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AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: Hello my wonderful readers. Are you ready for yet another long chapter. This one is gonna be angsty but it ends cute, I promise. Don't forget to tell me if you loved it and I'll see you guys next week!
Chapter 388
After his disastrous fight with Lee Campbell, Steve had been worried.
Worried that something was terribly wrong with him but not worried enough to really do anything about it.
But then Rowan begged him to go to the doctor, to get this checked and he said he would.
And then he didn't.
He didn't because he didn't want something to be wrong with him.
But his symptoms were getting worse and more frequent.
Still, he put off going to the doctor for as long as he could, even after he promised Rowan he would go in. It wasn't until he was driving Nahele to school one morning and he had a dizzy spell so bad he almost crashed his truck that he knew he couldn't put it off anymore
So he booked that appointment and then specifically went without anyone. Not Danny or not Rowan, just himself because he was afraid of what he was going to be told.
If it was bad news he didn't want Rowan worrying about him, and if it was what he thought it was, Danny would hit him with the I told you so's, and he didn't want to hear that right after bad news. And maybe Danny wouldn't say it to his face, but Steve would be able to see it in his eyes.
Dr. Kohashi listened to Steve as he explained what he was experiencing. The man felt as his neck, right under his jaw, he listened to Steve breathe, to his heart. Then he brought out the tests.
He started with the Survey meter, which would tell him if there was radiation in his body. That test got a huh from the Doctor and then he moved onto blood tests.
That made him nervous.
But they had to wait for the blood work to go through. When he got the call to come back in to talk about the results, Dr. Kohashi wouldn't get into it on the phone, and that meant bad news.
Which meant Steve went back to the Doctor's office alone.
He sat in the little office, shirt on for the first time in a long time just waiting. When Dr. Kohashi came in with a file folder no doubt filled with his results, the man was looking them over.
"Good Morning Commander," he said absently as he flipped through the file.
"Good morning," he said trying to smile warmly. "So uh… what do the tests say?"
"Uh… taking in your signs and symptoms and the lowered blood-glucose count, I'm positive that this is radiation poisoning," Dr. Kohashi said. And Steve's heart just about stopped.
"I have radiation poisoning?" he asked even though the Doctor had just said that was what it was. "But I was just here, you said I was fine…"
"I said your liver was looking fine," Dr. Kohashi clarified. "I wasn't testing you for Radiation Poisoning."
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck.
"Now, you said that the vomiting didn't start until a few weeks after the initial exposure?"
"Uh… yeah… I'd say about three maybe four weeks after?"
"Well, alright, that's good then. I'd be more worried if it showed up right away. This probably means it's only a low dose. I'm going to start you on a round of Clozapine to get your white blood cell count up to the proper levels. That should deal with the dizziness and vomiting you've been dealing with."
Steve nodded. "Right… right.. but uh… that's okay then, right? Once I take the pills and knock it out of my system, it'll be okay?"
Dr. Kohashi winced. "Well, Commander, it really depends."
"On what?"
"On the damage to your bone marrow. We'll have to do another test to determine, but uh… if it's damaged like I think it is there's a chance that you'll develop Leukemia."
Fucking cancer?!
"Leukemia… is that… is that…"
"To be honest, the chances are relatively high. Regardless that your latent period was almost a month before you showed any symptoms, it depends on how badly damaged your bone marrow is. At the moment I'm seeing some minor damage, but we'll have to do yearly tests to make sure that it doesn't progress. In all likelihood if we catch it early it won't be as bad."
Okay. Okay. So this was not that big deal. So this guy said that he had a high chance of developing a cancer with one of the highest mortality rates, this was just one opinion. He could get others and it they could say something completely different.
Poor Steve, his heart was racing thinking about what this meant to him. What would happen if he developed cancer? What would happen to Rowan? To Nahele? If this took him out, they'd be alone.
Wait.
Wait.
Rowan.
Rowan had… Rowan had the same symptoms as him. Radiation Poisoning was contagious. Wasn't it? And Rowan had been sick too, just like him.
"Could I be… could I be giving it to my wife?"
"No, you're not nearly as radioactive…."
"Okay, but she's been throwing up a lot, kind of like me, same signs and symptoms. So are you sure? Are you sure that there isn't a way that I'm giving it to her? Maybe through bodily fluids? We have sex a lot and we're constantly kissing…"
Dr. Kohashi knew all about he and Ro's sex life because their sex life was why he had so many bumps in his road to recovery, well that and work. But most of the times he had been in this doctor's office getting restitiched had been because of his sex life. Still Dr. Kohashi shook his head.
