Disclaimer: I do not own Hawaii 5-0.

A/N: This is my first attempt at actually put a story on paper (or on a screen). I'm very excited to finally get around to it and I hope you all enjoy it. My plan is to update every few days as I have the story just finished.

"Hey Danny, just leave her sleep. You don't need to get her back until 11 in the morning".

Danny and Grace had spent the afternoon at the McGarrett house, Grace playing in the sand and at the water's edge; Danny and Steve relaxing on the lanai, watching her. Kono and Chin arrived at the house around 6pm and Steve fired up the barbeque.

Steve was a little quieter than usual but none of the others really seemed to notice. After they had all eaten their fill and cleared up, the four adults remained on the lanai, while Grace settled herself on the couch to watch a DVD. Danny and Kono had checked on her a couple of times while she watched "The Little Mermaid", her favourite Disney movie…for the moment.

Kono and Chin eventually said their good byes and headed out the side of the house. Danny walked thought the study, closely followed by Steve, to find his daughter fast asleep on the couch.

"Yeah I'll leave her, if you don't mind. But if she wakes, we'll head back to my place".

Steve just nodded ok. Now that Danny thought about it Steve was acting a little off but he just put it down to a hectic schedule. They were all taking a few personal days after working flat out for five weeks on some gruelling cases. The agreement was that one of the team would be on call each day and the Governor had the rota of who to contact if something came up.

The next morning Danny woke up lying face down, knotted up in a sheet with his right leg on the back of a couch and his left arm trailing the floor. Looking across the room, he saw the blanket he had covered his daughter with last night, folded neatly at one end of the other couch and a pillow laid on top. Stretching, he walked out to the kitchen to get himself a mug of coffee.

Looking out the window, he spotted Steve sitting on the sand with an arm loosely hanging around Grace and she in turn cuddled close into his right side. Danny grabbed a second mug of coffee and headed out.

"Danno", Grace squealed when she looked around and saw her father walk down the grass. "I didn't know we were having a sleepover here last night. I didn't even have my pyjamas or my toothbrush!"

Danny smiled down at his daughter, "I'm sorry Monkey, it was kind of spur of the moment."

"Hey Gracie, next time, maybe we'll camp out here on the beach and have a proper sleepover, with s'mores and everything", Steve suggested.

"Can we Danno, can we do that tonight?" Grace put on her best pleading voice.

"Sorry Grace, not tonight. I need to get you back to your Mom this morning but we'll arrange something, ok? Now go in and gather up all your stuff, we need to get going soon."

Steve just sat there listening to his partner and Grace sort out everything, thinking how lucky Danny was.

On her father's command to get moving, Grace jumped up and gave Steve a kiss on the cheek and whispered, "You can share mine anytime you want," and ran inside. Danny handed Steve his coffee and plonked himself down on the sand.

"You ok, Steve?" he enquired as he studied his partner.

"Yeah, I'm good," was the succinct reply. "Actually, I was just wondering would you have any interest, I mean if you're not doing anything…"

"Geez man, just spit it out."

Steve took a deep breath, "Would you like to come out fishing with me day after tomorrow, and by fishing I mean sitting on a boat, with a few Long boards and maybe a picnic. Kono might be coming too. Chin's on call if a case comes up so he'll be staying around locally. It's just an idea I had."

Danny was never very fond of the ocean and would usually avoid boats but something told him there was more to this invite so he agreed.

Danny followed Grace inside shortly after and helped her gather up her things. Steve sauntered in a few minutes later and just leaned against the archway between his father's study and the front room, with his arms folded.

Once Danny was sure he had everything he turned to Steve, "Hey Buddy, we're outta here now, I'll call you later. Thanks for the barbeque and the eh...impromptu sleep over. You sure you're ok?"

Before Steve could answer Grace barrelled at him to give him and big hug, "Thanks Uncle Steve and remember what I said." She then turned on her heels and headed out the door to her father's car. Danny gave his partner a puzzled look but Steve just shrugged and said "You've got one great little kid there," to which Danny replied with a grin, "I know."

Danny then followed Grace out to the car. The drive to Rachel's house was very quiet but Danny just put it down to Grace being tired after all the fresh air the day before. When they pulled up into the drive Grace finally broke the silence.

"Hey Danno, you know when I'm sad, you or mom always make it better and make me happy again?"

"Yes Gracie, that a mom and dad's special job," Danny replied.

"Well what about people that don't have a mom or dad to help make them happy, who will make them not sad?"

Danny was unsure where this was going but answered as best he could, "Eh…well these people would hopefully have special friends that could cheer them up."

Grace thought on this for a minute, "I think that special friends that are also dad's would be really good at making people happy again. So that's really good news for Uncle Steve."

At this stage Danny was completely lost by his daughter's logic but nodded his head to encourage her to go on.

"You see, Uncle Steve is sad because he misses his dad, cos he's gone to heaven and it would be his Dad's birthday this week. So I told him that I know you are his best friend but he could also borrow you as his dad if he wanted, I'll share."

Grace said this so matter of fact that Danny didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so he just bundled his kind hearted daughter into a bear hug.

Grace turned her big brown eyes up to her father and said "You'll look after Uncle Steve, won't you? Like you look after me. Don't let anything happen to him and cheer him up if he's sad."

Danny couldn't believe how perceptive his daughter was. He had picked up that there was something bothering his friend but it took his daughter to find out what.

"I promise to do everything in my power to make sure nothing happens to make Uncle Steve sad…but hey Monkey if I'm going to be his Dad do I get to ground him if he misbehaves?"

Grace laughed at this, "Danno, don't be silly, you are only pretending to be his Daddy…but you will look after him, won't you?"

"I promise," Danny replied, not realising that it would only be two days later that he would be called on to keep his promise.