Archive of Our Own

Danny had thought his morning was going pretty well right up until all of his plans for the day went out the window.

Danny had intended to take Grace out to play mini golf at Rascal’s Family Fun Center. Mini golf was the only golf in Danny’s opinion and Grace agreed completely, so they were both happy with the idea of starting their weekend together that way. Grace loved the course at Rascal’s because it was full of fish and pirates that all lit up under the black lights the place had on the course, making everything seem brighter and more colorful than should be possible, and Danny liked it because it was indoors. Not only was it air conditioned, but his precious father-daughter bonding time also couldn’t be rained out, which always made it a win-win in Danny’s opinion.

Having Steve tagging along was just icing on the already fabulous cake. If Steve was with Danny and Grace then he couldn’t get into trouble while Danny wasn’t keeping an eye on him, which was something Steve was frighteningly prone to do. It seemed like every time Danny let Steve wander around loose for very long at all, Steve ended up in the middle of a situation that took explosions, assault rifles, and a flagrant disregard of proper police procedure to get him back out of. It had gotten to the point that Danny got nervous if Steve got out of his sight for very long, so he was glad to have Steve with him and Grace for the day, doing something so safely innocuous as playing mini golf. 

Grace had begged to stop and get a shave ice at Kamekona’s cart on the way there, though, and Steve was quick to second the idea. They had almost an hour to kill before Rascal’s opened at eleven, so Danny had agreed easily enough. The moment he said yes was when Danny’s day had started to go off the rails, though he didn’t know it yet then.

Kamekona had just handed Danny his nice simple lemon ice, and Danny was standing next to Steve waiting while Kamekona made Grace’s ‘rainbow surprise’ ice when Danny heard someone yell behind them.

“’Ey! Stevie!”

Danny had turned around to look towards the water in surprise, watching as a kama’aina in a pair of oversized board shorts hurried quickly towards them. He was about Danny’s height but probably a good forty pounds lighter with a slim, whipcord-lean build that Danny figured had to be stronger than he looked, mostly because the guy looked like Grace could likely take him. The guy had short dreds and a wide happy grin on his face, multiple earrings in both ears, and tattoos of tribal bands on both biceps and a dolphin peeking over his shorts on one hip. He appeared to be around twenty, but Danny hadn’t walked off the plane yesterday so he revised his estimate of the guy’s age up about ten years, chalking the young looks up to that ‘clean living’ the kama’aina were always bragging on.

“Keoka!” Steve had called, then he laughed and passed his shaved ice (Pineapple, of course, and Danny just knew Steve got it to fuck with him.) to Danny, then moved to meet the guy, hugging him so hard he picked the guy right up off his feet. “How have you been? I haven’t seen you in years!”

Grace had moved over next to Danny to watch Steve and the guy Danny assumed was named Keoka, unless of course keoka was a greeting Danny hadn’t heard yet. Grace was giggling softly as she tucked her fingers into Danny’s pocket and held on, leaning against him and making Danny wish he had a free hand. Grace had been really shy with strangers when she was younger, and sometimes she still liked to at least hold his hand when she met new people, especially if they were loud.

Danny blamed himself and Rachel for that, mostly. He had tried to keep the fighting with Rachel to a minimum when Grace was around, not wanting her to grow up feeling like her parents were at war, but he knew that he had failed long before he hit the point where he couldn’t go back to Rachel to try again one last time. Even after the divorce, things between Danny and Rachel hadn’t really improved until after Steve barged into the picture, though it took Danny a while to realize what had changed.

Steve had started throwing his considerable connections behind Danny from the very beginning, forcing Rachel to realize she couldn’t completely take Grace from Danny, no matter how rich she was. Steve had spoken to Rachel’s lawyer several times when she was being unreasonable, Danny knew, asked the Governor for help twice, and actually even spoke to Rachel a few times (Danny still couldn’t believe she had managed to forget talking to Steve, but that was Rachel for you.) but what amazed him was that it had helped.

Rachel had never listened to Danny, not really, and she certainly didn’t treat him as her equal, but she actually seemed to respect Steve. It was kind of frightening, especially when he considered the fact Steve was a crazy super-Seal masquerading as an officer of the law, but Danny was too grateful that Rachel listened to someone to poke at it too much. He had been fighting Rachel on his own to stay in Gracie’s life for more than a year before he first pulled a gun on Steve, and it meant a lot to Danny that he finally had someone willing to stand up to Rachel for him when he was too inarticulate with rage - and, truthfully, no small amount of terror he’d lose his precious baby girl - to do it himself.

Keoka had grinned widely as his feet hit the sand again after a few moments, saying cheerfully, “You the one been gone, brah. I was right here all the time.”

“Well, I’m home now,” Steve had replied, grinning at Keoka. “Been back a while now.”

“Heard you were running the Five-0,” Keoka had said then, grinning at Steve as he patted Steve’s belly with one hand. “Been making some big waves in our little pond, Stevie. Makes a bruddah proud to say he know you back when five-oh was just the number on your jersey.”

Steve had just laughed, looking kind of smug, which made Keoka laugh too and give Steve a little shove.

Keoka had turned his attention to Danny then, meeting Danny’s gaze as he asked, “Who the pretty haoles, Stevie?”

Steve had turned to Danny and Grace then, slinging one arm around Keoka’s bare shoulders as he said, “Danny, Gracie, this is Keoka Mafi. He’s an old friend of mine, we went through school together.” He had looked at Keoka, adding, “This is my partner, Detective Danny Williams, and his little girl, Grace.”

“Nice to meet you, brah,” Keoka had said, offering Danny his hand with a pleased smile.

“You too, Keoka,” Danny had said, amused as he held up the two shaved ices he was holding. “I’d shake your hand, but…”

Keoka had laughed and said cheerfully, “It’s all good, brah.” He looked down at Grace then, pulling away from Steve to give her a wide grin as he crouched down to her level. “You’re the prettiest little haole I’ve seen all week, Grace.”

Grace had giggled. “You’re silly.”

Keoka had laughed and leaned closer, giving her an impish grin as he stage-whispered, “Life’s more fun that way.” He had nodded towards the dolphin on Grace’s t-shirt as he asked, “You like the nai’a, Grace?” Grace had nodded happily, and then Keoka had grinned so wide it was a wonder his face didn’t break as he asked, “You ever been out in a boat to play with them?”

Grace’s eyes had gone wide as saucers, and that was when Danny finally realized that he was toast.

Twenty minutes later Danny was on a sleek speedboat Keoka had borrowed from a friend of a friend, heading out to sea faster than Danny would like even though Keoka didn’t drive half as fast as Steve did.

Not having a life vest for Grace had seemed like a very good excuse not to get into a speeding boat with a guy who acted like a kid when Danny tried to talk his way out of a quick trip on Keoka’s boat, but it didn’t work quite like Danny hoped. Steve had just said to give him a minute and trotted off down the beach, and five minutes later he was back with a wetsuit and life vest for Grace, along with flip flops for her and a stuffed dolphin the size of Danny’s arm.

Grace had squealed and bounced around like she was just given that pony she had been begging for when Steve returned, and after Danny saw how happy she was he couldn’t even be annoyed. Danny had grudgingly agreed they could go, and within just a few minutes Grace was wearing her brand-new black and pink wet suit with a matching neon pink life vest and clutching that ridiculously large stuffed dolphin as they climbed onto the borrowed boat to head out to sea.

Danny would surely have gotten annoyed if Step-Stan had bought the dolphin for Grace, but he couldn’t be mad at Steve for doing it. Grace had watched the Elijah Wood version of ‘Flipper’ with Danny and Steve the night before, which was a large part of the reason Steve bought the dolphin, Danny was sure. It hadn’t taken Grace five seconds to name her new best friend, and Danny was sure she would treasure Flipper for a long time to come just because Steve had bought it for her.

Grace had only gotten to stay with him twice since Danny moved in with Steve, but by the end of the first weekend Danny had known that she loved the house and thought Steve was awesome. Steve had cleaned out his childhood bedroom to make sure Grace had her own room before she stayed with them the first time, and then he had awakened bright and early that first Saturday that Grace stayed at his house, hours before Danny woke up, and went on a little shopping trip.

By the time Danny woke up later that morning, Steve and Grace had breakfast almost ready and there were several large bags from Target on Grace’s bed. The three of them had spent an hour after breakfast redecorating Grace’s room with the bright blue bedding covered in playful dolphins and gauzy curtains decorated with a life-like reef and tropical fish that Steve had picked out for Grace. Grace had loved it all, of course, and Danny knew that the moment Steve had produced a dolphin nightlight for Grace was the moment Steve started to be one of her heroes. Rachel and Step-Stan both thought Grace was too old for a nightlight, and Danny usually just left the hall light on for her, but Steve had bought her a nightlight that projected dolphins and fish on the ceiling that seemed to swim around in random patterns.

Grace obviously thought Steve hung the moon after that, and Danny had to agree wholeheartedly even though Danny didn’t have a room of his own in Steve’s house. Danny really hadn’t understood why he was staying in Mary’s room when he first moved in, but sometime Friday he had finally realized that it was because Steve had always planned for Danny to end up in Steve’s bedroom with him. Danny actually liked that idea more than he thought he should, but he wasn’t sure he liked the fact Steve had obviously recognized where their relationship was going long before Danny did. He had gotten used to Steve just not noticing how normal people acted and it was a little disconcerting to realize that Steve could pay attention to such trivialities as human emotions, he just usually didn’t bother to.

Danny shook himself out of his thoughts. Brooding about his relationship with Steve wouldn’t really change anything, he knew, so it was a waste of time, especially when he had Grace. He turned his attention back to watching her, sure that he and Steve would get where they were going without him obsessing about it. Steve could be very single-minded when he really wanted something, and Danny was finally starting to realize that Steve wanted him, and not just for sex. If it was just a physical thing for Steve, Danny was sure that something would have happened between them a long time ago instead of Steve staying content just to be with Danny and do everything in his power to make Danny and Grace happy.

That particular morning, making Grace happy had taken precedence, thought Danny really didn’t mind. Grace had been kneeling by the rail on the nose of the boat since they got well away from shore, giggling and beaming she as watched two dolphins that were leaping along side of the boat. She was as happy as Danny had seen her in a long time, and he couldn’t keep from smiling as he watched her, grateful that Steve’s friend had run into them. Keoka wasn’t the kind of guy that Danny would usually trust on sight, but his generous offer had made Grace so happy that Danny had to like him anyway.

Somebody walked up behind Danny then, barefoot and nearly silent, and he tried not to think too hard about the fact he could tell it was Steve without looking. Steve stopped close enough to Danny’s shoulder that they were almost touching, something Danny had grown surprisingly used to over the last six months despite the fact that anyone else getting so close usually made him uncomfortable. Well, anyone but Grace, and he didn’t really mind when Kono or Chin got right up in his space either, but that was probably because they hardly ever did.

Steve was really the only one besides Grace who made a habit of inviting himself into Danny’s personal space, which Danny had noticed from the beginning, though he hadn’t ever realized why Steve considered Danny’s personal space his own private domain until much more recently. It had bothered him at first that Steve was always standing so close that Danny bumped into him a dozen times a day, but it hadn’t taken him long to get used to it. Danny had put it out of his mind, chalking it up to being one of Steve’s many quirks even though Steve didn’t really get so close to anyone else unless he had a very good reason to. Danny finally saw it in a different light, of course, but he’d been seeing a lot of things differently since Thursday morning.

“Relax, Danny,” Steve murmured after a moment, leaning closer so that his chest was against Danny’s back, warm even through the barrier of Steve’s t-shirt and Danny’s light cotton dress shirt. Steve didn’t usually get close enough that their bodies were touching, not unless they were trying to hide in limited cover or sitting on a couch small enough to make them sit close together, and Danny was a little surprised to realize he liked the feel of having Steve so close. “She’s perfectly safe.”

“Not as safe as at mini golf,” Danny pointed out quietly even though that wasn’t what kept making him tense up at all, glancing over his shoulder up at Steve and then looking back at Grace.

Steve had that little amused smile on his face that he got when he thought Danny was being silly, but it didn’t inspire the immediate annoyance that Danny had gotten used to feeling when he saw it. He had finally realized during an argument the day before that Steve was pretty much head over heels for him, and because of that simple fact a lot of the things he did struck Steve as kind of adorable. He wasn’t sure what it said about them that Steve liked to watch him rant and rave almost as much as he liked to do it, but he figured it wasn’t really a bad thing. Steve never held anything Danny said while he was ranting about something against him, and always seemed glad to give Danny a reason to yell when he needed to blow off a little steam.

“Nothing’s as safe – or as boring – as mini golf,” Steve agreed quietly, sounding amused. “She’s buckled in tight to that life jacket and it’s tied to the boat with a rope that would hold you and me both, Danno. She couldn’t fall overboard even if she tried.”

Danny let out a little huff of a laugh. “I still don’t know what you said to convince her to let you tie her to that rail. If I had suggested it, she would have pouted at me for hours.”

Steve shifted behind him, his left hand suddenly resting lightly on Danny’s left hip as he pressed a little closer to Danny’s back and murmured, “I told her it would let her Danno relax and enjoy himself today, so don’t make a liar out of me.”

Danny turned his head to look up at Steve, a little surprised Steve was getting so close, even though after a moment he decided he probably shouldn’t be. Ever since Danny had sort of proposed marriage (And he still wasn’t sure what he was thinking when he went down that road!) and then asked Steve out to dinner, the dynamic between them when they were alone had shifted from working partners to something a lot closer to lovers, though they hadn’t even kissed yet. Steve had been reaching out and touching him fairly often, but they had always touched a lot so it hadn’t really dawned on Danny until that moment that Steve was very carefully easing his way into getting as close as Danny would let him.

“What?” Steve murmured, giving Danny a crooked little smile.

Danny just looked at him for a moment longer before he smiled. “Nothing.” He looked back towards Grace, leaning back against Steve just a little bit, sure that Steve would pick up on the silent hint Danny liked Steve touching him. “And I am relaxed,” he added softly, still smiling.

Steve’s hand tightened on Danny’s hip for an instant and then he slowly moved his hand around to Danny’s belly, keeping the touch light and fairly innocent even though Danny could feel Steve’s breath warm against his right ear as Steve shifted to press even closer to him and murmured teasingly, “Which is why you’re still wearing that tie.”

Danny was a little surprised to realize he was grinning as he moved one hand to cover Steve’s on his stomach, tangling their fingers together and enjoying the feel of Steve holding him as he murmured, “One of us has to be the respectable one, babe.”

Steve just chuckled softly and then was quiet as they watched Grace watching the dolphins for a little while until she finally turned her head to look at them, beaming as she called, “Danno, look at them! Real wild dolphins, and I could almost reach out and touch them!”

“I see, Monkey,” Danny called back, pleased that Grace didn’t seem to mind that he and Steve were standing so close together. “Be careful not to lose Flipper.”

“I won’t!” Grace called happily, then turned back to watching the dolphins just as three more came slicing through the waves to join the two dolphins that had begun following them as soon as they started getting out away from the shore.

Danny heard the familiar chirp of Steve getting a text a few minutes later and pulled away from Steve, turning around to look at him in surprise and dismay. “Please tell me that’s not Chin with a case.”

Steve dug his phone out of his pocket and checked, then smiled at him. “It’s not Chin.”

Steve tapped his phone to read the text, and then he let out whoop that made Danny laugh in surprise. “What? Did you win the lottery or something?”

