Archive of Our Own ^beta

~~~
Valentine’s Day
~~~

“So what Phase are you on with me and Steve?”

Grace looked up from her flashcards one early February night.  “What?”

“Don’t act like I haven’t noticed you trying to Parent Trap me and Steve for months.  I am a detective, you know. It’s like people forget that about me all the time! It’s kind of insulting.”

Grace slouched and fought the dread in her stomach.  “Are you going to tell me to stop?”

He grinned and shook his head.  “No.”

Hope flickered inside her.  He changed his mind! He kept his promise to tell her if anything had changed.  She said up straighter, excited. “What?”

“I’m on board.  I want to be with Steve.”

They worked on a plan after that, small things, really.  Danny moving in, Danny insisting that they had to let Steve decide, Grace insisting back that he needed to woo Steve.  It was very back and forth and Grace had never felt so grown up. She was talking love and relationships with her dad! What a wonder!

Eventually they had a couple things on their list that Danno could try, and the first thing after Danno moving his stuff into the house was Valentine’s Day.

“You look fancy,” Uncle Steve said from the couch, biting his lip with worry.  “Got a hot date?”

Danno turned to him with a smirk, “only if you want to be my date.”

Uncle Steve didn’t say anything, just turned back to the television.  Grace watched as her father’s face fell and he took another deep breath, straightening his blazer in the mirror in the nook.  She decided that was her cue.

“I’m his date,” she said from the stairs.  They had gone out for her dress, all special.  It was blue and it twirled and it was fantastic.  There was even a new pair of shoes that was thrown in because her father was so convinced this would work and was in a good mood when she begged for them.  “Or, well, one of them.”

She was holding Charlie’s hand as they slowly went down the steps.  Charlie was dressed up all cute, wearing fancy clothes that were getting too small, but did the trick anyway.  He looked proud, walking like he knew his clothes were fancy.

“Look at me, ‘Mander!” he said, jumping from the final step and then puffing out his chest.

“Yeah, look at you!” Uncle Steve said, sitting forward.  He may be ‘on the fence’ (Danno’s words, not hers) about loving her dad, but he had no reservations about loving Grace or her brothers.  “So is this your first Valentine’s dinner, Charlie?”

“Yep!” he said, raising his chin.

About that time, Nahele had made his way down, wearing his slacks and his nice shirt, carrying Jack wearing his cute overalls and the red shirt that Uncle Steve didn’t want him wearing because he was worried he’d get it dirty.  

“All four of you are going?” Uncle Steve asked, a bit shocked.

Nahele looked at Danno.  “You haven’t told him?”

“Told me what?”

Danno turned to him, biting his lip, “that the reservations are for five and a baby?  We have full use of Lou’s SUV and everything.”

Grace smiled happily as she watched the shock, then realization, flash across Steve’s face.  

“That’s why you borrowed his car,” he said, shaking his head.  “And here I thought it was for Nahele’s tournament this weekend.”

“Well, that was why, but this works too!”

“You kids don’t want Danno time?” he asked, apprehensive, eyeing Grace.

“We want the two of you time,” Grace said with a smirk.  “All of us time.”

“I don’t know, I don’t have anything to wear.”

“Oh, now that’s not true,” Danno told him.  “You’ve got plenty and you’ll look great wearing any of it.”

Steve narrowed his eyes at him.

“What?” Danno looked as innocent as he could, then he smirked.  “You know it’s true.”

He rolled his eyes, and let out a deep breath and settled back down onto the couch.  “You guys go, enjoy Danno time.”

“Steve…” Danno started.  If Grace had thought his face had fallen before, she was mistaken.

“It’s Valentine’s Day, Danny,” he told him, voice low and face serious, like they had just had a longer conversation that was the end of it.  Judging by Danno’s face, it was.

Later at the restaurant, Danno looked so sad as he looked over his menu.  They had been there before, complete in flip flops and swimsuits, but they felt right at home in both boardshorts and dresses.  It wasn’t the fanciest place on the island, that’s for sure - it couldn’t be with Charlie and Jack as patrons - but it was a nice place all the same.  With table cloths and everything. It was still early enough there were families out with their kids for the holiday, a few older couples, but the younger couples and tourists hadn’t made their way out to dinner just yet.  It was picked specifically because it had steaks for the main course and shakes for dessert; two things Steve really couldn’t say no to.

Charlie seemed to pick up that it was a bad night for Danno, probably for all of them, as they took away the chair Uncle Steve would have sat in for another large party, and he sat quietly, looking between Danno and Grace with a worry all over his face.  Worry, but a worry he didn’t know how to voice.

“I’m sorry,” Grace started.  “Maybe we should have told him sooner.  Less of an ambush.”

