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A/N: And hello there my wonderful readers. How is everyone enjoying the summer weather where they are? It's been super hot here, which is a little annoying. I'm sorry the chapter is late, as per usual. I will do my best to have the chapter up on time next week! Also! Thanks to everyone who's been interacting on this Fic. Y'all are the reason I get up in the morning! See you guys next week!

Chapter 416

For the week he lived with the McGarrett's, Junior learned things.

Like the man who'd just let himself into the house like he lived there was McGarrett's brother-in-law. The first time he met Junior he had flipped him.

Junior had simply asked him who he was, because he hadn't knocked, he had just let himself in. And the man had responded by turning around, grabbing his arm and just flipping him over. He had his arm in a defensive hold, and his foot on his shoulder blade. If he had wanted to he could have dislocated Junior's arm then and there, but he was lucky. The kid had been in the kitchen at the time.

All he had to say was: "That's Junior!" and the man had let him go.

"Aw man, sorry about that," he had said as he picked Junior up from the floor and dusted him off. "Can never be too careful when it comes to McGarrett."

Junior didn't know what that meant, but he eventually learned that it meant that McGarrett often gotten attacked at home. Yeah, wasn't that something that McGarrett should have mentioned before Junior moved in?

He also noted that the man that had called himself McGarrett's brother-in-law was not only not fond of McGarrett but he also didn't look much like his sister.

After that interaction he put in a call to his Master Chief, the same one who knew McGarrett and had sung his praises and he heard all the other things no one really mentioned.

Like how there was a whole file of red flags on his wife's file.

Like, she was linked to not one, but two, well known criminals. Called them her brothers. Which meant that brother-in-law that had taken Junior down was one of them. The least scary one the file said, but he had a feeling who ever put that in her file hadn't actually met that brother.

Still, the red flags in McGarrett's wife's file threw up some major red flags for Junior.

Like, how was it that someone, as staunchly honourable and respectable as Steven McGarrett, married a criminal? Well, actually, nothing in Rowan McGarrett's file said she was a criminal, she had just adopted two of them. Though her file was littered with arrests, they had mostly been done by Steve with no substantial evidence to back them up.

In fact there were at least two instances where the Governor of Hawaii had to intervene and call him off as he was using his immunity and means to harass her.

Junior had a feeling there was a very long story behind that, and he wasn't sure how to get ask about it without admitting that he had done some checking up on Steve and his wife.

He hated to admit it but he was very curious to meet the woman who had gotten the man with a million emotional walls and an iron clad dedication to his job to settle down when his Master Chief was clear McGarrett had not been the type. But at the same time, he wasn't sure how good a person she was.

It seemed the pair were complete opposites, and not just in style either.

But it was also clear that Rowan not being home with her husband was driving McGarrett crazy. He was apparently grumpier than he normally was, which meant he snapped a lot more than normal, at everyone, even Junior. He also jumped for his phone, not only because he was used to having to respond right away for cases but because he was hoping it was her.

Apparently, according to all of McGarrett's friends, and his son, and his brother-in-law the man was falling apart without her.

And if Junior had met the falling-apart-McGarrett, what was he going to be like when he finally got to meet the put-together version. Because the one he had met was pretty formidable in his eyes.

On that night, about a week and a half after McGarrett and demanded he move in and put him on the couch, Junior had gone to bed as normal.

Steve was already asleep, Nahele was out at a sleep over, and the tension was palpable in the house.

Rowan had announced a few days ago that she would be home mid-week. Wednesday. They had been counting down since the official date was confirmed. They were also in a tizzy about getting the house ready for her, getting themselves ready for her, and how exactly they were going to explain all the little secrets they hadn't divulged while she was gone.

At least Junior wasn't the only big secret. Eddie was the other one.

Junior was getting more and more worried about her return, only because he was certain she could overturn McGarrett's decision to let him live there. He actually kinda like living there, he wasn't sure how he was going to feel about living there when Rowan came back, but he didn't want to have to leave.

He wasn't sure where he'd go or what he'd do. But he really didn't want to end up in the homeless shelter again.

Which was why, that night, he had been on the couch in just his boxers, tossing and turning attempting to sleep and having a hard time getting to it.