Steve stuffed his phone back into his pocket and reached for Danny, cupping Danny’s face between his hands and kissing him without a word of warning. Danny was so surprised that he just let Steve kiss him for a second before he responded, his hands lifting to Steve’s forearms to hold on as they kissed for what seemed like an hour to Danny even though he knew it wasn’t really very long at all. It had been way too long since Danny kissed anyone, and it surprised him how intense it felt to kiss Steve until he realized that it shouldn’t, even though the kiss hadn't even involved any tongue. Everything Steve did, everything he was, was extraordinary, but when Steve really caredabout something he always took it to a whole new level.

They were both a little breathless when Steve finally ended the kiss, but he didn’t let go of Danny or move away as he stared into Danny’s eyes, smiling. Danny didn't even try to hold back the wide grin he could feel spreading across his face as he murmured, “Not that I’m complaining or anything, babe, ‘cause I’m not, but what the hell brought that on?”

Steve’s smile widened into the happy, goofy grin that Danny didn’t get to see nearly as often as he’d like. “Cath just got word that ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is officially over, as far as the Navy is concerned.”

Danny blinked, surprised but still grinning. “Seriously?”

“Yeah,” Steve replied, still giving him that goofy grin. “The captain made a ship-wide announcement, it’s finished.” He let out a little bit of a laugh, looking like he was so happy he wanted to fly apart at the seams. “I won’t have to resign my commission.”

“That’s great!” Danny said quickly, grinning wider even though he hadn’t thought about what their relationship might mean to Steve’s career until that moment. Over the last day or two it had become impossible for him to miss the fact Steve wanted to be with him, but he didn't really understand just exactly how much he meant to Steve until he knew Steve had been prepared to choose Danny over everything that had made Steve the man he was. Being an elite, highly-trained Naval officer – being a SEAL – was who Steve was, and Danny was a little awed as it suddenly dawned on him Steve had been willing to give that up for him.

“Danno, what’s going on?” Grace asked suddenly, making Danny look towards her quickly. She was wide-eyed and looking surprised, and Danny realized he really should have had a talk with her about him and Steve the day before when they picked her up from school. He had counted on them being able to act like they always did around her until he found the right time to tell her, mostly because they had been acting pretty much like they always did, but he realized finally that he should have expected that to change soon.

Steve let go of Danny, looking kind of sheepish and stepping back as Danny smiled at Grace and said quickly, “Steve just got some really good news and we’re happy about it, Monkey, that’s all.”

“What was the news about?” Grace asked, brightening a little.

Danny hesitated, not sure how to explain it so a child would understand it, and he was surprised when Steve spoke up.

“Have you studied the military policy of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ in school yet, Gracie?” Steve asked, and Danny was surprised when Grace nodded. “It just ended,” Steve went on, grinning wide and happy. “I’ve been kind of worried about the politicians that were trying to stop it, but my friend Catherine just texted me to let me know it was announced on her ship that it’s really over.”

Grace brightened even more, grinning. “Does that mean you don’t have to pretend Daddy’s just your friend anymore?”

Steve laughed. “That’s exactly what it means, Gracie.”

“What do you mean, pretend?” Danny blurted, looking at Steve and then back at Grace.

Grace rolled her eyes. “It’s not like either of you is good at pretending, Daddy. I knew months ago that you two want to kiss each other.”

“Months?!” Danny exclaimed, incredulous. “How could you know I want to kiss him months ago when I didn’t even know?!”

Grace grinned. “Kono told me that girls are smarter than boys about that kind of thing. I guess she’s right.” Danny spluttered as Grace turned her attention to Steve, adding, “Does this mean I get to call you Step-Steve now?”

Danny looked at Steve, wide-eyed, and found Steve grinning at him. “That’ll be up to Danno, Gracie.”

Danny stared into Steve’s eyes a moment and then turned back to Grace and changed the subject. “I thought we were on this boat to watch dolphins.”

Grace giggled and turned away. “Ask Keoka to slow down, I want to pet them!”

“I’ll do better than that,” Steve said with a laugh, looking over his shoulder at Keoka. “Why don’t we stop and play with the nai’a a while, brah?”

“Works for me!” Keoka called cheerfully as he slowed the boat down. “There should be baitfish in the live well you can feed ‘em, or we could go for a swim.”

Danny turned to look at Keoka in shock, fumbling for the right words to start yelling at the very idea of Grace in the water so far from shore, but Steve distracted him by stepping between Danny and Keoka to kiss Danny before he could say a word.

Steve gave Danny a sweet, amused grin as he ended the kiss, changeable eyes sparkling blue-grey in the sunshine as he said, “You know I’ll take good care of her, Danno. You’re the one who’s always saying I can swim like a fish.”

“Like a dolphin!” Grace said, giggling happily as she climbed off the nose of the boat. She quickly dropped her stuffed dolphin on a nearby bench with the bag that held her clothes and then moved to throw her arms around Danny’s hips, making him look down at her. “Please, Danno? I’ll be extra super special careful and do everything just like Steve says, I promise!”

Danny put one hand on Grace’s back and stared at her for only a moment before he looked away at the water to search for sharks. “Babe, please tell me there isn’t a shark cage anywhere around here, at least.”

Steve chuckled, reaching out to put his hand on the back of Danny’s neck, which made Danny look at him. “Dolphins will kill sharks that get too close, Danno, so sharks always stay well away from a pod. She’ll be safe here with the dolphins, I promise.”

Danny gazed into Steve’s eyes a moment and then sighed, giving in to the inevitable as he looked back at Grace. “Just for a little while. Fifteen minutes, maybe.”

Grace squealed and started bouncing as she hugged Danny even tighter. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

Keoka cut the boat’s engine off and then moved to join them, grinning widely at Danny. “Don’t worry, brah. Me an’ Stevie, we’ll keep your little wahine safe. We been swimin’ with the nai’a out here since we were knee high to you.”

“Hey, no short jokes!” Danny said quickly, surprised into a little bark of a laugh. “You’re only a couple of inches taller than I am!”

“More like three, brah,” Keoka pointed out smugly. “I’m barefoot, but you’re still wearing those haole shoes.”

“Which aren’t safe on a boat, Daddy,” Grace pointed out, giggling. “They taught us that at the country club when I took swimming lessons. It’s better for you to be barefoot than in street shoes.”

“Slippahs are good too though, brah,” Keoka said to Danny, looking pointedly at the flip-flops on Grace’s feet.

“Then you get the best of both,” Grace agreed, nodding happily. “At least, you do if they’re good slippers.”

“And you can count on the ones Stevie got you to be the good kind, right wahine?” Keoka asked, grinning at Grace as he moved to open a trap door in the boat’s deck.

“Right!” Grace agreed immediately. “Steve knows everything about the ocean.”

“Maybe between the two of you, you and Stevie can teach your haole dad how it’s done here in the islands,” Keoka said, giving Danny a sly, knowing grin that made Danny blush while Grace giggled at him.

Steve laughed and moved over towards the pilot’s chair, unbuttoning his cargo shorts as he went, and Danny prayed that he had trunks on under them instead of the tight boxer-briefs Steve usually wore. He didn’t think Steve would go swimming in his underwear around Grace, but he couldn’t completely put it past him. He had seen Steve dive into the water in his underwear right out in public on more than one occasion, regardless of who might get an eyeful when Steve climbed back out of the water. Danny had enjoyed the view, and he knew Kono always did as well, but he didn’t really want Grace to see Steve in nothing but a little bit of clingy wet cotton that left almost nothing to the imagination. As far as Danny was concerned she wouldn’t be old enough to see any man mostly naked and dripping wet until she was thirty, but especially not Steve.

“Alright you two,” Steve said as Danny dragged his gaze away from him, “stop picking on Danny and let’s get moving before he decides our fifteen minutes has already started.”

“Not until we’re in the water,” Grace protested, looking up at Danny wide-eyed. “Right, Daddy?”

Danny snorted. “Only if you don’t argue with me when I say it’s time to get back in the boat.”

“I won’t, Daddy, I promise!” Grace said quickly, beaming again as she turned to Steve, drawing Danny’s attention to him again just as Steve stepped out of his cargoes. Steve did have swim trunks on, but they were barely long enough to call shorts and made his long legs look impossibly longer. “Come untie me so we can go swim before they leave!” Grace added, making Danny look back towards her and Keoka.

Keoka was watching Danny with a little smirk that made Danny blush again as he silently chastised himself for staring at Steve. Steve had a perfect body to go with his tall, dark, and handsome classic good looks, and he made a habit of finding a reason to show it off at least once a week. Even after six months of seeing it fairly often, Danny still couldn’t quite manage to keep himself from staring a little whenever Steve started to strip down to his skivvies, or tiny little swim trunks in that particular case. Steve’s usual boxer-briefs covered more skin, though thankfully the skimpy trunks he wore that day weren’t nearly as tight as Steve’s underwear always were.

Keoka pulled a bucket of baitfish up out of the live well, closing the lid again as he grinned and said, “The nai’a not goin’ anywhere, Gracie.” He moved to the edge of the boat, leaning over to slap his free hand against the side rapidly for a moment, and then suddenly two dolphins popped their heads out of the water, squeaking and clicking. “Not now that they know I got a snack for ‘em,” Keoka added with a laugh, tossing a small wriggling fish to each dolphin as a third one joined them. “Nai’a are always willing to stick around for a free meal.”

Grace beamed as she watched Keoka feed the third dolphin, and then she looked back at Steve again. “Pleeease Steve? I want to go swim with them!”

Danny glanced at Steve and then watched as Steve laughed and tugged his t-shirt up and off over his head, dropping it in the pilot’s chair on his shorts. Steve moved towards Grace then, teasing, “Don’t get your nose all bent out of shape, Gracie, I’m working on it.”

Grace giggled and then looked back at the dolphins, beaming as she watched Keoka feed each of them another fish.

Danny just sighed and walked over to sit on the raised front end of the boat, sure that he’d have a few more gray hairs before the morning was over with. He had said fifteen minutes, sure, but he had absolutely no illusions that he’d be able to make himself ruin Grace and Steve’s fun that quick. He’d be lucky if he could make himself call them out of the water in less than an hour, and even then he knew he’d feel guilty. Steve thrived in the water, and Grace seemed to be the same way even though Danny had no clue how she could have inherited that trait.

Rachel could barely swim at all, and Danny could count on one hand the number of times he’d been swimming outside the safe confines of a friend’s back yard pool.

~*~

Steve bumped his shoulder against Danny’s, grinning as he murmured, “You ready for lunch? It’s almost two.”

Danny glanced over at Steve and then put his attention back on where they were going, amused by how happy Steve and Grace still were, almost half an hour after they got back to shore. They were walking slowly along the beach back towards where they had parked the Camaro near Kamekona’s cart that morning, but the way the two of them were grinning you’d think they were headed towards a party just for them.

Of course, as happy as Grace and Steve looked just then was nothing compared to how happy they had been while they were swimming with the dolphins. Danny knew he wouldn’t be able to deny Grace the chance to do it ever again, as long as Steve was with her. Steve was as graceful and quick in the water as the dolphins were, and he had watched Grace so closely that even Danny couldn’t find fault with it. Steve had seldom even glanced away from Grace while she was in the water with him, and he had obviously loved every minute of it just as much as Grace did, if not more.

Danny had taken dozens of photos with his cell phone so they would have something to remember the day by, and was already planning to get at least one blown up to go on his desk with a photo of him and Grace that was already there. He thought he might even send one to his mom, sure she’d love one for the living room wall. He kind of liked the idea of Steve there on his parents’ wall with the photos of Danny and Grace, even though he knew his mom would bug him with even more questions about Steve after he sent her one of the pictures.

By the time Grace, Steve, and Keoka – who had been swimming with the dolphins too, even though Danny barely noticed him most of the time – had finally had gotten back in the boat, Danny was actually looking forward to going again. He even intended to start keeping his cutoff jeans in the Camaro’s trunk along with his spare clothes so he would be able to join them in the water next time. He trusted Steve to keep he and Grace both safe, and he knew that swimming with Grace in the open ocean with wild dolphins would be the kind of memory that Stan’s money just couldn’t give her.

The tame, hand-raised dolphins that lived at several local hotels and in more than one man-made lagoon around the island were beautiful too, of course, and Grace loved them, but there had been something extra special about wild dolphins choosing to spend time playing with her. Danny knew Grace had felt it even more than he did, and he was sure that she would never forget it. It had been almost like the dolphins knew how much she loved them, and Danny hoped that at least some of the photos he had taken had captured the absolute joy and wonder that had been on her face every time a dolphin had approached her.

“You hungry, Monkey?” Danny asked, glancing down at Grace. She was still wearing her wetsuit with the life jacket, Flipper tucked securely against her chest in one arm. The dolphin was a little damp, but Danny knew Grace well enough to know she would just love it even more because it smelled like the ocean, despite the fact Rachel was sure to protest.

Grace beamed up at him, nodding. “Starved!”

Danny laughed, looking at Steve again. “That answers that, I guess. You have somewhere in mind, Aquaman?”

Steve grinned even wider, right on the edge of the goofy grin Danny enjoyed so much. “Yep!”

Danny looked ahead of them again, grinning. “Why am I not surprised?”

“’Cause you know me so well,” Steve said, sounding happy. He got out his cell and thumbed through the contacts, then put it to his ear, waiting a moment before he said with a hint of surprise, “Leilani Vaiano, is that you?” He paused and then laughed, making Danny look at him curiously. “This is Steve.” Steve paused again and then added pointedly, “No, not Steve the dairy delivery guy, ‘Lani! The Steve that you dated in high school. Steve McGarrett.”

Danny snickered, looking down in amusement as he wondered why Steve was calling an old girlfriend, but he didn’t have to wonder long.

“Yeah, you’re very funny,” Steve said with a little snort of a laugh. “You got any empty tables right now?” He paused again, listening to Leilani. “Great! Grab the family booth in the back and tag it with a reservation for five in my name.”

“Five?” Danny asked, looking at Steve again in surprise. “I count three of us, babe.”

Steve moved the phone away from his mouth a bit, smiling at Danny. “Kono and Chin wanted me to let them know where we ended up for lunch so they can join us.”

Danny let out a little surprised laugh as Grace said happily, “I get to sit by Kono!”

Danny grinned, looking down at Grace. “If Kono doesn’t mind.”

“I’m her favorite,” Grace said happily. “She won’t mind.”

Steve snickered, drawing Danny’s attention back to him as Steve said in to the phone, “Yeah, yeah, tease if you have to, just grab us the table, okay?” He paused, and then grinned widely. “I owe you one, ‘Lani. See you soon.” He hung up a moment later, grinning still as he looked at Danny. “You’ll love Auntie Pasto’s, they’ve got fantastic Italian food.” He grinned a little wider. “And I’m pretty sure they don’t have pineapple anywhere on the menu, much less on the pizza.”

Danny stared at Steve, surprised and pleased. “Where is this place, and how come we haven’t been there yet?”

“Maybe because they’re usually packed when we have time to eat,” Steve countered, grinning as he looked down to thumb through his contacts and then lifted the phone to his ear again. “Kono! How’s the break at Kapiolani?” He paused and then started talking in a rapid-fire mix of Hawaiian and pidgin that Danny didn’t have a prayer of keeping up with, so he didn’t even try.

Danny laughed softly, turning his attention back towards where they were going and then looking down at Grace, who was looking at Steve and obviously listening interestedly. “Do you know what he’s saying, Monkey?” Danny asked, surprised and curious.

