After the finale – chapter seven

Several days later Lou had picked up Danny to drive him to PT. Everyone around them thought Danny and Steve needed a little break from each other. Danny's recovery was the hardest of any he had gone through and Steve was trying to help him too much. They needed a little distance, even if it was just the few hours while Danny was at PT.

Steve was at loose ends being in his house. Nothing needed to be done to it. It was spotlessly clean. Everything was sparkling from top to bottom. Junior may spend most of the time at Tani's, but the hours he spent at Steve's were productive ones. Except it made Steve jittery that there was nothing for him to do.

There was one thing he desperately needed to do, he just didn't want to. But, he was well aware that if he left it too long, it might become beyond repair and he could not bear that result. He hustled out of his house and got in his truck. He drove fairly slowly, Danny would have been shocked. Steve knew he was in no hurry to arrive at his destination.

He parked the truck in front of nice ranch-style home. He was at Rachel's new place which was in a nice, but far more middle-class neighborhood, than any of the homes she had lived in while married to Stan. He was well aware that Charlie had a check-up with the doctor today, so he was fairly confident that the only person he would be dealing with would be Grace.

She answered the door when he rang the bell and her eyes grew round and her lip started to tremble.

"No, no Gracie…nothing's wrong with Danno. He's at PT with Lou. I was just hoping now would be a good time for us to talk?"

She visibly relaxed, stepped aside to let him in and then led the way to the breakfast nook. She still hadn't said anything to greet him, merely waved him to a chair and sank into one herself.

Steve was always the fast, rip off the band-aid kind of guy.

"Look, Gracie, I know you're mad at me and I'm sorry. You're right and I am wrong. And I am sorry that I left your dad so soon after he was shot. I should have stayed until he got back on his feet again. The fact is I told him that I needed to go to find peace, but the more I think about it, the more I think I was just running away. I don't expect you to understand…"

"That's where you're wrong Uncle Steve. I do understand. The fact that you know you shouldn't have left and that you're sorry means a lot to me."

Grace stopped and her eyes filled with tears. This was very hard for her but she needed her uncle to understand.

"I love you very much, but I was so disappointed when you left because it was as though you didn't see or care how bad my dad was doing. The one thing I always count on is that you and Danno are best friends and you are always there to take care of each other. I could never count on my Mom and Danno taking care of each other, or Stan and my Mom taking care of each other; But I knew you and Danno always were together and were always friends even if you were fighting, so….."

Here she broke off into sobs.

"I was so afraid Danno was going to die this time…and you weren't even heeerree!"

Steve rose and made his way around the table to her. He was afraid he was going to be rejected, but he couldn't stand to see her cry like that. He knelt down next to her chair and wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

"Gracie. I'm not perfect. I made a mistake. I am going to try with everything I have to make it up to you and Charlie and your dad for making that mistake. I left him when he needed me and I won't do that again. I'm going to get him back on his feet. I don't make any promises on whether I am going to stay or go when he is healed, but I promise that I will talk to you and your Dad about it and I won't go anywhere if he needs me? Okay?"

Grace hugged him tight and sobbed into his shoulder for a few minutes. He could feel her trying to gather control of herself and she pulled herself back and sat straight. She swiped at her eyes and hiccupped just a little. Once she felt she had herself in hand, she smiled softly at this man who had been more of a second father to her than Step-Stan. She loved him so much but he had disappointed her deeply. While she had her mom's (or was it really her dad's?) hardheadedness in spades, she also had her father's goodness, loyalty, and ability to forgive. She drew herself together and looked her beloved uncle straight in the eye.

"Okay, Uncle Steve. I can't say I'm happy with all of this, but I know that we all make mistakes, and if there is one thing that Danno always tells me, it's that if someone is sorry you have to give them the benefit of the doubt so they can do better. I love you so much. Please do better."

"I love you too, Gracie and I will do better, I swear."

Over the next several months, Steve could tell that the bond he had shared with Grace ever since she came into his life as a little girl was returning to what it had been. She and Steve had truly mended their fences. They were back to heckling Danny and ganging up on him to keep up with his PT, his diet, and whatever else they could find to chide him about. Steve was back to always being Uncle Steve and when she started soliciting his opinion on her classes for the next semester, he knew that she had truly forgiven him. He just hoped that sometime in the future, he might actually forgive himself.

He and Danny had taken to PTSD therapy with their usual commitment to any project. Steve with his laser like focus and Danny with a sarcastic appreciation of the fact that the therapy was helping him. They had both undertaken the therapy certain that they were only doing it because the other one needed it so badly. They would never have done it for themselves. But, at night, in the dark, after a couple of beers, each of them was able to confess to the other how some coping method had helped that day, or that maybe they needed to take some time by themselves to employ a tapping therapy.

Neither Steve nor Danny had returned to Five-0 yet. Steve had an extended leave of absence and while the Governor would call periodically, she did not presss. She was afraid if she did, she would lose him completely. Danny's doctor refused to release him after his setback. He knew that a premature return to duty could be devastating to Danny's recovery.

Five-0 was still operating well. Lou was acting commander and they had brought Lincoln Cole on board. The teams ended up being mostly Junior and Tani, Adam and Quinn, and Lou and Lincoln. Every one of the team had both Steve and Danny on speed dial and most days would find the friends helping the team with some assignments and Danny often took on some portion of the load of paperwork, as he was still the best at figuring out how to parse what op had happened that day into something a little more palatable than "it just exploded." The team spent a lot of time at the beach house unwinding and sharing their lives.

