Cacti, Steel, and Surf--Chapter One, Nostalgia
Cacti, Steel, And Surf
Chapter One- Nostalgia
Rating- PG
A/N: The italicized words are in Spanish . . . And two words from Hawaii . . .
Danny would be the first to admit that when he had moved to Hawaii he had hated the cheerful atmosphere of the place; he was going through hell with his ex-wife trying to keep his daughter as far away from him as possible. At any other time, he might’ve taken time to enjoy the place, but with such a negative reason for his being here, he couldn’t bring himself to do that.
Then-after six months of being on this damn island-Steve, Chin Ho, and Kono made this place feel, if not like home, more comfortable. He was getting used to being called haole, the constant belittling for being a mainlander, and the sand and surf always in the background with the heat that was abnormally hot all the time-come winter he was not going to know what to with himself, it’d be a bit cooler but still not below freezing like he was used too after living in Jersey for so long.
It was like moving to New Jersey from New Mexico all over again, going from hot to warm year round to warm to freezing. The sand here in Hawaii was different though, smoother and finer, than the harsh coarse grains or thick clays from the deserts of his childhood. He’d been born on those plains, was mostly raised there until his mother had found a man she loved.
He’d never known his father, he never would. The man had just drifted in and seduced his mother then disappeared like the breeze in the New Mexican summer. He didn’t mind his step-father but, unused to another male vying for his mother’s attention, it had been weird. He’d been young, only eight, but he was old enough to know that this man wasn’t his father, wasn't family.
And then three years after meeting him, the man had taken him and his mother far from his home. He’d missed those rugged plains horribly after his mother and he moved to New Jersey with Craig. Even years after, though he told McGarett he was city boy, there were large parts of him that yearned for the scent of baked earth and the stables that had been his home.
Danny smacked his lips as he thought about the homemade cactus jelly made by Nana Ignacia, a neighbor--and practically family--who lived with her husband, Tse, near his grandparents’ old ranch. They used to put that on either homemade tortillas or bread for breakfast as they ran out of the house early summer mornings, ready to play in the hot sun and do chores for all the live stock.
His cousin currently ran it, breeding mostly cattle and some horses, kept the ranch going after the passing of their grandparents, Gran and Poppy. Danny had tried to visit as often as possible, especially after Grace had been born; he wanted her to experience more than just the upper-crust life style Rachel was used to.
With a deep sigh he turned from staring out at the waves on the horizon and finished the paper work for the last chaotic case they’d been on, the faint memory of dry earth and the suns reflection off of it during its shift reflected on his minds eye and the sound of coyotes calling to their families echoing in his ears.
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Steve watched Danny through the window of his office, there had been some banter between Chin Ho and Kono earlier about their grandmother and some of the food they used to eat when they saw her, and during it Danny had gotten suspiciously quiet. He didn’t understand it, was he homesick for Jersey? He and Chin Ho had closed themselves in his office to discuss how to make their latest acts in an ambiguous but truthful way, so he turned to the man with the question in his eyes.
Chin sighed as he caught the look and saw the reason for it, Danny was once again staring out at the sun, but this time he had his finished report in one hand as he absent mindedly chewed on the thumbnail of the other.
“This is just an observation, but I think he might be a bit homesick, his daughter may be here, but doesn’t he have any other family? Friends? There must be something besides work he likes to do, but that’s all he’s done since he got here, is work. Well, that and hang out with you or spend time with Grace, have you even bothered to ask about what he likes to do? He knows more about you and your family than we know about him.”
Steve looked back towards Danny--he had just licked his lips as if thinking of something delicious to eat but still had that wistful glaze to his feature--he actually knew very little about his partner.
In fact all he could actually recall his friend telling him was a rant about proper pizza, Rachel trying to take Gracie away from him, he liked blueberry pancakes, the reason for the name Danno, and that he had lived in Jersey before he moved here. For all the time they had spent together, Steve knew surprising little about the man who had been his partner for the past six months.
And Danny, well, Danny knew he’d been in the SEALs, he played high school football, he had a younger sister named Mary, knew he liked pancakes and was a bit of a health nut, and he knows that he had a rather strained relationship with his Dad. He helped with his fathers murder, and that his mother has been dead. He knows he likes to surf and casually hooks up with Cathrine.
