Autumn's Lullaby - Hawaii 5-0 BB part 3
Steve pulled out of the parking lot for the video store and turned towards home after a few minutes of deliberating. He still needed some food for the barbeque that night, particularly since there were going to be two extra people attending but decided to hold off on grocery shopping, as Danny was the one who would be making the sides that hadn’t been prepped yet. And really, who knew what Danny needed yet from the store. Especially since Danny hadn’t deemed fit to tell him what he was planning on making.
The video store was barely five minutes away from the house in good traffic. However, when he hit the street before his own, traffic congestion had picked up. He was one intersection from his turn when a couple of fire trucks and an ambulance flared to life behind him. He pulled over and watched them pass before checking for any further emergency vehicles that might be coming yet. Not seeing any, he sat through a second red and then made his way up to his turn.
When he made the turn, however, he found himself blocked by one of the fire trucks. He leaned out the window and frowned when he saw the other fire truck and the ambulance parked in front of his house. His eyes followed the water hose and gaped at the charred siding of his house, “Jesus…”
Steve put the truck into reverse and backed up enough so he could park on the side of the road then jumped out of the truck and ran down the street. He saw Grace standing with Mandy Johnson and went to her first, “Gracie? Sweetheart, are you okay? What happened?”
Grace threw herself into Steve’s arms, “I’m okay, but I think something’s wrong with Danno.”
“Why’s that?” Steve asked, as he swung Grace up into his arms. He glanced up at Mandy, “Thanks. I got her.”
Grace wrapped her arms around Steve’s neck, “He was coughing pretty hard. He and JJ are over by the ambulance. Said he breathed in smoke.”
Steve swore silently. Barely two months had passed since Danny had had the run in with the sarin and the doctor had said at the last check in that while his lungs were almost back to normal, there were things that could set back the progress such as getting a major cold or the flu. If Danny breathed in smoke from what was apparently a fire…Steve turned and walked over to the ambulance.
Danny was sitting on the back of the ambulance, an oxygen mask over his face. JJ was nestled in his arms, kicking at the underside of his arm and waving around a small, stuffed Piglet that was clutched in his hand, “Danno…” was all that he managed to get out. His arms clenched around Grace in an attempt to keep from pulling the man up into his arms and kissing him senseless.
Danny looked up at Steve and rolled his eyes, “er in.”
Steve raised an eyebrow, “Sorry?”
Danny huffed and pulled the mask away from his face, “We’re fine.”
The paramedic attending to Danny and JJ sighed and pushed the hand holding the mask back down, “Keep it on, detective,” She looked up at Steve, “He is right though. The baby barely inhaled any smoke thanks to Detective Williams’ quick thinking, but we do want to take the Detective in and have a couple of tests done. He was coughing pretty hard. It won’t take but an hour or two, since we just want to make sure because of his history. I’m fairly positive that the doctors won’t find anything.”
Steve took a shuddery breath and just nodded. This was not something he was expecting to come home to after a simple run to the video store. He hugged Grace a little tighter to his chest and reached out and ran a finger along JJ’s cheek before running his hand through Danny’s hair, smoothing down some of the wayward strands, “I’m going to go call Chin. I want the bastard that did this.”
Danny stared up at him before nodding. Steve tweaked the hair his fingers were threaded through before turning and stepping away from the ambulance and the noise it was making.
Grace squirmed in his arms, “I wanna stay with Danno.”
“I’m not going far, Gracie. Just a few feet. I need to be able to hear Uncle Chin. I’ll stand where you can see Danno, okay?”
Grace just nodded and laid her head on his shoulder. Steve pressed a kiss to the top of her head before digging his phone out of his pocket and hitting three on the speed dial.
“What’s up, brah? Backing out of dinner already? Or you want me to come over and get Danny out of the kitchen?”
“Neither. This is work related.”
Steve could practically hear Chin straighten to attention through the phone, “What’s the sitch?”
“Someone started a fire outside of my house. I wasn’t home but Danny was here. He ended up inhaling smoke when he went in to get JJ. Side of the house is wrecked. An accelerant had to have been used to cause so much damage this quickly. I haven’t got a close look yet. That’s just what I saw walking over to the ambulance,” It occurred to Steve then that Chin had no idea who JJ was, but his teammate didn’t seem fit to ask, most likely due to the urgency in Steve’s voice.
“All right. I’ll give Kono a call, have her meet me there. Give me twenty minutes.”
“Sounds good,” Steve hung up and walked back to the ambulance, where they were getting ready to load Danny into the back, “I have to put you down for a minute, Grace, so I can take JJ.”
“K,” She slithered out of his arms and then looked up at Danny. Her eyes followed the mask down to the machine it was attached to before following it back up, “You’ll be okay, Danno?”
Danny handed JJ to Steve, who took a step back and watched as Danny knelt down while tugging the mask away from his mouth, “I’ll be fine, promise. Danno loves you, okay?”
“Me too,” Grace said, giving Danny a careful hug.
Danny replaced the mask and stood up before turning to Steve, who gave a small smile, “I’ll meet you there. I’m going to wait for Chin and Kono,” Steve said.
Danny nodded and, after running his hand over the top of Grace’s head, climbed into the back of the ambulance. Steve backed away to allow the ambulance doors to close. Danny waved once more as the door shut and the ambulance pulled away.
Grace leaned against Steve’s hip, “You should call mom.”
Steve looked down at the top of her head and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, “I should?”
“Yeah,” Grace nodded, “You’re gunna need her to take me an’ JJ while you catch the bad guy that did this.”
“That, Grace, is a good idea,” Steve winced then as a stray thought came to him, “She’s going to throw a fit.”
Grace looked up at him, “Why?”
“Because you were put into danger, honey. She’s going to be worried,” Steve just hoped it wasn’t to the point that she’d try to pull custody away from Danny again.
While Rachel wasn’t thrilled about the events that had happened, she agreed to pick up the two kids. She arrived before Chin and Kono and whisked the kids away, after assuring Steve that she wasn’t going to do anything about the custody. She understood that this wasn’t their fault and instead told him to catch the bastards that had put her baby in danger.
Glad that he didn’t have kids with him, which oddly enough made him feel very selfish to think about, he walked up to the side of the house. The fire couldn’t have been going on for very long, he himself had only been gone twenty minutes at the most, but the damage that had been done was astounding.
There was a black patch on the wall that went all the way up to the sill of JJ’s window and was a good four feet wide at the bottom along the ground. It was obvious where the fire had been the hottest, even if the fire remains weren’t still on the ground weren’t proof enough. There were places, in an almost straight line down from the window, that had holes burned straight through the walls.
