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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Wow, I'm so glad you guys liked the cuteness of last chapter because we have MORE coming up today. Oh yes, we got some good stuff coming, let me tell you. Just an added note: I probably should have mentioned this in the last chapter, but I've made Nahele younger than in the TV show, he's going to be 14 in my version. Keep that in mind okay? We're getting closer to the 200th chapter. So you guys gotta tell me what kinda of special chapter you want. Do you want a chapter of all smut? Do you want a future part of a chapter (ie. Nahele getting adopted? Steve and Wo Fat bonding? Rowan meeting her family again?) Do you guys want me to elaborate on a past chapter, or write out an entire chapter on Rowan's past? Is it something I haven't listed? Leave me a review and tell me! See you on Wednesday.

Chapter 160

Nahele looked up at the woman he was starting to grow more than fond of. It was hard not to like Rowan, she was kind, she was thoughtful and she was a lot of fun to be around. He cared about her opinion of him, he wanted her to like him and keep liking him so he caved to her every whim. Today, today they would be finishing the enrolling process so he could start school tomorrow. That meant filling out the rest of the forms, picking up his timetable, getting an orientation of sorts, and then Rowan was going to drop a crazy amount of money to pay to have him go to that school.

There wasn't anything wrong with Hanalani Preparatory school, it was a ten-minute car ride away, forty minutes on the bus, it had a great football team and even better courses that would eventually help him land a better collage. No, the problem with Hanalani Preparatory was that Nahele was not a private school kid. He was the poor kid, the foster kid. He wasn't going to fit in with these kids and it was going to be worse since he was enrolling mid semester.

He wasn't sure Rowan understood how mean fourteen and fifteen-year-old freshmen were. Especially when they thought they were better than you.

But she was so excited to see him in his new uniform. She was so excited to have him in a good school and go to football games, or soccer games, or lacrosse games or music recitals or plays or whatever it was he wanted to do. And she was paying so much money. He just didn't know how to tell her that he didn't want to go.

Still, he followed his new foster mom through the hallways to the headmaster's office where they sat in small chairs waiting for him to be ready to see them.

Rowan turned to him absently. "Do we have enough for you to start school tomorrow, or should we do another supply run? I can't remember if we were missing anything?"

They weren't. But there was no point telling Rowan that. She was going to overload him with everything he could ever want, even things he didn't want. She kept saying she wanted him well provided for, but he didn't need all that stuff, she had already given him so much. "I think… I'm okay," he said to her. Rowan nodded.

"Are we all good for lunches?" she asked finally turned to look at him. She then frowned at his face. "What's the matter? Are you okay?"

Nahele looked around, just the office alone looked fancy. He hadn't been doing well in regular school before he dropped out because he had run away from a home and the CPS was looking for him, how was he going to handle a Prep Academy? "I'm nervous," he admitted to her. "What if they don't… what if they don't…?"

"Oh, don't you worry about that," Rowan said slinging an arm around him and pulling him close to her. "I did the whole new school things all the time. Just put your best foot forward, and don't take any guff… but maybe don't do anything I did…"

"What did you do?" he asked suddenly interested. Rowan made a face and for a moment he thought she wouldn't answer.

"The point is I got expelled once or twice, just don't do anything too… uh… violent… and you should be okay," she said.

Nahele blinked his eyes at her. She said stuff like that sometimes. A lot of the times. And it was terrifying, in a cool kind of way to think she wasn't as good as Steve was. They were a good contrasting pair. And obviously, despite Steve being on the right side of the law and Rowan not being as uh… lawful as she should, they very clearly loved one another. It also made him feel a little better and comfortable with them, because if Rowan had a less than shady past and had the tendency to walk on the illegal side, Steven, the law enforcement in the family, would be more inclined to forgive him if Nahele were to make a mistake.

The door opened and the headmaster smiled at them. Rowan pet his leg a few times and then stood, and sighing Nahele went with her. Well… no turning back now.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Rowan had finished enrolling Nahele in school and decided they needed more for his lunches. They had gone grocery shopping, where she bulked up on candy and stuff for Steve more than she bulked up for him, and they headed home for the most stressful part of the day. He could tell she was nervous because as she handed him the groceries she was shaking but still smiling.

