Hey gang! Thanks again for the continuous support of this fic...it keeps me motivated.

I have such trouble writing conversations between two people because I always feel like I'm writing their names over and over and over again with the dialog. So that is why I switch around and call him Commander or McGarrett or various other things. I can't figure out which is more annoying...continuously writing Steve, Steve, Steve or to keep changing how I refer to him. I hope it doesn't ruin the flow to the conversation, because I think that part came out really well.

I do want to clear up the fact that Matt's food fight was not about kids teasing him about his father...that was just something that he and Katie were talking about. We (and when I say 'we' I mean Steve) find out the reason for the fight in this chapter. I think some of you may be surprised at what I came up with for that one! Enjoy...

Chapter Ten – Guy Stuff

"The only difference between men and boys are the size of their shoes and the price of their toys."

~ Lucilla Lavender

The next day…

"So, you're back again?"

Matt Giordano looked up from where he was stocking cans in the pantry of the Honolulu Medical Center kitchens to see his new friend, Commander Steve McGarrett, leaning in the doorway and watching his every move.

Shaking his head, Matt muttered, "My mom gave me the choice of this or cleaning out bedpans for the nurses." Wrinkling up his freckled nose, he added, "I figured that cans of tomatoes and fruit cocktail had to be better than bedpans."

"Why aren't you in school?"

"I got suspended for three days," Matt informed him, placing cans of pork and beans on a nearby shelf. "Two days for the food fight and one day for not telling anyone what happened."

"Would they take a day off of your sentence if you told them what the food fight was about?" Steve asked, moving further into the room.

"Even if they did, I'm not telling," Matt told him matter of factly.

"Why not?"

"Because the principal would tell my mom and I don't want her to know."

"And what does your mom think about that?"

"She grounded me until I tell her the whole story," Matt muttered, picking up more cans from a nearby box. "Which means I'm not going to get to leave my room until I'm fifty. If I'm lucky."

Changing the subject, Steve asked, "Do you think they are going to give you a lunch break?"

Matt shrugged and asked, "Why?"

"Because they finally let me walk around without that stupid wheelchair and I was sort of looking for someone to have lunch with," Steve answered honestly. He pulled a can of soda and a bag of chips out of his pocket and handed them to Matt. "I think the soda machine out there is afraid of me now because it gave me an extra cherry coke this morning. And a bag of Doritos."

Matt looked at him skeptically and said, "The soda machine gave you Doritos?"

Steve winked, held up his hands, and said, "I told you...it's all in the hands."

Matt looked around the room and then said uncertainly, "I don't know. If my mom or Miss Gracie comes in and I'm not working..."

"You have to eat, don't you?" Steve reasoned. "Your mom may be mad at you, but I don't think she wants you to go hungry."

Matt considered the Commander's suggestion and then asked, "Does everyone who works here get a lunch break?"

"It's got to be in the rule book somewhere," Steve assured him. "Every working man gets a lunch break."

The youngster drew in a deep breath and said, "Okay, but let's eat in here. If Miss Gracie sees me hanging out in the cafeteria...she'll find something else for me to do."

"Deal," Steve said with a grin, turning over a couple of nearby milk crates and sitting down on one.

"Did you talk to my mom today?" Matt asked, sitting on the crate next to his new friend and opening his bag of chips.

"I haven't seen your mom this morning," Steve confessed and suddenly frowned at the tone in the youngster's voice, "Why?"

Shrugging his shoulders and avoiding eye contact, Matt responded quietly, "There was something she was going to ask you, but Aunt Malia said she has been busy down in the ER all day. She'll probably ask you later."

"Sounds important," Steve mused, his interest definitely piqued.

"It is."

"So why don't you ask me?"

"Because it would be better if my mom did it," the ten year old answered and then changed the subject by asking suddenly, "Do you want to know what the worst part of being grounded is?"

Realizing that the kid was as good at switching subjects as his mother, Steve played along and guessed, "No t.v.?"

Katie's son shook his head and answered, "Now that I'm grounded, I'm never going to get to play football."

"You play football?" Steve asked in surprise, unwrapping the sandwich he had chosen from the cafeteria for lunch.

Matt rolled his eyes and then said sarcastically, "I'm on a Pop Warner team and I wear the uniform...but I don't actually get to play football."

"Why not?"

Matt paused and looked down at his soda for a long time before he admitted, "I'm not any good. So I just sit on the bench. I'm like a cheerleader who doesn't wear a skirt."

