Chapter 36 "Observant Father"

A/N: (4 January 2017) Happy New Year! :-D I'm so late, but this chapter is the newest gift to everyone who reads this story! You are the best people, the best reviewers, the nicest, and I hope all of you have the most positive / blessed / happy 2017! Thank you for each review, each follow and favorite, each read!

This is not the chapter I thought it would be. This one snuck up on me while I was preparing to write what will now be Ch. 37. I learned a few things about Steve, and about Dr. Cornett! Now you get to!

Thank you CBS for giving us this reboot of Hawaii Five-0! And to the actors (including Peter Roberts for bringing Dr. Cornett to life), thank you from our huge hearts, because you are who we see and hear in our heads when we write this stuff!

Chapter 36 "Observant Father"

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(Saturday, 24 December 2016, 5:32 p.m.)

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Basking in the glow of new-found love, both Steve and Hannah arrived at Danny's room as Dr. Cornett was doing another check on his patient. Since the Doctor was tired, having had a long day, he was writing in Danny's chart while sitting in the chair across from the foot of the bed, and was therefore not immediately noticeable if someone beelined for Danny before looking around first. Steve and Hannah beelined, standing close, Hannah leaning on Steve's cast, arm around his waist, as she met the sleeping Danny.

As they had made use of the empty elevator up to Danny's room to re-affirm one another of their increasing affection, and the elevator's proximity to said room, and since Steve was entirely distracted by both Hannah and the desire to check on Danny, he had forgotten that Hannah had re-applied her lip gloss before getting out of the make-out Mercury Marquis in the parking lot, and was hastily re-applying it again after making sure all their clothes were tidy before stepping out of the elevator. Steve also felt better than he ever had before in his life, and could not wait to see Danny.

When the two entered Danny's room, Steve was immediately fixated on Danny, sleeping peacefully in the bed, covers neatly drawn up to his chest, the evidence of his recent minor-but-important surgery being the bandaging on his right hand, especially his thumb, and a number of IV bags hanging from the stand behind the bed. And monitors. Steve studied heart and breathing very carefully, which meant he missed the 2-degree tennis match Dr. Cornett was having with his eyes as he looked at the profiles of his daughter, then Steve's mouth, then his daughter, then Steve's mouth, several times before furrowing his brow and waiting to be noticed by the man with pink lip gloss smeared all over the half of his lower face that he could see. Neither had he failed to notice the close touching of bodies, and attitudes denoting warm, glowing feelings, and the one little part of upturned, creased hem of Hannah's yellow floaty dress, which she had not been wearing when she went to clean out her kindergarten class that morning.

Finally, Dr. Cornett cleared his throat, and the reaction of this time-honored announcement of presence had an immediate one on Steve and his daughter. They were suddenly two feet apart, blushing in unison, and stammering hello. "I didn't see you, Dad!"

"Dr. Cornett! Hi! Uh, how's … you are staring at me."

Dr. Cornett stood up, glad of his superior height to Steve, accepted with genuine love Hannah's hug, and then dug into his lab coat pocket for his handkerchief, which he handed to Steve with the dry comment, "Hannah's pink lip gloss. So, you and Hannah got very acquainted in a very short time, I see."

Steve turned from tomato to beet red, and wiped away. "Yes, Sir, we did, Sir. That is, you see, I want to marry her."

"I … see. That was a statement."

"Oh!" fumbled Steve. He was doing this all wrong. "I meant to, see, the, what I meant to do was ask for your permission to marry Hannah, Sir."

Face impassive, the doctor turned to Hannah and asked her if she might give him and Steve a few minutes alone to talk.

"Yes, Daddy." Hannah scrammed, gracefully, closing the door behind her.

"So," said Doctor Isaac Cornett to Steve McGarrett, using his extra two inches of height and military-erect posture to full advantage. "You want to ask me if you can marry my daughter who you met all of 2 days ago."

"Yes, Sir. I know it's sudden. But we complete each other. I never felt that way about any woman before, Sir, and she feels the same about me, at least I think she does."

"So, you have asked her to marry you?"

"Nnno, I said I would ask you first, then ask her. I, uh, may, uh, well, I did mention June."

"Mmm." Dr. Cornett took back his handkerchief and looked briefly at the pink gloss now staining it. "Moderately chivalrous; I'm giving you a C+ for the June part, because it is a few months away. In this situation, the + is what saves you. You 'complete' each other, you say. You probably don't know that I am a crack shot with small and large calibre fire arms, participate in Ren Faire dueling with a variety of swords, hunt with the bow - long, short, and compound - use a stunt light saber at Jedi Master level, and always carry a scalpel." He fixed his narrowed hazel eyes on Steve's now-wide sea-green pair, and asked, with just enough chill in his voice to further prove he was Hannah's protective father. "Just how 'complete' have you two become in two days?"

Steve coloring had paled at the recitation of Dr. Cornett's list of skills outside the hospital, but at that very direct if delicate question, his complexion went from pale to beet red to purple. He stammered. He gulped. "Oh! Oh! No, no Sir, we have not, uh, we have not on my honor Sir we have not become, uh, you know, one, uh, if that is what you are asking."

"It is."

"Oh! No! Sir, I would not disrespect your daughter that way, not without asking you first. I mean, asking you if I could marry her, then asking her, and if she said yes then marrying her, and then doing the complete thing. Really! I want to be honorable. I am an honorable man. That is why I said June, since I think I can wait that long. Sir."

Dr. Cornett merely commented, "I witnessed familiar hand holding, body touching, and that was a lot of lip gloss."

Steve tried to think of an even infinitesimally suitable reply, but settled on a guilty shrug, his own posture having become ramrod, his gaze straight ahead, as it would be for a superior officer. "We we we well, we did do some kissing, but our hands stayed I'm pretty sure they stayed honorable, because if they hadn't I'd definitely remember the where they weren't and my fried brain is full of hands and hair and waists and uh, lots of kissing. Sir."

"All that, one-handed?" Dr. Cornett finally relented, his face warmed, and put his hands on Steve's shoulders. "Never mind. I knew you two had something special the moment you two met, and obviously Hannah feels the same way for you that you do for her, so, under the proviso that you stay honorable and get to know one another for a bit, you have my permission to court her, and when you propose, if she says yes, you have my blessing, but no sooner than June."

"Thank you, Sir." Steve exhaled for what felt like an hour and commented, "You are very tall, Sir."

Dr. Cornett laughed. "I know. It comes in handy. You can call me Doc for now."

Danny, smiling, sounding weak but fully awake, said, "Congratulations, Steve. I was thinking of matchmaking between you and Hannah while I was in the box. I just want you to know, I thoroughly enjoyed watching you not squirm there, when I could tell you wanted to. Can I be Best Man?"