There is the next chapter!

I hope you like it :)

The same evening Steve came home early. He had decided to take a few hours off from work to spend dinner with John, hoping it would ease the tension a bit. So, here he was, cooking dinner and preparing the plates when the 12-year-old came running down the stairs with his backpack hanging over one shoulder.

"Hey hey, where you heading? It's nearly 6pm.", Steve called out before John could slip out the door.

John stopped midway and grabbed the strap of his backpack a little tighter. "I'm going over to Liam's, we have to finish a project for school."

"What? Now? I just cooked dinner."

The boy just shrugged his shoulders. "It's due to the end of the week and I don't have enough time left with football training. I eat over there."

Steve leaned his arms against the kitchen counter and sighed. "Okay, fine. But you are back till 8pm."

"Yeah. See you.", the boy continued his way out of the house and closed the door behind him. Steve watched him through the kitchen window strolling down the street right to the big yellow house on the left which happened to be the home of his school friend Liam. A little helpless, he moved his gaze to finished dinner in front of him. Looked like Steve would have dinner on his own… again, like most of the time over the last weeks.

Later in the evening, Steve was sitting at his desk working on some paper stuff from the case they are on right now when the front door opened and John slid in. Before he could take his way upstairs, Steve glared at him. "I said be back at 8pm."

John rolled his eyes. "It's 8:15, don't be a jerk!"

"Hey!", the former SEAL stood up from his chair at the desk and raised his voice slightly. "Watch your language, young man! And it's not about the 15 minutes, it's about the fact I told you to be back at some time and you just don't care. How can I trust you when you do things like that?"

"I just forgot about the time! Don't make a big deal out of everything, it sucks. Besides that, you wouldn't trust me either.", John snapped back, his right foot already on the first stair.

Steve frowned at him. "Excuse me? What the hell does that mean?"

"You wouldn't understand anyway. I have to go to bed, good night.", the 12-year-old replied and without waiting for an answer from his Dad, he ran upstairs to his room.

Steve plopped back into his chair and rubbed his face with both hands. "Yeah, good night.", he mumbled quietly to himself, staring at the paper on his desk in front to him. With an sudden rise of anger crawling up his chest, Steve slid his arm over his desk in an aggressive move and all the paper stuff went to the floor, covering the wooden floor of the living room. Steve remained seated, not feeling any better as he had hoped he would.

The rest of the week, Five-O still was on the case from the murder which had taken place at the beach a week ago. They had interrogated suspect after suspect, had followed lead after lead but so far they came up with nothing. This afternoon, Steve and Danny were driving down to Pearl City to question another possible witness, the former SEAL riding shotgun. Danny hadn't question it, noticing the current mood of his friend and so, the car ride was uncomfortable quiet. Steve's gaze was directed outside the window, not talking except it was important for the case. His ringing cell interrupted the silence once more.

"McGarrett?", he talked into his phone after picking up. Danny gave him a short look, recognising immediately this wasn't the kind of a good call. His friends eyebrows tensed and he started to frown.

"What? Today? (…) No, Im still at work (…) Yes, Im really sorry about that, I don't know why he did that. He never did something like that. (…) I understand. I will talk to him, I promise. (…) Thanks for calling, bye."

Danny shot another concerned look at his partner who had lowered his phone and hid his eyes behind his hand, taking a deep breath. "Hey, everything alright? Did John get in another fight?", he asked as he remembered the day about 2 months ago where Steve had gotten a call from the school head about his son being in the ER, because he had been in a fight with two other boys nearly 4 years older than himself.

.. 2 months ago..

"John?! John!", Steve cried out as he stormed inside the trauma room in the ER, followed by Danny who had taken a turn on the freeway to abandon their actual destination at the Governor's office in order to get to the hospital immediately. The nurse treating his son had been startled by the former SEALs entry and was now holding up her hands.

"Hey, stop! Who are you and who let you in?", she asked with a sharp voice.

"I'm his father!", Steve snapped back, ignoring the second question and move around her to John who was sitting on the examine table, holding some gauze against his cheek and nose. He looked ashamed.

"John, oh god, are you okay? Huh?", Steve repeated over and over again, grabbing his sons face in both of his hands, checking him over for injuries. But aside from the minor cut on his cheek and a bloody nose, he seemed fine.

"m fine, Dad."

Danny, still standing in the background, had to smile. Something about this phrase got him caught in some dé-jàvu. It wasn't until now when he recognised the nurse standing in front of him, apperantly talking to him.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"I asked who you are?", the nurse repeated her question patiently.

"Detective Danny Williams. That's my partner Commander Steve McGarrett, we're Five-O. That little guy is his son."

The nurse nodded. Five-O was well known around here, no questions asked. "John seems to be fine. He has a cut on his cheek which will need a few stitches and his nose already stopped bleeding. Nothing is broken, probably just bruised."

Danny nodded. "That's good, thank you. Do you know what happened?"

"Uh, I just know he was brought in from school, something about a fight. But he didn't want to tell me.", she made a pause, looking at Danny. "Is there a way we can reach the mother?"

"Uh, no, unfortunately not. She's dead. But I'm here as well and Steve will be alright with him.", Danny stated with a smile, used to this question anyway. More than once he or Steve were asked about the mother as it was about the fact the kid landed in the ER, just because he was raised by a single father. Ridiculous.

Danny looked at Steve who was talking quietly to John and giving him some comfort. Steve had been really scared when the call came up, he just hoped that wouldn't be some regular thing going on from now.

Later it turned out, the two older boys had mocked John about the death of his Mum and the fact Steve was a former Navy SEAL – one of the boys had a Japanese backround.

..back to present..

"No, thank god. But it was the school indeed.", Steve's voice had Danny zoned back in. "His teacher caught John during a lesson in the computer room researching about guns, bullets and gunshot wounds."

"What? Why would he do that?", Danny frowned at him.

"I don't know.", Steve took a deep breath.

"John must be home by now, right? I'll drop you off at your place, questioning the witness is something I can do by myself. Go talk to him."

That's it for today!

Another father-son-talk is about to come in...