Steve turned away from the wall and took several deep breaths. He could not believe how close he had come to losing his son and Grace as well. It was just an additional something to be grateful to Danny for.
“Woah.”
Steve looked up and saw that Chin and Kono had finally arrived. The cousins were staring at the house in dismay. Neither of them knew about JJ other than a vague reference made to Chin, however, so the looks were aimed towards the fact that Steve’s house had been targeted along with the damage and not that his son could have been killed, “Let’s get started.”
Because it was a personal attack on Steve, Chin and Kono seemed to throw themselves into the case wholeheartedly. They collected what they could from the fire site before Steve sent Chin to the lab with the evidence. He and Kono went to talk to the neighbors and canvas the neighborhood.
While Steve talked to the old man that lived across the street and a house over, Kono looked around for places that the arsonist could have watched the house from and that was in direct line of sight of the fire site and the garage. Steve thanked his neighbor, who hadn’t seen anything, and was heading over to the next house when Kono called him over.
There was a set of bushes in a near direct line from the fire, with a nice little niche at the corner of three of them. At the base of the bushes, there was a pile of cigarette butts. Kono grinned up at Steve, “You want to know the one good thing about cigarettes?”
Steve grinned back sharply, “DNA,” He nodded and handed her a glove and bag before looking at his watch, “Get those to the lab. I have to go get Danny.”
~~
Danny looked up as Steve walked into the exam room he had been holed up in for the last two hours, “I’m fine. There was no damage done.”
“That’s good,” Steve said, “We found some evidence. Kono and Chin are getting that processed. Some ashes from the fire and a nice pile of cigarettes Kono is hoping to pull some DNA off of.”
“DNA is good. I like DNA,” Danny frowned, “How do we know it’s not just from some neighbor of yours that has been sneaking out of the house and hiding smokes away from the missus?”
Steve shrugged and dropped down onto the bed next to Danny, practically glued to his side, “That’s what the DNA is for. I’m being optimistic though, given that there was a direct line of sight to the side of the house from where we found the pile of butts.”
Danny grunted and kicked his foot, “Where are the kids?”
“Grace suggested calling Rachel since she knew we were going to go after the bad guys.”
Danny nodded, “Smart kid, that girl of mine,” He paused and a worrisome thought crossed his mind, “Did Rachel say anything?”
“Well,” Steve said, slowly, “She chewed me up one side and down another about it, but told me to inform you that she’s not going to pull the same stunt that she did after the football game.”
Danny let out a sigh of relief, “One less thing to worry about then. Remind me to thank her later.”
The doctor came in just after that and released him, telling him to take it easy and try to avoid running and heavy lifting, anything that would cause exertion on his lungs. Steve assured the doctor that he would keep Danny from doing work that would require running when the doctor shot him a stern look. Danny gave his partner a smug little grin before sliding off the bed.
Once they left, and swung through a drive through to pick up food for the four of them which was not an easy task on the Fourth of July, they headed back to headquarters. When Kono caught sight of them walking in through the door, she started waving at them to join her at the table, “The guy who smoked these cigarettes? Has a record. His DNA was already in the system.”
Danny snorted, “Convenient that. And just what is this mystery person in the system for?”
“A link to a weapons trafficking scheme that never panned out. But,” She frowned, “There is one more thing.”
Danny looked to where Kono was pointing. That tenuous link to the trafficking scheme was as an arms dealer. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together with Steve’s history, “Shit.” His eyes flew to Steve, who was staring at the screen with his hands clenched into fists.
“Steve, he’s not on the list of known associates,” Danny said, trying to calm the man down. Steve turned haunted eyes his way and Danny had to bite back a string of swearwords. Steve hadn’t had that look in his eyes in months and he wanted to punch whoever this bastard was for putting the look back.
“Hesse was the only major arms dealer I dealt with to the degree of making enemies. I was after him for years, Danny, before I left the SEALs. He was a huge deal in arms dealing. It really could be anyone, but I bet this guy is someone close to Hesse,” Steve nearly growled at himself at the senseless rambling before stalking off to his office.
Danny watched him go before looking at Kono, who was staring at Steve’s office door with wide eyes, “I’ll talk to him after he calms down. Now, about this guy…”
“Roger Wells,” Kono supplied helpfully, after tearing her gaze from the closed door.
“Right. This Wells guy. He a native to the island or did he fly in?”
Kono bit her lip and popped Wells’ personal info up, “Well, he’s not native. His license is based out of North Dakota so he would have had to fly in but I can’t seem to find him on any of the passenger logs. He could have come in under a false name but to scan back on security videos for a match is going to take some time. I’ll have to grab Chin when he gets back but I’ll work on the alias angle until he gets here.”
Danny nodded, “Sounds good.”
Deciding that Steve had had enough time to broad over whatever it was that was bothering him, Danny went to Steve’s office and walked right in without knocking, “All right, what’s going on?”
Steve, who had been sitting at the desk with his head on his hands, looked up at Danny, “Why did I take him?”
Danny’s forehead wrinkled as he squinted in confusion, “Who? JJ?”
Steve sighed, “I knew it was a bad idea. The first thing I thought of when Catherine asked me to take him was about my house being shot up and about the break in when the toolbox was stolen. How did I ever think I could keep JJ safe?”
Danny’s eyebrows shot up as a bit of understanding dawned, “Is that was this is about?” Danny slid down into the chair across from Steve’s, “Steve, every single cop that is a father or mother has these fears. It doesn’t matter if that cop is a seasoned detective or a rookie street cop starting out with their FTO. You have the worry that something is going to come after your kids in payback for something you did. It dogs every parent in the criminal justice field.
“This is just a case of bad timing. I got him out of the house before anything happened to him and we will catch this guy as soon as possible, find out what’s really going on. As for keeping JJ safe? You have your gun in the lockbox under the bed, you have the new security system on the house, and a camera set to pan the beach at night. I don’t know how much safer you can make it. This was just a huge fluke.”
Steve nodded slowly and leaned back, “I know you’re right and I have you as an example. You just make it look so simple with Grace, like you don’t have any worries.”
“Oh, I have a ton of worries. I just learned to compartmentalize it all. Otherwise, Grace would never leave the house and I’d have like, fifty locks on the doors and windows. Especially since I know what’s out there.”
Steve looked like he wanted to add to that, but someone knocked on the door. Danny turned around and saw Chin standing in the window, waving a sheet of paper. Both he and Steve stood up and walked out, following Chin back to the computer table, “So?” Danny asked.
“There was an accelerant used but it was just acetone. Acetone can be bought at any hardware store, so that’s not going to be any help. We’ll have to do it the long way and scour the airport security cameras,” Chin said, “Kono and I will do that.”
