I can't believe the 3rd Annual REAL World Holiday Marathon is coming to an end. Sigh. No worries though, there's lots of exciting stuff on the horizon and the next marathon will be here before you know it.
Happy 2017 everyone. Let's make it a good one!
More Ways Than One (1/1)-part 12 in the 3rd Annual REAL World Holiday Marathon.
McGarrett Rollins Home
Sunday 10:30 A.M.
"Hi, Uncle Steve," Grace bubbled happily as he opened the front door and stepped aside to let her and Danny in. "This is such an exciting day! I bet Auntie Cath was excited. Was she super excited?"
Steve smiled at the teenager's enthusiasm. "She was very excited. She headed over to the capital a couple of hours ago to make sure everything's ready for the swearing-in ceremony."
"I saw online last night that the new lieutenant governor will be there, and Congressman Iaukea and all kinds of other important people."
"Don't forget your Uncle Steve and me," Danny said with mock offense as he stepped in and closed the door behind him. "Can you tell she's been looking forward to this?" he asked Steve.
Grace rolled her eyes good naturedly. "My Civics teacher said if I write a report on the swearing in I can get some extra credit."
"Do you need extra credit in that class?" Steve raised an eyebrow.
"No." She shook her head adamantly. "But I'll probably write it anyway. Mr. Pilis said maybe Auntie Cath can come talk to our class someday."
"I'm sure she'd be glad to." Steve straightened his tie and checked his pocket for his keys.
"Linda thinks the new lieutenant governor is cute," Grace reported. "I guess he kinda is … for someone his age."
Steve chuckled when Danny clutched his chest and tossed a pained look towards his daughter. "You sure know how to hurt a guy, monkey. Keo Mahelona is … what … twenty-five years old?"
"Twenty-eight." Steve replied.
Catherine and Lea spent a great deal of time whittling down a long list of qualified candidates to serve as lieutenant governor finally settling on Keo Mahelona, a second term state senator with deep roots in the state. He was born and raised on Maui on a coffee plantation first farmed by his great great grandparents. He was a bit of a wunderkind who graduated high school at fifteen then headed to the University of Hawaii where he earned a degree in political science then a master's in public policy from UCLA.
"He might have a younger brother, though." Grace's eyes sparkled as she teased her father and uncle.
Danny threw his daughter a playful glare before turning to his partner and asking in a low voice, "He doesn't, does he?"
Steve shrugged. "Catherine didn't mention anything about siblings."
Danny thought for a minute.
He was sure Grace was just trying to wind him up.
Still …
"Remind me to ask her later."
Steve nodded. "Good idea."
Grace rolled her eyes at their predictable reactions. "We better get going." She smiled indulgently. "We don't wanna be late."
State Capital
10:35 A.M.
"Here's the final text of Lea's speech," Tara said as she approached Catherine, who was standing behind the makeshift stage set up for the event, and handed her several sheets of paper. "Zach said he made the adjustments you asked for. I marked the changes in orange."
"Thanks," Catherine replied as she glanced at the pages.
"Governor Denning has arrived. He's having a few final words with his staff."
"Give them as much time as they need," Catherine said with a hint of sadness in her voice. "I'm sure this is tough for all of them so if we run ten minutes late we run ten minutes late."
"Got it." Tara nodded.
Cody had just finished double checking that the seating assignments were correct and was looking for Tara to get his next assignment. As he approached the stage he heard her talking to Catherine.
"State Senator Keahi is running late. He's got some sort of family issue going on."
"Anything serious?" Catherine asked.
"His wife's sister and her family were in a car accident in Colorado last night. It looks like they're gonna be ok but his wife is very upset and has been on the phone with the hospital pretty much non-stop. He's trying to make travel arrangements for her and her parents to fly there and make sure his kids have a sitter until he gets home. As president of the senate he didn't want to miss the ceremony but he's got a lot of balls in the air right now and he requested the use of a computer once he gets here and, if possible, an intern to help him make calls."
"Tell him he can use the computer in my office, Catherine responded. "And if there's anything at all he needs he should let us know. Where's Cody right now?"
"Checking to make sure the reserved cards on the seats were placed correctly."
"When he finishes that assign him to Senator Keahi." Catherine initialed the bottom of Lea's speech to indicate she'd seen and approved the changes. "Tell him to make sure the senator has everything he needs."
