FIC: Made my heart come all undone (Danny/Kono, NC-17)
Title: Made my heart come all undone
Pairing: Danny/Kono
Summary: The one where Kono gets pregnant and Danny falls in love, twice.
Rating/content: NC-17 for sex; spoilers through 2x02
Warning: job-related injury to a pregnant woman
Word count: ~14k
A/N: Title from a Beach Boys song. Many many thanks to finduilas_clln and zolac_no_miko for answering my dumb questions and to delicatale, gryffindorj, and shes_gone for all of their help and encouragement. ♥
This fic is also on AO3.
Of course she tells him when they're in pursuit of an armed suspect, racing towards North Shore at ninety miles an hour.
*****
Of course she tells him when they're in pursuit of an armed suspect, racing towards North Shore at ninety miles an hour.
"I need to talk to you."
"Now?"
"I'm pregnant."
"Oh, shit!" says Danny, when they zoom around a red convertible, nearly clipping its side mirror.
Kono looks over at him, worried. "Are you angry?"
Danny tightens his grip on the door handle. "Babe, I am a lot of things right now, but I am mostly concerned with not getting killed in a high-speed collision."
Kono punches the gas, zooming around a flatbed truck. "I'm only a month along, I think. I took three tests to be sure. They were all positive."
"Okay, maybe I should just close my eyes. No, that just makes it worse."
"It was that night after we went to Deep End, remember? And you were kind of drunk."
"Shit, that was--wait, what? I wasn't drunk."
"You'd had a few beers," says Kono.
"And so had you, if I recall correctly!" says Danny, hands waving. "You were definitely feeling pretty good when we got back to your place."
"You were the one that forgot the condom."
"I did not forget anything," says Danny, gripping the door handle when another car nearly swings into their lane. "I remembered the condom just fine, I just didn't have one. You were the one that said it didn't matter, it was fine, it wasn't that time of the month so it's not like you were going to get pregnant or anything." He shakes his head and looks out the window. "Fuck."
Kono is staring straight ahead, her fingers tightening around the steering wheel. After a moment she says, "It's definitely yours. I mean, I haven't, with anyone else. Not since we started..."
Danny wasn't going to ask, but after everything with Rachel he figures she probably wants to put it out there. He nods mutely.
"I'm going to keep it."
Danny's knuckles turn white as he grips the handle even tighter, his heart lodged in his throat. "Okay."
"We don't have to get married or anything," she says. "We don't even have to stay together. I'll raise it on my own."
"What?" says Danny, looking over at her. "Is that what you want?"
"Is that what you want?"
"No!"
"Okay," she says, sounding way too calm.
Up ahead, HPD has set up a roadblock with spikes on the road. The car they're chasing tries to go around it but ends up hitting a tree. Kono pulls over onto the shoulder and cuts the engine.
There's a moment of silence before Danny says, "I definitely wasn't drunk."
*****
They've been sleeping together for less than four months, and no one on the team knows. Sometimes Danny thinks that Steve suspects, but he hasn't said anything. Danny feels kind of bad for not telling him, but he's never been in a situation like this before, dating a co-worker, and he doesn't know if telling Steve will be like telling his boss or his best friend.
Danny and Kono don't have a chance to talk for the rest of the day, and every time he tries to pull her aside she tells him she's busy and they'll talk later. After work, she slips out without saying anything to him and doesn't pick up her phone when he tries calling, so he decides to give her some space. He invites Steve out for drinks and buys the first round.
"So, uh, Kono and I..."
Steve's lips curl into a smile around the mouth of his beer. Danny rolls his eyes.
"Okay, how long have you known?"
"Uh, about four months."
"We've only been seeing each other for three and a half."
"Well, I'm a pretty perceptive guy."
"Uh huh." Danny pops a peanut into his mouth. "So, you're not, you know, worried about--"
"Nah," says Steve. "It doesn't seem like it's affecting your work."
Danny nods. "Well, it's about to be affecting our work. Her work anyway." Steve looks over at him. "She's pregnant."
Steve just looks at him for a minute before he says, "Wow."
"Yeah."
Steve takes a minute to process this. "So what are you guys gonna do?"
"She wants to keep it," says Danny. "And I do too."
Steve nods. "That's pretty huge."
"Tell me about it."
"You gonna move in together?"
"I don't know," says Danny, rubbing his eyes. "We haven't really gotten that far yet. When we talked about it, I was too busy trying not to throw up. Because of her driving, I mean, not the baby. I'm excited about the baby. I think. God, a baby." It's starting to hit him now, that this is really happening. That at this time next year he'll have another kid, with someone other than Rachel, and fuck, maybe he will throw up after all.
Steve must notice the panic setting in because he claps Danny on the back. "So, you and Kono. What's that like?"
Danny sighs and rubs a hand over his jaw. "I don't know, really. I mean, it's not that serious, or at least it wasn't. We've just been...you know."
Steve nods and signals the bartender for another round of beers.
"But we don't really talk about it, so I'm not sure what she's thinking," says Danny. If he's honest, it had surprised him a bit when she'd said that she hadn't been with anyone else since they started sleeping together. He hasn't been with anyone else either, but they've never asked one another for exclusivity. He's thought about asking her sometimes, but he's never gotten out the words. Danny doesn't do casual relationships very well, never has, but he's never been sure if Kono wanted that with him.
Danny looks up to see Steve watching him. "What?"
Steve smiles, fond. "You're gonna be a great dad, Danny. You're already a great dad."
Danny snorts. "Did I tell you Grace wants to go to Princeton? I don't know how the hell I'll be able to afford it if they both want to go. Maybe they can get scholarships."
"A surfing scholarship," says Steve, and Danny makes a face.
"Maybe our boss could give us a raise."
"Or maybe you can get a second job," Steve suggests. "I think Kamekona is hiring."
"Next round is definitely on you."
*****
By the time Danny gets to Kono's apartment, it's nearly eight o'clock.
"I tried calling you," he says when she opens the door. "And texting."
Kono crosses one arm over her chest and looks away. "Yeah, sorry, I just needed some time to think."
Danny nods. "Can I come in?"
Kono steps aside, and Danny walks into the living room. The apartment is tiny, smaller than the first place he got after he graduated from college. He sits on the sofa and she takes a seat in a chair across from him.
"I talked to Steve."
Kono looks up sharply. "Did you tell him?"
"Yes."
Kono scoffs. "Gee, thanks."
"What? You weren't talking to me this afternoon. You weren't answering any of my calls. I wanted to talk to someone, and he's my best friend, okay."
"Yeah, and he's my boss!" says Kono.
"He was going to find out eventually."
"And you didn't think that maybe I'd like to be the one to tell him?" she says, anger flashing in her eyes. "This isn't going to affect your job, but it's definitely going to affect mine."
Danny sighs. "I'm sorry. You're right, I should have let you tell him."
Kono deflates a bit. She lets out a deep breath, shoulders slumping forward, and Danny notices for the first time how truly tired she looks. "Hey," he says, and she looks up at him. "Hey."
Kono shakes her head. "I didn't want this," she says quietly.
"I know." Danny stands from the couch and walks over to her, and she scoots over enough that he can wedge himself into the seat next to her. "I know," he says, wrapping an arm around her.
"It was my fault," she says. "That night. I was stupid."
"I was stupid too," says Danny. He kisses her on the forehead.
She looks up at him, eyes worried. "I meant what I said earlier. In the car."
"Are you kidding?" says Danny. "I'm not letting you raise this kid by yourself. Someone has to teach 'em how to make a proper pizza, and I know it's not going to be you. You'll probably want to put something disgusting on it, like raw tuna or something."
Kono lets out a watery laugh. "I would never ruin perfectly good poke with pizza sauce."
"I'll pretend you didn't just say that."
Kono rolls her eyes, and Danny presses a quick kiss to her lips. When she doesn't push him away, he cups her cheek in his hand and kisses her again, a little deeper this time. She tangles a hand in his shirt and stops breathing for a second when he skims a hand over her belly.
"It's going to be okay," he tells her.
Kono sighs and leans against his shoulder. "Yeah."
*****
They decide to move in together. It makes the most sense, for a lot of reasons, and it's not like either of them are particularly attached to their apartments. They spend a month arguing about it and finally find a nice two-bedroom apartment down the street from Kono's old place.
The first night in the new place, they tiptoe around one another like new college roommates. Kono is so polite it's unnerving. Danny unpacks the dishes and silverware and asks about four hundred times whether she prefers the coffee mugs above the sink or the microwave. Kono apologizes for hanging a picture of Grace without asking him first. They spend so long trying to decide what to order for dinner that by the time it arrives Danny's so nervous he isn't even hungry anymore. Because somewhere in all of this moving in business, he forgot to ask where he's going to sleep.
