MAGNUM FAMILY TRADITIONS

Part One: St. Patrick's Day

How Thomas Spends St. Patrick's Day

(He is a Sullivan, after all!)
*(*(*)*)*

Thomas Magnum came sauntering out of the guest house, bright and early, on a Sunday morning, dressed nicely in an attractive well-fitting pair of slacks, with a button up shirt in a conservative soft, spring green color with a rather attractive green silk tie and a tie pin fastening it in place in the early morning breeze of the trade winds that graced the estate this day. He wore a green, gray and brown, houndstooth-patterned sports coat, which fit him very nicely. Higgins squinted at him, never having seen him so professionally attired so early in the morning. The overall effect was rather formal for the relaxed sailor she thought she was coming to know. From the look of it she would bet the sports coat was a wool-silk-cotton blend of material. Later in the day that wool component would make the coat too warm, but she supposed it was fine in the early morning breeze.

It was 5:45 AM…where in the devil was the man going?

The two had recently started a bit of game of addressing each other in Espanol. Partially because now that she knew how lovely his accent was when he spoke the language, she rather enjoyed hearing it and keeping her conversational Spanish intact. "¿A dónde va esta hermosa mañana, señor?"

"A la iglesia, jovencita…"

"Llegaste a la iglesia?"

"Si, señorita."

"Si puedo preguntar, ¿a qué iglesia asistes esta hermosa mañana?"

With a mischievous grin, the young man switched languages on her. "Go dtí Eaglais Chaitliceach Naomh Pádraig, ar ndóigh, is é Lá Fhéile Pádraig tar éis an tsaoil!"

Startled and a bit stunned, she bit out. "You bloody well speak Irish Gaelic, too?"

The man shrugged, "I am a Sullivan…that's a family name, not just a name choice, Higgy. I'm not fluent, by any means, but I speak a smattering of phrases and am able to converse, not very smoothly, but enough to make myself understood, in both Irish and Scottish Gaelic. My aunty June would have a fit if I lost my Gaelic…it's a part of my heritage."

"I must say, you manage it with a lovely, very Irish sounding lilt. Brava!" Higgins impulsively declared. Truly this man never failed to surprise her. For the first time, regarding his warm, brown, laughing eyes, she realized with their flecks of gold and {was that just a glimmer of green?} they DID make her think of the phrase from the song, 'When Irish eyes are smiling, sure it's like a morn in spring, in the lilt of Irish laughter, you can hear the angels sing.' Ordinarily, angels were about as far from Thomas Magnum as she could ever picture, but somehow it fit.

He tilted his head and gave her a quizzical. "What are you thinking, staring at me that way? Thinking a church is the last place you'd think I would ever go?"

"Actually, no, I can totally picture that, now that I consider it. I truly can."

"Bueno, gracias por eso, senorita, te veré más tarde."

"Que tenga un tiempo bendecido, señor"

"Muchas gracias, mi amiga." Thomas gave that funny little half bow he sometimes sketched in her direction when they spoke, a habit she was quickly coming to find rather charming.

"Ve con Dios!"

"'Adios, Jules!"

Thomas sauntered on towards the garage area and in just a few moments, Higgins heard the throaty roar of the Ferrari's engine and found herself smiling at the conversation she had just had.

Kumu was just inside the doors to the main house, observing the two unique individuals playing their little Spanish game. Her eyebrows had reached skyward as she heard Thomas switch gears into what she recognized as Irish Gaelic. But as he explained his heritage it actually made perfect sense.

The older woman suspected Thomas was far more multilingual than he let on. His reasons for hiding his abilities were his own and she respected that, so she was careful NOT to reveal her suspicions to the majordomo, though she suspected, it would eventually dawn on the British woman that he was, in fact, a polyglot. Something she realized when he had asked Kumu to start teaching him Hawaiian. The ease with which he was picking up the language and the lovely, correct way he had of enunciating it as he learned had convinced her that the man had a genuine gift with languages. If he wanted to keep that gift quiet, she would respect it, whatever his reasons.

*(*(*)*)*

Thomas pulled into the parking lot of St Patrick's Catholic Church, Honolulu, HI and smiled to see Rick Wright reclining on the hood of his Porsche in a lighter green sports coat with a pair of dark green slacks. He smiled at his friend as he emerged from the Ferrari, tossing him a lighthearted two-finger salute, to which Rick just grinned and shook his head in amusement. "Buenos días, mi amigo!"

"You and Jules still playing your language game, Tommy?"

"Si, un poquito." Thomas acknowledged. "I still can't believe she didn't assume I spoke Spanish. I mean, 'Hello? I am a Hernandez'."

"Yeah, but did she know that before the Black Widow case?" Rick asked.

