Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize…
A/N: Thank you so much for the crazy amount of reviews and all the favs and alerts. I love you guys, writing for this awesome fandom is really the best thing ever.
I have to say that I hated this ep, I got seriously nothing to work with and I know that there's nothing much going on in this chapter but I think this was the lowest point of s2, so hopefully I can bring you something truly enjoyable next time.
As always, many thanks to quisinart4 for being my quick and wonderful beta.
Tell me what you think!
"Come on, Mary," Kono says into the speaker with a roll of her eyes as she walks into the bathroom. "I've told you like ten times already, he's perfectly fine."
Steve glances at her with a raised brow before turning back to the mirror to continue shaving. Kono lets out an annoyed huff in response to what his sister is saying and hops onto the counter next to the sink.
"Look, I really appreciate the concern but I'm fully capable of taking care of my husband." She pretty much growls and holds out the phone to Steve. "Say hi to your sister."
"Goodbye, Mare." He grunts and ends the call, dropping the device onto a pile of laundry on the floor.
"God, your sister is as stubborn as you." Kono lets out an exasperated sigh. "She wanted to fly home and play nurse with you."
"What?" Steve snaps his head towards her, nearly cutting himself with the razor in the process. "You said no, right?"
"Of course," she drawls, eyeing his naked chest thoughtfully. "You are fine and even if you wouldn't be, no one is allowed to play nurse with you but me."
"Possessive much?" Steve grins, his gaze warm with affection.
Kono doesn't answer just smiles at him while pulling him between her legs by the towel around his waist.
"I'm gonna miss the scruff." She pouts, her fingers caressing the already shaven part of his face. "But definitely not gonna miss the beard burns."
"Liar." Steve mutters against her lips before kissing her softly. "You loved the burns."
"Maybe." Kono laughs into his mouth before she dives in for another taste.
Steve drops the razor into the sink and sneaks his arms around her waist to pull her closer to him, still kissing her heatedly.
"Ew," she pulls back suddenly with a frown. "Your shaving cream tastes horrible."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Steve drawls, bending his head to kiss her neck instead, smearing the remaining shaving cream all over her skin. "Next time I'll use whipped cream, okay?"
"Hmm," Kono sighs as he bites down on the tendon above her collarbone. "See, you are such a resourceful boy."
"Don't tempt me," he pleads, dropping his forehead on her shoulder, sighing with exaggeration. "We can't be late this time."
"Okay, okay." Kono holds up her hands, pulling away from him and sliding off the counter. "Finish your shaving while I'm taking a shower."
Steve gapes at her as she quickly pulls her sleeping shirt over her head, stepping into the stall without a backward glance and he shakes his head disbelievingly.
She couldn't honestly think that he could ignore her being naked and wet and just within arm's reach, right?
He loosens the towel around his waist, letting it fall to the ground and steps into the shower while in his head he does a quick calculation of how many speed limits they are going to break later.
But when he kisses Kono's smug grin as he presses her against the wall, lifting her legs to wrap them around his waist, suddenly nothing seems more important than making her sigh his name over and over again.
.
.
"I see you broke out the formal wear too, huh?" Steve mutters to Danny while the Governor is speaking.
"Dog and pony show," Danny drawls back. "Perfect occasion to wear a tie. And look, you shaved; maybe you aren't as hopeless as I thought. Did Kono threaten you or something?"
"Nah, she likes the scruff, right sweetheart?" Steve grins, glancing at his wife over Danny's head.
"Of course she likes it." Danny barely holds himself back from making an outrageous hand motion. "She's all for your whole Neanderthal animal act, God knows why, though."
"Actually," Kono chimes in with a smile. "I always liked the tie."
"Oh, really?" Danny grins smugly at Steve. "She likes the tie."
"The tie, not you, buddy." Steve makes a face. "Now shut up."
.
.
"Okay, you're smiling." Steve approaches Joe with a worried expression. "That's never good. What did they decide?"
"The Navy is giving me a chance to pursue my dreams." Joe answers.
"No, Joe." Steve shakes his head guiltily. "No, no."
"I always wanted to open a bar." Joe laughs.
"Okay, they cannot force you out." Steve argues vehemently.
"Well, call it an opportunity for early retirement." Joe shrugs. "With full benefits."