Kono's old bed is in the master bedroom, and Danny bought a twin-size bed frame for the guest bedroom so that Grace wouldn't have to sleep on the couch when she stayed over. As the night goes on and Kono starts yawning, Danny starts panicking. Does she expect him to sleep in her bed or take the guest room? They haven't slept together since they found out about the pregnancy, and sleeping in her bed feels like a gigantic presumption on his part.
"I'm going to bed," she tells him, ducking her head into the guest bedroom, where he's plugging in a lamp for the nightstand. She's wearing a pair of boxer shorts that might be his but he can't tell.
"Okay, I'm just going to..." He trails off and then gestures at the lamp, although he's not really sure why. Kono glances at the lamp and then back up at him.
"Okay," she says. A moment later, he can hear her brushing her teeth in the master bathroom.
He stares at the lamp for a long time, thinking, and finally decides to err on the side of caution and sleep in the guest room. He makes the bed with his old sheets, brushes his teeth in the half bath across the hall, and climbs into bed.
He's just drifting off to sleep when his blanket is pulled away from him and he looks up to see Kono, wearing nothing but a tiny black camisole, straddling his hips.
"In seven months, we're going to have a baby," she says, looking down at him.
"Uh," says Danny.
"I'm not going to walk on eggshells for seven months, and I'm definitely not going seven months without having sex."
"Oh," Danny says when she reaches up and tugs the camisole over her head. He's hard pretty much immediately, his hands sliding up over her bare thighs, and she leans down so that her hair is brushing his chest.
"You don't seriously want to sleep in here, do you?"
He smooths a hand over her chest, brushing his thumb over a nipple, and god she's so gorgeous and he's missed touching her so much. She tugs on the waistband of his boxer shorts until his cock springs free, then sinks down onto him without preamble.
She must have been waiting for him for a while because she's wet and slippery around him, and Danny groans deep in his throat when she rolls her hips over his, taking him deeper. He touches her everywhere he can, sliding his hands over her hips and along her side and between her breasts. He skims his palm over her stomach, pausing at her lower abdomen, and she looks down at him with hooded eyes.
"You're so beautiful," Danny breathes. He presses his thumb between their bodies to massage her clit, and she falls apart quickly after that, not even bothering to be quiet when she comes, shuddering above him in broken waves. He follows quickly, her thighs still trembling under his hands as he empties himself inside of her.
Both of them are still panting as Kono climbs off of him and lies down next to him on the bed.
"To answer your question," says Danny, "no, I really don't want to sleep in here."
"You're kind of an idiot sometimes," Kono says, turning away from him to lie on her side. "I hope the baby doesn't get that from you."
Danny presses himself against her back and slides his hand over her stomach. "As long as it gets my hair."
"What's wrong with my hair?"
"Nothing, it's beautiful, but come on..."
He can practically hear her eyes rolling. "And here I was worried about college tuition when I should have been worrying about how we're going to afford all that hair gel."
"Also, my cooking skills," says Danny, "because let's be honest, you can barely boil wa--ow."
The next day Danny puts Hannah Montana bed sheets on the guest bed and moves his toothbrush into the master bathroom.
*****
Here's the thing: Kono is a slob.
"Uh, which pile needs to be washed?" says Danny, looking at the two chairs in their bedroom, both covered in shorts and t-shirts and bikinis.
"Neither," says Kono. She plucks a t-shirt and a pair of underwear from the pile. "These need to be washed." She picks up another t-shirt and sniffs it. "I only wore this for a couple of hours yesterday. It's fine."
Danny is familiar with the sniff test but he hasn't used it much since college. "Okay."
She also doesn't do the dishes much. Danny's no domestic goddess, he'll let them go overnight more often than not, but he thinks Kono would forget about them for a week if given the chance. He figures it's because she used to order take-out so much that she rarely had to do dishes at all. Now they're trying to save money, so Danny cooks almost every night.
So Danny's a bit non-plussed to find that his shoes are a problem.
"Oh my god!" she exclaims after she trips over the loafers he kicked off next to the coach. "This is like the third time I've tripped over these today. Are you doing this on purpose?"
"Are you serious?" says Danny. "I found a bikini top between the couch cushions yesterday!"
"Did you trip over it and nearly break your neck?"
"Yeah, those are expensive," says Danny, when Kono flings the shoes into the bedroom, where one of them hits a wall. "But don't worry, I'm sure they're fine."
On the plus side, Kono wakes him up for sex at least twice a week, and Danny figures it's a fair trade.
*****
One night they're both sitting on the couch watching football when an SPCA commercial comes on. Danny fumbles for the remote to change the channel but it's too late.
"Fuck," says Kono, wiping tears from her cheeks. She swats Danny's hand away when he tries to touch her leg. "I never used to cry at these things."
"It's okay," says Danny. "Sarah McLachlan is like Pavlov's bell for pregnant women. And Hallmark commercials, and Kodak commercials. And Jif commercials - you know, the ones where moms make peanut butter sandwiches for their kids? Except now they have one for dads too, which is nice. My sister Julie, when she was pregnant with her son, she used to cry at Budweiser commercials. I have no idea why." He glances over at Kono to find her staring at him, tears still sliding down her cheeks.
Danny clears his throat. "Jets are gonna take it all this year, I'm callin' it right now."
"You wish," says Kono, wiping her eyes.
*****
A few nights after they move in, Danny's taking a shower when Kono comes in to brush her teeth.
"Do you remember where I put my luggage?" she asks.
"Hang on," says Danny. He finishes rinsing the shampoo out of his hair, shuts off the water, and opens the shower door. "Sorry, what?"
"My luggage," says Kono. mouth full of toothpaste. She spits into the sink. "Is it in the closet in the guest bedroom or the living room?"
"Guest bedroom," says Danny, wrapping a towel around his waist. "Why, you going on vacation?"
"To North Shore," says Kono. "Kili invited me to stay at her place for the weekend. I haven't seen her in a while."
"This weekend?" says Danny, and Kono nods. "I have Grace this weekend."
"I know," says Kono. "That's why I'm going, so I won't be in the way."
"In the way?" says Danny, raising his eyebrows. "Why would you think you'd be in the way?"
Kono looks up, surprised. "I don't know...I thought you'd want to spend time alone with her." She pauses, searching his face. "You don't mind if I'm there?"
"Of course I don't mind," says Danny. "I want you to be there if you do."
"Oh." Kono nods. "Okay. I'll tell Kili I can't go."
"If you've already made plans--"
"I'll text her right now."
"Okay," he says, and Kono smiles.
*****
A few weeks after they move in together, Danny wakes to find Kono's side of the bed empty. He goes into the bathroom to see if she's been sick, but she's not anywhere in the apartment. He assumes she went to work out or get breakfast, but as it gets closer and closer to the time when they'd usually be leaving for work Danny becomes a little concerned. He tries calling her on her cell, but she doesn't pick up.
He tries not to panic, but his brain keeps feeding him worst case scenarios, most of them involving gruesome car accidents and kidnappings. He goes into the office without her and tries calling her again, but she still doesn't pick up. He's about to see about triangulating her cell phone signal when Kono and Lori walk through the glass doors. Kono's hair is wet and slicked back into a ponytail.
"Jesus Christ," says Danny. "Where have you been?"
Kono furrows her brow in confusion. "I felt good when I woke up this morning so I texted Lori to see if she wanted to do some sparring. What's wrong?"
"Sparring?"
"Um, I'll just..." Lori ducks into her office and shuts the door.
"We did sparring games with just our hands," says Kono. "To keep my reflexes sharp. She knows I'm pregnant, she didn't..." She looks at him. "What's wrong?"
"I thought you'd been kidnapped by Wo Fat!" Danny blurts.
Kono's eyes widen. "What?"
"I tried calling you on your cell. You didn't pick up."
"I had my phone on silent at the gym," says Kono, frowning at Danny. "Why would you think I'd been kidnapped?"
"You didn't tell me you were going to work out," says Danny, and he doesn't mean for it to sound like an accusation, or maybe he does. He's not really sure. "You just left without saying anything. I kept waiting for you to come back but you didn't show."
"What, did you think I was cheating on you or something?" Kono asks in a hushed tone.
The word 'cheating' comes as something of a relief to Danny, who hadn't managed to find a non-douchey way of asking if she still wanted to see other people. "No, I didn't--I didn't think that. But you didn't tell me where you were going so I was worried!"
Kono huffs derisively and goes into her office. "Sorry, I didn't realize I needed to check in with you first."
Danny follows her into the office. "Did you not even consider that I might be a little concerned when I wake up and you're not there?"
"I've lived on my own for years," she says, starting her computer. "Somehow I've managed to take care of myself just fine without you."
