Hello lovlies. So it's been a little while since my last update, but not as long as I thought it would be. I've had four excruciating exams and a shit ton of work due to summer holiday, but things are actually calming down for real this time. Again like I said earlier I won't promise this many updates a week or anything since I still have quite a bit of work i addition to some other things that are coming up. But I don't feel as lost anymore in regards to where this story is going so that is good. I hope you enjoy this chapter and I will try to finish and upload in not to long again :)

Problem

«For the love of anything remotely holy, will you please just let it go?» Grace pleaded for what seemed to be the millionth time that day.

Tommy had come over with breakfast and coffee, pretending he just wanted to go over some things from an old case as he was due in court later that week. When in reality he had one thing on his mind when he came over and that was to find out what had caused Grace to be so flustered at the fundraiser. In the beginning he'd been pretty discreet about his true intentions, but after a while Grace could tell he wasn't really there to go over an old case.

"No, actually I won't. Something happened before the fundraiser that stirred something up with you and I want to know what. I haven't seen you that off in a very long time so it has to be something important."

"Except it wasn't anything important, Tommy! I was just having an off day, that's it. Why is that so hard to believe?" The reason Grace didn't want to tell Tommy about her brother's phone call wasn't because she didn't trust him, it was because she knew he'd get angry at her for being so unbothered by it. As much as Tommy loved her, he had never understood her constant need to protect her family. Even after everything they'd done and all the crap she'd been through because of them.

"Because Grace, you don't have off days. And on the rare occasion that you do, it doesn't show. Meaning whatever happened must have had an impact on you."

Damn it! Grace let out an internal groan of frustration. She'd become really good at hiding her true feelings from other people, but Tommy always knew. He knew when they were ten, he knew when they were eighteen and he knows now.

"Rhys," she almost whispered in defeat after two hours of pestering from him. "Before Steve came to pick me up I got a phone call from Rhys."

Tommy hadn't really expected anything particular as an answer from her, but he certainly hadn't expected it to be her brother. Suddenly he understood why she'd been flustered and off.

"What did he want?" He asked, animosity evident in his voice.

"Nothing particular. Sean apparently told him about the whole thing with Russel and he wanted to see how I'm doing." She tried to sound convincing to keep Tommy from getting to upset with her, but in the back of her mind she knew just as well as him that pure concern was not the sole purpose of his call. He wanted something else, she just didn't know what it was yet.

"Since when does anyone in your family, with maybe the exception of Sean and sometimes your uncle, call just to see how you're doing?"

As much as his question stung, he was right. Her family had a tendency to only reach out when they needed something. And that something was usually bordering on illegal and morally wrong. But she always helped.

"They don't, and I know that. But that doesn't mean I can stop them from calling. If he want's something I don't know what it is, because he didn't tell me. And I know, very well, how you feel about them and how I always seem to forget all the crap whenever they need help, but they're my family. They're all I have."

Not at all interested in hearing her overused excuse when it comes to her family, Tommy gets out of his seat and grabs his stuff from the table. "They're not all you have. I'm here, I have always been here. But if you're gonna let them break you time after time without ever putting up a fight, I won't be."

Pulling up into Grace's driveway, Steve wondered if it was out of line to show up unannounced to ask her out for lunch, but after the fundraiser he felt things had progressed. Even if it was by just a little. Getting out of his car, he walked over to her door and knocked before he would have the chance to change his mind.

She opened the door almost immediately and looked a little shocked to see him. "Steve," she said, seeming bothered by his presence. "I was in the neighbourhood and though I'd stop by to ask if you'd want to have lunch." He explained with his standard smile that normally would get some sort of positive response.

"Oh, that's nice. Uhm, I've already eaten actually, I'm a little behind today." Attempting to not seem completely uninterested in his invite. Because she was, she really was. But her head was somewhere else after Tommy had left and she was having trouble focusing on anything other than what he'd said before he left. "I was gonna go to the office to finish some paperwork that's due today right now actually."

