A/N: I know, I know *hides face in shame,* it's been way too long that I've updated this story. But, good news, I am hoping to have the rest of the story written before Christmas. It may not be posted by then but if it's done then that means posting isn't too far behind! Only one more chapter left and then maybe an epilogue if I decide it needs one! I hope this is well worth the wait, even though there is no excuse for how long this wait was!

Thanks to my lovely beta jerseybelle for betaing this lightning quick!

*Steve's POV*

Steve woke with a start, feeling disoriented and unsure of his surroundings for a second. Then he heard a grumble beside him and felt the familiar tickle of Danny's bed-ruffled hair against his neck. He was home, in his bed, with his husband, back with his family.

He extricated himself as best he could from Danny's tight grip. Steve's body clock was still off so he knew he wasn't going to be sleeping anymore even though dawn was barely peeking over the horizon. But he could tell from just one look at Danny that the detective had not been sleeping well. So, he moved as carefully as he could so as not to wake him and made his way downstairs.

He started up the coffee machine and walked over to the lanai doors and opened them wide as he waited for the machine to perk to life. He took a deep breath, inhaling all of the smells of home and Hawaii. After pouring himself a cup of coffee, he walked into the den, looking at the things that had changed over the six months he'd been gone.

Instead of just three sets of jackets and shoes and outerwear, there were four. Mixed in with his and Danny's things were not only Avery's swim team jacket, but also Grace's pea coat. He saw Grace's InStyle magazines stacked up next to Swimming World and Guns & Ammo, and Grace's favorite movies were now resting in the DVD case next to all of the family favorites.

It wasn't that it was weird that Grace's things were there, she obviously stayed with them a lot over the years and had her own room, but it was weird to see so many of her things around the house. Steve sighed; he just couldn't begin to wrap his head around what Danny must have been dealing with while he was gone…long-lost mothers coming back, long-time mothers hitting their daughters, broken ankles, and a task force that needed a leader. Fuck, Steve couldn't handle how horrible and selfish he felt having left his family to fend for themselves, again. He knew they understood, they always understood. But this time, this time was it.

He wasn't going to see Danny so lost and broken again, so damn tired he could barely see the sparkle in Danny's eye. No, this was it. He's done. No more missions, no more training, no more being away from his family for indeterminate amounts of time. He's served his country, done his duty, and now it was time to do his duty as a father.

And that meant a whole lot of things Steve wasn't really ready to face. No matter how long it'd been, or how many good things had transpired since then, Gwen was always going to be a sore spot, a time he didn't want to go back to. He wanted nothing more than to continue on pretending she didn't exist. But now, now he couldn't hide from it anymore. Now Avery knew who she was and he had to be there for her, console her as she learned the true nature of her mother's being. Now he had to dredge up old feelings and past hurts to remind his daughter of the good qualities she inherited from Gwen, remind her that she would never turn into someone like her mother, and remind her that she already had a loving family with two parents and a sister who love her more than anything.

And, apparently, he was also going to have to deal with the whole boys and dating thing.

Well, life in the McGarrett-Williams household was certainly never boring.

He hadn't realized how long he'd been sitting there until he was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of a car door slamming in the driveway. He peeked out the front window to see Kono dropping off the girls from their sleepover.

Steve couldn't believe he'd forgotten that Avery would have swim practice and so they'd be home really early.

Steve can hear Danny saying 'That's a sign you've been gone too long."

Steve didn't really know how he wanted to say hello to his girls again, but giving them a hug at four-thirty in the morning wasn't really on his top ten list. But, alas, he was Steve McGarrett and this was his life. So he stood up, smoothed out his old NAVY t-shirt and waited for the girls to open the front door.

"Grace, just go upstairs and go back to sleep," Avery said as she pushed open the door to the house, dropping her overnight bag by the couch. "You won't even really notice you were awake."

