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A/N: It's Wednesday my dudes! Gosh I miss vine sometimes. So remember how last chapter ended super cute. Well this chapter… this chapter is EVEN CUTER! How is that, you ask, well you'll have to read to find out but I think you guys will like this chapter. Now, heads up, shit is gonna fly in the next set of chapters. A lot is gonna happen but it ALSO ends quite cutely, especially for the people who like Wo Fat. I also haven't heard if you guys wanted me to run another contest? Alternatively I could also just run another marathon. Don't forget to leave me a review on what you think and I'll see you guys on Friday!

Chapter 177

When Rowan woke up that morning she found the bed to be empty. This didn't really surprise her, Steve usually went for a run or a swim in the mornings before she'd wake up, though usually he roused her a bit to at least tell her where he was going. She didn't remember him waking her up. And usually, once he was done he'd shower, and the shower would wake her up, and she'd get in and join him. If the shower didn't wake her up, he would.

None of those things had happened.

He… he hadn't gone back to work had he?

They hadn't really talked about it, but she assumed, after the last case, after finally getting over what she figured was their biggest relationship hurdles that he'd at least stay home one day with her.

Rowan got out of their bed, pulled out that soft grey sweater of his she liked wearing so much and pulled it over her head before heading down the stairs. It no longer smelled like him, which meant that she was going to have to get him to wear it a few times so that the next time she wore it, it would smell like him. When she hit the main floor she could hear a guitar, which made no sense because Rowan wasn't playing.

Steve had just got a guitar.

Rowan let herself out onto the lanai and sure enough Steve was sitting on the love seat she had recently forced him to buy strumming away hitting all sorts of wrong chords and wearing a face of frustration. Rowan tried not to smile, but she loved seeing Steve out of his element, usually he was way too confident and good at everything he tried, these moments reminded her that he wasn't a god, he wasn't perfect.

He was perfect for her, of course, but he wasn't perfect at everything.

She didn't have to say anything, his eyes had turned to her the second she took a single step towards him. He put his new guitar down and smiled sheepishly at her.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you…"

"You didn't wake me up," she said quickly. "You were doing good, what song are you trying to play?"

She had a feeling she recognized the song but she'd've liked it if he could confirm. The look on his face told her he wouldn't be doing that for her. Steven always had to do things the hard way. It was a good thing she loved him or that would have become annoying fast. Okay it annoyed her a lot, but she loved this idiot, annoyingness and all.

"Doesn't matter, I uh… I've forgotten a lot…" he said softly.

"You haven't played since you were what? Nahele's age?"

"16 actually," Steve murmured and she sighed at him.

"Alright, so you haven't played in like 50 years…" "More like 20… you know I don't like it when you call me old…" "—You're right, sorry. So like a hundred years ago you were playing guitar, its fine to have forgotten a few things."

Steve sighed at her, still not enjoying the old jokes so she smiled encouragingly. "Here, here, I'll go get my guitar and we'll go over finger placements," she said rushing into the kitchen to grab her guitar. She always left it by the back kitchen door because Nahele liked camp fires and her singing songs. It was also where she wrote her best stuff.

She joined Steve pulling out her guitar, happy to see that he had also picked his back up. "Okay, so we need to pick a song, which one would you like to practice with?"

"I uh… I unno…" he answered sheepishly.

"Okay, we'll I'm writing a slow song right now, it has some simple chords why don't we try that one?" she asked and Steve nodded.

Rowan slowly went about showing him the chords, and the tempo watching as he played them back, correcting where necessary which wasn't that often. She put it all together, playing it through once and then waited breathlessly as Steve copied her.

God her panties were soaking immediately. That handsome, wonderful man playing guitar was probably the sexiest thing she had ever seen in such a long time if he started singing she may just swoon. He smiled up at her when he finished and she clapped for him.

"See, see that was good," she said which had him smiling a little more widely. "You just gotta practice you know, you practice and you'll be amazing, even better than me I imagine."