"There shouldn't be."
Shouldn't be.
But Steve knew otherwise.
He was giving it to his wife, he knew it.
He just needed the proof.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Steve didn't go home right away once he was done with Dr. Kohashi. He couldn't. He just drove around digesting everything he had been told because it was a lot to take in.
He had radiation poisoning. He was probably going to get cancer at some point. A really bad one. And there's a good chance he had given this to his wife.
Dr. Kohashi tried to tell him that there was no way that Rowan could have gotten radiation poisoning from him but Steve knew that wasn't true.
His first theory was that because Rowan and Wo Fat jumped to the blast zone after the bomb went off that maybe there was some radiation on him that she had picked up on. But Danny hadn't gotten any rubbed off radiation, and after a quick call to Wo Fat, he figured out that he hadn't shown any symptoms either.
That meant it was just Rowan.
How had he given it just to her? He got Wo Fat, cause he wasn't around him as much, but he was around Danny just as much.
He had to assume that the only difference was that he was sharing a bed with her, having sex with her. He had to have been radioactive enough at one point to affect her.
Yes, Dr. Kohashi was clear that if he was that radioactive his symptoms would have appeared quicker, but he knew he was wrong.
Rowan was sick because of him. And if there was a chance that his own radiation was making her sick there was a chance that she'd get leukemia too.
And he couldn't let that happen.
So, he went home, after picking up his new meds, with a plan. A plan to keep his wife away from him until he was certain that he wasn't radioactive at all. Though that could take days.
"Hey baby," she had said the second he came through the door. "I made Lemon salmon and rice for you. It's in the oven because I didn't realize you would be out this late. Did you catch a case?"
See, now he had a choice. He could tell her the truth and freak out his wife right then and there or he could lie and protect her until he knew more about what was going on. He knew he had to keep her away from him at all cost, but how was he to do that when she had made him his favourite meal and she looks so goddamn beautiful.
He couldn't resist her. Had never been able to, wouldn't be able to start now.
So, because he was too afraid to go to bed with his wife, he picked an argument. He yelled at her that she didn't need to know every aspect of his life. That she was smothering him. That he was sick of her.
And then he ignored her for the rest of the night.
When he got ready for bed she asked if they could talk about their argument and what brought it on. She said she was sorry for smothering him, but she hadn't realized she was. She was just trying to show him that she was interested in his day, then she asked if he could tell her how he'd like her to show that interest in him if her asking questions was too overwhelming.
Steve almost broke out in tears right there. Because she wasn't in the wrong and she hadn't been smothering him. And now, even though he had lied, even though she had done nothing wrong, she was validating his fake emotions and trying to find a way to appease both of them.
God, he did not deserve his wife. He didn't. And she deserved someone so much better than him, especially someone who could communicate better than him.
And she definitely did not deserve to be sick because of him.
So he told her he didn't want to talk to her, didn't want to spend another second with her. Then he took his pillow and one of the extra blankets and then exiled himself to the couch.
She didn't chase him down the stairs, she didn't argue with him, she let him go. And he was almost grateful, cause if she chased him, he would have caved.
But though he was on the couch the void was talking to him. Twanging through his chest telling him that his wife was crying, that she wanted him. He was sure she was sending those vibes to him through their strings but she wasn't doing it on purpose. And he was probably sending her his own emotions, his own desire to have her with him. But neither of them moved. Neither of them went to the other.
Eventually the strings quieted down when she fell asleep, but Steve never slept when he wasn't with Rowan so it took him longer to fall asleep.
Though it took him forever to fall asleep, his sleep was interrupted when the dizziness came back. He awoke with a terrible fever, and a queasy feeling rolling through his stomach. But that wasn't all.
With the aches came his wife.
She must have sensed that he needed her because she was beside him already reaching out for him.
"Babe, babe," she whispered, her cool hands finding him, cradling his cheeks. She had the garbage with her too. "It's okay, it's okay, let it out."
He lurched for the garbage. As he threw up, she kept her hands on him, and the ache was already leaving him. She continued, patting his back as he threw up, over and over until there was nothing left. Only then did he collapse back to the couch.
Still Rowan's hands didn't leave him, and though she didn't say it, he knew that her hands on him was what was keeping his radiation sickness at bay.
