…..

Hello, everyone! The last three chapters of this story will be going up this week… It makes me so sad to say that, but I also think that it's time. I started this story a little over a year ago, and I'm proud of where it's gone. It has given me the opportunity to branch out and try something new, and I have rediscovered my passion for writing. A lot of you have been a big part of that, so I want to say thank you to those that have read, reviewed, favorited, followed, and private messaged. You all mean so much to me.

As you know, I gave everyone the opportunity to vote (via review and/or private message) on what my next story would be, and option one narrowly won! If you've forgotten what option one was, here it is:

Steve McGarrett was married once, many years ago. He thought that maybe living and working in his home state of Hawaii would give him the distance that he needed to try to put the heartbreak far behind him once and for all. But when his ex-wife moves to the island with her family, he realizes that there is a very real possibility that moving on is never going to happen.

I've not yet decided on a title, but I have started working on it already and the first chapter should be out soon, so be on the lookout. And thank you so much to all of you that voted; it was really fun to see your thoughts and opinions.

That being said, there is something that I want to address, and I don't want anyone to take it the wrong way, because the last thing that I would ever want to do is offend anyone, since I love you all so much. But… I think that education on abuse (domestic or otherwise) is extremely important. Someone had made some suggestions for writing the domestic abuse story, and more than a few others private messaged me with concerns about those suggestions. So, for a quick minute, I would like to say a few words about this.

I, myself, was in an abusive relationship for two years. I don't say that for sympathy, but so that you know that I would, of course, treat any domestic abuse story with the utmost care. Nowadays, I work as a mental health professional, and I all too often find myself working with abuse victims, and there is something that I want to clear up.

Every. Relationship. Is. Different.

Every. Person. Is. Different.

We all handle things in different ways. Someone messaged me with concerns that they didn't fit in with these suggestions that an anonymous reviewer had left and it was causing some distress. Listen, everyone will react differently to any given situation. Abuse is no different. Sure, there are common denominators, symptoms, etc., but ultimately, everyone is different and every situation is different.

All that to say that if I do end up writing a fanfiction story about domestic abuse, I will treat it with care, and authenticity should not be a problem, as this is something I deal with on almost a daily basis. And I did not plan on making it super violent or gory, or anything like that. I hope that things are a little clearer now.

I also want to say that you are always free to reach out to me at any time. I consider you all my ohana now, and I'll help in any way that I can. Or, if you just want to chat about anything, I'm here. I love people and chatting. Lol

Happy Reading!

…..

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Beginning of Happily Ever After

Steve

When the door to my office opened, I didn't even look up from my research on the suspect. "You can just set the report on the chair. I'll get to it in a few minutes."

"Oh, was I supposed to write a report?" Allie was standing in the doorway, smiling sardonically. "How careless of me. I must have forgotten."

All thoughts of murder and mayhem flew from my mind as I took her in. She'd thankfully gained a little bit of weight, but I couldn't even tell because the skinny jeans and black blouse that she had on hid any hint of a pregnancy. All of the signs of her pregnancy were in her dark hair (which was thicker and shinier than usual) and her incredibly bright blue eyes.

I stood and gestured for her to come in. "It's odd to see you in here without a badge."

"Chin said the same thing." She stepped forward and kissed me. "He also said that you're after a murderer. Need some backup?"

It took me a second to understand that she was teasing. "Ha. Not from you. You keep yourself and Ari as far away from gunfire as possible."

"Aye, aye." Flopping down onto one of the chairs, she looked up at me lovingly. "You're going to be one of those overprotective fathers."

I sat down on the corner of my desk, facing her. "And?"

She shrugged and laughed. "Nothing. I really just came by to say hi. My last dress fitting was in the area and I was going to see if you wanted to grab lunch. But, clearly…" she waved her hand over the papers smattered across my desk, "you're busy."

Regretfully, I nodded. "A little busy, yeah. But hopefully it'll all be wrapped up soon and I can be home for dinner. And then… we get married on Saturday."

