Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: And Hello there my wonderful readers, are you ready for Episode 2? Because it's coming! Not a lot of Ro in the next few chapters, but we do get to see our fav assassin. As always, don't forget to leave a review or drop a fav or a follow and I'll see you guys next week!

Chapter 411

How the hell did he live his life before he had Rowan in it?

Because she had been gone week and it was like his life had become a dumpster fire.

Rowan did a lot around the house that he just never realized she did.

Like she must have tidied the house when she was home, because three days in and the house was filled with clutter. He knew she made breakfast and dinner, but he didn't know that she spent her afternoons making lunches for the next day for him and Nahele.

He figured that out when Nahele came down the second morning she was gone, and there was no lunch waiting for him. Rowan had made one for the day before but there wasn't one for the rest of the week. Steve had absolutely no idea.

Also he was pretty sure Rowan was doing their laundry every day. He was guessing this because in, that week, Steve realized that he was out of all the clothes that he liked to wear. Since that that never happened when Rowan was home, he figured that he had to be wearing the same four shirts and pair of pants all the time, and she was just doing laundry every day or every other day. He wasn't sure, cause he had never noticed.

This made his life more hectic.

He was distinctly aware of what happened the last time Nahele had been left in his sole care, and he was terrified of Brenda Dean and her clipboard coming back. He was determined to provide the same level of care that Rowan gave, but between his job and all the chores she seemingly did without telling him, he was struggling.

The worst of it was the mornings. It was a struggle to get Nahele up and to school and himself to the office on time. Then, when he got home, he'd be exhausted but he'd have to go around the house trying to clean up all the mess that had seemingly accumulated despite him and his kid being out 80 percent of the day. Steve had never been so tired in his life.

Nahele tried to help, but he was a teenager and often forgot. Con was over a lot as well, and without Rowan to run interference Steve was realizing how similar to Rowan Con was because he was just as annoying if not more so. The man hadn't stopped bitching about the fire and how he was still coughing up smoke from it.

As if the man wasn't a smoker.

He was, by the way. Steve had caught him a few times.

God, after this he was never taking Rowan for granted again.

He couldn't tell her that he was struggling either, because then she'd want to come home. He wasn't going to let her miss out on such a momentous occasion simply because he clearly couldn't handle being a single parent.

God forbid they ever break up, he wasn't even sure he could handle fifty-fifty custody but there was no way he was going to be a weekend-dad.

That morning Steve was up before Nahele. He had gone into the kid's room after his swim to wake him up. His alarm should have gone off at 7:30 but the kid was still asleep. He must have snoozed it. He shook him awake, dropped the wet towel he had around his shoulders to the kid's head so he'd be annoyed enough to actually wake up and then he went for his own shower.

He washed the salt water off of his body and out of his hair, changed into a black polo and a pair of black cargo pants. He didn't usually go for black on black unless he was on some kinda of mission, but today it felt fitting.

Because he was definitely in mourning.

He missed his wife. He hadn't seen her in four days. She hadn't popped in for a late night tryst in a while. Oh yeah he talked to her, she called him intermittently throughout the day, and she was always sending him pictures or texting him for updates on how he and Nahele were doing, but it wasn't the same.

He wanted his wife on the same body of land as him. He wanted to be able to come home and have her ready to hug him and give him a kiss on the cheek, or wherever she wanted to kiss him. He just wanted her there.

But he was determined to survive, so all black was the only way he was going to show how depressed he was that his wife was on the mainland and not in hugging distance.

Besides, he could easily just ask her to pop in when she had a minute so he could hug her. She did have portal powers after all.

He was downstairs making coffee and breakfast. He had two coffees poured into two very different mugs. His favourite mug, for himself of course, and one of the regular stainless steel black ones for Nahele. This was from the set he had originally bought for himself back when he was single.

Since Rowan had moved in she had slowly started replacing all of his manly, sleek, practical things with prettier things. They would perform the same function but would cost twice what Steve would have spent all because they were decorated and fit in with some theme Rowan was coordinating with. She still kept his sleek practical things but no one ever used them anymore because his things were shoved in the back and hers were out in the open.

Well, now that Rowan wasn't there picking what Nahele drank in the morning, he was making sure to put the mugs to good use. It wasn't that Rowan didn't want Nahele drinking coffee, it was that she preferred to give her growing boy something more nutritious for breakfast, which was why she usually tried to have something healthy made up to go with whatever glass of juice or milk she wanted him to have.

