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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Well, my wonderful readers. It's an actually update on the right day. Again. No body jinx it. And for the next two chapters it's going to be Christmas in this story. We got some really cute things happening in the next two chapters so I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys on Wednesday!

Chapter 361

In the early hours of the morning Steve found himself awake. His wife draped across him, her breath exhaling across his chest. He was awake, not to go for an early morning run or swim, he was awake because he couldn't sleep. And he couldn't sleep because he was nervous.

But because he couldn't go for a run or a swim today, he stayed in bed, his arms around his wife, one leg bent at the knee and tapping in his usually nervous fashion. Well he could go for a swim or a run, he just didn't want to miss anything or delay the celebrations because they were waiting on him.

He had thought it was just a light tap, but after a couple of minutes of his fingers tracing patterns into the shirt of his that Rowan had worn to bed, and his leg tapping his wife woke up.

She didn't move, save for her fingers closing a little more tightly on his side, and instead of a soft breathy exhale he got her soft whisper of: "What's wrong" across his chest.

Steve sighed. "I'm nervous."

Rowan's head shifted so she was now looking up at him but his eyes stayed pinned on the ceiling he was boring holes into.

"Is this about the Uranium?"

The Uranium that was still missing and probably in the hands of someone who wanted to blow up half of Hawaii. Yeah, he sure as hell wasn't happy about that but that wasn't his problem at the moment.

"No."

"Are you sure, because… I know Wo said he took it but I'm sure I can get him to give it back."

The fact that she still believed that lie that Wo told her was remarkable. She would have called him out be now, but no, Wo Fat she believed one hundred percent. Probably because him stealing Uranium out from under Steve's nose was something that man would 100% do.

"It's not the Uranium, Ro."

At that Rowan propped herself up so she could look at him. "Then what's wrong? Am I hurting you? Cause you could have moved me."

Rowan was never hurting him, and even if she was. He wouldn't have moved her because he always wanted her near him, or on him.

"It's Christmas."

And it was. It was Christmas day. And he was nervous.

Understanding lit up on his wife's face followed quickly by confusion. "Well why are you nervous?"

Steve was quiet for a moment. "What if he says no?" he asked softly.

Just like that his wife was straddling him. God, he loved her on top. Like really loved having her on top of him. She reached her arms down and right away he was sitting up and crushing her to his chest.

"He's not going to say no, Steven. I mean… why would he?"

"I unno… because he doesn't need me? And why would he when he loves you more?"

That literally made no sense, he knew it the second he said it. He saw the confusion on Rowan's face so he quickly changed the topic.

"He calls you mom but he calls me Steve most of the time…"

"He calls you dad too, Steve."

"Yeah but he doesn't call you Ro at all."

"That's cause I adopted him," Rowan said with a smile. "And when you do, he'll call you dad all the time."

Steve must have made a face because Rowan's smile faded. "Even if he does say no, what's really going to happen? You gonna kick us out?"

Obviously not.

"See, it'll be okay. He'll be so excited, just you wait. You have nothing to be afraid of. In three days, we're going to be a family. Legally. In all ways."

Steve already had the court date set. Just like with Rowan it was going to be a surprise. Nahele just had to open the gift and he'd know.

"Now," she whispered softly, her lips falling to his briefly. "Would you to unwrap one of your Christmas gifts early?"

Steve smiled up into the next kiss. Yes, he very much did want to unwrap his wife. But if she thought he was going to let her get up and off of him to put on whatever bra and pantie set she had bought for Christmas, she had another thing coming.

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 antlers and a Rudolf red nose. 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 new specially designed surf board, that matched the one Steve just got, 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 was still nervous about what he was going to say, hence why he was spinning his wedding band. He knew it was silly but he had gotten it into his head that this kid might say no to him, and he couldn't shake the thought out. Until Nahele opened up that gift and gave him his answer, Steve was going to be nervous. Steve was going to worry. And that was making him antsy.

Nahele was trying on the glove when Rowan said: "Kid, come on, focus here. You got one gift left."

Nahele humored her, shooting her a large grin as he took the glove off. 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 now that the moment was upon him his heart had decided to stop in his chest.

