Chapter 2

Steve, Catherine, Angie and DJ said their goodbyes to Marliyah, Tara and Jen at the courthouse immediately after the ceremony. There was still work to be done before the weekend and they needed to get back to it. While Steve and Angie walked them to their waiting car Catherine turned to her boss.

"Thanks for coming," she said. "It means so much to us that you were here to share this. I can't believe you were able to get away."

"I wouldn't have missed it for the world." Lea stuck out her hand to shake DJ's with a smile. "Congratulations! Enjoy your party. I wish I could come but I have a budget meeting that couldn't be rescheduled."

"I can save you some cake and send it to work with Mommy on Monday," he offered.

"I'd love that," she replied before winking at Catherine. "This one is a real charmer. You may have a future politician on your hands."

"Hey, so why don't we head upstairs to change before everyone else gets here?" Steve suggested when they arrived back at the beach house.

"Shouldn't I keep my tie on for the party?" DJ asked, fingering the red fabric.

Aaron grinned. "Not if you want to go swimming."

Angie clapped. " 'Wim! 'Mon, DJ! 'Mon, Joanie! Get bay-ding suit now!" She waved them toward the stairs and started up them.

The four adults shared a smile and followed. When they reached the top, they steered Angie and Joan away from Angie's room toward DJ's.

"But my bathing suit's in there, Mama," Joan protested.

Mary put a finger to her lips. "There's something special to see in DJ's room."

Before she could ask more, DJ stopped suddenly in his doorway and gasped. "A new bed?!" he exclaimed.

"Well, a new bed frame," Catherine told him. "The mattress is the same."

Joan peered around him and squealed. "Oh! It's–!"

"Shh," Mary said with a smile, putting a hand on her daughter's shoulders and squeezing lightly. "Let DJ check it out first."

DJ slowly walked toward the new wooden bed frame, reaching a hand out and touching it. "It looks like Angie's rocking chair …" he said slowly. "And the deck," he added more quickly, growing excited. "And the lanterns in the backyard!"

"It's Grandpa's spindles!" Joan exploded, unable to hold it in any longer.

He turned to look at her.

"Mama and me have tables in our bedrooms with them, too," she told him. "Grandpa made them!"

"Well, he designed them," Steve correctly gently. He knelt down next to DJ, putting a hand on his arm. "Aunt Mary's and my dad designed these a long time ago when he was going to build a deck on the house. He never got that chance, but luckily the man who owned the lumber yard kept the sample and when your Mommy and I decided to build the deck, we wanted to have those spindles as part of it. So that he could be a part of it. And ever since then, we've tried to incorporate the spindles into other special things. Like the lantern path, Joanie and Mary's night tables, and–"

"Angie's rocking chair," DJ said.

Catherine kneeled next to Steve and smiled. "That's right. And the toy box."

"Uncle Danno has a table, too," Steve added.

Angie had climbed up onto the bed and sat herself down in the middle, beaming. "DJ bed nice!"

"How did it get here?" DJ asked.

"I asked Uncle Chin and Aunt Kono to come over after we left for the courthouse early," Steve said. "They helped Oke Oleani, the man who made the bed, get it upstairs and into your room as a surprise."

"It is a surprise," DJ said, staring at the bed that had now taken on an even more important meaning.

Catherine smiled, taking DJ's hand. "We asked Mr. Oleani to make it the day after we asked you if you wanted to come live with us forever."

Mary dabbed at her eyes as she, Aaron, and Joan looked on.

"You did?" DJ asked, eyes widening.

"There was a little problem with the wood so he wasn't able to finish it as fast as we would have liked," Steve said.

"But when he said it would be ready in February, we decided it would be a perfect 'Official Day' gift," Catherine finished, squeezing DJ's hand.

He threw his arms around both of them in a hug. "It is," he whispered earnestly. "A special bed."

"A bed made just for you," Steve said, pulling back to look at him. "With your grandpa John's spindles so you can think of him and know he'd be so, so happy to have you as his grandson."

"He would?" DJ asked hopefully.

Steve pulled him into another hug as Mary nodded emphatically. "He would," Steve said. "He absolutely would."

"I think we can all agree it's obvious I didn't know about the name," Steve chuckled. "I'd have never been able to keep a secret that big."

Catherine leaned into his side. "Good point."

"It was all I could do to keep from blurting it out," Aaron said. "I almost had to find an excuse to go and stay at the hotel with my parents last night to keep from spilling the beans to Joseph and Elizabeth."

"I'm kind of glad I didn't know," Joseph said candidly.

"I agree." Elizabeth looked across the deck to where DJ was examining his 'Official Day Cake' along with Joan, Angie and Esther. "When the judge read out the name-Daniel Joseph Rollins McGarrett-that was a moment I'll never forget."

"Me either," Catherine agreed as she swiped a stray tear from her cheek.

"Oh no, don't you start," Elizabeth said. "You're gonna make me cry too."

"I'm just glad you weren't mad," Aaron said. "I certainly didn't want to step on any toes but when DJ asked me to help him he told me he wanted it to be a special surprise and I wanted to respect that."