He stared into his wife's calm face, drinking in the beauty highlighted by the moonlight as she stared down at him. She kept stroking his cheek, running her hands through his hair, a single hand resting over his heart, while his one of hands gripped her wrist, and the other had reached out for her waist.
"Come on, let's go, let's go to bed baby," she whispered to him. He should have stayed exactly where he was, but Rowan was his kryptonite.
She got him up the stairs and into their bed. She kept him all wrapped up in the blankets with her arms wrapped around him. He shook, he shook because his body was slick with sweat and he was cold now. His arms wrapped around his wife, and he swore, he swore he could feel her shaking against him, mirroring how he felt.
He managed to doze a bit, a bit deeper than when he was on the couch and away from her, but that too was disturbed when Rowan pushed him off of her.
He propped himself up, watching as she rushed to their en suite washroom. By the time he was out of bed to follow her the dull ache had returned to him, as had a temperature, and his wife had started vomiting.
His stomach was protesting and it might have been worse if he wasn't worried about his wife.
He knelt down beside her, reaching for her, his hands pulling her hair back for her as her body shook through her retching. When she was done, they both sat back. His arms around her, holding her back to his chest.
"I'm okay now," she whispered to him but she wasn't. She wasn't alright. She was sick. Just like him, and he had given it to her "I… I'm going to get a drink of water, why don't you go back to bed?"
Steve shook his head, but let her get up, following after her once she was up and on her feet.
"No? Do you want water too?" she asked.
"No, yes, actually, but I'll come with you, can get my own water."
She shook her head at him, but together they walked down to the kitchen. Steve got himself a nice cold water to soothe the trail of fire that the bile had burned up his throat. Rowan had decided on ginger ale, no doubt to soothe her stomach.
For a moment he watched her drink and he knew, he knew he was going to have to tell her what was going on.
"Babe… tomorrow… tomorrow we're going to the doctor, okay?" he whispered into the silence between them.
Rowan turned to him a narrowed look about her features. "But you were already there…"
"Yes, I know. But I need you need to go. We're gonna go together…"
Rowan scoffed. "Steven, I swear to you I am not pregnant."
"No, I know… it's me, Rowan. I'm sick and I think I gave it to you. I need to get you tested… we need to get a head of this before I make you worse."
Rowan had fully turned to him now. "Is that why you picked a fight with me tonight? You think you're making me sick so you picked a fight to sleep on the couch?"
"Ro…" he started but she already knew it was true and she wouldn't let him lie.
"What a stupid thing to do to me Steven, I actually thought I was smothering you which is ridiculous because I barely see you, you are always at work."
"Rowan now is not the time to argue about work and how I do not control the crime on Hawaii," he snapped.
Rowan rolled her eyes and turned back to the fridge to put the ginger ale away.
"Rowan listen to me," he said a little more urgently and she shut the fridge to turn to him. "I… I have radiation poisoning. I have radiation poisoning, and you've been getting sick too so I wanna make sure that you don't have it. Okay?"
He found his eyes squinting, wincing actually waiting for her response. He expected some sort of reaction from her, but Rowan's face was passive.
Now that got his attention. Why wasn't she more surprised by this? Why wasn't she freaking out? Was it because she was tired? God, Steve was tired.
"Okay," she said after a moment's silence. "We'll go tomorrow, okay? Can we go to bed now? Not going to lie Steve I'm so tired, I just want you to hold me."
Steve nodded, oh yeah, that's what he wanted too. He could do that for her no problem. She offered him a hand that he took right away.
"And when we're done at the doctor we are going to talk about what you did tonight cause that was uncalled for and hurtful."
Steve just shook his head. He wanted nothing more than to argue with his wife about the misguided decision he had made today and how he had only done it to protect her, but that was all depended on what the Doctor said tomorrow.
Because if he was right, he wasn't going to come home with her.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
As promised Steve went with Rowan to see Dr. Kohashi.
She was determined to make a day of it. She had them stop off at Rainbows for a late breakfast. They had coffee with Malasada's in the car on the drive over. She was kind enough to dunk his Malasada and feed it to him while he drove.
And that almost took the heart wrenching anxiety out of him. Almost. It was still there playing in the background but it was easier this time around, only because she was with him.
When they got into the office, he spoke to Dr. Kohashi's secretary claiming an emergency and that eventually got Dr. Kohashi out into the waiting area.
He told him his concerns, Rowan confirmed the symptoms she had been having and he went straight to the tests.
