Last chapter!

Thank you guys for reading and I hope you enjoy the last part as well :) at first I planned to end the story after the 3rd chapter but then I decided to give it a little shot in the future..

I did write a kind of sequel but not sure yet if I'm gonna post it as well.

thanks!!

*7 years later*

"Uncle Danno!"

Danny was preparing some breakfast as he heard a voice screaming his name, followed by some speedy footsteps racing down the stairs. A young boy stormed into the kitchen, his curly brown hair still messy from sleep. "Hi, Uncle D! Is Dad out for a run?"

"Morning, Johnny. Yeah he is, you know your Dad. Not able to enjoy a lazy morning. Are you hungry? Im making pancakes, Grace should be up soon.", Danny told the eight-year-old. They had a sleepover at the McGarrett residence while Charlie was having a friend over at Rachel's.

"Yes, pancakes!", John called out happily and stormed out of the kitchen again. "Uncle Danny, I need some paper!"

Danny shook his head at the endless energy of this boy. He didn't seem to calm down for a minute during the day, there was no doubt he was Steve's boy. "Take a look in the drawer at the old desk, there should be some more paper. And no running in here, you know your Dad doesn't like that!".

John currently had some project in school about different occupations where he was allowed to choose on particular job – favoured to choose one from near family or friends surrounding – and do a research on it. Of course, John was thrilled about the task and he couldn't decide wether to write about his Dad as a leader of Hawaii's elite Taskforce or as a highly decorated former Navy SEAL fighting his country – so he decided to do both. Steve had been a little reserved at first to talk about his jobs as always when he thought it was nothing more than doing his job like everyone else.

„It's just a school project, Steven! The kid should ask their parents or some other relatives about a job they have to do some research on it."

„Okay, then why he doesn't choose another one? Like yours?"

„Excuse me? First of all, I'm a detective at the same Taskforce you are on and second… he wants to write about his Dad! He's thrilled about what you're doing and what you did back in the NAVY. He's a boy after all who, by the way, is very attached to you. Doesn't he remind of someone you knows?"

„No, who?"

„Yourself, moron. Weren't you the one who wanted to be a cop like his Dad had been one?"

„I don't want John to become a cop, let alone a SEAL."

„Well, that's a sit-down for another time. Good luck with that. Now get yourself together and tell the kid about your job, if you don't want to have it done by me. And you do not want that, trust me."

So, Uncle Danny had jumped in and helped the boy by opening up about everything he knew about his best friend. John totally fell into this project and hadn't been able to stop since. Danny wondered once more, if Steve had been the same back as a child. Probably.

"I can't find it!", John screamed back from the living room and Danny sighed. He put the pan with the pancakes aside and stepped into the living room, where Johnny searched through the desk for some spare paper. Danny helped him and took a look through the big bookshelf.

"Uncle D, who is this?", a question came and Danny joined Johnny at the desk, who picked out a picture he found in one of those drawers. It was an old one, covered in dust and being pretty faded, but Danny could still recognise the people on it. It showed a man, smiling into the camera, his arm around a little boy who was smiling as well.

"That's your Dad.", Danny explained and pointed at the little boy in the picture. "He was around your age in this picture, maybe one or two years older.. "And that…", he pointed to the man next to him. "… is your grandfather. You were named after him, like your Dad was named after his own grandfather, Steven McGarrett."

Johns eyes went wide. He had already seen some pictures of his Dad when he was younger but Steve barely talked about his grandfather – his own father. "Dad looked a lot like me."

Danny smiled. "That he did. I already recognise that when you were around a year old. It was like I would look straight into your fathers face."

"My grandfather was a cop, right?"

"That he was. Your dad always wanted to be a cop himself when he was a kid."

John observed the picture very exactly before his gaze went to another picture, way down at the button of the drawer. "Is this my Mum?"

Danny looked at the photo, showing Steve and Catherine. Both dressed in their Navy blues, arm in arm and smiling into the camera. Both of them were spreading their happiness in the most obvious way. "Yes, it is. It's one of your Dads favourite pictures of him and your Mom."

"When was it taken?", John asked curiously.

"It was taken a few years before you were born. Your Dad got an award for being very brave in one of his missions in the NAVY and we all have been there to congratulate him, including your mum of course. She was very proud of him."

"My Dad was a SEAL. He did a lot of those… missions.", John nodded knowingly. Steve had told him what he did for living, but not very detailed. He didn't want to scare the boy but John was very thrilled about what his Dad did. Although, he was still a little young to understand all this stuff, he knew his Dad and also his Mom had been some pretty brave and important people in the military. One day, when he would be old enough, Steve would introduce him a little more into the NAVY. But there was a lot of time left for that. " I want to be a SEAL too one day, like my Dad."

