Work Text:
Danny paced.
He watched the clock. Then paced some more.
It was 4am.
He had checked the hospital, the office, he’d even checked the drunk tank.
Where the hell was Steve.
Danny had expected to find him at home. He’d watched him storm out of the office not long after their ‘discussion’ about Grace. Sure it hadn’t really been storming out in the truest sense of the word. But in Danny’s knowledge of all things McGarrett, the single minded, laser focused stare one foot in front of the other march, was definitely storming out in that playbook.
So Danny had taken his time. Left work at the usual time. Drove home, even picked up the organic chocolates Steve liked on the way home as an apology.
He didn’t mean to doubt Steve, he honestly didn’t, but he couldn’t bear to see Steve hurting. He didn’t want to see him hurting the same way that he was himself. He couldn’t let that happen. It had been bad enough watching him recover from the accident that had almost taken his life. So if he had to discourage him now then he would do that.
Danny thumbed at a number on his phone, a number he really didn’t want to call. If he called this number and Steve was there he wasn’t sure if he would cope. But, there didn’t appear to be any choice left to him. He wanted, needed, Steve to be safe and since the accident he had been anything but. He was reckless and emotional. He was like a spring slowly unwinding and it was going to kill him when he unwound.
Watching the clock tick over to 4.14am he finally pressed the call button. Waiting impatiently, he paced back and forth, five rings, then six, until finally a sleepy voice answered the phone.
“Danny?” Cath’s sounded confused. “Is something up? Is Steve ok?”
“You tell me?” Danny answered cryptically.
“I haven’t seen him for two weeks, Danny.”
“He isn’t there?” Danny asked quickly.
“No. Give me some credit.” Cath sounded hurt. “I wouldn’t do that to you.”
“I’ve fucked up Cath.” Danny sank onto the couch. “we had an acrimonious discussion and now he hasn’t come home.”
“He’ll come home, Danny. Sometimes he just needs to think.” Cath suggested gently. “Don’t give up on him, Danny.”
Danny disconnected the call, before dropping his phone on the coffee table and walking out into the yard.
He suddenly realized why Steve was so upset with him. Steve thought he was giving up on Grace, pushing her away so that it stopped hurting so much. But that wasn’t the case at all. He loved his Grace, he loved his monkey more than he loved his own life. But he had to wait for her to wake on her own. He couldn’t do that by wishing her back to consciousness. He just had to wait. But he couldn’t let Steve hope too much; he had lost so much already, he had to protect himself, just in case, even if Danny had to do it for him.
Walking back into the house, he rushed to the phone as it starting to vibrate across the coffee table.
“Steven?” he spoke without even checking the caller ID.
“I’m sorry, Sir.” A woman’s voice answered. “I’m Leilani, I’m a desk clerk at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.”
Danny frowned. “Why are you calling me?”
“We have Commander McGarrett here, we were wondering if you could come and collect him.”
“Is he alright?” Danny asked as he picked his keys off the coffee table.
“He’s quite intoxicated Detective, and he seems to be quite depressed.” Leilani answered softly.
“I’ll be there in ten minutes. Thank you so much for calling me.” Danny spoke as he started the Camaro.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Six minutes later, courtesy of his lights, Danny pulled into the HHV driveway parking his car untidily at the kerb and jumped out to jog up to the counter.
“Leilani?” he asked as he waved his badge at the counter.
“Detective Williams?” a beautiful young Hawaiian woman asked. “He’s just around here.” She came out from behind the counter and led him around the corner.
“I’m sorry if he’s disturbed anyone.” Danny apologized.
“It’s alright, Detective, we all know about your little girl and the commanders accident, we all know how hard it is for all of you, there is no apology necessary.” Leilani put a hand on Danny’s forearm to stop him as she stopped, “He’s just there.” She pointed towards the figure huddled on a rock wall. “He’s been sitting there for hours, he was quite drunk when he arrived, but he’s been talking to that little guy since he sat there. They all usually go in at night, but that little one has refused to move, he just sits there and watches the Commander.”
“I’ll make sure he moves along.” Danny nodded.
“No rush Detective, we just didn’t want to upset the Commander.” Leilani answered. “I’ll leave you to it.”
Danny waited for Leilani to walk back to her post, before he walked down the path, staying in the shadows on the far side away from Steve. He smiled briefly as he saw the small penguin sitting on a rock in the middle of the pool, his little head tilted to the side as he listened to Steve.
“…love that little girl. I know she’s waking up. No one believes. I need her to wake up. I love her daddy so much. I just want my family back, you know? Is it too much to ask? We would have been happy. That’s the whole problem isn’t it, I shouldn’t be happy.”
Tears lodged in Danny’s throat as he listened to Steve’s broken words. He could see the tracks of Steve’s tears in the silvery moonlight. He couldn’t stand there any longer. He stepped forward and slipped his arms around Steve’s waist.
“Steve, I’m so sorry. Can you forgive me?” He pressed a kiss to the back of Steve’s neck.
“You’re the one that should be forgiving me, D.” Steve murmured “I’ve stolen everything from you and I don’t know how to get it back.”
“She’ll come back, babe, we just need to give her some time.” Danny answered somberly. “I don’t doubt she’ll be back, but she might be different babe. No one knows. But never doubt that I know she’ll be back.”
“I wasn’t going to come home tonight.” Steve relaxed back into Danny’s body. “I was going to wait until sunup to visit Gracie. They made me leave. Said it wasn’t healthy for me to be there all the time, I figured you didn’t want me near her. I stayed away I didn’t think you wanted me near you either.”
Danny pulled Steve back against him, his arms wrapping around Steve’s waist, his chin nuzzling against Steve’s shoulder for a long moment, before he broke the embrace and stood, extending a hand to his partner.
“C’mon we’re going to see our little girl and then we’re going home to bed.”