Danny nodded thoughtfully, “I want to go through the stolen vehicle reports. If this guy is trying to stay low-key enough to go under a false name, that’s possibly gunna be one of the key ways he is getting around Honolulu. He’ll want to stay off the radar which means the chances of him using public transport are slim.”
“We’ll check those as well,” Steve hit a few buttons on the computer table and sent a copy of the driver’s license to the printer, “Let’s go Danny.”
~~
Danny’s hunch had been right, at least in the sense that he wasn’t using buses and taxis. At Steve’s insistence, they had stopped at the main buildings for the different taxi companies as well as the city bus depot. They started at about three hours before the fire as a baseline for when the man would have been traveling. They had talked to all of the drivers who worked during that time, but all agreed that the man did not look familiar at all. While it was possible he was under disguise as well, they decided to check stolen vehicles before they started to Photoshop the photo for different hair colors and styles.
The list of stolen vehicles for the last week totaled out at twenty five cars that had been reported. Steve had shaken his head in bewilderment, “Twenty five stolen cars. Let’s hope that Chin and Kono find something on their end, because looking for these cars will take forever and that’s even if he stole a car in the first place.”
A few seconds after Steve stopped talking and before Danny could formulate a response or think up another idea or angle, Steve’s phone started ringing, “Speak of the devil.”
“We found him. We used the time stamp and followed him out of the airport. He used an airport shuttle that goes downtown. It was kind of grainy but his hair was darker and he was wearing a baseball cap and glasses. We wouldn’t have gotten him at all if we hadn’t used the facial recognition software.”
“All right. Get me a copy of what he looked like and try to get the number off of the shuttle. We’ll take a trip out to the airport.”
“On its way, boss.”
Steve relayed the message to Danny on the way out to the car. Danny thanked God that their teammates had found something for them to work with. It took twenty minutes to get across town and during the drive, Chin had relayed the information to Danny’s phone. Steve had scowled at that, but Danny pointed out that Steve was driving and Danny certainly did not trust him enough to look at email while going down the highway at fifty miles an hour.
At the airport, it took almost another twenty minutes to get the name of the driver for the particular shuttle that had carried their suspect downtown that day. Given that it had been a week and that drivers switched to different shuttles every shift, the manager had had to dig through piles of loose papers looking for the particular driver log needed.
Of course, the way their luck was going, the driver they were looking for was off shift which meant getting an address and phone number as well. Danny called the man as they were walking out and, thankfully, the guy was home and was willing to talk to them.
“Yeah, yeah, I remember him. He was a cocky asshole, wanting me to stop where there was no shuttle stops on the route. I think he started around Seaside Ave and kept at it till we passed it. Kept saying he would pay a big tip if I did,” The guy said, handing Danny his phone back.
“Do you remember where he got off?” Steve asked.
The guy’s face twisted up in thought, “Holiday Inn stop another street up. Thought that was kinda weird, ya know, given that he kept offering me that big tip. I guess he could’ve back tracked to wherever it was he wanted to go.”
Danny nodded, “He could’ve, but you gave us a starting point. Thank you for your help.”
They started down the steps and just as they hit the bottom, Steve turned back around, “One more thing. Do you have a map of your route from that day?”
“Sure, sure, hang on a sec.”
Map in hand, Steve called Chin as they started to the hotel, “I got the route from the airport to the hotel for the shuttle. See if you can use the traffic cams and back track from the Holiday Inn along Kalakaua Ave. The driver remembered him because he kept trying to get off by Seaside which isn’t a stop on the route.”
“You think he backtracked somewhere?”
“Seems likely. We’re going to check at the Holiday Inn just in case, but I’m not expecting anything,” Steve replied.
“All right, I’ll see what I can find. I’ll call you back.”
Steve hung up the phone and turned onto Kalakaua Avenue. Danny looked at Steve with a frown. They were actually getting further on this case faster than they did with their normal cases, which was understandable, but Steve was clenching his teeth like he did for a case that ran longer than a week. It was actually kind of worrisome but Danny couldn’t think of anything to say to relax him. Nor did he want to say the wrong thing and start a fight. While he actually enjoyed their bantered arguments that seemed to accompany almost every car ride, he knew if he tried that now, it wouldn’t be bantering. Not with the way Steve’s veins were trying to crawl out of his skin.
The hotel didn’t help. It was a bust, just like they thought it would be, but Danny had actually had a small bit of hope when they had walked into the Holiday Inn. As they walked back out, Danny felt somewhat wrung out. If he felt that way, he couldn’t imagine what Steve was going through.
“We need to take a break, Steve.”
Steve grimaced but nodded with a sigh, “Yeah. We can’t do anything until Chin calls anyway.”
“Chinese? We can take it back to Rachel’s, see the kids.”
Steve just nodded again and started the truck. Steve agreeing was actually something of a shock to Danny because, not only were they actually taking a break, but the only Chinese place they really enjoyed was at the shopping lot across from Steve’s. That would mean heading out to the house and then back tracking again to Rachel’s. It really showed how worried Steve was about the case that he did agree without thinking about it.
Steve pulled out of the lot and turned left to make his way to the nearest street that would take them up to the highway. He barely made it the equivalent of a block before Danny saw a familiar face, “Steve, stop the truck.”
“What?”
“Pull over!”
Steve barely had the truck pulled into one of the thankfully empty parking spots along the side of the road when Danny threw open the door, “I think I just saw Wells.”
Danny slid out of the truck and pulled his gun from his holster. After he checked to make sure Steve was behind him, Danny started jogging down the sidewalk, looking for the red t-shirt and white baseball hat combination that he had spotted on the man that looked like Wells.
After a minute or so, Danny found him again outside of one of the streets many stores. He glanced over his shoulder, “Steve?”
“Got him,” Steve dodged around Danny and ran towards their suspect, “Roger Wells!”
Wells looked right at Steve, swore loud enough for Danny to hear, before he turned and took off running down the street with Steve on his tail. Wells ducked into a shop that had its door open and Steve followed him in. Danny, on the spur of the moment, went past the store and around the corner, finding the back door to the store.
When the backdoor opened, Danny made a quick glance to make sure it was a red shirt and not Steve’s customary black before sticking his foot out and tripping the man. Wells fell to the ground with a grunt, Steve nearly tripping over him as he barreled out the back door.
Steve dropped to his knees and pressed one of them into Wells’ back, long enough for him to stow away his gun and pull out his cuffs. Steve told him he was under arrest and gave him the Miranda, which had Danny puffing up with pride. It seemed like his man was finally learning.
When he was certain Steve had Wells in control, Danny fished out his phone to call in for a cruiser.
