Notes: Huge, huge thank you to Mari and Sammy for all the brainstorming and the phenomenal feedback. You are the best!
And thank you, readers and REAL McRollers, for your excitement, enthusiasm, and support!
Hope you enjoy!
Halloween Surprise (A McRoll in the REAL World Story)
After greeting an excited Cammie, Catherine said, "I'll take her out real quick," and handed Steve her badge and weapon.
"You don't have to rush, we have plenty of time," he said, shaking his head. "Mary and Joanie's flight isn't due for an hour."
She smiled and exhaled. "I know. I'm a little excited."
Grinning, he leaned over and kissed her. "You don't say," he teased.
She clucked her tongue at him. "Stop. I'm not the only one."
"Yeah," he acknowledged, then smirked. "Cammie looks pretty excited, too."
She laughed. "Steve!"
"Okay, okay, you got me," he admitted, chuckling. He kissed her again. "I'm gonna take a quick shower. I'll be out in a few."
"Okay."
Catherine headed for the back door with Cammie while Steve started up the stairs.
Ten minutes later he came back down, showered and changed. There was a knock on the door as he reached the landing.
His brow knit in confusion since they weren't expecting anyone, and he quickened his pace down the final steps to answer the door.
When he opened it, he found Mary standing in the doorway, smiling broadly with Joan in her arms and luggage at her feet.
Steve's face brightened with surprise and pleasure. "Hey!"
"Unca Teeve!" Joan cried, one hand flying in an arc through the air in her excitement.
Mary bounced the toddler against her hip. "Say trick-or-treat!"
"Twick o' tweat!"
Steve laughed. "Trick-or-treat? You're a little early for that. Actually you're just . . . a little early." He looked at Mary. "I thought your flight got in at seven."
"We thought we'd surprise you," Mary said. She set Joan down in front of her. "Now scare Uncle Steve."
Joan jumped in place, her hands up and fingers curled in an imitation of monster claws.
"Boo!" she cried with a smile stretching across her face. "Boo, Unca Teeve!" She looked up at him and nodded seriously. "I 'cary."
Steve laughed, sweeping her up into the air. "You think you're scary, huh? Is that right?" He blew a raspberry on her cheek, and she squealed with delight, kicking the air.
"Now how about a real surprise?" a familiar voice asked, and a woman stepped into view besides Mary. "Boo!"
"Aunt Deb!" Steve exclaimed.
"Ann Deb hiiide," Joan told him, pointing to the side of the doorway.
Steve blinked at his aunt. "What are you–"
"Well, you need someone to pass out candy while you're trick-or-treating, right?" Deb said with an amused smile at his expression.
Mary grinned. "Surprise!"
"Su-pwise!" Joan echoed, bouncing in Steve's arms.
"You said it, Joanie," Steve said, smiling happily. He leaned over to hug first Deb and then Mary. "A great surprise."
Joan looked around over his shoulder. "Ann Caf?"
"She's out back with Cammie," Steve said, motioning to the backyard. "Here. Let me get your bags." He started to hand her back to Mary so he could grab their luggage, but Joan squirmed to get down.
"See Ann Caf!" she demanded.
Steve set her down, and Mary and Deb stepped inside to follow Joan who headed for the back door, nearly reaching it as Catherine opened it from the other side.
Her mouth dropped open at the unexpected sight.
"Ann Caf!" Joan cried happily and lunged for her. "Boo!"
"Surprise!" Deb said, holding up both hands and shaking them with a broad smile.
Catherine swept Joan up in her arms and nuzzled her neck even as she stared at their surprise guest. "Oh my God, Deb. What are you–" She looked at Steve who was setting the two suitcases and car seat by the stairs. "Did you know about this?"
"I swear, I'm as surprised as you are," he said, smiling happily and joining them.
Catherine beamed at Deb. "This is a wonderful surprise."
"Cammiiiie!" Joan squealed, pointing at the happy dog who had followed Catherine in and was circling the new arrivals excitedly.
"Hiya, Cammie," Mary said, ruffling her fur and kissing the top of her head.
Cammie sniffed at Deb's legs and hand when she held it out. Deb laughed. "Well, nice to meet you, too, Cammie. I've heard a lot about you."
"Cammie!" Joan said again, wiggling to be let down.
Catherine set her on the floor, and Cammie immediately turned to the toddler. Joan reached out to grab her, and Mary said, "Gentle, peanut. Remember? Be nice to Cammie."
