Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: To answer a question I got last time round – This is Season 8 episode 10. As I'm rewriting the whole series I haven't really been putting chapter names. I will say that there's only one more chapter in episode 10 before we head off to episode 11. These chapters are all the dreams Danny was having while he was shot, please enjoy my version of them.

Chapter 446

It was Friday night, the night that all restaurant places got the most business, and their restaurant was hopping.

Steve was out on the floor doing his thing, schmoozing with the customers. Danny could hear his distinctive timber over both the chatter in the dining room and the chaos in the kitchen.

Rowan had dressed Steve tonight. She dressed him most nights, but she had out done herself this time. She had him in a black blazer, with matching black slacks and a dark navy blue button up with a few buttons undone.

The dark navy blue was probably cause they went at it before he came into work tonight, but it was working with the ladies either way.

Danny, was in their kitchen. He was working on a new dish, perfecting it, making it ready not just for Steve to try but to put it on their menu. Maybe have it as the special next weekend.

He loved this kitchen, loved working in it, especially with all the hustle and bustle around. He created the best dishes surrounded by their chefs and all the pictures of their family on the walls. Not just biological but their found family as well.

He took a break only to walk around the kitchen, to make sure everyone was good. He tested dishes, they were all perfect cause their chefs were amazing like that. He made sure all his kitchen staff were okay, no one looked like they were being over worked, no one looked overwhelmed.

He found some dishes that had been sitting in the expo window, he got someone to take them to their tables, or at least to the serving window to get them to their servers and the door to the kitchen opened.

There was Steve looking handsome as ever walking on in.

"Another full house, partner!" he cried pulling Danny in for a hug.

They had been worried.

All the negative responses they were getting when they told everyone about their dream restaurant in the first place had weighed on them. And sure, the first couple of months were scary, but then Rowan started bringing her celebrities there for lunch after negotiating her music deals making it the IT place to be. Now they were non-stop busy.

"Kitchen, we're gonna turn it over twice, so let's keep moving, okay?" he called to the staff who all smiled at him.

It's so sexy when you talk restaurant, Rowan would say if she were there. But she wasn't she was at home with their adopted kid, and still very, very pregnant.

Felt like she had been pregnant forever.

He moved towards the plating table before turning back to Danny. "Oh, hey, Dog and Beth, they called. They're coming in at 9:30. What do they like? The osso bucco, right?" he asked. "Oh, and Rowan was wondering if we could box up some spaghetti for her. Bolognese for Nahele, and something special for her. You know her cravings."

"I do," Danny said. Cause he did. Everyone did. She had been treating this kitchen like her personal kitchen with her own personal chef inside. Though, to be fair, a lot of her money was sunk in this restaurant, so it was only fair. "Hey, I want you to try something."

"What do you want me to try?" he asked as Danny turned to go get the dish he had left to simmer.

"Don't worry about what it is, just taste it," he ordered. He got a spoon out for Steve, got him some of it and then fed it to him.

He watched Steve savour it, eyes closed really concentrating, just like Danny had taught him. "What do you think?"

"Stop, what is this?"

"Polenta crostini, a little porcini."

"It's unbelievable!" Steve cried. "Did you do this?"

"Course I did," Danny said with a shrug and Steve just smiled.

"Grandma Williams right now, she's smiling down on you, boy. That is unbelievable."

"Next weekend, make it the special? If it does good we can put it on the menu, what do you think?"

"Serve 'em, Danno," he said.

He couldn't use Book 'em anymore, so that was the new one. He didn't mind this one though, this one made him smile.

Steve walked a little bit away from him, while Danny went back to managing the kitchen, his eyes were on the TV they had mounted in the corner. It was currently on the news station and Steve was taking it all in.

"Can you believe this?"

Danny turned his eyes to it and read the news caption. "Veteran detective shot and killed inside King's Medical Center. We know this guy?"

It was a reasonable question. They had worked, what almost a decade on Hawaii, very closely with HPD. It would make sense that they knew him.