Over all, Danny knew more about him than he did about Danny. It caused him to sigh, they were Ohana-they watched each others’ backs in almost every situation in their lives despite how little time they’ve known each other-so how come they knew so little about one of their people?
Kono, Chin Ho, and Steve were all suddenly startled when “Home Sweet Home” by Blake Shelton began to play throughout the office, and they watched as Danny’s face suddenly lost the wistful glaze and brightened as he answered his phone. However, seconds after answering his phone everyone was lost, none of them had known that Danny spoke Spanish, so they each looked at the other before trying to listen in and discern what little they could of the conversation.
Danny, meanwhile, was ecstatic, he hadn’t spoken to his Nana in a few weeks, she was the only parental figure he had left and he missed her being in Hawaii. He planned on hopefully saving enough to bring her here over the Christmas holidays, he wanted her to see her adoptive granddaughter and maybe show her where he was living now. He missed the course orange sands of his home and his Nana and Gran’s food, hell he even missed his rather stubborn and cantankerous Poppy and the old myths of his Abuelo.
But he loved his job and was beginning to like, if not somewhat love, Hawaii with Grace, Steve, Chin ho, and Kono here with him.
“Mí hermosa Ignacia, how wonderful it is to hear from you.”
“Still a charmer, I see mijo. How are you and Gracia doing?”
“We’re good Nana, just got done with a hard days’ work catching the bad guys, being blown up, and shot at in regular intervals. It’s just work.”
“Ha, just work, I swear you enjoy such things far too much. You’ve always been in the thick of things, despite your modest protests and fibs that you’re not. How is that new partner of yours working out, he keeping you safe at least?”
“Safe? Safe? You think Steve McGarett is keeping me safe? That’s a laugh, the man is a walking target; I swear, he’s been the one to lead me into most of the situations and the cause of most of my injuries since we became partners.”
“You wouldn’t trade it for the world, though, would you mijo? I’m sure you’re enjoying every minute of it there, despite the distance between here and there.”
“Yeah, well, I might, just a little.”
“Just a little, hmph, you still can’t lie to me to save your life niño. Anyways, I called to ask you about where you’d like me to send you some of my less perishable foods. Last time you about waxed poetic about missing them.”
The others watched as the tips of Danny’s ears turned bright red and a rather bashful expression appeared across his face and he spoke the first English words they heard throughout the entire conversation besides Steve’s name.
“Yeah well, I haven’t had any of since I moved here and you used to send me some all the time while I lived in Jersey. Anyways give me a second, I’m never really at my small loft anymore, somehow I usually end up sleeping on Steve’s couch after a case, so I need to ask him.”
“Okay mijo, ask your amanto.”
“Okay, hey Steve -Wait a minute, he is not my lover!”
Steve had perked up at his name and was about to acknowledge Danny’s summon when Danny squawked rather loudly something into the phone once more in Spanish, his eyes wide and his face slack in disbelief.
“You keep telling yourself that mijo. I will always understand, no matter when you realize it, but think, you are sleeping at his house, you pick at him, jealous when he goes out or flirts with women, you argue together about things your Abuelo and I used too, and when you have Grace, he is usually there unless he has to be away.”
“We’re not lovers, not that I’d mind-but that’s not the point, we’re not lovers Nana, in fact I think he’s straight, he was a Navy SEAL for God’s sake.”
Nana Ignacia chuckled at her-in all ways but blood-grandson, “Whatever you say, mijo, now ask.”
Danny’s face was now completely pink as he looked at Steve and he had to clear his throat before he could ask him anything. The others glanced at each other, wondering what could cause the city boy so much embarrassment to cause his skin to redden.
“Ah, Steve, um, my Nana wants to send me some of her sealed and less perishable food, where should I send it? I mean I’m either here or usually at your place so. . .”
Steve raised his eyebrows as he listened to Danny, thinking that whatever his Nana had said to him, it must have been good.
“Go ahead and have her send it to my place, that way we can put it away and it won’t be taken or lost in that small cramped place you call an apartment.”
Danny smiled slightly, “’Kay, Alright. . .”
As Danny turned away and started to ramble off the address to his Nana, the others looked at each other and Steve smirked, after the little revelation earlier that day he fully planned on dragging out who exactly Danny’s Nana was and what she had said to cause his partner to blush.
