Ohana- A Hawaii Five-0 Fanfic Chapter Seven
So first I would like to apologize for it taking me almost a year to get back to this story. Life kicked my butt pretty hard this year, both good and bad. I really was not intending to abandon this fic, I just wasn't able to sit down and write like I was able to when I started it.
I hope this chapter isn't too disappointing (I kinda didn't do my editing that I normally do, which isn't great anyway but oh well). I really just wanted to get it posted so I can start writing again now that some things have calmed down and I can start to focus on my self a little more.
Rachel crouched down on the floor against the wall furthest from the bathroom door. If she knew Stan was going to be the drunkest she had ever seen him when she got home, she would have kept Grace and gone out with Thea and Nora like their original plan. When Stan called her and asked her to come home so they could speak some more about their upcoming divorce, Rachel wasn’t all that thrilled. She knew that it was unavoidable, so she made arrangements to drop Grace off with Danny. She knew he was getting suspicious about the amount of time she was letting him have with Grace recently, but still hadn’t worked herself up to telling Danny her marriage failed because of her feelings for him. After the way she treated him throughout their divorce and the whole marriage to Stan, she didn’t see that going over well.
Rachel quickly tried to find her cell phone in her maxi-dress pockets and cursed silently when she remembered dropping it in the living room when Stan came after her. She hoped she was able to call Thea before she dropped it.
“ Open the fucking door Rachel, before I break it down!” Stan yelled angrily, beating his fist on the door. Rachel closed her eyes and slid farther down the wall and onto her knees, trying her best to keep her sobs quiet, even though he already knew she was in there. She knew the little lock on the door wasn’t going to hold Stan very long. Rachel had seen him break through one of them before when Grace accidentally locked herself in the bathroom and the keys they had weren’t working.
She prayed he didn’t remember where the keys were in his drunken state. With her hand that wasn’t smashed from Stan trying to keep her out of the bathroom, she reached up on the shelf to grab her hair dryer, ready to chuck it at him if he made it through the door. She closed her eyes and waited for him to barg in, but suddenly it wasn’t just Stan’s voice she could hear.
“Stanley! Put the knife down!” She heard what sounded like Steve.
‘My call must have made it through’ She thought.
Everything started happening quickly. There was a loud thud, a grunt, and a soft knock at the door.
“Rachel… You can come out babe.” That was Danny. Rachel quickly threw the hair dryer to the ground and rushed over to the door. After a moment of struggling with the lock due to her hand, she slung the door open and threw herself into Danny’s arms.
Danny smoothed her hair out of her face. “Hey, hey, it’s okay… He’s outside, he’s in handcuffs, he’s not going to hurt you again.” He continued to stroke her hair as he pulled her out of the hallway and towards the living room.
The next while was a blur. Danny got her to a paramedic who was currently wrapping her wrist in a bandage, another was addressing a cut she hadn’t noticed she had on her head. Danny spoke with Steve, but he couldn’t hear what they were saying. Kono and Chin, who had arrived a few minutes after Steve and Danny were taking pictures of the trashed house. While it broke Rachels heart to look around and see her home destroyed, a small part of her knew this wasn’t really her home anymore and it hadn’t been for a long time.
Kono came up to Rachel once the medic was done patching her head. “Hey Rachel,” Kono paused to smile at her. Rachel looked up, a bit startled. “Is it alright if I take a picture of your wrist and the cut on your head?”
Rachel nodded, setting her wrist down and tilting her head so the Hawaiian woman could get a clear shot of it.
“Do you have any other marks on you? We can get pictures of them later, I just thought we could get them all out of the way for you now.” Kono said kindly.
Rachel ran her hand up her arm, as if she was trying to calm herself down. “Uhm, I-I don’t know.”
“If you find any later, we’ll take a picture of them so we can document them, okay?” Danny butted in as he walked over. “Stan’s downtown. Knowing his connections, he is probably going to post bail as soon as he’s sobered up. I don’t want you here when he’s released, so pack a bag and I’ll take you down to the Hilton, okay? I’ll get a bag packed for Grace too.”
At the mention of Grace, Rachel shot up from her seat. “Grace! Where’s Grace?” Danny could tell Rachel was starting to panic. He pulled her in for a hug, knowing that he’s always been one of the few people who have been able to calm Rachel down. Even married to Stan, Danny was the one person who could rile her up and have her completely calmed down in a span of 5 minutes.
“Grace is at Steve’s house with Thea. She’s safe. I have a patrol unit outside the house just in case.” He said so soothingly as he led Rachel towards the stairs. He wanted to get her out of this house.
For more reasons than one.
Steve McGarrett’s House, later that night:
Thea hummed softly to herself as she cleaned up the dishes that she and the girls used for dinner. Thankfully, Kamekona was more than happy to drop off some garlic shrimp for the three of them. Thea was too nervous and worried to think about driving, and poor Grace was scared out of her mind. Neither Thea or Danny told Grace what was going on, but she was a smart girl, she knew something was wrong with her mom.
Having Nora to play on the beach with was a great distraction but it didn’t stop her from asking questions about when her dad was coming to get her or when she was able to go see her mom.
Thea understood how she felt. She wouldn’t go so far to say her father was physically abusive. Emotionally abusive and neglectful, absolutely. There was one time she heard her father hit her mother. They were arguing in his office at their house, she had her ear pressed up to the door to try and overhear what they were talking about. She still doesn’t know what it was about, but she knew it was about her. She overheard that what she was positive was a slap in the face. She ran to her room and didn’t come out the rest of the night, not that anyone noticed. Since then she had never seen a bruise on her mother and her father from then on was never home or alone with either of them long enough to do anything. It wasn’t until her mother got pregnant with Nora that her father started coming home for longer stretches of time, but she was out of the house by then, so she didn’t concern herself with what her ‘parents’ were doing until Nora came along.