"You know what," Steve says tightly. "I'm gonna talk to the Board of Inquiry…"
"No, forget it." Joe interrupts. "It's over, son. I've spent half of my life serving my country and I'm proud of it. No regrets."
"This is my fault, Joe." Steve looks at him remorsefully.
"No, my actions are my responsibility." Joe turns serious, there's no trace of the previous light-heartedness in his voice. "Look, if I didn't go with your team, they would have found another way and possibly got killed in the process. Your wife isn't really familiar with the word, no."
"Yeah," Steve lets out a small laugh. "She's really something, huh?"
"I'd trade all of my wives for a woman like her, son." Joe smiles at him. "I really had no choice but bring you back to her and seeing your reunion, let's just say, it was worth it."
Steve doesn't know how to respond to that, he just stares at Joe, who'd been like a father to him for so long and wonders what Kono have done to impress the man this much. He feels grateful that Joe helped them out because he doesn't even want to think about all the insane things his wife would have done to get him back.
"So," Joe says, breaking the tension. "How about you treat me a shrimp jambalaya and we will call it square."
"Let me tell you something, okay?" Steve looks at him disbelievingly. "You are the only man on this planet who would see shrimp jambalaya as a fair trade to the end of his career, you know that?"
"You can name your firstborn after me, if you insist." Joe grins and nods towards the ringing phone in Steve's hand. "Go ahead, take it. We'll talk over dinner. Bring your wife too."
"McGarrett." Steve says into the speaker. "I'll be right there."
.
.
"Hey, you all right?" Steve asks Kono warily, searching her face.
He's not happy that she chose to be there with parents because she always gets so stressed-out when kids are involved. And let's just not start on how much damper these cases put on their family expanding plans.
"Yeah," she shrugs, letting him to pull her into a lopsided hug. "Anything I can tell them?"
"No, not yet." He drops a quick kiss on the side of her face. "Listen, I need you to conduct the background of every single one of these parents."
"Why?" she furrows her brows in confusion. "You think it could be about one of them?"
"Kono, it could be about all of them." Steve explains. "I mean, this isn't a coincidence, these guys hijacked a bus from a high-priced private school. These kids…they were targeted. We need to find out why, all right?"
"Yeah," Kono nods looking dazed for a minute before her whole stance changes and looks at him thoughtfully. "And just for the record, our kids are so going to public school."
"Oh, really?" Steve raises a brow with a grin. "Well, uh, yeah, okay. We wouldn't have the money for it anyway."
"What? Why?" Kono widens her eyes at him.
"Oh, come on, baby, we spend a fortune on speeding tickets." Steve retorts smugly.
Kono rolls her eyes and swats at his chest lightly on her way back to the parents. Steve looks after her, wondering that her not freaking out more than it's reasonable over abducted kids and stating that they never ever gonna have one - or three -, is a good or a bad thing.
Knowing her it's possibly both.
Oh, joy.
.
.
"Okay, what's wrong?" Danny glances at Steve with concern on their way to Correctional Facility.
"Nothing's wrong." Steve grunts, never taking his eyes off the road.
"You're gonna snap the wheel in two in any minute if you keep gripping it that hard." Danny points at his partner's white knuckled hands. "I ask again, Steven, what is wrong?"
"It's, uh, it's just…" Steve takes a deep breath, shaking his head in frustration. "Kono's finally seem to be over her initial fear to have kids, I mean the last time we had a case with kidnapped children she freaked out and got all tense every time I tried to bring up our plans for the future."
"Whoa, wait," Danny holds up his hand, turning a little towards Steve in his seat. "You are saying that she's ready for bearing your children, which is the most insane and reckless thing ever, by the way, but still, this is supposed to be good news, right?"
"Yeah," Steve nods uncertainly. "Except…"
"Except, what? Oh, god, please don't tell me that now you've changed your mind." Danny's voice gets higher and higher with each passing syllable. "You know that you are acting all unreasonable, right? But after two years I start to think that's your general mode of operation."
"I love you too, buddy." Steve grouses through gritted teeth. "It's not that I don't want to, Danny. I want to have kids with Kono but look at this case, these people kidnapped almost twenty kids because of us. I don't know what I would do if my son was one of them."
"Okay, listen." Danny lowers his voice and stops flailing his hands around, looking very serious. "I understand that you are feeling out of control and it's foreign to you but you can't live your life submitted to 'what might have been' scenarios. I was worried before Gracie was born, hell, I got terrified from time to time but I wouldn't trade having her for anything. There's a lot of reasons for you and Kono not procreating, like your shared inability to stay out of trouble, but this…this is not one of them."
