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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: I'm getting guest reviews in Spanish that are more like complaints than review. Does this mean I've made it? This is the last chapter in the episode, we're doing a new one next week. Let me know if you enjoyed this one too. I won't even mind if it's not in English.

Chapter 447

"To wear the badge means to see the worst of life and come back to work the next day. When you put on that badge, you're making a pledge. A pledge to help people day in and day out. To protect them in times of danger. To support them in times of sorrow. The pat you've chosen, it's not an easy one. But your loved ones, many who've worn the badge themselves, will be there for you."

Well, Duke really could put together a speech, though, this one was pretty long.

Danny's whole o'hana had shown up for Charlie's graduation.

He had Steve beside him, who had Rowan and their kids beside him. Their boy sitting beside his mother, their little girl in her lap. Grace and Nahele were sitting in the row behind them with Wo and Con. Wo had even brought his family, Jian and their son who was only a couple of months younger than Steve's son.

Junior and Tani were sitting together. Tani was in a sensible pant suit, a similar colour to Junior's suit. Junior had grown out his fro after all. They were both sitting there, Junior's arm around her shoulders, her hand rested softly against his knee, both proudly sporting their wedding rings. Danny couldn't remember why that felt off, he just knew that it was. But since he couldn't place it, he was ignoring it.

Even Kamekona, Flipper and Grover had shown up. And everyone was dressed up so nicely for the occasion.

Danny couldn't take his eyes off of his son. He was sitting there looking like a younger, handsomer version of him, all pleased and puffed up in his uniform. His shiny silver badge proudly glinting off his chest.

Charlie's eyes met his again and Danny found himself smiling.

"I think he's looking at me," Danny whispered to Steve.

"No, I'm pretty sure he was looking at me," Steve whispered back.

Danny had to roll his eyes at that one. My god was Steve such a narcissist.

"No. I'm his father."

"Yeah but I'm his role model, Danny."

"Wow." Danny really let that audacity sink in before turning back to Steve. "You really… you really… you really believe that, huh?"

"Oh I know it. He told me."

Beside them Rowan shushed them, quite loudly and sternly. Out of habit both Danny and Steve whispered back an: "I'm sorry."

Rowan shot them a glare and then turned back to Duke's speech, which still ongoing.

Once her eyes were off of them Danny turned back to Steve. "He didn't tell you that."

"Tell me what?"

"That you were his role model…" "—he did." "…he did not and I know he did not."

That time Rowan's shush was sharper and more like the lash of a whip. It had both Steve and Danny jumping apart like a pair of children caught red handed by their school-teacher.

In her lap Steve's little girl echoed her mom with a: "Shush daddy," and a little bit of a giggle.

Steve leant over right away pinching her cheek a little bit which got her giggling a little bit louder that time.

"Stop riling her up," came out of Rowan in a dangerous sort of growl that had Steve straightening and the little girl clutching her grey stuffed bunny rabbit tightly.

Duke's speech finally finished and the crowd around began to clap, he heard a few cheers of Charlie's name.

With the speeches done the celebration could start. The families and friends could go to congratulate their graduates and drape them with Leis. There were tables of food to help themselves to and drinks set up for them to take.

Everyone was milling around, hugging people, eating food and taking pictures, much like Danny's family was doing.

Danny was standing with Charlie, happily posing for pictures for Steve and Tani who were probably more if not just as excited as Danny was for Charlie. Wo and Con were hanging back talking to one another like they usually did when they were in a large group and both Rowan and Jian were with the kids letting them get snacks and surely getting some for the adults as well.

When they finished taking pictures the two boys came running towards them. Steve's boy and Wo's boy, looking very much like little versions of their fathers.

They jumped up on Charlie, hugging him tightly and shouting congratulations at him. He thanked them both, each getting a hand to their shoulders.

Steve's boy leant back first, a big, huge trademark Steve smirk on his face. "Uncle Charlie, can we play with your gun?"

"No," came out of every adult in the vicinity which included Rowan and Jian who did, in fact, get plates for the other adults and were struggling to hand them off to the people they had picked them up for.

