Chapter Text
Steve stood up and left the room. The door slammed behind him.
“You’re stuck in the past, Danny. New Jersey, this, New Jersey that: you’re not in New Jersey any more, Dorothy. Wake up and look at what’s in front of you.” Kono folded her arms and waited a moment. Danny looked at his feet, turning his badge over and over in his hands.
“I’ve blown it, haven’t I?”
“I don’t know.” She sighed. “You need to talk to him. That’s the only way you’ll find out if it’s all fucked up beyond repair.”
Chin had sat silently throughout the whole discussion. “It’s not just about work, you know.”
Danny looked up at that. “What do you mean?”
Chin pushed his chair back and stood. “If you can’t work it out, there’s no point me telling you. Come on, Kono. Someone needs to keep the investigation going.”
Danny remained at the table for a moment before following the cousins out into the hallway. They were leaning over the tech table, a map spread before them on the screen.
“He’s in his office,” Kono said.
“I … I’m going out. I need to take some personal time. Cover for me.” He strode off down the corridor, down the stairs, and out into the car park. Danny climbed into the Camaro, and started the engine. He put the phone on speaker and dialled Rachel.
“Rach, I need to see Grace. Can I collect her, take her for a shave ice? I’ll have her back to you by five.”
She seemed to understand that this was a courtesy rather than a request. “Fine. Five o’clock, no later.”
Danny sat on the beach watching Grace run in and out of the waves.
“Aren’t you coming in, Danno?”
“I’m not as smart as you, monkey, I forgot to pack my swimsuit. You have fun.”
Kamekona lumbered over and slowly lowered himself onto the sand. “What you doing here on a workday, ha’ole?”
“I needed some time out, needed to think, before I did something I might regret.”
“You any wiser for an hour on the beach?”
“I dunno, Kamekona. I’m not in New Jersey any more now, am I?”
The big man looked perplexed, then grinned. “You sure ain’t, and that’s gotta be a good thing. Take a late lunch, sit on the beach, did you do that back in New Jersey?”
Danny shook his head, watching Grace run back into the water.
“Five more minutes, Grace, or your mother’s going to …” His voice trailed off. Kamekona was right. Whatever had brought him out here, however tough things had been in transition, life could be pretty good right now. Rachel wasn’t fighting too much over access to Grace: since having Charlie she seemed pretty busy. He’s finally got an apartment that he wasn’t ashamed of, and work … work would be great if he got his head out of the sand and sorted things out with Steve.
Danny pushed himself up to standing and brushed the sand off his dress trousers. “Come on Gracie. I’m going to drop you back home, then I have something to sort out.”