"Here you go, put these away and I'm going to set up for the CPS," she said. "Have you heard from Steven?"

Nahele picked up his phone and checked but he hadn't and neither had Rowan. Great. Just great, he knew this was mandatory. Nahele seemed to sense that Rowan was getting more and more nervous by the second because he said: "Don't worry, Brenda's great, she's going to love you."

Rowan just smiled at him. Yeah, no, authority figures tended to really not like her. Like they could automatically sense that she was a trouble maker. Still they went about getting ready and then as soon as the doorbell rang Rowan went ramrod straight and began to fix up her appearance.

"Oh god, how do I look? Not to juvenile? Does this outfit say I have a good paying job?" she asked.

Nahele's laughter came at her in soft chuckles as he went for the door. "You look fine, Rowan," he said and then opened the door. "Hi Brenda."

The little Asian woman standing across from him merely frowned up at him. "Nice to see you back in the system Mr. Huikala," she said and swept him aside and Rowan approached hopefully smiling in a friendly way. "You must be Mrs. Pierce. I'm Brenda Dean, his case worker. We spoke on the phone."

She shook Rowan's hand who getting more and more nervous by the moment. "Yes, it's so nice to meet you in person."

Brenda made a big show of looking around before saying: "And your husband…"

"Steven… uh… he's… he's a cop and he's uhm… he was supposed to be here but I think he's caught a case and uhm… yeah he's not my husband…" Rowan said as she ushered her into the house. She clocked the surprise on Brenda's face and immediately turned away and tried to move on as if she hadn't just admitted that. "Did you want to see the living spaces and Nahele's room?"

Brenda stared at her. "He's not your husband?" she growled.

Rowan faltered, aw shit. She didn't like that, not good, not good. "Uhm… no, Steve, Steven's my boyfriend. Is that… uh… a problem?" she asked but Brenda merely scribbled something down on her clipboard and Rowan struggled to keep herself from peering over the edge to see what she was writing. Probably nothing positive.

"Uh… so is there… anything in particular that you want me to show you?" she asked.

"Why don't we sit down, I can look at the living space later," she said moving off towards the kitchen table where Rowan had all the forms ready for her. Rowan turned to Nahele and waved him off.

"Why don't you start reading over your course syllabus's hmm? And getting everything ready for school tomorrow…" she offered but she knew as soon as he got upstairs he'd start playing with the Playstation that Steve had gotten him and installed in his room. Rowan knew from her own brother's experiences, that TVs and game systems in rooms meant her boy staying up all hours, but Nahele had been good with it so far.

Nahele gave her an encouraging smile before heading up the staris leaving Rowan to follow Brenda, sitting down in the chair adjacent to hers. "Alright, why don't we learn a little bit about you, hmm? What do you do?"

"Oh, uhm… my main job is as a song writer for Atlantic Records, but I take small jobs on the side every now and then," she said.

"Hard job writing for Atlantic Records, paychecks unstable, I presume."

"Actually no," Rowan said. "I uhm… Alex and the Doctor's breakthrough album, Heartbeats… I wrote all those songs. I've written a few other hit singles so I'm making… uh… quite decent money mostly in royalty cheques. You can see my financials if you'd like."

She flipped open the manila file folder and flipped through it until she found the right page. "Here… that's uhm… that's the current state of my financials, you can see I have more than enough stashed away in my savings for uhm… a rainy day. And I'm making more than enough to put him through private school, which I enrolled him in today and to pay for anything medical that comes up…"

Brenda looked at the numbers on the paper with her eyes bugged out. "Oh… okay… uhm…" she said pushing the papers back and clearing her throat.

"Yep and because I'm a song writer I can work from anywhere and my hours are flexible," she said. "So I can always be home…"

"And your boyfriend is a…"

"He's uhmm… okay he's Commander Steven McGarrett of Five-0. His job is a lot less forgiving," she said. "He works long hours, he's called away at a moment's notice, uhm and it is dangerous, but I'll be here. I'm always here."

"Five-0. Hawaii's special task force?" Brenda asked.

"Yes, that's the one. He's uhm… he's the team leader," she said. "So he… uh… he's making money too, but I'm not dependant on him."

