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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Kay a couple days late is so much better then months late! But here we go. The next chapter and the start of the next episode. AND this one is a funny one. Hopefully you guys like this one! Cause I had a lot of fun writing it. It is a long one but it is one big huge part though. More funny stuff to come next week!

Chapter 423


That morning, his wife was acting weird, in fact, everyone in his life was acting weird. Specifically her and Nahele.

They kept whispering with one another and then stopping when he came in the room. Now, the last time they had done this it was a father's day thing they were planning, the time before that it was his birthday and he time before that Nahele was changing his name.

Well, it wasn't his birthday, there wasn't a holiday coming up that would facilitate giving him any kind of surprise. It was starting to annoy him, honestly.

That morning he was informed that Nahele was staying home from school. Was going to take a personal day.

Rowan had implemented that, taking a day off if he was feeling overwhelmed or just down. He didn't have to explain what was wrong, he just had to ask for a personal day and Ro would keep him home.

Steve actually liked that, he wanted his son to feel supported, and his mental health to be taken care of.

He had left Rowan and Nahele in the kitchen with their pancakes and their mugs of tea or coffee. He had asked Nahele to come with him for the swim but he had wanted to stay with his mom, he was like that. A Mommy's Boy, as Danny would often call him.

But that wasn't it. That was just another little club or gang that Steve was being left out of. Whether it be the Ro and Nahele club, or the Ro and her Brothers club, or just Ro's Brothers club. He was on the outside of all of em, the odd one out looking in and hating it.

Luckily for him, however, was that Eddie wanted to come with him. Normally Eddie stayed with Nahele, but he followed Steve out of the house and onto the lanai and then down to the water. He swam diligently next to Steve the whole time, and though Steve didn't go as far out, as he was worried for Eddie, he didn't mind. He swam back to shore with his dog following him.

He sort of hoped that Rowan would be outside waiting for him, she did that sometimes, but it wasn't Ro that was waiting for him.

It was Danny.

Yeah. Steve would have rather had his wife.

Steve jogged carefully up the beach to where Danny was standing by the chairs where he had left his shirt and his sweater. Eddie was much more excited to see Danny so he ran up right away to greet him.

"Hey buddy," he heard Danny say to Eddie. "Oh, wow. I love the smell of wet dog in the morning. Bet Ro loves it even more."

Yeah that was uncalled for.

"Eddie Shake!"

Immediately Eddie began to shake, spraying water all over Danny. Danny took half a step back before just giving up, he was getting soaked away. Steve got his towel and tried to hide his amused smirk behind it.

"Alright… what did you do? You teach him to do that?"

He had but Steve wasn't going to admit that. "I unno. Maybe… uh… maybe he just doesn't like you. Ever consider that?"

Steve went about toweling himself off, ignoring Danny's glare.

"He loves me very much. Don't you, buddy," Danny said. "Not that it matters, we all know his favourite person is Nahele."

That was true and at the mention Nahele's name Eddie ran off.

"No wait! Eddie, I gotta dry you before you go inside!" but it was too late, dog was gone and Steve knew right away that Ro was gonna bitch about the wet house because of the wet dog.

Steve knew if he looked at Danny's face he'd see that smug smirk and he didn't want to get in an argument so he just said: "What are you doing here, anyway?"

"I just came to hang out with my BFF a little bit. What's the big deal?"

Steve dropped his towel to the chair and then pulled his shirt on. That was odd. An odd thing to say and an odd thing for Danny to admit to. Mostly cause they had this unspoken thing about just coming over and pretending that they were there for a reason, and not just cause they wanted to hang out for a bit, even if that was the reason.

"You said BFF, is that what you said? You getting lingo from Ro now?"

"Yeah, my BFF," Danny said not the least bit embarrassed at all. "And I got it from Grace."

With his shirt back on, he handed Danny the wet towel. "Hold that. BFF."