However, before he could press a button, a quick glimpse of a sign had him doing a double take, “Steve, get him up. We don’t need to wait for a cruiser.”
“What?” Steve looked up and followed Danny’s finger when the man pointed over his shoulder, “Honolulu P.D…that’s convenient.”
~~
Steve and Danny stood at the window to their interrogation room at headquarters, watching as Chin and Kono talked Wells into confessing. Steve had wanted to be the one to talk to Wells, but Danny had vetoed that quickly enough. He hadn’t wanted to take any chances on them getting this man put away. Steve understood what Danny meant, that Steve’s anger and personal feelings towards the man could jeopardize the case if he got carried away, but he wasn’t thrilled about it.
“Did you know that there was a six week old infant asleep in the house when you started that fire? There was also an eight year old girl watching TV.”
Wells face went white, “I didn’t know! I swear I didn’t.”
“Well, we have no proof that you didn’t know,” Chin said, leaning forward over the table, manfully not showing the surprise he was still feeling from Danny’s revelation an hour prior, “That’s attempted homicide right there. Especially since you started the fire right under the nursery window. That will go along great with the arson charge.”
“Look, man, can’t you cut me a deal?”
Chin hummed thoughtfully, “Well, that depends on what you offer me. I could drop the attempted homicide to reckless endangerment if you give me something good. Tell me who hired you.”
“I wasn’t hired by anybody. I was getting revenge on McGarrett.”
“Why?”
“He cut off my line of supply, man. I was making good money of the stuff I got from Hesse. When I heard that McGarrett was the one to put him behind bars, I figured a little payback was in order.”
“So you were gunna burn his house down? You figured that to be a viable revenge plan?”
Wells shrugged but didn’t respond.
“All right.” Chin stood up and walked out, Kono trailing behind him. He looked at Steve and Danny, “He’ll be extradited out to North Dakota after his trial here for the arson. I don’t think they’ll keep him here, given his connection with Hesse.”
Steve nodded. He figured that was going to be the case, “I’m going to be there when they fly him out.”
Danny and Chin exchanged a look, “That’s not really a surprise,” Danny said, clapping Steve on the shoulder, “Here’s an idea,” Danny continued quickly, changing the subject, “How about we talk to Rachel about keeping the kids tonight, let her have the big fireworks with them? We can stop and get dinner then swing by the Home Depot, pick up supplies to fix those holes until you can call in a contractor, and you are going to call a contractor so help me God. We can have the barbecue tomorrow? Grace would love to have fireworks two days in a row.”
“Yeah, brah. It’ll be a good way to celebrate solving this case,” Chin said, nodding.
Kono grinned, but her face held a pinched look, “I still can’t believe it took the case to tell us you’re a dad now, boss.”
Steve rolled his eyes, “You would have found out tonight anyway. Let it go, Kono.”
~~
Epilogue
~~
Steve looked up from the grill Chin had brought, his being too small to cook for nine people, when he heard Grace scream. She was down in the water with Kono and Ben and Steve had looked up just in time to see the eight year old fly through the air and hit the water. He laughed when she popped up and jumped on to Ben’s back in what looked to be a futile attempt to pull him under. He just swung her around and tossed her again.
Chin and Malia, who had only started dating again after Chin was cleared of his charges, were sitting around the table with Rachel and Stan talking about some of the improvements the hospital had made recently. Steve was still boggling over that one, that Danny had invited his ex and her husband to join them. Steve wasn’t going to say no, not after all the help Rachel was offering but it was still throwing him for a loop.
Malia had commandeered JJ as soon as she and Chin arrived, cooing over him while Steve puffed up his metaphorical feathers in pride. Rachel had brought the kids back around noon, once Steve had been satisfied with the patch job he and Danny had done on the house. Or, rather, that he had done and Danny had supervised.
Kono approached him when he was flipping the burgers, dripping wet which showed she had just left the water, "Hey, can I talk to you as Steve the Friend and not Steve the Boss?"
"Sure," he answered warily and then winced when Kono suddenly whacked him on the head, "Hey! That hurt!" He whined, rubbing his head. "What was that for?"
"We are ohana, and you didn't even tell us you had such a cute son! You totally kept him away from us. That’s rude, brah!"
"I'm sorry. I was..."
"You were what? Too engrossed in your honeymoon phase with Danny?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
Steve looked sheepish, mumbling something.
"Sorry, I didn't hear you."
"Yeah, okay, maybe I was too focused on JJ, Danny, and Grace. But to my defense, I was really busy setting everything up."
"You know you could have asked us for help. We'd have gladly done it. And with all the cousins and nephews Chin and I have, we could have supplied a lot of baby stuff."
"I'm sorry Kono. Cath dropped the news on me so suddenly that I was completely panicked and at lost. Are you really mad?"
Kono reached out and squeezed his shoulder, "It's okay. I get you felt overwhelmed, but remember us next time you knock someone up," she added joking.
"So no more Steve-whacking?"
"No more Steve-whacking," she agreed, smiling.
"You enjoyed it way too much!" Steve complained.
"Hell yeah! It's not every day you've got a free pass to hit the boss!" she ran away, laughing, Steve hot on her tail.
“Are you going for charbroiled Stephen? I can assure you that Grace does in fact have taste buds that work. Actually, she’s rather particular about her burgers so you might want to get two off right now so that there is still a bit of pink in the middle,” Danny yelled from afar when Steve didn’t come back soon enough.
Steve looked at Danny with a scowl as he made his way back to the grill, “I’ve grilled burgers with Grace over before and she’s never complained.”
Danny tilted his head back to meet Steve’s eyes, which made him look a little smug, “Not to you, she didn’t. She didn’t want to hurt your feelings. She informed me after we got home that they were a little on the tough side.”
Steve opened his mouth to retort that his burgers were always perfect, when Rachel walked over with JJ, “Your son is in need of a diaper change. As I am officially off duty, I am passing the task on to the proper person.”
“I’ll take him,” Danny said, “Steve is a little proprietary over the grill, even though it’s not technically his. He’ll spend the rest of the night complaining that I didn’t cook the food right.”
Danny slipped JJ out of Rachel’s arms as Steve spluttered over his shoulder, “Will you stop talking like I’m not right here?”
Danny looked up at Steve, “I’m just telling the truth, babe. You don’t want me to start lying now, do you?”
Steve just shook his head and leaned down to press a kiss to Danny’s waiting mouth, both of them ignoring the catcalling and whistling that sounded like it was coming at them in surround sound, “Go change him before he starts howling,” Steve ran a finger along JJ’s palm, which was waving up in the air, “I’ll pull two burgers off for Grace.”