When he finally managed it, he was only asleep for a few moments before the front door opened and shut. The Navy SEAL in him jumped. Not right up, because he caught a glance of someone and he was in just his boxers. He froze, for the first time in his life as that same someone tossed a set of keys into a bowl by his head and then a hand was ruffling his hair.

"Come on 'Hele, you know better then to sleep on the couch… where's your…"

The feminine voice trailed off as Junior sat up. He was staring at a rather fancy dressed, dark brown-haired woman, with the most vibrant pair of blue eyes he'd even seen outside of Steve's eyes. She had paused to stare at him, a suitcase in her hand that dropped immediately. She was regarding him with wide eyes of surprise, her face was pale but that might have been the shock. Junior wasn't certain who this was.

"Steven!" came out of her in this shrill shriek and Junior jumped into a sitting position, a hand out to calm her down. "Intruder! Steven!"

Junior got up to tell her who he was, making sure the blanket was around his waist. He needed to tell her that he wasn't an intruder and he had full permission to be sleeping on this couch when suddenly McGarrett appeared, having apparently thrown himself over the second floor railing, landing deftly on his feet in front of them, barring Junior from the woman.

He looked around, fists up ready to fight but when he saw nothing he turned to her and said: "There's no intruder."

"Then what the hell is that?"

"That's just Junior."

The woman's head popped out from behind him, she glared at Junior and then up at McGarrett. "Who the hell is Junior?"

Steve half turned, pointed to Junior and said: "That's Junior."

Wow.

What an introduction.

Junior waved at this point wondering if he was meeting the famous Rowan McGarrett. The pictures he had seen she had red and blonde hair, and some of them they had dark brown. But honestly, this woman didn't quite look like the pictures.

She wasn't quite as thin as the pictures, her hair was longer, and her style was much more sophisticated. She was in what he was sure was a cocktail dress, just a short one. It was off the shoulder, black with flower beading all over the bodice and skirt.

She looked like she walked right off a red-carpet.

"Well what the hell is a strange boy doing on my couch?"

"Uh… it's my house and my couch…"

"Okay. Listen here, Mr. McGarrett… half your shit is mine. So I'll ask again what the hell is he doing on my half of our couch?"

Okay this was Rowan. The Rowan. The famous princess who tamed wild Steven McGarrett, the only person he feared and listened to. The woman rumored to rule a criminal network with an iron fist, who had adopted, according to the file, two of the most dangerous men in the world. The girl McGarrett would do anything for, include abuse his own power.

She didn't look all that imposing, but there was an air about her, an air of regal coolness, so cold it might have been ice.

"He's thinking of joining Five-0"

"Okay… but why is he on our couch."

"Cause he has nowhere else to stay!"

McGarrett said it like it made sense, like him having no where else to stay automatically meant he had to offer Junior the couch. The narrowed glare on Rowan's face was the reminder that there were lots of other options before they jumped to offering him a place to stay and she didn't get how McGarett hadn't seen that.

"Yes. Except we have a son, and this is a strange man. Why couldn't he stay on Danny's couch?"

"Why? So, Danny could have a strange man around Grace? You want to deal with that bitch-fest?" Steve snapped.

Junior found himself enraptured by what he was witnessing. Jesus Christ the two of them were nuts.

"Speaking of… where is 'Hele?" Rowan asked looking around.

"He's at a sleep over."

"Why the hell would you let my son go on a sleep over when you knew I was coming home today?"

"Firstly, he is our son. Secondly, you're not supposed to be home today, you're supposed to be home next Wednesday…"

Rowan blinked her eyes. "Oh right… that was supposed to be the start of this conversation," she whispered to herself, she then smiled widely at McGarrett, and spread her arms wide. "Guess who's home early?!"

And then as if the argument they were having just ceased to exist, Steve's face broke out into the largest smile he had ever seen on the man before. He swooped in and hugged her pulling her up into his arms and spinning her around. "I missed you," they squealed to each other over and over. Or at least that's how it started.

As quick as they had gone from arguing to happy, they had gone from squealing and spinning to making out. Junior's head was reeling just from the quickness of it.

