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A/N: Hello and welcome to Episode 16. Sorry about this first chapter, it's a little dry. Necessary for the next two chapters though. Hopefully you still enjoy. Don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys next week!

Chapter 460

Steve had caught another case. Literally immediately. Like the next morning. Which meant, as much as he wanted to take Rowan shopping, like he promised. He couldn't.

For some reason, he wasn't sure why, but for some reason she hadn't really minded. Said that she had her own project she was working on and it needed her attention that day anyway.

Originally, this case hadn't been his. It had been HPD. A missing Headmaster at a fancy private school. He got called in when it because clear that no one at the school was going to cooperate when they were the main suspects, and Duke had decided they needed help.

He had Tani and Junior posing as parents, trying to get their kid into the school to get more information. They had just gone in that morning to for an interview.

Neither Tani nor Junior were happy with this undercover mission, especially with having to pose as a married couple. Apparently it had cause an argument between Con and Tani because he felt it should have been him. Him being her boyfriend and all, wouldn't it make sense to have him pose as the husband?

But Con was busy staying on top of Rowan and Jian, and apparently was also on whatever project Rowan was on.

After arguing with Tani Con had called Steve to bitch at him, about how he couldn't even wait for Con to be back before starting this Op. Steve had been confused. Back from where? Wasn't Con with Rowan and Jian?

"I'm on a fucking rescue mission, didn't she tell you?"

No. He was not made aware that Adam needing rescuing. Rowan hadn't told him about that dream, apparently she had only told Con. The only consolation was knowing that Con was on it. He was a little nervous about having only Nahele keeping an eye on Rowan and Jian in the meantime so he made a note to ask Duke to send an officer down to maybe… sit in a car outside of the house until Con was done getting Adam away from the Yakuza… again.

Still he apologize to Con for causing friction in his relationship, told him that this was just for the Op, and Tani was equally unhappy with this particular mission, but it had not made Con feel better. So now he was the reason Con and Tani were having relationship problems and his brother-in-law was mad at him.

Kinda had him not wanting to go home when Con was in that bad mad of a mood.

Tani and Junior had come back from their undercover admissions interview with distressing news. Junior had gone straight to work, Tani had come to him. Asking him for what he considered a crazy favour.

"What? How much?" Steve cried. "Six hundred dollars?"

"And that's just for the fundraiser," Tani explained. "There's also a charity event today to raise money for the school. And rumour has it, if you don't bid on something pricey your kid's not getting in."

Steve couldn't help it, he could really only stare at her with muted shock. All of this, just to get into some private school? Really?

"Tell you what," Grover said. "As a seasoned parent, I can tell you that this shit never ends. You got a kid on the way, you should have been saving money the second Rowan popped up pregnant."

Steve's mouth dropped. Dear fucking god. He was right wasn't he? And he hadn't been saving. He had been sinking money into the restaurant with Rowan's approval. Did that mean she was saving? She was paying for their house addition… did that mean she wasn't?

Fuck he hated having to talk finances with his wife, but it looked like he was going to have to. And if she had started saving, which he was guessing she had, he was going to have to get that banking information so he could start contributing.

He was not going to be a deadbeat dad. No sir.

"Naw, why would he save his wife makes the good money and all the financially wise investments," Danny said smirking at Steve's panic.

Steve shot him a scowl, but Danny continued to smirk at him. He almost wanted to ask Danny why he was there, he was supposed to be supervising his Uncle Vito at their restaurant.

"And you got a boy getting ready to go to college soon, that's a whole different ball game," Grover said. "Renee and I went to visit Samantha at college, she's already blown through her monthly allowance."

"Well, good beer ain't cheap," Tani said.

"Wait, what?"

She paused, realized what she had said and then turned wide, guilty eyes onto Grover who was frowning in her direction.

"Oh, did I say beer? I meant books and school supplies…"

Steve knew where this was going and didn't want to watch Grover have a freak out about his daughter and the underage drinking she was totally doing, so he dryly added: "She meant books."

"I did."

Grover nodded at that, though it was clear he didn't really believe them, even with that noncommittal grunt he threw in their direction.

"Well, anyway, I realize I'm a little late to the party, but how do we know that this disappearance of our vic ha any connection to him being a headmaster? Couldn't he have been carjacked? Hell, the guy could have been murdered at random, or for any number of reason that have nothing to do with that school."

"You're absolutely right, except when you take into consideration the fact that his briefcase, his laptop and his cellphone were all still in his office."

At that Tani jumped in for Steve. "That in itself is weird. But consider that two days later, the janitor of the school finds a nine-millimeter shell casing in a vacuum cleaner bag."

"Alright. Well, fair enough," Grover said. "So you're thinking the murder took place somewhere on school property?"

Steve nodded. "Correct. We're thinking the killer got the body out of there in the truck on Waller's car. While forgetting his personal effect in his office."

"CSI searched the school, they didn't turn up anything. And right now they're looking into his computer to see if they can recover anything that's relevant. There's also an APB out on his Audi. Meanwhile, I pulled his financials . there's no big withdrawal that would suggest he ran off."

As Tani talked she pulls up the financials on the screen for them all to see.

"But I'm still not hearing the why," Grover said.

"We don't have a motive, yet, alright? But that school is our primary crime scene," Steve told him.

"Yeah, I mean, he was a polarizing figure, right? People either loved or hated him," Tani added.

At that Junior came out of his office, coming towards them.

"Well it looks like there were a whole lot of people who were firmly I the hate camp. I just got off the phone with the board of trustees. And over the past five years, they've received over a hundred complaints about Waller. They're sending over the letters and emails as we speak. We'll start going through them ASAP."

