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A/N: Hey there my wonderful readers! You ready for more Con + Steven frustration fun? Cause it's a coming to you! The next chapter is going to be even more fun. Are you guys missing Rowan though? Don't worry, it won't be for much longer though. As always, please enjoy and I'll see you guys next week!

Chapter 412

A lot went down between kicking Junior off of Palace property and getting back to the office.

Like, the truck with all the liquid cocaine went missing. Two more DEA agents were shot dead to get it. They found out that Jesse Bergman was basically executed, and they had to wonder why? Why? Because Agent Reid was in on it and Jesse could tell them that.

It made sense.

It was how they realized that DEA was coming to the dock, it was how they got the shipment away, and it was why Jesse had been killed. So he couldn't tell anyone Reid was involved.

It also made sense that, when they eventually found the stolen truck, that it was empty. Because Agent Reid would know that they could track it.

However, it was the end of the day, and Steve was annoyed. He wanted to go home to his kid and he couldn't, because he had to deal with this.

He had already called Nahele and the kid had tried so hard not to sound disappointed. It was clear he hadn't really wanted to eat alone, but Steve wasn't coming home, and besides, he was fifteen now, that was a good age to learn how to make dinner for himself and for Steve.

When that was done, he called Con, because he wanted this to be done as quickly as possible and he figured getting the assassin's help was the way to do that.

Con picked up with a: "Talk to me," and Steve hit him with a: "Hey, what are you doing?"

"Oh, hey McGarrett. Kid just got home," Con said brightly. "We arguing about what we want for dinner. He's thinking Chinese but I want pizza."

Steve blinked his eyes as he digested that. "Are you in my house?"

"Yeah," he said like it was the most natural thing in the world for him to be in McGarrett's house with his son without Rowan or Steve being there. "You're our tie-breaker, what do you want for leftovers?"

"I'm not going to be that late," Steve snapped. "And we're not getting delivery tonight. Rowan said she wanted us eating home cook meals. I told him that, we literally just talked about that."

"I mean, sure, but all I know how to make is tacos."

Steve rolled his eyes and struggle to bite back a groan. "Look, Nahele can make his own dinner. Rowan left stuff to reheat, it's in the freezer, he knows this. I called you for a reason."

"I'm mean… you'a buzz kill but what'chu need?"

Yeah, Steve was going to ignore that.

"You know anything about cocaine on the island?"

"Sure. You talking about the North shore line or the fancy restaurant shmuck who thinks he's all that but cried when Wo Fat had someone go down to demand his dues?"

"Hold on, there's more then one line?" Steve asked and he decided that wasn't what was important. "Forget that. What is Wo getting a cut of? He was supposed to shut down his lines in Hawaii."

"Hey! He did! Just, you know, Hawaii is his jurisdiction. You don't work here without his permission. And this restaurant man was trying to set up shop without asking if he could first. He needed to be taught respect. And Wo Fat needs the cash."

There was a lot in there to unpack, but for his own sanity he was going to leave it alone. All that mattered was that Con knew what Steve was talking about, which meant that he could help.

"And who did he send? Was it you?"

"Of course it was me. Who else was he going to send? You?"

It was sarcasm but Steve didn't care. "Obviously I wouldn't have helped him." Con started to argue, to tell him that he was clearly being sarcastic but Steve cut him off. "Never mind about that. So, you know about the cocaine. You know where they're cutting this stuff?"

"No," Con said. "Him and Wo made a deal, I wasn't needed to do any extra damage."

He actually sounded pretty bitter about that.

"What are the chances of you figuring out either where their base of operations is, or a location on a man name Reid?"

"Uh… depends… who's Reid?"

"He's a DEA agent on your restaurant shmuck's payroll, he just made off with a big score of liquid cocaine. I'd like to find him… them… just all of it. I need to find them all."

"Sure, I could call big bro see if he's got any intel for me."

"Thank you," Steve said. "And seriously, don't order pizza. Rowan was very clear about takeaway, and we've already had it twice this week."

"Still a buzz kill," Con said and Steve tried not to take offence to that. "I'll call you if I get something."

Con ended the can and Steve was sure to send a text off to Nahele reiterating the whole don't order anything order he had given him before.

Now that he had Con more actively in his life he sometimes felt like he had two kids.

He wondered if Rowan felt like that all the time.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Two hours later and Con had nothing for him, or at least, he hadn't called. Jerry, however, had found a whole building that Niles, the restaurant owner, also owned. It was under a different name, but they could trace it back to him.

The place was massive and it was in the middle of nowhere. It was the place, one hundred percent the perfect place to run an operation like this.