"Thanks." Steve says softly, the tension crease between his eyebrows disappearing as he smiles at his friend.
"God, I just talked you two into having kids, didn't I?" Danny groans as the realization hits him.
Steve doesn't answer just laughs at his partner's miserable expression.
.
.
"I, uh, I like to warn you, that, um, I might talked your hubby into having kids in the near future." Danny squirms in the driver's seat, purposefully avoiding Kono's gaze.
"What?" Kono furrows her brows in confusion. "Since when he didn't want to have kids?"
"Since he realized that the kidnapping was about us?" Danny motions with his hand before gripping the wheel again, looking for their turn.
"Maybe he was just afraid that since you were the one who bought me a dog, you'll get the baby for it."
"I'm sorry, what?" Danny nearly crashes into the car ahead of them. "What are you talking about?"
"We made a deal," Kono shrugs a little sheepishly, looking out of the side window. "I get a dog for this Christmas and he gets a kid next year."
"Are you two for real?" Danny raises his voice, staring at her in total disbelief. "I swear you two are insanity incarnate. Seriously, who the hell does things like that?"
"Oh, come on, Danny," Kono nudges his shoulder lightly with a small laugh. "We are just joking. That's the way we deal with the serious, adult stuff but hey, it's working."
"I already afraid for your child." Danny mutters, rolling his eyes as he drives into the school's parking lot.
"Don't be," Kono grins. "Our son will be the most awesome kid ever."
"You know, it's funny that both of you talk about a boy with great certainty." Danny eyes her thoughtfully after he turns off the engine. "This almost makes me wish that you two would have a cute little girl who will be crazy for frilly pink dresses and wants her hair in a French braid and doesn't give a damn about cars and guns and blowing up things."
"Whoa," Kono looks at him with a horrified expression. "That was totally uncalled for."
Danny gets out of the car without any remark, grinning gleefully to himself.
.
.
Steve walks up to Kono as the kids reunite with their parents and sneaks an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close but she takes a small step away quickly when he tries to kiss her.
"Hey," he looks at her confused, tightening his hold on her. "Where do you think you are going, huh?"
"Not here," she retorts tightly, glancing warily towards Lori.
"I don't think we need to worry about that," Steve says, relocating his arm so it's wrapped around her waist now.
"Oh, really?" Kono drawls disbelievingly. "And why is that?"
"She backed me up with the Governor earlier," he explains. "She could have blackmailed me into submission but she didn't tell him about us and I think she never will. She's on our side, Kono."
"Of course she is," Kono huffs quietly. "She has a crush on you."
"Maybe we should talk to her." Steve looks at Lori's direction thoughtfully.
"Go ahead," she drawls, giving him a dark look. "But don't expect me to make a grand public claim on you or something."
"Not?" Steve looks at her with mock disappointment. "And here I was, hoping for a cat-fight."
"You are incorrigible and not funny at all." Kono swats at his abdomen with the back of her hand playfully.
"Oh, please" he grins. "I'm hilarious."
Kono rolls her eyes but eventually tilts her head towards him and lets him kiss her in front of everyone.
"Oh, and for the record, if our daughter turns out to be a pink-loving princess, I'm gonna call her Danielle." She tells him seriously.
"I heard that!" Danny calls from somewhere behind them.
"Do I even want to know?" Steve raises a brow at his wife.
"No, not really." Kono smiles and heads towards her car leaving a very confused Steve behind.
.
.
"Hey, where have you been?" Kono walks out of the kitchen with Koa and Kiko trailing behind her, when she hears Steve closing the front door.
"Uh, sorry for disappearing but I had to meet with Joe, it was urgent." He answers with a tight expression.
"What happened?" She looks at him worriedly.
"Joe kidnapped Hiro Noshimuri," he says, sitting down on the couch with a heavy sigh, closing his eyes.
"He did what?" Kono's eyes widen. "Why?"
"He said that it's the only way to find Shelburne." Steve rubs his eyes in frustration.
"What are we going to do?" Kono asks softly, sitting down beside him and resting her head on his shoulder.
"I don't know." Steve admits, reaching out for her hand and entwining their fingers. "I don't fucking know."