Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Hello my wonderful readers. It's the last update of the 12 Days of Christmas Marathon! And can I just say: Merry Christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate) to each and every one of you. I'm so grateful for all of you, all my readers, my favouriters and my followers. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed in the past, and all the guests and everyone else who has checked this story out. This chapter that I have prepared for you is nothing but fluff. There is literally no angst, just happy things for you to read. I hope you enjoy this chapter, have a wonderful holiday, don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys on Friday!

Chapter 230

*So what we have here is last year's Christmas. The one where Steve and Rowan are still together, the one where he gave her the locket for Christmas. I know that seems so very long ago but I thought we could visit something cute for the first time in a little while. Just a little bit of Ro and Steve being cute again since you guys miss it! So if you're interested, this chapter would come after chapter 152.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

It was Christmas.

Steve knew it. But he also knew that the reason he was awake was because he was alone in bed. Steve found himself sitting up. He looked around, though he knew that she wasn't there, just to confirm that she was, in fact, not in the room with him. He listened to the house. Someone was downstairs in the kitchen, so he figured that was where she was. But he couldn't figure out why she was there and not with him?

Granted the two of them had argued over Rowan's mysterious phone call at Danny's Christmas party the night before but he didn't think that mean that she wouldn't be there with him in the morning. He had thought they had gone to bed on a good note. They had had sex, cuddled and then fell asleep in each other's arms.

So why had she left?

Sighing Steve left his bed, pulled on his sweatpants and headed down the stairs. He figured going downstairs without a shirt would help him with whatever argument they were about to have but when he got downstairs Rowan was just in the kitchen.

She was wearing a Santa hat, a black and white ugly Christmas sweater that read Merry Christmas you filthy animal, her black short shorts, and in her hands were two mugs of her famous cocoa. One in a Santa mug, and one in a Mrs. Claus mug.

"Merry Christmas Steve," she whispered. It would have been merrier if he had woken up with her in bed. He whispered Merry Christmas back at her and her head tilted back to the side. "Where's your Christmas sweater? I left it for you at the foot of our bed."

"I didn't…" he started. He meant to say he didn't see it, as he was too busy worrying why the two were arguing again. But then that might open up the conversation to an actual argument, and luckily, she just interrupted him anyway.

"Okay, well you go put it on, I'll keep your cocoa warm. I've got the French Toast Casserole all baked and ready to go, I've got it in the oven to keep warm…"

Steve had moved forward, his arms reaching not for the mugs but for her. He got a hold of her face, ready to kiss her.

"No, Steven I have two mugs filled with hot cocoa I'm gonna spill them all over you… and you're shirtless…"

But he didn't care and he didn't let her put them down either. He swooped in, framing her face with his hands and kissed her. He pulled her close to him so he could feel her against him, a little disappointed that she couldn't hold him back. She was holding two mugs of cocoa though, hot cocoa, out to the side so they wouldn't get on his bared skin.

"I'll go change, just don't start without me."

He rushed up the stairs happy that this wasn't an argument. Rowan was just getting everything ready. This year was all about Pierce Family traditions, but next year, and he knew there would be a next year, he was going to introduce McGarrett Family traditions. Actually, he wasn't certain he actually had family traditions, not happy one anyway. But maybe, with Rowan's help, he'd make new ones. All traditions had to start somewhere right?

He threw on his own Navy Seal sweater, ran a finger through his salt-sticky hair and then rushed back downstairs. He took the Santa mug that Rowan had offered him and then together they sat down in front of the tree, both cross legged. Rowan immediately began looking for a Christmas gift for the two of them.

"We used to get all dressed up for presents. We'd put on silly Christmas hairbands and hats. We'd wear fuzzy reindeer slippers and our ugly sweaters and we'd take turns opening presents. Mom would shout out rules like… eldest opens first, smartest opens last, stuff like that. That started because me and Trevor would always argue over who got to open the next gift and in what order. I doubt we'll have to do that today though… right?"

She was babbling, she did that when she was nervous though god only knew what she had to be nervous about. She had told him over and over that she didn't want him to be disappointed as her big ticket item had gotten delayed in the mail, and in response Steve had told her over and over that he didn't care. He got to have her for Christmas, they were together, properly together, for the first Christmas ever. That was more than enough.

His eyes found that shimmer of gold around her wrist. She was still wearing that flat gold bar bracelet, the one with the coordinates she said belonged somewhere in Victoria BC, but he knew were actually somewhere in Hawaii. Was that why she was worried? Because she thought he was going to start an argument about it? But he wasn't going to argue about that because around her neck was that golden seashell he had given her yesterday and that mattered more.

"Okay, I have one for you from Danny," she said offering it to him. Steve smiled and handed her one that he had.

"And I have one for you from me."