"And if you two break up?"

Rowan blinked her eyes. "Uh… I mean… we're not having any relationship problems," she mumrumred, even though that wasn't really all that true, she and him always had some issue to get over, maybe not recently but uh… before they did. She wasn't going to tell Brenda Dean that though. Brenda pinned her with a dry glare. "Well, if I were to break up with him Nahele would obvioulsy be coming with me," Rowan said. "I'm doing this… Steven and I just live together."

"Oh, and is there a reason why Steven is not a part of this?" she asked.

Rowan blinked his eyes. "Uh… well… uhm…. Steve's not very… good at commitment…"

"But this is his house."

"Yes?"

"So, you just decided to bring a foster kid home?" she asked. "How did you get him to agree to that if he's not good with commitment?"

"Uh… well… I've learned that it's better to just sort of spring things on him, cause he adapts better to surprises where as if I tell him in advance he can uh… tank it… he says it's not on purpose but it can't all be subconscious, at some level he must know what he's doing..."

Brenda was silent a moment before she snarled: "Are you telling me that you just went through with all of this without telling him?" Rowan frowned. Oh this was not going well. "You just expect him to be okay with this strange child in under his roof, just because you're pretty and currently sleeping with him?"

"Well… I mean…"

"Well I guess that explains why he hasn't shown up today huh?" she said with a sigh and then looked back at her clipboard. "So when this inevitably breaks the two of up you'll have to move out."

"He… he had a case today… I think… he usually calls… but you know… he doesn't control crime on Hawaii and sometimes the bad guys need like immediate attention…" Rowan said with a pout. "But I mean… if I had to… I… I unno… do you want me to show you my financials again? I can afford to move out to a good area if I have to."

Brenda was scribbling away again and Rowan felt her stomach begin to tumble about in a nervous fashion.

"Am I… uhm… am I doing okay?"

"Don't worry about that Miss. Pierce. Why don't you tell me why you've decided to foster Nahele? Why now, why him and why the urgency?"

Rowan brought her hands to her lap fiddling with them. She wished Steve was here, she wished she had him there so he could reach over and hold her hand. But he hadn't shown up. He wasn't there for her when she needed him. How typical of him.

"Uhm… well I'm sure you know that Steven arrested Nahele after he stole his car. And uh… I met him at the office and was told his background a bit. And I unno… I just fell in love. He's a sweet kid and he needed a home and… well… he ran away from the last one so I felt like this was time sensitive, if he had run off again who knows how long it would have been until we found him."

With her app not long at all, but she wasn't going to tell this woman that. Brenda sighed wrote all of that down and then looked back up to her with a smile that Rowan would have called Ice Queen-esque.

"Why don't you show me the rest of the house?"

Rowan nodded quickly standing up and offering her the file she had asked for. God, she was going to kill Steven when he got home.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Rowan had been livid when Steve came home. He had missed the meeting, he had had a case, obviously but he had shown up for the meeting, nor had he called and she had been upset because she really needed him there. Steve had figured, since the Governor had signed off on her already that it didn't matter. But Rowan was terrified that CPS was going to take Nahele away from her. Though why would they? They were responsible adults who wanted to give him a home, a home that Nahele seemed uninterested in running away from like he had from his last home. Why the hell would they want to take him away?

But just her saying that had set him ablaze with a sudden nervous fear. What if they did take him away? He didn't want Nahele to leave. Rowan would be miserable, Nahele would be miserable, he would be miserable… maybe he should call the Governor, see what he could do to make sure that didn't happen.

But that morning. He wasn't worrying about all of that. He was worrying about Nahele, who had his first day at Hanalani Preparatory School that morning and he could tell he was nervous. And while Steve was nervous, the fact that Nahele came to him to help learn how to tie a tie made him proud, and happy.

It was… heartwarming to stand there, side-by-side with Nahele as they tied their ties together. And he was very glad that Rowan got a video of it for him.

They took Rowan's GTO which was flashier and would therefore impress the kids and parents more and they drove to the school and then parked outside. Together they all stared at the giant all white brick school. After a moment of silence Rowan turned to the back seat.

