Note: I totally called Amanda and Ari in cahoots. Yeah.

Coda Two

"Boss, you really didn't have to take me home…" Kono muttered to the taller man by her side while trying to navigate the hallway to her apartment with crutches that were simultaneously too tall and too short.

"Right, because with Chin and Danny off island, I'm going to let the only member of my team left get home from the hospital by herself," Steve replied drily as they approached her door. He took one the crutches as Kono struggled to stay upright to get the keys out of her jacket pocket. As she sorted through her keys, the door on the opposite side of the hallway opened.

Kono spared a sideways glance to see Michael heading out. "Hey Michael," she greeted.

Kono's unexpected escort brought Michael up short and his back stiffened at the tattletale bulk of a gun beneath the man's jacket. A second look had him almost gaping in surprise. "McGarrett?" Recognition sunk in. "Steve?"

Steve blinked in quick succession before breaking into a grin, "Michael!"

The two former Naval intelligence officers commiserated their reunion with a bear hug and loud, hearty pats on each other's backs. Kono watched all of this with avid curiosity.

"Boss… How do you know my neighbor?"

"Michael's your neighbor? That neighbor?"

"That neighbor?" The emphasis wasn't lost on Michael. He quirked an eyebrow at Kono.

Even her golden tan couldn't keep the guilty flush off her face. "I don't remember saying anything to you about my neighbor." Kono glared at her boss. It did nothing but bounce off Steve's commanding and always-in-the-know veneer.

"I heard you talking to Chin," he replied baldly, as if it had been transmitted in the clear and all he did was receive it and used it at an opportune time.

The glare wilted against such logic. Kono smiled weakly at Michael. "I've mentioned a few things that were worthy of envy."

Unfortunately, it appeared that Navy men had no propensity for subtlety in relation to the use of language. Kono's words didn't penetrate as Michael's raised eyebrow rose another notch.

Fortunately, as she wont to, Nikita came to Kono's rescue before she dug herself a deeper hole. "Kono! What happened?" Nikita came up behind Michael and stared roundly at Kono's leg cast, "Are you okay?"

"Oh my god, don't worry about it, Nikita, I'm fine! Please don't make any sudden movements," Kono pleaded frantically as Nikita tried to maneuver around both Michael and her own massively protruding belly. "I can't be responsible for delivering twins in my current state."

Michael stared. "Twins?" he murmured incredulously.

Groaning at that monumental slip of the tongue, Kono shuffled to position herself behind Steve. "I knew I shouldn't have gotten out of bed today."

Stunned, Michael whipped around to see Nikita already nimbly backpedaling. Whatever obfuscation Nikita used, obviously it came back to him now. The times Nikita insisted on having private time with the doctor, the sonogram with a malfunctioning speaker—so he couldn't hear the two heartbeats.

Michael's face twisted like he couldn't decide whether to be angry or deliriously happy. "When…when were you planning on telling me?" His growl of his voice trembled. Most likely a combination of both.

Sighing softly, Nikita came back to him. "I wanted it to be a surprise," she answered, making a face at Kono before pulling his face down to hers. Rising to her toes, she wrapped and crossed her arms around his neck, bringing him close. "A good surprise. We haven't had many of those in our lives," she whispered into the shell of his ear, ever so gently.

"Nikita, every morning I wake up with you in my arms is a surprise. It's been a long time since anything as good as you has happened in my life." Michael took Nikita's face into his hands, and gazed adoringly into her eyes, the eyes of the mother of his children, the eyes of the one he could no longer live without—and there was no doubt as to the veracity of his words.

Steve and Kono didn't know where to look.

Thankfully, Michael ruthlessly spared them both. "Steve, we'll catch up later." The door was quickly shut and all signs, including the way Michael drew Nikita into his arms for a heated kiss, pointed to it being shut for the immediate future.

"I need to get laid," Kono muttered as the pair disappeared into their apartment. She turned and met Steve's eyes with a start. "Um. Can we pretend you didn't hear that?"

Steve stared blankly at her. Kono stared back. His eyes crinkled. "Sorry Kono, did you say something?"

Kono rewarded him with a playful punch to his shoulder, a gesture to say there was hope for him after all. What happened next though, specified a limit to that hope.

A pair of costumed young women, Kono's neighbor adjacent, came down the hallway and called out cheerfully, "Hi Steve!"

