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AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: Sorry for the late start to the September chapters. I was on Vaca last week.
There are only two chapters this month, because Episode 13 is a smaller one.
While, yes, this episode was great character development for Grover, we're focusing on the McGarrett family, specifically the Chaos siblings! So yeah. The events of the episode will be mentioned, but we're not really focusing on it.
Hope you guys enjoy!
Chapter 453
Steve almost felt bad for Eli.
When he agreed to have his company do their addition to the house, he probably didn't count for Rowan micromanaging him. And it wasn't like he could say anything. Rowan had invested in Chapel Construction Enterprises. She owned equity in it, a lot of equity actually.
He couldn't really turn her down or tell her to stop. Well, he could, but he was too grateful to her to do that.
It wasn't that Rowan thought she knew better than Eli, it was that she wanted things a certain way and wanted to be sure he got those certain things done for her.
She was mostly being hyper critical about both the baby's and Nahele's room. Both needed to be absolutely perfect.
It had gotten so bad that Steve had taken to taking Rowan out of the house the second Eli and his construction crew showed up. Usually he'd take both his wife and Jian over to Con's, or, he'd bring them over to the house that Jian and Wo shared, and then tell Con that was where they were. Normally he wouldn't put Jian and Rowan together that much, seeing as Rowan easily annoyed Jian, but after everything that had happened with the Fischer bombing, Con wanted them together. It was easier to watch one household than two, after all. Which also meant have Jian basically stay with them.
Unfortunately, Rowan had started to notice that they were hovering. It started with noticing Con hovering, but then she noticed that Five-0s were starting to hover as well. Steve swung it as him worrying about the baby, and while that was working at the moment, there was no guarantee that it would continue to work.
That day, however, to keep Rowan from harassing their contractor, Steve was going to take her shopping. She had wanted to get baby stuff, had been going with Jian and Con to the mall for her pretzel cravings and picking out things she wanted for the nursery.
She just didn't want to buy them without Steve there. She wanted him included, and he wanted that too, but his job was getting in the way.
Not today though.
It was a slow day. All paperwork was done and Danny was holding the fort. He'd only be called in for something serious. And he had already told Danny that serious meant life and death situation or Hawaii was about to be blown out of the water.
"I think, if we decide to do the Build-A-Bear thing, we definitely need to make one for Nahele."
Rowan had been talking about this Build-A-Bear idea for weeks. The idea was to build a special bear for their kid, record their voices so they can press a button and hear them. Steve had thought this was a good idea, but it had gotten a little out of hand.
First it was wanting to create two of the same bear. One that grew up with them, and one to gift when they were older. So it would be like new again. She was thinking 18. She wanted to make a bear and save it for 18 years and hand it over to their kid when they were adults.
Then it was wanting to do the same for Nahele.
That in itself wasn't a problem. Rowan worried a lot about Nahele feeling left out. He was onboard with that, but now she was upset that he wouldn't get two. But that made sense. She wasn't there when he was a baby, and there was no point in him getting two, he was going to be an adult in a year. And at his age, he wouldn't destroy a teddy.
Also, at his age, Steve wasn't sure that Nahele would even want a Teddy bear. He was a teenaged boy after all.
"I already agreed to getting him one. I just don't think he needs two," Steve said absent. He was trying to pick her pair of shoes that won't hurt her.
She had mostly been wandering around in slippers because it was the only thing that fit her swollen feet and didn't hurt.
He had recently bought her a pair of moccasins for her to go outside with. Still comfortable, but with protective padding at the bottom so she could walk around, and they still looked like what she called "outside" shoes. They had been expensive but worth it.
Rowan came out of the kitchen, finishing up her last bite of pretzel that she had saved from her last mall trip. They would no doubt be getting more on this one.
Steve took a knee and waited for her to reach him. As soon as he did she offered him one of her bare feet. He was grateful that she had stopped arguing on him helping her, though to be fair, she was pregnant enough to not really be able to bend over and put her shoes on.
He got the first of the furry moccasins onto her foot and then smiled up to her as he went for the second one.
"I just don't want him to get less than, you know?"
"That's fair, but it also has to make sense. Not sure there's a point in getting him two. He's old enough to be careful with his things."
