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A/N: How's my favourite reader's Monday going? Well, if you guys have the Monday blues, I hope this chapter cheers you up. In this chapter Rowan's officially going to adopt Nahele so it's gonna be super cute! I hope you guys enjoy cute cause we have a lot of more cute stuff coming! Daydreamer987 I sent you a message regarding something important, please tell me if you go it, if not I'll send it again! For everyone else don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys on Wednesday!
Chapter 301
Steve woke up in the morning to find that Rowan was already out of bed. She had already laid out the outfit she wanted him in. His Navy dress blues. Well if he could do it for Danny's custody hearing, he could do it for Rowan's.
He went down the stairs, to find Rowan, already dressed and ready to go, putting together plates for breakfast. Toaster waffles and fresh fruit. She was in a pastel version of the skirt suit she had been wearing yesterday. A pastel purple blouse, the gold locket around her neck, the jacket and skirt both in a light beige color. She once again looked like a flawless, intimidating business woman.
And all he wanted to do was take that locket, open it up and confirm it was a picture of her with him and Nahele and not one of her and Wo Fat and Sin Nombre.
She smiled up at him as he came down and offered him a plate. "Did you want coffee?"
Steve was already too wired with nerves for coffee, but he took the plate. "No, I'm good, you look uhm… you look really nice?"
"Yeah?" she said. "I thought this would make me look less intimidating, but I have more serious suits too… what do you think?"
"No, I think it looks good on you, it's a good look… are… are those red bottom heels?"
Rowan showed him the plush nude shoes with the definite red bottom. "Yeah, I've got like a million pairs now. They come in all sorts of colors…"
She had always wanted a pair of them and now she had multiple sets. She had once said that they were too much money, and that she didn't feel comfortable paying that much for a pair of shoes. Clearly she didn't think that anymore.
"Are you okay with the suit I picked out? You don't have to wear it if you don't want to, I just…"
"No, no, it's fine. I know how you like me in my dress blues."
Rowan smiled, and he saw a little bit more of that girl she was before she left him. "Can you go get ready, we have to leave soon."
Steve nodded his head and headed up the stairs. He got up to the top of the steps with the plan to head into his room to change but he paused by Nahele's room where he found the kid just sitting on his bed, dress pants on, light blue dress shirt buttoned up, collar turned up, tie in hand just sitting there.
"Hey you okay?" Steve asked and Nahele jumped as if Steve had startled him. He turned his big brown eyes up to him, wide in surprise but he didn't say anything. "Do you need help with the tie?"
"No… maybe…" he whispered. "No, I'll be fine, thanks though, Steve."
Steve nodded though he thought it was weird. He had kind of hoped that the two of them could have stood in front of the mirror to tie their ties together, but he figured the kid knew how to tie a tie by now. He also knew that Rowan wanted to leave soon, so he got into those dress blues of his, and made sure he had the cap, before heading downstairs where he found Nahele in the kitchen, tie a little crooked letting Rowan straighten it as he inhaled a toaster waffle.
She smiled at Steve's appearance and he smiled too. He was trying so hard not to be distant or act different but he still felt like there was miles between he and Rowan. And this whole Rowan adopting Nahele by herself had just put more space between them.
"Alright, we're all here. Are we all ready to go?"
Rowan was clearly ready, Steve voiced his readiness and then they all turned to Nahele who paused and then glanced at Rowan and then very carefully lowered his eyes and whispered. "I… I don't know if I want to do this…"
Steve almost dropped his hat he was so surprised. The kid had been so excited last night, what had changed his mind? He glanced to Rowan to see how she had reacted, but Rowan, Rowan took a step back as she digested that announcement. Like she needed the space to understand what he had said.
She blinked her eyes forced a polite smile onto her face and then said: "Okay, that's fine. Am I allowed to ask why you've changed your mind?"
It was clearly not fine, Steve could tell it wasn't fine, even Nahele could, but Rowan was smiling patiently and it was freaky. It was the kind of smile Wo Fat used in every single situation, politely stretched over his lips. Steve remembered that smile hitting him from behind guns, cattle prods and a bucket of ice-cold water. He actually took a step away from her it scared him so much to see it.
Nahele's lip began to quiver. "I don't know… I don't… you're gonna be mad…"
"No, that's okay," Rowan told him. She carefully sat down at the kitchen table and then gestured to the seat beside hers. "I won't be mad. Just… you come here and sit with me and talk me through what's happening right now and I'll we'll figure it out, you and me. Come on, let's sit down… do you want tea or something?"
