Work Text:
“What do you want now, Danny?” Steve asked as he answered his phone before it went to voicemail. It had gotten lost in the couch cushions, which added to his irritation of being sidelined with a messed up shoulder. “Don’t you know I’m a busy man?”
“Steve, it’s Mary,” Mary said without preamble. “I need your help.”
“What’s up, Mary?” Steve inquired as he tried to reign in his annoyance at his partner’s insistence that he follow his doctor’s orders and take the time to allow his shoulder to heal correctly.
“Is there anyway you can take care of Joan for a few hours?” she quickly asked. “I got called into work and my regular sitter had a prior commitment.”
“Sure,” Steve replied. He enjoyed the time he spent with his niece and it would give him something to do besides sitting around and going stir crazy from boredom.
“Thank you. You’re a life saver.”
“Yeah, I know I am,” Steve replied with a soft chuckle. His sister’s over the top drama act always amused him. “Do I need to come get Joan or can you drop her off?”
“I can drop her off since I already tried to reach you at work and Chin told me you were at home resting because you messed up your shoulder again.”
“Busted,” Steve muttered.
“You need to take better care of yourself, Steve,” Mary gently admonished. “If not for yourself, then for me and Joan.”
“You’re as bad as Danny.”
“It’s a good thing you have such a good friend.”
“Yeah, I know,” Steve reluctantly agreed.
“He could be more, you know?”
“Not you too,” Steve sighed in resignation. He had hoped that she wouldn’t bring up that subject again since he promised to stop setting her up on dates with his old Navy buddies.
“You act like an old married couple, so why not just get together and be done with it,” Mary retorted with a barely repressed chuckle. She loved to needle him every chance she could get since that was what a sister did to a brother.
“Will you drop it?” He was tired of hearing how he and Danny should put everybody out of their misery by doing something about their unresolved sexual tension.
“You know I’m right,” Mary countered.
“All I know is that you need to get your ass in gear if you want to drop Joan off and still make it to work in a timely fashion,” Steve said thus putting an end to her teasing.
“Shit!” Mary swore. “I hate it when you’re right!”
“Feeling the love, Mary.”
“I’ll be there in fifteen. Bye,” Mary said before hanging.
*&*
Steve opened his front door when he heard Mary’s car pull into the driveway. He would never admit, even under the most painful form of torture, that he was watching for her once she hung up on him. He was that bored, and he was going to make the criminal element of Honolulu pay for sidelining him when he eventually got his doctor’s release.
“That bored, huh?” Mary guessed as she pushed past him with Joan in her car seat.
“Still feeling the love, Mary,” Steve grumbled as he closed the door and followed her into the living room.
“I’m just that loveable,” she retorted with a laugh before launching into her instructions for Joan.
Steve did his best to follow along, but Mary was talking so fast that he got lost after the first few instructions.
*&*
Danny was putting the finishing touches on the pile of paperwork he had found on Steve’s desk when his cell went off. He grabbed it before it could vibrate off the desk since he had put it on silent/vibrate after his last check in with Steve hours before.
“What now, Rambo?” he snapped. Steve was going to drive him to drink, if he didn’t get released to return to work soon. A bored Steve McGarrett was worst than angry Steve McGarrett hell bent on destroying most Oahu.
“Help,” Steve pleaded. He was a Navy SEAL and never gave up, but at that moment he was ready to throw in the towel since Joan woke up from her nap, took one look at him and started crying. “I can’t get Joan to stop crying.”
“Why do you have your niece? Where’s Mary?” Danny asked in rapid succession as he heard the baby in question let out another wail.
“She got called into work on her day off and her primary sitter had a prior commitment, so I agreed to look after Joan,” Steve quickly explained as he bounced Joan on his knee hoping it would get her to stop shrieking at the top of her lungs. She was giving him a headache and there was no doubt in his mind she was giving herself one as well. “I could really use some of your excellent parental skills.”
“Do I have to ask the obvious questions?”
