A/N: I am so sorry for the 2 weeks it took for me to update! RL, once again, got in the way. But I've finally gotten this finished today, and I hope the treat of finding out the sex of the baby will make it up to you guys? Thank you all so much for the reviews, adds and favorites. I know I say it all the time, but they do truly get me writing and make my day when I see them in my inbox =D Thanks to the anons [Rebecca List, Lily, harisa, Lydia, anon, .x, Michelle and anon] who I couldn't reply personally to as well!
Many thank yous to my wonderful support system of cm757, teenycee, MyMelo and Sidalee! Whether we talk about fics, McKono, H50, life or other stuff, you guys always get me in the mood to write despite my lack of motivation. Don't think this chapter would be up this soon without you!
Month 6
Steve rolled his eyes for what must have been the 10th time since getting into the car with his partner after going to interview a possible suspect. Danny had begun criticising his actions as soon as the engine had been started and unfortunately for Steve, the journey back to HQ was over 20 minutes.
"All I'm saying is that you need to learn to have patience," Danny told him in a tone that was clearly forced to be calm and it took everything Steve had to not point out the irony in the blonde almost losing his patience with him.
"I have patience-" Steve began in defence when he finally decided to try and add something to the currently one-sided conversation, but he was cut off before he could get any further.
"You kicked down the man's door!" Danny exclaimed with hands beginning to wave around once again, and Steve pursed his lips, knowing that this was the beginning of a rant and interrupting would only cause more harm than good. Running a hand over his face, he listened with half a mind to the rest of his partner's words, the other half reminding himself on how having Danny as a partner helped him survive the mood swings of a pregnant wife and so he owed him enough to not throw him out of the car right then. "He was only using a blender in the kitchen on the other side of the house! It's not his fault he didn't hear us the first two times. Now you, or rather the State of Hawaii, owe him a new door. That's taxpayer's money, you know? All which could have been avoided by exercising a small amount of patience and another ring of the doorbell or knock of the door."
Waiting a beat to make sure that he was well and truly done, Steve inhaled deeply before speaking. "You don't think I have patience? I just listened to you rant for the past 10 minutes without shooting you. I have been listening to you rant for over 5 years and I've never shot you. That's patience, Danny," he told him matter-of-factly. There was another spot of silence in which Steve chanced a glance over at his partner because a silent Danny was never a good sign. He wasn't sure if he was happy or not when he broke the quiet though.
"I am going to ignore that," he began, voice matching one that he's heard him use with Grace when she did something he wanted to argue against before catching himself and realising that as a kid, she wouldn't understand and simply argue back. Steve wasn't impressed that he was getting the same treatment but once again, decided against commenting on it. "I'm taking the higher road and ignoring that to tell you that you are not patient at all, my friend. And that must change because you are going to have a child in less than 4 months. You need to learn to be patient with babies. It won't respond and comply to your orders, Commander."
"'Her', not 'it'," Steve corrected whilst rolling his eyes at Danny's condescending tone. "And contrary to what you might think, I do know what babies are like."
"Wha-? Wait, what?" Danny faltered in reply, eyes wide in shock. "'Her'? It's a girl?"
"Yeah. Didn't I mention that?" Steve asked in genuine confusion. They had had their belated scan that morning to determine the sex of the baby, and after enjoying a few minutes of delight at both the image of the scan and the new knowledge that they were having a girl, his phone had rang and redirected their homebound journey towards HQ. Steve had met Danny at the crime scene after, and the whole subject of the scan was dropped after his initial question if everything was ok.
"No, Steven, you didn't," Danny scoffed in exasperation.
Steve nodded acceptingly towards the road that he was keeping an eye on. "Right. Must have slipped my mind." It was a lie. The memory was anything but not constantly at the front of his mind, but it wasn't really appropriate for him to be smiling non-stop at the scene of a double homicide. However, he had forgotten that he hadn't gotten around to telling Danny.
"I'm sure," the other man deadpanned before letting out a low chuckle. "Wow, a girl. Ha! Good luck."