He started with the Survey Meter, just like had with Steve. And just with Steve, Dr. Kohashi said: Huh… and then took her blood.
Already this was making him nervous, and even Rowan trying to distract him wasn't working anymore.
He would have given anything, the first time he was in there, to have Rowan between his legs and hold her. So, he had given her that, she had sat on that doctor's table, her legs spread with Steve between them.
He was holding her. Holding and wishing, hoping and praying for good news. She wanted him to kiss her, so he gave her a few, but the fear had a hold of him. Too tightly for kisses. She kept her forehead bowed to his and he let her run her hands up and down his back as she tried to soothe him.
Steve could only hold her, as if his grip alone would save her from a bad diagnosis. Maybe if he held her tight enough, maybe if he begged the strings, he could pull her a better outcome like they had at the Winter Formal.
When Dr. Kohashi came back, the two of them separated. They both watched him walk int the room looking through Rowan's file. Rowan reached out to hold his hand and Steve took it right away cause the panic was sweeping through him now, he was literally about to vomit he was so nervous.
It was like he was back on that stage in his youth having an existential crisis.
Please, please let her be okay.
"Okay… well… I literally don't know how this is possible but uh… Commander, you were right, she too has radiation poisoning."
When Steve got his diagnosis his heart had stopped, but when it was Rowan it was so much worse than that. His heart didn't just stop, it hit the ground.
No. No this just could not be happening.
"You said that your symptoms showed up around the same time Steve's did?"
Rowan nodded. "I guess, maybe a few days to a week later," she said.
"Originally, I thought it was a mass hysteria, or sympathetic symptoms. You saw him going through it so your body started mirroring him, but that wouldn't explain a lowered white blood cell count."
"Okay. But what does that mean?" Rowan asked.
Dr. Kohashi looked over the chart again and then turned back to her.
"Well your readings are a lot lower than Steven's, so, I'm not worried about long term effects. You should be right as rain once we get your white blood cells back to normal."
Rowan smiled to Steven who had been struggling to breathe. None of this was good, why was she fucking smiling at him like that?
Did she realize what had happened? Did she not realize what he had done? He had given her radiation poisoning.
"Now, you'll need to go onto Clozapine, just like Steve, just to get the white blood cell count back up. And uh… we've scheduled Steven for a retest in two weeks just to make sure it's working, so you can come back with him and we'll test you as well."
"That's great. See Steve? It's not that bad," she said but Steve had stopped listening after Dr. Kohashi confirmed that he was right.
"But it makes no sense," he continued. "If she was no where near the canister when it opened, she shouldn't have gotten sick."
Rowan glanced to Steve and he saw that she knew. She knew how she got it, just like he did.
"And you're sure?" Dr. Kohashi asked. "You're sure that she wasn't with you when you opened that canister?"
"No… I wasn't…" she said which was true. But Steve was shaking his head, because this proved it.
She got it from him.
"It really doesn't make sense. If she wasn't there… then she shouldn't be…"
Except she was.
He was making his wife sick.
Already he was shaking at the thought of his Rowan going through what he was going through. He didn't want her to be sick, he didn't want her getting cancer from this. He didn't want anything other than for her to be okay and now she was sick and it was his fault.
"Steven?" she asked in a careful voice.
She had noticed that he was backing away. His eyes had been on her but he hadn't been seeing, lost in his own little world realizing what was happening.
But as they focused on her again he could see exactly when she realized just how panicked he was. And she knew exactly what he was going to do.
"No. Steven…" she said, this time in warning, but it didn't stop him.
All he could think was that she was sick and it was his fault. And even though he wanted nothing more than to hug her and hold her close, he knew that he was the reason she was sick. And he couldn't handle it.
So he bolted.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Steve wanted to go to Danny's but if he got Rowan sick then he could get him sick. He figured Danny wasn't as susceptible as Rowan was because they weren't swapping bodily fluids so he didn't warn him. He'd have to tell Danny what was wrong with him, and Danny wouldn't stop bitching.
He didn't want to listen to Danny bitch about how Steve's battery trick hadn't worked like he said it wouldn't. He didn't want to listen to Danny bitch about how Steve really was going to kill the piece of his liver he had "selflessly" given him.
So he packed up a bag of his stuff before Rowan got home, then went to a hotel. He texted her to tell her that he was okay, that he was somewhere safe, and that he would really prefer it if she kept away from him. It would be safer, he told her, for her and Nahele if they stayed away.
