I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or any characters. No copyright infringement intended.
Notes: well a semi-respite. Sorry for the delay, but the muse has been arguing about a slight tactical change. The below chapter being one of them. I hope you all enjoy it. I didn't research anything about proper speech therapy for deaf children. So please forgive any mistakes.
Thank you Phoebe for helping me have so much fun with my C.J.-AU-Verse! I love sharing my C.J. twiddles with you!
H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O
Lou Grover stared hard at the convict seated behind the penitentiary's young warden. Blood boiling, he had three major issues with the short meeting.
Problem number one was that the warden was not whom he'd expected to see. But apparently Warden Homer Givens had retired just a week earlier. Why no one had contacted Five-0 could not be explained. Number two was that this new young man was just that: young. And in this case, young was coupled with equal amounts of ignorant and wet behind the ears. Worse though? His third and most grievous issue was that the convict seated behind new warden, Thomas Jeffers, was not C.J.'s birth father, Billy Travers.
"Of course this is Travers," Jeffers stated. Arms folded, stance wide, he looked every bit in command of his new role. But he couldn't have been more wrong. He was so wrong, that Lou burst out laughing. Reeking with sarcasm, Lou stopped laughing to level a hard look at Jeffers who at least at the grace enough to be confused. Raising his finger, Lou pointed it directly at the camera.
"That there man sitting behind you. He sure as hell is not Billy Travers," Lou spat out. "In fact, he could easily pass for someone in my family tree. You get my gist?"
When it was obvious that Jeffers was clueless, Lou shook his head in disgust. Even the convict seated behind the warden, sandwiched between two guards, was starting to laugh. "You're going to find out ... and find out now ... while my Governor is contacting your Governor ... as to how that fine looking black gentleman sitting behind you has managed to masquerade as Billy Travers. Because my young friend, that is a feat unto itself."
As Jeffers mouth gaped open wide as the convict behind him chuckled mockingly, Lou glared back at the younger man.
"You find out how this happened, Jeffers," Lou ground out between clenched teeth. He didn't need to ask where Travers was. Little C.J. had certainly been stalked by his birth father. The felon was incredibly loose and on the island. How it happened would matter later. Lou's concern was that it had happened at all and Travers was there with God knows what on his mind.
"Captain. I ... I, uh ... will find out," Jeffers was stammering now and Lou could not have cared less. He needed to notify Steve and Danny of the security breach and do so much more to raise the alarm locally. Before he cut the call, Lou only had one thing left to say to the soon-to-be ex-Warden.
"You do that - as if it matters now," Lou said. He shook his head in disgust as he ticked off a mental list of what he needed to do next to from contacting Steve and Danny, on to the Governor and then to the local HPD reinforcements he'd insist be dispatched to Steve's house. But he couldn't hold himself back from another sarcastic comment which really, was more a promise.
"Thanks to your incompetence, we have a security concern unleashed on our island which impacts the safety of a little boy. I don't know what you got on your end and frankly, I don't give a crap except for the part where it affects me and mine. So now? You eat yourself some humble pie, find out who manipulated what to allow a convicted felon to disappear off an entire continent on your watch. But no matter what, hang on tight because you're on your way back to being a kindergarten cop."
"What? But ... he can't be there," Jeffers objected, his expression one of blank stupidity even as Lou ended the connection only to begin a series of new calls. Shouting demands, he left the office on a run.
H5O* H5O
C.J. sat next to Charlie in the middle of the living room, half-watching his brother play with their cars. Whenever Charlie rocked back into him, C.J. could feel the vibration of Charlie's car-noises as he rolled two at once over the miniature track. He chewed at his lip half daring to attempt the noises too but then deciding not to. His speech teacher was a lot like the one that his Aunt Ellen had back in Ohio, so C.J. was used to trying to make sounds just the right way. He was starting to understand how to do something the right way with his mouth and just the right push of air over his tongue, though it was hard work. That week though they'd be practicing a very special few words. Secret words which C.J. suddenly felt like trying out now.
He was looking more at his fingers though, doing nothing really as he worried about his father and if the scary man was coming for him. Then, if he came, what would he do? He was big and bad ... and C.J.'s breathing hitched in his chest. Tears sparkled again under his lashes as he stared at his fingers. They blurred away as a tear drop fell on his thumb. But then both his hands were covered by one big one and C.J. looked up into Steve's face. He took another deep breath and bit at his lip again, studying his Steve's face ... his real daddy's face ... hard.
"No more crying," Steve slowly said to him as he balanced in a low crouch. He held out both hands, one behind the other and then waved that hand back and forth, behind the other. It was the finger sign for movie but C.J. was making up his mind about something else.
"We're going to pick out a movie and ..."
"Dad-dee." The word was muffled and low but it was definitely a word and completely, one hundred percent, understandable. Taking another deep breath and thinking hard about doing it just right, C.J. repeated himself without using the proper finger sign.
"Dad-dee."
His father's face rippled with an odd look and C.J. wondered if he'd gotten the shapes with his tongue and lips, and his breathing, all wrong. But then his father called Danno's name - and it must have been loud because Danno came running, looking all worried. He pointed to C.J. and then ... wiped his hands across his face. Sitting down on the floor with a thump, Steve used his thumb to rub a gentle circle over C.J.'s cheek. He was smiling now and his eyes were shiny with lots of tears; happy tears and C.J.'s lips twitched upwards. He'd done it right!
"Say it again, C.J." His dad said out loud, smiling so so big. "Please ... show Danno ... tell Danno who I am."
Grinning now and feeling very proud with himself for making Steve so happy, C.J. looked up to Danno and then back to his father ... his very real daddy. C.J. took another deep breath and made his lips and tongue move just the right way. Feeling more confident as he repeated what he'd been practicing all week with his teacher, C.J. said his very first and very special, secret word. This time for Danno to hear, too.
"Daddy," he said as he pointed to Steve and slowly, carefully tapped his chest because this part was important and it almost made him want to cry again. "My ... daddy."
And on the heels of C.J.'s proclamation, mouth hanging open in surprise, Danno sat down with a thump that C.J. could feel right through the floor. He sat down hard, next to C.J.'s daddy.
~ to be continued ~