Steve had tried doing that, but he wasn't as good at breakfast as Rowan was. She was the queen of pancakes and waffles and somehow she was great at making personal sized fruit salads. She always did it at least an hour before Nahele was up so they didn't go brown and mushy cause then he didn't like them.

Steve couldn't even make oatmeal right.

So that morning, he made the coffee, stirred butter into his mug, the one he had gotten on his first Christmas with his new family, and then went about making toast for himself and toaster waffles for Nahele.

If he wanted something else the boy was old enough to make it himself.

Nahele came pounding down the stairs in just the pants he was planning to wear, which were a pair of jeans. He had a towel around his shoulders, different from the one that Steve had dropped on him, and his hair was still wet.

Well, at least he was done with his shower.

"You're not ready yet?" Steve asked. "Come on! Your ride is coming in… like ten minutes."

"It's fine, it's fine," Nahele said reaching for a mug of coffee. Except it was the wrong one, he picked up Steve's mug.

Nahele liked his with milk and sugar, so it made sense that he would reach for Steve's mug because it kind of looked half prepared. But still. It was the wrong mug.

"Hey, hey, don't drink that…" Steve started but Nahele had already taken a big gulp. He sighed as he watched his kid make a face at the taste. "…That's mine…"

"Ugh, ew, why does it taste like that?"

"Cause it has butter in it, yours is that one," he said pointing to a much smaller black mug.

"Why the hell did you put butter in it?" Nahele cried, shoving Steve's mug into his hands and then going for his own. "What is the matter with you?"

"I like my coffee the way I like my coffee," Steve muttered and Nahele went about pouring too much sugar and too much milk into his own cup. "And it's a Teams thing, you wouldn't get it…"

They were quiet for a bit as they sipped on their coffee. Steve put the toaster waffles on a plate and then handed it to him. Nahele wolfed them down in three seconds flat. He then went for the fridge for something else to eat.

As he was looking in it he asked: "Hey think I could take mom's car today?"

"Yeah, with what license?" Steve shot back.

Nahele straightened and turned a frown onto Steve. "I mean you could drive with me, dad."

He still hadn't fixed his licensing issue. He just hadn't had the time. They were not getting pulled over, again, when Rowan wasn't there to bail them out.

"Not a chance," he said. "Besides, I thought you said uh… Kai? Is it Kai? He's coming to get you isn't he?"

"Yeah, his mom is… oh! If she's in the car with us can I take mom's car?"

"I want you to ask yourself what your mother would say in this situation," he said, and Nahele paused to ponder about it. "Keep in mind this is her prize possession, and if you total her car, it'll cost thousands to fix it up, and even more if we have to buy a new one seeing as it's vintage muscle car and the interior and the paint work are all custom."

He had been standing there with the fridge door open and before Steve could stop himself he said: "Okay, are you looking or are you done, because you're letting all the cold air out and running up my power bill…"

Steve internally winced. Dear god, he sounded just like his father. And he said, when he had kids, he would never be like his old man. Oh how the tables had turned.

"Sorry," he said right away, turning back to the fridge. "I'll just stick to the carpool." The kid grabbed an apple, shoved it into his mouth, looked around some more and then paused.

He took a big bite of his apple before turning to Steve and asking: "Hey dad where's my lunch?"

"Your lunch?" he echoed. "You didn't make your lunch last night?"

"I thought you said you were going to make my lunch!" Nahele cried.

Ah shit.

"Alright, alright, don't panic, I'm sure we can figure out something," he said. The doorbell rang and Steve swore, he did not have time for this. "You go and get that, I'll get started on lunch."

"But I don't have a shirt on dad!" Nahele whined and Steve almost swore again.

"That's not my fault, now is it?" Steve cried. "Choose, answer the door or make your own lunch?"

Nahele huffed. "Fine, I'll go answer the door."

Steve went straight into making-sandwiches mode, pulling out all the ingredients he'd need and Nahele moved to the door.

It was a good thing that Nahele worked out a lot, because his confidence was through the roof. He had no problem showing off his physique when necessary.

Nahele opened the door to a strange man in an army uniform standing there and fear lanced through his heart. No. No, his dad promised, they were going to have father son bonding time while his mom was away for the next two weeks. He couldn't be pulled away by the army.

The man in front of him blinked his eyes, he had not been expecting a shirtless teen to answer the door.

The army guy looked around, looked at a paper in his hand and then said: "Uh… I think I have the wrong house." Oh! Yes, that was good. "Is uh… Commander McGarrett here?"