But Steve gave him this look like he was crazy.

"What do you mean?"

"The cop, do we know him?" he asked. God, sometimes Steve could be very thick. Rowan liked to say: "It's a good thing you're cute, cause you're oblivious, honey."

Steve would smile and kiss her and the two would laugh and giggle like the high-school couple they were and never grew out of. If Danny told him that, however, they'd start arguing in the kitchen and they could not get into another argument in front of the staff.

Carguments may not be a thing anymore but they were quickly becoming known for spatchens, which was a mashed up word for spats in the kitchen. Thank you, Rowan, for coining that one.

"What do you mean, Danny?" he asked again. "It's you, buddy."

The world around him got a little distorted. The voice on the TV was telling him that he had been shot and killed while in the east wing. But… he had only been in the east wing when they had been quarantined… and that had been… hadn't that been years ago?

He turned back to the TV and now his face was there. His personnel picture was on the screen, his name left off it at least.

This couldn't be right. It couldn't be. But he looked down to his chest and found pool forming on his white shirt and the pain was starting to come with it.

This had to be a dream. Or a nightmare.

He closed his eyes, closed them tight and hoped it all went away.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

He was running through the hospital hallways. He hadn't been ready when the text came in, he had been busy when the text came in, but he had rushed to the hospital anyway.

There was no way he was going to miss this.

He got to the waiting room and found Steve's found family waiting for him.

Wo and Con were there sitting with Nahele, all three of them had teddy bears. Con had a blue bear, Nahele had a brown bear, and Wo had a pink bear.

Rowan had only gone into active labor twenty minutes ago, which was also when she decided to tell Steve that she had been labour for the last five hours, but it wasn't "enough" to go to the hospital for.

Of course, Steve had flown into an instant panic.

Firstly, how had he not noticed that she was having contractions?

Secondly, how had she not told him?

Thirdly, why hadn't she gone to the hospital as soon as it started?

But she wouldn't answer the questions, she just shouted: "TAKE ME TO THE HOSPITAL NOW!" and that was exactly what he did.

Apparently there had been a mad scramble getting Rowan to the car, getting Nahele out of his room and then finding the to-go bag where Steve tripped over everything, shouted at everyone and basically was just a whole mess. He also pulled out of the driveway without Rowan and Nahele in the car and had to pull back in to get her when he remembered she needed to be with him.

When he got to the hospital Steve had sent out the mass text about the whole situation. Well, he sent two sentences.

Ro in hospital. Baby on the way!

Danny got the rest of the story when he called Wo Fat. He had tried calling Steve himself but he hadn't picked up. He wasn't too mad about that, Steve was busy with his wife and their coming baby.

Everyone else was on the case he had just left behind. A veteran detective shot and killed at King's Medical. His chest hurt every time he thought about it, so he kept pushing the thoughts away.

Danny wasn't going to miss the birth of his godson for a case though so he had left. He did promise to forward updates and pictures, though.

"How's it looking?" he asked the three men that made up Rowan's side of her family in the waiting room.

"Uh, she squeezed his hand so hard while he was trying to drive that he's sure it's broken," Nahele offered up. Danny nodded sounded about right, Rachel had almost broken his hand too.

"She's uh… she's been cussing him out since the pain kicked up," Con added. "Wo had to pay them double to get her the epidural the second they showed up."

"Paid or threatened?"

"Little of both," Wo said with a shrug. "The nurse said something about dilation, and I made the mistake of asking Jian what that meant and now I regret it."

Yeah, that too made sense.

"Jian on her way?"

"Not yet. She's got a few more clients at the clinic then she'll head down," Wo Fat said reaching for his phone. "She wants updates though."

For a moment they were all quiet, Danny knew they were probably going to be waiting for a little bit but this was starting to get boring. Maybe he'd go to the giftshop and get the couple something.

Just not a teddy bear seeing as everyone had already got them one.