Grace didn't respond because she was too busy staring gaped-mouth at Steve. He watched as she tried to determine if this was a trick of her over-tired mind or if Steve really was standing in the living room after six long months of being gone.

"Grace," Avery questioned, turning around to see if her sister had heard her. Steve watched as she slowly turned back around to follow Grace's line of sight.

Steve saw himself reflected back in every facial expression that fell across for face before settling on disbelief.

"Hey, girls," Steve greeted.

"This isn't real," Grace said as she rubbed her eyes. "I've slept a total of two hours and am not equipped with the weird gene that makes mornings a pleasant experience. I just need to go lay down and this will go away because this can't be real."

"I'm really here, Grace Face," Steve said, stepping a few paces closer to them, holding out his arms. "Now, please come here and give me a hug. I've missed you girls more than words could say."

They didn't need to be told twice as they dropped everything they were carrying and flung themselves into his waiting arms. Steve pulled them in close as tears started to well up in his eyes and he could hear both girls sobbing incoherent nonsense into his neck.

Now, now it felt like home.

*H50*

After a good long hug, the girls pulled away, both wiping at the tear tracks winding their way down their cheeks.

"C'mon now, no tears. Today is supposed to be a happy day."

"Dad, you know these are happy tears. Why didn't you tell us you were coming home?"

"Well, I wanted it to be a surprise, but I didn't actually know I was coming home until twelve hours before my transport out, so I actually didn't have much time to inform you guys anyway."

Grace just smiled and hugged him again, her eyes still glazed over with sleep. Avery, who of course was used to being up at this time, gave him a calculating look.

"Is this why we had impromptu girls' night at Auntie Kono's?"

"Kono agreed to let you guys stay over so I could surprise you."

"This morning, so you could surprise us this morning, but you could have surprised us last night."

Steve blubbered out a response that didn't sound all too intelligent and didn't have Avery fooled for a second.

"Ew, never again do I want to be able to infer that much about your and Danno's private life. Ugh. The conversation with Ian about stuff you might hide in your bedroom was enough trauma for one entire lifetime."

Steve blushed, but quickly regrouped himself, clearing his throat, "What conversation with Ian?"

"Dad, seriously, quit while you're ahead and just go make breakfast."

"Well, when you ask so nicely I may just have to prolong this conversation."

"Okay, please can you make breakfast? Ian's going to be here in about fifteen minutes and he always has breakfast here."

"Aye, aye, captain." Steve mock-saluted Avery as she passed him on the way to the kitchen. He kissed Grace on the head and shooed her upstairs and into her bed with a promise that he will make breakfast for her when she wakes up.

"So, Ian, huh," Steve questioned as he started cracking eggs into a pan.

"What is with all the weird questions? Ian's just my friend." Steve didn't miss the blush that had settled across her cheeks and tinged the tips of her ears red.

"Sweet pea, I would say he is much more than a friend, or at least he wants to be."

"Stop it, Dad. He's been my friend for years. He doesn't see me that way."

Steve couldn't help but chuckle a little to himself. He scooped the eggs onto her plate and set it in front of her with some pieces of pineapple. It was so blessedly normal that Steve couldn't help the grin that spread across his face. It was just good to be home.

"Aves, let me tell you a little secret, okay. Boys don't do nice things for girls just to do nice things for girls. There are only two reasons: they consider the girl a friend or they really want to date the girl. And if you like her as a friend that probably means you text her to ask her how her ankle is doing or maybe you come by and watch a movie with her. But you most definitely do not come over to help her with a chore, you definitely don't get up extra early to stop by her house every morning to eat breakfast with her and take her to swim practice, and you most certainly don't continue that pattern after she's completely healed."

"You forgot console her and make sure she gets home safe after drinking too much."

"Well, I'm just going to pretend that one doesn't exist because then I would have to ruin this wonderful father-daughter bonding moment with a reprimand, and I know Danno enough to know that he gave you a reprimand good enough for the both of us."