Danny just looks at her. "Kono, we live together now. You're pregnant. I'm going to be worried when I can't get ahold of you!"
"Hey, I have an idea," Kono says cheerfully. "Why don't we just implant one of those microchips? You know, the kind people get for their dogs? That way if I wander off somewhere and get myself kidnapped, you can come rescue me."
"Forget it," says Danny, walking out of the office. "I'm sorry for caring so much."
They barely speak for the rest of the day, and although Danny tries to be professional about it he knows the rest of the team is picking up on the tension between them. Steve catches his eye and gives him a questioning look, but Danny just shakes his head to indicate that he doesn't want to talk about it.
He's sitting at his desk that afternoon when he gets a text message.
I'm sorry you were worried.
Danny glances across the hall at Kono's office but her blinds are drawn. He sighs, his anger dissipating, and hits the reply button on the phone.
I'm sorry I made you feel like a chihuahua.
He gets a reply a few seconds later. I can think of a few ways you can make it up to me.
Danny smiles. Do any of them involve hot make up sex on the dining room table?
Depends. What'd you have in mind?
Danny thinks for a minute before he says, Whenever we get back to the apartment, I will remove every piece of your clothing one by one. I will kiss your boobs and then kiss my way dow-- He runs out of letters and hits send.
He's halfway through the second half of the message when he gets a reply. God, we really need to work on your sexting.
*****
Grace knows they're living together but she doesn't know Kono is pregnant yet, mostly because Danny doesn't know how to tell her, given how it worked out last time. He knows how confusing it was for her and he doesn't want to put her through it again, because if he's honest with himself, there's a part of him that's still waiting for this to fall apart the way it did with Rachel.
The first time Kono and Grace hung out together since they moved in together, Kono had seemed nervous, but after a couple of weekends together she'd grown visibly more comfortable and started suggesting things the three of them could do together during Grace's weekends with them.
"Oh, that was a good one!" says Kono, clapping her hands together. "One more, okay?"
They're at White Plains Beach, and Kono is teaching Grace how to paddle out and jump up onto her surfboard. First she'd drawn an outline of the surfboard in the sand, then she'd let her try it with the board itself. It reminds Danny of when Kono tried to teach him how to surf, except this time he allows himself to more fully appreciate how great she looks in that bikini.
"That was the best one yet," says Kono when Grace pops up onto the board. "I think you're ready to try it in the water. You want to?"
Grace nods enthusiastically. "Yeah."
Kono grins. "We'll practice together, okay? Just paddling out."
"Whoa," says Danny when Kono reaches for her own board. "Isn't this dangerous?"
"We'll just be paddling out a little ways," says Kono. "The waves are gentle, and it's not too crowded. It's a good time to practice."
"No, I mean for you," says Danny, nodding at her board. "Should you be..."
Kono rolls her eyes. "Danny, I've seen women surfing in their ninth month," she says, low enough that Grace can't hear. "I'll be fine."
Danny does not want to imagine Kono surfing when she's that far along. All he can think about is her wiping out, hard. "Just..." He sighs. "Be careful, okay?"
He expects her to be annoyed with the request, but she just looks at him, a smile tugging at her lips. "I will."
"And don't go out too far, please?" he says. "I'd prefer if neither of you got eaten by sharks."
"I won't let anything happen to either of them," she promises.
"Or you," says Danny, catching her arm before she can get away. "Don't let anything happen to you either."
Kono surprises him by leaning over and kissing him full on the mouth. "We'll be back in a bit."
Danny lets go of her arm, and she grins at him and runs to catch up with Grace. He watches them paddle out together, both of them laughing when Grace gets splashed in the face by a wave, and tries not to think about exactly how much he has to lose.
*****
"Okay, seriously, it's to impress the ladies, isn't it?"
Chin looks up from his shotgun, which is spread out in pieces on the table in front of him. "How's that?"
"The gun," says Danny, gesturing with the rag in his hand. "It's okay, you can tell me, I won't judge. I'm man enough to admit that I get a little turned on by it myself, so I can imagine it must work wonders with women. That and the motorcycle."
Chin chuckles. "Well, I won't say that's why I use it, but it doesn't hurt," he says, and Danny snorts. "Kono used to make fun of me about it, said I was overcompensating for something."
Danny smirks down at the barrel of Kono's Kel-Tech and wipes the inside of the chamber with the rag, which turns black when he hits a corner. He takes the pick and starts chiseling at a chunk of carbon buildup.
"How's she doing?" says Chin.
"I feel like I should be asking you," says Danny. "You're the one watching her chase violent criminals all over Honolulu."
If Chin notices the edge to his voice, he politely ignores it. "Haven't had to chase anyone down in a while," he says, unscrewing the cap from a bottle of solvent. "I guess all the terrorists are on vacation. It's been a bit slow around here."
"Doesn't seem like she's having any problem keeping busy," Danny says, vaguely annoyed that Chin doesn't seem as concerned as he is. "Making trips down to the prison, interviewing convicted felons..."
Chin doesn't take the bait. "I'm watching out for her, Danny."
Danny shakes his head and wipes the chamber with the rag again. "I don't like that she's in the field at all."
"It's her decision," says Chin. "And once she's made her mind up, she won't back down."
"You should talk to her, she'll listen to you," says Danny, and Chin grins and shakes his head.
"Kono hasn't listened to me since she hit kindergarten."
Danny doesn't smile at that, if only because it's a blatant lie and they both know it, and Chin's expression softens.
"Look, I know you're worried. I am too. But Kono will be fine. She's stubborn but she's not stupid."
Danny sighs, and Chin picks up the barrel of his gun. "Have you got any plans this weekend?" says Chin. "Steve and I are going spear fishing if you want to come."
"You know, as tempting as that is, I can't. We're having dinner with Kono's parents."
Chin looks up, eyebrows raised. "Really?"
"Uh huh."
Chin's lips quirk up at the corners and he looks back down at the gun. "Good luck."
"What? What was that look?" says Danny. "'Good luck'? What does that even mean?"
Chin laughs. "Oh, you'll see."
*****
Both of Kono's parents are police officers. Her dad was a patrol cop until he retired with a leg injury a couple years previous, and her mom is a detective with narcotics and vice. Danny remembers her from when he worked homicide, but she doesn't share her daughter's last name so he didn't know she was Kono's mother until much later. Back then he only knew her as Detective Hei Sun, who could probably make you sterile if you made eye contact. He's starting to see where Kono gets it.
"Detective Sun," he says, shaking her hand.
She's a tiny woman, built like Kono, with short hair and a severe expression. She looks Danny up and down without shame and finally settles on his face.
"I remember you," she says. "You were Detective Hanamoa's old partner."
Danny nods, his stomach twisting. "Yes, ma'am."
She nods as if to show respect for his loss. "Come in," she says, stepping aside so he can walk into the house.
Dinner is awkward but not more so than he expected it would be. Kono's mother grills Danny about his family and his work history, although he gets the feeling she's already looked at his file and knows more than she's letting on. Kono's father is fairly quiet, asking a few questions here and there, but he's got a sharp, dry sense of humor and reminds Danny of his mom.
When they're done eating, Kono's mother says she wants to talk to Danny in private and takes him to the back porch and shuts the door behind them. She motions for Danny to take a seat in a deck chair while she sits opposite him on a wooden beach.
She cuts to the chase. "What are you going to do after the baby is born?"
"Uh." Danny smooths a hand over his hair. "We've talked but we aren't sure yet. We'll both take leave for a few weeks after the birth, and then one of us will probably stay home with the baby for a while until we can make other arrangements."
Ms. Sun looks at him. "Kono is a good cop."
Danny nods. "She is."
"She loves the job. That IA investigation was hard on her. She thought she'd never wear a badge again. She's already been through this before, when she injured her knee and couldn't surf." Her lips tighten but her eyes don't leave his. "I would hate to see it happen to her again."
"Ma'am, I won't let that happen," Danny says sincerely. "We will figure something out. She won't have to quit Five-0, not permanently."
Ms. Sun studies him for a long moment. "Kono will be good for you," she says finally. "She'll toughen you up."
"I--" Danny nods. "Okay."
The corners of her mouth twitch, and if Danny didn't know better he'd think she was smiling.
"They liked you," says Kono, buckling her seat belt when they get out to the car. "My father takes a while to warm up to people but he'll come around."
Danny laughs. "I'm not worried about your dad, babe, I'm more concerned about your mom. I don't think she likes me very much."
"Did she say that?" says Kono, looking over at him. "What'd she say when you talked after dinner?"
"No, she didn't say it directly, but the message was pretty clear. She said if you end up quitting the force to raise the baby, she'll cut off my balls and hang them from her rear view mirror." He pauses. "Okay, I'm paraphrasing but just a little."
