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A/N:Happy Friday my wonderful readers! It's the three-hundredth chapter! I can't even believe that we've gotten this far! Can you guys believe it? Seriously I'm still in absolute shock about how far this chapter is come and how much more I still need to write! Well if you guys are down to go on this journey with me than I can promise to keep delivering chapters! In this chapter we've got a major announcement coming. Don't forget to review, I'd love to hear what you think will happen next. And I'll see you guys on Monday!

Chapter 300

Brenda Dean came back into her office after her lunch with a feeling of dread about her. She had three home inspections to do today and three kids she'd have to move out of different houses. One little girl was going to be taken away from her birth mother because her mother had been deemed unfit when it became clear she was using again. Then two little boys were being given back because their new foster family couldn't handle a little mess.

It was sad that no one stuck through things anymore. That people thought they could just try out kids like clothes, or give them back like they were puppies at the pound that had stopped being cute.

She just wanted to sit in her chair for a little while before she went and dashed two little words. She still had some coffee left, she was going to savour it and…

"Hello Brenda."

Brenda actually yelped, she was so surprised by the sudden appearance of this person that she threw up her hands and her to-go coffee cup went flying. She wasn't expecting her own chair to turn. She wasn't expecting someone to be in her chair, let alone be in her office. No one had said she had anyone waiting to meet with her. And she was definitely not expecting to see Rowan Pierce back in the country let alone back in her office.

Brenda looked back at the door she had just shut behind her and then back to Rowan. Dear God she had changed. Her hair was shorter, now at her chin, and dark brown, most likely her natural color. She was dressed so much differently, then she had ever been. Gone were the tight outfits and the short shorts, she looked to be dressed like up in designer outfit. She couldn't see the bottom half but she figured it was a skirt and high heels. But the blouse was of the finest silkiest fabric and she had seen the blazer jacket on sale at Barneys last month and even on sale she couldn't afford it.

"Miss. Pierce what are you doing here?"

"Well Brenda," she said. "I've been on one hell of a wild ride last year and I'd like to rectify a major wrong that has taken place."

Oh, dear this was about Nahele.

"Miss. Pierce… I appreciate your concern but…"

"I want my kid back," she said standing up. Yep she was wearing a pencil skirt and a very expensive pair of shoes. She had definitely mastered that icy glare of hers. Brenda had to give it to her. Rowan always did have a one-track mind where it came to Nahele. Her lazer focus was pinned on that boy and if Brenda knew from experience, she wasn't going to just let this go.

"I'm sorry, Miss. Pierce. But when you abandoned Nahele last year, we found the lifestyle left to him at the hands of Commander McGarrett completely unsuitable for Nahele's needs. So, I'm sorry but we just can't pull Nahele from a good home environment just because your whims of have changed."

Rowan's glare darkened once more and she came from around that desk to glare at her.

"Let me be clear, Miss. Dean. As I said the first time you came in our lives this is not a whim. I literally went through hell and back last year. I had a pair of criminals take turns waterboarding me, electrocuting me, and beating the crap out of me. For Three days! Then my brother lied to me, and ensured me that Nahele was with Steven and his new wife, and I get back and what do I find out? That you guys took Nahele and Steve wasn't married at all!"

That was a lot to take in. And here she was thinking she had just dumped Steven and taken off. There was clearly a bigger story here and one that Brenda had not been privy too. She wondered if Steven had known she was being lied to? She would guess not, seeing as he had practically fallen to pieces after loosing her. Rowan had always been rabid about Nahele, despite all that had happened it was clear that her feelings for her foster child had not changed.

"I think maybe you should sit down," she said and then before Rowan could sit down in Brenda's chair she said: "Nope, over here. I think it's time I got the whole story."

She shouldn't have been pandering to her, she shouldn't be helping her either. Except, Rowan Pierce had always been the one foster parent that was unflappably determined to have that one kid. To her Nahele wasn't a puppy to return when it peed on the rug or a new piece of clothing to try on. And though most of Brenda's job was wresting families apart, she had a feeling that there wasn't a single thing Rowan Pierce wouldn't do to get Nahele back in her custody and it'd be probably be better for her job if she helped her. And it would make her feel better to put a family back together for once.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steve was only out of Rowan's presence for an hour and he sent her six texts. He knew that was pathetic but he couldn't help it. He had literally just wrested her away from Wo Fat, and now he was going about his job like he didn't just manage what should have been impossible. Luckily for him she didn't complain. However, she responded to the first five and then all of a sudden, she stopped answering.

