Steve's foot tapped incessantly against the tile floor of Children's Services. Although he and Emily hadn't settled their argument, he reminded himself that she agreed to their original deal of taking a trial run as foster parents. Steve looked up as he saw Egypt Landon come out of the hall that led to the group home.
"Look I don't need you to take me in as a charity case okay? I'm fine in the group home." Egypt said without giving Steve the chance to say hello. "Yeah that shiner you're sporting is very convincing." Egypt rolled his eyes. "Look, Egypt you remember that conversation we had about you wanting to be normal? Well living with my family will give you normal." He looked up only to give Steve a 'I'll believe it when I see it look' "You remember when you said that you wanted your parents to give you siblings? Well I have three children. I have a little boy and a set of twin girls. Can you at least meet my family first and then decide if you hate all of us?" Egypt nodded his head but refused to let Steve carry his bags. He climbed in the pickup truck and laughed at Steve's choice in music.
"AC/DC" Steve glanced over in surprise. "What could you possibly know about AC/DC?" Laughter filled the truck. "You shook me all night long, Thunderstruck, Back in black, Hells Bells, T.N.T, Dirty deeds done dirt cheap, Highway to hell-" Steve put his hands up in mock surrender, "Okay Okay I believe you. You'll love my wife. She's a major music buff too." The rest of the drive was spent in comfortable silence. Steve wondered what happened to him in the group home to explain the cuts and bruises. Egypt wondered if Steve's family would like him or even love him. He wondered if they would treat him better than his own family did or if he'd screw it up and make them send him back. His thoughts were cut short when they pulled up to the house. "This is your house?" Egypt exclaimed with amazement. Steve couldn't help noticing the wonder and excitement on his face. "The crazy part about is that right next door used to be my house but now my sister and her little girl lives there." "You have a lot of siblings? Where are your parents?" Steve figured that these questions might come up. "I only have one sister named Mary and a niece named Joan. My dad is dead and my mom and I don't really talk."
"Babe?" Steve called out to Emily to see if she was at home. He heard Mary's voice instead. "She's not back yet. Oh hi, you must be Egypt? I'm Mary." Egypt reached out a shaky hand but Mary grabbed him in a bear hug. Egypt never got as much love from his family as he'd wished for and he often felt neglected by them. He looked past Mary's shoulder and saw a little girl and boy both reclined on the sofa under a thick blanket watching cartoons. The little blonde girl turned to look at him and waved. He waved back at her. She sat up on her knees, "I'm Joan." That got the little boy's attention. He had curly brown hair and blue eyes. He gave Egypt a big smile before getting off the couch. He walked right up to him and hugged his legs. "I'm Wolf. I'm the big brother. Actually, now you're the big brother. What's your name?" Egypt picked the little boy up and hugged him back. "I'm Egypt and I'm going to be living here with you guys for a little bit. Is that okay?" Wolf merely shrugged and said "Mommy's the boss so I guess it's okay." Egypt and Wolf walked further into the living room while Mary and Steve talked in hushed whispers that neither of them could hear. He saw two little girls playing with completely opposite toys. There was one, Winter, who was playing fairly quietly with Playdoh. The other one, Pandora, was loudly smashing Legos together. Both girls turned around and gave Egypt a big smile before going back to the tasks. "You're our brother?" Pandora asked without even looking up. "Yeah I guess I am." Winter looked at him smiling before grabbing his hand to sit with them.