"No… no…" he said throwing himself down into the seat she had gestured to.
"Okay, just… talk to me. Nahele, just talk to me…"
"What if it happens again?" he asked a tear falling down his cheek. "What if something happens with you and Steve and you leave again."
Rowan took that in with a sharp nod of her head. She then glanced to where Steve was standing in the kitchen doorway watching. Yes, what was going to happen if they were to break up again? Besides Steve having another mental break down. Would she leave Nahele behind again?
"You have every right to be afraid of that," Rowan told him and then reached out and grabbed his hand. "I want you to know that you didn't get left behind. You were forgotten."
Nahele balked at this he glanced from her to Steve and then back to her. "You see… Wo Fat forgot I took you in, so when he activated the Contingency plan, he forgot to pull you out of Hawaii and to me, which I regard as a good thing."
"A good thing…?"
"It was bad… I wasn't… it was just bad… and I'm glad you didn't get to see me like that," she said. "I also wasn't settled, you would have missed a year of school, and well… I got in a lot of trouble. I uh… I didn't take the break up with Steve bad and I was acting out. I got myself into a lot of bad situations. It would have been worse if I had you been with me, you would have been involved and that's just… bad parenting."
Nahele nodded as he took this in. And Rowan smiled at him. "I can happily tell you that you will not be forgotten again. If I were to activate the Contingency again, the very first order that runs through is getting you somewhere safe for transport."
Steve blinked and then straightened. "Wait a second… wait a second the Captain America Contingency plan is still active?"
Rowan faltered and turned to Steve. "We're kind of having a moment here… could you maybe wait…?"
"Wait? No!" he thundered. "Is that Contingency plan active or not?"
Rowan turned back to Nahele and smiled patiently. "Can you give me a second," she whispered to him and he nodded. When she turned to Steve there was nothing but ice in her eyes. "Yes, Steven, Wo activated a new set of commands for the Captain America Contingency plan and made sure it was live before I came back. Wo was not comfortable with returning me without having some sort of backup plan to get me out if things go south again."
Steve's heart stopped in his chest. So all she had to do was press a fucking button and she'd be gone again? Some new plan she'd never tell him about because he wasn't to know. All Wo Fat would have to do is grab her, press that button and Steve wouldn't find her or his kid ever again?
"Are you… are you serious? You're telling me that you came back with the plan to leave again?!"
"Oh for god sake, Steven," Rowan snapped. "Of course not. Okay. It's a back up plan, that's all." Steve opened his mouth to argue with her but Rowan shook her head. "Steven, today is not about you. I understand your concern, but right now is not the time to harp on that. You and I can argue all about the Captain America Contingency plan tomorrow, okay?"
Steve shook his head. "No! No it is not okay!"
"Steven!" Rowan suddenly thundered startling both him and Nahele. "We are not talking about this right now. Now you can either drop the conversation or I will uninvited you from the ceremony and the festivities afterward. You got me?"
Nahele turned a shocked look to Steve and then back to Rowan in complete and utter astonishment that she had said that to him. Even Steve was shocked but she clearly wasn't playing so he fell quiet and watched her turn back to Nahele that polite smile back on her face.
"Sorry for the interruption," she said to him, as if she hadn't just full out Ice Queened her boyfriend. God that was terrifying, how did people stand up against that? Is this what Tony Gibson dealt with at Chin and Jerry's high school reunion?
"I don't want you to think that how you're feeling is not important. Is there anything else you'd like to vocalize to me?"
So prim, so proper, she sounded like a fucking liar. She sounded like a fucking shrink. Seriously, what the hell had happened while she was away? What had Wo Fat turned her into?
Nahele blinked his eyes thinking about it. "I… I unno… do you mean it though…"
"I can honestly tell you that if something were to happen to me and Steve you would be coming with me. There is nothing that will keep me away, I promise. Even if I'm incapacitated, there are processes in place to get you to me."
Processes. That meant app. She had shit on the app designed to take his kid from him if they were to go belly up. That's what that meant.
Nahele's smile was watery. "Okay."
"Okay? Sufficient? We're good to go forward with this whole adoption thing?"
"Yeah… yeah… but uh… Steve has to come."
Steve jolted out of his own thoughts and turned to look at them. "Yeah, no I'm coming, I'm coming," he said absently. But his eyes stayed on Rowan still shocked by what had happened and the bombshell she had dropped on him.
They were definitely going to argue about the Captain America Contingency plan tomorrow.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
It wasn't just Steve that joined them in that little court room that morning. The whole Five-0 'ohana was there and they had saved Steve a seat. On the other side of the room were the Liangs. Brandi looking to be quite tearful and Kong looking to be quite stoic but Steve could tell that he was upset too. He felt bad, his little happy ending was an unhappy one for them.
Before the ceremony started both Nahele and Rowan went over to them. Nahele hugged both Kong and Brandi and Rowan shook their hands and spoke softly to them. He could tell just by the way her mouth moved that she was both thanking them for taking care of Nahele and apologizing for taking him as well.
Well, if they needed a reference to get a different foster child, Steve would vouch for Kong no problem. He wouldn't even tell them about the criminal hacking he did, or the murder case that Steve first met Kong on.
The judge presiding over the case came into the court room and both Rowan and Nahele scampered over to the table where Brenda Dean was waiting to present their case.
The judge took a hold of the file, looked it over briefly and then closed it. He then looked up at them and said: "Miss Dean, I am absolutely shocked that you are wasting our time."
Oh well hot damn, that did not bode well.
"I've looked over this file and I find it hard to understand why you could possibly think that this is a good idea."
Both Rowan and Nahele turned wide eyes to Brenda who patiently took out that clipboard and then stood up with a soft coughing to clear her throat.
"I understand how it looks, your honour, but I wouldn't be sitting here with them if I had a single doubt about Rowan Pierce and her readiness to take care of Nahele."
The judge sighed and Brenda pressed forward. "Due to a series of misunderstandings, Miss. Pierce here was under the impression that she was leaving Mr. Huikala in the care of Steven McGarrett and that all while she was gone, he was still in that care. Had she been made aware that Mr. McGarrett was going to lose custody she would have come back. I believe, despite what happened last year, that this desire to adopt Mr. Huikala is not a passing whim. She has always been fiercely determined to have him as a part of her family and if the events leading up to her disappearance last year hadn't happened, I truly do believe that she would have adopted him already."
The judge took that in and looked over the folder again. He then put it down and narrowed his eyes at Brenda and her clipboard.
"Are you telling me that you think this woman, who abandoned him a year ago, won't do it again if things with Mr. McGarrett implode?"
God how many more times were they going to call him Mr. McGarrett? It was fucking Commander? Was Brenda doing this on purpose just to fuck with him? Cause if so, well played.
Brenda nodded. "That's exactly what I'm saying. When Miss Pierce showed up yesterday morning to discuss the possibility of adopting Mr. Huikala, I was obviously very concerned. She had disappeared once, according to Mr. McGarrett, she did so willingly. After speaking to her and her brother I've been assured that she was unaware Nahele was not in Mr. McGarrett's care."
Steve straightened. She had let Brenda Dean speak to Wo Fat? How, had she just called him? Steve was certain she had said that she and Wo Fat were not talking to one another right now. He thought she had told him that she had dropped contact so… had she lied to him again?
"This situation was very convoluted. From my understanding from both her and Steven, she had been kidnapped, tortured and held overseas by her captors. Her brother had gone to rescue her and some time after that, the misunderstandings started popping up."
At the mention of her torture the judge seemed to look at her with new eyes as Brenda continued.
"Her brother, whom I did not know was a criminal but have been made aware is, took her away from Mr. McGarrett, broke them up, and fed them both a bunch of lies. Mr. McGarrett being told that she was leaving him, Rowan being told that he had married someone else and they together had adopted Nahele. This all happened while Miss. Pierce had been incapacitated due to her injuries, but the time she woke up she thought Mr. McGarrett to be dating another woman and Nahele to be safe with them, she saw no need to come back and fight for him, when all she wanted was for him to have a happy home, even if that happy home wasn't with her."
Steve sat back. So that was why she never came back to get Nahele. She had most likely felt that he was better off with Steve and Catherine. It was eerily similar to why Steve had given up searching for her, because he thought her better off with Wo Fat.
"Her brother is a criminal? How do we know that she is not?" the judge asked.