They got to the building in the middle of nowhere, suited up and guess who was good to go? Eddie. The little trooper. He was wrapped up in gauze and had a Kevlar vest on but he was ready. There were a few times were Steve looked similar, and he was starting to feel a little bit like Eddie was the dog version of him.

It would take more than a bullet to keep them down.

Before they moved in the did the DEA tradition of everyone petting the dog for good luck, especially Steve. The plan was to put a camera on Eddie and have him go in first. He'd make sure the way was clear and Steve and the DEA team would follow.

This was because the place was at lest two city blocks large out in the middle of the jungle. The warehouses were a maze. They needed the drug sniffing dog to lead them to the drugs.

And at first, it was working just fine. But then, a couple of minutes into the whole thing, they realized that Eddie's camera was picking up something.

People actually.

But not people just milling about, he was coming across bodies.

"Uh-oh," Danny whispered. "Did you call him off?"

No, he had not.

Shit. He should have called Con the second he got to this place to see where he was.

"We gotta move in." he said. "Go, go, go!"

And that was what they did. They went in, following the path that Eddie was moving on, they found the same bodies that Eddie found and then they eventually found Eddie.

Eddie was sitting in front of Con who was kneeling beside him and rubbing the fur all up and around his face neck and ears.

Con was in his usual Sin Nombre uniform. Black leather jacket, white blood splattered tee-shirt, black jeans, combat boots and of course his trademark white rabbit mask, also blood splattered. And he was ignoring them all in favour of petting the dog.

The two of them were just chilling there in front of a row of bodies, most of which looked dead or about to be dead judging by the amount of blood around them. Neither seemed to care.

"What the actual fuck?" Tani cried, which mirrored how Steve was feeling, even if he knew exactly what the fuck his brother-in-law was doing there.

Con looked up like he had no idea they were even there. He looked them up and down and then asked: "What took you guys so long?"

"Why is Mr. Halloween back?" Tani cried.

Steve looked around at the damage and the bodies and then turned to him. "What the hell Con?"

At that point Con had stood up. "You told me to find him."

He pointed to one body that, judging by the suit, belonged to the restauranteur Niles. He was definitely dead.

Well, they wouldn't have to worry about him.

"No, I asked if you could figure out where they were off loading the cocaine…"

"That's the same as asking me to storm the place."

"No, it isn't!" Steve cried. Dear god, both Rowan and Wo Fat should have told him that he had to be hyper specific with Con. Though it made sense. He had to be hyper specific with Rowan too cause she was always looking for loopholes. They really were very, very similar.

Steve glanced down at the bodies at his feet again. "Are they all dead?"

Con looked down too and then shrugged. "Eh… they might be. Wasn't really paying attention to be honest."

Steven glared at him dryly. "I would love to know how Wo managed to handle both you and Rowan for a whole year when you two have the exact same apathetic energy to every bad thing that you do."

"He went grey for a reason, Steven," Con said with a small rug and Steve knew he'd be calling Wo that night to bitch about his brother. "Right, well, if we're done here. I'm gonna take my payment and go."

Con had two bottles of wine, one in each hand that Steve immediately moved to grab. "You're not getting paid in cocaine Con."

"Well it's not like you can afford my fees, Steven."

"You're not supposed to be getting paid at all. You told Ro you'd do it for free."

"I said I'd take care of you, this wasn't taking care of you, McGarrett, this was doing your raid for you."

"Yeah, well you also owe me a favour so…"

"God, Rowan's right, you're a cheapskate," he snarled causing Danny to snort out an amen at him. But he did hand over the bottles.

"You need anything else or can I leave?"

"Naw I'm good."

"Yeah, cause I did all the work for you."

Steve scowled at him. "Just… go… just go home."

Con rolled his eyes but did just that. Or well, he left. Steve was going to have to do a lot of fixing to cover this and he was not looking forward to it.

But as soon as he was gone Steve remembered that he probably shouldn't be on his own. "Can one of you go with him? We gotta make sure HPD doesn't try to lock him up when he tries to leave… oh and please make sure he doesn't steal anything or kill anyone else?"

Tani rolled her eyes but before she left she turned back and asked: "So how often do you team up with your wife's criminal brothers? Is it often? Cause it looks like it's often."

"Will you just go!" Steve cried, because she was right. They were starting to team up a little too much. He was definitely going to have to scale back asking them for help, especially if was going to end like this.

But Tani finally left, leaving Steve to brainstorm a cover story with the others to explain what had happened there that afternoon.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

"Why are you following me?" he asked. To be honest, Tani was only half surprised he noticed.

Man claimed to be an assassin but he wasn't like any assassin she had ever heard of. Not in her academy training and not according to main-stream media.