He then turned off his phone because if she called him he'd pick up and if she started crying he'd cave and go home.
And he needed to keep her safe. He needed to make sure that she didn't get sick.
He was alone for only a few hours. Enough time for Rowan to pick up Nahele from school. HE should have texted him too, gave him some sort of excuse for why he wasn't going to be home for a while, at least until he wasn't radio active anymore, but he didn't want to worry the kid.
It also meant that Rowan would have to think of some kind of excuse for her.
He had opened up the minibar when the antsiness got to be too much, when his desire to turn on his phone just to call his wife and hear her voice got too hard to resist.
He kept watching the time.
It was almost five, Rowan would be making dinner, Nahele would be doing homework at the kitchen table because he liked being with them. Steve could be sitting on the couch watching TV, or sitting next to Nahele trying to help him with his homework, or helping Rowan with dinner.
At six he ordered room service and tucked a little more deeply into that minibar. He sat on the hotel bed trying to pretend he was at home with his family, but he wasn't and he wanted to be.
At seven he was treading the very thin line of tipsy and drunk. He and Nahele would be doing the dishes, Rowan would be starting to relax.
If he was home she'd be curling into him on the couch and they'd pick a movie or show to watch. Or they'd be lighting a fire and she'd be getting out her guitar and Steve and Nahele would be getting the football to toss around.
God he wanted to be home.
But he wanted his family safe more, even if that meant being safe from him.
It was ten minutes after seven when the door to his hotel room opened up and Steve groaned cause he knew exactly who it was.
Rowan slammed the door shut behind her, a glare on her face and he bolted from the bed to put space between them.
"Steven James McGarrett! What a completely horrible thing to do to me! You left me at that doctor's office alone! Alone!" she shouted. "Now, I've given you space, I've given you time to digest and process and come to your senses, but you seem determined to be an idiot. And I'm not going to let you. So, stop pulling a Doris and let's go home."
Steve wanted to go home, god he did, and she knew he did, but he was doing this to protect her. She had to see that. So he focused on the most hurtful thing she had ever said, ready to turn it into an argument.
"Excuse me? Pulling a Doris?"
"Yes! You left me! You left your family! And I get that you're trying to keep us safe, but this is exactly what Doris did when she faked her death!" she cried. "What? If I don't leave you alone, you're going to fake a car explosion too?"
Steve stood there mouth agape, horrified she said that to him. Of course not, of course he wasn't going to leave his wife and his kid like that.
"Rowan, be reasonable," he pleaded. "You need to be away from me. You have to be. I'll come back when this has left my system."
Rowan rolled her eyes. She said his name and tried to move towards him but Steve scrambled back.
"No, Rowan. Stay away from me!" he shouted. "Baby, I'm serious, if I've given it to you, I can give it to Nahele. I refuse to make the two of you sick."
"Steve, if you could please just listen…"
"NO!" He shouted. To his horror he could feel tears burning his eyes, streaking down his cheek. "Rowan, I'm making you sick!"
"You're not, Steve! I am. I'm making me sick!" she cried. He took that in with narrowed eyes. "Why do you think I was trying to get you to the doctor, Steve? Did you ever wonder that? The second you started throwing up, I wanted you at the doctor's office. Why do you think that is?"
She knew. Oh god she had known all along. That was why she hadn't freaked out when he told her.
And she saw him realize it too. "You see baby, I knew you were sick. I knew it was there, because it's this green sticky sludge that coats all your strings."
Dear god she hadn't seen it in his strings, she had seen it on his strings.
"And… I've never seen that before. No illness has every manifested like that, but it was all over you baby and… and…"
He thought about all those times she had come into the washroom when he had been sick, how she had held him in her arms and that sick feeling had left him. Every morning she had thrown up had been after a night he had been sick. How had he not put two and two together before?
She didn't have a stomach flu or food poisoning, it wasn't morning sickness either. She was pulling that sickness right out of him and making herself sick in the process.
"You were getting it off of me, weren't you?" Steve asked and she nodded.
"I… I pulled your sickness out of you and, to make it go away permanently, I put it into me… and that's what's been making me sick."
"Baby!"
"You were just so sick Steve, and… I mean… come on, you're telling me if the roles were reversed you wouldn't do the same?"
No he would. He one hundred percent would.
"So… it's not you being with me that got me sick, okay? You can't give it to me by being with me, there's no way that you can get Nahele or anyone else sick. So, can you come home? Please?"
