1x02: "ohana" - "Family"
Original Summary: "A National Security Agency cyberterrorism expert Roland Lowery (Scott Cohen) is kidnapped by a Serbian gang. While Kono Kalakaua is tasked with looking after Lowery's son Evan, the rest of the team discover Lowery was working on a "skeleton key", a computer program that would allow the user to hack into anything. Soon, Kono and Evan are kidnapped by the same gang led by Drago Zankovic (Peter Stormare). The rest of the team realize the gang is using the program to shut down the island's radar, allowing a plane to smuggle through. Zankovic intends to sell the program to the occupants of the plane. Before the deal is made, McGarrett's team storm the warehouse and arrest Zankovic. In the end, the team celebrate Kono's Police Academy graduation."
Plus: Danny witnesses the McGarrett Family dynamic.
MCGARRETT HOME: 6:30
"When he was five years old I asked my son Steve what he wanted to be when he grew up."
John McGarrett's rattling and tinny voice sounded out over the tape recorder Steve had dug out of the champ box. It was placed by his feet where he sat the kitchen table, the tape playing out over the early morning sounds of the house; teenagers grumbling, shutting doors, and his wife moving from the kitchen.
Steve sat as casual as he ever was, in tan combats, a dark polo and boots. He was informal, but always ready for action.
"I wanna be a cop, Dad, like you."
Catherine stopped in the doorway to the dining room, two mugs of coffee in her hand. She watched her husband, watched as he stared at the small black tape recorder playing in front of him intently, one hand on his chin.
She had heard John's voice from the kitchen and at first thought she had imagined it, before she had realised it was Steve going through the objects from the 'champ box' that had been bugging her and Steve since its discovery.
"I told him to… be anything but that…"
She walked towards Steve, setting his mug of black coffee with grass-fed butter down in front of him, her own at its side. She rested her hands on his shoulders and massaged them gently as they listened, her hands stilling and slipping down to rest over his heart.
"The life of a cop is… well it's not easy… It's not that I am not proud of the work that I did, but… but more than anything I have uh… I have regrets…"
While Catherine and Steve's eyes were locked on the tape recorder on the table, other faces, sometimes their own, smiled out. Photos which adorned the walls included those of Catherine and Steve as a couple, with their family now, mixing with the ones John had had up and not taken with him when he moved to the smaller home he had died in. There were ones showing Mary and Steve as children, even one of Doris. Everyone was smiling.
The house had had so many happy memories before Doris' death and John sending the children away. Even as a mother herself Catherine couldn't understand how he had managed it, managed it without explanation…
But the walls which had felt so cold to Steve upon his return felt warm and blessed, their family home now. It had all changed once he became a father himself.
She stroked her hands over his chest, one of his slipping through hers, as she rested her chin on the top of his head, eyes on the table top, listening.
"The toll that it took on my family, the way it hurt them… It's something I think about every day."
Steve closed his eyes and Catherine kissed above his ear, stroking over his heart.
She knew while these words hurt Steve from his father's point of view, they stirred guilt in him thinking about his deployments as their children grew up. But Catherine knew there was no way to compare Steve's parenting with John's…
His relationship with his children, the home he provided, was entirely different. Steve kept his family close, even when he was away. He left on deployments to protect them, not send them away with secrets and hurt.
"It's not the same." She whispered to him, making sure he knew, "you know that commander."
Catherine knew that Steve would rather die than hurt his kids the way he had been hurt, he would never ever make them feel as lost as he had felt twenty two years before.
"Losing my wife was almost unbearable… but giving up my kids… that just broke me… I'm so proud of them, but they never know it…"
Steve turned the player off when he heard feet on the landing. He stood and shoved it in the 'champ box', before turning and putting the red toolkit down beneath the desk at the other end of the room.
He rubbed his hands over his face and Catherine handed him his coffee, giving him a small smile and kiss, when their eldest trudged into the room.
"Morning." Jake grunted, yawning wide and scratching his bare chest. He had showered, but not bothered to get dressed beyond the point of putting running shorts on.
Catherine noted he had done his hair in its perfectly 'quaffed' style, and rolled her eyes at Steve as their son poured himself orange juice from the carafe in the middle of the table, pulling a bowl towards him.