It startled the two boys and for a moment they were crestfallen until Wo's son suddenly perked up and knocked his shoulder into Steve's son's shoulder.

"It's fine," Wo's son whispered to Steve's. "Dad will let us play with his."

All eyes turned to Wo Fat who stood there, mouth agape and eyes wide. "No, no, I have not… I would not…"

He trailed off, glancing to the faces around him knowing that no one believed him, and the glare on his wife's face was not a favourable one.

He sighed heavily, his head hung in resignation. "Ah fuck me."

Yeah he was going to be hearing about that later, Danny would bet.

The only reason he hadn't gotten it at that moment was because they were in public and Kamekona and Flipper were stepping up to Charlie. Both took turns draping the Leis they had bought him over his head.

"Congratulations little Williams," Kamekona said.

Charlie beamed at him. "Thanks Uncle."

Kamekona and Charlie both took a hold of the other's head so they could bow their foreheads together. There was a brief moment of silence to allow this to happen until Kamekona pulled away.

"In honour of your success, we'd like to host you and yours at the Tupuoloa Waikiki tonight. Dinner. 20% off all entrees on the menu."

This was one of the resorts that Kamekona now owned. They had offered to have a branch of Steve's put in as their official restaurant, but Steve and Danny wanted to be a mom-and-pop and not a franchise. Instead Kamekona had put them on their recommend list, so when clients asked about Italian restaurants, they were recommended. They were also recommended for most events in the hotel.

"Excuse me. Can I ask you guys a question?' Steve asked. "You're now the uh… the proud proprietors of not one but two luxury resorts. Isn't that right?" Both Kamekona and Flipper nodded which just had Steve huffing at them. "Yeah, alright, why are you still so cheap huh?"

Tani had gotten a call while they were having this conversation. She ended that call and they all knew that Tani and Junior were going to have to leave.

"We'll need to go," she said quickly. She turned to Wo and Con before asked: "Do you guys have anything to tell me before we do?"

"I'm retired," Wo Fat snapped but beside him Con just shrugged.

Tani shook her head and then moved to Charlie to put a hand to each of his shoulders. "I know you'd like to do some time in HPD, but if you're interested, I'd really like to bring you on to Five-0."

Naturally after retiring the team would have to be handed down to someone. Of course they would pick Tani to fill in their shoes. And she was doing spectacularly, even got a shiny new promotion to go with it.

Charlie seemed blown away by her offer, she smiled almost sheepishly at her "Wow, thanks Captain Rey."

She hugged him again more tightly before taking her leave with Junior.

Once she was gone Steve was stepping up.

"Do you know what we're missing? A picture with your favourite Uncle."

Steve was very much the favourite Uncle too, the favourite non-biological Uncle anyway. Charlie obviously was ready to oblige but then everyone wanted to get in, not just Rowan but their two kids too.

"Alright, let's go for a Selfie," Steve said as he pulled them all in close so they could take a picture together. "Then maybe one of your other Uncles can take a full body pic."

He meant Wo and Con, because, despite not really trusting them to begin with, they had become o'hana along the way.

They had come so far in the time they had, and he found he rather did like where his future was heading.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

He had been dozing. Sitting in that chair of his on the beach, under the midday Hawaiian sun. The sand, the surf and the annoying drove of his best friend filling him up and had him drowsy. Or it would if the man beside him would shut up.

He had gotten some silence, it was how he had dozed off in the first place, but it seemed the second Danny tried to slip into a deeper sleep, Steve had decided that was when he wanted to start talking again.

"Oh… hey, Clara called you yesterday. I forgot to tell you." There was a bit of a pause, but it was short lived. "What's she doing anyway?"

Clara was his granddaughter. Charlie's girl. Named for her great-grandma who had not managed to meet her, but would have loved her none-the-less. She liked to come visit her grandpa, so she called him quite frequently too.

And again, why was Steve brining this up when he was trying to nap?

Problem was he didn't respond quick enough so Steve decided he needed to get louder.

"Hey, wake up! Hey!" he cried and Danny startled into awareness. "Wake up I'm talking to you!"

"What? What happened?"