Avery laughed just as the front door to the McGarrett house opened and Ian made his way inside.

"Hey, Aves. What's on the menu this morning, Rice Chex or Reese's Puffs?"

"Eggs," Avery responded as she took Ian's plate from Steve and placed it on the chair next to him.

"Eggs, wow. You must have gotten up early, Danny."

Ian stepped around the corner into the kitchen and stopped cold as he saw Steve at the kitchen sink.

"Oh, sir, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you had gotten home."

Steve laughed to himself; he was going to have so much fun teasing Danny about the fact that Ian found him much more intimidating.

"It's okay, Ian, and you can call me Steve."

Ian averted his eyes in embarrassment and sat down next to Avery. Steve watched as Avery and Ian ate their breakfast, every now and then peeking over at the other person but quickly looking away if the other person noticed. It would probably be precious if the girl involved wasn't his daughter and he wasn't intimately aware of what teenage boys spent their days thinking about.

Steve had to get off this train of thought because he was heading down a dangerous path that would probably end in a Danno rant of epic proportions about mammal-to-mammal interactions.

Bringing himself back into the present moment where Ian's hands were definitely on his own plate and nowhere near Avery's entire being, he asked, "So, how's swim season going so far, Ian?"

"Good. My fly has improved a lot so my IM time has gone down some, and I'm definitely glad to have Aves back to share all the insane breaststroke sets my dad comes up with."

"He's being modest; his IM time has gone down by almost five seconds, that's like, unheard of. It's pretty much insane and now colleges have been scouting him and stuff. So cool!"

"What schools?" Steve questioned. They never did end up telling Avery about the scouts that came to talk to them about her. He and Danno decided it was better to let that be for now since she was just going into her junior year and was dealing with his deployment.

"UCLA, University of Texas, and University of Florida."

"I personally really hope he goes to UF because then maybe he'll meet Ryan Lochte and he could introduce me because he's kinda awesome."

Steve watched jealousy flash across Ian's face.

"Isn't he like 28 years old or something," Steve questioned trying to take some heat off Ian. Apparently he liked the guy more than he thought since he was trying to help him out. Steve was also impressed with the fact that he even knew how old Ryan Lochte was. He thinks that should give me a lot of cool dad points, in his humble opinion.

"Whatever, he's still awesome. I just think he's a cool swimmer, and I'm super jealous of his IM walls. I still struggle with all those exchanges. It's what's keeping my times from improving in that event."

"Tell Dad you want to focus on that and he'll do it. He's got some good drills he gave me to work on those turns," Ian said in a desperate attempt to move the conversation away from Ryan Lochte.

"Yeah, I think I might do that. I mean I know that I have this huge leg up because I'm good at the breaststroke and so many IMers aren't, and so I'm really able to pull ahead or catch up on that leg, but I'm usually struggling to get up there because my turns slow me down."

"Well, let's be a little more realistic here," Ian laughed. "You generally aren't 'catching up'. Most of the time your turns are causing others to get a half a second closer; you still outswim most of the people we swim against and you know that."

Avery rolled her eyes, "Whatever, 'Mr. Colleges Are Recruiting Me'."

"I'm sure they're recruiting you too. Your times are even better than mine."

"No, I'm pretty sure I would know if they are."

"They talk to your parents first since we aren't seniors yet. There are like rules and stuff."

Avery's head whipped back around to stare at Steve across the kitchen island. Steve wasn't really Ian's biggest fan anymore.

"Dad, have colleges talked to you?"

"Um, I think you're going to be late for practice and this is something I don't want to discuss without Danno."

"You lied to me. You hid this from me, for how long? Were you ever going to tell me? College scholarships are huge, Dad. I could go to some of these big-time universities that I wouldn't be able to otherwise. I can't believe you hid this from me; after everything, you and Danno didn't think that maybe this would be something I should hear?"

