Hawaii Five-0 is property of CBS and its creators.
A/N: I haven't forgotten the second chapter of Hindsight, but here's just a little piece to round off the series. I seem to have a thing for Steve and Danny getting married. :)
Steve started having the visions about a year after meeting Danny. They were just flashes at first—the strains of Vivaldi's Four Seasons and piles and piles of Kamekona's famous garlic shrimp. Steve didn't think anything of them. He blamed the first on being on hold for 45 minutes trying to get hold of a suspect's financial records, and the second on overindulgence. But they kept recurring, and more images started appearing—he, Chin, and Danny in tuxes, Kono in a brightly colored formal dress. Grace in a pink dress with flowers in her hair. Everyone laughing and smiling and clearly having the time of their lives. It was clearly a celebration of some sort. About then, Chin announced he was getting married, so Steve assumed that was what he was seeing.
Then Steve started seeing a ring. A man's ring. A man's wedding ring. It wasn't his father's, and it wasn't Chin's—he'd looked specifically at the wedding. It didn't make sense. The scene felt wrong, too. It was the traditional wedding march, not the Four Seasons, these weren't the clothes he was seeing in his visions, this wasn't the food—it was some fancy caterer, not Kamekona, and there wasn't a garlic shrimp in sight. And he could have sworn he'd seen Mary in his visions, and an older couple he'd assumed were some relation of Chin's or Malia's, but they weren't there. Steve shrugged it off and paid attention to the ceremony.
Steve's heart swelled with joy and love for his friends as he hugged them, but he couldn't help feeling that something was off. Maybe it was because it hadn't matched his vision, but it seemed more than that. It seemed like something was missing, something important, something big. Something that made him almost sad.
Steve's eyes landed on Danny standing uncomfortably off to the side, and all else was forgotten. His heart leaped, as always, at seeing his boyfriend, and he moved to stand by Danny. "What's up?"
Danny shrugged. "Nothing, really. Just. . .weddings are hard, you know? Seeing people so happy and knowing it can fall apart just like that. I know Chin and Malia aren't Rachel and I, but still. . ."
Steve squeezed his shoulder sympathetically. "I can see that." There was a pause. "Do you think you'll ever get married again?" It was intended as an idle question. Steve didn't mean anything by it.
Something unreadable flashed across Danny's face and was gone. "I think I'm done with the white dress and the flowers. The white picket fence with mom, dad, and 2.6 kids just doesn't seem to be in the cards."
Steve nodded in understanding. "Yeah." The feeling of sadness intensified.
Danny seemed to pick up on Steve's mood. "Hey, don't let my negativity get you down. It's a party—let's enjoy ourselves!"
Steve followed his boyfriend to the bar. Once he had a Longboard in his hand, Danny seemed to relax. They mingled, chatting with Chin's numerous relatives and laughing at the antics of the children present. Grace even coaxed them out onto the dance floor, first in a dance for the three of them, then a slow song just for Steve and Danny. Steve held Danny close, resting his cheek on the top of Danny's head and closing his eyes. Suddenly, the feeling of off disappeared, and it was just him and Danny, and it was oh, so right. Steve had a flash of insight. It wasn't about Chin and Malia; it was about him and Danny. That wasn't Chin's wedding in his vision; it was Steve and Danny's. Steve wanted to spend the rest of his life with Danny. Now that he'd come to this realization, Steve just had to convince Danny.
Steve McGarrett was never one to waste any time or beat around the bush. As soon as the song ended, he sank to one knee. "Danny Williams, will you marry me?"
The resulting explosion should not have been surprising, but Steve winced at the force of it. "Are you nuts!? You can't propose at someone else's wedding. Didn't any one ever teach you any manners?! Oh, I forgot, you're a Neanderthal—you don't have any manners!"
Steve was pleased to note, despite Danny's tirade, he had not, in fact, said no. He waited for Danny to subside, then prompted "Well?"
By now, everyone had paused and was watching them. Chin and Malia stood side by side at the head table, smirking, clearly enjoying the show. Danny just gaped at Steve for a moment, then tugged him up and launched himself at Steve, locking their lips in a passionate kiss.
"Is that a yes?" Steve asked anxiously when Danny pulled back.
Danny's smile lit up the room. "Yes, you big goof. The answer is yes."
Everyone applauded.
The feeling of wrongness went away. Now, everything was right.
After that, everything fell into place. Not that it was easy—Steve had to listen to 12 different pieces before Danny decided that yes, the Four Seasons was an acceptable wedding march. Since both Steve and Danny were men, Danny's mother insisted on picking out the bridesmaids' dresses, and Kono threw a royal fit at her choice, insisting on picking it out on her own. The one she chose matched Steve's vision perfectly. Getting Kamekona to cater it was easy—the big man insisted as soon as Steve and Danny told him the news, and they weren't even going to try to talk him out of it.
The only thing that wasn't coming together was Danny's ring. Steve could see it clearly in his mind, but he couldn't articulate it. He browsed countless websites and scoured every jewelry store in Honolulu, but he just couldn't find it. Steve even asked a sketch artist to draw what he saw, but it just wasn't right. And he couldn't get it custom-made if he couldn't even describe it. Steve was beginning to despair of ever finding it.
He saw it when he dashed into a department store at the mall after work to replace his watch. The wedding rings were directly across from the watches, so Steve stopped to peruse them, not expecting to find anything. There it was, in the very corner of the very bottom row. It had three diamonds in a diagonal surrounded by a wavy pattern in the gold. It wasn't exact, and he certainly wasn't getting Danny's wedding ring from a department store, but at least now he had a picture to build on. Finally.
The last hurdle surmounted, all Steve had to do was wait for The Day. It was perfect. It was like the visions in his head had finally snapped together into one clear picture. There were the tables piled high with shrimp. There were the strains of the Four Seasons as Steve made his way down the aisle. There was Mary at his side, grinning and bawling at the same time. There was Grace in a pink dress, gripping tight to Danny's hand as he waited at the altar. There were the older man and woman in the front row, who Steve now knew were Danny's parents. And there was Danny, smiling broadly, with eyes only for Steve, watching the SEAL as if no one else existed. As far as Steve was concerned, no one did.
Steve took his place by Danny's side, and the minister recited the words. They exchanged vows, and Steve placed the ring on Danny's hand. Danny's grin widened in amusement. "What?" Steve said. "I looked everywhere to find this ring. You'd better like it."
Danny said nothing. He just took Steve's ring from Grace. Steve immediately knew why Danny was grinning. The ring was identical, except that it had sapphires instead of diamonds. Steve's jaw dropped. "Where did you find it?"
"I just saw something like it one day," Danny said. "I liked it, but I wanted something different. So, I doodled around and came up with this. It just seemed right."
"It is," Steve agreed. "It's perfect. Just like today. Just like you."
Danny smirked. "Now, that was the cheesiest thing I've ever heard."
Steve resisted the urge to stick out his tongue. "Just shut up and kiss me."
"With pleasure." And Danny did.