"Thanks," he muttered in reply because yes, he had thought about the ramifications of having a daughter that will no doubt look like her mother. Even if she doesn't entirely, he's pretty sure with his and Kono's attitudes to match, he's already in for a tough ride.
"Guess it's good though. The last thing this tiny island needs is another you," Danny carried on in another monologue, breaking into Steve's thoughts. "Hopefully your daughter will take after Kono, and the rest of younger generation will be safe from flying cars and stair climbing motorbikes. And grenades. Cannot forget the grenades."
…
Kono hummed and swayed to the music playing from the radio in the kitchen to cover up the sounds of handiwork going on upstairs. It was the best thing she could think of to keep herself from breaking her promise to Steve and sneaking a peek before he allowed her to, because judging from the loud bangs and clangs, she was slightly worried about the damage her husband and his reinforcements might leave her house in.
"Hey, cuz. You cooking?" She glanced up at Chin with a roll of her eyes when he entered the kitchen and leaned against the counter in the middle.
"No need to sound so surprised," she told him with a huff, stirring the pot of pasta a final time before turning off the stove and radio. "I've become quite the domestic housewife since being forced to work a 9-to-5 job."
Her statement brought a chuckle out of her cousin. "Really?" he asked, raising his eyebrows dryly.
"Yup. I cook, clean, wash up and even tidy," Kono told him smugly. It wasn't that surprising, actually. Since hitting the end of her second trimester, she had began working limited hours which meant that when they had a case, she would be home alone and bored out of her mind if she didn't do some housework to keep herself busy and active.
"Too much unspent energy after a day of not being able to chase people down or shoot them, huh?" Chin said sympathetically, having experienced Kono's anxiousness during a case first hand whilst confined to the office.
"Something like that," she smirked as she plated her lunch and dumping the pot into the sink. Pulling out a fork from a drawer, she dug into the pasta before pulling a face. "Urgh. Why does food always taste better when someone else makes it?"
Chin laughed as she placed her plate on the middle island and headed to the fridge. "Ah, so you cook but not well," he teased, to which she scowled at. She wasn't sure where this presumption that she couldn't cook had came from, but it wasn't true; she just chose not to the majority of the time because there were better things she could think to do with her time. And Steve never minded picking up her slack.
"I was going to offer you some but now you can go fend for yourself," Kono told him petulantly, perusing the inside of the fridge for that extra something that Steve must use to make it taste how she likes it. Finally, her eyes landed on the small green fruit sitting on the bottom shelf. Grabbing it, she retrieved a grater and went back to where she had left her dish. Chin's confused look made her pause in her actions to explain. "I get citrus fruit zest cravings sometimes."
"That's pretty disgusting," he stated after a moment and Kono rolled her eyes again, going back to her food.
"I know. The way I see it though, it's better than pickles and peanut butter," she admitted with a shrug, sliding onto one of the stools opposite her cousin as he turned to face her. Finally taking the time to eye him as she speared the pasta into her mouth, this time finding it much more pleasant, a smirk pulled at her lips at the random smears of paint she could spot. Purple on his arm and shirt, and white spots on his neck. Glancing at his hands, she wasn't too surprised to see even more colour caking it. "So how's the nursery coming along?" she asked, changing the subject.
Sighing heavily, he pursed his lips before answering. "It's getting there," he said, smiling wryly and shaking his head. "Probably have more done if the other two didn't quarrel so much. And I'm not sure if plumbing is one of Steve's strong points either."
Kono scoffed at the statement. "I told him to get someone else to sort it out but he wouldn't listen. Until he floods the place, I can't argue," she joked, causing Chin to chuckle. "Besides, the nursery project keeps him busy and away from fussing over me."
A sudden loud metallic sound ricocheted through the house, snapping her head up towards the ceiling in an automatic reaction. She saw Chin do the same, catching his eyes when they both looked back down and laughing at the sounds of Danny clearly cursing at his partner for either breaking or ruining something. Kono couldn't hear his words perfectly through the walls and distance but the exasperated tone was there.