Tara consulted the clipboard in her hand. "He was scheduled to confirm all the family members have arrived and know where they need to be next."
"Have Lisa do that. We need to take care of Senator Keahi and I know we can trust Cody to handle it."
"Will do." Tara marked the change on her clipboard. "It's definitely a good idea to get off on the right foot with Keahi. I remember Lea saying he had a little tiff with Governor Denning early on and after that always went out of his way to make things harder than they had to be."
"He's retiring at the end of his current term," Catherine sighed with a hint of relief, "but we still have to work with him for our entire first year. I'd like that to go as smoothly as possible."
Cody took a few seconds to gather his thoughts.
Catherine had told him more than once how pleased and impressed she was with his work but for her to assign him something so important … his chest swelled with pride.
He took a deep breath and approached.
"Oh, there he is," Catherine smiled. "Tara has a special assignment for you, Cody. If any problems come up you find me personally, ok?"
"I will," Cody promised.
"I'm gonna go give these new speech pages to Lea." Catherine tucked the pages in the folder in her hand. "That's where I'll be if anyone needs me."
"Everything ok?" Steve asked as he and Danny watched a somewhat harried Lance Kekoa usher his children to a row of seats just to the side of the stage.
"You guys sit there and please be good," the soon to be governor's husband implored his kids before turning to Steve and Danny. "We've had a bit of a morning," he chuckled.
Steve looked from Lance to the kids then back. "Nothing serious I hope."
"Just a quick trip to the ER." Lance ran his hand through his hair then remembered where he was and immediately tried to smooth it back down. "They ought to give us priority seating there at this point the way these kids go."
"What happened?" Danny asked with an amused grin.
It was clear by looking at them it hadn't been anything serious however he had a pretty good idea by the expression on the youngest Kekoa child's face that he had been the cause of the unexpected excursion.
"Mason … for some reason he has yet to fully explain to me," Lance glanced at his youngest son, "thought this morning would be a good time to see how many Cheerios he could fit up his nose."
Steve and Danny turned their heads just in time to see Liam shoot his brother a warning look.
"As soon as Lea realized what was going on she told him to stop but unfortunately there was one stubborn Cheerio that wouldn't come out." Lance sighed. "So, it was off to the ER then home to run around like crazy people getting ready for today."
Danny and Steve grimaced sympathetically.
"Finally I told Lea to go and I'd finish up with the kids myself. Hopefully everyone is wearing clean underwear and matching socks." He laughed. "Including me."
Danny walked over and knelt in front of the kids.
"Any chance you dared your brother to see how much cereal he could stuff up his nose, Liam?"
Liam looked shocked then nodded guiltily. "How'd you know?"
"Well, for one I'm a detective." Danny smiled. "But more importantly than that I have a sister that did the same thing to me once."
"Reallllllly?" Liam and Mason asked in unison.
"Really," Danny confirmed. "But for me it was Cap'n Crunch and that stuff hurts."
"Steve." Governor Denning stuck out his hand and smiled warmly. "Thanks for taking a few minutes for me."
"My pleasure, sir. Anytime." Steve shook Denning's hand for the last time as governor.
"I wanted to take a minute to wish you all the best going forward," Denning said sincerely. "I was monitoring the Vanover case all along. That was really nice work."
"Thank you, sir."
"I have to admit when Lea first approached me with the idea of expanding Five-0's responsibilities I thought she was being a little naive about the level of cooperation she'd receive from other agencies." Denning put his hands in his pockets. "But I'm a big enough man to admit I was wrong. She knew what she was talking about."
"Yes," Steve agreed. "She did."
"There's no telling how much more effective the task force will be under her new system."
"We're evolving, sir." Steve knew it was a tough day for Denning. "We couldn't have done what we're doing now back at the start. We had to establish ourselves first."
The corners of Denning's mouth rose slightly . "I appreciate you saying that."
"It's true," Steve assured him.
Denning shuffled his feet. "I know we've butted heads a few times over the years but I want you to know I appreciate everything you've done for the island and everything you did for me personally."
"Thank you, sir. It was my honor."
The soon to be ex-governor's expression grew wistful. "I always valued the sign of respect, especially during times I knew you didn't necessarily feel it," he smirked, "but in a few minutes you're gonna be able to just call me Sam."
