Disclaimer: I do not own Hawaii 5-0 or any of the characters.
A/N: Hey as I said before I had "taken" so many photos of the two guys I wanted to use them and this is what happened! Enjoy and Mahalo!
"Hey Steve, you know that project Gracie was working on. The family thing?" Danny said as he leaned against the door frame of his partner's office.
"Oh yeah, The Meaning of Ohana. What about it?"
"Well, she's been picked to present it at the year end celebrations at school. It seemingly a big deal. Parents and extended family all go and there's refreshments and stuff…anyway Grace asked me to ask you, Chin and Kono to come," Danny said.
"Eh sure, ok. I'll go. I'd like to see her presentation anyway; she's only showed me little bits."
"Yeah me too," Danny nodded.
-x-x-x-x-x-
The day of the school presentations arrived. Danny plus his three colleagues met at the steps of the school and walked in together.
They wandered the halls looking at the children's art work and looking into the different classrooms; laughing about things that happened when they were in middle school. About an hour later Chin and Kono met a cousin who was teaching at the school and they left to chat with her while Steve and Danny walked to the main hall where the presentations were going to be held.
Grace was standing near the stage with her teacher. Rachel stood close by with Charlie in her arms.
"Danno!" Grace called as she spotted her father walk in. She ran down the hall to greet her father.
"Hey Monkey" Danny said as he was hugged by his daughter.
"Hi Uncle Steve, thanks for coming."
"Hey kiddo, no problem, wouldn't miss this for the world," Steve grinned.
"Are Uncle Chin and Auntie Kono here too?" Grace enquired.
"Yeah, they met some cousin or other," Danny replied
"Are they related to everyone from Oahu?" Grace asked innocently
Steve laughed out loud, "Yeah it does seem that way sometimes."
Gradually the hall started filling up and the audience were asked to take their seats.
Grace's teacher came over to the two men and shook hands with them. "Detective Williams, Commander McGarrett, I'm so glad you could join us today. It's a great honour; you have done some wonderful things for the people of Oahu." Turning to speak directly to Danny then she said, "Grace is a wonderful girl. You must be so proud of her."
"Thank you, I am," he replied as he gave Grace's pigtail a little tug.
Just then the principal asked the few remaining people to take their seats.
"Danno, come on we have seats up the front," Grace said as she took her father's hand.
"Right, I'll go find a seat; I'll see you after buddy. Good luck Gracie," Steve said as he went to walk away.
"Oh no Commander, there's a seat reserved for you too in the family section," said the teacher.
"Oh but I'm not actually…"
Grace cut him off by taking him by the hand and leading him up with her father to the front row where Rachel sat with Charlie. Steve and Danny then squeezed past into the two free seats. Grace then disappeared out a door beside the stage, but not before giving her Dad and "Uncle" a big smile and a thumbs up and what looked like a sneaky wink down the hall to Chin Ho Kelly.
The next forty five minutes was taken up with different classes coming on stage; singing, dancing, saying poems, playing instruments. Steve fidgeted in his seat, when he had agreed to come; he forgot that he would have to sit through all the other items not just see his partner's daughter's project.
"Will you sit still," Danny said out of the corner of his mouth.
"Is it going to be much longer, my butt's fallen asleep on this damn chair," replied Steve.
"Not much longer."
Ten minutes more and Steve was about ready to start taking pot shots.
The principal strode out onto the stage, "And now ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we are at our last item of the day. In 5th Grade the children were asked about the meaning of Ohana. We had some great projects and today we are going to see one of them. Grace Williams will now present her take on the Meaning of Ohana."
Grace poked her head out then and waved down at her mother, father and "Uncle", who all waved back up.
A screen appeared behind her with the word Ohana in big bright rainbow coloured letters. She started by explaining that she was born in New Jersey and that her mother was originally from England. Then spoke a little about her two sets of Grandparents and cousins. Various pictures of her mother, father and extended family appeared on the screen.
"I lived in New Jersey until I was seven, then a sad thing happened." Rachel shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "My mom decided to leave my dad and then she married Stan. We had to leave Jersey and moved all the way across the country to Hawaii. I was going to miss Pops and Grandma Williams but I was going to miss my Danno most of all."
Steve watched as he thought he saw a tear in his niece's eye and Danny beside him suspiciously cleared his throat. "But then my Danno did something amazing: he moved to Hawaii too," Grace said proudly. "Even though he turns red like a lobster in the sun," she added. The audience all tittered at that. Grace looked a little surprised but then gathered herself quickly again.
"Anyway, six months after coming to Oahu, Danno joined 5-0. They are very special police who keep this island safe from all sorts of bad people."
More pictures appeared on the screen, this time of newspaper cuttings about some of the different cases 5-0 had solved.
"5-0 became Danno's family, his Ohana and they immediately became my Ohana too. There's Uncle Chin who rides a motorcycle and has a really big shot gun. He was a cop for years and then joined 5-0." A picture of Chin sitting on said motorcycle with Grace in front of him appeared on the screen.