"Don't worry, she'll be fine." Kono settles back in the seat, rubbing her stomach. "Ugh, I need to lie down when we get home."
"You nauseous? You want me to stop and get something?"
Kono leans the seat back and closes her eyes. "One of those smoothies? With the bananas? The kind you brought me last week. I've been wanting another one so badly."
"From Keilani's?" he says, and she just nods without opening her eyes. Keilani's is at least twenty minutes out of their way. Danny sighs.
"Sure, why not."
*****
"Do you know if it's going to be a boy or a girl?"
Danny smooths a dollop of sunscreen onto Grace's cheeks. "We don't know yet, Monkey. The doctor is going to be able to tell us real soon."
"I hope it's a girl," says Grace. "I wanted Joshua to be a girl."
The mention of Rachel and Stan's baby still stings but not as much as it used to. "I want the baby to be a girl too," says Danny. "Especially if she's as cute as you."
Grace grins, her nose wrinkling. Danny squeezes a few drops of lotion onto her arm. "Rub it in really good and don't miss any spots."
Grace does as she's told, and Danny glances over his shoulder at Kono, who is waiting in line at a shave ice cart several yard away. She's wearing a tiny tank top and even tinier shorts and she has her hair pulled back into a high ponytail. She's a little over four months along and starting to show, her belly rounder where it used to be flat.
"Hey, Monkey," says Danny, and Grace looks up. "How are you doing with all of this? With Kono and the baby? I know it's a lot, especially after your mom had Joshua."
"It's okay," says Grace. "I like babies."
"Yeah?" says Danny. "You're not scared? It's okay if you are. I'm kind of scared."
"You are?"
"Uh huh," says Danny, rubbing in a spot of lotion she missed. "New babies are cute but they're a lot of work. I want to make sure I'm the best dad I can be."
Grace looks thoughtful for a moment, digging the tip of her shoe into the sand. Danny brushes a strand of hair away from her face.
"What are you thinking about?"
Grace shrugs. "Am I still going to get to come see you after the baby comes?"
"Are you--" Danny tugs her forward and presses a kiss to her temple. "Baby, you'll always get to come see me, no matter what. I love you and I want to see you all the time. That's not going to change, okay? That could never change."
"I want to see you all the time too," Grace whispers.
Danny cups her face in his hands, and she squints down at him, the sun in her eyes. It seems impossible sometimes that there's enough room left to love someone else this much, but he remembers that first ultrasound, when he'd heard the baby's heart beating for the first time, and he knows it's not impossible at all.
"We're going to see each other just as much as we do now, okay?" says Danny, and Grace nods. "Because Kono and I are going to need your help."
"You will?"
"Uh huh," says Danny. "We'll need someone to read books to the baby and play stuffed animals. You are such a good reader, I know you'll be so good at it. Do you think you could do that?"
Grace nods solemnly.
"Thank you," says Danny, and kisses her forehead. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Kono standing a few yard away holding their shave ices, and he nods at her.
"Here's strawberry for you, Grace," says Kono. She gives Danny a cone with purple and orange shave ice.
"What do you want to do now, baby?" says Danny. "It's your choice. We'll do whatever you want."
Grace thinks about it carefully as she eats her shave ice. "We should go to the book store," she decides finally.
Kono looks surprised, but Danny just smiles and settles his hand on the crown of Grace's head.
"The bookstore it is."
*****
Danny walks into headquarters one afternoon to find Steve alone at the computer table sifting through mugshots.
"Yo," says Danny, and Steve nods without looking up. "HPD's finished processing the scene. They're going to bring over the vic's computer in a bit so Chin can look at it." He looks around. "Where's Kono?"
"She's with Chin, interviewing Takashi."
"What?" says Danny, a little louder than he meant to. "Why couldn't Chin do it alone?"
Steve looks up. "They're partners, Danny. Partners interview people together. Surely you understand how this works by now."
"I understand perfectly, jackass. What I don't understand is why she has to go out at all. We haven't ruled him out as a suspect. What if he pulls something on her, huh?"
"She's not alone, she's with Chin," says Steve, turning back to the computer monitor. "Besides, I wouldn't bet against her right hook."
Danny glares at him. "Is this funny to you?"
"No. Well, maybe a little."
"This is the mother of my unborn child," says Danny, gesturing wildly. "What if she gets shot out there or something?"
"Danny, she could get shot walking down the street."
Danny just looks at him. "I'm sorry, is that supposed to make me feel better?"
Steve sighs, exasperated. "I'm just saying that what she's doing isn't that much more dangerous than anything else. She wanted to go. Until she is incapable of doing her job, I'm not going to stop her."
Danny crosses his arms over his chest. "So I get sidelined because of a busted knee, and you're sending her off to tangle with known criminals when she's five months pregnant?"
Steve rolls his eyes. "You couldn't even walk."
"I could walk just fine."
"You're right, I just didn't want to hear you bitch about it," says Steve, flipping to the next mugshot. Danny glares at the back of his head.
Lori comes in about half an hour later from interviewing the victim's brother, and Chin and Kono are right on her heels.
"Takashi is definitely not our guy," says Chin before Danny can open his mouth. "He was at a bar several blocks from the victim's house. We checked the surveillance video at the bar and it checks out. He was there for two hours, including our time frame for the murder."
Steve nods. "Okay. Lori, what'd you get from the brother?"
Danny walks over to Kono and whispers, "You okay?"
Kono glances over at him. "Yeah, why?"
"You look tired."
Kono frowns. "I'm not tired, I'm fine."
"You should sit down," says Danny, pulling up a chair. Lori, Chin, and Steve have stopped talking and are watching them.
Kono glances at the chair but doesn't sit. "I'm fine, I want to stand."
"It can't possibly be comfortable. You've been standing for--"
"I said I don't want to sit," Kono says through clenched teeth.
"Okay, okay," he says, resting a hand on her shoulder. She shrugs him off and steps away. Danny puts his hands on his hips and sighs.
When they're done, Kono walks back into her office without a word. Danny groans and leans against the computer table.
"I don't understand," he says. "Kamekona can hang all over her and she's fine, but I touch her on the shoulder and I can feel her skin crawling."
"Hormones," says Chin.
"Or maybe it's just you," Steve says.
"Yeah, or maybe I'll bust in your teeth," says Danny. "You're enjoying this way too much."
"A little," Steve admits. "I don't know how she does it, to be honest. I would have killed you a long time ago."
"Asshole," Danny mutters, and walks back to his office.
At the end of the day, Danny goes into Kono's office to talk to her. She's shutting down her computer when he knocks on the door frame.
"I, uh..." He shoves his hands in his pockets, and she looks up warily. "I'm sorry for earlier, for trying to make you sit down. I just thought your back might be hurting."
"My back was fine," says Kono. "It is fine."
Danny nods. "I just didn't want you to feel like you had to act tough in front of all of us."
"I don't have to act tough?" says Kono, anger clouding her features.
Danny sighs. "That's not what I meant."
Kono shakes her head. "I don't need you treating me like a porcelain doll, Danny, especially not at work. Everyone's already hesitant to ask me to do anything, like I'll break at any moment. Chin talks to me like I'm a child who needs to be protected from herself. So the last thing I need is for you to be constantly reminding everyone that I'm pregnant and need to be treated differently. It's embarrassing."
"It's not embarrassing," says Danny. "It's not a reflection on how strong you are as a person. No one wants to see you get hurt, least of all me. And it's not just you I'm worried about."
Kono freezes. "You think I don't care about the baby?"
"I know you care about the baby," says Danny, "but I think you're worried about the team thinking you're weak and you push yourself too hard sometimes."
Something flickers in Kono's eyes, but Danny can't tell if it's anger or hurt. She grabs her gym bag off the floor. "I'm going to the gym for kick boxing. I'll be home later."
"Are you sure you--" Danny stops when Kono looks up sharply. "Okay, I'll see you later."
"She okay?" says Steve when Danny walks back out into the hallway.
"Uh, no," says Danny. "She says I treat her like a porcelain doll. And if you make fun of me about it again I'll punch you in the nuts, okay? I'm not in the mood right now."
Steve nods. "You okay?"
Danny scrubs a hand over his face. "You know, I think this whole pregnancy has been more stressful for me than it has been for her. I thought I was worried when Rachel was pregnant with Grace? Rachel wasn't going to work every day arresting criminals who keep knives in their boots and nine-millimeters in their glove compartments." He looks up at Steve.
"I'm not going to bench her because you ask," says Steve, but it's not an admonishment.
"I know," says Danny, looking away. "That's why I'm not asking."
Steve claps Danny on the back. "Come on, let's go to Ilani's. Beers on me."
