I finally forced myself to do some work on my smallfandombigbang entry and I'm down to two sections left. So yay. But I've just been wanting to write this so I took Saturday off to do it. Enjoy...
/ / / Planning \ \ \
"Danno."
Danny didn't move.
"Danno?"
Danny sniffed and shifted.
"Danno!"
"Grace? Grace!" Danny shot up and looked at his daughter who was standing next to their bed already dressed. "What's wrong?"
"I just wanted to get you up."
"What? You mean you're not dying or bleeding or think there is an intruder?"
"It's already seven and we are supposed to plan my birthday today."
Danny flopped back in the bed with a groan. "Gracie."
Steve twitched next to him and mumbled, "what's wrong?"
"It's just Grace."
"What's wrong with her?" Steve asked, sitting up.
"Nothing," Danny said, throwing off the sheet and rolling out of bed.
"We are supposed to plan my birthday," Grace explained. Steve started to get up. "Steve, you should get up slowly, and be careful of your shoulder."
Danny stretched out – accepting that each of his popping joints was a sign of his age while he grabbed some clothes. "Did you get yourself breakfast?"
"No."
"Go down and get out the stuff for pancakes and I'll have a shower."
"Okay, make sure Steve is careful."
Danny nodded and turned to watch Steve slowly got out of bed. "Do you want the first shower?"
Steve shook his head. "I'm going to use the one downstairs."
"Steve?"
"I need to stretch out first; I'm just going to walk around before I have a shower."
Danny nodded and watched as Steve grabbed some clothes and walked towards the door gingerly. He could see the colouring of bruises that covered Steve's shoulder, back and side. He wished there was anything he could do for them but knew from experience they would just have to wait for the bruises to heal. Danny could hear Grace asking about them as they walked down the stairs and Danny smiled as Grace worried about Steve; he was always so thankful that Grace liked Steve as much as she did. He took a little longer in the shower than he needed to and Grace gave him a look when he made it down to the kitchen.
"Steve has a lot of bruises."
Danny nodded. "I know, monkey."
"I've never seen that many bruises."
Danny wished he could say the same thing but he had seen Steve after moves like that before. "Pancakes?"
Grace nodded and they cooked, Danny giving her more to do than the last time they had cooked them. Rachel had a cook-housekeeper-nanny combo woman that Danny didn't honestly understand half the time. Grace had little call to learn how to cook or do much around the house at Rachel's so he made sure she was expected to help with the cleaning and cooking while she was with him. Danny knew his mother would never let him get away with having a granddaughter who didn't know how to cook. Grace mangled half of the pancakes which made her pout down at the pan.
"They look good," Steve said, when he came into the kitchen.
Grace beamed at him. "I made them. Wait, where is your sling?"
Steve smiled and turned around to walk out of the kitchen to fetch his sling. When he made it back into the kitchen the food was on the table and they ate in almost silence.
"They are amazing, monkey."
Grace preened as she shoved her last bite into her mouth. "Can we plan my birthday now?"
"After you finish chewing," Danny said, frowning down at her.
She closed her mouth to chew and smiled at him.
"Why don't you and Steve going into the lounge room and I'll clean up."
"I can help," Steve said, standing up and using his good hand to collect plates.
Grace frowned at him. "Do you promise to be careful?"
Steve turned and smiled at her. "I promise."
Grace looked unsure and then nodded. "Okay. I'll go and get my notebook."
"Notebook?" Danny asked, but she was gone already. "That worries me."
Steve laughed but kept cleaning up one handed.
"You know you don't have to do that."
"Yes I do." Steve said, firmly.
Danny sighed but walked over and kissed Steve before he went into the lounge room.
"I'm going to need to do invites first," Grace said, coming into the lounge room with a bright pink notebook in her hands. "Which day am I having the party because my birthday's on the Saturday and-"
"Grace, did you stay up late last night planning the party?" Danny asked.
She grinned at him happily.
"Okay, I thought that we would have your party on the Sunday but we can have it on the Saturday if you like."
Grace looked unsure. "Why the Sunday?"
"Less sport," Steve offered, coming into the lounge room with three bottles of water.
Grace's face scrunched up and then she nodded. "Fine, we'll do it on the Sunday. We can go swimming though can't we?"
"You can't have a pirate party without-"
"We should build a plank," Steve interrupted Danny, face lighting up.
"What?" Danny asked.
"We should build a plank out into the water, I can do it, it's going to be amazing."
"Steven," Danny started only to be cut off by Grace's excited squeal.
"Really?"
"It's going to be completely safe," Steve said, eyes lighting up like a little boy.
"How?"
