“I’ll join you in your office in a moment,” John gestured her toward the main door, “so we can finalize anything we haven’t covered yet and get out of your hair.”
“Anything on surveillance?” Danny asked once she had left.
“We’ll bring it all back to the station to watch there. I’ll let you know once we have the recordings.” John tapped his pen against his notepad. “See what else you can find here, huh? No one leavesnoevidence behind. Maybe your partner in crime can catch something you missed.” He nodded over Danny’s shoulder.
Danny turned to see Andre entering with his CSI kit. “Hey,” he greeted him. “You know my report from last night. Gonna have to think outside the box on this one.”
“My specialty,” Andre grinned. “Grant and Grant on the case, huh? Whoever hit this place doesn’t stand a chance.” He patted Danny’s arm and smiled wide at John before moving into the next room.
Responding with barely suppressed lethargy, Danny unintentionally prompted his father to linger at his side. John often tried to initiate conversation outside of work, to get Danny to open up, to steer things back toward normal between them, but it always fell flat. Danny Awakening, becoming Zeus, facing Thanatos, was the reason his mother—John’swife—was gone. There was no more normal, not after how much darker Danny had allowed things to get in the aftermath.
A stiff silence stretched between them before John finally reached over and squeezed Danny’s shoulder. “Hey, I know that Camouflage guy was a tough one the other night, but you seem more relaxed. Other than having to deal with this mess,” he chuckled.
Danny wasn’t about to tell his dad the specifics on why he was more relaxed. “Yeah, I was trying to enjoy some time off before the call came in last night.”
“Sorry, kiddo. No rest for the righteous, huh?”
Danny was fairly certain that wasn’t how the quote went. But he sensed his window closing to confess to his dad that he reallydidneed a break, that he needed to talk, that he was floundering and hurting and didn’t know how to explain what was wrong.
Doing that would only worry John though, when he was still going through his own grieving process. Besides, Danny was handling it. A few weeks with Cho would be all the ‘rest’ he needed.
Letting his father pat his shoulder once more, Danny watched him walk away without either of them saying another word.
Chapter7
“Hey, Danny. Think you can get away for lunch?”
Danny looked up from his desk to see his sister standing in the doorway to his office. “Stella, hey. Uhh…” He eyed the work surrounding him skeptically. Even though the Elemental Task Force didn’t technically exist anymore, not with Zeus running around to pick up the slack, Danny still had use of a private office where Rick’s empty desk sat across from him.
Stella pulled her hands out from behind her back to reveal three greasy and bursting paper bags from Atlas Burger. “Just kidding. I brought lunch to you.”
Entering fully, the curls of her rich, brown hair bounced around her shoulders. Her eyes were a deep, emerald green, glittering in contrast to her dark skin. She was Air leaning, and Danny swore that’s how she was such a ninja about sneaking up on him. She could breeze in with barely a sound.
Stella dressed like the head of a fashion magazine but was actually a child social worker. She was so much like Danny’s mother in that way—equal parts grace and humility. Ellen Grant had been a school teacher, but she’d devoted most of her spare time to charity and helping the community. Stella had wanted to emulate that when she chose social work so she could help people like she had been helped.
“Dad said you were the type of frazzled this morning that would likely lead to forgetting lunch,” she said, dropping the bags of food on the end of Danny’s desk. She’d never changed her name—she was still Stella Hernandez—but she’d calledDanny’s parents Mom and Dad since the first year they adopted her.
“How did he…?” Danny shook his head as Stella sat in the empty chair in front of his desk. Her knowing smile said it all. “Thank you.”
The pleasant aroma from the burgers hit Danny’s senses in a rush, and he felt his stomach rumble eagerly. Stella always knew to bring extra to appease his Zeus-sized appetite. He did not deserve this woman as his sister and best friend. He didn’t deserve his father either.
“Everything okay?” she asked, eyes dropping downward in concern. “I know I’ve been busy lately, and you’ve been running your own kind of ragged. You didn’t make it to family dinner last week. Join us tomorrow?”
Tomorrow. Danny had already postponed on Cho once. Playing hard to get was one thing; blowing him off again and again could ruin the whole affair. “Sorry, I have plans tomorrow night. Next week for sure. Just give me a head’s up on the day, okay? Besides, you guys don’t need me around for family dinner.”
Stella frowned as she paused in unpacking the various stacks of burgers and fries. “Danny,you’refamily. It’s not the same without you. Don’t worry about Joey. He’s been doing a lot better lately. And he likes you. It’s just a lot to take in still. You know what Mom would say? Every stumble is just another chance to get to know each other better.”
Danny’s mouth twitched at the common phrase, bittersweet as it was to hear it from Stella now instead. She knew better than anyone what it was like to lose a mother—twicenow. And Joey was right there with them.
“He’s still adjusting, is all,” she said. “New dad. Sister. Brother.”
“I’m not his brother,” Danny said on reflex but deflated when Stella’s head jerked up at his harsh retort. “I just mean…it’s foster care right now, nothing set in stone. Joey doesn’t see me as a brother. And I know he’s trying to be understanding of the whole weird family dynamic we have going—”
“It’s not weird, Danny, it’s our family—”
“I know that,” he cut her short, “but most people’s brothers aren’t the reason their mother died.”Shit. Now Stella looked like she pitied him. “It’s not fair to him when he doesn’t know I’m Zeus. He deserves you guys without the added complication.”
“You mean without you,” she said.
