A/N: Hello! I'm back with the second part to the 7th month. Sorry once again for splitting this month up, but it had to be done. I honestly hope it doesn't ruin things for the fic and the flow of it, or your enjoyment. Thank you all for sticking with me despite my delayed updates. Massive thanks to all the adds, favs and reviews. I should have replied too all the ones I could; if I missed you out accidentally, I apologize again. Thank you to the anons [Guest and Michelle] too.
Big big thanks to the wonderful cm757 for beta'ing and encouraging me to write more, quicker, by writing so much awesomeness herself, and to teenycee for the beta'ing, putting up with my ideas, emails/messages at random times of the day and night, and trying [and failing] to teach me how to use a semicolon =P Not her fault though, I'm just an awful student.
Month 7 (part 2)
The journey home from the hospital was silent and Kono made use of the self-calming techniques she had learnt from various sources for helping with birth to keep herself from snapping at Steve to say something. It had only been 5 minutes since they had gotten into the car, but it felt much longer with the quietness. He had barely said anything throughout the rest of the appointment, only commenting when necessary. More than that, the stoic mask he had put on had slipped only a couple of times during the scan before returning quickly after.
Sighing, Kono rested her head against her fist, propped up by an elbow by the window, and turned to look at him. If he noticed, he didn't show any sign of it. "If you fix your jaw anymore, your blood pressure's gonna top mine," she retorted, eyes carefully taking in his tense posture.
"Kono, this isn't a joke," he snapped exasperatedly, voice low and steady, even if he refused to look at her. There was a pause before he exhaled deeply and carried on in the same tone. "Why didn't you tell me you were stressed?"
She shrugged, knowing he would be able to see the movement from his peripheral view. "Because I'm not."
"I beg to differ," Steve replied dryly with a shake of his head; knuckles whitening as she suspected he tightened his hold on the steering wheel. "Is it work?"
"It's not work," she answered immediately, almost sounding tired because she was fairly certain she had been asked that question not so long beforehand and he had been there to hear her reply.
Of course, she had known that despite the doctor's instructions not to overthink about the slight elevation in her blood pressure, Steve would not let it go so easily and would overthink it in a way that only he could. He would run down every possibility, work out every strategy available to help her relax, and spend far too much time concerned about her as opposed to himself. She understood why. It was how he functioned. A mix of control issues and having to make sure that the people he loved were safe and happy. Add that to the overprotectiveness and what she was sure were paternal instincts kicking into gear, SEAL version, and Kono didn't envy their daughter one bit.
"Is it home, then?" he asked her, carrying on without missing a beat.
Casting her eyes upwards and then out of the windshield, she repeated the same answer. "No, and it's not family either, before you get there,' Kono added quickly.
"Then what is it?" Steve finally glanced at her but this time, she refused to look back at him and react to the sudden exclamation, especially when she was able to identify the undertone of desperation to his voice. "What is it that you're stressing about so much that it's causing your blood pressure to rise? Which, I have to say, must be something extraordinary considering if our work hasn't shot up your blood pressure already."
"It's you, alright? I worry about you, and I guess that translates into stress," she told him, not able to hold back with what she guessed was the reason anymore after hearing the undoubted torture of not knowing in his words, and being sure that it would only intensify until he found out the truth.
Astonishment was on his face when she turned to look at him and meet his gaze as he twisted to face her, eyes jumping back and forth from the road. "Me? What-? What am I doing that makes you worry?" he asked, brow furrowed in confusion that made Kono raise an eyebrow in incredulity, because it had just reached 4 weeks since he had come home injured and it couldn't have left his mind already how it had affected her.
Unless she had successfully been able to hide it, or he had been too dense to see through her reluctance to leave work, her new found love for paperwork as an excuse to keep her there and her ever increasing texts asking how their case was going after she had left as a way to try and keep an eye on him.
Rolling her eyes at the revelation that he hadn't picked up on her actions, she elaborated on her previous answer. "You go out into the field, reckless as always and doing stupid things. And yeah, ok, it's nothing new, but usually, I'm out there too, being justas reckless and having just as much fun. I can see everything that's going on and the job keeps me busy. But being stuck in the office? I don't have anything to focus on half the time except what's going on out there or what might be happening. And it's even worse when I'm at home and you're still at work. That's what makes me worry. I dunno if it's because I have the time to think about it now, or because of all these stupid hormones and maternal feelings and nesting, but it is what it is," she ended her unintentional rant by pursing her lips and rubbing her hands over her stomach before laying her temple against the headrest of her seat so she could watch him and his reaction to her words. The blank look hadn't returned, but there was nothing else playing on his face from the side that she could see as he kept his eyes locked on the road. She followed them and sighed softly into the silence. "I'm sorry."
