/ / / Mary \ \ \

Mary opened the door and Danny smiled at her. "I'm not going to see her."

"Okay," Danny shrugged. "But, before you tell me to go away I bought malasadas."

Mary smiled. "Come in."

"Thanks, Mary."

"Who is this then?" Morty asked.

"This is Danny, my brother's fiancé."

"Oh," Danny said. "No one has said it that way before, sounds odd."

"Are you here to talk some sense into her?" Morty asked and grabbed one of the malasadas.

"Nope, just here to see my future sister-in-law."

Mary came to sit next to him. "Steve told me that she is alive. I don't want to see her, she deserted us, Danny."

Danny shrugged at her and ate another fried ball. "I know, believe me, I know. Your mother does not like me. Though, she has been nicer since she kind of ruined our engagement announcement."

"Steve told me," Mary threw her arm around Danny. "Apparently after she left there was cake and beer and enough celebrating that Grace had to miss out on her morning swim with Steve."

Danny grinned at her. "It's a shame you weren't there."

Mary looked over at Morty. "I like my new job but it means I'm more locked into things, I like Morty and we're having a good time."

"She's very good," Morty said. "I'm going to go watch some TV; you two have a nice chat."

Mary stood up to wheel him into the other room. "You don't have to leave us alone."

Morty patted her hand. "I'm hoping he is really here to convince you."

Mary shook her head; she knew Marty meant well but she didn't want to have anything to do with her mother. It had been twenty years and in that time her mother hadn't wanted anything to do with her either.

"Go," Morty said with a shake of his head. "Stubborn."

"It's a McGarrett trait," Danny called from the other room.

"Okay," Mary said when she was sitting next to Danny. "What are you doing here?"

"Steve said your conversation went badly."

"He wants me to meet her, he told me how she feels about you and how she's been undermining and impolite to you since she came back and he wants me to meet her?"

Danny smiled. "Should have brought scotch."

"Yeah, but these are good." Mary said eating another malasada. "They never taste as good anywhere else."

"Okay," Danny said. "You're right, Steve's right she's been a bit of a bitch but, and this is a pretty big but, I think she thought that she was doing the right thing for Steve and while she read that situation very wrong I was pretty damned judgemental about her when we first met."

"We thought she was dead!"

"I know, Mary, there will never be a good enough explanation for it. I'm a dad, I love Gracie more than I love myself and there is very little I wouldn't do for her, I shot a man for her once, but even I don't understand it. What I will say for her is this, it is hard to explain the depth of love you have for your kids and sometimes you do stupid arse shit in the name of protecting them. See, Grace has this friend; Tommy." Danny said like he was saying Bundy. "This kid is everything I hate."

"Male?" Mary asked.

Danny laughed. "Yep, and I have been telling my baby, my daughter who is only ten but will one day be sixteen and then twenty and then she'll be getting married and someone else will get to see her every day and she might move away and then she'll be a mum and have her own little family and," Danny took a deep breath. "Every time I see Tommy, no matter what he is doing, every time I see that kid I think of Grace getting older and dating and one step closer to disappearing from my life. So I tell her how terrible boys are, I am telling her to stay away from anyone male and I hear myself and know it's ridiculous but that anxiety over the future makes me say it anyway."

"I'm really not seeing the point," Mary said.

Danny shook his head. "My point is that even if what you are doing seems insane sometimes we do it with good intentions. I don't know you mother, not really, I only know what I have seen so far, which admittedly hasn't been very positive but she really seems to love Steve, and I know she has talked about you. She doesn't like me, but when Steve explained that he and I are not going to end because of how she feels about me she did better, she did something she really hated for her son. She was in a situation that sucked and I think she did what she thought was the best option, I'm never going to agree but I know that even with everything that Steve's gone through since she came back he is happy that he knows she is alive."

"I barely remember her," Mary said blinking away tears. "He told me and all I could think was that, I can't really remember her, like she's a ghost in my memories. I was barely a teenager when she died. I needed a mum, I needed her and she was in hiding."

"So tell her that," Danny said pulling her into a warm hug. Mary took a deep breath and was surprised at how comforting she found him to be, she was so glad he was going to be family soon.

"I hate her," Mary whispered into the crispness of his shirt.

"Mary," Danny said quietly tightening his hold. "That's okay, I hate her a little bit because I see what she did to Steve and I know it was just as bad for you. Hating her is okay."

"She's my mum," Mary said. "She left me, she was supposed to be there for so many things and I didn't have anyone."

"Whatever you decide," Danny said pulling away. "Whatever you decide, I will support you, Steve will support you but…knowing that she is alive can you live with yourself if you go back and don't see her."

"She hasn't wanted to see me in twenty years."

"When you think back, do you remember her loving you?"

"She gave the best hugs," Mary said tears streaming down her face now and she didn't know how to make them stop. "I missed them so much."

"So, maybe she did want to see you."

"Why are you here? You said she doesn't like you, you don't like her either and yet you're here."

"We're going to be family, Steve's worried about you and I don't want you to go home and stew about what would, could, should have happened with your mother." Danny said. "Your mum looks at me and sees someone who isn't good enough for her son, she sees someone who judged her for abandoning her family and has moved into a place she left, in her son's life, in her house. She is sure of her instincts and since she has been living by them for twenty years she trusts them. She was downright civil to me the last time I saw her, she even congratulated us on the engagement, Steve swam for three hours after the meeting he had with her the day after we told everyone we were getting married but she's trying to do the right thing."

"Has Steve sexed you into calmness or something?" Mary asked looking at him strangely.

Danny laughed. "I love your brother and your mother doesn't have the power to make me mad, my ex-wife who is trying to take my daughter to Las Vegas has the entirety of my anger directed straight at her at the moment."

"You and Steve might move to Las Vegas?" Mary asked.

"See, she didn't get that before, she thought I was going to leave Steve here."

Mary scoffed; she had known that Steve and Danny weren't going to be breaking up as soon as she saw them look at one another even when they had just been working together; she had just been waiting for them to start dating. Apparently she got her brains from her father; Steve she wasn't always sure about.

"Idiot," Mary said and took a deep breath. "I can't promise anything."

"Will you think about it?" Danny asked.

"I will think about it," Mary said.

"This is all I ask," Danny's phone beeped. "I need to go and collect Gracie. You'll come over for dinner?"

"I can't leave Morty."

"Then bring him," Danny put his hand on her shoulder. "No matter what you decide you need to come to dinner so we can work out when you can make it back for the wedding. Grace is dying to buy a dress."

Mary smiled at him. "Oh, I get to buy a new dress."

"So that's never going to change? I'm going, see you soon."

"Bye, Danny." Mary said and closed the door behind him.

"Your almost brother-in-law is pretty smart," Morty yelled out from the other room.

/ / / /

To me one of the things that sits between Mary and Steve is that he does want to be a big brother but she hasn't had one there for a long while. I thought Danny, who is still rocking the Doris-calm might have some luck. I've had this scene in my head since I saw the episode. I decided not to write the Steve-Doris conversation and the Steve-Doris-Danny meeting because it would take me ages and I thought I could get there through Danny. Besides the next episode has that lovely torture scene. . .