Sentry (2/3)
The afternoon passes without incident and by the time the trio return to Danny's small apartment, Grace is exhausted and ready for bed. Steve quietly clears the rooms while Danny asks Grace if she thinks the neighbour across the building got new drapes. Steve pops his head out the door and the slightest of nods from him tells Danny that it's safe to enter.
"Okay, Monkey. Go get ready for bed now."
"But Danno, I'm not even tired yet," Grace protests.
"You fell asleep in the car."
Knowing her dad has her beat, Grace sighs dramatically and turns, halfheartedly stomping to the bathroom and leaving the two men alone for the first time.
Steve watches her go and then raises an eyebrow at Danny.
"What?" the detective defends. "She is eight. She's been brushing her own teeth for five years now."
"Oh, okay then."
"You really don't have a lot of experience with kids do you?" Danny chuckles. "I mean besides the protection part. That you are very good at."
"Uh, no. But thanks. I think."
"You're doing fine. She isn't scared of you so that is a point in your column. Grace will come and say goodnight when she's ready and I will tuck her in and read her a story, which will be another chapter of Harry the Insipid Potter, but I will do it because I love my baby girl and I know that one day, one day much much too soon, she will not need her dorky old dad to read to her and I will regret not doing it while I could."
"Then we strategise and make a plan for the weekend."
Danny nods. "Yes. When my innocent daughter is asleep."
"The thing is," Steve says tentatively, "I think that maybe she needs to know a little more about what is going on. Her mother told her that someone had said they wanted to do bad things to her stepdad and Grace asked "The bad men like Danno catches?". I think she would be safer being more aware. She is bright and alert and two days with her has shown me that she is level headed."
"I don't know, Steve. Rachel would go ballistic if she found out, and she will find out, believe me, she always finds out."
"Oh, I know. I've been party to her interrogation techniques. She's so polite it tricks you into talking. They could use her at GITMO."
"I'll be sure and tell her you said that," Danny teases.
"Don't you dare. Look, I just want to tell her a few things to look out for, that's all. Cars driving too slowly or past several times. People asking her for directions instead of asking the adult she is with. I assume you've talked to her about stranger danger?"
Danny responds to the last comment with a disbelieving snort. "She's a cop's kid. What do you think? And I hear you already snuck in some self defence training during PE today," he chuckles.
"Yes, Grace was quite impressive. For a beginner."
Danny laughs loudly. "Oh please, I've been teaching her on the sly since she was five years old."
"Well, okay then. I think we are on the same page. Maybe it will be best coming from you though, in addition to her chapter book tonight."
"Oh no, you're not getting out of it that easy. It was your idea. And besides, I want her to see that I trust you and that she can too. Okay?"
Steve nods. "Okay."
Once Grace is all tucked in and sleeping soundly, Danny closes the door quietly behind him, leaving it ajar the amount that Grace likes, and returns to Steve who is testing the locks on all the windows in the living room.
"You want to check the kitchen next?" Danny asks, only half kidding. He knows the situation is nothing to joke about but it's his way of coping. He just hopes Steve can see that."
"Already did. You need to clean out the drip tray in your refrigerator by the way."
"The drip tray in my… Okay, I'm going to let that one pass and pretend you said 'Thank you for the refreshment and or food I took from your fridge, Danny.' "
"Good. Saves me saying it."
Danny scowls. "So, uh," he sweeps his arm around the tidy but small living area. "As you can see, I am not exactly set up for house guests."
"Not a guest."
"You're an extra body, which I assume at some point is going to need to sleep. Unless you are actually a robot, in which case, there's a surge protector on the toaster in the kitchen. It keeps tripping the fuses. Just plug the toaster back in when you're done charging."
"Funny." Steve deadpans. "You should just buy a new toaster before you burn the place down. We have," he looks at his watch, "Twelve hours until Grace gets up?"
Danny nods. "More or less."
"I'll catch some shut eye for 4 hours now then sleep tomorrow while Chin Ho is on school detail. That gives you a solid eight hours after me. I am aware that you still have a day job."
"That works in theory, Steve, but you're forgetting one thing. I don't have anywhere for you to sleep."
"Hotbunking is fine," he shrugs.
"Hotwhatnow?"