"Why is your bear pink? They're having a boy," he asked Wo who looked down at the little pink bear sitting on his lap.

"Pink can be a gender-neutral colour. Not everything a boy gets has to be blue," Con snapped coming to his older brother's defense.

Danny shot him an unimpressed glare. "Says the man holding the blue bear."

"If he doesn't like it, they can save it for the next kid," Wo said.

"She says she's never doing this again," Nahele reminded them.

"With the way those two go at it, no way they don't end up accidentally pregnant again," Con muttered.

"Either way," Wo said loudly clearly wanting off the topic of his sister's sex life. "If they don't want it, I can keep it for my kid, who knows what we'll end up having."

Very unsecretly Danny was worried about Wo Fat procreating, no one wanted another one of him running around. He was also extremely worried about a combination of Rowan and Steve, but he was going to get to be involved with the raising of that one, he was hoping to kind of negate any of the more… wild traits… their boy might inherit from his parents.

He wouldn't have that chance with Wo's kid. Wo's kid was going to get raising from Wo, Con and Ro, maybe even some Steve. It wasn't going to stand a chance, even with the normal Jian as his it's mom.

As Danny thought, though, it took a while for the delivery. He had time to go to the gift shop to pick up balloons and flowers. Balloons for Steve and flowers for Rowan. He also had time to go get coffee on more than one occasion, which included getting one for everyone there at one point.

But eventually Steve came out into the waiting room, looking ridiculous in a set of blue scrubs, this giant big goofy grin on his face, and a watery look in his eyes. Like he was seconds from crying, or already had cried.

"He's here. He's… he's here. All healthy, everything there, a perfect little baby boy," he told them.

They were up on their feet already putting hands to his shoulder and throwing words of congratulations at him.

"How's Ro?" Wo Fat asked right away because of course he would.

"She's doing just fine. They're just finishing things up with her, she's holding him right now," he said as he pulled Nahele in for a hug. "We can go back as soon as they give the a-okay. Did you want to hold your new little brother?"

Nahele nodded happily and Danny whacked Steve's shoulder. "What about me?" he asked. "When does the godfather get to hold his godson."

"After his uncles," Wo snapped and Danny shot him a glare. However, Steve nodded in agreement… the fucking traitor.

"Fine, how about this, what's his name?" Danny asked. "Did you decide on a name?"

Steve nodded and opened his mouth but nothing but static came out of it.

"Come again?"

Steve gave him a weird look but said it again, and yet again all Danny heard was static. That was really weird. Behind him the volume on the TV started to get louder, broadcasting that case the team was working on. Spouting more info about the fallen detective and how he was doing. That pain in his chest fired up again and Danny forced himself to ignore the TV.

A nurse came out of the back and up to Steve, smiling warmly at them all. "You can all come back if you'd like," she said to them and, instantly, the two brothers were heading towards the room where their sister and new nephew was.

"You ready?" Steve asked and Danny nodded. Steve slung an arm over his shoulder and led them into the brightness of the back corridor.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Danny knocked on the door to the room Rowan had designated as the room to get ready in. It was Nahele's old room, she had offered the master bedroom but Grace had not been comfortable in there. Problem was, she was now refusing to come out.

"Grace, can I come in?"

There was a bit of a pause but after a moment the door opened. The woman standing there was Grace, just not the little kid Grace he remembered. This was a full-grown woman in front of him. A beautiful young woman who had managed to grow as beautiful as her mother, looking absolutely stunning in her strapless wedding dress.

"Wow, you look amazing!" he said as she pulled him in for a hug. He held his little girl tightly to himself, rocking back and forth. "You look so good!"

He let go, looked her up and down and then let her usher him into the room so she could shut the door behind him. They were doing this whole thing wedding thing at the McGarrett's house because his baby wanted to get married on the beach and doing it at the McGarrett house was both sentimental and free.

Everything was all ready to go too, except the bride.

"Oh. Okay. What… what's going on? Everybody's waiting for you outside. Come here, sit down. I know."