"Okay… are you ready?" she said to him.

Nahele turned to her with those big brown eyes of his wide in fear. "Do you want of us to go in with you?" she asked. Nahele turned from her to Steve and she said: "Why doesn't Steve go? He's uh… cooler looking… eh? With the gun and the badge and the muscles and the tattoos and the… cargo pants? Wow really McGarrett? Cargo pants? Okay he lost some of his cool points for me but maybe the other kids won't notice."

Steve ignored Rowan's dig about the pants and turned back to him at that point and looked Nahele in the eye. "Yeah, I mean, if you want, I will totally go in with you."

Nahele nodded and the two go out of the car, Steve first and then pushing the seat forward so Nahele could clamour out.

"Alright, don't be nervous, you're going to be great!" she called as they walked away and up the steps together.

Steve got him through the front door to where all the kids seemed to be gathering, some paused to look at them but most went about their normal mornings. Steve glanced down at Nahele who was staring at them all clearly very nervous and afraid.

Steve put an arm around his shoulder and whispered: "Alight, I'm going to pull you in for a Bro-hug cause it's cooler okay?" Nahele nodded and he let Steve pull him in, but as soon as he had one arm haphazardly clapped around him Nahele just grappled onto him. Steve put his other arm around him and hugged him tightly. "Hey, hey, kid, it's going to be okay, okay?"

Nahele looked up to him, clearly on the verge of a break down and Steve just smiled at him. "Rule number one…"

"Don't steal anymore cars?"

Steve half laughed. "Yeah, don't do that," he said. "But no. New rule number one… never let them see how scared you are."

Nahele nodded and straightened finally letting Steve go. "Okay, so you got this, okay?" Steve said. "You're going to be fine. And if you're not, you just give me a call, case or no case I'll talk you through it… or if it's really bad I'll come get you, okay?"

Nahele nodded again, waved him good-bye and disappeared into the crowd with Steve watching him go. He felt, for the first time, like a real father seeing his kid off to school. He was so full of nerves and worry… god how did Danny do this day in and day out?

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

To appease Rowan he had called Brenda Dean to set up another appointment for her to speak with him. He picked a time where he was at work, and since she was across the street from his office he figured it would be easy for him to make it over there. And then he caught a break in his case and had to call her an hour later to tell her he couldn't make it. But she had sounded so… frustrated with him, that he told her to come down to his office so they could talk there.

She had not been impressed but agreed and a half hour later a little Asian woman in severe dark clothes was being escorted into the Five-0 offices. She looked like she was about to spit brimstone and fire all over him like a little dragon.

"Are you Steven McGarrett" the little dragon woman asked him and Steve swallowed the lump of nervousness that flew up into his mouth. What if he fucked up this for Rowan, would she ever forgive him?

"Yeah, I'm Steven," he said offering her a hand to shake that she took after staring at it with disdain. "You must Brenda, thank you for agreeing to come here. I uh… caught a case yesterday… it's uh… it's why I wasn't there..."

"Shall we take this into your office, Mr.…?" "It's Commander, actually," Steve told her but when Brenda Dean just glared at him, he lowered his eyes cleared his throat and said: "Yeah, my office is just over here."

He led her over, held the door open for her but he wasn't even in his seat, she had just barely got into her own, when she suddenly just went off.

"Let me just start this by saying what your girlfriend had done is deplorable," she said and Steve frowned. What the hell?

"I'm sorry?"

"Having the Governor fast track her through foster placement so she could take a kid in like he was a puppy? Not even bothering to tell you that this child was coming into your care," she snapped. "Quite frankly I'm concerned that she's one of those more-money-than-brains-princesses and once she gets bored with Nahele he'll be back in the system. That's not good for a kid like him…"

"Hey, now wait a second," Steve growled. "She didn't just take home a stray, okay? She saw a kid in need and wanted to give him a home."

"It doesn't change that you clearly don't want this child in your home," Brenda said and Steve glared at her.

"And how do you figure that?"