He called her, and she didn't pick up. She sent him a text saying she was in a meeting and she call him in twenty minutes. Then she never called him. Which shouldn't have bothered him so much seeing as he was supposed to be busy trying to figure out how their victim ended up dead in her bathtub. He was certain it was her husband he just wasn't certain how to prove it yet.

Steve came into the palace hanging up his phone. Rowan hadn't picked up again, he had already left her two messages he didn't want to leave a third, but it was also his fifth time calling her where she hadn't picked up.

Granted she had only been radio silent for a two hours, but the irrational part of him was panicking. What if she had left again, what if Wo Fat had come back and taken her?

"Are you okay?" Danny asked.

He could have lied, but he didn't.

"No, Rowan didn't pick up."

"She tell you that she was going to be running errands today. Remember loose ends to tie up so she could properly move back here, and she did say she was in a meeting," he reminded him. All of that was true, of course and she did say she was in a meeting, but what meeting took two hours?

Steve clearly wasn't thinking rationally and that must have shown on his face because Danny sighed and asked: "Alright, what do you think happened then?"

"I unno, what if she's in trouble? What if she's… I unno I… I don't know what happened."

"Okay and what do you want to do? And let me keep in mind that if you start tracking her phone this early after she came back, she'll have trust issues with you again…"

Yeah and Steve didn't want that. "I know… but I…"

"You want to go looking," Danny finished for him, but that wasn't why Steve had paused.

Granted he did, very much want to go looking for Rowan, but the reason he had paused was because there she was, his Rowan waving at him from the door to his office. She was there, she was in the Palace.

He quickly went around Danny who was listing all the places they could start looking for her. He rushed to Rowan's side, immediately lifting her up in a giant hug. Normally, before her year long disappearance, she would wrap her who body around him, arms, legs, like she was climbing him. Granted she probably couldn't have done that in the skirt she was wearing, but the fact that he didn't get the whole-body hug when he lifted her feet off the ground, was a little disappointing.

But he refused to dwell on that right at that moment.

"What are you doing here?" he asked hugging her tightly. Rowan pressed a quick kiss to his lips and his grip tightened.

"Well I saw that I missed a couple calls after I got out of my last meeting, and I figured, since it was just across the street from you, that I would come in instead of calling. You weren't here, of course, and then I thought it would be a nice surprise. I should have answered when you called, I'm sorry."

Steve couldn't help but smile though because she was only trying to surprise him and not avoiding him. "It's alright, I love the surprise." He kissed her again, let her say hi to the team before he got her attention again. "What were you across the street for?"

"Hmm, oh I was talking to Brenda."

She said it so flippantly that it startled him. "Brenda Dean?" he asked. Rowan nodded and hope flared up into his eyes. He knew right away that there was only one reason she'd go there. "About getting Nahele back?" she nodded once more. "What did she say?"

"Uh, well I have a long way to go, but they're giving me back custody of Nahele while my case is being looked over."

"Really? When. When do we get him back?"

"Tonight actually. I can pick him up when he's done summer school," she said. So soon? Holy shit. Wait, he was in summer school again? But he had a tutor this year and he had been doing so well. But he figured he could just ask Nahele that when they brought him home.

"Good that's great, his room should be good to go. Oh, no we might have to dust and air it out."

"Yes, I know," she said softly. "I was hoping to go do that, if you're okay with that."

"Yeah, no, of course. Just uh… wow… how did you manage to swing this? You know… with CPS taking him away and your track record I'm surprised they even considered you being his foster mom again, let alone giving him back to us."

"Well, to me," she said not realizing how much those words stung Steve. "And I'm quite persuasive, you know that."

Yes, he did.

She got up on her tippy toes and kissed his cheek. "Alright my handsome crime-fighter. You go catch a murderer and I'll meet you at home and we'll go to the school together. Text me if you can't make it okay?"

Steve nodded and then watched her as she hugged and kissed everyone on the cheek before saying goodbye and sashaying out of his office. He couldn't help but feel a little… strange, he didn't quite understand it but for some reason, Rowan felt more… distant? Not physically but emotionally. Like she was permanently wearing that ice queen mask.

Once she was gone, Danny turned to him. "This is uh… gonna sound crazy but does she feel like… kinda off to you?"

She did. Seeing her out and about in her new outfits with that strange but distance attitude had been jarring, but he thought it was only him. He was very happy to hear that it wasn't just him that had noticed.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Rowan and her car were gone when he got home. But unlike this morning when she hadn't been picking up her phone, this time he didn't worry. Simply because he could logically deduce where she had gone. So, he got in his truck and drove to Nahele's high school. He found Rowan's pastel purple car parked right outside the main steps and once he parked his own truck, he joined her.

