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Stan:
Stan Edwards never knew that he trusted Danny Williams that much. The man came at him with a gun pointed at his face and kept spouting some kind of nonsense about this being for Gracie; that Danny had to shoot him because there was this guy who was going to kill Gracie otherwise. Not the sort of behavior you'd expect, even from your wife's ex-husband.
Logically, he should have been running, possibly screaming like a little girl. But, instead, he stood still, and asked just one question: "For Grace?"
So he stood there and waited to die for Grace. Because without Grace, well there wouldn't be a great deal to live for.
And it wasn't just because Grace was the light of Rachel's life. It was also because Grace was the light of his life too.
When he married Rachel, Grace named him Step-Stan. Some might have thought that it was an insult, and he knew that when Danny said it, it was. But when Grace said it, she was just giving him a place in her life. This was her Mommy, this was her Danno. And this was her Step-Stan. And she said it like that too, "My Step-Stan". He belonged to Grace, and hadn't even known it until the moment when Danny Williams told him he had to die so that Grace could live. Because when you belong to a little girl, dying for her is not even a question of would you. It's a case of obviously yes.
He didn't know that before. Now he did.
Danny:
It's no secret that Danny did not like Stan Edwards. Who could blame him? Stan was now an integral part of what used to be Danny's family. And Danny, wasn't. Not any more.
And then there was the passing fact that Stan was the reason why Danny had been pulled kicking and screaming away from his family and friends and everything he had ever known and loved. And all so that Danny could only see his baby girl every two weeks, with an occasional meeting in between if Rachel was feeling kind and generous.
Danny had proven that he was willing to do anything for his daughter. So you'd have expected that shooting Stan in the process of saving Grace would be kind of a gift. Turns out, not so much. Hitting Stan, that would have been good. Shooting him? Not when he stood there, quiet and still, not arguing, not fighting, just waiting. Waiting for Danny to kill him.
Not that Danny was actually considering it. While Stan may not have been a perfectly innocent man, he was nothing like the men that Danny shot with impunity. No, Stan was a jerk, but Danny was not going to end him.
Steve:
It wasn't until later that night that Steve realized that Danny had actually had a plan. That he wasn't going to kill Stan. That shooting into the ground by him was actually something he meant to do. Planned to do. It kind of disturbed Steve that he would have taken the kill shot. But that was the difference between Steve and Danny, wasn't it? Steve had been trained to take the kill shots. Danny...hadn't. And perhaps that was why they worked so well together. Danny kept reminding Steve that the kill shot wasn't always necessary, and Steve was always willing to step up and take the kill shot when it was.
Rick:
He'd known, naturally, that Danny's partner and co-workers would attempt to find them. He hadn't known how good they'd be at it. Or that Danny still held a plan to beat him in the end.
And he really hadn't expected Danny to come up and shoot him with such careless disregard for anybody else around. And if he had expected it, he would have thought that Danny's team would have said something .
Turns out, maybe he'd missed a few things about being Danny's partner. Like that loyalty and honor were rewarded. Like how a team can become a family. Like how Grace belonged to all of them. Maybe he should have gone after Rachel.
Stan:
Stan ruminated on the fact that Danny was either a really lousy shot, or a really good one. Lying there in the dirt, with his shoulder attempting to declare independence from the rest of his body, and making a fairly good case for it, he found himself inside a calm bubble; apart from his body, really. Standing outside of what was happening.
And in this bubble, he had the chance to think about the fact that Danny had not only shot him very, very carefully--at least he hoped so--but that Danny had apparently come at this whole thing with a plan that didn't include Stan Edwards in a box.
While Stan still didn't like Danny, he had to admit that this did change Danny's standing in his mind from “utter bastard” to “still a bastard, but with a sense of honor”. Or humor. It was, after all, his right arm that Danny had shot. Dealing with bodily functions was going to be interesting for a while.
Danny:
Shooting Stan's shoulder to knock him down and then carefully shooting into the ground beside his head was the plan. And it went well. Shooting Rick? That was pure gravy.
Steve:
Danny let Steve hold Grace after the initial rush of the rescue was over. Just for a moment, mind you, because there were others who needed to hold her too. But he held her in his arms, soft and solid, and so very alive, and realized that he couldn't imagine a day without knowing that Grace lived, happy and healthy, somewhere in the world. Preferably somewhere as close as possible.
That was a shock, because Steve had honestly thought that any parental tendencies had been boiled out of him somewhere in some 'Stan. But Grace snuck in behind his defenses, and there she was, a part of his soul.
What was he supposed to do now?
Rick:
Well shit. This didn't go at all as planned. Not only did he not get revenge on Danny, but he was going back to jail for the rest of his life. And, to top it all off like a rancid cherry, the bastard had the nerve to tell him, in a brief interview when it was all over, that if he had a chance to do it all over again, he would have shot him a bit higher and to the left.
And that gorgeous babe, Officer Kalasomething, had lectured him all the way to the hospital about how everything was all his fault . He was used to that kind of attitude; but when she started talking about hanging him off a building, or dumping him in a shark cage or maybe even tying him to the hood of the car and driving around with him, he got a bit confused. Where shark cages came in, he wasn't sure. But she was serious. And Rick was worried.
He was even more worried about the big guy with the tats who hadn't spoken to him. The look in that bastard's face was one Rick had only seen in very proficient killers. The kind even he hadn't faced that frequently. Who he was, Rick didn't know. What he was...well that was a different matter. Rick knew exactly what that big guy was. He was death.
And he was waiting.
Stan:
Holding Gracie in his arms again was like spring after a deadly winter. And now that he knew, really knew, who she was to him, Stan felt like he couldn't breathe, and wouldn't be able to ever again. How was he supposed to let her out of his arms? How was he supposed to do anything except hold her and smell her sweet little girl smell and love her until his last breath?
Letting her go so that others who loved her could hold her and kiss her and comfort her as well as themselves with her living, breathing, crying, self was far more difficult than standing there, waiting for Danny to kill him.
Grace and Charlie and Rachel were life. And Stan didn't know if he was going to survive them.
Sure explained a lot about Danny Williams, though.
Danny:
Facing Rachel and telling her how this had come to be was one of the most difficult things he had ever done.
But Rachel wasn't stupid. She probably hadn't forgotten that she was the one who told Danny to do the right thing back in Jersey. She had known that there could be consequences, though, naturally, she most likely wouldn’t ever have imagined this particular scenario. Mind you, with Danny involved, maybe she should have known.
After it was over, after the adrenaline faded, and the emotions settled into exhaustion, he held Gracie close one more time and then let her slip into her mother's arms.
That was the another one of the most difficult things he'd ever done.
Steve:
Taking Danny home was simply the only thing that occurred to him. Holding him close, kissing him gently, then with greater fervor, that came later..
And having Danny cry in his arms? That was ok. It meant that Danny was going to be all right. It was a tired, relieved kind of crying that meant healing. And if Danny needed to be kissed a lot while it was going on, well that was just what had to happen, wasn't it?
One thing he knew, Danny was not going home to any hotel or crap apartment. Danny was home. Now he just had to find a way to tell Danny that.
Rick:
Turns out that salt water on a freshly cleaned and stitched gunshot wound? Hurts like a son of a bitch.
And that Kalasomething bitch? Totally ruthless. If he hadn't been so worried about being eaten by the sharks, he'd have admired her moxie.
They sure did things differently here in Hawaii. He was almost looking forward to spending the rest of his life in jail here.
If he ever saw jail, that was. Damn sharks.