Chin cleared his throat and claimed her attention back away from the men upstairs. "Speaking of arguing, I got an interesting call from your mother the other day," he said with an air of amusement that made her groan.
"Yeah, I got it too," she told him, stabbing the pasta with a bit more effort than was necessary at the memory and gritting out the rest of her words in fond-annoyance. Even though her mother hadn't approved of her relationship with her boss at first, much like the rest of her family including the man opposite her, she had warmed up to the idea slowly before welcoming him with open arms when Kono had announced they were finally giving her a grandchild. "I told her I didn't want a baby shower, so she decides to have a luau instead. And I have no say in the matter or any choice except to show up."
"Have fun," Chin said with a semi-sympathetic smile. Semi-sympathetic because she could see the smirk that wanted to come out from underneath it, but she had the boys of Five-0 well trained since becoming pregnant on how far to push her. It amused her how sensitive they thought she was because her hormones had settled a little while ago and she was sure she never really did have mood swings. But she wasn't going to tell them that.
"You're coming too," Kono announced brightly, wiping the smile off of her cousin's face instantly and replacing it with a look of disbelief; a hard feat to accomplish when it came to this man. "If I have to go, you can be sure I'll drag as many people as I can with me," she informed him with a smile. He exhaled deeply and nodded once before turning and exiting the room without another word; leaving her to her food and a baby furniture catalogue to look through.
…
She wasn't sure whether it was the footsteps, the door or the light barely reaching into the bedroom from the corridor that woke her up. But it had. Glancing at the glowing numbers of the alarm clock, Kono frowned at what it showed; 2.12am. It wasn't the first time that Steve had come home late from work since she had been put on desk duty, but usually, he came into the bedroom first to check up on her, waking her up in the process no matter how careful he tried not to.
When he failed to follow his normal routine, a small pang of anxiety flowed through her and despite how comfortable she was, something hard to achieve with her ever growing stomach, Kono threw back the covers and slid out of bed. Padding out of the room, she furrowed her brow when she spotted the light coming from the bathroom down the hall.
The door was open by only a margin and she could hear the water from the sink gushing loudly in the silence of the night. She pushed it the rest of the way open, revealing to her Steve half bent over the sink, washing his face. He spotted her immediately, turning to look at her as he straightened and turned off the tap, grabbing a nearby towel to dry his face.
He looked fine, but there was something in his movements that seemed off to her. Kono prided herself in knowing this man in a way that no-one else did or ever would, but his stiffness and the clenching of the jaw was a dead giveaway that something was wrong.
Nonetheless, he smiled at her. "Hey, did I wake you?" he asked softly to match the quietness that surrounded them.
Kono's eyes shot up to his from where they had been roaming his body for any evidence of something being wrong. "No. I mean- It's alright," she faltered, running a hand through her hair and shaking her head dismissively at him,
"Go back to bed. I'll be there in a bit. I just need a shower first," Steve told her with a soft smile but she wasn't convinced, and when he turned back to the sink, she didn't miss the wince that passed over his features despite his best efforts to hide it.
Unfortunately, the team got injured far more often than they should, especially Steve and herself, that she had learnt how to read where people were hurt from their body language. Judging from the way that he held himself, Kono assumed that he had hurt himself somewhere on his upper body.
Letting out a breath, she stepped further into the bathroom and nearer to where he stood, coming to a stop just behind him on his left side. "Let me see," she murmured, already tugging at his shirt before he could protest.
She pulled up the hem from the front, seeing the blue, green and black that already marred his reddened skin in the reflection from the mirror in front of them. It was only a small patch by his left hip, but it looked awful. Kono slid her hand over the untouched skin, pushing up his t-shirt to reveal his back too. The bruises were more spaced out and darker, but were still restricted to the waist area. She exhaled deeply at the sight, glancing up to catch his eyes in the mirror only to find them on a spot on the counter.
"Steve-" she murmured, breaking off when she didn't know what else to say. Other women's husbands came home late from work with lipstick on their collar. Hers came home with bruises. Right then, she wasn't sure which one she'd prefer.
"It looks worse than it is," he told her gently, adding an unsure smile as he finally met her eyes, and she knew he was testing the waters to see her reaction.