Danny took a spot at the end of the bed that used to be Nahele's and she took his old desk chair.

"I just… I don't know if I can…"

"He's showing signs of McGarrett," Danny said right away. "Right? I know he's adopted but he's a spitting image of Steve sometimes…"

It seemed wrong, but Danny knew that his baby was marrying Nahele. He felt like she might have been marrying the wrong person but at that moment he couldn't remember why he felt that way and every time he tried to remember, his chest hurt. So he stopped trying.

"It's not that…"

"Oh… shit… Pierce? He's showing… you know sociopath is not supposed to be contagious, it's hereditary and again… adopted so he shouldn't pass it down to… you know… your kids…"

Grace pinned him with a dark glare and Danny shut his mouth. Then promptly opened it again.

"No? So then what…"

"Daddy… I'm…"

Oh he knew the answer this time. She was afraid. "Hey, hey, hey. Look, you're scared?"

Made sense cause she was marrying a McGarrett. The McGarretts were a terrifying breed, and no one wanted the Pitbull for a mother-in-law no matter how nice she had been up until then or how she had been Grace's favourite Auntie Ro.

"It's okay. That's okay. You're supposed to be scared. I understand. I was scared. Your mother was scared. Your Uncle Steve… the only reason he didn't run was cause Uncle Wo threatened to shoot him, and you remember Auntie Ro… she paused for a whole two minutes before saying yes. We all thought she was going to make a run for it. I would have if I were her. See. It's completely normal."

Grace took that all in with a wry smile and he could tell that none of what he just said was really what she was worried about.

"I love him. I do. I just… I just don't know if that's enough," she eventually whispered to him.

"Why… why not?"

"You and mom loved each other…" "—uh-huh." "… If you guys couldn't stay together…"

At that Danny sighed and sat back. "Well, uh, your mother and I obviously had our problems, right? Uh… and you… you got to see that, so that means that you're in a much better spot than we were cause you understand. You know, you know that it takes work and you know what happens if you don't put that work in. You got to work at it."

He then thought about it a moment and added: "And Nahele… he's been fixing his parents' marriage since he was a teenager, he's got the conflict resolution skills down so good they're practically muscle memory at this point."

That last one made her smile and he smiled with her. "You want, I'll go downstairs, I'll tell everybody to beat it. But you know Ro's just gonna come up these stairs and as much as I'd like to say I'd keep in between you two, she's very aggressive and…"

"Scary," Grace added and he nodded.

"Yes, that's one way to describe your Auntie Ro."

Grace sighed again. "You do like him don't you, Daddy?"

Grace had been asking him that for years. Even before they got the two of them together. As he grew, as their friendship began to blossom into something else, she would ask what Danny thought of him and that was the first sign that something was going on with the two of them.

"Yes, yes, I think he is a good kid… regardless of who adopted him. Luckily Steve and Ro weren't too involved in the raising cause it could have gone very different. But yes. What you two have here is special. And you're you, the best. And I do like him a lot, except for the fact that he took you away from me, and you're literally tying me to your Uncle Steve for the rest of my life, but other then that I think he's good."

She sighed heavily at him and for a moment he wasn't sure he had convinced her either way.

"You really think we're gonna be alright?"

"I do, I really do. Genuinely."

"I love you, Danno."

Danny immediately got a little misty eyed just like she did. Now that she was all grown up she so rarely called him Danno.

"I love you too, monkey. Come here."

He pulled her in for another hug and promised to go down and stall as she wanted to fix up her make up.

A couple minutes later he was going back down the stairs and found Steve all decked out in his very nice black tuxedo waiting for him. He was no happy to see that Danny was by himself.

"Aw… come on… You're not the bride? Where is she? If it gets any more off of Ro's schedule she's going to pitch a fit!"

"She's got… humidity, her hair is nuts," Danny said trying to walk past him.

"Bullshit," Steve snapped. "Grace's hair doesn't do the humid poof thing!"

