{FIC} Little Drummer Boy (Steve/Danny; G)
Title: Little Drummer Boy
Characters/Pairings: Steve McGarrett/Danny Williams, Grace Williams, Greg McGarrett-Williams
Rating: G
Author: simplyn2deep
Word count: 2252 words
Warnings: none
Disclaimer: All Hawaii Five-0 characters herein are the property of CBS. No copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Note 1: This is written for
theladymore for the 2014 Swap of Joy at
1_million_words. It set within my Poppi Gregorio 'verse, a year after Santa Claus is Coming to Town.
I hope you like it.
Summary: It's Christmas-time in the McGarrett-Williams house.
Baby Greg loved music. All kinds and in all languages. It was Steve and Danny's go to method for quieting their crying baby and two years later, it still worked.
Sometimes music had a different effect on their two year old son. When he heard something with a catchy beat, he had to bang or shake along with it. Most times that meant rattling of keys or shakers with beans in them, but if it was in the kitchen, that meant he got to play with the pots and pans and wooden spoon making a holy racket.
Greg loved it.
=+=
Danny and Steve stood in the entrance of the kitchen watching as Greg pulled out the pots and pans from the bottom cupboard. They'd had the discussion over the last several months to move them so the baby couldn't reach, but decided that the lower back pain from having to put the pots and pans away and the headache that would likely come after a few minutes was worth it to hear their son laugh and squeal in delight as he banged on them.
"Maybe we should get him a little drum set...," Steve suggested. "It would keep us from having to buy new pots every year."
Danny snorted. "Greg is only two--"
"He's 27 months old," Steve cut in.
"Fine, Greg is 27 months old. He doesn't need a drum set.” Danny said. "What he needs are more age appropriate gifts. And clothes." Danny added as an afterthought. "Of course any baby with your genetic makeup is going to grow like a weed and need new clothes every time we turn around."
Steve snorted. "Just because you're below average--"
"You finish that sentence, McGarrett, and you'll be sleeping on the couch. Outside. For a month!" Danny cut in with a glare.
Steve simply smirked at Danny as he picked up the baby and walked out of the kitchen. "Come on, little man. Let's see what other stuff we can get into."
=+=
"You still haven't sent us the kids Christmas lists," Danny's mother, Alessandra, said during their semiweekly phone call. "Grace has told us, in great detail what she wanted, but it's better to have these things written down."
"Especially if your grandfather is going to buy out all of Toys R Us," Danny's father Brady added.
Danny sighed. "I told you guys to tell Poppi that he didn't have to buy the baby anything."
Alessandra rolled her eyes. "Really, Danny. Like that would have mattered. Now, Christmas list. Soon. Please."
"Don't worry, Sandra," Steve said "I'll email it to you now."
=+=
"How did you talk Danno into getting Greg the drum?" Grace asked as she helped Steve wrap some gifts that had been sent from the family in New Jersey.
"I didn't," Steve replied. "Poppi did. It wasn't on the list, but I made sure to tell him when we talked."
"Danno's going to be mad at you," Grace said.
Steve shrugged some. "That's okay. This drum barely makes any noise and will probably break within a month or Greg will get tired of it and forget about it."
"What will Greg get tired of?" Danny asked.
"Nothing, Danno." Grace and Steve said at the same time and snickered.
=+=
Of all the Christmas activities Danny and Steve had going on, the one thing they forgot to do was set up a photography session for Grace and Greg. They should have done it the month before when Rachel had pictures of Grace and Charles done, but they were neck deep in a drug sting and it slipped their minds.
It wasn't until Nicola sent pictures of her four kids that Danny remembered. After cursing to himself, he called the photographer they used the previous year and hoped they could be fit in within the next day or two and they'd still be able to send pictures out in time for the family to get them before Christmas.
"You're in luck, Danny," the man said. "My two thirty for Saturday canceled. I can fit you and the family in then. Any special requests?"
"No, just something for Greg to hold or play with to keep his attention," Danny said. "We'll see you on Saturday around two pm?"
There was a beat of silence. "Two is great for me. See you then."
=+=
Danny didn't know what to expect when they arrived for their photo session with the photographer that weekend, but he could tell from the high pitched squeal of delight and the baby yell of "boom boom!" that there was undoubtedly a drum or drum-like instrument just waiting for him to play with.
Grace, ever the teenager with her head pointed down as she texted away, briefly looked up and sighed. It wasn't that she was annoyed with having to take more family pictures, she loved that, but it was that at two years old, her brother was rather predictable when it came to drums and his love for banging on them.
