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A Long Time Coming (1/1)

"What's the big emergency?" Danny asked as he rushed in Five-0 headquarters. "I came as soon as I dropped Grace off at school."

He'd been summoned by an early morning phone call from Steve telling him to get to the office as soon as possible. Getting pulled in on a case was nothing new but Danny couldn't help but be somewhat unnerved by the unusual edge in his partner's voice.

What he saw in front of him as he approached Steve's office did nothing to calm his rising anxiety.

Catherine was sitting on the couch, as close to tears as Danny had ever seen her. Kono sat beside her with a comforting arm across her shoulders. Steve was pacing nervously across the back of the room while Chin leaned against the desk, his entire body coiled with tension

Danny swallowed hard as he pushed open the door. "What's wrong? What's happening?"

Kono looked up. "Weren't you listening to the news on your way in?"

"No … I … Grace was listening to music and I didn't change the station after she got out." He kicked himself for not thinking to check the local news broadcasts for any hint as to what might be happening.

"Brah … there was a fire at the Ko Olina resort last night." Chin shook his head sadly. "It pretty much burned to the ground."

"What?" Danny nearly screamed. He immediately regretted his outburst as Catherine began to sniffle and Steve glared at him.

Chin held up his tablet and showed Danny a picture of the smoldering ruins. "There's pretty much nothing left."

"What … oh geez … what are you gonna do?"

Danny's mind was reeling. He couldn't believe something like this had happened so close to the wedding. He always teased Steve about being lucky in all things related to Catherine but this time his luck had clearly run out.

Suddenly the state Catherine and Steve were in both in made sense.

"We're waiting for Boris to call back and let us know what's happening," Steve said tightly.

As if on cue Catherine's phone buzzed and she tearily pulled it from her pocket. When she saw who the call was from she put it on speaker.

"Please give me some good news, Boris," she pleaded.

"I wish I could," the normally unflappable Boris said in a shaky voice. "The building is a complete loss. I'm going to make some calls today and see if I can relocate all our scheduled events for the next few months but to be honest I'm not very hopeful. It's wedding season and everything on the island is booked solid."

Catherine buried her head in her hands and her shoulders began to shake. Kono squeezed her friend's shoulders and whispered what Danny assumed were words of comfort in her ear.

"I give you my word I will do everything I can to find a suitable venue for your wedding," Boris continued. "But I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't warn you it might be best if you started looking for other options on your own."

Steve inhaled deeply and Danny could tell his partner was trying to hold it together for Catherine's sake. "We figured as much when we saw the pictures online. At least no one was hurt."

"That is a silver lining," Boris sighed. "We're all devastated by this. I had to send Gus out for coffee so he had some time to get himself together."

"It's a tough situation for everyone," Steve nodded sadly.

"I appreciate your understanding, Commander. If there's anything at all I or my staff can do to help you in this difficult time, please let us know. Of course any monies you have paid the resort will be refunded immediately."

"We appreciate everything you've done, Boris," Catherine sniffled. "You've been a joy to work with."

"I'm simply destroyed we won't be able to be part of your big event. But please let me say I've never seen two people more in love or more perfect together than the two of you so wherever you get married it will be magical. Your love will make it so."

"Thank you," Catherine said, clearly moved by his words. "Stay in touch." She disconnected the call and dropped her head. "Now what?"

"Now we all start making calls," Steve said with a confidence Danny could tell he didn't really feel. "Maybe someone else had a cancellation."

"Do you really think that's going to happen?" Catherine asked sadly.

Danny knew Steve would do anything in his power to fix this and make Catherine happy but he didn't want to give her false hope.

"Probably not."

"Ok … we just need to take a few minutes and think about this," Danny said as he too began to pace. He told Boris weeks ago no one deserved a perfect wedding more than Steve and Catherine and even though no one could have foreseen this turn of events he was still willing to do whatever was necessary to make that happen. "Maybe we need to start thinking outside the box. Looking at some … let's say non-traditional wedding sites."

Steve looked at his partner with interest. "Like where?"

"I don't know. Beaches … parks … maybe the beach house," Danny suggested.

Catherine shook her head. "We could never fit all those people at the house. Plus, we looked into parks the first time around and all the ones equipped for weddings are already booked. The ones that aren't would require special permits plus we'd have to figure out how to get the caterer there … and chairs … and what would we do about bathrooms?"

"I know it seems hopeless right now but we just need to think." Danny dug deep for a solution that would a smile back on the faces of his friends.

"Maybe you need to think about postponing until you can find a place you like, or until the Ko Olina gets rebuilt," Kono said soothingly.

"If we postpone it will probably be at least another year." Catherine looked at Steve. "We don't want to wait another year, do we?"

"Absolutely not," Steve said firmly.

