Chapter 16
Beth cleared her throat. “While we’re on the subject of similarities, I wonder about something else. Mick and Steve look so much alike. How can that be?”
Steve scowled. “I don’t know. My grandparents were from California though.”
Mamo adressed Steve. “What was your grandmother’s maiden name?”
Steve gasped. “St. John. Her name was Margaret St. John.”
Mick jumped up. “That’s my sister. You’re the grandson of my sister!”
Beth took his hand and pulled him back down. “What do you know about her?”
Mick explained. “She was a year and a half younger than me. In 1940 she married a young Navy officer named Steve - McGarrett. Oh my, I didn’t even realize –“
Steve nodded. “My grandfather. He was stationed in Long Beach and was deployed to Pearl Harbor shortly after their wedding. My grandma followed him. When the USS Arizona was destroyed and he died, she had been a few months pregnant. She raised her son alone. She must have been a remarkable woman.”
“She was.” Mick said. “She always had more courage, energy and willpower than me and my brother combined. When she wrote that her husband died in the attack, it was one of the points that made me enlist.”
Beth cuddled into Mick. He was agitated and sad, and leaned heavily on her. She understood that these memories weren’t ones he wanted to relive.
Mick looked at Steve. “How was her life after that? I lost contact. She couldn’t come to my wedding because she didn’t have the money for the trip. Her son must have been around 10 years by then. I still have a letter somewhere they wrote to me. He colored me a picture.”
Steve scowled. “I didn’t really get to know her. She died when I was two. My dad told me she had cancer, but wasn’t sick for more than a few months. She was prepared when she had to go.”
Mick closed his eyes. While he had been clubbing and getting on Josef’s nerves, his sister had been fighting death in Hawaii. He regretted that he never tried to find her, not even by phone, but what would he have said? “Hey, it’s Mick. I’m still alive, just didn’t contact you for 30 years. How are you? Oh, you’re dying. No, I can’t visit. I don’t want to shock you by how young I’m looking.”
Mamo saw that the revelations of the day had taken a lot out of his guests, all of them. He started putting away the food. Chin and Kono got up to do the dishes and refused any additional help. Beth and Mick excused themselves to their room, and Steve had some quiet time to think things over. He excused himself soon and made his way back home. He had a granduncle who looked younger than him, who was an immortal vampire on the run from a bunch of hunters. Suddenly a part of Steve’s family was back in his life that he didn’t even know existed. He wasn’t sure this was a good thing.
Mick undressed slowly and spooned behind Beth who was already close to sleep. His thoughts were running around in his brain and kept him from getting any rest. He suddenly had a grandnephew he didn’t even think about, a good man who had lost so much family already, just like he himself had. He wasn’t sure if he could keep him in his life, and if finding him had been a good thing.
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A week later Beth got her cast off, and Mamo asked everybody of their little ohana to come to his house for a blessing ceremony. Danny was invited but everyone else was sworn to silence towards him. He had shown at the Heiau that he wouldn’t take news of vampires and immortality and new-found blood relations and ancient Hawaiian kings well.
Mamo had arranged plane tickets to Australia, but they were only for pretense, Mick and Beth wouldn’t use them. If the legion was under the impression that Hawaii was free of vampires, who were Mamo and Mick to tell them otherwise? The couple would be safe on the islands, and Mamo was willing to share his blood source with Mick. Mamo had asked the head of the Kalakaua family, Kono’s grandfather and big Kahuna, if they were willing to donate to another vampire. He had told Mamo that he would gladly allow this as he had felt Mamo was a bit lonely, and the family had grown big enough to accommodate two hungry vampires. Mamo promised that he would keep Mick in check. Mick promised to avoid anything that would get him thrown into an active volcano. He was looking forward to more quiet evenings with Mamo, listening to his stories.
Steve had helped to find a small house for Mick and Beth. He was looking forward to getting to know them better, and hearing stories about his grandmother’s childhood. Mick was looking for a job that would keep him out of the public’s eye.
Mamo, Mick and Beth stood in a circle on the lawn behind Mamo’s house, the rest of the Ohana grouped around them. They all had a green lei around their neck, and were holding hands. Danny had scoffed at the display, but joined the outer circle to not feel left out.
Mamo sang something in Hawaiian that Danny wouldn’t understand and that no-one would translate to him. Mamo sang of companionship, of the need to protect ones family and ones land, of peace and respect. It was a song he had sung before time was measured, and taught to the human Kahunas on the islands.
It would be nice to have Mick and Beth in his Ohana. They were so much in love. Mamo remembered a few lost loves of his own and said a silent prayer for their souls. He never turned any of them, but he sensed that maybe Beth would one day be ready to be turned. In that case, they would have to see if the island could accommodate a third vampire or if they would be asked to relocate. Today people travelled around the world with no hard feelings. Mamo had never been tempted to leave his islands. He was responsible for the people and the land, official king or not.
Mamo missed being able to tell his stories to someone. He had to be more careful since the haoles ruled the island. In old days, the children had taken his stories at face value, if they believed them or not. The adults would call them legends now. Mick would be a great listener, and Beth too. She was so full of energy and curiosity. He already loved her like a daughter.
Mick had informed Josef about his decision to stay on the island. Josef had asked some concerned questions, but with Mamo’s blessing he concluded that if Mick had to be away from L.A. (and from him), Hawaii was as good a place as any.
“Just take care not to fry your brain in that heat”, he had said. Mick thought he and Danny would get along great, but didn’t say anything.
Maybe now that all was said and done, the Legion attack had brought about something good for all of them.
The End
Thank you, dear readers, for staying with me during this story.
I love this. Maybe Beth will write a book of Hawaiian "mythology" from Mamo's stories. That sounds like the sort of thing she'd enjoy... 
I really like the idea of Mamo now having another vampire around and people to share his stories with. Steve and Mick have found family they thought lost. And yes, I think Mick and Danny will get along fine. 
I loved how you wove the island history and its present into the story. What was really wonderful was that the feeling of ohana had expanded to Mick and Beth. By coming to Hawaii, they had escaped the legion, but Mick found a relative, a link to his human family. Steve found a relative a well, one who could fill in a lot of the missing blanks about his grandparents.