“He would have just shot it down sooner,” Danno said, dejectedly.  He flipped the menu to look at the back.

She watched as he took a deep breath and let out a bit of a sigh.  Nahele, who was fishing Jack’s pacifier out from somewhere in his carrier, shared a look with Grace.  They were both thinking it; this was like being stood up on Valentine’s Day. Charlie was kicking his feet and playing with the edge of the table cloth, suspiciously quiet.

Danno dropped his menu in front of him, “It’s okay though,” he said it with a grin.  “I get a night out with my kids!” He made a face and shrugged. “Steve pales in comparison, sorry.”

~~~
That afternoon in the hospital
~~~

“As much as I would love to keep kissing you, you really shouldn’t kiss me again until you mean it,” Danny said.  Not ‘unless,’ not ‘if you don’t,’ but ‘until.’ Danny had never felt so certain that this was in their future, and wouldn’t let go until it was. Even then, he’d hold on with both hands and let Steve have the wheel.

Steve looked down at him, his face still in Steve’s hands, with wonder. Then he blinked once, twice, his face turned blank. Danny couldn’t read him and he bit his lip in the wait.

When Steve leaned back down, his eyebrows went up, his mouth fell open, and man that kiss? That kiss was magnificent. It was Steve saying he was ready. It was Danny saying he was there to catch him.

It was the start of something bigger than them, something they would fight for. Each other, their family, and their future.

“Why does it take bodily harm of someone you love for you to listen to me?” Danny asked, still hooked up to machines.

Steve ducked his head with a grin, “I’m stubborn?”

“You’re telling me.  I’m all in, babe, I am, I want this, but on one condition,” Danny said, pulling back.

“What? Anything,” Steve said instantly.

“I want to adopt Jack with you.”

Steve blinked again, “Really? We just started this…”

“Steve,” he said, pulling on Steve’s face.  “We’ve been together for a long time, we just didn’t know it.”

He grinned and chuckled and leaned down to kiss him just because he could.  Danny felt warm all over, bringing his good leg up into a bend, trying to adjust to get closer.

“Don’t,” Steve chided.  “Here.” Steve leaned over, an arm on either side of him, and in a much better position to kiss.  

One hand on Steve’s face, the other wrapped around his arm, Danny smiled.  They kissed, and kissed, and kissed, and it was simple and sweet and Danny would be lying if he said they were all chaste.  Heat in them, sure, but a warm kindling. A promise of what was to come. Danny could kiss him all night.

Of course that’s when the nurse came in to deliver lunch.

“Oh, hello, boys,” she greeted with a chuckle.  

Steve pulled back, grinning, but slid his hand down Danny’s arm and linked their fingers.  “Sorry ma’am,” he said.

“I’m not sorry,” Danny said.  They shared a grin.

“Well,” the nurse said, “Looks like you’re feeling better.  Eat all this and dinner and your chances of going home are going to go up.”

“Good,” Steve said, squeezing Danny’s hand.  

Danny couldn’t help the gooey smile he was sure was plastered on his face.  They were together! Steve was finally on board! They were a couple! This was a thing that was happening!  It was happening!

“Make sure he eats,” the nurse said, pointing at the food.

“Yes ma’am.”

She wrote something on Danny’s white board and she was off.  Steve immediately dove back down for another kiss.

“Mmm,” Danny moaned.

“You heard her,” Steve said between kisses.  “You gotta eat.”

“Wanna eat you,” Danny said, before he could catch himself, and would later blame on the pain meds.  It was probably the dirtiest thing either of them had said to one another at that point. Steve pulled back for half a second before grinning and kissing him again.

“Gonna be awhile before we do that.”

Danny pouted.

“Less time if you eat.”

“Gimme the food.”

So Steve spent the afternoon watching Danny eat a bowl of soup and half a sandwich.  He even ate his pineapple fruit cup, he was that dedicated on getting home and getting better and getting around to more than kissing his boyfriend.

(Boyfriend!)

They watched some baseball game that was a day old and just now playing on Hawaiian television, all while playing with each other’s hands the whole time.  Steve fretted while Danny was off getting an MRI of his knee. Danny watched as Steve studiously read the paperwork for his recovery. They kissed again when they found out that second knee surgery wouldn’t be necessary if Danny did daily physical therapy.  

“You’ve got to go home,” Danny told him.  “Those kids need one of us tonight.”

“I know,” Steve said, kissing his hand.  “Another hour.”

~~~
Wailana Diner and the night of Mae’s Jewelers’ Robbery
~~~

It was supposed to be a sweet night.  

An actual date.  The two of them had moved in together, started sharing a bed, started raising their kids together, and then after all that they decided to start dating.  Danny had been down for the count for a while, stuck on couch recovery for way too long, and he was going a bit stir crazy.  Steve talked him into realizing that with Hurricane Fiona imminent he’d be stuck indoors longer.