“Some of it,” Grace said, grinning up at Danny. “Keiko and the kids at school are teaching me. It’s lots more fun than the French Mom made me learn.” Keiko Nakamura was Grace’s nanny, a young college student who spent much of her time with Grace when neither of them was in school. It still bothered Danny that Grace had a nanny at all, but Keiko reminded him a lot of Kono, so he tried hard to not to complain about it anymore. The nanny before Keiko had been British and older than Danny’s parents, and he had been very glad when she decided to retire home to Bristol several months earlier.

Danny laughed. “And more likely to be useful here, too.”

“That’s what Keiko says,” Grace agreed, obviously still trying to listen to Steve.

Danny looked expectantly at Grace for a moment and then laughed. “So? What’s he saying?”

“Chin Ho was fishing while Kono surfs, and the waves were really good earlier, but they’re baby waves now and the fish are hiding because of the tourists,” Grace replied promptly. “Somebody even wiped out and busted a board this morning, but Kono pulled him out of the water.” She paused, listening to Steve, and then she giggled, “And now he’s just telling her it’s time to stop playing lifeguard and come eat with us.”

Danny looked at Steve, grinning at the way Steve smirked and winked at him as Steve switched seamlessly back into English. “Auntie Pasto’s, Kono. Yeah, on Beretania, not the one in Waipahu.” He paused and then laughed. “See you there.” Steve hung up and put his phone back into his pocket, still smirking at Danny. “They’ll meet us there as soon as they can. They’re only a few miles away, so they shouldn’t be long.”

“We better get moving, then,” Danny said, amused. “Grace still has to change back into her street clothes.”

“The changing shacks are up this way,” Steve said cheerfully, putting his hand on the small of Danny’s back to turn him towards a row of huts up past the high tide line.

Danny let out a little laugh. “I thought those were fancy porta potties for all the tourists.”

Steve snickered. “There’s both, you just have to check the door to be sure you go in the right one.”

“Restrooms are marked ‘lua’,” Grace added helpfully, making Danny look down at her in surprise even though he had known that much. He was a firm believer in the policy that no matter where he went, he had to know the words for bathroom, coffee, and police. Grace was grinning impishly up at him as she added, “The wahine lua is for girls, and the kane lua is for boys.”

“Thank you.” Danny let out a soft laugh, pleased by how much of the language Grace evidently knew as he added teasingly, “Me, I always just look for the little people on the door.”

Grace giggled. “Some bathrooms don’t have the people, Daddy!”

Steve snickered at them and then said, “Give Gracie her clothes so she can go grab a room while one’s free, Danny. I only see two open, and they won’t be for long.”

Danny glanced at Steve before he looked down at Grace again, offering her the plastic bag he had put her clothes in after she changed into her new wetsuit in the public restroom at the pier. “Do you need help, Monkey?”

“Not if you get the zipper down for me,” Grace said quickly, taking the bag and then moving in front of Danny before she stopped. “I can get everything else.”

Danny and Steve had to stop when Grace did, but still Danny hesitated to send her off on her own as he asked, “You sure about that, Gracie?” He hadn’t worn a wetsuit often, only twice in fact, but he had a hell of a time getting out of it again both times.

Grace looked over her shoulder at him. “Daaad! I’m nine, I can dress myself!”

Steve laughed and reached out, unzipping Grace’s wetsuit far enough she could pull the zipper down the rest of the way herself. “Go on, kolohe,” he said, making Danny stare at him in surprise as Grace giggled at whatever Steve had called her. Steve plucked Flipper out of Grace’s arm, adding, “We’ll be waiting right here with Flipper.”

“Okay!” Grace agreed, running towards the changing huts without any further hesitation.

“Make sure it’s empty before you go in!” Danny called quickly, frowning.

“I will!” Grace called back.

Danny watched her until she had checked the nearest empty hut and then disappeared inside, closing the door behind her. He looked at Steve then, still frowning slightly as said, “She’s probably going to need help with that wetsuit.”

“Stop worrying so much, Danno,” Steve replied gently, smiling crookedly at him. “She’s only thirty feet away. If she needs help, she can yell for you.”

Danny looked back towards the changing huts. “Still, it’s a public place where anyone could be wandering around, and—“

“And she’s completely safe,” Steve finished for him, moving closer to Danny as his hand slid from the small of Danny’s back to his far hip so Steve’s arm was around him. “There’s always a cop parked on the other side of the huts, and the hotels have security personnel making the rounds all the time. No one will sneak up and steal her away, ipo, not here. ”

Danny turned his head to look at Steve quickly, surprised. “You usually talk in Hawaiian so I won’t know what you’re saying, Steve, but I know that one, or at least I think I do. It means sweetheart, right?”

Steve looked a little sheepish. “Something like that. Was that a hint you don’t like me calling you that?”

“I- Not at all, just, usually I don’t know what you’re saying when you do that, so I was kind of surprised I knew for a change,” Danny said quickly, looking into Steve’s eyes. He smiled slightly after a moment, admitting, “I probably wouldn’t know that one either if Ma wasn’t such an Elvis fan, though. I bet I heard ‘Ku’u Ipo’ a million times when I was a kid. Blue Hawaii was one of her favorite albums, she wore it out on cassette probably ten times by the time it came out on CD.”

Steve smiled, relieved. “So you don’t mind?”

“I don’t mind, babe,” Danny agreed, still smiling slightly.

“Good,” Steve murmured, his expression softening into the sweet, loving smile that Danny was learning to treasure. “I’ve wanted to be able to call you that for a while now.”

“It’s good,” Danny said, smiling wider as he turned back towards the changing rooms. “As long as we’re not with the Governor or the chief of police or something.”

“Of course.” Steve moved close behind Danny again, his free hand moving slowly from Danny’s hip around to Danny’s stomach as he murmured, “When we’re on duty, you’re Danno, the best partner I ever had.”

Danny laughed softly, letting himself lean back against Steve and covering Steve's hand on his belly with his own to lace their fingers together even though he was blushing as he did it, very aware of all the people around. “Only partner you ever had.”

“Only one I ever wanted,” Steve whispered into his ear, and then he kissed Danny’s temple before he moved to rest his cheek against Danny’s hair.

Danny had no idea what to say to that so he didn’t say anything at all, just leaning against Steve while they waited together for Grace.

~*~

“I still can’t believe you never brought me here before,” Danny said, giving Steve a dirty look as he reached for the last slice of cheese pizza. “Six months of crappy Hawaiian pizza, usually with freaking pineapple on it, and they had decent pies just a mile from our office!”

Steve laughed, looking up from the plate of seafood pasta he had ordered. “I never get the pizza here, I always come for the pasta. It’s the best in Honolulu besides Santiago’s, and it’s a lot easier to get a table here this time of day.”

Danny looked around, seeing the complete lack of obvious tourists, and then he looked back at Steve as his eyes widened. “You kama’aina assholes keep it for yourselves, don’t you?”

Kono and Chin Ho started laughing on the other side of the booth as Grace crowed, “Another swear!” She held out her hand towards Danny, beaming and smug. “Fork it over, Danno.”

“Monkey, we have got to change that to quarters,” Danny protested even as he opened his wallet for the fifth time since they sat down. He hadn’t bothered to put it away after the third time, finally conceding the point that he was sure to need it again. When it was just he and Grace Danny had never had a problem keeping control of his swearing, but put Steve into the picture and then suddenly Danny had trouble watching his mouth. Steve had been the one to suggest consequences for it after the tenth time Danny fell all over himself apologizing to Grace for swearing where she could hear him that first weekend Grace stayed at Steve’s. Grace had loved the idea being a walking swear jar so Danny agreed to it without really thinking it through like he should have. He glanced into the wallet and then at Grace, adding, “Gimme four ones. I don’t have another dollar bill.”

Grace giggled and dug into her pocket, pulling out a neatly folded wad of his cash and then peeling off four dollar bills to pass them to Danny. “You’d probably swear all the time if it just cost a quarter, Daddy. Like you always tell me, the punishment has to fit the crime.”

Danny snorted, taking the ones and then passing a five to Grace as he said, “Why do I have the sudden feeling you’re gonna grow up to be a lawyer?”

Grace added the five-dollar bill to her wad of cash and then tucked it back into her pocket, grinning happily. “No, I want to be a famous surfer like Kono.”

Kono grinned at Grace. “Thank you, Grace. I’m flattered.”

“If you’re going to do that, Grace, we need to get you on a board,” Chin said, smiling. “Kono was surfing every day at your age.”

“I get to learn next time it’s Daddy’s weekend,” Grace agreed happily, beaming. “Daddy promised, and now I have a wetsuit because Steve bought me one, so all I need is a board!”

Danny groaned, reaching for the last slice of his pizza again. “Don’t remind me.”

Steve chuckled, waiting for Danny to take a big bite of pizza before he teased, “Don’t worry, Danno. Gracie and I won’t let you drown.”

Danny spluttered indignantly, trying to chew his mouthful of pizza hurriedly as Kono giggled and Grace looked surprised and asked, “Is that why you're afraid of swimming in the ocean, Danno?”

Danny swallowed, coughing slightly and reaching for his glass to take a long drink of his water before he said indignantly, “I'm not afraid!” He gave Steve a dirty look and then turned his attention back to Grace as he added, “I’m nota Super SEAL, but I can swim just fine, ocean or not. I'm just smart enough to be cautious about it when I go in the ocean.”

“Do you know how to surf?” Grace asked, looking hopeful.

Danny wanted to say ‘yes’ so badly he could taste it, but he made it a policy not to lie to his daughter, so he let out a sigh as his shoulders slumped slightly. “No, I don’t know how to surf, Monkey. I grew up swimming in the pool at the Y, not swimming with dolphins.”

“It’s okay, Danno,” Grace said quickly, giving Danny a smile. “You can learn with me.”

Danny’s eyes widened and then he looked at Steve, ignoring the way Kono was giggling. “Please tell me you only have one board in the garage. I know I’ve only seen one board out there.”

“I only have one board in the garage,” Steve agreed, amused. Danny relaxed, relieved, and then Steve added, “But it’s a little balsa funboard I haven’t actually used in years.” Danny groaned, letting his head hang forward as he wondered what he did to deserve his life. “The longboard I surf with now is at Kono’s, since I usually go out with her.”

“Surfing’s probably not a good idea for you with your bad knee, Danny,” Chin said suddenly, and Danny looked across the table at him quickly, grateful for the out. Chin was smiling slightly, looking amused as he added, “Kono shouldn’t really be surfing either, but trying to keep her off a board is like trying to make Steve follow standard police procedure.”

“I’m not a cop!” Steve said quickly, laughing. “I’m a SEAL, and head of Five-0. Police procedure is not my problem. I’ve got a pretty piece of paper with the governor’s signature on it in a frame in my office saying so.”

Kono grinned at Steve. “That was kind of the point, Boss. You follow procedure about as often as I skip going surfing before work.”

Chin smiled wider. “Exactly.”

“Don’t you want to surf with me, Daddy?” Grace asked suddenly, making them all look at her again. She was giving Danny her best hopeful look, all big pleading eyes, and he groaned.

“Not fair, using that look on me, Monkey!” Danny protested.

“Please?” Grace asked, pouting just a little to go with the soulful eyes. “For me, Danno?”

Danny heaved a big sigh and looked down at his pizza as he muttered, “Oh god, I’m gonna die on a surfboard.”

Kono started giggling as Steve leaned in close to Danny, slinging an arm around Danny’s neck as he said cheerfully, “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you.”

Danny looked at Steve, trying to hide the fact that it really was kind of reassuring to hear Steve say that. “You sure you can, babe?”

Steve smiled at him, giving Danny a bit of a squeeze. “Of course.” He grinned suddenly, teasing, “I’m Aquaman.”

Danny laughed. He couldn’t help it.

~*~

Danny didn’t even mind that somehow Steve ended up driving after they left Auntie Pasto’s to head towards Rascal’s. Grace still wanted to play the long-delayed round of mini golf they had planned for the day and Danny was happy to oblige, but he had been a little surprised that Steve didn’t try to persuade them to do something else. Steve had made it plain he wasn’t a fan of golf, but he had been grinning and cheerful anyway as he snagged the keys out of Danny’s hand and headed for the Camaro, and Danny had been pleasantly surprised by how sedately Steve drove on the way there.

They had just turned off of Beretania onto North King a little while later, and they were in fairly slow traffic driving past Walker Park not far from where they would need to turn onto Iwilei Road when they all heard the distinctive cry of a hurt puppy, followed almost immediately by an even louder pained yelp. Danny closed his eyes, praying Grace couldn’t see whatever car had hit the pup, and then a moment later there was a third louder yelp and Steve jerked the Camaro over to the left side of the road, bouncing over the curb onto the strip of lawn between the road and the park’s fence.

Danny barely had time to open his eyes and look at Steve in surprise before Steve was out of the car and running. Danny had seen enough to know Steve was seriously pissed, and he was out of his side of the Camaro to follow Steve before he remembered Grace was in the car and stopped. He watched as Steve vaulted easily over the fence around the park and then charged towards a geeky-looking teenaged boy with shaggy blond hair that was standing by a trashcan with a long stick in hand.

Danny was bouncing a little in place and itching to follow his partner as he wished he knew what Steve had seen when Grace called, “Danno, what’s happening?” Danny glanced at her to see she was straining upwards to look over the front seat, trying to see Steve. “Where did Steve go?”

Danny looked back towards Steve just as the teenager saw Steve coming and bolted off across the park right before Steve reached him. “He went to make that kid stop doing something, Monkey. He’ll be right back.”

“You better run, you little kanapapiki!” Steve called after the fleeing kid, stopping by the trashcan and bending to reach inside.

Danny was suddenly sure what Steve had seen, and sure enough he heard a high-pitched yelp a moment later. Steve straightened and turned back towards the Camaro, cradling something furry in his arms and still looking pissed as hell as he walked quickly back towards Danny. Danny looked along the fence for a gate but didn’t see one nearby, so he turned back to the still-running Camaro, bending to look inside at Grace. “Sit still, Grace, okay? I’ll be right over by the fence. I need to help Steve.”

Grace nodded, still kind of wide-eyed and looking a little worried as she clutched Flipper in both arms. “I will, Daddy. I promise.”

Danny smiled at her. “Thanks, Monkey.” He leaned further into the car and flipped the lights on so any passing cops wouldn’t harass them for being on the grass, and then he turned away and moved towards the fence to watch Steve walking quickly towards him. The puppy was fairly small and mostly white with the unmistakable red-brown of blood in its shaggy fur in several places, and as Steve got closer Danny could hear the pup whining softly. “How did you know? I heard it, but I just thought someone had hit a dog.”

“I saw the little bastard stabbing that stick into the trashcan each time the pup screamed,” Steve replied quietly, stopping on the other side of the fence from Danny as he looked down at the pup. Steve’s anger was fading into a worried look as he lifted his gaze back to Danny, adding, “I think it needs a vet. It’s bleeding, and one paw looks pretty bad.”

Danny looked at Steve and the pup for a moment and then sighed. “You know if it makes it, we’ll have to keep it, right?”

Steve blinked, looking surprised. “What? Why can’t we give it away? That's what Kono does with the dogs she takes home.”

“Because Grace is with us,” Danny explained softly, wishing he could see another way out. He was pretty sure he had just become a dog owner, providing, of course, the dog survived whatever that kid had done to it. He moved closer to the fence, holding his hands out over it as he added, “C’mon, pass it over. We can’t leave it here, you’re right.”

Steve moved to pass the pup over carefully, his eyes a little wide as he said, “She’s going to want to keep it.”