"We'll do it off a boat, moored, or maybe a platoon, and I can be the lifeguard, it'll be completely safe."
"We can walk the plank," Grace said with excitement, "the plank! We are going to have to try it out before the party."
"Of course," Steve said, voice as excited as Grace's, "I'll set it up for the weekend before the party."
Grace looked so excited Danny had a feeling there would be a pontoon with plank set up in a fortnight – he decided not to think about it.
"Right," Danny said, "okay, apart from a plank that we will force small children to walk lest we skewer them with a sword we need to worry about other things."
"Time, invites, and who I can invite."
"Do you have a list?" Danny asked.
"This is my list of things to discuss," Grace sat patting her hand on her notebook. "And, this is," she said pulling a slip of paper out, "a list of people I would like to come to my party."
"Okay, hand it over."
Grace gave it to Danny with a hopeful smile.
"I'm not agreeing yet," Danny warned her.
Grace's smile didn't dim. "Of course not."
Danny knew he was screwed. "Should we invite them at 10:30 so they can swim before lunch and then if they want they can swim again after they've eaten. Assuming they wait thirty minutes."
"Old wife's tale." Steve said flippantly.
"Shut up, Steven."
Steve chuckled but then he winked at Grace.
"I'm not changing my mind," Danny told his daughter firmly.
Grace nodded at him. "10:30 is good." Grace made a note in her notebook.
"Next?"
"Cake," Grace said firmly.
"Cake?"
She nodded at them both. "I want the chocolate crunch mocha cake we had at your engagement party."
Danny looked at Steve, "was that an engagement party?"
Grace shook he head at him disbelievingly. "Of course it was, Daddy."
"We can have that cake but some people might not let their children eat mocha." Danny said.
"Why?"
"It has coffee in it," Danny explained, "so, let's also get some cocoa puffs."
"You could make your pineapple cake," Steve said.
Grace sat up straight and nodded at Danny emphatically.
"Pineapple cake or mocha?" Danny asked her.
Grace looked torn and then turned her wide eyes on Steve.
"We could do both," Steve offered.
"We don't need two cakes, Steven."
"Well," Steve said, the excited shine coming back to his expression, "we could have the pineapple upside down cake for our special dinner on her actual birthday."
"I have to have cake on my actual birthday," Grace said, jumping onto Steve's argument enthusiastically.
Danny sighed. "Fine."
"Plus cocoa puffs for Chin," Steve said.
"His journey to diabetes?"
Steve grinned at Danny and then rolled his eyes.
"You're ridiculous," Danny accused.
"What's next on your list?" Steve asked, even while Grace was writing in her notebook. Danny had a feeling that notebook was going to come back and bite him in the arse before Grace's birthday.
"I need invites and all of the stuff on invites," Grace told Steve, looking up at him, "but that's boring."
"It's won't be so boring if no one comes to your party," Danny pointed out and Grace scowled.
"Something pirate?"
"I will see what I can find," Danny offered.
"We could look on the internet," Steve countered. "I'll go and get my laptop."
"No," Grace said, looking at him, "you need to rest."
"I have been resting."
Grace stared at him silently until Steve relaxed. "Daddy?" she asked, turning to her father.
Danny sighed but stood to go and find the dreaded computer so that they could look for invites. After some debate, mainly from Steve, and a lot of dismissals, from Grace who simply didn't like most of what Danny found, they had chosen a downloadable invite that they could alter to suit their purposes. Danny mentally swore when he realised how long they had spent looking for invites and wished he could just call time on the planning but he couldn't do that to Grace.
"Do you want to go swimming?" Steve asked Grace.
"You're not allowed to go swimming." Grace pointed out.
"You could go with Danny."
Grace shook her head. "It would be mean to go while you were stuck on the beach."
"No, it wouldn't," Steve said, standing up. "I suggested it."
"We haven't finished planning my birthday," Grace pointed out.
"We could finish after the swim while we eat lunch," Danny offered, jumping on the chance to have a break from planning.
Grace looked torn for a moment but then she cracked and smiled, putting down the notebook and rushing to her room to get changed.
"Thank you," Danny said, standing up and dropping a kiss on Steve's lips before he went and changed into his swimming clothes.
Grace was standing next to her sandcastle making supplies and some towels when Danny came back down. There was a smudge of white across her nose and Steve was rubbing sunscreen into her shoulders and back with one hand. Danny smiled at them both.
"We making sandcastles, Gracie?"
"Steve can help with sandcastles," Grace said, rubbing more sunscreen into her arms.
