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Danny didn’t even know how he got himself into this situation. Really, how was this his life? The last year has been one hell of a whirlwind. It started back when Rachel decided to try to take full custody of Grace and attempted to put a restraining order on him so he could not see Grace. Thankfully, the restraining order was never passed, but that didn’t mean that it didn’t scare Danny half to death. That wasn’t even the worst part. The worst part was getting a call from HPD saying they found Grace and she was currently with CPS and they needed him to come in to answer some questions.
“Danny. Danny, slow down. I’m sure Grace is ok.” Steve tried to calm him down while they entered HPD. Danny didn’t pay any attention to him, though. He stormed into the department frantic to find out what had happened to his daughter.
“Grace Williams, where is she?! Is she ok?! What happened?!” Danny shouted as soon as he was in the door. At this point, Steve was physically restraining him.
“Danny, you got to calm down a little. If you want to help Grace, you have got to calm down some more.” Steve said soothingly which managed to calm Danny down long enough for one of the officers to tell them what was going on. Grace had called the police because Stan was beating the crap out of her and Rachel. Stan was in jail while Grace and Rachel were in the hospital. HPD needed to clear Danny of any suspicion before they could let him near Grace.
That was quickly taken care of and Danny was cleared to see Grace. With CPS involved, both Rachel’s and Danny’s custody of Grace was being investigated and there was a chance that neither of them were allowed custody. Rachel because there were signs that she never tried to stop Stan from hurting Grace and Danny because he was single and had a dangerous job with no family close by on top of living in a crappy apartment that really was not fit for a child.
Danny nearly had a heart attack that month when it looked like he was never going to see Grace again. Steve was his rock through all of it. He moved Danny in with him and fixed up a room for Grace and made a strong case that he did, in fact, have family here in Hawaii. The single and the job problem wasn’t really something that had a fix. But it was Steve, so he had the bright idea of the two of them getting married so he wouldn’t be single anymore.
“What?!” Danny shouted at Steve when he brought it up.
“Think about it, Danny. CPS is worried that Grace will not be placed in a stable home. What better way to seem like a stable home for Grace then being married? It shows commitment, Danny. The courts really like this kind of thing.” Steve had tried to reason. Danny was definitely not stable that month, because he actually agreed to Steve’s crazy idea and the next thing Danny knows, he was married to one Steven McGarrett.
The courts were a little skeptical at first, but they sold their story well saying that they didn’t want to say anything because Steve was a SEAL and they worked together. In the end, Danny was given full custody of Grace and Rachel was only allowed visitation on his terms.
Things started to settle down for a while after that. Grace spent some time seeing a therapist, but after two months she didn’t need to see them anymore. Slowly, the three of them learned how to live with each other. Mary’s old room turned into Grace’s room, but Steve’s old room had so much stuff in it that Danny ended up crashing with Steve in his room. It was supposed to be temporary, but sleeping next to someone was so nice, that they forgot to change the arrangements after the first week.
Part of Danny was terrified about how easy being married to Steve really was. If he thought too much about it, he would be scared half to death about how not scary sleeping next to Steve and raising Grace together was. Nothing really changed between them, though they definitely became more physically comfortable with each other. While everyone knew they lived together, they never told anyone that they were married. So Chin and Kono were understandably pissed off when they found out about it. Not that they could actually get all that pissed off at either of them for it because they found out from a borderline hysterical Danny when Steve almost died on the job. Again.
They had just stopped a terrorist but not before the terrorist blew himself up. Steve had been in with the suspect right before the explosion and he barely found some cover before the explosion. It still left him with severe head trauma, internal bleeding, and several broken bones. Danny had been the one to find him unconscious and bleeding out under debris.
Danny was the one to keep him from bleeding out before the EMT’s got there. The EMT’s, unfortunately, tried to tell Danny that he couldn’t come with them in the ambulance.
“No! No, you listen to me. That is my husband and I am coming with you!” Danny shouted at them while they were loading Steve up. If Chin and Kono didn’t believe him when he said it, the Commander McGarrett way Danny said it told them all they needed to know. While they were in the waiting room waiting to hear from the doctors on how Steve’s surgery went, they brought it up with him as gently as they could.
“When did you guys get married?” Chin asked.
“Right before the custody hearing for Grace.” Danny responded glumly.
“Why didn’t you guys say anything?” Kono asked just as delicately as Chin.
“Because Steve married me so CPS wouldn’t take Grace away from me. He did it to protect my little girl, to protect me. I didn’t want him to have to change anything. He’s already changed his life so much, I just couldn’t. I thought that if we told anyone, then that means that we really were married and he would hate me for it.” Danny looked at them then. “I’m sorry we didn’t tell you guys. Steve asked me about it once, but I asked to keep it quiet for now.”
“You're in love with him.” Chin didn’t say it as a question, but Danny nodded anyway. He hadn’t realized it until he had to think about his life without Steve and realized that yeah, he was deeply in love with him. He had no idea when it happened, but he had enough presence of mind to realize that he was in love with Steve before he married him because there was no way he would have agreed any other way.
“I don’t know what I will do if he is not ok.” He said getting choked up.