“Bingo.” Danny let out a little snort of a laugh as he took the pup, but then the pup yelped and he didn’t want to laugh at all anymore as he felt sticky blood matted into way too much of the dog’s fluffy fur to suit him. “Shh, it’s okay pup, we’re getting you out of here.” He cuddled the pup to his chest, careful of the mangled front paw and the bloody places on the pup’s sides and belly, and then he looked back at Steve. “She’s a little girl who loves animals, babe,” he pointed out softly, giving Steve a crooked little smile and trying not to think about the fact Steve’s hands and t-shirt were dotted with bloodstains, proof that the pup was definitely still bleeding. “Of course she’ll want to keep a cute, furry puppy.” He looked back down at the pup, taking in the smooshed-looking face and big eyes and the shape of the head, and then looked back at Steve. “On the up side, I think it’s a Shih Tzu, so it’s not gonna get a hell of a lot bigger than it is.”

“A shit- what?” Steve asked, looking surprised and confused as he put his hands on the top of the fence.

Danny smiled again as he watched Steve easily vault over the four-foot fence. “A Shih Tzu. Little fluffy lap dogs. My aunt Mabel had one for like, fifteen years when I was growing up. Not too bright, but they make decent pets. Better than my mom’s neurotic little poodles, anyway.”

“Your mom has poodles?” Steve asked, looking amused as he put one hand on Danny’s back and began urging him towards the Camaro.

Danny let himself be guided back to the car, nodding. “Yeah, she’s always had at least one poodle. Yappy little things with no brains at all, and they’re all sooners, I think.”

“They’re from Oklahoma?” Steve asked with a grin as they reached Danny’s side of the Camaro.

“No, they’re not from Oklahoma,” Danny said, grinning at the way Steve held a hand behind his head as he got into the car, making sure he wouldn’t hit it on the doorframe. Steve had put more than one perp into a police car, but Danny had never seen him bother to offer them the same courtesy. “They’d sooner crap in the house than go outside and get their pampered little paws dirty.”

“Danno, can I see the puppy? Please?” Grace said suddenly, making Danny turn his head to look at her. She was still in her seatbelt, but she had set Flipper aside and was bracing both hands on the seat and stretching up as high as she could, trying to see the dog.

“Not just yet, Monkey,” Danny said. “It’s hurt and I don’t want you to get attached until after we’ve taken it to the vet.”

Grace looked upset, settling back into her seat as she asked softly, “Like the little black dog?”

“I don’t think this pup is hurt that bad, sweetie,” Danny said gently, “but I’m not a vet and I could be wrong.”

Danny knew Grace still had vivid memories of the time she had been in the car with him when a black mutt about the size of a beagle was hit by the car in front of them. Grace had screamed and started crying, begging him to help it, so he had tried. The dog hadn’t seemed like it was really hurt that bad when he put it in back seat of the car, just a broken hind leg and some cuts he had thought, but it had been in much worse shape by the time they reached the closest vet, and it had died on the operating table about an hour later of massive internal injuries. Grace had been devastated, and Danny had hated that he couldn’t go straight to the animal shelter and get her a cute pup to cuddle and make her forget that little black mutt. Rachel wouldn’t allow a dog in her house because she was bitten once as a child and hated dogs, and Danny hadn’t been allowed to have one in his old apartment.

“Okay,” Grace agreed, picking Flipper up again to cuddle the stuffed animal. “We’re going there now, right?”

“Yeah, we are,” Steve said quickly, making Danny look at him in surprise. Steve was still standing at Danny’s open door as he added, “We’re headed for the best vet on the island, Gracie. Watch the door, Danno.”

“I’m good, babe.” Danny leaned away from the door a little so Steve could close it without worrying about hitting him even though he would have been fine like he was, and the noise of the door closing made the puppy whimper and cringe a little. Danny looked down at the pup, carefully shifting the puppy to cradle it in his right arm and then petting the puppy gently as he murmured, “Shh, pup. You’re okay.”

Steve hurried around to his door and Danny looked up again to watch as Steve got in the Camaro, looking back at Grace as he closed his door and then checking the road as he reached into his pocket and then offered Danny his phone. “Here, you need this.”

Danny took the phone with his left hand, amused. “Not that I’m not glad you’re keeping both hands on the wheel, but who am I calling?”

“Kono,” Steve said quickly, glancing at Danny as he pulled back out into the road, the flashing lights still on as he started driving south as quickly as traffic would allow. “She knows where the vet is.”

As soon as Steve said it, Danny felt stupid. “Of course. I should have known that.”

Steve glanced at Danny, amused. “Just call her.”

“I’m calling.” Danny hated working Steve’s phone left-handed, but he managed to find Kono’s number in Steve’s contacts without even having to scroll through the lengthy list. It amused him to see that Steve had recently numbered his most used contacts to prioritize them, beginning with Danny’s own number which was followed by the Governor, Chin, and Kono in that order. He put the call through to Kono and then switched the phone on speaker as it started to ring.

A moment later someone answered and Kono’s familiar voice said cheerfully, “Hey Boss!  Whatcha need?”

“Kono, where’s that vet your buddy in K-9 sent you to with that crazy attack dog of yours?” Steve asked quickly, dodging between two cars as he sped up just a little more. “I remember you said he was near the stadium, but not where.”

“Prince isn’t crazy!” Kono protested quickly. “And why do you need a vet?”

Prince was the young Rottie that had gotten hit by a stray bullet during a drug bust a while back, which had led to Kono taking him to a vet and then keeping him. The dog weighed almost as much as she did and had a disturbing habit of acting like a giant puppy around women and children, right down to the playful puppy yap that made it sound like he weighed twenty pounds, but when a man approached it was like someone flipped a switch and suddenly Prince was the scariest mutt Danny had ever met. Kono had been forced to put signs on her front and back doors, telling her family to stay out after Prince treed one of her many cousins on top of her refrigerator for nine hours one day while she was at work.

“A stupid kid was in Walker Park torturing a puppy, and Steve put a stop to it,” Danny said, holding the phone between him and Steve so they could both hear it easily and Kono could hear them. “We’re on King now, heading towards downtown.”

“And we need that vet,” Steve added firmly as he dodged through traffic, the pursuit lights still running as he drove much faster than Danny would normally allow with Grace in the car. “Where am I going, Kono?”

“Poha Lane, Boss,” Kono replied, sounding much more serious. “The last left before you get to the stadium. You’re looking for Kalihi Pet Clinic, on the right at the corner of Poha and Beretania.”

“Gotcha,” Steve said.

“Thanks, Kono,” Danny added, sure they could find it easy enough. They were just on Beretania not that long ago, after all, and it was a busy enough road it would be kind of hard to miss once they found Poha Lane. Knowing Steve, Danny was sure he probably even already knew exactly where it was. Steve knew the island like Danny knew the streets of Newark, and he had yet to get them lost.

“Anytime,” Kono replied, and then asked a little hesitantly, “How bad is it?”

Steve glanced at Danny, who was very conscious of Grace listening to every word as he looked down at the pup, which had finally fallen silent and was watching him with sad eyes. The pup looked miserable but wasn’t having trouble breathing and he didn't think it was bleeding heavily anywhere, so Danny said finally, “It doesn’t seem too bad. Getting it to a vet will make me feel a lot better, though. One paw looks like it got chewed on or something, and it’s got cuts in several places from that little okole that was torturing it.” Steve looked quickly at Danny again, surprised but grinning suddenly, and Danny said sharply, “Eyes on the road, Steve!”

Steve looked back at the road with a wide grin. “Should have known that you’d know how to swear in Hawaiian, Danno.”

“Does swearing in Hawaiian count?” Kono teased. “Cause if I remember right, you were out of dollar bills.” She giggled. “Again.” She muffled her phone then and said something to someone else, but Danny couldn’t make it out.

“So I owe Gracie a dollar,” Danny said, rolling his eyes. “Right now I’m a little more worried about this puppy than my language, thank you very much.”

“What kind of pup is it?” Kono asked, still sounding amused. “Any idea on the age?”

“A Shih Tzu, I think,” Danny replied, glad to change the subject. “Something small and furry like that anyway, with the squashed-in face and big eyes. And I figure it’s a few months old. It’s not a tiny baby, but it’s definitely still a puppy.”

“Awww, it sounds adorable,” Kono said quickly, her tone of voice reminding Danny of someone cooing over a baby.

“It looks like a stuffed animal,” Grace said suddenly, making Danny look back at her again for the first time since Steve had gotten into the car. She didn’t look as upset anymore, though she was still obviously worried, and Danny sent up a heartfelt little prayer that the puppy would be okay. “It’s all fluffy and white with tan ears.” She paused and then added a bit more quietly, “Where it’s not bloody, anyway.”

Danny wanted very badly to tell Grace that the pup would be fine, but his experience with the little black mutt made him stay silent as Kono said confidently, “I bet Dr Lau can help it, Grace. He’s a really good vet. All the K-9 officers from HPD take their dogs to him, and he was amazing when Prince got shot. You can hardly even tell Prince got hurt now. He’s got just a tiny little scar on his side.”

“I hope so,” Grace agreed, brightening a little. “It’s really cute.”

“If you have trouble finding it a home…“ Kono started to say then, making Steve laugh.

“I knew it was just a matter of time,” Steve said, smirking as Danny heard Kono saying something else that he couldn’t quite make out. “You already have a dog, Kono.”

“And Prince would probably think this little pup is a chew toy,” Danny pointed out, amused. “It’s about the same size as that teddy bear he carries around.”

“Can’t we keep it, Daddy?” Grace asked quickly, making Danny look at her. She gave him her best pleading look as she added, “If it gets better, I mean? You don’t live in that apartment anymore, and you know Steve would let us.”

Danny looked at Grace for a few moments and then looked at Steve, who seemed to feel Danny’s gaze and looked over at him, smiling as he said, “She's right, I don’t mind, Danno. I always kind of wanted a dog.”

Danny groaned as Grace cheered in the back seat, making Kono laugh as she said, “Remember you said that when you step in your first puppy mess, Boss.”

“Or have to clean up puppy puke,” Danny added, “or it wakes us up at four in the morning howling to go outside.”

“Or eats your shoes,” Kono added, laughing.

Steve laughed. “This little mutt’s not big enough to even move one of my boots.”

Danny snorted, amused. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that if I was you, babe. On Christmas Eve one year my mom’s teacup poodle totally destroyed one of the tac boots I wore through the police academy.”

Steve made the turn onto Poha Lane and then looked at Danny, grinning. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, seriously,” Danny said with a snort. “Eyes on the road.” Poha Lane was really little more than an alley-way between apartment buildings and Danny didn’t want Steve to run into some idiot that decided to back out of their parking spot without checking for traffic first.

Steve looked back at the road, still grinning as he said, “On the corner you said, right Kono?”

“Yeah, Boss,” Kono agreed quickly, sounding suddenly sheepish. “Just look for my truck, I’m parked on the Poha side of the building and the vet’s expecting you.”

Steve laughed and Danny looked over at him, their eyes meeting for a moment as Danny said, “We should’ve expected that.”

Steve looked at the road again, grinning. “Yeah, we really should.”

“I was just across the street and I thought Grace would need somebody to wait with while you’re with the vet,” Kono said quickly, sounding a little defensive but amused. She muffled the phone then and said something to someone else that Danny couldn’t make out again, and he realized she had probably been talking to a vet tech for the last several minutes.

“Likely excuse!” Danny said, snickering as he spotted Kono’s battered old Chevy Luv pickup. “I’m hanging up now.”

“Pull in behind my truck and around front,” Kono said quickly. “I’ll park the Camaro for you.”

“Thanks, Kono,” Danny said quickly. He thumbed the button to end the call, and a moment later they were pulling through the vet clinic’s tiny parking lot to stop near the front door just as Kono hurried outside.

Steve left the Camaro running as he opened his door and jumped out to run around the car, but Danny stayed put because he had the pup in his right arm and he didn’t want to have to move it around to try and open his door. He was sure Steve would get the door as soon as he got around the car anyway, so he turned to look over his shoulder at Grace as he said, “Me and Steve are going to take the pup in the back to be taken care of, so you be good for Kono, okay?”

“I promise, Daddy,” Grace agreed quickly, nodding.

“Thanks, Monkey,” Danny said, smiling at Grace as Kono slid into the driver’s seat next to him. “We might be in with the vet a while, but there’ll probably be lots of magazines in the waiting room that you can read. Just remember not to pet any of the animals without asking their owners first, okay?”

“Okay,” Grace replied just as Steve got to Danny’s door and opened it.

“Don’t worry, we’ll be fine,” Kono said quickly, giving Danny a bright smile. “Just take care of the furball.”

“We will,” Danny said with a grateful smile, turning to get out of the car.

Steve was right there, putting his hand between Danny’s head and the doorframe again as he got out. “Just don’t get attached to any more animals, okay Gracie?” Steve teased. “One dog’s enough for this week.”

Grace giggled happily. “I promise.”

Danny snorted, offering Steve’s phone back to him and then heading for the clinic’s front door. The pup started whining as he walked, making him glance down as he lifted his free hand to pet it gently and murmured, “Shh, you’re okay.”

Steve was right behind Danny when he got to the door, reaching past Danny to open it and ushering him inside as he said quietly, “I don’t think it likes being carried.”

“You wouldn’t either if you were as beat up as this pup is,” Danny pointed out, glancing at Steve as he paused to look around the vet’s waiting room.

Pictures of three German Shepherds with police badges on their collars were prominently displayed on the wall to their right, along with dozens of smaller photos of cats, dogs, rabbits, and even birds. The other side of the room was lined with chairs and a magazine rack, and there were two people waiting with their dogs and one little old Asian lady with the biggest cat Danny had ever seen laying across her lap, but none of the animals looked like an emergecy case so he hoped the vet could see the pup pretty quickly.

“Is that the hurt puppy Kono told us to expect?” someone asked off to this left, making Danny look across the waiting room towards a young woman in nurse’s scrubs who had just stopped at the end of a hallway. She was obviously kama’aina and Danny figured she was about Kono’s age, give or take a few years, with a ready smile and a long black braid that hung down her shoulder and was secured with one of the string bracelets popular with the island kids and surfers.

“Yeah, it is,” Danny said quickly.

“Come with me,” she said, smiling before she turned away to hurry off down the hallway. Danny and Steve moved after her as she added, “Dr Lau’s finishing up with another patient and then he has to give Mrs Yokohama’s cat an insulin shot, but he’ll be along in just a few minutes.”

“Wonderful,” Danny said, starting to relax a little even though the pup was still whining occasionally.

The vet tech led them to a small, spotlessly clean room at the end of the hall, moving to a cabinet to take out a thick towel and spread it out on the exam table in the middle of the room as she said, “You can put the pup down right here and I’ll get started with the preliminary exam.” Danny started to do as he was told, wincing at the way the pup started whining loudly as he carefully pulled it away from his chest, and the vet tech moved quickly to take the pup as she asked, “Is it a boy, or a girl?”

“No clue,” Danny said as he let the vet tech take the pup. “We didn’t stop to look.”

The tech set the puppy on the towel-covered exam table and then lifted the pup’s tail before she announced, “It’s a girl.” The tech looked back at Danny and Steve as she asked, “What happened? Kono just told us that her boss was bringing in an emergency case.”

“Some haole kid in Walker Park was torturing it,” Steve replied, moving to stand next to Danny. “We happened to drive by when he had the pup in a trash can with a bunch of broken glass and he was poking it with a sharpened stick.”

The tech sighed, carefully checking over the motionless puppy as she muttered, “Lolo li'i kanapapiki.”