Quickly sending the text she was working on, she pocketed her phone and turned her attention to Greg. "Wanna play with the drum?" she asked.
"Yes! Boom boom!" Greg replied squirming to get out of his stroller.
"Dads I'm going to take Greg over there," Grace said as she motioned the direction of the drum.
Steve glanced in her direction and nodded before turning back to Danny and pretending to be interested in what his husband was ranting about.
"Honestly, a drum?" Danny mumbled as he looked over at his children.
"You got something against drums?" the photographer asked with a raised eyebrow.
"As an instrument when played by someone who has talent? No. But in the hands of my two year old? I'd rather listen to the Hannah Montana stuff my daughter used to like," he replied gruffly.
"Danny, look at him," Steve said as he turned his husband around to face Grace and Greg. "He's a happy baby, but his face always seems to light up more around drums."
"You wanted a drum set when you were growing up, didn't you?" Danny groused. "That's why you're pushing Greg to play with the drums."
Steve huffed in amusement. "I wanted a guitar, but that's not the point. I didn't push him into anything he wouldn't have naturally sought out on his own. He's a baby. He liked banging on things."
=+=
The Christmas pictures Steve, Danny, Grace and Greg took came out better than Danny was expecting, especially the ones of Greg and the drum. Now he had the daunting task of writing a little note to go with each group of pictures that were being sent out.
Steve suggested they type up something and put it on decorative paper and be done with it, but Danny nixed that idea. He said it sounded too impersonal. Grace, however, had agreed with Steve and added that it wasn't impersonal. They would still tell the same story, but Danny wouldn't have to hand write the same thing over and over again for each of the 30 cards they would be sending out.
After the first eleven that Danny finished handwriting, he decided that maybe Steve and Grace had the right idea. He booted up his laptop, opened a blank document and began typing up a mash up of everything he'd written in the eleven cards, then sent it to Steve for him to read over and add anything he wanted. Once that was done, he dressed himself and Greg to go out to buy the most festive paper he could find to print the letters on.
By the time Danny returned home with the stationary and something for them to have for dinner, Steve and Grace were back from their top secret shopping trip. "How did shopping go?" Danny asked as he set Greg on the floor in the living room.
"The mall was packed, but I think we got everything we needed?" Steve hedged as he looked at Grace.
"Yup, got everything I needed and tonight I'm going to Auntie Kono's to work on it so you guys can't see it," Grace said with a nod.
"Well before you go, we have dinner and I need your help signing and stuffing the cards," Danny said, "and I can drop you off at Kono's."
"Thanks, Danno!" Grace chirped as she gathered her things and raced to her room.
"Did you really get everything you need?" Danny asked Steve once he was sure Grace was out of earshot.
Steve nodded. "Picked up the delivered packages from the office as well as the ones waiting at the post office."
"Where are they?" Danny asked as he looked around the living room. He saw nothing by Greg's toys and their jackets.
"In the closet under the stairs. Some of the smaller gifts need to be wrapped, so we can do that when you get back from dropping off Grace and we put Greg to bed."
=+=
In the week leading up to Christmas, more gifts, thankfully already wrapped, arrived from Danny's family and they were promptly added to the large selection under the tree. When the first gifts were placed under the tree at the beginning of the month, it was a never ending battle with Greg to keep him from getting into them. Steve had to go out and buy two baby gates to put around the tree to keep Greg away from them. Greg didn't like being blocked from the gifts and pitched a fit when he couldn't reach them or was pulled away from the gate.
"You can't open gifts yet," was a constant refrain in the house. Soon it turned into "You can open gifts in a couple of days. That's 2 more sleeps."
Steve had snorted at Danny when he said that. "You realize that with his naps, it's probably more like 8 more sleeps, right?"
Danny rolled his eyes. "I'm not expecting him to understand what that means."
"But tonight when you tell him tomorrow, he'll understand that," Grace said.
=+=
Christmas morning dawned just as bright as it did any other day, but Danny knew from Grace trying to keep Greg quiet, that the little boy understood what the day was.
"Pressies!" Danny could hear Greg shout.
"Yes, but not yet. We have to wait for Danno and Dad," Grace reminded him.
Danny didn't hear anything after that, but he knew it wouldn't be long before he would hear Grace telling Greg that he had to wait and he didn't think his son would take too kindly to being denied presents.
"Steve, babe. Time to wake up," Danny said as he lightly shook his husband's shoulder and leaned down to kiss his neck.
