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The Way We Were (1/1)

McGarrett/Rollins Home

Friday 9:30 P.M.

Catherine was sprawled comfortably on the couch in the living room, feet tucked under her, small cardboard box at her side, smiling softly at a piece of paper in her hand when Steve came through the front door and tossed his keys on the table.

Cammie greeted him, tail wagging, then retreated back to her napping spot in the middle of the room and curled up once again.

"Hey, how was your boys night out with Chin and Danny?" she asked.

He lifted the box and placed it on the coffee table then plopped down next to her and planted a kiss on her lips. He dipped in for a second, then a third, before answering her question.

"Fun. We grabbed a quick dinner at Sidestreet then went to the batting cages."

Catherine smirked. "Who won?"

"No one 'wins' at batting cages," he shrugged. "We just go to keep our skills sharp."

She tilted her head skeptically and remained silent.

"But I hit the most over the fence," he grinned.

"That's my man."

"What have you been doing with your evening?" Steve looked at the letter in her hand then picked up the small cardboard box and peered inside where he saw a stack of letters and some other assorted trinkets.

"Carrie dropped this off. Her folks are moving into a their new condo in a few weeks so they shipped her a bunch of things from their attic they thought she might want."

"And she gave them to you?"

Catherine nudged his shoulder playfully. "No. These are the letters I wrote to her folks while we were at Annapolis. Can you believe they kept them? Isn't that amazing?"

"It's amazing," Steve agreed. "Not only that they kept them but that we actually used to write letters." He picked up the envelope playfully. "And there was no at symbol in the address."

Catherine laughed. "This is the one I wrote the first week." She held it out for him to see. "Official Naval Academy letterhead. I felt so honored to use it."

Steve dropped his arm across her shoulders and kissed her temple then read over her shoulder.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Stagler,

I very much enjoyed meeting you both this past weekend. I hope you had a good drive back to Milwaukee.

Carrie and I are getting along great. I was very lucky to get her as a roommate.

There's so much to keep straight here but we're helping each other out and I'm sure we'll be in the swing of things in no time. Classes are hard and the physical training is tough but I expected that and I'm finding I actually enjoy the challenge.

I just know Carrie and I are both gonna love it here! I look forward to seeing you again soon.

Midshipman Catherine Rollins

"I was so excited," she smiled sheepishly. "I think I put Midshipman before my name on everything for at least a month."

"I think it's cute," he grinned. He leaned over and removed a stack of letters held together with a rubber band from the box on the table. "You were quite the correspondent."

"It was what we did to communicate back in the stone age if you recall, Commander."

"I have a vague memory of it, Lieutenant," he smiled but Catherine could see a hint of sadness cross his face. The simple fact is he hadn't had anyone to write to back in their academy days. Things were still incredibly strained with his father and he rarely communicated with Mary and Aunt Deb outside of an occasional Christmas card.

"I'm sorry." She kissed him softly and he squeezed her thigh.

He knew Catherine understood the thin veil of melancholy that sometimes came when he thought about those days and his lack of family support. Meeting her, and having good friends like Freddie and John and Carrie had helped tremendously, still there was part of him that occasionally got caught off-guard by a memory.

"It's ok," he assured her and she could see in his eyes he was telling the truth. The feeling had been fleeting and he was eager to keep going. "Can we read some more letters?"

"Gladly." Catherine took off the rubber band, laid it on the coffee table and began flipping through the letters taking note of the postmarks. "This was right after Christmas first year."

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Stagler,

I hope you had a nice holiday. Was Santa Claus good to you? Are you buried under snow? How cold is it there?

Thanks so much for the Christmas cookies. They were absolutely delicious. I especially liked the sugar cookies with the Navy logo on them. I'd love to have the recipe if possible.

I shared some with Midshipman McGarrett and he agreed they were the best he'd ever eaten. I think Carrie said she told you about him. He's in John's year. He's at or near the top of his class in both academics and physical training. His family life is complicated and he has no one to bake him cookies so he was very appreciative of the ones I shared from both you and my mom.