Dany had to smile at the young boy. He knew that would come out of his mouth one day, it had been just a matter of time. Steve had always said, he would never want for John to join the NAVY, let alone the SEALs. And Danny had always reminded him about his own childhood. In another way, Danny could understand his friend. The thought of his son fighting in combat and war wasn't really appealing. Steve's father hadn't had the relationship to him, not like Steve had it now to his own son.

"Well, thank god you got enough time left to decide for that. Your Dad will be proud of you, doesn't matter what you want to be when you grow up.", Danny told him. John smiled at him and then, he put on a – what Danny would call an aneurysm face on his best friend but Steve had strictly forbidden him to use that on his son – face.

"Can I ask you something, Uncle Danno?"

"Sure, buddy. Shoot."

"Dad seems to be a bit sad the last days. Did something happen? Or is it because of me; because I broke his model ship last week? He was a bit angry with me."

Danny sighed and crouched down in front of the eight-year old. "No, he isn't angry anymore because of the ship. He is a bit sad tho, that's right. But its not because of you. You know, your Mum's birthday is coming up and your Dad is always a little sad that time of the year. He just misses her."

John thought about what Danny said to him. He bit his lip and chewed on it, very focused. Then he looked up again and at the picture of Steve and Catherine, he was still holding in his hands. "Do you think I should get him a present for Mum's birthday? You said that's his favourite picture. Maybe we should print it a little bigger as a gift for him."

Danny couldn't stop smiling at him. Every year the time came around, Steve fell into a little hole. He felt depressed, sad and alone. Although he didn't show it at all in front of his son but Danny knew him better. John had been too small to recognise what was going on but today was the first time, he did recognise. Danny felt warmed at the sensitive side of the boy, he was so much like Steve. Energetic, ambitious and curious on the one hand. On the other hand, he had a very sensitive side and he was very good at reading peoples faces and emotions. Danny took him into a hug and kissed the boys head. "That's the best idea Ive everr heard. Your Dad will love it for sure."

A few days later, Steve came back from a meeting with the Governor. A look at the clock told him, John would come from school any moment. Danny offered himself to pick him up due to his friends visit at the Governors office and Steve agreed thankfully. Since he had picked up Grace and Charlie more than once on the last years, it was non-negotiable for Danny to do the same for his partner. And in addition to that, the two of them had to do do a quick stop on their way home.

Steve had time to take a shower and change into some more comfortable clothes than he had to wear before at the meeting. Today was the day; it was Catherine's birthday. With a deep sigh he touched her face on the picture right on the table in the living room, smiling slightly. It's been over 8 years now and he still missed her like it happened yesterday. The only thing that kept him going had been his son. From the day he was born and Catherine had died, little John put a smile on his face. He grew up well and Steve was proud of him every day. He started telling him about his Mum a couple years ago, although he was still very young and wouldn't understand everything about it. But Steve promised himself he would talk the moment the kid started to ask. Until now, he hadn't brought John to the grave. It just hadn't feel right yet. Steve would go there every year on Catherines birthday to tell her about the things that happened in the past year. How John was doing in school, how he got bigger and bigger and how Steve was doing by himself. He knew, she would had loved that. Every year Steve had thought of bringing his son but he couldn't convince himself yet. He was scared the little guy wouldn't understand it and would have problems to cope with it. On the other hand, Steve wouldn't want to keep his Mum from him. This took a toll on the former SEAL and one time he had talked about it with Danny. Danny had been always there for him – helping him with the baby, helping him starting the little guy on school, being there for him in the harder times. Steve was sure he wouldn't have made it without his friend. And back in their talk, Danny had told him to be patient. He would knew. when John was ready to go with him to his yearly grave visit. He would just knew.

"Dad? You home?", a voice came through the opening door and a second later his son stormed inside. "Dad!"

Steve had just time to turn around and spread out his arms as the boy jumped right at him into a hug. "Hey, champ! How was school?"

"Good! We finished the project and I got an A!"

Steve smiled and put him down. "That's my boy!", he held up his hand for a high five and John didn't spend waiting a second longer to clap his Dad's hand.

"Do you and Uncle Danno have to go back to work?"

"No, buddy, not today. Uncle Danno will go to spend his day with Charlie and I gotta do something else today. You okay spending one or two hours at Kamika's?"

Steves old neighbour was a gift from god. He knew him since he had been a child on his own and now, he would take John from time to time when Steve wasn't able to leave work early or had something to do where he couldn't take him with him. And John enjoyed his time over there. His neighbour had a dog and the eight-year old boy was in love with him. And on the other hand, his old neighbour wasn't lonely since his wife had died a few years back. John gave him some good company, so it was a kind of win-win-situation.

