Trope_Bingo "Snowed In"
Hawaii Five-0
No warnings
Fluff!
The celebrations yesterday had been massive, with a pig in a pit, pumpkin pie everywhere you looked, pineapple in many, oh so many, inappropriate places and, for the Jersey haole, a turkey, cooked especially by Mrs Kalakuau. Danny had had to admit that it was excellent, although he threatened with death and dismemberment anyone who told his mother how much he had enjoyed someone else’s Christmas turkey. All in all, it had been a happy day, a day of gratitude and feasting and ohana. Danny had his beloved daughter with him, and was safe in the knowledge that he had her for the following day too, all day and all night, and that she only had to go back to her mother on Saturday.
E
Friday, though, neither he nor Grace felt quite as happy as they had the day before. Perhaps it was too much rich food, or just the slump you get after a particularly good holiday, but after Grace had spoken to her mother, and they had had breakfast together and brushed their teeth, they sat on the sofa in Danny’s apartment and couldn’t decide what to do with their day.
“We could go to the beach,” Grace suggested listlessly, but the all-day party yesterday had been on the beach, and for once she thought she might have had enough sand and sea, certainly for a little while at least.
“We could go and see a movie,” Danny suggested, but she wrinkled her nose at the idea and he was secretly relieved. Sticky seats and popcorn didn’t appeal to him today.
“Granny and Grandad said they were snowed in,” Grace said suddenly, struck by something. She pulled back the blind and looked outside. The weather was picture postcard perfect; blue skies, hot sun. “Do you ever miss snow, Danno?”
“Do I miss snow? What a question… c’mere,” and he hefted her onto his lap, making her giggle and squirm. Big though she was, almost 10 now, he held her close and breathed in the scent that was intrinsically Grace, the one he remembered smelling for the first time when she was just a few hours old. Danny had long ago accepted that smell was important to him; he could identify Steve by scent, for example, at 50 paces.
“Sometimes I miss snow,” he confessed, snuffling in Gracie’s hair and making her giggle again. “I miss playing ice hockey on the pond down the road from where Grandma and Grandpa live. I miss making snowmen with my sisters and my,” he swallowed reflexively, “brother.” He waited, but Grace didn’t ask about her Uncle Matt. “So yes, I do miss snow for some things. But I have so much else here that most of the time I don’t even think of it.” Reassuring Grace, he realised that this was in fact the truth, and a little glow of warmth lit up his chest as he thought of the family he had found in Hawaii. “I mean, I’ve even got pretty good at surfing!”
“Oh, Danno,” his daughter was using her kindly, grown up voice, the one that reminded him so much of Rachel, “your surfing is okay, but I wouldn’t give up your day job.”
That surprised a laugh out of him. “Cheeky Monkey! I happen to like my day job, thank you very much. I have no intention of giving it up, so there.” He wrinkled his nose at her.
“Even though looking after Uncle Steve is a full-time job on its own,” she said, with a little twinkle, and he couldn’t resist, had to kiss her on the tip of her nose. “Even though it is,” he agreed.
Gracie had had enough of sitting on his lap; she wriggled until he let her go, thinking regretfully that the days were almost over when he would be able to pull her up onto his lap at all. She was growing up so very fast, and it made his heart ache and swell in equal proportions. He had to swallow hard, again. God, but he was emotional today!
Grace hadn’t noticed. She was thinking. “Danno,” she began, “if we turned the airconditioning up really high, and made it as cold as we could, and then we kept all the blinds closed and got out the blankets, we could pretend we were snowed in too, couldn’t we?” Her eyes shone. “We could eat leftovers and pretend we were in New Jersey and that the roads were all blocked with snow and that we couldn’t get out until the morning at least. Danno, can we?”
As if he could say no to his girl when she was so enthusiastic about something! Danny pushed thoughts of his power bill firmly out of his mind, and beamed. “That’s a great idea, Monkey. Perhaps we can even call Grandma later and tell her all about it, hmm?”
“I think she’d like that,” Grace agreed, “I’ll get the blankets, Danno. You turn up the aircon.”