Danny sighs. "Yeah, okay."
*****
Part II
Pairing: Danny/Kono
Summary: The one where Kono gets pregnant and Danny falls in love, twice.
Rating/content: NC-17 for sex; spoilers through 2x02
Warning: job-related injury to a pregnant woman
Word count: ~14k
A/N: Title from a Beach Boys song. Many many thanks to finduilas_clln and zolac_no_miko for answering my dumb questions and to delicatale, gryffindorj, and shes_gone for all of their help and encouragement. ♥
This fic is also on AO3.
Of course she tells him when they're in pursuit of an armed suspect, racing towards North Shore at ninety miles an hour.
*****
Of course she tells him when they're in pursuit of an armed suspect, racing towards North Shore at ninety miles an hour.
"I need to talk to you."
"Now?"
"I'm pregnant."
"Oh, shit!" says Danny, when they zoom around a red convertible, nearly clipping its side mirror.
Kono looks over at him, worried. "Are you angry?"
Danny tightens his grip on the door handle. "Babe, I am a lot of things right now, but I am mostly concerned with not getting killed in a high-speed collision."
Kono punches the gas, zooming around a flatbed truck. "I'm only a month along, I think. I took three tests to be sure. They were all positive."
"Okay, maybe I should just close my eyes. No, that just makes it worse."
"It was that night after we went to Deep End, remember? And you were kind of drunk."
"Shit, that was--wait, what? I wasn't drunk."
"You'd had a few beers," says Kono.
"And so had you, if I recall correctly!" says Danny, hands waving. "You were definitely feeling pretty good when we got back to your place."
"You were the one that forgot the condom."
"I did not forget anything," says Danny, gripping the door handle when another car nearly swings into their lane. "I remembered the condom just fine, I just didn't have one. You were the one that said it didn't matter, it was fine, it wasn't that time of the month so it's not like you were going to get pregnant or anything." He shakes his head and looks out the window. "Fuck."
Kono is staring straight ahead, her fingers tightening around the steering wheel. After a moment she says, "It's definitely yours. I mean, I haven't, with anyone else. Not since we started..."
Danny wasn't going to ask, but after everything with Rachel he figures she probably wants to put it out there. He nods mutely.
"I'm going to keep it."
Danny's knuckles turn white as he grips the handle even tighter, his heart lodged in his throat. "Okay."
"We don't have to get married or anything," she says. "We don't even have to stay together. I'll raise it on my own."
"What?" says Danny, looking over at her. "Is that what you want?"
"Is that what you want?"
"No!"
"Okay," she says, sounding way too calm.
Up ahead, HPD has set up a roadblock with spikes on the road. The car they're chasing tries to go around it but ends up hitting a tree. Kono pulls over onto the shoulder and cuts the engine.
There's a moment of silence before Danny says, "I definitely wasn't drunk."
*****
They've been sleeping together for less than four months, and no one on the team knows. Sometimes Danny thinks that Steve suspects, but he hasn't said anything. Danny feels kind of bad for not telling him, but he's never been in a situation like this before, dating a co-worker, and he doesn't know if telling Steve will be like telling his boss or his best friend.
Danny and Kono don't have a chance to talk for the rest of the day, and every time he tries to pull her aside she tells him she's busy and they'll talk later. After work, she slips out without saying anything to him and doesn't pick up her phone when he tries calling, so he decides to give her some space. He invites Steve out for drinks and buys the first round.
"So, uh, Kono and I..."
Steve's lips curl into a smile around the mouth of his beer. Danny rolls his eyes.
"Okay, how long have you known?"
"Uh, about four months."
"We've only been seeing each other for three and a half."
"Well, I'm a pretty perceptive guy."
"Uh huh." Danny pops a peanut into his mouth. "So, you're not, you know, worried about--"
"Nah," says Steve. "It doesn't seem like it's affecting your work."
Danny nods. "Well, it's about to be affecting our work. Her work anyway." Steve looks over at him. "She's pregnant."
Steve just looks at him for a minute before he says, "Wow."
"Yeah."
Steve takes a minute to process this. "So what are you guys gonna do?"
"She wants to keep it," says Danny. "And I do too."
Steve nods. "That's pretty huge."
"Tell me about it."
"You gonna move in together?"
"I don't know," says Danny, rubbing his eyes. "We haven't really gotten that far yet. When we talked about it, I was too busy trying not to throw up. Because of her driving, I mean, not the baby. I'm excited about the baby. I think. God, a baby." It's starting to hit him now, that this is really happening. That at this time next year he'll have another kid, with someone other than Rachel, and fuck, maybe he will throw up after all.
Steve must notice the panic setting in because he claps Danny on the back. "So, you and Kono. What's that like?"
Danny sighs and rubs a hand over his jaw. "I don't know, really. I mean, it's not that serious, or at least it wasn't. We've just been...you know."
Steve nods and signals the bartender for another round of beers.
"But we don't really talk about it, so I'm not sure what she's thinking," says Danny. If he's honest, it had surprised him a bit when she'd said that she hadn't been with anyone else since they started sleeping together. He hasn't been with anyone else either, but they've never asked one another for exclusivity. He's thought about asking her sometimes, but he's never gotten out the words. Danny doesn't do casual relationships very well, never has, but he's never been sure if Kono wanted that with him.
Danny looks up to see Steve watching him. "What?"
Steve smiles, fond. "You're gonna be a great dad, Danny. You're already a great dad."
Danny snorts. "Did I tell you Grace wants to go to Princeton? I don't know how the hell I'll be able to afford it if they both want to go. Maybe they can get scholarships."
"A surfing scholarship," says Steve, and Danny makes a face.
"Maybe our boss could give us a raise."
"Or maybe you can get a second job," Steve suggests. "I think Kamekona is hiring."
"Next round is definitely on you."
*****
By the time Danny gets to Kono's apartment, it's nearly eight o'clock.
"I tried calling you," he says when she opens the door. "And texting."
Kono crosses one arm over her chest and looks away. "Yeah, sorry, I just needed some time to think."
Danny nods. "Can I come in?"
Kono steps aside, and Danny walks into the living room. The apartment is tiny, smaller than the first place he got after he graduated from college. He sits on the sofa and she takes a seat in a chair across from him.
"I talked to Steve."
Kono looks up sharply. "Did you tell him?"
"Yes."
Kono scoffs. "Gee, thanks."
"What? You weren't talking to me this afternoon. You weren't answering any of my calls. I wanted to talk to someone, and he's my best friend, okay."
"Yeah, and he's my boss!" says Kono.
"He was going to find out eventually."
"And you didn't think that maybe I'd like to be the one to tell him?" she says, anger flashing in her eyes. "This isn't going to affect your job, but it's definitely going to affect mine."
Danny sighs. "I'm sorry. You're right, I should have let you tell him."
Kono deflates a bit. She lets out a deep breath, shoulders slumping forward, and Danny notices for the first time how truly tired she looks. "Hey," he says, and she looks up at him. "Hey."
Kono shakes her head. "I didn't want this," she says quietly.
"I know." Danny stands from the couch and walks over to her, and she scoots over enough that he can wedge himself into the seat next to her. "I know," he says, wrapping an arm around her.
"It was my fault," she says. "That night. I was stupid."
"I was stupid too," says Danny. He kisses her on the forehead.
She looks up at him, eyes worried. "I meant what I said earlier. In the car."
"Are you kidding?" says Danny. "I'm not letting you raise this kid by yourself. Someone has to teach 'em how to make a proper pizza, and I know it's not going to be you. You'll probably want to put something disgusting on it, like raw tuna or something."
Kono lets out a watery laugh. "I would never ruin perfectly good poke with pizza sauce."
"I'll pretend you didn't just say that."
Kono rolls her eyes, and Danny presses a quick kiss to her lips. When she doesn't push him away, he cups her cheek in his hand and kisses her again, a little deeper this time. She tangles a hand in his shirt and stops breathing for a second when he skims a hand over her belly.
"It's going to be okay," he tells her.
Kono sighs and leans against his shoulder. "Yeah."
*****
They decide to move in together. It makes the most sense, for a lot of reasons, and it's not like either of them are particularly attached to their apartments. They spend a month arguing about it and finally find a nice two-bedroom apartment down the street from Kono's old place.
The first night in the new place, they tiptoe around one another like new college roommates. Kono is so polite it's unnerving. Danny unpacks the dishes and silverware and asks about four hundred times whether she prefers the coffee mugs above the sink or the microwave. Kono apologizes for hanging a picture of Grace without asking him first. They spend so long trying to decide what to order for dinner that by the time it arrives Danny's so nervous he isn't even hungry anymore. Because somewhere in all of this moving in business, he forgot to ask where he's going to sleep.