Steve grumbled and moved away. He'd barely had three hours of sleep since he was up late wrapping gifts and putting together some larger things for Greg.
"Ten more minutes," Steve replied.
"Nope!" Danny said as he got out of bed. "It's Christmas and Greg is waiting to open his gifts!"
Steve gave a deep sigh before pushing the covers off his body, sitting up and stretching. "Right. Christmas. Gifts."
Danny chuckled. It wasn't very often he saw Steve this way, but having an active two year old meant always being on the go and Danny could tell that Steve was still getting used to that. Mary's daughter, Joan, was about a year older than Greg, but with Mary and Joan living on the mainland more than in Hawaii, Steve still didn't have much experience around being a human jungle gym to an active toddler.
=+=
Gifts had been opened and everything was a hit with Grace and Greg.
Grace's big gifts were a new guitar, surfboard and drawing materials as well as a trip to New York for the following summer. The trip was agreed on because Stan was working on a building out there and he, Rachel and Charles were now there rather than Nevada, so Grace would be spending all summer out there before coming back at the start of her sophomore year of high school.
Greg's big gifts were just about anything that he could build and take apart, especially the Pull-along Musical Pirate Ship. However when he got to his gift from Poppi Gregorio, he forgot about all the other gifts.
"BOOM BOOM!" Greg shouted as he pushed away the other toys and wrapping paper to pull the little drum set closer to his body. "Daddy! Danno! Look!" He exclaimed as he tried to stand up while still holding on to the drum.
"I see!" Steve said with a smile. "Who got that for you?"
Grace leaned over and whispered who gave him the gift, and Greg dutifully repeated what she said. "Poppi did!"
"Well we need to call Poppi and thank him, don't we?" Danny said.
Greg didn't respond. He was too busy banging on the drum with his hands until Grace freed the drumsticks and gave them to him. The banging continued, but louder now that he could make a proper sound come out.
"Yes," Steve replied as he pulled out his phone to record Greg playing on his drum and Grace sitting next to him trying to get her fingers in the right position on her new guitar, that was finally the right size for her to play. "Let's call Poppi, Grandma and Grandpa to thank them for the gifts."
Danny leaned over to look at the video Steve was taking and smiled. "Our little drummer boy and strummer girl."
=+=
FIN
Characters/Pairings: Steve McGarrett/Danny Williams, Grace Williams, Greg McGarrett-Williams
Rating: G
Author: simplyn2deep
Word count: 2252 words
Warnings: none
Disclaimer: All Hawaii Five-0 characters herein are the property of CBS. No copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Note 1: This is written for
theladymore for the 2014 Swap of Joy at
1_million_words. It set within my Poppi Gregorio 'verse, a year after Santa Claus is Coming to Town.
I hope you like it.
Summary: It's Christmas-time in the McGarrett-Williams house.
Baby Greg loved music. All kinds and in all languages. It was Steve and Danny's go to method for quieting their crying baby and two years later, it still worked.
Sometimes music had a different effect on their two year old son. When he heard something with a catchy beat, he had to bang or shake along with it. Most times that meant rattling of keys or shakers with beans in them, but if it was in the kitchen, that meant he got to play with the pots and pans and wooden spoon making a holy racket.
Greg loved it.
=+=
Danny and Steve stood in the entrance of the kitchen watching as Greg pulled out the pots and pans from the bottom cupboard. They'd had the discussion over the last several months to move them so the baby couldn't reach, but decided that the lower back pain from having to put the pots and pans away and the headache that would likely come after a few minutes was worth it to hear their son laugh and squeal in delight as he banged on them.
"Maybe we should get him a little drum set...," Steve suggested. "It would keep us from having to buy new pots every year."
Danny snorted. "Greg is only two--"
"He's 27 months old," Steve cut in.
"Fine, Greg is 27 months old. He doesn't need a drum set.” Danny said. "What he needs are more age appropriate gifts. And clothes." Danny added as an afterthought. "Of course any baby with your genetic makeup is going to grow like a weed and need new clothes every time we turn around."
Steve snorted. "Just because you're below average--"
"You finish that sentence, McGarrett, and you'll be sleeping on the couch. Outside. For a month!" Danny cut in with a glare.
Steve simply smirked at Danny as he picked up the baby and walked out of the kitchen. "Come on, little man. Let's see what other stuff we can get into."
=+=
"You still haven't sent us the kids Christmas lists," Danny's mother, Alessandra, said during their semiweekly phone call. "Grace has told us, in great detail what she wanted, but it's better to have these things written down."