“Hey, he’s going to be ok.” Kono was quick to reassure. Neither tried to question him more on it and the three of them sat in silence until the doctor came to get him.
Danny was so relieved his legs almost gave out on him when they told him Steve was going to be ok. Kono and Chin promised to watch Grace while Danny stayed with Steve. Despite his epiphany, Danny didn’t tell Steve that he loved him. He stopped denying their marriage, though. He knew it was the right decision two days later when a nurse asked how long they had been married while interrupting his fussing of Steve. Danny saw Steve hesitate, unsure what to say for a moment so he answered.
“Four months as of last week. We were going to take our daughter to the zoo before we got stuck on a case and this Neanderthal put himself in the hospital.” The nurse practically melted with that answer, but neither noticed it. Danny was too enraptured by Steve’s surprised and dopey happy face and Steve was too intent to stare at Danny.
Things settled down a little for the next two months, mostly because Danny didn’t let Steve get out of properly recovering from his injuries. Steve had been back to work full time for the past week when he got an extremely unexpected call.
“McGarrett” Steve automatically answered his phone without checking the ID. It had been a slow day and he was doing paperwork at his desk in his office.
“Is this Steve McGarrett?” a lady over the phone asked.
“Yes, it is. Who am I speaking to?” Steve asked, really confused.
“My name is Lisa Brown, I am with Child Protective Services.”
“CPS? Is this about Grace?” Steve asked, starting to get worried.
“No, this is about your son.”
“My what?” Steve asked really, really confused. He didn’t have a son and he was starting to think this lady had the wrong number.
“Sir, did you know a woman named Clara Jackson?”
“Clara Jackson? If it’s the same Clara Jackson, then yeah, I knew her. She was an old girlfriend. Ms. Brown, I don’t understand. Why is CPS calling me about Clara Jackson.” Steve was getting kind of irritated and even more confused. Danny walked into his office, then and was about to start talking to Steve but stopped when he saw his confused face. There was a pause over the phone before she continued.
“Sir, I’m calling you because fourteen years ago Clara Jackson gave birth to a son. One Simon Steven McGarrett whose father, according to his birth certificate is Steven Jack McGarrett.” Brown kept talking but Steve stopped listening.
“Steve? Babe, what is it? Who are you talking to?” Danny asked, getting concerned when Steve’s face turned white and he looked like he was having a difficult time breathing. Danny came over and got really worried when Steve didn’t even fight him when he took the phone from him.
“This is Detective Danny Williams, who am I speaking to?”
“Sir, this is a private conversation, please put Mr. McGarrett back on the phone.”
“No, see that’s not going to happen. You are going to tell me who you are and what you want and why you are calling Lieutenant Commander Steven McGarrett.”
“Detective, I am not at liberty to discuss this with anyone who is not family. Now please, put Mr. McGarrett back on the phone.” She sounded stern and was clearly losing her patience, but Danny was just about to completely lose his before Steve intervened.
“Danno.” Steve looked like he had seen a ghost, so Danny took a breath and tried a different approach.
“Steve McGarrett is my husband. I am family. Now will you please tell me why my husband looks like he is related to paper he is so white?” There is a fairly long pause before she started.
“My name is Lisa Brown and I am with CPS. Fourteen years ago, a boy was born to a Clare Jackson and a Steven McGarrett whose name is Simon Steven McGarrett. I’m starting to gather that Mr. McGarrett had no idea about his son, but Ms. Jackson died in an auto accident three days ago and it has become my job to place a thirteen year old boy. As far as I can tell, If Mr. McGarrett will not take him, Simon is going to be placed in the system.”
“Let me stop you there.” Danny said, though he was reeling still from this revelation. He decided to deal with his feelings on this matter later, right then he needed to deal with arrangements with CPS. “Under no circumstances is he going into the system. Of course we are taking him, what do we need to do? Is he ok? How is he? Where are you currently located, anyway?”
“This is the Chicago CPS office. I will start on the paperwork right now and I will call you back in an hour for more information in that regards. And Simon is,...fine.”
“Fine? Why do you say it like that? Did something happen?” The concern Danny was showing started making Steve worried.
“What happened? Is he ok?” Steve asked, coming closer to Danny. Danny put a comforting hand onto Steve's chest and rubbed absently.
“No, nothing happened. He’s just really quiet. I’m having a difficult time getting a read off of him.” Brown explained which actually made Danny sigh in relief.
“Oh thank god. No, don’t worry too much about it. It’s a McGarrett thing, they are impossible to read until you get to know them. Ok, call me back in an hour so we can get everything settled. Do we need to come to Chicago?”
“Most of the paperwork can be done over the phone, but yes, I will need Mr. McGarrett to come to Chicago in the next couple of days.”
“OK, uh. Will this Saturday be ok? How long will we have to be in Chicago for?”
“It varies, it could be a couple of days it could be a couple of weeks. This seems like a straightforward case, so this should only take a couple of days.”
“Alright. Thank you, I will talk to you soon.” Danny said, quickly getting off the phone. He turned to Steve then and waited in silence for a while. Steve moved away from Danny and placed both of his hands on his desk, leaning against it and bowing his head. Steve gave a shaky breath before he started talking.