Danny looked down at JJ, who gave them both a gummy smile, “He’s got a minute or two before he starts complaining. I’ll make it inside.”
Steve watched his partner walk into the house with his son and grinned. Life was looking pretty damn good again. Now…he just had to tell Mary.
~~
The End
~~
The video store was barely five minutes away from the house in good traffic. However, when he hit the street before his own, traffic congestion had picked up. He was one intersection from his turn when a couple of fire trucks and an ambulance flared to life behind him. He pulled over and watched them pass before checking for any further emergency vehicles that might be coming yet. Not seeing any, he sat through a second red and then made his way up to his turn.
When he made the turn, however, he found himself blocked by one of the fire trucks. He leaned out the window and frowned when he saw the other fire truck and the ambulance parked in front of his house. His eyes followed the water hose and gaped at the charred siding of his house, “Jesus…”
Steve put the truck into reverse and backed up enough so he could park on the side of the road then jumped out of the truck and ran down the street. He saw Grace standing with Mandy Johnson and went to her first, “Gracie? Sweetheart, are you okay? What happened?”
Grace threw herself into Steve’s arms, “I’m okay, but I think something’s wrong with Danno.”
“Why’s that?” Steve asked, as he swung Grace up into his arms. He glanced up at Mandy, “Thanks. I got her.”
Grace wrapped her arms around Steve’s neck, “He was coughing pretty hard. He and JJ are over by the ambulance. Said he breathed in smoke.”
Steve swore silently. Barely two months had passed since Danny had had the run in with the sarin and the doctor had said at the last check in that while his lungs were almost back to normal, there were things that could set back the progress such as getting a major cold or the flu. If Danny breathed in smoke from what was apparently a fire…Steve turned and walked over to the ambulance.
Danny was sitting on the back of the ambulance, an oxygen mask over his face. JJ was nestled in his arms, kicking at the underside of his arm and waving around a small, stuffed Piglet that was clutched in his hand, “Danno…” was all that he managed to get out. His arms clenched around Grace in an attempt to keep from pulling the man up into his arms and kissing him senseless.
Danny looked up at Steve and rolled his eyes, “er in.”
Steve raised an eyebrow, “Sorry?”
Danny huffed and pulled the mask away from his face, “We’re fine.”
The paramedic attending to Danny and JJ sighed and pushed the hand holding the mask back down, “Keep it on, detective,” She looked up at Steve, “He is right though. The baby barely inhaled any smoke thanks to Detective Williams’ quick thinking, but we do want to take the Detective in and have a couple of tests done. He was coughing pretty hard. It won’t take but an hour or two, since we just want to make sure because of his history. I’m fairly positive that the doctors won’t find anything.”
Steve took a shuddery breath and just nodded. This was not something he was expecting to come home to after a simple run to the video store. He hugged Grace a little tighter to his chest and reached out and ran a finger along JJ’s cheek before running his hand through Danny’s hair, smoothing down some of the wayward strands, “I’m going to go call Chin. I want the bastard that did this.”
Danny stared up at him before nodding. Steve tweaked the hair his fingers were threaded through before turning and stepping away from the ambulance and the noise it was making.
Grace squirmed in his arms, “I wanna stay with Danno.”
“I’m not going far, Gracie. Just a few feet. I need to be able to hear Uncle Chin. I’ll stand where you can see Danno, okay?”
Grace just nodded and laid her head on his shoulder. Steve pressed a kiss to the top of her head before digging his phone out of his pocket and hitting three on the speed dial.
“What’s up, brah? Backing out of dinner already? Or you want me to come over and get Danny out of the kitchen?”
“Neither. This is work related.”
Steve could practically hear Chin straighten to attention through the phone, “What’s the sitch?”
“Someone started a fire outside of my house. I wasn’t home but Danny was here. He ended up inhaling smoke when he went in to get JJ. Side of the house is wrecked. An accelerant had to have been used to cause so much damage this quickly. I haven’t got a close look yet. That’s just what I saw walking over to the ambulance,” It occurred to Steve then that Chin had no idea who JJ was, but his teammate didn’t seem fit to ask, most likely due to the urgency in Steve’s voice.
“All right. I’ll give Kono a call, have her meet me there. Give me twenty minutes.”
“Sounds good,” Steve hung up and walked back to the ambulance, where they were getting ready to load Danny into the back, “I have to put you down for a minute, Grace, so I can take JJ.”
“K,” She slithered out of his arms and then looked up at Danny. Her eyes followed the mask down to the machine it was attached to before following it back up, “You’ll be okay, Danno?”
Danny handed JJ to Steve, who took a step back and watched as Danny knelt down while tugging the mask away from his mouth, “I’ll be fine, promise. Danno loves you, okay?”
“Me too,” Grace said, giving Danny a careful hug.
Danny replaced the mask and stood up before turning to Steve, who gave a small smile, “I’ll meet you there. I’m going to wait for Chin and Kono,” Steve said.
Danny nodded and, after running his hand over the top of Grace’s head, climbed into the back of the ambulance. Steve backed away to allow the ambulance doors to close. Danny waved once more as the door shut and the ambulance pulled away.
Grace leaned against Steve’s hip, “You should call mom.”
Steve looked down at the top of her head and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, “I should?”
“Yeah,” Grace nodded, “You’re gunna need her to take me an’ JJ while you catch the bad guy that did this.”
“That, Grace, is a good idea,” Steve winced then as a stray thought came to him, “She’s going to throw a fit.”
Grace looked up at him, “Why?”
“Because you were put into danger, honey. She’s going to be worried,” Steve just hoped it wasn’t to the point that she’d try to pull custody away from Danny again.
While Rachel wasn’t thrilled about the events that had happened, she agreed to pick up the two kids. She arrived before Chin and Kono and whisked the kids away, after assuring Steve that she wasn’t going to do anything about the custody. She understood that this wasn’t their fault and instead told him to catch the bastards that had put her baby in danger.
Glad that he didn’t have kids with him, which oddly enough made him feel very selfish to think about, he walked up to the side of the house. The fire couldn’t have been going on for very long, he himself had only been gone twenty minutes at the most, but the damage that had been done was astounding.
There was a black patch on the wall that went all the way up to the sill of JJ’s window and was a good four feet wide at the bottom along the ground. It was obvious where the fire had been the hottest, even if the fire remains weren’t still on the ground weren’t proof enough. There were places, in an almost straight line down from the window, that had holes burned straight through the walls.
Steve turned away from the wall and took several deep breaths. He could not believe how close he had come to losing his son and Grace as well. It was just an additional something to be grateful to Danny for.
“Woah.”