"It's fine." Catherine smiled. "Better than fine, actually. I'm thrilled he's starting to make such strong connections within the family."

Angie turned and spotted the watery eyes on her mother and grandmother and squirmed to get down. She crossed the deck to join the group followed by DJ and Joan. "Gwan-ma Mommy sad?"

"Not sad at all." Catherine picked her up. "Happy tears."

Elizabeth knelt down to her grandson's eye level. "We're happy that DJ has officially joined the family and very, very happy he chose to take Rollins as part of his new name."

"Cause I wanna have Daddy's name, but I wanted Mommy's too." He hugged Elizabeth tightly. "And it's you and Grandpa's, and I just really wanted to have it, then I told Uncle Aaron and he helped me."

Elizabeth kissed his cheek. "I'm very glad."

"This is a lovely party," Grandma Ang said as she watched her family and friends celebrate all around her from the comfort of a cushioned Adirondack chair under a large umbrella strategically positioned on the deck so she could see everything. Boris sat happily in the chair next to her sipping iced tea and enjoying all of Grandma Ang's stories.

"It really is," Danny agreed. "And I'd say that even if the entire thing hadn't been planned by my amazing daughter."

"You did an excellent job. As usual," Grandma Ang told Grace who blushed slightly at the compliment.

"Thank you." Grace leaned down and kissed Ang's cheek. "I got some advice from Boris on how to throw a kid's party that works for adults too."

"Don't let her fool you," Boris said, deflecting the credit. "She is a natural party planner. Her instincts are flawless. She barely needed any advice from me."

Kamekona, Chin, Leilani, Kono, Adam and John all enjoyed a quick bite at the beach house and a chance to congratulate DJ on being official before excusing themselves and heading back to work.

"How's it feel to be an old settled dad of two?" Carrie teased Steve when she found him in the kitchen as she was coming back from changing into her swimsuit. "Look at you. Refilling lemonade pitchers and putting brownies on plates."

"Are you implying something?" Steve challenged with a smile.

Carrie's eyes sparkled. "Nothing at all. I'm just trying to figure out how you got so old and boring while I'm still so young and exciting."

Steve snorted. "Young and exciting?"

"Extremely." Carrie struck a pose. "Some of us haven't lost our magic."

Steve placed one last brownie on the tray and put the bakery box on the counter to be broken down and put with the recycling later. "Are you too exciting and magical to be a godmother of two?"

Carrie stopped and stared at him.

"Damn you, McGarrett. I really had you on the ropes this time and then you have to go and ask me something like that."

Steve grinned. "It's part of my charm."

"If you're asking me to be DJ's godmother I'd be honored," Carrie said.

Steve picked up the brownies and lemonade and headed for the door. "That's what we're asking."

"I'd love to," Carrie called after him. "But just for the record I'm a young and exciting godmother of two."

Steve tossed over his shoulder, "If that helps you sleep at night."

Deb asked DJ, Steve, and Catherine to come inside with her for a moment. They went into the living room and Deb sat down, patting the sofa, and DJ took a seat by her side. Passing him a small box she smiled at Steve over the boy's head.

"Here you go, honey, this is for you." She nodded that he should open it.

Catherine's hand covered her mouth when she saw the items nestled in the vintage felted holder.

"Aunt Deb…" Steve began as DJ said, "Wow, it's my …" he beamed before continuing, "it's our name! Look, Daddy." He held it up. "Mommy, look, it says McGarrett."

Steve blinked rapidly as Deb explained. "These belonged to my father. Your great grandfather, that your daddy is named after."

"Woah." DJ ran a finger over each letter reverently. "We saw his name at the Arizona. Same as Daddy's. These are really his?"

"Really. And now they're yours. I know he'd be very proud of you and want you to have them."

DJ carefully lifted the insignia nestled next to the McGarrett uniform nameplate. "Mommy has this same kind. It means lieutenant, right?" He looked to his misty-eyed mother for conformation and launched himself into Deb's arms when she nodded. "Thank you. Thank you so much. I'll keep em forever." He hugged her tighter and as he whispered, "I love you, Aunt Deb."

Steve leaned over to kiss her cheek and Catherine squeezed her husband's arm before the three adults shared a heartfelt smile.

"Kaitlyn, it's so great to finally meet you in person," Alyssa said as she took the smiling girl's hands in hers.

"Thank you! You, too. And thanks again for the Halloween costume, I mean, the scrubs that I used for my Halloween costume, and those new vegetarian recipes. I was really, really looking forward to you guys coming!" the young teen gushed. "Midnight says hi, too."

"I hope I get to meet him while we're here," Alyssa said with a grin. She turned to Catherine, who'd come up with DJ and added, "And I was pretty excited to meet the famous Cammie, too. Joan's been talking about her since forever." Her voice dropped conspiratorially. "I think it's time I start working on my brother, my niece needs a pet." She winked at DJ and he nodded and shared a smile with Kaitlyn.

"Cammie loves you. She gave you lots of kisses," he said.