Danny was right in guessing that there was no way that Steve and Rowan would stop at just one kid. Their second was a little girl, and now that Steve was girl-dad he liked to pretend he knew everything about them. Like what kind of hair styles do things in different temperatures.

As the two of them headed into the kitchen two little kids sprinted out from behind the kitchen island where the massive three-tiered white cake was sitting for later. The two little gremlins quickly got the door to the backyard open and disappeared heading towards the rest of the wedding guests. He got only a little glimpse of them but they both looked like little mini versions of their parents. A little Steve in a matching tux and a little Rowan in a pink flower girl dress.

"Wait… was that my kids" Steve asked pushing past Danny to the door. He called out two names, but for some reason they both came out as static instead of names. But Danny ignored that too. "Shit, I was supposed to be watching them… they didn't touch the cake, did they?"

Danny did a quick survey of the cake. "Nope, looks good."

Steve breathed out a sigh of relief for all of two seconds before the door opened up again and Rowan was standing there. She too looked stunning in her mother of the groom dress which was a pink flowing boho style dress to try and camouflage the baby bump.

Because of course she was pregnant again. Why was she always pregnant?

Her angry hot eyes froze her husband first.

"I asked Con to look after them while I was getting Danny to check on Grace," he said right away. She didn't even have to ask, the look conveyed the words on its own.

And he threw youngest brother-in-law under the bus immediately. Probably because Wo Fat would cuff him if he threw him.

She shook her head and turned to Danny. She didn't need to voice her question to him either.

"She's going to be down in two minutes, okay?" he said. She cocked an eyebrow at him and he huffed. "I just talked to her, she's fine. Worry about your kid, he's been ashen since he got down there, looks like he's about to faint."

"He's in the Hawaiian heat, waiting for a late bride and worried you're going to convince her to run off."

"Was that even in the strings?" Danny shot back and the pursed lip glare he got told him that it was and he kinda wanted to rush back up those stairs and get that option rolling.

"Don't even think about it, I didn't sink all this money into a wedding for my baby for you to mess it up."

"It wasn't all your money," Danny said.

"Oh? And what did you contribute, Williams? Other than sarcasm, attitude and headaches?"

She was right, but it wasn't his fault that the two had relatively expensive taste and Rowan had all the money out of the two men.

"I paid for the rehearsal dinner!"

"It was at your restaurant!" Rowan cried. "That I co-own cause you two idiots have the business savvy of a pair of donkeys! So basically you paid for the rehearsal dinner with my money… that I gave you!"

"Babe, babe, remember what the doctor said," Steve said, he reached a hand out to her and finally those Ice Queen eyes left Danny and turned to him, softening immediately. "Why don't you go get your daughter, it looks like she climbed onto Wo again and you know how much you hate that."

Rowan turned and clocked her daughter literally sitting on Wo Fat's shoulders. His bad shoulders. He was too old for stuff like that now but he never turned his favourite niece down.

She groaned her daughter's name, the name coming out as static again and then she was storming away.

"For the love of god, please get Grace in position, I'm going to check on 'Hele," Steve said and then turned back to him. "We can do this."

Danny nodded and turned away, heading back towards the steps to go and get his daughter. He may have not entirely approved of who she was marrying, but this was his baby and he didn't think anyone was good enough for her. He was, however, really excited to walk her down the aisle.

But why did he feel sad about it too, like he might be missing it at the same time. Why was everything moving way too fast all of a sudden? That pain fired up in his chest again making the world around him hazy, but then Grace came down the stairs. He baby girl in her wedding dress, finally ready to marry The McGarrett's eldest son.

Outside the music started and Danny offered out his arm. Grace took is right away smiling her thanks for him being there at him. He lead her to the door, both dreading and looking forward to this, to handing his daughter to the man he was going to have to trust to take care of her, to be her partner. But this was life, and even if he felt like it was going to fast, it was going.

And he didn't want to miss a single second of it.