“I didn’t know. She never told me.” He turned around rubbing his face. “Clare and I met in college. We dated for a few months but neither of us were taking it seriously. Clara broke it off but there were no hard feelings. It had been right before summer break and I never saw or heard from her again. I swear to god, Danny. I didn’t know.”
“I know, babe.” Danny said quietly but strongly. “Are you ok?” Steve shook his head.
“No. No, I’m not.” He shook his head wildly. “I have a thirteen- year-old son that I didn’t even know existed until that call. I mean, why wouldn’t she tell me? Did-did she think that I wouldn’t have been a good father?”
“Hey no, don’t do that. Don’t go there. It was a different time, Steve, and her not telling you is not your fault.” Danny cut him off and stepped closer to him. “I’ve seen you with Grace, Steve. You are a fantastic father. Do not ever doubt that. That is a fact, ok? OK come here.” Danny pulled him into a hug and they stayed like that for some time.
To spare Steve the awful paperwork that was involved with CPS, Danny set everything up with Brown while Steve cleaned out his old bedroom in their house for Simon before they went to Chicago to get him. They told Grace later that day which had been nerve racking for both of them. Right up until Grace decided to be Grace.
“OK.” Grace said, throwing Danny and Steve through a loop.
“OK? That’s it? You don’t have any questions or concerns?” Danny asked flabbergasted.
“Well, you guys will still love me, right? Even though I’m getting a new sibling?” Grace asked after some consideration.
“Yes, of course we will, Monkey.” Danny assured her while Steve said “Yes, absolutely.”
“Then I’m ok with it. I think having an older brother will be cool.” She was quiet for a moment afterwards with an intense look on her face. Danny and Steve just waited her out. “Do you think he will like me?” she asked in a quiet and innocent way.
“I don’t think it is possible for him not to like you, Kiddo.” Steve assured her with Danny nodding and making agreement noises along with him. “He is a McGarrett and you Williams have a way of making us fall in love with you.”
That had been the hurtle that had really worried Danny the most about this whole thing, how Grace was going to take it. So with Grace’s approval, they both flew out to Chicago to meet Simon. The Governor had been very understanding of the situation and approved their time off for the trip with little fuss while Chin and Kono watched over Grace while they were away. Everything had been going smoothly right up until they actually had to meet Simon. Neither had really realized just how nervous they were about it until they were about to walk into CPS Saturday afternoon.
Danny and Steve arrived earlier than they thought they would, but their flight had been early and they forwent checking into the hotel, setting it as a task to do later that day. They were directed to a lounge area to wait for their appointment and they both realized sitting there that they both were scared out of their minds. Both of them were convinced that Simon wasn’t going to like them and that today was going to be miserable all around. On the other hand, they were also scared that CPS wasn’t going to give them Simon and that they were going to have to go through a long custody battle for him like they had to do with Grace. In either case, both were scared, so they did what they always do when they are scared. They start arguing with each other.
In an attempt to look nice, Danny had convinced Steve to wear jeans, a polo shirt, and a blazer while Danny wore something similar, just with a tie. And while Steve was used to wearing his Dress Blues, he was very uncomfortable in the blazer and started to complain about it. This lead to them bickering for almost twenty minutes straight. It took them almost five minutes to realize that there was someone standing in front of them and that was because they started talking.
“So how long have you guys been married?” an incredulous voice asked making them both look up. When they did, they both were stunned speechless. In front of them was a teenager who looked like Steve that had lighter skin and floppy, light brown hair. He had his arms crossed and he tried to appear relaxed, but his body showed just how tense and nervous he was as well.
“Six months.” Steve replied succinctly. Simon raised his eyebrow in the exact same way that Steve does and that was when Danny knew that he would go to the ends of the earth for this kid, just like he would for Grace and Steve. It became obvious to Danny really fast that Steve was not going to remember how to communicate with people so he took up the mantle of conversation.
“Hi, I’m Danny Williams and this Neanderthal is my husband Steve McGarrett.” Danny said while putting his hand out for a shake. Simon stared at it for a moment before he slowly uncrossed his arms and shook Danny’s hand.
“Simon McGarrett, but I think you already figured that out for yourself.” He said it steadily and confidently, but his body seemed ready to flinch back. How he was presenting himself was such a McGarrett thing to do, Danny wanted to laugh. Simon’s underlining reactions were actually what made him not laugh as it was starting to worry him.
“Yeah, you look just like your dad. I mean, you look just like Steve.” Danny fumbled his reply, which actually made Steve look over at him in concern. So much concern, that he took Danny’s hand and held it right in front of Simon. Steve looked back at Simon, but something caught his eye that made them suddenly fill with anger.
“Where is Lisa Brown?” He asked in his Commander voice, suddenly standing and dragging Danny to stand as well. The sudden change in disposition made Simon wide eyed and backing away from them quickly. “Never mind, I will find her myself. Danny, stay with Simon and both of you stay here.” In a blink of an eye, Steve was suddenly out the door and storming through CPS looking for Lisa Brown. Both Danny and Simon looked after him bewildered, but when Danny looked at Simon again, he saw what Steve saw just then. Simon had fresh bruises on his neck and arms that couldn’t have been more than a day old.