"I have spoken to both the FBI and HPD, Rowan Pierce has never been connected to any of her brother's illegal activities, while she has contact, she has always cooperated with any investigation into him. In fact, I'm told that she frequently helps with Five-0 cases and the previous Governor spoke highly of her effectiveness and trusted her judgement implicitly."
The judge sighed. "Her Brother…" "Wo Fat…" "Wo Fat… WO FAT?" he suddenly stuttered, he stared at Rowan with new eyes and he cleared his throat and looked down. "Ah, you're that Rowan Pierce."
As if there were a million Rowan Pierce's running around the world. God that was a scary thought.
"Yes, he mentioned that you two knew each other. He says Hello," she said leaning forward and Steve rolled his eyes oh god. Of course, Wo Fat knew the judge.
The judge went bright red and looked away from her and then changed the topics. "It doesn't change the fact that she's adopting him alone while living with…"
"We discussed that as well," Brenda said in a clipped tone. "Mr. McGarrett had been cleared as a co-guardian when they first took on Nahele. If she were to adopt him it is under the assumption that when she and Mr. McGarrett settle things, he will be adopting Nahele as well."
When oh god that was true then. She had told him that last night but she had said the same thing to Brenda so she obviously meant it. Thank god.
She then smiled down to Rowan who was smiling up to her. "Miss. Pierce has very little patience and would like to adopt Nahele as soon as she can. There were reservations about Mr. McGarrett being ready since she has just reunited with him four days ago."
They had to stop calling him Mr. McGarrett! It was literally killing him inside.
The judge sighed. "I guess you've covered everything…"
"Sir," Nahele said standing up quickly. "If you don't mind… I have something to say…" he nodded to him and Nahele nodded back before beginning to speak again. "I know you probably hear stuff like this all the time, but I really… really… want to be a part of this family. Not many people can say that someone went around the world doing whatever they wanted but spent the whole time wanting to come home, but Rowan did. When she was away she spoke to me every week…"
He WHAT?!
"… and every week she'd ask how I was, ask what I was doing and then tell me that she'd give anything to have me with her. And honestly, I wanted that too. Now that she's home, for some reason, she's decided that she wants to adopt me and I can't fathom as to why, but I can tell you that if CPS takes me again I'm just going to run away, straight back to them, because they're my family and they're who I want to be with. So, if you could please, just make it easier on everyone and let her adopt me, I think it'll save everyone a lot of trouble… and you'd make me really happy which is kind of the point of this right?"
That earned him a few chuckles and the judge's stare soften as the boy cleared his throat again. "And yeah… that's all that I wanted to say," he said taking his seat again, and beside him Rowan reached over to hold his hand.
But it did the trick, because the Judge signed off on it. Rowan had officially adopted Nahele.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
The first thing they did with their day out was follow the tearful Liangs back to their house so they could put all of Nahele's stuff into Rowan's car. There was so much of it, Steve had to take her car back to his place to get his truck.
When that was done, they all hugged the Liangs, told them that Nahele could come and visit any time, and they could come to theirs to drop in any time, then they went home. They hour was dedicated to them taking all the boxes, bags and suitcases and putting them in the living room to unpack later.
The next stop was lunch at Nahele's favourite spot, then they went to the Halona Blowhole. They had been sitting there, silently but nicely. Nahele beside her, Steve on the other side, his arm loosely holding onto her. She could tell that something was on his mind cause the man was barely talking to them, she just hoped that Steve waited until the got back to his place before he started an argument with her.
"This is nice," Nahele said resting his head on Rowan's shoulder. "I still can't… I'm not sure I believe it happened."
Rowan rested her head against his head. "Well, it did. You're mine now."
"Does that mean that I'm changing my last name?"
Rowan paused, she had sort of hoped he would, but she wasn't going to make it a priority. "You can do whatever you'd like, sweetheart," she told him. "You can take my name, or keep yours. Or hyphenate it. I don't want you to make do anything you don't want to do."
"Can I think about it?"
Rowan nodded and the boy seemingly relaxed. They were all looking out at the ocean. The blowhole spouted another spritz of water that drifted towards them and then their nice moment was shattered.
"I don't really wanna ruin everything but uh… I have… just one… I guess… question," Steve said. Oh here we go.
Rowan turned to Steven and nodded to him, but he waited for Nahele to ask him what he wanted to ask before he actually moved onto asking them the question.