"He sure can," Danny said, lathering himself in sunscreen. Grace may have somehow missed out on Rachel's pale British skin and his 'I live in the city' pale skin and got his father's more olive complexion but sunscreen was non-negotiable in Danny's world if there was even a possibility of her developing skin cancer. Plus, he hated getting burnt.
"I thought," Grace said, stepping away from Steve now that he was done protecting her from the sun, "we could have a treasure hunt."
"We can," Danny said, sighing, "we'll even do maps to buried treasure."
Grace's face lit up and they walked out of the house and down to the beach. Danny threw out the blanket in the shade and Steve sat down while Grace put everything down on the blanket with him.
"Is there anything else you need?" Danny asked Steve. "Water, something to read?"
"No, I'm fine."
"Are you sure?" Grace asked, sitting down next to him.
"I'm just going to plan the plank in my head while you swim."
Danny bit back his indulgent smile and shook his head at his partner. If this was what they were going to be like when he and Danny finally got to planning the wedding then Danny feared for his own sanity. He wouldn't tell Steve because he knew the ex-SEAL would use it against him but he would give Steve almost anything for this wedding because it was the only one he intended to let the other man have.
Danny and Grace swam around while she showed off her ability in the water and he was pleased to see that she paused to check on Steve almost as often as he found his eyes flickering over to check on the other man. And in between the swimming Grace would pause and look at him before asking a question.
"Can I ask Kono to make her Aunt's dip?"
"You can ask."
Grace smiled at him broadly. Then she went back to swimming until the next question.
"Can we have pineapple?"
Danny frowned at his daughter. "What?"
"You hate pineapple."
"I love pineapple."
Grace looked at him dubiously.
"The actual fruit I like, I eat it. You asked for my pineapple upside-down cake for your actual birthday dinner."
"But do you like it because you've complained about this 'pineapple infested island' a lot."
Danny couldn't resist laughing. "I haven't said that in over a year."
Grace shrugged.
"Yes, we can have pineapple. Maybe that will be the only thing I put on the table for lunch."
Grace rolled her eyes at him like a true Williams and then went back to swimming.
Danny wasn't expecting it the third time, when Grace basically threw herself on his back. He spluttered and reprimanded her before asking what she wanted.
"Can I buy a new dress?"
"Don't you want to wear a pirate costume?"
Grace looked torn for a moment and then nodded. "Okay."
She went off swimming and then froze and came back to him. "Are you going to dress up too?"
Danny wanted to say no, since he really didn't like dressing up, but he wouldn't deny her an eye-patch and parrot. "I will."
"What about Steve."
"You're going to have to ask him yourself. Why don't we get out and you can build a sandcastle before we have lunch?"
"Picnic?"
Danny nodded and trailed behind her as they got out of the water.
"Steve," she called out, running over to him and freezing before she threw herself into the towel he was holding up for her. She took it off him and wrapped it around herself instead.
"Enjoy your swim?"
Grace nodded as she collapsed down onto the blanket. "Will you dress up?"
Steve frowned at her with confusion as he handed Danny a towel.
"She wants us to dress up for her pirate party," Danny explained, towelling himself off.
"Okay," Steve said, smiling at Grace.
She beamed at him.
They started making something complicated in the sand before Grace turned and stared at Steve.
"Yes, Grace?"
"Will you show my friends tricks like last time?"
"Sure."
Grace turned back to what she was doing and Danny pushed himself up to his feet. "Since we're going to be here for a while I'm going up and making our picnic."
"Do you want some help?" Steve asked.
"No, you stay here and build Buckingham Palace out of sand."
"Ham please," Grace said.
"Of course, and turkey for Steve." They both smiled at him while Danny brushed as much sand off as he could. He left them both to it, washing off the sand on his legs before going inside and making them sandwiches and fruit. He loaded everything into a basket along with a few drinks and trekked back down to Steve and Grace.
"We need gold coins." Grace said, as soon as he was close enough to hear her.
"Real ones?" Danny asked, putting the basket down.
Grace laughed. "No, ones with chocolate inside."
"I think we could probably manage that."
"We would need a treasure chest for them," Steve suggested.
"You are determined to make this the most over the top birthday ever, aren't you?" Danny said, looking at Steve.
"We're showing Steve how birthdays are supposed to be," Grace jumped in, excitedly, "he said that he hasn't really had a birthday so we have to show him how it should be. Then he can have a proper one this year."
"I liked spending it with you and Danny," Steve defended.
"Maybe we'll save the big one for your fortieth then," Danny offered, winking at Steve.
"Too far away," Grace argued.
"We have the wedding just after his birthday." Danny had a sudden thought and smiled at Steve. "You could make your birthday your buck's night."
