Summary: So things are really different for Danny now that Steve's back with Five-O...

Spoilers: "Oia'i'o" and smatterings of other episode-related incidents.

Saving Grace

Thing is, and there's really no way to slice this six ways from Sunday because all in all, it just is what it is...Grace is no longer 'it.' 'It' meaning the only person who mattered to one Detective Danny Williams.

He also knows that he isn't going to be subject to the whims of his ex-wife anymore. And really, that right there is just such an insightful epiphany that Danny's head already hurts from it.

Watching the rest of Five-O all sitting down there on the beach, on the sand, the small campfire sheathing them in plays of shadow and light on an uncharacteristically cool Hawaiian night, Danny just knows.

And it's a sucker punch to the gut that takes every ounce of control from every cell of his body to keep from reacting to.

Yes, he had come to Hawaii, left his beloved New Jersey, so he could see his daughter more than twice a year.

Yes, he did remember telling Steve point-blank that if Grace wasn't there, there wasn't anything for him there. He also remembered the carefully schooled but so easy to see through look he got from Steve in return. How Steve had equally carefully deflected the conversation back to the idiot in the shark cage.

And the time when Steve told him, "Maybe you're not as alone here as you think," well, yes, that sticks out starkly in Danny's mind, too.

But what he had failed to see was that even though divorced, even though married to another man, Rachel still had him by the nuts because she could afford the best lawyers, and she and Stan had way more money than a lowly detective would ever have, and never mind that the entirety of the Williams clan was in New Jersey, the judge had given Rachel permission to take the one thing Danny had ever done right in his life, thousands of miles away from him.

It still hurt like hell, even now, two years later. But Danny smiled faintly as Kono actually giggled at something Steve said and Chin chuckled right along. Steve was animated, actually a lot more animated than usual with his hands and body and facial expressions, and Danny vaguely wondered if it was just too much beer or if he was actually rubbing off on his partner.

His mind went back to its wanderings and, as it always did, back to Grace. He wondered what would have happened if Steve hadn't gotten arrested. It could've gone so many ways, so many terrifying, maybe heart-breaking, maybe wonderful ways. Danny would have met Rachel and Grace at the airport. He would have called Steve the next day, and said he'd be back in a couple weeks. Danny knew he wouldn't have told Steve he was leaving permanently until after he went back to Hawaii to wrap things up.

That would not have gone well.

Okay, so he could've just gotten on the plane with them and stayed in Jersey and just called Steve and told him.

Coward's way out. Danny shook his head, suppressing the shudder that idea brought.

Or maybe he could've called Steve, told him he was coming over, brought a six-pack, and sat down face-to-face to explain everything to him in explicit detail.

Well, not that explicit, he corrected himself mentally, and felt color creep into his cheeks.

Now Kono was on to telling a story from her younger years and both Chin and Steve were cracking up over it. Danny smiled at his friends. No...at his family. They were family, no matter what Hawaiian or any other language's word you used for it. Family was what it was.

His mind circled back around to the idea of having gone to Steve's house, had he actually been home, of course, to tell him how things were now going to be, and that he was, essentially, leaving. Danny's fingers tensed, those of his left hand squeezing the glass longneck bottle tightly; those of his right hand gripping the chair so hard his knuckles turned white.

Leaving.

He couldn't have, and he knew it as well as he knew his own name.

Thing is, in spite of the fact that Grace and Rachel are still in Jersey, because after the life-altering decision Danny had made based on Rachel simply telling him she was pregnant, and after he'd made yet another potentially life-altering decision by choosing to go to the governor's residence rather than the airport, Danny felt content.

It was a feeling he'd not felt in a long, long time.

Even when he and Rachel had been good, he hadn't been content. Because everything had been about scrimping, saving, preparing for Grace, being up at all hours with Grace, and truly the only content moments had been found in snatches of sleep. Things between him and Rachel had gone sour around the time Grace was fifteen months old, and while they'd struggled valiantly to stay together for the sake of their daughter, it hadn't worked.

And then Rachel had become a bitter divorcee with a new, rich beau and just enough spite to do everything in her power to drive a wedge between father and daughter. Funny enough, it hadn't even taken a year for her and Stan to hit the rocks and that first time when Rachel confessed as much, was when Danny began to wonder whether maybe the problem hadn't been him at all. Or, at least, hadn't been all him, as he'd always thought.

And once again, yet another stop-on-a-dime turn, and suddenly Rachel was beside herself when Danny almost died on the job, and come on, it wasn't like that hadn't ever happened back in Jersey or even there in Hawaii. So she comes all the way back from England, throws herself at him, cries her tears and he? He falls for it, because to him, Rachel equals Grace and Grace equals love.

He hadn't expected to figure it out when his Camaro screeched to a halt in front of the governor's residence. Hadn't at all expected much else to come to mind as he anguished over knowing he'd stood his ex-wife and daughter up to go chasing after his partner (other than giving Steve several pieces of that torn and furious mind).

And above all, Danny hadn't expected the 'it' he experienced to be that same sucker punch he now kept feeling over and over again whenever his mind went there, that very nearly doubled him over the moment he saw Steve McGarrett in handcuffs.

