waldos_writings | H50: Hoa (Chapter 3)

Title: Hoa (Chapter 3)
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Steve/Danny
Length: Total for all parts: 9004
Written for: Yuletide 2010
Summary: “You’d rather that, for the sake of my sixty-something-year-old parents we keep the definition of ‘my partner’ to mean ‘that guy I work with who periodically tries to kill me with his stunt driving’?”

Danny wants to take Steve back to Jersey for Thanksgiving.

Even in Hawaii the bureaucracy of the TSA could reach out and grab you. Danny was grateful that they’d left more than two hours to get to their gate when he saw the lines backing up out of the x-ray and body-scanner control points. Even if it had meant leaving in the very, very pre-dawn hours.

Grace was be-bopping to whatever kiddy rock Rachel had approved for her iPod as they made their way slowly through the airport.

Danny watched as Steve, through force of habit and height, scanned the crowd for threats.

“Danno, are UFOs real?” Grace asked out of nowhere.

“Um…some people think they are. Why?”

“Jack from school said they are, but Kalia said they aren’t.”

“Well, a lot of people think that if there can be life on this planet, and that there are so many other planets out there that there’s no reason there can’t be life on some of them,” Danny told her. He glanced up to see Steve watching the interaction raptly. “Other people think that since we’ve never seen one for sure, there’s no reason to believe that anyone is out there.”

Grace seemed to give that some thought. “What do you think?”

Danny shrugged. “I’ve never seen a blue whale or a great white shark, but I believe they’re out there.”

“You believe in UFOs?” Steve put in incredulously.

“I have no reason to not believe something could be out there.” Danny answered succinctly. This whole conversation was about to get very surreal, he was sure, now that Steve was in it.

“I’ve seen pictures of whales and sharks,” Grace answered.

Danny sighed, knowing he was now cornered into arguing the existence of UFOs. “Some people think they have pictures of UFOs.”

Under his breath, and while studiously staring at a ‘no printer toner cartridges on planes’ sign, Steve answered, “Some people have pictures of weather balloons and stealth planes flying too low. Or possibly, you know, a really big bird.”

“The truth is, Grace,” Danny finally said, “No one is sure. No one can prove that they are out there or that they aren’t. There’s a lot of planets out there and humans haven’t even visited one of them.”

“How come?”

“Because we haven’t been able to build a spaceship that can get an astronaut there and get him home again.”

“Do you think aliens can build a spaceship that can get them here and home again?” Grace continued.

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

Steve couldn’t help but start laughing at that point. Grace was determined to get her dad to get her a definitive answer to a question that, as Danny had tried to explain to her, no one had absolute proof of one way or the other.

“You have a better answer for her?” Danny asked with a tense smile on his face.

“I just think it’s hysterical that it’s, like, five-thirty in the morning and a seven year old wants to have an existential conversation. Personally I’m not ready to think beyond where’s the nearest coffee shop to our gate.”

Danny laughed a little at that too. It was awfully early.

“I know that word!” Grace popped in. “It means aliens.”

“That’s extra-terrestrial,” Danny corrected.

“Okay, then what’s…” she stopped, trying to play Steve’s comments back in her head. “What’s what Steve said?” she finally settled for.

“Existential,” Danny told her. “And it means…” He stopped and scrubbed his face, trying to figure out how to explain such a vague concept to his daughter.

Steve was biting his lip again, waiting to see what Danny would come up with. He’d never considered himself a big fan of kids, but he had to admit he really liked watching Grace give her dad a run for his money.

“You want to take a crack at this one, Webster?” Danny said when he realized Steve was amused by the whole thing.

Steve gave it some thought. “Existential… it means…” he thought for another second, realizing that a four-hundred level college philosophy lesson was probably a little more that Grace was looking for. “It means thinking about really big ideas. Like if there’s a god or heaven. If people are generally good or bad. That kind of thing.”

“Or if there are aliens in the sky!” Grace added, pleased to have something to add to Steve’s definition.

Danny was giving him a dirty look for actually being able to explain himself in a way that Grace could understand. It wasn’t fair, Danny thought to himself. There had to be something Steve couldn’t do.

“What brought all this on?” Danny asked.