"Avery, look, we were going to say something but then we found out about my deployment and we just didn't want to put too much pressure on you. You love swimming and we didn't want to take that away from you."

"It's always been my dream to swim in college, you know that, and you were ready to hide from me the fact that my dream was actually on the way to becoming a reality? I can't believe you."

"Aves," Steve reached out to grab her hand but she pulled it away and left the kitchen. Ian gave another apologetic look at Steve before following her out.

"Shit," Steve's head dropped to the countertop. Well, that certainly wasn't how he envisioned his first morning home going.

He could hear Danny stirring upstairs, so he finished cleaning up the kitchen and made a plate of eggs and toast to bring upstairs. He knew that hiding the scouts from Avery wasn't a good idea; they were a family that prided themselves on always being open with each other. But everything had been so fucked up these last few months. Something had felt off from the beginning; he had known, in his gut, that he shouldn't have left on that deployment, and that this one was different. And that fear had held him and Danny back from handling this deployment like all the others.

Their strength came from their faith in each other, in their family, and the knowledge that neither would ever stop fighting to come home be it from the battlefield or the back alleys of Honolulu. They would never stop fighting until they were together again.

But this time, and Steve didn't know why, but this time something got messed up. He had that gut feeling that he shouldn't leave, that his family needed him, but he left anyway. And now that he's back, his family has fallen apart.

He understood that Avery would be angry that they had kept something so important from her, no matter the reason. She's a teenager and a reaction like that would be expected. But he could tell that there was something more to her anger, betrayal. He had left her when she needed him most, and the one person she was always curious about came back and then lied to her. Steve couldn't imagine the hurt and pain she was going through, and it killed him to know that he was putting his little girl through that.

No wonder Danny looked so exhausted.

Steve pushed open the door to his bedroom and saw Danny sitting up trying to figure out where Steve had gone.

"Sorry, I couldn't sleep so I went downstairs," Steve apologized. He could see the worry in Danny's face, the fear that everything that happened last night was a dream. "The girls are already back and Avery left for swim practice a few minutes ago."

"Yeah, I heard. What happened?" Danny sat up against the headboard as Steve handed him the breakfast plate and picked up his own.

"She found out about the college scouts, the ones we didn't tell her about."

"Fuck."

"Yeah, my thoughts exactly."

"Well, one thing's for sure," Danny started, forcing Steve to look at him, "I'm sure glad I've got you here to help me deal with it."

Steve smiled and pulled Danny close, "Always, Danno, always."

"We missed you. I don't know what it was about this time, but we really needed you."

Steve sighed, "I know. I was thinking the same thing this morning, and I came to a decision."

"What decision?"

"I'm leaving the Navy."

Danny pulled away and put his plate down on the bedside table. "What are you talking about, Steven? We have never asked you to give up your job in the Navy, not once. We know how much being in the Navy means to you."

"Yeah, it means a whole hell of a lot, but it doesn't mean more to me than my family. I've done more than my twenty, I've served my country, and I've done my duty. I'm ready to hang it up. And, Danny, this isn't some rash decision. I made this decision months ago. I could see what my deployment was doing to our family. It's time. In the past we dealt with deployments well. They sucked, they were hard, and we missed each other, but we always handled them okay, but not this time. This time was different, we lied, we hid stuff from each other, and we did all the things we know make deployments harder. I don't know about you, but to me that's a sign that something's gotta change."

"But it doesn't have to be this," Danny argued, "It doesn't have to be you giving up something that's so central to your identity."

"I will always be a SEAL, nothing can take that away from me. But I can lose my identities of father and husband if I'm not here for my family. I want this, Danno, I promise. I don't want to have to worry about leaving again. The girls are sixteen; they're juniors in high school. We've got two more years before they leave to go off to college and then who knows where they will be, most likely on the mainland. And I don't want to miss out on another moment of these last two years. I don't want to miss another swim meet, another tennis match; I want to be here when they send in their college applications or get asked to prom. I want to be here for those memories because those are the memories I can't ever replace. A battlefield is a battlefield, and those memories all seem the same. But I will never be able to get back the memory of seeing Avery and Grace walking across the stage when they graduate from high school; I can't miss that, I can't miss any of it."