Joan put her arms around Cammie's neck, and the excited dog licked her cheek.
Joan squealed happily and looked up at the adults with a toothy smile. "Cammie lick me!"
Steve grinned. "That means she likes you, Joanie."
"That's how she kisses," Catherine told her.
"Cammie kiss me, Mama," Joan said.
"I saw," Mary said, smiling at her daughter.
Cammie sat contentedly, letting the toddler pet her repeatedly.
Joan laid her head on Cammie's neck. "Cammie niiiice," she said, snuggling against her.
The adults exchanged smiles at the scene.
As Joan murmured unintelligibly to Cammie, Catherine stepped around them to hug Mary and Deb. "This really is a wonderful surprise."
"I hope it doesn't put you out at all," Deb said.
"Are you kidding?" Steve said.
"Of course not," Catherine readily agreed with a quick glance at Steve as she moved to stand beside him. "Both guest rooms are made up. We have plenty of food for dinner tonight."
Steve nodded. "And we're off tomorrow . . ."
"So we'll have plenty of time to catch up before all the Halloween excitement," Catherine finished. She folded her arms, looking at Deb. "How are you doing?"
"I'm doing okay," Deb said honestly. "More tired than I'd like to be, but . . . okay."
" 'nack, Mama," Joan said, looking up at her mother. "Go'fish?"
"Are you hungry, peanut?" Mary asked.
Joan nodded. "I hungwy."
"Well, let's get you something to eat," Catherine said, picking her up.
"It'll be bedtime pretty soon, Joan," Mary said and ran a hand over her hair. "It's late for you."
"We've got your bed all ready," Catherine told her.
Joan turned toward Mary. "I fweep hea?"
"Yep, we're all gonna sleep here," Mary told her.
"Fweep wif Cammie?" Joan asked and looked down at the dog who woofed back.
Steve smiled. "Cammie has her own bed, remember, Joanie?"
The toddler looked at him blankly, then smiled happily as she caught sight of the ocean through the windows.
"Wadder!" she exclaimed, pointing. "Biiiig wadder." She looked around at the adults hopefully. "I fwim?"
"Not tonight, peanut," Mary said.
"We'll swim tomorrow, Joanie," Steve promised.
" 'mowwow?" Joan said, her forehead crinkling.
"Tomorrow," Mary repeated. "I know. That's a tough concept. We'll swim after you sleep. For now, let's eat a little something and get ready for bed."
"Then tomorrow we can practice being scary," Steve said with a smile.
Joan grinned and threw her hands in the air. "BOO!"
After Joan had gone down for the evening, Catherine and Mary sat in the living room talking.
"It's too bad Aaron couldn't come this trip," Catherine said.
"Yeah," Mary agreed. "He was pretty bummed to miss trick-or-treating, but this conference is a really big deal and he's been registered for months."
"You'll have to take a bunch of pictures for him."
Mary laughed. "Pictures? He made me promise to take video."
Catherine grinned. Her smile softened, and she asked, "So things are still good there?"
Mary smiled, looking down for a moment. "Yeah. Things are really good. Like . . . amazingly good." She gave a self-deprecating chuckle, plucking at the outside seam of her pants. "I keep waiting to see how I'm gonna screw this up."
Catherine sighed. "Mary . . . you can't think like that . . ."
"I know, I know," Mary said, groaning. "It's just . . . he's so great, and sometimes I think he's suddenly gonna wonder what he even sees in me, you know?"
"He sees you," Catherine said seriously. "A strong woman with a huge heart, an amazing mother, and someone he has a lot in common with."
Mary paused, looking at her.
Exhaling slowly, she shook her head. "How do you do that?"
"What?" Catherine asked.
"Say the exact right thing at the exact right moment." She huffed a laugh. "I've never been able to do that. In fact, I'm pretty freaking good at the opposite."
Catherine gave her a soft smile and a small shrug. "Easy when it's the truth."
Mary returned her smile, blinking back a tear.
The sounds of feet on the stairs interrupted them, and they heard Steve say, "You should see this. Cammie's lying right in front of the door where Joanie's sleeping . . ." His voice faded as he reached the bottom and took in their expressions. "Everything okay?" he asked in concern, looking between the two.
Mary smiled again at Catherine and stood. "Everything is great." She took a few steps toward the kitchen, but paused next to Steve. "Dad and I were right," she said quietly and glanced back at Catherine. " 'Something special.' "
Steve's eyes found Catherine's, his expression softening immediately, and though he didn't know the content of their conversation, he smiled gratefully.