So they were going out.

As they were getting ready it hit them: this was going to be their first date.  First, real, by definition, date. Technically it started as a “we need to have a conversation about how to tell the kids we’re actually dating now” date.  But the realization took precedence.

The realization seemed to hit Steve harder than it hit Danny.  He got stiff and antsy and nervous changing his shirt four times and asking if the same diner they always go to was fancy enough and Danny said “yes, of course, you goof, I’m in shorts because of my brace” and then Steve actually went the speed limit and Danny realized why he was so nervous.

“Steve, you’ve met my family,” Danny told him.

“I know.”

“We’re adopting a child together.”

“I know.”

“Why are you so nervous about this being our first date?  We’ve had thousands of dates.”

“Not… since-”

“I know,” Danny sighed, then he reached over and started fussing with the hair behind Steve’s ear, just because he could.  “You’ve got me, you know. This could be the worst first date in the world and you’d still have me.”

Steve let out a breath, relaxing.  Danny pet his hair again. “Is it so bad that I want it to be memorable?”

“Not at all,” Danny said.

“So the Wailana Diner-”

“Is memorable.”

“It’ll be like every other time we go there!  How is that memorable?”

“Because most first dates are fancy restaurants not hole in the walls.”

“Exactly!  I mean, you tried on Valentine’s-”

“-which means, that we can go there more often and ‘relive the magic’ any time we damn well please!”

“But doesn’t that cheapen-”

“No.”

“Can I finish?”

“Sure.”

“Doesn’t that cheapen the whole experience if you saturate it with going there so much?”

“Or it just makes it more of ‘our place’ and now a place we know we love suddenly has more meaning to us?”

Steve’s jaw did the defeat thing and Danny really wanted to lean over and kiss it.  So he did. Because he could.

“We’ll ask if they can put a candle on the table.”  Danny joked.

Steve rolled his eyes, but as soon as they sat down he asked for a candle and Danny doubled over laughing.

“Good!” he said, happily.

“What?” Danny asked through a wide smile.

“Memorable.”

They sat at their regular booth, and ordered their regular orders, and half way through their meal the night totally turned more memorable than a joke about a candle.  

There were maybe a dozen people in the diner on that Tuesday night, as well as half a dozen staff, when two men pushed through the doors with large duffle bags and guns, followed shortly by two patrol cars with their lights flashing pulling into the parking lot.  They were on the run from some heist or another and chose their diner during their first date to make a stand in. Danny lowered his face into his hand as the dozen or so other patrons all screamed and made a fuss. They didn’t bring their guns because this was going to be a smooth date and his argument with Steve about how they didn’t have to bring their guns with them everywhere they go would have yet another blow.   

He and Steve exchanged looks, then Steve took another bite of his burger, obviously trying to get some food in him before whatever was about to happen happened, looking frustrated.

“You know, you had to jinx it when you asked for memorable, you know,” Danny told him.

“You’re blaming armed gunmen on me?”

“Yeah!” Danny said, looking down at the little candle that was still burning between them, then back up to Steve, fighting a grin.  “You jinxed it!”

“I didn’t jinx it, Danny!”

About that time, one of the gunmen, sweaty and nervous looking (a combination that Danny really didn’t like to see in a hostage situation) made their way to their table.  “Move!” he yelled, voice low. “Everyone against the front windows!”

Danny rolled his eyes, but he reached for his crutches.

“No, no, no,” the gunman said.  “Walk.”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I can’t,” that was a lie.  The crutches were more a safety net than anything at this point, but Danny figured he should keep that particular bit of knowledge underwraps.  He gestured to his knee, still bandaged up in the brace. “Kind of hard to walk with a torn ACL.”

Steve paused, he was standing, acting like he wanted to help Danny.  

“Yeah, yeah,” the gunman said, “Okay.”

Steve leaned down to lift Danny in a move they hadn’t done since the night Danny came home from the hospital, and Steve whispered, “I can take him.”

“Where’s the other guy?” Danny whispered back.

“Against the window,” Steve grimaced.  “With the hostages.”

He pulled back then, pulling up Danny’s crutches, asking Danny for permission to… to do what exactly?  Attack one man so the other would randomly open fire and get people hurt or worse? No.

“We are unarmed,” Danny argued.

“Yeah, who’s idea was it to leave our guns in the car?”

“This was supposed to be a date, Steven,” Danny rolled his eyes.  “Sorry if I didn’t want a deadly weapon on my hip.”

“If we need guns, we’ll just take theirs.”

“...do you, do you even.  Do you hear the things that come out of your mouth sometimes?  We are not attacking them unless we are one hundred percent sure, ya’ hear me?”