The Commander chuckled at the cheerleader comment and asked, "What position do you play when you're not on the bench."

"Quarterback."

"That's cool," Steve said, taking a sip of his own soda. "Quarterback is the glamour position."

"But I told you I'm not any good," Matt reminded him. "I'm a quarterback who can't throw the ball ten feet."

"Ten feet is a good start," McGarrett told him, trying to make him feel better.

"Not when Joel Hyatt can throw the ball the whole length of the football field," Matt remarked dryly.

"Oh," Steve said knowingly, biting back a grin. "And Joel Hyatt is the 1st string quarterback?"

"His dad coaches the Kukui High School football team," the ten year old informed him, as if Steve didn't know the coach of his alma mater, "He could throw a football before most kids could even walk." Shaking his head in defeat, he added, "My coach barely remembers my name."

"But this is Pop Warner league...doesn't everybody have to play?"

Matt shrugged again and said, "I was hoping that if I practiced hard enough then I could maybe play in one of the last games of the season. But now that I'm grounded...my mom won't let me go to football practice, either. So if I can't practice, then I won't get to play."

"Can't you practice at home?" Steve suggested.

"With who?" Matt quipped. "My mom doesn't play football."

"Don't you have anyone else who can teach you?"

Matt shook his head and said, "Nope...that's why I'm so bad." Munching on a Dorito, he explained, "My grandpa tried to help...but he said he was more of a hockey and lacrosse guy and that he was better at watching football than playing it. And all of my uncles live far away, so we only get to see them on the holidays and vacations."

"Hmm," the Naval Commander mused, "so there is something that General Frank James can't do. Good to know."

Matt popped the top off of his cherry coke and looked back at Steve as he asked, "You know my grandpa?"

"Kid, there are very few people on this island who don't know who your grandpa is," Steve told him teasingly, "What I didn't know is that there is something I can do that he can't do."

"You play football?" Matt asked. "What position?"

"Quarterback."

"You're a quarterback?" The youngster asked in excitement. Then raising his eyebrow, Matt asked, "Are you any good?"

"I got a full scholarship to play for the University of Florida," Steve informed him, taking a bite of his sandwich.

"You were a Gator?" Matt asked, brimming over with excitement. "I love the Gators!"

But the Commander shook his head and said, "I didn't take it. I decided to go to the Naval Academy instead."

"Are you nuts?" Matt asked incredulously, his excitement bubble bursting. "Does Annapolis even have a football team?"

"Yes," Steve chuckled. "But I gave up football for the S.E.A.L.s."

"Do you still play?"

"I play with some buddies on the weekends when I have some time off, which isn't very often. It's just a bunch of us getting together to blow off some steam," the leader of Five-0 told him, "Nothing serious."

Matt dropped his line of questions and the two ate in silence for a few minutes. Finally, the youngster worked up the courage to ask, "Could you teach me to throw sometime?"

Steve looked down at him and grinned, "Sure...when your mom releases me. But aren't you grounded?"

"Oh yeah," Matt muttered dejectedly, looking back down at his bag of chips. "And I'll probably still be grounded by the time she lets you get out of the hospital."

"But," Steve suggested slyly, "if you tell your mom why you started the food fight...maybe she'd let me take you to the park to throw the ball around when I get out of here."

Matt seemed to be considering his suggestion for a moment, but then he shook his head and said, "I can't."

"Why not?"

"I just can't tell her."

"Is it that bad?" Steve asked, wondering what could possibly be bad enough to cause this kid to willingly miss football practice. Matt nodded, so he asked, "Why don't you tell me first? I was a ten year old boy once with a strict mom and maybe I can..."

"If I can't tell her," Matt said, suddenly angry, "then why would I tell you?"

Steve wondered what nerve he had just struck, so he took a minute to regroup. Trying again, he asked slowly, "It just seems like something you need to talk about and...well...I don't have the power to ground you. So, it's kind of safe to tell me...if you want to."

"You'll tell my mom," Matt accused, munching on another Dorito.

"Well, actually...I don't know if you noticed this," McGarrett said with a smirk, "but your mom doesn't like me too much. So, we don't talk about anything but my surgery and if I'm doing what the nurses tell me to do."

Matt looked up in surprise and asked, "My mom doesn't like you? She likes everybody."

Steve rolled his eyes and said, "Well, I guess I am just special..."