He responded to his sister, though his eyes stayed on Catherine.
"No argument here."
Steve had joined Catherine on the sofa when Deb descended the stairs a few minutes later.
"Are you all down here?" she asked. "I brought a little something . . ."
"Another surprise?" Steve asked, looking over at Mary as she came out of the kitchen with a glass of water.
"This one I didn't even tell Mary about," Deb said, reaching the bottom of the stairs and walking over to the armchair next to the sofa. She took a seat and held up an old envelope. "I dug through some boxes and found these photos your dad used to send me when you were little." She pulled out a small stack of glossy 4x6s. "I never got the hang of the whole . . . scrapbooking thing. But these should all be Halloween pictures."
"Oh, wow," Mary said, kneeling between the chair and the sofa.
"Here, Mary," Catherine said, nudging Steve to shift down. "Have a seat. You don't have to sit on the floor."
Mary laughed. "Are you kidding? I have a two-year-old. I spend half my time on the floor playing with her." She waved off their concern. "I'm fine. We can all see better this way."
Catherine paused a moment longer, but finally moved back to the edge of the sofa. Steve slid closer, leaning over to look as Deb chuckled at the first picture.
"There's little Stevie . . ." she said. "Seven months old . . . his first Halloween in his little sailor outfit."
"Ohhh," Catherine said, smiling at him.
He sighed and scratched his forehead with a resigned smile. "Please tell me I'm wearing pants in all these pictures."
Catherine chuckled, wrapping her hands around his bicep as he propped his elbow on her thigh and leaned his chin on his hand.
"Hey, look at that," she said with a bright smile when Deb flipped to the next photo. "You were a bone guy."
He laughed. "I guess I was."
" 'A bone guy'?" Mary asked.
"That's what Jacob calls skeletons," Catherine told her.
Mary grinned. "I seriously can't wait to meet this kid."
Deb flipped to the next photo and smiled. "And the first time you picked out your own costume . . ."
Mary laughed at the picture of a toddler in a jersey holding a plush football out toward the camera.
Catherine rolled her eyes with a smile. "Of course."
Steve shrugged, unconcerned at their teasing.
"Oh, looks like they're a little out of order," Deb said. "Here's Mary at about three."
"What a cute little pumpkin," Catherine said, smiling at her.
"And now thirty years later, we'll have another little McGarrett pumpkin," Deb said.
"Oh, is that what Joan finally picked?" Catherine asked.
"Yep," Mary said. The corner of her mouth rose in a little smile. "Aaron's convinced it's because that's what he calls her."
"He's probably right," Deb said. "She adores him."
Steve observed his sister's pleased expression silently, and a small smile appeared on his own face.
"Did you guys go trick-or-treating around here?" Catherine asked.
Steve's smile faded and his gaze dropped down. "Dad had to work a lot of Halloweens."
Mary chewed her lip. "Yeah, so Mom took us."
"Yeah," Steve said quietly, a shadow flashing across his eyes. "Till I was old enough to take us around with some other kids from the neighborhood."
Catherine looked between them, squeezing Steve's arm gently. He put his hand on hers and flashed her a small, grateful smile.
Mary looked at him. "Hey, remember that guy down the street? He'd dress up in a gorilla costume and hide in the bushes so he could jump out and scare kids when they came toward his house."
Steve chuckled, his expression lighter. "Yeah." He nodded at her. "Scared you. Every year. You'd scream and carry on."
She straightened. "But I always went back for candy."
"You did," he acknowledged.
She gave him a small smile. "Because I had my big brother with me."
He smiled back softly.
Deb's expression was bittersweet as she looked at the siblings, and she flipped to the next picture.
"Oh, do you remember this costume, Mary?" she asked. "I sent it to you when you were about six."
"I do!" Mary said, her smile brightening. "My cowgirl costume. I loved that thing."
Catherine grinned. "Look at those little boots and fake spurs!"
"I remember you getting tired trick-or-treating that year," Steve said, looking at his sister.
Mary's eyes softened at the memory. "I begged you to carry me home, and you gave me a piggyback ride."
Steve looked down, a small smile on his face, and Catherine leaned her head against his shoulder for a moment. He let his forearm drop to wrap a hand around her knee and smiled at her, then back at Mary as Deb looked on, quietly pleased at the memories that were surfacing.
