H50 – music & bookstore AU, 3/?deepbluemermaidOctober 27 2011, 21:58:16 UTC
The painkillers have kicked in, now, so standing up is bad but not agonizing. Steve grabs the cane propped against the desk and walks around the main floor for a while. Chin watches him go, lips pursed in sympathy, then calls for Kono to come downstairs and mind Steve’s desk.
Steve limps in a familiar circuit, tidying shelves, putting new or eye-catching books face-out, and re-arranging table displays. As usual, he saves his favorite corner of the store for last: children’s literature.
The picture books are in a mess, so Steve sits on the carpet with his right leg stretched out and starts imposing alphabetical order again. As his hands follow the simple routine, his mind is free to wander.
It really is strange how his life has come full circle. Mom instilled a love of reading in Steve from an early age, and he’d grown up listening to her classical records. She’d often brought him to Mamo’s, leaving him in the children’s section and then buying him a book to reward his patience. Steve has such clear memories of sitting in this exact same spot, overwhelmed by choice, while Mamo showed his mother some new paperback or album she might enjoy. Just like at home, books and beautiful music were intertwined here.
Steve liked the way Mamo treated him - always listening seriously, like he had valid opinions despite being so young. It was more attention than he got from his father, at the time, and he’d soaked it up. Mom introduced Steve to great literature, but Mamo encouraged him to read about science and history and Hawaiian culture. He even gave Steve his first job, sweeping the floors and tidying the stockroom on Saturday afternoons.
Mom was effectively a single parent for much of Steve’s childhood, with Dad at sea for months on end. But he took a base job at Pearl when Steve was 15, and tried to make up for lost time. Steve had increasingly striven to please his father, playing football and joining the Sea Cadets. Eventually, he’d followed Dad into the service.
In 2002, Steve had come back to Hawaii with a permanently busted leg, a shrapnel-scarred chest, a head full of fucked-up memories, and no clue what to do next. Dad had died the year before, in a car accident, so at least he never saw what a mess his beloved Navy had made of his only son.
While Steve was recovering from his last surgery, Mamo visited him at Tripler. A full-time position had just become available in the book department, and Mamo asked him to take it. Working in retail had never been an ambition of Steve’s, but the chance to return to that familiar, comforting environment was too tempting to pass up.
The pay wasn’t great, but combined with his disability benefit it was enough to get by. Anyway, Mom suggested Steve live with her, for both their sakes: she was lonely after Dad’s death, and he still needed some assistance. Once the renovations were done, creating a bedroom and modified bathroom downstairs, Steve left hospital and moved in.
Nine years later, he’s still there. He and his mother talk frankly every few months about whether the set-up’s working for them both. So far, remarkably, it is.
Steve has dated on and off, sometimes women but mostly men (he’d come out to Mom when he was 14, but never told Dad). He brings home the best ones to meet her, but never has sex under her roof; Steve can’t say he’s ever truly fallen for any of them, anyway.
As for Mom’s love life, well, she says nobody can replace Dad in her heart. Steve, her friends, and her students are enough to keep her happy. Hawaii being Hawaii, the several thousand kids she’s taught form a giant 'ohana. Mom can’t walk down the street without someone calling out, “Hi, Mrs. McGarrett!” There have even been baby girls named Cynthia in her honor.
So, yeah. After traveling the world, killing people, and nearly dying himself, Steve has come home to live with his mom and work at a bookstore. It’s a weird situation, but he’s not discontented. It just feels like he’s waiting for something.
Re: H50 – music & bookstore AU, 3/?jen4850October 27 2011, 23:32:08 UTC
If I couldn't work there I woudl want to shop there. I'm a lbirarian who loves reading shelves so It'd be tempted to push steve aside and alphbetize the books myself but I really would not do that.
