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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Hello my wonderful readers! Today is my last day of vacation. I'm only telling you as tomorrows update might be late as well, as tomorrow I'll be flying back and I might pass out when I get home. For the next two chapters I believe we'll be seeing more of Steve. You'll notice that I'll be alternating between whatever it is Rowan is doing and the episodes. Sooner or later they're going to start crossing paths again closer to the end of the season. I will tell you that shortly after our special chapter at the end of the marathon we will be getting the actual Christmas chapter, which means I'm about a quarter of the way through this season. So… though it might feel like it's dragging on, we're actually flying through this. Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you tomorrow.

Chapter 227

Nahele woke up that day thinking that nothing was going to be much different.

Other than his whole life had been derailed. Other than he was living a life that should have been awesome but he couldn't help but feel guilty for liking it so much. How much worse could his day get when every now and then he was reminded that he wasn't supposed to be happy, he was supposed to miss Rowan and Steve?

He went downstairs to find Brandi attempting to make eggs. He really wished she wouldn't do that, the woman couldn't boil water. He kept asking her to let Kong hire a chef but she was determined to be the perfect house wife, that could bake and clean and make breakfast and dinner. And she looked the part, with her curled blonde hair, her little house wife dresses and the vintage bubble gum pink and polka dotted apron.

But Brandi couldn't bake, or cook or clean. All she could really do was shop and tan. But boy was she good at those two things.

As soon as he could, he pushed Brandi aside, took the smoking pan and then dropped it into sink she had filled prior to this and for this inevitable failure. She apologized a bunch of times but Nahele just smiled at her. She meant well and he knew that.

He picked up a granola bar, got a twenty-dollar bill slipped into his palm from Kong so he could get a better breakfast on the way to school.

At school he felt less guilty. At school he could pretend that he was regular kid, that at the end of the school day he could go to Kamekona's for his shift and then at some point Rowan's purple GTO would drive up and that meant he could go home to Rowan and Steve and homework and snacks. And if he was lucky, if he was really good, a camp out fire, Rowan's playing the guitar, s'mores and him and Steve throwing the pig skin around.

Instead Kong's Escalade would show up, and he'd get to go back to the Liang's mansion, where he could play Halo in the theater room with Kong, eat take out since Brandi would have destroyed whatever dish she had attempted to make, complete his homework in a specially designed room, that Brandi had Feng Shui-ed to help his motivation, his creativity and his concentration, and falling asleep in a bed who's sheets were more expensive than half the things in the room that he and Steve had put together.

Though he missed the room he had at Steve's, knew he slept better in his room at Steve's. Though he missed Rowan more than anything, and the little family they had created there. He had gotten used to the Liang house, had started to like the Liang house.

At first it was for selfish reasons. He loved the giant theater room, where he and his friends could play Halo and watch movies on this giant hi-def screen. He loved the Brandi and Kong were willing to just leave the house to let him throw parties. Something they wanted him to do to help him make more friends at school. Granted he had thrown a few, but he didn't like the friends he made at those parties, they only liked him for the stuff his foster parents had.

The real problem was he had started to like Brandi and Kong. Granted there was nothing wrong with either of them, but for as long as he could he had held the fact that they weren't Rowan or Steven against them. It wasn't fair to them, to hold them to that standard. But he also didn't think it was right to just… replace Steven and Rowan with them either. He had been having a hard-enough time with just contemplating that he might love Rowan as much as he had loved his real mother.

Regardless the Liang's were nice people. Brandi was always trying so hard to be a good wife and mother. They had started a cooking class together, where on the weekends they'd go and learn a new dish, and one night during the week they'd make that dish together with Kong. It would be the only meal that week that would be edible AND made by Brandi. And Kong was super chill and understanding about everything. There were rules, of course, and things Nahele knew not to do, but he didn't get mad if Nahele messed up.

Nahele had scratched the vintage Rolls Royce in the garage once taking out the trash and though Kong cried when he saw it, Nahele didn't get yelled at. Accidents happen, he had said. Just be more careful next time. Though it definitely helped that Nahele had owned up to it immediately.

But it was when he was at work, cleaning off the tables for the paying customers so they were nice and clean like Kamekona liked, that the day went from the normal derailed to the complete disaster derailed.

And it started when he showed up.

He had tried to talk to Nahele like nothing was wrong, like he could just get out of jail and pick things up where they had left off. He had been out for months now, why the hell did he care now? Why did he have to show up now? Why couldn't he have shown up before when nothing could have happened cause Rowan and Steve would have run this man out of town. More Rowan than Steve, but Steve would have let it happen, pretending to be mad and lecturing Rowan and everything while secretly being happy she did it.