"Well, the girl you're living with brought him home without telling you, went through all of this without telling you, and didn't even put you on the forms. You seem to think he's not even worth the time to take off work…"

"Excuse me?!" Steve thundered. "Do you not know what I do? I am the head of the Five-0 special task force, and I DO NOT control crime on Hawaii but I DO have to fight it. I'm the reason that you're living in the safe city you have right now, and as much as I'd love to take days off, sometimes I just can't, okay?"

He leant over the desk to glare at her. "And as for Rowan not telling me, she did that because she knew telling me before hand would scare me off. It takes time for me to warm up to things. She knew I'd need to adjust and he was a goddamn flight risk okay. We wanted him off the street and she didn't want to chance him getting housed somewhere else and you guys losing him again. He was out on the street for what? Almost six months before I took him off it, what does that say about you, huh?"

Brenda actually jerked as if she was surprised Steve leant back in his chair and folded his arms over his chest. "At least if he's with us, we'll know where he is at all times."

Brenda seemed to think this over and then clicked her pen and began writing on her clipboard. It wasn't until the pen hit paper that he realized that maybe… he didn't approach this the right way. "Okay… look… that came off a bit… aggressive… but you have to admit you goaded me…"

"Are you easily goaded, Commander?"

"Not normally, but you just insulted my girlfriend, and that's a bit of a sore subject for me okay? I'm kind of… a little… overprotective of her. Rowan may be rash at times, she may be impetuous and a little wild, but she just wants that kid to have a happy childhood. She wants to share our home with him because she knew that we'd be good for him, she knew we'd be able to help him, and that's all we want to do, okay?"

"That's a very kind sentiment, but knowing the Governor and having good intentions don't make you qualified to raise a child," she said, primly getting up. "I think it's time I speak to the rest of your team. Both you and her have listed them as references."

Oh god… he had just failed them… and if he didn't, Danny sure as hell would. Rowan was going to kill them both.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steve had managed to avoid the whole how did it go conversation with Rowan by not coming home until it was time to pick Nahele back up from school. Though both of them wanted to get out of her car and actually go in the school to pick him up but they both realized that would be a pretty embarrassing thing to do to a teenager on their first day so they anxiously waited in Rowan GTO scanning all the faces that came out of the doors once the bell rang.

As soon as they saw him running towards their car, Steve got out so Nahele could slip into the back. As Steve slipped back in, he heard Rowan ask: "So how was your day at school?"

"It was okay… uh… if anyone asks… uh… Steve… you're my dad."

Steve stopped fiddling with his seat belt and turned back to Nahele. "I'm sorry… but… what?"

"Yeah, they uh… they thought you were so cool… and the girls thought you were hot… and they kept asking if you were my dad… so uh… I just uh… I just went with it," he said.

"Who do they think I am?" Rowan asked clearly fishing for a fake-mom title.

"Oh uh… well… they noticed that I don't quite look like you… and… uh… that Steve was a lot older than you, so you're my new step-mom, but I told everyone how great you are, and how you're more like a real mom to me…"

"I am not that much older than her," Steve snapped, this wasn't the first time he got mistaken for a parent, apparently he looked old enough to have teenager for a kid and that was upsetting but Rowan was clearly liking it.

"Oh my god, your fake-son has told everyone I'm your trophy wife," Rowan said with a big grin and Steve shook his head. She punched his arm while she laughed happily, almost triumphantly. "I love it. I am totally trophy wife material, just dress me up and I'll hang off your arm at every and any occasion."

"You two are ridiculous… you can't lie to everyone, 'Hele," Steve said.

"It's just until I get settled… you know? First days are hard…" Nahele said with a pout and Steve melted. Luckily for him Rowan turned around in her seat to pin him with a disapproving stare.

"Okay, I get that… but uh… you gotta set them straight as soon as you can," she said to them.

Nahele sighed and sat back loosening his tie probably because it was stuffy. The kid looked like a mini stockbroker, all nervous and stressed. Today had been hard on him, Steve could tell and his heart went out to him because Steve hadn't been that much older than him when he got shipped off to military school.

"Hey uh… what do you say we go for shaved ices huh?" he said. "Just a little bit of a pick me up before we go home, to celebrate all of us surviving this big day?"

Nahele immediately perked up and Steve felt his pride swell up too. Two weeks in and he was already doing so much more than his father had ever done for him.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

After finishing his homework, Nahele and Steve retired to the garage where they were putting the car back together. Last week they had put all the wheels on. This week they were working on the door.