“That’s what I said,” Steve agreed, and Danny wondered again what a kanapapiki was as he watched the puppy closely.

The black mutt that had so traumatized Grace by dying had been getting weak by the time Danny got it to the vet’s exam table, but the little Shih Tzu was sitting up pretty straight for a pup and seemed to be in good shape other than the blood in her fur and the mangled front paw. The pup was being very still and quiet, cringing just a little sometimes when the tech found another cut buried in her fur, but other than the front paw she was holding close to her chest, she didn’t look to Danny like she was badly hurt. She was alert and watching what was going on around her, at least, and the red-brown patches of blood in her silky fur were turning darker as they dried instead of staying the bright color of fresh blood.

After a few moments the tech gently ruffled the pup’s ears, looking up at Danny and Steve with a quick smile. “I don’t feel any obvious major injuries, and it seems like most of the bleeding has stopped. Dr Lau will probably want to do some x-rays to be sure, of course, and that front paw looks nasty, but there doesn’t seem to be any swelling and she’s not crying out when I touch anywhere. Those are all good signs.”

“Very good signs,” Danny agreed, feeling relieved as he smiled. “A thousand times better than the last stray dog I had to take to the vet.”

Steve put one hand on Danny’s back then, and when Danny looked at him he saw Steve was smiling as he murmured, “Gracie’s gonna be happy with her new dog.”

“Grace is going to drive us crazy with her new dog,” Danny corrected quietly with a laugh. “We’re gonna spend half the afternoon buying stuff for it.” He paused and added, “Pink stuff, I’m sure, since it’s a girl.”

“Better than mini golf,” Steve said quickly with a wide happy grin, making the tech and Danny both laugh.

“You’re keeping the pup?” the tech asked, drawing Danny’s attention back to her as she moved to open a deep drawer in the bottom of the exam table.

“We’ve got no choice,” Danny said with a little laugh. “My little girl was with us when we heard that stupid kid torturing it, and she’s crazy about dogs.” He paused and then added, “I doubt it belonged to anyone. It’s not like a pup that little could easily stray and end up on the west side of Walker Park.”

“True, but she could be stolen.” The tech took a device that reminded Danny of the hand-held price scanners they used in stores out of the drawer and then looked at Danny, amused. “How old is your daughter?”

“Nine, going on thirty,” Danny said, smiling. “I don’t think she ever met an animal she didn’t want to take home, though.”

The tech laughed, looking down at the device and pushing a button and then slowly moving it over the puppy as she said, “She sounds like she and Kono likely get along well.”

“Like two peas in a pod,” Danny agreed, wondering what the tech was doing.

The tech finally moved to put the device back in the drawer, giving them a quick smile. “Well, there’s no microchip, so it’s doubtful that you’d be able to trace down the owner even if you tried.” She closed the drawer and then opened another, taking out a thermometer as she added, “Looking at the pup, it hasn’t been eating too well for at least a week, probably longer, so I doubt anyone is looking for her very hard.”

“Is there anything we should do to try and find the owner?” Danny asked, watching as the tech held the puppy’s head still with one hand and held the blunt head of the digital thermometer in the pup’s ear with her other hand.

The tech was silent until the thermometer beeped and then released the puppy, smiling as she petted it gently and looked at Danny. “Do you want the official clinic answer, or my personal advice as someone who’s been a vet tech for four years?” She looked down at the thermometer and then moved to the other counter to write something on a clipboard that was lying there.

“Your advice, definitely,” Danny said, amused as he glanced at the pup to be sure she wasn’t going to try to wander around and then turned his attention back towards the tech.

The tech dropped her pen and then got an antiseptic wipe out of a nearby dispenser before she turned back to them, smiling as she wiped the thermometer. “Forget where you found her. She hasn’t got a microchip, collar, or tags, and whoever had her didn’t want to keep her very badly or they wouldn’t have let her wander loose. If they got her back, next time she wandered off, she likely wouldn’t survive. Toy dogs are fragile and they don’t last long on the street.”

“Makes sense,” Steve murmured, and Danny looked at him. Steve smiled, adding, “At least with us she’ll be safe and taken care of.”

Danny laughed and was about to say something when the door to the exam room opened again and a cheerful old Asian man walked in. “Hello! I am Dr Lau.”

Danny offered Dr Lau his hand, smiling, “Danny Williams. Nice to meet you.” He shook hands with Dr Lau and then moved to one side to let Steve shake Dr Lau’s hand. “This is my partner, Steve McGarrett.”

“We’re with Five-0,” Steve added, smiling at Dr Lau as they shook hands. “We’ve heard good things about you from Kono Kalakaua and her friends on the K-9 patrol.”

“Ah, yes, Kono.” Dr Lau chuckled. “You must be the Commander McGarrett that tries to keep her from bringing dogs home from work.”

Steve grinned. “That’d be me, yeah.”

“Good luck with that,” Dr Lau said, looking amused as he moved towards the exam table. “So, what have we got here, Kailani?”

“A Shih Tzu mix puppy that was being tortured by a kid in Walker Park,” the tech said quickly. “Temp is normal and I didn’t find any signs of shock or any swelling so I doubt there are major internal injuries, but the pup has multiple wounds and a mangled front paw that needs cleaned and stitched up. She was found in a trash can with broken glass, so we’ll need to check all of the wounds for glass fragments, too.”

Dr Lau nodded and moved to start examining the pup, glancing at Danny and Steve and then looking back at the puppy as he asked, “And is this your dog?”

“She’s ours now,” Steve said, and Danny was amused by the way Steve was smiling as he watched the vet checking the puppy’s teeth and eyes.

Dr Lau glanced up at Steve again, dark eyes twinkling. “It’s like that, eh?”

“Yes sir, it is,” Steve agreed, smiling wider.

Dr Lau let out a little snort of a laugh. “You’ll have to forgive me for being surprised, but neither of you really looks like the type to want a furry little lap dog, Commander.”

“My daughter was in the car when we found it,” Danny said, amused. “She’s out in the waiting room with Kono. They probably already decided on a name, knowing them.”

“Besides,” Steve added, “I always wanted a dog.”

“We’ll see if you still say that when you get the bill,” Dr Lau said, chuckling softly.

“I can cover it,” Steve said confidently, and Danny knew it was true. Steve hadn’t really had anyone to spend his money on while he was in the military besides Catherine, so he had just had it deposited into an interest-bearing savings account to wait until he did need it. Five-0 got paid better than regular cops and Steve still seldom spent as much as he made, so he hadn’t really tapped into his savings very much since he got home except for buying his truck. “There’s an ATM a couple of blocks away if you don’t take debit cards.”

“We do not,” Dr Lau agreed. “Cash or check only.” He looked back down at the puppy, gently petting her, and then looked at Steve and Danny again. “Do you have any objections to the puppy being shaved? It will make treating the cuts and the hurt paw much easier for myself and my staff, and will make the after-care easier for you.”

“Go for it, Doc,” Danny said quickly. “Then we won’t have to worry about brushing her until after she’s had time to settle in.”

Dr Lau looked surprised but pleased. “You know something about Shih Tzus?”

“I know my Aunt Mabel’s Shih Tzu got brushed twice a day, and a bath more often than a lot of kids do,” Danny said, amused. “If the dog didn’t get brushed, all that fluffy white hair turned into mats from hell.”

Dr Lau laughed softly. “Very true.” He paused, looking a little more serious as he added, ”I do hope your daughter is not under the age of five, though. I wouldn’t recommend a toy dog for any small child.”

“She’s nine,” Danny said, smiling. “And the dog won’t be her first pet. Her step-dad got her a bunny several months ago, and she did a great job taking care of him.”

“Whatever happened to Mr Hoppy, anyway?” Steve asked, making Danny look at him again. Steve grinned at Danny, adding, “I noticed she hasn’t been bringing him to our place when you’ve got her for the weekend.”

“Mr Hoppy is the proud owner of a bunny condominium in Rachel’s back yard and lives better than we do, babe,” Danny replied with a laugh. “Step-Stan spared no expense. That overgrown rodent has his very own lawn and a garden of bunny-safe greenery just for him to munch on, with an air-conditioned house that a lot of people would be glad to pay rent on.”

Steve snickered. “Sounds like Step-Stan.”

Danny made a face, nodding. “He’s not happy unless he’s spending ten times too much for everything, which is why Rachel ended up with him. After living on a cop’s salary, she wasn’t about to settle for anything less than filthy rich for hubby number two.”

Steve grinned. “I thought it was because he has about as much spine as the average jellyfish.”

“Nah, jellyfish are tougher than Stan is,” Danny disagreed with a laugh. “He won’t even argue with her, he just says ‘yes dear’ and does whatever she wants. At least a jellyfish bites.”

“Stings, actually,” Steve pointed out.

Danny rolled his eyes. “Whatever! The point is a jellyfish can hurt you if you piss it off. Stan’s more likely to cry and run home to his lawyer.”

Dr Lau chuckled. “Why don’t you go join Kono and your little girl in the waiting room? Kailani will call you back again when we’ve finished taking care of your new puppy.”

Danny looked at Dr Lau, feeling a bit sheepish because he knew that he and Steve likely would have just kept right on talking if they hadn’t been interrupted. Even in a crowded room, sometimes he and Steve would forget everything but each other once they got started off on a tangent. It was a bad habit that they had fallen into almost from the moment they met, and Danny had finally given up on trying to change it. “Sounds like a plan, Doc.” He gestured towards the puppy, asking, “What’s the verdict?”

“We’ll need to do blood tests and some x-rays just to be sure, but I think the puppy will be fine,” Dr Lau said, smiling. “I see no signs of internal injuries, and the external ones aren’t life-threatening. That paw definitely needs stitches so we will need to tranquilize, but it shouldn’t take long.”

“Do you really have to put the pup under?” Danny asked, concerned.

“Yes, we do,” Dr Lau said, giving Danny a reassuring smile. “It will be much easier on the puppy while we stitch up that paw and any other injuries that might need it.”

“You’re sure that’s safe?” Danny asked. “My mom lost a toy poodle one time because he had a bad reaction to being tranquilized. They gave him a shot and left him in a cage to wait for it to take effect, and when they came back Ripper was dead.”

“That will not happen here,” Dr Lau said firmly. “We won’t have to anesthetize the pup completely like one would for surgery, just enough so that she won’t move during the stitches. A local anesthetic will keep her from feeling the pain of having that paw cleaned and stitched up, and she will not be left alone in a kennel at any point, I assure you.”

“I’ll stay right here with her the whole time,” Kailani added, giving Danny a quick smile. “She’ll be okay.”

Danny hesitated a moment longer and then nodded. “Alright. You’re the vet, Doc. Do whatever you think is best.”

“Thank you, Detective,” Dr Lau said, smiling.

“Go ahead and do all the puppy things too while you’ve got her,” Steve said suddenly, making Danny look at him in surprise. Steve was looking at the vet as he added, “Puppies do need their shots that little, right?”

“They do indeed,” Dr Lau agreed. “Do you want to start the full run from the beginning as if the puppy hasn’t had any shots? If she has had them, it won’t hurt her to get them again.”

Steve looked at Danny questioningly and Danny looked back at Dr Lau, nodding. “Yeah, that would probably be best, since we don’t know where she came from. She probably needs wormed, too, and a heartworm test if you do those here.”

Dr Lau nodded, giving Danny a smile. “I’d recommend both, yes. We carry several types of heartworm preventative that you can choose from. Hawaii has a large mosquito population and heartworms are a common problem, so it’s best to be safe.”

“Definitely,” Danny agreed. “This is gonna be my little girl’s best friend, Doc. She’s got to be as healthy as you can make her.”

“We will do our best, Detective,” Dr Lau said, smiling. “We should be finished with her in about half an hour, barring unforeseen problems.”

“We’ll be out in the waiting room, then,” Danny agreed, seeing the dismissal for what it was.

“How much of a bill are we talking here?” Steve asked, making Danny look at him in surprise. Steve smiled, adding, “I need to go to the ATM.”

Danny laughed. “I’ve got my checkbook in the car, babe.”

“I found her, it’s my dog,” Steve said, grinning at Danny and then looking expectantly back at Dr Lau.

Dr Lau chuckled. “No more than two hundred, Commander. Less if all goes well.”

“Gotcha,” Steve said, turning to Danny again and reaching out to put his hand at the small of Danny’s back and push him gently towards the door. “C’mon, Danno, let’s go let them do their jobs.”

“We are not through discussing this, Steven,” Danny said firmly, letting himself be guided to the door.

“Of course not,” Steve agreed easily, sounding entirely too amused to suit Danny. “You haven’t gotten to rant and rave at me over it yet.”

Danny gave Steve a dirty look as he opened the door, trying to ignore the way Dr Lau was watching them with amusement while Kailani giggled and petted the puppy. “I’m serious.”

“I know,” Steve agreed again, grinning as they moved out to of the room. “You can yell at me on the way to the bank, if it’ll make you feel better.”

Danny let out a laugh despite himself, looking at Steve as they walked quickly down the hall. “Why should I bother? You’re obviously not gonna listen to me.”

“Not even a little,” Steve agreed quietly, smirking at him. “Call it an early birthday present for Gracie. I would have spent twice as much getting us a puppy like I had planned.”

Danny laughed again, his eyebrows going up. “I just. I don’t even know what to say to that, Steve.”

Steve grinned at him as they moved out into the waiting room. “Thanks would work.”

“Is the puppy okay?” Grace asked suddenly, distracting Danny from Steve. The three people who had been sitting in the waiting room when they arrived were all gone, and Grace was sitting between Kono and a scruffy looking kama’aina man that had enough tattoos and piercings for three people. Grace had a furry Golden Retriever puppy in her lap that was wearing a spiked leather collar, and she was looking hopeful but worried as she added, “We get to keep it, right Daddy?”

“Yeah, Monkey,” Danny said with a smile, “the vet says she’ll be just fine, and we’re keeping her.”

Grace beamed and looked at the man next to her as she said, “Mahalo nui loa for letting me hold Kolohe.”

The guy smiled at Grace, taking the puppy and cuddling it to his chest. “A‘ole pilikia, li`ili`I wahine.”

Grace beamed at the guy and then jumped up to run to Danny, who crouched to meet her, smiling but bemused. “What was that you two were saying?” Danny asked as Grace hugged him, returning the embrace happily.

“I said thank you, and he said I was welcome,” Grace explained as she pulled back to look at Danny, giggling. “You don’t even know ‘thank you’ and ‘you’re welcome’ yet, Daddy?”

“Yeah,” Danny said quickly, “but you two said more than mahalo and a’ole pilikia, Monkey.”

Steve laughed and then said, “He called her a little lady, and she said ‘thank you very much’, Danno.”

Grace giggled, nodding as she let go of Danny, and Danny stood, amused as he looked at Steve. “And what’s kolohe mean? I heard you call her that earlier.”

The kama’aina man laughed and said, “Troublemaker. It’s my dog’s name.”

Danny laughed and looked at Grace. “That fits you pretty good.”

“Daddy!” Grace protested, laughing.

Steve snickered and started towards the door. “Toss me my keys, Kono.”

Kono dug in her pocket for the keys without question as Danny laughed and asked, “Whose keys?”

Steve waited for Kono to toss the keys to the Camaro to him, catching them easily and then smirking at Danny. “Possession’s nine tenths of the law.” He continued to the door, stopping there to look back at Danny again as he asked, “You coming?”