As she laid the freshly washed dishes in the drying rack, Thea felt a presence behind her. She put the girls in the guest bedroom with a Disney movie about an hour ago.
“Girls, I thought I told you it was time for bed. What are you doing up?” She asked without turning around or looking up in the window to see who was behind her.
“I can’t go to sleep without you tucking me in.” Her head whipped around at the male voice.
Steve grinned at her, leaning up against the doorframe of the kitchen door. Thea quickly dried her hands off and walked closer to him. “Is Rachel okay? What happened? He didn’t-”
Steve cut her off, putting his hands on her shoulders to rub them. “No, Rachel is fine. Danny took her to a hotel tonight, so she’s not home if Stan makes bail. She doesn’t want Grace to see her until her cheek and forehead heal a little more. So I told her and Danny that we’d help out.”
Thea nodded. She moved her right hand up his arm to the hand on her shoulder. “How bad was it?” She whispered, looking up at him.
Steve sighed and removed his hand from her shoulder to scratch his face. “Pretty bad. Her hand was smashed in the doorway, her cheek is bruised, and she has a gash on her forehead that luckily didn’t need stitches.”
“You think he’s going to make bail?”
“I hope not. While 5-0 has the resources and the ability to keep him, we don’t want to give him more ammunition since Danny is so close to this. We don’t want to make it worse when they finally divorce. Especially since we have the resources to protect Rachel and Grace.” Steve said. He took Thea’s hand and started to walk her to the stairs. “Come on, it’s late and it’s been a long day.”
Thea followed him up, noticing how he took the stairs a little slower than normal for her benefit. “I put the girls to sleep in the guest room a bit ago. I just didn’t have the energy or the mindset to drive back to my place. I’m sor-“
“Don’t. I’m glad you stayed. Danny and I felt better knowing the three of you were here. We had a patrol car parked out front just in case.”
Thea frowned. “What? I didn’t even notice.” A part of her wanted to kick herself for not noticing a cop right out front.
Steve shook his head. “We told him to stay parked a few yards back so no one would notice.”
Thea nodded. “Well the girls are in the guest room, so I’ll just sleep on the futon in the other room.”
Steve immediately stopped her from walking down the hallway. “Absolutely not. That thing is so uncomfortable I won’t even make Danny sleep on it. You take my room, I’ll crash on the couch downstairs.”
Thea gave him a smile, shaking her head. She found the gesture sweet but she really didn’t want to impose on him. This thing- whatever it was- was still about 24 hours old. “No, I don’t want to kick you out of your room Steve. I really don’t mind to go back dow-“
Steve interrupted her again. “Pregnant or not, I’m not going to make you sleep on the futon or the couch, Thea. Please just take my bed.”
Thea sighed before nodding. “Okay fine.” She leaned up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “Thank you.” She whispered. It wasn’t just a thank you for giving up his bed. It was for the entire day, for protecting her friend.
Steve’s hand backed up to cup the back of her neck as he kissed her temple. “You don’t have to thank me for that.” He caught her meaning.
“Yes I do.” She moved her hand up to his cheek. “You don’t let people hurt your family. I couldn’t ask for a better partner in this.”
Steve pressed his forehead to hers. “My family’s safety is the most important thing to me. That includes you and Nora now. I won’t let anything happen to either of you.”
Thea’s breath caught in her throat. She moved her other hand up to his face to pull him down for a kiss. Before their lips could touch they both whipped their heads around to the sound of a door opening. Grace's half asleep face peeped out of the guest bedroom.
“Aunt Thea?” She mumbled, rubbing her eyes.
Thea quickly moved away from Steve and over to the little girl. “What’s wrong baby?” She pushed the bed head off of Grave’s forehead. Grace finally looked up and saw Steve standing in the hallway. She rushed over to him, throwing her arms up to him. Steve quickly crouched down to her height and wrapped her up in his arms.
“Where’s mommy and Danno?”
“They had something important they had to take care of tonight, but I promise I’ll take you to see them tomorrow okay?” Steve tried to comfort her. He could tell she was a little upset by not knowing what was going on. But he knew Grace was a smart girl and could tell that whatever it was, wasn’t good.
“Mommy?” Nora's voice came from the bedroom. Thea left the two in the hallway and walked into the bedroom.
“Did we wake you baby?” She asked, sitting on the edge of the bed next to Nora. She pulled the blanket up and encouraged her to lay back down.
“Who’s here? Where’s Grace?” Nora cuddled back down in the blue comforter.
“Just Steve. Grace is out there with him, she’ll be back in a minute.” Thea stroked her hair and forehead. “Just go back to sleep baby.”
A few moments later, Steve walked in with Grace and helped her climb back into bed. Once they thought they had the girls settled, they both quietly tried to exit the room. But where stopped again by a noise.
Both their heads turned to the girls.
“Will you lay with us?” Grace asked.
Thea smiled softly at her before looking at Steve, who also had a small smile on his face. Thea nodded and walked over to Nora’s side of the bed. She might as well get used to having to share a bed for once the twins come. “Of course we will. Make some room for us, huh?”
Grace and Nora huddled close in the middle of the bed while Thea and Steve got on either side of them. After some more moving around everyone was comfortable and ready to go back to sleep. Steve stretched his arm out to rest around the two smaller bodies and lay on Thea’s side. His thumb rubbed tiny circles on her bump. Thea moved her arm out to move closer to the three of them, her arm resting on Steve’s arm. He stared at her over the pillows.
He too really couldn’t ask for a better partner in this.
