Two months before they were set to leave, newspaper clippings about civil unions began to appear on both Steve and Danny's desks at the office and at least one came in the mail to the house. Danny and Steve both suspected the other of dropping rather obvious hints, but said nothing about it.
During Mary's last bi-monthly visit, she managed to corner her brother and Danny on separate occasions to ask them about the rumors she'd been hearing. Neither had a clue what she was talking about.
"Really, Mare…I don't know what you're talking about," Steve replied. He leaned away from the tub hoping to avoid being splashed by Keilana.
"All I'm saying is that if there's a wedding or civil union, I better be there," Mary pushed her brother out of the way, grabbed the baby towel and picked Keilana up from the baby tub to dry her off.
"Who's getting married?" Danny asked as he walked by the bathroom.
"You and Steve. Kono told me that you extended your stay in New Jersey by two weeks…and you know that civil unions are legal there."
"I don't see why I'd go all the way to New Jersey to do that," Steve replied, putting emphasis on state.
"And Steve hasn't asked me yet," Danny added.
Steve gave Danny a look. "Why would I be the one asking?" he asked. "Why can't you ask?"
"Because it's the right thing to do," Danny said. He began to tick off on his fingers all the reasons why it was right for Steve to be the one asking. "You asked me to move in, You get indignant when someone refers to you as the girl in the relationship…" then it dawned on him that Steve really expected him to propose. "Why would I ask you?"
"Because you've been leaving me newspaper articles about civil unions being legal in New Jersey," Steve said eyeing Danny.
"I've been getting the same thing, but with Hawaii." Danny said. "You never answered my question. Why would I ask you?"
"Because you love me?" Steve asked with a lopsided grin.
Danny raised an eyebrow. "Well, yes, but you love me too, so you could have asked me."
"I could have, but you know I don't handle rejection well."
"When have I ever rejected you?" Danny asked. His hands were chopping through the air as he spoke. "We've known each other three years and been together eight months and I've yet to reject you or deny you anything."
"Well there was that one time…" Steve laughed.
"Outside of work, I have yet to reject you or deny you anything," Danny amended with a roll of his eyes
"So," Steve said as he moved closer to Danny, "if I were to ask you to spend the rest of our lives together, you'd say yes?"
While Mary was in the nursery with Keilana, she had Kono on speaker phone relaying the conversation between Danny and Steve.
"I can't believe they're totally buying all of this," Mary said with a laugh.
"What's going on?" Kono asked.
"They had no idea we were behind the articles," Mary said, "Danny actually thought it was Steve and Steve thought it was Danny."
Kono laughed. "And the magazines?"
"I don't know if they even noticed them," Mary replied honestly. "They've been busy getting ready for their trip and it doesn't even look like the living room's been used with the exception of Keilana's toys."
"Hey, tell me what they're doing now?" Kono asked.
Mary looked out of the nursery and saw Steve and Danny kissing. "I'll call you back in a bit when I find out." She ended the call, finished drying off Keilana and dressed her in her ducky pajamas.
"I'd give it consideration," Danny began. Steve looked at him with a hopeful expression. "But I don't think I could reject you like that."
Steve smiled and kissed him. "I love you Danny. Is that a yes?"
Danny kissed him back. "Was there a proposal in there somewhere?"
"It was implied," Steve mumbled. "I'm not good with the grand romantic gestures."
"You goof," Danny replied fondly.
"Lamest proposal ever!" Mary called out from Keilana's nursery. Steve and Danny pulled away with a huff of a laugh.
"Mary Ann McGarrett!" Danny yelled. "This is your doing isn't it?"
Mary gave an innocent shrug as she hugged her niece before handing her to Steve. "I plead the fifth?"
Danny snorted as he reached out to her for a hug. "It's okay. I still love you like the annoying little sister you are."
"Just what I need…another overprotective brother," Mary joked as she moved closer to Danny and gave him a hug.
"But I'm the fun one," Danny kissed her temple and smirked at Steve who rolled his eyes.
"I expect to hear of a non-lame proposal soon!" she called out as she headed down the stairs.
A couple of weeks after the implied marriage proposal, Steve worked up the nerve to propose to Danny. Steve also enlisted the help of Chin to digitally alter a movie to include the proposal.