"Then there's Auntie Kono, she used to be a professional surfer but hurt her knee and decided to join the police like her cousin, Chin. They are really family and have loads of real cousins on the island," she said. A few people in the audience laughed out loud, no doubt more cousins. A smiling picture of Kono with her board then appeared up on the screen. "Kono is really cool, she taught me how to surf and I think she's teaching Danno too," adding almost as an afterthought, "but that's supposed to be a secret."
Danny shrunk down a little in his seat at this as Steve turned and grinned at his slightly rosy looking partner.
"Finally there's Uncle Steve. He's my dad's partner on the team. And they are best friends too."
A picture of Steve in his "Navy Blues" appeared on the screen, with more than one or two appreciative mutters from the females in the audience.
"Uncle Steve was a Navy SEAL before he started 5-0. Now the type SEAL he was isn't the animal, though Danno sometimes calls him an animal."
The audience erupted at this; Grace looked at her teacher who stepped forward to quieten down everyone again. Grace spent another few minutes talking about 5-0 and all they had done.
"I was really sad and lonely when I moved to Honolulu. I missed my cousins and grandparents and mostly I missed my Danno but he followed me here and then I got so much more. The true meaning of Ohana is, I think anyway, being able to be yourself around the people you love. Danno and Uncle Steve will often fight…like brothers do," at this a picture of Steve and Danny lying on the floor wrestling over what looked like the car out of Monopoly appeared on the screen. The auditorium again exploded with laughter. Danny's mouth dropped open while Steve slid a few inches down in his seat and muttered, "I'm going to kill Chin Ho Kelly."
Once the hall quietened down again Grace continued, "But even though families fight they are always there for each other, they always have each other's back. This is especially important for Danno and Uncle Steve's job." The next photo to appear showed Danny cuddled into Steve's chest as he tried to warm him up having found Danny locked in a cold storage room.
Yet another photo appeared up on the screen. This time it was of Steve lying in a hospital bed asleep with his arm in a cast while Danny in some flannel pyjamas sat, also asleep, with his head resting on the pillow beside his partner. This time there was a lot more awwws from the audience. Danny had moved lower in his seat with his mouth remaining open and his eyes bulging. Steve turned around in his seat just in time to see Kono and Chin climb out of their seats and make a hasty retreat.
"Oh you can run, but you can't hide my friends," he muttered to himself as he turned back to the stage in time to see another picture. This time their places were reversed with Danny lying at the edge of a hospital bed with Steve in the chair beside him leaning towards him, with his bandaged arm on a pillow, both asleep again. Steve was going to kill his team mates when he found them. He looked at his partner and then back up at the stage in time to see his "niece" take a bow and say Mahalo. The audience started to clap.
Grace climbed down off the stage and ran over to her father, "Danno, did you like it?" she enquired.
He just sat there still staring at the screen.
"Uncle Steve, is Danno ok?"
"Eh…well…eh"
"Actually are you ok Uncle Steve, you look a little rosy, do you need a drink of water or maybe some air?" a concerned Grace said.
Danny finally found his tongue, "Gracie, I am so proud of you. That was awesome, just curious though, where did you get those last few pictures?"
"Uncle Chin and Auntie Kono, they said you wouldn't mind," Grace said with just slightest quiver in her voice.
"No Monkey of course we don't mind, do we Steve?" Danny said as he elbowed his partner in the ribs.
Steve had returned to glaring down the hall at where his soon to be "dead" colleagues had left. "Eh, what?" Steve asked looking around.
"I was just saying what a great job Grace did on her presentation and how proud we are of her," Danny said to his friend.
Finally getting over the shock of seeing himself acting like a five year old in glorious technicolour on a ten foot screen, "Yeah Gracie, it was great, well done. You did an amazing job, but maybe next time let Danno and myself see all the photos beforehand," Steve remarked, flicking his eyes around the hall. Was that Chin's red shirt just gone streaking past the door.
Grace then threw her arms around both her father and her Uncle Steve pulling them into a tight hug which they had to reciprocate. Steve was sure he heard the principal and teacher mutter "aww".
He moved away as Rachel walked over to Grace and Danny to add her congratulations to her daughter. As he stepped out of the hug he was already planning his revenge on the Hawaiian cousins.
"Uncle Steve, do you think Uncle Chin and Auntie Kono liked all my pictures?" Grace said stepping back over beside him again.
"Of course kiddo, but I think they had somewhere else to be."
"That's ok," Grace said happily, taking Steve by the hand she added, "let's all go get some pizza. Danno's buying!"
Danny walked over at hearing his name, "What's going on buddy?"
Steve looked down at Grace, then at Danny throwing his arm around his best friends shoulder he said, "Come on brother, we're getting pizza and you're buying!"
…the end!