“Yeah, I am,” Danny said, reluctantly amused as he watched Steve go outside. He looked down at Grace as soon as the door had closed behind Steve, crouching again as he explained, “The vet doesn’t take credit cards so we have to go to the bank, Monkey, and I need to yell at Steve because he wants to pay the bill. We shouldn’t be gone long. Steve says there’s a bank just down the road.”

Grace giggled and teased, “Steve always wants to pay if he has his wallet with him.”

“You noticed that too, huh?” Danny asked, grinning at Grace. “He’s kind of annoying that way.”

“Uh-huh,” Grace agreed, giving him a quick hug. She pulled away after a few moments and added with an impish grin, “He likes making you yell at him. He thinks it’s fun to watch you.” She paused slightly. “He watches you all the time, though, especially when you’re not paying attention to him.”

Danny laughed, feeling his face heat up a bit as he stood up again. “Go sit down and behave yourself.”

“Okay!” Grace was still grinning as she ran back to her seat by Kono.

Danny started for the door, giving Kono a wry smile. “We won’t be long.”

“No hurry,” Kono said quickly, grinning widely. “I don’t have anywhere else to be.”

Danny laughed. “The surfing must be really bad today.”

“Terrible,” Kono agreed, laughing. “Too many tourists pretending to surf.”

Danny snickered and waved, and then he stepped back out into the sunshine. Steve had already pulled the Camaro up right in front of the door, and he was looking amused and patient as he sprawled in the driver’s seat, waiting on Danny.

Danny walked quickly to the car and got in, and then Steve glanced at the traffic and pulled out onto Beretania as Danny said, “We’re not through talking about the bill.”

Steve smiled a little wider. “Of course not.”

“I’m serious, Steve.”

Steve looked at Danny. “I thought you weren’t going to bother with yelling at me?”

“I changed my mind,” Danny retorted quickly, giving Steve a firm look. “Grace reminded me that you always do this unless you forgot your wallet again, and I’m getting tired of it.”

Steve laughed and looked back at the road. “What happened to complaining I never pay for my own beer?”

Danny blinked, surprised. “Bumming a few beers is nothing compared to paying a two-hundred-dollar vet bill for Grace’s puppy!”

“So you can pay the vet next time,” Steve said, amused as he turned off Beretania onto McCully street. “And that’s our puppy. Grace can’t take her to her mom’s house, I already asked Rachel about that, so she’ll be living with us. That makes her my dog too.”

Danny stared at Steve, surprised. “You asked Rachel if you could get Grace a puppy?”

“Well, yeah,” Steve admitted, glancing at Danny and then looking back at the road. “I started thinking about what to get Grace for her birthday yesterday when I was flipping through my calendar and noticed it’s coming up soon, and then I remembered how Grace is always saying she wishes she could have a dog, so I called Rachel to ask if a puppy would be okay.” He turned into the bank parking lot, pulling into a parking place near the ATM and then looking at Danny as he added, “She said she didn’t care, as long as the dog lives with us.”

“You’ve got Grace’s birthday on your calendar?” Danny asked, surprised again but pleased.

Steve nodded. “Yours is on there too.” He paused and then added more quietly, “Has been for a long time.”

Danny just stared into Steve’s eyes for a few moments, smiling, and then he finally nodded towards the ATM. “You’d better go use that thing before I forget myself and kiss you, babe.”

Steve smiled and teased softly, “You ashamed to be seen kissing me, Danno?”

“No, but if I kiss you right now, I’m probably not gonna stop for a while,” Danny admitted, still smiling. “That’d be fine if it was just us – better than fine, even – but right now Grace and Kono are waiting on us.”

Steve grinned, pleased and smug. “Understood.” He leaned and kissed Danny, just a quick brush of lips that didn’t last nearly long enough to suit Danny, and then Steve was getting out of the car.

Danny knew he was grinning like a fool while he watched Steve walk to the ATM, but he really couldn’t make himself care.

~*~

“Okay, you two, that is enough,” Danny said, laughing as Steve and Grace walked back towards him with dog toys in their hands. “One dog cannot possibly play with fifty-billion toys!”

The dog in question was in a pet carrier in the top part of the cart Danny was pushing, where one would normally put a toddler. The carrier looked like an oversized brown, pink, and lime green purse, and the puppy, who Grace had named Lilo without any hesitation, had her head sticking out of the open top of the bag as she looked at Steve and Grace. Once her injuries had been treated and the vet gave her something for the pain from her hurt paw, she had been much more interested in her surroundings, especially Steve. She seemed to know he had been the one to save her life, and she watched him adoringly whenever he was nearby.

“There’s only twenty or so counting the toys already in the buggy, Danno,” Steve said reasonably, grinning. He dropped half a dozen pastel-colored toys in the cart with the dog food, bowls, puppy papers, treats, chews, toys, and miscellaneous other things that were already there. “And you’re the one who said puppies chew up everything.”

“This way we’ll have extras!” Grace pointed out happily, beaming as she dropped the toys she was carrying in the cart too.

“Right,” Steve agreed. “We don’t want Lilo to tear up her toys and then have nothing to play with. She might go after your loafers.”

Danny snorted, looking from Grace to Steve and then back again. “You two are a menace. Next time we need something from Petsmart, I will go, and you both can stay home with the dog.”

“We can just take her with us,” Grace said quickly, still beaming the way she had been ever since the Kailani passed Lilo over to Grace the first time and told her that her puppy would be just fine. Lilo’s front paw was bandaged and she had a disturbing number of cuts on her shaved, bony little body, but she already acted like a different puppy from the miserable little fluffball Steve had passed over to Danny in the park. “They let dogs in here, Daddy.”

“I know they let dogs in, Monkey,” Danny said pointedly, amused. “That doesn’t mean I want you and Steve in here ever again, though. There’s no telling what you two might bring home.”

Steve snickered, moving next to Danny to walk by him as Danny started towards the front of the store again. “Did you get a collar and leash?”

“Yes, I got the collar and leash,” Danny agreed, rolling his eyes. “And a harness, because she’s so little. They’re right there.” He pointed into the cart at the tiny pale blue collar, harness, and matching leash that all had a pattern of purple dolphins and pale green swirls woven into the nylon. “I even got the ones that have a guarantee on them so if she manages to chew them up, the company will replace them for free.”

“Smart,” Steve said, sounding pleased.

“I thought so,” Danny agreed, smiling. He looked down at Grace, adding, “They didn’t have any pink ones with dolphins, and I thought you’d like dolphins more than you would the pink collar with brown paw prints on it.”

“The dolphins are perfect, Daddy,” Grace said quickly, giving him a wide happy smile.

“Do you think Lilo needs one of those little dog sweaters?” Steve asked suddenly, making Danny look at him in surprise. Steve was smiling but looking a little concerned as he added, “She hasn’t really got any hair anymore, and we do run the air conditioning sometimes.”

“Might be a good idea,” Danny admitted, surprised that Steve had thought of something they actually might need for the dog. He looked around, asking, “Do you remember seeing them today?”

“We just passed that aisle,” Steve said, smiling. “That’s what made me think about it.”

Danny laughed and turned the buggy around. “Of course.”

Grace giggled and asked, “Can we get her one of the doggy dresses? Siu Lin has half a dozen of them for her Chinese Crested dog, and they’re really cute, Daddy.”

“Maybe, if we can find one that fits her and will keep her warm,” Danny said. “She needs something comfortable and plain that she can play in too, though. She’s just a puppy still.”

“Like the cutoff jeans we wear when we wash the car, Daddy?” Grace asked as they turned onto an aisle lined with doggy clothes of all shapes and sizes.

“Yeah, Monkey, just like that,” Danny agreed, pleased as he watched Grace start looking around at all the dog clothes. “Why don’t you look and see if you can find something you like?”

“Okay!” Grace agreed happily, walking slowly along the aisle as she looked at everything.

“I’ve never seen you in cutoff jeans,” Steve murmured a moment later, moving closer to Danny.

Danny looked at Steve, amused by the little smirk on Steve’s face. He had seen that expression a thousand times and been annoyed by it almost every time, but now that he knew Steve was pretty much head over heels for him – Steve hadn’t said so yet, but then, neither had Danny – the expression was a lot easier to take. “You haven’t watched me wash my car, babe,” Danny pointed out softly, smiling.

“That’s the only time you wear them?” Steve asked quietly, his dark blue eyes suddenly intent above that little smirk.

“Unless I’m going swimming with Grace,” Danny agreed, amused by how interested Steve was in his cutoff jeans.

Danny realized suddenly that seeing him in his tightest pair of ragged old jeans and his favorite Bon Jovi t-shirt would likely make Steve’s day. Steve was always almost unreasonably happy to see Danny in anything but a shirt and tie, so it only made sense that Steve would be glad to know Danny owned something as casual as cutoff jeans. He smiled a bit wider at the thought, suddenly sure of what to wear anytime he really wanted to get Steve’s attention. He’d just have to make sure Grace wasn’t with them when he tested his theory. He had a feeling that Steve’s reaction might not be anything Danny wanted her to see.

Steve looked pleased and a little smug as he murmured, “Which you’ll be doing soon.”

“Yeah, I will.” Danny glanced towards Grace to be sure she was far enough away not to hear him and then looked back at Steve as he added very quietly, “And I was hoping for a private lesson or two with that surfboard before I have to get on the damn thing in front of Grace.”

“Anytime,” Steve agreed quickly, smiling and obviously happy.

“I haven’t been in the water in years, not to do any serious swimming. Maybe you could wake me when you go for your swim on Monday?” Danny suggested with a wry little smile. He was painfully aware that he was not only asking Steve to wake him at the asscrack of dawn when Steve usually headed out for his morning swim, but also doing it so he could actually get in the water in front of a Navy SEAL.

Danny had been a good swimmer in high school, talented even compared to the guys he grew up with, but he knew he wasn’t anywhere near Steve’s league. Everyone in Hawaii seemed to swim like the dolphins they spent so much time playing with, even Grace, and Danny just knew he was going to embarrass himself when he tried to keep up with them in open water. That was why he had completely avoided the idea of getting in the water with Steve, Kono, and Chin, besides the obvious issue with sand getting in places sand should never be.

“I’d be glad to, Danno,” Steve murmured, giving him a smile that made the expression in Steve’s eyes - which were a dark blue-grey at the moment but would change color again before long, Danny was sure - shift to something gentle and warm. “You’re always welcome to join me, no matter what I’m doing.”

Danny’s eyebrows went up even though he smiled. “You sure about that, babe?”

Danny was sure he knew exactly what Steve was referring to, even though he really hadn’t expected Steve to make that kind of invitation out loud. He had kind of expected Steve to just start kissing him at some point and then next thing he knew they would both be naked and sweaty and trying to catch their breath after a sure-to-be-mind-blowing orgasm. Danny wasn’t sure if he was ready to let Steve fuck him, mostly because he had never done that before, but he had a feeling he would be more than ready by the time Steve took things to that level. Steve had led Danny into a lot of situations he wasn’t sure he could handle, but somehow Steve always seemed to know Danny’s limits even better than Danny did, so it was easy for Danny to trust that things would be the same in their personal life.

“Completely,” Steve replied without hesitation, still smiling as he leaned down a little closer, his gaze drifting down to Danny’s lips as he obviously hoped for a kiss. “I always want you with me.”

Danny tried to convince himself to behave for only a moment before he stretched up to meet Steve with a slow, loving kiss that left no doubt how Danny really felt about him. Steve let out a quiet pleased noise as his hands moved to Danny’s hips to urge him closer, and Danny smiled against Steve’s lips as he lifted his hands to Steve’s neck to pull him down a little further. Being so close to Steve made him have to tilt his head back at an angle that was kind of uncomfortable, but at that moment he was willing to endure it. Danny hadn’t ever kissed anyone else that was so much taller than he was, and he could already tell that he’d be pushing Steve to the nearest place to sit down whenever he really wanted to take his time and enjoy kissing him. If he didn’t, he’d end up with his neck too sore to hold his head up at all.

Grace started giggling suddenly after a few minutes and Danny felt his face heating up as he finally pulled away from Steve, looking down as he ran a hand over his hair, embarrassed that he had forgotten himself so easily. He had been sure even the day before that he wouldn’t be kissing Steve in front of Grace at all, and now he had done it several times. The scary part was he was very sure he would do it again, and that he probably wouldn’t even feel bad about it most of the time. Kissing Steve was addictive and Danny knew he would go back for more as often as he could.

“What about these, Danno?” Grace asked, still giggling a little as Danny looked at her. She was holding a stack of doggy clothing, all in bright pastel colors except for one doggy t-shirt that was a surprisingly drab olive green. “They all say to measure the dog but they look about right, I think.”

Danny moved away from Steve to take a closer look at the doggy clothes, trying to pretend nothing unusual had been going on despite his lingering blush. “You’re right, Monkey, they do.” He pulled the top of the soft-sided pet carrier open wider to get a better look at Lilo, who had gotten bored and laid down for a nap, and he was amused by how widely she yawned as she looked up at him. “Where does it say to measure?”

“From the collar to the tail,” Grace said, stretching up to look into the carrier with Danny. “She’s so little I didn’t think that could be very far.”

Steve moved closer on the other side of the cart, amused as he looked down at Lilo with them. “I’d guess she needs what, twelve inches maybe?”

Danny had to fight not to laugh at that, looking at Steve. “Closer to nine, babe, but a lot of men make that mistake.”

Steve’s eyes widened a little and he laughed. “I meant the size she needs, Danny, not how big she is now. We need to get her clothes that give her room to grow, remember?”

Danny grinned. “Likely story.” He looked back down at Grace, reaching out for the clothes she was holding as he said, “Can I see those, Monkey?”

Grace handed them to him quickly even though she looked a little sheepish. “I got really small ones, Daddy.”

“Then we’ll just get the next size up of the smaller ones,” Danny said, grinning at Grace and then looking at the clothes. There was a frilly little bright pink and white dress marked extra small that was cute but meant for dogs up to eight inches from neck to tail, and another dress that was identical but solid white with tiny pink and green flowers on it. He offered those two back to Grace immediately, smiling as he said, “Pick one of these two and get a bigger size, okay? One that will fit a twelve inch dog so she can wear it a while before we have to get a bigger one.”

Grace nodded quickly. “What about the others?”

Danny looked back down, checking the sizes on the others. The pale pink t-shirt that said ‘Princess’ in silver sparkly cursive was a size small, which fit dogs nine to twelve inches from neck to tail, and the pale blue shirt with a dolphin on it was a small, but the olive green t-shirt was an extra-small. “The green one is too small, too, Monkey.” He looked at Grace as he dropped the other two in the cart, grinning as he teased, “And since when do you like that color anyway?”

“I don’t,” Grace said with an impish grin, “but you and Steve will have to take care of her when I’m not around and you both like that color.”

Steve smirked, nudging Danny with his elbow as he teased, “You like olive drab?”

Danny glanced at Steve, amused. “It’s been growing on me.” He paused a beat. “Like a fungus.” Steve let out a little snort of a laugh as Grace giggled, and Danny looked back down at Grace, smirking. “You go pick a dress in the right size, and I’ll pick a couple shirts for her to wear when you’re not with us, okay?”

“Okay,” Grace agreed, still giggling a bit as she turned away to run down the aisle to the doggy dresses, which were mostly at the far end.

Danny looked at Steve, still smirking as he said, “Watch the dog, babe.”

“Nothing pink, Danno,” Steve countered, smiling

Danny snickered. “Not even a pastel, I promise.”

“Then I’ve got the pup,” Steve said, pleased and amused.