Danny took it from him and Steve padded up to the patio with Danny following him. He put on his running shoes for two reason. 1. Ro hated his flip flops and 2. Because he was thinking of going for run, mainly cause Ro was going to be mad about the wet dog in the house after he promised to dry him before he came back in.

"I got uh… I got some stuff…" Danny said and then stopped when he realized Steve had put on his shoes. "What are you doing? Where are you going?"

"I'm gonna go for a run."

"A run? You can't outrun Ro's nagging," Danny said and while that was true Steve hated that Danny knew what he was up to. "And besides, I brought coffee and Liliha bakery. We'll visit."

Now that was really weird. Why would he bring bakery and coffee? Rowan made all of those things better and for free. Danny didn't even ask her anymore, he just assumed he'd be getting a mug of coffee any time he showed up at the house.

Steve stopped and really looked at his BFF. "What's the matter with you? What's going on?"

"What do you mean what's going on? Why does something have to be going on? I brought you Cocoa Puffs. You love Cocoa… Stop being… You already swam 19 miles. What are you gonna go for a run for? Seriously? Just to avoid Ro? You want me to tell her that, cause if you leave me here with her I will."

Steve just stared at him incredulously. What the actual fuck?

"Did you just try to blackmail me with my own wife?"

"Yes, cause it works. Come on."

Steve let Danny usher him into his own house and right away noticed two things. One, there was a committee of people seemingly waiting for him in the living room. All on his chair and filling up the couch. And two, he could hear Rowan's whining already.

"Steven!" she moaned at not in the sexy way either. "Look at this… look at the puddles… he's made a right mess out of everything… and we have company…"

"Yes… yes… I see that… what… uh… what's this?"

"Ugh someone's going to slip. You were supposed to dry him," she snapped tugging the towel of out Danny's hands and then throwing it across the living room to Nahele. "Dry your dog."

Eddie had been mostly sticking around Rowan, probably because she was in the kitchen and she had made cookies the night before and had been in the process of making the rest of the batch that morning. Despite not wanting the dog, she had been sneaking him bits of the batter that didn't have chocolate in it when she thought no one else was looking.

Nahele just had to whistle and the dog ran right over to him.

Rowan was already going for the mop and while Steve wanted to help her, Danny had not let go and was instead pulling him towards the living room where everyone was sitting. Nahele, Grover, Jerry, Junior, Kamekona, Dog, Tani, even Con was there.

It couldn't be good if they had brought Con in.

Like Danny said the box for the nibbles he brought in from Liliha was sitting there being ignored for a plate of Rowan's cookies. She had tried a new recipe this time. Oatmeal walnut chocolate chip cookies and by god were they addictive.

Steve had eaten like ten yesterday. It was part of the reason he originally wanted to do a swim and then a run.

There was only one left on the plate on the coffee table in front of everyone and Steve's mouth was already watering thinking about grabbing it for himself.

Everyone had their own little to-go cups of coffee too, but he could smell their French press going which meant that Rowan was making more.

Why did Danny even bother to bring this stuff if Rowan was just going to be making more for them? How long had they all been here?

"Danny… What is this?" he asked watching Danny snatch the last of the cookies from the plate. Just, fucking, great. He then turned to the kitchen to shout: "Ro, why did you let this happen?"

"He wouldn't shut up," Rowan said absently from the kitchen. "He wouldn't shut up and honestly, I am a bit worried too. Maybe not as much as him, but still…"

"Worried?" he echoed.

"Just have a seat," Grover said gesturing to the lazy boy that used to be his dad's, now in the hot seat in front of everyone else.

Steve didn't want to take a seat, but it was clear that this wasn't going to go away if he tried to leave so he did as he was told.

The second he was sitting, Danny was talking again.

"Uh… first of all, uh, I'm glad you could be here."

"I live here."

"Yes." Danny said and then paused. "Ro, can you come here!"

Rowan's head poked out of the kitchen. "I'm not done with the cookies, or the coffee or the puddles. You're doing fine, just keep going."

"Me… but uh… he's less likely to yell at you if you tell him. That's what we agreed on… you'd be doing most of the talking…"

"Wow," Steve found himself breathing out.

