Disclaimer: yeah you guys know I don't own anything.

Author's Note: So it's official I'm done with school! It is such a great feeling! So I've been working on this chapter for a couple of days now and it's finally at a point that I like, trust me it's taken a lot of writing, deleting, and rewriting to get this chapter done. So I hope you guys like it!

Steve walked into the house roughly toweling the salt water off his body when he heard the distinct ringing of a cell phone. He groaned as he heard the ringing because that meant that they most likely had a case and they would have to drop Grace off back with her mom, which would give Rachel even more ammunition against them. Steve took a deep breath, hoping to not sound agitated on the phone.

"McGarrett." He answered, not even bothering to check the caller ID on his phone.

"Daniel?" Steve paused looking at the couch confused, before pulling the phone away from his ear. It wasn't even his phone that was ringing, it was Danny's and the Caller ID read Mom, not the Governor. Steve chuckled quietly to himself before putting the phone back to his ear. He really needs to check and make sure it's even his phone that's ringing before he answers it.

"Hi Mrs. Williams, sorry it's not Danny, but his partner Steve."

"Oh hello Steven, how are you?" Steve smiled, even though they've never spoken before Steve's sure that Danny's mother knows all about him and their relationship.

"I'm good Mrs. Williams, how are you?" Steve grabbed his towel and continued drying off.

"I'm good as well; I was just calling to check in with Danny since I haven't gotten the chance to really talk to him lately." She replied in a tone that made Steve feel instantly guilty. Their last case was a tough one that had them running day and night to find their killer and the stolen money he had taken from their victim, so Steve's not surprised that Danny wasn't able to talk to his mother he didn't even really have time to talk to Grace much besides a good night phone call.

"I'm sorry. Our last case took a lot out of us. I'll go see if Danny's up so you can talk to him."

"Actually I think it's time you and I had a conversation. I mean I've heard all about you from Daniel, but have yet to speak to you myself and I think this is a perfect time to do so." Steve suddenly felt nervous. He had no idea what she was going to ask him or where this conversation was headed, but he knew that he had to be insanely careful in how he answered her because the last thing Steve wanted was to upset her and then have Danny find out that Steve was an asshole to his mom, no Steve was going to be on his best behavior.

"What would you like to talk about?" Steve asked deciding to head back outside so that he wouldn't get any of the furniture wet with his swim trucks.

"As a mother I feel it's my job to know about those that my children are romantically involved with and I want to make sure that you only have the best intentions with my son. Daniel is my first baby so you should know that I'm very protective over him, especially after the Rachel incident that destroyed my Daniel." Steve smiled at the love and protectiveness flooding her voice.

"Well Mrs. Williams, it seems as if we have something in common with being protective over Danny and trust me I know all about the Rachel incident."

"Steven, please if we're going to be family then you can call me Deb. Do you prefer Steven or Steve?"

"Steven's fine. I want you to know that I love your son very much and I would do anything to make sure that he's happy and safe. He and Grace mean the world to me and I wouldn't do anything that could jeopardize that."

"That is such a relief to hear from you. I was so worried when Daniel had first moved to Oahu and he was all by himself. I'm just glad that he's found someone that can love him for who he really is. But you do know that if you do hurt my son, you'll have to answer to me right?"

"Yes ma'am." Deb chuckled at the sudden seriousness of Steve's tone; she could see why Danny always made references to Steve's SEAL days.

"Besides instilling the fear of a mother's wrath on you it's actually perfect that you answered the phone today."

"Why's that?"

"It's been almost a year since I've seen my Daniel, and almost six months since I've seen my sweet Gracie and since you're technically his boss, you should give Daniel some time off. We'd really love to see them and you of course because really we need to be properly introduced." Steve stared out at the waves wondering how he was going to answer this. He would love nothing more than to give Danny time off to go see his family, but he wasn't sure if they could both take time off. Plus they would need to figure out how they could get Rachel's permission to bring Grace along with them. Thankfully Danny had decided this exact moment to come down the stairs and was standing next to him.

"Hey babe, who are you talking to?" Steve looked up and sighed in relief.

"Your mom. I heard a phone ringing and thought it was mine, but it was yours. So we've been talking and she wants to know when we're going to see them, Gracie too." Steve mouthed, immediately handing the phone over to Danny. "I'm going to call the governor and see when we can get some time off, so you stall your mom." Danny chuckled and took the phone from him smiling as he heard his mother's voice.

"Hey Ma."

"Daniel! I was having such a nice conversation with Steven; I didn't mean to make him run for the hills." Danny chuckled watching Steve dial the governor as he made his way upstairs, most likely to see if Grace was up and wanted to talk to her grandma.

"I know Ma; he's actually calling the governor said something about checking for time off or something."

"I knew he would help me out. He sounds like such a sweetheart Daniel, I think he's a keeper."

"Yeah Ma, I think so too. So how's the rest of the family?" Danny asked kicking back in the chair and listened to his mother gush about his nephews and smiled. He really hoped that Steve was able to get them some time off, he wanted to see his family and show Steve the place that Danny had called home, it would also be a great way to get away from the drama surrounding them right now. Plus, after being together for over half a year it was about time that Steve be properly introduced to his family.

Steve came back down the stairs, on hold with Governor Dennings and making sure that Grace wasn't going to hurt herself by flying down the stairs to talk to her grandma. The moment that Steve had woke her up saying her grandma was on the phone with Danno, she had shot out of bed already gushing about how awesome Grandma Deb was and how much she missed her. Danny was still listening to his mother when Grace appeared next to him and he just handed over the phone telling Grace not to hang up when she was done but give him back the phone. Grace nodded and began telling her mother everything that's been going on.