Grace pulled her iPod Touch out of her sweatshirt pocket, deftly flipping between the screens and tapping on various commands to make a video pop up. “Mom got this DVD for me and Stan put them on here.”

Danny took the iPod and saw a video he hadn’t seen since he was Grace’s age. “Interplanet Janet. Wow. You know these were made when your mom and I were your age. But I don’t know if they showed them in England.” It made him wonder how Rachel had found about Schoolhouse Rock when he hadn’t thought about those cartoons since he’d been ten.

“Hey do you have the one about the Revolutionary War on there? The one with ‘shot heard round the world’?” Steve asked as he looked over Danny’s shoulder.

Danny wasn’t sure if he should die of embarrassment or just howl in laughter as Steve and Grace both began singing, “There was a shot heard ‘round the world, it was the start of the revolution…”

“My world just gets weirder and weirder the longer I stay in this Dharma Initiative-controlled place.” Danny muttered as Grace took back the iPod and pulled up the requested video and she and Steve each put one earphone in and started singing along with it. “Of course, you know the one about guns. You couldn’t sing the one about, oh I don’t know, conjunctions or your brain or something?”

Steve just shrugged and went back to watching the video over Grace’s shoulder.

The line inched forward a bit at a time until they were finally able to grab bins for their shoes, carry-ons and sweatshirts. Steve went first while Danny checked Grace’s pockets and sent her through the metal detector ahead of him. As Steve was grabbing his rucksack off the conveyer he heard a beep and looked up just in time to see Danny roll his eyes. Grace was standing behind Steve, holding the bin with her shoes and iPod. She looked worried as Danny was escorted into the small glass room between the two lanes.

“It’s fine, Gracie. I just forgot to take something out of my pocket.” He gave Steve an imploring look. “Take her and get a drink or a bagel or something. I’ll catch up.”

Steve grabbed the rest of Grace’s things and his shoes and led her over to the bench. “Come on, Grace. Your dad’ll be a couple minutes.”

“What happened?” she asked, still watching as Danny sighed and followed the blue-shirted TSA agent over to the side for a pat down.

“Nothing big,” Steve told her. “Your dad was just so busy making sure you didn’t beep, that he forgot something in his pocket, so he beeped, and now they have to make sure everything’s okay.”

Grace made a face.

“Seriously, it’s fine. It’s happened to me before too. He’ll catch up in a second. Besides”, he said loudly as Danny looked up, “now you have a chance to tell me all about what your dad says about me.”

Grace got the most wicked grin on her face as she finished tying her gym shoe and grabbed her backpack. Danny had a feeling the trip was about to go downhill rapidly for him.

There was coffee waiting for him when he finally caught up to his partner and daughter. Grace was laughing hysterically at whatever Steve had said, so Danny figured the trauma of being separated from her dad at the airport had been mitigated. He was a little afraid to find out how Steve had done that.

“What was it?” Steve asked as Danny fell into the chair next to Grace.

“My damn shield.”

“Your badge got you tagged for a pat down. That’s… I don’t know… that’s pretty special, Danno.”

Grace giggled at Steve calling her dad by her pet nickname for him.

“You know, we were up at four in the freaking morning. I was running on autopilot. I grabbed my wallet, I grabbed my badge. I meant to toss it in my backpack, but then I got hung up on making sure Grace wasn’t going to set off any alarms…”

Steve pushed the coffee closer to Danny. “Need this?”

“You have no idea.” Danny said cradling the cup in both hands.

“Was it as bad as the news was making it out to be?” Steve asked when Grace seemed to be occupied with her iPod again.

“Let’s just say I’m never, ever going to forget to empty my pockets again.”

Steve smirked. “Come on, it can’t be so bad. Has to be the most action you’ve seen in at least…” his eyes rolled up as he thought, “at least forty-eight hours.”

Danny looked pointedly at Grace, “And if you want to see any action in the next forty-eight days, you’ll drop that conversation right now.”

They were interrupted by the sound of Grace clearing her throat. “Danno, you owe me a quarter.”

Danny made a face at her. “What did I say?”