"I'm busy Danny," Rowan called back.

"Kay… if you guys aren't ready… I can go for my run and come back…" he said. He tried to stand up but heard a call of: "Sit back down," from his kitchen and Steve immediately sat back down. "Or not…"

"Look, we are all very concerned about your health," Danny said once Steve was sitting again. "You were recently diagnosed with…"

"No," Steve said right away pointing at him. He then turned to Nahele who was suddenly sitting ramrod straight in his chair, towel still draped over Eddie who was sitting their patiently clearly loving getting the dry off rub down from his favourite boy. His son looked panicked so Steve had to force a smile on his face. "No, Nahele, upstairs. Why are you here, why aren't you… I unno resting?"

"Mom said you'd need support," he said and then his eyebrows furrowed. "What were you diagnosed with? Are you like… really sick, dad? Why didn't you tell me?"

Steve's eyes widened and then he turned a glare onto Danny. "No," he said right away pointing a thin smile back at Nahele. "Can you go upstairs please?"

"But…"

"Listen to your father," came out of the kitchen and Nahele groaned.

"Fine, come on Eddie."

Nahele quickly got up, stopped at the kitchen window to grab a plate from his mom, probably more cookies. God there better be more cookies for him too, cause he was already having a bad day it would be worse if he didn't get any.

Nahele went up the stairs with Eddie following him, but they all waited until they heard Nahele close the door to his bedroom before they started up again.

Danny even waited a couple of seconds before turning back to Steven and saying: "As I was saying. You were recently diagnosed with radiation poisoning. Uh, which means that you're at a higher risk, uh of getting cancer."

"Yes, and I regret telling you that Danny."

"Thanks," Danny said right away. "But that's not going to happen. We're not going to let it happen."

Ro said it was going to happen. It was in the strings. Completely unavoidable at this point. Why was Danny talking like this?

"I did some research, and uh… I found out there are some things, some steps you can take, to ensure that you are tumor-free for the rest of the flick."

Wow, so he was trying to cheat Rowan and her strings. Ballsy.

Steve, however, was tired, and hungry, and now annoyed and angry. And they had eaten the last of his cookies. This was not a good combo.

"I just swam two miles, I haven't eaten anything. Can I get an egg or something?"

Rowan finally came into the kitchen, she put a mug of coffee into his hands and Steve was immediately grateful. She then clocked the empty plate. "Out of cookies already?"

Steve took a long sip of the coffee but it did nothing to satisfy his hunger. "Yeah, and what you animals couldn't have saved me some?—" "…This plate's for you," she said handing him a little plate with at least four freshly warm cookies sitting there waiting for him. He hadn't even noticed she had it in her hands.

"Oh, thanks!"

And then immediately took a warm gooey cookie and popped it into his mouth. Steve flat out ignored everyone to savor that salty but sweet, crispy on the edges but gooey on the inside cookie for a minute as Rowan went to walk away, except Danny had grabbed her.

Immediately Danny had Steve's attention because he didn't like that the man was touching his wife in any way.

"Do… do… do you wanna know what some of those things are that I found out or not?" Danny asked and then pushed Rowan towards the couch and away from him. "Please sit down, you know you distract him."

Steve didn't want her to go, but she walked towards the couch and then just threw herself down in between Con and Tani, literally wedging herself in between them, for some on reason.

Steve frowned at them. "No."

They all exchanged glances but it was Danny who asked: "No to what? No to Ro moving cause she already did…"

See, what he was saying no to was Rowan being that close to Con. He didn't like it. But no one believed him, made him feel like he was being paranoid, so he tried not to bring it up when he had so little evidence of anything… untoward.

So instead he went with the other thing he was saying no to.

"No I don't wanna know what some of those things are."

That should have been the end of the conversation but it wasn't, because, again, Danny did not listen to him.

"Stress," he said right away. "You don't need any stress. Stress is not your friend right now."