Rowan took the gift offered and he took his own, once the present was in front of him she said, with a giant grin on her face: "Okay… ready… steady… RIP IT APART!"

And with his own giant grin he began to rip the wrapping off of what he already knew was probably going to be a Women's Day magazine subscription and a gift card to some sort of ammo shop on the island.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

With the presents unwrapped and partially tried on, or played with, and their pieces of French Toast Casserole eaten, the couple returned to the couch with their barely touched mugs of cocoa to bask in the perfectness of that morning.

Rowan sighed, contently nestled into Steve's sighed. So far this was shaping up to be the first perfect Christmas since she had got here. She hadn't accidentally drugged herself. She hadn't ended up in the hospital. She wasn't forced to be away from Steve and his friends. She got it all that year. She had her friends, her health, her soberness and her Steve.

She smiled up to him and found that he was smiling down at her. She often wondered what he was thinking about when he got that soft look about him. A soft sort of look she knew was directed at her, but was too afraid to ask him about.

Steven McGarrett did not do well talking about his feelings and she didn't want to scare him away.

Especially since she was still wearing that golden bracelet that Wo Fat had given her, and she didn't want him to deflect and feelings related questions onto arguing about where she got the bracelet and what it really meant.

Instead Rowan said: "I wondered… I wondered if maybe you wanted to try something new this Christmas." Steve chuckled at her.

"Even more new then all the Pierce Family Traditions you've introduced this Christmas?"

"Well… I mean… I don't want to just do my stuff this Christmas, but I got so focused on everything I forgot to ask what your family used to do," she told him. "What did you guys used to do for Christmas? Is there anything that me and you could do together?"

There was a sharp intake of breath from the man she was curled into and suddenly he was quite stiff beneath her. She glanced up to him again and fond that he was no longer looking at her.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah… uh… I'm fine," he said. "Uh… I unno, I guess… I guess we had normal Christmases. You know? Presents, Christmas trees, turkey, that sort of stuff."

"Okay, well was there anything I could do? Maybe make turkey the way your mom did?"

"It was just generic turkey, Rowan," he answered. He wasn't smiling anymore, he didn't look happy and she realized that maybe, maybe the McGarrett's didn't have a rich Christmas Tradition like the Pierce's did.

"Okay… okay… well how about we make a new tradition, huh?" Rowan said putting a hand to his knee. "Something new, something neither of us have ever done before. Something that can be ours. I mean… traditions have to start somewhere right?"

Steve turned to her, surprise lighting his features. "I was actually thinking just that this morning," he said. "Honestly, I was."

Rowan smiled at him and he smiled back. "Okay. So. What do you want to do? What do you want to make our tradition?" she asked him.

Only then did he fall quiet. Together they stayed quiet as they thought about it.

"We could volunteer at a food kitchen," Steve said.

"This sounds horrible, but I never do well around homeless people," she started but Steve laughed.

"You're not good with strangers in general, it was just a thought," Steve offered and Rowan laughed. Sometimes it surprised her how well Steven knew her.

"How about we volunteer at an animal shelter?" she said, a nice counter offer.

"I'd love to, but knowing you, you'd fall in love with a cat and then bam, we'd have a cat," he told her and she nodded. Yep he definitely knew her well.

Rowan thought a little moment longer before turning to him and asking: "Does it have to be altruistic? Or can we do something like surfing?"

"You're not allowed in the ocean anymore, remember?"

"Doesn't mean I can't watch from the shore."

Steve made a small face at her, half a grimace and she nodded. Alright, well, she guessed that meant he wanted something that they could do together, most likely something altruistic as their new tradition.

That left her wondering what was something that both of them enjoyed that they could do together. What was something that they were both passionate about that they could volunteer their time or their money at?

Her eyes fell on the handmade picture frame that Grace had made them and a lightbulb went off in her head.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

The first thing Rowan did, after Steve agreed to the plan, was to call the Children's hospital to get the exact number of children that would be on the ward that day. Once they had the number, she called in a favour with a toy store owner who owed a lot of money to her brother. Despite not talking being on good terms with Wo Fat at that time, she still managed to convince the man to open his shop up for them.

They got the gifts, even though Rowan was certain that she was being charged at least double what she should have been, then they took them to the nearest mall to be wrapped. And while they were being wrapped Rowan managed to procure two elf costumes to complete the whole look.

They arrived at the children's hospital by the mid afternoon with their satchel of toys and met with the Santa that the hospital had hired for the day. They then spent the rest of the day helping Santa hand out toys to the sick children on every ward. The emergencies, the cancer ward, the burn ward, all of them.

The kids had been so excited and happy and their parents had been very appreciative. It was enough to put unshed tears in Rowan's eyes and Steve hadn't stopped smiling once.