Danny and Steve had settled in their chairs by the beach. They had just returned from dropping Grace at the airport. She was returning to college in LA. She had pled her case with Danny to be able to transfer to UH, and as much as he wanted to agree to have his baby close, he refused. He knew the pre-Med program she was in was unparalleled. She had a four-year ride and had been acing her classes. There was no way she was going to sacrifice any part of her bright future to nursemaid a sick old dude. He could sympathize with the Mama bird who had just kicked its baby out of the nest.

Steve and Danny had their friendship back on track. Danny was healing. He was even putting on a little weight but he was still far lighter than Steve was used to seeing him. Danny for his part knew that Steve was running on fumes these days. The liver transplant, the radiation poisoning, and the things he had put his body through over the years were catching up with him. Neither of them were the bright, young, cocky guardians of the island that they were ten years ago when they first met. But neither of them were quite ready to call it completely quits yet.

They were doing a lot of talking about where they wanted to be; what they wanted to do; how they wanted their lives to go. But, they definitely weren't coming up with any conclusions.

Steve confessed he did not want to go back to heading up Five-0. He knew that he wasn't in shape to lead the team the he loved in the way that he wanted. He could not be out in the field anymore. He knew that if he wasn't able to physically lead the charge, he wouldn't be happy being a second banana under anyone else. As far as money, he was set. Between the hazard pay he had earned in the military, his military pension, his Five-0 pension, money left to him and Mary by their father and Aunt Deb, Steve was sitting pretty. He never spent a ton and he didn't have a lot of wants or needs. He would never touch one dime of the money his mother had tried to leave.

Danny's body had been through the ringer over the last few years. He had survived a biological weapon, plane crash, donated an organ to Steve and been shot in the chest twice, and endured more beatings than anyone should have in a lifetime. He was tired and worn. He didn't want to go back in the field. He knew he could take retirement, and he would have small pensions from both Newark PD and Hawaii Five-0 as well as retiree insurance. But, he was far from as well set as Steve was.

Steve tried to help with that by telling Danny to give up his rental. Junior was moving in with Tani, the two kids were going to give a real relationship a try. Steve told Danny that the house was just too big for one person and Danny was already installed in the main floor bedroom anyway. Charlie could have Steve's old room and Grace could have Mary's, which could also sub as a guest room when she was at school.

Danny really did not want to take Steve up on his offer. He felt like it was making himself too dependent on the other man. He talked it through in his individual therapy sessions and was surprised to find that his therapist, who also counseled Steve individually, was in favor of the idea. He felt that both Steve and Danny spent far too much time alone. He counseled that as long as they could establish certain ground rules and boundaries that they would do far better together than they had managed alone. They spent a lot of time in some joint therapy sessions putting together those boundaries and Danny finally agreed that he would give up the house in Manoa. Grace and Charlie were overjoyed.

Now, they just had to figure out their careers. Danny insisted that 42 was just too young to hang it up forever, even though they could have probably managed it financially.

Steve was aware of Danny's feelings and was thinking of what they could do. The restaurant had been an interesting idea, but at the end of the day it wasn't anything that either of them really wanted. No, what they were good at and what they enjoyed was crime investigation. Protecting those around them. Helping the other guy. Taking the bad guys out. Where could they go with that?

Steve did some planning and had come to a decision. He made an appointment with the Governor and one with his attorney to put the details together, although he didn't share any of these details with Danny. He knew that not getting Danny's input might get him a solid uppercut to the jaw, but then Danny had put a lot of the restaurant details in place before he brought in Steve, so turn-about was fair-play and all that. 'huh' he thought to himself. 'Danny's right, I am a five year old.'

They were sitting out on the beach in their favorite spot. Steve waited until Danny had his second beer in him and had started on the third, and then broached the plan.

Danny listened, and the only way Steve was sure Danny was hearing was by the clenching of his jaw and the increased pressure his grip was exerting on his Longboard.

"What? What's the problem? It's a great idea."

"I don't know about you, Steve, but I really don't want to spend the next phase of my life being a cliché!"

"A cliché? What are you talking about?"

"Steven, every cop the world over does one of two things when they retire. They open a bar. Or they open a security company. That, my friend, is a cliché."

Steve thought for a minute and he could see Danny's point.

"So, yeah. I guess that's true. But, really Danno it's perfect for us! With my intelligence background and your investigation skills we'll do great. Steve spent some time outlining how the business could work. Danny was impressed that Steve had put so much research time in. This wasn't the 'leap before you look' partner that stressed his every nerve. The more Steve spoke, the more Danny relaxed. Steve was definitely receiving the 'okay, I am on board with this' vibe from Danny.

Steve was becoming more eloquent as he described how great this new gig would work for them. "I've spoken to the governor and she can see some real possibilities for a partnership between the State, Five-0 and our new firm. I've already lined up two of the resorts as customers. The work is not going to be as physical as what we were doing and we don't have to work full-time. We can take clients on as we want or as the cases interest us. You'd probably get to see Charlie a lot more."

"Oh ho! Don't you dare! You know getting time with my kid is my kryptonite." Then Danny stopped and scrunched up his face. "What do you mean you've lined up customers? We don't even have a firm yet, or a name!"

"Sure we do, Danny – look!" And with a flourish Steve produced a business card.

Danny's eyes bulged out of his head. If he were a little more recovered he thought he would have bounded out of his chair and beaten Steve with his beer bottle, but he just didn't have the reserves anymore to try and prevent the crazy from infiltrating every part of his life.

"Oh for the love of God! What the hell! Where did you get the idea for this! Couldn't you ASK just once!"

Danny was screaming and gesticulating…the little piece of paper flew out of his hand to land on the beach while Steve tried to calm him down and explain.

The business card proclaimed in bright, embossed letters "McDanno Security Consultants, LLC."

They were in business together for the next thirty years.