A/N: Hey again! So this is my new fic, and it's going to be my first multi-chaptered fic. I'm planning 10 chapters. I've been working on it for months, like since before Xmas, and had hoped to have written it all before posting it but RL got in the way, then writer's block struck and so on, so I haven't even written half of it yet. But I am hoping that you will all enjoy it and motivate me to write more quickly so I can update quickly too. So please do let me know what you think. Thank you as always for all the reviews, adds and alerts for my other fics =)

This is dedicated to cm757, for beta'ing and pushing me to write. Doubt I would have even started this fic if it wasn't for her. And Sidalee for also beta'ing, motivating me to write and being my sounding board when I threw out some crazy ideas, took them back, couldn't decide on this or that, and everything in between! I wouldn't be posting this right now if it wasn't for her =D So thank you guys.

Prologue

Kono could always tell when he was nearby. It had more to do with the way his eyes usually always found her when he stepped into the same area where she was than the fact that currently, they were the only two people in the house. Though the sound of footsteps coming down the hallway could only have been his.

In her rush, she had failed to shut the door behind her in her short journey from the bedroom to the bathroom. The nauseous feeling had came over her so suddenly whilst changing after her shower that she had only just managed to pull on her top and shorts before hurrying to the bathroom.

His eyes burned into the side of her neck as she stood in front of the sink, brushing her teeth. She didn't have to look over at him to know that he was leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed over his sweaty wifebeater after his morning run, with worry etched into his otherwise perfect features. Kono kept quiet as she ran the water, waiting for him to speak first.

"You've thrown up 3 times in the last week," Steve stated, not that she had forgotten. Concern lined his words as he carried on. "Are you sure you're ok?"

Patting her face dry from where she had splashed it with water after rinsing out her mouth, she kept her eyes on herself via the mirror whilst speaking. "I'm fine," she told him, just as she had done the other two times.

He sighed, probably at her repetitive answer. "Kono," he began in that voice of his that told her that he was about to say something serious. "You thought about the fact that, maybe, you're pregnant?"

"Throwing up 3 times doesn't make you pregnant," Kono felt the need to inform him because, bless him, he was just a guy and she assumed that they jumped to the pregnancy conclusion anytime a woman was sick on multiple occasions. She, however, refused to think about it until there was more conclusive evidence.

"No, but it is a sign," Steve countered, shifting on his feet to push himself off the doorjamb and she finally turned to look at him, happy at her reflection.

"Well, unless we get more signs, I think I'll be ok," she said calmly, gradually lowering her voice with the last 5 words with a smile.

He seemed to contemplate her words before nodding once. "Alright," he finally accepted. "You wanna take the day off and rest or-?"

Kono cut him off with a hand, blinking at him incredulously. "Really, Steve?" She was happy to see that he had the graciousness to look sheepish at his own suggestion. Rolling her eyes, she passed him to walk out of the bathroom, careful not to touch him. "I'm going to go have some breakfast. You take a shower 'cause you stink."

The sound of dry laughter followed her. "Thanks, sweetheart."

...

Work had been boring that day so far. Although she would never wish for a case, for that would mean someone losing a life or being in danger, Kono still hoped that there was something else to do in their downtime other than paperwork. Unfortunately, she had learnt the hard way that even if she did find something else to do, such as coercing the others into watching something in the break room or go chat and/or bother one of the other 3 men, her paperwork would still remain there at the end of the day. Which only meant that the next day would be twice as trying.

So, after taking a quick glance around into the other offices to see all of her teammates focused on doing something either on their laptops or writing something on their desks, she went back to work. Their past week hadn't been too busy; just one case which had lasted 4 days, meaning that it took a while for her to recall exactly what had happened and in which order. Also, which parts needed to be left out of the official records because they weren't exactly authorized.

At about 1pm, Kono got the break that she had been asking for when Danny and Steve arrived back at HQ after a lunch run. Although she had only had breakfast and an apple whilst downing a whole bottle of water so far, the normally tantalising scent of Thai food from one of their favourite places didn't elicit the normal hunger pangs. Instead, the now-familiar turning of her stomach feeling from that morning returned.

