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It was after their impromptu graduation ceremony for Kono that Danny dropped his bomb on Steve.
Well, it wasn’t just Steve since Kono and Chin were there too, all of them in dress uniforms and sipping from icy bottles of beer as they all beamed at each other in shared pride over the rookie. Kono herself was smiling wide enough it had to be hurting her face and Steve had seen her jubilant expression take on a hint of awe every time she caught a glimpse of her badge reflected in the office windows. All in all it was a good day.
Then Danny had cleared his throat, raised his bottle up, and waited for their eyes to settle on him. He’d grinned at them all, tilted his bottle in Kono’s general direction and started to speak.
“Okay, so, congratulations to our newly minted Officer Kono Kalakaua, let her rookie year be filled with successful busts, may she only suffer minor injuries, and here’s to hoping she can suck it up and take her hazing like the rest of us had to.”
They’d all laughed and Chin had added a ‘Here, here!’ as their bottles clinked cheerily to seal Danny’s toast. Then Danny had put down his bottle and held his hand up, index finger pointing to the ceiling.
“Hold on a sec, be right back.”
Steve had shared puzzled glances and shrugs with Chin and Kono as Danny walked briskly into his office, rummaged around in his desk drawer, and then came back carrying three black boxes, identical except that one had a green ribbon on it, another had a red ribbon, and the last was wreathed in blue. Danny threw another grin at Kono and held out the green ribboned box.
“I don’t know how things are done here, I didn’t get a lot of info on local cop traditions while I was at HPD, but back in Jersey no cop was truly a cop without one of these.”
Kono took the box out of Danny’s hand and smiled at him with sparkling eyes. Danny turned to Chin and said with a wry twist to his words.
“Chin, I don’t know if you’ve got one of these already, but I haven’t noticed you with one so I just wanted to make sure.”
He tossed the red ribboned box and Chin deftly snatched it out of thin air with a smile and a quirked eyebrow. Danny then turned to Steve.
“As for you, I know for a fact you don’t have one since I’ve never seen you with anything remotely resembling it unless you count dog tags and your car keys, so, here you go partner. Your kind of death wish you need all the help you can get.”
Danny was smiling as he said it though, so Steve just snorted and let the gentle ribbing roll off of him. Besides, Kono and Chin were tugging their ribbons off and he didn’t want to be left behind, especially since he couldn’t remember the last time someone had given him a present out of anything other than duty. It had to be before he left for Annapolis.
Steve slid the blue ribbon off his box and opened the hinged lid to see a gold medallion on a strong box chain nestled in the black velvet. He felt a little disappointed and a lot confused as to why Danny would be giving him jewelry and he lifted his head to make a smart ass remark about not being that kind of girl, but stopped short at the scene in front of him.
Kono and Chin were looking down at their boxes with what Steve could only describe as reverence. Kono lifted a more feminine version of Steve’s necklace out of her box and held it so the light made the gold twinkle. Steve was shocked to see her blink as if she had honest to God tears in her eyes. Chin was looking down where his box was cradled carefully in his left hand as the first two fingers of his right hand stroked a medal identical to Steve’s. Chin’s face was a mixture of pride and relief as he looked up to meet Danny’s understanding gaze. He cleared his throat and when his voice came out it was just slightly rough with emotion.
“Thanks, brah, I had one…before, but this…just…thanks.”
Danny clapped a hand on Chin’s shoulder and Chin smiled gratefully and pulled his medal out to fasten around his neck. The gold gleamed against his uniform, matching the shine of his badge.
Kono had already gotten her own around her neck and Steve watched in amazement as she lifted it up to look at it for a second, then she kissed it and let it drop against her uniform and threw her arms around Danny, crushing him with a hug.
“Thanks Danny, it’s just perfect, I love it!”
Danny laughed and patted her back before pushing her gently away. They grinned at each other as Chin looked on with pride and Steve watched in bemusement. Then all three of them turned to look at him expectantly and he felt the awkwardness creep up his back to make him horribly uncomfortable.
“Uh, yeah, thanks Danny. It’s a really nice necklace. Um, thanks.”
Chin shook his head and chuckled as Kono grinned at him with mirth in her eyes. Danny threw up his hands and laughed at him good naturedly.
“You have no idea what it is, do you?”
Steve felt his face go a little hot as he shrugged his shoulders defensively. He hated being the only one in the room to not get it.
“Not so much, no. You want to enlighten me?”
Kono laughed and took pity on him.
“It’s a Saint Michael’s medallion, boss, the patron saint of cops. It’s to keep us safe.”
Steve felt understanding dawn on him. He knew Saint Michael, who was also the patron saint of soldiers. He’d known a few NCOs who’d had the little medals strung on their dog tag chains. He had been a SEAL though and things like that were kind of unofficially sneered at among spec ops personnel. It wasn’t the faith that was objectionable, it was the soft clink the medals made against chain that turned him off of them. He hadn’t realized it was a cop thing too.
He’d been quiet a little too long though. Danny rolled his eyes at him and crossed his arms before leaning forward aggressively.
“Okay, look Commander, I get that SEALs are too rugged and manly to wear jewelry or you’re considering the horrific ramifications of a molecule of light bouncing off of it at exactly the wrong time, but just do me the favor of holding on to it alright?”
Steve’s eyes widened a little as Danny loosened the knot of his ever-present tie and then unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt. He pulled out a gold chain on which dangled an identical medal to the ones Chin was wearing and Steve still had in his velvet box. The light hit it and Steve could see that it was obviously older than the bright, shiny new one he had in his hand. Danny’s medal was a little scratched, a little worn around the edges, had obviously seen a few years of service and been worn hard and with pride. Steve was starting to feel a little glow of warmth as he realized exactly the kind of gift Danny was giving him, but Danny was still talking with good humored exasperation.
“You don’t have to wear it forever and always or use it as a rosary or whatever, but I would take it as a personal favor if you would put it in your wallet or glue it behind your badge or, I don’t know, tuck it into your third concealed knife sheath or what have you. It’s just, you’re a cop now and you’re disappointingly psychotic and as the guy who’s going to be standing next to you for the foreseeable future I would breathe a little easier if you had St. Michael watching over you occasionally when he isn’t cringing at your methods.”
Steve watched as Danny tucked his medal away and redid his buttons and tightened his tie. Chin’s medal was already out of sight and Kono smiled at hers one more time before carefully dropping it under her shirt as well. The three of them stood there in their uniforms, shining badges pinned to their chests and looking like gleaming beacons of law and order and everything Steve held dear made flesh and blood.
He looked down at himself in his dress uniform, his service ribbons a patchwork of color on his chest and thought about how he’d never been a beacon of anything before, or at least nothing so pure and unmuddied. He’d been a great SEAL, one of the best, but following orders and believing the motivations behind said orders were the right, the most altruistic they could be were entirely different things. As Lieutenant Commander McGarrett, Navy SEAL, he couldn’t believe in a higher, better power to guide and protect him, but maybe Steve McGarrett, leader of Five-0 and everyday cop could.
Decision made he pulled the medal out of its nest and with a few quick motions had it fastened around his neck and tucked against his skin and out of sight. Then he looked up and gave an answering grin to the three wide smiles directed at him. Danny gave him a gentle pop to the shoulder and smirked up at him.
“Well alright then, welcome to the club McGarrett.”
Steve felt the warmth in his chest kick up a few degrees as he looked around at his new family. Chin had started telling a story about his rookie year and the grief he’d had to take and Danny and Kono were laughing along. Steve joined their little circle and waited his turn to share his horror stories of Hell week. It was nice to belong.