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

Didn't want to? Was that what he was going to say? Why the hell would the kid think that Steve didn't want to adopt him too?

"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 papers in his hands. He was staring at them like he didn't believe he was holding onto them.

"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, to set him straight, while his was just a stare of absolute terrifying panic. 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."

God that was not the point right now. Immediately he put a hand to Rowan before she could say anything else and make this situation worse. He knew she was trying to help, but she wasn't.

"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 her 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 last, and well that… that hit me again. Right where it hurt, because that was everything, I was afraid of. And I let her convince me to being 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 after you guys got married 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 do. 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.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Once the torn wrapping paper had been put away, once the presents were put aside, once they went to the foodbank to drop off all they had gathered in form of donations. They headed back home where Nahele disappeared to play with all that he had gotten, and Rowan and Steve went to the kitchen together and worked on the Christmas dinner.

Everyone was bringing a dish that year. They were making the turkey and they had a casserole pan with more French toast casserole for everyone. Steve was in charge of the turkey, Rowan was in charge of the piparkoogid. She hadn't been able to make a batch yet, with everything go on, and today she would be making the cookies for everyone.

Jian was bringing both a chicken dish and a dessert. And Wo Fat was brining something as well, oh and Alcohol. Sin Nombre was apparently making something from Colombia and he had no idea what his mom was going to make.

So the Turkey went on the top shelf of the oven and the every growing line of trays of cookies went on the bottom shelf and that was their meal basically done.

They had changed into their fancier outfits, and then put the Christmas sweaters on top, Nahele finally came down from his room. They got out all the extra presents that were meant for everyone who was coming and put them under the tree for when it came to present opening.

Rowan had told Steve that he could put his name on her gifts for her brothers but he had stanchly insisted that he would get them his own, and so had Nahele.

Then it was the waiting game. For a while they all just sat on the couch together watching Christmas movies until Rowan got the first text.

She jumped up right away, moved to the front door and opened it. Right away Wo and Jian walked through. Wo shouting for everyone to stay out of the way as he moved to the kitchen with the giant pot he had brought.

"I have to make two trips," he shouted at Rowan who dutifully kept the door open.

Jian came next with a bucket of KFC and a box of sweets.

"KFC?" Nahele asked as Wo dashed back into his own apartment as Rowan kept the portal open for him. He was either moving quickly because he was worried it would tired her out or because the food needed to stay on the heat.

"Yes, I put my order in two months ago when it was alluded that we'd probably spend Christmas together."

"It's a cultural thing," Rowan said to Nahele who simply nodded. Wo came back through the door with trays of uncooked food.

"It has to wait in the fridge until we're ready to eat, and I'll have to keep the broth simmering."

"Okay well the stove top is free…"

"No, no, it has it's own little fire, it shouldn't burn your table I think."

Rowan opened her mouth to ask what the hell he was talking about when her phone went off again. She went to answer it as Jian put the gifts they had brought under the tree.

"It's Con," she said, going to the door and opening it to him. Steve had gotten up this time, realizing that with the food and all the gifts, he should probably help.

He took the Tupperware from Con who immediately went back into his own place to get the gifts.

"Thanks," he called as Steve took the food to the table.

Now they were just waiting on his mom and Yao Fat. Mary and Joanie would not be there with him that Christmas, having spent Christmas with him last year, no this year she'd be sending time with the Williams' family that she would be marrying into really soon. And because Mary and Matty weren't joining them this year, the rest of the family got to come.

Steve was going to have walk Mary through his wife's powers at some point, but honestly, he was really hoping he wouldn't have to.

Once everything was set up and there were just waiting for the last two people to text or call Rowan and ask her to pull them, they all just sort of stood their awkwardly. Nahele had already gotten up and hugged each of his Uncles and his Auntie Jian, and other than Jian, none of the others wanted to hug Steve. Though he did get a hand shake from Wo and some sort of bro-handshake he didn't know the moves to that Sin Nombre put him through.

There was awkward silence for like two seconds before Sin Nombre, who clearly couldn't handle the awkward silence, cleared his throat.