Re: H50 – music & bookstore AU, 3/?deepbluemermaidOctober 27 2011, 23:48:04 UTC
Hee, a kindred spirit! I'm a librarian too, or used to be, and I often fix displays in bookstores and libraries. But yeah, God help you if you interfere with Steve's domain :)
Part 4 is imminent, and Danny is waiting in the wings...
Re: H50 – music & bookstore AU, 3/?deepbluemermaidOctober 28 2011, 00:38:07 UTC
Yeah, I kinda feel that way about her myself :) We know practically nothing about Steve's mother in canon, so once I realised she should still be alive - because if Jack never left the Navy, there would be no carbomb - it was fun trying to figure her out. She's based on my mother and on all the great female teachers in my family.
Steve limps in a familiar circuit, tidying shelves, putting new or eye-catching books face-out, and re-arranging table displays. As usual, he saves his favorite corner of the store for last: children’s literature.
The picture books are in a mess, so Steve sits on the carpet with his right leg stretched out and starts imposing alphabetical order again. As his hands follow the simple routine, his mind is free to wander.
It really is strange how his life has come full circle. Mom instilled a love of reading in Steve from an early age, and he’d grown up listening to her classical records. She’d often brought him to Mamo’s, leaving him in the children’s section and then buying him a book to reward his patience. Steve has such clear memories of sitting in this exact same spot, overwhelmed by choice, while Mamo showed his mother some new paperback or album she might enjoy. Just like at home, books and beautiful music were intertwined here.
Steve liked the way Mamo treated him - always listening seriously, like he had valid opinions despite being so young. It was more attention than he got from his father, at the time, and he’d soaked it up. Mom introduced Steve to great literature, but Mamo encouraged him to read about science and history and Hawaiian culture. He even gave Steve his first job, sweeping the floors and tidying the stockroom on Saturday afternoons.
Mom was effectively a single parent for much of Steve’s childhood, with Dad at sea for months on end. But he took a base job at Pearl when Steve was 15, and tried to make up for lost time. Steve had increasingly striven to please his father, playing football and joining the Sea Cadets. Eventually, he’d followed Dad into the service.
In 2002, Steve had come back to Hawaii with a permanently busted leg, a shrapnel-scarred chest, a head full of fucked-up memories, and no clue what to do next. Dad had died the year before, in a car accident, so at least he never saw what a mess his beloved Navy had made of his only son.
While Steve was recovering from his last surgery, Mamo visited him at Tripler. A full-time position had just become available in the book department, and Mamo asked him to take it. Working in retail had never been an ambition of Steve’s, but the chance to return to that familiar, comforting environment was too tempting to pass up.
The pay wasn’t great, but combined with his disability benefit it was enough to get by. Anyway, Mom suggested Steve live with her, for both their sakes: she was lonely after Dad’s death, and he still needed some assistance. Once the renovations were done, creating a bedroom and modified bathroom downstairs, Steve left hospital and moved in.
Nine years later, he’s still there. He and his mother talk frankly every few months about whether the set-up’s working for them both. So far, remarkably, it is.
Steve has dated on and off, sometimes women but mostly men (he’d come out to Mom when he was 14, but never told Dad). He brings home the best ones to meet her, but never has sex under her roof; Steve can’t say he’s ever truly fallen for any of them, anyway.
As for Mom’s love life, well, she says nobody can replace Dad in her heart. Steve, her friends, and her students are enough to keep her happy. Hawaii being Hawaii, the several thousand kids she’s taught form a giant 'ohana. Mom can’t walk down the street without someone calling out, “Hi, Mrs. McGarrett!” There have even been baby girls named Cynthia in her honor.
So, yeah. After traveling the world, killing people, and nearly dying himself, Steve has come home to live with his mom and work at a bookstore. It’s a weird situation, but he’s not discontented. It just feels like he’s waiting for something.
***
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
I'm a lbirarian who loves reading shelves so It'd be tempted to push steve aside and alphbetize the books myself but I really would not do that.
Reply
Part 4 is imminent, and Danny is waiting in the wings...
Reply
Reply
*HEARTS*
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment