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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Hello there my wonderful readers. I'm glad you guys enjoyed the announcement last chapter! This chapter here is another cute one so I hope you guys enjoy it as well. As always don't forget to tell me what you thought, or drop a fav and a follow and I'll see you guys next week.

Chapter 435

Nahele wasn't sure what had happened, but his parents were acting weird.

Like, weirder then they usually were.

Things had kind of gotten a bit icy once he introduced them to Madison, and yes, he kinda was acting out recently but… that was just normal teenager-ness. They had both said that they would love him no matter what but he didn't quite feel like that was true. Just look at what had happened. Just a little bit of acting out and now everything between him and them was strained and difficult.

It was his mom mostly. That Ice Queen she could be had never been pointed at him before, but after Madison had come over his mother was cold with him.

It didn't help that he had basically officially cut his friendship with Grace out. It was one thing to just not respond all that much when she texted him, or to slowly stop sharing memes with her, it was something completely different to have her call him out. Now he couldn't even call her for advice anymore.

Eventually, however, he couldn't take it anymore.

After another breakfast where his mom barely spoke to him and he was officially tired of it. He didn't know what to say to her though so he just kinda snuck up behind her and then… he hugged her. Just hugged her and told her he was sorry.

Do you know what his mom had asked?

"Are you done being mad at me now?"

She had thought he was mad at her.

The two of them had talked it out. Yes, Rowan hadn't liked Madison, but that was because she didn't trust Madison with his heart. She didn't think they were a good fit and she was worried that, if she was being honest, most of Madison's appeal was that she was popular and pretty.

He wanted to tell her the truth. That he was dating Madison because he was hoping it would curb his interest in a junior who was technically 2 years younger than him. It was not working and he did not want to admit that.

So he had just shrugged it off and said: "There are other things I like about her."

Which was the complete wrong thing to say because he got the safe sex lecture again. It also, unfortunately, started with: "You shouldn't put your dick in crazy… but since you clearly are, for the love of god please make sure you don't get her pregnant…"

Yeah, that was a horrible interaction.

He thought, after that, that things were back to normal, but no. Almost literally immediately things got weird again.

Like… all of a sudden Rowan was going to the doctor… often. At least three times in the last week. When asked she kept saying it was just for check-ups, but honestly Nahele was getting worried.

Then his dad started being weird too. He was suddenly all over Rowan, he jumped when she called for him, he kept trying to carry her up the stairs, or stop her from just doing regular things. It was like he was suddenly worried Rowan was going to break, he had never cared before, why would he start now?

His Uncle Con jumped on the crazy train next, literally hovering all over Rowan whenever Steve had to go to work.

There was even talk of his Uncle Wo moving back to Hawaii too.

Honestly he wasn't even sure what was happening but he was trying not to get worried about it.

Then he came back from a Saturday afternoon of surfing with Makani and Kai to find that his parents had been waiting for him in the kitchen and he knew something was up. And whatever it was they were finally going to tell him about it.

"Hey, hey," Rowan said going to stand up but Steve pulled her down.

"No, no, you rest," he said and then bolted up to get to Nahele. "We made lunch and uh… we wanted to talk to you so can you sit down?"

Yeah that was weird.

God he hoped this wasn't going to be another safe sex lecture.

"How were the waves today? Catch many?"

"Yeah they were great," Nahele said. "You should have come…"

"We had that appointment today," Steve said as he pulled Nahele into the kitchen and got him sitting down.

There was a whole feast sitting in front of him. He had only been gone half a day and if they had an appointment… honestly when had they found the time to make all of this?

"Another doctor's appointment?"

"No, no, with a contractor," Rowan said and then tapped the table happily as Steve sat down beside her. "Go on, help yourself."

He noted that all his favourite things were there. His favourite spaghetti, his favourite milkshakes, they even made him his favourite chocolate chip cookie dough cake.

And they wanted to tell him something.

His mind immediately went to bad news, they were trying to soften the blow with his favourite foods.

They were breaking up. No Divorcing, cause they were married now. Or not for long anyway.

Still he helped himself to the spaghetti, noting that neither parent were eating.

"What uh… what did you guys want to talk about?" he asked already trying to think of what to tell Steve if he was asked to choose who he wanted to go with full time. Because obviously he'd want to go with his mom.

Rowan smiled warmly at him but the nervousness didn't dissipate. "So, I'm sure you've noticed I've been acting kind of weird…"

Oh, oh no. No. This was about all the doctor's appointments she had been going to lately. They weren't going to tell him they were getting a divorce, they were going to tell him that she was dying.

And that was so much worse.

He couldn't lose a second mom that way. Not again.

"You're sick?" he asked and both Rowan and Steve kind of chuckled.

"No, no, nothing like that," he said.

"I'm pregnant," Rowan blurted out, a smile touching her face. She then pushed a crinkled picture towards him and he realized it was an ultrasound.

So this was real. Very real. Altogether way too real.

For a second Nahele just sat there feeling… numb.

This was the moment he was dreading. When Steve got her pregnant with what would be their real kid. This would be where his parents stopped loving him as much, because it made sense. They'd have their own kids to worry about.

Rowan however was still smiling at him and he realized that this was a celebration. They hadn't picked all his favourite things so he wouldn't be upset, they were expecting him to be happy.

So he plastered a smile to his face. "Wow, mom… that's great!"

A little bit of relief crossed both of their faces. "Oh, good," Rowan said quickly. "So… I'm pretty far along, I'm about 5 months now." Oh shit, this was coming on quicker than he thought. "And your father and I were talking, about rooms…"

Oh they were going to take his room away, give it to the baby.

"We're thinking of adding an extension onto the house, give us more room. That's why... that's why we had a contractor here today," Steve said. "We were wondering if you'd like to keep your room, or maybe get a new room in the extension? If you want a new room, you could help me design it. It might make a great father-son project, what do you say?"

Wow, okay, not what Nahele was expecting.

"Really?"

"Well… yeah. You're the oldest and we figured you would want to be as far away from a baby who doesn't sleep through the night as possible. And it might be best if we have him in the room across from us so we can get to them quicker," Steve said.

Okay, so either they already knew they were having a boy or Steve was just hoping for one.

Rowan nodded. "We're also thinking of letting you have your own bathroom, so you won't have to share with us anymore, and a walk in closet. I want a space for my song writing, maybe put a little studio across the hall. I'd sound proof it, of course. Steve wants a space for a home gym… we're thinking first floor. Can you think of anything else you want to add?"

"Gaming room?" Nahele asked. "Or a home theater?"

"You just miss the set up you had at Liang's," Steve said bitterly, but that wasn't true.

And he definitely didn't want his parents thinking that either.

"No, I just… you asked for ideas… and cause it looks like mom is going to end up doing more movies and if we're going to do premiere showings with our friends and family it would make sense..."

"Don't listen to him, he's just insecure" Rowan said with a wave of her hand. "Point is, there's going to be some changes, but don't look at them as changes, it's just growth. Our family… and our house is going to get a little bigger, that's all…"

Nahele nodded. "And… uh… dad said it was a… him? Is that…"

"Ah, yes, I got the gender when I found out I was pregnant… I am that far along…" she said.

"I mean… it kind of explains everything…" Nahele said and Rowan frowned at him. "I'm just saying… you've been very moody…"

"Yeah… thanks, that's what everyone's been saying," she muttered.

"Because it's true," Steve and Nahele said together and she huffed.

"Okay, you two eat the spaghetti I slaved over, and the milkshakes and the cake, and be snippy," she snapped going to stand up.

"Naw, baby!" Steve cried. "No, remember the doctor said no more stress…"

"You cause my stress!" she cried already going to storm away. Steve jumped up to go after her and try to calm her down, leaving Nahele alone at the kitchen table with the dinner he clearly was going to be eating alone.

He had a feeling that this was going to be what his life was going to look like from now on. The one being left behind or neglected for the new baby. Honestly he couldn't really be that mad about it, new babies were a lot of work, so it wasn't like they would do it on purpose.