"No!" Steve shouted and Rowan too started to cry. And he was weak. God he was weak because the second she started crying he grabbed her. He took a hold of her hands and pulled her to him, he couldn't press her to his chest, no matter how much he wanted to, but he did make her look at him. "I know you, you're not going to stop. I don't want to make you sick, Rowan. For godsake, please. Please…"
"But I want you to come home," she near sobbed.
At that he crushed her to his chest, his own body shaking just like her. "I want to come home, I do, but…. Can you promise, can you promise not to pull it from me anymore? Because if you can't promise that I can't… because I'm not going to chance it, I'm not going to chance you getting this too. Nahele needs you."
"He needs you too."
"I know, but he needs you more. If I go, we both know you're going to be the strong one. You'd be strong for him, you'd be upset, you'd mourn but you wouldn't fall to pieces. If I lose you, we're both fucked, me and Nahele, completely fucked."
"That's not true, I'd fall to pieces too," she said with a big sniff. "And… I can see it in your stings, Steve. If I don't get this off of you, you're going to get sick. Really sick. Like down the road, just like that doctor said, okay? And… I don't want that for you. I don't want your retirement years to be filled with illness."
Steve nodded. "Well the way it's going right now, we're both going to be sick, is that what you want?"
Rowan shook her head. "Look, if I get sick from this, down the road, it'll be okay. Do you know why?"
"Why?"
"Because I'm going to have you. You're going to be with me, the whole time, right?" Rowan nodded. "There see, it'll be okay, as long as we're together we'll be okay, okay?"
For a little while he held her. "Did uh… did the strings say it… uh… kills me?"
"Uhm… well originally yes," she said. "I've got it down to a fifty-fifty chance."
Ah so that was why she was doing it. She had been evening out the odds.
"Alright, alright, well that's good enough. You hear me? No more helping me out. If you can promise me that, I'll come home," he said, Rowan opened her mouth, no doubt to lie to him but he shook his head. "Ro, I'm seriously here, if I even so much as think that you're possibly getting sick because of me, I'll leave again to make sure you're not"
Rowan nodded eagerly. "I promise I won't. Now can you… please? I don't wanna be home alone."
He nodded, the night at the hotel was already paid for but he went home with her. She gave him the dinner she had saved, which was his favourite chicken dish. He went and hugged Nahele lying to him and telling him that a case had run late.
Then he and Rowan had a very serious conversation about what they were going to do.
The cancer was going to hit him she said, that was unavoidable now. But she had lowered the odds of it killing him. She said at the earliest it can show up in the next ten years, if he was lucky they could hold it off for fifteen.
She said she'd watch the strings, tell him when it started showing up so they could get to the doctor. The key was catching it early. The earlier they caught it the better his chances were.
That was fine, but she wasn't allowed to leech anymore because if she took on anymore she'd get sick too and he could not chance that.
She made him a deal. Fifty-fifty odds were too much. She wanted to take just a little more out of him, she wanted to get the odds below fifty then she'd stop.
He gave her one last night to syphon it out of him. Then that was it.
The other deal was that they don't tell anyone. Steve didn't want anyone else to worry about him. Specifically Nahele.
Danny also could not know.
Because if Danny found out that he was right, that Steve was going to get sick down the road, the bitching and gloating would never end.
Rowan had agreed and then pulled him close and held him there.
This was a scary conversation to have with his wife. That fact that cancer was guaranteed in his future was terrifying to think of. But he had his family, he had Rowan, and he'd have his Five-0 family standing beside him too and that would be enough.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Was it weird that the last week had been… like picture perfect domestic bliss?
Rowan was attentive to him, he was attentive to her. They made sure that they were taking their meds. She was making him lunch with two bottles of ginger ale for when he got dizzy or nauseous. He was doing his best to get home before her so he could make dinner for her.
But on the days that she beat him home he brought shaved ices. One to share between him and Rowan and a smaller one for Nahele.
If this was what getting sick was going to look like from now on, having his wife dote on him, or being able to dote on her, then he was going to start looking forward to getting sick more.
At the end of the week, Rowan was essentially feeling better, Steve, not so much, though his episodes were less frequent. They figured they were well enough to join the team for some after hours fun. Steve swung by after he finished up with the case, made sure Nahele was good to be alone for a few hours, promised to pick him up food from Kamekona's for tomorrow and then he and Rowan joined the team at the truck.
Steve had just pulled up when Chin came through on his motorcycle, coming to park beside him.