"Morning champ." Steve said without thinking, realising how often he had heard that expression on his own tongue with his son, and only ever hearing it on his father's lips just before…
It was like someone had poured cold water on him. His mind spun.
And then finding it on the box…
Had John remembered what Steve called Jake?
Steve pushed such thoughts away.
"You coming to my football game on Saturday?" Jake was still yawning as poured cereal into a bowl, "Im starting quarterback."
"Wouldn't miss it." Steve told him, taking a swallow of coffee to clear his head of thoughts of his last conversation with his father.
"Are you really going to be working on the island full time, no more deployments?" Jake asked, somewhat hesitant. They had grown up knowing that their dad sometimes came and gone, but that he loved them always, no matter where he was or what he couldn't say…
Such thoughts like that might have healed Steve's relationship with John, if John had been honest enough to share them, he thought bitterly and quickly.
"Yep." Steve stretched his arms above his head, reaching towards the boarded ceiling and rolling his neck, "the Governor has let me set up a task force to fight major felons."
"Like the one who killed Grandpa?" Jake asked, dry cereal in bowl.
Steve stiffened and nodded, remembering the man falling into the sea, "like him, only the ones still alive…"
Jake nodded and Steve cast a quick glance at Catherine who squeezed his arm before walking to the kitchen.
"Hey dad." Mia walked in, pocketing her phone and giving her beloved father a kiss on the cheek.
"Morning sweetheart." He smiled behind his coffee, but it vanished when she walked further away from him.
"Wait a minute." Steve stopped his daughter, waiting for her to turn back, confused, "what are you wearing?"
She looked down at herself, "a dress…"
"Yeh that's barely a shirt. Go change, something longer."
"Dad!"
"Now."
She huffed and strode back towards the stairs to her father's slightly sarcastic, "thank you," just beating her mother through the door.
"I got the mail." Catherine declared, handing a bunch of boring brown envelopes to her husband before handing one letter across to Jake.
Jake caught it and set it down, focussing instead on his breakfast.
Catherine set the rack of toast she held in her other hand in the centre of the table, half of it immediately being consumed by Jake onto plates besides his cereal, "where's Mia, I thought I heard her?"
"She's gone to change." Steve stated as though it were obvious.
Catherine rolled her eyes, "Oh Steve she's fifteen, at high school now..."
"I don't care."
There was a knock at the door and Catherine turned, still laughing, to walk to get it.
"Hey dad! Presidents medal athletics tournament is coming back around, and I need to do better than last year to have any hope of beating my record in the summer." Jake informed him, "Will you help me train?"
Getting to spend any time with his children, no matter how mundane it seemed to others, filled Steve with joy.
Catherine was right, his own experience with his father was in no way the same as what he shared here.
Steve had served weeks and months without seeing his kids in the flesh, sometimes gone even longer without seeing Catherine... it was mornings like these he loved. Where things were normal.
Mia re-entered then, wearing a slightly longer summer dress. She spun in front of him on her way to her seat, voice laced with as much sarcasm as she dare. "Ok dad?"
"Much better." He sipped his coffee.
Jake sing-songed behind his spoon, "That's not what Tom Wayne is gonna say."
"Shut up Jake!" Mia punched him square in the arm.
"Who is Tom Wayne?" Steve demanded, lowering his coffee mug as his stomach tightened.
His daughter flushed but her response was cut off by her twin.
"He is Mia's boyfriend!" Jake could barely get the words out through toast, chuckles, and checking his phone.
"No he isn't. Shut up Jake!" Mia threw her brother a murderous look, while he only laughed. She sighed shortly and looked up her father across the room where he remained leaning against the desk, eyebrows raised, waiting expectantly, "He is my chem class partner, alright. Mom knows who he is."
He narrowed his eyes, "She didn't tell me."
"Because she knew you'd get all funny about it." She muttered and folded her arms, "Can we talk about something else now?"
"No we can't. Who is Tom Wayne?" Steve didn't move to take another drink.
"He's my-"
"No." Steve stated, "I know his name and if it isn't from you or your mother then," his eyes widened in horror, "does he have a record?"
"No!" Mia cried.
Jake snorted.
