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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Hello my Lovely readers (and welcome back AlexLover), how were you guys on Wednesday? Guess who forgot to update? This dumb writer! So we're onto another episode, which is going to be more on the cute side, we do still have the drama, and we do still have some Rowan-isms that are going to happen but most of it is going to be Valentine's cuteness. Don't forget to tell me what you think, don't forget to leave me a review, and I will see you guys tomorrow!

Chapter 168

Steve, humming to himself, made coffee. Danny had messaged saying he was coming over so he figured he'd be a good host and have coffee ready for him. He had ground his own beans and was putting them in the French press, still smiling over the morning he had with Rowan, when Danny knocked two times and then promptly let himself into the house.

"Dead… he is dead…" he snapped as he slammed the door shut behind him. Steve was in the process of asking who Danny wanted dead when he said: "Oh dark Navy blue, had a nice morning with Rowan then?"

"Yeah, managed to fit in a quickie after she got Nahele to school and before she went into the studio," he admitted offering him the pot of freshly brewed coffee as he came into the kitchen. "And good morning to you too."

"I swear. I think I'm gonna kill this little punk," he said, then clocked the coffee, clapped and said: "Nice," and then went for his favourite mug.

"Who we killing?" Steve asked.

"This kid in Grace's math class, his name is 'Apane," he said. "And he's been texting her nonstop. Text, text, text. Texttext, text, text."

"How do you know he's texting her?"

"Because I bought her a new cellular phone and somehow in the family cloud share plan, whatever you call it, got mixed up and I'm receiving all of her text messages."

Steve took that in. "So you've been spying on her?"

"I'm not spying on my kid. What'd I just say?" Danny snapped." Number one. Number two, it's called parenting, so you know. And don't even lie to me if you could have constant eyes on both Rowan and Nahele you'd be fucking doing it. So shut up."

"I did the whole spying on Rowan thing, remember? No one can keep eyes on her for long, and when she found out she nearly cut all contact which killed me," Steve snapped cutting off a chunk of butter and then stirring it into his coffee. "And Nahele's a good kid, I don't need to spy on him… though I'm pretty sure Rowan had him added onto her people to watch list on her app."

"What are you…? What the hell is that? What are you doing?" Danny cried. And Steve looked up confused.

"What?"

"What do you mean, what? You just put butter in your coffee!"

"Yeah, it's grass-fed butter. Try it," he said sliding the butter dish towards Danny and his mug. It was a fancier butter dish that Rowan had picked out, because his hadn't been good enough apparently. He had been doing that a lot recently, replacing his plain things with fancier, prettier things, not for function but for the aesthetic. He hated to admit it but, since she had started doing it, his place had started looking more… homey.

"You out of milk? You out of your mind? What's the matter with you?" Danny cried heading for the fridge.

"No, it's a teams guy thing," Steve explained. "We do it to boost energy, enhance brain function. Hey! Enhance brain function, you should try it! Maybe you'll think more clearly."

"No, thank you. I think I'll have my heart attack the old-fashioned way."

"Suit yourself," Steve muttered leaning back and sipping his own coffee while Danny's phone chimed again.

"This kid again," he said with a sigh, going for his phone. He read over the messages shaking his head and ignoring Steve's sighs. "He's relentless," he growled watching more messages appear. "He is completely relentless. Listen to this one, I think you'll like it."

Steve tried to not smile at Danny and his insane paranoia and asked: "What'd he say?" in a humouring fashion, though he knew if anything sexual came out of Danny's mouth, Danny was going to have to hold Steve back, cause 12 year old or not, he was gonna catch Uncle Steve Hands if he was getting fresh with his Grace.

"Hey G. Her name's Grace, first of all. What's your favourite kind of candy? She says: Hershey's Kisses. He says: Awesome. Me too." Steve couldn't help it, he started laughing. "Yeah. You know what? You think it's funny? Because you don't understand subtext… alright, and you've got a boy. If he was pulling this you'd be all proud papa bear."

Papa bear. Steve's newest nickname, given to him for the quickness in which Steve was prone to jump to Nahele's defence, respond to his messages, and the general willingness to do anything for that kid. Rowan did not get the nickname Momma Bear, though Steve would have thought that matching nicknames would have been cute, except for the fact that cute did not describe Rowan's ice cold fierceness when I came to protecting that kid. No unfortunately Odell's nickname of Pitbull stuck for her, especially when it came to things involving Nahele.

And Danny was right. If this were Nahele he just would have been proud.

"They're two kids talking about candy the day before Valentine's Day. Romance is in the air, Danny."

"Romance is in the air? No, romance is not in the air," Danny said waving his hands about as if trying to dissipate the cloud of romance. "You know why? Because she's twelve. There should not be any romance in her airspace, period."

