I do not own CBS Productions, Hawaii Five O, or any of the original characters.
Without any further yada yada yada...
No major warnings for this chapter.
Chapter 2.
"I'm adopting them." Steve says. He just arrived at work, and Danny watches as he drops the adoption paperwork on Danny's desk. "I need the information. Medical records, birth certificates, report cards, I need it all."
Kono and Chin caught wind by now.
"On it, boss," Kono says, willing to help the kids out.
"You're 100% on this, right?" Chin asks once he and Steve are alone.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Steve asks, worried he's missing the point.
"They were targeted. Twice. Their parents' car crash wasn't an accident. It was a hit and run by a man whose face matched one of the kidnapper's face." Chin explains.
"Somebody's holding a grudge against the whole family." Steve deduces.
"The kidnappers aren't part of a gang or anything. I haven't figured it out yet, but I'm working on it. I don't want anybody who interacts with these kids to be involved." Chin says gravely and starts to walk away. "Oh yeah, congrats. Laki maika'i, brother," Chin walks away.
"Wait, why do I need luck to take care of 5 kids?" Steve asks.
Danny steps out of his office.
"Sometimes I have trouble with one, Steven!"
After their dinner of anything Steve could find in his fridge, Steve watches each of the kids closely.
Kale is relaxed. The quickest way to his head is food, and pasta just hit the spot for him. He eyes the ocean, as if planning to kayak, surf, paddleboard, or even just swim in it tomorrow.
Alex is tired. She's had a long day, trying to get Eke and Ollie to behave, and she watches as the sun slowly sinks below the horizon.
Lili is on edge. She's trying to calm down, but she just moved into a complete stranger's house. She wasn't even hungry for dinner, but one look from her sister silenced the thought she hadn't even mentioned.
Eke is energetic. He runs around Steve's yard, playing some game of chase with Ollie.
Ollie is having fun. For the first time since they were kidnapped, the pressure is off of all the kids, and Ollie is glad to have the weight off his chest.
"Alright guys, time to hit the hay," Steve decides, and nobody protests to that.
The next morning, Steve looks into the kid's room. He set up 3 sets of bunk beds prior to them joining him in his house, and they are lined up against the wall in the guest room. The 6th lower bunk was removed and a long bar hung under the top bunk, creating a place for the kids to hang their school uniforms.
However, on this morning, he doesn't see any one of the children in their beds. The beds are made, neat and precise. Steve, on the brink of calling HPD, Danny, anybody really, calms down when he catches a glimpse of the kids outside. Ready to burst out the back door full of his new-found legal guardian powers, he stops when he reaches for the handle.
The 4 younger kids are across from Kale. Kale leads his siblings in push-ups. Feeling they've reached an inhuman amount of the correctly formed push-ups, they switch to full sit-ups. They perform an inhuman amount of those as well.
It's still early, 5:38, and Steve decides to be easy on them. He also likes to rise early as well to work out in the form of a swim, run, or even a long bike ride. The kids appear to be dripping wet, so Steve assumes they did some form of water sport. Gathering up a pile of fluffy towels, Steve heads outside.
"Hey guys." He says after they come to a break in their exercises. He hands them each a towel. The towels are received gratefully. "You guys usually do this?"
"Yeah. We can stop if you want us to, but yes, we normally do this." Kale says.
"No, I don't want you to stop. I usually do this sort of thing also." Steve says quickly.
"Then why aren't you doing it?" Eke asks.
"I was going to, until I realized none of you were in your beds," Steve explains with a chuckle. "Finish up, I'm going to make breakfast." He heads inside.
"What the heck am I going to make for breakfast!" Steve thinks. It was hard enough last night, he managed to find frozen lasagne in the freezer. Well, the freezer must be his friend, because he rummaged around enough to produce a package of frozen waffles.
He thinks about the kids as he cuts up fresh fruit[Danny left it for him, claiming he needed to have a balanced diet instead of eating sporadically]. They definitely learned a lesson or two with General Kai. If he told them they needed to stay down or hide, no doubt about it they'd listen, ask no questions, and do as they were told. He's only known them for 24 hours, and he already gets that vibe from the kids.
"Military background," A voice in the back of his head reminds him. Heck, if he told them to do 100 push-ups each morning, they could and would.
He thinks back to standing in the back door, watching them. He barely heard Kale mutter,
"250. We're done."
They'd thank him for letting them do only 100.
Steve is pulled from his thoughts as the kids file upstairs to take showers.
"Breakfast in 10!" He shouts as the last of Kale's shadow retreats up the stairs.
"Yes sir," He hears Lili mutter to herself, just out of habit.
The kids silently ate through breakfast.
"How do you guys generally do this?" Steve asks after the kids are all ready for school.
"Typically Kale drops the little guys off at Kamehameha and then me at McKinley." Alex offers.
"I'm lacking a car right now, though," Kale whispers to her.
"I'm not that little," Eke mutters, and Ollie nods in assent.
"They still call me little," Lili adds.
"Woah,woah, not all at once. I can drive all of you today, you 3 are only considered little because they're bigger, and we will solve this car problem later today." Steve says quickly. "We ready to go?"
After everybody returned to the McGarrett residence subsequent different forms of the same long day of school or work, Steve noticed how Kale left to go upstairs, and one by one, his siblings followed.
Slowly making his way up the stairs, Steve lets his feet fall heavier to blazon his arrival to the second floor. The kids, hearing his earlier attempts to be heard, look up, not at all surprised when he enters their room. When Steve just stands there, watching them, they continue on with their work.
"C'mon. We need to find you a car," Steve says, gesturing to Kale. "I can't have you kids doing homework all day." Steve leaves the room, also leaving no room for argument.
Kale really didn't want him to do it.
"I can have the money for you in a month! You don't have to do this," Kale pleads.
"It's my responsibility to provide and protect. To provide for you, I need to get you a car. To protect you, I need to get you a safe car." Steve explains.
"If only Danno were here to see this! He would be so proud. I'm ranting about something that matters!" Steve thought.
"He want to pay for it, let him pay for it," Lili points out.
"Yeah, but Kale is paying for college, and a bajillion other things, not to mention gas for the car." Eke adds.
"True." Lili agrees.
"I can get compensation from the governor, and it won't cost either of us a cent," Steve points out. At this Kale seems to soften.
"So you're not paying for it, then?" He asks.
"He just said that. Take the favor and be glad," Alex says. "I have homework to finish."
"Which color?" Steve asks, nodding to the 2005 Chevy Tahoes in front of them.
"Red!" Ollie shouts, and Kale nods in assent.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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