She had both slippers on now, and Steve was in the process of getting up. He saw the look of concern on his wife's face and frowned at it.
He really didn't like that this teddy bear thing was stressing her out.
"You could ask him, you know." She grimaced at him and he sighed. "I know you want to keep it a secret, but honestly, just ask him. Maybe he wants to pick his own teddy to build, huh?"
At that her eyes lit up. Clearly, she hadn't thought about having him there with her to make the bear. He was actually a little proud that he gave her that idea.
"You ready to go?" she nodded happily and as he led her to the garage the phone in his pocket began to ring. She shot him a scowl, but he quickly fished it out. "You get in the car, I'll shoo them away, okay?"
Rowan left him as he picked up. So she missed the frantic call he got from a very upset Will Grover. But she did not miss the look on his face when he opened up the driver's side of his dad's Marquis.
"Babe…" he started but she cut him off.
"No."
Steve winced at that, at the angry look on her face. "Baby, I know but Grover…"
"Is he dying?" she shot back before he could finish.
"No… but he needs my help."
Tears started to brim in her eyes and Steve's heart began to constrict. She had been prone to more tears since she had gotten pregnant and it was just painful to watch her cry.
"Steve… we barely have time as it is… and you promised. You promised we'd start picking things up…"
"I know, I know, and we will. We will buy everything, together, me and you I promise. Okay. And it will be today. As soon as I sort things out with Grover me and you will go. I promise. Okay?"
Rowan stared at him for a moment longer, those tears streaming down her face. He hated the disappointment in her eyes. He hated that he was watching the will to argue with him drain off of her face.
She didn't say anything to him. She got out of the Marquis and headed back to the house.
"Let me get you settled," he said, but she didn't acknowledge him. Instead she slammed the door between the garage and the house in his face. That was him clearly dismissed.
Steve left the garage to go to his truck hating how this day was ending up. Hating that he knew she was going to call Con. He just had to hope that she didn't buy all the baby stuff with him instead.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Rowan called him in tears early that morning.
That was not how Con liked to be woken up.
He had hoped that this would be a half day off for him. He still had to keep an eye on Rowan and Jian, of course, but Steve was supposed to be off, they were supposed to be going shopping for the baby. Finally purchasing all the things she had already picked out.
Of course, McGarrett got called in. Of course, he didn't just say no, I'm off today, deal with it yourselves. Hell, he could have sent Con in to deal with it.
Didn't he want to be with his wife? Didn't he want to do this baby stuff? Because as much as Con loved going out with her, shopping for baby stuff, Lamaze classes and other baby related things were blurring those lines again. It was way too easy to pretend that this was his family and not someone else's.
So once again Con called Tani, called off their plans for the day, found out she was also on the case that Steve was on. He was a little annoyed that he had to call her to find that out. When exactly was she going to tell him that she was on case and wasn't going to meet him for brunch?
He didn't want to argue though, so he agreed to reschedule and then went over to Rowan's. He found her still crying, but now because she was out of pretzels and she really wanted to go to the mall.
His answer had been to say he'd take her, but they should ask if Jian waned to come. Rowan had scoffed, reminded him that Jian didn't like her much, and wouldn't want to go to the mall with them again. She was getting of bored of the mall, she had told both of them at one point.
But Con couldn't leave Jian behind. Not that he could tell Rowan that. So he had left her downstairs to cry and rummage through her pantry for a suitable snack while he called Jian, who had not stayed with the McGarett;s last night, much to his chagrin.
Rowan was partially right. Jian did not want to go to the mall again. She too had a list of things she wanted to buy, she too was waiting for Wo Fat to have time to come back to Hawaii so they could buy them together. She did not want to go, see all the stuff she wanted and not be able to buy it… again.
It took some bartering, but he promised to buy her a whole case of mangoes, which was what their baby was craving, and to take her to whatever stores she wanted to go to after Rowan was done stuffing her face with pretzels. Jian begrudgingly agreed to go and Rowan and Con walked over to Wo's.
Rowan wanted to drive her GTO but it didn't have proper airbags, it being so old, so he would take Wo's Audi. Despite thinking Jian hated her Rowan hugged her the second she saw her and the other woman allowed her. Then that was them heading to the mall again.