“Oh.” Danny said softly, but Simon still heard it.
“Oh? He just stormed out of here for absolutely no reason and that is your reaction? Oh?” Simon asked completely incredulously and slightly hysterically.
“It wasn’t for no reason.” Danny says like that explained everything. Simon still looked very confused though, so he took a step closer to Simon asking. “He stormed out of here because of the bruises. Those are, what? Twelve maybe twenty-four hours old? And if I was going to take a wild guess, I would say that you got them while you were with the temporary foster family you stayed with while everything got straightened out. And while you don’t know us and we don’t know you, you are family and Steve and I will go to the ends of the earth for family. So he is probably currently giving your caseworker one hell of a dressing down and is probably trying to get her to tell him the foster family so he can go arrest them.” Danny had the urge to roll his eyes at his partner’s antics, but he settled with just sighing deeply. Simon looked like his whole body was slack from surprise, not having expected that reaction out of anyone. He stepped closer to Danny and Danny gently put an arm around his shoulders. “Come on. We better go make sure he doesn’t kill her. I don’t really want to have to start all that paperwork again with someone else.” He said it offhandedly and gently guided Simon out of the room while he said it. If he hadn’t been paying attention, Simon thought he would have been commenting on the weather, making him wonder who his new parents were that that was a normal thing to comment on.
It took some doing, but once they were on the right floor, all they had to do was follow the raised voices to find Simon’s caseworker. The entire floor seemed to be watching the scene and Simon was a little intimidated by what he saw so he instinctively moved a little closer to Danny who was just surveying the scene with a look of exasperated fondness.
“Do I look like I give a damn about protocol?! My son is black and blue because of whatever foster family you placed him in and I want to know their names right now!” Steve was in full Lieutenant Commander of the Navy SEALs mode towering over the now co-wording caseworker.
“Steve.” Danny said interrupting him before he could go on another tirade. Steve visibly relaxed a little when he heard that and turned just enough to see Danny and Simon standing behind him. When he saw Simon, he relaxed even further and his furious dimeter dissipated morphing his face into open concern. Simon didn’t know why, but that second is when it really hit him that he had a father and that he really cared about him. So he didn’t say anything, just rushed over to Steve and hugged him tightly. Steve was clearly surprised for all of a second before he was hugging him back just as fiercely. He held him not dissimilarly from how he holds Grace in a protective hug, just relishing in the fact that he was ok or at least was going to be ok.
Now that Steve wasn’t shouting it was shockingly silent in the office, which Danny took advantage of, moving to the desk the caseworker was sitting at. “Look, we are not here to cause trouble. But you have to understand. Simon is the son of a highly decorated Navy SEAL and he may have only just found out about his existence last week, but that doesn’t mean shit. See, we have a daughter, Grace, she is my daughter from a different marriage, and I have seen that man go through hell to make sure she was safe and he had only met her once way before we were even dating. Now through marriage, Simon is also the son of a cop. A fairly good one, I’d like to think. Are you starting to get the picture, yet? Between the two of us, we will tier this world apart for our kids. And you would be right, we don’t have any jurisdiction in Chicago. But that has never stopped up before. So here is what you are going to do. You are going to finish the paperwork that you need to to release Simon into our custody and you are going to give the Chicago police the names of the foster families Simon stayed with. I have friends in that department so I will know if you do not report them. We are then going to take Simon back to our hotel and the three of us are going to be on an airplane back to Hawaii first thing tomorrow morning. We understand that there are certain procedures CPS has to follow, so if there is more to be done, you are going to transfer Simon’s case over to Hawaii CPS. Under no circumstances are we trying to cheat the system, Ms. Brown, but neither Steve nor I are leaving this building without Simon and I very much doubt you want us to stick around.” Danny said all of this in a conversational tone like he didn’t just threaten her or tell her exactly what she was going to do.
It was something Danny used on suspects when Steve was too pissed off to be reasonable. He tried to seem reasonable and gave them all of their options and he always made sure to detail out what Steve would do to them before he set Steve on them. His casual conversation always seemed to shake them up more than Steve’s anger did mostly because they were used to seeing anger, not a casual and level headed conversation on intricate torture techniques. It seemed to work on her fairly well as well, because she was quickly agreeing with him, suddenly frantically looking for the last of their paperwork.
The office was still deathly silent while he was talking, so everyone heard what he had said to her. Someone must have gotten concerned, because not a minute after Danny was done talking, someone in a suit who held themselves like they knew what they were doing and had dealt with similar situations walked through the door. “Is there something I can help you gentleman with?” he asked in a very business-like tone. When Danny, Steve, and Simon turned to look at him, he actually took a surprised step back. “Chief Petty Officer McGarrett?” he exclaimed.
“It’s Lieutenant Commander McGarrett now.” Steve commented, actually making the guy look blustered.
“Of course, Lieutenant Commander, my apologies. It has been some time since we last met. I wouldn’t blame you if you don’t remember me, we met very briefly overseas. Your team was the one to pull my team out of some hot water back in the day.” The guy said vaguely which tipped Danny off that the Op was probably classified and Steve had probably rescued those guys from captivity.
