A/N: As of right now, this is the officially rewritten version of "An Irish Temper." This story was the first of mine that I actually liked, but I've changed a lot since I first started it (I can't believe it's been five years…). It will still be McGarrett/OC, but my OC will be very different. I know people liked Deirdre Keegan, but I've grown to very much dislike Deirdre Keegan. I want this story to be believable, well-planned, and well-written. I don't want it to be a cookie-cutter replica of all the other stories on this god-forsaken website, so bear with me—please. That's all I can ask.

Sincerely,

B

Disclaimer: I do not own Hawaii Five-O, the plot of Hawaii Five-O, or the characters within the Hawaii Five-O universe. That being said, I'm happy to have the opportunity to write within that universe and insert some OCs that I believe would do very well there. Thank you for your time and willingness to read!

Chapter One: Deirdre

One doesn't just decide to pick up their life and move to an even tinier island halfway across the world. It generally isn't done. It generally isn't done and generally isn't a decision that is made so quickly. And, generally, one as pale as she is doesn't wind up in a place as sunny as… that. But one must consider the fact that she needs to, you know, survive and lead a successful life. Trading the beautiful, rainy, green, cold, cloudy, utterly perfect countryside of her homeland for the beautiful, rainy, warm, bright, and utterly paradisiacal everything of her destination didn't really seem that bad in the long run considering the significant raise she'd receive.

That was before she got the mother of all sunburns, of course. That was before she was nearly eaten alive by these odd little sand bugs. That was before she was knocked over by a cop on her way into her second day at work one morning. That was before she woke up in a hospital room with a haphazardly-dressed Gael slumped in a chair next to her bed, his dark hair askew and green eyes bloodshot from the stress of rushing to the hospital with little information about the seriousness of her condition.

"Now, how the hell did I end up here?" Her voice sounded rough, gravelly. Her mouth felt like it was stuffed with cotton. Her brother's eyes, previously staring off into the distance, snapped to hers immediately and his eyes filled with happiness. That didn't last too long, though. He soon straightened and went into big brother mode. She recognized the look quite easily from her rebellious youth.

"Well, to be frank, you were walking around obliviously, as usual," he stopped to acknowledge her disgruntled 'hmph' with a pointed look, then continued, "when you happened to get in the way of a cop who was too busy doing his job to notice a lackadaisical daydreamer wandering across his path.

"Cop collided with the daydreamer, the daydreamer end up on the ground because she happens to be much smaller than the crime-fighting cop, and cop kept going in order to keep his job and catch the bad guy," at that moment, Gael's eyes softened, "The cop's partner called an ambulance when he realized the girl on the ground wasn't waking up and her arm looked rather out of place.

"Searching the daydreamer's bag led him to a phone, which, and I can't believe this actually surprised me, didn't have any kind of passcode on it. Going to her recent calls, he called the first name on the list. And that's how we ended up here, my dear. Your shoulder was dislocated from the force of hitting the ground and you have a concussion."

Deirdre hadn't noticed the soreness in her arm until her brother mentioned its previously injured state. Or the soreness in her head. Or, if she were honest, the soreness all over her body. She was having trouble picturing the officer that ran into her, and the only image she could force to come to mind was one of a bull or a truck or some other large mass hurtling toward her much smaller frame ending with a cartoonish "crash."

"Oh," she said. She didn't really know what else to say. Her brain felt like a sluggish, scrambled mess.

"Yeah."

"Have you slept?"

"Not really."

"Oh."

She glanced around the room and noted the clean white walls, clean white curtains, and her own clean white bed sheets. There were other beds, but they were unoccupied.

"You should sleep now, then," she turned back to her brother with a smile. "I'm fine, and you need to rest."

She scooted to one side of the bed while patting the spot next to her, indicating that he could join her instead of spending another couple of hours in the stiff hospital chair.

"Don't mind if I do, dear sister," he said as he climbed awkwardly onto the just-skinny-enough-to-be-uncomfortable mattress.

A few minutes passed, but neither Keegan sibling had managed to succumb to sleep and both were startled by the unannounced entrance of a nurse.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I'm here to give you some more pain medication, Ms. Keegan."

Deirdre nodded and watched as the nurse crossed the room with a scary needle, hoping that it wasn't actually going anywhere near her arm. She sighed in relief when the sharp end was deftly sheathed in some sort of input valve on her IV. She shot the nurse a close-lipped smile, which was returned by a knowing smile from her counterpart. Deirdre wouldn't be surprised if the nurse met patients who were apprehensive of needles every day. Quick as she came, the nurse was gone and the siblings were left in peace again.

"You know, Gael, this is just like old times," Deirdre said with a soft smile. She turned to look at her older brother and found him fast asleep against her shoulder. She soon followed suit, allowing her head to slump against his. Not the most comfortable position, but it would do for the time being.

Unfortunately, sleep didn't capture her for long. A sharp knock at the door had her jumping in shock. She tried to shake off the grogginess from the pain medication, but it wouldn't relent. Gael had been startled awake by her sudden movement, and he came-to much faster than she did. With a lazy eye rub, he called for whoever was at the door to enter.

