melissas_corner

Title: All I Want: Grace
Fandom: Hawaii Five-0
Sequel/Series: Loving Series
Summary: Grace is growing up and Danno isn't sure he likes it.


Grace's POV:

Telling my dads that I want to be a cop wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. Sure they didn't react the way I expected, good or bad, but at least they didn't forbid me from attending the academy.

At first I thought that was because of Auntie Cath but when they didn't try to talk me out of it once we got home, I realized that they meant it when they said they supported me even though they disagree with my choice.

I've wanted to be a cop for as long as I can remember. Seeing Danno take bad guys off the streets always gave me a huge case of hero worship that morphed into a desire to do the same thing. Even though it was obviously part of the reason for my parents' divorce, I still want to be a cop.

My desire intensified when Danno joined Papa on the state task force. Five-Oh's cases are so much higher profile than the rest of HPD's and I know, deep down where it counts, that that is what I want to do with my life.

Whenever anyone would ask me what I want to be when I grow up, I'd say something that I know they expect a girl to say. That's why everyone thought I wanted to be a marine biologist when I was ten. I may have been a little kid when adults started asking the 'what do you want to be?' question but even then I knew that girls weren't supposed to want to be cops or firemen; that they were supposed to want to be princesses or moms or teachers. But I always wondered where the fun was in all those jobs? Sure I want to be a mom, but I also want to be a cop. And I intend on being just that.

It takes a few weeks after the acceptance letter arrives for me to wonder if I got in on my own merits or because I'm the daughter of the head of the Five-Oh Task Force. I quickly decide it doesn't matter. What does matter is that I got in and I plan on graduating at the top of my class.

Duke has taken me on several tours of the academy and I have the lists of all the records burned into my memory. My goal is to break each and every one of them. I know it won't be easy but if I was looking for easy I wouldn't have applied to the police academy.

In the months between when I received my acceptance letter and when I'm scheduled to start classes, I begin receiving form after form to fill out as well as lists of what I can and cannot wear during class, how I'm to wear my hair, my make-up and any jewelry. I also receive a list of supplies to bring, books to buy and read and where to go to purchase my cadet's uniform.

Knowing that my dads are having a difficult time with me following in their footsteps I do my best to keep my enthusiasm to a minimum. But it's not easy. And so I turn to Auntie Kono when I need to gush about anything to do with my preparation for the academy.

Finally, my high school graduation day arrives and there is only one more week until I officially become a Metropolitan Police Recruit. I can hardly contain my excitement.

Despite my best efforts, I'm not the valedictorian or even the salutatorian but I am third in my class and a member of the Honor Society. I know every adult in my life would be just as proud if I graduated much lower but I didn't do it for them, I did it for me; for that sense of accomplishment that you get from a job well done.

After the ceremony, everyone heads back to Danno and Papa's house. I ride with Mom and Pop since I haven't seen them in months. They don't come home as often as I'd like because Pop's job keeps him extremely busy. And so when they do manage to visit, I try to spend as much time as possible with them.

Danno and Papa's house is full to bursting with our ohana and the music can be heard from several houses away. Leave it to my dads to go overboard with the party. And of course all the neighbors are invited to keep them from complaining about the noise, not that any of them would since we don't throw parties very often.

Before we even get to the door, it's opened by Meme and Pop-Pop, Danno's parents. I rush into their arms. I haven't seen then since the twins were little. "Oh, how I've missed you!" Pop-Pop kisses the top of my head and hugs me so tight I squeak.

"I heard you screaming for me at the ceremony." I lean back so I can look at them. "I didn't think you'd be able to make it." Their flight had been delayed and, according to the airline's website, not scheduled to arrive until late afternoon; meaning they would have missed even the party.

"Yes, well, it appears your Papa pulled some strings with some of his contacts. We flew from LA to here on a private jet." Meme looks like it was an experience she'd love to relive.

"Huh. Wonder who he could have contacted for that." Pop coughs behind me. I spin on my heel. "You have a private jet?"

"No, but I had favors I could call in."

"Thank you." I throw my arms around his neck and kiss his cheek.