"I'm sorry… but you were in contact with Rowan the whole year she was gone and at no point did you tell her that I was looking for her, that you got taken away from me, and that I wasn't fucking married to Catherine? Or maybe thought to tell me that you were in contact with her… and that you knew where she was?"
Nahele's face flashed with worry and discomfort while Rowan just sighed. She turned to Steven with a patronizing glare and just put a hand out to rest it on his knee.
"You're upset," she said as if he had no right to be. "You're upset and you're hurt, but if you continue like that… like it's Nahele's fault, I will end the conversation and leave your ass on this beach."
Steve faltered and then just stared at them, Nahele and his worried eyes, Rowan's eyes nothing but frozen icy blues, clearly unimpressed with him. She was doing it again, she was Ice Queening him and seemingly not meaning too. Or maybe she did, he couldn't tell if she was doing it deliberately or not.
"It was part of the deal," Nahele said. "Kong said… he said that I could talk to her, but I couldn't tell her the truth about me, and I couldn't tell you anything at all… and then I could still talk to her, and if I slipped up, if I told her the truth I wouldn't get to talk to her again. And I missed her and you were gone and I just wanted..."
He had started to cry, Rowan had put an arm around his shoulder and pulled him in for a hug and the boy crumpled against her clinging to her tightly like she might vanish. She let him cry it out before turning back to Steve with a more than aggressive sigh.
"Steven, I know we haven't talked about this, and I was going to wait for a better time, but I think it's time that I told you what he did," she said. Great, Wo Fat had done more than just take Rowan from him and lie to them both for a full year? "After faking the phone call that I got, Wo Fat realized that he had forgotten about Nahele. When he realized that he wouldn't be able to grab Nahele without setting you off and that I wanted to talk to him, he had to come up with a way to have me talk to him without his lies being found out. And it had to be away where you didn't find out about it either."
Steve had had a feeling he knew what was coming but he was still completely shocked when she said: "So, after a little bit of thinking, he made an anonymous call to CPS to have Nahele removed from your care."
Steve turned away from her and bit back the curses that he wanted to spew at them. Well not really at them, but at Wo Fat who wasn't there.
"Afterwards he put a call into Kong Liang who he knew was looking into adopting a child and asked him to consider taking Nahele. Kong didn't agree to that right away, he chose to meet Nahele first which he did and it was only after meeting him that he decided to take him in."
"So, Kong was told to take him," Steve growled. "He swore up and down he wasn't…"
"Well not really," Nahele said. "There was no payment, he wasn't ordered to go and get me, he was asked to consider it as a favour, and he only agreed after meeting me."
"And then he told you if you wanted to stay…"
"No, nothing about wanting to stay, he was going to keep me no matter what," Nahele said. "He simply said if I wanted to talk to Rowan there were lies I had to keep and I couldn't tell you anything."
Steve nodded sighing to himself and Rowan put a hand to his knee. "Babe, it happened, there's no changing it now, all we can do is more forward."
"Move forward? Rowan! You're still talking to him! After everything he did…"
"I am not talking to him. I'm not talking to either of them," Rowan snapped. "I made him explain everything to Brenda Dean because he at least owed me the decency of helping me adopt Nahele. He told her what he did, she believed my story, and she agreed to put me forward for adoption. Simple. He owed me. He took my family, he took my life, he took my son, the least he could do was help me adopt him, and he agreed."
"And other then that…"
"I'm not speaking to him. I'm mad at him Steve. What he did was unforgivable, he put us through so much and I'm not just going to let him get away with it."
Steve sat there staring at her. He wanted to believe it, of course, he just couldn't tell if she was lying anymore. And did he really want to continue arguing on this day that was supposed to be happy? No, he most definitely didn't want to be the wet blanket that ruined the day that Nahele got adopted.
"I'm sorry," he finally whispered. "I hope I didn't ruin the day, I just… I'm sorry. You're right, today's not about me, but I will want to talk about this later." He glanced to Nahele who looked panicked and then added: "I mean with your mom, you're not in trouble, 'Hele."
He then turned to Rowan. "Agreed?" When both of them nodded he sighed. "Fine, right, I feel better, let's move on."
At that Rowan got up. "I'd like to move on right to a shaved ice, what do you say?"
Nahele hopped up as well. "I'm down. What about you dad… sorry I mean Steve?"
Steve found himself grinning, it was Nahele's first slip up since they brought him home. The day may not have been about him, but that was the best part of it so far.