"And here's little Mary as a Care Bear," she said, showing them the next picture.
Mary chuckled. "And Steve in his old standby."
Catherine smiled teasingly at Steve. "Just how many times were you a football player?"
"Every year that he wasn't G.I. Joe," Deb said.
"Nothing wrong with consistency," Steve argued, his lip twitching in a smile.
"When I was eight, I was gonna be Lucy from the Peanuts cartoon," Mary said. She grinned at him. "I wanted you to be Charlie Brown but you wouldn't do it."
"You wanted to play the football trick on me, is what you wanted," he protested.
"I plead the Fifth," Mary said, and they all laughed. "Then I tried a different tactic and said I'd be a cheerleader since you were gonna be a football player again. But you said no matching costumes." She looked at the two on the sofa with a knowing smirk. "Guess that's all changed now."
Steve and Catherine exchanged a smile.
"And how are you gonna top the Get Smart costumes from last year?" Deb asked.
"It's a surprise," Steve said, brushing a finger under his nose before replacing his hand on Catherine's and intertwining their fingers on his arm.
Catherine looked closer at the photo Deb was holding. "Hey, is that you and–"
"Michael, yeah," Steve said, nodding.
Mary chuckled. "Who was no help getting Steve to change his costume 'cause he was happy to go as a football player, too."
"You should scan it," Catherine said, looking at him. "Send it to him."
"Yeah," he said quietly with a small smile. "Maybe I will."
Mary looked at the next picture, and her smile sobered. She looked at Deb. "That was from the first year I came to live with you."
"You said you didn't want to go trick-or-treating," Deb began.
Mary nodded. "But you said you hadn't gone in so many years and convinced me to go." She smiled softly. "We both dressed up as witches."
Deb patted Mary's hand that was resting on the arm of her chair, and Mary laid her head against their hands.
"Thanks for bringing these pictures, Aunt Deb," she said quietly.
"The past is what it is," Deb said, her voice soft but firm. "Good and . . . not so good. It's important to remember, so long as you don't get stuck in the memories."
Raising her head, Mary gave her a small smile.
Steve swallowed as he watched the exchange, and Catherine tightened her fingers around his supportively.
Deb looked over at them. "I haven't seen the house decorated since . . . well, in a long time." She kept a hand on Mary's and reached out to to touch Steve's hand on Catherine's knee. "It makes me so happy to see it like this again." She smiled at them all. "A home."
Mary nodded her agreement, traces of tears in her eyes.
Steve cleared his throat, blinking at the faint moisture in his own eyes. "A home where you're both always welcome," he said.
Catherine nodded, moving to touch Deb's hand and then to squeeze Mary's arm. "Always."
Later that night, Catherine came out of the bathroom, flipping off the light as she did.
Steve was already stretched out in bed, his gaze focused on the ceiling.
"Boo," she said to draw his attention.
His eyebrows quirked, and he gave her a small smile before raising the covers so she could crawl in beside him.
"We're gonna need a pretty big trip to the grocery store tomorrow to get everything for Saturday," she said, settling at his side.
"Yeah," he said, his voice quiet.
She paused, looking at his profile as he had returned to staring at the ceiling. She ran her fingers across his chest slowly, making soothing patterns on his skin.
"I'm glad Deb brought those pictures," she said.
He didn't answer right away, instead bringing his hand up to hold hers, rubbing his thumb over her palm in slow circles.
"Brought back a lot of memories," he said finally.
"Yeah," she said quietly.
Exhaling slowly, he turned his head to look at her. "Thanks, Cath."
She stayed quiet, her eyes on him.
"If you weren't there, I . . ." He sighed and shifted their hands to weave their fingers together. "Thanks for being there. For Mary, too."
She smiled, releasing his hand to reach up and touch his face. He closed his eyes as she pressed a soft kiss to his cheek, and he curled his hand around the soft skin of her forearm.
"No place I'd rather be," she said quietly, stroking his cheek and jaw slowly.
He exhaled again, his fingers tightening around her arm gratefully.
After a moment, he opened his eyes and looked at her. "You know what else?"
"What?"
"I'm looking forward to making some new memories this Halloween."
"Yeah?" she asked, smiling at him.
"With you," he said, returning her smile. "Always with you."
Hope you enjoyed!
Stay tuned for the Halloween festivities in Mari's story Caramel Kisses on Friday and continuing with a bonus story on Saturday!
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