Egypt knew in that moment that he didn't want to leave this family. He hoped deep down that Emily would like him and not send him away. Steve let the kids get to know one another while he fired up the grill outside and made side dishes in the kitchen. The front door opened and moments later Steve heard the familiar clicking off Emily's heels against the wood floor. He watched her out the corner of his eye place her keys on the hook, remove her badge and gun, and take her shoes off before she turned to face him. She walked over to Steve and pecked him on the lips, "I'm going through something right now. I can handle it but I'm not intentionally shutting you out." Steve looked in her eyes and knew that she was telling him the truth. He kissed her back and she wrapped her arms around him. "Something smells good" Emily said while snagging a potato and receiving a smack on the hand. "Ow what was that for?" "Dinner isn't ready yet so keep your grubby little paws off." Emily laughed and gave him that smile that he'd desperately been missing. "So is he here?" Steve didn't get a chance to answer because they both heard laughter from the living room. Emily crept around the corner and smiled at the sight in front of her. Her kids were using their new foster brother as a jungle gym. "Well hello there munchkins. I missed you guys today." All three kids turned to her and screeched out "Mommy!" While she was being smothered by hugs and kisses, Emily glanced over to Egypt who looked rather uncomfortable. She was finally released from the straight jacket of love and walked over to Egypt. "Hi I'm Emily and you must be Egypt. You don't have to be nervous around me. I don't bite and I'm happy that you're here. Has Steve showed you your room?" "I have a room? Like my own room?" Emily felt her heart break a little, "Yes sweetheart you have a room." Emily told Egypt to follow her up the stairs and she opened the door to his room. Egypt's breath was taken away at the room that was now his. "I hoped that you would like it. Steve said that you are really into classic cars and soccer. I did the best I could in decorating considering that I've never raised a teenager." Egypt smothered Emily in a bear hug; she felt one of his tears hit her shoulder but said nothing. "Thank you Emily." "It was my pleasure." She moved to leave so that he could get settled but his voice stopped her in his tracks. "Who's the picture of that little blonde boy downstairs? Is he Mary's?" Emily smiled when she realized he was talking about Declan. She figured that it was best to be upfront about all of it. She told Egypt about how she came to be a part of Declan's life. "So he doesn't talk to you?" "No he feels like I abandoned him by moving to Hawaii." "You seem pretty great to me."
Steve interrupted their conversation by yelling that dinner was ready. "Do I have to call you guys mom and dad?" "No Emily and Steve are fine." "What if I wanted to?" Emily turned to look at Egypt who had is head bowed in a mixture of embarrassment and shame. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. Please don't send me away." Egypt pleaded. "Sweetheart you didn't make me uncomfortable. I don't want you to feel like you have to call me mom but if you want to then I'm okay with that too. I'm not going to send you away." Egypt started to bit his lip, "My life wasn't that bad but it wasn't that good either. My parents weren't my real parents. I wanted to go on this trip with my school and I needed my birth certificate to get a passport. That's when my parents told me that they adopted me when I was three. I tried so hard to remember anything about my real family but I couldn't. They didn't treat me bad but I never felt like they truly loved me. I can see that you and Steve really love your kids and I guess I'm a little jealous and I don't want to leave yet because maybe you guys could love me too."
Emily couldn't stop her eyes from watering and she pulled Egypt into a hug. "Trust me we have enough love to go around. Now let's go eat." The pair went downstairs and outside to the patio and joined the rest of the family for dinner. Dinner was spent erupting with laughter and a lot of family stories told to Egypt. Emily felt her phone vibrating in her pocket. "Excuse me guys." Steve watched her walk away but masked his frustration for the sake of the kids. She came back to the table already with her badge and gun in her hand. "Guys I have to go back into the office. I'm sorry." She made her way around the table kissing all four children on the forehead and gave Steve a quick kiss on the lips. "It couldn't wait until tomorrow?" Emily rolled her eyes, "Don't start this again. How many times has a Five-0 case pulled you out of bed? I have to go." The rest of the McGarrett family finished dinner and Steve let the kids stay up a little later watching a movie upstairs in he and Emily's master suite. Steve put the dishcloth down and pulled out his phone. "I told you I'd contact you when I had something." "Cath how hard could it be?" "Excuse me? You do realize that you're asking me to hack into camera feeds without getting caught by Interpol. Look your wife has the best of the best working in her cyber department, so if I rush then I'll definitely get caught. Why are you in such a hurry for this information?" "That's my concern." "If you're going to have such a piss poor attitude then you can ask Jerry or Kono." "Look I'm sorry but I can't ask them. Her and Kono are pretty tight and Jerry is afraid of Emily, not that he'd ever admit it."
The sound of keys tapping let Steve know that she was still looking into what the hell went down. "Steve right now I see that in the past year, 6 Interpol agents of varied rankings have been autopsied in the morgue. I don't know if they are natural or homicides. The warehouse footage that I can see is that she was walking into a set-up with her team. They were in position hours before she got the call but I have no footage of the actual takedown." Steve was wracking his brain trying to figure out why she wouldn't tell him that. "Cath is there anybody that was at work regularly and suddenly isn't showing up anymore?" "Steve I don't have access to stuff like that. You would need somebody on the inside to tell you that." "Alright thanks Cath." "Sure." Steve set the phone down only to pick it up again.
He walked outside to the patio and scrolled through his contacts before putting the phone to his ear. "Hello"
"Hey Tran we need to talk."