Steve looked up and saw that Chin and Kono had finally arrived. The cousins were staring at the house in dismay. Neither of them knew about JJ other than a vague reference made to Chin, however, so the looks were aimed towards the fact that Steve’s house had been targeted along with the damage and not that his son could have been killed, “Let’s get started.”
Because it was a personal attack on Steve, Chin and Kono seemed to throw themselves into the case wholeheartedly. They collected what they could from the fire site before Steve sent Chin to the lab with the evidence. He and Kono went to talk to the neighbors and canvas the neighborhood.
While Steve talked to the old man that lived across the street and a house over, Kono looked around for places that the arsonist could have watched the house from and that was in direct line of sight of the fire site and the garage. Steve thanked his neighbor, who hadn’t seen anything, and was heading over to the next house when Kono called him over.
There was a set of bushes in a near direct line from the fire, with a nice little niche at the corner of three of them. At the base of the bushes, there was a pile of cigarette butts. Kono grinned up at Steve, “You want to know the one good thing about cigarettes?”
Steve grinned back sharply, “DNA,” He nodded and handed her a glove and bag before looking at his watch, “Get those to the lab. I have to go get Danny.”
~~
Danny looked up as Steve walked into the exam room he had been holed up in for the last two hours, “I’m fine. There was no damage done.”
“That’s good,” Steve said, “We found some evidence. Kono and Chin are getting that processed. Some ashes from the fire and a nice pile of cigarettes Kono is hoping to pull some DNA off of.”
“DNA is good. I like DNA,” Danny frowned, “How do we know it’s not just from some neighbor of yours that has been sneaking out of the house and hiding smokes away from the missus?”
Steve shrugged and dropped down onto the bed next to Danny, practically glued to his side, “That’s what the DNA is for. I’m being optimistic though, given that there was a direct line of sight to the side of the house from where we found the pile of butts.”
Danny grunted and kicked his foot, “Where are the kids?”
“Grace suggested calling Rachel since she knew we were going to go after the bad guys.”
Danny nodded, “Smart kid, that girl of mine,” He paused and a worrisome thought crossed his mind, “Did Rachel say anything?”
“Well,” Steve said, slowly, “She chewed me up one side and down another about it, but told me to inform you that she’s not going to pull the same stunt that she did after the football game.”
Danny let out a sigh of relief, “One less thing to worry about then. Remind me to thank her later.”
The doctor came in just after that and released him, telling him to take it easy and try to avoid running and heavy lifting, anything that would cause exertion on his lungs. Steve assured the doctor that he would keep Danny from doing work that would require running when the doctor shot him a stern look. Danny gave his partner a smug little grin before sliding off the bed.
Once they left, and swung through a drive through to pick up food for the four of them which was not an easy task on the Fourth of July, they headed back to headquarters. When Kono caught sight of them walking in through the door, she started waving at them to join her at the table, “The guy who smoked these cigarettes? Has a record. His DNA was already in the system.”
Danny snorted, “Convenient that. And just what is this mystery person in the system for?”
“A link to a weapons trafficking scheme that never panned out. But,” She frowned, “There is one more thing.”
Danny looked to where Kono was pointing. That tenuous link to the trafficking scheme was as an arms dealer. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together with Steve’s history, “Shit.” His eyes flew to Steve, who was staring at the screen with his hands clenched into fists.
“Steve, he’s not on the list of known associates,” Danny said, trying to calm the man down. Steve turned haunted eyes his way and Danny had to bite back a string of swearwords. Steve hadn’t had that look in his eyes in months and he wanted to punch whoever this bastard was for putting the look back.
“Hesse was the only major arms dealer I dealt with to the degree of making enemies. I was after him for years, Danny, before I left the SEALs. He was a huge deal in arms dealing. It really could be anyone, but I bet this guy is someone close to Hesse,” Steve nearly growled at himself at the senseless rambling before stalking off to his office.
Danny watched him go before looking at Kono, who was staring at Steve’s office door with wide eyes, “I’ll talk to him after he calms down. Now, about this guy…”
“Roger Wells,” Kono supplied helpfully, after tearing her gaze from the closed door.
“Right. This Wells guy. He a native to the island or did he fly in?”
Kono bit her lip and popped Wells’ personal info up, “Well, he’s not native. His license is based out of North Dakota so he would have had to fly in but I can’t seem to find him on any of the passenger logs. He could have come in under a false name but to scan back on security videos for a match is going to take some time. I’ll have to grab Chin when he gets back but I’ll work on the alias angle until he gets here.”
Danny nodded, “Sounds good.”
Deciding that Steve had had enough time to broad over whatever it was that was bothering him, Danny went to Steve’s office and walked right in without knocking, “All right, what’s going on?”
Steve, who had been sitting at the desk with his head on his hands, looked up at Danny, “Why did I take him?”
Danny’s forehead wrinkled as he squinted in confusion, “Who? JJ?”
Steve sighed, “I knew it was a bad idea. The first thing I thought of when Catherine asked me to take him was about my house being shot up and about the break in when the toolbox was stolen. How did I ever think I could keep JJ safe?”
Danny’s eyebrows shot up as a bit of understanding dawned, “Is that was this is about?” Danny slid down into the chair across from Steve’s, “Steve, every single cop that is a father or mother has these fears. It doesn’t matter if that cop is a seasoned detective or a rookie street cop starting out with their FTO. You have the worry that something is going to come after your kids in payback for something you did. It dogs every parent in the criminal justice field.
“This is just a case of bad timing. I got him out of the house before anything happened to him and we will catch this guy as soon as possible, find out what’s really going on. As for keeping JJ safe? You have your gun in the lockbox under the bed, you have the new security system on the house, and a camera set to pan the beach at night. I don’t know how much safer you can make it. This was just a huge fluke.”
Steve nodded slowly and leaned back, “I know you’re right and I have you as an example. You just make it look so simple with Grace, like you don’t have any worries.”
“Oh, I have a ton of worries. I just learned to compartmentalize it all. Otherwise, Grace would never leave the house and I’d have like, fifty locks on the doors and windows. Especially since I know what’s out there.”
Steve looked like he wanted to add to that, but someone knocked on the door. Danny turned around and saw Chin standing in the window, waving a sheet of paper. Both he and Steve stood up and walked out, following Chin back to the computer table, “So?” Danny asked.
“There was an accelerant used but it was just acetone. Acetone can be bought at any hardware store, so that’s not going to be any help. We’ll have to do it the long way and scour the airport security cameras,” Chin said, “Kono and I will do that.”
Danny nodded thoughtfully, “I want to go through the stolen vehicle reports. If this guy is trying to stay low-key enough to go under a false name, that’s possibly gunna be one of the key ways he is getting around Honolulu. He’ll want to stay off the radar which means the chances of him using public transport are slim.”