Steve huffed.  Danny knew he wanted to act, and if Danny were at one hundred percent, sure, they could do this, but he wasn’t and they’d have to wait for their opening.

They were making their way to the front window when Danny turned over his shoulder, “wait.”

“Danny…”

“We need to wait.”

Steve huffed again, but he waited and he helped Danny sit down at one of the tables along the front windows, and they waited.

Danny watched as the two gunmen paced and threatened people with their guns, but kept their fingers off the trigger.  Trained, at least, to know how to handle guns.

“Where was she?” one of them asked the other once everyone had moved to the front of the diner.  “She was supposed to be there!”

“She must have chickened out!” the younger of the two said.  Neither one of them looked over twenty five.

“Obviously,” the first one said, sarcastically.  “I should kill her for this.”

“She’s just a kid!”

“She’s a kid that left us hanging with thousands of dollars so we had to run from the police.  On foot!”

“We’re so screwed,” the younger said.

“Yes you are.  You’re the one that said she’d be reliable, and now I’m holding you responsible!”  He backhanded the younger one with the butt of his gun and he hit the ground. The younger one’s gun went flying.  Several of the diner patrons let out small cries of worry, so he turned around and yelled, “Shut up!”

Steve eyed the gun, then shot a look up at Danny.  It wasn’t more than six feet away. Danny could make that while Steve went after the other guy.  It was doable. Danny gave him a curt nod, and Steve held up his fingers. Danny waited on his signal.

“I think you broke my nose!” the younger one complained.

“Shut up!” the older one yelled again.  Then he held his hands to the top his head, back turned from Steve.  “I’m trying to think.”

Steve dropped his fingers and they both acted.  Danny dove, putting all his weight on his good knee while Steve jumped the guy from behind.  They fell into a table, breaking the top of the booth from the wall, but Steve got his hands behind his back quick, gun out of his hands, and a few kicks to the back of the knee and the gunman was down on the ground.  The younger guy made a move to help his friend, but Danny had his gun on him.

“Ah, ah, ah!” Danny warned.  He was pushing himself up on his crutch, gun still trained on the younger guy.  Slowly he raised his arms, defeated. “Stand up.” Leaning on one crutch, gun in the other hand, Danny started walking the guy out the front door.

“Sorry about your table, Ona,” Steve said somewhere behind him.

“Oh, that’s okay honey,” She said sweetly back.  “You’ve got to stop bringing your work here though.”

Danny chuckled at that as he made his way outside.  “Hey! I’m Five-0!” He shouted out to the patrol cars.

“Oh, that figures,” the guy said with a gruff.

“Shut up,” Danny told him.

“Detective Williams?” It was Duke.  He came walking up with a pair of handcuffs.  “How do you always seem to get yourselves into these situations?”

“McGarrett trouble magnet.”

Duke grinned and took the younger guy off his hands, already reading him his rights.  “This was his weapon,” Danny said, handing the glock over to another patrol officer he recognized as Officer Nguyen.

“Got another one for you,” Steve said from behind him.  Danny turned to see Steve handing off his guy to another patrol officer.

“And you wanted memorable,” Danny said, shaking his head.

“What?” Steve tried looking innocent.  “You didn’t like the candle?”

~~~
The Getaway
~~~

Danny’s physical therapy was nearing its end, and Steve had talked him into taking an extra week off work, just to milk it.  Danny was on the fence about that extra week for the whole month of his recovery, but Steve sold it when he mentioned a getaway.

“Just the two of us,” Steve said, in that low bedroom voice he thinks Danny goes crazy for (it’s true, but Danny’s trying to keep that a secret for now.)  He kissed Danny’s cheek. “Alone.” He kissed his other cheek. “Five whole days.” He kissed him on his mouth.

“My family is coming next week.  And Jack’s adoption is that Thursday.”

“All the more reason,” Steve rubbed his nose into Danny’s neck.

“What about the kids?”

“Just say yes and I’ll take care of the details and the kids.”

He hated just how quickly he said “Yes.”

So that’s how they ended up on a plane to Maui.  Danny figured “taking care of the details” meant plane tickets and some kind of hotel reservation, but when Steve flagged them down a cab and took them to a neighborhood of overgrown palm bushes and run down shady apartments rather than a hotel, Danny’s internal alarm went off.

“What’s going on?”

“Do you trust me?”

“Yes, but if this is some kind of ropes course getaway, it’s not very romantic and… I want to go home.”

Steve only grinned.

“This is a ropes course, isn’t it?”

“This isn’t a ropes course, does this look like a ropes course?” Steve asked, pointing out the window as the cab slowed down.  They were in the middle of an apartment complex. Maybe Steve rented them a house instead of a hotel? That would explain it, though it looked like one of the less desirable places Danny lived during his first few years on Oahu.  Danny gave Steve the benefit of the doubt.