She tried to push it down, steadying her breathing as she left her office to head towards the kitchen area. Luckily for her, it was on the way to where the locker rooms and bathrooms were located, meaning that she didn't have to rush and draw attention to herself when she took a diversion and headed to the woman's bathroom instead.

Being the only female on the team had its perks. Such as having the bathroom to herself so no-one would embarrassingly overhear her being sick.

It hadn't occurred to her that she might have been pregnant before Steve had mentioned it. Sure, the throwing up was unusual, but it could have been put down to a stomach bug or something. It's not like she hadn't been sick before. She was fine otherwise. Maybe a bit tired, but that was common when you worked for the Governor's Special Task Force which was incidentally run by your husband. Said husband had other ways to tire her out as well. If she had missed her period, then she would have suspected something. But she vividly remembered the cramps that she had suffered not 2 weeks earlier and-

Actually, now that she thought about it, those cramps had been slightly more on the painful side than normal. And more than that, her period had only lasted a couple of days. Individually; not too much to worry about. Altogether; oh, crap.

Pushing open the door of the stall that she was in, Kono paused when she caught sight of Steve waiting for her by the sink counter. Being the only female on the team also had its downsides. Such as others walking in because they knew she would have the place to herself.

He handed her a bottle of water, thoughtfully uncapped, when she reached him. "You ok?" he asked her softly after she was done getting rid of the acrid taste in her mouth, running a hand through her hair before tucking it behind her ear.

Kono nodded, handing back the half-empty bottle. "Uh huh," she muttered, turning away to dampen a paper towel before dabbing it to her neck and face to help cool her down. "So listen; I think I might be pregnant after all."

Steve smirked at her nonchalant statement, shaking his head in clear amusement at the ground as he did so and she was prepared for him to tell her 'I told you so'. To his credit, he didn't.

...

The click of the bathroom door unlocking was his sign to enter. At least, that's what he took it for as he turned the doorknob and opened the door. He didn't bother shutting it behind him when he entered and took a seat next to Kono on the tiled floor, leaning back against the bathtub.

After her announcement in the Five-0 HQ bathroom, Steve didn't even have to try to get her to take the rest of the day off. It had been Kono herself who had said that they should make the pitstop at the local pharmacy near their house so that they could get their answer without any delay. Neither one of them had the patience or the will to leave it for longer than necessary.

Kono let out a sigh as he pulled up his right leg to get as comfortable as he could on the cold floor. "3 minutes," she told him, leaning her head back against the edge of the tub. Steve spotted the white stick in her right hand as she tapped it against her left palm anxiously.

He slid his left hand down her thigh to rest on her crooked knee. "Gonna be a long 3 minutes," he replied and she smirked up at him before dropping the pregnancy test upside down onto the floor in front of her.

Her right hand covered his and she snaked her fingers underneath to clasp at it. Steve kept his eyes on her though she watched their joined hands, paying particular attention to where she caressed her thumb repeatedly over the smooth platinum metal of his wedding ring.

Silence spread between them and he could see Kono's lips twitch as she began to say something, before stopping herself. It took a couple more tries before she worded her thoughts. "Should we talk about this?" she asked him quietly, glancing up at him out of the corner of her eyes.

Steve shrugged noncommittally. "What's there to talk about? Let's just see what happens," he told her, offering her a small smile when she turned her head to look at him.

"We said we'd talk before we decided to have kids," she reminded him. It had been a small, fleeting conversation a while ago, just after they had gotten married. They had agreed that children would be great, just not so soon. Ideally, they wanted to enjoy a few years of married life, to learn how to balance it with work, and Kono wanted to make detective before they began a family.

Now that he thought about it, the timing itself wasn't too bad. Their second wedding anniversary was soon approaching and the once Five-0 rookie had become a fully fledged detective not 7 months earlier.

"And we agreed that if it were to happen before that, we'd just go along with it," Steve added finally, to which he was glad to see her nod even as her hand tightened around his.

"Yeah, I- Yeah," Kono faltered, resting her head back against the bathtub once again and letting her eyes slide shut.