It was a lot easier to take off than it was to put on.

Nahele's job was to hold the door in place while Steve screwed all the screws back in. He had finished what had to be… like two of them… when Steve, with three screws sticking out the corner of his mouth said: "So, Nahele… why don't you tell me a little bit more about you?"

"Uh… like what?"

People didn't really ask about him, and he didn't really like answering questions. He didn't want people to pity him, but he knew… he knew Rowan and Steve pitied him, it was why he was there. And he was really afraid it was all going to end soon cause this was all too good to be true, like some Annie situation and they were the Warbucks, they were super rich and just… perfect.

He figured if the state didn't take him away, they'd decide they didn't want him or he'd fuck up somehow. He was just waiting for the other shoe to drop at this point so he was trying super hard not to get attached to these people.

"I unno… uh… why don't we start with your birthday?"

Oh, okay, that was an easy one. "March 9th."

"Shit, no way," Steve said. "Mine's March 10th."

"Whoa! Cool! Uhm… When's Ro's?"

"Hmm?" Steve murmured focusing on the door.

"Her birthday, when's her birthday?"

"Ro's?" "Yeah?" "It's uh… its coming up actually. January twenty first. But if she asks, tell her I didn't know, cause she thinks I don't know when her birthday is and her believing that is key to her birthday party right now."

It was such a weird request that he couldn't help it, he started laughing except it came out more like heavy breathing as he was also straining, he shifted his grip and Steve went back to screwing the screws in again, when he thought Nahele wasn't paying attention, Steve shifted his leg so the door was resting on him more and Nahele didn't have to lift it up as much, Nahele was grateful for all the help but said nothing since Steve was trying to make him feel like he didn't need the help. He shot a few covert glances at him and then cleared his throat.

"You were on the street longer than a month, weren't you?" Steve asked and Nahele straightened.

"Uhm…"

"You can tell me," he prodded fitting another screw in place.

"I crashed at a few friends places the first couple months… but I was in that… uh… camp… for about two months."

Steve nodded. "I thought so," he said. "Your file said you went missing from foster care six months ago."

"Did you run a background check on me?" Nahele asked, that time he won a cheeky grin from Steve. He got the door screwed in then cleaned off his hands to test how it opened and shut.

Once he was done and the door was shut he turned to Nahele and put his hands on his hips.

"Rowan uh… Ro constantly tells me that invades people's privacy… but uh… I felt like your story had holes and I didn't want to pry so I just uh… did some research… don't tell her that either, she'll kill me," he said. He offered a hand to shake.

Nahele took it with a warm smile. "Don't worry, I won't tell her."

"Great. Uh… so I think we're good for the night," he said. "We'll tackle the engine tomorrow if you don't have too much homework."

Nahele nodded. He was ready to go back inside and wash up so he could sit on the couch beside Rowan and Steve. He and Steve would watch football, Steve drinking his beer and Nahele drinking Rowan's famous Hot Cocoa. Rowan would be sitting beside them, decaf tea beside her, with a book in her hand that she'd be reading or writing in. Though his favourite nights were the nights out on the Lanai where he and Steve would practice their fishing casts, the fire would be roaring in the fire pit, Rowan would be playing chords on her guitar, and if he was lucky, they'd make s'mores or Rowan would make her famous, super addicting hot cocoa.

"Just… uh… one last thing," Steve said. "Are you happy here?"

Nahele paused. He blinked his eyes and then actually turned his eyes up to Steve. He had his shoulder's set, his arms crossed over his chest, on the outside he seemed calm and composed but Nahele had a feeling he was anything but.

"Yeah… I'm really grateful…"

"No, I know you're grateful, I want to know if you're happy. Here. With us?" Steve repeated.

Nahele felt everything freeze up in his chest. They were going to give him back. He lowered his head so Steve couldn't see the tears that were forming in his eyes. "It's okay… you don't have to feel bad if you guys want to… you can give… I can go back…"

"Whoa. Hey. What? Go back where?" Steve asked, a hand darting out to Nahele's shoulder. Surprised Nahele looked up. "No, 'Hele… no. That's not what I'm saying. I'm simply asking if you're happy. I want you to be happy. If that's not here with us, that's okay. But I want to know how Rowan and I are doing. Is there anything that… I unno… you need… or want? Anything we could be doing to make this all easier on you?"