He let him come up and talk to him, got through a few pleasantries out of respect alone, and then the conversation spiralled when he told Nahele what he wanted. And then Nahele tried to walk away. But he wasn't going to let him.

"Hey! Hey! Don't go anywhere until I'm finished talking to you!" he cried but Nahele just wanted to run, he didn't want to talk to him anymore. He had grabbed him, hard, and Nahele had to rip his arm out of his grasp. He wasn't a child anymore and he wasn't going to let this asshole bully him.

"Step back. Honestly, get back. Seriously, back off," he kept repeating it hopefully trying to get this man to go away."

Kamekona was suddenly by his side. The man moved quickly and soundlessly when he wanted to. He glared down at him and put himself half in between him and Nahele. Yeah, get past that, asshole.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, is there a problem?"

He sized Kamekona up before saying: "Just having a private conversation."

Kamekona put a finger in his face to shut him up. "Bruh, I don't know you. I'm speaking to Nahele," he said before turning away. "Are you okay or do I need to enforce my right to refuse service?"

Nahele was going to say yes, no, no, maybe he'd say no. He wasn't sure what he was going to say and when he paused for too long because he simply pivoted away, clearly to escape the domineering glare from Kamekona.

"Just think about what I said," he said to him before finally turning away. But Nahele didn't want to think about it because he didn't want it to happen.

"Who was that lolo?" Kamekona asked once he was gone.

"My father," Nahele said but left it at that. He didn't want to talk about it.

Nahele wanted to go home, his real home. To the people who had always protected him before. He wanted the woman he felt was his mom now, and the man he wished was his real dad. He wanted Rowan and Steve.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Not long after his father left, Nahele was picked up by Kong. His shift wasn't over, but Kong had said there was a family emergency and then he pulled Nahele away.

Nahele had heard the words family emergency way too often while in the McGarrett-Pierce household. So as soon as Kong said it, Nahele asked who was in the hospital.

It had won him a strange look, but it was how he found out that the emergency wasn't Kong or Brandi or any of their relatives. It was him.

Kong and Brandi had gotten a call from Brenda Dean, saying that Nahele's father was going to petition for custody. Nahele had gotten a letter that said the same thing, Brandi had opened it after the call.

When they got home, Brandi was all over him. Holding onto him, sobbing like only Brandi could and demanding that Kong do something.

Kong responded by hacking into the CPS mainframe to get the online version of Nahele's casefile. What amazed Nahele was that he did it within fifteen minutes, didn't even crack a sweat. Kinda less cool that Kong needed his glasses now to read the screen, which he kept perched on the tip of his nose as he squinted down them to read the file.

It summed up to one thing. Nahele's father had been interviewed, assessed and vetted. As far as CPS was concerned this was a done deal, barring any monumental confessions at the court hearing.

Nahele sat in the wake of this, he could lose the secondary stable home he found. He had lucked out finding two in the first place. Now he was going to lose his second home, to live with his father! He really, really, really didn't want to live with his father.

"Wait… so he could… he could actually take him away?" Brandi cried after digesting the file that Kong had read. "I mean come on, I thought that was just something that happened in movies! We're obviously the better fit here, why the hell would they want to send him home with a convict?"

As opposed to with Kong who was a criminal hacker. Nahele looked to Kong who looked lost, and then to Brandi who looked like she was going to cry again. Already he was resigning himself to leaving, to being forced to leave.

He put a hand out to her shoulder to comfort her. "Look, it's okay, Brandi," he said. "Now you can get that younger kid you want."

Brandi turned her big blue eyes onto him, gasping in horror. "That is not what I want!" she shouted and hen whirled away.

Kong sighed as she stormed off, sobbing dramatically as Brandi was prone to doing while Nahele sat in front of his cooling chicken too nervous to eat.

"Hey, hey," Kong said putting a hand out to his hand, resting his right on top of Nahele's closed fist. "We'll fight this, okay? I promise. You want to stay here, we want you to stay here, we'll figure it out."

It was something Rowan would have said. Just as vague, just as ominous. And a little glimmer of hope sparked up in Nahele's chest.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

He got a text from Steve the following day. Requesting a meet up after school. Nahele had an inkling what it had to be about. And even though he was starting to feel like it was a chore to visit Steve he still agreed, because he felt like he was made of nothing but sorrow, anguish and turmoil, and maybe Steve could help him.

He went to the beach, sat down on "their" bench and then waited, the letter he had gotten in his hand. He kept opening and closing it, like if he did it would change. Steve arrived a few minutes later, a nervous sort of smile on his face.

"Hey," he said coming to sit beside him. "How you doing?"

"Good," he lied. Though, judging by the look on his face, he had a feeling he knew why Steve had asked him to meet up after school.