“I remember you, Seaman Powell. You were the only one in your unit to keep it together at the time. It is good to see you, you look well.” Steve said, shaking Powell’s hand while he still had Simon in a half hug against his side. It took Danny a minute, but he recognized that Powell was star struck with Steve which made him want to roll his eyes again because of course Steve would find the only ex-Navy man who he saved within Chicago.
“The honor is mine, Sir. It is rather odd that we were to run into each other here of all places?” He was fishing for answers discreetly very efficiently, which Danny and Steve gave him props for. He was very good at it, but they had used similar tactics, so they knew the signs.
“Look, we don’t mean any harm. Steve just went a little caveman when he saw bruises on his son. And as soon as the paperwork is finished we will be out of your hair.” Danny tried to sound reassuring to smooth everything over. Usually it works, but it seemed to have the opposite effect on Powell. He narrowed his eyes when he looked at Danny.
“I’m sorry, and you are?” he asked politely, but he suddenly made Danny feel so insignificant in this situation that he actually wanted to hunch into himself. When Danny didn’t immediately answer, Steve did.
“This is Detective Daniel Williams, my husband.”
“Husband?” Powell asked so surprised Danny really did start to hunch a little.
“Yeah, I know. I don’t believe it most days either and we have been married for six months.” Danny said self deprecating which made Steve frown deeply and, glancing at Simon, so was he. Danny hurried to continue before either tried talking. “I didn’t actually catch your name. Powell, was it?”
“Yes, Greg Powell, I’m the branch head of this Chicago CPS branch. One of my employees called me down here because they were concerned there was going to be a violent outburst. Would either of you like to enlighten me on what is going on?” While his demeanor and words were professional, his tone was so condescending, Danny had the urge to punch him. Looking over at Steve, he could tell he also wanted to punch him and had lost all respect for the guy in a minute flat.
“My thirteen-year-old son is black and blue from staying with one of your foster families and I wanted to know the names of them so we could report them.” Steve said in a way to explain the situation. Danny was quick to continue the explanation.
“Steve is just terrible at human interaction and very protective, so he did end up yelling at Simon’s caseworker because she was not cooperating with him. I personally wouldn’t call it yelling, that’s just his Lieutenant Commander voice.”
“If it is the one I am thinking of, that one is almost worse than shouting.” Powell commented, but he inevitably just sighed. “Lisa, do you have a handle on their paperwork?” He asked leaning to the right so he could look around them to Brown.
“Yes sir, I’m nearly finished with it.” She replied, still sounding frazzled. Powell nodded in understanding.
“Why don’t we wait in my office while she finishes everything up?” He suggests and while Danny and Steve don’t think it is a very good idea, they still nod their consent. It actually didn’t end as awful as they thought it might. Powell shepherds them into his office where he proceeded to regale Steve with all of his achievements since the last time they had seen each other. They luckily only had to deal with that for twenty minutes before Brown had all of their paperwork straightened out. When they were finally out of the building, Steve, Danny, and Simon all sighed in relief.
“I thought he would never stop.” Simon exclaimed with his relief. It made Steve let out a chuckle but they had to stop because Danny was bent over he was laughing so hard. It was several minutes before he calmed down enough for them to continue. It wasn’t until the hotel did Simon start asking questions.
“So, I should probably warn you. I’m fairly decent with computers.” Simon starts. It was strange to say out of the blue, though, so Steve and Danny turned to him both with cautious bewildered looks.
“Okay?” Steve asked questioningly. Simon looked sheepish.
“So, when I found out that I had a father, one that wanted to take care of me, one that I had never even heard of before, I hacked into your files.”
“You did what?” Danny asked incredulously.
“I made sure to cover my tracks. And I didn’t try to access anything classified. I just wanted to see who you were. Which also led me to looking at Mr. William's file as well and finding out a little about your Five-O team. So I know you are cops of a sort even though Mr. McGarrett is a decorated Navy SEAL and to my understanding Mr. Williams is also one of the best detectives New Jersey or Hawaii has seen in the last ten years.” Simon was starting to ramble a little so they stopped him with Danny starting to talk.
“Simon, stop. Come sit down.” He said gesturing to the couch in their hotel room. “I don’t even know where to start with that.” Danny said to Steve.
“I do.” Steve commented before addressing Simon. “First of all, call us Steve and Danny, not Mr. McGarrett and Mr. Williams. Second, you can’t keep doing that. Illegal hacking is a serious crime and we are not going to be able to protect you if you ever, god forbid, get caught.”
“We know you just said you covered your tracks, and we believe you. But as a precaution, please do not continue to hack people.” Danny continued off of Steve’s thread.
“Ok, I understand. I won’t continue to illegally hack anymore government agencies.” Simon said quickly. He had a contemplating look for a second before he asked timidly. “What does Grace call you guys?” That stopped them short of continuing telling him all of the ways it wasn’t ok for him to continue hacking. They immediately softened, glancing at each other before answering.