"I can't… believe… you're… back so… soon," Steve said between kisses. Rowan's legs wrapped around his waist and for a moment they were just kissing.

"I wanted to surprise you… I missed you too much to be gone… a full six weeks…" she whispered against him and he smiled.

"I couldn't sleep…" "—Mm… me either…" "—I was ridiculously horny all the time…" "—Oh god baby don't even get me started on that…" "—I missed bugging Hele…" "—Mmm… he missed you to. I tried to bug him like you do but I just don't do it right."

Steve pivoted her, her legs no longer around his waist but now up in his arms. He was carrying her bridal style towards the stairs, Junior clearly forgotten.

"Did you jump from the second floor?" Rowan asked him.

"Course I did, you were screaming for me, I panicked," he said to her. His eyes never once leaving her face. This was the sickening cuteness everyone had warned him about. There it was. He was witnessing it. And it definitely was a cuteness overload.

"That is so hot. I mean, it's also dangerous and reckless and stupid, you could have just used the stairs. But I've missed you so much that it just… uuhhh… god it just gets me so hot for you… Steven."

Her hand was doing something to his back, that spot between his shoulder blades, her lips were up against his ear but it wasn't until she said his name all low and sultry, the tip of her tongue slowly licking him just behind the ear that Steve faltered on the stairs.

"If you don't stop, we're not going to make it to the bedroom. I'm just going to end up fucking you on these stairs…"

Yep. No. They needed to remember he was there now. "Yeah I'd rather not see that," called out to them.

Steve turned, and he and Rowan stared placidly at Junior. Rowan turned in his embrace and looked down at him. "See if he was staying, literally anywhere else… you could be fucking me on these stairs right now."

"Yeah… I see what you're saying… uh… I fully regret it now."

Oh wow… thanks McGarrett.

"You can always just fuck me on the bathroom counter, it's essentially the same thing," Rowan said to him and a wicked smile crept up on Steve's face.

"Fuck I missed your creativity, babe," he said to her, quickly carrying her the rest of the way up the stairs and disappearing.

Junior sat on the couch suddenly very worried that there wasn't a safe surface in that house and his skin was crawling just thinking about it. And the moans that started up not seconds later didn't help.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

In the morning he woke up to the smell of pancakes in the air.

Despite getting home late Rowan McGarrett was in the kitchen seemingly making breakfast. Now this version of her he definitely recognized.

She was wearing a black hairband to keep her shoulder length dark brown hair back, and she was wearing a soft knit grey sweater that had to be McGarrett's because it was huge on her. It hung off of one of her shoulders, and she had tucked the front of it into the front of her light blue denim jean shorts.

Junior quickly got up and put on his discarded sweatpants.

"Don't dress up for little ol'me," she said, despite having not looking up when he started moving, nor seemingly paying attention as she had been humming the whole time. "I've been living with two very cocky and confident men for the last three years, and I don't mean the same two. It's nothing I haven't seen before."

Yeah that didn't make him feel better.

"Uh… I'm sorry," he said as he came towards her. "I uh… we didn't get properly introduced last night…"

"Junior Reigns. Special Operator Second class, which I recently learned is just a fancy way of saying Navy SEAL. Just got out, looking to join Five-0, currently crashing on my couch because, for some unknown reason, you don't want to use any of the accommodations the Navy could help you with."

Junior had offered her a hand to shake but she hadn't taken it. He'd've said it was because she was busy making pancakes, but instead, she had shot him a little glance over her shoulder and it was the ice in her eyes that told him that the pancakes were just an excuse.

She carefully plated the last one she was working on and then took the pan off the burner. She finally turned all the way around, a sort of smile on her face that he wasn't sure he trusted.

"Heard you were asking about me," she said. "So, I asked about you."

Junior's eyes widened. He wondered how much she actually knew about him.

"Uh… sorry… your… Steven, Commander McGarrett, I mean… he wasn't… there's a lot of…"

"Oh I get it. The back story is hard to follow. Red flags all over my file don't help. Neither do the criminal brothers. Heard you met one already?"

"Yes. The one called Con…"

"He lets you call him that?"

She asked that question in surprise, which sort of surprised him too.