"Hey Ro. Hey Steve."
"You really shouldn't be riding around without a helmet," Rowan said coming around the front of the Silverado to hug him. "I have a really hard time keeping you guys alive as is, let's not make the odds higher, hmm?"
Chin rolled his eyes at Steve but made sure to be smiling at her. "Thanks for worrying Ro. I'll be more careful from now on." He then turned to Steve. "Hey Steve, before we go in do you have a second?"
Steve glanced to Rowan who let go of Chin right away. "Oh, boy talk," she said. "I'm gonna go order, kay babe?"
"You don't even know what I want."
"Sure I do. You want the most expensive fish on the menu," she called back, she turned around to add: "And I'm thinking you want… rice with a side of potatoes?"
Steve smiled at her which won him a grin from her, because she knew she was right, before she turned around and walked to the truck.
"It should annoy me but I love it when she knows what I want before I do," he said. "So what's up Chin?"
"I wanted to fill you in about a meeting I had this morning." He focused on peeling his gloves off because he was nervous about this, worried about what Steve would think. Chin was loyal, that was his thing and considering this opportunity felt like a betrayal to Steve and Five-0. "I sat down with our good friend, uh, Coughlin."
Steve nodded. "Oh, yeah, I know all about it."
Chin chuckled and glanced to Rowan. "Oh you do, do you?"
"Yeah he called me earlier this week. Told me he was gonna reach out to you. Offer you the team lead on a Five-0 out in San Francisco. Professional courtesy. But uh, you're not allowed to take Five-0. Come up with your own name," he said and then he glanced to where Rowan was standing, putting in her order with Kamekona. "And uh… Rowan may have mentioned it before the call came in."
Chin nodded unsure what to say.
"Sounds like he wants you out there pretty bad. And so he should. There's nobody more qualified than you."
Chin found himself touched. He couldn't help it. That was big coming from McGarrett. "I appreciate that."
"What'd you tell him?"
"Oh Rowan didn't tell you?" Steve merely cocked an eyebrow at him but otherwise stayed silent. Which meant she probably had but they weren't going to spoil it for him. "Well, I told him I would think about it. Which I have been. A lot. Listen, Steve, Hawaii's my home. It always has been, always will be. Still, this is a…"
"It's a hell of an opportunity is what it is," Steve finished for him.
"Yeah," Chin agreed.
"And it's San Francisco, that's Abby's home. I mean, she gotta be at least, uh, a little bit excited about the prospect, no?"
"Actually I haven't told her yet."
"Okay, why not?"
"Well, before I ask her to turn her life upside down, I gotta figure out where I stand with everything."
"When you say where you stand, you're not talking about the job, not… you and Abby are solid."
"Yeah I think so. But, you know, I've learned not to take anything for granted," he said. "And I'm not going to ask her to move until things between us, are, uh… official."
"Official?" Steve echoed with a grin. "What kind of official? Like, you want me to call Wo and see if he can help you set up something like he did for me?"
"Not sure he'd agree to that," Chin said with a chuckle.
"Eh, he owes me a favour."
Chin shook his head. "It'll happen, it's happening. Hell, I don't even think she's even gonna say yes, I'm not sure."
"She's a very independent woman. She's probably not gonna say yes, but I look forward to, uh, you making a compelling case."
The two of them chuckled for a moment and then Steve's eyes wandered right over to where his wife was sitting with two boxes. One for him, with a ginger ale sitting by it and one for her that she was already tucking into.
"She told you, didn't she? She told you if Abby and I… and whether or not I take the job…" Chin said.
Steve just shook his head. "Chin, Rowan doesn't have all the answers. This is a decision you have to make for yourself," he said.
"All I know is that I can't imagine a future without Abby and Sara being a big part of it."
"Well, good, then let that guide you."
"Babe!" Rowan called from the benches. "Babe, I'm cold can you get my sweater?"
Steve shook his head. "I told her she'd be cold in just a tee-shirt," he said. "You go ahead I gotta find where she stashed that sweater."
Chin nodded leaving him there before heading over to the benches where Adam and Kono were sitting together, with Danny on the other side of Kono.
Rowan was on her own side, clearly a seat saved for Steve, there'd be room for Chin too if Hirsch wasn't standing there, one foot on the bench, tie half undone, looking dishevelled and depressed while he sipped on a light beer.
Chin said hi to everyone before focusing in on Hirsch.