Pursing her lips, Kono glared hard at him, unimpressed "I highly doubt that," she muttered before letting his shirt drop and taking a step back. "What did the EMTs say?" There was no point in asking if he had seen them; Danny and Chin, especially the former, would never send him home to her without being checked out. They tried to do their best to keep her from worrying, not that it helped when she was married to a SuperSEAL who sometimes thought he was invincible.
"It's fine. A few scrapes and bruises," he shrugged and faced her, reaching out a hand to brush against her cheek when she frowned before tucking her wayward hair behind her ear. "They gave me painkillers but it's not that bad."
"Ok," she replied acceptingly when he dropped his hand and swept her eyes over his body one last time. "Take a shower. The heat will help, but not too hot," she advised him, adding the last part in a warning tone to which Steve rolled his eyes.
"I know, Kono," he chuckled, stepping past her to hold the door open before gripping her elbow to forcefully guide her out. "Sleep; go!"
…
Sitting cross-legged in the middle of the bed, Kono's head snapped up from where she had been rubbing her stomach to sooth the now-stopped kicking when Steve entered the room. "Didn't I tell you to go to sleep?" he asked with a hint of incredulity and a raised brow.
"Please. I'm not 5," she scoffed, rolling her eyes as she watched him head over to the dresser to pull out a pair of sweat pants to sleep in.
Wearing just his boxers, she could see his injuries much better from the distance that they were at, and they looked no less painful than before. He struggled briefly to pull on his pants though the shower had seemed to have loosened up his muscles and made his movements a bit more fluid, and Kono had to admire the way he managed the feat without any hesitation or a single expression of pain.
"No shirt," she told him when he went to reach for one. He blinked at her before nodding and shutting the drawer.
"Front or back?" Steve asked, rounding the bed to his side and having seen the packs of cold compressors that she had gone and fetched from downstairs. She was surprised that he hadn't argued against needing it but chose not to comment on it.
"Whichever's better for you," Kono replied after pulling away the covers to make space for him and rotating towards that direction. Wrapping one of the icepacks in a towel to keep the bed from getting wet, she slid it under him to help with the bruising when he laid down on his front. "What happened?" she questioned as she ran her fingers over the markings on his back.
"Suspect tried to run and attacked back," he informed her, laying his head onto his crossed arms on the pillow to face her. "You know, the usual," he joked before his breath hitched when she placed the other icepack carefully onto his back.
"Sorry," she apologized before moving the compressor to cover as much of the injury as she could. The area of bruising was far more spread out than the size of the compressor, but the middle seemed to be the worst of it.
"S'okay." His arms muffled his voice as he shifted slowly to pull out his left hand from under his head and place it on her knee. She smiled at the gesture, knowing it was his way of trying to comfort her even though she was doing her best to keep her worrying in check because it was him who was hurt.
"Must have been a big guy," she commented lightly, squeezing his hand with her own and watching him roll his eyes in response. Glancing back at his injuries, Kono was grateful for the Kevlar vest he must have been wearing otherwise she was sure there would have been more blotches decorating his body.
"Nah. Just had the element of surprise," Steve retorted wearily, a smile tugging at his lips even as his eyes began to slide shut for longer intervals, the adrenaline obviously starting to ebb away into a much need for rest.
"Of course," Kono whispered so not to jerk him out of his tiredness, running a hand over his upper back and into his damp hair, stroking it tenderly. "Are you going to be able to sleep, or should I get the painkillers?"
"I'll be fine," he told her, opening his heavy eyes to look at her once again. The hand that had been slowly sliding off her knee gripped it suddenly and she clutched it back. "C'mon, get in; I'm cold."
Letting out a low laugh, Kono complied, knowing that there wasn't much else she could do for him. Removing the icepacks, she enclosed them both into the towel before getting up and laying it onto the dresser top. She turned off the lights before climbing into bed, curling up next to him as comfortably and as close as she could.