Bringing his other hand over, he rubbed her leg in what he hoped was a soothing way. "What's wrong?" he asked, because if there was one thing that he had learnt after being with the woman next to him for over 4 years, it was that faltering meant that she had a lot of things running through her mind at that moment. It might not have been hard to guess what it would be right then, but he still asked.

"This is scary," she admitted with a dry laugh, because Kono Kalakaua didn't admit nor give in to fear easily. "I was not prepared for this when I woke up. It's only been an hour since I actually thought I might be pregnant. I need time to digest this."

Steve repressed the urge to smirk, not at her, but in understanding. It was true that they hadn't been expecting any of this that day, but spontaneity was usually a welcomed part of their lives. Out of the four on the team, he and Kono were always the first to jump into action. Sometimes without a carefully thought out plan at all. And yes, regardless of the fact that it was reckless and she could get injured or even killed, it was usually a massive turn on.

"How about we see what the test says first, ok? Then you can digest it, or freak out, or whatever," he told her, amusement that he couldn't hide lining his words.

Kono sat up straight and let out a scoff before he even finished his sentence. "I'm not freaking out," she countered abruptly, eyeing him as he raised an eyebrow at her to challenge her statement. There was a pause before she tugged her hand out of his and ran both of them over her face and through her hair, turning to look straight ahead at the counter once again. "Ok, maybe I'm freaking out a little bit, but I think I'm allowed to be, right?"

Chuckling lightly, Steve reached out and placed a hand on her back, rubbing it gently before tugging her far shoulder to pull her back towards him. "Would it help if I told you that I'm slightly freaking out too?" he asked her once she settled next to him, his arm still around her shoulders as he allowed his fingers to idly skim over the bare skin of her arm.

"It actually would, thank you," she replied sincerely, though he could hear the humor behind it. Tightening his hold on her, he pressed his lips to the top of her head when she dropped her head to rest on his shoulder. "I'm so glad you're here." The words were whispered into his neck as she shifted to stretch out her legs so he wasn't sure whether he had heard her correctly or not.

"Where else would I be?" he questioned her nonetheless with the first thing that had come to his mind.

"No, I mean-" Kono broke off with a sigh as she settled against him, threading an arm through his and grasping at his hand once again. He looked down at her when she failed to carry on immediately, only to see her watching their hands like before. "When you were away, I was so stressed out for the first few weeks that I missed my period and I thought I was pregnant. That did not help my stress levels," she added sarcastically and Steve could hear the smirk in her voice but he was more focused on what she had told him.

In their time together, he had only been called upon by the Navy twice. Once had been within a few months of when they had first started their relationship, and luckily for them both it had only been for a fortnight, stationed in Coronado. They had also been able to keep in contact almost daily one way or another.

The second time he was called for active duty however, it had been for a top priority and classified mission in the Middle East. It had lasted for over a month, but he had been away from home for more than 8 weeks after including training and debriefing. Communication this time had been to the utmost minimum, and when out of the country, they had spoken once. Via email, encrypted to the highest degree to keep his location a secret. He had returned 4 months ago.

"You never told me that," Steve murmured, pursing his lips as he pushed back the guilt and worry that seemed to arise despite the time that had passed. Life carried on whilst he was away, he knew that, but nothing had seemed to have changed when he came back so he had never questioned it. Now he realised just how naive he had been to simply assume as much.

He felt her shrug against him, literally waving off his concern with her free hand. "It was nothing. It wasn't even a scare; it was just stress. After the case that we had been working on was over, I came home and-" Kono broke off to shrug again and let out a deep breath. "I dunno, my body seemed to decide it had had enough fun with messing with me. Didn't even have to take a test."

"I'm sorry," he apologized after a pause where he wasn't really sure what to say. Those two simple words seemed like the best way for him to portray how bad he felt for having put her through it all.

Lifting her head up off his shoulder, he felt her lips brush against his jaw softly. "It's not your fault, babe," she muttered and pulled away from him, crossing her legs to look at the pregnancy test that still laid on the floor. "Has it been 3 minutes yet?"