No.

"…Dad!" Nahele called the trepidation in his voice clear because Steve not only answered immediately, but moved towards him right away.

"What? What is it? You okay?" He got to the door looked at the man in army fatigues and his eyebrows creased with confusion. "Can I help you?"

"Commander McGarrett?"

"Yes?"

The man immediately jumped into a salute, the motion so quick and so stiff that Nahele knew it was ingrained into the man as a normal response. It, however, made Nahele jump.

Neither man seemed to notice that though.

"Special Operator Second Class Junior Reigns. It's an honour to meet you, sir."

"Uh-huh… Nahele, why don't you finish getting ready for school, okay, I'll deal with this," he said. Nahele turned to him, this look of fear on his face that Steve just smiled reassuringly at. "Don't worry. Just go."

Steve watched Nahele move off before turning back to Junior.

"Right, well it's nice to meet, you Junior. Please, relax, I'm not in the Teams anymore." he said trying to get the boy to loosen up. Junior took his hat off in response to being asked to relax, but the stiffness didn't leave him.

Steve understood that entirely, he was pretty rigid when he first got out of service. He liked to think he was a lot more loose now.

"What can I do for you?" Steve asked.

"Uh, my Master Chief, David Lange, always spoke very highly of you."

"David Lange?" he echoed.

"Yeah."

"He's your Master Chief? He was my dive buddy."

At that Junior smiled. "He mentioned that. He says you're the best."

"Well, don't believe everything David Lange says. When you headed back downrange?"

"Actually, sir, I just processed out."

"Out of the Navy?"

"Yes, sir. It's a long story," he said with a bit of a scoff.

"I bet it is. When did you get back from the sandbox?"

"Two hours ago."

Oh… that was quick. He must've come straight to Steve. Strange.

"I see. Well…" he paused only to take a sip of his coffee. "Special Operator Second class Junior Reigns, I gotta say, I'm intrigued as to why you're standing on my porch this morning."

"Well, I heard about the task force you run and the type of work you doing. Tell you the truth, I need a job."

Steve took that in with a nod. "I gotta say, I appreciate the initiative I see here this morning, but, uh, unfortunately, I'm just not hiring right now." The two stared at them for a minute before Steve said: "But listen, man, I mean, if you're open to other work, I can make some calls. I'd be happy to."

"No, I appreciate that, sir. But the thing is, you know, I don't just want a job. Frying potatoes or painting houses, they just don't interest me. No, I want to work for you."

"I don't know what to tell you, Junior. I'm, uh… I'm sorry, I really am."

"I understand, sir. Thank you."

"Yeah, you got it. Now uh… I gotta get my kid to school… you know?" he said and Junior nodded again picked up his bag and left.

Once Junior had walked away Steve shut the door and turned. He took two steps into his house and found Nahele, still completely shirtless, sitting on the steps, a worried look on his face. Why the hell hadn't his kid gotten changed?

He didn't even get to ask him. Nahele stood the second he saw Steve and asked: "Who was that?"

"Just a guy looking for a job, thought I would just put him on Five-0 cause he's a sailor and knows one of my Teams buddies," Steve said but that answer didn't abate whatever worry had taken over Nahele's mind.

"Really? That's it?"

"Yeah, kid, that's it."

"You're sure though? You're going to be here when I get home?" he asked.

Steve sighed. Oh yeah. There we go, that was the problem here.

"Yes, I promise. I mean, I might get a case, but I promise I won't be leaving the island, I will be coming home, okay?" Steve asked. Nahele softly winced, his lips twitched back and forth. Steve knew it wasn't okay but Nahele was prepared to pretend it was. "Here, look, I promise, at any point in the day, if you call, I will pick up the phone, even if I'm on a case, even if I'm getting shot at, I promise you, you call, I'll pick up, FaceTime and everything to prove I'm still on the island."

Nahele broke out in a little smirk and Steve felt like he suitably soothed Nahele's worries. "Don't pick up if you're like… about to get shot or something. Just call me back right after."

"Deal, now will you please go put a shirt on before your ride gets here?" Steve asked.

"Only if you finish my lunch!" Nahele cried, already skipping up the steps to his room.

Steve went back to the kitchen, finished up a sandwich for Nahele and one for him and by the time the kid came down with a shirt on this time and his back pack they were both ready to go. Which was great, because his ride had literally just arrived.

As he waved Nahele off, he couldn't help but notice that Junior was still hanging around at the end of the driveway.