Chapter Archive / Chapter Two
Chapter One- Nostalgia
Rating- PG
A/N: The italicized words are in Spanish . . . And two words from Hawaii . . .
Danny would be the first to admit that when he had moved to Hawaii he had hated the cheerful atmosphere of the place; he was going through hell with his ex-wife trying to keep his daughter as far away from him as possible. At any other time, he might’ve taken time to enjoy the place, but with such a negative reason for his being here, he couldn’t bring himself to do that.
Then-after six months of being on this damn island-Steve, Chin Ho, and Kono made this place feel, if not like home, more comfortable. He was getting used to being called haole, the constant belittling for being a mainlander, and the sand and surf always in the background with the heat that was abnormally hot all the time-come winter he was not going to know what to with himself, it’d be a bit cooler but still not below freezing like he was used too after living in Jersey for so long.
It was like moving to New Jersey from New Mexico all over again, going from hot to warm year round to warm to freezing. The sand here in Hawaii was different though, smoother and finer, than the harsh coarse grains or thick clays from the deserts of his childhood. He’d been born on those plains, was mostly raised there until his mother had found a man she loved.
He’d never known his father, he never would. The man had just drifted in and seduced his mother then disappeared like the breeze in the New Mexican summer. He didn’t mind his step-father but, unused to another male vying for his mother’s attention, it had been weird. He’d been young, only eight, but he was old enough to know that this man wasn’t his father, wasn't family.
And then three years after meeting him, the man had taken him and his mother far from his home. He’d missed those rugged plains horribly after his mother and he moved to New Jersey with Craig. Even years after, though he told McGarett he was city boy, there were large parts of him that yearned for the scent of baked earth and the stables that had been his home.
Danny smacked his lips as he thought about the homemade cactus jelly made by Nana Ignacia, a neighbor--and practically family--who lived with her husband, Tse, near his grandparents’ old ranch. They used to put that on either homemade tortillas or bread for breakfast as they ran out of the house early summer mornings, ready to play in the hot sun and do chores for all the live stock.
His cousin currently ran it, breeding mostly cattle and some horses, kept the ranch going after the passing of their grandparents, Gran and Poppy. Danny had tried to visit as often as possible, especially after Grace had been born; he wanted her to experience more than just the upper-crust life style Rachel was used to.
With a deep sigh he turned from staring out at the waves on the horizon and finished the paper work for the last chaotic case they’d been on, the faint memory of dry earth and the suns reflection off of it during its shift reflected on his minds eye and the sound of coyotes calling to their families echoing in his ears.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Steve watched Danny through the window of his office, there had been some banter between Chin Ho and Kono earlier about their grandmother and some of the food they used to eat when they saw her, and during it Danny had gotten suspiciously quiet. He didn’t understand it, was he homesick for Jersey? He and Chin Ho had closed themselves in his office to discuss how to make their latest acts in an ambiguous but truthful way, so he turned to the man with the question in his eyes.
Chin sighed as he caught the look and saw the reason for it, Danny was once again staring out at the sun, but this time he had his finished report in one hand as he absent mindedly chewed on the thumbnail of the other.
“This is just an observation, but I think he might be a bit homesick, his daughter may be here, but doesn’t he have any other family? Friends? There must be something besides work he likes to do, but that’s all he’s done since he got here, is work. Well, that and hang out with you or spend time with Grace, have you even bothered to ask about what he likes to do? He knows more about you and your family than we know about him.”
Steve looked back towards Danny--he had just licked his lips as if thinking of something delicious to eat but still had that wistful glaze to his feature--he actually knew very little about his partner.
In fact all he could actually recall his friend telling him was a rant about proper pizza, Rachel trying to take Gracie away from him, he liked blueberry pancakes, the reason for the name Danno, and that he had lived in Jersey before he moved here. For all the time they had spent together, Steve knew surprising little about the man who had been his partner for the past six months.
And Danny, well, Danny knew he’d been in the SEALs, he played high school football, he had a younger sister named Mary, knew he liked pancakes and was a bit of a health nut, and he knows that he had a rather strained relationship with his Dad. He helped with his fathers murder, and that his mother has been dead. He knows he likes to surf and casually hooks up with Cathrine.