Steve nodded, a feeling oddly like nerves rushing through him as he did so. "More than."

"Plus mean pregnant, and minus means not," Kono informed him as she reached out to pick up the stick. Without any preamble, she turned it around to look at the results. "Plus," she stated, holding it out towards him to see with his own eyes.

"Pregnant." Steve took the test out of her hand, staring at it momentarily until it sunk in. "Um, ok. So I guess we're going to have a baby." The nonchalance was a surprise even to him.

Kono dropped her face into her hands. "Uh-huh," she muttered before turning to look over at him, resting her head upon a fisted hand. "Wow, a baby." For some reason, hearing the words from someone else made it all that much more real. "We can do this, right?"

Smiling softly, he leant his head back against the side of the bathtub "Yeah, of course we can," he assured her with confidence that he wasn't too sure he felt himself. Finding out he was going to be a father in less than 9 months? Not something that the Navy prepared him for. "I mean, we apprehend criminals, resolve hostage situations and solve crimes on a daily basis. What's a baby compared to that?" he joked to lighten the mood, and to his relief, it worked.

"True," Kono remarked with a smirk before raising an eyebrow in his direction. "At least I won't have to have that awkward conversation with my boss explaining my new situation and how to accommodate it."

Steve scoffed at her faux cringe and turned serious. Well, as serious as he could be in such a situation. "We're still gonna have to talk about that, Kono. But it can wait for now," he told her whilst getting to his feet. Placing the pregnancy test that he had still been holding onto the bathroom counter, he stood in front of his wife and held out his hands. "At least until we get you off these cold tiles. No place for a woman in your condition. C'mon."

She groaned at his words, glaring at him in a way that he was sure wasn't as playful as it normally was when he teased her, but took his hands nonetheless to allow him to pull her up. Steve smiled innocently, bringing her closer to him by dropping his hands to her waist and urging her forward.

"We're gonna have to have a talk about what you can and cannot do and say as well, before I end up throwing you out for the next 9 months," Kono told him threateningly in reply to his words, shaking her head lightly when he rolled his eyes.

"Out of my own house? You wouldn't." She smiled in reply to his mocking, but it wasn't as clear or heartfelt as he normally expected it to be. He knew that the majority of her thoughts were still caught up in their recent discovery, not that he could blame her. He already had a feeling that he wouldn't be getting any sleep that night; the perfect time for when his mind would usually decide to go into overdrive and think everything through. Until then, however, he was able to compartmentalise into what took priority over what, and right then, like most times, looking after the woman in his arms came first.

Kono argued before he could comment on his thoughts. "Ours, and I really would." The teasing lilt made him smile, pressing his lips to hers for a chaste kiss. Her hands gripped securely at his sides when he reached one up to her neck, brushing his thumb over her jaw. She broke away before they got the chance to get carried away, and the glassy look in her eyes as she dropped them to his chest, hiding the normal twinkling and what was no doubt happiness, betrayed the tiny upward tugs at the corner of her lips.

Letting out a sigh, Steve brushed back her hair behind her ear and tilted her head up to look at him. "Hey, I love you. We'll figure this out as we go, ok?" he whispered, ghosting his lips against hers just the once before backing away to put the tiniest of spaces between them.

Nodding, she took a step back and retracted her hands from him, making him do the same. "Ok. Ok, yeah. We'll figure this out. It'll be fine," Kono repeated, and he could see her taking steadying breaths as she ran her hands through her hair once again.

He kept quiet, watching her eyes close for a moment and covering her face with her hands, before dropping them to her sides. When her eyes opened, he saw them seek his own and then behind him, most probably to the mirror before finally focusing on the stick that he had placed on the counter.

"We're having a baby." The sentence was quiet and spoken almost to herself, and Steve had the feeling that she had only just fully realized what the plus sign had actually meant. Her eyes snapped to him, looking for a confirmation that he wasn't too sure how to give. Somehow, though, he did because the next thing he knew, she's nodding and smiling, genuinely albeit hesitant, even as she spoke. "I think I need to lie down."

A/N: Hope you enjoyed the prologue. The next chapter will be up soon =)