The joy in her eyes made my heart burst with happiness. She was just as excited to marry me as I was to marry her. We were crazy in love. Just the way that it should be. "We do. Any hint of cold feet?"

I snorted. "I'm a SEAL. We don't get cold feet."

"If you say so," she teased as she stood. "Well, I'll get out of your hair and let you catch a killer. Michael, Max, and Trent are flying in this afternoon and they'll probably join us for dinner. I'm making enchiladas."

"And we have a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning," I reminded her. "So, no eating when you wake up. Glucose test."

Her nose wrinkled in disgust. "Don't remind me."

I laughed. "Dr. Connors said it wasn't so bad, remember?" I didn't see how it wouldn't be bad, though. Dr. Connors had said that Allie would basically have to drink a solution of sugar water (that she claimed tasted like flat soda), wait an hour, and then have blood drawn. Boring and disgusting were the two words that came to mind when I thought about it, but I was trying to be positive and supportive for Allie's sake.

"I remember. But you know I don't trust people. We'll just have to see."

"Okay. We'll see, then." I stepped forward and pulled her in for a quick kiss. "I'll let you know if I can't make dinner."

"If you can't, I'll just eat your enchiladas. I could probably eat the whole pan myself, if I let myself."

That wasn't an exaggeration. She could really shovel the food down nowadays. "And yet, you've only gained six pounds this pregnancy." I leaned back to teasingly look her up and down. "But I have no idea where it's going."

She slapped my arm. "I had to gain back the weight that I lost with that awful morning sickness. But you heard Dr. Connors… Ari is growing right on track. And she also confirmed that my fitness routine is acceptable, so I don't want to hear any more about it from you. Because, as I already pointed out, Ari is doing great."

"I'm glad." Nothing could have made me happier than knowing that the love of my life was going to marry me on Saturday, and that our baby boy was perfectly safe and healthy. "All's well that ends well, as the saying goes."

She kissed me quickly and then headed for the door. "I'll see you tonight!"

"Tonight," I murmured, though she had already disappeared through the glass door. "And on Saturday, we'll be bound to each other forever."

Allie

"You're kidding me, right?" My twin brother's expression was a perfect blend of disbelief and disapproval. "It's not funny."

I stared down at the piece of paper in front of me with growing frustration. "You're not helping, Kol. You're supposed to help me."

"You're the one that wanted to write your own vows!"

"I didn't know that it would be this hard!" At my desperate tone, Gideon's head popped up from his bed in the corner. Ever since I'd come back from our long separation, he'd been on high alert, and who could blame him? "It's fine, Gideon," I soothed, and he slowly let his head fall back onto his bed.

"It's not fine," Kol argued and sat down on the coffee table, even though I'd asked him a thousand times to use the chair or the couch. "I have to leave in five minutes to go to Steve's bachelor party and I will leave here with the knowledge that you haven't even written your vows yet. You do know that the wedding is tomorrow, don't you?"

Through clenched teeth, I growled, "I remember."

"Getting irritated at me isn't going to change the fact that you still have to write your vows. Because Steve already wrote his, and they're really good. So, yours can't just be some random words off of the Internet. And you'd better hurry." He leaned over to pick up the pen that I'd discarded on the table. "You need your beauty sleep before tomorrow."

"I hate you."

"Great." He tapped his index finger on the paper in front of me. "Write it down. Write it all down."

"I'm going to give the man of honor title to Gideon."

Kol headed for the door, unfazed. "Gideon is the ring bearer. He can't be both. See you tomorrow morning!"

He was gone seconds later and then I heard his car pulling out of the driveway.

All alone, I looked over to Gideon. "Any words of wisdom?"

As if Kol had given him instructions, Gideon stood and trotted towards the back door.

"Very helpful!" I sarcastically called after him. "Traitor!"

He barked once before letting himself outside.

"Okay…" I sighed and stared down at the paper. It seemed to be taunting me. "I guess I'll just… brainstorm. Something will come to me, I'm sure of it."

