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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Hello my wonderful readers! So we have another set of filler chapters before we head into the other episodes. Season 7 is a mammoth season, I'm already 345 chapters in and I've only written up to episode 8. I'm going to have to save in two documents. That's a lot. But I'm hoping you guys are still enjoying it. Especially since I do have the character's growing a lot throughout the chapters. As always don't forget to review and I'll see you guys on Friday.

Chapter 321

Things had been strange between his parents for the last few weeks. It was almost the end of September and he had all of these things to worry about with school and football tryouts, he didn't want to have to worry about Rowan and Steve being weird. They had gone back to being spacious. Like there was a big rift between them, but he hadn't seen them argue. He was starting to worry that they might be on the verge of breaking up again.

Nahele didn't want that to happen. He had started to think of Steve as his dad again and he didn't want to lose him. Though, and he would never tell Steve this, it made him feel a little better to know that, in the event of a split, he would be going with Rowan.

They had picked him up from school that day before going out for groceries. Though they had been in Rowan's car, Steve had been driving, as per usual. Nahele's chores for the night were to help put away the groceries, finish his homework, get at least one hour of studying done and hen he would be allowed to practice his football with Steve.

This week was going to be the tryouts for the football team. He hadn't been allowed to go last year because of his academic failure the previous year, and he only had this year and next to prove that he was good enough to be on the team. He didn't want to be that person who only got on the team the one year, so he was practically desperate to get onto the team this year.

They had just gotten out of the car when someone got their attention with a: "Hey Miss. Pierce."

Everyone turned, mainly because no one called Rowan Miss. Pierce unless she was in trouble. Rowan had her arms laden with groceries, Nahele was busy with his backpack and Steve, who had been on the way to the back to help Rowan with the groceries, put a hand to his hip despite the fact that he did not have his gun on him. At the end of the driveway was a man, he looked like a local too. He was wearing a grey t-shirt and jeans, his long black hair was held back in a ponytail. He had a kind smile on his face and was seemingly waiting for something. Probably Rowan to recognize him.

"Tommy?" Rowan asked having clearly recognizing him. He nodded and she dropped the groceries back into the trunk of the car. "Oh my god Tommy!"

She rushed forward to hug him and Nahele found himself frowning. The guy had to be in his late teens early twenties, and his mom had never mentioned knowing a Tommy before.

"When did you get out?"

"Only a few days ago," he said. "I wanted to try and set myself up with something before I came to see you."

"Really? That's great? You got out on good behaviour, right?"

"Yeah, the letters you and Steve wrote really helped me out."

Wait, so Steve knew this guy too?

Rowan finally let Tommy go and Steve pulled him in for the bro hug. The kind he usually gave Nahele.

"Nice to see you out, kid," Steve said to him.

Nahele selfishly hoped that this would be it, but his mom clapped her hands and said: "Well come on, why don't you stay for dinner. You can tell me about all the plans you have for the future."

"Yeah? You wouldn't mind?"

"No of course not," Rowan said and besides her Steve nodded. Clearly Nahele wasn't going to get a vote, in fact, they completely forgot Nahele was out there in favour of showing Tommy into the house.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Tommy had helped put away the groceries which meant that Nahele could go upstairs and finish his homework as fast as he could.

But the time dinner was ready, Tommy had done all of Nahele's chores and set the table for them. At first Nahele was happy, it meant that he could go right outside after dinner and start practicing for the tryouts with Steve. Steve had made the Kukui High football team, he had been a quarter back just like Nahele wanted to be, Steve could be of real help.

And if he caught a case, Rowan had said that she'd get Chin to come down and teach him. Uncle Chin had also been a quarter back for Kukui High he'd be able to help too. And while it was nice that his mom thought to find him a replacement what he really wanted was Steve.

He wanted the father-son bonding time.

But Tommy sat in Nahele's seat closest to Rowan at dinner. In fact, he had Rowan's full and undivided attention. And while he and Steve went outside to run some practice drills and throw the pig skin around so he could practice his runs and his catches, Tommy stayed inside with Rowan to do the dishes.

Which was another one of Nahele's chores.

But it wasn't until Tommy came out of the house with Rowan, with the guitar that Rowan had bought Nahele when he told her he wanted to learn, that he got really upset.

So upset, in fact, that he missed the ball that Steve threw at him. The ball, instead, hit him straight to the chest and took him down to the ground.

Steve jogged over to him immediately. "Damn kid, you okay?" he asked him as he knelt down beside him.

Nahele glanced to where Rowan and Tommy where sitting with the guitars. "She didn't even notice?"

Steve glanced back to the two of them and then offered a hand to Nahele. "She's got a one-track mind," Steve said. "Last night she completely missed me walking around our bedroom naked, because she was trying to figure out the chorus to her newest song."

"Ew, Steve," Nahele groaned hitting Steve's arm but not even that could knowck the grin off of Steve's face. He knew that Rowan and Steve had gone at it last night, because he had taken his headphones off at the wrong time.