"Especially if your grandfather is going to buy out all of Toys R Us," Danny's father Brady added.
Danny sighed. "I told you guys to tell Poppi that he didn't have to buy the baby anything."
Alessandra rolled her eyes. "Really, Danny. Like that would have mattered. Now, Christmas list. Soon. Please."
"Don't worry, Sandra," Steve said "I'll email it to you now."
=+=
"How did you talk Danno into getting Greg the drum?" Grace asked as she helped Steve wrap some gifts that had been sent from the family in New Jersey.
"I didn't," Steve replied. "Poppi did. It wasn't on the list, but I made sure to tell him when we talked."
"Danno's going to be mad at you," Grace said.
Steve shrugged some. "That's okay. This drum barely makes any noise and will probably break within a month or Greg will get tired of it and forget about it."
"What will Greg get tired of?" Danny asked.
"Nothing, Danno." Grace and Steve said at the same time and snickered.
=+=
Of all the Christmas activities Danny and Steve had going on, the one thing they forgot to do was set up a photography session for Grace and Greg. They should have done it the month before when Rachel had pictures of Grace and Charles done, but they were neck deep in a drug sting and it slipped their minds.
It wasn't until Nicola sent pictures of her four kids that Danny remembered. After cursing to himself, he called the photographer they used the previous year and hoped they could be fit in within the next day or two and they'd still be able to send pictures out in time for the family to get them before Christmas.
"You're in luck, Danny," the man said. "My two thirty for Saturday canceled. I can fit you and the family in then. Any special requests?"
"No, just something for Greg to hold or play with to keep his attention," Danny said. "We'll see you on Saturday around two pm?"
There was a beat of silence. "Two is great for me. See you then."
=+=
Danny didn't know what to expect when they arrived for their photo session with the photographer that weekend, but he could tell from the high pitched squeal of delight and the baby yell of "boom boom!" that there was undoubtedly a drum or drum-like instrument just waiting for him to play with.
Grace, ever the teenager with her head pointed down as she texted away, briefly looked up and sighed. It wasn't that she was annoyed with having to take more family pictures, she loved that, but it was that at two years old, her brother was rather predictable when it came to drums and his love for banging on them.
Quickly sending the text she was working on, she pocketed her phone and turned her attention to Greg. "Wanna play with the drum?" she asked.
"Yes! Boom boom!" Greg replied squirming to get out of his stroller.
"Dads I'm going to take Greg over there," Grace said as she motioned the direction of the drum.
Steve glanced in her direction and nodded before turning back to Danny and pretending to be interested in what his husband was ranting about.
"Honestly, a drum?" Danny mumbled as he looked over at his children.
"You got something against drums?" the photographer asked with a raised eyebrow.
"As an instrument when played by someone who has talent? No. But in the hands of my two year old? I'd rather listen to the Hannah Montana stuff my daughter used to like," he replied gruffly.
"Danny, look at him," Steve said as he turned his husband around to face Grace and Greg. "He's a happy baby, but his face always seems to light up more around drums."
"You wanted a drum set when you were growing up, didn't you?" Danny groused. "That's why you're pushing Greg to play with the drums."
Steve huffed in amusement. "I wanted a guitar, but that's not the point. I didn't push him into anything he wouldn't have naturally sought out on his own. He's a baby. He liked banging on things."
=+=
The Christmas pictures Steve, Danny, Grace and Greg took came out better than Danny was expecting, especially the ones of Greg and the drum. Now he had the daunting task of writing a little note to go with each group of pictures that were being sent out.
Steve suggested they type up something and put it on decorative paper and be done with it, but Danny nixed that idea. He said it sounded too impersonal. Grace, however, had agreed with Steve and added that it wasn't impersonal. They would still tell the same story, but Danny wouldn't have to hand write the same thing over and over again for each of the 30 cards they would be sending out.
After the first eleven that Danny finished handwriting, he decided that maybe Steve and Grace had the right idea. He booted up his laptop, opened a blank document and began typing up a mash up of everything he'd written in the eleven cards, then sent it to Steve for him to read over and add anything he wanted. Once that was done, he dressed himself and Greg to go out to buy the most festive paper he could find to print the letters on.
By the time Danny returned home with the stationary and something for them to have for dinner, Steve and Grace were back from their top secret shopping trip. "How did shopping go?" Danny asked as he set Greg on the floor in the living room.