"I don't directly talk to him ma'am…"

"Ma'am" she echoed with a cocked eyebrow. "Interesting. Well… don't call him that. You have to earn the right, he'll want you to call him Sin Nombre, but you can confirm with him." He must have looked worried because she added: "Don't worry. He's the nice brother."

Yes, everyone kept saying that. But he was pretty sure that couldn't be true. And if it was true, he didn't want to meet her other brother.

She had looked away only for a moment, turned only to drizzle something all over then pancakes and then, when she turned back around, she had a plate full of pancakes for him.

"Here you go. Tres Leches pancakes, just for you. You look like a Caramel kind of guy so I went with the less sweet version. Not that it's really all that less sweet."

She put the plate on the table and then turned back to the stove, already humming and going about making more pancakes.

These ones looked different though, for starters it was a completely different bowl from the one she had used for his. He could already see chunks of something and chocolate chips.

There was another plate of Tres Leches pancakes set aside as well, which meant she was making breakfast for the whole family. He wondered how often that happened or if this was because she had come home after being gone for so long.

A couple of minutes late the door opened and Nahele called a: "Morning!" to the house. Not seconds later came a sort of grunting call from Steve who was clearly still asleep and then there was the scrap of nails against the hardwood floors upstairs.

Rowan, who had basically thrown the pans off the burner and turning off the stove, turned towards the ceiling not understanding what that noise was. "What the hell was that?" she asked herself.

Eddie came crashing down the stairs rushing up to Nahele who dropped to his knees to embrace the dog.

Rowan was obviously very confused about the dog, but Junior could also tell that she was more interested in seeing her son.

"Hey boy… hey buddy, did you miss me? Who missed me?" Nahele said as he pet the dog all over.

"I missed you," Rowan announced, coming around to the kitchen door. Junior heard Nahele gasp and then Rowan was crying: "Surprise!"

"Mom!" Nahele cried, abandoning Eddie to go hug his mom. "What are you doing here? I thought you were coming next week."

"When did we get a dog?" she asked him instead of answering the question as she hugged him tightly.

"You need to talk to dad about that," he said. Junior knew that it was Nahele who pushed for the dog, but he was definitely quick to throw Steve under the bus. "Seriously, when did you get back?"

"Late last night," she said as she pulled him away to look him over. "It was going to be a surprise… kind of like the man on the couch and our new dog."

But then Rowan got a good look at him and realized what Junior had realized. Nahele had obviously been in a fight.

There was bruising around his mouth and a black eye coming in and her mouth dropped at the sight of it.

"What… what happened to your…."

"Okay don't freak out…"

"STEVEN?!"

That scream ripped out of Rowan and made both Junior and Nahele wince at the sheer volume. It made Eddie scamper away to his dog bed to hide. Upstairs, however, there was a whole kerfuffle of sound. This scramblings of a worried man, rushing towards the sound of his wife's voice.

And much like last night, Steven must have vaulted over the second-floor railing because he landed square in the middle of the living room, only a few short feet from where Rowan and Nahele were standing. She glanced up to the ceiling and then back down to him a clear scowl on her face, as Steve looked around for whatever danger he was worried about.

It made Junior a little curious about the kind of situations Steve's wife ended up in, if his go-to response to her screaming for him was to get to her as quickly as possible in any way possible.

Still Steve turned around, confusion written all over his face as his wife glared at him.

"What's the… why are you screaming?"

But Rowan countered that question with another question. "Did you just jump from the second floor?"

See, last night that had turned her on, so Steve smirked at her this boyish sort of grin that Junior was starting to realize he only wore when looking at Rowan. He no doubt expected a similar response, but, Rowan, however, was not happy at all.

"I did," he answered, still not sensing the danger.

"Are you out of your mind?" she cried. "Do you know how dangerous that is?"

"Wait… why are you angry right now?"

"Because you're jumping over railings like you're still twenty when you're not! Have you been spending too much time around Con, is that it?"

Steve's hands dropped to his hips, a glare coming over his face. "Why the hell were you yelling then? Huh? You know what I'm like, why would you scream like that if you didn't want me to freak out…" Rowan gestured to Nahele's face and Steve's eyes narrowed. "What the hell happened to you?"