They got out of the cab, and Danny went towards the popped open trunk to retrieve their suitcase, but Steve only pushed it shut and leaned towards the driver.

“We’ll be back in ten,” he told him.  The driver nodded, threw the cab into park, and pulled out his phone to presumably wait out the ten minutes.

“We’re not staying here?”

Steve made a face and adjusted the backpack on his shoulder, “Here?  No.”

“Then what are we doing here?”

It was then that Steve paused and took a deep breath.

“Why do you look nervous?”

“Do you trust me?” Steve asked.

The threw Danny for a second.  “Why are you asking me that?”

“Do you trust me?” he asked again, insistent.

“God help me, yes.  Yes I do.”

Steve let a soft smile grow on his face.  Then he took off towards the doors of the nearest apartment complex.  “Then let me do all the talking.”

“‘All the talk-’  What are we doing?” Danny asked, following him.  “I trust you, I’d just like to know what I’m in store for, here.”

The mail boxes had stickers pasted on each of them.  A jazz saxophone. A ‘peace and love’ probably left over from the 70s, among others.  Steve took a moment to read them over. Finding whatever it was he was looking for, he made a “follow me” motion and went slow up the steps for Danny’s sake.  Danny’s knee was doing better; he could do stairs, but taking them two at a time was out for the time being.

Steve led them to a door and knocked four times, paused, and knocked two more times.

They waited a bit, and then the door opened just a bit, held shut by a chain lock.  Behind it was a guy, mid-thirties, with a ball cap turned backwards. “Name?”

“Freddie Daniels,” Steve answered.  Danny blinked at that.

It was apparently what the man needed to hear as he let them in.

“Hey guys, want a drink or something?”

“Nah, man,” Steve said.  “We’ve got a schedule.”

Danny looked up at that.  What kind of schedule? Who was this man?  Why were they here?

“Alright, alright.”  He turned to Danny and held out a hand.  “You must be Bill.”

He looked to Steve at that, only to have Steve nod.  “Yeah,” Danny said, shaking his hand. “I must be.”

“This is Stunner.  I’ve worked with him a few times,” Steve said, crossing his arms.  “He’s good.”

“Okay,” Danny said slowly, but still confused.

“Just finished the last of your batch last night,” the man said, leading them into his apartment into some kind of office.  “It’s good work, too. Got the cash?”

Steve took a moment to dig through his backpack and dug out an envelope and pulled out a stash of the cash already bound by a rubber band.  The man took it with a smile.

“Where’d you get that?”  Danny asked, unable to help himself.

Steve glanced his way, and shrugged. “The lock box under the seat in the car.”

“There’s a lock box under the seat in the car?”

“Yup.”

“Since when?”

“Since… 2013.”

“What?”

Stunner took the time to quickly flip through the stack of money.  “You’ve never not had the right amount, my man,” he said to Steve with a smile.  Then he turned to his bookshelf and pulled on a notebook, only to have half a dozen notebook spines come off with it.  It was some kind of false wall. Inside sat several manila folders. The man dug around for a moment before pulling one out and put his false wall of notebook spines back up.  “Here’s your package. It’s a little different than what you normally request.”

“Anything I should worry about?”

“Nah, man, it’s all good.  Check it if you want. It’ll pass any American scanner.”

Any… what?  What exactly was Steve buying?  Danny held his tongue, choosing to trust him.  Whatever Steve had gotten them into, he wanted to keep his act cool.

Steve eyed Danny, pulling him aside to a table in the next room, away from Stunner.  He undid the folder and pulled out the contents carefully. It was a thick stack of paperwork and a whole handful of driver’s licenses and passports.  Passports? What the-

Danny panicked.  What were they doing?  What was Steve thinking?  “What the hell?” Danny said softly.  “What is this? Why do you need so many passports?  What are you thinking?”

Steve held up a hand to shush him.  “Do you trust me?”

“Why do you keep saying that?”

Steve pulled the first passport off the pile and opened it.  Danny looked down at it only to see his daughter’s face staring up at him.  “Clara Stevenson” her name falsely read. Danny was confused and seeing red at this point.

“I repeat, ‘what the hell?’” he whispered again.

Steve held up a hand and glanced at Stunner.  “Calm down, please.”

Danny grabbed another passport, this time with Charlie’s face; “Stanley Stevenson.”  Another with Nahele’s face: “Edward Daniels.” Another, this time with Steve’s face; “Fredrick Daniels.”  Finally, the last one, this time with his own photo - and how Steve took it without Danny knowing he’d never know - “William Stevenson.”  Steve was busy looking through some paperwork, and Danny leaned over his arms to see birth certificates and… was that a marriage license?