Kono's old bed is in the master bedroom, and Danny bought a twin-size bed frame for the guest bedroom so that Grace wouldn't have to sleep on the couch when she stayed over. As the night goes on and Kono starts yawning, Danny starts panicking. Does she expect him to sleep in her bed or take the guest room? They haven't slept together since they found out about the pregnancy, and sleeping in her bed feels like a gigantic presumption on his part.
"I'm going to bed," she tells him, ducking her head into the guest bedroom, where he's plugging in a lamp for the nightstand. She's wearing a pair of boxer shorts that might be his but he can't tell.
"Okay, I'm just going to..." He trails off and then gestures at the lamp, although he's not really sure why. Kono glances at the lamp and then back up at him.
"Okay," she says. A moment later, he can hear her brushing her teeth in the master bathroom.
He stares at the lamp for a long time, thinking, and finally decides to err on the side of caution and sleep in the guest room. He makes the bed with his old sheets, brushes his teeth in the half bath across the hall, and climbs into bed.
He's just drifting off to sleep when his blanket is pulled away from him and he looks up to see Kono, wearing nothing but a tiny black camisole, straddling his hips.
"In seven months, we're going to have a baby," she says, looking down at him.
"Uh," says Danny.
"I'm not going to walk on eggshells for seven months, and I'm definitely not going seven months without having sex."
"Oh," Danny says when she reaches up and tugs the camisole over her head. He's hard pretty much immediately, his hands sliding up over her bare thighs, and she leans down so that her hair is brushing his chest.
"You don't seriously want to sleep in here, do you?"
He smooths a hand over her chest, brushing his thumb over a nipple, and god she's so gorgeous and he's missed touching her so much. She tugs on the waistband of his boxer shorts until his cock springs free, then sinks down onto him without preamble.
She must have been waiting for him for a while because she's wet and slippery around him, and Danny groans deep in his throat when she rolls her hips over his, taking him deeper. He touches her everywhere he can, sliding his hands over her hips and along her side and between her breasts. He skims his palm over her stomach, pausing at her lower abdomen, and she looks down at him with hooded eyes.
"You're so beautiful," Danny breathes. He presses his thumb between their bodies to massage her clit, and she falls apart quickly after that, not even bothering to be quiet when she comes, shuddering above him in broken waves. He follows quickly, her thighs still trembling under his hands as he empties himself inside of her.
Both of them are still panting as Kono climbs off of him and lies down next to him on the bed.
"To answer your question," says Danny, "no, I really don't want to sleep in here."
"You're kind of an idiot sometimes," Kono says, turning away from him to lie on her side. "I hope the baby doesn't get that from you."
Danny presses himself against her back and slides his hand over her stomach. "As long as it gets my hair."
"What's wrong with my hair?"
"Nothing, it's beautiful, but come on..."
He can practically hear her eyes rolling. "And here I was worried about college tuition when I should have been worrying about how we're going to afford all that hair gel."
"Also, my cooking skills," says Danny, "because let's be honest, you can barely boil wa--ow."
The next day Danny puts Hannah Montana bed sheets on the guest bed and moves his toothbrush into the master bathroom.
*****
Here's the thing: Kono is a slob.
"Uh, which pile needs to be washed?" says Danny, looking at the two chairs in their bedroom, both covered in shorts and t-shirts and bikinis.
"Neither," says Kono. She plucks a t-shirt and a pair of underwear from the pile. "These need to be washed." She picks up another t-shirt and sniffs it. "I only wore this for a couple of hours yesterday. It's fine."
Danny is familiar with the sniff test but he hasn't used it much since college. "Okay."
She also doesn't do the dishes much. Danny's no domestic goddess, he'll let them go overnight more often than not, but he thinks Kono would forget about them for a week if given the chance. He figures it's because she used to order take-out so much that she rarely had to do dishes at all. Now they're trying to save money, so Danny cooks almost every night.
So Danny's a bit non-plussed to find that his shoes are a problem.
"Oh my god!" she exclaims after she trips over the loafers he kicked off next to the coach. "This is like the third time I've tripped over these today. Are you doing this on purpose?"
"Are you serious?" says Danny. "I found a bikini top between the couch cushions yesterday!"
"Did you trip over it and nearly break your neck?"
"Yeah, those are expensive," says Danny, when Kono flings the shoes into the bedroom, where one of them hits a wall. "But don't worry, I'm sure they're fine."
On the plus side, Kono wakes him up for sex at least twice a week, and Danny figures it's a fair trade.
*****
One night they're both sitting on the couch watching football when an SPCA commercial comes on. Danny fumbles for the remote to change the channel but it's too late.
"Fuck," says Kono, wiping tears from her cheeks. She swats Danny's hand away when he tries to touch her leg. "I never used to cry at these things."
"It's okay," says Danny. "Sarah McLachlan is like Pavlov's bell for pregnant women. And Hallmark commercials, and Kodak commercials. And Jif commercials - you know, the ones where moms make peanut butter sandwiches for their kids? Except now they have one for dads too, which is nice. My sister Julie, when she was pregnant with her son, she used to cry at Budweiser commercials. I have no idea why." He glances over at Kono to find her staring at him, tears still sliding down her cheeks.
Danny clears his throat. "Jets are gonna take it all this year, I'm callin' it right now."
"You wish," says Kono, wiping her eyes.
*****
A few nights after they move in, Danny's taking a shower when Kono comes in to brush her teeth.
"Do you remember where I put my luggage?" she asks.
"Hang on," says Danny. He finishes rinsing the shampoo out of his hair, shuts off the water, and opens the shower door. "Sorry, what?"
"My luggage," says Kono. mouth full of toothpaste. She spits into the sink. "Is it in the closet in the guest bedroom or the living room?"
"Guest bedroom," says Danny, wrapping a towel around his waist. "Why, you going on vacation?"
"To North Shore," says Kono. "Kili invited me to stay at her place for the weekend. I haven't seen her in a while."
"This weekend?" says Danny, and Kono nods. "I have Grace this weekend."
"I know," says Kono. "That's why I'm going, so I won't be in the way."
"In the way?" says Danny, raising his eyebrows. "Why would you think you'd be in the way?"
Kono looks up, surprised. "I don't know...I thought you'd want to spend time alone with her." She pauses, searching his face. "You don't mind if I'm there?"
"Of course I don't mind," says Danny. "I want you to be there if you do."
"Oh." Kono nods. "Okay. I'll tell Kili I can't go."
"If you've already made plans--"
"I'll text her right now."
"Okay," he says, and Kono smiles.
*****
A few weeks after they move in together, Danny wakes to find Kono's side of the bed empty. He goes into the bathroom to see if she's been sick, but she's not anywhere in the apartment. He assumes she went to work out or get breakfast, but as it gets closer and closer to the time when they'd usually be leaving for work Danny becomes a little concerned. He tries calling her on her cell, but she doesn't pick up.
He tries not to panic, but his brain keeps feeding him worst case scenarios, most of them involving gruesome car accidents and kidnappings. He goes into the office without her and tries calling her again, but she still doesn't pick up. He's about to see about triangulating her cell phone signal when Kono and Lori walk through the glass doors. Kono's hair is wet and slicked back into a ponytail.
"Jesus Christ," says Danny. "Where have you been?"
Kono furrows her brow in confusion. "I felt good when I woke up this morning so I texted Lori to see if she wanted to do some sparring. What's wrong?"
"Sparring?"
"Um, I'll just..." Lori ducks into her office and shuts the door.
"We did sparring games with just our hands," says Kono. "To keep my reflexes sharp. She knows I'm pregnant, she didn't..." She looks at him. "What's wrong?"
"I thought you'd been kidnapped by Wo Fat!" Danny blurts.
Kono's eyes widen. "What?"
"I tried calling you on your cell. You didn't pick up."
"I had my phone on silent at the gym," says Kono, frowning at Danny. "Why would you think I'd been kidnapped?"
"You didn't tell me you were going to work out," says Danny, and he doesn't mean for it to sound like an accusation, or maybe he does. He's not really sure. "You just left without saying anything. I kept waiting for you to come back but you didn't show."
"What, did you think I was cheating on you or something?" Kono asks in a hushed tone.
The word 'cheating' comes as something of a relief to Danny, who hadn't managed to find a non-douchey way of asking if she still wanted to see other people. "No, I didn't--I didn't think that. But you didn't tell me where you were going so I was worried!"
Kono huffs derisively and goes into her office. "Sorry, I didn't realize I needed to check in with you first."
Danny follows her into the office. "Did you not even consider that I might be a little concerned when I wake up and you're not there?"
"I've lived on my own for years," she says, starting her computer. "Somehow I've managed to take care of myself just fine without you."