"I got in fight," he said with a shrug.

"Since when do you fight?" Steve asked.

"This isn't another bully situation is it?" Rowan asked. "Cause if it is we are not getting your uncles involved."

"Naw, we… we were hanging out in a group and this guy got handsy with one of the girls and when he called him out on making them uncomfortable, he took a swing a me. We got in a bit of a tousle and that's it."

"Did you win?" Steve asked and right away Rowan turned wide incredulous eyes onto him.

"Yeah!" Nahele cried as Rowan said: "Why does that matter?!"

"It's an important question," Steve said as if that made sense but it didn't. The glare Rowan was wearing at that point was so dark Junior was certain he could feel it from where he was sitting at the kitchen table.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Steve cried.

"Because he obviously gets that from you!"

"Me? As if you're not throwing hands the second someone even breathes wrong in his direction?!" Steve cried back.

In between them Nahele huffed. "Mom, can I go get pancakes?" he asked.

"Yes, yours are on counter waiting for you," she said softly, her anger temporarily melting away. As he walked into the kitchen she called: "We're going to talk about the fighting later."

She turned that glare back onto Steven who just huffed. "It's not like I hit him myself Rowan! What did you expect me to do?"

"How about know where our son is, huh?"

"I knew where he was, Rowan! He was at a sleepover, at Kai's house. But if he gets into a fight while he's there, I'm not sure what you want me to do about it? Not all of us have your special… intuition, and contrary to popular belief, despite not having it myself, I did not fall to pieces the second you left, I've actually been doing very well.

"Really Steven, really?" she cried. "Because you've been doing so well taking care of the house, right?"

"Yes! And how dare you imply that I haven't been."

"There's a week of dirty laundry in the baskets. The washroom and kitchen haven't had a good scrub down…"

"Okay, well I was busy, Rowan, I was busy. I work, Nahele has school, we had other things going on…"

"Yes, other things. Like having a Teams guy move in."

At that Steve groaned. "He needed a place to stay!" he repeated.

"So we're just opening up our home to every stranger in a bind?"

"No, but I know Junior, and… he's not a stranger to me, Rowan."

"Okay, Steven, what the hell is that?"

She was pointing at Eddie and McGarrett was clearly floundering.

"Uh… it's uh…"

Nahele, who had been in the kitchen eating his pancakes called out: "It's a dog. Our dog. His name is Eddie, Dad brought him home."

Rowan turned dark eyes onto McGarrett who had just frozen in place. "I uh… I was going to tell you when I picked you up but you surprised me…"

"You got a dog?" she asked. "You who has been fighting me on getting a cat cause our schedules are too chaotic, got a dog?"

"I mean I did…"

"I thought you said you were a cat person."

"Well I am, but I uh… well… Eddie's grown on me and…"

"So it's perfectly fine for you to just bring a dog home and not consider asking me how I'd feel?"

"You brought Nahele home and didn't consider how I feel…"

"Okay that was different, because I knew you'd be resistant but love him, which by the way… I was right."

"Well, I'm right about this."

Rowan huffed at him and then narrowed her eyes. "Did you just compare our son to a dog?"

Steve stood there, hands on his hips, eyes suddenly wide, realizing just what he had done. He stared at Rowan for a moment before lifting a hand to rub the back of his head.

"Uh… no… I uh…" he must have realized then how screwed he was because he turned to his son who was standing in the kitchen, plate of pancakes in hand watching this all go down while Eddie sat patiently beside him. "Hey… Nahele, do I need to drive you somewhere or…"

"Mom made pancakes, I'm not going anywhere… so you're on your own," he said. "Come on Eddie."

And then the two just abandoned him there, leaving him to Rowan's anger.

"So you thought you could compare me bringing home the boy you would eventually adopt as your own son to you adopting a dog without telling me?"

Yeah that tone alone didn't sound good. If he hadn't just witnessed McGarrett stick his foot in his mouth, he'd say that he could argue his way out of it, but he had and he knew that Rowan was going to tear him a new one. Deservedly.

Junior figured that Nahele did have a good idea. He'd just have his breakfast out on the lanai and let Steve figure it out on his own.