This man wasn't some man who moved in the shadows and carried a high power rifle on him at all times. He wasn't some suave business man in a suit. He looked like a biker that was trick-or-treating. He looked like someone who was about to rip off a bank. And he acted like a college kid on spring break.

He was, however, very observant. Despite her being behind him, walking slowly and quietly, and kinda hanging back, he had noticed her. Normally when she was tailing someone they didn't see her, this guy, however, did.

"How did you get here?" she countered with as she jogged to catch up to him. No point hanging back now, he knew she was there.

"Car. My brother's letting me borrow his Audi. Gotta bring it back in good condition though, he's kinda particular about his cars. Always gotta be pristine, always gotta be an Audi."

She fell into step beside him, noting that he still hadn't taken the mask off. She was honestly very curious as to why he was so obsessed with wearing that mask.

They walked a little bit longer and then the man stopped. He was a good head taller than her, and even though she couldn't see his face he had an imposing atmosphere around him that was making her a bit nervous.

That and those honey yellow eyes of his were boring into her in an intense fashion similar to McGarrett.

"Is he making you follow me to make sure I don't do anything else?"

"And to make sure HPD doesn't arrest you."

He hmphed at her and then whirled around again. This time he wasn't heading in the same direction as before, he veered off. He ended up leading her to a side door where there was no HPD, just a small strip of road in the jungle and one black Audi A4 was waiting. It looked like an older model though.

"There. Safe and sound. Not arrested, haven't caused any trouble, you can go now."

Well that was Tani thoroughly dismissed. Still, she didn't want to leave.

"So, I gotta ask, what's with the mask?" Tani asked him.

Con was in the process of leaving though. He had the trunk popped open, where she found there was a whole arsenal of weapons. He stripped himself of his jacket first, and dropped it into the trunk.

That revealed a white short sleeved tee-shirt underneath and these amazing biceps. He was clearly ripped, she could tell by the way the shirt was clinging to his abs. He was ripped and he was sweaty.

It also revealed all the weapons he had concealed under that jacket. Like a machete strapped to his back and two under arm holsters. There was also an ammo belt with a smaller knife and what seemed to be two other guns.

He started by taking the under arm holster off and then glanced back to her. "It's my signature."

"Your signature is a cheap white plastic Halloween mask?"

Next went the machete. "Yep. Strikes fear into the hearts of those who see it."

At that Tani snorted, yeah, she wasn't sure she believed that. Seriously? People were scared of a Rabbit mask? Yeah, right.

"And here I was thinking it was cause your face was deformed," she said. He took off the ammo belt and then turned back to her. She tried smiling at him to show that she was clearly joking with him, but with that mask on his face she had no idea how he was feeling. "Figured you were hiding some hideous scarring, or… maybe you're just plain ugly."

"What's wrong with scarring?" he asked. "My brother's face has burns scars on half of it, you're saying his hideous because of it?"

Tani's smile faded. "I… no… I didn't know…"

"Eh it's fine, Ro and I call him Two-face all the time," he said and finally she could tell that he was joking with her. "You know the batman villain?"

Tani was frowning, she couldn't help it. He had basically just used his brother's disfigurement to ruin her joke and the mood. "Yeah I know who he is."

They stared at each other for a moment, clearly all that was left was taking the mask off. She wasn't sure if he was comfortable showing himself to her, he clearly wanted to keep himself a secret for a reason. But after a moment he slowly reached up and tugged it away.

When he looked up his eyes had changed. Gone were the almost yellow eyes and now he was staring at her with just normal light brown eyes. He was of Latin descent, which explained his poofy jet black hair and the tanned skin. Her face was angular, square jaw, pointed nose, thin lips. But he was handsome.

Like, really handsome.

He also looked nothing like his sister.

"Damn," came out of her mouth and that earned her an amused little scoff.

"See, not hideous."

"No you're definitely not."

They continued to stare at one another, a languid soft smile on his face of clear enjoyment as she looked him up and down. "Is that it?" he asked her. "We good now. You can see I'm not hiding some disfigurement… maybe you could be less of a bitch when I see you?"

"Fair," she whispered. "You could be less of a pain."

"Eh, if I'm not around to give McGarrett a hard time, who will?"

Danny for one, she figured.

A smile was tugging at his lips again, he offered a hand out to her. "Truce?"

She took it, liking the warmth and strong grip of the hand. He had never once treated her like a china doll just because she was girl. He didn't seem intimidated by her, in fact, she'd go as far as to say he probably didn't even notice she was a girl.

But then he tugged her to his chest, an arm snaked around her waist and she realized that he did, in fact, see her as a girl.