"Stress?" Steve echoed

"Studies have shown that there is a link between cancer and stress. Particularly when the thyroid has been compromised. So a person like you needs to eliminate all the psychological stress if possible."

Steve sat there staring at Danny wondering what the hell this had to do with anything. Why the hell he had brought everyone to his house to tell him this?

"Yeah… and I didn't know all of that, so I appreciate the information. It's a good health tip. Good looking out, man. Thank you," Steve said, except he was lying and he knew that at least Rowan could tell that. Before he could get called out on that lie, though, he asked: "What are all these people doing in my house?"

"Intervention," Kamekona said.

Now Steve was just surprised and shocked. Really? That's what they were doing to him? He really needed a fucking intervention?

"What?"

Danny just moved right on, ignoring Steve's cry of confusion.

"I knew that, if I were to tell you, Steve you need to work on lowering your stress levels, you were gonna make fun of me and bust my chops. Then, I figured if I tried to get Ro to tell you, you wouldn't listen her or agree just so you could get laid and she'd let you get away with it…" "—Hey!" Ro cried but was ignored. "…So I decided to bring in backup and that's what this is."

"Okay. Can I say something?"

"You can say anything you want…."

"Okay, what the hell!" Steve cried cutting Danny off. "I'm not… this is just ridiculous… Ro… you can't be serious, are you? Why did you let this happen?"

Rowan immediately started to cry, big crystalline tears welled up in her eyes. She didn't have to say anything though, cause Con jumped to her defense.

"Hey! It's cause she cares. She for some reason wants you to fucking live… you know… not have a goddamn coronary at 40 because you're stressed to shit!"

Steve glared at him as his wife sat there nodding in agreement. "Why are you even here? You don't give a shit about me!"

"Cause I knew you'd yell at her!"

Steve turned to Danny for support but that was the wrong place to turn. He was clearly determined to go through with this cause he just let Con sit there and stress him out more.

"Well, now that we got that out, what I was going to say is that you can say anything you want when we're done talking. So bottle that up until the end, thank you. For now, please just sit there, be quiet and listen to everybody. We're gonna go around. Everybody's gonna share. Starting with Jerry. Is that okay?"

Steve sunk into his chair and was sure to hit his wife with a glare. For some reason that just made Rowan half smile and then she winked at him in that playful way he was ever so familiar with. Oh… he had a feeling that he was getting rewarded tonight just for dealing with this.

He went for another cookie as Jerry stood up and unfolded a piece of paper.

"Commander, I've always thought of you as Captain America. But unlike the other Steve, Steve Rogers, that is, you're not indestructible. Remember, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

That would have been nice if he hadn't mentioned Captain America. It was a nice comparison but all it reminded him of was the Captain America Contingency plan. Jerry couldn't have known this, but he had finally managed to get Wo Fat to admit that, despite Sandy being down, there was still a Captain America plan in place, it was just analog this time and not dependent on Sandy.

Yeah.

That had been infuriating to hear. He told Wo Fat, again, that there wasn't any need for a contingency plan. That he and Ro were fine, that he had married her, and the man had had the audacity to say that Steve was a loose cannon and Wo Fat couldn't reliably predict what Steve would do if Rowan decided to leave him again, so the plan would stay in place.

It was a good thing he was in California, because if he hadn't been, Steve might have tracked him down to punch him in his stupidly passively smug face.

But Jerry didn't know that happened, and he was just trying to be nice, so Steve forced himself to smile. Everyone around him nodded with each point and then when Jerry was done and sitting again, Danny pet Grover's back.

"Go ahead."

"Oh," he said softly before turning to Steve. "Now Steve, you know I love you like a brother. You know that. And, you know, at first when Danny came to me with this, you know, sensitive, new age, quack science mumbo jumbo…" he then paused and glanced to Danny. "No offense. You know I don't go for that stuff. But I did my own research and there is some anecdotal evidence that is… well it completely proves what Danny's saying. Okay, so why don't you listen to your boy? You know he loves you. You'd be doing yourself a favour."