The compliments seemed to be a bit too much for him cause he went bright red, lowered his eyes from hers and then simply asked: "Does this song have lyrics?"

"Mhmm," she said. "Did you want to hear them?" he nodded to her and she smiled again. "You know, I was thinking, now that you play, maybe you could play the music and I'll sing?"

Steve nodded and Rowan sighed. "Just uh… just give me a second to breathe…"

She loved Steven, but she always got a little nervous singing just for him. There was something more intimate about singing just for him that made her more nervous… made her feel more vulnerable.

She nodded to him, holding his eyes as he started playing, waiting for the right moment to hit him with the lyrics she had.

… but you'll always be the home I wanna come home to, you're a wild night with a hell of a view. There ain't no place, ain't no place like you

He finished playing, she finished singing and then lowered her eyes from his. "So yeah… it's uh… it's not done yet, but that'll be the chorus once I figure out what else I wanna write."

"That was…" Steve started blowing out his air, his hands left his guitar to hold her hands. "How… how do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Sing in front of people. I mean. I can tell that you're nervous… you don't like singing for just me, it unnerves you… I can't imagine how you feel going out on stage. So how… how do you just do it?"

Rowan thought about it for a moment.

"Well uh… that's not the problem. I can sing for just one person, I only get nervous when I'm singing for uh… for you…"

"You do? Why? I love everything you write and your singing… you have to know how I feel about your singing… I've been telling you since you started that you should be the recording artist… not Alex… you…"

"No, I know. I think it's because your opinion matters to me and I unno… I just feel like… well these songs most of them are very personal and most of them are about you… so it's like I'm baring my heart to you which is very… uh… I unno intimidating?" she whispered "But I uh… yeah, I have away to get over that. So uh… when I get scared, I sing for one person," she said being sure to hit him with a hooded stare so he understood the double meaning. "When I was in the twelfth grade I sang a song I had written by myself for the first time in front of the whole school. I was so nervous but when I got out there, Sarah was in the front row waving a homemade sign for me like she was a group front row center at a concert and I just… I just took a really deep breath and sang the song for her. That song eventually became Bad Liar. With some reworking."

Steve sat back and thought about what she had just said. No doubt remembering all the times Rowan had sang and her eyes had been on him. She couldn't help it, she never got lost in a crowd if he was in it cause her eyes were only on him.

"It helps if the person you pick is someone you care about," she said. "Back home… Sarah came to every gig, when Evolet was born… well let's just say that soon I was only watching her. That little girl really loved my music… and my skating."

Steve put a hand to her knee. "You must really miss them."

"I do. Yes."

"Do you know if… uh…"

"Yep, they're here. But the Sarah here isn't my best friend and Evolet isn't my goddaughter either, so there's no point in going back no one would know me and I think… I think that's worse than them not being here."

She carefully brushed away her tears and smiled up at Steve. "Let's talk about something happier, okay?" she asked.

Steve dropped his guitar to the floor and pulled her into his lap to cover her in kisses until she was giddily lapping them all up, her fingers in his hair and his hands under her shirt.

"The kid comes back tomorrow," he murmured against her lips. "Did you uh… did you want to take advantage of his absence… like now maybe?"

Rowan hopped up off his lap, jolting him, his hands gripping her wrist to keep her from going too far. She hit him with that sultry smile, took his hands in hers and tugged him up and back towards the house. Thank god for overnight biology camps.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Despite not wanting to, Kono had agreed to going dress shopping with Rowan. She did need to pick a wedding dress, as the wedding was slowly creeping up on them, but that wasn't why she had agreed. After their last therapy session, Steve had asked her for help with something and while she was certain that if it had happened it would have been broadcasted to all of them by now, she wanted to see if Rowan had any inkling of what was going on, if maybe it had happened and the two of them were going to be low-key about it.

But as Rowan's best friend, an accolade that Rowan had given to her, she figured that low-key or not, Kono would, or should, know about it.