Danny just looks at her. "Kono, we live together now. You're pregnant. I'm going to be worried when I can't get ahold of you!"
"Hey, I have an idea," Kono says cheerfully. "Why don't we just implant one of those microchips? You know, the kind people get for their dogs? That way if I wander off somewhere and get myself kidnapped, you can come rescue me."
"Forget it," says Danny, walking out of the office. "I'm sorry for caring so much."
They barely speak for the rest of the day, and although Danny tries to be professional about it he knows the rest of the team is picking up on the tension between them. Steve catches his eye and gives him a questioning look, but Danny just shakes his head to indicate that he doesn't want to talk about it.
He's sitting at his desk that afternoon when he gets a text message.
I'm sorry you were worried.
Danny glances across the hall at Kono's office but her blinds are drawn. He sighs, his anger dissipating, and hits the reply button on the phone.
I'm sorry I made you feel like a chihuahua.
He gets a reply a few seconds later. I can think of a few ways you can make it up to me.
Danny smiles. Do any of them involve hot make up sex on the dining room table?
Depends. What'd you have in mind?
Danny thinks for a minute before he says, Whenever we get back to the apartment, I will remove every piece of your clothing one by one. I will kiss your boobs and then kiss my way dow-- He runs out of letters and hits send.
He's halfway through the second half of the message when he gets a reply. God, we really need to work on your sexting.
*****
Grace knows they're living together but she doesn't know Kono is pregnant yet, mostly because Danny doesn't know how to tell her, given how it worked out last time. He knows how confusing it was for her and he doesn't want to put her through it again, because if he's honest with himself, there's a part of him that's still waiting for this to fall apart the way it did with Rachel.
The first time Kono and Grace hung out together since they moved in together, Kono had seemed nervous, but after a couple of weekends together she'd grown visibly more comfortable and started suggesting things the three of them could do together during Grace's weekends with them.
"Oh, that was a good one!" says Kono, clapping her hands together. "One more, okay?"
They're at White Plains Beach, and Kono is teaching Grace how to paddle out and jump up onto her surfboard. First she'd drawn an outline of the surfboard in the sand, then she'd let her try it with the board itself. It reminds Danny of when Kono tried to teach him how to surf, except this time he allows himself to more fully appreciate how great she looks in that bikini.
"That was the best one yet," says Kono when Grace pops up onto the board. "I think you're ready to try it in the water. You want to?"
Grace nods enthusiastically. "Yeah."
Kono grins. "We'll practice together, okay? Just paddling out."
"Whoa," says Danny when Kono reaches for her own board. "Isn't this dangerous?"
"We'll just be paddling out a little ways," says Kono. "The waves are gentle, and it's not too crowded. It's a good time to practice."
"No, I mean for you," says Danny, nodding at her board. "Should you be..."
Kono rolls her eyes. "Danny, I've seen women surfing in their ninth month," she says, low enough that Grace can't hear. "I'll be fine."
Danny does not want to imagine Kono surfing when she's that far along. All he can think about is her wiping out, hard. "Just..." He sighs. "Be careful, okay?"
He expects her to be annoyed with the request, but she just looks at him, a smile tugging at her lips. "I will."
"And don't go out too far, please?" he says. "I'd prefer if neither of you got eaten by sharks."
"I won't let anything happen to either of them," she promises.
"Or you," says Danny, catching her arm before she can get away. "Don't let anything happen to you either."
Kono surprises him by leaning over and kissing him full on the mouth. "We'll be back in a bit."
Danny lets go of her arm, and she grins at him and runs to catch up with Grace. He watches them paddle out together, both of them laughing when Grace gets splashed in the face by a wave, and tries not to think about exactly how much he has to lose.
*****
"Okay, seriously, it's to impress the ladies, isn't it?"
Chin looks up from his shotgun, which is spread out in pieces on the table in front of him. "How's that?"
"The gun," says Danny, gesturing with the rag in his hand. "It's okay, you can tell me, I won't judge. I'm man enough to admit that I get a little turned on by it myself, so I can imagine it must work wonders with women. That and the motorcycle."
Chin chuckles. "Well, I won't say that's why I use it, but it doesn't hurt," he says, and Danny snorts. "Kono used to make fun of me about it, said I was overcompensating for something."
Danny smirks down at the barrel of Kono's Kel-Tech and wipes the inside of the chamber with the rag, which turns black when he hits a corner. He takes the pick and starts chiseling at a chunk of carbon buildup.
"How's she doing?" says Chin.
"I feel like I should be asking you," says Danny. "You're the one watching her chase violent criminals all over Honolulu."
If Chin notices the edge to his voice, he politely ignores it. "Haven't had to chase anyone down in a while," he says, unscrewing the cap from a bottle of solvent. "I guess all the terrorists are on vacation. It's been a bit slow around here."
"Doesn't seem like she's having any problem keeping busy," Danny says, vaguely annoyed that Chin doesn't seem as concerned as he is. "Making trips down to the prison, interviewing convicted felons..."
Chin doesn't take the bait. "I'm watching out for her, Danny."
Danny shakes his head and wipes the chamber with the rag again. "I don't like that she's in the field at all."
"It's her decision," says Chin. "And once she's made her mind up, she won't back down."
"You should talk to her, she'll listen to you," says Danny, and Chin grins and shakes his head.
"Kono hasn't listened to me since she hit kindergarten."
Danny doesn't smile at that, if only because it's a blatant lie and they both know it, and Chin's expression softens.
"Look, I know you're worried. I am too. But Kono will be fine. She's stubborn but she's not stupid."
Danny sighs, and Chin picks up the barrel of his gun. "Have you got any plans this weekend?" says Chin. "Steve and I are going spear fishing if you want to come."
"You know, as tempting as that is, I can't. We're having dinner with Kono's parents."
Chin looks up, eyebrows raised. "Really?"
"Uh huh."
Chin's lips quirk up at the corners and he looks back down at the gun. "Good luck."
"What? What was that look?" says Danny. "'Good luck'? What does that even mean?"
Chin laughs. "Oh, you'll see."
*****
Both of Kono's parents are police officers. Her dad was a patrol cop until he retired with a leg injury a couple years previous, and her mom is a detective with narcotics and vice. Danny remembers her from when he worked homicide, but she doesn't share her daughter's last name so he didn't know she was Kono's mother until much later. Back then he only knew her as Detective Hei Sun, who could probably make you sterile if you made eye contact. He's starting to see where Kono gets it.
"Detective Sun," he says, shaking her hand.
She's a tiny woman, built like Kono, with short hair and a severe expression. She looks Danny up and down without shame and finally settles on his face.
"I remember you," she says. "You were Detective Hanamoa's old partner."
Danny nods, his stomach twisting. "Yes, ma'am."
She nods as if to show respect for his loss. "Come in," she says, stepping aside so he can walk into the house.
Dinner is awkward but not more so than he expected it would be. Kono's mother grills Danny about his family and his work history, although he gets the feeling she's already looked at his file and knows more than she's letting on. Kono's father is fairly quiet, asking a few questions here and there, but he's got a sharp, dry sense of humor and reminds Danny of his mom.
When they're done eating, Kono's mother says she wants to talk to Danny in private and takes him to the back porch and shuts the door behind them. She motions for Danny to take a seat in a deck chair while she sits opposite him on a wooden beach.
She cuts to the chase. "What are you going to do after the baby is born?"
"Uh." Danny smooths a hand over his hair. "We've talked but we aren't sure yet. We'll both take leave for a few weeks after the birth, and then one of us will probably stay home with the baby for a while until we can make other arrangements."
Ms. Sun looks at him. "Kono is a good cop."
Danny nods. "She is."
"She loves the job. That IA investigation was hard on her. She thought she'd never wear a badge again. She's already been through this before, when she injured her knee and couldn't surf." Her lips tighten but her eyes don't leave his. "I would hate to see it happen to her again."
"Ma'am, I won't let that happen," Danny says sincerely. "We will figure something out. She won't have to quit Five-0, not permanently."
Ms. Sun studies him for a long moment. "Kono will be good for you," she says finally. "She'll toughen you up."
"I--" Danny nods. "Okay."
The corners of her mouth twitch, and if Danny didn't know better he'd think she was smiling.
"They liked you," says Kono, buckling her seat belt when they get out to the car. "My father takes a while to warm up to people but he'll come around."
Danny laughs. "I'm not worried about your dad, babe, I'm more concerned about your mom. I don't think she likes me very much."
"Did she say that?" says Kono, looking over at him. "What'd she say when you talked after dinner?"
"No, she didn't say it directly, but the message was pretty clear. She said if you end up quitting the force to raise the baby, she'll cut off my balls and hang them from her rear view mirror." He pauses. "Okay, I'm paraphrasing but just a little."