And she was perfectly fine with that, the second his lips came down onto hers.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Junior showed up at the Palace, exactly when he said he would. In fact, he got there early because he knew that he'd have to get through security first. They had a visitor's badge waiting for him and he was already on the list.

The security guard walked him up to the office and saw him through the doors. This left Junior to walk through the hallway of office and look around.

It looked fancier than anything he had been working in before. Looked like they had top of the line computers, at least one anyway, and their own access to weapons. Honestly it looked and felt like he was supposed to be there, and if he got his way this was exactly where he'd be.

After a moment Steve walked over to him. They said their hellos to one another and then Junior looked around again.

"It's impressive," he said, because why lie. He was impressed. And he was chomping at the bit to start working there.

"Thanks. There's somebody I want you to meet."

Steve led him over to the office that was bigger than all the others, and obviously his own. A man was standing there in an HPD uniform. He looked older, he looked native and he was smiling at him. Junior was confused as to why he was there.

"Junior, this is my friend, Sergeant Duke Lukela of HPD. Duke, this is Junior Reigns."

Junior shook his hand, always good to be polite. The Navy had taught him all about respecting superiors.

"Pleasure to meet you, Sergeant."

"Pleasure's all mine. Master Chief David Lange speaks very highly of you, Junior."

Oh wow! So Steve had just told him everything? Gave this guy a direct line to his Master Chief? Why? Why did this HPD Sergeant need to be checking up on him?

He glanced to Steve, silently asking all of his questions and the older man just smiled at him.

"Look, you want a spot on my team, this is how you do it. Alright? You join the Academy, you become a cop."

"All due respect, sir, I don't want to be HPD. I want to work for you."

"Yeah, I know you do. But this is the deal. I need you to graduate from the Academy. You do that, I'll bring you onto Five-0. You have my word."

Junior had only heard good things about Steve. Well that's not true. He had heard that there was some domestic things going on with an ex-girlfriend or girlfriend, it was the one thing his Master Chief hadn't been all that clear about. But he had said that Steven McGarrett was loyal, and determined. If he said he was going to do it, he did it.

His word was gold.

And yet, he still wasn't sure he believed him.

"You served your country, son. It's the least we can do," Duke added.

Well, it sounded like he didn't really have much of a choice. "Thank you, sir. I won't let you down."

He shook Steve's hand first and got a warm: "I know you won't." Then he shook Duke's hand again.

Look like he was doing this. He was joining the Police Academy.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Five-0 had gone to Paul Lazio's funeral not just to show respect for the man who had lost his life on the job, but because he was Eddie's handler and Steve was still taking care of Eddie, who he knew would want to be there. And was expected to be there. The rest of his team showed up out of respect for both him and Eddie. After the funeral, he was approached by the DEA, or at least the new head of the task force and was basically told to hand Eddie over.

He had asked what would happen to him, and learned that he was going to be retired. He was still healing of course and it would be up to them to find him a new home.

Steve didn't like that.

The poor dog, as they kept saying, was still healing. He didn't want to upset him by changing his routine up while he was trying to get better. Pets didn't do well with stress. So he offered his home temporarily until they found a permanent home for him.

Nahele had been super excited, him and Eddie had really bonded over the last couple of days. Steve kept telling him not to get attached because this was just temporary, but he could tell that the boy was very attached to this dog.

And Eddie was attached to him too. Despite them buying him a dog bed so his weary and injured bones could rest on something soft, he spent most nights asleep on Nahele's bed.

Steve kept telling Nahele that it wasn't good for him to jump up, but Nahele had made a little ramp for Eddie to use to get up there out of dirty clothes Steve didn't know he had in his room. That started an argument about the laundry again and how Steve had told him to bring everything to the washer and why hadn't he.

But then Steve couldn't do the laundry because Eddie was still using it. He was seriously contemplating making a ramp for him. But then that would force him to admit that he liked Eddie a lot more than he was pretending too.

That afternoon, Steve was in the kitchen when Nahele came home from school. He heard his son throw his bag to the couch and then call for him.

"In the kitchen," he called back and then Nahele was in there looking through the fridge.

"Hey dad, whatcha doing?"

"Cutting up some uh…some left over chicken for Eddie's dinner." Behind him Nahele hopped up, sitting on the counter as he tucked into an apple. "How was school?"

"Eh, school was fine," he said. "Still no news about tryouts."

Nahele had tried out for the football team again that year. He was already on the team, of course, but he went out for quarterback this time. It was his last year to do it and the boy seemed desperate to follow in his dad's footsteps. Steve kept saying that it wouldn't matter, he'd be proud no matter what, but Nahele wouldn't listen.

