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And thank again to JazzieG and rewob17 for all your help with this story :-)

Epilogue:

"Leave that damned sling alone, Steven," Danny repeated impatiently for the umpteenth time in the last few hours, rolling his eyes in annoyance when he saw his partner fiddle with said item on his left arm. "Or I swear to God, I'll drag your ass back to the hospital…"

"Oh, I don't think so, Danno," Steve interrupted him, grinning smugly at the smaller man before he raised his eyebrows and grabbed a bottle of beer from the table in his backyard. "You know what the doctor said about carrying anything heavier than a bottle of water, right?" he said, taking a sip from his bottle as he winked at his friend.

"You know what the doctor said, right?" Danny parroted grumpily, cautiously leaning forward to take his own bottle from the table without straining his healing back too much. Narrowing his eyes he watched the bright grin on Steve's face and slowly started to shake his head. "Enjoying yourself, McGarrett?"

"Immensely," Steve chuckled good-humoredly, putting the Longboard back onto the table and wrapping his right, uninjured arm around Grace who was sitting contentedly between him and her father.

"I should have left you in that underground garage, right where you decided to take a nap," Danny muttered into his bottle before he swallowed the rest of his beer in one large gulp, but everyone knew that he didn't mean it and that he would never have left his partner and friend.

Chin involuntarily started to grin when the banter between Steve and Danny was going back and forth for another few minutes, thinking that sometimes those two were really acting like an old married couple. "You know what?" he asked drily when both men finally fell silent for a moment. "I can now see why they kicked you out of the hospital…"

The rest of his sentence was drowned out by the thundering laughter around the table and even Steve and Danny couldn't help but join in the general cheerfulness, smirking at each other.

After almost a week in a shared hospital room they had managed to drive everyone – including themselves – crazy and the medical staff was more than glad to release the two friends prematurely if there was someone around to take care of them. With Cath still visiting her brother and her newborn niece on the mainland and Grace not really counting as caregiver, Chin had more or less voluntarily agreed to jump in and look after his teammates.

He honestly had no idea how he had survived the last two days because after a certain amount of time, the constant bickering between Steve and Danny had even started to get on Chin's nerves, despite his usual Zen-like attitude. But with Catherine's arrival scheduled for early the next morning Chin hoped that with her and Grace's help he would be able to keep the two men in line until they would finally be cleared for light duty in a few days.

"They didn't kick us out," Steve and Danny huffed out indignantly with one voice, which elicited another outburst of laughter from Chin's guests. Kamekona, Max, Charlie, Duke Lukela and a small crowd of friends and relatives had joined the party at Steve's place which was not only a belated birthday present for Chin but at the same time a welcome home party for the two injured members of Five-0.

"Did you like your presents, Uncle Chin?" Grace asked curiously once the laughter had died down and everyone was sitting together in small groups, chatting and amusing themselves in the cool evening breeze. She had left her place at Steve's side a while ago and was now curled up on her father's lap like a giant human kitten, blinking tiredly as she tried to stifle a yawn.

"I did indeed," Chin answered, turning around to throw a look at the hand-made picture frame that Grace had given him, artfully decorated with colorful shells and pebble stones. "Very much so," he said, smiling brightly at Danny's daughter who proudly beamed back at him. "Thank you, Gracie."

Danny had told him that Grace had spent weeks searching for the shells and stones to find exactly what she had in mind and she had not only decorated the picture frame but also the wrapping paper so that the outside matched the present itself.

Chin's gaze flickered to his left wrist and to the new diver's watch that he had received from his teammates, together with a voucher for a scuba diving excursion to a sunken WWII navy vessel offshore Oahu. The corners of his mouth twitched in amusement when he thought about Danny's verbose assertion that he had absolutely nothing to do with the colorful wrapping of the watch but Chin started to chuckle in earnest when he remembered Steve's proud nod that had followed Danny's statement; the Ex-SEAL had obviously totally missed the essence of his partner's words, a fact that in turn had caused Danny to roll his eyes and shake his head in feigned desperation.

"Thank you, guys," Chin said when he caught Danny's curious gaze, raising his left hand to proudly show them the watch as he gave thanks to his friends for at least the fourth or fifth time that evening. "That's one of the best presents I've ever got."

"You're very welcome," Danny answered, waving off Chin's thanks with a flick of his wrist before he added with a twinkle in his eyes. "As long as you don't expect me to join you…"

His voice trailed off and he leaned forward to press a tender kiss on top of Grace's head. Noticing that his daughter was barely awake, rubbing her eyes and yawning loudly every other minute, Danny locked eyes with his partner and nodded slightly.

Returning the nod, McGarrett audibly cleared his throat and leaned forward in his chair. "Hey Gracie," he said gently, waiting patiently until the girl finally looked up at him. "We also have a present for you. Do you want to see it?"

"A present for me?" Grace replied, suddenly fully awake in the blink of an eye. "Why?" she asked as she sat up straighter and turned her head to look at her father.

"Well, actually it's not exactly a present for you, monkey," Danny answered, giving Grace a kiss on the cheek and a tender hug before he gently shoved her from his lap so that he was able to get up.

Taking a small step to the side, Danny was now standing in a row next to Steve and Chin, all three men facing Grace who stared wide-eyed back at them, nervously knotting her fingers, not sure what to expect.

"Relax, monkey," Danny whispered with a gentle smile, briefly winking at his daughter before he got serious and stood to attention, just like his teammates next to him. A few people – like Charlie and Max, who had helped preparing the surprise – already knew what was going to happen but very slowly the conversations around them died down until it was deadly silent and everyone was watching expectantly the scene in front of them.