She was leaning against the hood of the car looking like a straight up bombshell in her navy-blue summer dress and ankle high match suede wedge boots. Her eyes where hidden behind giant, crystal studded black Tiffany sunglasses. They were probably more expensive than his whole ensemble. Why she needed to change was beyond him but she looked absolutely stunning in the new outfit.

She didn't acknowledge him as he settled himself in beside her, leaning against the hood of her GTO. So, close their thighs were touching. Her skin burning him through the fabric of his cargo pants. They stood in silence until she raised a hand to her lips and he realized that Rowan was smoking.

"What the hell?" he cried. "Since when do you smoke?"

"I've always smoked," she answered softly.

"Always? How the hell did I date you for a year and live with you for two and not realize that you were a smoker?" Steve asked.

"I only smoke when I'm really nervous. So, you know… before a job interview. Before I go on the ice for a skating competition. While waiting to pick up my son from school after being AWOL for a year," she replied.

Ah. He hadn't realized it because Rowan hadn't needed to smoke in front of him before. "It's a bad habit," he told her, with a teasing grin. "And there's no need to be nervous, he missed you. He's gonna be so happy you're home."

Rowan made a noncommittal noise with the back of her throat and continued to puff on her cigarette. It was another one of those moments, standing there in the silence watching her that he realized that this Rowan was not the same one that he had before.

This Rowan was subdued and mature. She held herself in a proud stature, dressed like a millionaire's PTA wife but underneath the glossy surface lay that layer of decay. Months of being with a sociopath had her mirroring his motions, his assessing silences and, though he hadn't seen it yet, he figured she had his violent tendencies too. Well she had always had his violent tendencies, now Steve would bet that her violent tendencies were more violent and more frequent now. Probably more chilling too.

It wasn't that Steve wasn't happy to have her back, he just he wished he had gotten more Rowan and less of Wo Fat.

The first kid came out of the school and Rowan practically threw the cigarette away from her and the car. She stood straight, went into the car and pulled out her purse. She popped a mint and sprayed a gust of perfume all over her, sweet and floral, nothing like her usually rosy smell. The bottle was small and said Giorgi Armani on it. Fucking hell her tastes had wildly warped.

Where was his girl who loved the simple things?

She turned back to the small crowds of kids as they came out of the school and calmly stood on the side her eyes searching the different faces. Sunglasses or not he could tell. She jumped at every person who darkened that doorway, waiting for Nahele and after a few minutes, in which students and parents were shooting her odd glances and boys were admiring both Rowan's body and her car, she spotted him.

She took half a step forward, a gasp escaping her lips. Steve looked up and there he was. Nahele had been on his phone going down the steps before briefly looking up. His eyes grazed over her and the car before going back to his phone. But then he suddenly froze, his whole body. He came to a complete stand still and he slowly looked up from his phone to Rowan.

Rowan let out a shaky laugh and waved at him. A simple motion. Nahele blinked his eyes, the backpack hanging off of one shoulder haphazardly fell from his shoulder to his elbow as he took a lurching step forward.

"Mom?" he asked as if he didn't dare believe that it was her.

"Hey, kid," she answered and that was it. The backpack dropped, his phone clattered out of his hands and then he was sprinting down the steps, and Rowan ran forward, the motion a bit slower as h heels were slowing him down, to meet him. Steve swallowed the lump of happy tears that had rose up his throat.

Nahele ran into her arms, gripping her tightly as she cried into his shoulder. She pulled away to look at him. "Oh my god you got so big!" she cried, she then smacked his shoulder. "You grew taller than me."

Steve came to stand beside her. "I told you when you took him in last year that he was going to get taller than you," he reminded her. Rowan reached over and smacked him too.

Steve laughed. Nahele had a grip on Rowan's arm just like the one Steve had had the day he found her. Holding onto her like she might disappear he was grinning and crying, just like Rowan was grinning and crying too.

"Uhm… are you ready to go home?" she asked.

Nahele blinked his eyes are her. He seemed confused. "I… uh… sure… I can take you to my new foster…"

"I'm your new foster," she said. "I meant home with me. I'm going to take you home with me. And Steve. I live with him after all." She then turned to him and said: "Wait… I do live with you right?"

Steve half laughed. "Yes, Rowan, you live with me. If you think you're going to move out after I just got you back from that psycho you got another thing coming," he said grinning to her. "What do you say, kid? You ready to go back to your old room?"

"Hell yeah," came out of Nahele before Steve even finished the question.