Steve shook his head. "No, no. Hold that thought. I got a better idea. I'll ask Duke if he can commit some HPD resources to that, because I need you two at the fundraiser." He ignored how annoyed both Tani and Junior looked at the prospect of having to go that Fundraiser. "That's where we need to be if we're going to narrow down that suspect pool and gather more intel."

Grover sighing. "I'll call the governor. Requisition some funds.."

"No," Steve said quickly. "He's still… uh… annoyed with me over the… you know… holding cell massacre. I'll uhm… let me call my wife."

"Call your wife?" Tani echoed.

"Ro makes all the McGarrett money," Grover said. Steve hated that everyone just nodded at that like that made all the sense in the world, like everyone knew that already.

Steve was already stepping away, his phone in his hand, a little excited to call his wife. He wanted to hear her voice, wanted to ask how her and the baby was doing, ask for any little details he might have missed out on because he was at work. How many times had their baby kicked, any pains she might have had, everything. He wanted to know it all.

"Oh!" Tani cried causing him to stop and half turn back to her. "Do you think she'd float me some money for a cocktail dress, because I got nothing in my closet to suggest soccer mom."

Steve paused to think about it and then winced. "I'll uh… I'll just ask for extra and not tell her that anything's for you," he said.

"Wow, lying to your wife, great move."

Steve shot an absent: "Shut up Danny," in his partner's direction before disappearing to his office to call his wife.

After the pleasantries, after she promised that her and the baby were fine, after telling him about the five separate times their baby had kicked at her stomach, and then her liver, and then her bladder, after asking her why she hadn't told him about Adam before he left that morning and getting a subpar answer, he got to the favour part of the call. She had sighed and said she's e-transfer him the money for the fundraiser and money for Tani's dress, which he had not mentioned.

He had thanked her profusely, and then cleared his throat and asked the dreaded finance question.

That had gotten him a tired little laugh from his wife before she informed him that she had been saving for both their kids for almost a year.

She had started saving for Nahele and his college dreams before she even adopted him, before she even came back from the Year of Deceit. She had started saving for any kids they might have after they had gotten married and if he'd like to contribute, she would send over the banking information right away.

Steve thanked her for her foresight, tried to not mention that she should have told him much sooner, but did say he would keep an eye out for that banking info so he could start contributing. They had a little bit more idle chitchat before Steve had to return to his case, but he did make her promise to keep him in loop about the Adam rescue and how she and Jian were doing before he finally hung up.

He felt a little wistful after the call ended, already the tendrils of desire were pulling at him, already missing his wife.

But he knew he'd see her soon, and until then he had a case to solve.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Not long after Steve got the loan did Danny actually leave to head to their restaurant to meet his Uncle Vito. They had reached out to several contractors, all recommended by Kamekona, to see if they would be willing in making their dream restaurant come true. And if they were, what would it cost.

All of them had put in bids, with detailed summaries of what each step, material and labour would cost.

Danny stood at their counter, still the only thing they had gotten installed, looking it all over. The numbers were blurring before his eyes, they meant nothing to him except clearly they couldn't afford help and that was daunting considering how bad this remodel was fucking going.

"Vito, Vito, Vito, please. This is not right. These numbers can't be right. This is… we're trying to make a small Italian restaurant, not the Taj Mahal."

Danny felt like his stomach was sinking and yet like he was going to throw up all at once. But his uncle didn't even seem to care. Instead he showed Danny his phone and the dating app he had up on the screen, some poor woman's profile pointed in Danny's direction.

"Wait. You swipe right if you like the broad? Look at that one."

Danny scowled first at the phone and then at his uncle. "I don't… I don't… I don't know. I'm the wrong person to ask. Please put the phone away. Can we focus? Can we focus? These contractor bids are nuts. I just… it's not even close to within our budget."

"Hey, come on, its gonna be okay. You know, people come in here, they see this space. They think it's gonna take ages to build. Me? I can make this place into a restaurant in three, four weeks. The problem you have is all the paperwork, you know? You got your zoning, you got your work permits, you got… you got your liquor license, but as long as that's all lined up, you're good to go."

Danny nodded, kind of feeling better but not by much. "Okay the liquor license, we should be good. Steve put that thing in a month ago, so it shouldn't be a problem."

At that Vito finally turned to him, his eyebrows furrowed. "A month ago?" he echoed.

"Yeah, a month ago."

"I hate to tell you, but it's gonna take a year for that license to get approved. I mean, why was that not the first thing you did?"

His stomach was doing that sinking, about to throw up thing again. "You mean like… 12 months?"

"Yeah, yeah. Like a year, you know?" Vito said and then paused when he saw the panic clear on his nephew's face. "But let me see what I can do to, um, expedite the process."

Danny couldn't help but grown at that. That was the kind of stuff his uncle said before he did things that were… well rather shady. Vito responded by slinging an arm around his shoulders and pulling him into his side.

"C'mere, c'mere. Everything is gonna be okay. Uncle Vito's here alright? Alright. Alright kid," he said before slapping the back of Danny's head.

"I don't want you to touch my hair," he muttered as he rubbed the back of his head. "I don't touch your hair."

"I'm your uncle. I love you. You used to sit on my lap when you were a kid." He paused for a second and then sort of shoved him away. "Get out of here. You're pissing me off."

Danny found himself sighing and then went for his phone. "I'mma call Rowan," he said softly.

Rowan hadn't been as helpful as he wanted her to be during this whole restaurant remodel thing. Oh she had been supportive, but not in the financial sense which, honestly, was what they needed the most from her. Favours and encouraging words, she had that down pat.

Maybe she could help with this whole… contractor thing. Seeing as she knew so many of them.

No harm in asking right?