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“I’m gonna kill him. How am I ever supposed to top that?” Danny yelled, watching as Steve surfed a small wave with Grace perched on his shoulders. “I’m gonna kill him.”
“I’m sure he’ll get what’s coming to him,” Chin said with a laugh. “Karma gets us all the same in the end, brah.”
“I’m gonna run him over with my karma,” Danny grumbled, but he couldn’t help but grin. Even across the beach, he could hear Grace laughing. “And by the time I can get back on a fricken surf board, I’m going to be so behind!”
He meant to continue the banter. He meant it, as he meant most of his complaints, as a joke. But Kono and Chin’s smiles froze, became bitter facsimiles of their originals. Kono’s eyes flicked down to the cast on his leg. Chin looked back out at the ocean. Danny was just glad he was still wearing a t-shirt to protect his New Jersey skin from the sun. It also did a nifty double duty hiding the bruises splashed across his ribs from his daughter and his friends. He sighed.
“Come on, guys,” he said quietly, more serious than before. “It’s a lovely day, we don’t have a case and there’s a breeze and everything. My daughter is having the time of her life, and if she’s never going to look at me the same because I can’t put her on my shoulders while standing on a flimsy board made of whatever you call it, then I guess I can live with that. Stop looking so glum.”
Kono gave him a quick grin, still brittle around the edges, but real enough. Chin cast one more glance at the cast around his leg and then got to his feet, pulling off his shirt. Danny heaved a loud sigh, but before he could start complaining about coworkers who were going to give his daughter a false understanding about easy nudity, Chin said something truly brilliant.
“Well, you’re right then. Someone is going to have to go defend your honor.” And with that, Chin took off running, splashing into the water like some particularly tan, particularly human merman. Danny rolled his eyes. He was almost glad for the broken leg, if only because it meant he didn’t have to try to pass as a connoisseur of water sports in front of his daughter. On a good day it was difficult. Next to Super Seal Steve McGarret and his merry band of island brahs, it was impossible.
It was particularly gratifying at the moment, however, because Chin Ho Kelly was the only person, likely in the world, who could tackle Steve McGarrett with enough finesse to achieve maximum fun-induced squeals and minimum terror from Danny’s daughter.
“You know, the first time I went surfing, Chin was carrying me on his shoulders like that,” Kono said. “It was unbelievable, you know? The pull of the water and the power of the waves. It’s even better when you’re riding the board yourself.”
Danny couldn’t help but grin. There was something really great about watching Kono talk about surfing. But she sounded like such…well, such an island hippie, he couldn’t help being amused too.
“What?” Kono demanded when she turned to look at him. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
He was saved from answering by his daughter running out of the water, followed by Chin and Steve who were ribbing each other and laughing as they fought over pulling the surfboard out of the water.
“Danno! Danno! Did you see?” And god save him, but that was the one voice, at the one perfect pitch of innocent happiness that he ever wanted to hear.
“I did, monkey! It looked awesome.” Grace slowed as she reached him, and that more than anything else that had happened during the day made anger and frustration spike in his gut. He winced as he leaned up in his chair, but he did it by himself, and he was able to throw a towel around his daughter’s shoulders and pull her in for a hug, and that was more important than being tackled any day. Something must have showed on his face though, because Chin and Steve had stopped messing around, and Steve’s face had morphed into what Danny had called his “I’ve Just Run Through the List of Things in My Pocket and Realized I’m Not Emotionally Equipped for This” face.
It was late in the afternoon, still warm, but the sun was looking like it was thinking about setting and Grace was starting to shiver in the breeze. The day was winding down and Danny had just about finished the beer propped up in the sand next to his beach chair. He tried to feel his way back to earlier mindless peace.
“Hey Gracie, why don’t you and I go inside and get cleaned up, maybe take a shower. You don’t want to be all sandy while we eat, right?” Kono said, standing up to take Grace’s hand. Grace nodded at her. Normally, this would be the moment where she start firing off questions and describing her day, but for some reason she found Kono intimidating. He thought his daughter could admire way worse people than a kick ass cop who also happened to be incredibly sweet, but he had to admit he found the choice confusing, considering Steve’s tattoos, height, and general “I hid grenades in your dad’s glove compartment,” demeanor. Still, Grace took Kono’s hand and went back inside the McGarrett house. Chin and Steve waited until she’d disappeared inside before the held out their arms so Danny could get enough leverage to pull himself up.
Once he was standing, Chin dropped his arm and started picking up towels and beer bottles. “I’ll just get this stuff inside. Kono and I bought groceries on our way over, so if you think you can trust us with your food, we’ll take care of dinner.”
“I’m sure it’ll be better than whatever MRE shit Steve usually cooks up for himself,” Danno grumbled, jerking his thumb at Steve, who was still holding him upright. Chin rolled his eyes as he headed inside.