Sensing how him showing up unannounced bothered her, he took a step back from the door and decided to not push. If she wasn't interested in their whole getting to know each other plan, then he wasn't going to force her. Besides, if she had work to do he knew better than to keep her from it.

"Well, then I'm not gonna keep you. Have a nice day." He told her in a tone more polite than usual and turned to his car.

After he'd driven away Grace felt like she'd been in a haze and couldn't really tell if he'd actually been there to invite her to lunch or not.

Four hours after she'd arrived at the morgue and ten reports later, Grace was about ready to call it and take the rest of the day off. The criminals of Honolulu however had other plans. As she was tidying up her desk the phone rang and she knew there was only one thing it could be.

"Dr. Ó Máille. Mhm, where?"

The drive from the morgue took her about fifteen minutes and by the time she got there, the crime scene was already swarming with cops and CSU technicians. She parked her car and asked one of the uniformed cops if he could show her to the body.

She could smell the body before she saw it and as she entered the study of the house she could see why. Lying over the oak desk in the room was a man with half his face blown off and most of his brain scattered on the wall behind him.

"Lovely," she whispered to herself as she walked closer to the desk. "Not a fan of strong odours, Detective Williams?" she jokingly asked Danny as he was covering his nose and mouth with his tie. "Not when it comes from brain smeared all over the wall," he shot back, not at all amused by the fact that she seemed totally fine about what was happening in front of them.

Tying her hair in a ponytail to keep it out of her face, Grace pulled some gloves out of her kit and put them on before starting to examine the head wound. "Security company said all the footage is stored locally on a server downtown, so we're gonna have to go there to access it." Steve announced to Danny as he walked into the room, not aware that Grace had arrived. When he saw her he felt himself tense a little, which he didn't like. He wanted to pretend that he wasn't bothered at all by Grace's cold and stand-off ish demeanour earlier, but that would be a lie.

"Dr. Ó Máille," he very clinically greeted her. "Commander," she greeted him back, a little confused as to why he all of a sudden was acting so professional. Not a stupid man, Danny could sense something was off between Grace and Steve and made a mental note to ask him about it later.

Giving the body a preliminary check and announcing anything particular that stood out to Danny and Steve, Grace finished up pretty quickly as there was not much for her to do before she had the body on a table at morgue. She packed up her kit and told CSU they could have the room before leaving the house. Getting into her car she looked out her window at Steve and Danny who were also getting into their car, deeply into a conversation that was very clearly annoying Steve.

Two hours had passed since Grace left the crime scene, thirty minutes had passed since Kono and Chin stopped by for the autopsy report and she was at a complete loss. She was aware that her and Steve were taking things slow and that seeing as they're nothing more than friends at the time being, there is no reason for him to treat her like anything else. But the clinical and almost robotic way he spoke to her and reacted to her presence earlier today was bothering her. More than she'd like to admit.

Normally she'd talk to Tommy about these things, but seeing as they were still in disagreement and still hurt by the other persons slightly harsh words, she had nowhere to go with her thoughts. Talking about feelings and such has never been something Grace does often or voluntarily, but on the rare occasion she feels like it Tommy's always been around.

"Fuck it," she mumbles to herself as she grabs her phone of her desk and march out of her office. She could vaguely remember how Danny had told her once that if she needed someone to talk he, his door would always be open. At the time she'd thought it was just his way of being polite and she definitely never thought she'd take him up on his offer. But over the course of her stay in Hawaii Danny had become a very important person to her, and she knew very well that he was a great friend.

The rider over from the morgue to the palace wasn't very long and as she pulled into the parking lot she made sure to look for Steve's truck. Yes, she needed someone to vent to, but if Steve was there. That would just be awkward, and there had been enough awkwardness between her and Steve since they met to last her a lifetime.

