This chapter starts to show a more rebellious side of Serenity. She's thirteen, after all. Please review!

Serenity had to get herself in trouble. She would be dead if her parents found out that she had shoplifted at a drugstore.

She thought she had been inconspicuous when she slipped the lip gloss and mascara into her bag, but apparently, she had been the exact opposite. The guy who worked there, who looked only a few years older than her, had seen her.

"I don't know why you even bothered to call the cops," Serenity said to him.

Sending him a scowl, Serenity remained silent for the rest of the time, determined to keep up a tough girl attitude.

"Are you Kenny Goodrow?" a police officer asked when he walked into the store. "I'm Officer Alapa from the Honolulu Police Department."

The kid nodded. "Yeah. I called because she was shoplifting." Kenny glared at Serenity.

The officer turned to Serenity. "Shoplifting is more serious than you seem to believe, young lady. Do you understand that you could be in a lot of trouble for this?"

Serenity dropped the tough girl facade. "Please don't arrest me."

"What's your name?"

"Serenity McGarrett."

"Any relation to Steve McGarrett who runs Five-0?"

"Yes, that's my dad."

Officer Alapa looked unsure of Serenity's statement. The girl did, after all, just attempt to steal from a drugstore. He sighed. "Fine. I'll call him."

"McGarrett," Steve answered.

"Lieutenant Commander, this is Officer Alapa. I have a girl here accused of shoplifting. She's claiming to be your daughter."

Steve was silent for a moment. Shoplifting? One of his little girls shoplifting? "What's her name?"

"She says she's Serenity McGarrett, but I wanted to double check with you."

"Where are you?"

After the officer told Steve their location, the call was ended. Serenity knew she would be in big trouble.

Serenity wasn't surprised that Steve was there in just a couple minutes. He always drove like a maniac whenever Five-0 was on a case or when he was mad, and Serenity knew which one was the issue this time.

"I'm sor-" Serenity began as soon as he walked in, but he cut her off.

"I don't want to hear it. I mean it," Steve said when it looked like Serenity was going to say something again. "Officer Alapa, thank you for calling me. I apologize for my daughter's behavior. I promise you I will make sure she never does this again." He turned to face Serenity. "Let's go." When she didn't move, he added a strict, "Now."

Serenity quickly rose to her feet, following Steve outside. She wished she was anywhere else at the moment.

"What were you thinking?" Steve demanded as soon as they were inside of his truck. "Or were you just not thinking? I don't want to hear any lies. You've done that enough today."

"How did I lie? I did things I shouldn't have done, but I didn't lie."

"Don't start with me, Serenity. You decided to steal merchandise from a store, which is lying. So don't try to say that you didn't lie. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Dad."

"You are in so much trouble, Serenity. You can't even begin to imagine how much trouble you're in. No cell phone, no iPod, no computer, no TV, and no hanging out with your friends until further notice. You could have gotten charged with something and not let off with a warning if I wasn't with Five-0. Do you have any idea how lucky you are that I was able to get you out of it?"

"It was just lip gloss and mascara, Dad. It's not a big deal."

"It is a big deal. If you continue to do things like this, you'll start to steal more valuable things until you're robbing a bank. What's after that, Serenity?"

Serenity waited a moment before she said, "You think I'm turning into them, don't you?" Her voice was quiet, almost inaudible.

"Turning into who?"

"You think I'm turning into Devin and Wendy," she said, referring to her biological parents.

Steve pulled the truck over to the side of the road. "Listen to me very closely, Serenity. I would never, ever, ever in a million years even begin to think that you or Willow were turning into them. Why would you even consider such a thing?"

Serenity hesitated before asking, "Would you love me more if my parents hadn't been serial killers? Would it make a difference?"

"It doesn't matter who they were. You and your sister are completely differen people from them. And besides, they're not your parents, are they?"

"No, they're not. But right now, you don't love me."

"I'm disappointed in you, Serenity, but that could never stop me from loving you. That will never change."