“When Steve asked what you forgot to take out of your pocket, you said it was your –“

“Okay, okay… don’t you dare,” Danny cut her off, remembering all at once. She couldn’t remember when Steve used the word ‘existential’, but she caught Danny swearing with ears like a bat.

Steve was looking between them, confused.

“What’s the rules about grown ups using bad words?” Danny asked Grace.

“Stuff happens,” Grace answered automatically; clearly this had been drilled into her at one point.

“And what’s the rules about little girls swearing?” Danny asked.

“We darn well better not,” Grace answered on cue.

“When she was a kid she started repeating everything I said. At one point when she was about three she went to a play date and when a bug kept flying around her head she looks at this other kid’s mom and says, ‘Can you make this d-a-m-n fly go away?”

Steve almost choked on his coffee, imagining such a sweet little girl saying that in her very no-nonsense way. “Something tells me she didn’t spell it out.”

“Uh, no. Rachel about died right there. So Grace and I made a deal. If she caught me swearing she got a quarter, if I caught her swearing she got a time out on her bed with no t.v., no computer. Just books and dolls and stuff.” He shrugged, wondering if Steve would get it and then stood up and searched his pockets. “I don’t have any change,” he told Grace.

Steve pulled out the change from their drinks and handed Grace a dollar.

“A quarter, Bill Gates. I only owe her a quarter.”

Steve shrugged and nodded to Grace to pocket the money. “Now we’re covered if the plane is delayed or something, and your New Jersey mouth gets ahead of you.”

Danny sighed and wondered if Rachel ever had to have these discussions with Stan.

They still had more than an hour and a half before their scheduled departure, so they took their time finishing their drinks. When they were done, they headed for the gate, walking slowly so that Grace could stick her head in the toyshop, the jewelry shop and the Relay, where she used the dollar Steve gave her to get a pack of gum. Danny was glad she remembered how her ears still didn’t tolerate the pressure changes well, because he hadn’t. Which was remarkable considering the first time they’d taken her to the U.K. when she’d been about eighteen months old, she’d screamed the entire time and had been diagnosed by Rachel’s brother with an ear infection that probably hadn’t started bothering her until they were a few million feet in the air and there wasn’t anything that could be done for it.

When they got to the newsstand, she stopped and dropped Danny’s hand. “Can I get a magazine, Danno?”

Danny fished ten dollars out of his pocket and waved her into the small shop, leaning on the post in the doorway, watching her pick through magazines about Disney Princesses and animals and puzzle books. He knew Rachel would have put at least two books and a word find book in her backpack along with the various dolls and toys and gadgets Grace wouldn’t be able to live for a week without, but it had become a tradition, since Grace was old enough to at least flip through and look at the pictures on her own. She got a magazine or coloring book whenever they flew.

Danny was secretly pleased to notice that Steve was watching the store like Grace were the Queen of England and he was on her protection detail, letting her have her independence to pick out what she wanted and pay for it, but making sure no one bothered her either.

Grace came running back with a plastic wrapped magazine in her hand and before Danny could move, Steve stepped up and picked her up, setting her down a couple feet back from where she had been. “You’re gonna set off the alarm, kiddo,” he told her as he blocked her from moving forward again.

At first she looked a little rattled and Danny was considering giving Steve a piece of his mind, but then she started laughing so hard she turned red in the face. “That’s Danno’s job. He’s in charge of making things beep!”

There was something in her voice that made him think that Steve must have said something along those lines when he’d been delayed by the TSA. Danny pretended to be put out at her for teasing him. “Oh, I see. It’s going to be like that all day. Okay, fine.” He crossed his arms and turned his back and put on an exaggerated pout.

“All day?” Steve asked, deadpan. “I’m thinking for at least the rest of the trip.”

Grace on the other hand took pity on him and gave him a hug. “It’s okay, Daddy.”

“Yeah?” he asked. “You sure?”

“Yeah. Steve and I are teasing.”

“Oh. Okay then.” Danny put her back down. “Is that the magazine you want?”

“It has a DVD. Can I watch the DVD on your computer?”

Danny took the magazine from her. Something from Disney with video clips and song files for her iPod. And an almost nine dollar price tag. “Yeah, fine. Go pay for it.”