Didn't mean he couldn't be hurt about it.

At that moment, he had never missed Grace more. Cause he knew he could tell her how he felt and she'd get it, she wouldn't make him feel guilty about it, she'd just get it.

But now, thanks to his own stupidity he was all alone.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

It took a bit of convincing before Steve got Rowan to come back down the stairs. They both apologized to Nahele for the outburst and tried to have a nice dinner together.

Their kid ate all his spaghetti, drank his milkshake, ate one whole slice of the cake and took a second slice up to his room. He smiled, he said all the right things, but both Steve and Rowan knew that he hadn't taken this well.

They were worried, seeing as Nahele had brought up insecurities around his adoption before, that the announcement of a bio-baby might bring that back up. That was why they had gone out of their way to make comfort food for him, and to definitely highlight that getting the newer room in the extension was for him and not because they wanted to move him out or away. They also were sure to tell him that if he wanted to keep his current room that was fine too.

They tried to impress upon him, during that dinner, that it was honestly up to him.

Keeping the room or taking a new one was entirely his decision. Neither Steve nor Rowan would mind having to go further into the house to get a baby if they had to, though for the first couple months that baby was going to be in a crib in their room, so hopefully that didn't keep Nahele up.

However, it seemed to be that he had decided that he was going to be moving. Nahele kept saying things like: "It makes more sense if you're closer to the baby," with that strained smile on his face.

So by the time he went up to his room with his second piece of cake to play video games, Steve and Rowan was definitely worried for their adopted son.

They were going to have to work on convincing him that they won't be treating him or the baby any different. That this wasn't a replacement for him, that they were still going to love him, and try their best to give them all their attention while also juggling a new born.

They were putting the dishes away, or, well, Steve was. Rowan was handing them to him from the table because he kept freaking out when she got up to try and help.

She'd get a hand pointed in her direction and a bark of: "No!" thrown at her. She knew why this was happening, she just thought it was stupid. Unfortunately Steve was taking this way more seriously than she thought the doctor intended them to.

"Babe, I swear, the doctor said to stop pushing yourself. You took the first three months of this pregnancy doing your regular routine and he said your blood pressure is high. We want both you and the baby to be healthy so just… for the love of god, stay sitting. I can do the dishes."

Rowan hated being idle, and, honestly, Steve was starting to annoy her, but she had a sweet and sexy husband demanding to do all of her chores, she couldn't tell him no.

He was in the process of putting dishes away when there was a knock on the door. Rowan and Steve didn't have a chance to even get up or move towards the door before it swung open.

Steve might have been concerned except it was just Con coming into the house with Tani hot on his heels.

"Hello McGarretts," he called.

He went to step off the mat at the front without taking his shoes off and Rowan just had to shout: "SHOES!" at him and he stopped.

"Right, sorry," he said stopping to kick off his boots, Tani did the same, even though she ended up barefoot.

"There are slippers at the door if you don't wanna go barefoot," Steve said to her but when he glanced to Rowan he found that her eyes were narrowed and he knew she wasn't happy that he offered. Luckily, though, she didn't say anything.

With shoes off the two made it to the kitchen where Rowan finally gave up on the glaring and began to plate spaghetti for Con. None for Tani, just Con. She then got up before Steve could stop her, heading for the fridge.

She handed him both a beer and the plate just as Con sat down. Tani sat down beside him and seemed to be waiting for something, no doubt an offer for food or something to drink, but Rowan was already putting herself back into the chair.

Steve was already drying his hands so he could do it for her but Con growled her name and the protective instincts kicked in.

They had always been there where it came to Rowan and his kid, but now that he knew she was pregnant it was so much worse.

Steve moved over to the table right away to stand beside his wife, a hand on her shoulder. He made sure to pin Con with a dark glare and then turned a patient smile to Tani.

"Want anything? The Spaghetti's probably cold by now, or there's cake… tea… beer?"

"Cake? What kind of cake."

"Chocolate Cookie Dough," Rowan said. "It's a chocolate cake, chocolate frosting, with balls of cookie dough on top. It's Nahele's favourite."