“Yes, your highness,” he said, mock-seriously, and she gave him a play-frown before dashing off to her room. Danny set the aircon unit to as low as it could go, and went to sort through the leftovers to see what would be appropriate for a snowed-in father and daughter.
xxxxxxx
They were finishing off turkey and stuffing sandwiches when the doorbell rang. So deep in the imagining were they that for a moment Danny wondered how someone had made it through the snow to the front door. From her face, he could see Grace was having the same thought. The bell rang again.
“It must be a truly intrepid explorer,” he said solemnly to his daughter, and she nodded, wide-eyed. He loved that so much about her, how she could get herself so immersed in a game that it became more real to her than the real world. He also had a sneaking suspicion of who was at the door, and wondered how he could warn him to play along.
“OK, hold your horses,” he called, wrestling with the bolt, and Grace called from the sitting room, “They’re probably huskies, Danno, not horses.”
“Hold your huskies,” he repeated obediently, and pulled the door open, gasping as a wall of hot, scented Hawaii’n air hit him full on.
Sure enough, Steve was on the doorstep. He was holding, somewhat precariously, three cones of shaved ice from Benno, who sold them across the road from Danny’s apartment block, and Danny could see they were starting to melt already. Resigned, he stood aside and beckoned Steve, unexpected visitor Steve, inside.
“It’s freezing in here,” was the first thing the big goof said, shivering, which is when Grace appeared from the sitting room, wrapped in her pink Disney Princesses blanket, and with a stern look on her face. “That’s because we are snowed in, Uncle Steve,” she chided him. “You must have nearly frozen to death dressed like that. Are your huskies ok?”
Steve threw Danny a look that was equal parts bemused and appealing. “Um, yes?” he tried, and held out the strawberry cone. “I brought shave ice.”
“In a snowstorm?” Grace tsked tsked but took the proffered dessert eagerly enough. “Where did you find shave ice in New Jersey, Uncle Steve?”
“In…,” Steve stopped, obviously resetting his brain, then went on. “Why, I had the cones and syrup in my sled out there, Gracie, and I just scraped up some ice from the pavement outside. It was easy to make it myself!”
Grace giggled. “Uncle Steve, you are funny!” She looked at Danny. “He’s staying, isn’t he Danno?” Without waiting for an answer she added, “I’ll go and find him a blanket!” and hurried off, slurping at her ice. Steve watched her with the fond, almost adoring look he always got around Gracie, the one which made Danny’s heart melt in ways he would rather not think too closely about, and then turned back to his partner. “New Jersey, Danny? Snowed in?” He looked a little wounded. “I thought you were so much happier here now.”
“Shh, you big goof, it’s Grace’s game,” was all Danny had a chance to say before Grace was back, handing Steve a rather musty smelling blanket which had spent the last three years in a closet.
“You’d better sit between Danno and me on the sofa,” she decided. “You’ll need to warm up after your dangerous journey.” Unable to say no, a mesmerised Steve meekly followed her to the sofa and sat himself down on the middle seat, Grace fussing over his blanket as he still held two cones and couldn’t do it for himself. She then heaved a happy sigh, and picked up the remote control, flicking on Brave for the 400th time.
Danny stood, irresolute. Grace, however, brooked no rebellion. “Danno, your shave ice is getting warm,” she said pointedly, and untruthfully - the aircon was down so low that the damn thing was pretty near refreezing.
“Yes, come on Danno,” Steve said, holding out the cone, his expression an exact replica of Grace’s. “You should bring your blanket too - you can help warm me up,” and he gave Danny a slow and surprisingly lascivious wink for a man who had probably left a warm Lt Rollins in his bed an hour ago, and wasn’t that just so interesting?
Danny gave in. He took his cone from Steve, plonked himself on the sofa and sighed. “You both bully me,” he said in a heartfelt tone, and he felt rather than heard Steve chuckle as he draped an arm over Danny’s shoulders. Peeping round him, Danny could see a rather knowing little grin on Grace’s face, and caught her and Steve exchanging a Look… His worldview suddenly shifted rather abruptly. Could his partner and his sweet, innocent little girl be plotting to get him snuggling up against Steve, on a sofa, again? He had to admit that much as he had found The Notebook rather affecting, he preferred Brave….
“Stop thinking, Danno,” said Steve comfortably, shifting so that he could get his other arm around Grace. “Eat your shave ice.”
So Danny did. He had long ago learnt that it was pointless fighting those two when they decided to gang up on him. Besides, where could he go? They were snowed-in, after all.
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