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A/N: For those of you who are curious, this is the start of episode 11. I'm going to try to make it more exciting, but honestly, not much happens in this one except for some very sassy moments. I promise the excitement will be back soon! Hopefully I see you next week!

Chapter 448

After getting out of the second quarantine, Steve had dealt with nothing except frustration. With Danny down, both the Governor and Wo's CIA bosses had approved him keeping Wo Fat until Danny was fit for work, and right away Steve got a completely different version of Wo Fat that Grover had.

Grover's Wo Fat, while violent and hard to control, was mostly agreeable. He mostly listened to what Grover had to say, and somewhat obeyed. Oh yes, if he didn't like Grover's plan, he'd just go off and do whatever he wanted to do, but he wasn't flat out disrespect him to his face. Wo Fat had no problem doing that to Steve though. Wo Fat argued with Steve, questioned every single move and every single call, in front of everyone. And just like he had for Grover, if he didn't like Steve's plan, he would just go off on his own, or with Con, and do whatever he felt was a better plan, he was just more vocal about it. Probably because he knew that it pissed Steve off.

Was their solve rate doubling because they got through their cases quicker? Yes. Having an ex-crime boss interrogating the lowlifes sped things along. They told Wo Fat things they'd never tell Steve before, or that Steve would normally have to coax or even threaten out of them. Usually they were worried about incriminating themselves, with Wo Fat asking they told him whatever they were up to, not because they thought they could share but because they knew he would follow through with whatever threat he hurled.

On top of that most of his downtime was helping Wo move into his house. The two girls were always inside unpacking boxes, while Wo, Con, Steve and whichever Five-0 was roped into helping that day moved everything heavy inside.

Once they had everything inside, the boys spent their days having to feng shui the rooms according to how Jian felt that day. Wo Fat had no input other then: "Whatever makes her happy."

After hearing that phrase for the millionth time over the span of two weeks, Steve had sighed and said: "And that's how we ended up with an out of control Ro," and immediately Jian had a million questions.

Turned out she had no idea that Wo Fat had a "Anything to keep Ro happy" rule for dealing with Rowan that he had was now extending to her.

She was all happy about that until Con said: "He just does that cause at heart that man's a push over and just doesn't want to argue."

She had all but crumpled at that comment and he was quickly shoved out of the room so Wo could do damage control. Wo had managed to convince her that it wasn't that he was a push over who didn't want to argue, but that he honestly didn't mind how his house was, he'd be happy with anything, though happiest with whatever made her happy. That had cheered her up well enough and then Wo went outside to warn Con to NEVER say anything like that to his pregnant fiancée ever again.

By the time Wo Fat had his house ready, the CIA wanted him back in LA with Kono. Danny was cleared for work so he wasn't needed, but Wo managed to convince them to let him stay until after the New Year. They did with the caveat that he was expected to continue working with Five-0 until he was due to come back.

That meant Steve was stuck with his brother-in-law until then and honestly, while there were perks, mostly Wo Fat raised his blood pressure.

That weekend, Steve had gotten time off, specifically for the annual Christmas Parade. They were taking his truck down instead of the GTO cause they wouldn't be as worried leaving that car once it was parked.

They were all excited. They were excited for some family time. They were exited to meet with Mary, Joanie and Matty. Steve and Nahele had spent most of the ride arguing on who was going to let Joanie ride on their shoulders.

Steve kept saying that it should be him, he was taller after all, and her favourite Uncle. But Nahele kept reminding him that he was Joanie's favourite cousin and he was younger and could hold her up longer, where as Steve had old man shoulders and, along with not being able to hold her up as long, he would probably break his back.

Steve had never been so offended in his life. He almost turned the truck around then and there, the only reason he didn't was because his very pregnant and hormonal wife had said: "You know he's right, so stop sulking," and he knew he couldn't argue with her in that state.

Rowan was now six months pregnant and more than officially showing. She was probably mostly baby-belly at this point, which meant walking was a lot of waddling. So he had dropped both Rowan and Nahele off closer to the parade so she wouldn't have to waddle around too much. He didn't want her feet to be any more sore then they usually were, and he definitely didn't want her to walk to far or work too hard.