"I'll take three slices," Con said around a mouthful spaghetti.

"No, I want to save most of it for Nahele," she said. "You can have one piece."

"Kay… but it better be massive," Con said.

"That sounds delicious, I'll take a slice… and maybe a decaf?"

"Ohh… a Rowan special hot chocolate?" Con asked and Rowan scowled at him.

"You have enough, thank you."

"I'll get started on the decaf, you stay right here, please," he said stooping down to press a kiss to his wife's cheek that she happily pressed into.

As Steve got that ready, while also cutting two pieces of cake for their visitors, Con reached out for the ultrasound photo that Rowan kept on her like, at all times. She had gotten a whole bunch printed out, she had given one to everyone important. Which included mailing one to Mary and one to Doris.

They were just waiting on them to get the letter in the mail for the calls that were mostly going to be screaming of excitement.

She had even gotten one for Steve to carry around, which he did. It was in his wallet, with the picture he had of he and Rowan and Nahele on his wedding. He was looking to get one of those inserts for pictures from the olden days so he could load it up with pictures. Him and Ro, just Ro, just Nahele, Nahele and Ro, and lots of his on-the-way-baby.

Yeah he had a phone, and he could keep them there, but there was something about being able to pull them out of his wallet and see them there or show them off.

"You told him, huh?" Con asked. Steve nodded and so did Con. "How did it go? Did he take it well?"

"Uh… I think he took it well to our faces," Rowan said. "I think he's worried but doesn't want to tell us that."

"Want me to try to talk to him?"

"We can deal with it," Steve said because he didn't need Con stepping into drama with his family, he already did that enough as it was. And besides, Steve wanted to figure this out as a family, a nuclear family. "Why are you here… together… that's weird, actually, were you two just hanging out?"

He didn't think that Tani and Con were friendly, in fact, they argued quite a bit. So he was surprised they came together or sought each other out enough to be together.

The two of them exchanged glances, Con broke out in this grin that Tani did not reciprocate. But he turned back to Rowan with that smile and said: "So we have… an announcement…"

"Oh please don't," Rowan said and Steve turned to her.

"What?"

Rowan just shook her head, ignoring Steve completely to stare at Con. "Just please… please don't…"

Con glared at her. "Ro… we kinda have to…"

"Have to what?" Steve asked.

"We're dating," Tani said. "Uh… officially…"

"Which means you have to start officially being nice," Con said to Rowan who was groaning.

"Well… that's great," Steve said returning with the two pieces of cake and the cup of decaf for Tani. "I had no idea you guys even liked one another…"

Rowan however was clearly not happy, instead she was shaking her head and Steve had no idea what was wrong with her.

"Ro, stop it," Con said ignoring Steve entirely. "I don't know what you're problem is, but stop it."

Rowan nodded and for some reason an Ice queen smile spread across her lips.

"I can't fix it now," Rowan said to him. "That's it. It's set in stone and I can't fix it."

"Fix what?" Con asked.

Rowan ignored him but instead stood up that smile sliding onto Tani. "And when you do it, cause I know you will, when you do it, I'm going to make your life a living hell. But until then, I promise… I promise I will be nice."

"Yeah cause that was the epitome of nice," Con snapped. "Jesus… what the fuck Rowan! Do I need… do I need to like give you space or something to digest this. Cause like… I don't want to go Low Contact but if you can't get over this I might have to."

Rowan cocked an eyebrow at him. "Wow… yeah… you deserve what's coming to you," she said and then just whirled away from them heading for the couch. Which was much better than going up the stairs again.

Steve sighed heavily and then turned a smile to the couple in front of him. "Well I'm happy for you."

"Get them out of my house," Rowan snapped and Steve nodded.

"I'll uh… I wrap up the cake to go," he said.

Con didn't even bother to say good-bye to Rowan, neither did Tani and it looked like Rowan didn't care. And though Steve asked she refused to tell him what it was that she thought was going to happen, but he could tell she wasn't happy about this development. He just wished she wasn't keep the why to herself.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Grace was in bed for the night. She had her night cream on her face, she had her phone plugged in and ready to scroll through Instagram for basically the rest of the night before she fell asleep.