Thomas frowned slightly. "I assumed she did a deep dive background check on me when she heard I was coming to live on the estate, Rick."

Wright shook his head in a negative gesture. "She told me she didn't, Thomas…said it would seem somehow rude to do so to a semi-permanent guest on the estate, invited and 'sort of' employed by Robin. "

Magnum frowned at him, in evident disbelief. "That doesn't sound like her to me. The woman is nothing, if not thorough."

Rick shook his head. "Pot meet kettle, much? Anyway, she told me that and the way she said it, I believe."

"Okay, Rikki, if you believe it, I believe it." Magnum easily assented, knowing he could absolutely trust Rick's word.

"So, confession first?" Rick asked.

"Oh, yeah. The good padre is waiting…and confession is good for the soul." Thomas replied. In point of fact, the padre had made an arrangement with Magnum that the Sundays he knew TM would be attending, he would sit traditional confession for the man. Parts of Thomas were very traditional.

Amusing when you considered he was baptized, not as a Roman Catholic, but as an Episcopalian.

Even as Rick thought that the two cleared the front doors of the church, and Tommy automatically reached out with his right hand, dipped the same two fingers he'd saluted his friend with earlier, into the holy wáter and made the sign of the cross touching the holy wáter to his forehead, each of his shoulders, over his heart and up to his lips. Rick knew, because his friend had told him once that as he did so, in addition to the traditional 'In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost...' Thomas prayed, "May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer." especially when it was before service. Few knew that Magnum was a person of quiet, complex and yet simple faith. He was extremely careful not to make a show of his beliefs, but he did believe.

Rick and TC had taken, for a while, to following Thomas to church, when he went Catholic, and hanging about close enough to hear what Thomas was confessing. That wasn't quite the invasión of privacy that it sounded like, {well, okay it was, but in a good cause} as it allowed them to know how he was really doing because he would tell the priest things in confession, that he would never admit to them. So, out of an ingrained habit, after Thomas had entered the parishioner's side of the confessional, Wright quietly drew near to be able to hear the quiet voices well enough, and had to stifle his laughter when he realized that Thomas was giving his confession all right, in Spanish…a language Wright understood only the smallest amount of. So Thomas had known what they were up to all along, and knowing the place of concern it came from, he'd allowed it - that little imp.

Once Rick recognized he was unlikely to appreciate any meaningful intelligence this fine Sunday, he wandered over to a statue of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus to pray. He put change in the donation box, lit a candle and knelt and prayed the Rosary from memory. Thomas emerged from the confessional and went to the main altar where the priest gave him absolution after he prayed his penance. When TM stood afterward, the priest leaned forward and made a request of him. Thomas shook his head explaining something to the man, shaking his head 'no', but the padre clearly wasn't taking no for an answer, because he leaned forward again and spoke softly into Thomas' ear. TM sighed and gave in gracefully. The priest left the sanctuary and returned a moment later with a hard guitar case.

Thomas smiled ruefully, but was blushing as he joined Rick and advised him, "Rick, I hope you don't mind, but we need to sit fairly far forward."

Rick shrugged, easily. "I don't mind, Thomas. What's with the guitar?"

Magnum was still blushing, "The good padre rather insistently asked me to sing, 'Be Thou My Vision', during service. I haven't practiced it or anything." He glanced down at the guitar case. "I'd better make sure the guitar is properly tuned for that." His eyebrows crept skyward. "Whoa, it's a Taylor! Cool."

"Are they a good guitar?"

"For acoustic, I think they are one of the best." Magnum gently took the guitar out of the case and gently stroked his hand over the surface of the guitar. He raised the side of the guitar up to his nose and took a sniff. "Mmm. Smells good enough to eat." He held it to Rick's nose. "Smell it."

Rick cautiously, not sure if TM was teasing him, took a sniff. "Whoa, KOA...appropriate for mass in a Hawaiian church."

Thomas took the guitar and carefully began tuning it by ear. When finished, he strummed it and Rick wasn't exactly an expert, but he admitted it had a beautiful tone and sound. "She's a beauty, isn't she, Rick?"

"She?"

"Guitars are always ladies, my friend, like ships and cars."

Rick smiled, tolerantly. "Don't let a feminist hear you say that."

Thomas frowned. "Why? I consider it a compliment?"

"You know, I don't even know if that's true…I just assumed feminists wouldn't like it. I could be wrong." Rick looked around the sanctuary and saw it was still empty, except for the two of them and a couple of altar ladies preparing the church for the service. "I think you have time if you want to practice, Thomas."

Glancing around himself, Thomas stood and went and spoke to one of the ladies and she replied, nodding her head, clearly encouraging him. He came back to the pew they had wound up in and began to softly play the guitar, and at the appropriate point, post intro, his voice rang out.

"Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one

Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart

High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art

High King of Heaven, my victory won
May I reach Heaven's joys, O bright Heav'n's Sun

Heart of my own heart, whate'er befall
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all"

The two altar ladies had taken a seat nearby as he started the intro and they both quietly applauded. "That was beautiful, young man." The woman he had spoken to earlier said. "You were well chosen." She explained to the woman with her. "Father Clarence asked Thomas to sing that for us during service."
"You are very good, Thomas."

There was that bright red blush again…Rick smiled at how self-conscious Magnum became when he was complimented for something he 'didn't really consider his gift'. He had to bite his cheek to keep from bursting into laughter when he heard Magnum saying. "I really don't consider music one of my gifts."

Both of the older women immediately rejoined. "Well, you would be wrong. It clearly is your gift – both the guitar playing and singing were beautiful."

Magnum smiled, giving in. "Thank you, ladies."

Father Guerreiro spoke up. "Clearly, Father Murphy knew what he was speaking about when he recommended you for this."

"Padre Mike put you up to this?" Thomas asked. "That little sneak."

"Well, I did ask him if he could recommend anyone and he knew you planned on being here for today's service. That's how the request came about."

Rick grinned as a rather impish thought occurred to him. He could record Thomas' performance for the ladies at the estate, as Tommy was putting on a bit of a cèilidh there later. The ladies would enjoy seeing this, he thought. After his little venture into private entertainment for the religious lonely heart society, Thomas excused himself and went into a chapel. Rick smiled indulgently…he knew his friend was going to pray for the repose of the soul of his mother. He did that every time he went to a Catholic church. One more heinous thing to lay at Hannah's feet, that Thomas had never been able to say 'goodbye' to his mother while she lived. No matter what her reason was for betraying the team, that bitch, Hannah, deserved to die for what she did to Thomas. Just his humble opinion, of course, but he reckoned he had the right to feel the way he did. He'd been in the camps, too, also a victim of the woman's duplicity.

An hour and a half later, Thomas shook Father Clarence's hand on the steps of the church. "I was truly blessed by your homily, Father. Oh," He reached down and took the handle of the guitar case and held it out to the priest. "thanks for the loan."

The priest made a quelling motion with his hands. "No, Thomas…that is yours. It's a gift from Father Murphy."

Thomas gulped. "What? Really? For me? It's too much."

Rick noticed who was coming up behind the former SEAL and smiled, happily. "I don't agree, Thomas…I think it isn't nearly enough. Happy St. Patrick's Day, my friend." Father Mike Murphy responded as he grabbed Magnum's neck in his odd hug.

Magnum's eyes were wide as he practically petted the case. "Thank you, Father Mike…thank you."

Very seriously, Mike said. "Next year, St. Paddy's day at Pearl chapel…the same song, okay?"

"Anytime you want, Padre!" Thomas replied. Rick wondered if he even was aware of what he had just promised. The man was clearly in love, with a guitar; although Wright had to admit it was a beauty.

When Thomas parked the Ferrari in its garage and emerged from there, carrying a guitar case, Higgins' eyebrows went up. "That's new."

Thomas smiled. "Can you believe it? Father Murphy showed up at church this morning. He gave me this little beauty. I think I'll name her 'Sarah'."

The majordomo was amused. "You name your guitars?"

"Oh, one as special as this little lady, you have to." Thomas demurred.

Juliet noted that he turned and went back to the Ferrari to grab his sports coat, so it was too warm now, she mused. Magnum glanced down at his sports coat and smiled at her. "It was fine this morning, but once the sun is up for a while. My mom raised me to dress at least a certain minimum for church, but we didn't live in Hawaii." He reached up and took the tie off his neck, sighing with relief. Higgins cracked up to note it was a clip-on tie. "You really can't tie ties, can you, Magnum?"

"Juliet, you can't attend some of the schools I did and not know-how. I just hate doing it and am purposefully trying to forget how."

"Really, why?"

"The Navy 'cashiered me' out, Higgins. I don't have to do it anymore."

"Thomas, they didn't cashier you…you were granted a medical discharge which was certainly justified by what you went through."

"It felt like being cashiered to me, okay?"

Higgins shook her head, sorry she had brought the whole thing up.

"Anyway, I have to get this little lady inside….the heat isn't good for her." Thomas headed for the guest house. He turned back around towards her and called back. "I'll start setting up for the ceilidh as soon as I put Sarah away."

Higgins smiled and waved him on. He still is such a child, sometimes, she thought.

