Three hours later Lizanne, Robert and Cole were sitting in Lizanne's office trying to come to some kind of compromise. Cole didn't want Catherine to be completely out of Keilana's life; Robert and Lizanne both wanted Catherine to face the consequences for taking Keilana without Steve's knowledge, but Lizanne also wanted to revoke Catherine's parental rights to Keilana.
"This is the ultimate example of what's wrong with our society," Cole said, "Because Steve is some big shot with the Governor, he's getting special treatment."
"Special treatment? What special treatment?" Lizanne asked. "This has nothing to do with Steve being the head of the Governor's task force but everything to do with Catherine taking Keilana from Steve without anyone knowing."
"Since when does she have to inform anyone that she's taking her daughter?" Cole asked. "Which she has every right to do."
"Not when she only had visitation," Robert said. "Catherine and Steve had an oral agreement before she left Hawaii saying that she was giving up her rights and Steve was sympathetic enough to let her continue to see Keilana."
"No legal documents were drawn up stating that Catherine was giving up her rights," Cole said.
"A verbal agreement is just as binding as a paper agreement," Lizanne said. "Especially when there were plenty of people who witnessed the conversation."
"That was held under duress," Cole added. "Catherine had just given birth and she was in an emotional state."
"She could have avoided that had she been honest from the very beginning," Robert said.
"True as that may be, that's neither here nor there," Cole said. "I'll agree to everything as long as Jean and Mark are still able to see Keilana."
"Okay," Robert and Lizanne said in agreement.
"And that Catherine never sees the inside of a jail or court room for this supposed kidnapping."
"I can't agree with that until I talk to Steve," Robert said
"Then Catherine isn't signing anything," Cole said
"Jesus Christ!" Lizanne exclaimed. She reached for the phone, dialed Steve's number and placed him on speaker. "Steve, its Lizanne."
"Did you get the papers finished?" Steve asked
"Almost," she said. "We've hit a snag."
"What kind of snag?"
"Don't press charges against Catherine," Cole said. "And she'll agree to everything else."
"Lizanne…Robert what do you think?"
"This is all you," Robert said. "She won't have anything to do with Keilana, but Jean and Mark will still be able to see their granddaughter."
Steve thought a moment. "No charges. I don't want her to see Catherine."
"Okay, fine," Cole said. "You'll have the papers signed by the end of the week."
Steve hung up the phone and Lizanne pressed the speaker button on her phone to end the call. "So I trust we're done here?" Lizanne asked.
"For now," Cole said. "Catherine will sign the papers, but I'd like to know how you plan on keeping her from seeing Keilana."
"If Jean and Mark want to be in Keilana's life, I'm sure something could be worked out on that end," Robert said.
"Then gentlemen," Lizanne said standing up and walking to her office door and pulling it open, "It was a pleasure doing business with you and I look forward to having those papers at the end of them week." Robert and Cole stood up and walked out of Lizanne's office. Lizanne closed the door behind them, walked back to her desk and began to type up the custody arrangement to send to Cole and Robert the next morning.
Though it took longer than Steve liked to get the drawn up custody papers, once he had them, he was able to read them over and discuss the agreement with Danny. Danny knew that Steve was still pretty upset about what Catherine had done and Danny knew the vengeful side of Steve wanted to lock Catherine up, but if that happened, then there would have been no way for any sort of custody agreement to have been drawn up.
Once all the paperwork was signed and filed with the courts, Steve, Jean and Mark met to discuss a visitation schedule. Jean was retired and spent quite a bit of time at home and said that she would have no problem watching Keilana during the week while Steve was at work. Mark was still doing private contract work that had him busy on the Big Island and Maui so Jean was home by herself most days.
In the end, the visitation, babysitting, plans were set. Jean would watch Keilana twice a week, not including the one weekend when Jean would watch the baby so Steve and Danny could go out.
In the four months following the confrontation with Catherine, things had gone smoothly. Jean and Mark were more than pleased with the twice weekly visits they'd have with their granddaughter. Jean also began to speak to Steve on a weekly basis about what Catherine was up to. Jean knew that as much as Steve claimed to not care what was going on with Catherine, she knew that a part of Steve would always care for her as the mother of Keilana.
Nick was still working with Mark, but knew enough of their schedule to know when he needed to keep away from the yacht club and work at the harbor instead or at one of his other jobs. The last thing he wanted to do was mess with Mark and Jean's visitation with their granddaughter.
Catherine showed up on the Island about once a month, but stuck to Maui and her parents' vacation home and let them come to her. Shortly after her parents told her they finalized a visitation schedule with Steve, she was upset they wouldn't let her come to the house at all while they had Keilana. Catherine knew they were only following the rules that Steve set up, but she still didn't think it was fair that someone was dictating her relationship with her parents.