As she walked the twelve feet to the counter, Danny looked at Steve. “Nine dollars for a magazine for a seven year old. I don’t pay nine dollars for a magazine for me.”

Steve put his finger and thumb on the opposite little finger and twisted. “Wrapped around it, Danno.”

Danny laughed, “Like I need to be told. But she’ll read the magazine too. I can’t gripe if she’s reading, right?”

Grace came back with her magazine a few seconds later. She handed Danny the change and then started ripping open the plastic wrap that kept the DVD inside the magazine. Danny snatched it away. “This is for the plane.” He tugged on the top of her bag. “Turn.”

Grace sighed to put-upon sigh of a child denied and turned and let her dad put the whole thing in her backpack.

They set off down the terminal again, when Steve stopped short at a juncture. “Go this way.”

“Our gate is down there,” Danny said pointing the way they were heading in the first place.

Steve pulled his wallet out and flipped to his Navy I.D. “This USO is this way.”

“You want punch and donuts?” Danny asked.

“It’s outfitted with a kids’ area – games and toys and stuff. We have more than an hour before they even start boarding. She can kill forty minutes or so.”

When Steve started walking again, Danny followed behind, Grace holding his hand again. “How do you know where there’s a rec room for kids?”

“I’ve been through the Honolulu airport a few million times when I was active military. I’ve spent a few hours in the USO room.” Steve shrugged.

“What’s a USO room?” Grace asked.

“USO is a group that has drinks and snacks for people in the military who are coming home or going out to their new base. And they have a little play area for military people who are traveling with their kids.”

Grace made a face. “I’m not your kid.” She didn’t seem offended by the idea, but Danny got the definite impression she had enough people trying to lay claim to her with Step-Stan being such a prominent part of her life now.

Steve went down to one knee in front of her, “Of course not. But if we can keep that our secret for a few minutes, you can play in there until the plane comes.”

Grace was clearly weighing her options. Lie, or get to play until she had to sit on a plane for ten hours. “Mm’kay,” she finally said before heading down the hall Steve had steered them to.

Danny and Steve looked at each other and shrugged before following her down the hall.

When they got there, Steve showed his I.D. and talked to the woman manning the coffee machine while Danny took Grace’s backpack and pointed her over to the kids’ corner. There was a little boy who looked to be about a year older than Grace who immediately launched himself at a potential playmate.

Danny fell into a chair, keeping one eye on her and one eye on the t.v. in the corner showing the local news.

Steve came over a few minutes later, handing Danny second cup of coffee. “She found a friend already?”

“Just what I need, a seven year old who attracts boys just by breathing.”

Steve elbowed him. “Just tell them that you carry a gun and that you have the governor’s dispensation to use it at will.”

They were quiet for a while before Danny looked around to make sure no one was paying any attention to them. “You’re good with her. I appreciate it.”

Steve shrugged.

“No seriously. After you started punching elevator buttons with your SIG in front of a five-year-old, I was pretty nervous about letting her anywhere near you.”

“That was work!” Steve protested.

“That’s not an excuse, really, it’s not,” Danny countered, but then continued before Steve could get a word in, “but at least you keep those shenanigans at work. There have been any number of ways I could have been getting on a plane with a very cranky small child today and you keep managing to save the day.”

Steve shrugged again. “She’s a cute kid. You did good with her.”

It was Danny’s turn to shrug. “She makes it pretty easy. And this is good, really. You’ll want at least one person on your side when my family gets ahold of you.”

“If I can handle you, I’m not too worried. Just think how things started for us when we met.”

“You were armed when we met. You’ll just wish you were armed when Jenny and Ma manage to corner you.”

They both laughed and settled in to keep an eye on Grace. It was going to be a long flight and possibly a long weekend, but at least they were doing it together.

All the footnotes in the world...

Hoʻomanaʻo ʻana: memory
Kakahiaka: morning
Hele lua: traveling together

Side Street, it turns out is a real place. Unlike Sandamar.
Grace was listening to "Interplanet Janet".
Grace and Steve were listening to "Shot Heard 'Round the World".
Danny wanted them to listen to the ones about Brains or Conjunctions
Yes, the Honolulu airport really has a kids' area in the USO.

H50: Hoa (Chapter 3) - Steve/Danny

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