Not seeing his truck in the parking lot, she backed into an open space close to the entrance and got out. It was late midday and most people had already gone home, but she knew that Danny liked to work late to catch up on paperwork when he didn't have Grace so that he could spend more time with her when he did. Pushing the doors open and entering the building she greets the guard before turning toward the elevators. Pushing the button for the 6th floor, she leans backs into the far wall and rolls her neck.

Despite the fact that she's been seated most of the day and hasn't conducted any form of physical exercise for the past few days, she still feels like she's run a triathlon. Her cracking neck making it very evident that she had to do something with the pent up tension she's been carrying around since her brothers call and her disagreement with Tommy.

The elevator doors plinging to signal she's reached her desired floor brings her thoughts back to reality and she drags herself out into the corridor and though the glass doors that lead into the headquarters of Five-0. She looks around to see if anyone else are there, but the only office with a light on is Danny's. Sighing in relief that no one else is there, she walks over to his office and gently knocks on his door.

Lifting his gaze from the papers in front of him, Danny smiles when he sees Grace on the other side of his door. He signals for her to enter and puts his pen down. "Well this is a nice surprise," He gives her a warm as she enters his office and sits down in the chair opposite her. "Assuming it's me you're here to see and not someone else," he jokes and nods to his right, motioning to Steve's office.

"I know you like to get ahead of paperwork when you don't have Grave, so I thought I'd see if you were here." Grace explains, suddenly feeling unsure about her plan to ask him about Steve and why he seemed so off that morning. This was all new territory for her. The feelings she had for Steve, not having Tommy to talk to, going to someone for help. And she wasn't quite sure how to go about it. "Something happen?" he asked, a little curious as to her intentions to come see him. Sure they were friends, and he wanted to help her in any way he could, but he'd gotten the impression that she usually went to Tommy with her problems.

"I'm not sure," she starts, having trouble putting her thoughts into sensible words. "Earlier today, at the crime scene, I got the feeling that maybe, possibly, Steve might be angry with me or something." She managed to get out, before instantly mentally cursing herself for making it sound like something a high schooler might say to her best friend. "I mean, not angry like I'd done something terrible, but normally he's a bit less… I don't know professional. He barely looked at me when I spoke, which is unlike him and he seemed very eager to get away the second I was finished with my preliminary, so I was just wondering if he'd said something to you. If I've done something I'd like to fix it."

Listening to Grace speak made Danny realise something he'd suspected for a while. She liked him, and not in a platonic way. He knew Steve had some sort of feelings towards her, but getting him to talk about it was harder that getting Grace to eat her vegetables at the moment. In one way he didn't want to tell her what he knew, because that was something Steve had told with the belief that it would never leave the car, but he also knew that if he didn't do something they would end up miserable because neither of them seemed to know how to deal with how they felt for each other.

"He's not angry at you," Danny assures her as he decides to risk the wrath of Steve at a later occasion. After all he is doing this with the best intentions. "At least not in the way you think. He's confused and… keeping his distance."

Happy that Danny is willing to talk to her, she takes in what he just said. Confused, seeing as things seemed to have been going wonderful the prior weekend at the fundraiser, she furrowed her brows and chewed on her lower lip. Something she did when she couldn't piece something together. "Confused about what exactly? And why is he keeping a distance, did I do something? I keep trying to go over the last conversation we had but it's a bit of a blur to be honest. In case you hadn't already noticed I'm not very good at these things." She let out a small chuckle, realising how stupid she must look. A grow woman asking the best friend of the guy she likes for help, because she seems to be unable to read between the lines or something.

"He's confused about you. From what I gathered you had some sort of agreement to get to know each other before you moved in any direction, or something like that. And from his point of view he seemed to think that was going well, until he came to see you this morning." He tried to explain without giving up every detail about what was going on inside Steve's head.

