasn't going anywhere because you are my family and I meant it."

Danny smiled up at him. "Come on, it's been a long week. Let's go to bed so you and the monkey can get up early tomorrow and go swimming if the storm's past."

"You know she should learn how to swim in a stormy sea just in case, you need different skills." Steve said as he followed Danny around the house for their nightly lock up. "But that should probably wait until she has her bronze medallion in swimming."

"Probably," Danny agreed. "I'd prefer her to never going in a stormy sea."

Steve shrugged. "Sometimes it is unavoidable. What am I going to do in Vegas without the ocean?"

Danny turned and pushed him into the wall before he kissed him. "We'll get a house with a pool, but hopefully we'll never go."

Steve nodded and pulled Danny back for a better kiss before they went upstairs to bed.