Epilogue

1.8K 52 9
                                    

"My legs are shaking. Is that normal?"

"Relax," Steve muttered as he let her grip his hand. "It's not as hard as it looks."

"Says the Navy Seal who grew up in Hawaii."

Steve laughed. "Alright, enough of that. Let's paddle out."

"I can not believe I agreed to do this with a broken arm," Amelia complained. "And it's not supposed to get wet. What happens when this plastic wrap comes off?"

"It gets wet. Trust me, it's not a big deal. And you've been in Hawaii for 5 months and you've never been surfing. We have to fix that."

Amelia nodded absentmindedly as she picked the surfboard up with one arm. She grunted with exertion at picking it up and it was awkward to carry but she managed.

And promptly dropped it when someone shoved into her. They threw a "Sorry!" over their shoulder but kept running down the beach.

Steve helped her pick it up and shook his head. "Tourists."

Amelia snorted and she managed to get it under one arm again. There was a moment as they stopped to watch that particular tourist crash into someone much bigger than Amelia. Steve directed her away as he fought back a laugh.

"I think he's going to learn his lesson," Amelia remarked as they headed towards the water and Steve nodded agreement. As they reached the water, Amelia paused again.

"I really don't think this is a good idea."

Steve shrugged. "Tourists love coming here in winter. Getting away from their cold, frigid homes for a tropical island. There will be too many of them to be able to see the waves, much less go surfing. Now or your waiting till February or March to go surfing."

Amelia rolled her eyes at his exaggeration but walked into the water nonetheless. Following Steve's lead, she paddled out past the point of the waves breaking.

"First time around don't try to stand, got it?"

"Mhm," she mumbled, watching the incoming waves. They were small but her stomachs was still twisting at the thought of trying to surf. Even sitting on the board she felt like she was going to fall off.

"This one right here!" Steve yelled over the waves, pointing to the oncoming wave. Amelia pushes down the butterflies and turned towards the shore, starting to paddle in like he said to.

In no time at all the wave caught her and carried her inwards. She cried out in delight, but promptly shut her mouth as it filled with salt water spray.

She wasn't far from the shore when the board flipped, leaving her in the water. She felt a moment of panic but kicked upwards and broke the surface, gasping in delight and terror.

Her board had drifted towards the shore so she paddled towards it using one arm. Her right arm was still virtually useless, so it sat in its plastic wrap, protected from the water. Her eyes had no such covering and stung from when she went under.

By the time she reached her board Steve was swimming up beside her. He gave her a hand back on and they paddled back out to try it again.

—————————

Amelia carefully brushed out her hair. She barely had time to take a shower and blow dry it before they had to leave. Surfing had been hard enough, and now she had to go to school.

Her first day.

School had started two weeks ago but Steve convinced them she was traumatized and needed to stay home. It helped that no one was going to argue with the head of Five-0. Because today was her first day, Steve insisted on taking her surfing before school. He said it was something he and his father had always done.

She stuffed her laptop in her bag and raced down the steps. Steve was sitting on the couch watching the news, but he stood up as she walked down.

"Ready for your first day?"

"After everything that's happened?" Amelia laughed. "I think I can handle a new school."

Steve grinned and grab the keys. "I don't know. High schoolers can be vicious."

"You're right. Some of them back home would put Siham to shame."

Steve tossed her the keys. "You're driving, right?" Amelia caught them and nodded.

"Although you should know I've decided not to take advice from you about driving. Otherwise, I'll decide it's completely ok to go 50 over the speed limit and drive on sidewalks."

"Well, if you honk to let pedestrians know you're coming. . ."

They loaded up into the car and Amelia took off. Unsurprisingly, it took her longer to get the high school then it would've taken Steve. By the time she reached the school, her left knee was bouncing in anticipation of her first day.

She parked and hugged her dad before grabbing a bag with her laptop and a notebook. She then went inside and stopped outside the front office. She heard a bell ring and grinned.

After everything, how hard could high school be?

———————

I just realized the end of this chapter wasn't here? Sorry, I don't know what happened. Here you go.

McGarrett's DaughterWhere stories live. Discover now