"But you'd be happier if they hadn't been serial killers. You'd love me more."

"What Wendy and Devin were has nothing to do with you. Nothing could change how much I love you. Of course I'd be happier if they hadn't been serial killers because then you wouldn't have so many post-traumatic stress incidents. Do you have any idea how much it hurts me to see you in any kind of pain?"

"So that means you won't spank me, right? Because if you hate seeing me in pain, you won't spank me."

Steve gave a short laugh. "Good one, but not going to get you out of it. You knew the consequences, but you still attempted to shoplift anyway. Nice try. But why did you try to steal? You know I would have bought whatever you wanted for you."

"Yeah, okay, Dad. You never would have allowed me to wear make-up, never mind buy it for me."

"You're right. I probably wouldn't. You still could have talked to your mother about it."

"I don't want to talk about what I stole right now."

Steve could tell there was much more behind this, but it wasn't his department, so he didn't question her further.

After dinner (during which Serenity did not sit comfortably) and once the girls were asleep, Steve told Catherine about what their oldest daughter had said earlier.

"Serenity asked if I thought she was turning into Devin and Wendy," he said. "Then she asked if I didn't love her because they were serial killers."

"Did you tell her that they're not her parents anymore? Did you tell her that you love her no matter what?"

Steve nodded. "Yeah."

"Shoplifting...that's not like her. I'll talk to her tomorrow morning. It isn't exactly your specialty."

Steve smiled. "It's definitely not. Wait a minute, you have to be at the base at 0700 tomorrow morning. How are you going to talk to Serenity?"

"I was getting to that. I've been reassigned. Just talked it over with my new boss yesterady. It's nothing to do with the Navy."

Confused, Steve asked, "Then what are you doing?"

Catherine smiled. "Don't worry, you'll like this. I said that I just talked it over with my new boss, the governor. She asked me to be the head of a security unit for high profile visitors to the island."

"So this means we'll be working in the same building."

"Right. And we have the same lunch break, so we can do this." Catherine stepped closer to Steve. "And this." She touched her lips to his. "And this." She kissed him passionately. "But maybe that can't be done at work, so let's do it all now."

Noah was now three months old and Mary was ready to start working as a probation officer. On the day she was taking her final test, Danny and Grace were home with Noah.

"Come on, Noah, you have to eat this," Danny said in an attempt to get Noah to eat. It was very difficult for anyone besides Mary to feed him.

Grace giggled. "He doesn't eat unless Mom is here."

"You think this is funny, Grace?" Danny's tone was playful. "He reminds me of someone else when they were a baby."

"I probably was a perfect baby!" Grace said after a dramatic gasp.

"I don't know about that, Gracie. You may have been a little bit stubborn, just like your brother."

"I'm home!" Mary called as she walked in the house.

"Hi, Mom!"

"Hi, sweetheart. Did you eat dinner yet?"

"Yup, but Noah won't eat."

"He won't? Well let's see what we can do about that."

Of course Noah ate immediately when Mary fed him.

"Mama's boy," Danny muttered.

"Like someone else I know," Mary said, looking at Danny. "How long have you talked to your mother for today, Danny?"

"Very funny."

Noah was asleep when Mary announced that it was time for Grace to go to bed. "It's getting late now, Grace."

Grace nodded.

"Goodnight, honey. I love you."

"Love you, too, Mom."

Danny led Grace to her room. "Goodnight, monkey. Dano loves you."

"Love you, too, Daddy."

Danny went back into Noah's room where Mary was rocking their son.

"I'm not going to get a real heavy load of work for a few months until Noah gets a little older. I feel bad making your parents watch him, though."

"They want to watch him, Mary. My dad's a retired firefighter and my mom does all her work from home. She submits stuff she writes to magazines and she writes newspaper articles. Trust me, they need him there so they don't go crazy from boredom."

"I don't want to go to work so soon, but we could definitely use the money with the wedding coming up and everything."

"Just one more month until we're married."