/ / / Worrying \ \ \

Danny was downstairs making omelettes when he heard Steve moving around upstairs. He debated going up and helping Steve down the stairs but he could almost see the face Steve would make and decided to let Steve make his way down alone. Steve looked pale and drawn by the time he made it to the kitchen but Danny knew by the defiant line of his shoulders that he would not appreciate Danny fussing over him.

"Go sit on the couch, Steve, I'll bring out breakfast and that horrible green thing you drink."

Steve leaned against the door jamb for a moment. "You made eggs, you never make good eggs."

"Go and sit down, Steve."

Steve turned and gingerly walked back to couch. Danny watched him the whole way there and then put together the rest of their breakfast including the bacon he'd made for himself and took everything out to Steve who was resting back awkwardly on the couch. He put the food down on the coffee table and pushed it closer to Steve.

"You try them first," Steve said, grimacing as he sat up.

"You have terrible taste," Danny said, cutting some of the omelette off and eating it.

"I," Steve said incredulously, "I have bad taste."

Danny smiled around his mouthful. "Mmmm…eggs."

Steve looked dubious but he tried some of the omelette and stopped complaining so Danny decided to take that as a compliment as he ate the rest of his breakfast. After they'd eaten Danny forced Steve to take his next round of medication and then they settled in to watch the game Danny had taped the night before. Danny prodded Steve until the taller man was resting back against him, his bad shoulder supported and the rest of his torso stretched out. Danny settled a hand low on Steve's stomach forced his t-shirt to ride up and Danny could see the skin that was bruising across his abdomen. Danny forced himself not to look at it and focus on the game instead.

Steve stiffened next to him when the shot of Cath and Kono came up on the screen.

"That's…"

"Yep, that's the Texan football fan meeting my favourite quarterback," Danny said. "For a lovely lady she keeps giving me reasons to dislike her."

Steve looked up at him so Danny leaned down to kiss him.

They went back to watching the game but it took Steve a few minutes to relax under Danny's hand.

"In a few of our weekends from now," Danny started in the middle of an ad break, "it will be Grace's birthday. I was going to offer to have a birthday party for her. I'm sure Rachel is going to plan something – she always does but just something small with us and her friends if she wants to invite them."

"Why don't you check with Rachel? Just have her party here with all of her friends since it's her actual birthday."

"I will see but I thought I would check with you first. In my experience, a birthday party shouldn't be a big deal and it ends up being wildly hard work."

Steve nodded against his chest. "Let's ask Grace."

"Grace will never turn down a party."

Steve looked thoughtful.

"We will not be doing anything this weekend," Danny reminded him. "I'm picking Gracie up in an hour. We are going to be sloths, we are going to watch movies and read and play board games. You are going to rest and recuperate, aren't you, Steven?"

Steve looked like he wasn't sure if he was going to agree but then he nodded and turned back to the game.

They finished the game and Danny reluctantly left Steve home alone to go and collect Grace. They stopped at a supermarket to get everything they could think they would need for the weekend.

"Steve, what are you doing?" Grace's voice pulled Danny's head out of the backseat and away from the shopping bags he'd been grabbing while she opened the door.

Danny groaned and left the bags to go inside and see what Steve was doing. Grace was standing in the doorway to the lounge room, hands on hips, and Steve was lying awkwardly on the floor.

He was looking up at Grace sheepishly. "Nothing."

Grace spun around and looked at Danny. "He was doing sit-ups."

"I was just trying to stretch out all of my muscles."

"Gracie," Danny said, "go and get the shopping out of the car."

Grace nodded and turned to leave, she looked up at Danny as she passed him, then he started walking towards Steve.

"Steven," Danny couldn't help but smile down at him, huffing out a laugh, "you are insane and ridiculous and I love you, now get off the floor, you idiot."

Steve frowned at him and struggled to sit up.

"How many sit-ups did you manage," Danny asked, kneeling next to Steve and helping him up.

"I'd only just finished stretching when you got home."

"I've been gone for an hour."

"I had a warm shower before I started to loosen up my muscles."

"You took a flying leap between two staircases, dislocated your shoulder, and bruised most of your body but you thought a shower and sit-ups would fix you right up?"

"You can't just let your muscles seize," Steve said, "and it was a jump not a flying leap."

"Flying leap?" Grace asked.

Danny bit down on his lower lip when he saw the look on Steve's face – a mix of repentant and worried.

"It was a jump." Steve defended.

Grace put down the shopping bags and came over to look at Steve. "You have to be more careful."

"I have a dangerous job, Grace."

One of her eyebrows lifted in a questioning manner. "You have the same job as Danno but you get hurt more."

Steve looked at Danny. "Do I get hurt more?"

Danny nodded.

"Exactly," Grace said, "so, you have to be more careful."

Steve's face twisted into what Danny enjoyed referring to as Aneurysm face for a moment and then his face cleared and he nodded at Grace. "I will try."

"Good, we're having lasagne for dinner."

Danny laughed silently as Grace turned on her heel and walked away.

"I don't get hurt more than you." Steve grumbled.

"'Course not," Danny said, disbelievingly, helping Steve sit up completely. "You just end up in the hospital more than me because you have no regard for your own body and being able to walk in twenty years."

"I will be able to walk."

"Babe, you can't even stand up today."

Steve's expression turned positively mulish and he yanked his hand out of Danny's. Danny took a step back and watched as Steve grimaced while he tried to stand up. Steve flopped down onto his backside with a huff and looked up at Danny.

"Are you ready to admit it hurts?"

"I've dealt with worse."

"I know, but you're getting older, Steve, and while I quite like the distinguished grey the fact remains that you are getting older and that your body isn't going to bounce back like it used to when you were twenty and stupid and throwing yourself out of perfectly good planes."

Steve's expression flickered and Danny could see the flash of worry, of fear, in his expression before his face cleared and he grit his teeth to stand up.

"Or you could just refuse to accept it," Danny said, walking over and kissing Steve quickly. "We're just worried about you."

Steve's face softened.

"So, you're going to be good and let us look after you, aren't you?"

"Of course he is," Grace said, "he can come and help us cook."

Steve nodded and walked towards the kitchen. Danny left Steve in Grace's care while he went and made sure everything was out of the car and it was locked. By the time he'd made it back in to them Steve was sitting at the kitchen table with a glass of water and Grace was putting food away. Danny bit back on the grin he wanted to let out knowing it would annoy Steve. He went in and started cutting tomatoes while Grace kept going.

"Can I do something?" Steve asked.

"No," Grace said, "I went on the computer last night and you shouldn't be taking your arm out of the sling for at least a week and then you have to go and see a physiotherapist – that is someone who will help strengthen your joint, and then you're going to have to do the exercises until it's healed and strong."

"I can still help." Steve said mulishly.

Grace looked unsure.

"Why don't you give Steve your homework and he can quiz you on your times tables and spelling while we work."

Grace nodded and rushed from the room. When she came back to the kitchen she had changed out of her school uniform and handed Steve her homework. He called out words and sums while Grace helped Danny cook bolognese sauce and put together the lasagne. By the time they were done, Grace sat down at the table to fill in the actual answers while Danny cleaned the kitchen. They watched a movie, Grace's choice, while dinner cooked and then Danny went to find the monopoly board.

"We used to play this when I was a kid," Steve said, yanking the box over to him. "I'm the bank."

Grace and Danny looked at one another and Danny grinned. "We've found a sucker."

Grace smiled back at him and they settled down to the game.

"Grace," Danny said, as he paid his daughter rent on her hotel. "Have you and your mother talked about your birthday yet?"

Grace shook her head. "She's been really busy lately, Charlie is being really naughty."

Danny opened his mouth to talk when Grace turned on him completely, money in her hand ignored. "My birthday's on your weekend."

"We know, we thought you might want to have your birthday here this year."

"A party?"

"Yes," Danny confirmed, "I'll need to check with your Mum but we wanted to know if you wanted to have a party here."

"Yes," Grace said, excitedly, "then Kono and Chin and Max and Malia and Kamekona can all come."

"If your Mum has already started planning then we'll just have something small on your actual birthday but you can have all of them."

"Pirates!"

"What?" Steve asked.

"I want to have a pirate party; Mummy said I couldn't have one last year."

"Should we call her in the morning?" Danny asked.

"Can we call her now?" Grace asked, eyes wide.

Danny looked over at the clock and weighed up whether Rachel was just going to be angrier with him after the phone call. He mentally shook himself and handed his mobile over to Grace. He was over pandering to Rachel about Grace and there was no reason he couldn't be the one to hold a birthday for their daughter just because Rachel had been the one who was in a position to have done so before.

"Actually, I better talk to her," he said, holding his hand out for the phone.

"Hi, Mum," Grace said, almost immediately. "No, we had lasagne. Dad and I made it but Steve wasn't allowed to help so he quizzed me on my times tables and my new spelling list. No, Danno has something to ask you. Yeah, no, of course not – Steve isn't allowed to go surfing until his shoulder's all fixed. Mum…of course. Nothing. Okay, I'm just going to give the phone to Danno. Bye, Mum."