"Would you listen to me for a minute please? Relax. Just relax. She's a great kid. You raised her right. Trust her."

"Okay… and I want you to do something for me. I want you take a minute to imagine that Nahele was a girl…" Danny ordered and Steve blinked his eyes. Nahele a girl… already he was anxious. "Buddy's fourteen, right? Imagine your fourteen year old little girl, getting texts with a lot let subtext and a lot more…"

"Shut up!" Steve warned him. "You want me to go down the road? You want me to get upset, you wanna deal with that? No, then shut up. Besides. Besides, Nehele, as I keep telling you, is a good kid, whether he's a boy or a girl, he's a good kid. And I trust him, and if I could do that, you can trust Grace, okay?"

"I do trust Grace. It's him, this little thug I don't trust."

Steve sighed. "Alright. Let's take him out."

"Okay now you're talking," Danny agreed and luckily Steve didn't have to tell him how much that was not going to happen because his phone was ringing and he chose to pick it up instead of getting into with Danny.

"McGarrett… we're on the way," he said and then hung up. "Come on, it's a murder, we gotta go."

And then he pulled Danny out of his kitchen.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Rowan had got a message from Grace during the day about how she needed help with a date that was going to be after school. Rowan was immediately defensive. The girl was twelve what was she doing on date? But she figured, since Danny would freak out over this that it'd probably be better if Rowan dealt with the situation. She'd be more subtle about it in the long run.

So she picked up Grace after school as she was driving to pick up Nahele she got some details.

"His name is 'Apane, he's in my grade and he's really cute."

Okay, standard pretween stuff.

"We talk all the time, and he's always looking for reasons to spend more time with me and stuff," she explained. "And we're going for gelato tonight."

"Okay, what do we need me for?" Rowan asked. "Are we asking me to be a responsible adult cause we both know I got problems with that, and neither your Uncle Steve or your Danno think I'm responsible."

"Well… I was hoping that maybe, you could do my make up? And give me some tips?"

Rowan turned to her surprised as she pulled up to Nahele's school.

"You want me to what?" she asked. Grace blushed and Rowan sighed. "Sweetie… you don't need make up for this date, trust me. If he likes you in your school uniform he will like you no matter what, okay?"

Grace looked down to her lap and Rowan sighed. "And Danno knows…"

"Nothing. I uh… I didn't want to tell him… he uh… well you know what he's like…"

"Wonderful," Rowan sighed. "He's going to kill us you know."

Grace turned a half smile to her and whispered: "Not if he doesn't find out." Great, Rowan really was a bad influence.

Shaking her head she leant past Grace to watch as Nahele ran towards the car a big grin on his face, which faltered a bit when he spotted Grace in the front seat.

"Uh..." he said as he looked down to her. But Rowan waved off his surprise. "Nahele this is Grace, Danny's daughter, Grace this is Nahele, our foster kid."

She waved up to him as she got out of the car. "Did you want the front…?"

"Naw I'll take the back," he said. "Uh Rowan… maybe… could we go to the mall?"

"What a coincidence, I need to go to the mall, Grace and I are gonna hit up Sephora, what do you need at the mall?"

"Uh… I have a… you're not going to freak out are you?" he asked.

"No promises, what's up?"

"I have a date tomorrow and I wanted to get her a present… uh… if you could…" he trailed off because Rowan was squealing. She quickly calmed herself down and took a deep breath putting on the air of being cool. "Yeah, sure, I can spot you a few dollars for a gift… does uh… this date have a name?"

"I need you to be cool," he told her as he slid into the back and Grace got back into the front.

"Hey! I stopped squealing," she said. "Alright, but I'm gonna need details, and we'll need to tell Steve who's going to be sooo excited and… and… okay, I'm being cool, I can see that look I'm being cool."

From the back Nahele laughed and Rowan let Grace pick the music as they headed to the mall. As soon as they got to Sephora Rowan turned to Nahele, fished a few twenties out of her wallet and handed it to him.

"Alright, babe, go pick a gift, you're getting a forty dollar limit that is it!" she told him. "I know I'm supposed to play it cool, but one of those light up roses would be pretty cute. That is the last thing I'll say."

Nahele hugged her quickly before scampering off and leaving her behind. Rowan watched him go for a moment before she remembered what she was there fore and lead Grace into Sephora.

"Alright, I'm sure they'll tell me not to, but I'm going to grab a bunch of stuff and deck you out okay?" she said pulling Grace along the aisle to pick out the trial options. She got eyeshadow, blush, and a lip gloss before putting Grace into one of the tall chairs. As she got started Grace was smiling to herself and Rowan was busy paying attention to what she was doing.

"Do you have any tips Aunt Ro?" she asked as Rowan applied blush.

