Pehea wau i ʻike ai i kou makuahine
Based on the characters and stories of Hawaii Five-0.
Hawaii Five-0 is owned by CBS and their respective creators.
EPILOGUE
Catherine finished typing the last words of her final draft. Her tired fingers stilled against the keys as she reviewed the last paragraph written.
You can't skip chapters. That's not how life works. You have to read every line. Meet every character. You won't enjoy all of it. Hell, some chapters will make you cry for weeks. Some parts of your story will make you want to throw the book away entirely. You will read things you don't want to read, but you'll also have moments when you don't want the story to end. No matter the weight of the day or the elation of the moment, you have to keep going. Keep moving. Keep growing. As long as you have a chip and a chair, you're still in the game.
Poker is less of a card game played by people, and more of a game about people that happens to be played with cards.
Know when to go all in. Know when to walk away.
Steve stood behind her desk chair and anchored his hands on either side of the keyboard, caging her in. Pressing a gentle kiss into her salt and pepper hair, he scanned the page she was reviewing. He looked down and admired her proud smile that was illuminated by the glow of the computer screen. "Finally done with it?"
Catherine nodded, "Last draft before it goes off to the editors." She could feel his smile, his pride in her.
"Did you ever figure out a title?"
She reached in the printer tray and pulled out the book cover mock-up she had just received from the illustrator. Steve looked at the artwork and grinned.
Learning to Play Poker
Stories of luck, perseverance, and love
from my (mostly) declassified life.
Lieutenant Catherine Rollins McGarrett
U.S. Navy, Central Intelligence Agency
Forward by Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett
U.S. Navy, Hawaii Five-0 Task Force
THE END
-
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Dear readers,
I can't believe it's over. If you want to keep reading Steve and Catherine's story, just head back and start Throwing Darts again! I designed these two stories to be cyclical.
When I started writing on FanFiction at the beginning of the pandemic, I really just needed something to keep my mind off of the state of the world. The show had ended and I was admittedly, very sad!
Now I've written more words than I could ever imagine. (For reference, the average contemporary romance novel is between approximately 70,000 and 100,000 words. This story is 429,187 words long.)
I have also (most likely) flagged myself with the NSA and DHS for my VERY abnormal Google search history while trying to research for this story!
So, lovely Five-0 fans: "Pehea wau i ʻike ai i kou makuahine" has been my love letter to you all. I hope I filled in the blanks, answered your questions, tied up those loose ends, took you all on an epic adventure, and honored the characters we have all come to love.
What's next for me? Well, I'm starting on my book! I've been giddy about this for months and can't wait to dive in! Will I still be writing on FanFiction? Maybe. There's the slightest possibility that I may be able to be coerced into dropping some one-shots or shorts. My DMs are always open!
I have so much love for you all. It's really been a rollercoaster ride, but you guys have been the best audience I could have asked for.
Here's my challenge to you:
Write.
Writing makes you ask questions. It makes you dig deeper into what makes people tick. It makes you work a little harder into understanding why people do the things they do. Why they feel the emotions that they do. It makes you dive deep into researching the world around you. You learn about things you never would have otherwise. And that's a beautiful thing. The more we learn about each other and learn to understand each other, the more we make our world a better place.
All the XOs,
-Mags-
l