“When Grace was three she tried to say my name but all she could say was Danno. So most of the time, instead of calling me dad, she calls me Danno. You will also hear Steve call me Danno periodically, even though it had been against my wishes for some time.” Danny was saying but Steve interrupted.
“Don’t listen to him, he likes it when I call him Danno.”
“No, you made me nuts! I explicitly asked you not to call me that the first hundred times you did.”
“Give it up, Danno, you liked it that I call you that even then.” Steve was needling him and they both knew it but they started the familiar argument anyways. Seeing it about to diverge from the original topic of conversation, Simon interrupted them.
“Uh, guys?” They stopped and turned to him, blinking a little at him for a moment.
“Right.” Steve said. “Grace usually calls me Uncle Steve, but recently she has taken to calling me Daddy.” He admits almost bashfully. Danny didn’t know that he was doing it, but he was giving Steve an adoring look.
“Can...Would it be ok if I called you dad and Danno?” Simon asked just as bashfully as Steve was making Danny completely melt and Steve smile sweetly.
“Simon, you can call us whatever you feel comfortable with. Whichever it is, we would love for you to call us that.” Steve reassured while Danny nodded vigorously.
“Awesome!” Simon enthused smiling broadly.
They flew back to Hawaii the next day like they said they would. For once, everything worked out with CPS without a hitch. Simon didn’t have much in the way of clothes, so when they landed, they went clothes shopping first then went home. Simon had been great with everything right up until they almost made it home.
“What if she doesn’t like me?” Simon asked, panicked in the back seat. Danny turned to look at him and noticed that his panic must have been mounting for it to seem this bad.
“Who are you talking about, Kiddo?” Steve asked, trying to figure out what is going on.
“Grace. What if she doesn’t like me? What if she hates me? We both have only ever been a single child but now she has an older brother. I mean, what is having a younger sister even like?” Simon asked, starting to sound out of breath from panic.
“Woah Buddy, slow down. Steve, pull over.” Danny said. Once the car was safely pulled over the both of them turned around to look at Simon. “Simon buddy, listen to me. Grace is going to love you. OK? You guys might not get along at first and you guys will have fights, but that doesn’t mean you guys aren’t going to still love each other. And you guys will protect each other no matter what.”
“Simon, everything is going to be alright. McGarrett’s and William’s may drive each other nuts, but we love each other fiercely. You have nothing to worry about, ok?” Steve said reassuringly.
“Yeah, ok.” Simon said, still freaked out. Danny and Steve glanced at each other before Danny started talking.
“Buddy, we aren’t going to send you away if Grace doesn’t like you.” He said it as firmly and reassuringly as he possibly could. It was the right thing to say, apparently, because Simon looked up sharply and a little confused.
“Really? But…”
“Simon, nothing is going to make us send you away.” Steve said firmly. “Face it, Kiddo, you are stuck with us.” he tried to make it a joke while being completely serious. Either way, it made Simon smile anyway.
The trip back went much smoother from there and the meating between Simon and Grace went off without a hitch. It was actually a little disturbing how fast and how well they got along. That was all six months ago and they are thick as thieves now. Currently, Danny was impatiently tapping his foot in a hospital elevator because Steve was an idiot. Again.
Three weeks ago, Steve disappeared with only a note left to Danny and the kids letting them know that he was recalled by the SEAL’s and he would try to keep in contact. He managed about three calls in the time he was gone to let them know that he was alive and still ok. Danny mostly let the kids talk to him when he did call, so he had a lot to say to the man now that he was no longer in the field. The elevator finally opened and Danny stormed down the hall until he found the right room then he threw the door open. He started ranting while he stormed into the hospital room.
“You stupid, ignorant, idiotic Neanderthal! You are mentally unstable you fucking animal! You know that!? What the hell is the matter with you!?” Danny booms. Belatedly, Danny notices Chin and Kono standing not far from the door and four men in tactical combat gear jump to their feet and go for where their weapons usually were when he stormed in shouting. He completely ignored them and narrowed his eyes to the man half sitting up in the hospital bed. He was shirtless with his chest covered in bandages and half his face bruised.
Steve gave him a bit of a dopey smile, clearly high on drugs, and greeted him warmly. “Hi Danno.”
“NO! Do not ‘Danno’ me right now! You know the rules! I am angry at you and we only use our legal names when we are angry with each other!” Danny yelled at him with fierce hand gestures to match. Steve frowned.
“I tried to call as much as I could, Danny.”
“This isn’t about how often you called, Steven!”
“Oh, so it’s about the note?”
“No, Steven, it’s not about the note. Yes of course it’s about the note! You can’t disappear like that and only leave a note with a promise to call! Have you lost your puny mind!” Danny had moved closer and his flailing arms were close enough that Danny could hit Steve by accident if he wasn’t cautious enough.
“Ok buddy, maybe you should calm down.” One of the tactical guys said stepping a little closer to Danny in case he needed to restrain him. Danny whirled on him making him actually take a nervous step back.