"I- What are you apologizing for?" Steve questioned disbelievingly, and she allowed her sight to drop enough to see the lessened grip he had on the steering wheel.
Shrugging, she attentively reached out a hand to cover the one on the gear stick. "I don't want you to feel guilty. This is who you are. It's who you've always been," she told him honestly, even if she didn't say the words that they both knew she was hinting at. That though this was the person that he had always been, and though he had toned it down a little bit when their relationship had turned serious enough for him to realize that there was someone who loved him and would fall apart if he died, there was now another factor, another person, who he had to remember would feel his absence dearly.
"What can I do? To stop you from worrying?" he asked her, thumb strumming lightly over her little finger as he spaced his out to let hers slide in between.
"I guess asking you to stop doing stupid things would be asking too much, huh?" Kono replied light-heartedly with a soft smile. He glanced at her with pursed lips and the beginnings of a pensive frown.
"How about I try to be more careful? Be less reckless and try not to get myself hurt or, you know..." he trailed off without finishing the sentence, leaving the ending up in the air even though they both knew what he meant. She wasn't sure why, they talked about death all the time. They had to with their jobs. But somehow, she could predict that the mention of it in relation to Steve would bring about some tension given their current circumstances.
Scoffing instead, she rolled her eyes and joked. "Yeah, ok. You do that."
"I will," Steve said seriously, nodding, before squeezing her hand as best as he could from under. "If you promise not to worry anymore."
Kono paused, staring at the way he held her fingers captive between his own whilst thinking over his words. Like the doctor's instructions to not worry, this was also easier said than done. "I can't promise but I'll try my best," she finally relented with the best reply she could give without lying.
"Alright," Steve replied after a moment before clearing his throat. "'Nesting'?" he asked amusedly, to which she merely rolled her eyes once again and turned her head away to stare out of the window.
"Shut up," she muttered, childishly pulling her hand away from his when he chuckled, but hiding her own tug of a smile behind the curtain of her hair, glad they were back on course again.
…
A loud and sudden metallic clang woke Kono up from her afternoon nap. She groaned in frustration as she took in her surroundings of their bedroom balcony where she had wandered out earlier to for a peaceful rest before having dozed off on the lounger.
The sun warmed her feet from where the parasol had failed to keep the rays at bay as it travelled across the sky. Judging from the position of the sun currently, she'd say she had been asleep for at least an hour, maybe even closing in on two. Swinging her legs over the edge of the seat, Kono stood up and stretched gently to ease out her slightly curved back before smoothing down her clothes.
Rolling her eyes, she re-entered the house and made her way over to the en suite that connected their room to the nursery. The cupboard that had been blocking the door on their side had been moved to the wall on the other side of the bed. The door had been thrown wide open and she could see Steve trying to work on the pipes that connected the sink to the rest of the water supply, or at least that was what he had told her he had been doing when she had asked when she had first spotted him. Considering he was still in the same position on the floor with a spanner in hand, and that the floorboard before him was still open, she concluded that he really hadn't moved since. The only thing that had changed was the water that dampened the bottom of his old Navy t-shirt and his jeans.
"What was that?" she asked without any preamble when she came to the threshold of the two rooms, leaning heavily against the doorjamb and eyeing him suspiciously.
"Nothing," he replied to the floor, sounding a bit grouchy as he continued to work on a certain part of the pipe before growling lowly in annoyance when the tool slipped off the metal, causing a sound very similar to the one she had woken up to to ricochet around the small bathroom. She opened her mouth to comment on it but Steve glanced up at her before she could. "Don't, Kono. It's almost done."
Arching an eyebrow, she stood up straighter and away from the wall. "It's been 'almost done' for nearly two months now," she reminded him, skeptical at his words. The frown that marred his face at her response as he picked up the spanner again to get back to work made her soften her tone in guilt. She knew how much it meant to him to get the place ready by himself, but there had to be something that wouldn't go according to his plan. And she certainly wouldn't hold it against him if he admitted it. "Please, just call someone. Let me call someone. They could probably do it in a day."
Silence filled the room, broken only by the sound of metal-on-metal as he carried on with his job without a reply. Sighing, Kono stepped into the room and around him to perch on the rim of the 80's style bath that was most likely from the 80's itself. It had a handheld shower attached to it that he had managed to get to work not too long ago with fresh hot and cold water, perfect for baths for their baby and as she grew up. The thought reminded her to add buying a baby bath to the list of things they still needed to go shopping for.
"How was your nap? Has she stopped kicking?" Steve asked monotonously, changing the subject with all the subtlety of a raging bull in a china shop and without sparing her a glance.
Kono shook her head lightly, resting her hands on the rim of the bathtub on either side of her to help her keep her balance as she leant back to straighten out her aching spine. "It was fine and yes, obviously, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to sleep," she informed him dryly, watching him nod in what she guessed was a distracted way because he didn't offer her a sarcastic quip in return.
She caught her reflection on the mirror opposite her as she turned her head away, scrunching up her nose at how long her hair had gotten, reaching halfway down towards her elbow. It needed a cut but she had had enough of fussing over and attention for the moment by her own family that she wasn't sure how she would handle it with preppy hairdressers. Also, Steve seemed to like her hair long, and she liked that he liked it and always found a way to play with it when he could.
Averting her eyes away, she caught a quick glimpse of something that she knew she shouldn't have. The other door was cracked open. It wasn't enough to notice from any other place except for where she sat and could see the bright light gleaming through the opening. The diamond hue of it blinded her from being able to see anything else through the small gap, so she reached out without another thought to widen the space to a few more inches so she could now clearly see the opposite wall.
Although she had helped with picking out the colors and had an input with the theme of the room, it looked so much more different on the wall. It was mainly a soft shade of purple, complimented beautifully with a border of powder blue and white. Giving in to the urge to see it from closer, to actually feel it and see it blend in with the rest of the room, she stood up and pulled open the door, immediately stepping through.
"Kono, wait-" She heard Steve try to stop her once he had noticed what she had done, but it had been too late.
Ignoring him, she walked further into the room, treading carefully with her bare feet on the wooden floorboards that still had a lot of DIY tools and other stuff lying around on. "Oh, my god," she murmured when she finally took in the whole room. Every wall was the same as the first that she had seen; soft and simple, whether it was in the sun or the shade.
When Steve entered the room behind her, sighing exasperatedly, she turned to look at him from the middle of the empty room. Empty apart from the tools and the huge pile of gifts they had received at the luau, sitting in the corner of the nursery. Kono had been glad her mother hadn't made her open them all in front of everyone, not only because that would put her in the center of attention which she could do without, but because she hadn't had a clue what half of the stuff was and that would have been embarrassing enough. A neon sign advertising how unprepared they were on that front. But they were getting there, and the boxes of diapers, baby clothes, a bassinet, some bottles and other necessities were proof of that.
"You're not supposed to see it yet. We had a deal, remember?" he chided her with what suspiciously looked like the beginnings of a pout on his lips. Kono shrugged impishly.
"You left the door open," she told him matter-of-factly, to which he sighed again before nodding once and tossing the spanner he still had in his hand back into the bathroom. He stepped further into the room, running a hand through his hair as his eyes darted around the room before landing back on her.
"So what do you think?" he asked her finally, hands tucked into his jeans pockets and a nervous looking smile that was rarely ever seen on this man accompanying the words. "It's not entirely done yet, but after we get the furniture and put up the shelves, it should look better. We can change the colors if we need to, too," he added hurriedly before she could get her thoughts across.
She shook her head at him, skimming a hand lightly over her stomach as she looked around the room once again. "No, I like it. I love it. It looks great, Steve," she said sincerely, smiling brightly and feeling more than just a bit overwhelmed with all the effort that must have gone into the decorating, especially having to fit it around their jobs. When he visibly relaxed at her comment, she turned away to keep herself from either jumping into his arms and kissing him like crazy, shoving him to the floor to have her wicked way with him (which would be highly inappropriate in more than one way), or crying. Like always, she blamed it on the hormones.
"Yeah?" he asked her, relief clear in his voice though he questioned her for a final, definite answer. But honestly, how could she not like it when it was clear how much thought, effort and love had gone into it?
"Yeah," she confirmed, tossing a soft smile over her shoulder as she traveled around the circumference of the room before coming to a stop by the huge ceiling to floor windows that led to the balcony. "You locked the doors?" she asked him in confusion when she tried to open them. Looking at the handles, she wasn't that entirely surprised to see that the door handles had been zip locked together, too.