"And you're positive this is what you want?"

"Absolutely."

Steve watched Danny's face break into the first real grin he'd seen since he'd walked off the plane the night before.

"I'm so glad to hear you say that, super SEAL."

"I said we were in this forever and always, Danno."

"Forever and always."

*H50*

"Bossman, it's good to have you back," Kono greeted as Steve walked into Five-0 headquarters for the first time. Steve grinned and pulled her in for a hug.

"Howzit, brah," Chin greeted, slapping Steve on the back.

"It's good, guys, its good. Glad to be back."

"Well, we're glad to have you back," Kono started, "We forget sometimes how calm you keep our favorite haole."

Steve laughed, "What can I say."

"You can say nothing, okay," Danny interrupted as he came out of his office. "I do not appreciate the insubordination or the insinuation that I am a hothead."

"No one would ever call you a hothead, Danno," Steve responded.

"No, that would be a totally incorrect description of your personality," Kono agreed.

Chin, wise man that he is, chose to remain silent.

"Whatever, I get no love whatsoever from you people. I take on running the task force for six months and all I get is crap the minute this Neanderthal comes back. I would just like to point out that during my tenure as unit chief we spent a quarter less on ammo and weaponry and nobody got shot. Now that Captain Crazypants is back I'm sure our budget will double and I'm betting we've got twenty-four hours before I'm shot."

"I'd say more like twelve, if you're lucky," Kono grinned mischievously. "Care to make this interesting?"

"No," Steve interrupted, "We will not be making anything interesting. Danny, I'm not going to get you shot, and for the record, it's Commander Crazypants."

Steve didn't give Danny enough time to come up with an intelligent response because he was already heading out the door.

"Where are you going," Danny called after him.

"I don't officially start work until Monday so I'm going to pick up Aves from swim practice and see if I can fix the damage I inflicted this morning, and maybe broach that whole Gwen subject."

"Alright, see you at home then."

"Yup, see ya guys."

Steve made it to the aquatic center about twenty minutes before the end of practice. He parked the truck and walked inside, taking a seat on the bleachers. He hadn't seen Avery swim in six months, and he was curious to see how she was recovering from her broken ankle.

Mike noticed him sitting by himself and waved before walking towards him.

"Ian said you'd come back, glad you're safe."

"Thanks, Mike," Steve said as he shook the coach's hand. "So, how's her swimming post-broken ankle?"

"Good, actually. After about a week or so following the injury she started coming into practice and continued to do things she could still do with her foot, lift weights, stay flexible in her upper body, that sort of thing. We started her off slow when she returned; even though that was the last thing she wanted."

Steve laughed because that was all McGarrett.

"But she's been quickly regaining her split times pre-injury. She's still struggling on the walls though."

"Yeah, she's always struggled with the turns."

"That's true, but when she's doing longer distances, usually 200 or more, she starts to favor her good ankle over the bad one. She'll push off hard with one foot but barely graze the wall with the other. She's still getting an okay push-off, but in a close race that may hurt her, especially when it comes to states and meets of that caliber."

"Is it a physical thing or a mental thing?"

"Mental, I think. And we still haven't tried it in a real race, you know, with the adrenaline pumping. I've talked with her doctor and physical therapist and both said that her ankle is perfectly healthy, and that pushing off the wall will not hurt it in the least, and Aves knows this. I think once she has a race where she doesn't even think about it, just races to win, and then sees that it didn't bother her once she'll be back to her normal self."

"Good. And make sure to remind Ian how much we appreciate him driving Avery to and from practice and keeping her motivated to come when she was injured. From what Danny tells me, that was incredibly helpful in her recovery."