Steve pulled Nahele right off of the ground and then went about dusting the sand off of him. "Say… Steve… how… I mean… I know you met him cause of a case… but he went to jail… what exactly did he do?"

"He killed someone," Steve answered absently as he was looking Nahele over for any other injuries. He almost completely missed the wide eyed look of shock Nahele turned onto him.

His parents were letting a murderer stay over for dinner? What the hell?

Steve clocked his worried look and sighed. "It was complicated, 'Hele. He had a bad childhood, in and out of foster homes, and right when he was getting his life on track he met this girl, fell in love with her and she manipulated him. She convinced him to kill her father. Made him think that her father was abusing her. Rowan saved him, a whole fleet of cops might have riddled that poor kid with bullets if she hadn't gotten in the way."

So he was a lost kid, kind of like Nahele was. Rowan might have adopted that kid instead if he hadn't ended up in jail.

So was that what Nahele was? Some replacement for the kid she really wanted?

But that couldn't be true, right?

"Are you guys alright?" Rowan called and Steve and Nahele turned. Tommy seemed to be going through her song book and she was just staring at them. There see, she did love him best, she just had a delayed reaction.

"Yeah, I just kinda hit him a bit, but he's fine," Steve called back and just like that Rowan's back went straight.

A frown donned on her lips as her eyes went that dangerous ice blue that everyone was so afraid of. "You WHAT?!"

"I meant with the ball, I knocked him down," Steve called.

Her black guitar was immediately off of her lap and she was heading off the lanai and down to them.

"Well did you hit your head?" she asked as she got to him. Her cool hands gripped his cheeks as she looked him over.

"Well I hit him in the chest, Ro, so I'm sure his head his fine."

"Well Damn, Steven," she cried. "Why were you so rough with him?"

"Rowan, he's trying out for a contact sport, getting hit with the ball isn't going to be the worst of it…"

Rowan winced and then clasped Nahele to her chest. "Then maybe he shouldn't try out for it. Maybe we can do something safer, like that bubble soccer…"

"You mean the human sized bubbles where they bounce off each other like ping pongs? Yeah that's like twice as dangerous."

"Okay so maybe we stick to him being a nerd."

Nahele pushed his way out of his mom's grasp and smiled at her. "I'll be fine mom, but I wouldn't mind some cocoa. I bet Tommy would like some before he goes home."

"Oh, yeah, about that. Tommy doesn't really have a place to stay so I've said it was fine for him to stay with us until he can get settled."

Both Nahele and Steve froze but Rowan just smiled at them. "I'll get the cocoa started?"

And then she skipped away like she had just blown Nahele's world up. He tried to remind himself that this was fine, his mom had picked him, she wasn't going to change her mind just because Tommy had come back into her life. Right?

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

And for the rest of the week Tommy stayed there with them. He slept on their couch, did all of Nahele's chores so he didn't feel like he was freeloading on them.

But that wasn't all he did. He also spent all of his time with Rowan. He helped Rowan make dinner, he went shopping with her, and was helping her with her lyrics. Every time he'd come home he'd be there right beside to her to welcome Nahele in. To be fair Nahele had been so busy trying to get all the help he could to land on the football team that he hadn't been spending much time with Rowan.

Usually, when Steve was busy, which was all the time, it was Nahele who would sit on the lanai with the guitars helping her pick her chord progressions and her lyrics. Nahele who would help her with dinner and lunch preparations. Nahele who watched TV with her, and did home-karaoke nights, and played card games with her.

But every night that week and all through the weekend, Rowan was with Tommy, doing all of those things and Nahele was with Steve.

It wasn't until Steve caught a case on Saturday that Nahele realized that Rowan hadn't complained once about Steve bogarting all the time with Nahele. And then he tried to join in, but Tommy and Rowan suddenly had their secret language, made up of inside jokes, shared glances of understanding and uncontrollable laughter that made no sense. Somehow, without noticing, Nahele had found himself on the outside looking in and he decided he hated it.

But he also understood why Tommy was staying with them. They didn't have anywhere to go and with his arrest record it was hard to find a job, though he was trying. And Nahele did feel bad for him, he was… well… a lot like Nahele. He had a bad home life, his parents weren't around, in and out of foster homes and juvie, and then he made a series of bad decisions over a girl and he ended up in grown-up-jail, even though he was technically a minor when it went down.

He was twenty now and trying to get his life back on track but it was hard with that kind of record.

It was the kind of future that might have been Nahele's had Rowan and Steve not intervened and took him in. And as Rowan and Tommy continued to hit it off, Nahele was starting to feel like maybe she took him in because he reminded her of Tommy and he was Rowan's chance to get Tommy's story right.

And the more he told himself that that was crazy the more he couldn't dissuade himself that it might be true.

