A.N. – Hawaii Five-O belongs to CBS. No copyright infringement is intended. Of course, the words at the end of this story belong to Bob Dylan. Thanks to "Tanith2011" for beta reading this story.

Career Day

"Boys and girls, our next guest is Tilda's father," Miss Onakea announced cheerfully. "Mr. Kelly is a detective with our state police unit, Hawaii Five-O. Let's give Mr. Kelly a big welcome!"

"Aloha, Mr. Kelly!" the first graders called out in unison, except for Tilda who greeted "Aloha, Daddy!" and giggled.

Guests for the annual career day had included a doctor, a banker, a chef, a desk clerk from a newly built high rise hotel on Waikiki, even the football coach from the university. It was a chance for the students to learn about what their fathers did during the day, which for many was a mystery. Daddy goes to work was all they knew.

Chin looked out over the fresh faced children seated at their miniature desks in kid-sized blue and red chairs. He had thought long and hard about what he was going to say. It wasn't an easy task. The job he loved, to which he had dedicated his life, exposed him to things that no child should ever see or know about.

The young students settled down quickly until the room was completely quiet. Miss Onakea insisted on nothing but the best of manners in her class. But more than that, the children were in awe of a real-life policeman standing in their classroom.

"Good morning, boys and girls," Chin began. "Thank you for inviting me to your class. As Miss Onakea said, I'm a police detective."

Johnny O'Brien raised his hand and Chin responded, "Yes?"

"I thought that policemen wore uniforms," Johnny said. "Where's your uniform?"

"I don't wear a uniform," Chin explained. "Detectives wear suits; everyday clothes. But I do have a badge." He pulled out his leather badge case and opened it so the class could see his Five-O shield.

A collection of "oohs" and "ahhs" followed suit. The class was clearly impressed.

The Oriental detective pocketed his badge case and continued his talk. "You already know that policemen help people."

Susan Kalakaua raised her hand excitedly. "A policeman helped my mom when she had a flat tire," the Hawaiian girl reported after she had received permission to speak.

Chin smiled. "That's a good example, Susan. But policemen do more than that. They also stop people who have done bad things like stealing or hurting other people. Sometimes that isn't easy. When grown-ups do bad things, they usually try to hide what they have done so the police won't find out. Then we have to work very hard to find the truth."

"But, how do you do that?" asked Johnny, his blue eyes wide with enthusiasm as he hung onto Chin's every word. He was so enthralled that he had forgotten to raise his hand and had to apologize for speaking out of turn. His freckled cheeks turned pink with embarrassment.

"Well, Johnny, it's not all excitement like the cops and robbers that you see on TV. A lot of it is hard work, like school work. We have to look up and study reports about people and past crimes. Sometimes we have to use a computer to help out. And we make a lot of phone calls and we have to do a lot of waiting, like when we're on a stake-out."

"Wow, a stake-out!" Johnny whispered.

Six-year olds, Chin thought. Such a sweet age, and he knew it wouldn't be long before his youngest would be growing out of this stage of innocence that he loved so much.

Teenagers were so different. There was still a certain tension between him and Tim, his first born, which at times left the father of eight feeling frustrated. Chin would never have spoken to his father as Tim sometimes addressed him. Must be a sign of the times... After all, the veteran cop heard far worse from young people out on the street where the police were more often than not viewed as the establishment, pigs, the fuzz, the enemy. But Johnny's interest in his work and obvious admiration was echoed around the room by the other children. Perhaps he could have some influence after all, while they were still young…

"What are some of the things you study in school?" Chin asked. Hands flew into the air, and the smiling detective pointed to each child in turn to answer. Math, science, English, history, art, music… Lots of answers and Chin started thinking fast on his feet.

"We use math and science in police work," Chin continued. "We need to know about angles and geometry to figure out what happened at a crime scene. We have a scientist who works with us – he examines samples we collect under his microscope. If you like to draw, we have police artists who help us by sketching faces from witness descriptions."

Tilda smiled at that; she loved to draw pictures and was developing quite a talent for art.

"But I think that my favorite part of my job is knowing that I'm helping to make Hawaii a safer place for my family, my friends and all the many people who visit the islands." Chin glanced at Tilda and his heart suddenly warmed. My precious Tilda! He knew that he was rich indeed when it came to the important things of life.

"Now, do any of you boys think you'd like to be police detectives when you grow up?" Chin asked as he scanned the room.

Miss Onakea cleared her throat and gave the officer a stern look. Oops, Chin thought, Women's Lib...

"Would any of you boys and girls like to be police detectives when you grow up?" he corrected himself.

The teacher smiled in satisfaction as several of her students, both boys and girls raised their hands.

Yeah, thought Detective Kelly as he smiled to himself, the times they are a-changing.

Pau