Nahele just stared at him. What more could he need or want? Physically they had provided everything for him, food, clothes, items, a roof over his head, his very own room and more. And they were trying to give him the emotional stuff too… he just wasn't ready. He wasn't ready to let go of his mom. He wasn't ready to replace her just yet. But he really appreciated that they were trying.

"No, I'm good," he said. "I am. I'm happy. I promise."

Steve nodded, smiled himself and the put an arm around Nahele. "Alright, let's get you washed up and then we'll watch some football huh?"

Yeah, Nahele thought, his smile growing on his face, he was definitely happy here and he figured he would be for however long it lasted.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

The following day, after Steve and Rowan had picked Nahele up from school, they went to the CPS office across from the main parliament buildings where they were told to sit and wait for Brenda Dean to call them in.

The little would-be-makeshift family sat in those uncomfortable chairs each nervous. Nahele, who couldn't focus on his math had put his books back into his bag, Rowan was chewing her nails and Steve's leg was bouncing.

Steve glanced over to Rowan and carefully took her hand away from her mouth and held it tightly in his. "It's going to be okay… you know?"

"How could this be okay?" Rowan snapped. "They think I'm a spoiled princess and you yelled at her!"

"True," he mused. "And Danny did speak to her for almost two hours."

Rowan groaned. "Oh god… fucking Danny… we've failed… that's it… they're going to take him…"

Steve scowled and glanced over to Nahele before putting his arm around his shoulder. "I mean… they can't really take him from us."

"What are you talking about?"

"I mean physically. They can't physically take him from us you know?"

"Steven… these people decide where he lives. If they find us unsatisfactory, they'll take him from us. So yes, yes they can physically take him away, Steven."

"Okay? And how do you propose they're going to do that? Hmm? Rowan, how? How are they going to take him from me?" he asked. "HPD isn't going to come knocking on my door and with the amount of cupcakes you've been feeding SWAT over the years we both know if you ask they'll probably surround the house to keep them out, so I ask you again… how are they really going to physically take this kid from us?"

Rowan thought that over. "Yeah I guess that's true."

"Hey, guys, no need to get SWAT involved, if I get taken away, I'll just run away… and straight back to you guys," Nahele said which got both adults to smile at him.

Steve turned back to her and said with a cheeky grin on his face. "And you know… hear me out here… if worst comes to worse, we could just… you know… activate the app."

Rowan turned to him. "Excuse me?'

"You heard me. If we have to, I would totally support you if you called him for a favour, just don't tell him I'm involved."

Rowan just laughed and slapped his shoulder and Steve smiled too. Happy that they at least had options.

"Miss Peirce? Commander McGarrett? You can come in now," Brenda said and they both jumped. This was it, they were going to find out if they were taking Nahele home. "Oh and you brought Nahele, hello there, you stay there, we'll be right back."

Steve stood, helped Rowan up though she didn't need it and then ushered them both into the room first. They took their seats and then just stared at her while she looked over their papers.

"So, we've had time to review your case file…"

"Okay he's sorry he yelled at you," Rowan said. "He won't say it because apologies are not in his vocabulary…" "I apologise to you all the time, Ro.." "—Shut up, Steven. But he is sorry and we're usually not like that but you know… you seemed dead set against us before you even got here. Which I think is prejudicial or at the very least bullying and I think we need a different caseworker who will give us a fair shake."

Brenda stared at her with unimpressed eyes. "You can calm down, Miss. Pierce, you've passed."

Rowan blinked her eyes and then looked at Steve and then back to her. "Wait… what?"

"The fact of the matter is that you're not doing this for the money from the state, you're providing him a more than decent education, a roof over his head, and all the essentials of life and you got glowing recommendations from every single person on this list."

"Wow… even Danny?"