Danny really liked that one. "Good, thank you. Uh… we're going to skip over Con, he's not going to have anything productive to add…"

"Facts," Con said lifting his to-go mug up to Danny.

"Tani… you want to add something?"

See, now he was skipping over Rowan, and Junior. Junior he didn't get but uh, why Rowan? Danny must be saving her for last.

"Sure, Hi," she said sweetly and Steve did not missing the eye roll Rowan pointedly made. Odd. "Uh, this is really awkward because we, let's be honest, we haven't known each other that long. Also you're my boss, so that's even weirder. It all comes down to the fact that it makes sense, doesn't it? It's kind of a no-brainer. You reduce stress and then you stay healthy. Easy call. So that's what I feel. Thank…. and oh my god, what is your problem?"

That was directed at Rowan who had been rolling her eyes the entire time. Every single one of Tani's points had gotten an eye roll. All eyes swung in their direction, even Rowan's eyes turned to her.

Steve could already see that they were ice cold as she stared at Tani passively.

"I don't like you."

She said it so calmly, so matter-of-factly that everyone was momentarily stunned. Tani's mouth dropped, a look of surprise hit Con's face, that was quickly replaced with worry.

"Right, do I need to separate you two?" Danny snapped. "Jesus Ro, I know you're in a mood today but damn. Con switch."

Rowan sunk down into the couch, arms folded over her chest, clearly determined not to move.

"My house, I'll stay right here. If Little Miss Rey is intimidated she can move," Rowan said frostily and everyone just sat there and waited.

And neither of them moved. Steve did catch that Tani shot Con a glare, and Con had kinda half shrugged at her, all of which was done over Rowan's head. But neither of them moved.

"Right are you two done?" Danny asked and when both Rowan and Tani agreed that they were done, he then nodded Duane. "Dog."

Dog nodded and then he too stood up to address Steve.

"Just for the record, I'd like to say I was against this. Ambush a guy in his own home, gang upon him like this… not so cool, Williams."

Danny just huffed at him. "Isn't that what you do? Isn't that what you do as your job?"

"No, that's completely different," he said and then turned to Ro. "But you make wicked cookies sista, so let's be honest, I'm mostly here for what I get to take home with me."

"I already put together a tin for you," Rowan said and he offered out a high five to her that she took right away.

That one got an eye roll from Tani. Great. This was gonna be a grudge match. Luckily, however, Rowan didn't say anything about it. Oh she noticed, Steve could tell, but she didn't say anything about it.

"Look, Steve, I may disagree with the tactics, but not the advice. It's time to get your Zen on, brother."

He smiled warmly at Steve before sitting down again. Danny nodded again before saying: "Kamekona?"

Kamekona quickly reached out for a paper that had been left beside the box of pastries from the bakery that Steve assumed would be staying at his house cause no one else seemed interested in them, and were instead more interested in Rowan's cookies. Steve was realizing that they had all hoarded them in little piles on decorative napkins they must have gotten from Rowan.

He slid that paper off the table as aggressively as he could, and then he cleared his throat.

"Because the subject of an intervention ought to be given consequences if he don't seek help… I've decided I'm going to charge you 20 percent more if you don't take this stress business seriously."

Steve took that in, they were all taking that threat in and Steve sighed. My god if there was any chance to make money off of something Kamekona was going to take the chance.

"You're the only person I know that could possibly find a way to monetize this."

Kamekona didn't even bother to acknowledge that dig, he just winked at Steve.

"That doesn't include us… right?" Rowan asked. Con was right beside her looking just as curious. Steve barely kept his groan contained, because really? That's where their priorities were lying? "Cause Nahele eats there a lot… and…"

Oh that was actually a good point. That could cut into his son's pay cheques and that wasn't fair.

"I was thinking of making it a family thing, to add on the pressure, but uh… Wo Fat said no," Kamekona admitted and then looked away.

Wow! Wow, so… not only did Kamekona ask Wo Fat for permission, but it was clearly he only cared about three people in the McGarrett family and none of them were Steve, which was ridiculous because Steve didn't consider Con part of his family. Yeah, why was he surprised?

