CHAPTER 3

Steve, Cath and Grace were sitting at his kitchen table eating breakfast. Grace kept on looking at the adults and then looking back at her plate when one of them caught her eye. Cath and Steve both knew that Grace wanted to ask them something and was working her way up to it.

"Uncle Steve, Aunt Cath?"

"Yeah Gracie?" Steve asked

"How do you know when you like someone? I mean girlfriend-boyfriend type of like not friend like?"

"Why do you want to know Gracie? Do you like someone?" Steve asked hoping the answer was no. He wasn't ready for Grace to be dating and if he wasn't he knew Danny definitely wasn't.

Gracie was only 13.

"Does someone like you honey?" Cath asked

"Euwww. No. I have friends who are boys but I don't have boyfriends. I'm pretty sure Uncle Steve and Danno will go all SuperSeal and SuperCop if I have a proper boyfriend."

Grace and Cath giggled as they looked at Steve who started to blush.

"So why do you want to know?" Cath asked

"Can you tell me how you know first? How did you two know you liked each other?"

"Well…..we worked together first and I thought she was beautiful the first time I saw her. It wasn't until we worked together for a while until I started to think that I wanted to ask her out on a date."

"Why did you wait for so long?"

"Well we worked well together and I didn't want to spoil that if it didn't work out. By that time we were friends and I liked having her as a friend if nothing else."

"I did think your Uncle was handsome the first time I saw him. I didn't want to ask him out because we worked together and I didn't know if he liked me that way or not. Like your Uncle said, we became friends. Even though I love the Navy, women were not always treated equally. I didn't want to get a reputation so I kept my feelings to myself."

"Eventually I kept on catching your Aunt looking at me and she kept on catching me looking at her. So I began to think that she may like me like I like her. I made excuses to spend five more minutes with her after each operation."

"I used to make up excuses for him to stay for five more minutes. We drove our friends' nuts. They kept on waiting for one of us to make the first move but neither of us did. I would find ways to touch his arm or hand or sit really close to him." Cath said as she laughed

"Why did neither of you make the first move. You two are really confident."

"Gracie when you really care about someone you're scared that that person doesn't feel the same way. You don't want to risk something if you may lose the friendship. I knew I was glad we were friends and I thought she liked me but I was scared supposing it didn't work out I didn't want to lose her as a friend."

"Grace honey, no matter how confident someone is its still scary to admit your feelings for someone."

"So how did you finally ask each other on a date?"

Grace watched as both her Aunt and Uncle laughed.

"Well my friend Freddie was celebrating his anniversary with his fiancé. She wanted to celebrate two years since they went on their first date."

"That's romantic" Grace sighed

"Well the day of the dinner apparently Freddie and Kelly had an argument and decided they were through."

"No!" exclaimed Grace

"So he called me up and told me to dress up and meet him at the restaurant so I did. I was his friend and I knew he wanted to talk so I went."

"Meanwhile, my friend was also having a problem with her boyfriend and she wanted to talk about it and asked me to meet her at a restaurant."

"Oh no! Really?" Grace laughed

"We got to the restaurant at the same time and were shocked to see each other. We walked in and told the waiter the names of our respective parties."

"He looked at us and smiled. Right then we should have known something was up."

"We were shown to the same table we were shocked."

"The waiter handed your Uncle a note and he read it, smiled and passed it to me. It said 'Enjoy. Freddie and Jane'. We were set up."

"We thought since they went to all that trouble it would be wrong not to have a date so we ordered and we had a great time."

"We talked for ages. We shared a dessert. We stayed for so long they had to chuck us out because they were locking up. We walked for a while and your Uncle caught my hand and we walked while holding hands. Eventually we ended up at my place. I honestly didn't realise we made it there until we were in front of my door. Then your Uncle kissed me."

Grace was leaning with her elbow on the table and her chin in her hand with her head tilted.