They had gone to a different dress shop from the last one Rowan had taken her to for her last attempt to pick a dress. Rowan had let Kono pick this time, and Kono had thought that this one would be a little more affordable but very certainly was not. Rowan had picked out a few dresses for her before Kono shooed her away to pick out her own wedding dress and let her look at Bridesmaid dresses again. Once selected the two girls retired to the dressing rooms.

They were on their third set of dresses, Kono was wearing a giant fluffy monstrosity that she had picked and was completely regretting. Still she came out to Rowan already outside and waiting for her, admiring herself in the tall mirrors.

"What do you think of this one? This seafoam one isn't that bad…" Rowan said twirling in front of Kono and looking down at the skirt as she did so. "It'll look good while we're dancing."

"I unno, it kind of clashes with your hair," Kono said with a wince and Rowan looked up. Kono tried not to snort but it looked so weird to see Rowan so dolled up with that big purple bruise streaking from the corner of her eye up to her hairline. Like she was some punk rock princess who just got into a fight or something. Rowan took in the puffy princess dress Kono was in and then suddenly snorted. Now Kono didn't feel so bad for wanting to laugh at Rowan.

"Says the woman who looks like a fucking cupcake, what are you wearing? I didn't pick that, did I?" she asked.

No this was the one that Kono had thought was nice but Kono didn't want to tell her that. "Yep all you," Kono lied so Rowan didn't know how hopeless she was at this. Tell her to pick out the right kind of ammo or the right kind of gun and she'd be able to no problem, but this was a completely different beast. "You're picking all sorts of bad dresses today."

Rowan looked back down at her dress. "Okay, I know this doesn't look good with my hair but what about your other bridesmaids? Huh?"

"Well I want you to look good too. I liked the rose-blush one you had last time, with the rose-gold accents or that periwinkle one you had on."

"Kay, I'll put the periwinkle one back on, you, try that one I picked, the one with the little silver leaves, it's all flowy and cinched and I think you'll like it better, try that one," she said heading back to the dressing room.

Kono went back into hers and then called out: "So uh… just a question… what's going on with you and McGarrett?"

"Uh… well… what do you mean?" Rowan called back.

Kono had to wait to answer her as maneuvering out of the giant cupcake dress was taking up all her focus and attention.

"Just well… we all know you and Steve had a break through…"

"Oh, Danny told you guys about that? Why am I asking, of course he did. Well, we talked about our feelings and our emotions and what his commitment issues and fears were all about and I think we settled it."

"You think?"

"Well I mean, he didn't flat out say I'm his girlfriend, but I'm pretty sure that's what we agreed on," she said. "At least, I said let's do this and he said, sure, so like… okay I can feel you judging me through the door, stop it!"

Kono couldn't help but laugh as she slipped into the dress that Rowan had wanted her in. "I can't help it. Why don't you just ask him? Have him confirm?"

"I unno, cause we've been so good for the last couple of days and I don't want to ruin it. You know?"

Kono got that and she was going to say more but she found she was at a sudden loss for words when she caught sight of herself in the mirror.

Rowan had been right, this was tight in all the right places and loose in all the places she wanted it to be flowing and lose. It had layers of gossamer white, a cinched waist accented by silver studded leaves. The dress was flowing and light and looked like a Grecian toga. She finally looked and felt like a bride.

"What's going on are you stuck again?" Rowan asked and Kono didn't even have it in her to get mad at Rowan over the quip. She got stuck in a dress once, just once. Come on. Let it go. But even Rowan's teasing couldn't ruin this moment for her.

She left the dressing room trying to hide the tears in her eyes. She knew it before she got out there, knew it before Rowan put her hands to her lips to hide her happy exclamation.

"Oh Kono, that's it. That's the one," she said and Kono smiled because she was… she was right. This was the dress she was going to marry Adam in.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

In the course of their relationship it seemed that Steve was always going to Danny to plan some sort of big gesture for Rowan. He had remarked that to Danny and his best friend had the nerve to say: "Then stop fucking up so much."