He had a feeling their conversation was far from over.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

They got a call for a case and Steve was ready to go.

All this time just sitting around waiting for a case meant that his mind was going to wander. And, as always, it went back to Rowan.

He kept thinking about how his house didn't feel like a home unless she was there. He kept thinking about how she didn't seem like a typical house-wife, she didn't really look like one or act like one, but she very clearly was one. He kept wondering how it was that she had done all of this on what was probably a daily basis without him noticing.

Did he just not pay attention to her?

He'd like to say no, but he had a feeling that no one else would listen to him if he said that. Especially her brothers.

The second they got in the car, Danny was on the phone talking to someone, in what should have been English but clearly wasn't. Like, he understood all of the words separately but he didn't know what they meant together. It was like that whenever he was on the phone with someone in Jersey, it was like Danny became someone else altogether.

And all while Danny was yammering away Steve was thinking. About Rowan. He thought about Rowan a lot.

He thought about her and what she might be doing at that moment since she hadn't been responding to his texts that morning.

He thought about how she might be out on a beach relaxing, just like she deserved. But that brought back memories of him and her on a beach in the Bahamas, doing… all sorts of R rated things.

And then he started thinking about how MacGyver was in California and she might be doing those things with him.

It his heart he knew she wasn't, but the irrational part of his brain took a hold of that little kernel of fear and was starting to spiral with it. Like, call and demand she pop him to California so he could see for himself, kind of spiral. Like, call her and demand she pop him to California so he could inspect her body… very closely… himself…, kind of spiral.

So he was kind of grateful when Danny finally hung up the phone.

"What was that all about?" Steve asked the second the call was done.

"What was it all about?" Danny echoed. "You were just sitting listening to my conversation. What do you mean what was it about?"

"No! I don't speak Jersey. I tuned out at, uh, disco fries in the AC."

There was this huge big grin on Danny's face as he answered. "That's when you eat a big pile of French Fries with a bunch of stuff on it at two in the morning. My cousin Leo, he was in Atlantic City last week."

Sounded like something Rowan would like.

"And tomato pie is Jersey for pizza. Is that right?"

"Yeah, you make fun, but… this is good news. I got good news."

"Okay. What is it?"

"My Uncle Vito has agreed to bottle water. Bottle tap water for our restaurant."

For a second Steve was silent trying to absorb what Danny had just said but his mind seemingly couldn't comprehend it.

"That's the stupidest thing you've ever said," Steve said and Danny scoffed at him.

"Well, for your information, water is the key to good pizza dough. Okay? That's why you can't get a good slice of pizza out here in Hawaii."

"We're surrounded by water Danny!" Steve cried. "Why do you need more water? We live on an island."

"It's not just any water, it's specific water. It's Jersey tap water. That has been pumped through aged pipes to give you a mineral count that is perfectly bred to make a good piece of pizza. You understand?"

No, Steve did not understand. "What?"

"Don't worry, it's the truth. Don't worry about it. Why don't you just handle management, I will deal with the rest."

"Are you serious?" he asked and Danny nodded happily. "No, I'm gonna have to exercise my veto on this."

"You don't have a veto, I have the veto," Danny said right away. "He's my Uncle and he's gonna send us water. That's the only Vito that's gonna be exercised."

"You asked me to be your business partner. It's like a marriage. It's gotta be 50-50 if it's gonna work."

"What do you know about marriage? You've been married less than a year, what do you know about marriage?"

"I know I'm not divorced," Steve said smugly which just earned an eye roll from Danny.

"So, you want to run our business like you run your dysfunctional marriage with Rowan?"

"Dysfunctional? How dare you! My marriage is just fine, we're not dysfunctional…"

"Of course you are. The two of you don't communicate, you sweep things under the rug!" Danny cried and then it was Steve's turn to scoff. "I've been trying to tell you, she's pregnant, she's showing all the signs and you're ignoring them."

"She is not, we're very careful and I'm… I'm not falling for this again," Steve said. "The last time you said she was probably pregnant she was poisoning herself to save me and she was very insulted and insinuated that I was calling her fat and she wouldn't fuck me for a month. I'm not doing that again, Danny, I'm just not."

Danny shook his head. "Yeah because… with the pregnancy hormones, she'd bite your head off."

"Okay, you know what? No. I'm using my veto on this. End of discussion."

"I already told you, you don't get a veto, Steven," Danny cried. "It's water… where do you care where it comes from? It's water."

"Number one, the shipping costs."