"I didn't think future spouses were supposed to go."
"They're not."
"Then it sounds like a terrible idea," Steve said.
"I could come," Danny said. "Kamekona is probably already organising it."
"Why?"
"It just seems like something he would do."
"That really doesn't count as a birthday," Grace said, shaking her head at her father.
"Especially because Grace can't come."
"Then we'll have a party for your birthday," Danny said, smiling like he'd won.
"You didn't want me to have a party," Steve said.
"You didn't want a party, me, personally, I think it's a great idea. We can invite everyone."
"What about your birthday?" Steve asked.
"How could you top last year?" Danny asked, moving over and kissing Steve. "Last year was one of the best that I've had."
"Same," Steve said quietly.
"We will need swords too," Grace said, a few minutes later when the silence had stretched between them.
"And parrots," Danny threw in.
"Eye patches." Steve offered. Then he tensed and pulled back from Danny. Danny turned to look at him but he was wearing that secretive look that meant he was going to do something completely over the top and ridiculous. Danny thought about pressing but he knew it would be useless, especially with Grace here, so he'd wait until they were alone and try, fruitlessly, to get the truth out of Steve.
They sat out on the blanket eating before Grace and Danny went back into the ocean for another swim. As the afternoon sun was getting truly hot Danny told Grace it was time to go inside and Steve had them all packed up by the time he and Grace were out of the water. Danny picked up the basket and tub of beach things while Grace took the towels and Steve lifted the blanket. He looked so frustrated that Danny kissed him before heading back up to the house where they showered and changed.
Danny found Grace scribbling into her notebook when he came down from having a shower. "Pizza for dinner or a barbeque," he asked.
"Your pizza or bought?" Steve countered.
"Mine."
"Pizza," Grace and Steve said together.
"Okay, I'm just going to make the dough. Grace, keep an eye on Steve."
Grace looked at Steve and Steve looked at Danny with annoyance.
"I don't need watching," Steve said.
"I know, Steven."
"You don't want help?" Grace asked.
"You look pretty busy already, monkey."
"I can take a break to help."
"And I still don't need watching," Steve said.
"You can help if you want to, Grace." Danny said, ignoring Steve.
She smiled and finished writing something before standing up and a starting for the kitchen. Then she stopped and turned around to look at Steve. "Are you coming?"
"I don't need to be watched."
"But, we're all helping."
Steve sighed and followed both Williams into the kitchen and sat at the kitchen table watching as Grace flittered around and collected all of the ingredients while Danny cleaned off the bench where he kneaded the dough.
"Should I make the garlic pizza again too?"
"Yes," Steve said, but he didn't sound overly happy about it.
Danny and Grace made dough while they discussed Grace's invite list and agreed on the people that she could invite. The party was going to be larger than Danny had intended but Steve and Grace were joining forces against him. And he liked how happy this was all making Grace. They left the dough to rise while Danny tackled the invites and between the three of them they finally got them how they wanted them so Danny left Grace to type in the names while he made sauce and rolled out the dough. He was just chopping toppings when Steve came into the kitchen.
"What happened to mozzarella, tomato pizza sauce and a base?" Steve asked, grabbing a cherry tomato off the chopping board.
"My daughter and her healthy eating class," Danny said, with a huff. "I'm making a little one with just that stuff but apparently we need vegetables and…" Danny trailed off with a sigh.
Steve pulled him over for a soft kiss and Danny smiled, pressing his forehead into Steve's good shoulder after he'd pulled away. "She wants you to live a long life."
"I want you to live one too. And her, of course."
"I love you too, do you need help?"
Danny shook his head but didn't move away for another few minutes. Then he pulled back and smiled up at Steve.
"How are the invites going?"
"She's a better typist than you."
"Good," Danny said, smiling and turning back to the cherry tomatoes he was cutting.
Grace had finished the invites by the time Danny had everything ready so they left them to print while they all put their pizzas together and into the oven.
"I can't think of anything else," Grace said. "We're have a barbecue lunch, we've decided on the cake and Steve is making a plank, we're going to have pineapple and gold coins and cocoa puffs. There will be a treasure hunt and swimming. Is there anything left?"
"I think we have it all planned," Danny said, "we'll get Chin to do the map on the computer."
"Will he mind?"
"Course not, all the more practice for this own kids."
"How is Malia?" Grace asked, turning to him with excitement.
"Getting bigger, and happy," Steve said.
"Why don't you pick something to watch after dinner, monkey?"
"It should be Steve's choice."
"We don't want to watch a war movie."
"Hey!" Steve said. "I pick…'The Notebook'."