The day that Steve was to propose, he was a bundle of nerves. They had just dropped Keilana off with Jean and Mark and they had reservations for dinner at Buca Di Beppo. Steve knew that Danny had been homesick for his mother's lasagna and chicken cannelloni and was counting down the days until he could have it. There's also another reason Steve picked Buca Di Beppo for this dinner. It was where their first official date, post Keilana's birth, took place.
Once they arrived at the restaurant, they were promptly seated and the drink orders were taken. While they drank and waited for the waiter to return for the meal order, Danny talked more about his parents.
"Ma is Spanish and Italian. Her parents moved here right after they were married. They wanted a better life. Pops and his family have been around the New York area forever. Zayde Aaron was a Rabbi and Bubba Anna was a nurse."
And he talked more about his siblings, mostly his sisters since Steve pretty much knew everything about Matthew.
The waiter returned to take their order – they were going to split the lasagna and chicken cannelloni. Steve opened up about his mother.
"Mom was from a small town in Iowa and had never gone anywhere. When she graduated high school she wanted to travel, but Grams Mary insisted she have an education. Before she graduated, she won a scholarship to the University of Hawaii and finished her education out here. She ended up teaching elementary school."
"I bet coming from Iowa, Hawaii was a shock to her." Danny commented
"Yeah, you could say that. She met dad when he was on leave. His family had been here for years. You know my Grandfather died at Pearl Harbor. My Aunt Carol actually introduced Mom and Dad to each other. According to her, it was love at first sight."
"Yeah, you McGarretts are hard to resist." Danny replied with a smirk.
Their dinner arrived and they ate in companionable silence. For dessert, Steve splurged and had Chocolate Chip Cannoli while Danny had a slice of cheesecake. Halfway through, they swapped desserts.
"For reliving our first date, this was really nice." Danny said. "I'm glad we got the chance to do this."
Steve smiled. "The night's not over, yet Danno." Steve said as he paid for their meal.
They arrived back to the house and Steve talked Danny into a walk on the beach. They changed out of the suits they wore to dinner and put on board shorts and tee-shirts and headed to the beach. After about an hour, they returned and Steve suggested they watch a movie. He asked Danny if he had a preference, and thankfully Danny said he didn't. That allowed for Steve to choose the correct movie, and hope the rest of the night continued as wonderfully as it had been going.
While Steve set up the movie, Danny went to change out of his sea salt damp board shorts and into comfortable pajama pants and tee. Steve grabbed his sweats from the laundry room and changed in the kitchen. He chuckled to himself as he thought about what Danny would say about him changing out in the open like that.
Danny and Steve returned to the living room at the same time and curled up on the couch to watch the movie Steve picked.
"So…what did you pick?" Danny asked.
"It's a surprise," Steve said with a hopeful smile, "but I think you'll like it."
Soon the movie was starting and before the opening credits began, Danny knew what Steve picked. "No," Danny said as he moved from his resting position against Steve. "No, we aren't going to watch this."
Steve looked at Danny, confusion on his face. "Why not? I thought you liked Enemy Mine."
"I refuse to watch it with you because the last two times we watched it, you made fun of me." Danny moved to stand up and walk to the DVD player to stop the movie, but Steve reached out and grabbed his arm.
"I promise I won't make fun of you," Steve said. "I will let you watch in peace." Steve tugged on Danny's arm until he relented and joined him back on the couch.
True to his word, Steve let Danny watch the movie in peace. As the minutes ticked away and it got closer to the edited scene, Steve became more and more anxious. He knew that Danny would accept his proposal, but he was still nervous. The last time he prepared to propose to someone he loved; he never got the chance to follow through with it.
Around the one hour mark, the spot that had been edited, Steve mumbled about needing to go to the bathroom, but slipped into the study to retrieve the ring he got for Danny. He waited until he heard his voice coming from the TV to return to the living room. The scene that Steve chose to have edited was where Jeriba was teaching Davidge his full lineage and explaining that it is a social necessity if his child is to be accepted into Drac society. Instead of hearing Jeriba and Davidge speaking, Steve's voice came through loud and clear.