So, when Monday came around, he was excited to get car time with Rowan. Her driving him to school was a lot like the Saturday-Night-Sing-alongs they used to go on. He'd get to crank up the tunes and he always felt like he could tell her anything during those rides. He felt like, when the sun was shining down, the music flowing and the wind in their hair, that they really were a family.

But when he came down the stairs ready to go, Rowan was rushing around the kitchen. She already had his lunch ready for him. Breakfast was good to go too, which was when Nahele noticed that both she and Tommy had already eaten. Steve was sitting there at the table, scarfing down his own breakfast quickly with a traveller's mug of coffee in front of him. That meant he'd be leaving soon, probably for whatever case he had caught.

Rowan, however, was rushing around packing up the two guitars and all her song notes. She wasn't supposed to be going into work today, and she wasn't usually nervous when it came to her meetings, but she was today and that made no sense to him either.

"What's going on?" he asked her as he came into the kitchen.

As soon as he sat down, she turned around and poured him a giant cup of milk. "Drink that," she said absently and then went back to packing.

"Mom, what are you doing?" he repeated.

"Pete's back in town and I've managed to peg him for a potential demo," she said. "Now where did I put the new sheet music?"

"You put it in your purse," Steve answered absently he then glanced to Nahele. "I'm taking you to school today and they called me in, so I hope you're ready to go cause once you're done eating, we're out the door."

No. No.

Tommy came down the stairs, his long black hair was pulled up in a ponytail he was wearing a suit. And since he didn't have his own suit, he'd have to guess that Rowan must have bought it for him. She was like that, buying things for people without asking them.

He did a little twirl in front of her. "What do you think?"

Rowan immediately left the kitchen and looked him over. "Uh… it's good, it's good, don't know why you're wearing a tie," she said immediately going to take it off.

"Because I'm trying to make a good impression. I want to look so good he can't get mad about my background."

"Not sure there's an outfit for that," Steve mumbled and Nahele snorted into his pancakes.

"Okay but you're also playing the guitar and singing, so you can't be restricted. So, keep the pants, take off the jacket, and put on the tan shirt we got yesterday."

Tommy nodded, took the tie back from Rowan and then scampered back up the steps, no doubt using Steve and Rowan's room to get ready.

Once he was gone, Nahele got up, no longer hungry. "What's uhm… what's going on?"

"I'm hoping to get Tommy a new job," Rowan told him. "Are you done with your breakfast? You barely touched it."

"When's the meeting?" he asked hoping for this morning.

"Uhm… it's scheduled for one thirty this afternoon, but I'm hoping to get him into the studio for both practice and to lay down my newest single."

Nahele frowned. "But my tryouts are today."

"And you didn't even finish your milk," Rowan said absently as she cleared up the plates. "Steve did you drink the coffee out of the mug?"

"Well what else is it for Rowan?"

"It was supposed to be for you while you were at work today, Steven," she snapped. She took the traveller's mug and shook it. "It's almost empty!"

"I'll just make more," he said snatching it from her. He pointed at Nahele. "We're leaving in like five minutes, okay?"

Yeah, yeah, yeah, leaving in five minutes, he got it. "But you're still going to make it today?"

"To what?"

"My tryouts, mom. My tryouts are today."

"Oh! Are they?" Rowan cried and then put the glass of milk back into his hand. "Drink that your bones are going to need that."

"I don't think milk works that fast," Steve teased from where he was standing making his new mug of coffee.

Tommy pounded down the stairs looking completely ridiculous in his black pants and tan polo, mainly because the collar was popped and the shirt was sitting on him oddly. Rowan left the kitchen and then immediately went about fixing his appearance.

Nahele followed her. "You'll be there right?" Nahele asked. Rowan who was absently fixing Tommy's collar turned to him with a hmm which meant she hadn't heard him. "My tryouts tonight, you'll be there right? You said you would, to cheer me on."

"Oh yes, tonight? You said afterschool right, at 4? I will do my very best to be there, okay?" she said finally letting go of Tommy to turn to him. She pulled him in for a hug and kissed his cheek solidly. "But just in case I don't make it, take that kiss for good luck. Please don't get hurt."

"And I'm going to try to be there too," Steve said coming out of the kitchen with his traveller's mug now officially refilled with coffee. But Nahele wasn't holding his breath on him showing up, Steve never made it to those sorts of things, his job was too unpredictable, and much more important. "Come on kid we gotta get go."

Nahele turned to back to Rowan who was in the process of giving Steven a good-bye kiss. "You'll be there… right?"

He was fishing for a promise. Rowan never broke her promises.

"I will do my absolute best, I promise," she said.

And Nahele smiled. Wonderful. That was all he needed to hear.

"Good luck on your tryout's today squirt," Tommy said reaching out to ruffle Nahele's hair. He meant it as a nice gesture but Nahele hated it when he did that. Only Steve could ruffle his hair. But he was too close to Tommy to dodge it without seeming like he was dodging, so Nahele had to accept it but begrudgingly sighed anyway.

"Good luck to you too," he shot back and then rushed out after Steve.