Add that to the list of reasons why Steve was going to punch Wo Fat the next time he saw him.

"Alright, look, everybody. I'm touched, okay? This is very, very sweet. I mean I really am touched. But guys, we're in crazy town here. Clearly, Danny had gone down a WebMD rabbit hole and he's asking you all with him."

Danny just rolled his eyes. "Right, Ro, you're turn."

At that Rowan sat up a little straighter and smiled at him. Despite being heavily annoyed Steve couldn't help but smile back at her.

"I know you think this is stupid… and why. But uh… Danny did the research, Danny thinks this will work and I think it's sweet that you have more than one person that is willing to help you try and cheat fate," she said softly and at that Steve's smile widened. "Uhm… you're supposed to be my forever and uhm… if there's a chance that this might make that happen well… I say we take it."

Sold.

100 percent sold.

Danny was right, they should have just let Rowan talk, cause not only was not as mad now, he was totally on board now. Honestly he didn't even need the others, Rowan could have said that and Steve would have gone along with anything she asked him to do.

But then Junior put his hand up. Why was he doing that? He didn't need to do that.

"What? You don't have to raise your hand. If you wanna speak, you can just speak," Danny said and then pointedly looked at Rowan. "I only got one cookie, can I get a plate like Steve or a tin or a… can I just get more?"

There came a flurry of cookie requests from everyone and Ro jumped up right away to comply. She walked past Steve being sure to drag her fingertips across his shoulders in this fleeting touch he couldn't help but press into. He was so distracted that he almost didn't even notice that Junior had taken the floor.

"Uh, I just wanna point out that, uh, I've been witness to Commander McGarrett's actions over the last several weeks and from what I've seen, I'm pretty confident he can handle whatever life throws at him."

Oh, yes, Steve agreed with that more. Maybe that was why Danny had skipped over Junior. Because clearly he didn't agree, but they obviously couldn't get him out of the house for this intervention.

Before anyone could say anything, though, Rowan called: "That's cause you two manage your stress the same way, and it is not healthy," from the kitchen.

Junior frowned at that. "I don't like it when she does that," he whispered.

Anyone else would guess he meant the calling out from the kitchen thing when it seem like she wasn't paying attention, Steve, however, knew that he was talking about how Rowan seemed to just know things.

He had mentioned it once in passing, that it unnerved him when she did that. Steve had told her to stop using his strings against him, but she had yet to comply.

"Thank you for that, Rowan," Danny said and then turned to Junior. "And thank you for you're opinion… Junior… I respect your opinion. But I… You don't know him as well as I do so…"

"And I respectfully disagree," Junior said carefully. Steve shot a glance to Danny who looked completely shocked and insulted.

Rowan came out from the kitchen with a tray of cookies and coffee refills. She went first to Steve to hand him his mug, and though he was mad at her for being a part of this, he was still grateful. Especially when she let him take three cookies from the tray.

Instead of offering it out to everyone else she put the tray back on their coffee table between all the art books he had collected and the candles so everyone could refill their mugs and plates.

After it was put down she gestured at Junior. "Did he just infer that he knows more about Steve then Danny does?"

"He didn't infer, he flat out said he did," Danny snapped. "And he literally just showed up on Steve's door step six weeks ago."

As if Rowan didn't know that.

"Oh, honey… no," she said. "That's Steve's BFF. His Home-Bro. Don't let that cast throw you, Danny will throw down for that accolade, trust me."

A flurry of complaints came at her from both men at that point. They hated it when she got over emotional about them and their bromance. But Rowan had gone back to playing at not paying attention, so Steve just cut off the argument abruptly to turn back Junior.

"Hey, let him speak," Steve said, reaching out a hand to snake around his wife's waist so she'd sit on the arm of his chair.

For some reason he kept trying to get her off of her feet, he didn't know why it was so important to him all of a sudden, but for some reason it was.

She didn't sit though, she leant against the chair, one of her hands dropping to his shoulder.