"On a sub, everyone works 12 hours on 12 hours off and when the other guy's working you sleep then swap. The mattress never gets cold."
"Hence, hotbunking."
"Hence?"
"It's a word. Look, Steve, this isn't the most ideal setup, okay? But since I like you, I will allow you to borrow my bed for your little robot nap and I'll sort something better out for the weekend."
"I'm not a robot!" Steve protests as he sits on the edge of the bed, unlaces his boots and lines them up with the edge of the comforter, right where his feet will be when he sits back up again.
Danny watches and raises an eyebrow. "Uh, huh."
Steve flicks off the bedside light, not that it makes much difference with the overheads still on, but it's meant to send a message. "Goodnight, Danno."
"What'd I tell you about that, huh?"
Steve doesn't reply but Danny could swear he sees his ear twitch upwards, as if he were smiling to himself.
* * *
The next two days pass, Danny calls Grace every night and after his traditional 'Goodnight, Monkey. Danno loves you,' she passes Steve the phone who gives Danny a SitRep of the day. So far, there have been no incidents or even concerns.
"I wanted to talk to you about that," Steve says quietly and Danny can hear him close a door behind him, presumably for privacy. Danny's thought is confirmed when Steve's next words are normal volume.
"I'm curious why there have been no follow up threats or demands made. As far as we can tell, nobody is following Mr or Mrs Edwards or Grace."
"Well, that's good, isn't it?" Danny asks, laying back on the couch and propping his feet on the arm.
"Of course it is," Steve replies. "But what I really want, is to find out who made the threats in the first place and why. We could go on for weeks in this holding pattern and as much as I like having a pay check, it's not good for a family to be under this pressure."
"HPD is on it, Babe," Danny reminds him. "Not me, I'm too involved to be allowed to investigate."
"And HPD always gets a fast result," Steve says sarcastically.
"Hey! That's my workplace you're dissenting."
"Your workplace? But not your people?"
'Damn him', Danny thinks. 'Stupid, astute Navy SEALs.'
"Look," he says aloud, "My relationship with the Honolulu Police Department is not really your business. And besides, who are you to criticise the way they work? Just because they are cops not SEALS, doesn't mean they can't do their jobs properly."
"Again with the detached, third person descriptors," Steve points out. "Look, I'm not trying to offend you. My dad was a Detective with HPD for almost three Decades, I know how hard it is for a haoles in there, okay Danny? I know."
"Oh."
"Which is why I want us to investigate this ourselves. I believe I can justify it falling under the purview of my protection detail."
"You can't go poking around though. Don't make me have to arrest you"
"I also have a private investigator's licence."
"Of course you do," Danny sighs. "You're right of course. About all of it. If we want this to go away, we will have to make it go away ourselves."
"Good. Look, I know tomorrow is your weekend with Grace, but I want my partner, Chin Ho Kelly, to be Grace's detail so we can talk. He can keep her in, play cards or something and you and I will meet at the shave ice stand to go over what we've got so far."
"That's fine Steve. But you'd better warn Chin Ho not to play with real money. My Monkey is a shark."
* * *
"The traces I ran on the email lead to an ISP that was diverted so many times I lost the trail in Spain."
Danny stares, disbelieving at the tablet Steve is holding up, showing a world map with the re-routed email bounced all over it. "That's way more than HPD could even get. I want your version of the App store, Babe."
Steve chuckles. "I maybe forgot to turn in a couple of things when I left the Navy."
"Clearly."
"So anyway, following the email is a bust."
"And as we have no physical evidence at this time, we really don't have anything to go on," Danny finishes.
"Which is where you come in."
"Huh?"
"You're a detective, Danno. So, detect. Where do we start?"
"Okay, One. It's Danny. Danno is Grace's name for me, nobody else's. Two. I'm not a magician. I can't wave my magic ALS wand and find some evidence."
"No, Mr Snarky. But you know where to start looking. I'm thinking Stan's files?"
Danny nods. "Yeah. HPD went over them but found nothing obvious."
"Well let's look for the not-so-obvious then!" Steve says eagerly, standing up and dropping his empty shave ice cup in the bin. "It's going to work great."
"You're enjoying this way too much," Danny grumbles, if only because its safer than even hinting at how not-grumpy he is at the prospect of spending more time with Steve.
"You love it."
(Part Three)