"What's with the long face?"
"He's discouraged," Kono said. "He's been trying to get a loan to expand his company."
Chin took the seat on the edge. "Shouldn't be too hard. It's a recession-proof business. And you've certainly cornered the market."
Adam winced. "It's uh… proving difficult."
"Don't sugar coat it. I struck out."
But Chin was always optimistic. "Oh, plenty of places you can go…"
"Nine times," Hirsch said interrupting him. Oh, yeah that was different. "Every bank on the island. They uh… don't like that I've done time."
Ah. Yeah, that would do it. Was kind of hard to be optimistic about that.
"Wow," was all Chin could get out. "Well I'm sorry to hear that."
Steve finally joined them, draping the sweat across Rowan's shoulders before sitting down beside her. He then wrapped an arm around her and tugged her to his side.
"Oh, babe, you're super cold," he said, and then clasped her hands in his. "Here, steal my warmth."
"Ohh, thanks," Rowan cried, snuggling into him for that heat of hers so he had no choice but to let go of her hands and sling an arm around her shoulder.
"What did I miss?"
"Hirsch is having a hard day. He wants to expand his business, I recruited Adam to help but uh, it didn't go so well. He struck out at every bank on the island."
Steve winced. "Damn, buddy, I'm sorry about that…"
Hirsch just waved him off. "I really wanna thank you guys for your support. I just feel like the universe is maybe trying to tell me something."
"Not true," Rowan said. "I commune with the universe all the time and I didn't see anything like that recently."
Hirsch turned to her, his eyebrows furrowed in her direction. "Uh… Thanks…"
"Come on, sit down," she said and he did as asked. As soon as she was sitting down she took this massive envelope out of her purse and put it on the table in front him. "There you go."
Hirsch stared at it for a second and then took it. It was filled with hundred dollar bills.
"What is this?" Hirsch asked.
"It's the universe," she said. "It's telling you, you asked the wrong people."
Hirsch just stared at her. Clearly not getting it.
Rowan sighed. "It's your start up money," Rowan said. "Adam called me, forwarded me your business plan. I love the red font. Though its you, and I know you, so I feel like you're a safe bet. That and the universe told me it was a good idea."
Hirsch turned a wide smile to Adam. But that was mostly because Adam had told him the red font had been a bad idea.
"Rowan's been looking for more investments, I figured it was worth a shot," he said and then glanced down as Rowan slid a secondary envelope to him. "Rowan what is this?"
"It's a finders fee," she said and Adam sighed.
"Rowan, stop trying to give me money, I'm not that poor!"
"I'll take it," Danny said but Rowan snatched the envelope away.
"When you have a business plan for your restaurant then I'll give you money."
"You mean Steve's?"
"No," Danny and Rowan said together.
"Babe, he doesn't want to name it Steve's let it go."
Steve groaned. "But Steve's would be the perfect name."
"For a person, not a restaurant, let it go."
"No, I'm gonna be co-owner…"
"When the hell did we decide that?" Danny cried and Rowan shook her head. She pushed Steve's food to him so she could get him eating.
Hirsch however was still holding onto that money and he had clearly just gotten over the shock. "Wait, is this a joke?"
"No, I don't joke about that kind of money," Rowan said. "There's uh… there's enough there for the first phase of your business plan. If I see the numbers you projected in that second business plan that Adam helped you with, I'll float you the rest. But uh… I'mma want 49% of the company. You can ask the other businesses I invest in, I'm a silent partner. Your choices but I'd like controlling shares."
"Oh my god!" Hirsch cried.
"We can sign the deal whenever," she said. "First phase is always a freebie for me. Kind of like charity. If you want the second phase, you'll need to sign."
"I'll sign anything!" he cried. "Thank you, thank you so much."
"Don't worry about it. I know what it's like to have a bad rep, what it's like to have no one believe in you. Just don't lose faith in yourself, and know that I'll always have your back. Just like Five-0 has ours."
They all smiled at Rowan while Hirsch smiled at the money in the envelope.
"I don't know what to say… I'm so happy I could kiss you. Steve can I kiss her?"
Steve shot him a glare. "Don't you dare! Or the next crime scene you'll be cleaning is your own!"
Rowan just shook her head. "Come here, you can have a hug. That's it."
Hirsch leant in and hugged her, but after three seconds Steve pushed him off of her. After that the night was quiet, filled with laughter and fun and excitement.
There were changes coming on the horizon. But no one knew just what yet.