"I heard your father visited you yesterday."

"Who told you Kong or Kamekona?"

"Got a call from both actually," Steve said. "Kong sounds quite frantic. He's really gotten attached to you huh?"

Nahele nodded. "They both have. They're nice. I know his background isn't you know… squeaky clean… but uh… they're really nice."

Steve nodded clearly trying to not look disappointed by that. It wasn't the first time Nahele had said something to that affect but Steve's reaction to those words always looked painful. "Look… you uh… you wanna talk about it? Your father, not Kong."

Nahele almost laughed, that Steve felt he needed to differentiate between the two as if Nahele wouldn't know.

"There's not much to say, they sent this in the mail earlier this week," he said showing him the paper he had worried to death. The creases were so deeply dug in that they were dangerously close to splitting.

Steve took the paper from him and looked it over. "He wants custody."

"I haven't seen him since I was 8," Nahele told him. "He thinks because he writes a couple of letters from prison and says he's sorry that still makes him my father. And now I gotta live with this guy."

"This is a court hearing. You know that, right?" he asked. "Nothing's been decided yet."

Yeah but Steve didn't know the system. They were all about reuniting families and all that bullshit. And if he had really got a call from Kong, hadn't he told Steve that it was already a done deal?

"I'd rather be back on the streets tan be with him."

That was a heavy thing to say because Nahele hated living on the streets. Hated being dirty, tired and hungry all the time.

A million different emotions passed over Steve's face, he opened and closed his mouth and pivoted his body a bunch of times. He was trying to decide what to say, he was nervous, probably picking up on Nahele's own nervousness.

"No chance he's changed?"

Benefit of the doubt, really? Steve was going to try to give this guy the benefit of the doubt when he had been damn near ready to crucify and arrest Kong on the spot just for accidentally taking him in? Okay so he hadn't accidentally taken him in, but that's what Steve had thought… still thought.

Nahele wanted to call him out, but they had been treading on eggshells since he got taken away. Every time he saw Steve it was all about having fun, they barely talked about anything important anymore. And Nahele didn't want to hurt Steve's feelings by telling him how he felt sort of abandoned… like Steve didn't really try to keep him, because if the only reason they took him away was Five-0, he could have just… cut his hours, or something. But Nahele wasn't as important as Five-0, and Steve was hurting so bad over Rowan even if he was pretending that he was fine, that Nahele just let it go.

Still he shook his head and whispered: "No," to Steve so he knew that this was bad, and maybe a little bit to convince him to do something about it.

And when he saw Steve nod he knew, right away, that he got it, and with Steve on it, maybe everything would turn out okay.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steve thought his week was going to revolve around a professor no one liked ending up dead and eaten by pigs. He thought his week was going to have Danny undercover at the university, filling in for the dead professor, as Professor Jeffries, while his nephew Eric posed as a student.

He was not expecting a call from Kamekona saying that Nahele's father had shown up and was hassling him. And he definitely was not expecting Kong to call and say that the same Father of Nahele was petitioning for custody and might take him away. Kong's call had been a little bit more worrying because there was an underlying threat. Steve needed to fix it or Kong was going to turn monstrous and hack his way through the man's life and destroy him.

Steve hadn't wanted to jump into action. Nahele was strictly his kid anymore, but that didn't mean he didn't care. And the second he saw Nahele's fearful face he knew that he was going to jump right into this situation. Which was why he was driving up to that construction site at that very moment instead of helping to chase up leads with the rest of the team.

He waited until he spotted the guy he was looking for. Nahele's dad. It hadn't taken much to find him. Ran him through Five-0's smart table and he got everything he needed to on the guy. Steve quickly hopped out of the truck and started towards Nahele's father before he could get too far away.

"Kaili Huikala?" Steve asked stopping the smaller more wiry guy from walking away. Steve could see some of Nahele in him, but he must have gotten most of his looks from his mother, and definitely his height cause this guy was tiny.

"Yeah?"

"I'm Steve McGarrett," he said offering him a hand to shake.

"I've been meaning to reach out to you," Kaili said. Wow, that would have been a dumb move, but maybe it would have been better to have Steve scare him away before freaking poor Nahele out. "I heard you've been lookin' out for my son."

"He's a great kid," Steve told him.

"Yeah he is…"

"Look, uh… I'm sure you heard but, uh… for a while there he was living with me and my… yeah… kinda think of him as my own, you know?"

Kaili took that in and he nodded. "Yeah, I heard that too," he admitted. "Not gonna lie, if she was still around… probably wouldn't have reached out at all. Probably would have just let you have him, don't wanna think about what she would have done if I were trying to take him away from her."