"You…" Danny trailed off at Grace's excited expression and waited until she'd run off before he rounded on Steve properly. "You did that on purpose."
"I keep telling you I don't need to be watched."
Danny glared at Steve and went to check the pizzas.
They ate their food out on the lanai discussing where they could hide treasures for the treasure hunt.
"Shouldn't there only be one treasure?" Steve asked.
"One big one," Grace said, "like in pass-the-parcel and then little ones where the clues are."
"Why don't we do something fun with that tree," Steve said, pointing to one of the lower hanging trees.
"Like what?" Danny asked.
"Hang those gold coins off it and then each one could have the clue wrapped around it."
"That's a brilliant idea," Grace said emphatically.
"It's a very nice idea."
"We can have someone hang them off the tree while we have everyone in the house for the start of the hunt," Steve suggested.
"Not Kamekona," Danny specified.
"Not Kamekona," Steve agreed, "he'd try and swap them out for his own shrimp."
"Chocolate is better," Grace said. "Maybe Kono will help?"
"I can ask," Danny said, grabbing a slice off the smaller margherita pizza in the middle of the table.
"Danny, you need to eat more vegetables."
"If I eat any more," Danny said, biting into the margherita pizza, "I'm going to turn into one."
Grace rolled her eyes dramatically and went back to eating. "You can't turn into a vegetable by eating too many of them."
Danny winked at her while he was chewing.
After they'd eaten and the sun had gone down Danny reluctantly moved them back into the lounge room. Grace settled in between them so Steve threw his arm along the back of the couch and curled his fingers into Danny's neck. Danny dropped his head back into Steve's fingers while Grace happily started the movie. Danny had no idea why his daughter loved this movie; why couldn't they just watch more Disney movies?
As soon as the movie was over he nudged Grace off the couch and into the bathroom to brush her teeth and go to bed.
Grace looked incredibly serious when she grabbed Danny's hand just before he left her bedroom.
"What is it, monkey?" he asked, sitting own next to her knees on her bed.
"Could I have a friend sleep over on the night of my birthday?"
Danny frowned down at her for a moment. "We are going to have a lot to do the morning of the party and I don't want you to be exhausted for your party."
Grace nodded, looking gutted at his decision.
"We could have a sleepover another time," Danny offered. "But, I'll have to check with Steve."
Grace nodded and snuggled back into her bed.
"I'm sorry, monkey."
"I understand," she said, giving him a hug.
Danny left her bedroom and went back to the lounge room.
"Danny?"
"She asked me if she could have someone sleep over on her birthday."
"It's a Sunday."
"No, on the Saturday night."
"And you said no?"
"We're going to have to get ready for the party and she isn't going to want to go to sleep because they will be talking and playing games and just doing what kids at a sleepover do. But it will mean she's going to be tired for her party. It's just a bad night."
Steve tugged Danny over and into his good side.
"You made the right decision then."
"Maybe another weekend she can have a friend over?"
Steve nodded. "I don't mind."
"Of course you don't."
"Why are you so upset over this? You've said no to her before."
Danny shrugged. "I wanted to give her everything this birthday; I don't know when we'll get another chance to have it."
"Well," Steve said, "there are an even number of weeks in a year and her birthday will be on a Sunday next year and it should be your Sunday if everything is even. I think, I'll get the calendar."
"Do not move." Danny said, pressing into Steve's body.
"And next year we can have a bouncy castle."
Danny laughed. "A bouncy castle?"
"One of those ones that adults can use too."
Danny shook his head in disbelief. "You giant child."
"I think it would be fun."
"You just want to play in a bouncy castle."
"I might join in."
Danny pulled away from Steve and twisted around to kiss him. "You are ridiculous."
Steve just smiled at him goofily.
"How are you feeling?" Danny asked.
"Up to anything."
"I wasn't offering sex."
Steve looked put out. "Why?"
"You're wearing a sling and don't know how to take it easy."
Steve pouted at him.
"How about a movie?"
Steve sighed but agreed.
"Hey, you got this look earlier like you were planning something dastardly."
"Dastardly?"
"The nicest word I can think of for you spoiling Grace."
"It was just her birthday present, I have a plan."
"How annoyed am I going to be when you give it to her?"
Steve shrugged. "Not at all, you gave me permission if I remember correctly."
"Permission?"
"A long while ago."
"So you can tell me?"
Steve shook his head. "Nope."
"It's a good thing you're pretty or the fact you're dastardly would be terrible."
"If you keep using words like that I will demand sex."
"You are incredibly ridiculous."
"Love you too."
Danny kissed him and turned the movie on.
/ / /