Disclaimer: Not mine. I borrowed them and I broke them. Don't know if I'll return them fixed.

Summary: April 19th, 1992. After that day, nothing was ever the same.

Warning: Cannon character death and subsequent mourning

Betaed by: The most awesome Judy - BigJ52 - Thank you!

A/N: I should be writing the BigBang Monster. 40k you guys! OMG. But I think I need something to feedback me through till November, so I'm tentatively starting this story (and there's one more in the 'maybe I should post it?' category). It's a Work in Progress and as of now, I don't know where I'm going with it. I don't know if updates will be regular. If you think you can bear with that, I will be more than happy if you tag along with me. But please, remember to leave me a note if you're reading and enjoying - this story is supposed to serve a purpose after all. ;)

EVERYTHING CHANGED

~Normal Day

Normal Day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so . . .

~Mary Jean Iron

"Steve! Where do you think you're going?"

Oh, crap!

Steve stopped in the doorway and took in a breath. He squared his shoulders, lifted his chin up and took on the most innocent look in hope of fooling his mother.

"To see Rick Kwon." He turned to her with a smile.

"Have you done your homework?"

"Ma!" He was sixteen for God's sake!

"Have you done your homework?" Mom was relentless and she knew him too well. He had that history project he had been avoiding for the past four days and deadline was this Tuesday, what with Easter in between, he really needed to get to it. The problem was he didn't know if tackling the Independence War from the Saratoga angle was the right choice, or perhaps it would be better to start from Boston Tea Party. At least he'd done his research!

"Yes, I have!" he lied.

"Lemme see it."

"Ma! Stop treating me like a third-grader!"

Mom sighed and folded her arms on her chest.

"You are acting like a third-grader, Stephen." He hated when she was using his full name. For some reason he felt like he didn't deserve to bear it in such instances. Indeed, her speech served to prove the point. "Those grades you've been getting lately? You're slacking, my boy, you can achieve so much more. Don't forget you're about to pick a college this year and having the best possible grades is crucial." Of course! Mom wanted him to go to the mainland to some Berkley or whatever. Well, he didn't want that!

"No, it's not," he snorted. "I'm going to stay in Hawaii and the grades I have are just enough," he argued. He'd said that a thousand times already and she still would not buckle.

"You can do better than Hawaii State College."

"I don't want to."

"It's about your whole future, Stephen." There, that name again.

"I see my future in Hawaii."

"You may always return. Getting proper education-" she paused, lifted her palm and sighed. She closed her eyes briefly and Steve felt guilt like a punch in his solar plexus. He could swear he caught a glimpse of tears. He'd heard her and Dad argue last night and Dad was not home now. It was Holy Saturday, so Mom must have expected the family to gather together. They didn't and Steve felt like he was expected to somehow make up for it. "You know," Mom pulled herself back together and glared at him, tough as nails. "I'm not going to discuss it with you right now. Go back to your room and at least start on the assignment. When you show me you have done something, maybe I'll let you go to Rick Kwon later. But please, don't forget that you promised to help me with the shopping too!" She turned away and stormed back to the kitchen.

Right, Steve thought. Promised. As if she gave him a choice! 'You were ordered' would be more fitting. And now she mastered her emotional blackmail technique on him all over again. Steve wanted to hit something, instead he marched up the stairs grumbling to himself. He was almost a grown-up man, damn it, and Mom still could do whatever the hell she wanted with him! Do your homework, clean your room, take out the garbage. Else I'll feel sad and you don't want to see mommy sad, do you, Stevie?

He couldn't wait to be eighteen and move out of here!

Of course Dad was never here to help Mom with the shopping or yelling his kids into submission. This was part of the reason Steve felt like he owed Mom something, like he had to compensate for Dad's absence. Be the good son, take care of everyone, Mom and little sister.

Mary didn't care. She was far worse than him, Steve thought, in that she never listened, never obeyed, mouthed off and was generally a nuisance, but she never suffered any consequences. If Mom had tried to ground a twelve-year-old Mary like she did him right now, there would be hell to pay. Steve envied his little sister. She was never told to take out garbage or help with the shopping. At least she hadn't started smoking yet . . .

He passed the door to his sister's room and heard her laughing at something that didn't reach him. Right, she was on the phone with one of her friends as usual and Steve saw red.

"Shut it!" he burst in. "I need the phone, midget."

"You shut it!" Mary made a face at him. God, she looked so much like a more annoying version of Mom. "I'm not finished."

"You are now." He disconnected her call and grabbed the receiver from her hand.

"You asshole!" Mary yelled and started punching him, little keiki. "Give that back!"

"Shut up!" Steve grabbed her wrist and squeezed. Yes, he was stronger and he shouldn't have done that but sometimes she was just making him so annoyed that he wanted to break her hand, not just grab it.

Of course she started screaming and crying and of course Mom came to her rescue.

"What is going on here?"

"I wanted to use the phone to call Rick that I'm not coming!" Steve didn't give anyone a chance to speak. "I have to do the shopping after all and homework and-"

"You know what?" Mom cut in. "You don't have to. We don't need any Easter dinner, do we? Dad is probably not going to be home anyway, what with his 'I'm closing in on something big'! Why do I even bother?" She yelled, turned around and shut the door with such force both Steve and Mary recoiled.

Mary recovered first.

"See what you did," she seethed and snatched the phone from his hands again. "Go, apologize."

Steve clenched his jaw and went straight to his room to cool down before he'd do something more harmful. An hour later he had half his dissertation written and he knew that he really did not have a choice. It was never a matter of choice. Maybe it would be, later, after he'd be eighteen or maybe never, maybe he'd always be Momma's little errand boy. He braced himself for what was to come and went to apologize to Mom and to go help with that shopping. Tradition mattered to her and whether it would be with Dad or without him, they would have that Easter dinner.

As it turned out on the Holy Sunday Steve, Mary and John McGarrett were waiting for their mother and wife to get back home from the church and she was running late.

t.b.c