She was taking breaks from Instagram to talk to her friends as they responded and it was during one of those text breaks that a message came in.

She spoken to Nahele since the red carpet event. She saw him at school, walking in the hallways with Madison most of the time, but he wouldn't even glance in her direction. She wanted to say that she wasn't looking for him, but it seemed no matter how she felt, her eyes always found him.

But since he hadn't reached out since the red carpet event and she hadn't either, she was completely surprised to see a text pop up from him that simply said: "You up?"

Literal silence for two almost three weeks and now a two word text asking if she was awake. No apology, just… you up?

She was so tempted to tell him off, but her heart had jumped at the sight of that text and she found she couldn't bring herself to do it. She wanted to know what he wanted, she wanted to see if this would lead to them being friends again.

She didn't want to give him too much satisfaction though. So she waited five minutes to send that one word response of yes.

Almost immediately a call from him came through.

Grace hadn't changed his contact so the picture was one of her and him and his parent's wedding. He was grinning wildly, hugging her, his cheek against hers. Her cheeks were pink from her own large smile.

It was one of her favourite pictures of him and her together and it hurt to look at it, knowing that they weren't really friends anymore.

Still she picked it up with a hesitant: "Hello…"

She was honestly expecting this to be some kind of prank she fell for. Maybe it was Madison testing her for some unknown reason. Maybe he was just going to ask for something stupid.

She wasn't expecting: "I'm sorry I'm bothering you, I… I just don't know who else to call."

He sounded distraught. He sounded like he was either on the verge of tears or have already cried and was trying to calm down.

Grace was immediately concerned. Nahele was often bottling things ups, she kept saying that wasn't healthy but he had that toxic male masculine idea that men shouldn't have emotions. Which was stupid, because everyone in his life, his parents included, kept telling him that he could tell them anything, which included talking about his feelings.

"Are you okay?" she asked, because she already knew he wasn't.

"Uhm… not really," he said. "Uhm… would it be okay if we talked? I know… I know I haven't been a good friend and that you're probably mad at me but uh… could we?"

Yes, he had been a pretty shit friend. He had dropped her the second he got Madison, maybe even before that and she had no idea why. She couldn't understand why Madison would be uncomfortable with their relationship… unless she could tell Grace had a crush. But even then, it was clearly unrequited so why would she care?

He didn't deserve her friendship, but she also couldn't hear him sounding that distraught and not try and help.

"I'm still mad at you, but yeah, we can talk. What's up?"

"Uhm… I'm guessing you already know but uh… Ro and Steve… they're… she's pregnant."

Grace did know that. Danny had told her almost a week ago. She didn't know how they had kept it from Nahele another week considering she was pretty far along.

"I do know," she said. "You're not happy for them?"

"No… I am… I… I just… god it's going to sound so stupid…"

"You're worried they're going to replace you." Grace could practically hear Nahele deflate on the other line. "You know that's silly right?"

"I know…"

Right so she was right. This was his insecurity that his adopted parents didn't really love him rearing up again. He was prone to those flare ups but usually she could talk him down. She kind of wondered why he hadn't gone to Madison for this. Kinda made her proud that he had picked her to call.

"You know they're not going to stop loving or caring about you just cause they have a baby…"

"Yes… but… I'm adopted and this is a biological kid…"

"Nahele," she said patiently. "You think I wasn't worried when Charlie came around? I was, you know. I was worried that Charlie was going to steal my mom and that she'd love him more, that Stan wouldn't be nice to me anymore because I wasn't his. But that was silly. My mom still loves me and Stan does too, even though they're divorced. He still checks in."

Yeah but Stan was a stand-up guy like that.

"I know…"

"It's going to be a newborn and yeah they're going to be tired and they're going to be busy, but that doesn't mean they don't love you. It just means that newborns are hard to take care of."

"What if it does change things though?"

He was in a full tailspin then. He was going down the what if's rabbit hole. She was going to have to go down it with him to get him out of this one.