Rowan and Steve laughed. "Kay, you get shot gun, okay?" she said. Nahele ran back to where his stuff still lay on the steps and then ran back. Steve watched them. For a few minutes Rowan was the Rowan he remembered, and for the first time since she had left, Nahele looked truly happy.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

They ordered from Steve's favourite Thai place because Rowan and Nahele were taking too long to pick a place to eat and Steve was starving. Rowan had aired out his room and got it ready for him to stay in again before they had gone home. The intention was to pick everything up from his previous foster the following morning. What they had been doing while waiting for the food to arrive, was going through every little trinket she had picked up for him while she was travelling. Well, from her last places, as she had already sent him some souvenirs. She had also seemingly pulled a suitcase out of thin air. They ate their food between stories, where they held hands because Nahele couldn't bear to let her go, and exchanged laughter and tears and everything in between.

They were sitting at the kitchen table each with a bowl of their favourite ice cream and their favourite warm beverages being brewed for them when Rowan cleared her throat.

"So, kid, you got anything big tomorrow in school?" she asked.

Nahele thought for a second before shaking his head. "It's just summer school. I haven't failed anything it's for extra credit. It'll look good on my transcripts. The Liang's signed me up for it…"

"Kay good, cause you're gonna skip. We're gonna have a nice day, spend it driving along the coast and what not."

"You're supposed to be a good influence, Ro," Steve chided from the kitchen counter where he was making the coffee, the tea and the hot chocolate for them.

Rowan shot him a warning glare. "Well… he's got a point, mom… Ro… uhm…" Nahele had been stuttering over what to call them again. Especially Rowan's. He hadn't stumbled over calling him Dad like he used to, he had no problem just calling him plain old Steve. Hearing mom… uh… Ro reminded him that he missed being Dad… uh… Steve.

"Well… you're missing school anyway, we have court in the morning," she said accepting the tea Steve was handing her. She took a sip of it as she held Nahele's gaze.

"Oh? What for?" he asked lowering his eyes from her intense stare.

"I'm going to adopt you."

The mug of hot chocolate clattered out of Nahele's hands and while it went all over the table and partially over him he didn't flinch and neither did Rowan. She just continued to hold his quivering gaze as the kid sucked in shaky breaths and looked like he might burst into tears any second.

Steve should have gone to get a cloth to clean off his beautiful hand-crafted wooden table but he suddenly felt out of place. Rowan was going to adopt Nahele. Rowan. Not Steve and Rowan. Just Rowan. She hadn't even asked him if he'd want to adopt Nahele… which… well he might not have been ready for but he would have agreed to.

He backed away and back into the kitchen where Rowan finally lowered her gaze from Nahele and added: "You know… if you'd like me to."

"If I'd like you to?" he echoed. He continued to stare at her. "You… you actually want to adopt me? But I age out in like… two years."

Rowan shrugged. "I don't care. I want it to be official. So, there's never any doubt," she said picking up her mug of tea and sipping on it again.

Nahele broke out in a large grin. "Yeah. Yeah… of course. Uhm…. What time is the appointment?" he asked.

"It's right at 9. We're the first appointment. And then after, we'll drive around the coast, find something fun to do!" she said grinning back.

"Is… uhm… is Steve going to come?" he asked.

Steve's eyes finally turned to them. "Do you guys want me to come?" he asked.

"Uhm… well aren't you both…?" he trailed off not sure what was happening. Neither did Steve. All eyes went to Rowan who lowered them.

"Well… uh… we decided… Brenda Dean and I that is, that for right now, it would just be me adopting you," she admitted. "Uhm… as I'm still figuring out things with Steve."

Still figuring out things with Steve.

That meant when Brenda had asked Rowan if she was staying with Steve and she couldn't give her a straight answer.

"Uh… okay. If you guys want me there, yeah, I'd love to be a witness," Steve said.

Steve wanted Nahele to look a little crestfallen but he just kept smiling at the woman who was going to be his mom after 9am tomorrow morning, looking a little star struck. Like he couldn't quite believe that it was happening and if he had to be honest, Steve barely believed it either.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

After a while of talking things out and coming up with plans and Rowan calling the Liang's to ask them to pack up Nahele's things they decided it had been a busy day for all of them and it was time to call it a night. Nahele went into his room to unpack what he had so he'd be ready for the night. Steve had followed Rowan up the stairs to what was now their room as she was getting ready for bed as well.

"Do uh… do you want to tell me what just happened downstairs?" he asked. He was trying so hard not to be hurt but he couldn't help it.

"What… uh… what are you talking about?"

"You're just going to adopt Nahele without asking me? Without consulting me?"