"Shipping costs? Your wife has portal powers, we're not paying shipping costs!"

Steve balked at that. "We're not using my wife's powers to get Jersey tap water. What the hell is the matter with you?"

"Yeah well, you say you what you want, but we both know that she wears the pants in your relationship so I'mma just ask her myself," Danny said while Steve shook his head at him.

"Okay, how about number two. Most of all this is about you not considering my feelings."

"Like you consider Rowan's feelings when you do stupid shit?" Danny asked and Steve almost lashed out to hit him.

"Mention my wife one more time. One more time Danny, I swear to god. I will pull over and slap you."

"Alright, I'm sorry," Danny said. "Didn't realize you were a sensitive little flower today."

Steve rolled his eyes, he wasn't even going to rise to that dig. He just wasn't.

"I'm going to change the subject, since you've made me uncomfortable now, with your feelings."

"Okay good."

"Have you heard from Kono lately?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, yeah I have. I spoke to her a couple of days ago. Seems like every time she locks up a perp, they get new intel that leads to another arrest. She's even brought in Chin's San Fran Task Force to handle the West Coast operations."

"How is she liking working with Wo Fat?"

"She's uh, she mentioned that he's a lot of fun to have around."

"You sound bitter."

"Yep, just a little bit."

"Yeah?"

Steve sighed. "Yeah, I mean, I had nightmare Wo. I had the Wo Fat that was aggressive, and evil and she's got apathetic but sweet and supportive Wo and that's just… that's bullshit!"

"You thinking you'd rather have him on your team?"

"Hell no," Steve said. "That man wouldn't listen to me. I don't need two people sassing me at every turn, Danny. The two of you would probably gang up on me."

Danny paused to think about it. "Yeah that would be fun."

The two were quiet until they got to the crime scene. They were at a shipping port, surrounded by container.

The DEA had been responding to a tip about a shipment of cocaine that had been coming to the island. They had been ambushed when they got there, they had lost two agents and one of their service dogs was missing.

The man in charge, Agent Reid, was explaining more of the background of this case and how they got the tip when Steve decided to wander off.

When Danny called after him he shouted a: "I'm looking for the dog!" at him over his shoulder before he wandered off.

For a while he was just looking around, but then, then he found the blood trail. Yes two agents had died, some of their bad guys might have gotten injured, and it could have been from any of them but it wouldn't hurt to see what was at the end of that trail.

With his gun out in case he bumped into an injured and left behind hostile, Steve followed the trail of blood that wasn't just on the ground but smeared against the containers he was passing by. They were all low, like calf height. Odd for a human, unless they were shot there, but he'd guess that was dog height.

He'd bet all his money that when he found the dog, he'd be injured.

The trail led him to a container, door slightly open. Steve peaked inside and found him, the injured dog.

He holstered his gun right away, and slowly stepped towards him. He was still breathing, it looked like he had been shot just under his back leg. He was bleeding a lot, and whimpering but he was still breathing.

"Hey, hey, hey," Steve said as he came towards him. He put his hands on him, as he carefully came to sit behind him. "You're alright, you're okay buddy."

He carefully picked the dog's head and put it on his leg. He seemed calm, which was good, because usually scared and hurt animals attacked. But this dog seemed to realize that Steve was there to help.

"Don't you worry, we're going to get you help."

So Steve started shouting for attention, trying to get someone to him, to help this dog before he died.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

The dog's name was Eddie. He was a war dog, out in Afghanistan, had been with the DEA for three years. His handler had been heading this operation and he had died that morning. To think, he survived Afghanistan only to be shot out on a dock in Hawaii.

Steve was livid. You shoot a dog, you go to hell. Period.

Steve was happy to hear that the bullet missed all of Eddie's vitals. He was going to need surgery but it was, so far, looking good. He had put Jerry on Eddie duty, he wanted to know how that dog was doing all steps of the way. Maybe it was an odd request, but he felt what Rowan would have called a cosmic connection to that dog.

Steve had looked in his eyes and saw a trust shining back at him that took his breath away. It was like that dog just knew Steve was going to make sure he was okay and Steve wanted to make sure he did that.

The day did not get better from there, though. They went to see the woman the DEA got the tip about the shipment from. A soccer mom who got into hard drugs but got busted and started work as a CI. She told them where the tip came from, and where the man worked.

He was a dishwasher at a high-end restaurant. The kind he and Danny hoped to run one day. If they ever agreed on anything anyway.