Danny just grinned at Steve and then walked away as he started to scan the options he had. He didn’t have any trouble finding where he needed to put the olive green shirt back, and then he grinned at the display up above it of grey shirts that said ‘I (heart) the ARMY’ in black text with a bright red heart. He was reaching up for one when he heard Steve laugh.

“Don’t you dare!” Steve said quickly. “There’s a Navy one right next to that.”

Danny looked over his shoulder at Steve, who had moved the cart to stay close to him, smirking as he teased, “You don’t love the Army?”

“I don’t even like the Army,” Steve said firmly, trying to sound annoyed even though he looked like the wanted to laugh. “Just get the Navy one and stop being such a smartass.”

Danny snickered and turned back towards the display, reaching to get one of the Navy t-shirts. They were navy blue with bright yellow text, but otherwise they were almost identical to the grey Army shirt. “Watch your mouth, babe.”

Grace giggled, coming back with a ruffled pink doggy dress that she dropped in the cart as she added, “Or Danno might start making you pay me when you swear too.”

Danny put the Navy shirt in the cart, smirking as he saw Steve’s surprised expression. “I hardly ever swear around you Gracie,” Steve said quickly.

“Except for calling Danno a smarta—“

“If you finish that, you’re so paying for it,” Danny interrupted, trying not to laugh.

“Even if it is true,” Steve added.

Grace giggled and changed the subject, pointing further down the aisle. “How about that one, Daddy?”

Danny looked where she was pointing and saw a grey hooded doggy sweatshirt that had a simple ‘USN’ logo on it just like the logo on several of Steve’s t-shirts, making him chuckle. “Well, at least it’s not pink.”

“It’ll be good for when it’s raining,” Steve said, and a glance at him was enough to tell Danny he was trying not to laugh.

“Alright, but that’s it,” Danny said firmly as he walked to get one of the USN sweatshirts, grabbing a size small and then carrying it back to the cart. “Time to go.”

Grace giggled. “You wanted to get a crate, Daddy. Kailani said it helps teach puppies not to mess in the house at night, remember?”

Danny blinked and then pointed towards the front of the store. “You two go start checking out, and I will get the crate.” He paused and then added, “And a baby gate so we can keep her in the kitchen when we aren’t home.”

Steve snickered and started to turn the cart around. “C’mon, Gracie. You heard the man.”

Grace grinned as she moved quickly to walk with Steve as he headed towards the front of the store, looking up at him as she asked, “Can we pet the kitties on the way there?”

“No, you may not!” Danny said quickly, laughing. “Go directly to the checkout, and don’t put anything else in the cart, either of you.”

Steve grinned at Grace. “We’ll come pet the kitties another day, Gracie.”

“Promise?” Grace asked quickly, beaming.

“Promise,” Steve agreed with a laugh. “Maybe next time it’s Danny’s weekend with you, if we can talk your daddy into it.”

“We can,” Grace said confidently.

Danny snorted and turned to walk towards the back of the store where he had seen the dog crates, amused and sure that Grace was right. He didn’t have much of a prayer of standing against either of them when they really wanted him to do something, and when they teamed up it was almost always hopeless for him to even try.

~*~

Danny shifted on the couch, humming softly as he settled a little more comfortably against Steve’s side, watching Grace sleep peacefully curled up in a nearby chair with Lilo in her arms as the end of ‘Lilo & Stitch’ played on the television. Danny had been sure that the movie, which was one of Grace’s favorites, was where the name for her new puppy had come from, and the way Grace had giggled and cuddled the pup during the movie had left no doubt. Now Danny was just praying that Steve wouldn’t get the bright idea to get a ‘Stitch’ to keep their own Lilo company while they were at work.

Lilo seemed happy to let Grace hold her and didn’t mind the collar that was around her tiny neck even though it had been obvious when Danny put it on in the Petsmart parking lot that the dog had no idea what a collar was. He had quickly decided that they would walk the puppy with the dog harness until she got used to following them, but he thought the collar was a better choice while Lilo was in the house. Lilo wasn’t running around the house much because of her sore paw, but it still helped to have a collar to grab a dog by as far as Danny was concerned, so he wanted her wearing one.

The puppy had already used the puppy papers by the back door once since they got home, and she had gone twice outside when Grace walked her on the grass out front, so Danny had high hopes they could get her house trained without too much trouble. As soon as Lilo got her tags they would go on the collar and then Danny would feel safe considering Steve’s idea of fencing in the front yard for the puppy to be able to go out on her own. Until Lilo had a set of tags on her neck and a microchip, though, the pup wouldn’t set foot outside without a leash on her. He didn’t even want to think about how devastated Grace would be if her puppy wandered away. He had thought she was attached to Mr Hoppy, but that was nothing compared to how she already obviously loved Lilo.

Steve turned his head, distracting Danny by leaning towards him and nuzzling his hair as he whispered, “I think today was a good day.”

Danny smiled, keeping his gaze on Grace and Lilo as he agreed very softly, “It was, even though it wasn’t anything like I had planned.”

“Sometimes the best part of plans is breaking them,” Steve said quietly with a little ghost of a chuckle.

Danny looked at Steve then, smiling a little wider as he murmured, “You would say that.”

Steve gave him a crooked smile, just looking into Danny’s eyes a few moments before he whispered, “You do know me best.”

“I do, hmm?” Steve nodded, still smiling, and then Danny whispered, “I guess you really do want to kiss me right now then, huh?”

“I really, really do, ipo,” Steve agreed very softly. “I’m glad I’m allowed to now.”

“Not just allowed, babe,” Danny whispered as he turned on the couch to face Steve. “Encouraged.”

Steve smiled and kissed him gently, his free hand moving to Danny’s jaw, and Danny hummed soft and low as he let himself just get lost in kissing Steve. It wasn’t like anything Danny had ever known before, not even with Rachel. Kissing Rachel had made him crazy at the beginning, made him want to push her into the nearest room with a door and take her right up against a wall, but kissing her had never once made him feel the way Steve's kisses did. With Rachel, kissing had usually been fueled by either lust or anger, often both towards the end when all they did was fight and fuck. He and Rachel had seldom spent time kissing unless they were about to have sex, but Steve wasn’t pushing for anything more than slow, lingering kisses that made Danny feel loved in a way Rachel never really had.

Danny wanted Steve, of course, even needed him in a way that Danny found a little frightening considering Steve’s penchant for rushing in where angels would fear to tread without backup, but what they had went far deeper than any relationship Danny had ever had before. Danny had rushed into things with Rachel, and hindsight had made him realize years ago that marrying Rachel had been a mistake from the start even though he loved Grace too much to ever regret it. Danny and Rachel had barely known anything about each other when they got married, and it hadn’t taken six months for them to both realize they were a bad combination. Rachel was three months pregnant by then though, and they both believed strongly that a child needed two parents so they had tried hard to make it work even though all they really did was prolong the inevitable.

Danny knew that wouldn’t happen with Steve, though. Steve already knew Danny at his worst and his best and everything in between, and he loved Danny just the way he was instead of wanting to change him like Rachel had tried so hard to do. Danny and Steve had spent their waking hours together for months and they knew exactly what to expect from each other in almost any situation. Danny knew that Steve was a control freak about a lot of things but sometimes still just needed somebody he could trust to tell him what to do, and Steve knew that Danny had a bad habit of yelling when he was stressed but seldom meant half the things he said and never stayed mad for long. They both liked a lot of the same kinds of food and loved Longboard beer and watching football and baseball, though they had agreed to disagree about music and pineapple, and they were both intensely protective of those they loved.

Most importantly, Steve loved Grace like she was his own daughter, so much in fact that Danny had no doubt that he and Grace were the most important people in Steve’s life. Steve had been planning his life around Grace and Danny for a long time without Danny noticing it, but now that Danny finally realized how Steve felt, he found that he couldn’t ignore his own feelings for Steve any more. Danny hadn’t even realized what it meant when he stopped seeing Steve as his partner on the job and started seeing him as his partner in life, but that was undeniably the way it was. Danny thought that they had a good chance to make the whole ‘til death do you part’ thing a reality, though hopefully they wouldn't be going out in a blaze of glory any time soon.

Steve ended the kiss, sucking very gently on Danny’s lower lip, and then he stared seriously into Danny’s eyes as he whispered, “What are you thinking about, right now?”

“That somehow, without me noticing it, we fell in love,” Danny whispered, feeling his face heat up a little with embarrassment even though he wanted Steve to know how he felt. Their lives were too dangerous to waste any more time trying to deny their attraction for each other when Danny knew they both wanted more.

Steve smiled like the sun coming out from behind the clouds, his changeable eyes dark and shining in the dimly lit room as he murmured, “It’s about time you noticed.” He kissed Danny again, soft and sweet, and then whispered against his lips, “I’ve been waiting for you to get with the program.” He kissed Danny yet again, seeming like maybe he couldn’t quite make himself stop, and then breathed out softly, “Aloha au ia ‘oe, Danno. I have for a long time now.”

Danny kissed Steve again instead of trying to put what he was feeling into words, wondering what he had ever done to deserve someone like Steve. He had gone into his partnership with Steve very reluctantly, usually angry with him and often frightened his daughter might have to grow up without a dad, but somewhere along the way that had drastically changed. He couldn’t imagine being a cop without Steve as his partner anymore, and now that he was being honest with himself, he knew that partnership had extended to every part of their lives a long time ago. Danny had just been slow to realize that Steve had quietly become the main reason Danny was starting to finally think of Hawaii as his home.

Danny would stay in Hawaii until the day he died if that was what he had to do to be near Grace, but it had been hell for Danny to live there before he met Steve. Danny’s days had been filled by trying to do his job in a place so completely different from all he had ever known, but his nights had usually been spent in a crappy apartment he had hated, eating his own unreliable cooking and brooding over how much he missed being able to walk down the street to Frankie’s, or Manny’s, or even Sal’s to have dinner and hang out with his old friends. The bars in Hawaii that Danny had tried were very different from the ones he was used to in Jersey, where everyone at his local knew him and treated him like family, and it was so depressing that he had given up trying to find a bar he liked.

Even other cops had made Danny feel like an outsider in Hawaii, often talking a language he didn’t know and treating him like his opinion couldn’t possibly matter because he was a haole, so Danny had learned quickly to avoid his coworkers, except for Meka. Meka had been assigned as his partner a few weeks after Danny transferred into HPD, and was the first person in Hawaii that made Danny feel like somebody besides Grace gave a damn about him. Meka had a family that didn’t get to see him nearly often enough, though, and Danny had been feeling the pain of not being with his own little girl so he had tried hard not to spend too much time with Meka when they were off duty.

After Meka was promoted and they stopped being partners, Danny had still counted on Meka’s friendship. They spoke by email or on the phone almost every day, but they seldom saw each other face to face, which had left Danny feeling more isolated than ever for that last month he was a cop.

Then Steve had charged into Danny’s life, guns blazing, and changed everything in the space of just a few days.

Danny didn’t have time anymore to be lonely after Steve declared they were partners. Suddenly Danny was working from daybreak until well after dark, stripping and falling into bed when he got home and then seldom having time to do more than shower and dress the next morning before Steve was at his door with a wide grin, dragging him out into the sunshine whether Danny liked it or not. Danny ate his meals with Steve and even found himself spending his off hours with Steve, and he had been surprised but pleased that Steve had unquestioningly made it a priority for Danny to have the whole weekend to spend with Grace that first time Danny had visitation after he met Steve. Danny was still feeling like Steve was a force of nature he wasn’t sure he wanted to be around then, and it had floored him when Steve had spent his own money on a weekend package at an expensive hotel so Danny and Grace could swim with the dolphins and have a wonderful memory of their limited time together.

Danny’s opinion of Steve had changed a little then, and he had started to accept that Steve really wanted to be his partner and friend, despite the way Steve teased him about being a haole. Over the next week they had settled into a routine that Danny could live with, and within two weeks Danny was actually starting to enjoy his day-to-day life. He was making a difference by working with Five-0, and even though Steve drove him crazy about half the time, Danny had to admit if only to himself that Steve made sure they got the job done. Their methods weren’t standard police procedure, but in the first two weeks working with Steve, Danny had cleared more cases than he had in his last two months at HPD, and the long boring stretches he was so used to being part of police work had been almost nonexistent because of Chin and Kono's capable help running down leads.

Danny’s cleared case numbers weren’t the only thing that had improved, though. Somewhere between all the drug busts, gunrunners, kidnappings, assassination attempts, murders, and bank heists, Danny had stopped feeling so completely alone. He felt like he had a family in Hawaii now, an ohana of choice with an older brother that never hesitated to be there for Danny when he needed help or just to talk, a little sister that looked up to him and never ceased to tease him so he wouldn’t forget how important he was to her, and a partner that had quickly become the best friend Danny had ever had.

Chin, Kono, and Steve were always there for him, always on his side even when he knew he was probably wrong, and after the last six months he couldn’t imagine living anywhere but where they were, not anymore. Grace still came first for Danny, of course, but Chin and Kono were almost as important to Danny as his actual siblings were, and Steve was such a big part of Danny’s life that he didn’t even really know how to put it into words anymore. Steve was his partner in every sense of the word and had been long before Danny realized it, and he knew that the way they loved and respected each other would never change.

As Danny sat there on Steve’s couch kissing him like neither of them could think of anything else they would rather do, he realized finally that he really wanted to do the paperwork to make what they had together legal. They were already married in all the ways that really mattered and had been for months, so going through with the Hawaiian version of a civil partnership couldn’t do anything but make their lives easier. As often as Steve and Danny ended up injured, it couldn’t be a bad thing for them to legally be each other’s next of kin even though Steve, Chin, and Kono were already listed as Danny’s emergency contacts.

There was really only one thing left separating Danny and Steve from true married couples, and Danny was sure that would change very soon, though he hoped that they would both be able to control themselves until Grace went home. He thought they could, as long as he didn’t let himself get carried away. Steve wanted to touch and hold him, and he seemed completely unable to resist kissing Danny now that he knew Danny wanted him to, but Steve hadn’t been pushing Danny for more than that and Danny felt safe in assuming that Steve would wait for Danny to make the next move.

They had been kissing for long enough that the movie had ended and was back on the menu screen playing the same short loop of bouncy music over and over again when Danny finally noticed the puppy was whining softly. He made himself end the kiss with a soft sigh, looking into Steve’s expressive eyes and then getting completely distracted by the love and need so plain in them. The love wasn’t surprising, he had seen Steve look at him like that quite a few times, but the obvious desire kind of threw Danny for a loop as he realized just how good Steve was at hiding what he wanted, even from Danny.

“Danno?” Grace asked suddenly, sounding mostly asleep.

Danny blushed and dragged his gaze away from Steve to look at Grace, making himself let go of Steve and move away from him as he said, “Yeah, Monkey?”

Grace looked like she was having trouble keeping her eyes open as she mumbled, “I think Lilo wants out.”

Danny gave Grace a smile that was only a little forced as he got up off of the couch, moving towards her chair to take Lilo. “Why don’t I walk her while you go get ready for bed? It’s getting late.”

Grace yawned widely and then nodded, picking up Lilo to offer him the still whining puppy. “Okay, Daddy.”

Danny took the pup, settling her in one arm as he smiled at Grace. “Go on then, and I’ll come tuck you in when I get back with Lilo.”

“Okay,” Grace agreed again, climbing out of her chair. She surprised Danny then by walking over to Steve to put her knee on the couch by him and lean in close to hug him without any hesitation at all. Steve returned the hug, looking a little surprised but happy as Grace mumbled, “Love you.”

“I love you too, Gracie,” Steve murmured, giving her a careful squeeze as he kissed her hair.

Grace pulled away to stand up again as she said, “G’night, makua.”

Danny blinked, wondering what makua meant as Steve laughed softly in surprise and said, “Good night, kolohe.”

Grace giggled softly and picked up Flipper out of her chair, then headed for her room without another word, yawning again as she went.

Lilo squirmed in Danny’s hands, letting out a little yap of a bark, and Danny made himself stop staring after Grace as he headed for the front door, not at all surprised to hear Steve following him. Danny grabbed Lilo’s leash and harness off of the table near the door and then went outside without bothering to turn on the porch light, leaving the door open as he wondered how he could possibly be so lucky as to have fallen so completely for someone that Grace didn’t just like, but loved. Grace liked Step-Stan, but Danny had heard her complain about him often and knew that it had taken her a long time to finally be willing to hug Stan goodnight. She still avoided it much of the time, so seeing her take the initiative to hug Steve goodnight was a big deal.

Danny walked off the porch out onto the grass and then knelt to put Lilo down, snapping the harness onto her quickly and then standing up with the leash as the pup took just a few limping steps away and then crouched to pee like she just couldn’t wait any longer. She wasn’t walking too well, and the vet said she likely wouldn’t be for a week or two because of the front paw that Dr Lau thought had probably been bitten by a larger dog. She had two fractures to bones just above that paw, which had been so cut up that it needed over thirty stitches, and she’d have to go back to the vet twice a week for a while to have the bandage changed and so the vet could be sure there was no infection, but she should be good as new in a month or two. The injury was still pretty painful for the pup, which was why the vet had given them pain pills for her to take every morning, but Lilo had gotten very lucky and Dr Lau said there shouldn’t be any permanent damage.

Steve walked up close behind Danny then but didn’t touch him as Steve asked very softly, “That was okay, wasn’t it? That I hugged her?”

Danny looked at Steve in surprise as he said, “Better than okay.” Steve was so obviously relieved that Danny smiled. “Babe, I’m glad she loves you. It’d make my life hell if she didn’t.“ He smiled crookedly at Steve, adding more quietly, “I’m not sure I could take it if the two people I love most didn’t get along.”

Steve stared into Danny’s eyes for a moment and then smiled. “Good thing me and Grace are buddies then, huh?”

“Great thing,” Danny corrected, looking down when he felt Lilo pull on the leash. She wanted to walk further out into the moonlit yard so he followed her, adding, “You two have been all that kept me sane for a long time now.”

“I thought I was the one that makes you crazy?” Steve asked, teasing.

Danny grinned, not looking at Steve as he said the first thing that popped into his mind, even though he knew it was corny as hell. “Crazy about you mostly, when I’m not in fear for my life because you went barging in where angels fear to tread again and I’m so stupid over your crazy super-SEAL self that I always follow you.”

Steve laughed. “Don’t worry, Danno. I won’t get you killed. Gracie would never forgive me.”

Danny snorted in amusement, looking back at Steve as Lilo finally found the perfect spot to do her business, halfway under a bush. “Keeping me in one piece just for her, huh?”

“Definitely not,” Steve said quickly, grinning widely. “Mostly for me, but I don’t want her mad at me because I let you get hurt, either. That would ruin my whole day.”

“Day’s already over, babe,” Danny pointed out, amused.

“There’ll be another one tomorrow, though,” Steve said. “And any day Gracie’s unhappy with me would be a bad one because then you’d be mad at me.” He laughed softly and then added, “A lot madder than usual, I mean.”

Lilo pulled at the leash again and Danny looked back down at her, not surprised to see that she wanted to go back towards the house. He bent and scooped her up, tucking her into one arm as he started back towards Steve, smiling. “Good thing for you that she’s almost as attached to you as I am.”

“Wonderful,” Steve agreed, waiting for Danny to reach him and then walking with him back towards the open front door of the house. “I’d want to have her around even if she didn’t like me, though, as long as she made you happy.”

Danny stopped on the porch and looked at Steve in surprise, murmuring, “Making me happy is that important to you?”

“Of course,” Steve said, looking surprised too. “I’d do anything for you.”

Danny just looked at Steve for a moment and then said quietly, “You make me happy, babe. You know that, don’t you?”

Steve’s surprise slowly faded into a sweet smile. “I guess I must be doing something right, then.”

“You are,” Danny agreed, smiling as he added teasingly, “While we’re off-duty at least. At work you still make me want to shoot you at least twice a week.”

Steve grinned. “We’re making progress, though. You’ve gone from threatening to shoot me in the face to saying you’ll shoot me in the foot.”

“I kind of like your face,” Danny admitted, amused. “And you do listen to me a little more often these days.” He snorted and added pointedly, “Unless of course I think we should wait for backup.”

“You’re all the backup I need, Danno,” Steve said confidently, leaning down to kiss Danny soundly and then heading into the house. “Where’s Lilo sleeping?”

“With me, in Mary's room,” Danny said, grinning in spite of himself as he followed Steve inside, unsnapping Lilo’s harness as he walked through the door. He dropped the harness and leash back on the table and then closed the front door, making sure he locked it securely. He turned away to head for the stairs and Grace’s room and found himself face-to-chest with Steve, making him stop again before he’d really gotten started. “What?” he asked, amused as he looked up at Steve.

“I was hoping you’d be sleeping in my room,” Steve murmured, looking serious.

“I wish I could, babe, but not tonight,” Danny said gently. “Soon, though. I promise.”

“Why not tonight?” Steve asked.

“Because I’ve heard Mary’s stories about how awful it was sleeping down the hall when Cath visits,” Danny admitted quietly. “Grace is sleeping just across the hall from your room, and I’m not sure I could behave myself the first time I was in the same bed with you.”

Steve looked a little surprised but definitely pleased as he murmured, “We could be quiet.”

Danny chuckled and lifted his free hand to the back of Steve’s neck, pulling him down for a kiss. He let go of Steve after a few moments, and then he started towards the stairs with Lilo still tucked into one arm as he said dryly, “I’m a lot of things, babe, but quiet’s not one of them.”

Steve let out a little surprised laugh. “So it’ll be like that, huh?”

“Definitely,” Danny agreed, smiling but not looking back at Steve as he kept walking up the stairs. “Why don’t you grab us a beer and head out back? I shouldn’t be long.”

“Sure,” Steve agreed easily, still at the bottom of the stairs. “You want a York? I know how you like something sweet before bed.”

Danny paused at the top of the stairs and looked over the railing down at Steve, smiling. He had stolen a York peppermint patty out of Steve’s freezer for the first time not long after he started going home with Steve in the evenings to relax and have a beer. Since then there had always been at least one in the freezer waiting for him to want it, even though Steve didn’t eat them. That first one he had stolen had been one of several left there by Steve’s dad, thought Danny hadn’t known that at the time. “Nah, I’m good.”

“Okay,” Steve said, smiling as he turned away to head for the kitchen.

Danny didn’t let himself watch Steve go even though he wanted to, instead padding barefoot down the hall to Grace’s open door. Grace was already in her nightgown and in bed with Flipper in her arms, and he chuckled softly when he saw she could barely keep her eyes open. He walked over to the bed, putting Lilo on the covers to free his hands so he could tuck Grace in, and then he leaned down to kiss Grace’s forehead and murmured, “Danno loves you.”

Grace smiled sleepily. “I love you too.” She reached up with one arm for a hug and Danny leaned down again to hug her gently, letting her kiss his cheek. Grace let go of him after a moment, yawning for a long moment before she murmured, “Can Lilo stay with me for a while? Please? I promise I’ll go right to sleep.”

Danny looked at Lilo, who had already curled up next to Grace’s stomach and laid down, then he smiled and nodded. The puppy had proven she wouldn’t try to jump down off the furniture, instead whining for help, and she had just been walked so he figured she would be alright for an hour or two. “I guess so. I’ll come get her on my way to bed.”

Grace beamed happily, reaching down to pet Lilo as she said, “Thank you, Danno.”

“You’re welcome, Monkey,” Danny replied, leaning down to kiss her forehead again. “Night night.”

“G’night,” Grace murmured, smiling as she closed her eyes and snuggled into her covers, one hand still on Lilo’s back.

Danny turned off the lamp by Grace’s bed and then moved to turn on the dolphin nightlight that Steve had gotten for her before he left the room, closing her door quietly behind him. He walked quickly downstairs again and headed out onto the lanai, where he saw Steve was sprawled in his usual chair out on the beach, waiting for him. He walked down towards the chairs to stop by Steve, smiling when he saw Steve had only gotten one beer for them to share. “Getting stingy with the beer, babe?”

Steve smiled up at him, his eyes sparkling in the moonlight as he offered Danny the beer he was holding and murmured, “I was hoping we’d have better things to do than drinking.”

Danny let out a soft little surprised laugh, his eyebrows going up as he accepted the beer, which was already about half gone. “What’d you have in mind?”

“Kissing you would be nice,” Steve said, smiling as he watched Danny take a long slow drink of the beer. “I’d settle for just talking, though.”

“What did you want to talk about?” Danny asked softly, amused as he took another drink.

“Talking was my second choice, just in case that was what you want,” Steve pointed out, smiling wider.

Danny looked at Steve for a moment and then put the beer on the arm of his chair before he moved around in front of Steve’s chair, stepping into the space between Steve’s legs. “I can’t think of anything we have to talk about right this minute.”

Steve looked pleased, sitting up straight as he murmured, “Does that mean kissing wins?”

“Sounds that way,” Danny agreed, amused.

Steve reached up, grabbing Danny’s loosened tie with a sudden little smirk as he murmured, “Good.”

Danny grinned and let Steve pull him down into a kiss, moving closer as he pushed Steve back in his chair again and planted his good knee next to Steve’s hip, his hands braced on Steve’s shoulders as he leaned down to kiss him. It was different that time with more heat mingled into the love that was always so obvious when Steve kissed him, and Danny groaned as he deepened the kiss. Steve’s lips parted easily for him, letting Danny take control of the kiss as their tongues slid slowly against each other.

Danny felt Steve’s hands move to his back after a few moments, urging him closer, and Danny didn’t hesitate, moving his other knee into the chair so he could settle into Steve’s lap and press their bodies close together, even though his bad knee definitely wasn’t happy about it. It had been a long time since Danny was so close to anyone, and even longer since that person was another man, and he enjoyed the feeling of Steve’s solid, muscular body against his. His knee ached, of course, but being so close to Steve and making out with him like they were a couple of teenagers was worth a little pain as far as Danny was concerned.

Steve groaned, kissing Danny hungrily for a moment longer before he pulled away, breathing a little fast as he gave Danny a concerned look and asked softly, “What about your knee?”

Danny shifted a little, flinching as his knee twinged sharply, and then he murmured, “I can take it, babe.”

Steve snorted softly. “You don’t have to take it, Danny. I want you able to walk tomorrow.” He paused and then added, “And your knee wouldn’t bother you at all if you put your legs over the arms of the chair.”

Danny blinked, surprised as he looked at the arms of the chair and then back at Steve. “Well, no, but I’d likely break my neck trying to get them there.”

Steve grinned. “We could always just move this back to the couch.”

“I think we have a winner,” Danny agreed, amused as he lifted himself up on his knees, trying unsuccessfully to hide his wince as his bad knee protested the move. He put his hands back on Steve’s shoulders to brace himself as he got to his feet again, and then he offered Steve his hand as he murmured, “C’mon, babe.”

Steve took his hand and stood, stepping in close and sliding his arms around Danny as he lowered his head to kiss him, slow and searching. He finally pulled away to look into Danny’s eyes after a few minutes, smiling softly as he murmured, “Aloha au ia ‘oe.”

Danny smiled, pulling Steve down into another kiss that was a little more heated than the last one, and then whispered against his lips, “I know, babe. I love you too.”

Steve’s smile widened into that soft-eyed, goofy grin that Danny enjoyed so much and then he leaned down to kiss Danny again before he murmured, “I’ve been waiting for you to realize that for months.” His grin went a bit crooked. “Well, hoping you would. Sometimes I doubted it.”

Danny looked into Steve’s eyes, asking softly, “Were those the weekends that Cath visited?” Steve had spent a weekend in bed with Catherine several times since he and Danny met, and it had bothered Danny a little more every time even though he didn’t really understand why. He knew now, of course – he was jealous just thinking about Steve having sex with anyone else – but then he had convinced himself that he just didn’t think Steve needed his ego stroked by some leggy brunette.

“Usually me doubting you was before she visited,” Steve admitted softly, giving Danny a wry little smile. “She lectured me every time.”

Danny blinked, surprised. “About…?”

“Trusting my heart,” Steve murmured, lifting one hand to stroke Danny’s hair as he looked into Danny’s eyes. “Giving you time.” He smiled crookedly. “I always knew I was bi, but I was pretty sure you were straight, and after she met you she agreed with me.”

“Kono caught me looking at you the first time you stripped in front of me,” Danny admitted, amused. “And I mentioned the boyfriend in high school, babe. I never really doubted I was bi either, I just tried hard to ignore it because my career was so important to me.”

Steve blinked, looking surprised. “I know two openly gay cops, Danny, and I don’t know many cops.”

“There’s a few out there, yeah,” Danny agreed. “More here than in Jersey, but they never get anywhere, babe. I wanted to make detective and make a difference, and I knew that would likely never happen if I was out.” He shrugged slightly. “It’s not like it was really that difficult for me to play straight. I’ve only met a few guys I wanted that also happened to think I was hot, so it’s not like I was turning guys down all the time or something.”

“I thought you said you’d had several boyfriends?” Steve asked softly.

Danny smiled. “No, there was just two guys I dated, babe. Petey was the first, when I was a teenager. We grew up together, and we both had shitty luck with girls as kids, so we ended up with each other for about a year. We never had sex, but we did pretty much everything else.”

“And the other guy?” Steve asked, looking curious.

“Old buddy from high school that I ran into right after the divorce was final,” Danny admitted. “He knew about me and Petey and he was into me, and I was lonely and hadn’t gotten laid in forever so we ended up dating a while.” He shrugged. “It wasn’t anything important to me and he knew it, so it didn’t last long.” He let out a little snort of a laugh, amused at the memory. “Mike told me he wasn’t getting what he needed from me emotionally, and I wouldn’t let him fuck me, so he told me to go to hell after a couple of months.”

Steve just looked at Danny a moment and then asked slowly, “So, you’ve never…?”

“Not yet,” Danny said quietly. “Petey and I were enough in denial to convince ourselves that it wasn’t gay if we didn’t fuck each other, and I just didn’t want Mike fucking me.”

“Yet?” Steve repeated, still looking intently into Danny’s eyes.

“Yet,” Danny agreed, smiling slightly. “I’m sure that it’ll happen, sooner or later.” He smiled wider and teased softly, “Probably sooner, the way we’ve been going.”

“You don’t have to do that for me, Danno,” Steve pointed out softly. “There are other things we can do if it’s not something you want to try.”

Danny lifted his hand to the back of Steve’s neck, pulling him down into a kiss, then murmured, “I want to with you, babe, I promise.” He kissed Steve again and then added with a little grin, “Just not while Grace is in the house, ‘cause like I said, I’m not so good at the quiet part.”

Steve laughed softly as Danny let go of him and pulled away, and then Danny grabbed their beer off of his chair and started walking slowly towards the house. He could hear Steve move quickly to catch up and then they were walking together back up the beach in companionable silence as Danny wondered if they would really be able to behave themselves making out on the couch.

He kind of doubted it.