Steve half laughed. Yeah if Rowan were here that guy would be quaking. Hell if he had been petitioning to get Nahele from Rowan he might have already been dead.

"Yeah you're lucky. If it were her you wouldn't have a pulse right now," he said.

Kaili nodded not laughing or smiling like Steve was. "But I'm guessing you didn't come all the way down here to tell me all that. I'm guessing you got an ulterior motive."

Yes he did, no point in lying. "Well, you're right," he admitted. "I wanted to talk to you about Nahele's well-being actually, he's uh… he came to me a little upset."

"Look man… I'm grateful for what you did. Seriously, thank you for taking care of my kid…"

"Again, I did a lot more than that. I was there for him, I know what he been going through the last year and a bit. I picked up the pieces and I can appreciated that maybe you would have done the same if you were out at the time, but you weren't," Steve snapped. "I know you think this custody case is the best thing for him but with all due respect, I think you're wrong."

"I appreciate that you're concerned, but Nahele's my son.

"Yeah but he doesn't wanna be with you right now, Kaili."

"But he wants to be with you, right?' Kaili asked. "I heard what happened, I know you lost custody of him. Should you really be out here judging me on what's good for my son, when the system already deemed you not good for my son?"

Wow. Wow. Kaili was about to get punched. But as angry as Steve was, he did have a point. He really didn't have any right to be out there, other than he cared about Nahele and he could tell that he was really upset about this and desperately wanted someone to save him from it.

"I'm sorry for that," Kaili whispered after a moment of silence. "I didn't mean it to come off that way. You see, when I went away, he was just a little boy. I let him down, and I know he's mad at me for that. I don't blame him. But I wanna make things right."

"I get that. But he's a runner and if you come at him too hard, you're gonna push him away. That trust is gonna take time to earn, and I'm worried he'll end up putting himself into a dangerous situation to get away from you."

"I already lost out on six years with him. That was all my fault. I'm the one who committed those robberies. But I'm a different man now. All I want to do is prove it to him. That boy is all the family I got. And it might be easier for him to accept if you'd stop butting your nose in."

"You're right, I'm sorry if you think I over stepped my bounds," he said. "But uh… Just a word of warning… you better hope, Rowan doesn't find out." At Kaili's confused look Steve added: "She may not be talking to me but I hear she's still talking to the kid."

It was a bold-faced lie but it was enough to scare Kaili, and maybe, if he was lucky just Rowan's name would be enough to convince this guy to back off and leave their kid alone.

Once Kaili had walked away and Steve was in his truck, he opened up his phone and called Kong back. The man picked up on the first ring.

"Did you see him? Did you scare him off? Is he gonna revoke the petition?" a feminine voice asked him and Steve paused cause that wasn't Kong, which meant…

"Hi Brandi," Steve said warmly. Damn the woman was just as much a Pitbull as Rowan.

"Don't you hi Brandi me like I'm gonna go weak at the knees for the smirk in your face. It only works for Kong. Now you tell me what you did? You got him to back off, right? Right?"

"Can I talk to Kong please?" Steve asked and then swore that he could hear Brandi's scowl. But there was a soft argument between Brandi and Kong and then she must have relented the phone to him.

"Sorry, she grabbed my phone out of the office," he said. "Not sure if you already gave her the low down but what are the chances you can do it again for me?"

"Didn't get a chance to give her anything," Steve said. "But uh… I did speak to Kaili you know about Nahele and his case, but uh… he seems intent on doing this. Couldn't quite talk him out of it."

There was a heavy sigh from Kong and then he said: "Yeah, I forgot Rowan was the man of action in your household."

"I am too a man of action," Steve snapped. "I'm just bound by the law, and you know that." The two were silent for a moment. And Steve sighed, because he had a back up plan that he wanted to enact. He just wasn't sure how this was gonna go over. "Look, I know I probably shouldn't do this but uh… what are the chances you can call Ro and just… just ask her what she's dreaming right now…"

"Can't call Ro, she doesn't have a phone."

Then why the hell did Wo Fat steal her phone back then? How had she been calling him before? "Okay so call Fat and ask him."

"Don't think I can do that either."

"Why not?"

"Because she doesn't know. And if she doesn't know he's not going to ask her cause that's all your girl does, is ask questions and…"

"Wait… doesn't know what?"

"Anything. Look I can call him but I make no promises alright?"

"Kay, if you get a hold of him, just ask him what she's dreaming, he'll understand."

"That is the weirdest request…" "Just trust me okay?"

Kong sighed but agreed and then the call was over. Steve sat in his truck feeling crappy and a lot like he failed Nahele again. He never should have told Rowan to stop calling. Cause if she were, he'd have told her what was happening. Because Nahele was right, she would have come home to fix this if she knew.