"The mall was packed, but I think we got everything we needed?" Steve hedged as he looked at Grace.
"Yup, got everything I needed and tonight I'm going to Auntie Kono's to work on it so you guys can't see it," Grace said with a nod.
"Well before you go, we have dinner and I need your help signing and stuffing the cards," Danny said, "and I can drop you off at Kono's."
"Thanks, Danno!" Grace chirped as she gathered her things and raced to her room.
"Did you really get everything you need?" Danny asked Steve once he was sure Grace was out of earshot.
Steve nodded. "Picked up the delivered packages from the office as well as the ones waiting at the post office."
"Where are they?" Danny asked as he looked around the living room. He saw nothing by Greg's toys and their jackets.
"In the closet under the stairs. Some of the smaller gifts need to be wrapped, so we can do that when you get back from dropping off Grace and we put Greg to bed."
=+=
In the week leading up to Christmas, more gifts, thankfully already wrapped, arrived from Danny's family and they were promptly added to the large selection under the tree. When the first gifts were placed under the tree at the beginning of the month, it was a never ending battle with Greg to keep him from getting into them. Steve had to go out and buy two baby gates to put around the tree to keep Greg away from them. Greg didn't like being blocked from the gifts and pitched a fit when he couldn't reach them or was pulled away from the gate.
"You can't open gifts yet," was a constant refrain in the house. Soon it turned into "You can open gifts in a couple of days. That's 2 more sleeps."
Steve had snorted at Danny when he said that. "You realize that with his naps, it's probably more like 8 more sleeps, right?"
Danny rolled his eyes. "I'm not expecting him to understand what that means."
"But tonight when you tell him tomorrow, he'll understand that," Grace said.
=+=
Christmas morning dawned just as bright as it did any other day, but Danny knew from Grace trying to keep Greg quiet, that the little boy understood what the day was.
"Pressies!" Danny could hear Greg shout.
"Yes, but not yet. We have to wait for Danno and Dad," Grace reminded him.
Danny didn't hear anything after that, but he knew it wouldn't be long before he would hear Grace telling Greg that he had to wait and he didn't think his son would take too kindly to being denied presents.
"Steve, babe. Time to wake up," Danny said as he lightly shook his husband's shoulder and leaned down to kiss his neck.
Steve grumbled and moved away. He'd barely had three hours of sleep since he was up late wrapping gifts and putting together some larger things for Greg.
"Ten more minutes," Steve replied.
"Nope!" Danny said as he got out of bed. "It's Christmas and Greg is waiting to open his gifts!"
Steve gave a deep sigh before pushing the covers off his body, sitting up and stretching. "Right. Christmas. Gifts."
Danny chuckled. It wasn't very often he saw Steve this way, but having an active two year old meant always being on the go and Danny could tell that Steve was still getting used to that. Mary's daughter, Joan, was about a year older than Greg, but with Mary and Joan living on the mainland more than in Hawaii, Steve still didn't have much experience around being a human jungle gym to an active toddler.
=+=
Gifts had been opened and everything was a hit with Grace and Greg.
Grace's big gifts were a new guitar, surfboard and drawing materials as well as a trip to New York for the following summer. The trip was agreed on because Stan was working on a building out there and he, Rachel and Charles were now there rather than Nevada, so Grace would be spending all summer out there before coming back at the start of her sophomore year of high school.
Greg's big gifts were just about anything that he could build and take apart, especially the Pull-along Musical Pirate Ship. However when he got to his gift from Poppi Gregorio, he forgot about all the other gifts.
"BOOM BOOM!" Greg shouted as he pushed away the other toys and wrapping paper to pull the little drum set closer to his body. "Daddy! Danno! Look!" He exclaimed as he tried to stand up while still holding on to the drum.
"I see!" Steve said with a smile. "Who got that for you?"
Grace leaned over and whispered who gave him the gift, and Greg dutifully repeated what she said. "Poppi did!"
"Well we need to call Poppi and thank him, don't we?" Danny said.
Greg didn't respond. He was too busy banging on the drum with his hands until Grace freed the drumsticks and gave them to him. The banging continued, but louder now that he could make a proper sound come out.
"Yes," Steve replied as he pulled out his phone to record Greg playing on his drum and Grace sitting next to him trying to get her fingers in the right position on her new guitar, that was finally the right size for her to play. "Let's call Poppi, Grandma and Grandpa to thank them for the gifts."
Danny leaned over to look at the video Steve was taking and smiled. "Our little drummer boy and strummer girl."
=+=
FIN