Over all, Danny knew more about him than he did about Danny. It caused him to sigh, they were Ohana-they watched each others’ backs in almost every situation in their lives despite how little time they’ve known each other-so how come they knew so little about one of their people?
Kono, Chin Ho, and Steve were all suddenly startled when “Home Sweet Home” by Blake Shelton began to play throughout the office, and they watched as Danny’s face suddenly lost the wistful glaze and brightened as he answered his phone. However, seconds after answering his phone everyone was lost, none of them had known that Danny spoke Spanish, so they each looked at the other before trying to listen in and discern what little they could of the conversation.
Danny, meanwhile, was ecstatic, he hadn’t spoken to his Nana in a few weeks, she was the only parental figure he had left and he missed her being in Hawaii. He planned on hopefully saving enough to bring her here over the Christmas holidays, he wanted her to see her adoptive granddaughter and maybe show her where he was living now. He missed the course orange sands of his home and his Nana and Gran’s food, hell he even missed his rather stubborn and cantankerous Poppy and the old myths of his Abuelo.
But he loved his job and was beginning to like, if not somewhat love, Hawaii with Grace, Steve, Chin ho, and Kono here with him.
“Mí hermosa Ignacia, how wonderful it is to hear from you.”
“Still a charmer, I see mijo. How are you and Gracia doing?”
“We’re good Nana, just got done with a hard days’ work catching the bad guys, being blown up, and shot at in regular intervals. It’s just work.”
“Ha, just work, I swear you enjoy such things far too much. You’ve always been in the thick of things, despite your modest protests and fibs that you’re not. How is that new partner of yours working out, he keeping you safe at least?”
“Safe? Safe? You think Steve McGarett is keeping me safe? That’s a laugh, the man is a walking target; I swear, he’s been the one to lead me into most of the situations and the cause of most of my injuries since we became partners.”
“You wouldn’t trade it for the world, though, would you mijo? I’m sure you’re enjoying every minute of it there, despite the distance between here and there.”
“Yeah, well, I might, just a little.”
“Just a little, hmph, you still can’t lie to me to save your life niño. Anyways, I called to ask you about where you’d like me to send you some of my less perishable foods. Last time you about waxed poetic about missing them.”
The others watched as the tips of Danny’s ears turned bright red and a rather bashful expression appeared across his face and he spoke the first English words they heard throughout the entire conversation besides Steve’s name.
“Yeah well, I haven’t had any of since I moved here and you used to send me some all the time while I lived in Jersey. Anyways give me a second, I’m never really at my small loft anymore, somehow I usually end up sleeping on Steve’s couch after a case, so I need to ask him.”
“Okay mijo, ask your amanto.”
“Okay, hey Steve -Wait a minute, he is not my lover!”
Steve had perked up at his name and was about to acknowledge Danny’s summon when Danny squawked rather loudly something into the phone once more in Spanish, his eyes wide and his face slack in disbelief.
“You keep telling yourself that mijo. I will always understand, no matter when you realize it, but think, you are sleeping at his house, you pick at him, jealous when he goes out or flirts with women, you argue together about things your Abuelo and I used too, and when you have Grace, he is usually there unless he has to be away.”
“We’re not lovers, not that I’d mind-but that’s not the point, we’re not lovers Nana, in fact I think he’s straight, he was a Navy SEAL for God’s sake.”
Nana Ignacia chuckled at her-in all ways but blood-grandson, “Whatever you say, mijo, now ask.”
Danny’s face was now completely pink as he looked at Steve and he had to clear his throat before he could ask him anything. The others glanced at each other, wondering what could cause the city boy so much embarrassment to cause his skin to redden.
“Ah, Steve, um, my Nana wants to send me some of her sealed and less perishable food, where should I send it? I mean I’m either here or usually at your place so. . .”
Steve raised his eyebrows as he listened to Danny, thinking that whatever his Nana had said to him, it must have been good.
“Go ahead and have her send it to my place, that way we can put it away and it won’t be taken or lost in that small cramped place you call an apartment.”
Danny smiled slightly, “’Kay, Alright. . .”
As Danny turned away and started to ramble off the address to his Nana, the others looked at each other and Steve smirked, after the little revelation earlier that day he fully planned on dragging out who exactly Danny’s Nana was and what she had said to cause his partner to blush.
Chapter Archive / Chapter Two