"I understand sir and I appreciate your generosity. I know I'm not always the most cooperative but I really do appreciate this. I have complete faith that Kono and Chin can hold down the fort while we're gone, but I'll have my phone on me at all times if there's a national emergency. Yes sir, I will thank you." Steve hung up the phone and smiled at Danny.

"He's actually giving both of us time off?"

"Yes, he's actually giving all of Five-O time off, as long as Kono and Chin remain on call in case HPD catches a high profile case, but still a week off is a week off."

"When?" Danny asked moving towards Steve and wrapping his arms around his waist, resting his head Steve's shoulder.

"Two weeks from now, barring a case doesn't pop up like the last one we should be able to spend some time in Jersey with the Williams family." Danny lifted his head smiling, then frowned there was no way that he was going to get Rachel to agree to taking Grace for a week with such short notice. Even though she's done with school in less than week, Danny's pretty sure she'll say no. "I already went ahead and emailed Chris and he said that he'll talk directly to Rachel's lawyer but it shouldn't be a problem for her to come with us."

"You're pretty amazing you know that?" Danny asked kissing lightly under Steve's jaw.

"Yeah well your mom really wants to see you guys so I thought it would be a nice vacation."

"Babe, she's positively gushing about you and really wants to meet you too." Steve smiled squeezing Danny just a little tighter as they listened to Grace prattled on about the end of the school year and her recent adventures with Uncle Steve and her surfing lessons. Steve kissed Danny on the corner of his mouth and moved into the kitchen to start coffee and breakfast, while Danny went back out to talk to his mother. He was about to give her the best news ever.

Getting Rachel to agree to let Grace come with them wasn't as easy as Chris thought it would be. It had taken almost three days to get Rachel to agree that it was completely fair that Grace get to spend a week with Steve and Danny in New Jersey, all Danny really had to do was remind her that she had taken Grace back to Jersey last year without so much as letting Danny know that they really had taken off. He probably wouldn't have known if his mother hadn't called wondering why Rachel had brought Gracie by the house, instead of him. It was a welcome surprise to hear that Chris had gotten Rachel to agree and that they were finally going to get to take a family vacation for the first time ever.

Besides being able to take a proper family vacation, Steve and Danny had also come to a very important decision. Since that day in Victoria's office while they were waiting for Grace, Steve and Danny have both been looking at possible dogs they could adopt. They both decided that they don't want a puppy they don't have time to train a puppy with their schedule, so they decided to rescue an older dog. So after a tiring day of paperwork, Steve and Danny grabbed their beer and convened in their beach chairs. It was almost hilarious how much research Steve had done into what kind of dog would work best for them; Steve would equate it to a 1/3 of the work that goes into a SEAL mission. Steve also had notes on his pages he was that serious about this decision. Choosing a dog was not a decision that needed to be taken lightly, they weren't going to return the dog if they happened not to like it. This was a decision, like marriage or having a child that Steve thought shouldn't be taken lightly.

"Alright Super SEAL lay it on me. What are your top three choices?" Danny asked after taking a generous sip from his beer. It was cute to see Steve sitting behind his laptop so focused on the pages of dogs in front of him. Steve also took a generous sip while he went through the pages looking for his top three choices.

"Alright the shelter has a young beagle, that's house trained, and I read that beagles are really smart and like to howl. There's a chocolate lab that might be good for us, ya know big sturdy dog that could be trained to take down someone that might try and break in the house. There's also a German Shepherd, which could be trained to be a guard dog for the house and Grace. But if I'm going to be completely honest, Danno I really think the beagle is adorable." Danny smiled and took the page that Steve was holding out to him. It was a tall beagle that had the most adorable face that just made you fall in love with him.

"I have to admit he is adorable and honestly I thought for sure you were going to say that you wanted the bigger dogs. I was expecting you to have a list of dogs that we could train to guard the house and protect Grace. But I like the idea of a beagle, they're smart and loyal. I don't really want a big dog."

"I'd be afraid that they could knock you over." Steve stated in all seriousness. Danny glared and reached out smacking Steve with his own stack of paper. "I'm being serious Danny; I'm not making a short joke." Danny's only reply was to smack Steve once again.

"Just stop digging while you're ahead okay? So we're agreed then, we're going with the beagle?" Steve nodded as he took a sip of his beer. Danny smiled and looked down at the info sheet about the beagle. "I think it was kismet that we picked this dog."

"Why's that?" Steve asked looking at the sheet again as Danny held it out in front of him. Steve finally noticed the name of the dog. "Jack." Steve whispered suddenly assaulted with memories of his father and Steve smiled, it was the perfect name for a smart dog. Danny smiled reaching out and grabbing Steve's free hand.

"I'll call the shelter in the morning to get the ball rolling and hopefully sometime soon, we'll be right here with Jack." Steve nodded leaning forward to kiss Danny.

"I call dibs on telling Grace!" He exclaimed as he got up and raced into the house.

"You cannot call dibs on telling my daughter things Steven!" Danny replied getting up and racing after his goof of a partner.

A/N 2: so what'd ya think? For their dog I wanted to pick an unexpected breed, because a big guard type dog was just too predictable (plus I have a beagle and I just love him so much). Random note: has anyone seen the finale yet? Because I'm still gob smacked about it and have decided that I'm going to have to watch it a few more times to fully grasp the amazingness that was the finale. Anyway, let me know what you thought and the next chapter should be up relatively quickly!