"So what did he say?" Sin Nombre asked. "Did he say yes? He a McGarrett yet?"

Jian, who had been bent over the tree ensuring that her gifts still looked pristine, straightened. "I thought we agreed to wait for them to make the announcement."

"I don't remember agreeing to that," Sin Nombre and then turned onto the little family as Steve slung an arm around the kid who was going to be his really soon.

"He did say yes, thanks for ruining the announcement," he said but Sin Nombre looked far from put out. He moved forward and punched Steve's shoulder.

"No shit! Congrats! I don't even mind having to hand over that hundo for being wrong," he said and then moved back to Wo who put a hand out to accept the bill that Sin Nombre was putting in it.

So… clearly the two of them were betting on whether or not Nahele would say yes. And Wo Fat had won it somehow.

He got muted congratulations from Wo and Jian which he accepted as normal for them, then Rowan was ushering them all around the table to start setting up everything that they had brought.

Rowan was reheating her French toast casserole. Steve was carving the turkey. Wo was tending to his giant bot of broth with it's own heat source. Sin Nombre and Nahele were on place setting duty, and between them they were setting up the plates, knives and glasses for everyone.

"Have you decided what you're going to do with your name?" Sin Nombre asked him and the kid shrugged.

"I unno yet…"

"You gonna hyphenate it like your mom?"

At that both Rowan and Steve looked up to him. "My name's not hyphenated. I took his last name. I was Rowan McGarrett legally the day we came back from the Bahamas."

Sin Nombre's eyes narrowed at her as he took the seat he was calling dibs on. "Well why the hell would you do that, Ro? You had the coolest name. Everyone knew it. Rowan McGarrett… ugh… it sounds terrible."

Steve frowned but Wo sat himself down beside Sin Nombre and said: "Rowan Hazel McGarrett. That one sounds nice."

Sin Nombre rolled his eyes. "So, we're gonna full name her all the time? And we both know Rowan Hazel Pierce puts the fear of god in her. It won't be the same if we end it in McGarrett."

"You know… for a trained assassin who can literally adapt to any situation in the world, which included my powers and backstory, you really do hate change, don't you?" Rowan asked and Sin Nombre was frowning.

"Alternate reality and powers explained like everything that was weird about you. It explained the visions, and the ropes tricks and why you're the way you are. So it really wasn't that hard to adjust to."

"Well my new last name shouldn't be this hard to adjust too either," Rowan said. "And besides, I'm still Rowan Pierce, you know in the music world."

"Oh wonderful! That's good," Sin Nombre said and Wo Fat nodded.

"I concur, your accolades in the music business shouldn't be absorbed into McGarrett's last name, seeing as he has very little to do with that."

"I'm the inspiration for almost all her songs," Steve snapped but Wo Fat pinned him with a dark glare.

"Yeah but you haven't written a single lyric or note, have you? And that's most of the work."

"Not to mention half her inspiration comes from you traumatizing her," Sin Nombre said.

What the hell was this, why were they ganging up on him. He turned to Rowan with a pleadingly frustrated look on his face and she came to his rescue.

"Stop picking on my husband," she ordered pointing at them. "So help me. Stop it or I'll tell Doris."

Her phone went off, a call not a text and she picked it up. "Well speak of the devil," she murmured before answering. "Hey Doris, you two good to go? Kay, give me a second."

Rowan rushed to the door, opening it up and then Doris and Yao were walking in. Doris with the food, Yao with all the gifts.

Yao went to put the gifts under the tree, Doris went to the table then everyone was standing up again to hug the two new comers. Nahele immediately went to Rowan's side and pressed into it.

Unbeknownst to Steve Nahele had been nervous about this. Because he hadn't ever had a grandparent before, he was worried that Doris wouldn't like him. So, when Doris' eyes swung to him, he nestled into Rowan's side for protection.

"Is this him?"

Steve crossed to join his family immediately. "Yep, this is Nahele."

Doris approached him almost carefully like he was a rabid dog that might lunge at him. Nahele too looked from both his parents to her, like he was worried she'd be taking him away. He got a nod from his mother and a soft push in her direction.

"Hi," he said sheepishly.