Steve turned his eyes on his son and Jake felt silent, doing the typical sibling thing of defending his own corner until Steve looked back at Mia, "Do his parents? What do they do? Where does he live?"
"He's quarter back for the team like Jake ok?" Mia looked mortified, glancing furiously at her brother every two seconds.
"Is he older than you?" Steve could feel his heart starting to hammer like no amount of SEAL training could stop.
He had been back on the island week but if some punk thought he could touch his daughter…
"He is nearly four months younger." She informed him, knowing he liked figures.
"Speaking of, Dad…" Jake turned in his seat to look at his father, "I bet Billy Irons in my class that the Redskins would beat the cowboys."
"Yeh…" Steve replied non-committedly, still processing the idea that his little girl, never mind the fact that she was aged fifteen, was spending long lab hours with a football player.
Steve had been a high school starting quarter back, his son was one too, he knew what kind of doorway into the world of teenage girls that could give you. It was like having the keys to the kingdom.
He felt sick at the thought.
"I owe him twenty dollars."
Steve sighed shortly, his children were aging him, "Jake I have told you about making bets before, and before you even ask I am not giving you the money."
"I'll pay you back when I get my allowance."
"Which is my money anyway! And when I tell your mom you have been making sporting bets again, which may I remind you is gambling and illegal…"
"Oh come on Dad…" Jake groaned.
Mia snorted and muttered, "Busted."
Jake dug her hard in the side and she cried out, slapping his spoon out of his hand.
"It is a gateway crime." Steve stated, cutting short their fight, "and when your mom find out about it there isn't going to be any allowance. So I suggest you pray you get good money for doing chores and clear any outstanding debts you may have before I find out about them."
Jake, like his sister, decided to just eat their breakfast.
It was so unfair, most kids got at least one parent who was a pushover. They had none. And while they could be seen as good cop, bad cop, Jake and Mia really had no way of predicting who was who.
Steve walked and set his coffee down on the dining room table, one hand on the back of his empty seat.
"Look who I found."
Steve turned to see Danny Williams enter behind his wife, wearing shirt and tie, patent leather loafers, and clutching a bag that smelt good.
His teenage kids' heads whipped around like dogs.
"S'up man." Steve greeted.
"Hey," Danny waved, "wow you all look so much alike…" he shifted, "that's kind of scary…" he pointed to Mia with a friendly smile, "except you of course, because you fortunately look like your mother rather than this animal here," he nodded his head towards Steve, "so you have come out on top." He stepped forwards and shook her hand, "I'm Danny, im your dads new partner."
"Hey, I'm Mia." She smiled.
Mia was stunning, Danny didn't think he was creepy in thinking it, rather just stating a fact mentally.
"Nice to meet you, hey." He shook hands firmly with the boy on Mia's left, in the middle of the three kids, "you must be Jake."
"Hey man, why are you wearing a tie, its Hawaii?" Jake looked genuinely confused.
Steve straightened and tapped him on the arm with a folded note between his fingers.
Jakes head swung around and took it from him, grinning up at his father whose small smile told him he was happy he could bust his partner, but that Steve wouldn't be clearing anymore debts.
"Because I am a cop, not a navy seal, and I like to look like one." Danny stated, "God you two look alike…"
"No we don't…" Jake and Mia both muttered.
"I know you're twins but…"
"Trust me…" Catherine walked forwards and handed Danny a cup of coffee, gesturing to a seat, "if those people would've seen me while I was pregnant with you two, there would be no doubt."
"Were you a foot taller than you are now?" Danny looked her up and down, "how'd you even manage it, you are what, a hundred pounds wet through?"
She laughed, "the photos aren't pretty I assure you. Steve had aneurism face for nine months."
"I don't get aneurism face." Steve narrowed and screwed up his eyes.
"Yes you do." All of them, even Danny, could attest to this.
Steve rolled his eyes and walked to stand behind his daughter and son, leaning against the other wall in the room, as he waved Danny to sit down beside his wife, "I'll stand."
"Danny help yourself to breakfast." Catherine gestured, "There's bowls, toast and cereal, bacon on the way…"
"Wow… although I might be able to help with that." Danny put a bag on the table, "brought some doughnut hole things from down the block, dig in."