"This morning?" she asked herself mostly, extremely confused. About to ask Danny what had happened this morning it suddenly dawned on her. "Shit," she muttered, officially done with herself and her bullshit. "He came to see me this morning," she again muttered to herself. Seeing the realisation hitting her after a constant look of confused had covered her face since she walked in, Danny decided to let her deal with the realisation on her own.

Getting out of her seat like she'd had some epiphany or seen the light, she decided that she was done beating around the bush and that it was time to face the beast that was her own dysfunctionality in relationships head on. "Thank you, I… I have to go, I will see you later… Thank you."

As Grace pulls up in front of Steve's house she still has no idea what to tell him. She knows what she wants to say, but she no idea how to word it. Turning of the ignition and stepping out of the car she takes a deep breath and start to walk over to his front door when it opens. Out comes Steve with Joe behind him, both with bags tossed over their shoulders. She stops in her tracks, feeling like a deer in headlights, but manages to smile slightly and wave when his eyes meets hers.

Joe sensing that they have some unfinished business to talk through, he grabs Steve's bag from him and walks to Steve's truck, giving Grace a warm smile and a wink as he passes her.

Wanting so say so much, she tries to find the best way to start her sentence but the only thing that comes out when she opens her mouth is: "Hi."

Realising how dumb she must sound she mentally curses herself for her lack of skill in the communication department. "Hey," he answers her, seeming a bit confused as to why she's there.

"Do you have a minute before you have to go?" she asks, begging to every entity she can think of that he'll say yes. Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he shrugs his shoulders. "Sure."

Swallowing hard, her mouth feeling like a desert, she decides to just start talking and see where it takes her. "You came to see me this morning," she starts, already regretting not having a plan for what to say to him.

"You came to see me this morning, and I blew you off. Unintentionally, but I blew you off and I seemed probably slightly bothered by the fact that you were there. I wasn't. Tommy had been by and we had a disagreement, about the same thing we always seem to disagree about. I got angry and I said some things I shouldn't have which made him angry and then he left. This was right before you showed up and I was still angry and lost inside my own head about the whole thing and I let it out on you. I didn't seem like at the time, but I was you happy to see you. I'm always happy to see you. I let my frustration with Tommy get the better of me and I let it out on you, probably seeming complete uninterested. Which I am, I am very interested. Not just in the whole getting to know each other part that we agreed on, but in you. And I just needed you too know that, before you go. Wherever it is you're going."

Happy that she managed to say what she wanted to say without messing up to badly, she was also nervous that she made things worse by rambling a crazy person.

When Grace had showed up outside his house he wasn't sure about what he'd excepted her to say, but it certainly wasn't this. He knew she hated talking about what was going on inside her head and how she was feeling and anything remotely similar, and she had just told him in not so few words that she had feelings for him. Which made him want to smile like an idiot. Instead he decided to keep his face neutral and play it cool for a little while longer.

"You're interested?" he asked, dragging the words out a little like he was thinking about what to say as he said it.

"In you, yes. I am. And I say this in the hopes that you might feel the same, although I probably messed up any chance of that when I showed up here ranting like a crazy person."

"I takes more than a little rant to scare me off, you've met Danny right?"

Feeling the mood drastically lighten, Grace can't help but smile.

"As much as I'd like to continue this conversation right now, and trust me I do, I have a flight to catch." Steve told her while nodding to Joe, who Grace had almost forgotten was there.

Looking over at Joe who was seated in the passenger's seat of Steve's truck with his head back and eyes closed, Grace felt her cheeks heat up at the thought that he might have heard everything she'd told Steve.

Taking a couple steps closer to him so that their chests were just an inch away from touching, she looked up into his eyes and smiled. "Well I don't want to keep you, but this-" she motioned between the two of them before getting on her tip toes so that her mouth was level with his ear while sliding her hand around his waist for support. "Will be continued," she almost whispered into his ear before kissing his cheek all the while giving his ass a light squeeze, just like he had done to her after their interrupted tryst on her couch.