He promised that as soon as he was done parking he would find them. Nothing short of a violent crime or attack on Hawaii itself could keep him away from them, and even then that might not do it.

And he meant it, you know, he really did. He parked the car, he got out, he had EVERY intention of meeting his wife, his son and his sister and her family.

You know.

Until the explosion happened.

An explosion, just a block away from where he was, people were already screaming and running towards him. He managed to catch a glimpse of two men dressed as Santa taking bags out of a blown up armoured truck.

Well.

So much for meeting his family.

He now had to chase them down. He didn't have his gun or his badge though. Why would he? It was his day of, after all.

He had taken the gun from the injured man in the back of the smoldering truck. It wasn't very friendly of him, he should have checked on him, but stopping those Santas from hurting anyone else was a little more important at the time.

He called out "Five-0!" like he normally did and immediately had two Santa's trying to shoot him. He had to take cover behind the truck door, which wasn't much cover. Luckily neither Santa had the foresight to shoot at his legs.

They were too busy trying to get into a red car, Steve wasn't going to be able to stop them either. He could only try and shoot out a tire as they tried to speed away. Luckily for him, however, they did not get to speed away. Oh yes, they did try, they just didn't get far, seeing as they crashed their car into an oncoming one.

Not lucky for the person they drove into, but definitely lucky for him. He probably should have checked on them too, but he was too busy running down the Santas.

And my god they were fast and smart.

They went down alleys, they jumped over fences and then they got into the parade.

So not only had he made it to the parade but he couldn't even be with his wife and his son for it. He had to run through a parade of Santas trying to find the two he was after.

It was literally a needle in a haystack. Two Santa's in the middle of a Santa Parade.

Also, if Ro spotted him before he found these Santas, when she was hormonal and still livid with his new haircut chasing down bad guys instead of spending time with her, he was dead where he stood. But he caught a lucky break, he found them. But he had a choice, pick one or the other. The one he picked though, was a bastard.

Steve had him cornered almost had him dropping the sack of cash. And he grabbed a hostage, put his own gun to her head.

"Put the gun on the ground!" he ordered.

Steve paused a moment, weighed the pros and cons and knew he had to do the right thing. He stopped aiming at the bad Santa as requested.

"Alright," he said as he lowered the gun to the ground and kicked it away.

"Now, lie down on the ground!"

Yeah, that he really didn't want to do but again he had no choice. He got down on the ground, watched as the man picked up his borrowed gun, made the hostage pick up his sack and they got away.

Steve waited for the Bad Santa to drag his hostage out of his sight, waited until he turned the corner and then got up to give chase. He was fast, he wasn't that far behind, but the person he came across first was the hostage. She was just lying on the ground.

She was okay, and she could direct him on where he went.

Through a parking garage and straight to the mall.

None of this was good. With those Santas hiding in there with the general public, it could get hairy. He didn't want to go in hot with all the cops that were no doubt on their way and spook them. As far as they knew, they had lost Steve, no law enforcement knew they were in the mall. He could surprise them, or, at least, he could do that, if he had the tactical advantage and his team.

But that wasn't the first call he made.

No, the first call was to his wife.

And as one could imagine she was not happy.

So yeah.

Today was definitely going to suck.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Unfortunately for Steve, when he called for his team they also brought in Wo.

Wo Fat was supposed to have a day off too, just like Steve. He wanted to spend some quality time with Jian who was freaking out about hosting Christmas this year. Both Wo and Steve had tried to tell her that she didn't have to stress out, that Rowan and Steve could handle hosting again this year. Wo especially was keen on keeping it the way it had been the year before, seeing as she was pregnant, but Jian wanted to.

She was going to be part of the family, she wanted her turn to host and with Rowan being basically too pregnant to really handle hosting, now would be her chance.

Even Rowan agreed. With her being this pregnant she was going to be less in her way or overbearing during the hosting process.

But, since Jian was pregnant as well, Wo was helping a lot. He didn't want her to be overworked.

So he was not happy that he was getting called in on his day off, even though Steve had told him he didn't have to come.

Still there he was, black polo shirt and tan chinos like the man couldn't just be casual a day in his life.

He wasn't even paying attention to Steve as he talked everyone else through the plan. Grover and Tani were listening intently, but not Wo Fat, he was adamantly staring at his phone refusing to even look up.