"Don't worry, she'll be fine." Kono settles back in the seat, rubbing her stomach. "Ugh, I need to lie down when we get home."
"You nauseous? You want me to stop and get something?"
Kono leans the seat back and closes her eyes. "One of those smoothies? With the bananas? The kind you brought me last week. I've been wanting another one so badly."
"From Keilani's?" he says, and she just nods without opening her eyes. Keilani's is at least twenty minutes out of their way. Danny sighs.
"Sure, why not."
*****
"Do you know if it's going to be a boy or a girl?"
Danny smooths a dollop of sunscreen onto Grace's cheeks. "We don't know yet, Monkey. The doctor is going to be able to tell us real soon."
"I hope it's a girl," says Grace. "I wanted Joshua to be a girl."
The mention of Rachel and Stan's baby still stings but not as much as it used to. "I want the baby to be a girl too," says Danny. "Especially if she's as cute as you."
Grace grins, her nose wrinkling. Danny squeezes a few drops of lotion onto her arm. "Rub it in really good and don't miss any spots."
Grace does as she's told, and Danny glances over his shoulder at Kono, who is waiting in line at a shave ice cart several yard away. She's wearing a tiny tank top and even tinier shorts and she has her hair pulled back into a high ponytail. She's a little over four months along and starting to show, her belly rounder where it used to be flat.
"Hey, Monkey," says Danny, and Grace looks up. "How are you doing with all of this? With Kono and the baby? I know it's a lot, especially after your mom had Joshua."
"It's okay," says Grace. "I like babies."
"Yeah?" says Danny. "You're not scared? It's okay if you are. I'm kind of scared."
"You are?"
"Uh huh," says Danny, rubbing in a spot of lotion she missed. "New babies are cute but they're a lot of work. I want to make sure I'm the best dad I can be."
Grace looks thoughtful for a moment, digging the tip of her shoe into the sand. Danny brushes a strand of hair away from her face.
"What are you thinking about?"
Grace shrugs. "Am I still going to get to come see you after the baby comes?"
"Are you--" Danny tugs her forward and presses a kiss to her temple. "Baby, you'll always get to come see me, no matter what. I love you and I want to see you all the time. That's not going to change, okay? That could never change."
"I want to see you all the time too," Grace whispers.
Danny cups her face in his hands, and she squints down at him, the sun in her eyes. It seems impossible sometimes that there's enough room left to love someone else this much, but he remembers that first ultrasound, when he'd heard the baby's heart beating for the first time, and he knows it's not impossible at all.
"We're going to see each other just as much as we do now, okay?" says Danny, and Grace nods. "Because Kono and I are going to need your help."
"You will?"
"Uh huh," says Danny. "We'll need someone to read books to the baby and play stuffed animals. You are such a good reader, I know you'll be so good at it. Do you think you could do that?"
Grace nods solemnly.
"Thank you," says Danny, and kisses her forehead. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Kono standing a few yard away holding their shave ices, and he nods at her.
"Here's strawberry for you, Grace," says Kono. She gives Danny a cone with purple and orange shave ice.
"What do you want to do now, baby?" says Danny. "It's your choice. We'll do whatever you want."
Grace thinks about it carefully as she eats her shave ice. "We should go to the book store," she decides finally.
Kono looks surprised, but Danny just smiles and settles his hand on the crown of Grace's head.
"The bookstore it is."
*****
Danny walks into headquarters one afternoon to find Steve alone at the computer table sifting through mugshots.
"Yo," says Danny, and Steve nods without looking up. "HPD's finished processing the scene. They're going to bring over the vic's computer in a bit so Chin can look at it." He looks around. "Where's Kono?"
"She's with Chin, interviewing Takashi."
"What?" says Danny, a little louder than he meant to. "Why couldn't Chin do it alone?"
Steve looks up. "They're partners, Danny. Partners interview people together. Surely you understand how this works by now."
"I understand perfectly, jackass. What I don't understand is why she has to go out at all. We haven't ruled him out as a suspect. What if he pulls something on her, huh?"
"She's not alone, she's with Chin," says Steve, turning back to the computer monitor. "Besides, I wouldn't bet against her right hook."
Danny glares at him. "Is this funny to you?"
"No. Well, maybe a little."
"This is the mother of my unborn child," says Danny, gesturing wildly. "What if she gets shot out there or something?"
"Danny, she could get shot walking down the street."
Danny just looks at him. "I'm sorry, is that supposed to make me feel better?"
Steve sighs, exasperated. "I'm just saying that what she's doing isn't that much more dangerous than anything else. She wanted to go. Until she is incapable of doing her job, I'm not going to stop her."
Danny crosses his arms over his chest. "So I get sidelined because of a busted knee, and you're sending her off to tangle with known criminals when she's five months pregnant?"
Steve rolls his eyes. "You couldn't even walk."
"I could walk just fine."
"You're right, I just didn't want to hear you bitch about it," says Steve, flipping to the next mugshot. Danny glares at the back of his head.
Lori comes in about half an hour later from interviewing the victim's brother, and Chin and Kono are right on her heels.
"Takashi is definitely not our guy," says Chin before Danny can open his mouth. "He was at a bar several blocks from the victim's house. We checked the surveillance video at the bar and it checks out. He was there for two hours, including our time frame for the murder."
Steve nods. "Okay. Lori, what'd you get from the brother?"
Danny walks over to Kono and whispers, "You okay?"
Kono glances over at him. "Yeah, why?"
"You look tired."
Kono frowns. "I'm not tired, I'm fine."
"You should sit down," says Danny, pulling up a chair. Lori, Chin, and Steve have stopped talking and are watching them.
Kono glances at the chair but doesn't sit. "I'm fine, I want to stand."
"It can't possibly be comfortable. You've been standing for--"
"I said I don't want to sit," Kono says through clenched teeth.
"Okay, okay," he says, resting a hand on her shoulder. She shrugs him off and steps away. Danny puts his hands on his hips and sighs.
When they're done, Kono walks back into her office without a word. Danny groans and leans against the computer table.
"I don't understand," he says. "Kamekona can hang all over her and she's fine, but I touch her on the shoulder and I can feel her skin crawling."
"Hormones," says Chin.
"Or maybe it's just you," Steve says.
"Yeah, or maybe I'll bust in your teeth," says Danny. "You're enjoying this way too much."
"A little," Steve admits. "I don't know how she does it, to be honest. I would have killed you a long time ago."
"Asshole," Danny mutters, and walks back to his office.
At the end of the day, Danny goes into Kono's office to talk to her. She's shutting down her computer when he knocks on the door frame.
"I, uh..." He shoves his hands in his pockets, and she looks up warily. "I'm sorry for earlier, for trying to make you sit down. I just thought your back might be hurting."
"My back was fine," says Kono. "It is fine."
Danny nods. "I just didn't want you to feel like you had to act tough in front of all of us."
"I don't have to act tough?" says Kono, anger clouding her features.
Danny sighs. "That's not what I meant."
Kono shakes her head. "I don't need you treating me like a porcelain doll, Danny, especially not at work. Everyone's already hesitant to ask me to do anything, like I'll break at any moment. Chin talks to me like I'm a child who needs to be protected from herself. So the last thing I need is for you to be constantly reminding everyone that I'm pregnant and need to be treated differently. It's embarrassing."
"It's not embarrassing," says Danny. "It's not a reflection on how strong you are as a person. No one wants to see you get hurt, least of all me. And it's not just you I'm worried about."
Kono freezes. "You think I don't care about the baby?"
"I know you care about the baby," says Danny, "but I think you're worried about the team thinking you're weak and you push yourself too hard sometimes."
Something flickers in Kono's eyes, but Danny can't tell if it's anger or hurt. She grabs her gym bag off the floor. "I'm going to the gym for kick boxing. I'll be home later."
"Are you sure you--" Danny stops when Kono looks up sharply. "Okay, I'll see you later."
"She okay?" says Steve when Danny walks back out into the hallway.
"Uh, no," says Danny. "She says I treat her like a porcelain doll. And if you make fun of me about it again I'll punch you in the nuts, okay? I'm not in the mood right now."
Steve nods. "You okay?"
Danny scrubs a hand over his face. "You know, I think this whole pregnancy has been more stressful for me than it has been for her. I thought I was worried when Rachel was pregnant with Grace? Rachel wasn't going to work every day arresting criminals who keep knives in their boots and nine-millimeters in their glove compartments." He looks up at Steve.
"I'm not going to bench her because you ask," says Steve, but it's not an admonishment.
"I know," says Danny, looking away. "That's why I'm not asking."
Steve claps Danny on the back. "Come on, let's go to Ilani's. Beers on me."
Danny sighs. "Yeah, okay."
*****
Part II