"If you don't want to wait maybe you should just go over to the courthouse and get married this morning," Chin tossed out as he dropped down into one of the visitors' chairs. "Then you can have a big reception sometime when you find the right place."

Danny saw a look pass between Steve and Catherine.

"We can't just run off to the courthouse," Steve said hesitantly. "Can we?"

Catherine swiped at the tears on her cheeks. "I know we said we didn't want to elope but that was before … I mean what other option do we have?"

Steve bit his lip as Danny watched a thousand different thoughts play out across his best friend's face. He could tell the exact second Steve switched into planning mode.

"Maybe we can do a little better than the courthouse," he said. "Danny, can you call Judge Makan and see if he's free to officiate a wedding by the King Kamehameha statue this morning? I'll get the governor's ok then run over to the courthouse and get the license."

Kono clapped happily.

"Are we really gonna do this today?" Catherine asked, her excitement growing.

"If you want," Steve grinned. He moved to sit beside her on the couch. "I want you to have the perfect wedding. I really do. But I don't want to wait a year to be married to you."

"I don't want to wait either," she said softly.

"So we do this today and then as soon as we can get the right venue we do it all again."

"Let's do it," she beamed.

Danny shook his head in near disbelief but pulled out his phone. He called Judge Makan's office and found out the judge was free in an hour.

"Wait, what about Grace?" Catherine asked. "We can't get married without her. She'd never forgive us."

"Do you think she's gonna be upset we're changing the plans?" Steve asked, turning to Danny.

"I'm sure she'll be disappointed," Danny said honestly. "But there's really nothing that can be done, right? She'll probably think a whirlwind wedding at the Kamehameha statue is the most romantic thing ever."

He was already going over ways to break the news to Grace in his head. He knew she was looking forward to walking down the aisle and all the things that go along with a more formal wedding but he also knew the most important thing to her was that her favorite aunt and uncle be happy.

"Call the school and let them know we're gonna swing by and pick her up," Steve said.

"I'm on it." Danny pulled out his phone once again.

After a quick conversation he hung up and said, "She'll be waiting in the office. I asked them not to tell her anything except that no one is hurt. We can give her the details when we get there."

"I'll run home and change and call Carrie and see if she and John can get away and meet us there."

"I'll go with you," Kono said as she reached for her purse.

"I'll take care of getting the area around the statue roped off," Chin offered.

"If you have any problems call the governor. He'll issue an order if he has to," Steve said. "Let's go, Danno. We don't have much time to pull together the most important day of my life."

Danny couldn't believe this was actually happening. As he and Steve were almost out the door they were stopped by Catherine's voice.

"There's only one problem."

"What?" Steve asked worriedly.

Catherine's eyes widened and her expression was guileless. "Do we really want our anniversary to be April Fool's Day?"

Danny froze.

He looked at each of the room's inhabitants in turn.

No.

They wouldn't.

Finally Chin, Kono, Steve and Catherine couldn't hold back anymore and burst into peals of laughter.

"What … you mean to say … ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?" Danny yelled.

"April Fool's, partner," Steve said as he slapped Danny on the back.

"Are you … you have got to be … you people are insane."

Kono pulled out her phone and snapped a picture. "You should see your face."

"How did you … " Danny continued to sputter. "How many people were in on this? The judge's office?"

"Lydia is a regular at the self-defense workshops. I asked her last month," Steve grinned.

"Grace's school?"

"I set it up when I was there for the Career Day assembly," Catherine nodded.

"But Boris … and the picture …"

"Boris took a little convincing. He was worried you'd be mad at him. But in the end he agreed to go along," Steve smiled.

"What about the picture of the burning building?"

"Photoshop," Chin explained.

"I can't believe … why?"

"Do you remember that time you had Toast spoof Catherine's email account and pretended she'd sent me a Dear John letter from overseas."

"But that … what … I … You didn't believe it for a second."

"No, I didn't," Steve agreed.

"You said it didn't even sound like Catherine and that even in the impossible event she had in fact fallen in love with one of her shipmates and decided to run off with him she would have called you and told you, not sent an email."

"I remember," Steve nodded.

"And on top of the fact that the prank didn't work … at all … that was five years ago," Danny said incredulously.

Steve shrugged. "Revenge is a dish best served cold."

"Aren't you afraid of jinxing yourself or something?" Danny asked.

"We checked things out with one of Kamekona's aunties just in case. She took care of any potential jinxes for us."

"You are UNBELIEVABLE." Danny ran his hands through his hair and leaned against the glass wall of the office.

"But we got you," Steve laughed. "And it was fun. Now we have actual work to do so let's get to it."

"I'm gonna need a while to get my heart out of my throat," Danny grumbled.

"Take as much time as you need," Steve said as made his way back to his desk. "Just remember … 29 days!"

THE END

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