"I'm sorry but, uh, Commander McGarrett served in combat. He lived in the crosshairs of his enemy for years." Yeah and now he was related to one by marriage. "And I know for sure that he lost some of his team buddies and those are things that you take with you, that can drag you down. And from what I've seen, he's been able to handle civilian life with great success."

"No," Danny said carefully. "Ro handles civilian life, moderately well considering her grey morals, and then she manages him."

"That is not true! It's not. I function perfectly fine without her…" "—Well…"

"No," Steve said right away pointing a finger at Rowan. "The house was fine when you came back, I still had our kid, nothing went wrong…"

"Well let's see… you adopted a Teams guy without telling me who is now living here rent free, and that is no doubt the main reason you got such a glowing review from him. You adopted a dog without telling me, who probably works more than our teams guy right now. My baby came home with a black fucking eye while on your watch. You got stuck in a forest fire and my brother had to get you out. Uh, you had a music teacher turned assassin you couldn't find so you got my brother to help you out. You let Wright out of prison, let him escape and nearly blow up my baby and you had to get my brother to help you out…" "No, that time you got your brother to help you out."

"Naw, she didn't even ask for help, I volun-fucking-teered," Con said. "And I'd do it again, too."

"I mean… if we wanna be really technical you were a whole ass mess for the Year of Deceit…"

"Hey!" Steve cried. "We don't talk about that year. That was a dark time. And you too were a mess."

"Yeah that's true."

Steve shook his head. "Look, barring a little bit of… instability when I miss my wife, I'm fine. I've got a handle on it. I swear, I do, but I mean… I appreciate all of this…"

"I believe that you think you do have a handle on this…" Danny said interrupting him again. "I also think that you might not know, right? So that's why I think that somebody that is an expert in the field will be better to make that kind of decision. So we have a, um, stress management consultant to evaluate you."

At that Steve chuckled. "That's not a… that's not a real thing."

"Oh it is, and uh… he says we but I'm footing the bill so we're getting out money's worth."

Steve turned up to Rowan surprised. Oh my god, no she hadn't.

"What an intro," someone said and when Steve leant past Rowan he saw that someone was coming out of the kitchen. Damn, Rowan had been hiding someone in the kitchen? "Pleasure to meet you, Commander. Chloe Gordon. Uh… I was told that your friends all pitched in to have me shadow you today, but I'm guessing that, uh… this one lies."

She glanced to Dany who just shrugged. "No we all pitched, but uh… Ro's the rich one here so a bulk of it came from her."

Chloe was now standing next to Danny staring at him oddly, as Danny just stood there looking like wasn't weird that he would make Rowan foot the bill for something he wanted.

After staring at him for a moment she turned back to Steve with a hopeful smile. "I'm hoping that, by the end of today, I'll be able to recommend better ways to manage your stress."

Steve turned to Danny. "You did this so I couldn't be rude in front of the stress consultant, cause it would prove you right."

"I didn't do anything."

"This whole intervention is your idea, Danny!"

Rowan sighed heavily. "And how long have you two been married?" she asked.

Immediately their argument stopped. Steve shouted: "I married you!" at the same time Danny cried: "He married you, you putz!"

Except that started a completely different argument.

"Hey don't call my wife a putz!" Steve snapped and now they were arguing about Danny owing Rowan an apology while Danny argued the legitimacy of his insult.

Rowan shook her head and stared at Chloe with a blank look of resignation. "This is my life… every day… it never stops," she told her and then turned back to Junior. "See this, this is what they're like at work too. This is what you're going to have to deal with all the time. Honestly, still have no idea why you want to join Five-0."

She stared at the two men who were still bickering about whether or not Rowan deserved the putz comment. She seemed to be re-evaluating her choice to be there.

"Okay you know what, no more cookies," Steve said and then reached for Danny's cookies. Danny immediately shied away to stop him.

"Fine, I'm sorry," he said to Steve. The apology was meant for Rowan but he had directed it at Steve.

