"Good Parenting"

Shakespeare's Lemonade

Rating: T

Genre: Friendship/Adventure/Romance

Summary: Sequel to Bystander. McKenzie has settled into life in Hawaii when tragedy strikes. The 5-0s dive back into the Hadley case while McKenzie tries to pick up the pieces of her life and Steve has to face his past in order to help her.

Pairings: Steve/OC, Danny/Kono

A/N: If you haven't read "Bystander" I would suggest you do, or this story won't make much sense. If you have, I love you!

Prologue:

Three months ago...

Steve was happy just to be standing. He was getting restless after one long night in the hospital and couldn't wait to get outside. Hearing someone at the door, he turned around. There stood a man who was probably in his early fifties. It took a moment for Steve to realize what was so familiar about his eyes.

"Mr. Carpenter?" he asked.

The man smiled. "Jim," he said. "And you're Steve McGarrett."

"Yes sir," Steve replied.

Jim offered his hand. "Thank you."

Steve returned the handshake, wondering how he was supposed to respond to that.

It turned out he didn't have to as Jim continued: "McKenzie told us everything that happened. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't surprised... but I don't mind a pleasant surprise now and then." Then he smiled. "Come on. Macks volunteered me to drive you home."

"Who?"

"Macks? She hasn't told you about her nickname... well, I guess that's not surprising. Don't tell her I told you."

Steve smiled. He had been wondering how to shorten her name, since calling her "Em-see-capital-Kay-enzie" took too long.

"So where is everyone?" Steve asked as they walked toward the parking lot.

"Your partner went to your house," Jim said. "Something about making sure you don't fall down in the shower. And Macks and her mom went to get food."

"So everyone's going to end up at my house?"

"Looks like it. The other two said they were tying up some loose ends."

Steve smiled, thinking of how hard they worked. He was sorry for them that he would have to take the whole week off. He was probably more sorry for himself, though.

When he saw his truck, Steve was surprised. "You're driving?" he asked.

Jim held up the keys. "Your partner gave them to me."

"Revenge. I see."

"How's that?" Jim asked as they got in the truck.

"He's always complaining that I drive his car all the time. I like driving. He says I have control issues."

"I would think someone in your line of work would need control issues."

"Thank you! Now, if you could only explain that to Danny."

"So you admit you have control issues?"

"Off the record—by which I mean, you won't tell Danny—Yes. Like you said, I have to."

"And don't think I'm not thankful for that."

"Honestly, anyone in my position would have done the same thing. Actually, someone else probably wouldn't have forgotten their extra ammo, knife, and shoes."

"To be fair, you were distracted."

Steve didn't reply at first. He knew that was true, but he didn't have to like it. "Distraction can get people killed."

Jim glanced over at Steve who was staring straight through the windshield. He had a feeling he had just touched a raw nerve.

"You did your job in the end," Jim finally said.

"In the end," Steve agreed. "With help."

"Who was it said 'no man is an island'?"

"I don't know. McKenzie probably would."

Jim pulled into Steve's driveway and the conversation ended. Inside, Danny had made the entire house "injury proof." Grace was there with him and shortly after Steve and Jim arrived, McKenzie and Michelle came with the food.

"Chin and Kono are on their way," Danny said, as they all sat down. "They said to start without them."

"That's probably a good thing," Steve said. "You might not have lasted much longer."

"Hey, I'm not the one who had hospital food for dinner."

"Yes you did, Danno" Grace said.

"Oh, was someone worried about me?" Steve teased.

"Someone?" McKenzie asked. "Try everyone."

"So we all spent the night with indigestion," Danny said.

There was a short knock at the door and then it opened.

"We're here," Kono called.

Soon she and Chin came into the dining room to see that breakfast hadn't even started.

"I thought you were going to start without us," Chin said.

"Danno was too busy talking," Steve said.

"I'll bet he was," Kono said, leaning over to kiss Danny's cheek and then sitting down. Steve realized that that was going to take some getting used to. Chin say next to Grace and the two of them started whispering conspiratorially. Everyone started eating, but the talking didn't stop. Over the course of the meal, Steve was given several sets of rules. The harshest were probably the regulations about water. He wasn't allowed in the ocean until the stitches were out, and someone would be hanging around to make sure he didn't try to take a swim.

Once breakfast was over and the dishes were cleared away, Danny left to take Grace to school and Chin and Kono headed back to the office. About that time, Steve remembered that it was Tuesday, but surprisingly, he didn't care.

Later that morning, McKenzie's voice was heard all over the house: "Dad!"

Jim and Michelle had been out on the deck and came rushing back into the house to find McKenzie standing in the middle of the living room, hands on her hips, her face so red they couldn't see her freckles. Steve was sitting on the couch, trying not to laugh, because it hurt, but failing miserably.

"What did I do?" Jim asked.

"What did you do? What did you do?" McKenzie's voice rose with each word.

"You weren't supposed to tell her," Jim said, giving Steve an accusatory look.

Steve couldn't reply because he was still trying not to laugh.

McKenzie crossed her arms. "I suppose you couldn't know that someone has an annoying habit of appropriating nicknames."

"I'm sorry," Jim said. "I really didn't mean to. But he would have found out eventually anyway."

"You can stop talking about me like I'm not here," Steve said, with only a hint of mirth in his voice.

McKenzie held up her hand. "Don't speak."

"Aww," Michelle said. "Their first fight."

"You're a little late, Mom. That was about a week ago."

"Which one are you thinking of?" Steve asked.

"In the car."

"That wasn't a fight; it was our first conversation. I think the fight was when I made you lunch."

"That was more like a misunderstanding. However, when you woke me up in the middle of the night..."

"Because you were screaming."

"Can you corroborate that?"

"You're right; That was our first fight."

"I think you're purposefully distracting me from the matter at hand."

"That is entirely possible."

McKenzie sat down next to Steve. "Here's the deal," she said. "Call me 'Macks' again, and I'll shoot you."

"Then you're going to have to come up with something else I can call you."

"How about my name? Is that so hard?"

"No, but I don't think it's fair that I don't get to have a special name for you."

"That doesn't make any sense. You don't have a nickname."

"You do realize that it doesn't say 'Steve' on my birth certificate, don't you?"

"But it's what everyone calls you."

"So?"

"So, everyone calls me 'McKenzie'."

"Exactly!"

"Well, you've lost me," Jim said.

"That's another one of his annoying habits," McKenzie said. "Incoherence."

"Probably the painkillers talking," Steve said.

"You'd better hope so."

The Carpenters spent the rest of the day at Steve's house. Steve was a bit surprised that he never got the "if you hurt my daughter, I'll kill you" speech from Jim, but McKenzie told him that her father was not in the habit of threatening law enforcement. Steve thought putting himself in danger for McKenzie probably had a lot to do with it too.

In the end, Jim and Michelle actually spent more time at Steve's house than McKenzie did that week, because she was off searching for a job, while they were very recently retired. Steve found out that Jim had an interest in old cars, and had even restored an old Jeep back in Oregon. So, the two of them spent some time in the garage, and Steve almost started to feel like he had a sort of father in his life again.

Michelle was much more adventurous than Steve would have assumed from looking at her and she asked him if he would teach her to surf and snorkel. For that, they had to wait a while because Steve wasn't allowed in the water yet, and McKenzie wanted to go too. Unfortunately, Jim's feelings about water were similar to Danny's. He didn't begrudge other's enjoyment of it, but was not interested in making its acquaintance.

Altogether, it was one of the best weeks Steve could remember. Everyone was coming over for a barbeque on Saturday and on Monday, he was getting his stitches out before going back to work.

Things were looking up.