Because without Danny even being consciously aware of it, Steve, the man who now sat languidly watching the campfire die down, had become more family than he'd ever really had in years. And Kono, he thought as his eyes traveled to her whispering with Chin Ho. Chin, a man Danny had wanted to lay into next week as he stuffed Steve into that cruiser, but something within had held him back.

Every one of these three people here before him on Steve's beach at Steve's house in the beautiful State of Hawaii, were his family.

And yeah, yes, of course, Grace was too. Which was why, Danny was going to announce to this family right here, any minute now, Rachel had agreed to it after all was said and done during their fifteen-hour marathon talk on the phone two nights ago. And what she had agreed to, was that Grace would be coming to stay with Danny for two whole months right here in Hawaii while Rachel returned to England after finding out she wasn't having a baby after all, to bask in her old family values and figure out what the hell it was she really wanted.

And Danny had made it crystal clear that wanting him was no longer an option. Well, she could want all she wanted, but she wouldn't get him. They were over. Done. Had been for a long time. And the fact that he'd slept with her once, and that she'd thought she'd gotten pregnant from that one occasion, well, for a short period of time, that had made Danny happier than he ever thought he'd be again.

Until the strangled cry had come out of Steve's mouth that night six months ago. A cry that had been Danny's very own name ripped from Steve's lips, begging in that single word for his help.

Chin and Kono rose to their feet and Danny suddenly realized they were about to leave and he hadn't even told them yet.

"S'okay, brah," Chin said as Danny got to his feet and raised a hand to speak. Chin patted him on the shoulder as he and Kono walked by. "He needs you right now more than he needs us, anyway."

What do you say to that? And then further, what do you say when Kono winks and grins at you as they make their way through the house and out the front door? What do you say when you turn to find your partner still seated near the campfire that's almost out, staring directly at you as if he could see right through you?

Danny smiled as he made his way from the lanai to the circle of rocks. An ember flared up and was lifted into the sky, curling in a quick thrust of breeze before flickering out. He looked down to find Steve's eyes had not left his, and just dropped himself into the sand only inches away.

"I might need your help, partner," Danny said, facing Steve's gaze head-on.

The statement surprised Steve, and Danny felt warmth spread through his chest. "Really? Yeah, yeah, Danny, of course, whatever you need. After all..." His voice trailed off as he waved his hand vaguely indicating the air in between them.

"Yeah," Danny chuckled. "See, the thing is, we're going to have to talk about my work hours, or maybe talk to some one of the Kelly/Kalakaua cousins about some after-school care here."

Now Steve was thoroughly perplexed, and Danny tried to keep his grin from getting any wider. "Um...okay, what, uh...what's going on here, Danny?"

"What's going on," Danny said, shifting so he was also facing the fire, and there was even less space between his leg and Steve's, "is that my daughter is going to be staying with me for two whole months beginning this coming Saturday, so technically, as my boss, I've got to work through my schedule with you to see what we can do about the fact that she needs to be picked up from school and—"

Danny couldn't breathe for a moment because Steve's hand settled atop his thigh and squeezed hard. He looked down at that single point of contact and finally lapsed into an all-out grin.

"And you know, when we get cases that keeps us away from home, I'm sure Kono and Chin and Kamekona know about five thousand people around here who could take care of Grace, and so the only thing left for me to do, I guess, is find a better place to keep a young lady than in than that dinky apartment of mine."

Steve removed his hand from Danny's thigh and Danny finally looked back at his face as he spoke.

"Dinky's a good way to describe it," Steve commented, meeting his gaze. Then his eyes flicked up toward the house before coming back to rest on Danny's. "You know you're not staying there, though."

"Well," Danny said, eyes looking up to the darkened house and then back to Steve's, trying like hell to make it seem as though he hadn't already thought of it himself, "it sure would give them something to talk about."

"Them?" Steve asked, raising an eyebrow and having the same side of his mouth quirk up in a smile.

"Yeah," Danny nodded, waving his hands above his head for a moment. "The 'them' who already think so many things about us that aren't true it's enough to write books about."

Steve chuckled, flopping back into the sand. "Okay," he said, nodding as he laced his fingers under his head. "I don't think anyone but me would be able to put up with you anyway."

"Hey!" Danny protested, though he couldn't keep the laughter out of his voice. "A guy who sleeps with a knife taped to the head of his bed should seriously not be throwing stones. Oh, and said knife? No longer taped to bed when Grace is here."

"Riiiight," Steve said, brow furrowing. "There's an awful lot to do before Saturday if we're making this place kid-proof."

Danny craned his neck to look down at Steve and said, "We may hate each other after a week, you know. I'm not necessarily the best roommate."

"Neither am I, but Grace will be our...Saving Grace...I think," Steve replied with a funny look on his face.

"In more ways than one," Danny replied, forgetting how he'd be digging sand out of his hair forever and just flopping back onto the beach next to Steve.

Danny lifted his longneck from his horizontal position and Steve did the same. They pushed themselves up onto one elbow each, drained the bottles and grinned at each other before their heads hit the sand again.

"Saving Grace," Steve said again as his eyes drifted closed.

Danny just smiled.