"You're welcome. I know how upset you were at the prospect of them not making it."

"Eddie, Clara," Mom greets Meme and Pop-Pop. "You two are looking well."

"You, too, Rachel. Vegas must agree with you."

Mom laughs. "Oh, I don't know about that. I'm much too far from my baby." She plays with my hair and looks at me like she's about to cry.

"Mom." I roll my eyes because she has done nothing but cry since they arrived a couple of days ago. She didn't cry this much when she left me here with Danno and Papa.

She sniffs. "I can't help it. I'm the mother of an adult."

Pop puts his arm around her shoulders and pulls her in tight to his side. "Hush now. If you want we can try to have a baby."

She shakes her head. "I'm getting to be too old now." Mom cups one of my cheeks in one of her hands. "I'm so very proud of you."

I blink back tears. Every time she comes for a visit it's like this: she tells me she's proud of me, she cries and says over and over that she misses me. Once she said it in front of Papa and he replied, his voice thick with rancor, that she didn't have to follow Pop to Vegas; that she could have stayed in Honolulu. It was the first time in a while I had seen any evidence of their old animosity; Mom didn't like Papa at first because she thought he exposed me to too much violence. It wasn't until she realized that both Danno and I love him and how good he is for us both, and us for him, that she relaxed around him. Or it might have been when Papa 'died' while on a mission in the Middle East when I was ten.

"Rachel, you don't mind if we steal her away, do you? Our return flight is at 5 in the morning."

"Not at all. We're here for a couple more days."

Meme wraps one arm around my shoulders and leads me into the house and over to a, somewhat, quiet corner of the living room. "We are so very proud of you!" They both hug me again before we sit down on the couch that's been pushed into the corner.

"Now, Gracie," Pop-Pop starts with a pat to my knee. "Are you absolutely sure you want to be a police officer? Just because two of your dads are doesn't mean you have to."

"I know that, Pop-Pop. But I want to; have wanted to since I was little."

"But it's so dangerous and difficult." Meme takes my left hand in both of hers. "It wasn't entirely responsible for your parents' marriage failing but it was a big part."

"No it wasn't. It was a contributing factor, yes, but it really didn't have that much to do with it. They would have gotten divorced even if Danno wasn't a cop."

"And you know this how?"

I roll my eyes. "I asked them. After the incident with Papa back when I was ten, they've all told me the truth whenever I ask." With the exception of Aunt Shelly's miscarriage the year before the twins were born.

"But still-" I was hoping that my entire family would support my career choice but obviously Danno's parents don't.

"But still, nothing. It's my choice and I am going to be a police officer just like Danno and Papa."

"I still don't think you've thought this through very well. And it's obvious your parents haven't either or they would have tried to talk you out if it." I just gape at my grandmother. I cannot believe she just said that to me.

"And this is your business, because? You are not my parent, you don't get a say in my life choices. In fact, none of my parents do anymore. The moment I turned eighteen I became old enough to choose for myself. If you don't like it-" I don't get to finish that sentence because at that precise moment my brother and sister, the twins, come tearing around the corner from the dining room and straight at us.

"Meme! Papa!" they scream at full volume. Someone, Uncle Kame most like, has given them sugar.

"John David, Olivia!" Both grandparents hold out their arms waiting for the holy terrors to jump into them.

After getting hugs and kisses from both grandparents, my siblings squirm until they're sitting on the couch between them and I have to get up or get sat on. And since neither is fully potty trained, and tend to 'forget' when excited, I give up my seat; not that any of the four people now chatting at top speed seem to notice.

Of the three children living in this house with the last name Williams, my brother and sister are the two that inherited the family ability to talk and carry on another conversation at the same time.

Since it's obvious I have been forgotten, as often happens when they're around, I dodge groups of adults and head out to the beach in the back. My mood gets darker when not one single adult tries to stop me to talk.

Feeling completely invisible, I slip off my heels and walk barefoot down the sand to the surf where I sit at the edge and let the waves lap at my bare toes. I wrap my arms around my raised knees and set my chin on them and stare out at the horizon.