Grace handed the phone over to Danny who stood up and walked into the kitchen.

"Hey, Rachel."

"Hello, Daniel."

"Grace's birthday is coming up and it's on my weekend."

"Yes, I wanted to talk to you about that," Rachel said.

Danny had a bad feeling so he just kept on talking. "Steve and I were thinking we'd have her party here this year on the Sunday. Invite her friends from school and it can be down at the beach. It will be a nice break for you from having to plan it and have it. Grace said she wants a pirate theme."

Rachel was silent on the other end of the phone for a few seconds longer than was completely normal. "You and Steve want to hold her birthday?"

"Yeah, makes sense since she'll be here anyway. Then you, Stan and Charlie can just be guests for once."

"Of course," Rachel said, her voice strange. "I will help of course."

"If you want to but there's no need. We'll plan this weekend; it will be a nice way to keep Steve from doing anymore sit-ups."

He knew he would be upsetting her but the whole point of trying to get more time with Grace was to be more involved and if he wanted it then he was going to have to make it happen. He hadn't tried to have her birthday before because he'd never a place to have a party, a reason to think he could fight for more than he'd been forced to accept. Rachel had never given him an opportunity to be involved just sent him an invite and he got to feel like a visitor at his own daughter's birthday parties. Danny didn't want her to feel like that but he didn't want her to think he wasn't more than capable of being more involved in her life.

"That sounds good, I hope Steve is feeling better."

"Grace is an excellent deterrent – he really hates to be told off by her."

"She shouldn't be telling him off." Rachel said.

Danny shrugged. "He shouldn't be doing sit-ups either. She's just worried about him and it makes him be more sensible. It is not a problem, Rachel, and please don't tell her what she should and shouldn't be doing while she is here."

Rachel made a small noise of annoyance. "She is a child, it is inappropriate for her to be telling an adult what to do."

"I don't disagree with you, Rachel, but there is a difference between telling someone what to do and expecting them to do the right thing. If she was being overly bossy or rude I would stop her, you know that."

"I do."

"Then let her worry about him, he's important to both of us."

"I know." But she didn't sound too happy about it.

"I'll see you on Sunday night, Rachel."

"Goodnight, Daniel."

"'Night, Rachel."

Danny hung up the phone and went back in to tell Steve and Grace the good news. They were both excited at the news.

"Let's just finish the game," Danny said, "go to bed and tomorrow we'll think about planning it, okay?"

Grace deflated and they got back to their game – Steve won, of course, before they all went to bed.

-)(-)(-

"I'm not all that sure what an eleven year old's birthday should be like," Steve said, early the next morning, while Danny was giving him his pain medication.

"That's okay, Grace will just tell us what she wants. You may have noticed that my daughter is not at all shy about asking for what she wants."

Steve smiled. "Good. Are you going to tell me what Rachel honestly said when you told her about the birthday?"

"She said exactly what I told you. She offered to help and agreed to the party."

"I can tell when you don't tell me the complete truth," Steve told him, twisting around so that he could tangle his legs with Danny's.

"She didn't sound happy about it at all." Danny conceded. "In fact…no, it's nothing."

"Danny."

"I just got the impression she was going to ask me to swap my weekend so that Grace wouldn't be here for her birthday."

"Why?"

Danny huffed out a breath. "It's probably just me reading too much into everything but she said she'd been going to talk to me about the fact Grace was with us for her birthday and I just got that feeling."

Steve was silent after that and Danny had almost fallen back to sleep when the brunette spoke again – yanking him from sleep.

"We'll have to just have the best eleven year-old's birthday ever."

"What?"

"To prove to Rachel that there's no reason for her to have even thought about asking to have Grace on her birthday."

"I don't know that that is even what she was going to say, she isn't the devil."

"But she doesn't understand how much you value every moment you get to spend with Grace."

Danny shook his head and pressed his forehead into Steve's good shoulder. "She doesn't."

"Go back to sleep, we have a birthday to plan." Steve said, getting the same tone in his voice he got when he was about to do something recklessly dangerous.

"We are going to be sensible." Danny told him, firmly.

"Yep."

Danny didn't feel comforted by that but the steady beat of Steve's heartbeat next to his ear was enough to pull him under again.

/ / /

This did not go the way I thought it would and I've had to break it up because suddenly Grace's birthday was thrown into the mix and I had barely made it to Saturday. There will be more of this weekend next chapter. I realised I'm being a little mean to Steve and very mean to Rachel so there is going to be more fluff coming up.