“We’ll check those as well,” Steve hit a few buttons on the computer table and sent a copy of the driver’s license to the printer, “Let’s go Danny.”
~~
Danny’s hunch had been right, at least in the sense that he wasn’t using buses and taxis. At Steve’s insistence, they had stopped at the main buildings for the different taxi companies as well as the city bus depot. They started at about three hours before the fire as a baseline for when the man would have been traveling. They had talked to all of the drivers who worked during that time, but all agreed that the man did not look familiar at all. While it was possible he was under disguise as well, they decided to check stolen vehicles before they started to Photoshop the photo for different hair colors and styles.
The list of stolen vehicles for the last week totaled out at twenty five cars that had been reported. Steve had shaken his head in bewilderment, “Twenty five stolen cars. Let’s hope that Chin and Kono find something on their end, because looking for these cars will take forever and that’s even if he stole a car in the first place.”
A few seconds after Steve stopped talking and before Danny could formulate a response or think up another idea or angle, Steve’s phone started ringing, “Speak of the devil.”
“We found him. We used the time stamp and followed him out of the airport. He used an airport shuttle that goes downtown. It was kind of grainy but his hair was darker and he was wearing a baseball cap and glasses. We wouldn’t have gotten him at all if we hadn’t used the facial recognition software.”
“All right. Get me a copy of what he looked like and try to get the number off of the shuttle. We’ll take a trip out to the airport.”
“On its way, boss.”
Steve relayed the message to Danny on the way out to the car. Danny thanked God that their teammates had found something for them to work with. It took twenty minutes to get across town and during the drive, Chin had relayed the information to Danny’s phone. Steve had scowled at that, but Danny pointed out that Steve was driving and Danny certainly did not trust him enough to look at email while going down the highway at fifty miles an hour.
At the airport, it took almost another twenty minutes to get the name of the driver for the particular shuttle that had carried their suspect downtown that day. Given that it had been a week and that drivers switched to different shuttles every shift, the manager had had to dig through piles of loose papers looking for the particular driver log needed.
Of course, the way their luck was going, the driver they were looking for was off shift which meant getting an address and phone number as well. Danny called the man as they were walking out and, thankfully, the guy was home and was willing to talk to them.
“Yeah, yeah, I remember him. He was a cocky asshole, wanting me to stop where there was no shuttle stops on the route. I think he started around Seaside Ave and kept at it till we passed it. Kept saying he would pay a big tip if I did,” The guy said, handing Danny his phone back.
“Do you remember where he got off?” Steve asked.
The guy’s face twisted up in thought, “Holiday Inn stop another street up. Thought that was kinda weird, ya know, given that he kept offering me that big tip. I guess he could’ve back tracked to wherever it was he wanted to go.”
Danny nodded, “He could’ve, but you gave us a starting point. Thank you for your help.”
They started down the steps and just as they hit the bottom, Steve turned back around, “One more thing. Do you have a map of your route from that day?”
“Sure, sure, hang on a sec.”
Map in hand, Steve called Chin as they started to the hotel, “I got the route from the airport to the hotel for the shuttle. See if you can use the traffic cams and back track from the Holiday Inn along Kalakaua Ave. The driver remembered him because he kept trying to get off by Seaside which isn’t a stop on the route.”
“You think he backtracked somewhere?”
“Seems likely. We’re going to check at the Holiday Inn just in case, but I’m not expecting anything,” Steve replied.
“All right, I’ll see what I can find. I’ll call you back.”
Steve hung up the phone and turned onto Kalakaua Avenue. Danny looked at Steve with a frown. They were actually getting further on this case faster than they did with their normal cases, which was understandable, but Steve was clenching his teeth like he did for a case that ran longer than a week. It was actually kind of worrisome but Danny couldn’t think of anything to say to relax him. Nor did he want to say the wrong thing and start a fight. While he actually enjoyed their bantered arguments that seemed to accompany almost every car ride, he knew if he tried that now, it wouldn’t be bantering. Not with the way Steve’s veins were trying to crawl out of his skin.
The hotel didn’t help. It was a bust, just like they thought it would be, but Danny had actually had a small bit of hope when they had walked into the Holiday Inn. As they walked back out, Danny felt somewhat wrung out. If he felt that way, he couldn’t imagine what Steve was going through.
“We need to take a break, Steve.”
Steve grimaced but nodded with a sigh, “Yeah. We can’t do anything until Chin calls anyway.”
“Chinese? We can take it back to Rachel’s, see the kids.”
Steve just nodded again and started the truck. Steve agreeing was actually something of a shock to Danny because, not only were they actually taking a break, but the only Chinese place they really enjoyed was at the shopping lot across from Steve’s. That would mean heading out to the house and then back tracking again to Rachel’s. It really showed how worried Steve was about the case that he did agree without thinking about it.
Steve pulled out of the lot and turned left to make his way to the nearest street that would take them up to the highway. He barely made it the equivalent of a block before Danny saw a familiar face, “Steve, stop the truck.”
“What?”
“Pull over!”
Steve barely had the truck pulled into one of the thankfully empty parking spots along the side of the road when Danny threw open the door, “I think I just saw Wells.”
Danny slid out of the truck and pulled his gun from his holster. After he checked to make sure Steve was behind him, Danny started jogging down the sidewalk, looking for the red t-shirt and white baseball hat combination that he had spotted on the man that looked like Wells.
After a minute or so, Danny found him again outside of one of the streets many stores. He glanced over his shoulder, “Steve?”
“Got him,” Steve dodged around Danny and ran towards their suspect, “Roger Wells!”
Wells looked right at Steve, swore loud enough for Danny to hear, before he turned and took off running down the street with Steve on his tail. Wells ducked into a shop that had its door open and Steve followed him in. Danny, on the spur of the moment, went past the store and around the corner, finding the back door to the store.
When the backdoor opened, Danny made a quick glance to make sure it was a red shirt and not Steve’s customary black before sticking his foot out and tripping the man. Wells fell to the ground with a grunt, Steve nearly tripping over him as he barreled out the back door.
Steve dropped to his knees and pressed one of them into Wells’ back, long enough for him to stow away his gun and pull out his cuffs. Steve told him he was under arrest and gave him the Miranda, which had Danny puffing up with pride. It seemed like his man was finally learning.
When he was certain Steve had Wells in control, Danny fished out his phone to call in for a cruiser.
However, before he could press a button, a quick glimpse of a sign had him doing a double take, “Steve, get him up. We don’t need to wait for a cruiser.”
“What?” Steve looked up and followed Danny’s finger when the man pointed over his shoulder, “Honolulu P.D…that’s convenient.”
