Fic: All I Want: Grace 2/? (H50, PG)

[melissas_corner]

Title: All I Want
Author: logans_girl2001
Fandom: Hawaii Five-0
Pairing: None
Rating: PG-13
Category: gen
Status: Complete
Archive: My website
Feedback: Yes, please.
Disclaimers: I do not own any of the characters.
Sequel/Series: Love and Family
Summary: Grace asks Catherine to help her tell Steve and Danny where she'll be going to college.
Warnings: None
Spoilers: None
Beta: jetpack_angel

Catherine's POV:

"Auntie Cath?" Grace's hesitant voice pulls me from the black hole of paperwork.

"Gracie!" This past week has been extremely slow and so both Danny and Steve have decided it's the perfect time for everyone to get totally caught up on their paperwork. And right now I relish anything that interrupts that. "What brings you by?"

Grace closes my office door and takes a seat in one of the chairs in front of my desk. I frown at her. This shy, hesitant girl is a far cry from the bubbly vivacious one I met all those years ago. "I need your help. You know Papa better than almost anyone and, well…" Her voice trails off.

"How can I help?" This must be serious if she's coming to me. "Wait." I hold one hand up as a thought occurs to me. "Are you pregnant?"

Her shock and surprise show on her face. "What!? No! How could you…?" She flops back in the chair staring at me wide-eyed.

Guilt rushes through me. Of course she's not pregnant. She was raised to know all about safe sex practices. "Sorry." I rub my thumb nail against my eyebrow. "So, are you…?" I know it's not really my business but I really want to know.

She refuses to meet my eyes and I have my answer. "Just once." I nod. "It was-" She shrugs. "-not really anything to write home about."

I chuckle softly. "Most first times aren't." We sit in silence for a moment. "So…?" I prompt with a raised eyebrow.

She chews her lip a bit the leans forward and pulls an envelope from her back pocket. "I got my first acceptance letter today."

This is big. Grace will be graduating from high school in June and there's currently a pool going as to where she'll be attending college in the fall. Most people seem to think she'll leave the islands but they obviously don't know her. Those of us who do know her, know she'll be attending school either on O'ahu or one of the other islands. Me personally, I think she'll be attending University of Hawaii at Mānoa because then she'll be close to not only her dads but also her brother and sister.

I lean over my desk and take the torn open envelope from her, flipping it over to read the name of the school on the front. My eyes open wide when I see where it is she applied to. "Your dads know you applied to this one?"

She shakes her head. "They never would have approved."

"Grace, you know they love you."

Grace heaves a huge sigh. "Yeah but that doesn't mean they have to be so blasted protective of me. I'm eighteen. I think I can make some decisions on my own."

I press my lips together to keep from overstepping my bounds and telling her that being eighteen does not automatically make her an adult able to make all life altering decisions on her own. "So you want me to tell them?"

She shakes her head. "If you'd just go with me and stand there for moral support?"

"I can do that." When she continues to just sit there, I wonder if she's having second thoughts. "Shall we go now?" I stand and hold one arm out in the direction of my office door.

She blinks up at me. "What? Oh, yeah. I guess now would be as good a time as any."

I do not envy her having to tell her fathers this bit of news; in fact, I think it would be infinitely better if she was pregnant. They are not going to take this news well, at all. And it's obvious she knows it; what with asking me for moral support and by how she's walking as if going to her execution.

Through the glass wall of Steve's office, we can see Danny sitting in a chair in front of Steve's desk, with Steve sitting in his big desk chair, obviously discussing something somewhat important; if the whirlwind that is Danny's arms is any indication.

With a knock, Grace pushes the door open in time for us to hear Danny say, "…do about it, Steven?"

"Guys?" I say, pulling their attention to us before Steve can answer. "Grace has something to tell you." I give her just enough of a shove to have her stumbling over the threshold so that I can enter behind her and close the door behind us. "Go on, Gracie."

She clears her throat and scuffs the toe of one scuffed sneaker on the floor. "I, uh, I got, um, my first acceptance letter today." Her voice is so soft that I can barely hear her even though I'm standing right behind her.

Both Danny and Steve's faces light up in delight. "Yeah?" Danny steps forward to hug her and pull her further into the room. "Let me guess: University of Hawaii at Mānoa; since I know you'd never go back to the mainland, which means you can't attend my alma mater and you're not interested in going into the Navy so you won't be attending Steve's either." He beams at her. "I'm right, aren't I?" He chuckles. "What am I saying? Of course I'm right!" He squeezes her tighter against his side.

"Um, D?" Steve speaks up. "I don't think that's the school that replied."

Danny pulls back and frowns at her. "Is he right? Is it not UH?"

Grace shakes her head. "Here." She hands him the envelope that is showing a lot more wear and tear from having been twisted in her nervous hands.

He glances down at the name on the front of the envelope, then does a double take. "You can't be serious. Tell me this is a joke."

I can't see Grace's face but judging from Steve's, I'm sure she's on the verge of tears. "What is it, Danny?" Steve reaches out for the envelope. His reaction is most likely still not what Grace was hoping for but at least it's not as bad as Danny's. "You sure about this, Baby Girl?"

Grace nods. "I've always wanted this, just never said anything because I didn't think anyone would take me serious."

Danny sits on the edge of Steve's desk and runs one hand down his face. "What's your role in all this, Cath?" He seems to have finally noticed me standing there.

I shrug. "Just here for moral support."

"Did you know she was applying?" Steve asks, still staring at the envelope in his hands.

"Not until just a few minutes ago, no."

Steve looks up and there is pride shining in his eyes. "Who helped you with this?"

Grace squares her shoulders which actually puts her an inch taller than Danny. "Duke and the Governor."

A small smile quirks one corner of Steve's mouth. "Remind me to have a few choice words with the both of them, Danny."

Danny gives a huff of humorless laughter. "You and me both, Babe."

"Please don't blame them. I may have led them to believe that I had your approval already."

Steve and Danny share a look. Then Danny heaves a deep sigh. "You realize this will be extremely difficult?"

She nods. "I know that no one will go easy on me because I'm a girl and in fact just might be even tougher because I'm your daughter."

"You're going to have to work nearly three times as hard, for the very reasons you just said," Steve says.

"You know I never wanted you to follow me like this, right?" Danny gets up from his perch on Steve's desk and pulls Grace into a tight hug.

"I know, Danno. But I see how much you love being a cop, all the good you do, and I want that. I want to make the world a better place by putting the bad guys away behind bars."

Danny pulls back to take her face in his hands. "You make the world a better place just by being in it, Monkey." He presses a kiss to her forehead. "But I can't fault you for wanting to do this. I'll support you, but I still don't really like it."

"Yeah, Baby Girl." Steve gets up and comes around his desk to wrap his arms around Grace and Danny. "We're behind you one hundred percent. But don't you even think about asking to join Five-Oh."

Grace chokes on a laugh. "Of course not, Papa." Even from my spot by the door, I can tell she's lying.