"You can call me Nana if you want," Doris said softly.

"Okay… uhm… everyone calls me 'Hele," he offered which just made Doris smile. The kid offered her a hand to shake.

"Oh, we're not doing that," she said and then grabbed the offered hand and pulled her to him. She hugged him for a little bit tears welling up in her eyes, and Steve had to reach out and take Rowan's hand to keep his own tears from falling.

He never thought his mom would ever get to meet his kids, but here she was, hugging Nahele and it was choking him up more than he'd like to admit.

"Did you do it yet? Did he say yes? Is it official?" Doris asked once she had let him go and Nahele had immediately nestled into Rowan's side.

Steve opened his mouth but Sin Nombre said: "Yep, he's gonna be a McGarrett in three days." and then was immediately elbowed by Wo. Though he yelped it was clear that Sin Nombre had no idea what he had done.

"Really?" Steve asked him. "You couldn't let me tell my own mother?"

"I'm sorry I'm just so excited for you two!"

"You bet against us. You thought he'd say no!"

"Well yeah… cause if I were him, I'd want a dad who's more… around… you know?"

Steve's mouth dropped but Doris leant forward and cuffed Sin Nombre's head. "If you have nothing nice to say keep your mouth shut," she ordered and Sin Nombre actually fell quiet.

Except for the sour: "Sorry, Mrs. McGarrett," he hit her with.

Wow, maybe he'd just have his mom around every time he had to work with the assassin. He'd probably listen to orders if he had his mom with him.

"Okay, so why don't we all get seated, Jian and I will get the food out and then we'll talk about what we brought," she said. Everyone nodded and as they moved to sit down, Rowan and Jian got everything ready and out of the oven where things were being left to heat and then brought them all to the table.

When they were ready and at their seats, Rowan stayed standing. "Okay so Steve made the turkey and carved it too. It comes with what I've been told is McGarrett special stuffing, so thank Doris for that. There's also French Toast Casserole which can be either for dessert or dinner and I made piparkoogid again this year, all of you get to take a tin home. Kay who's next?"

"Uh… I brought Da Bin Lo, which is just a hotpot. It's got a pepper chicken broth cause I know most people like it spicy, I've brought an array of meats and dumplings, and uh, you put them in the broth to cook it and there's noodles in there so yeah..." Wo said and then turned to Jian.

"I brought the largest KFC bucket of chicken and Wagashi for dessert which are sweets made with red beat paste and mochi. They're all molded into cute little things. Wo loves them and he's been sneaking them when he thought I wasn't looking so hopefully there's enough."

That meant they weren't going to be as sweet but it was cute that he tried to sneak them and failed miserably.

"I brought buñuelos, which are just deep-fried cheese balls. And for dessert I brought natillas de leche which is just a sort of pudding."

"I didn't realize we were supposed to bring a dessert so I brought Hawaiian Style Manapua Buns. They're uh… pork," Doris said.

"And I can't cook. So everything Doris brought is from me," Yao said and they all giggled.

"That's fine," Rowan said quickly. "I bet it'll be great."

"Do we need to say grace or anything?" Con asked but Rowan shook her head.

"Merry Christmas and tuck in!" she called and they did all that.

Steve sat there for a bit staring at the people he around the Christmas table with him. He still wasn't sure he believed that he was having a sit-down Christmas dinner with Wo Fat, but he was, and he wasn't even upset about it.

Everyone was wearing ugly Christmas sweaters, just like he, Rowan and Nahele. His mom was in one that just had a green Christmas tree that said: "let's get lit," on it. Wo was in one that looked like a knitted suit. Sin Nombre had one that had mistletoe on his chest with the words: "Kiss me under the mistletoe" and then a big arrow pointing to his belt. Jian was in one that depicted Jesus in a party hat with "Birthday boy" across his chest.

Even Yao was in one, but his looked like someone had combing all Christmas knitted patterns together.

They looked like they belonged together. They looked like a family. A real family. And he wouldn't have found this, wouldn't have realized the love he had for these people, and yes that included Wo Fat and Sin Nombre, if it weren't for his wife.

She really had given him everything. Now if only he could do the same for her.