"Yeah, that's fine, Dad."

Steve looked at him and frowned. As much as he hated it to admit, his son had a face. Danny had been mocking him with that phrase since day one and now, Steve was confronted with the fact that his son seemed to have the exact same problem. He had a face when he had broke Steves model ship last week, because he was playing football in the house which he wasn't allowed to. He had a face when he was a second away to tell Steve about of his semi-boring experiments where he nearly blew up half of the kitchen again. He had face when he did something in school he wasn't supposed to do - like dressing up with one of Steves old SEAL-shirts and pretending the class would be a combat zone attacked by monsters.

So, such kind of face had appeared on John's face right now and Steve was prepared for everything… well, at least he thought so.

"So, what's going on with the face? What did you do, huh?", the former SEAL asked in a tone the young boy usually knew there was no way out of this. But today was different.

"Nothing, Dad. I promise!", he shook his head when Steve raised one of his eyebrows. "But Uncle Danny and I have to show you something!"

Steves gaze moved from his son to the door where Danny had already waited. "Oh, you do, huh? What did you do?", he moved his earlier question to his partner who started laughing.

"Nobody did anything, Steve. Calm down. And I don't have anything to do with it, it was all your boy's idea!"

Steve sighed. "That never ended well so far."

"This time it did, I promised.", Danny smiled and together with John they brought in what looked like a canvas, framed and ready to be hung up on the wall. It was nearly as big as John himself.

"I got a present for you!"

"A present? It isn't my birthday, right?"

John shook is head and with the help of Danny he turned the canvas to give Steve a look. "No, but its Mom's birthday!"

The canvas showed the picture of Catherine and Steve, made on the day he got awarded for one of his missions back in the days. It was black and white all over, surrounded with a light golden frame and big enough to decorate the big empty wall on the one side from the living room. Steve's face had changed immediately. His eyes grew wide, his usually tensed up face lines softened and for once he was speechless. He took a step forward to get a better look and didn't notice his own glassy eyes.

"Dad? Don't you like it?", John asked, a little unsure as Steve had to fight off the tears. He hadn't seen his Dad crying often, maybe one or two times. And he never did it in front of him, he had always hide or tried to pretend it didn't happen.

Steve knelt down in front of John and the picture and he took his son into a strong hug. One sniff and a few strokes over his little boys curly hair, Steve wasn't really able to hold his emotions back. "I don't… I don't like it, I love it. That's the most beautiful present I ever got in my life. So has Mum.", he whispered to John who wrapped his arms around his fathers neck and seemed to inhale some of those emotions.

"I miss her too, Dad.", he said softly and Steve pulled away from the hug, just to grab his boy at his shoulders and have a look at him. "I know, you do. And that's alright, okay? You can miss her and be sad from time to time; I do that too. It hurts now and it will never stop hurting… but one day, it will hurt less to think of her. And you have to remember: she's very proud of you and she loves you. She never wanted to leave you but we can't change things that happened in the past. But one thing I can promise you forever: I will never leave you. So do Uncle Danno, Uncle Chin and Aunt Kono. They are your Ohana like I am. E mahalo kakou J ka mea loaa,"

"E mahalo kakou J ka mea loaa", his son repeated, smiling and hugging Steve again. The former SEAL gave him a kiss on the head like he did since the boy was born and then he moved his gaze to Danny who hadn't left his place. Steve smiled at him and mouthed a thank you. His partners smile just grew wider, but he didn't say anything.

"So, what do you think? You want to help me hang it up on the wall?", Steve stood up and squeezed John's shoulder who was immediately grabbed by excitement.

"Yes! Yes!"

"Very well. But before we do that, there is something else we need to do.", Steve made a pause and quickly took another look at Danny before he crouched down again in front of his boy. "Do you want me to join visiting Mum?"

The boys eyes began to lit up and he nodded a few times. Steve smiled at him and stood up again. "Grab your stuff sailor, we are heading out in 5."

John stormed upstairs a second later to grab his stuff while Steve looked after him. Then he helped Danny to put the canvas to lean against the wall until they will come back from the cemetery to hang it up the wall. He noticed that Danny was still smiling and he paused to look at him. "What?"

"Oh, nothing. Just… I still can't believe you are the same person as before John had been born. That little guy did something to you."

Steves gaze faded back upstairs where they could hear John's footsteps running around. "Yeah. That he did. I can't imagine a life without him."

"Catherine would be proud of you, you know? That was all she had wished for. You, happy.", Danny poked his finger into his partners chest and smiled at him.

Steve looked at him. "Thank you, Danny."

And both of them knew, it was more than a simple thank you.

"Anytime, babe."

E mahalo kakou J ka mea loaa - let us be grateful for what we got

fin.