"Malasadas?" Catherine smiled "mmm… I haven't had these in years."
Both kids dove forwards, Jake tipping his head back to try and get it in whole before his father swooped in and plucked it from his grasp.
"Hey dad what the hel- heck?" Jake quickly corrected himself, lest Steve ask for the twenty dollars back.
"You want to get in the Navy, you need to start running more and training harder." Steve told his son, "Don't want you needing bypass surgery before your big game." He tossed it back in the centre of the table on the paper bag.
Jake glared at it, while Mia finished his before their father could ask for it back. She finished, licking her lips and fingers, "mmm those are so good."
She then reached for two packets of vitamins and epilepsy medication in the middle of the table, taking them with her juice.
Catherine and Danny both looked at Steve's, whose eyes twisted with parental concern for a moment before he covered it up.
Her epilepsy was something they had to deal with, and they did, as a family.
"Well I hate to be the bearer of the bad news but it's going on seven thirty, and bus will be here in a bit." Catherine stood, and looked at her kids, "go on, go finish getting ready."
"Ok…" they stood, stuffing toast in their mouths.
"Nice to meet you Detective William's."
"See ya around Danny."
"Bye!"
The mix of farewells to his partner made Steve chuckle as he watched his kids leave the room, before he sunk and sat down beside his wife in a chair, looking at Danny when he compliments, "they are great kids, you sure they're yours?"
Steve smirked and Catherine rolled her eyes, reaching to put a hand on his back when she saw his muscles tense, face becoming business like.
He kept his voice low, "What about the coastguard? Did they find victor Hesse's body yet?"
"No, no they did not."
"They will Steve." Catherine glanced up at him as he ran his hands over his face.
"What if he is still alive?" He almost demanded, "I mean we have the kids here what if…"
"You emptied a mag into the guy. He is fish food." Danny stated, "Trust me as a father you don't want to start second guessing certainties like that. Hesse is dead. Enough said."
FOUR HOURS LATER
TOP OF ALLII TOWER – HILTON HAWAIIAN VILLAGE
"Ladies! You can stop now! I got a fingerprint match of an Interpol database!"
Chin's voice cut through the air and Steve glared sharply at Danny, before looking over his shoulder, hands still fun of their suspect as he hung half off of the roof, "ergo?" He demanded of his partner.
"You and I are going to have a long talk later you understand?" Danny snapped, still practically screaming, "Now get him up!"
With a furious grunt and shaking of his head Steve hauled the limp suspect up over the edge of the tower and dropped him down at his feet.
"His name is Sergé Ivanociv." Chin stated, holding up his phone to show, "Serbian national with a wrap sheet a mile long. He's part of a gang who pulled mostly bank jobs, and jewellery heists… high end stuff…"
"Thieves!" Danny pushed his hands together, "Thieves take things, not people."
"Well maybe they graduated to kidnapping." Chin shrugged.
Steve had his hands on his hips, squinting into the sun, "or maybe they found out about what Roland wanted to show the general and they wanna get their hands on it…. Either way take this guy inside, see if you can get another print from him. Then run deep background, find out when this guy got the island," he glanced down to see Danny cuffing their suspect, "where he's been, known associates, the whole shot…"
Chin nodded, "copy that."
Steve's phone started to ring, and he spun around to answer it, looking down at the screen his heart faltered, Danny shouting paling into the background when he saw the caller ID.
KUKUI HIGH SCHOOL
"This is Steve McGarrett?" He answered, "Yes… Is she ok? …. I'll be right there." He hung up and strode the other way.
"Hey… hey what's wrong?" Danny stopped his rambling to ask urgently when he caught Steve's expression.
Steve drew in a breath and didn't break stride, "that was Kukui High. Mia's had a fit, I need to take her home."
KUKUI HIGH SCHOOL
Steve had only removed his Kevlar vest before entering the school because Danny hadn't shut up about it since they had left Chin to go to HQ with their suspect while they took the Camaro to pick up Mia.
Danny helpfully waited in reception while Steve was let through into the nurse's office, striding through the white doors into the hospital bay.