An hour later, I had a bunch of ramblings that I was trying to piece together into some vows. No matter how I tried, though, it was like a jigsaw puzzle with a missing piece… it just wouldn't go together. I thought and thought, but I just couldn't make it fit.

"I just need a break," I told myself, and went to go and take a shower, careful to leave my hair pinned up so that it wouldn't get wet because the woman that was going to be doing my hair wanted it to be "dirty".

After my shower, I gave myself a facial, because the last thing that I needed was to break out on the day of my wedding (even though I hadn't had a breakout in years). When I'd finished, I felt relaxed once again. Earlier in the day, Kono and I had gone to get manicures and pedicures, and I'd splurged on a full body massage to take away the stress of wedding planning. Pampering was just what every bride-to-be needed before the big day.

Still completely relaxed, I went back to my vows.

Ten minutes later, I was cursing myself for ever wanting to write our own vows. Why hadn't I just said that the traditional ones would be enough?

Then the idea came to me.

"A spin on the traditional," I said aloud to myself. It probably wouldn't be as perfect as it would have been if I'd taken the appropriate amount of time to write it out, but it would have to do.

Determined (and armed with a pen and a glass of vanilla iced coffee), I got to work.

Steve

"It's okay to be nervous," Danny said from his seat on the small couch in the room where we had gotten ready for the wedding. "I was nervous before my wedding. Every guy is nervous before his wedding."

"I'm not nervous," I replied automatically, but my sweaty palms begged to differ.

"Right," my partner said. "Because nothing says 'I'm completely calm' like uncontrollable, rapid pacing."

I had been pacing, I realized, and I threw myself down into the armchair. "Maybe I'm a little nervous."

"And what guy wouldn't be, on his big day?" asked a familiar voice from the doorway, and I looked up to see Joe White standing there, his smile so big it was a wonder it hadn't split his face yet.

"Joe." I stood and made my way over to the man that had been a father to me after my own father had sent me away. "I didn't know if you'd make it." When I'd called him to tell him about the wedding, he'd been in the middle of heading up a special op.

He pulled me into a tight hug. "As if I'd ever miss your wedding. You're as good as my own son." Pulling back, he gripped my arms and gave me an intense look. "Your father would be so proud of you."

"I hope so."

Chin and Danny rose to greet Joe, and then he asked, "So, what about this woman? I haven't had a chance to meet her yet. Tell me about her." But when I opened my mouth, he shook his head. "No, not you. You're in love with her. Love makes you blind."

Danny chuckled. "Well, believe it or not, she's Steve's perfect match. CIA, White Collar division of the FBI, bomb squad… and about a million other things, so she's fifty times as talented as him. She's smart, funny, kind… we're all still trying to figure out what kind of hypnosis Steve used on her."

I elbowed him in the ribs as Chin and Joe laughed.

"I can't wait to meet her," he told me. "And I've been invited to the baby shower, no thanks to you." He glared.

Holding up my hands as if in surrender, I said, "Kono took over the baby shower thing. I haven't even seen the invitations, myself."

"Oh, they're adorable," Danny teased me. "Balloons and… bright colors…"

"You haven't even opened your invitation, have you?" Chin asked him.

He shook his head. "No. No, I have not. But the important thing is that I know when it is, and I know where Allie is registered, so…"

"You haven't gotten your gift yet?" Joe asked him.

Danny looked offended. "Why? I don't need to get a gift yet. The shower is still… like… three weeks away. I'll go a few days before, buy the gift, wrap the gift, and then boom. I'm done."

"All the good stuff will be gone by a few days before the shower, son," Joe said with great authority, as if he went to a baby shower every week.

Chin nodded. "Remember how many people are already RSVP'd? A lot of them probably already have gifts."

"Do you have your gift?" Danny challenged him, crossing his arms over his chest. He fully expected Chin to say no.

"As a matter of fact, I do," Chin replied smugly. "I got the baby monitor."

Allie had told me that the registry was showing that the baby monitor had been bought, but I had guessed that Danny had gotten it. "I wondered who had gotten that."

"I got the high chair," Joe said. "Ordered it this morning."