He wasn't expecting anyone else as backup, just Grover and Tani and a few HPD cruisers to act as perimeter so he was pretty surprised with Junior showed up with a van full of Veterans.

He was supposed to be volunteering with them today, and since he still didn't have a badge, he wouldn't have been someone he called for backup no matter how useful he might be.

"What are you doing here?" Steve asked him as Junior went about helping one of the veterans turn the back of the van into a ramp.

"I was on the phone with Tani when she got the call. I figured something was going on, so I called Jerry and he let me know what was up. So, I came here as fast as I could, and I bought some back up."

Wo Fat perked up immediately. "Does that mean I can leave?"

"No!" Steve said sharply and quickly. He really didn't want to trade out the psycho for civilians.

Luckily Junior ignored him. "Everyone met Kekoa, Reggie, Frank, Josie and Henry."

Kekoa was shorter than the others, but he made up with it with his stocky frame. He was in a plaid shirt and plain dark blue jeans. On the outside he exuded a sense of normalness, but his he held himself stiffly like any soldier with too much experience usually did whether they were active duty or not.

Reggie was tallest, lanky, with curly brown hair and a scraggly beard. He was in a tan over shirt with a white tee-shirt underneath with matching dusty looking jeans. The most prominent feature was the all black metal arm he was sporting.

Frank was slightly shorter than Reggie, and busy attempting to get the ramp down with Junor. He was in a faded red shirt and jeans. His hair was curly though mostly shorter than Reggie's and his pale face was burnt, much like Wo's was, except worse.

Henry was the reason they had the ramp. He was in a wheelchair, missing his legs from the knees down. What he was lacking in hair, he made up for in a salt and pepper bushy beard.

Josie was the only woman of the group. Her black hair was pulled back in a serious ponytail and she was in the pink shirt and black jeans looking ever so serious.

In fact, the whole group seemed very serious, which was to be expected from a team of Vets. They were going into this situation with the soldier mentality and while that was great, Steve didn't want to pull any more civilians into this situation then he had to.

Junior took in Steve's stare and then cleared his throat to get his attention back on him. "Sir, these guys wanna help out and I think with their skills and experience they could prove useful."

Steve nodded. "I have all the respect in the world for retired service people, but I don't know if this is the situation…"

"Excuse me, sir," Frank said stepping up to interrupt him. He offered I'm a hand to shake that Steve took. "Major Frank Bella, third Brigade, Ivy Division. I used to work in this mall a few years back. This place is so big I got lost on my first day. You guys could use someone inside who knows their way around."

"I like him," Wo Fat said right away. "I say you keep him and let me leave…"

"NO!" Steve snapped again before turning back to Frank. "I don't disagree with you there, Major, but the thing is we got hostiles in there, they're armed, extremely dangerous, and I'm just not prepared to put any more civilians in harm's way."

Josie stepped up next. "HM-1 Josie Ackerman, Third Battalion, Fifth Marines," she said her hands on her hips. "All due respect, Commander, all of us here have taken fire behind enemy lines. Do you really think we can't handle a couple of Santas?"

"Ohh, I like her too," Wo Fat said but before he could ask to leave again Steve rounded on him.

"You're not leaving. You're staying here. If you want this go to faster, why don't you call someone to help you?"

"Who? Con? Or my sister?"

"We're not calling my wife," Steve growled.

"Well, we can't call Con, cause he's helping Jian. Unless you want me and Con to switch places…"

"Obviously not, we don't have the time," Steve said and then turned back to the veterans plus Junior. Noting that all of them seemed to be exchanging glances, no doubt confused about why he was arguing with Wo in that moment, or why Wo would call Steve's wife for an assist in this situation. "Fine, you can help, starting with making sure he doesn't leave." He glanced back to Wo Fat who was glaring at him and then turned back to them with a smile. "He actually likes making new friends, so why don't you tell him all about yourselves."

"You fucking dick," Wo Fat hissed, but Steve was too busy calling Jerry. Jerry picked up on the first ring and Steve launched right into it.

"Do you have eyes on them?"

There was a bit of a pause before Jerry said: "Yeah, I've got them on level two. It looks like they're heading into that department store."

"You got cameras inside of that department store?"