Days like this I wish I didn't have any siblings. And I'm having more days like this the older they get.

Back before they could walk and talk, I loved having them around. I was able to help take care of them but these days everything I do causes a tantrum.

"Whatcha doing out here by yourself, Keiki?" a familiar voice asks from behind me.

"Uncle Kame!" I jump up and hug his neck. I knew he was here, wherever there's a party, there's Uncle Kame.

"Ho'omaika'i 'ana." He hugs me tight enough to squeeze the air from my lungs.

"Mahalo."

"So?" He sets me back on my feet and raises one brow.

I sigh deeply and plop back down on the sand. "I've gone invisible again."

"Nonsense. You could never be invisible."

"Of course I can."

He begins walking back up the beach toward the chairs that someone set up for when the party moves outside. "Naw, gorgeous girl like you? Never in a million years."

I follow and take a seat in the chair next to his. "And yet whenever John David and Olivia are around, everyone tends to forget about me. Unless, or until, they need something from me." I tuck one foot under me and rest my chin on my right fist, once again staring out at the horizon. "Did you know that most of my friends have been saving for a car but I'm saving to rent my own apartment?"

"Don't be in such a rush to grow up, Keiki. Adulthood ain't all it's cracked up to be. Trust."

My spirits drop even further at this evidence that even Uncle Kame doesn't understand. "You don't get it, Uncle. They make my life hell."

"Have you tried talking to your makuakanes?"

I give him the patented Williams 'What do you think?' glare and he just chuckles. "They tell me to be patient; that the brats love me and they'll grow out of it."

"I'm sure they will."

"Oh, I'm sure they will, too but I don't plan on staying here long enough to see that day. Now that they're trying to potty train them, John David's noticed he's 'different' from Olivia and it was decided that Olivia and I should now share a room. Me, an eighteen year-old police cadet is sharing a room with a three year-old who still sucks her fingers and wets the bed."

"Sounds to me like you should ask for one of the downstairs rooms to be turned into your bedroom."

"Oh, yeah, like that's gonna happen. They all have doors that lead to the outside. They'd never allow me that much freedom of movement."

Uncle Kame leans over until our noses are almost touching. "Then offer to pay rent. If you're more of a tenant than a dependent, they have less say about these things."

His suggestion makes perfect sense. "I knew you were my favorite for a reason," I say, leaning over to hug his neck and kiss his cheek. "Thank you, Uncle."

"Anytime, Keiki."

I link my arm through his and rest my head on his shoulder, now content to watch the sun set in companionable silence. I've just about drifted off when the sound of Papa calling my name wakes me. He gets to the chair I'm curled up in before I've fully registered the need to get up.

"There you are. I've been looking all over the house for you."

"I've been out here most of the afternoon."

He frowns at me. "Why? The party's inside."

I want to tell him the truth: that I was feeling invisible, but decide that now's not the time. So I just shrug. "Felt like being out here. Is it a problem?"

He shakes his head because he understands. Not so very long ago, he too, had issues with a house full of people. "Not at all. But come-" He pulls me to my feet. "-Danno wants to open your presents and have cake." Which actually means they're tired of telling the twins they have to wait to have the cake and that the presents aren't for them.

"Alright. But I am not letting them help open my presents."

Papa actually looks confused at my statement. "We'd never-" he begins but I talk right over him. "You did for my birthday this year. Out of the four presents I had to unwrap, I only got to open one. John David and Olivia opened the other three. And two of them were from them."

He opens his mouth, to dispute my claim, I'm sure, but closes it with a deep sigh. "You're right. It was wrong of us make you let them open your presents. I'll make sure someone is holding them away from where you'll be sitting."

"Thanks, Papa." I stand on my toes and kiss his cheek.

The rest of the party goes as smoothly as can be expected with a couple of spoiled toddlers. Pop-Pop and Meme hold them while I open my presents and when they start throwing a tantrum at not being allowed to help me, Papa threatens to remove them from the rest of the party which they know means no cake.

I'd love to say his threat made them act like perfect angels but I can't. They are two headstrong toddlers after all. But I can say that they were better behaved.