I've recently been watching some episodes from Season 3 again. One scene from Episode 18 left me wishing for more. In one particularly heartbreaking scene, Steve found out that Catherine had been hiding something from him and it had hurt him to the core. When they "made up" later, it made me wonder what would have happened if the writers/producers had extended that scene a little more. I loved how they did it: We didn't need a lot of dialogue to feel what both Steve and Catherine were feeling in that moment. BUT, if there had been more dialogue, this is how I think it may have happened.

Note: I have copied dialogue from a couple of scenes leading up to their reconcilement. With that in mind, I do not own or have any part of Hawaii Five-0. This is a work of fiction, and just a little "one shot" of how I think things may have played out.

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Funeral for Dana Miller….

"I know a lot of you knew her as Miss Moore, and I've really enjoyed hearing your stories about what a great teacher she was. But I want you to know there was a lot more to her than that. I knew her as Dicey Hot…..Star Jammer for the Diamond Dolls. She was always doing the right thing. That's just who she was. I guess that's where the "Dana" you knew and the "Dicey" I knew came together. She was a leader and a protector and she had our backs all the way to the end."

Catherine snuck a glance at Steve. Her heart had been broken…..shattered even…..when he'd asked her to leave a couple of nights ago upon hearing she knew about his mother's deception and hadn't told him about it. Catherine was between a rock and a hard place. She wanted to protect him. God knows how many times he had protected her. She was so tired of seeing him hurt by his family drama. By not telling him what was going on between Doris and Mangosta, her intentions had never been to hurt Steve. Unfortunately, that is not how Steve had interpreted her omission. Now all of her good intentions had been blown to hell because he had seen it as a betrayal.

Hearing these words at Dana Moore's funeral stirred something in Steve's heart. The same words could be said of Catherine: She was always doing the right thing. She was a protector and always had his back, no matter what. The hurt he had felt had cut him deeply, but maybe he had been too hard on her. Truth was, he missed her. They never fought. Never. Yes, they had their disagreements, but never like this. He missed her.

As the funeral ended and everyone started to leave, Steve made his way to Catherine. She looked as broken as he felt. Her brown eyes were full of pain and she looked nervous about what he was going to say. Steve offered her a weak smile as a sign of assurance. It wasn't much, but it was all he could muster at the moment.

"Catherine, listen, I need to take care of something with Doris. Can you meet me in a little while so we can talk?"

Catherine shook her head in agreement and they agreed on a place to meet before parting ways.

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Sometime later…..

As Steve drove to meet Catherine, the confrontation he'd just had with his mom was replaying on an endless loop in his head.

After he had asked her about Mangosta, his mother had said, "Catherine told you." It had confirmed….again….his worst fears. Catherine had known about Mangosta and kept it from him at his mother's request. Steve had been furious. Furious at his mom for keeping something else from him and furious that she had involved Catherine.

"Is it not enough that you can't open your mouth without lying to me? You gotta involve Catherine in it too?! Catherine and I had a good thing. And now what?!" Steve had spat.

"Steve, that girl loves you…." His mother had replied.

Steve kept replaying that part in his head. She loved him. Maybe. But why would she keep something like this from him if that were true?

Steve pulled up to where Catherine was waiting. He sat in his truck for a moment to look at her beautiful profile as she stood on the rocks by the ocean wearing the same black dress and heels she had worn to the funeral. She looked so beautiful.

Steve got out of the truck and walked towards her. She turned to look at him with the same pain he had seen in her eyes earlier. Hurt. Regret. Fear. They were all rolled up into one haunting glance that tore at his heart.

"I'm so sorry. I should have told you." Catherine whispered.

Steve's heart gripped inside his chest. He loved her…..There was no doubt about that. The look in her eyes told him that she really loved him too; Just like his mom had said. So what were they doing fighting over Doris? Seeing the pain and regret in her eyes softened him. Not trusting himself to speak at the moment, he cupped her face in his hands and leaned down to kiss her. Feeling her sweet lips on his again felt so good. After a few seconds, Steve broke the kiss and pulled her close trying to communicate to her without words that things were okay between them. Holding her again and feeling her softly cry against his chest, Steve swore to himself that he would never let anyone….not even his family…..come between them again.

Steve continued to hold her close to him. "Catherine, I'm sorry I took my anger out on you."

Catherine pushed away from his embrace so she could look him in the eyes. "No, Steve. This isn't your fault. You had every reason to be upset. I'm the one who should be apologizing. But I want you to know that I never meant to hurt you."

"I know you didn't, Cath. I know."

"No. Please, just let me explain." Catherine took a breath. "I knew that it was wrong to keep everything about Mangosta from you. I knew that. But I have seen you hurt so many times by what has happened in your family and by things Doris has done in the past. Just the fact that she showed up alive after so many years…I mean, seeing what that did to you… I felt it too. When you hurt, I hurt. " She searched his eyes for understanding. "I was only trying to protect you. Then, things got out of control and the further they went, the more guilt I felt over keeping them from you." Catherine took Steve's hands in her own and looked up into his eyes. "I will never let that happen again. I promise."

Steve looked down at her with nothing but compassion and forgiveness in his eyes. "I trust you, Catherine. You know that. I've always trusted you. But I'm not going to lie to you…Finding out that you knew about this and didn't tell me….." He stopped for a second and Catherine saw anger flash in his eyes before he continued. "I hate that Doris put you in this position."

"Don't blame your Mom. I'm the one who went along with it and kept things from you. But I did it because…" her voice trailed off.

Steve searched her eyes and saw the answer he knew was coming. "Because why?"

Catherine's eyes filled again. "Because I love you. I was only trying to protect you from getting hurt again."

"I know." Steve knew it was the truth. He would do anything to protect her as well.

"Can you forgive me?" Catherine pleaded with him for understanding.

Steve leaned down to kiss her again, "Of course I forgive you." He paused to look her in the eyes, "Because I love you too. I'm not going to lose you, Catherine. Especially not over my Mom."

After holding each other for a few minutes and reveling in the fact they were in each other's arms again, Steve said, "Are you hungry? Want to go to dinner?"

Catherine gave him a knowing smile. "Sure. Dinner sounds great." Steve saw the twinkle in her eyes and grinned back. They both knew they never actually made it to dinner.