"Checking," he said and then went quiet as he did that. "They're not online. It must be closed circuit."

"Right well keep an eye on the exits. Let me know if they go out the back," he said and then glanced over to where Wo Fat was surrounded by the vets.

He actually seemed to be doing quite well considering. And it seemed Frank was telling him about how he got his own scars. Or at least finishing the story.

All Steve heard was Frank asking: "How did you get yours?"

"Some asshole shot my helicopter down," he answered quickly and then turned to McGarrett with a dry glare that Steve simply returned. Steve glanced the group of Vets who were now staring at him confused. He knew that the glare on Wo Fat's face was to signify to everyone else that he was the asshole, but because he didn't tell the whole story, the Vets figured Steve the bad guy in this situation.

Of course Wo Fat wouldn't have told them the whole story. Just the part that made him look bad.

"You were stealing federal property!" Steve hissed.

"Those engraving plates were buried in a canyon, they hadn't been federal property since the first guy stole them! You should have minded your damn business…"

"I was SOLVING. A. MURDER!"

"You were being malicious and petty cause you thought Ro picked me!"

"She DID pick you!"

"Because YOU made her choose. I didn't ask her to choose sides, that was all you," he said primly. "And how did that go for you, by the way?"

Wo Fat knew exactly how that went. That set their relationship back months. It was a sore spot and he knew it, but Steve was in a bad mood, so blow up he did.

"Oh my god. Shut up!" Steve thundered. "And why don't you tell them how you were a god damn Crime Boss when I shot you out of the sky? I bet that didn't come up."

Wo Fat turned to them right away and sort of shrugged. "It's true, I wasn't a good guy at that time. I am now though," he said and then really thought about it. "Well sort of."

Steve opened his mouth to correct him again before he made it worse but Grover stepped in between them. "Alright now you two, play nice in front of the guests, please."

Steve shot him a glare but moved to pick up his ringing phone.

"Yeah, Jerry, what do you got?"

"Just thought you'd like to know that Adam's in the mall."

"Our Adam? Adam Noshimuri?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, he's riding up the escalator with Ro…"

"WHO?!"

"Yeah… Ro, thought she was at the parade…"

Static erupted around Steve's ears. He barely registered putting his phone in his pocket, but he definitely knew he was running. Running straight for that mall.

Any plan he had been concocting was gone. All that mattered was getting to his pregnant wife before her strings got her mixed up in this situation.

He half heard his team calling out for him to stop, asking what was going on, he simply ignored them. He tore into that mall, letting that compass in his chest lead him to his wife.

He took the steps of the escalator two at a time until he got to the second floor and saw sparks of orange electric dancing in a halo above the many heads. The void pinpointing his wife's very position at that moment. Not two seconds later the crowd swept aside and he could actually see her.

He called out her name and she turned immediately towards him, a furrow in her eyebrows. She was slower to move so she only got a few steps towards him, while he practically ran to her. He wrapped her up in his arms and held her close, noting that Adam was staring at him almost confused as well.

"Steve, I thought you had a case," she said.

Yes, yes he did, and that was why he was there, cause she was literally in the building with the bad guys and with her track record there was no way she wasn't going to get involved somehow unless someone stopped her.

"Why are you in here?" he asked breathlessly desperate to change the topic. "Why aren't you at the parade?"

Rowan's eyes narrowed at him. She could tell he was changing the topic, but she wasn't going to call him out just yet. "Like the typical procrastinating teenaged boy he is, Nahele still needs to buy Christmas gifts. Originally, he was hoping to sneak off to the mall while you were distracted with Joanie, but since you caught the case he figured he could just flat out ask me if he could go."

"But why are you here," Steve asked again.

"I wanted mall pretzels, so I came with him. Why? What's going on?"

Steve didn't want to tell her that they were in a mall with a crew of bad Santa's most likely. He didn't want to tell her that she had missed something cause the argument about her using the strings or not would come up again and he did not want to have that argument… again.

"Wait, Nahele's here? Where?" he asked.

Rowan opened her mouth to answer but someone called for him. Or more aptly someone shouted: "Hey! Jackass!" across the mall and Steve knew it was Wo Fat and that he was calling for him.