Grace was still suffering from the aftereffects of what had happened all those days ago and she'd often wake up from a nightmare or unexpectedly start to cry silently during the day. After a lot of prodding Danny had finally found out that his daughter was still blaming herself for what had happened at the vet clinic. "If Mr. Hoppy hadn't got ill, we would never have gone there and the bad man would never have hurt you," she had sobbed piteously against her father's chest a few days ago at the hospital but whatever Danny would say, he just wasn't able to comfort her or convince her of the contrary.

Having seen that their friend was at his wits' end and almost in tears himself, Steve and Chin had forced Danny to tell them about Grace's fears and after a long, tiring discussion the three men had finally come up with an idea – or a plan of attack as Steve had insisted on calling it.

"Grace Williams, please step forward," Steve said formally, his voice loud and clear but his eyes sparkled affectionately when he looked at his adopted niece who threw a brief look at her father before she took a deep breath and did what Steve had asked of her.

"Today we want to thank and honor Grace Williams and her partner…" Steve made a short pause when he saw the confused expression on Grace's face, the corners of his mouth twitching as he tried to keep a straight face. "… Mr. Hoppy. Without the help of these two, HPD and Five-0 would never have been able to solve their latest case. Especially Mr. Hoppy's input led us directly to the vet clinic where we finally found our main suspect. Because of some very unfortunate circumstances, Detective Williams…" Steve interrupted himself again and briefly nodded toward his partner, "…had been taken hostage and it was only due to Grace Williams' fast and well-wrought reaction that the situation could have been solved with only minor injuries."

Danny, Steve and Chin had agreed to downplay the hostage situation as well as Danny's injuries, hoping to make clear that Grace had done everything right and that what had happened was definitely not her fault.

Studying the display of emotions on Grace's young face, McGarrett kept silent for almost a minute until he was sure that the girl had grasped the meaning of his speech before he cleared his throat and declared solemnly, "Grace Williams, Mr. Hoppy, today we want to appoint you as honorary members of Five-0 and promote both of you to the rank of honorary officers."

Steve waited until the approving whistling and happy murmuring around him had died down before he asked quietly, "Unfortunately your partner was not able to attend the ceremony tonight, so I'm asking you, Miss Williams, would you accept the award on behalf of Mr. Hoppy?"

Unable to utter a coherent sentence, Grace just stared wide-eyed at her uncle and nodded hesitantly. "Yes," she whispered hoarsely, taking a deep breath and willing herself to stand still.

"Alright," Steve gave her a short smile before he turned his head and nodded toward his partner. "Detective Williams, would you be so kind?" he asked, reaching into his pocket and handing Danny two small blue and golden badges that looked exactly like the real Five-0 badges but were only about half their size.

"With pleasure," Danny replied seriously as he took a step forward and cautiously crouched down in front of his daughter. Gently grabbing Grace's hand he placed the badges onto her palm and kept his fingers curled around her smaller ones.

"Honorary Officer Williams, it is an honor to award you these badges," Danny said, smiling tenderly at his daughter who had finally started to enjoy the situation, her eyes sparkling with pride and joy. "You and Honorary Officer Hoppy are a great addition to our team."

He bent forward and placed a kiss on Grace's forehead but before the girl was able to say a word Steve and Chin had joined father and daughter, crouching down next to Danny and complimenting Grace on her new rank.

Staring down at the two badges in her hands, Grace felt like a huge load had suddenly been taken off her mind; her fears disappeared into thin air and from one second to the next she started to laugh happily.

"Thank you Danno, thank you Uncle Steve, thank you Uncle Chin," Grace said over and over again, her words drowned out by the thunderous applause from the people around her as she hugged each man in turn. "Thank you so much."

"Hey Chin, thanks for sharing your party with us, it was a great evening," Danny said sincerely when all guests had finally left the party and Grace had peacefully dozed off on the couch. "We had it all planned for your actual birthday but then… yeah, well you know…" His voice trailed off as he waved his hands through the air and briefly pointed at the sling at Steve's arm and then at himself.

"Yeah man, thank you," Steve repeated, wrapping his good arm around Chin's shoulder. His words were a little bit slurred and he blinked sluggishly while he tried to lock eyes with the older man.

"You're welcome," Chin replied, quickly grabbing Steve's arm when his boss swayed slightly on his feet. He had always thought that all sailors were able to hold their drinks but that obviously didn't include Steve, at least not tonight. Chin's gaze flickered from Steve to Danny, pondering for a moment if he could leave the two men alone in good conscience but he knew that Danny never drank too much when he had Grace around and indeed Danny's eyes were bright and clear when he caught Chin's gaze and nodded slightly to indicate that he had everything under control.

"I'm really sorry we spoiled your birthday the other day," Steve drawled, grinning sheepishly as he slapped his hand at Chin's shoulder, thinking back to said day at the vet clinic.

"Yes, sorry about that," Danny chimed in, winking at Chin from behind Steve's back as he added in a low murmur. "And sorry for the wrapping of your present."

Laughing out loud Chin made sure that Steve was steady on his feet before he carefully wiggled himself out of the taller man's half-drunken hug and slowly headed for the exit. He was still chuckling quietly when he opened the door but then he turned around and looked back at his teammates.

"I think I've said it before, there's no need to apologize. The main thing is that everyone is alright," Chin said seriously, waiting a moment to let his words sink in before a content little smile slowly crept across his face. "And by the way… who needs presents or birthday parties when he's got a family like ours?" he asked, talking not only about Five-0 and Grace but about everyone else who had been present at the party and was part of their constantly growing Ohana.

THE END