“We got married?” Danny asked.  “And you didn’t tell me? None of this is making me calmer.”

“Do you trust me?”

“Yes,” Danny practically growled.  Stunner was giving them a concerned and quizzical inspection from the other room.  “Though I’m getting tired of you asking me that. What is going on?”

“I can tell you soon,” Steve said, loading the envelope back up and stuffing it into his backpack.  He nodded to Stunner, “Thanks man.”

“Tell your spy friends about me.”  Then he pointed sternly. “But only your friends.”

Steve grinned.  “I’ll be sure to not do that.”

“Good boy,” the man approved.  

Danny was spinning.  He was shocked and angry and confused and a little bit scared.  This was supposed to be a romantic getaway weekend, complete with sexy times and a huge jacuzzi tub and some kind of alcoholic cocktails.  Instead he was getting shady identity forgers and a boyfriend who wouldn’t tell him anything.

His face must have betrayed him, because right before they stepped back out onto the street, Steve took Danny’s face in his hand, and kissed him.  

“When are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

“The next stop,” Steve said.  “I promise.”

“You better or I’m running.”

“No you’re not.”

“No, but I’m going to be really mad.”

Steve grinned.

“What name did you give Jack?”

“What?”

“You didn’t name our fake son ‘Jack Daniels,’ did you?”

“Of course not.  He’s Freddie Jr.”

Danny rolled his eyes.

“No, come on, he’s John.”

Makes sense.  The rest of the kids were named after family.  Even if Danny didn’t understand it right now, he knew whatever was going on was important enough to go along with it for now.  They’d been through enough together for Danny to trust him that far.

From there, they walked down the steps (going down was easier on Danny’s knee than going up) and got back in their cab.  But instead of a hotel or a resort…

“First Maui Bank in Kahului, please.”

“A bank?” Danny asked.  Steve nodded. Danny sat back with a large breath.  Danny looked down and eyed Steve’s backpack. He had a stack of money he didn’t know about, and a stack of passports Danny didn’t know he had ordered.  What else did Steve have in store for him?

He had an idea of what this was… he really did.  He had a theory. A theory that made him feel like he had stones in his stomach.  One with ready to go packed bags and danger and running. They rode around the island in relative silence, with Steve only making some small talk with the driver.  The driver made a few suggestions about where to surf, Steve commented that it was good the hurricane seemed to miss Maui completely. Like they were any other vacationers.  The stack of illegal passports made them otherwise.

The bank looked like it was the oldest building on the block, but knowing Hawaii it probably wasn’t.  They left their cab running outside, asking him to wait for them again. They were an easy fare today it seemed, as the driver didn’t seem to mind.  Inside was laid back, Steve’s slippers and Danny’s cargo shorts fitting in completely. Steve led them to a manager’s desk.

“How can I help you today?” the old man asked.

Steve dug in his backpack for a moment before pulling out a key, “Freddie Daniels, here for my safety deposit box.”

The manager, an aging man, large with an easy grin, nodded and inspected the key.  “Yeah, of course, this way.”

“And-” Steve asked before he walked too far ahead of them.  The manager turned around with a smile. “-can we get the paperwork started on a second key?”

“Of course, I’ll do that while you’re inside.  Is your friend joining you?”

Steve nodded.  “My husband is, yes.”

Danny didn’t want to admit the flip his stomach did at that easy declaration, as Steve side eyed him, looking for a reaction.  Whatever was on Danny’s face, Danny couldn’t be held responsible, and Steve only grinned in satisfaction.

The manager took only a beat of awkwardness before pushing forward, “right.  This way.”

The boxes were down a long hallway, and behind a large safe door.  The door was open, and after Steve pointed out his box, and the manager helped him open it and pull out the box, setting it on a table in the middle of the vault.

“Take your time, gentlemen,” he said, closing the door behind him, leaving them alone.

Danny turned on him in an instant.  

“Alright.  We’re at our next stop.”

“Danny,” Steve rolled his eyes.

“No!  You are going to explain yourself.   I’m supposed to be breaking in a hotel bed with you.  Why are we sneaking around breaking the law with false identities instead?”

Steve gave him an uncertain face, like he wasn’t sure Danny would understand.  “When you do the work that I did… you get paranoid.”

“‘Paranoid.’”

Steve nodded.  “This is my backup plan.  In case anything from my past comes after me.  Everything with Lou’s family almost disappearing a while back…  This is my last big secret, Danny. You may not know everything about my past but… anything you want to know is yours to know.”

Danny said nothing.

“I needed to update all the paperwork, anyway, but…” Steve opened up the box.  Inside was several stacks of money, a couple handguns, and another stack of paperwork, and few other items Danny’s eyes glossed over.  He went about pulling the manila envelope out of his backpack and checked the passports, looking for two in particular - for their fake passports - and sat them aside.