~~
Steve and Danny stood at the window to their interrogation room at headquarters, watching as Chin and Kono talked Wells into confessing. Steve had wanted to be the one to talk to Wells, but Danny had vetoed that quickly enough. He hadn’t wanted to take any chances on them getting this man put away. Steve understood what Danny meant, that Steve’s anger and personal feelings towards the man could jeopardize the case if he got carried away, but he wasn’t thrilled about it.
“Did you know that there was a six week old infant asleep in the house when you started that fire? There was also an eight year old girl watching TV.”
Wells face went white, “I didn’t know! I swear I didn’t.”
“Well, we have no proof that you didn’t know,” Chin said, leaning forward over the table, manfully not showing the surprise he was still feeling from Danny’s revelation an hour prior, “That’s attempted homicide right there. Especially since you started the fire right under the nursery window. That will go along great with the arson charge.”
“Look, man, can’t you cut me a deal?”
Chin hummed thoughtfully, “Well, that depends on what you offer me. I could drop the attempted homicide to reckless endangerment if you give me something good. Tell me who hired you.”
“I wasn’t hired by anybody. I was getting revenge on McGarrett.”
“Why?”
“He cut off my line of supply, man. I was making good money of the stuff I got from Hesse. When I heard that McGarrett was the one to put him behind bars, I figured a little payback was in order.”
“So you were gunna burn his house down? You figured that to be a viable revenge plan?”
Wells shrugged but didn’t respond.
“All right.” Chin stood up and walked out, Kono trailing behind him. He looked at Steve and Danny, “He’ll be extradited out to North Dakota after his trial here for the arson. I don’t think they’ll keep him here, given his connection with Hesse.”
Steve nodded. He figured that was going to be the case, “I’m going to be there when they fly him out.”
Danny and Chin exchanged a look, “That’s not really a surprise,” Danny said, clapping Steve on the shoulder, “Here’s an idea,” Danny continued quickly, changing the subject, “How about we talk to Rachel about keeping the kids tonight, let her have the big fireworks with them? We can stop and get dinner then swing by the Home Depot, pick up supplies to fix those holes until you can call in a contractor, and you are going to call a contractor so help me God. We can have the barbecue tomorrow? Grace would love to have fireworks two days in a row.”
“Yeah, brah. It’ll be a good way to celebrate solving this case,” Chin said, nodding.
Kono grinned, but her face held a pinched look, “I still can’t believe it took the case to tell us you’re a dad now, boss.”
Steve rolled his eyes, “You would have found out tonight anyway. Let it go, Kono.”
~~
Epilogue
~~
Steve looked up from the grill Chin had brought, his being too small to cook for nine people, when he heard Grace scream. She was down in the water with Kono and Ben and Steve had looked up just in time to see the eight year old fly through the air and hit the water. He laughed when she popped up and jumped on to Ben’s back in what looked to be a futile attempt to pull him under. He just swung her around and tossed her again.
Chin and Malia, who had only started dating again after Chin was cleared of his charges, were sitting around the table with Rachel and Stan talking about some of the improvements the hospital had made recently. Steve was still boggling over that one, that Danny had invited his ex and her husband to join them. Steve wasn’t going to say no, not after all the help Rachel was offering but it was still throwing him for a loop.
Malia had commandeered JJ as soon as she and Chin arrived, cooing over him while Steve puffed up his metaphorical feathers in pride. Rachel had brought the kids back around noon, once Steve had been satisfied with the patch job he and Danny had done on the house. Or, rather, that he had done and Danny had supervised.
Kono approached him when he was flipping the burgers, dripping wet which showed she had just left the water, "Hey, can I talk to you as Steve the Friend and not Steve the Boss?"
"Sure," he answered warily and then winced when Kono suddenly whacked him on the head, "Hey! That hurt!" He whined, rubbing his head. "What was that for?"
"We are ohana, and you didn't even tell us you had such a cute son! You totally kept him away from us. That’s rude, brah!"
"I'm sorry. I was..."
"You were what? Too engrossed in your honeymoon phase with Danny?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
Steve looked sheepish, mumbling something.
"Sorry, I didn't hear you."
"Yeah, okay, maybe I was too focused on JJ, Danny, and Grace. But to my defense, I was really busy setting everything up."
"You know you could have asked us for help. We'd have gladly done it. And with all the cousins and nephews Chin and I have, we could have supplied a lot of baby stuff."
"I'm sorry Kono. Cath dropped the news on me so suddenly that I was completely panicked and at lost. Are you really mad?"
Kono reached out and squeezed his shoulder, "It's okay. I get you felt overwhelmed, but remember us next time you knock someone up," she added joking.
"So no more Steve-whacking?"
"No more Steve-whacking," she agreed, smiling.
"You enjoyed it way too much!" Steve complained.
"Hell yeah! It's not every day you've got a free pass to hit the boss!" she ran away, laughing, Steve hot on her tail.
“Are you going for charbroiled Stephen? I can assure you that Grace does in fact have taste buds that work. Actually, she’s rather particular about her burgers so you might want to get two off right now so that there is still a bit of pink in the middle,” Danny yelled from afar when Steve didn’t come back soon enough.
Steve looked at Danny with a scowl as he made his way back to the grill, “I’ve grilled burgers with Grace over before and she’s never complained.”
Danny tilted his head back to meet Steve’s eyes, which made him look a little smug, “Not to you, she didn’t. She didn’t want to hurt your feelings. She informed me after we got home that they were a little on the tough side.”
Steve opened his mouth to retort that his burgers were always perfect, when Rachel walked over with JJ, “Your son is in need of a diaper change. As I am officially off duty, I am passing the task on to the proper person.”
“I’ll take him,” Danny said, “Steve is a little proprietary over the grill, even though it’s not technically his. He’ll spend the rest of the night complaining that I didn’t cook the food right.”
Danny slipped JJ out of Rachel’s arms as Steve spluttered over his shoulder, “Will you stop talking like I’m not right here?”
Danny looked up at Steve, “I’m just telling the truth, babe. You don’t want me to start lying now, do you?”
Steve just shook his head and leaned down to press a kiss to Danny’s waiting mouth, both of them ignoring the catcalling and whistling that sounded like it was coming at them in surround sound, “Go change him before he starts howling,” Steve ran a finger along JJ’s palm, which was waving up in the air, “I’ll pull two burgers off for Grace.”
Danny looked down at JJ, who gave them both a gummy smile, “He’s got a minute or two before he starts complaining. I’ll make it inside.”
Steve watched his partner walk into the house with his son and grinned. Life was looking pretty damn good again. Now…he just had to tell Mary.
~~
The End
~~