Steve glanced back and Rowan and said: "Don't give him anymore."

Rowan just casually nodded and then nodded her head towards the stress management consultant that was standing there having watched all of this and realized that he had was not proving that he didn't need her.

But hey, it wasn't his fault that he had married a chaotic woman and Danny was his BFF. Honestly he was kind of regretting letting Danny think that.

He turned back to the stress management consultant and forced himself both to be calm and to smile. "Very nice to meet you, Miss. Gordon."

"Nice to meet you too," she said a bit hesitantly as she shook his hand.

"I didn't mean to mock your job. I didn't realize you were hiding in my kitchen. Okay, so, uh, but you heard what I was saying. There's no need for your services because I'm not stressed."

"I paid upfront. This is happening," Rowan called and Steve nearly swore at her.

"She's right, I'm already paid for the day," Chloe said and Steve struggled not to groan audibly. "Tell you what, why don't you just let me hang around? That way you can have the satisfaction of watching a professional tell all your friends just how wrong they were. Hmm?"

Oh, actually yeah he did like that.

Rowan however, must have been bored with the conversation because she left the chair she had been leaning against and walked over to where Junior was still standing by the couch to ask: "Did you say that you feel like you know Steve better than Danny."

Junior nodded his head.

Rowan whistled lowly. "Wow… the audacity," she said as she shook her head and then sighed. "For the record, as his wife, I know Steve the best. Danny probably knows Steve better in almost every way except one. And that's what his favourite position is."

The conversation between the two men and Chloe went silent behind her. Rowan turned back to where the two men were standing with Chloe, to find Steve's guilty face shining back at her, his blue eyes avoiding hers. She turned to Danny who was making that face he made when he knew he was right but didn't want to say anything.

"Oh no," Rowan said. "No, I'm not wrong about this. I know it."

"Whatever you say babe," Danny said and Rowan fell quiet.

She glared at Steve and then crossed to Danny. "I'm going to whisper it, tell me if I'm right?"

She whispered and Danny laughed. Rowan gasped in horror.

"NO!" she cried turning to Steve and smacking the back of his head. "No! You moan like a porn star when I do that!"

Oh god, see, see, this was why he was stressed, cause he didn't want to have this conversation in front of all these people.

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I like, it's good, you're great at it, but it's not my favourite," Steve said, earning another smack from her. "What? I like it. I do."

"Then what's your favourite?" she asked but Steve shook his head and refused to answer. Danny immediately leant over and answered her question with a low whisper to her ear. Rowan digested the information and then made a sound of disgust. "Really?"

Steve shrugged sheepishly and Rowan just scowled at him. "Aw come on, babe," he cried but Rowan was already heading towards the stairs.

"You're not getting laid tonight, you freak," she snapped as she pounded up the stairs.

"Wait? What? Why? Ro… Ro…" he called but when Rowan didn't answer he turned on Danny. "What the hell man? You couldn't keep your mouth shut?" He then turned to Chloe. "See, if I'm stressed, which I'm not saying I am, but if I was, it's because of them. Him! And her! All of them! They fucking stress me out! Allegedly."

"Yeah nice save there."

Steve glared at him all the way until his phone rang, and he kept that glare on his face as he answered it. Luckily for him it was a case cause that meant that he could get away from everyone's prying eyes.

He then had to turn that smile back onto Chloe to say: "Right, hope you're adaptable, cause we just caught a case."

He saw everyone out, including Danny who needed to get changed, while also making sure that Duane got his tin of cookies that Rowan put aside. Chloe, however was going to stay, to shadow him of course. He did set her up with coffee and some of the cookies that were left over.

He told he was going up the stairs to change, fully planning on confronting his wife and making sure that she wasn't really going to withhold sex tonight, cause he honestly deserved it after putting up with this whole intervention surprise today.

But before he could head there he heard Nahele come part way down the stairs. "Why is mom crying? What did you do?"

Steve sighed heavily. God he hadn't thought this was how his morning was going to go. He should have just gone for the run.