"Hmm," Rowan mused for a moment. "I do. This is the number one date tip every girl, every boy, every person should live by, okay?" she put down the blush and Grace nodded. "Be yourself."

Rowan picked up the shimmering pale eyeshadow and brushed it against her eyelids to give her a bit of a glow to her eyes but nothing to serious.

"That's it?"

"Yep, that's it," Rowan said. "If that boy doesn't like you for who you are he is not worth your time, okay?"

Grace nodded and Rowan abandoned the eyeshadow to put on a little bit of mascara to widen out the appearance of her eyes. She was applying the shimmering lip gloss when her phone started to ring. Rowan finished up and then sent Grace off to fragrance with a Sephora employee with the order of: Find her a scent that is sweet but not overpowering cause she's like… twelve. Once Grace was busy she answered the phone.

"Pierce."

She smiled to herself, she couldn't help it. That was something she stole from Steve and she loved it. She'd never tell him that because he'd never let her live it down but it gave her a thrill to answer with only her last name, no wonder Steve did it all the time.

"Hey it's Pete, where you at, kid?"

"I'm at the mall, what's wrong?" she asked because he only ever called her when something was wrong.

"Nothing. I just need to pretend to see you to argue a price, you got time to meet?" he asked. Rowan laughed at him. "Yeah, I'll meet you by the south doors okay?"

Rowan told Grace where she was going and then went and found Nahele in the card shop, the light up fake rose in a bag specially wrapped up already and she pulled him aside.

"Hey, Pete's called, he wants me to meet him," she said. "Grace's date is around the corner at an ice cream shop, uh… Via's Gelato, here's more money. If I'm not back just take her over, and then sit down order some ice cream and make sure he doesn't get handsy."

"The kid's twelve…" Nahele said with a smile but Rowan just shook her head.

"I'm putting you on big bro duty here, 'Hele," she told him. "This is serious business. If you think he's doing anything shady, INTERVENE, you got me?"

Nahele nodded his head sharply. "Done! Keep me posted on the ETA and everything," he said.

She hugged him, held him close for a brief moment before heading out of the mall. She finally managed to shoot Steve a quick text about Nahele and his date and was waiting for him to respond when Pete finally showed up. She smiled up to her boss/agent and hugged him.

"Playing hard to get?" she asked and he nodded.

"You know how it is. Sometimes they need some space. Some time to figure out that what I'm offering is all they're gonna get," he said. "Just got let them sweat it out."

"Which song is this for?" she asked, he was trying to sell several of her songs at that moment, she wasn't sure which one he was negotiating today.

"Work from Home," he said. "We've got a girl band who wants it, but also thinks that because you are also a girl you should be more forgiving and give them a discount."

"Four percent is the discount," Rowan said and he laughed with her. He glanced at his watch and smiled. "I figure, that's enough time, care to help me flag a cab?"

Rowan followed him to the street, watching as he flagged down a green cab. It was a brand she didn't recognize but she waved it off as not really knowing about Hawaii's types of cabs cause she was too busy driving her own car.

"Okay, well… good luck," she said to Pete as he slid into the back.

"I'll keep you posted on any developments of course, but I fully expect to be done with them within the hour," he told her and she just smiled at his confidence.

"Get in the car," the driver said, Rowan glanced to him, noted his look of anger and winced. Mmm, she was holding them up, not a nice thing to do.

"Oh no, sorry, I'm not going with him," she said and then turned back to Pete. "Okay so just keep me posted, I'm kind of busy tonight so while I might be able to swing by the studio if you need me to sign things, I'd very much like to not be called in so keep that in mind."

Pete opened his mouth but the driver interrupted him by near shouting: "Get in the car!" Rowan was ready to snap at him, ready to turn back and give him a piece of her mind but when she turned all she saw was the gun in his hand.

Blinking her eyes she quickly pushed Pete further into the back. "Okay, okay, okay," she said sliding into the seat. "Okay… I'm… I'm in the car… what… what do you want?"

"Shut the door!" he ordered and as soon as Rowan obeyed the cab was moving leaving the mall behind.

Rowan watched it a little bit before turning back to him. "Look… if you want money, I have lots of money, I can give you… I can do one better. I can take you to it, but uh… we gotta be quick cause my kids are at the mall and…"

He abruptly stopped driving and turned back to them, leveling the gun with Pete's chest and then firing without saying anything. Rowan couldn't help it she shrieked Pete's name, half clamouring onto him to both shield him and help him. But their crazy driver had just gone back to drive, giving her no reasoning or orders or anything.

Rowan was too busy trying to save Pete so she completely missed him dialing a number on his phone and saying: "This is Roko Makoni, I want to speak to Commander McGarrett."

And both of them were busy with their own things, neither of them noticed as the taxi's radio frequency slowly changed stations on its own.