“She wouldn’t take her bottle, so I don’t know if she is hungry or not,” Steve replied with a hint of annoyance in his voice. Bouncing Joan only made her wail louder. “I did change her diaper, but that didn’t help either. If I was to hazard a guess, I think she misses Mary.”
“That’s a possibility,” Danny agreed. “Have you tried to call her?”
“She told me she can’t take personal calls, so I’m stuck with an unhappy baby.”
“Okay,” Danny sighed. He had about fifteen minutes before he left to go pick Grace up from school. He could get her early and run by Steve’s before dropping her off for dance class. “I’ll be there in about thirty minutes. Traffic willing that is.”
“Thank you, Danny,” Steve said with heart-felt sincerity.
“Don’t thank me just yet,” Danny cautioned. “I may have lost my touch with babies.”
“I doubt that,” Steve remarked. “See you in thirty.”
*&*
Grace was out of the car and hurrying to Steve’s front door before Danny had a chance to turn the car off. He shook his head at her enthusiasm. She loved spending time with Steve, and the fact that he needed help with Joan just gave Grace a chance to use the skills she learned while looking after her brother, Charlie.
Danny followed at a slower pace and wasn’t surprised to find Joan softly crying into Grace’s shoulder as she gently bounced and patted her on the back in an attempt to comfort the baby.
Steve pulled his gaze from Grace as soon as he heard Danny enter the house and close the front door. “Grace is a miracle worker. That has been the quietest Joan has been in the past two hours,” Steve whispered not wanting to scare Joan into crying again.
Joan heard him and raised her head from Grace’s shoulder. She took one look at Danny stopped crying all together. She hiccupped and reached for Danny.
Danny was surprised that Joan remembered him since she had only seen him one time before. He took her from Grace and gently wiped the tears from her eyes. “Did your Uncle Steve scare you, baby girl?” he quietly asked.
Joan hiccupped and buried her head into Danny’s shoulder.
“You haven’t lost your touch after all,” Steve pointed out before walking into the kitchen to warm up a bottle for Joan and find some aspirin for his pounding head.
*&*
Mary let herself into Steve’s house and wasn’t really surprised to see Danny holding Joan while Steve and Grace sat in the dinning room with their heads together as he helped her with her homework.
“This quite the domestic scene you’ve got going on here,” she gently quipped.
“So the prodigal child returns,” Danny teased in return as he went about settling Joan into her car seat.
“How long before he gave in and called you?”
“A couple of hours, but you knew Joan would freak out on him when she realized that she wasn’t in a familiar place,” Danny answered with a knowing look.
“Really hoped she had out grown that since she has no trouble staying with Chase,” Mary said as she brushed a lock of hair off Joan’s forehead.
“Take it from me. They don’t out grow it. They just get better at hiding it.”
“That’s a comforting thought,” Mary muttered. “Not.”
Danny softly chuckled. “It’s all a part of being a parent.”
“I’m learning that.”
“You’re doing a good job.”
“Thanks,” Mary said as she picked up Joan’s diaper bag. “I wake up every morning afraid I’ll do something to screw her up for the rest of her life.”
“I’m well familiar with that feeling,” Danny commiserated. The older Grace got the more Danny feared that he would do something that would scar her for life. “Grace just turned thirteen, but I still see her as my little girl running around dressed in pink with pig tails.”
Mary nodded. “I better get Joan home before she wakes up.”
“She’s pretty much out for the count. I doubt she’ll wake up before the morning,” Danny said as he picked up the car seat and carried Joan out to Mary’s car.
“Tell Steve I said thanks and that I’m sorry Joan was more than he bargained for,” Mary said as she slid into the driver’s seat.
“I’ll tell him,” Danny assured her. “Now drive safely and call when you get home.”
“Yes, Dad,” Mary teased causing Danny to roll his eyes at her.
“Don’t you forget it.”
“I won’t and thanks again.”
“You’re welcome.”
*&*
Danny watched Mary drive off before heading back inside to herd Grace and Steve to bed since the next day was going to be a busy one.
The end