"She's an amazing girl. And a very good one."

"I used to get nervous around dogs," Kaitlyn admitted honestly, and DJ gave a surprised little gasp.

"But you love all the animals! You were even the first one to pet the reindeer."

"I do, but I still used to get nervous, especially around big dogs. When I first met Cammie, she was so big, but she was very sweet and gentle so I got more and more comfortable." She glanced at Catherine. "And both our moms kept telling me to take my time and nobody rushed me, so I started by petting her."

"That's right and look at you now." Catherine wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her in for a hug.

"A future fellow veterinarian, according to Joan." Alyssa grinned. "You know, not so many years ago there weren't a lot of female vets but right now the ratio of female to male vets is 55 to 45."

"That's awesome!" Kaitlyn beamed and Alyssa held up a hand for her to high five.

"And guess what else? This year's class is more than 80 percent women."

"Jacob always says Kaitlyn can be a vet or a zookeeper," DJ quoted the oft repeated statement of his eleven-year-old cousin.

"I have a friend who graduated UPenn vet school with me who works at the LA zoo." Alyssa grinned and nodded. "Maybe like him, you can be both."

"You look like you're very deep in thought, angel," Susan Reyes said as she and Ramon approached a pensive looking Joan.

"I need something to call DJ," Joan said. "A special name now that we're officially cousins. I used to call Angie 'Baby Angie' and then when she wasn't a baby anymore, I decided to call her 'Cousin Angie' because she was getting older and learning to do lots of new things." The young girl bit her lip. "It's different with DJ because he already knows how to do all the things I know how to do and we're the same age …" She sighed dejectedly. "It's hard to explain."

"You don't need to explain with words, nieta." Ramon squeezed his granddaughter's shoulder. "What's in your heart is what's important."

Joan looked across the deck to where DJ, Avery, and Jacob were watching with rapt attention as Cody demonstrated a card trick he'd recently learned. She remembered the first time she met DJ after he came to live with Aunt Catherine and Uncle Steve. He was nice, but kind of shy. Like he was trying to figure out exactly how his new living arrangement was going to work. She remembered feeling the same way after Daddy first came to live with them. She loved him, and she loved all her new family members that came along with him, but it took some time to get used to it not being just her and Mama anymore. Once she did though everything changed for the better. She remembered back to how proud she felt the first time she introduced Susan and Ramon as her abuela and abuelo.

Suddenly her eyes widened and she grabbed her grandfather's hands. "What's the Spanish word for cousin?"

Ramon smiled. "It's primo."

"I know what my new nickname for DJ is gonna be." Joan clapped excitedly. "I'm gonna go tell him."

"Do you feel any different?" Jacob asked as he and DJ reset the pins for lawn bowling.

"What do you mean?" DJ replied.

"I mean, since the judge made the adoption official and everything. Does it feel different?"

DJ paused, considering. "Kind of?" he replied, as if unsure himself. He bit his lip, trying to find the words he needed to explain. "Ever since I met Daddy and Mommy and Angie and Cammie and Grandma and Grandpa and Grandma Ang and … and everybody, I've been really happy. But I also sometimes felt a little like … like something was going to happen and I would have to leave. Even though Mommy and Daddy said I was home and I was where I belonged, I was still scared sometimes it wouldn't be true." He smiled brightly, his expression clearing. "But now it's official. Forever. The judge said. And I've got a certificate and everything."

Jacob returned his smile. "That's really awesome." He set the last pin in place and straightened. "You know, DJ, I'm really glad Uncle Steve and Aunt Catherine found you and now we're family."

DJ beamed. "Me, too. And I like that you want to play with me, even though you're older than me."

"I totally do," Jacob said honestly. "Not 'cause anyone told me to or anything, but 'cause you're fun." He paused, thinking. "I've been the little brother for … well, I guess since I was born," he said with a grin, "but now you're here and it's … it's kinda like I've got a little brother. I like it."

If it were possible, DJ's smile grew even brighter. "Me, too. Can I go first bowling this time?"

Jacob grinned, grabbing one of the balls. "Race you back!"

Laughing, DJ picked up the other ball and followed the older boy back to the starting line.

As the afternoon wound down Steve and Catherine leaned against the railing on the deck and watched Jenna, Casey, Dylan, Jess and Jadon, who had missed the ceremony due to an exam but made it to the house in time for the cutting of the cake, play Paul, Gabby, Grandma Josie and Linda in horseshoes. Angie, DJ, Jacob, Avery and Joan were building a sandcastle a short distance away after wearing themselves out swimming.

Tanis Good, who had spent the day both quietly observing and also talking to each family member present approached. "I'd like to thank you for including me," she said sincerely. "I think I have everything I need for the article so I'm gonna head out and let you enjoy the rest of your celebration in private."

"Thank you for coming," Catherine said.

"We look forward to reading what you come up with," Steve added.

Tanis smiled. "I'll make sure you get the first copy. If everything goes as planned it'll be in Friday's edition."

"Excellent." Catherine smiled. "We can't wait."

THE END

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