uh hi im new to writing for this fandom, this headcanon of them having two kids (and their specific names) has been bugging me for a while and I finally figured out how to write it. idk if this fandom is still even alive but ive been doing a rewatch of the show with my mom and been all over my mcrollins feels so badly and well this is what happens. anyway, hope you enjoy!

She stares down at their intertwined fingers in a complete trance, lost in thought, in the memories of them.

“Penny for your thoughts, Lieutenant?” His voice startles her a bit.

Their flight to the mainland is long, and she’s not entirely sure what his plan is, but if he’d have her, she’s finally ready to follow him anywhere.

It was time.

Time for her to move on from the agency, time for her to come back home, time to give them another shot if he’d let them.

She swallows the lump back in her throat before telling him truthfully. “Do you ever wonder what our life would be like if you did get to ask me? If I had the chance to say yes?” she ponders, thinking back of the moment out on the airstrip, thinking about the ring she never got the chance to wear and the life she never got to have.

“I'd like to say no but more often than not I find myself lost in moments of us, picturing what it’d be like.”

His answer surprises her a bit, shocked that he did give more than a single thought to their what if or what could have been life.

“Yeah? And what do you picture, Sailor?” She’s intrigued now, to know, to have answers to the clouded haze of a life she wanted to picture with him.

“You and me, at the beach behind the house. Sandcastles. Toys everywhere because our son doesn’t know how to be neat like his parents. Baby monitor on the table because our daughter’s inside napping.”

She could picture it now.

Kids.

A family.

She’s sitting in one of the chairs sipping orange juice from a champagne flute. There’s buckets, shovels, sifters and shells scattered at her feet. She looks up, seeing her two boys splashing in the waves as Eddie wags his tail, swimming right up to the two of them. She watches as Steve takes their boy and throws him up in the air and letting him splash down in the water right in front of him as he breaks out into a fit of laughter.

“Higher Daddy, higher!” he shrieks as Steve heaves him higher into the air.

The laughter fades into cries and she looks to her right, seeing the monitor sitting on the table lighting up as their daughter stands in her crib, babbling away, signaling that she was awake from her nap.

She stands up, catching Steve’s eye and points to the monitor before heading into the house with a promise of being right back as she ascends the stairs quickly and heads into their daughter’s room, quickly getting her ready for the water to meet up with her brother and their father.

She heads back out of the house with the little girl on her hip before wading into the water and meeting Steve and their little boy, splashing gently at his sister, kissing Steve’s lips as she arrives.

A life with him was something she had always wanted, something she’d pictured for so long, but in their line of work seemed so far-fetched and out of the question, but it was something she still yearned for.

“Two kids, huh?”

He nods, rubbing his thumb in circles over her hand. “Closer in age than Mary and I because I regret not being closer to her than I was.”

“It's not too late for that.”

“I know. But she’s on the mainland with Joanie.”

They’ll just have to visit, she decides. LA is beautiful this time of year.

She can see them together, flying with the kids. Their son looking out the plane’s window as she sits in the middle and Steve in the aisle seat holding their daughter on his lap as she sleeps soundlessly.

She can picture Mary and Joanie standing at the arrival gates, signs in hand, waiting for her family.

“I know it’s not Hawaii and there aren’t any leis, but this is the next best thing we got.” Mary says and she laughs, seeing the sign decorated in rainbows and flowers, welcoming her family to the mainland. “Joanie insisted we have a sign.”

She hugs Joan in her arms. “It’s beautiful, baby.”

“I'd like for our kids to know their Aunt Mary and cousin Joanie.”

“They’d have a huge family.” She smiles at this, thinking of the family they ended up with, knowing any child or children they had would have so many people that loved them, blood or not, it didn’t matter to her.

“You name these kids of ours?” She’s beyond curious now of this life he’s pictured for them.

“Jack, after both our dads. Jack Joseph for Joe White—”

“Not after Danny?”

“As much as I like whiskey, I don't want to name our kid Jack Daniel. That's where our daughter comes in. It’s why we had to have two kids or I'd never hear the end of it from Danny.” She bites back a laugh as he mentions the name and nods, agreeing with his thoughts.

“So Danielle?” She says, figuring out their daughter’s name.

“Daniella. We call her Ella so it’s not confusing the two Danny’s.” she nods again, because of course he thought of everything.

She’s cradling her newborn daughter as Steve sits right next to her on the hospital bed and hovers over them. There’s a soft knock on the door before it’s pushed wide open and Jack runs through, Danny hot on his heels, scooping up the young boy before he makes it over to his mother’s bedside, throwing him over his shoulder and then plopping him haphazardly into Steve’s lap as to not disturb the baby.

“Someone here couldn’t wait to meet his baby sister.”

“Yeah, we know it was Uncle Danno, not Jack, right buddy?” Steve eggs on his partner.

“Yeah Daddy.” The little boy agrees and Danny ruffles his hair.

“Uncle Danno,” Steve starts out. “Meet your newest niece, Daniella. We’re calling her Ella because two Danny’s is far too much, we already have you.” Steve introduces the baby, taking her from her mother and handing her over to her new uncle.

“Jack and Ella.” She tests the names on her lips with a smile. She could picture them now, a little boy with dark brown hair and dark eyes, and a little girl with her daddy’s eyes and smile. A family, a life together. “You ever give me that ring?” She jokes with him now, elbowing him gently.

“Yeah, yeah I did. Got down on one knee and everything.” He smirks at her, cockily.

“Yeah?” she raises a brow at him.

“Right in front of Kamekona's shrimp truck with the whole team there to witness. I'm sure I slept on the couch for that one though for it being so public and making you cry.”

They haven't been back on the island for more than four hours, but it was enough time for them to stop back at the house and drop off their things before meeting the rest of their ohana at the shrimp truck. She’s just finishing up an order of Sweet ‘n’ Spicy shrimp when she feels him stand up next to her and step out from the picnic table.

She’s not paying the slightest bit of attention to him, trying to devour as much of the food as she could as she missed it dearly when Danny clears his throat, making her look up.

The rest of the team is sitting there, doe-eyed and smiling, causing her to turn around, seeing Steve down on one knee, holding out the tiny black box, presenting her with the ring he’s had for far too long as the tears well up in her eyes.

“Good tears though, right?” She can feel them starting to prick at her eyes even now.

“Good tears.” He reassures and it makes her squeeze his hand tighter in hers because she can picture it all with him right in front of her. She wants that with him, everything. She sighs softly, letting his words pull her into another universe, one filled with happiness and love and safety. One where she knew exactly the plan for the next morning, one that included school drop offs and homework and dinner on the table and dishes in the sink, not another file with an HVT and a mission for extraction.

“You ever think we’ll have that someday?” She ponders as the plane rocks with slight turbulence.

“I hope so.” He says, staring down at their hands, just like she had been doing.

“Together?” she asks, a tinge of hopefulness in her voice, lingering at the edge as she looks up at his face trying to read him.

“Yeah, Cath, together. I still want all that with you.” He says, staring right back at her with a look in his eyes.

A promise she knows he doesn’t intend on breaking.

She looks forward to whatever the future will bring them, and hopes that one day they’ll get to have all of that and more, but for now she lets the plane take him away and she follows right by his side.