Mr and Mrs Shaw (rewrite)

Chapter 29

Turns out that home for Hobbs meant Samoa. However, getting there, they had to contact the air marshal who gave the boys literally every single phone number, email address and social media account he had...including his mother's phone number.

And as they dealt with that on the cargo flight they'd hitched to Samoa, Katrina made a call of her own.

"Hey, it's me," she said. "I need your help. I need you to go to my apartment in Manchester, pick up my car and meet me somewhere. Oh, would you relax! I'll text you the coordinates. Yes, everyone's fine. Yes, everyone's alive. Oh, for god's sake! Get my car, get your ass on a plane and get here. Now!" She paused as something was said on the other end of the line. "Yes, I love you too. Bye."

Now, several hours later, her arse was warm as she sat on the hood of the truck that they'd driven into a remote part of the island. After her phone call, being on the plane didn't agree with her so she tried to sleep it off. Even now, she sat in the back of the car as Hobbs drove. Her head was on Hattie's lap as Deckard occupied the front seat, her head swimming with nausea.

The vehicle was stationary now as Katrina wiped the sleep from her eyes and Deckard and Hattie leaned on the bonnet as Hobbs approached the front door of the house they'd arrived at.

"Yeah, take your time. It's only my sister's life and the fate of the world we're waiting on," Deckard yelled at Hobbs. The large man was pacing back and forth along the porch as he steeled himself to knock on the door.

"Here we go," Hattie said as he stood in front of the door and raised his fist.

"Bet you a bullseye 50 quid he punches him in the face," Deckard said to his sister.

"Deal," Hattie agreed as they both crossed their arms over their chests and watched.

"You want in, baby?" Deckard asked.

She considered it for a moment. "I raise you. 100 quid for a punch in the face."

"You're on," Hattie challenged as the sisters shook on it. Deckard leaned back against her legs as Katrina rested her hands on his shoulders.

Hobbs knocked. The door slid open.

Jonah Hobbs took a minute to recognise his little brother before he said, "You know what comes next?"

"Yep," Hobbs answered.

Then he was falling down the stairs as his brother slugged him in the face.

"See? It's not just us," Deckard said as he fist-bumped his wife, who Hattie was now in debt to.

They watched and listened as the man, Jonah, yelled at Hobbs in both English and Samoan.

"Your face is all over the bloody news, boy! You're not welcome here, police. You got some cheek. Coming here after 25 years. Bringing your problems here to this house. You betrayed our family, bring shame on our house. You betrayed your own blood!"

"Jonah, I hear you, but we ain't kids anymore. You better watch how you talk to me," Hobbs warned.

"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, boy. It's the size of the fight in the dog."

"No. it's always the size of the dog."

Katrina was pressing her lips into Deckard's shoulder as she suppressed her laughs, wishing that she had some popcorn to watch the show. Especially when a slipper hit Jonah in the head.

"Hey! No fighting under this roof, huh?!" bellowed a woman's voice. Then Hobbs turned around. "Is that my Luke?" the plump woman asked, another slipper poised for attack as she leaned on a cane. "My baby is home."

"Hey, Mama," Hobbs greeted.

"Come, come!" she exclaimed. "All of you come. My son will speak to his mother inside his home. Come!" she urged as she gestured all of them inside.

Deckard lifted Katrina off the car as he set her down gently. They walked into the house, Deckard keeping the girls close as Hobbs's family gathered around the table and his mother sat down.

"Oka, I miss my baby boy," his mother said as Luke stood before her. "But look at you, all skin and bones. Come over here and eat," she offered as she gestured to the table that was covered in breakfast foods.

"No. no. no, Mama. There's no time. I'm sorry. I didn't want to bring trouble here."

"You should've stayed away," Jonah continued. "What did you bring here? What's going on?"

"I brought the truth," Hobbs insisted.

"What truth?"

"The truth is we were set up. We were framed by people who created a deadly virus!"

"Oh, come on," Jonah scoffed, rolling his eyes at the absurdity of the statement.

"I'm really glad that the worst argument we have at family gatherings is why you can't get me pregnant," Katrina whispered to her husband as she linked their arms together.

"Ok, first off, I agree. And second, it's not a matter of me not being able to get you pregnant, because that's certainly not a problem. It's when will it happen."

She shrugged as she turned to watch the Hobbs brothers argue. "If you say so."

"Oh, I do," he said as she leaned towards him and he kissed her cheek.

"It could go global if it's not stopped! We could all die. All of us. Everybody here in this fale, everybody on the island. And everybody around the world. Jonah, I need you to help fix this machine. I need you to help my friends, and I need us to build defences around here, now!"

"You think you can just come back in here and we're gonna help you after everything you did?" Jonah yelled.

"Yes!"

"Not gonna happen!"

"This is bigger than you and I!"

"I don't care!"

"We could die!"

"Good! Because I would rather die than help you, polo head!" Jonah spat. Then Deckard joined the conversation.

She couldn't quite put her finger on why, but there was something about seeing Deckard go all protective mode that made her ovaries scream and heat pool in her centre. Fuck, it was attractive to see him step up to Jonah like that.

"Listen, I know your brother's hard to be around, believe me. But I trust him. He didn't just save my life but the lives of the two people I love most in this world – my wife and my sister. And he brought us here because this place has something that nowhere else on the planet does...You."

"You don't know me, and I don't know you, ok?! Time for you all to go! Take your machine with you. Go now!" Jonah ordered.

Katrina had been hanging onto Hattie's arm as her eyes stayed glued to her husband's behind, yet when she heard that, she'd been the one who was about to yell at Jonah. Mrs Hobbs beat them to it.

She slammed her hand down on the table as she stood and yelled, "Jonah Hobbs!" She then yelled at him in Samoan before saying, "Have some respect for your uso. If he needs anything, we gonna give it to him. The food off our tables, the clothes off our backs, even the mana of the island. And you boys, all you boys, you show our guests here fa'aaloalo, or so help me God, I'm gonna take this here slipper, and I'm gonna sasa your big fat heads! You boys hear me?!"

"I'm sorry to bring this here, Mama," Hobbs apologised again.

"Luke, this is your home. We Samoans. We can handle troubles," she smiled at him and he smiled back.

And all three of the Shaw's could breathe a little easier. Their chances of staying together just got a whole lot higher.