The absolute cheek of that comment… had not been the fact that Danny had said it but that Danny had been right. He had to keep doing stuff that over the top romantic because he fucked up, royally, all the time, and he had to do something to make it up to her. Why the hell had this girl stayed with him so long? He really, really didn't deserve her.

But he planned for tonight to make it up to her.

Since surprise was part of it, instead of getting all fancy Steve dressed casual and then treated to her to all her favourites. He wore a dark blue denim, those combat boots she liked on him and his best button up blue shirt, partially open so she could see his chest. She was in one of her summer dresses. An off shoulder rose-pink flower spotted dress that went to her knees, her hair up in a braided crown again, that golden seashell around her neck. They had gone to Rainbow's for breakfast for dinner, her absolute favourite kind of meal and while she sat across from him absolutely glowing Steve remembered the real reason why he did these things for Rowan.

He did them because they made his girl happy and she deserved to be treated like a queen. Now he just needed to do it more often, and not just when he fucked up.

After their dinner of waffles, eggs and bacon, Steve took her down to their favourite place, Halona blow hole, for some making out and staring at the stars on the hood of her purple GTO.

They were quiet for a moment before Rowan, who had been pressed to his side, his arm under her shoulder, turned, draping herself against him.

"Steven, can I ask you a question?"

Steve turned to her. Her cute little button nose millimetres from his as she was looking up to him.

"Of course you can, Rowan."

"What… uhm… what exactly are we doing now?"

"Well, we were staring at the stars, is there something you'd rather be doing?"

She smiled, a good moment for a kiss if he ever saw one, but Rowan lowered her lips away from his before he could distract her with yet another make out session.

"That's not what I meant. I meant…"

"Actually I have something for you," he said, slipping her off of him before she could ask her question. He had a feeling he knew where she was going and he wasn't ready for that yet. He had a script, Danny had given him some ideas and he wanted this night to go a certain way.

He rushed over to the trunk of her car where he had stashed his new guitar and quickly pulled it out. "I uh… I practiced a lot today and I think I'm ready to uh…to sing you a song… you know if you're okay with that."

Rowan smiled at him, clearly very surprised and very happy. "Really? You want to sing me a song? You won't be too nervous?"

"Well I might be," he answered truthfully. "But uh… I'm going to try the whole, singing just for you thing, and maybe that will help me so maybe… bear with me?"

Rowan nodded, sitting primly on the hood beside him as he got ready. He was going to try it, singing just for her, he figured, being the only person there it would be easier for him. And it was, because he was strumming singing like it was the easiest thing to do in front of her. She just didn't like his choice of song.

So you tell your friends and I'll tell mine, we both know what's coming it's too hard to hide…

Rowan slapped his shoulder. "No! You are not singing one of Alex's songs to me!"

"Why not, it worked for him right?" Steve said with a teasing grin. Rowan slapped his shoulder again, pushing the guitar out of his lap and climbing into its place kissing him solidly. For a while they just sat there, straddling Steven to the hood of her purple GTO just making out, tongues dueling, his hands wandering, her hands threading through his hair.

When he figured her solidly and firmly kissed senseless he pulled away to breathlessly whisper: "I know you didn't like the song, but uh… I have something for you, uh, for real this time, and it comes with a question. Any chance you can hop off?"

Reluctantly his girl slipped off of his lap, even more reluctantly Steve let her go. They switched places, he carefully put her up on the hood again and then dropped to one knee.

"Steven what are you doing?" Rowan squeaked as he went into his pocket to pull out the grand gesture to make up for his most recent fuck up. What Danny called the worst decision Steven had ever made, but made Kono squeal, hop in excitement and had her all teary-eyed.

"It's occurred to me that after being such a jerk about this step that I better make it up to you somehow," he said. "So with that being said, will you please, do me the honour, of becoming my girlfriend?"

Rowan stared down at him and the ring box in his hand. She was quiet for too long and for the millionth time that day, since he had decided to do this, he was certain she was about to say no to him.