"I will let him know. Have a great afternoon, Steve. And glad to have you back."

Steve waved goodbye and waited for a few more minutes before practice came to an end. He called over to Avery when she got out of the water, "Hey, Aves, I'm going to give you a ride, meet you out front?"

Her face was still angry, but it had definitely dissipated some so Steve put it in the win column when she nodded at him.

Steve walked outside and sat down on a bench in front of the building to wait for Avery to finish changing. That was when he saw her walking across the parking lot.

Gwen.

And fuck, Steve was so angry in a split second, knowing that Gwen was about to ambush Avery after everything she'd done to her.

Steve saw red and flew out of his seat and intercepted her by the edge of the sidewalk. "Walk one fucking step further and you'll be sorry you ever step foot on this island."

"Well hello to you too, Steve. Glad to see you haven't changed much. Now, I'm sure your husband has told you that I'm back and I'm going to be a mom," she sneered at him.

Steve couldn't compose himself, couldn't contain his anger. "No, what he told me was that you came here because your boyfriend said he'd break up with you if you weren't in your daughter's life. He also told me that you don't actually want to be in her life. So I'm pretty sure I've got all the necessary details I need to be able to say stay the fuck away from my daughter."

"Our daughter," Gwen yelled back. "She's our daughter."

"No, she's not. She's mine and Danny's daughter. She stopped being your daughter the minute you left her on that tarmac sixteen years ago. You think I will ever forget that fucking moment, huh? You not only walked away from me, but you walked away from her. You broke me that day, Gwen. Yeah, I've turned it around and I found someone who loves me more than anything, but you broke a part inside of me that will never fully trust again. And I vowed that day to make sure my daughter never had that same feeling. And you know what, I failed her. I wasn't here to protect her from you and that's on me, but you're still the one that caused all this hurt, became a disease to my family, and now that I'm back I'm not ever going to let you near them again."

"A disease! Screw you, Steve. The only reason I left was because you forced me to. You left without notice, didn't call, what the hell was I supposed to do? You didn't even know your daughter was born."

"You knew what my job was going to be like before we even started dating, Gwen. Don't try to put that on me. You realized you couldn't handle it and you ran away scared."

"You pushed me."

"I didn't push you, you ran."

"Fine, whatever, I don't care what you think because I'm still suing you. I am going to get back my parental rights, and I haven't seen my daughter in a few days and she hasn't been returning my phone calls so if you'll please step aside so I can see her."

"No, Gwen. I'm not going to let you see her. You hurt her like you wouldn't believe and she doesn't want to see you. Did you not get the hint when she wasn't answering her phone? She learned who you truly are and you hurt her. And you know what, that's my fault that I didn't tell her anything about you, that I basically pretended you didn't exist, because that opened her up to wanting to get to know you and that opened her up to being hurt. And fuck, I will never stop blaming myself for putting her through the same exact situation you put me through."

"I don't know what she thinks, Steve, but I love her."

"You don't love me," Avery yelled from behind Steve. He turned and saw her walking out of the building, tears already streaming down her cheeks. "I heard you the other day fighting with your boyfriend. You told him that you didn't want to be a mother, that he was selfish for making you be one."

"Avery, I didn't mean that. I was just angry." Gwen tried to move forward, but Avery flinched backwards and Steve stepped in the way, preventing her from moving any farther.

"Okay, so now that's cleared up, Avery and I are going to be leaving now."

"No, you can't take her away from me. A girl needs her mother."

"No, what a girl needs is a parent who actually cares about her; gender is irrelevant. And she already has that, so we have no need for you."

"C'mon, Avery, let's go." Steve signaled for Avery to move forward and he quickly wrapped an arm around her before steering her away from Gwen.

"Avery," Gwen called after them, her voice a mess with sobs, "Please."

"I'm sorry, Gwen. I already have two parents who love me. I'm really not in the market for one that doesn't give a shit about me."