"Are you mean to her?" Matt asked, jumping from angry to surprised to protective so quickly that it almost made his head spin, "Because if you're mean to her, then I don't want to talk to you either."

Steve was impressed with Matt's loyalty to his mother and doubly impressed that Katie didn't tell Matt about how much she seemed to dislike him. After she found them in the cafeteria together, Steve was sure she would have told Matt to stay away from him.

"I'm not really mean to her," Steve tried to explain. "Your mother..." He stopped and then changed his course by saying, "It's different with adults." The Commander paused again and then simply said, "But, I promise...if you ask me not to, I won't tell your mom what the fight was about."

Matt was silent again as he munched on his chips. Finally, he said quietly, "If you tell my mom, I'll hate you. I swear I will hate you."

"Okay," Steve said, preparing himself for something big. "Now I know the consequences. And since you're one of the only guys around this hospital to talk to, I definitely don't want you to hate me. So, I swear that I won't tell your mom. Your secret will never leave this pantry."

Matt looked up at Steve again and studied his face, trying to decide whether or not to trust him. Something about the former S.E.A.L. must have convinced the boy because he took a deep breath and said, "Joel Hyatt..."

"The quarterback," Steve said, proving to the kid that he was paying attention.

"Yeah," Matt affirmed and then continued, "He's not a nice guy and nobody really likes him. But all the football guys sit at the same table at lunch, so he sits with us. Well, my friend Alex and I were talking about my mom taking us surfing out at the beach last weekend..."

Steve nodded as he silently wondered where this story was headed.

"Anyway," Matt started again, "Joel heard us talking and he shouted something about wanting to see my mom in a bikini because she has a rockin' ass."

"A rockin' ass?" Steve tried to hide his surprise and bit back the laugh that was rumbling up within him.

"Yeah and then he kept telling all the other guys that she also had 'a killer rack'," Matt said defensively, looking down at the floor. Steve could tell that he was clearly embarrassed about the entire conversation, but then he said angrily, "He can't talk that way about my mom."

Wishing that Matt would look back up at him, Steve asked quietly, "What did you do?"

"Alex and the guys told me to ignore him because he was just being a jerk..."

"It sounds like you have smart friends."

"But I didn't listen to them," Matt confessed quietly, "Because you can't ignore something like that, you know. I just couldn't let him talk that way about her. If I didn't do something, kids would think it was okay to say things like that about my mom. And it's not."

Katie Giordano raised one hell of a kid, Steve thought to himself silently. Out loud, he asked, "What did you do?"

"Joel kept talking about my mom in a bikini and making rude comments about her and I just got so mad...I picked up the milk container and I threw it at him." Matt took another sip of his drink and said, "And then I kinda lost my mind and threw my mashed potatoes at him, too. Then all the guys jumped in and started throwing food at him."

"And when did the punching begin?"

"After I threw the mashed potatoes," Matt told him. "I hit him right in the face and he had mashed potatoes all over him. Joel got really pissed and ran over and slugged me. And then all the guys jumped on him for hitting me, so I jumped into the pile too. I mean, they were defending me...so I should be in the middle of it, right?"

"Well..." Steve hedged, trying not to grin. He knew he was going to be unsuccessful, so instead he asked, "What about the lip?"

"I really don't know who did that, like I told you," Matt answered, "It might have been one of my friends who kicked me in the mouth, but I don't want to get any of them in trouble...they were fighting because of me."

"Right," Steve agreed with a nod.

"So, I can't tell my mom the real reason because she will feel bad," Matt concluded dejectedly, hanging his head again. "But she won't let me off grounding unless I tell her the whole story. And she'll know if I'm lying."

"I think your mom might be cooler about this than you might think." Steve suggested, looking over at Matt. "I mean, if she knows you were fighting to defend her honor...women eat that stuff up."

"No!" Matt exclaimed, his eyes widening. "I can't tell her all those things that Joel said about her."

"Why not?"

"It's embarrassing," the boy mumbled, shrugging his shoulders before asking, "Would you want to tell your mom something like that?"

The kid had him there, so he lightened the moment by teasing, "Women like to be told they have rockin' asses."

"By ten year olds?" Matt asked skeptically, raising his eyebrow at the Commander.

Steve let out a large sigh, mainly to keep from falling over in a hysterical fit of laughter at the entire situation, and the two guys sat in silence again. Finally he asked, "Do you want me to try and talk to her?"

