Alright guys,
This is the direct sequel to Better than Easter Chocolates in my Ohana universe. You may like to read that one first, but like all the stories of this universe it can be read alone. I tweaked around with the timeline and the events in this one, so it may not be 100% accurate, but it shouls still fit well in the universe timeline.
Also, Grace's quote you'll maybe recognize is from the movie The Princess Diaries. Ergo it's not mine.
Grace was worried. There were things she was used to… like never playing team sports outside of school hours. Her mother didn't really allow her to get dirty. She said it wasn't lady-like. Rachel had loved Step-Stan's idea of tennis. She thought it was good enough for her daughter.
But her fathers – yes Steve had been her father for a while now – had allowed her to suggest any activity she would like to try. That's the one she had chosen… But she wasn't so sure anymore. What if she wasn't as good as the other kids?
"Gracie, baby, is there something wrong?" A voice asked behind her, startling her.
"You scared me!"
Steve frowned from inside the house. He walked out, crossed the lanai and sat down next to the little girl in front of the ocean.
"So, want to tell me about it?" He asked.
"It's silly." She said softly.
"If it bothers you, then I'm sure it's not." Steve reassured her.
"What if I'm not as good as the other girls? What if I keep falling down?"
Steve felt a pinch in his heart at the doubt he could hear in Grace's voice.
"You're going to be just fine, Gracie. If the other girls are a little better at the start, you'll catch up in no time, I'm sure… and if you fall, you'll get back up. What do we always tell you, your dad and me?"
"If I fall it means I climbed up high enough to. Everything that's worth it is worth falling for it. Refusing to climb because I'm scared of falling is taking the easy way out."
"It is."
"I'm scared anyways."
"It's okay to be scared, Grace. Trying something new takes courage. What's that quote you like so much, again?"
"Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever but the cautious do not live at all." Grace recited.
"Do you think this is more important than fear?"
"Yes."
"Then you'll work and you'll get better."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive."
"Alright… What are you doing tonight?"
"Well, there is a soccer practice I was intent on watching…"
"Really, you're coming? What about Danno?"
"Of course he's coming too. We wouldn't miss it."
"Great! Now stay here, I'm going to change."
DS
Grace stood next to her fathers, feeling like running away. She looked up at Steve and took a deep breath.
"Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." She reminded herself.
The ten years old girl turned around and smiled at the two men before walking to the center of the soccer field were the other girls were slowly gathering. She looked around. She stood next to a girl with dark, red, curly hair. The other girl looked up and smiled at her.
"Hi! I'm Calleigh. Are you new here?"
"Yes. You've played here before?"
"Not on this team. I'm played in the younger team before." Calleigh said enthusiastically.
"You did? I've never played before… well not in a real team." Grace said softly.
"It's really fun, you'll see." The redhead said, catching on Grace's nervousness.
"But I don't know if I'm any good!"
"Hey! Don't worry, you've got to learn somewhere… And when Leila started, she used to trip over the ball all the time." She laughed.
"Hey, that's not fair! I was six." A voice came from behind the two girls.
Grace and Calleigh turned around. Grace watched as Calleigh hugged the other girl. She was the stereotypical image of a Hawaiian girl: dark long hair, tanned skin, brown eyes. She's the perfect opposite of Calleigh with her red hair, terribly pale skin and blue eyes. Grace's thought are interrupted when the two others turn to her.
"Hi! I'm Leilani Kalakaua."
"Oh! I'm Grace Williams. Any relation to Kono Kalakaua?"
"Kono? Sure, she's my dad's cousin. How do you know her?"
"Aunt Kono works with my dads."
"Your dad works for 5-0 too?" Leilani asked excitedly. "You're so lucky! I want to be a cop when I grow up."
"Yes, the two of them." She said, stressing the two and waiting to see the girls reactions.
"You've got two dads? Poor you!" Leilani sighed.
"What do you mean?" Grace asked defensively.
"My sister started dating and my dad is unbearable… or so say my sister and my mom. Having two means it's going to be worse, no? But having two dads must be…"
"Don't mind Leila, she just goes on like that sometimes. She's a little crazy." Calleigh interrupted her friend. "Anyways, do you want to warm up with us?"
And for the first time since that morning, Grace smiled. She followed her two new friends as they taught her their warm-up routine.
On the bleachers Steve and Danny were watching their baby girl have fun.
"She looks okay, right?"
"Yes, Danny. She looks just fine."
"Those girls look nice. They're helping her."
"They are. She's pretty good at this… we do play a lot."
"Yeah. Think she's going to beat us?"
"Not yet, but I think it may happen sooner than we thought."
"I don't think I mind, babe."
"Me neither."
"We might want to go over our schedule again. I think this might become a permanent thing."
Steve didn't answer but smirked.
DS
After an hour and a half of practice, the coach let the girls go. Grace ran to her fathers after exchanging a few words with her new friends."
"Papa! Danno! Have you seen me?"
"You bet we did, monkey."
"You looked great sweetheart. So, soccer is not so bad after all, huh?"
"Yeah you were right… and I didn't fall. Can we go for shaved ice?"
Steve smiled and nodded. He still remembered the first time Grace had called him papa. It had been a year ago, an eternity it seemed. She had called him that as he tucked her in one night when Danny was out. It had become a regular thing until he had been deployed for a few months. Now Grace alternated between papa and Uncle Steve. Papa was an automatic response like something she didn't need to think about. It used to be a private thing, but everyone knew about it since she had screamed it at the top of her lungs when he surprised her in school the day he came home. Grace was using it more and more these days and Steve couldn't be happier. Steve smiled once more as he shook his head, effectively chasing the memories away.
"Sorry sweetheart, I spaced out for a little while. Sure, shaved ice sounds good."
"Yes! Are you coming? I want you to meet my friends before we go."
"Sure, go ahead. We're right behind you."
Grace smiled and ran to her friends and their parents. Steve turned to Danny and, noting his big grin, smirked.
"You better enjoy this moment. Two or three years from now, she won't want you in a ten-mile radius from her friends." Steve said.
"Yeah, yeah… Don't talk too fast, you big goof! She won't want either of us near her friends."
"Well, at least we'll be together. Just think of her future boyfriends."
"Boyfriends? I thought we said she wasn't dating before she was 30. I had enough of that Tony kid to last me ten years."
"I'm pretty sure his name was Tommy… And if she's half as pigheaded as you are, we are not out of the woods soon."
"Don't give me nightmares. Let's make a deal, babe. We're cleaning our guns on date nights, okay? I'm sure your armory can keep us going for a while."
"Whatever you say, Danno."
"I like the sound of that. Now, come on. We still have to go buy shaved ice and her uniform before dropping her back at Rachel's."
"Right behind you."
So, what did you think? I tried to show more of Steve's perspective in this one. Do you think it worked? Please review, even if it's just a word.
With all my love as always, Anne
P.S.: To those who have been following the universe: Im working on the story where Doris learns for Danny, Steve and Grace and I started to make sense of the plot bunnies in my head for the story with the new family addition (based on what you told me in your review of Grace's Christmas wish)