Notes: I owe a bigger thanks than usual to Mari and Sammy this week. They showed once again that they are amazingly understanding friends and I am so lucky to have them in my life. You'll probably recognize SuperSammy's touch in the title, and thanks to both Mari and Sammy for their help coming up with this story.

Readers and REAL McRollers - Thank you for your wonderful support. It is always appreciated.

Hope you enjoy!

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far (A McRoll in the REAL World Story)

"I just have a couple meetings this afternoon so I should be home pretty early," Catherine said as she ran a comb through her wet hair.

Steve nodded, cupping water from the faucet in both hands and splashing some on his face. "Unless something breaks we've got a pretty slow day, too. Chin and Kono are due in court, and Danny's speaking to a group of rookies at HPD."

She grinned. "And you have budget revisions to turn in," she said knowingly. "Your absolute favorite."

He grimaced and threw her a side-eyed look. "Wonder who gave me that deadline?"

Their early morning conversation stopped immediately when they heard Cammie's insistent barks from the nursery amplified through the baby monitor. They both took off at speed out of the room and down the hall into Angie's room. Cammie stood directly in front of the crib barking as Angie, bent over with both hands on the slats, tried to stretch her leg up toward the top rail, though she was still a few inches short of her obvious goal.

"Angie!" Steve and Catherine said at the same time.

"Out!" she insisted, righting herself. "Out, Mama!"

"Hey, that's not safe, Angie," Catherine said firmly, picking her up. "You can't climb out of your crib. You could fall and hurt yourself. You have to wait for Mommy or Daddy to get you."

"Eh bah up dow, Mama," Angie said, pointing at the crib.

Steve eyed it, his brow furrowing, though he spoke to her. "Yeah, Mommy's right, Angie. That's not safe."

Catherine followed his gaze. "It's as low as it can go, right?"
"Yeah, we moved it all the way down as soon as she could pull herself up to stand."

"Well, it is a good thing your legs aren't longer, baby girl," Catherine said. "And a good thing Cammie was here." She moved toward the hallway. "Let's go try to potty."

"Pah-tee!" Angie said, raising a hand to reach for the doorframe as they walked below it.

Steve scratched his neck, still looking at the crib. Cammie pressed against his side and he reached down to rub her head. "Good girl, Cammie," he said. "Good girl."

Sitting at his desk hours later Steve pinched the bridge of his nose to try and fend off the spreadsheet induced headache he could feel coming. When his phone buzzed, it was a welcome distraction.

"Aunt Deb," he said, answering the call. "Everything okay?"

"Oh yes, everything's fine," came her easy reply. "I had a quick question for you, do you have a minute."

"Of course. What's up?"

"Well, you know I was disappointed I couldn't make the trip to the island when Mary and Joan and Aaron came for their spring break," she said.

"You had plans with friends to go to Napa Valley," he replied. "We totally understood."

"So I was thinking maybe I'd fly out for Easter, if you don't have any objections?"

He smiled broadly. "Objections? Of course not. We'd love to see you. Angie especially."

"How is that great-niece of mine?" Deb asked, and he could hear the mile-wide smile in her voice.

"Getting more and more adventurous every day," he said. "And giving me more gray hairs in the process."

"Oh?" Deb asked, her tone inviting explanation.

"This morning she tried to climb out of her crib. She couldn't actually do it and Cammie alerted us, but …" He shook his head, the scene still fresh in his head.

To his surprise, his aunt laughed. "Well … like father, like daughter."

"What's that mean?"

"I remember your dad calling me once to tell me you'd managed to climb out of your crib, walk down the hall into his bedroom, and come up behind him in the bathroom while he was shaving. Startled him so bad when you said, 'Hi, Dada,' he sliced a chunk of skin off his jaw."

Steve huffed a laugh and rubbed his own jaw as if in sympathy. "He used to listen to Springsteen while he shaved," Steve said, his eyes going soft at the memory. "How old was I?"

"Probably a little older than Angie. And if I remember right, you got a big boy bed pretty quickly after that."

Steve chuckled. "I don't think we're there yet," he said. "Angie can't reach the top rail with the mattress as low as it is."

"And it sounds like she has Cammie watching out for her," Deb added.

Steve smiled, remembering Cammie's insistent barks and how she'd planted herself directly in front of Angie's crib. "She does, indeed."

"Well, I should let you get back to work."

Steve cringed, looking over at the computer screen. "It's okay, really."

"No, no, I've got a flight to book now, suitcases to pack …"

He grinned. "You know Easter's still a couple weeks away."

"No time to waste, then."

He chuckled. "All right." His expression softened. "Thanks for calling, Aunt Deb. And for that story."

"My pleasure. I'm sure I can think of a few dozen more to share when I get there."

"Can't wait.

That evening Steve, Angie, and Cammie were in the playroom while Catherine finished putting away some laundry upstairs.

"There you go," Steve said, smiling at Angie from his spot on the floor as she stood to put the smallest of her favorite set of stacking cups on the top of her tower. "Get it up there. All right!" He clapped as she succeeded, and she imitated his gesture.

"Ah yay!"

"Yay!" he echoed. He laughed when she then deliberately swung her arms through the tower, knocking it down and giggling. "And another successful demolition. You gonna build it again?" he asked.

"High!" she said.

"Okay, you make it high."

As she started to rebuild the tower, Steve felt a nudge at his arm. He grinned when he looked to see Cammie batting his bicep with the rope toy in her mouth. "Hey, Cammie, you want a little tug-of-war?" He turned more fully toward her, grabbing one end of the rope and giving it a good tug. "Come on," he encouraged as she tugged right back. "Come on, Cammie, get it. Get it."

Suddenly she dropped the rope and barked. Steve's head whipped around and his eyes widened to see Angie standing on top of her play table.

"Whoa whoa whoa, what are you doing, Angie?" he said, immediately moving to grab her. She leaped into his arms. "Hey. No, no, no," he said, even as he caught her and put her back on the floor. "Uh uh. That's not a game, Angie. That's dangerous."

"Ah may yah!" she insisted, pointing at the table and frowning. "High!"

"Towers can be high, not Angie," he said. "You could hurt yourself."

She cocked her head, blinking at him.

"Boo boo," he explained. "Big boo boo."

"Boo boo," she said, pointing to her knee where just the hint of her injury from a few weeks ago remained.

"Right, like your knee, but worse. You can't climb on the table. Okay?" He frowned thinking of her attempt to climb out of her crib that morning. "Do I need to toddler-proof the house again?"

"I'm pretty sure that's a never-ending process," Catherine said, entering the playroom. "I heard Cammie bark. What happened?"

"I turned to play tug-of-war with Cammie for all of five seconds and your daughter scrambled up the table and was standing on top of it."

Catherine raised an eyebrow as she knelt beside him. "My daughter, huh? If anything, that sounds like you, McGarrett."

His lip quirked in a small smile as he thought of the story Deb had told him earlier. "Maybe. But I've heard some stories about you, too, Rollins." Coming back to the matter at hand, he looked around the room. "The other day she tried to climb those bookshelves."

"And there was this morning with the crib," she agreed. "I know she can't get out of there, she's not tall enough yet, but there's no doubt she was trying."

"I was just thinking about that."

"Thank goodness Cammie was on top of that."

"Cammie!" Angie said, reaching for her beloved dog and wrapping both arms around her neck.

"Yeah, Cammie's your little guardian angel, isn't she?" Catherine rubbed Cammie's head affectionately and kissed the top of her nose. "Good job, pretty girl. Our Angie's a handful, but you're looking out for her, aren't you?"

Steve kissed Angie's head. "And so are we."

Hope you enjoyed!

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