“You! Stay the hell out of this! You and the rest of your men are already in for one hell of a lecture as it is and you do not want to add to that!” Danny whirled back around to Steve. “Steven, we have two children who have both been taken into custody by CPS! In your brilliant plan of only leaving a note and leaving in the middle of the night, did you at all account for the fact that both of our children have abandonment issues and leaving the way you did may have been detrimental to both of them!?”
“Hey, I was very clear in that note that I was coming back and I called and talked to the kids as often as I could.” Steve protested, suddenly feeling really awful for leaving the way he did.
“This is who you kept calling?” One of the men asked while another asked incredulously. “You have two children, Commander?” Steve ignored them both and tried to reach for Danny.
“Danno, I’m always going to come back.” He managed to grasp one of Danny’s hands and pull him down to sit on the edge of the bed.
“But you don’t know that for sure, Steven! You attract chaos and danger just by walking down the street!” Danny sighed deeply, suddenly gripping Steve’s hand in his. “You came home this time, but that may not always be the case. You can’t just disappear like that anymore, Steve. You are needed here, where your family is and your kids.”
“Your right, Danno, and I’m sorry. The note debacle won’t happen again and I will give you and the kids more warning next time.” Steve said softly and reassuringly which made Danny settle down and melt.
“That has to be the fastest I have ever seen Danny cave.” Chin commented with Kono nodding in agreement. The four tactical guys stared at them incredulously.
“That was fast?” One of them asked and Chin and Kono nodded in kind. The doctor came into the room then, interrupting any more conversations that may have occurred. Danny immediately zeroed in on the doctor.
“You.” Danny pointed at the doctor suddenly standing up. “How bad is he?”
“Danno, I’m fine.” Steve protested, but Danny waved him off.
“Steven, you are not fine. If you were fine, you would not be in the hospital in the first place. And no one listen to him. He would tell you having half his origins hanging out from a knife wound was just a flesh wound.” Steve looks a little contrite with that last observation making the tactical men’s jaws drop. They didn’t even know this side of the Commander existed. The doctor looked between everyone a little unsure.
“I’m sorry sir, but I cannot give out that information unless it is to family.”
“He’s my husband.” Steve said, waving the doctor’s worries away.
“Ok. Well, he has six broken ribs and his punctured lung seems to be healing alright. He’s bruised from head to toe, but aside from that, he is doing just fine. We want to keep him here for the next few days to make sure his lung heals properly.” Danny nods his understanding and the doctor left not that long after.
“See, I’m f-”
“Eh!” Danny interrupted with a raised finger. “Six broken ribs!? That’s what you call fine!?” He asked, waving his hands around angrily. Right then, two smallish bodies rushed to the entrance of the door.
“Dad!” “Daddy!” Two voices shouted relief evident in their voice. Grace raced over to the hospital bed while Simon slumped against the door frame for a second.
“Careful Monkey, his chest is really fragile right now.” Danny cautioned while Grace climbed onto the bed with Steve and very carefully hugged him. Steve looked like he was in pain, but he still wrapped Grace in a hug and let her stay where she was.
“Jesus, Dad, you fucking idiot. Are you ok?” Simon said coming over and bracing himself on the bed bar at the end of the hospital bed.
“Language.” Danny, Steve, Chin, and Kono said at once.
“Hey, you guys can scold me when my dad hasn’t been missing for the last three weeks.” Simon snapped back at them.
“I called once a week!” Steve protested.
“And we are very thankful for that but I think we would have been a little less frantic if you had told us what was going on in the first place!” Steve and Danny suddenly looked contemplatively at him.
“How did you and Grace get in here?” Danny suddenly asked.
“Simon, please tell us that you didn’t hack into somewhere and illegally check up on me while I was on a top secret mission with my SEAL team.” Steve said wearily. Simon stood awkwardly and unsure for long enough that both Danny and Steve sighed exasperatedly.
“Simon!” Danny scolded but Simon interrupted him.
“Hey! I only did it when my family was in danger. None of you can take the moral high ground with me when it comes to that.” Danny opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again.
“He’s got you there, Brah.” Kono said snickering with Chin in the background.
“Fine, but we are not done with this conversation.” Danny said pointing a finger at Simon who put his hands up in surrender.
“Though, hang on.” Simon said before he walked up to the tactical guy with some scratches on his face and socked him in the jaw. “What pee-minded idiot stands next to a bomb? I mean, seriously. You are lucky my dad was your commanding officer or else you would be dead right now.” He said while shaking out his hand.
“Simon!” Steve and Danny exclaimed at the same time. The rest of the tactical guys leaned away from him and stared at him with gaping mouths.
“Oh don’t give me that. If this guy wasn’t such an idiot then my Neanderthal father wouldn’t have gotten hurt saving him. Ok, now I will accept any punishment you two deem fit for hacking.” Simon said cheerily.
“Ok, I didn’t believe it at first, but that definitely confirmed it. With respect. Damn, Sir, way to go.” One of the other tactical guys said while the other two snickered at what he said and the sight of the bruise blooming on the guy Simon socked.
“No, this is not funny. Simon, you can not go around punching people. What is the matter with you? You're as bad as your father!” Danny scolded with his hands gesturing about.
“That’s a compliment in my book, Danno. And you can’t say anything, you're almost as bad as he is!” Simon exclaimed back, adding a few emphatic jesters of his own.