Danny reached for the first one that was already inside the box and opened it.  It was Grace again, much younger in this one, with the same name; “Clara Stevenson.”

“How long have Grace and I been in your backup plan?” he asked, holding the passport up.

Steve bit his lip.

“Since Doris came back to life.  Everything with her just… made my paranoia skyrocket.  I was second guessing everything. Everything except my friendship with you.  With the team. But I knew that if I got into anything, there was a chance I’d pull you into it too.  I wanted to be able to at least offer the option of running.”

“‘Running?’” Danny repeated.

Steve shrugged.  “Do you get what I’m trying to tell you?”

Danny reached forward for another passport, only to find a surprise.  “‘Catherine Daniels?’” Danny read.

Steve looked sheepish, grabbing it from him and stuffing it back into the box.  “Like I said, I needed to update the paperwork. To be fair, she never knew about this.  No one does. Except you.”

It hit Danny then, what this was.  Steve was sharing this very real, very dangerous, very vulnerable spot in his life with Danny.  A show of trust. Fondness blossomed inside Danny, and how messed up was his life that sharing a stash bag was a show of romance.

Danny’s theory was right; this was Steve’s extraction plan.  Except now the stones in his stomach were butterflies. Steve wanted Danny and the kids with him in the event his life had to be uprooted.  Danny wasn’t quite sure how that would work with Rachel or Stan, or even how the State of Hawaii would look at the two of them absconding with a couple foster sons, but he was sure that if the kids were in immediate danger they’d all understand the necessity of going dark for awhile.  

Steve saw the prudence in being prepared, and Danny couldn’t blame him.  It was just crazy that this was part of his life now.

“Hopefully we’ll never have to use this,” Steve said, going through the paperwork and sorting things.  Danny watched as old paperwork got pushed to the bottom, the newest stuff on top. The old passports were bound with a rubber band, the new ones left loose and stacked.  Birth certificates for all the kids, their fake marriage license, fake adoption pages, a couple pages about bank accounts they’d probably have to talk about. “It’s just… in case.”

Danny reached forward for an man’s old leather wallet, and opened it to find it stuffed to the brim with out of date credit cards, cash, business cards, and an outdated ID, and… was that a social security card?  Steve pulled the wallet out of his hands and replaced the ID with the new one, claiming he was from New York, rather than Oahu.

With the ID replaced, he handed Danny back the wallet.  

“Better put your actual wallet in here for safe keeping while we’re gone.”

“What?”

“For the next step.”

“‘Next step?’  Where are we going?  We’re not staying on Maui?”

Steve shook his head, and went about working on the other wallet.  The one with Steve’s own New York ID in it. Danny stared down into the box.  There was a woman’s wallet inside, presumably with Catherine’s fake photo ID in it.  

“Are we leaving the country?” Danny asked.

“No,” Steve answered.  Then he grinned. “But I would like to surprise you.”  Then his grin fell into the shape of worry and nerves; a face Steve didn’t wear often.  “...if you’re still on board.”

Danny didn’t reply to that obvious question just yet, still digesting everything.  He should have seen this particular pill coming, and part of him expected it - he knew what kind of man Steve used to be - but he didn’t imagine it would be this hard to swallow.  

“Are the credit cards real?” he asked, instead of dealing with that look on Steve’s face.

Steve nodded.  “The purple one is, at least.  It’s a debit card to an account held in a New York credit union.  It’s legit, though there’s not much cash in that account, and I’d only use it if you don’t have any other option.  We’ll replace those with new ones when we get to the P.O. Box.”

“‘P.O. Box?’” Danny’s head spun again and he licked his lips.  “You’re crazy.” Danny didn’t want to admit that there was a part of him that already felt safer knowing this was all here.  This kind of paranoia belonged to spy types and mobsters and-

-and Navy SEALs.  

Steve stopped his work and gripped the side of the box with a sigh.  He took a moment to chew on his lip and Danny sat in silence. Uncharacteristic of him, surely, but this amount of planning, this amount of control…

“I need you to know what to do,” Steve finally said.  “Someone comes after me… it could happen. Someone because of something in my past or Five-0 or Doris or…”  The unspoken ‘Catherine’ floated between them. Or maybe Danny was just imagining it there. “I gotta know that if it comes down to it, you could take the kids to safety.”

“This kind of planning though,” Danny said, lifting up the stack of paperwork that would take the better part of an afternoon for Danny to go through, “This is for long term disappearing…”

“I know.”

“You’d run too, right?”

