The sky in Hawaii is blue, the water is blue, the girls on the beach are all in great shape, there is a wide variety of delicious food, and all the aunts and uncles are very "hospitable", so "hospitable" that Jack has to hide in the Hilton Hotel.
Someone was very fortunate to have had the foresight to bring not only the beautiful little Alexis and his two sisters this Christmas vacation, but also the entire wanted criminal team and their families.
Thanks to such a large group of friends, he felt less awkward in this "home".
After arriving in Hawaii, Jack learned a lot of things, such as that Danny, who he always claimed to be his uncle, was actually not related to him at all.
Danny was his grandfather's godson and grew up with Jack's father. Therefore, Jack's last name is Tavola, and Danny's full name is Danny Williams.
After eloping to Los Angeles, Jack's original parents essentially cut off contact with both families. It wasn't a Romeo and Juliet-style cliché, like children of feuding families falling in love, but rather a simple incompatibility between their values and skin color.
In short, neither side of the original family was a friendly place, forcing the two lovers to retreat to Los Angeles. While eloping was essentially a search for peace and quiet, Eastern and Western cultures share striking similarities: some things can be done for the sake of "logging," while others can become so distant that they practically cease to interact.
The original parents have long passed away, and his grandparents are now elderly, living in a nursing home, as cheerful as a child. Even when Jack stood before them, they couldn't recognize him as their only grandson.
As for his extended family, once they confirmed that Jack wasn't in Hawaii to fight over an inheritance, they resumed their familiar "friendship."
While this false pretense felt awkward, it also gave Jack a sense of relief. Not having to bear the brunt of his original life's fate was excellent news.
"So are you sure everything's okay?" Danny accompanied Jack onto the deck of the USS Missouri. Not far away stood a massive white building resembling a coffin: the USS Arizona Memorial, sunk during the Pearl Harbor attack.
Under the water beneath that white building lay the wreckage of the Arizona.
"Thinking back, maybe it was a mistake to keep pushing you to come to Hawaii."
Danny's expression tinged with regret. Standing at less than 170cm tall, he lacked the aura of an elder beside Jack.
"This has nothing to do with you. When my parents had the accident, it was you, Uncle Danny, who rushed to my side first. You also introduced me to, uh, Miss Anderson.
Thanks to you, I was able to successfully join the LAPD and later the FBI. Without your help, I might still be struggling to survive in that small grocery store, or even forced to become a street drug dealer."
Jack's words came from the heart. Life is so strange sometimes. Most of the time, single-handed efforts aren't enough to change fate. Sometimes you need opportunities, sometimes you need someone to help you.
Of course, this doesn't negate the importance of hard work. No matter how good your family background or how high your starting point, you can't stop yourself from self-destructing. The saying "there's no way to help a useless person" is just that.
"Just call me Danny. And the name uncle makes me want to find a cane." Danny looked up at his "nephew," who was a head taller than him, and shook his head subconsciously.
"I knew you were outstanding, but I didn't expect you to be so outstanding today, Supervisory Agent Taverner? Wow, your father would be ecstatic if he knew what you have achieved today. God knows how much he wanted to be a policeman when he was young.
After I retired, it was him who accompanied me to the police academy training. What did he say at the time? 'God, Dan, you will definitely become the most handsome police officer in New Jersey'. I still can't forget the look in his eyes at that time."
Danny's eyes welled up with tears as he spoke, and he quickly wiped his eyes to cover it up, "Sorry, I still can't adapt to the Hawaiian sea breeze."
"It seems you don't like the beach either?" Jack took the opportunity to change the subject. Apart from this body, he did not inherit any memory of his original body. He only had some understanding of his past based on the vague diaries of his original body.
While Danny's outpouring of genuine affection wasn't as embarrassing as it was when he was with his extended family, where he'd almost shoveled out a three-bedroom, two-living-room apartment, Jack, a semi-expert psychologist still pursuing his master's degree, felt it was best to minimize the recollections, lest they suggest his lack of empathy.
Of course, having watched two seasons of "Heaven's Enforcer" in his past life, he still had some impression of "Uncle Danny."
"The truth is, I'm trying to adapt. Adapting to the sudden, unpredictable rainstorms, those awful Spam cans, and, oh, I almost forgot, my partner who never understood the rules."
After a few complaints, Danny smiled with relief. "But it's all worth it. Here, I can be with my little girl and still practice my police work.
This is Grace's home now, so it's only natural for me to maintain stability here."
Grace was Danny's daughter. After Danny and his wife divorced a few years ago, his wife Rachel remarried a wealthy businessman and moved to Hawaii.
To secure custody of Grace and spend two days a week with her, this "daughter-obsessed" man made the long journey from New Jersey to Hawaii, becoming a state trooper.
Just before Jack's original family's tragedy, he had been recruited by a special task force, personally formed by the governor of Hawaii, to handle all major criminal cases in the 50th state. This unit was called "Five-O."
Jack considered "Paradise Enforcer" a long-running American TV series, but it was actually a remake of another, even longer-running series, "Honolulu Mounties," which ran from 1968 to 1980.
Due to the latter's widespread popularity among the American public, "Five-O" became a slang term for police officers. However, in this world, "Honolulu Mounties" still exists, but the term itself is gone.
Danny's work with the "Five-O" unit was quite hectic, and with the added burden of accompanying his daughter, it was a rare opportunity for him to carve out a full day for Jack's outing.
I heard that his partner, Steve McGarrett, was temporarily away from Hawaii for some matters, and he was now in charge of the team.
Fortunately, Jack didn't come alone. After a day of bonding with Danny, he had basically achieved the purpose of his trip. Now it was time to enjoy this Christmas vacation on a tropical island.
This can be considered to have filled the biggest hole in the book since the beginning. I didn't think about it when I started, but now it has been completed.
(End of this chapter)