Steve nodded. "But until then, sir," he smiled, "how were your holidays?"
"Very nice, thanks. We spent some time in Pennsylvania with relatives. The kids loved the snow."
"I'll bet." Steve smiled, thinking back to yesterday's snowman building with fake snow.
"How about you?" Denning asked.
"Our Christmas was delayed slightly but then Catherine and I managed to get away for a couple of days, just the two of us, so that was good," Steve replied. "Yesterday we celebrated with friends in the afternoon and made an early night of it."
"Enjoy the sleep while you can," Denning advised. "It all changes once you have a little one in the house."
"So I've heard." Steve nodded. "Are you still planning to head to LA?"
"Just for a few months." Denning inhaled deeply. "They've got a good program at Cedars- Sinai for people with early onset Alzheimer's. I have to take my initial treatment there but eventually I'll be able to come home and work with a local specialist. I plan on being back in Hawaii for the summer though. I wouldn't miss seeing your and Catherine's baby for anything. The births of my own kids are memories I'm gonna hold on to as tight as I can for as long as I can."
Steve's heart went out to Denning as he watched the horror of the possibility he would someday forget his own children cross his friend's face.
He had no idea what to say.
"Remember what I told you." Denning broke the silence. "Be present in every day of your life. Enjoy the time you spend doing a job you love and treasure every second you spend with friends and family."
"I intend to, sir."
"Here we go," Catherine said excitedly as she stepped up next to Lea Kekoa in the backstage area. "The new lieutenant governor has been sworn in. Now a few remarks from Governor Denning then it's your turn."
"I thought I'd be more nervous," Lea confided.
"You're ready for this," Catherine said confidently. "You've worked hard. You have an agenda in place. Now all you need to do it take the oath and you'll be all set to move forward."
Lea squeezed Catherine's arm. "Replace all those 'you's' with "we'."
Catherine smiled.
She couldn't wait to get started.
"Lance and the kids will join you on stage as soon as you go out."
"Hopefully no one has stuck anything somewhere it doesn't belong while they were waiting," Lea snorted.
"According to Steve and Danny this morning's incident was a result of a double dog dare."
Lea sighed. "Liam?"
"Apparently." Catherine chuckled.
"We'll have to discuss that when we get home."
"But before that happens … " Catherine indicated the curtain separating them from the stage.
"I have the utmost confidence I am leaving our great state in extraordinarily capable hands," Denning's voice boomed from the stage. "It is my pleasure to present to you, the next governor of Hawaii, Lea Kekoa."
Lea grinned confidently. "Let's do this."
Catherine slipped into the seat beside Steve's in the front row as the swearing in began.
Lance beamed proudly at his wife as he held the bible that had been in his family for generations firmly. Lea placed her left hand on the well-worn book and raised her right hand as she faced the Chief Justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court.
The children stood quietly beside their father, taking in everything that was happening around them.
Once the oath concluded Lea stepped up to the microphone.
"Thank you all for coming today. I'd like to say a special thank you to Governor Denning for everything he's done for Hawaii during his time in office. We all owe him a debt of gratitude for his hard work."
The crowd applauded loudly.
"I know you probably all have holiday celebrations to get to," she smiled knowingly, "but I'd like to take just a few minutes to talk to you about the upcoming year."
Steve took his wife's hand as they watched the new governor lay out an ambitious agenda for keeping the budget balanced while making significant improvements in education and law enforcement. Her passion for improving the lives of every Hawaiian came through clearly in each word she spoke and the crowd was immediately energized.
"It's gonna be a good year," Steve whispered in Catherine's ear.
She placed her free hand on her tummy and beamed at him. "In more ways than one."
THE END
If you are not on the REALMcRoll email list and would like to be, drop us an email at realmcroll at yahoo dot com with "Add me, please!" in the subject line. You'll get updates, contests, and fun McRoller games.
Looking for links to all the REAL World McRoll stories in one place? Check out our Tumblr page
mcrollintherealworld dot tumblr dot com.
In addition, one of our AWESOME REAL Worlders, katydid13, has created a community on here on fanfiction dot net that brings all of the REAL World stories, and all of Mari, Sammy & Ilna's pre-universe stories in one place. You can find it at
community/McRoll-in-the-Real-World