Steve shrugged, “what if I can’t?  If they’ve got me, or if I’m out of country, or a thousand other scenarios…”

“But you’d run too, right?”  Danny pulled fake-Steve’s wallet out of the box and waved it in his face.  “That’s what this is for, right?”

“Yes,” Steve answered, after a long moment.  The worry grew on his face, his eyebrows met just a millimeter closer, his frown just a hair deeper… Danny knew his face so well that he had it down to the microexpressions.  He knew that his lack of response to all of this was getting at him.

“Get to Maui, come to the bank, get the paperwork.  What’s the next step?” Danny asked him.

Steve looked up at him at that, a small fraction of hope in his eyes.  “Really?”

“You’re crazy,” Danny repeated.  “But I’m also the crazy person in love with you, so, what’s the next step?”

Steve slowly smiled.  He turned away from his work with the box to run his knuckles along Danny’s chin, pulling his head upwards.  He leaned down and gently kissed him. They stood there for a moment, kissing, one of Danny’s hands reaching up to Steve’s neck, the other at his waist, as Steve pulled them closer.  

They pulled back, both with grins on their faces, and sighed.  

“Are you really okay with all of this?”  Steve asked, inspecting Danny closely.

“No,” Danny replied truthfully.  “But I understand why it’s here.”  

Steve kissed his forehead and went back to organizing the box again.  He pulled out some paperwork, presumably to go over something with Danny.

“These are the bank accounts- what?” Steve asked, noticing Danny’s deep frown.

“I was kinda looking forward to that hotel bed,” Danny said with a shrug.

Steve grinned again.  “There’s a bed where we’re going.”

“Good.”

“Anyway, these bank accounts…”

Later, after they had finished at the bank, and gone back to the cab, and pulled over so Danny could have a proper panic attack about everything, they called the kids to keep up the fib that they were staying on Maui before they got on a plane to the mainland.

“It better be a good bed,” Danny grumbled as he got off the phone with Grace while waiting for their plane.  He didn’t like lying to his daughter, but saw the reason for it. He didn’t want her to live with knowing they could pick up a second life in only a few steps.  

Steve smiled and then shrugged.  “I’ve only slept in it a handful of times.  We’ll have to get some beds for the kids while we’re there.”

“Oh, so this is a work-trip.”

Steve grinned again.

“‘Stevenson’ and ‘Daniels’ I get, but where’d you get ‘Bill?’”

“Actually,” Steve said stretching his legs forward.  “I’ve been ‘Daniels’ long before I ever knew you.”

“Really?”

Steve nodded.  Neat.

“‘Bill?’” Danny asked again.  “The old ID was from years ago… one of my uncles?  You hadn’t met them yet.”

Steve shrugged, sheepish.  “Billy Selway.”

Danny couldn’t help the gasp he took at Steve’s answer.

He shrugged again, looking down at his boots.  “I’ve always been told that if you go dark, to take a piece of your life with you.  So you stay connected to yourself. I wanted you to have that. I wanted all of us to have that.”

Danny smiled, and laced his fingers into Steve’s, content.  The idea of running like this was daunting and terrifying… leaving everything behind like that, leaving yourself behind…

But in this imaginary worst case scenario, he’d have Steve.

He could live with that.

“For the record,” Danny said, squeezing Steve’s hand, “This does not count as a romantic getaway.”

Steve immediately countered, “What do you mean?  Of course it does!”

“Romantic getaway implies worry free.  This is not worry free. I had a panic attack on the way to the bank!”

“Maybe, but we’re alone!  And there’ll be a bed…”

Danny rolled his eyes, “are there candles?”

“There can be,” Steve said in that low bedroom voice.  “And beer. And a couple of steaks made by yours truly.  And just you… and me… alone.”

Danny rolled his eyes at his attempt.  “Of course your idea of a romantic vacation is one where we check on a safe house.  Romantic vacations come with views and massages and wine and and, and, and, hot tubs!”

“I don’t know about a hot tub, but I can totally cover those other things.”

“We’ll see.”

“We will see.  And you’ll see it’ll be romantic.  I’ll romantic the crap out of this trip.”  He was laughing as he said it. The idiot knew how he sounded, and knew how ridiculous this whole thing was.  

“Uh-huh,” Danny said, unbelieving, and fighting a happy grin.  An argument about nothing. They were okay. Steve already felt calmer with every counter argument he threw his way.

Steve was full on smiling, making it harder for Danny to fight off his grin.  “I will. It’ll be so romantic.”

“Uh-huh,” Danny said again, grinning now.

Steve nodded.  “You’ll love it.”

“Doubt it.”

“You will.”

Danny shook his head.

Steve nodded.

Danny shook his head again, smiling.

Steve squeezed his hand, brought it up to his face, kissed Danny’s knuckles, and won this round just as their plane started loading.

~