Steve nodded nonchalantly at her observations. "I'll find something to block it too. Maybe a chest of drawers or something," he told her in thought, and Kono fought to roll her eyes again because it was obvious that this was part of the action plan of Navy SEAL Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett to eliminate every possible danger to their daughter in the most strategic way. Be it internal or external, real dangers or not. She had a feeling she'd be facing a lot of these in the near future.
"You don't need to block it, or even lock it. It's not like she'll escape," she teased him, but all she got was a glare in return. Holding up her hands in surrender, she backed away and closer to him. "Fine, we'll keep it your way."
Pulling his hands out of his pockets, he opened his mouth to add something else to the matter, she was sure, but he was cut off before he could even form the first word by a familiar female voice calling out greetings from downstairs.
They both paused, staring at each other in confusion, as if they couldn't believe what they were hearing. "Is that-?" Kono began to ask until she, too, was disrupted.
"The door's wide open so I really hope there's someone home!" she called out again, and judging from the way the voice began to fade towards the end of the sentence, she guessed that their visitor had began searching for them.
Steve was the first to head for the door and Kono followed straight after, albeit slower with the added weight of having to carry an almost full term baby. She could hear rather than see him hurriedly walk down the stairs, and by the time she had reached the upper landing, he was already greeting their guest.
"Mary, what are you doing here?" he asked in his typical abrupt manner, surprise lining his words, making her smirk in amusement.
"Hello to you, too," his sister replied just as she descended down the flight of stairs to see the two siblings share a hug before catching the eye of the blonde woman who rather quickly shoved Steve away to step past him and towards her. "Kono! Wow, look at you."
"Hey, Mary," Kono greeted, allowing herself to be pulled into a gentle embrace after being eyed up and down for the first time by Mary Ann. "This is a surprise?" She turned the statement into a question whilst shooting an inquiring look at her husband who merely nodded back to tell her that yes, this was indeed a surprise for them both and not just her because he had forgotten to tell her. Again.
"Which brings us back to my question of what are you doing here?" Steve asked once again when Mary Ann had backed away from her, turning to face her brother with a scoff.
"God, Steven, can't I just come to visit without getting asked like a million questions?" she asked, one hand on her hip in a very defensive manner.
Kono smothered her grin by biting her bottom lip, impressed by how quick it had taken for them to start bickering already. Usually, they managed to get past the initial few hours before the first argument. It never failed to amuse her, either, seeing this side of Steve - a big brother getting riled up by his sister just by asking a simple question or two.
"It's one question. A valid one too, I reckon," Steve retorted, arguing his point rather smugly as he stood with crossed arms opposite them. Kono heard Mary Ann sigh loudly before dropping her arm and leaning against the lounger that stood practically halfway between them both so that she could talk to them together.
"I decided to take some time off flying around and stay here in Hawaii for a few months, so I can spend time with you guys and I dunno, help out if you need it," she explained with a small, almost shy, shrug, eyes darting between the two of them. Kono looked at her in a mix of shock and gratitude, something similar she could see starting to show on Steve's face too, as a small smile started to curve at his lips.
Looking back to the other woman, she shook her head lightly as she spoke. "Mary, you don't need to do that," She hoped that she wasn't doing it out of a feeling of familial obligation from when she was sure Steve would have told her about her recent health issues, because as much as she would love to spend more time with her sister-in-law, she would feel guilty if it was forced.
"I know, but I want to. For my niece, by the way, before you guys get the wrong idea. So you can't really say 'no'," Mary Ann insisted teasingly, with a laugh that eased all of Kono's worries about the situation. "And I'll still be working, just based here on the ground," she added, aiming the line towards Steve as she turned her head to face him.
"Sounds great, sis," he replied with a genuine smile and elated tone, relaxing his body language to allow his arms to drop by his side. "It'll be nice to have you around again."
"Of course it will!" Mary Ann announced with a roll of the eyes as if it should have been common knowledge, pushing herself away from the couch she had been leaning against and rounding it to pick up a bag that she must have dropped there earlier. "Also, I brought presents. Once again, for my niece, but if you're nice, I'll let you open them," she told them, and Kono swapped a bemused smile with Steve, who wasn't even trying to hide the look of happiness at what had just happened over the last 10 minutes. After all the worrying and stressing he had been doing over her recently, she was glad to see him let it go for the moment, and for that, couldn't thank Mary Ann for her impromptu visit enough.
A/N: Thank you for reading. I do hope you enjoyed it and thought it was worth the wait. Please lemme know what you think and I'll be back with chapter/month 8 asap!