"Rowan?"

"I'm sorry. I'm just confused."

"About what?"

"Well… for starters I thought we agreed in your therapist office a few days ago that I was your girlfriend," she said and he let out his nervous breath in a shaky laugh. "But I think what's really throwing me is that ring box."

Steve nodded. He got up off his knee and opened the box and then offered it her where she could see the silver tiara ring he had picked out with a sky blue sapphire centerpiece cut into the shape of a heart. He watched carefully as his girl took it in, her eyes a matching blue, shining so intently with emotion that it took his breath away and he had to clear his throat a few times in order to get his voice back.

"So I picked this out, for two reasons. Firstly I thought the gem matched your eyes, and secondly because I want you to always know that you're the Queen of my heart and you're my future, or at least, when I think of the future I always see you with me… if that makes sense."

Rowan took the box from him, taking the ring out and sliding it onto her ring finger and then stared at it on her finger. "You… the man with commitment issues… bought me a promise ring? And don't you try to tell me it's not a promise ring, cause it is."

"No it is. It's a promise ring, like 100% a promise ring," he told her, taking her hand and holding it tightly. God if just seeing a promise ring on her finger could twist his gut up with that possessive pride, what the hell would an actual engagement ring do to him? "It may take a while, cause I suck at this, I really do, but I promise, by this ring I promise, that one day, even if it seems like I'm taking too long or being stupid, you're the girl I'm going to grow old with. You're the girl I'm going to eventually marry."

Rowan smiled up at him tears in those beautiful sky blue eyes of hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down for a kiss. "You're really kicking up the romance these days, McGarrett," she whispered. "Did Danny help you?"

"No," he growled against her lips, but when Rowan just smirked he said: "Okay, he may have suggested that the song would be a good joke but Kono encouraged the buying of the ring. Uh… I picked it out though…"

"Oh yeah?"

"Okay, Kono helped me pick it out," he amended. "But that was just the type of ring, she suggested the tiara part, I was always going to get that sky blue sapphire for you, cause you know… your eyes…"

Rowan just mhmmmed at him and kissed him all over. "Keep this up McGarrett and I'll let you pull out the cuffs tonight," she whispered and her lips trailing down his jawline to his neck and then his collarbones. Fuck his girl. She knew just how to get him going.

"You didn't answer my question Ro," he whispered to her, after he managed to pull her mouth back up to his so he could claim her.

"What question?"

"I asked you to be my girlfriend, and you've kind of left me hanging…"

"Of course I will," she said to him. "You didn't need a ring to get me to agree to that. I was going to stay even if you didn't want me to."

She kissed him again and Steve swore his heart had tripled in size. Why did he think she'd say anything else but that?

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Nahele had been clear, he had wanted to carpool home with his new friends. Though both Steve and Rowan had wanted to go and meet him they had played it cool and stayed home like he wanted. Steve wanted to say that he was playing it more cool than Rowan, on the whole waiting for Nahele to come home front, but the fact of the matter was that she was sitting on the couch reading a wedding magazine and flagging pages for Kono while he kept going to the door every time he thought he heard a car.

"He will get here when he gets here," Rowan said absently as Steve pulled back the curtains again to check if there was a car pulling into the driveway.

"The school's not that far away, why is it taking so long?"

"Uh… the kids have to get off the bus, collect their bags, say bye to all their friends, the parents have to make idle chit chat while the kids pile into the car and then they'll head off. Patience, McGarrett, he'll get here when he gets here, and you checking the windows every ten seconds will not make the time go faster."

Steve huffed at her but came away from the window to sit beside her. She curled into his side and he peered over at the magazine she was looking over.

"Is that all for… uh… Kono?" he asked.

Rowan smiled up at him. "Don't worry I'm not planning anything involving me and you," she told him before kissing him quickly and then turning back to her magazine. They were settled for five minutes, Rowan calmly reading and Steve's foot tapping away while his fingers twisted the ends of her hair around, before a car door slammed and Steven nearly threw her off of him to jump towards the door.