For some reason Steve had been in the process of putting his old pipe into his mouth, which meant he had to pull it out to talk to him. Rowan hated that pipe. Hated it. He did not survive cancer to start sucking on a tobacco pipe. Steve rarely put anything in it these days, he just liked to chew on the mouth piece.

"Hey! I said there was a phone call for you yesterday."

"I heard what you said," Danny said. "Yesterday, you tell me about a phone call yesterday."

"Yeah. Clara. Has she made a decision yet?"

"Yes, she's going to the Academy. In the fall, I told you."

Steve was getting forgetful in his old age, luckily Rowan was younger and a bit better at remembering. God forbid Steve lost her first, he wouldn't know what to do with himself and Danny was too old to be of any real emotional help. He also sort of worried that if Steve managed to survive Rowan that Steve wouldn't actually survive that long. He couldn't imagine Steve living without her, Steve couldn't imagine it himself either.

"She's gonna go to the Academy?"

"What did I just say? You're getting senile, you know that?"

"That is something. That is really something. Can you believe there's gonna be three generations of cops in your family, Danny."

Yes he could believe it, and he hadn't wanted it. Something that Steve should have understood. He had be very happy when Nahele had chosen to be a lawyer instead of a cop, and had been even happier that his son had chose to follow in his mom's footsteps and be a singer. He was not as happy that his oldest daughter had gotten her shot to stardom through modeling but now that she was an actress and making it big in Hollywood he felt a little better. His last two kids, who Danny seemed to be blanking on at that moment, had also not become cops, but again, Danny couldn't seem to remember what they had gone on to do.

And he didn't want to tell Steve that after his own senile crack so he moved right on before Steve could say anything.

"I'll tell you the truth, I wish she would've done something else."

"Why? Why? It's in the blood."

Yeah, Steve hadn't said any of that shit when he it was his kids contemplating becoming a cop. He had done his best to and had successfully talked them out of it.

"She came to me, uh, before she made a decision."

"She came to you?

"Yeah, she came to me. Who's she gonna come to, you?" Danny paused only briefly because he knew if he gave Steve the chance he'd say that he did expect Danny's granddaughter to have come to him instead of her who grandpa. "Anyways, she came to me, she wanted to know what I thought about my life, like if I could, you know change anything, would I change anything. Would you do anything differently?"

"What did you tell her?"

"Well, I'll get to that if you shut up for three seconds," Danny snapped. "I told her that I… I wouldn't change anything. I told her that I wanted to lie, but I couldn't lie, and I told her that I would do… if I had to do it all over again, I'd do it the same way."

"I wouldn't," Steve said right away, but Danny also knew that Steve meant everything with Rowan.

If he could go back, he'd fix all the shit with Rowan right away. He'd break up with Catherine and date Rowan instead. He'd give her that label. He'd even let her keep Wo Fat in her life, he'd just put up better boundaries. If he could go back, he would have made sure he was married to Rowan within a year after she fell, and he'd've gotten her pregnant a year after that.

There would have been no year of deceit, no near-divorces and no cancer. They'd just be happy together much quicker and for a lot longer.

Danny figured he'd find a completely different way to fuck them up, but he always let Steve has his daydreams about redoing things right with Rowan.

"Yeah, well I also told her the only thing I'd change, if I could've, was my partner."

Steve just rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I love you too buddy…"

He put the pipe back to his mouth and not seconds later a "hey" was called from the general direction of the house.

They both turned and found two other old farts coming towards them. Wo Fat had morphed into a typical Chinese old man, all hunched over with a cane, his hair finally white now that he had given dying it. Con still managed to look distinguished even if his pants were pulled up past his waist, he still had his hair, it was still coiffed back in that way he liked even though the grey was predominant in it. He had a hand to Wo Fat's arm and was gently guiding him across the sand to the two chairs they had put out beside theirs.

It may not have been part of his grand plan, retiring with two villains, but he had really come to grow fond of the two.

They had been through a lot together; he just couldn't remember all the specifics at that moment.

"You started without us," Con said in a disapproving or disappointed tone.

"You're late," Danny called back. "All these years you two never learned to be punctual."

"Punch eels?" Wo Fat echoed, having clearly lost his hearing. "Why is he fighting the marine animals?"