Steve and Danny eventually finalized the plans for their trip to New Jersey. It was hard convincing Denning to agree to both Steve and Danny taking their vacation at the same time, but with Chin, Kono and Lori still being there to run things, they'd have additional help from HPD and should the need for Danny or Steve to return separately or together, they were a phone call away.
Grace would be going with Danny and Steve to New Jersey for a couple of weeks, then Rachel would fly in, pick her up and head to London to spend a couple of weeks there before going back to Hawaii in time for her birthday and the start of school.
"Are you sure there isn't anything else I need to have for Keilana during the three weeks we're visiting your family?" Steve asked as he sorted through Keilana's clothes.
Danny resisted rolling his eyes. He'd already convinced Steve it wasn't necessary to pack up all of Keilana's clothes to take with them because the majority of the time they'd be at one of his Uncle's vacation houses on Long Beach Island and Keilana would probably be too uncomfortable wearing much of anything besides lots of sun block and her diaper.
"Babe, just take enough diapers for the flight over and then enough clothes for a couple of weeks. You know my Ma and sisters are going to have a ton of clothes to give you to bring back," Danny explained. "Anything else we may need, we can buy."
Steve sighed. "I know. I just want to be prepared."
Danny walked to Steve, took the sun dress out of his hand and placed it on the bed. "Trust me, you are more than prepared." He wrapped his arms around Steve's waist and gave him a squeeze. "But it wouldn't hurt to go through her clothes and donate the stuff that's she's too big for."
Steve grunted in response, wrapped his arms around Danny and hugged him back. "Will you help me, Danno?"
Danny nodded his head, released Steve and looked at the baby clothes currently covering their bed. "How does she have so many clothes? Gracie didn't have this much when she was a baby."
"Gracie didn't have the Kalakaua Aunties and Mary spoiling her," Steve said with a grin.
"Don't talk to me about spoiling. You forget I have three sisters who love spoiling my girls and my Ma will do her share too," Danny added.
Steve loved hearing Danny say girls; loved knowing that Danny considered Keilana his daughter and not just his boyfriend's daughter. Steve especially loved the look Danny got when Keilana held her arms up to Danny.
"Well there you go," Steve laughed. "That's why Keilana has so many clothes. And don't think I didn't notice the new Yankees shirts you ordered for her last week."
Danny laughed in response and continued to sort through the clothes. "She still wears the 6 month clothes, right?"
"Yeah, in some things," Steve replied, "but for the most part I've been getting her 9 month clothes."
Once they finished sorting through Keilana's clothing, it was almost time for dinner and that meant Rachel would be returning with Keilana and Grace. Danny figured they'd have about 30 minutes before both Keilana and Grace began to whine and beg for food so he made his way to the kitchen.
Earlier in the day, Malia stopped by with barbequed mahi-mahi and orange mango sauce because she heard from Chin how Danny really liked it. Malia left instructions on how to heat it up so by the time Danny heard Grace chattering away at the front of the house, everything was piping hot.
"Hey Monkey! How was tennis practice?" Danny asked as he gave Grace a hug and kiss.
"It was great Danno!" Grace replied as he pulled off her sweater and put it next to her backpack. "I won two sets, but lost the match."
Danny could tell that Grace wasn't upset about losing or he would have heard about it on the way to the house.
"Hey, Rach. Thanks for taking Lana with you." Danny said as he took the carrier from Rachel.
"Oh it was no problem, and you know that," Rachel chided.
Soon after, Steve joined them and they sat down to dinner. Grace retold the tennis match in vivid detail to Steve while he busied himself with Keilana. After dinner, Rachel excused herself earlier than usual saying something about Stan returning from a business trip early because he'd gotten sick. Grace gave her mother a hug goodbye and went back to helping clear the table of the used dinner plates and forks.
"Hope Stan isn't too sick," Steve said as he walked Rachel to the door.
"He said it was a touch of food poisoning, but I'll know more when I get home," Rachel said. "Oh, Steve. She was a little fussy earlier. She had a slight fever, but it went down after she woke up from her nap. So make sure you monitor that."
"Thanks, Rachel. I will," Steve gave her a hug as she walked out of the house.
For any tennis players out there, I played tennis with the boys and we always did best 3 of 5 won the match, so that's what I did for Grace. I've since learned that in women's, it's best 2 of 3 wins. *shrugs*
Also, all my wonderful readers, you're in luck! I've added another chapter (maybe a 2nd chapter) before the FINAL ENDING. This story keeps growing, but this next chapter I'm working on (it's the newly added one), kind of came out of the blue. My beta thinks it's a good idea, so I'm working on it as fast as I can (it's maybe 25% complete).