"Danny, these last nine months have been so great with you and I don't want to go another day without being able to tell everyone that you're mine, always and forever. Will you marry me?"
Steve went to one knee, and held out the open black velvet box with the simple silver band with the McGarrett family crest etched in it.
Danny looked from the TV to Steve and back to the TV. Steve knew that Danny wasn't expecting a proposal, even though they talked about it weeks earlier.
The silence lasted a few seconds longer before Danny found his voice and replied with a shaky, "YES!"
Steve let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding. Before he could take the ring out of the box to put on Danny's finger, Danny took the ring himself. He didn't take it out of the box, but he wanted a closer look at the design on the ring.
"Tell me what it is," Danny said as he looked from the ring to Steve.
"It's the McGarrett Family crest. This ring belonged to my Grandfather. He never took it off but the night before the attack, he'd taken it off and gave it to my grandmother for her to take it to be cleaned," Steve explained as he took it back from Danny. "All the McGarrett men get a ring when they turn 18. Being the oldest, I got my Grandfather's, plus a ring of my own and I gave Mary our Dad's ring."
Danny held out his left hand to Steve when he took the ring out of the box. "Where's your ring?"
"In the safe with my dog tags," Steve replied as he slid the ring on to Danny's finger.
Danny leaned forward on the couch and wrapped his arms around Steve's neck. "I love you," he whispered, "I love you so much."
Steve pulled Danny closer and kissed his lips. "I love you too."
Their engagement remained a secret for all of 60 hours. Mary returned unexpectedly saying she had good news to share with her family, but wanted to tell Steve and Danny first. Monday afternoon Mary decided she would treat her brothers to dinner and Steve and Danny said they'd meet her at Tiki's Bar & Grill after they finished in their meeting with the Governor.
Like usual, the meeting with the Governor lasted longer than they planned but thankfully, Rachel would be getting Keilana from Jean and Mark's, so Steve and Danny left the Governor's office and headed to meet Mary.
When they got to Tiki's, Mary was sitting on the second floor balcony waiting for them and sipping on a Primo.
"Sorry we're late, Mare," Steve said as he gave her a hug and kissed her temple. He pulled out a chair and sat down. "Danny's talking with Grace so he should be coming up in a bit."
"No worries," Mary smiled. "I don't leave out until first thing tomorrow morning, but I wanted to do a bit of light celebrating."
"What's the news?" Steve asked. He looked Mary up and down. "Something looks different about you…"
"I'll wait until Danny arrives to tell you. Save on having to repeat it."
"Tell me what?" Danny asked as he walked on to the balcony to join them
"My good news of course!" Mary smiled
Mary had taken the time she was waiting for Danny and Steve to show up to order lettuce wraps for them to share and it was just being placed on the table in front of them along with their beers.
"You guys still drink Primo, right?" Mary smirked as Danny covered his face with his hands.
"Oh my God!" Mary yelled and jumped up. Steve jumped up as well, thinking that something was going down and Danny slid his hands from in front of his face to look around.
"What…what…?" Steve and Danny asked at the same time.
"YOU DID IT!" Mary exclaimed. "When did that happen?" She pointed to Danny's hand.
Steve was still on high alert, but slowly relaxed as he sat back in his chair and looked to what Mary was pointing at and smiled.
Danny looked at his hand and smiled as well. "This weekend. It happened this weekend." He twisted the ring on his finger.
"And you didn't bother to tell me!" She leaned across the table and smacked both of their arms.
"We haven't exactly told anyone," Steve replied.
"It happened then we went to work today," Danny added.
"Well." Mary sighed and sat down. "Let me see the ring." She held out her hand to Danny.
"It's our Grandfather's ring," Steve said.
Mary snapped her head and looked at him. "You gave it to him?"
"It was mine to give," Steve replied, his body tightening defensively.
"I know that. I'm just surprised," Mary said. She didn't mean for her question to sound negative or make Steve think she wasn't happy. "You were undecided about giving it to Catherine when you were going to propose."
"Well, it is a man's ring." Steve said with a smirk.
"I used to wear dad's ring on my thumb before I got my job." Mary snapped her mouth shut when Steve and Danny looked at her.