By the time he was disentangled and standing up, Nahele was in the house, dropping all his bags to the floor. Steve pulled the boy in for a hug and once he was done Rowan was sweeping him aside.

"Let me look at you," she was saying. "I swear you grew three more inches while you were gone."

"I was only gone a week, mo… Ro," he said covering his slip up quickly. He had been slipping up on that a lot since Rowan's last injury. And just like when Steve slipped up with that I love you he was still uncomfortable with, Rowan just let it gloss on past like it hadn't happened.

Nahele still hadn't slipped up on calling him Dad, and though he tried not to be upset about it, he couldn't help it, because no matter what he did, Rowan was always the person Nahele was the most excited to see.

"Wait… what… what happened to your face?" Nahele asked, his fingers coming up to Rowan's face. Rowan winced before they even got there.

"Oh that. That's a work injury. Got brained by a door," she said. Nahele opened his mouth but Rowan waved him off. "Don't worry about it. I don't work there anymore. Figured once the doors were trying to take me out, it was time for me to move on."

He seemed to take that in, before turning to Steve for confirmation. Rowan and Steve had decided to tone down the stories of their daily activities, especially if they were life threatening as they had noticed it was giving Nahele anxiety. Problem was, the kid had figured out that they were doing that and now no longer trusted what they said to him. But Steve smiled and he seemingly dropped it. Well, for now at least.

"You hungry?" she asked him but he shook his head.

"Naw, I'm tired actually," he answered. "I know I just got back but I was hoping I could just go to sleep?"

"Sure thing."

"Did uh… did anything interesting happen while I was gone? You know other than the… work injury?"

Rowan and Steve exchanged glances, immediately concerned about what had been reported and what he had heard. "No, not really why?"

"Oh I unno, cause Rowan's sporting some sparkly knew hardware."

Rowan looked down to the ring on her finger and laughed. "Oh no, this is a promise ring. He just made me his girlfriend, like officially," she said. "It's pretty though isn't it?"

Nahele looked down at it, took in all the sparkle and shine and then turned a patient smile back to her as he agreed on the prettiness of the ring, and then turned a sarcastic smile onto Steven. "Oh look at you, settling down, took you long enough. It's uh… it's not an apology for something is it?"

He pinned them both with a dark glare and Steve realized that Nahele thought that he had hit Rowan. What the actual fuck?

"No… eh… well kinda," Rowan said. "Since Steve was such a pain in the ass about getting to this steps he thought a pretty ring would make me feel better. And it totally does."

Steve scowled at him but at Rowan's giant smile Nahele seemingly relented. "That's great. Seriously congratulations." He looked at the two of them. "Can I go to bed?"

"Sure, but take your bags up with you," Rowan said and he did as he was told, as he was up the stairs she called out: "And put anything dirty in the wash ASAP."

He called out an okay and then as soon as he was out of sight she turned onto Steve with a knowing stare and said: "Steven, go talk to him."

Steve was confused, why would she want him to do that? "What? Why? He just got home. He's said he's tired, if you wanted me to talk to him why did you send him upstairs?"

"He's covered in hickeys, Steven."

Oh hot damn, had he been? Fuck Steve hadn't noticed. Yeah that was a big-ticket item. Though to be fair, he remembered getting some necking action on his overnight trips with Kukui High too when he was Nahele's age. It would also give him the time to talk to Nahele about why the hell the kid thought he would hit Rowan, though he had a feeling it had something to do with the guys his mother used to date when he was younger. "Oh… yeah, okay, on it."

As he headed up the stairs, he couldn't help but smile. He had himself a proper girlfriend. He had the kid that he got to play dad to, he was even excited for the little chat they were going to have. He couldn't wait for the groans when Steve would point out the marks on his neck. Steve found that even though he hadn't been doing it long he liked where he had ended up, and he hoped things stayed like this for a long time after.