“I am not!”
“Yes you are! Dad has been gone three weeks and you have landed in the hospital four times in that amount of time!”
“What?!” Steve shounted, sounding incredulous and concerned. He let go of Grace and tried to sit up more, but Danny, Grace, and Simon gently pushed him back onto the bed.
“Woah, Steve, take it easy. I’m fine, the kids are fine, everyone is alright but you right now.” Danny soothed reassuringly, getting Steve to stop straining himself and lie back on the bed.
“What did you just say, huh? Being in a hospital means that you are not fine, Daniel!” Steve said angry and upset enough to start using Danny’s legal name.
“But I am alright, okay? It was just a couple of grazes, and they were more like scratches than anything else. I probably wouldn’t have even gone to the hospital if Chin and Kono hadn’t over reacted on me and forced me to go.” He reassured leaning in a little more into Steve’s space. Steve tightened his grip on Danny’s hand and brought it up to his lips to kiss.
“I’m the one who does stupid things, remember?” Steve tried to tease, but it didn’t come across that way very well. He sighed deeply before continuing, completely forgetting there were other people in the room with them. “I’m not as strong as you are, Danny. If anything were to happen to you-”
“But nothing did-” Danny tried to interrupt and reassure, but Steve wouldn’t have it and talked over him.
“But if anything did happen to you, I would never be able to come back from that. I chase after bad guys and I do stunts that you don’t like so we can catch the guy, because that means there is one less bad guy that could hurt you and the kids running around free.” Steve told him sincerely, pulling Danny a little closer. Danny was sitting on the bed at this point, close to Steve so Steve cupped Danny’s cheek in his palm while looking deep into Danny’s eyes. His heartfelt confession brought tears to Danny’s eyes. Danny’s breath hitched and he closed his eyes while leaning into Steve’s touch before he leaned back, braking Steve’s grasp.
“I’m going to go ask the doctors some questions.” Danny told him as he stood up. “Hey, watch your dad for me, would yeah?” He asked the kids, who both agreed with a nod. He pats both of them before he leaves the room all together. Steve sank back into his bed with a long sigh.
“I really messed that up, didn’t I?” He asked the kids as they came closer to him and sat down on the bed with him.
“I mean, I wasn’t going to say anything, but…” Simon agreed with a sympathetic sigh. “You okay?”
“As long as you two and Danno are alright, I’m alright.” Steve assured the two kids.
Steve stayed in the hospital for another three days before he was relieved from the hospital. During that time, Danny and the kids came to see him during the visiting hours every day for the entire time. Everyone was rather relieved when he could come home, if only so they didn’t have to be separated from him while he was injured and they could keep an eye on him 24/7 now that he was home.
Things were awkward between Steve and Danny since Steve’s confession in the hospital. They had had several heart to heart conversations over the years, but that one insinuated a lot of romantic feelings that Steve wasn’t sure Danny was ready to hear. He wasn't even home for an entire week before Steve cracked as he couldn’t take the awkwardness any longer.
“I’m in love with you.” Steve bluntly blurted out one day after lunch while the kids were at school. Danny, who had been about to leave the room, immediately stopped, turned around, and walked back into the room with a look of complete bewilderment and surprise.
“What did you just say?” Danny asked, not believing what he was hearing.
“I’m in love with you.” Steve stated again.
“You’re in love with me.” Danny repeated, making sure he understood Steve perfectly.
“Yes.” Steve confirmed.
“How long have you been in love with me?” Danny asked, still not really wrapping this information around his brain.
“Since the first time I saw you with Grace.” Steve reluctantly confessed. Danny was stunned silent for a moment.
“So let me get this straight.” Danny said, adjusting his stance and adding hand movements to his speech. “You’ve been in love with me for years and you were in love with when you suggested we got married and when you helped me with Grace’s custody. Moving us into your house, us sleeping in the same bed. This entire time, you were in love with me?”
“Are you mad?” Steve asked quietly after a resounding silence as he wasn’t really sure what to say to Danny’s question.
“Mad? Yeah I’m Mad!” Danny shouts at Steve. “No, you know what! I’m not mad, mad is too nice of a word for what I am!” As he shouted, he kept coming closer to Steve. “How the hell can you say you love me and the kids when you disappear like that for three weeks! How would you like it if I did that, huh!? How would you feel if the man you loved disappeared completely for three weeks!”
“What did you just say?” Steve asked, straightening up and coming closer to Danny, who was still shouting.
“It was one thing when you left without realizing how it would effect the kids, but to come home and to tell me that you’ve been in love with me this entire time!? How the hell-” Danny was cut off by Steve kissing him. There was a moments where the both of them were frozen at the contact, Danny surprised that Steve was kissing him and Steve scared that he had misread the situation. Then, after an agonizing long second, Danny started to respond. He grasped Steve and deepened the kiss. He pulled away after a while of snogging, still worked up about what they had been talking about. “This does not mean I am done yelling at you.”
“I know, Danny.” Steve assured him, gently tugging him towards the stairs. Danny huffed, but willingly followed him as he claimed Steve’s lips once more.