Chapter Text
Evan’s Birthday -June
Jason watched in amusement at the chaos only three-year-olds could bring. Well, not true, junior Marines were just as chaotic. He’d been a Recon Marine for five years, in combat four times in different places on the globe and was now working with intelligence. No crayons needed. He watched his dad laugh as he dodged his grandson who was running full tilt.
Allie was on her tablet, her floppy sunhat shading the screen as she designed a dress for an up and coming singer who’d been invited to the Met Gala. Mother Nature was the theme and she had an idea that she needed to get out before she concentrated on the family. No one begrudged her, she was working at her dream job. Janelle and Georgie married, and when she’d started having giant blond babies she’d asked if Allie wanted to become a partner. Allie was loving her chaotic life.
Elliot was chasing his daughter, three year old Suzanna around the yard, she was shrieking with laughter as she ran.
Stevie was big as a house with their second, a son-soon to be Benjamin Elliot Ellis. (Chris was already calling him Buzz.) She shared a smile with her mother, now President Elizabeth McCord, as her daughter managed to dodge El again but crashed into Evan’s legs.
“What do we have here?” Evan grinned, lifting his niece into his arms, pressing a ‘mwah’ against her cheek. “Oh, I see, it’s ‘trouble’!”
“Save me, unca Ev. Daddy trying to get me.” Her short dark hair was up in two curly pig tails and she was wearing an adorable green romper with ruffles on the butt.
“I save you!” three-year-old Koa yelled, careening into Elliot and almost knocking him on his ass. He was wearing shorts and a t-shirt that was already dirty, plus he’d lost his shoes somewhere. Again.
Koa, not the sister Chris had wanted, but a sturdy, rough and tumble boy of three who ran through life oblivious of his own mortality. Chris adored him anyway.
Maddie had laughed and laughed when Evan had complained. She told him he’d been the same when he was three years old.
Charlie Eppes had recommended a doctoral grad student of his as a surrogate. She’d been in his classes for almost four years and was struggling beneath the weight of student loan debt from undergrad and medical debt and had made a throw away comment about being a surrogate to earn money.
Deanna Kea’lani Aukai was Hawaiian and Irish, her parents deceased, her dad had died in a car accident and her mother due to head trauma from a fall. She was brilliant, she’d had to be to keep up with Charlie Eppes, with a quiet beauty that she hid under t-shirts, cargo shorts and sarcasm. When Charlie had mentioned her to Christopher-now 18 and at Caltech studying for his second math degree-cryptology with a minor in oceanography, well, Chris called his uncle Wo.
His uncle had listened patiently, then counseled Chris that maybe he should ask his dads and see what they thought.
Once the surrogacy contract had been drawn up, Wo had paid off all of Deanna’s student loans and set up with a rent-free apartment and a stipend so she could study for her doctorate without worry. Evan had complained, he and Eddie had put side money for a surrogate, but sighed when his uncle had sat him down and told him why he’d done it. Love of family was Evan’s Achilles’ heel.
Koa Jack McGarrett-Diaz had a headful of curly dark hair, deep blue eyes that changed to green depending on what he wore and ran like a perpetual motion machine since he’d learned how to crawl for a hot minute before he walked.
His birthmark was on the back of his right knee, an almost mirror image of Evan’s.
“Geez, bruiser,” Elliot complained, hefting his nephew up.
Koa grinned. “Gotcha!”
“Yeah you did, scamp. You’ll make a good SEAL someday.”
“Hey!” Eddie complained. Elliot sent him a wicked grin, holding a giggling Koa upside down.
“Can’t fight a dynasty, Army,” Steve called from the grill.
Danny shook his head but smiled around the mouth of his beer bottle. He knew that the SEAL legends bred true.
Gracie and Charlie hadn’t been able to come but sent their best wishes to the birthday boy. Grace was in Hawaii working with the Wildlife Conservancy, and Charlie was attending Rutgers, still not sure what he wanted to study but taking classes in a bunch of different things.
Eddie rolled his eyes at his father-in-law and brother-in-law. He seriously wondered if he’d lost his marbles getting involved with SEALs, then he’d look at Evan and remember why he had.
Koa escaped from his uncle and ran straight to Chris, climbing up on his lap and turning sideways, sticking a thumb in his mouth. Koa caught sight of Wo and waved the fingers that weren’t in his mouth.
“Hello, Xiăo Lóng,” Wo greeted his youngest nephew.
“Hey, keiki,” Chris crooned, pressing a kiss to his little brother’s hair. He leaned back in his chair, exchanging a laughing look with his Uncle Wo.
“Is this everything you imagined?” he asked his uncle. He gestured to the yard full of family.
Wo Fat, known for a lot of shady things, but now mostly on the straight and narrow, smiled serenely.
“You have been the best thing that has happened to me, Xiăo Be yei.”
“I know,” his nephew said confidently, patting Koa on the back and grinning at Wo’s laughter.
Steve met Bess’s eyes across the yard. The familiar smile that had made his stomach swoop when he was 16. She’d suffered but came out the other side triumphant.
They both looked at Evan standing with Eddie, Jason and Elliot, talking about something with his hands making them laugh.
He was their miracle.
And through him, they had found their family.