By the time they got home, they were too tired for the traditional turkey meal, so Steve ordered the in pizza to share. They changed out of their elf costumes and into something more comfortable and then waited on the couch while they waited for their pizza, too tired to do anything except cuddle. When it arrived, they sat themselves back down on the couch and feasted in amicable silence.

When the pizza was done and Rowan had finished making them hot cocoa to eat their piparcookgid with. She curled up into Steve's side and sighed contentedly.

"Well… what do you think?" she asked. "A good Christmas tradition?"

"A wonderful Christmas tradition," Steve whispered. "Next year… next year we'll prepare better."

"Maybe we can do all three next year," Rowan offered. "Donate food to a soup kitchen, go to a shelter in the morning and then kids in the afternoon?"

"Sounds ambitious. How about we do one a year and we rotate through which one we do each year," he said and Rowan couldn't help but grin because it meant that he was thinking way a head in the future and she was still there with him.

"I really like that idea," she said snuggling closer to him. She wrapped her arms around his chest and held onto him tightly, wanting nothing more than to hold onto him for rest of their lives. Steve wrapped an arm around her and pressed a kiss into her hair, holding onto her just as tightly.

They fell silent once more, both dreaming of future Christmases and how wonderful they could be.

*What we have here is the season 7 Christmas Special. So, this will take place after Rowan and Steve get married in season 7 of the show. So this will take place after Episode 12. At this point, Rowan has already adopted Nahele, as she does that earlier on in the season, so that's where this part of the story comes from.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

As their first official Christmas as a family, a newly reunited family, Rowan brought Pierce Family traditions back to Christmas and Steve would have to grin and bear it. This was Nahele's first proper Christmas with them and Rowan had wanted it to be a happy one. The McGarrett's did not have happy family traditions, so Steve went with Rowan's. Even though they were geared towards a Canadian winter.

Ugly Christmas Sweaters and hot chocolate. Was she trying to give them heat stroke?

It wasn't all going to be Pierce Family traditions. Rowan and Steve had packed up enough food to feed an army and they were going to deliver it to the homeless shelter after they were done unwrapping presents and eating the French toast casserole that Rowan was famous for.

They all sat together on the couch, Rowan was in a black and white Home Alone chunky knit sweater that read Merry Christmas you Filthy animal and Steve was in his navy blue chucky sweater with the seal in a Christmas hat on it. Nahele was in a Star Wars Christmas sweater that was grey with a white storm trooper wearing red antlers. He was busy opening all of his presents, while Rowan and Steve watched. Steve had an arm around Rowan's shoulders and was holding her close while spinning his wedding ring around his finger.

He still couldn't believe that he was married to her. It had only been a month but it still felt so very new.

Rowan had gone overboard with the gifts for Nahele. She got him new games for his PlayStation, a new baseball bat and glove, a football to throw around with Steve, toys she thought he missed out on when he was a kid and way too many chocolates and candies.

But there was one present Steve was waiting for. One that he was waiting for Nahele to pick up, he was practically on pins and needles over this. He and Rowan had talked about this after they got married, and since Christmas was coming up they decided to make it a Christmas gift. They had gotten all the paperwork ready all Nahele had to do was open up that gift and say whether or not he'd want to.

Nahele was trying on the glove when Rowan said. "Kid, come on, focus here. You got one gift left," she said and Steve stiffened as Nahele went for the box.

Rowan clapped a hand to his knee as a sign of solidarity and he welcomed it because it finally occurred to him that Nahele might say no.

He went to work on ripping the wrapping paper off and then prying the thin box open. There nestled on sparkling tissue paper was all the paperwork. Nahele stared at it almost confused.

"Uh… forms?" he asked. "You got me forms?"

"Well read them, silly," she said and Nahele took them out of the box to do that. Steve took his arm off of Rowan's shoulders and sat forward as Nahele eyes scanned the words.

"These are adoption papers," he said in a quiet voice. He looked up to Rowan, he had begun to shake. "But you… uhm… you already adopted me."

"No duh," Rowan said. "Read the names."

He flipped the page over and Steve reached over and grabbed Rowan's hand because this was it.

"Steven J. McGarrett to adopt Nahele Huikala-Pierce." He read out and then looked up to them.

"You… I thought you didn't…" he whispered.

"Course I want to," Steve said. "Rowan and I… we… uh… we talked about it after we got married but since Christmas was only a month away we thought we'd save it for then well… now. Uh… we have… uhm… we have an appointment for the 28th to have a judge sign off uhm… you know… if you want us to."

"But like… you want to… mom isn't like… making you?" Nahele asked his eyes still on the paper.

"Why would you think Ro made me do this?" Steve asked frowning.

"Well… uhm… back when mom adopted me I heard you two arguing about it and mom said that part of the reason she didn't ask you to adopt me with her was because she didn't think you would be comfortable committing to that. You know… cause you have a hard time with feelings and all of that… I mean… don't get me wrong… I know you care about me and I look up to you but you… uh… you seemed more interested in a less involved role," he explained.