"Though Detective Williams spent most of his time explaining to me what a Neanderthal Commander McGarrett is and gave me a distressingly long lists of character flaws, he did tell me that once you're o'hana there isn't a single thing he won't do for you. And that Nahele was definitely already o'hana. He also explained that you took three days off and brushed off a minor trafficking case to help Nahele move in and set up his room, but for the meeting you caught a nasty murder… and then, I guess he didn't believe that I believe him, because then he showed me pictures…"

"Yeah he shouldn't have done that," Steve said. "Uhm… but if you're interested, I caught the guy. Jealous husband did it."

"I didn't need to know that, Commander. But on top of all the glowing recommendations I got a very nasty call from the Governor," Brenda said coolly as she glared at Rowan.

"Why are you looking at me, I didn't call him," she said.

"That was me," Steve said raising a hand and wincing at Brenda. "Sorry… I uh… I called him last night."

"Really?"

"Yes, this was important to you," he said and then after a moment's pause he glanced at Brenda and added: "Oh, and for me too, obviously." When Rowan just stared at him and he sighed and said: "Okay, look the kid said he was happy with us, I couldn't let a bad first impression throw him in a juvenile home, so… you know… I called Dennings."

"What did you even say?"

"Hmm? To the Governor? Oh, I may have told him that if CPS takes Nahele away from us cause I fucked up, you'd probably break up with me and that, if he remembered, the last time you left me ended quite badly for everyone involved. And I think he said something along the lines of: I'm not going through that shit again, and I guess he made a call."

Brenda sighed. "As nice as this is, this pass is conditional."

"On what grounds?" Rowan asked.

"Commander McGarrett, as the primary home owner, Nahele can't live with you unless you sign off as a legal guardian as well."

And then she pushed a paper towards him. Steve stared at it, oh god, this was… wow… it was a lot. He blinked his eyes at it knowing that Rowan and Nahele were staring at him.

"You will be considered an approved foster parent. Only Rowan is Nahele's official legal guardian," Brenda clarified and Steve let his are out. Oh, okay, he could do that.

He quickly sighed the paper watching as she then stamped it with her big black passed stamp. "Congratulations, you're officially foster parents."

For a moment Rowan and Steve just sat there. Brenda blinked her eyes at them and then added: "You can leave now."

Immediately Rowan and Steve jumped out of their seats. They mumbled their hurried thank yous and quickly moved out of the office before she could change her mind.

Nahele stood up, took in both of their faces and frowned. "What is it? What did she say?" he asked.

But Rowan couldn't answer him, and instead grabbed his arm and tugged him out of the office with Steven quickly following after them. She was afraid if they stayed too long, if she spoke the words out loud it would all come crashing down around them.

"Oh god we failed, didn't we?" Nahele asked as they dragged him back to Rowan's car. But they walked in silence, all still in shock that it had happened. As soon as they got to the car Rowan paused.

"Okay, stop, we need to stop," Rowan said. "Steven… uh… did we just… in the office… did I hallucinate all of that?"

"Not unless it was a collective hallucination," he said.

"Okay… but like… what does that mean?" Nahele said throwing his backpack in the backseat. "What happened? Seriously! Did you pass? Did you fail? Do I have to pack my things? Am I going back? What is going on, guys?"

A leisurely smile donned Steve's lips as the reality settled in on him. And Rowan was suddenly bouncing with utter excitement, absolutely stunned that it had happened, it had worked out.

Her grin became this utter beaming smile that she lowered only to step out of her heels. "This is going to be loud and ridiculous but I just… I just can't hold it in." As soon as the heels were off and her purse dropped to the ground she promptly began to jump up and down as she screamed: "We passed! We passed!"

"We did?!" Nahele asked as she held his hands and got him to jump with her. She quickly hugged him as they continued to bounce and cheer. After a moment of hugging they pulled Steve in and he too got to hug them and bounce and cheer with them too.

When they were done, Rowan stepped away, breathlessly putting her shoes back on. She grinned to both her boys as she said: "Oh god I was so worried I'd have to have her killed."

Nahele's smile faded a fraction and while he was hugging her asked: "Wait… what?"

Steve came in between them and just draped an arm over both of their shoulders. He pressed a kiss to Rowan's cheek and then one to the side of Nahele's head as he happily said: "Welcome to the family kid."