"She's a little tired but good to go," the nurse explained, "thank you for coming to get her so promptly. She needs to be at home… her seizure was short, but she is exhausted."
"Thank you, I will take her." Steve nodded his head, walking across the room to where Mia was sat with her knees pulled up to her chest on one of the bunks. Her ankles were crossed, her eyes sunken.
Her bag was by her feet, crumpled papers and books Steve assume she dropped when she had a seizure stacked at the side.
"Hey sweetheart…" He said gently, concern written all over his face, "how are you feeling"
Mia looked up at him with teary and tired eyes, "hey dad… I'm fine just… can we go home, please?"
Her voice was weak and shaky.
Steve knew she was embarrassed, he could tell by everything about her posture and her voice.
"Ok…" he waited while she stood off of the bunk and reached for her bag. He went to take it from her but she murmured, "No I've got it, dad…" She breathed, "Honestly."
Steve took a breath and nodded, watching as she lifted her books and hugging them to her chest. She shuffled past him and back out into the buzzing corridor. Steve followed, stepping closer when Mia shrugged her shoulders tight, as if hunching against the whispering and staring of those who had heard she had had another public seizure.
Steve silenced several with a single look, as well as the gun and badge on his hip.
Everyone knew about commander McGarrett, Jake and Mia's parents, the Super SEAL.
"You're mom is gonna come home in a couple of hours to make sure you're ok…" Steve wrapped his arm around her shoulders as he led her through the doors and back into reception.
Still dizzy and tired Mia tripped over the door frame and dropped her books again.
Several students watching sniggered and snorted, although many of the girls who were Mia's friends looked uncomfortable. She looked pale, so much more shaky than normal.
Steve bent down with Mia to pick up her books but she pushed his hands away as she tugged her hair out of her face, "I'm fine dad…"
He ignored her, but she was too aware of the embarrassment coursing through her beings.
"I said I'm fine dad." She stood sharply, "please let's just go."
Steve stood too and nodded, holding the door for her as she walked past him and Danny towards the car.
END OF THE DAY
MCGARRETT HOME
Steve walked through the house in full dress blues, cover under his arm as he locked the door. He made his way upstairs and sighed, pushing open the door to his daughter's room gently.
Mia was curled on her side sound asleep, her features still tired.
He knew she had been embarrassed to have a fit at school, and he wanted to hide her from every pain that ever touched her.
He glanced down at himself, still dressed in full dress blues from their small celebration for Kono's police academy graduation.
He remembered times when both his children had tugged his cover on, dipping it over their eyes as they laughed up into cameras, captured in images all around the house.
He sighed and closed the bedroom door, taking a peek at his son, before entering the master bedroom.
Catherine was awake in the dark, sleepy, but on her back waiting. She mumbled incoherently as he undressed, and immediately curled into is arms when he slid in beside her.
"Mmm…" She hummed, "how is Kono?"
"Good…" He yawned, checking his phone one last time as she settled on his chest, hand over his heart. He tucked the sheets around them, "I checked in on Mia and Jake."
"They are both fine… they are both safe…" Catherine tipped her tired face to kiss his collarbone. She knew how hard todays case involving a father, child relationship was on Steve. Roland had worked so hard, often so far away… that had to hit home for Steve.
It couldn't help but make him think about his relationship not only with his own children, but with his own father.
Danny's words about a case involving a father becoming a personal mission seemed harsh, and they had riled Steve at the time, but he couldn't deny them. Because while Steve could not help but regret his torn relationship with his dad, so many years being bitter despite being brought closer, but he was also terrified that he would become estranged from his children.
Catherine held him closer, as she held the family together in so many ways. She snuggled closer to him and he kissed the top of her head, flexing his arms around her.
"You ok?" She whispered.
"Mmmm…." He leant his head against hers, "it's just… seeing Roland's son so upset today… things could've gone south but we sorted that…" He gave her a squeeze, "just seeing Mia… she was so caught up about having a seizure at school…"
"She was embarrassed Steve…" Catherine soothed him, "she will be fine. She was better at dinner."
"Good… but perhaps she should stay home tomorrow…"
"I said we would both see how she was in the morning…" She agreed, yawning, "But for now we need sleep…. Just the same as she does, plenty of rest for tomorrow."