Grace was complaining, about what Steve had no clue. All he knew was that it was to do with both Danny and Grace's new boyfriend. He was meant to be dropping Grace off at Rachel's whilst Danny was finishing up a case. Well he was going to until Grace said
"Why won't he just let me grow up?" at that Steve did a U turn, smiling at the rant he was going to get off Danny.
"Uncle Steve!" Grace yelped. Steve smiled at her kindly.
"Where are we going?" she asked. She trusted her uncle Steve but there had been something off with him all day, like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.
"I'm going to show you something Grace, just… just please be quiet until we get there… please?" she shrunk into her seat. The ride was quiet after that as Grace texted her mother that she would be home late, she contemplated telling her parents that Steve was in affect kidnapping her but thought against it. Steve would never hurt her. Well she thought not until he told her to leave her phone in the car and to follow him into the graveyard. She threw her phone onto the seat, she had to trust her uncle.

She followed him to the very back of the weirdly pristine graveyard, she followed him until he stopped in front of two graves.

Here lies Jenny Woods
loving Mother, fiancé and daughter
1972-1997

Here lies Hope Mcgarrett
Beloved daughter and friend
1992-2008

Grace gasped. She had a faint idea of who they were and if she was correct her heart went out to her uncle, his loss hadn't started with his father after all.
"Meet my Fiancé and daughter" he said, a tired edge to his voice. She just stared.
"What happened?" she didn't want to be insensitive but she needed to know.

Steve knelt in front of the grave, sighing.
"I met Jenny when we were stationed at the same base, we flirted with each other constantly. We were only nineteen but we really hit it off. You only get one first love in life Grace and Jenny… Jenny was mine" she knew by the way he was talking he had never told anyone before.
"We became the 'it' couple at base, both with promising careers ahead. When we were both on leave we spent every moment together. She was the kind of gal that could make your head spin at a hundred miles an hour." Grace placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Then we got in over our heads and a year later she was pregnant. God Grace we were both so young… I had just turned twenty one and her twenty. Somehow we made it work, she became a desk-doer." He laughed hollowly.
"She sent me to the couch the only time I called her that." Grace laughed but her heart went out for Steve, he had experienced loss before he could even comprehend it. Steve ran a hand over Jenny's grave.
"We made it work and then nine months late Hope was born and I was deliriously happy. I had a month's leave so I could at least spend some time with my girls. My dad visited us the first Sunday of every month and Mary usually came with him. I felt like I had a family Grace." She pulled her uncle into a hug before pulling away so he could finish.
"Hope was five when it happened, Jenny got into a car crash. She was dead before the ambulance came." Steve shuddered and kissed Jenny's grave.
"I love you babe" he said quietly. That was the moment Grace felt her heart shatter but said nothing as Uncle Steve continued.
"Suddenly I was a single parent to this bubbly little girl who thought her mummy was coming back. I lived with her on an army base till she was seven, I hated to leave her but I had to. I was called back to active service and I didn't even have a choice. So I asked if my Navy buddy's wife would look after her, her kid and Hope were best friends so of course she said yes." Grace nodded.
"I just… I hated it Grace, I hated it with a burning passion, and she clung on to begging me not to leave. She told me she had lost mummy and she didn't want to lose daddy." A tear slid down his face and Grace gasped. Never not in her six years of knowing him had she seen her uncle cry.

Steve kissed Hope's grave
"I came back for you baby, just like I promised. So I was deployed and at least once a fortnight I rang home. She was a great kid Grace, she just missed her daddy." Steve took a deep breath.
"When I came back I knew something had to change, I couldn't keep leaving her with these people who had lives of their own so I took her back to Hawaii. My dad promised to look after her, so we moved in with him. At first it was hard because I took her away from anything she had known. I had to Grace, she needed someone who was with her all year around, not just when daddy was deployed." He looked back at her and smiled sadly before turning back.
"Years passed and before I knew it my little girl had grown up. I guess you see it more when you have to leave frequently but she never blamed me for it. She told everyone her dad was saving the world, even when she was a teenager she never stopped being a great kid. She was my world Grace… she was my everything. Then the worst happened she was only sixteen Grace, still technically a kid. I was in a base up in Colorado when dad rang, it was the phone I told him to ring if anything bad and I mean bad happened. He didn't tell me what was wrong, just that I had to get home. I had lost my fiancé grace and I knew that if I lost her too it would destroy me." He began to cry a little more.

"The base commander told me my dad had told them of something happening with Hope, the team had a soft spot for her which probably helped me get on the first flight home. I found her in hospital, she was dying Grace all because she wanted to grow up to fast. She was out with her boyfriend at some party and decided that just once she would throw caution to the winds and have a drink but the drink had been tampered with. It killed her liver and when I got there she was dying Gracie… she died in my arms Gracie. My little girl died in my arms."

Grace launched herself at him, burying her face into his shoulder.
"I'm so, so sorry Uncle Steve" he only cried harder. Grace held him as he sobbed.
"You asked why your dad wouldn't let you grow up Grace… he's not ready to let go yet so please don't take the decision out of his hands, just be a little girl a little while longer." Grace nodded and muttered that she would always be Danno's little girl just like she would always be his Gracie.

Since that day at the graveyard they would both meet up on the days of death and celebrate the life both girls lived.

It was twenty years after the day at the graveyard when Steve met his maker, everyone was sitting around his hospital bed but when he opened his eyes he motioned Grace over.
"They're waiting for me Gracie" everyone looked but Mary looked on in confusion.
"I know Uncle Steve" he smiled at the now thirty six year old.
"Thank you for letting me share them with you" the woman smiled. She kissed his forehead
"Go to them Uncle Steve, give them my love" and then Steven J Mcgarrett closed his eyes for the final time.