“I can cook things besides MREs. You know that. You’ve had my cooking. You’ve enjoyed my cooking,” Steve said quietly as he helped Danny hop his way back into the house. He had a crutch under one arm but they were pretty useless in the sand. Danny could hear the smile in Steve’s voice, even though Steve was behind him, with an arm under his elbow.
“Possibly all a hallucination,” Danny grumbled. “And for the record,” he started to reprimand, but as he turned, he caught his broken leg on the edge of the stoop and the immediate shock of pain sent him reeling so far off balance that he fell backwards onto his ass. The sudden shock to his ribs was so immediately blindingly painful that he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t hear, couldn’t see.
“Danny, come on, just breathe through it. You can do it Danny.” Steve’s voice floated up through the cloud of pain stuck in his ears like sand. “Come on, Danno, I know it hurts, but you can do it. Just breathe.” Slowly, slowly, the pain subsided, his breath evened out from short pants to longer, fuller intakes. He became aware of Steve’s grip on his arm, Steve’s hand on his neck, his forehead resting on Steve’s collar bone.
“Alright, alright,” Danny said hoarsely, gripping at Steve’s shirt where he’d apparently grabbed on his way down. “We can do this. I can stand up again. I just have to get into the house, right? Into the house, onto the couch, and then I don’t have to move for pretty much ever, right? Right.”
“That’s right, Danno,” Steve said softly. “Talk through the pain.” He patted Danny’s neck lightly, and then pulled back a little.
“Talk through the pain,” Danny coughed, indignantly. “Talk through the pain, he says. Alright super SEAL. You get me up and then we’ll talk about talking through the pain.”
“I got you, Danno,” Steve said, smiling. He folded Danny’s arms across his chest, over one of the pillows from the deck chairs, helped him bend his good leg until his foot was flat on the ground. “Alright. You just hold on, let me do all of the work.”
“A surprising turn of events,” Danny muttered, but he did as Steve instructed, and when Steve gripped him under his arms and pulled him up, he did his best not to tense. Still, the pain flared up from where it had receded and by the time Danny was upright again, he was panting.
“Ah, I’m sorry Danny,” Steve said quietly, while Danny leaned against him. Danny could hear the tone in his voice, the weight of his apology. He could practically feel the guilt radiating from Steve McGarrett’s stupid, puppy dog face.
“Don’t you dare,” Danny said through gritted teeth, his forehead pressed against Steve’s shoulder while he waited to wrest his balance back from the pain pulsating through is ribs. “Don’t you dare apologize. You came and got me. And you killed the bastard. And it took all of an hour. So don’t. You. Dare.”
He could feel the heavy sigh in Steve’s chest, but his pronouncement was followed by what he’d call deferential silence for now. When he got his grip back together, they started inside, and made it to the couch without further incident. Grace was sitting on the floor by the coffee table coloring. Danny sunk back into the kitchen and took a deep breath before he spoke.
“Whatcha got there monkey?” he said, watching as she colored. She didn’t seem to notice his fall, at least, or she figured he was fine. Kono and Chin were in the kitchen, talking quietly while they cooked and the sun had finally started his descent. Danny was staying with Steve until he healed, and Steve had fixed up the guest room for Grace. Even though he was still in a lot of pain from his stupid stumble, that sense of peace from earlier was starting to come back.
“Just coloring the ocean,” Grace answered sweetly. “I’ll show you when I’m done.”
“Awesome, monkey. I can’t wait.”
A glass of water, and a hand with three ibuprofen in it appeared in front of his face. As he swallowed the pills and down half the glass of water, Steve came and sat next to him.
“Kono and Chin won’t let me help in the kitchen, so you’re going to have to put up with me for a little while longer,” Steve said, before he plopped a box on the table. “Hey Gracie, I found something upstairs you might like.”
Grace reached forward for the box, waiting until Steve nodded before she opened it. Inside the shoe box were about a million and a half crayons. Some of them were broken, and some were missing their paper, but there were plenty more than the box of 64 color that she kept in Danny’s apartment.
“Thanks!” she said brightly, grinning as she grabbed about four more different shades of blue to add to her picture. Danny could only imagine that it had something to do with the ocean, given her day. The level of detail given to the color of the ocean could only be attributed to Kono, who had an appreciation for the sea rivaled only by Steve. Danny turned to look at his partner, only to find him smiling indulgently as he watched Grace color.
“Hey Steve,” he said, quietly, when Grace was distracted. Steve looked away from her to meet Danny’s gaze. “Thanks.” He hoped it conveyed everything - the sounds of family, the bright, tired smile on his daughter’s face, the way the ache in his ribs was fading more every moment, even the delicious smells coming from the kitchen, which should rightfully be attributed to Kono and Chin. “Just, thanks,” he added.
Steve looked back at him with the kind of utterly sincere expression only Steve could manage.
“No problem, Danno,” he said. “Like I said, I got you.”