"That's soooooooo romantic." Grace sighed

Steve just blushed. He looked at Cath and caught her eye and they both smiled as they remembered that wasn't the end of the date. Cath invited him in and they spent the night together and the rest is history. Not that they were going to tell Gracie that. One she's too young, two it's none of her business, three Danny would kill them and four and most importantly it was just between them.

"So come on Gracie, why do you want to know?"

"Wellllllllllllll, I was just wondering if Danno will ever ask Aunt Kono out?"

Cath and Steve looked at each other wondering what they should do. Danny never lied to Grace and they knew he wouldn't want them to either but talking about his love life was a tricky topic.

"Honey, why would you think your Danno wants to ask Aunt Kono out?"

"He looks at her the way Uncle Steve looks at you and she looks at him the way you look at Uncle Steve."

Again Steve and Cath looked at each other.

"Gracie you need to let them sort this out. You can't get involved."

"I thought maybe Aunt Kono may not want to go out with Danno because of me. Maybe if I weren't around they would get together." Grace said softly

"Oh honey, you know Danno and Aunt Kono love you. You are not stopping them from getting together."

"So why are they not together then?"

"Who knows Gracie? Its up to them though."

"But if they like each other why are they waiting?"

"Gracie, you need to let them sort it out themselves."

"I just want them to be happy Uncle Steve."

"I know Gracie but this is one of the things that they have to sort out. You know they will always love you."

"Yeah, I know. Thanks for telling me about your first date. I hope when I start to date my boyfriends will be as sweet as you, Danno and Uncle Chin."

"Date? Boyfriends? As in plural? You're not dating until you're 25 and that's the end of it!"

"Oh Uncle Steve, you're so sweet when you're in SuperSeal mode. You know instead of you, Danno and I'm assuming Uncle Chin trying to stop me from dating why don't you help when Aunt Cath and Aunt Kono teach me self-defence? They've been teaching me for a few months now."

Steve slowly turned around to look at Cath with an eyebrow raised.

"Well we thought instead of telling her all boys have motives, we'd teach her how to deal with those types of boys. She's a natural. You should see her."

Grace had a smug smile on her face at her Uncle's look.

"Uncle Steve if any boy tries something with me that I don't want he'll want to deal with Danno, you and Uncle Chin after I've dealt with him. No boy is going to mess with me. Aunt Cath and Aunt Kono are great teachers. They said after a few more months of training we'd, as in all of us, will be able to spar! Isn't that great?"

"Gracie I'm glad you're enjoying you're training sessions but I don't like the glint in your eye."

"Uncle Steve, You know both Danno and Mum are not the tallest right?"

Steve was apprehensive as Grace was showing him her puppy dog eyes.

"Yeah, although you said it not me and I will deny it if Danno asks."

"Well that means in all probability that I'm not going to be taller than either of my parents which means that the majority of my boyfriends will be taller than me. If they're taller than me then they'll be stronger than me. I need to practise so I can defend myself against guys that are taller and stronger than me. You wouldn't want me to get hurt would you?"

Steve looked at his niece and knew she had him. He sighed. She had way too much power over him. And she knew it!

"Fine."

"Yay! Thanks Uncle Steve! You'll talk the others into as well won't you? You're the greatest!"

Grace hugged her Uncle tightly then went to hi-five her Aunt who was laughing.

"You know the way you use your eyes to get what you want will come back to haunt you. When you have kids they'll do the same to you and you won't be able to say no to them!"

"Silly Uncle Steve, when I have kids they'll have half my genes."

"Ok and?"

"And they'll be as cute as me and they'll be the next generation. Try and remember how you were with your grandparents. I bet you turned on the charm. Anyway, if they need help with anything I'll get them to ask their Grandpa Danno, Grandpa Steve and Grandpa Chin for help. You won't be able to say no to the next generation of Williams'."

Steve looked at his niece's confident smile and knew she spoke the truth. She will always have the power over him, Danny and Chin and she knew it. His jaw dropped from the realisation and then he rested his head on the kitchen table while he listened to Grace and Cath laughing hysterically.