"Better?" she asked, tucking an arm under her pillow and pressing a kiss to his bare shoulder not an inch away from her. His hand found its way around her waist and to her back, splaying open in how he normally would to help ease the tension of it as she slept considering she could no longer sleep on her back.
"Much," Steve muttered, leaning forwards to rest his forehead against hers and brushing his lips against hers. Threading her hand through his hair once again, she softly caressed his hairline with her thumb, glad to see him fall asleep almost instantly and for the first time in a very long while, before her.
…
Steve kept his eyes shut when he woke up, not ready to face the day yet; not with the stiffness he knew his body would be in. "Quit staring at me," he muttered, feeling the eyes on him with that eerie sixth sense he seemed to have when it came to Kono.
She sighed at his words, her warm breath just reaching his bare skin from where she was currently laying a good foot away from him and sending pleasant tingles down his spine. "You're meant to be sleeping," she chided him quietly. Finally opening his eyes, he raised a brow at her in amusement.
"So are you," he told her, noticing the first few rays of sunlight entering their bedroom, signalling that it was still fairly early in the morning. Letting his eyes slide shut again, he blinked them open after a short moment only to see hers sweeping his body before meeting his. "Seriously, stop staring. It's creepy."
Kono laughed lightly at his words; the same words she use to throw at him when they had first started dating and he would simply watch her sleep when he woke up before her. It wasn't that he had stopped doing that but rather that she had just stopped complaining. "Sorry. How are you feeling?" she asked, running a hand over the untouched parts of his back as she shuffled closer to him.
"Better," he lied, feeling the muscles in his upper body protesting as he shifted slightly onto his side so he could wrap an arm around her waist with more comfort than the night before. His shoulder ached from the position he had left it in when sleeping, but he wouldn't have been able to sleep without being able to reach and touch her. Kono called it possessive; he called it love.
"Do you want some painkillers?" she asked him when he finally settled, making him wonder if his mask had slipped or whether she had simply seen right through him and his attempt to seem alright. Though he had to admit, if it was the other way around, he wouldn't believe her when she said she feeling better even if he liked to think he had a higher pain threshold than her. Considering what he had learnt about childbirth in the last few months, however, he might have to rethink that belief soon.
Steve shook his head as much as he could whilst it was resting on the pillow. "No, I'm good," he assured her, pulling her closer until he could feel the baby bump against his side, right above where he was injured. Her timid smile at his action made him frown. "Are you ok?"
There was a pause whilst he watched her eyes avert to where her hand had landed on his shoulder, fingers gently tracing his tattoo just below it. He felt her chest expand when she took in a deep breath before letting it out slowly and meeting his gaze. "You scared me yesterday. But I'll be ok." The smile had vanished from her features but it hadn't stopped her from trying to sound confident and reassuring. 'Trying' being the key word.
"I'm sorry," Steve apologized, guilt overtaking him when he realised just how much pressure this must have put on her when all he wanted to do was to make her life easier, especially so far in their pregnancy.
This time her smile was more genuine, even if it was wry. "I know. It's a hazard of the job, I guess. I've just never had to wake up to you coming home injured before. Not knowing what happened or how bad it is. It's not easy on this side. 'A cop's wife'," she told him quietly, rubbing distractedly at his shoulder and over his back as she did. He racked his brains to think of something to say or do to help, anything to make things better but nothing came to him. Comforting someone had never been his strong point outside of simply enveloping them in a hug and saying reassuring nonsense, and yet, even that seemed out of place right then. Instead, he settled for tightening his hold on her. Kono must have noticed his pensive state because she suddenly plastered on a bright smile and brought her hand to his face, fingers brushing against his jawline tenderly. "But hey, don't worry about it. It's done and you're going to be fine. That's all that matters. Let's just sleep now, yeah?" she whispered.
Despite everything he wanted to do to settle her mind and make sure she never worried about him again, he still drew blank on how to do it so all he Steve could do was nod and offer her a smile before closing his eyes. "Yeah, ok."
A/N: So it's a girl! How about that? Hehe. Month 6; a mix of pairings, and a splash of drama at the end. Let me know what you guys thought, please! =) Until next time!