Rowan and Steve exchanged a glance, hers conveyed the need for him to talk to Nahele, while his was just a stare of absolute terror. He had no idea that Nahele had even heard that conversation, Rowan and he hadn't been yelling or anything but it had been an argument because Steve had been hurt that Rowan was adopting him without Steve. Like Nahele and Rowan were this little club that he always felt on the outside of.

Steve cleared his throat. "I'm sorry you… uh… you heard that. I uh… that is to say… we didn't…" he stuttered.

Rowan leant forward too. "It's not what you think," she said. "Steve's uhm… Steve's not good at letting people in sweetie."

Steve nodded. "It's alright. I uh… I got this," he said. He turned to Rowan with a pleading look on his face. "Could you maybe… uhm…"

"Oh you want me to go?" she asked. Steve nodded quickly and while Rowan seemed unsure, when Nahele shrugged at her, she got up. "Alright. Uhm… I'll uh… I'll be upstairs. Call me if you need me."

He watched her leave, thinking over carefully what he was going to say. He wasn't good at this, but he couldn't rely on Rowan to convey all of his feelings for him. When she was up the stairs and gone Steve turned back to Nahele.

"She's right… I'm not good at this so bear with me," he said he then clasped his hands together and rested his elbows on his knees. "I've talked about this at length with your mother, she knows all about it but I guess I never actually talked to you about it. To be honest it's… well… it's a bit embarrassing… so try not to judge okay?" When Nahele nodded Steve took a deep breath and just admitted the truth. "Loosing your mother last year ago, broke me."

Nahele blinked his eyes and Steve continued to talk. "Loosing her, thinking she was dead, thinking that she didn't want me, that she was better off with someone else, it broke me, kid. I didn't take it well, and I wasn't the parent you needed me to be and… well… as you know, CPS took you from me. And… I did fight it but they… they said no… and then it was just another person telling me that the person I cared about would be better off without me and I just… I shut down. I should have fought harder, I should have done more than watch you from a distance but I was just so afraid of getting hurt again I pushed everyone away."

"That argument you heard, when your mom adopted you. I was upset, I was upset because Ro hadn't even considered asking me. I was upset because I figured that when I got Rowan back that meant I'd get you back too. That, me and her would do the adopting thing together. She's right. I have a commitment issue, and yeah the thought of taking you on back then kinda scared me but had she thought to ask me then I would have agreed in a heartbeat. But then… well… she essentially implied that she didn't think I was ready, that she wasn't sure if her and I were going to stick together, and we agreed that I'd be your dad off paper and when the time came I'd make it a legal thing."

Nahele got up off the floor where he had been unwrapping his presents and slowly sat down beside Steve. "I know losing mom did a lot of damage to you. But… I lost her too and then I lost you and I… I had no one anymore. I just thought that… maybe… maybe you didn't adopt me when she did because you never wanted me…"

"Of course I want you," Steve muttered bitterly. "It really hurts me to think that you thought that I didn't. I don't know how I ever gave you that impression. I fought so hard to be your foster parent after Rowan went missing. I checked up on you all the time. It was the first thing your mother and I spoke about when it came to consolidating our things. Not that you're a thing or we have to consolidate you. I just mean that… adopting you was the first thing I thought to do."

Nahele was smiling down at his own hands. "It's just that… when it wasn't brought up after the wedding I assumed that you were fine with the way things were and that you didn't need or want to make it official."

"Well I want to… if you want to," Steve said.

"I haven't had a real family in a long time," Nahele said. "I love mom, don't get me wrong, but this… getting you guys back… getting adopted… it's always felt surreal. Like it hadn't really happened. It still feels like she's my foster mom and at any point in time she could send me away."

"Hey… hey," Steve whispered. "We're not… that's not going to happen. Rowan loves you. You know? She has a really odd way of showing it, but she does. She loves you, and she loves me. We're making a family here, her and I and we really… really want you to be a part of it. Officially."

"Okay. Yeah… yeah…" Nahele said throwing Steve a shaky half grin.

Steve smiled at him. "Yeah?" he echoed.

"Yeah, sure. Of course," Nahele said. "I'd love to."

"He said yes!" he called up to the second floor and not seconds later Rowan had hugged him from behind the couch.

"I know I heard," she said, reaching over and grabbing Nahele and squishing him into the hug.

"You didn't go upstairs, did you?" Steve asked, his hand coming up to touch the arm she had around his neck trying to loosen it so he could breathe.

"I did, I just didn't stay upstairs. I couldn't eavesdrop from the landing so I snuck back down," she said. She kissed his cheek and then Nahele's. "Oh, my boys, my boys! I'm so excited for you two!"

Steve laughed, Nahele laughed too. This was the first step to that family he had always wanted. He almost had it all.