Matt was immediately back in protective mode again as he exclaimed, "You promised that..."

Steve held up his hands in surrender as he explained, "I won't tell her about the reason for the fight. I'll just tell her that you and I talked about it and..."

"You said that she doesn't like you," Matt interrupted, looking at Steve skeptically. "Why would she believe you?"

"Maybe I could have Dr. Weston talk to her instead."

"Aunt Malia would definitely tell her what the fight was about," Matt informed him, "They are more like sisters than friends and they tell each other everything."

Steve thought again and asked, "Does your mom have a boyfriend we could get to help us?"

Matt shook his head and said, "My mom hasn't had a boyfriend in a long time."

"Oh," Steve said, secretly pleased to hear that bit of information, "Well, maybe she would talk to me...if she knew it was about you."

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

The former S.E.A.L. looked at his young friend strangely and asked, "What does that have to do with anything?"

Matt shrugged and said, "If you don't have a girlfriend, maybe you could be her boyfriend. And then she would listen to you."

"She doesn't like me, remember?" Steve reminded him, raising his eyebrow as he smirked, "Girlfriends and boyfriends usually have to like each other...at least a little bit."

"Oh yeah," Matt said, but looked up at him with a strange expression on his face.

"What?" Steve asked, not liking the look.

"Nothin'," Matt said with a grin. "How come you don't have a girlfriend?"

"Because I'm a busy guy. Now can we get back on topic?" Steve asked quickly. "We have to figure out a way to get you out of this."

"Get who out of what?"

Steve and Matt both turned at the sound of Katie's voice when she suddenly appeared in the doorway.

"Hi, mom," Matt chirped, looking guiltily up at Steve as they both wondered how much of the conversation she had overheard.

"Hi, son," Katie drawled, recognizing the guilty look on her son's face. "What's going on in here?"

"I'm stocking the pantry shelves for Miss Gracie," Matt replied and then gestured to Steve as he added, "And Commander McGarrett brought me some lunch."

"Well, I guess we had the same idea," Katie said, holding up the sandwich and juice she was carrying. Then looking down at what Steve brought, she added dryly, "But I guess a tuna sandwich and apple juice is not much compared to cherry coke and Doritos."

"I'm still hungry," Matt informed her, taking the sandwich and drink from his mother and hoping that she would turn around and leave after making her delivery. But she didn't. Instead she stood there glaring at Commander McGarrett.

"He's working hard," Steve informed his doctor, "So, I thought he needed a caffeine break. And I happened to see him while I was walking around, so..."

"What are you doing walking around, by the way?"

"Don't worry," he told her with a smirk, "I have permission from Nurse Kelly…she gave me time off for good behavior, worden."

"He was just being nice to me, mom," Matt piped up.

"And talking to you about more 'guy stuff'?" Katie sneered, "Like plotting how to get Matt out of trouble?"

Both Matt and Steve looked down at the floor and didn't answer. Katie shook her head as she walked over to her son and tried again, "Matthew James...I asked you a question."

"We were talking about football," Steve supplied, hoping to help.

"I was asking him!" Katie hissed, never turning to look at her patient.

Matt looked up at his mother, surprised to hear such nastiness coming from her, and said, "We *were* talking about football. Did you know that Commander McGarrett was a quarterback?"

"No, I didn't," Katie told him. "But I don't understand why..."

"We were trying to figure out how to get him some more playing time," Steve said again, not really lying to her. If they could figure out how to get Matt out of trouble, he could start teaching him how to throw a football, and thus...get him some more playing time.

Katie looked over at Steve with a curious expression and then back down at her son. She knew how much Matt wanted to learn to throw the football farther. Moving closer to him, she asked quietly, "Did he offer to give you some pointers?"

"Yes," Matt answered slowly, "But I told him that I was grounded."

Katie pursed her lips and looked back down at her son before looking over at Steve. But before she could say anything else, her pager went off. Looking down at it, she said, "Matty, I have to go back down to the ER and check on a patient. But, we'll talk about this some more on the way home...okay?"

"Okay," Matt mumbled.

She ruffled his hair and kissed the top of his head as she said, "Eat your lunch and then get back to work. I don't want you to get in any more trouble."

Matt nodded and Katie left the pantry...without another word to Steve.

When Matt looked up at him, Steve grinned and said, "There may be some hope, yet. Your mom really loves you."

"Yeah," Matt muttered, shaking his head, "but she really can't stand you."