At this point, the meds were hitting Deirdre pretty hard, but she wasn't too far-gone to miss the awkwardness that sat heavily between the two officers at the door. Once again, Gael spoke for her.

"Officer Williams, so nice to see you again," Deirdre shot Gael a confused glance and she felt him place his hand comfortingly on her knee as he moved to get up and greet the cops properly. Once he was on his feet, he gestured vaguely in her direction, "This is Deirdre. I hate to say it, but I'm sure the pain medication has reduced her back to the daydreaming state that you found her in this morning. That being said, she is awake."

The blond officer, the one she assumed her brother was talking to, moved toward her bed with a polite smile on his face, "You took quite a tumble this morning. Feeling alright?"

Deirdre's mouth seemed to have filled with cotton again, and all she could do was nod wordlessly as a response. She hoped her attempt to smile didn't look as silly as she felt in that moment. She couldn't keep her gaze from trailing, albeit lazily, to the second and unidentified cop. Officer Williams turned to see what had caught her attention and his face seemed to adopt an annoyed expression, which soon turned into one of exasperation when his friend didn't respond to a quick gesture in Deirdre's direction. The second officer's response was a dramatic eye roll before he also stepped forward, though there wasn't a trace of a smile on his face.

He cleared his throat before focusing his eyes on Deirdre's, "I'm sorry for not watching where I was going or stopping to make sure you were okay. Apparently, stopping a dangerous drug lord isn't as important as caring for a distracted girl I happened to run over while in-pursuit."

Officer William's eyes narrowed significantly as he slapped the taller man on the back of the head. In all honesty, Deirdre hadn't paid much attention to his words, or else she probably would have been offended. Instead, she hadn't looked away from his eyes since the second they'd locked onto hers. Later, she would blame this lack in social awareness on her recent dose of drugs, but she knew deep down that she had never seen eyes that color before. She didn't know his name, but she did know that he was a solid 10 in her book.

Also later, Deirdre would be incredibly thankful for her inability to speak at that time because she was one-hundred percent sure that she would have told him just that.

"What Officer McGarrett meant to say is that he's incredibly, truly sorry for knocking you over this morning," Deirdre's eyes snapped to Officer Williams, startled out of her intense staring contest with Officer McGarrett. "As a police officer, it is his duty to serve and protect and he failed to do so the second he decided to keep running instead of checking on the innocent civilian he'd managed to incapacitate."

Deirdre nodded slowly before letting her eyes find his, again. This time, he looked like he was trying to murder her partner with a death glare.

It took all of her concentration to push her response out of her mouth, and it seemed like a thousand years passed before she finally finished saying it, "Apology accepted, officers. Thanks for calling the ambulance. And my brother." She punctuated her statement with what she hoped was a charming smile. She caught the confused glances of the officers, though, when her smile faltered. Her eyes widened substantially and she turned quickly to her brother, "Gael, did you happen to call into work for me?"

She couldn't believe she hadn't thought of it until that moment. The pleasant drugged state of her mind seemed to disappear completely as it was replaced by anxiety. How could this have happened on her second day of work? Would she get fired? Logically, it wouldn't make sense for them to fire her because a) it wasn't her fault and b) they went through so much trouble to move her and her only family halfway around the world, but that didn't stop her from going into panic mode.

She felt her brother's hands grip her shoulders as he forced her to come back to reality. His green eyes had recovered some of their brightness, and she tried to focus on the color and then on his words, "Deirdre, calm down. I called them. It's fine, they're very worried, and they asked for you to call them as soon as you felt you were able to do so."

As she took deep breaths to calm herself down, she felt her cheeks start to burn in poorly repressed embarrassment. She wanted to hide forever. She'd almost had a full-blown panic attack in front of Officer Nice and Officer Hottie. This time around, her smile was tight lipped and forced.

"Sorry officers. I just started a new job, didn't want to get fired."

"See, Steve? She could have lost her job and you can't even apologize sincerely."

"Well, Danno, I would have apologized if there was something to apologize for," he sent his partner a dangerous look, "I didn't know it was against the rules to do my duty."

"It's not, but you didn't see her head bounce off the ground the way it did, she could have been seriously hurt."

"Well, you didn't see the hit I had to take to get that king pin to cooperate once I finally caught up to him. I don't see you babying me this much."

"Babying? Babying? Steve, you don't call common courtesy or concern for the wellbeing of your peers babying. At least, not where I come from."

"Excuse me," the officers broke from their heated argument to face Gael, who looked like he wasn't entirely sure what to do with them, "as interesting as it is to see you two fight like an old married couple, I'm sure my sister would like to get some rest."

The officers at least had the decency to look ashamed while awkwardly trying to find the words to diffuse the situation. Officer Williams, of course, was the one to finally speak up.

"Sorry for the intrusion, we'll just be going," he swiftly moved toward the door and held it open for his friend. Before leaving, he turned back to the exhausted girl on the bed, "Sorry, again, Ms. Keegan, for all the trouble."

And with that, they were gone.