"You could just talk to Rowan, you know? There's no way you bring up how you're feeling with either Rowan or Steve and they'll ignore you." Grace waited to see what he'd say but nothing came from him.
Nahele… alright, let's hit the worst case scenario. So you're thinking that now that they have a bio kid they're just going to what?"

"I unno… give me back."

"They adopted you, they can't just give you back."

"I don't know Grace… they could kick me out next year when I turn 18. They could just stop… caring… I don't know… just… I had this family… and it was perfect… and now it feels like I'm going to lose it again."

"But you're not, there's no way they're going to do that."

Nahele was silent and Grace knew he didn't believe her.

"Okay, right. So say things change. They start ignoring you or they kick you out. You turn 18 this year and you have good friends, right? Kai and Makani… I'm sure they'll have your back… and… you have a job too so… it'll be hard but you managed to live on the streets for 6 months before getting unofficially adopted… there's no way you'll be on the street… I'm sure if I talk to Danno he'll let you stay on the couch. I can even talk to Mom see if she'll let you stay here. The point is, 'Hele, you're strong. You're strong enough to survive this if things go wrong with them…"

Nahele was quiet a moment and Grace sighed.

"They're not going to love you less, Nahele," she said again more definitely. "I'd bet literally anything on it."

"Your Fenti Concealer?"

That was her most expensive piece of make-up, gifted to her last year by her Auntie Ro. It was honestly the most precious materialistic item.

"All the Fenti Concealer in my colour… in the whole world," she said with a smile. She heard a bit of a chuckle on his end and she knew that she had gotten to him.

"I have been saving," he told her. "Not just cause I'm worried they'll forget about me if they have a kid but because I didn't want to have to rely on them when it came to college. It wouldn't hurt to save a little more… just in case."

"You won't need it though," she told him.

"Yeah…"

They were silent for a moment. Grace longed to ask if he was okay now, if he felt better, but she also didn't want this conversation to end. This was the first time she had talked to him in a long time, properly, like they used to. Sometime in the summer something had changed between them and she hadn't been able to get them back to that level of familiarity and comfort.

This may be the last time she'd have this version of him back.

"Uhm… thank you," he said suddenly breaking the silence. "Thank you for listening to me, especially since I don't deserve any kindness right now…"

"That's okay…"

"I know I haven't been… and uhm… I know I've been pretty shitty in the friend department and honestly… I wish I could offer you more…"

"What do you mean?"

"Madison doesn't really like me talking to literally any girl, but for some reason she's super insecure about you."

"I don't know why. I'm two years younger than you and we've literally only been just friends…"

It was such a lie. She knew why. It was clearly obvious to other people that she had a crush on Nahele, it just clearly didn't matter that it was unrequited.

"Yeah, well… I know this isn't fair to ask but would you be willing to keep a friendship uhm… on the down low?"

Would she?

Honestly, if it were anyone else she'd say no. She'd be too prideful to be the shamefully dirty little secret. She'd say she deserved more than to be hidden in the shadows, was worth more.

But this was Nahele so she said: "Not really… but I'm willing to if you work on her accepting me…"

"Course," he said right away. "… uh… really though? You can say no…"

"No… I missed my friend," she admitted and she swore she could hear his smile on the other end.

"I uh… I missed you too." There was a bit of a pause where she could hear someone, probably his mom, calling for him. "Sorry, I gotta go. I'll uh… I'll text you some meme's. I've been hoarding some for you…"

"Me too. We can trade."

That earned her an actual laugh. "Right! Well thanks Grace, I really needed this. I'll talk to you soon," he said and then he was gone.

For a moment Grace just smiled at her phone, feeling utterly stupid for feeling this way for him, even after everything that happened between them. It was stupid but she couldn't stop herself from having feeling some kind of way about him.

She wanted to feel guilty, because she had Will and Nahele had Madison, but she couldn't bring herself to feel anything but happy.

Happy she could help. Happy that she got her friend back. Happy that Nahele was willing to risk his girlfriend's anger just to continue to be friends for her, even if it was in secret for now.