"I'm sure you'll get it," he said, because he had all the confidence in his son. He had been quarterback too, and between him and Chin the boy had lots of practice under his belt.

The two were quiet for a morning as Steve busied himself with cutting up the pieces of chicken in front of him. They needed to be super small and there had to be no bones for Eddie to choke on.

"You like this dog, huh?" Nahele asked, breaking the comfortable silence between them.

"Huh?"

"I said, you like this dog."

"Yeah, he's a nice dog," Steve said. It was all he was willing to admit to.

"You clearly have an attachment to this dog. Which his dangerous because… and you keep saying this is temporary. Eddie's gonna have a new home soon. Right?"

Was it bad that his son was right and he didn't want to give Eddie up? He had immunity and means, he could claim Eddie for Five-0… right?

It was definitely bad that Nahele had noticed because it would make it hard to argue with him when he asked the inevitable. Which was to keep him.

"Yes, he'll have a new home soon. And I am not attached."

"Oh no?"

"No."

"Dad, you're making him dinner," Nahele said. "You haven't even made us dinner yet. And he's getting the better chicken. Free range chicken for the dog. Not your son. The dog."

"These are your leftovers from yesterday, are you saying you want them?" he asked. It was a lie, of course. The leftovers had gone to Eddie the night before. This was brand new chicken he had bought on the way back home after dropping Nahele off at school that morning. He just couldn't have Nahele figuring that out.

Nahele just shook his head. "You're even putting it in your favourite cereal bowl. You don't even let mom use your favourite cereal bowl."

"Your mom dropped my favourite cereal bowl. Eddie treats it with respect," Steve snapped. If he turned he could see Nahele's amused grin, but he refused to look at his kid.

"I thought you were a cat guy. You and mom were talking about adopting a cat not a dog."

That was also true. Rowan was very interested in adopting a cat, specifically a black cat, but liking this dog sort of just snuck up on him.

"I am a cat guy. I maintain that the cat is a far superior animal and I'll tell you why. Okay? More sophisticated. They're more cunning. More agile. Self-sufficient…"

"I think you should just tell mom you want to keep this dog," Nahele interrupted. "I'd love a dog. I've always wanted one."

Steve sighed. He put down his knife, wiped the grease off his fingers and then turned to Nahele.

"Okay. So maybe it's possible that Eddie has grown on me a little bit… and a lot on you. But a dog is a big responsibility and I don't want to talk to your mom about it while she's away. She's already worried as is, I don't want to make it worse. You know I don't want to stress her out."

"So like... you're just gonna adopt a dog without telling mom?"

"You want to keep him or not?"

"I do."

"Then shut up."

Nahele shot him a bit of a smirk and then looked around. "Where is our dog, by the way? He usually meets me at the door."

Oh, that was true. He was very good at meeting Nahele at the door whenever he came home, though it was also Nahele's job to walk him the second he came home. Get some of Eddie's lab-energy out before bed.

"He'll come for dinner," Steve said. He quickly cut up the rest of the pieces, slid them into the bowl on top of the special diet kibble that was hiding the medicine he had to take and then turned around. "Eddie, chow time, come on down for dinner!"

But Eddie didn't come. Immediately the two were calling and looking for him. Steve checked the dog bed, he checked outside but Eddie wasn't there. Nahele went upstairs but he wasn't in his room or Steve's.

Nahele was immediately panicked. "We can't have lost the dog before mom even gets home! She'll never trust us with a dog or any pet again!"

"Calm down," Steve said. Even though Nahele was right and a lot was riding on this. "I think I know where he is."

They hopped into his truck and he drove them over to the graveyard where, just a few days ago they had buried Paul Lazio. He brought Nahele over to where the freshly dug grave was and, just like he thought, they found Eddie lying there his head pillowed against the mound of overturned dirt.

Nahele dropped to his knees beside him. "There you are, we were looking everywhere for you. Why are you out here by yourself?"

Eddie sort of half lifted his head in Nahele's direction then let out a little bit of a whimper. Steve sat down on the other side of him.

"He's sad," Steve told him. "He misses his handler. He missed Paul Lazio."

"It's okay, Eddie," Nahele said, leaning over to hug him. "It's okay to miss him. But you're not gonna be alone, okay? We're family now and mom says family never gives up on family."

Steve almost burst out in tears right there. He dropped a hand first to Nahele's head, mussing with his hair, before dropping his hand to Eddie's head to muss up his fur.

They'd stay there for as long as Eddie needed, and he knew, when Rowan came back, he was going to fight to make sure they kept this dog. Because he needed them as much as they needed him.