*(*(*)*)*

A short time later, his two friends showed up and helped him set up tables in an area that was nicely shaded out on the lawn. They helped him put green cloth tablecloths on with fasteners to keep them from blowing off if the breeze came up as had been predicted and began bringing out plates and dishes, glasses and metal buckets which held ice. The majordomo knew the Guinness and Harp lager bottles would go in those. There was also iced tea and lemonade died green. They brought out folding chairs for the guests they expected. Shammy was the first to arrive. Soon Detective Katsumoto arrived, along with McGarrett from 5-0, his partner, Danny Williams and his son Charlie, and ex-wife, Rachel, whom Juliet had rather hit it off with as they were both British ex-pats, indeed all the members of 5-0 had been invited, whom among them would actually show up, Higgins didn't know. Father Mike Murphy showed up and both TC and Rick went over to greet him. She was more than a bit surprised when three bagpipers and a group of Irish dancers showed up as well. Thomas Magnum was really going all out. She recognized some people Thomas had helped on cases among the guests.

Thomas came out with Rick and TC carrying warming trays she knew held multiple corned beeves, the trays with Irish soda bread that Kumu had delighted to inform her the man had made from scratch, covered in plastic to keep it from being accosted with bugs, warming trays with cabbage, carrots and baby red potatoes completed the feast. There was also Kerrygold butter in containers on ice.

The bagpipers opened the festivities with some traditional Irish music and the Irish dancers danced. Thomas came up and advised everyone. "We'll enjoy more of this later. Father Murphy, if you'd kick-off dinner, please."

Father Murphy came behind the table, blessed the meal, and led grace. Thomas then spoke up. "Alright, everyone – welcome. Don't stand on ceremony. The food is hot, let's eat!"

The guests queued up and took what they desired on their plates, the silverware they wanted, and wandered off to seats to eat the meal. The food was delicious and the Irish soda bread was excellent. She asked Rick who wandered over by her at one point. "Did Thomas really make this bread from scratch?"

"Hey, our Tommy is a very good cook and an even better baker. Heck, yeah, he made it from scratch. His grams taught him. Wait until he brings out dessert later. His shortcake is to die for."

"The man is multi-talented." Higgins admitted.

"Jules," Rick replied, "you have no idea."

After dinner, Thomas, Rick, and TC handed out laminated booklets that had the words to Irish themed songs, explaining there would be a sing-along later. The bagpipers played more Irish airs and jigs and the dancers danced…it was really a lovely party. Finally, Thomas brought out his new gal pal, Sarah, and sat down and Rick set up a microphone and battery-powered speaker. When Magnum began to strum, Higgins smiled. Rick had shown her and Kumu a video of Thomas doing this song earlier from the church service. "Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart…" She was as English as they came, but she loved this hymn. He followed that with Lord of the Dance, Wild Colonial Boy, The Irish Rover, The Wild Rover, My Wild Irish Rose, The Minstrel Boy, The Black Velvet Band and he encouraged the guests to join in as they wished. As the evening progressed, Magnum went around and spoke briefly to all his guests. He seemed very contented as he played host. Soon, Rick and TC disappeared into the guest house and came out with the dessert trays. Rick had been right, the shortbread, like the earlier Soda Bread, was delicious. To end the evening, Thomas, Rick, Father Murphy and McGarrett went up and Thomas played his new guitar as they sang DANNY BOY and last, Thomas started in on a favorite song of Higgins…NOW IS THE HOUR…with the other three joining in.

Sunset glow fades in the west,
Night o'er the valley is creeping!
Birds cuddle down in their nest,
Soon all the world will be sleeping

Now is the hour when we must say goodbye,
Soon you'll be sailing far across the sea,
While you're away, o, then remember me,
When you return, you'll find me waiting here

True lovers often must part,
Kiss me, then leave me to sorrow!
Here love, I give you my heart,
You will return some glad morrow

But now is the hour when we must say goodbye,
Soon you'll be sailing far across the sea,
While you're away, o, then remember me,
When you return, you'll find me waiting here.

As the last words faded away, applause broke out. Thomas looked embarrassed, but bowed and gestured to the others, urging them to do the same.

The bagpipers came up, played AMAZING GRACE and Thomas bid the guests goodnight, and turned to begin clearing up. Steve and Danno immediately talked to him, insisting on doing the clearing up for him and many of the women in the crowd came forward to assist. Magnum looked uncomfortable with allowing it, but Rick and TC intervened and he finally gave in. Kumu went over, kissed Thomas on the forehead and thanked him for a lovely evening. Higgins wandered over next. "Thomas, thank you. This was wonderful. I think Robin Masters would have loved it."

"Well, thank you for letting me have it here, Higgins."

"This is your home, Thomas…of course, you have the right to put on a soirée occasionally and you did ask me very nicely first." Thomas smiled at her with twinkling eyes.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this little venture into a holiday tradition for the found family of Magnum.