"Fine, fine!" Danny threw up his hands. "I'm getting on right now and ordering something." He took his phone out of his pocket and then paused, looking up. "What's the site again?"

Chin sighed and took the phone from him. As they began to look through the registry, Joe stepped closer to me and spoke in a low voice. "You doing okay, son?"

"Nervous," I admitted. "We wrote our own vows, and I'm worried that I'm gonna screw them up, you know? We've been through a lot, and I just want today to be perfect."

"It will be," he assured me. "You're marrying the woman that you love. Nothing else matters."

I nodded. "You're right, you're right."

"And I'll be there the whole time, so if you need a quick evac, just give me the signal." He said it with all seriousness, but smiled when I rolled my eyes at him.

"Okay, got that taken care of," Danny said as he and Chin approached. "I got the crib. No idea how I'm gonna wrap it, but I'll worry about it when it gets here."

"And it's time to get into position," Chin added with a glance at his watch. "Ready?"

I took a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah, I'm ready."

Joe clapped my shoulder and smiled. "See you out there, son."

Once he'd left, Danny gave me an encouraging smile. "All set?"

"All set."

"Then let's go."

Allie

Kol walked in, mouth open to say something, but stopped in his tracks when he saw me. "Whoa."

I glanced at my reflection in the mirror and couldn't help but agree with him.

The gown that I had chosen was a Stella York, and I'd chosen it because not only was it incredibly beautiful, but it hid my pregnancy perfectly (not that there was a ton to hide). A-line with cap sleeves and an illusion back made it elegant, along with the matte lace on the bodice. The full skirt was made of tulle that smoothly flowed around me as I walked and formed a small train behind me. Around my waist was a crystal belt that matched the crystal hairpiece that ran through my curled updo.

My makeup was simple, drawing all of the attention to my radiant skin and my bright eyes. In my ears, I wore diamond teardrop earrings that Steve had given me the night before as a wedding present. The only other jewelry that I had on was my engagement ring, which was soon to be joined by a matching band.

"Thanks," I said once I looked back at Kol, who stood smiling proudly at me. "You don't look so bad yourself."

He was dressed in a gray suit that fit him extraordinarily well. As my man of honor, he would be standing beside me, along with Kono.

"I know," he said as he waved off my compliment. "But this one time, you actually look even better than me."

Kono laughed and stepped forward. "It's almost time. Are you ready?"

Butterflies went wild in my stomach, but I smiled. "I'm ready."

The next few moments were a blur. Kono led the way, and Kol followed after he kissed me on the cheek. Gideon trotted after him, walking beside Steve's niece, who threw pink petals on her way.

And then it was my turn, and I was walking down the aisle as people that I knew and loved stood on either side of me, beaming at me. But there was only one face that mattered, and it was at the end of the aisle, waiting for me.

Steve had tears in his eyes, which brought tears to mine, and I clenched the bouquet in my hands just to have something to hold onto until I reached the end and took his hand, passing my bouquet off to Kono. The minister began to speak, but I couldn't even process the words that he was saying because I was lost in Steve's eyes.

Suddenly, it was time for the vows, and per Steve's prior request, he went first.

Squeezing my hands, he spoke with strength and confidence.

"I didn't like you when we first met."

It was the oddest way to begin vows, and everyone laughed, even me.

When the laughter had died down, he continued. "But that's only because I knew that you're twice the person I'll ever be. You're intelligent, kind, resourceful, charismatic, beautiful, and we'd be here all day if I tried to list your best traits. Suffice it to say, you are everything I never knew that I needed. I did nothing to deserve you, but I vow to spend every single day of the rest of our lives together striving to be worthy of you. I will love you with all that I have, cherish you always, and be there in every way that I can. Because our love is as boundless as the sea." He grinned. "And no one can understand that better than a Navy SEAL."

Through my tears, I smiled back at him.

The rest of the wedding was a blur. I must have remembered my vows, though, because we made it to the end and the next thing that I knew, Steve was pulling me into a deep, passionate kiss.

And then I faced the cheering crowd with my husband by my side.