He got a dose of reality at that restaurant, about how hard they were to run, how the profit margins were slim, how he would never get any vacation time. It was hard to hear. Steve wanted to think that their restaurant would be the exception that they'd do well, maybe not right away but eventually.

But now he was having second thoughts.

He distracted himself from those by going straight to their main suspect's place, and found him in the process of an overdose. Steve tried to help him, but the man died.

It was obviously a set up. He had been injected in his dominant arm, if he had done it himself it would have been the other arm. He didn't even have any track marks, so he wasn't a regular user.

The man had been murdered. Probably because they knew the cops were coming and he'd be able to lead them to whoever was in charge of this ring.

With this guy dead, they hit a dead end. Steve hated those.

But then he got a stroke of luck. The Vet found blood in Eddie's mouth, which meant he had bit someone.

Good boy!

They ran the blood through their system and got a hit. Jesse Bergman. They sent his picture to Danny and Tani who were still on the dock trying to find the cocaine that was supposed to be there and he got lucky again.

Tani had seen him before. Like literally ten minutes ago. They had cleared out a different container and left not that long ago. It was clear right away what had happened.

The DEA had found a container with the lock snipped and had been searching that one. That had been a decoy. They snipped the lock of a random container, and then came back for theirs without anyone knowing.

It might have been too late, but with Jerry's help the found the truck. They got it to pull over and the driver and the passenger, Jesse, both ran.

The driver got shot when he attempted to shoot Danny. Jesse Bergman was shot four times by Agent Reid.

He had said that he had no choice that he had pulled a gun, but Danny had felt like there was something off about the situation.

Either way it put them in a tricky position.

Yes they had the truck but it was filled with wine. Agent Reid was quick to tell them that cocaine could be smuggled in liquid format. They just needed the right space and process to get it out. The truck was probably a big haul, probably worth millions.

But they had no idea where it was going, until Danny found the customs page.

It was going to the restaurant.

So that's how it was staying in business, the owner was in smuggling cocaine. That did not make Steve feel better about this venture with Danny.

But at least he had a lead.

Or he did until Grover reported that their restaurateur, Niles, had disappeared. And they had no idea where he would go.

It looked like they were back to no leads.

They were looking into any properties that Nile or his restaurant might own, or any alias' they might be under when Grover came up to him and told him he should probably go to the window to see something.

That something turned out to be Junior. He was washing Steve's truck.

With Grover at his side he went down to see what was up.

As soon as he got close to him he asked: "Junior! What are you doing?"

Junior had just finished the finishing touches on the truck. He threw his rag into the bucket by his feet and smiled at Steve. "Oh, I took the liberty of washing your truck, sir."

"Yes, I can see that. Why would you do that?"

"It was dirty, sir."

Uh-huh. Interesting. Damn this kid was determined.

It was Grover who said: "Got that right. I almost forgot what color it was."

Haha, very funny. It seemed all his friends had become jokers these days like since Rowan left, they had to fill in the missing sass.

Well Con had been sass enough, he didn't need any extra help getting his daily dose of frustrating.

"Lou, Junior," he said in way of introduction, instead of biting into that sass he didn't need.

"Junior Reigns," he said as he shook his head. "Pleasure to meet you, sir."

"Lou Grover, nice to meet you. Listen I got a Chevy Suburban out in the back if you're looking for some more work."

"Junior just got out of the Navy. Came to see me about landing a job with Five-0."

"Oh! Well, that'd be a waste of your talents, if you ask me."

Yeah, this was all great, but they needed to get back on track. "Like I said, Junior, I'm not really hiring right now."

"And I fully understand that. I just thought I'd do something to show some appreciation for taking the time to talk to me this morning."

Wow, that was a good answer. Steve could also see that Junior was not going to let this go at all. He glanced to Lou and saw him smiling and remembered that Kono was still gone, and Rowan had been clear that she wasn't coming back.

Yeah. He was going to have to do this.

"Okay, look, maybe I can help you out." Junior's face lit up. It was the same kind of excited look that Nahele made, which just made him miss his kid. "You meet me here tomorrow at twelve o'clock. Twelve noon sharp. Can you do that?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good, I'll see you then." Steve reached out to shake his hand, something Junior took enthusiastically.

"I'll be there."

"In the mean time, grab your squeegee and your bucket and stuff. You're trespassing, so…" Junior scrambled to do just that. "I don't want to have to arrest you before our next meeting."

Junior thanked him again, shook Grover's hand again and the two went back into the Palace. But before he went back to his office, he called Nahele. Just to see how he was doing.