First place they went was to the food court where Rowan went straight to the pretzel makers. Con went to sit down at a table and Jian went with him.
When Rowan came back with her massive bag of pretzels and one that she was already halfway through eating she announced that she was done waiting for Steven and she was going to buy whatever she wanted. She then turned to Jian and asked if she wanted to do the same.
Jian had thought about it a bit and then said, she'd like to buy at least a few things. Con, however, couldn't keep doing this. He couldn't keep going through baby stores getting his lines crosses and his boundaries blurred.
He would stay in the food court, maybe get himself something to eat, and wait for the ladies to be done.
He was sure to remind them to call him if anything seemed off, or if they needed help lifting or carrying things. He waved them off, certain that nothing could really happen while they were in a mall. Malls were safe, no one could possibly think of trying to grab either of them, or assassinate either of them while here.
Especially since there weren't windows in the stores they were going into.
So he got himself the Chinese version of a breakfast platter and then sat down at a table to scroll through his phone.
He was halfway through that platter when the shooting started.
It was distant but he heard it. Could tell what it was. And inwardly he cursed.
Con was on his feet in an instant. Grabbing the bag of pretzels only because he knew if he didn't save them Rowan would bitch or try to save them herself. He took out his phone and called Rowan.
She picked up on the third ring. He cut off her hello with a curt: "Where are you?"
"At Pottery Barn, in the kid's section, why?"
"Stay there, I'm coming to you."
Con then sprinted his way up the escalator to the second floor. The Pottery Barn wasn't too far from the food court luckily, but his rushing was thrown off as he was now having to move against the crowds of people starting to try and run from the commotion. He was having to shove people, and as he did he noticed movement on the lower floor.
Four men. Black gear. Masked up. Guns in one hand, bags in the other. Running from the direction of the jewelry store.
What kind of idiots try to rob a jewelry store in a mall in board daylight?
How fucking stupid did you have to be?
He got into the Pottery Barn to find Rowan and Jian waiting for him at the entrance, both watching the crowds of people running by. All around shops were starting to pull down the shutters. Locking customers in and the criminals out.
"What's happening?" she asked. Jian had a hold of Rowan's arm in a tight two-handed grip. Her eyes kept darting with the crowd.
"Robbery."
"Now?" Rowan echoed. "In the middle of the day?"
"Yes."
"Well, that's stupid."
"Yes, yes it is," he said as he took a hold of Rowan's other arm and began to lead the girls away. He moved them towards the back of the stores to hide by the furniture section. "We're going to stay here, okay? At least until it's safe."
Rowan stared at him for a moment before moving away towards a set up bed. "I'm going to sit down, what about you Jian?"
Jian nodded, going to sit with Rowan. Con put the bag of pretzels into her hands before going back to the closest column to act as look out.
Together they waited. Con watched as the crowds started to thin. He watched more people scatter in until the shutter finally went down locking them in. There were a few frantic bangs against the metal shutter from people who wanted to be left in, but even those stopped after a while.
There were no more gunshots, no more clatter of people running, no sound at all except for the whispers and tears of the people hiding in that Pottery Barn with them.
After a moment Con turned towards Rowan and Jian who were both sitting on the bed, each eating a pretzel.
He knelt down in front of them and purposely lowered his voice, so no one else could hear him.
"I want you to get me out into the main hallway."
Rowan narrowed her eyes at him. "Why?" she asked around a mouthful of pretzel.
"Cause I want to see what's going on."
"I'm not supposed to use the void."
"I'm not asking you to go through it, Ro. I'm asking you to send me through."
Rowan shook her head. "Naw, I don't like it. I say we just wait until the cops deal with it."
"That could take hours," Con hissed. "If we send me, I could clear it up in a matter of minute and get you a slushie while I'm at it."
At that Rowan seemingly perked up. "Oh! And Jian a strawberry smoothie?"
"Oh… that is what I'm craving, thank you Ro," Jian added and Con rolled his eyes.
"Yes, fine. One blue slushie and a strawberry smoothie for Jian."
"Okay, have fun," she said.
And then she thrust her hand forward at him and Con disappeared.