"Yes. I thought that was pretty straightforward. What exactly is confusing you?" she asked. Steve stared at her not sure why he had just gotten that kind of attitude from her. Rowan seemed to realize that she had made a mistake because she winced. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for that to sound the way it came out. You're obviously distressed. What is upsetting you?"

Great now she sounded like a shrink.

"Uh… I guess… I guess I just don't understand why you didn't ask me," Steve hissed.

"Because… Steven… I just didn't. I don't know, you've never been good at commitment and this is a lot of commitment and responsibility…"

"And you don't think I can handle it?"

"No, I didn't think you wanted it," Rowan said straightening and turning back to him. "Steve, you and I fought tooth and nail over just giving me a label." Well that wasn't fair because he had literally given her that label back that morning. "I know commitment freaks you out and that strong emotions scare you so I just… I thought it would be easier if it was just me… and let's be honest if you wanted to adopt him why didn't you do it already?"

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me!"

"Child services took him from me, Rowan!" Steve snapped. "Brenda sat me down in her stupid little office, and told me I wasn't a good fit because my job was volatile and the hours weren't conducive to being a single parent. If they took him away from me they sure as hell wouldn't have let me adopt him."

"But you didn't even try Steven," she stopped seemingly taking in his face. She seemed to have realized that this had taken a turn towards the agonizing for him. "Okay, look. That doesn't matter anymore. The point is that I wanted this. I spent a whole year away missing this, missing you and wanting him back. I thought that idyllic family, the one I had always pictured having with you, was lost to me because you married Catherine and adopted Nahele. That is what I thought, for a whole year, and it killed me, because that happy family, the me and you and Nahele and maybe a few kids of our own, that had been my dream and I thought you gave my part in it to someone else."

Steve took that in. That was how he had felt. Maybe not in the sense that someone else had taken his place in the family he so desperately wanted, just that he had fucked everything up and he wasn't sure what was worse.

"Had I known he wasn't with you I would have had Wo Fat take him months ago. I knew I was going to adopt him before I came back, it was always the plan. I've only been back for four days and I couldn't wait any longer to do this. But it's also only been four days and we're still… well… I unno… I don't know what's going on with us, I don't know if this is a permanent…"

"So what? We're not… you're going to…?"

"Of course, I'm not leaving you," Rowan said quickly. "I have no intention of that, it's just… well… I just got back, we're still getting reacquainted with one another and everything's just very… fragile right now. Okay? I thought putting this kind of heavy decision on you so soon after my coming back would just make things worse."

Steve nodded that was fair. That was actually quite considerate of her.

"Look, on paper, this is just me adopting him by myself… on paper. But Steve, we're living with you, you're still going to be a part of this, it's just… on paper… for right now, just right now, it's going to be me… legally. You're still an emergency contact, you're still gonna be dad… uh Steve… you're still going to get to throw footballs with him and drop him off at school and all the stuff that comes with being dad… uh… Steve, and if we work everything out and you decide you want to take on legal guardianship of Nahele with me, we can do that. Okay? Does that sound fair?"

Steve nodded, he tried not to feel hurt. He tried not to show his disappointment, but she was right. He was ready to have her back in his life, he was ready to have Nahele living with him again, but he had never been responsible for a minor's life before, not full time. Child Services hadn't thought him capable before, and that would probably affect whether or not a judge would sign off on him adopting Nahele. Besides, it would be good to get all the practice now that Rowan was back, so that when he did adopt the boy, he'd be ready.

But that didn't change that he had wanted this too. He had wanted to adopt Nahele, the only reason he hadn't was because having both Rowan and Brenda tell him he wasn't good enough, that the person he cared about most was better off without him and broken him completely. But for every day she woke up across the world wishing for what Nahele back, he woke up wishing for it all back. He wanted Rowan, he wanted Nahele, he wanted the family he had before he had gone and fucked it up. He had always sort of assumed that getting Rowan back meant getting Nahele back and in a way he got what he wanted but he still also wanted to be his dad legally… even if just thinking about it made him dizzy with overwhelming concern.

Rowan pressed a kiss to his cheek. "I understand if you don't want to come tomorrow, but Nahele would love to have you there. We both would."

"No, I'm still coming, of course I'm coming, and we'll make a thing out of it. I'll uh… I'll call the Five-0's we'll have a dinner to celebrate… welcome him to the family and everything."

"That would be wonderful, I'm sure he'd love that."

He smiled. Yes, it was the least he could do in the circumstances. He turned away to let Rowan get ready for bed as he reached for his phone to call Danny and tell him what he wanted to do. Danny was good at those sorts of things and Steve wanted this to be perfect.