He grew up in Hawaii. Doesn't that sound amazing? Maybe I'll get stationed there someday. I'll bet it's beautiful. And it sure would be a nice change from the foot of snow that's outside my window now. But being in Wisconsin you probably have it worse.

Well I just wanted to say thank you and now I have to buckle down and study for a big exam next week. Classes are getting tougher but I'm really enjoying pushing myself and having a study buddy like Carrie helps a lot. We set a goal of being top 10% by the end of the year and so far we're both making it. Not to brag but we're both making it easily. We can't let up though. The competition here is fierce.

Hope to see you soon.

Catherine Rollins

"I remember those cookies," Steve smiled. "They were delicious." He caught Catherine's eye. "And I did appreciate you sharing them."

She squeezed his hand then returned the letter to the envelope and pulled out another from deeper in the stack. "This was from spring of my second year."

Dear Kathie and Bill,

It still feels funny calling you that but I'll get used to it I guess. It was so great seeing you both this past weekend and even better because your visit was such a surprise! Thanks for including me in Carrie's birthday weekend festivities. I think it's great you drove all this way to celebrate with her.

Steve wanted me to make sure to thank you for including him as well. He loved talking football with Bill. He really hopes they get the chance to go to a Redskins game sometime. He tells me he was quite a football player in high school but judging by his performance on that ball toss at the carnival I'm not sure I buy it.

I thought John, Bill and Steve were gonna go through every quarter in the greater metro area trying to win those stuffed animals. As for me I'm gonna have to run extra for a week to work off everything I ate but it was worth it.

How did Bill's big presentation at work go? I hope the projector didn't malfunction like he was worried about. How are your flowers doing since you rearranged the garden? Send pictures if you get a chance.

Hope to see you soon.

Catherine

"I'm telling you that game was rigged." Steve was still indignant even after all these years.

"If you say so," Catherine smiled indulgently.

"Whatever happened to those animals we worked so hard to win?"

"We left them in the Stagler's car, remember. They were halfway home before anyone even thought of it."

"Oh that's right," Steve chuckled at the memory. "Meanwhile John and I had stiff shoulders for a week."

Catherine smiled and chose another letter. "This is from fall ... third year."

Hi Kathie and Bill,

I'm so glad you guys could finally make it down for a football game. Too bad we lost but it was still fun. I don't think the waitress at the restaurant knew quite to make of the cheesehead hats you brought for John and Steve.

Classes are off to a good start. I'm sure Carrie told you she got the best grade out of everyone on our last Quantitative Economics exam. She worked really hard and deserved it. I got fourth best score. I told her I'll get her next time but I was just kidding … I'm really proud of her.

I did get best time on the obstacle course again though. Royce and Watkins didn't like it. Carrie told you about them, right? If they spent as much time studying and working out as they do complaining about people who do better than them maybe they wouldn't get beat all the time.

Gotta run. We're going to shoot pool tonight with John and bunch of his friends. Steve said he and Freddie might stop by but I'm not sure. I guess we'll see.

So excited to hear about your promotion at work, Kathie. We'll celebrate next time you're in town for sure.

Talk to you soon.

Catherine

She smiled at Steve. "Reading back on these I realize I talked about you … a lot."

"You did," Steve nodded. "But I guarantee you if I'd been writing letters of my own I'd have been going on endlessly about this smart, funny, gorgeous brunette named Catherine Rollins … no wait I mean Midshipman Rollins," he grinned, "who always kept me on my toes. You can take that to the bank."

"Thank you," Catherine grinned and kissed him on the cheek. "One more then it's time to take Cammie out. This one is right before Christmas our last year."

Hi Folks,

Things are absolutely crazy here. I can't believe it's our senior year already. How unbelievable is that? Classes are intense but I'm loving the challenge. It feels a little different now that Steve and John have graduated and are off at their first postings. I did get an email from Steve the other day though and he said things are going well. I'm putting together a package to send him so hopefully that'll be a nice surprise.

Speaking of email, Carrie told me she set up an account for you guys and that you've been practicing. I think that's great. It'll really come in handy when Carrie and I head for our first postings next year. Waiting weeks for mail is no fun.