These women had never met Steve McGarrett outside of a picture frame Kono kept of the 5-0 team. "Ladies," he nodded gamely at them. They smiled beautifully at him as they passed, their grass skirts swinging. Steve, being a red blooded male with no other immediate concerns or nearby criminal to catch, watched as their claim-to-fame hips sashayed down the hallway.

Kono snorted. "Aren't you lucky, usually they get to work before donning the full hula dancing apparel."

His face was one of genuine surprise.

"That's right. They're not so innocent. They even plied me with homemade muffins until I got around to asking Nikita if Michael has a brother. They've got dibs on him now," Kono sighed.

Steve frowned. That was an incongruous piece of information.

"He has a brother?"

Some Days Later:

Owen dropped his non-descript black duffle bag with a loud thud.

"Let me get this straight. You're pregnant with his children, plural. Due any day now, like today, today is considered an 'any day.' And he's out gallivanting with some Navy buddy from a hundred years ago. It's called fratricide if we're related, right?"

"Yeah, Mikey kinda dropped the ball on this one, Niki," Birkhoff piped up from under a too-large pilot's hat as he strolled in, "You want, like a new house or something? Cause I can do that. You'll be amazed what you can buy on the internet these days, I'll hook you up."

Alex skillfully circumvented the men and greeted Nikita without a word, but with a tight embrace, though mindful of said due-any-day-now babies. Nikita's grin widen with pride as she primped the soft curls of hair framing Alex's confident and happy countenance. Alex mirrored her grin, and regarded Nikita with an expression of delighted awe as she gingerly touched her swollen belly.

"Sports cars, private jets, mega yachts, tropical islands, small countries…"

"My nieces and nephews!"

Alex rolled her eyes at the men. "What can we do to help?" she asked Nikita as she pulled up a chair for the hugely pregnant woman to sit. Alex's careful gesture spoke to how big Nikita's stomach had gotten when compared to her usual small frame. The men abruptly stopped talking and followed the progress of Nikita to her seat, sighing with relief as she touched down.

"Michael's friend, Steve McGarrett, heads a local PD unit. There's been a recent rash of kidnappings, happening almost simultaneously, frying HPD's response times and resources. What's worse, they seem to know exactly when Steve's team gets too close."

"Sounds like there's a mole in the department," Alex concluded.

"So Steve recruits a nobody like Michael to flush them out," Owen snarked, though without much bite.

"Dude has no other friends to call?"

Everyone stared dubiously at Birkhoff, he of less than many friends. Birkhoff quickly amended, "I mean, hello, pregnant wife due any day now."

"Michael wouldn't go," Nikita explained on Michael's behalf.

Owen grunted his approval.

She continued, "I told him to."

That Nikita would always put the needs of others ahead of her own, it was understood. But who would fault her if she looked out for herself and her family, just this once?

"Nikita…" Alex started worriedly.

Folding her arms protectively around her abdomen, Nikita was aglow with a maternal halo. Her smile was both weathered and new, full of grace.

"I want them to be born into a better world."

All but for the rustling sway of palm trees outside the sunlit window, the room was quiet.

Finally, Owen coughed. "When you put it that way…"

"My equipment is right outside," Birkhoff grumbled, heading out that way.

Alex hugged Nikita from behind so Nikita didn't see her face, too full of emotion to bear. "You're going to make the best mom ever," she whispered hoarsely.

Nikita exhaled unsteadily. "You think so?" Holding Alex's hand in a tight grip, she felt Alex smiling into her hair.

"I know so."

The twins kicked in agreement.

Nikita closed her eyes, but there was no darkness as the warmth of the light she felt all around her flowed through her pores, past the scar tissue of old wounds, and illuminated the brimming love from her heart.

"Thank you."

End Coda Two - The End.

Author's Note: Sharp eyed folk will notice some familiar dialogue I borrowed from the show. :D If this is the first time you read this story and you read all the way here to the very end, the changes in tone might have made you seasick. No excuses from me, when the comments kept coming, I just didn't know how to stop, I kept going longer than I had planned. Don't worry, this is the end of the line, I'm ending with these two amazing women who are the true hart of da show.

And, if you read this far, this story must have provided some amusement, so leave a tip in the feedback jar, and thank TPTB for creating such an amazing show on your way out. Thank you!

Watch Nikita! Six seasons and a movie! :D