Wo Fat jogged the rest of the way up to them, slowing down to hit him with a patronizing glare. Like he was about to scold Steve or something.

"Why did you…" he started and then stopped again. Not because the look on Steve's face said don't you dare lecture me right now or anything, but because he spotted his sister. "Oh. Did she run into bad Santa or something?"

"Bad Santa?" she echoed.

Steve ignored her. "No, but she's here, and I figured it was only a matter of time."

"Oh yes, good call," he said.

"Guys what the fuck…" Rowan started but Wo Fat cut her off.

"Not right now Ro," he said and then turned to Steve. "I got the others into position. I'm sure it's not what you'd do, but it's what I thought was best. We're going to have people covering the exits, specifically setting up a permitter so patrons have to go through our check points. We're going to have facial rec running, and checking IDs and what not. I've got two of the Vets on that, and then the others are willing to go in with the Kid to stake out the store. They look normal… ish… so I'm betting it won't freak them out much. You know… if you sprinting in here for your wife didn't do that already."

"That's actually a pretty good plan, good job Wo," he said. Wo puffed up proudly until Steve said: "And the kid's name is Junior."

Wo Fat deflated into an angry glare instantly. "He's disrespectful, so I don't care to remember his name, thank you."

Steve might have teased him about that if his wife hadn't reached over and whacked the two of them. Steve to the chest first and Wo Fat to his chest next.

"You assholes! Why didn't you tell me there were bad guys in the mall?" she hissed to them.

"I thought she wasn't using the strings anymore," Wo whispered to Steve who tried to tell him that she wasn't supposed to be, but Rowan beat him to it.

"Well, maybe I wouldn't have to use the strings if you two idiots would tell me when things are happening!" she cried. Then she paused. "But then again, you sprinting in here to get me should have been red flag number one that your case has branched into the area."

"Well I'm sorry, Rowan, I was more worried about getting to you before something happened," Steve snapped. "And then he distracted me…"

"Oh sure, blame me," Wo growled. "It's not my fault you two suck at communication!"

Steve took a deep breath ready to argue with his brother-in-law but quickly decided not to. "I don't have time for this right now," he snarled before turning to Rowan and immediately softening. "You said Nahele's here?" She nodded and a knot of worry twisted into his stomach. "Right, well, I'd love it if you could get him and meet outside, it'll be safer." She nodded again and that should have dissipated the worry that had crept up on him but it didn't. "Where is he anyway?"

"He's in the department store looking for a gift for you," she said.

That knot of worry spiked into an icy ball of dread at that revelation. Steve's eyes turned to the department store he knew his bad guy was hiding in just knowing that, with his lucky, his son was probably bumping into that man as he stood there.

"Oh here we go again," Wo sighed.

"They're in there aren't they?" Rowan asked and Steve knew he couldn't just charge off this time, cause Rowan would follow.

"We're going to go get him, okay?" Steve said. "I know he's your baby, but stay here, for the love of god stay here."

Rowan nodded and Steve gestured to Wo Fat to follow him. Wo Fat simply nodded, his gun out and ready, so Steve did the same.

Together they moved into the store, knowing that Junior and his three Vets weren't that far behind. From further into the store he heard someone cry out, and immediately he and Wo Fat changed directions to move towards it. A woman was standing over someone who was lying on the ground.

Steve recognized the knitted Christmas sweater. Nahele's had grown out of his last one, so Rowan had bought him a new set. One with Darth Vader in a Christmas hat, one with Yoda and one with an At-At Walker pulling Santa's sleigh, each one slightly larger then the other so he had varying sizes to pick from and grow into. He recognized the black chunky knit Darth Vader one he had been wearing that morning.

"'Hele," he called moving forward towards the crowd that was forming around his son. "Five-0. Move."

Everyone cleared, which gave Steve the chance to kneel beside his son. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"This guy… he… he looked weird… and he… I was pretty sure he was stealing, cause he went into the changeroom in a red onesie and came out dressed normally. And… I wasn't going to say anything, but I guess he saw me staring and he just… he knocked me flat over."

Steve looked up to see Wo Fat coming away from the changeroom a Santa suit in his hands. Shirt in one hand, pants in the other.

Great.

He had a changed.

Now their bad guy looked just like everyone else and this operation just got that much harder.