My parents said to tell you they were so happy to see you again. My mom said to let you know she tried your beer dip recipe and it was delicious. She made it for my dad's poker night and she said they practically licked the bowl clean.

Gotta run. Meeting some people in town for a quick dinner and maybe a movie. We heard American Beauty is good so we might see that. Tell Bill I see the Packers are playing my Cowboys in November. Maybe a little friendly wager?

Cath

"I can't remember what happened with the football game but I do remember American Beauty was a good movie," Catherine said as she replaced the letter in the stack and rubber banded them all back together. "We'll read the rest of these tomorrow," she said. "You wanna take Cammie out or do you want me to?"

"I'll do it." Steve patted his stomach. "I need to work off the chicken wings." He bumped the cardboard box on the coffee table with his knee and the rattle reminded him there were other things in the bottom. "What else did she send beside the letters?"

"I don't know. I got caught up reading and didn't get to the rest of the box yet."

They leaned forward and Catherine began removing items one by one. A keychain with the Naval Academy insignia. A football program. Ticket stubs from various sporting events. A stuffed alligator. A paper placemat with what appeared to be an elaborate football play designed on it. A stuffed bear in a cadet uniform. A paper napkin with a tic-tac-toe game on it. A menu. Several coasters. A dart. Pool chalk.

Catherine sorted through the items with a smile and at the bottom of the box found a thick yellow envelope. When she opened it she saw a stack of pictures and a note in Kathie Stagler's familiar handwriting.

As she started to read her eyes filled with tears and she gasped.

"What is it?" Steve asked, his voice tinged with concern.

Catherine read aloud through the tears that were now rolling freely down her cheeks.

My dearest Catherine and Steve,

Here are all the pictures Bill and I took over the years on our visits to Annapolis and your visits to our home. We hope you enjoy them. These copies are yours to keep as we had them all digitized and have copies of our own in the fancy new digital frames Carrie and John got us for our anniversary.

I'm throwing in a few other things I hope you'll enjoy. From the first moment Bill and I met you Catherine we adored you. And once we met Steve we felt the same about him. It didn't take long to see how the two of you were with each other, how you looked at each other, and we knew you'd be together forever. Despite the fact you both told us 20 times a visit you were just friends.

So we started saving little trinkets from all the outings we took. We thought you might want them now as mementos of those years when the only people who didn't know you were dating were the two of you.

Enjoy and we hope to see you both soon. We're talking about a trip to the island once we get settled in the new place We'll need the break after all the stress of moving.

Love to you both,

Kathie and Bill

Catherine began to flip slowly through the pictures. "Oh my … I can't believe … I never even knew half these pictures existed." She turned one over. "And look, Kathie wrote the date and where it was taken on the back of every one."

"That's awesome. If we put these together with the pictures your folks gave us and the ones we took ourselves we can chronicle practically our entire time at the Academy."

"Look at this one," Catherine pulled out a photo of the two of them, along with Carrie and John, laughing and mugging for the camera while Kathie and Bill sat beside them smiling at their antics. "I wonder what poor waiter or passerby we rooked into taking that one."

"Life was so much more complicated before selfies," Steve chuckled as he studied the picture. After a second he dropped his chin to his chest. "Oh no."

"What?"

"Carrie was right," he winced.

"About what?" Catherine glanced back at the picture to see what she was missing.

"Look at that," Steve pointed to his face. "Moon-y eyes."

Catherine laughed and laid her head on his shoulder. "No worse than mine, Commander."

He kissed the top of her head. "I have to take Cammie out."

"Hey … how about if I open a bottle of wine and we'll go through these pictures when you get back in?"

"Sounds perfect." Steve stole one last look at the picture before he stood up and Cammie bounded immediately to his side. "We won't be long."

"Good. I just wanna do one thing before I open the wine." Catherine reached for her tablet and Steve smiled. He knew exactly what she was up to. As he and Cammie headed for the kitchen she opened a new email and began to type.

Dear Kathie and Bill,

Steve and I were so incredibly touched …

THE END

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