"Punctual," Steve said a little louder.

"Eh?"

"PUNCTUAL!" he near shouted.

"Oh. Was Williams late?"

Danny shook his head as he two men took their prospective seats. "Which one of you two brought the goods?"

Wo Fat went into his pants immediately and pulled out a flask. "Make sure the girls don't see."

It was silly, because they were older now, they shouldn't still be afraid of their wives. It sort of made sense with Steve and Wo but it didn't make sense at all for Danny and Con.

Rowan's powers had fizzled out years ago. She hadn't needed to use them and they had seemingly just faded away. Oh she still had her intuition, but her days of opening portals and pulling strings were long behind her. Jian had been a firecracker in her day, and while she was still feisty, she had definitely mellowed out as she aged. And she had aged must more gracefully then her Wo Fat had.

But that didn't mean any of them wanted to hear them nag. Especially since they weren't supposed to be drinking.

Con got the first swig, as the baby he always got first. Then it went to Wo, then to Steve and then to Danny.

It was when it was handed back to Steve that they pounced.

"What are you boys doing?"

Everyone jumped. They turned their guilty faces to Rowan who was standing behind Steve's chair, hands on hips glaring down at him. Her grey hair was bobbed short like it had been when they had first gotten her back after the year of deceit, those blue eyes had gone a little cloudy over the years but that didn't stop them from freezing over.

Beside her Jian stood in a pink track suit, looking ever much like the stereotypical Chinese grandma. Which made sense cause they had about 8 grandkids in total at this point. And probably more seeing as Wo Fat's son had a habit of knocking up girls and then moving on to a new one.

Wo Fat wouldn't even turn to look at his wife, like she'd go away if he just faced forward and pretended neither of them were there.

"You know you can't drink with your meds, Steven," Rowan snapped she went to snatch the alcohol out of his hands but he dodged her.

"Hey! It's all I have in my old age!" he cried. She shot him a scowl and he scoffed at her. "Nag someone else woman! It's not even mine, blame your brother."

Wo's cane came at Steven in a half-hearted sort of way, easy for Steve to deflect even in his old age. A string of curses came out of him in Mandarin, a language he was slipping more and more into as he aged, like his language skills were regressing in a way.

"You know better," Jian said to her husband and he sunk in his chair. "… then to get caught."

"Wouldn't have been caught if Steven had hid it better," Wo Fat muttered.

"God forbid we want you to survive," Rowan said. She put a hand to Steven's shoulder and then pressed a kiss into his cheek.

"Mmm… that's nice…" he whispered, until Rowan leant over and snatched the flask right out of his hand. "HEY!"

"I'll bring you guys out some fresh iced tea, just made this morning."

"A man can only drink so much iced tea before a man goes insane, Ro," Wo Fat muttered at his baby sister but all she did was stick a tongue out at him.

Before anyone could stop her, though, she reached forward and grabbed Steve's pipe next. "You're going to ruin your dentures if you keep gnawing on this."

"Hey!" he cried again. But Rowan and Jian were already walking away. Probably going back to the house to drink tea, eat cookies and gossip about their children and grand children. "Hey! Don't you walk away from me woman! Ro… ROWAN!"

But she didn't come back. Steve was forced to sit back in his chair and angrily mutter about his wife and her nagging and why couldn't someone come get him yet. Till death did them part, right? Well could death come please?

It was all bravado, everyone on that beach knew that Steve wouldn't be able to live without his wife. He had been that way since he met her.

"Back in my day people feared me…" Wo Fat started, which was always the beginning of their reminiscing session. And yeah, maybe other people feared him but Rowan never did, and neither did Jian. And no one feared the old man now, either.

Danny settled back in his chair letting Wo drone on, knowing that now that the two brothers were there they would keep Steve distracted so he could nap. Already his eyes were getting heavy and honestly he just felt content.

If this was really how things were going to end, well, it wasn't that bad after all.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

But things didn't end there. Not really.

Oh the dreams did, but they weren't the end, they were just that. Dreams. The ideal way his life could go, and when Danny woke up three days later he was ready to leave the dream world behind and make it a reality.

Well most of it. He wasn't going to force Grace to marry Nahele or force Charlie to become a cop just because he dreamed about it. But that didn't mean he couldn't work towards the broader things.

Opening that restaurant, seeing Grace get married, getting to see what Charlie grew up to be, no matter what that was. And, though he wouldn't tell Steve this, he definitely wouldn't mind retiring on Steve's beach.

His friend, two chairs, the beach and the sea were a dream retirement, was now his dream retirement, and he didn't even care if Wo Fat and Con tagged along for it.

Danny waking up had caused some issues. Not with his health but because it seemed the first thing everyone did the second he woke up was tell him where Steve was, which was in yet another quarantine, a 5 day one this time, with his wife.

It also meant that Steve was stuck in that room for two more days, and in no way able to actually get away from Danny when he came to bitch at him. Which he did literally right away. He actually made Grover wheel him to the quarantine window so he could shout at Steve right then and there.

And alright, maybe he didn't yell right off the bat, but Steve didn't appreciate the way the guy nagged him.

Danny's first question, of course, was: "If you're in here, who the hell is looking after our kids?"

"Wo and Con are on it," Steve had told him, thinking that the answer would be okay. But it was not.

"You left my kids with sociopaths?"

"They're fine. Besides it's only been a couple of days they can't have done that much damage," he said trying to wave it off.

"And they've always done very well with Nahele…" Rowan tried to add but Danny cut her off.

"Yes, and if you're fine having them fuck up your kid, that's your problem, why would you let them anywhere near my kids?"

Ungrateful, that's what Danny was. Completely ungrateful.

He ended up getting wheeled back to his room, only to demand to be brought back after dinner to ask how Steve ended up in that room in the first place. Finding out that Steve put himself in that room himself had not gone well either.

His intelligence was questioned, he was asked which head he was thinking with and why did he have a fucking death wish?

By the time they all got discharged Steve was all nagged out. He was tired of Danny calling him the equivalent of a dumb, horny teenager and he was doubly tired of hearing his wife hate on his new hair.

He was definitely regretting trimming it now.

At the end of the quarantine, Steve and Rowan were released, and so was Danny. Steve was cleared to work, Danny was simply cleared to go home where he was expected to not have any stress around him and just relax.

Something he said meant that Steve would not be able to come visit.

Steve was out of the hospital an hour before Jerry had called him. He had been looking at the hospital visitor logs and had finally pinpointed the name of their gunman

Joshua Hollister.

It was an obvious alias, but that alias had rented out a motel room, so that was where the team was heading.

He knew Steve had just gotten out, that he was doing some well needed cuddling with his son who had missed both Rowan and Steve, but would he like to come anyway?

Well, Nahele had given Steve a hug, they had played a few games of Halo and was now on the couch with Rowan cuddled into her side watching some chick-flick type show. He didn't really need Steve and Rowan was still bitching about his hair, so he figured why not.

As had left, stopping only to pick up Wo Fat who had been cleared to fill in for Danny until he was well enough to rejoin the team and then he, along with Grover and Tani made a move on that motel room. It was completely empty, which was good, meant there was no accomplice to this. All that was in there was a single picture.

A surveillance still of Danny getting into his car with the words: "He deserved to die" written on the top of it.

Well, that proved that this was premeditated and the plan was to kill Danny from the get go.

The question was… why?

Danny didn't remember who he was, and they didn't have his real name yet. They had no idea why he wanted to do this.

There was nothing Steve hated more then not having the answer to his questions. But then he got home, where he found Con sitting on the couch beside Rowan, Nahele still cuddled into her, sitting where Steve usually sat.

For a minute there it looked like he was the one who was supposed to be there. Rowan was leaning into his shoulder as she flipped through a magazine, half paying attention to her show, Nahele was fully engrossed in it and Con was drinking one of Steve's beers, an arm casually draped over the back of the couch.

Yeah, he definitely hated that more and he greatly enjoyed kicking him back to his own house even if it derailed date night for Wo Fat and Jian.

Give the two of them a taste of their own medicine.

Then he could sit cuddled up on his couch with his wife and son and things could go back to normal. At least until the next case anyway.