Danny Williams’ No Good, Horrible, Very Bad Day

By Rina

Disclaimers: No infringement is intended.

He should have known the day was going to be bad when he opened his front (and only) door to rain. In the months Danny had lived in Hawaii, he’d learned that Hawaiian rain wasn’t like normal rain; the sky didn’t get dark and the faucet turn on slowly. No, here you went from blue sky to pitch black and a deluge all in a matter of seconds, and if you were lucky enough not to drown in the monsoon, you’d see the blue sky again when it was over, all bright and innocent as if it had never rained on you in the first place.

He made the dash to his car in the deluge, spotting his umbrella by the passenger seat as he squelched into the driver side bucket seat and slammed the door, his sigh audible even over the drumming of the rain.

Traffic was horrendous as apparently the only thing Hawaiians shared with normal people was the inability to drive in anything but sunshine, and he was five minutes late picking Grace up. His phone rang approximately thirty seconds after he was due, and he had to listen to four minutes and thirty seconds of haranguing, all answered with increasingly tight-voiced ‘Yes dears’ until the maid brought Grace out of the gate under the shelter of a huge green and white umbrella.

Normally, his day would have taken a turn for the better at that point, but Grace was worried about being late for school, frowning at him so sternly that he thought he was being confronted with a miniature version of Rachel and not his loving daughter.

She unbent by the time they reached her school but dropped a bomb on him right before she got out of the car (the sun, of course, was now shining). She had been invited to a sleepover Friday night at her new best friend, Lani Kauhane’s house, and would he mind if she didn’t come over?

Feeling as if someone had just emptied a shotgun into his gut, Danny smiled and nodded, giving her his permission though he knew that he’d be looking the family up when he got to work. Of course, that didn’t go as planned either as he hadn’t even walked in the building before Steve, Kono and Chin were dragging him out to track down a family of jewel thieves who had just cleaned out one of the governor’s friends’ homes – and when had he become part of the governor’s guard dog team anyway?

After a day of chasing after the thieves, they caught up with them at a dilapidated canning factory and took them into custody – well, Steve, Kono and Chin did anyway; Danny was too busy trying to pull himself out of the hole that had opened up beneath him when the wooden planking on the floor gave way under his weight.

His knee hurt like a son of a bitch, and he limped his way over to the others who were wrangling the five prisoners, Steve’s ‘You wanna book ‘em, Danno?’ only earning a surly growl in response.

The convenience store was out of his favorite beer, so he settled for Budweiser, cursing when the bottles smacked together as he set the container in the passenger seat. The puddle that immediately formed under the cardboard told him they had broken and started a round of low-voiced cursing that lasted until he reached his apartment where he gingerly fished the four whole bottles out of the mess and carried them inside, dumping the remains in the overfull garbage can by the mini-fridge.

The cable was on the fritz again, so he threw himself into the single chair by the window, cracking open a bottle which immediately foamed over his hand and down his arm to drip onto his shirt and lap.

Giving in to the shittiest day in recent memory (one that currently ranked just behind Rachel telling him that she and Stan were moving to Hawaii), he banged the back of his head against the wall, not noticing the counterpoint noise that was coming from his door until its volume grew.

Grumbling to himself, he sat the bottle down on the table, got to his feet, and limped toward the door, pulling it open to reveal a smiling Steve McGarrett. "What do you want? Is the governor’s poodle missing now?"

"You looked pretty out of sorts earlier, thought these would help."

He glowered but took the bag Steve offered, opening it to find a couple of instant ice packs and a six-pack of Longboard. "I have a beer already."

"Yeah, and it looks real nice on you."

Danny looked up at that, opening his mouth to really light into Steve when suddenly his face was cradled between two warm hands. Dry smooth lips had sealed over his, and a tongue that somehow always tasted of pineapple was in his mouth.

"Go sit down and put the ice pack on your knee, Danny," Steve said once he pulled back, grinning at Danny’s outraged sputtering. "I’ve got food in the car."

"So you’re just going to show up here and what? Make my day better?" Danny demanded, his free hand flailing in the air between them as if in an attempt to shoo away an annoying bug.

"Yup." Steve’s grin grew wider, morphed into that wide, warm smile that Danny so rarely saw, and he turned, walking back to his truck.

Danny stood in the doorway watching him go, finally huffing out a quiet laugh at himself. Maybe this day wasn’t as bad as he had thought; maybe it was actually going to be okay.