Sammy and Ilna you guys are at the top of my 'what I'm thankful for' list! Sammy thanks for the help with this one, yet another title, and for truly outdoing yourself with all your work on the marathon!
REALMcRollers thank you all for the amazing feedback on our third annual Thanksgiving Marathon!
Oblivious - Planned Advances
Cafeteria: Governor's office building
"Hey, did you know Catherine Rollins is gonna be Lea's Chief of Staff?" the dark haired man with green eyes stated as he straightened his tie and sat down to his burger and fries.
"I heard." His lunch companion took a bite of his own burger, while opening his eyes wider in encouragement for him to finish his train of thought.
"So, you know what that means." Zach Easton waved a french fry.
"That she's smart and capable?" Phil Tolbert grinned and shrugged.
"No, no." Zach leaned forward. "Trouble in paradise. Pun intended." He sat back.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"She worked for McGarrett for a few years. Now all of a sudden, they're married and BAM," he snapped his fingers, "new job. That's one of two things. He's a crazier son of a bitch than his reputation says and she told him to shove the job, or they can't stand spending that much time together."
Phil Talbot's eyes widened further. "No way, you're full of crap."
"Believe what you want. She's been eating here a few times a week, and unless I miss my guess, she'll be coming in at twelve thirty."
"You realize you sound like a stalker, right?"
"No, I sound like a guy who's interested and did a little observing."
"If you're wrong, which for the record I'm telling you you are, we'll be observing you on a slab if Steve McGarrett finds out you're hitting on his wife." Talbot stacked his tray and tossed a few dollars for the busboy who picked them up and cleaned the tables. "I'll see you tomorrow - if you're still alive." He turned to leave and then looked back with a grin. "Because if you make yourself too much of a pest and McGarrett doesn't kill you, Rollins can."
Zach snorted, waved him off and dug into his meal.
Ten minutes later, Catherine entered the cafeteria and smiled at the woman behind the counter. "Hi, Joanna, how's your son feeling?"
"A lot better, Lieutenant. He was better for Thanksgiving, luckily. Thanks for asking." Joanna returned the smile. "He's back in school."
"Great. That stomach bug can be nasty."
Joanna nodded. "We have grilled chicken and rice or mahi mahi today. And I saved you an orange." She took one out and placed it on Catherine's tray. She knew most of the customers and liked quite a few, but the lieutenant had been so friendly and warm from the first time she'd eaten there, she'd memorized her favorites right away.
"Oh, thanks, that's sweet of you." She peered into the chafing trays. "I'll try the fish."
"You'll like it, it's my mom's recipe. Enjoy." She passed Catherine a plate and turned to her next customer.
After flashing another smile and exchanging pleasantries with Brenda the cashier, she paid for her lunch and took a seat at a far table. Opening her laptop, she worked as she enjoyed the mahi mahi, editing the Excel document she'd be emailing Lea for a 3 o'clock meeting.
Twenty minutes later, she'd sent the email and was smiling at Steve's succinct hell yes response to her text that read, how about a special movie night tonight, Commander? when she felt someone's eyes and looked up.
"Mind if I sit, Lieutenant?" A good looking man a couple of years her junior was indicating the seat across from hers.
"I was just about to leave." She assumed he'd wanted a quiet table to work, like she had. When he remained, smiling at her after she stood to go, she tilted her head in question. "I'm sorry, do I know you?" She was sure she didn't, but thought perhaps he was one of Lea's staff she hadn't met yet.
"You do now." He offered his hand. "Zach Easton, legislative liaison."
"Nice to meet you," Catherine said, but as the last word left her lips, she unclasped her hand from his with a tiny frown. He'd held on a tad too long. Past the inherently known number of seconds a stranger should take to shake your hand.
"I noticed you like the fish." He waved at the empty plate on tray she'd neatly stacked for the busboy. "There's a great place on Ala Moana that has the best mahi mahi on Oahu … if you're free tomorrow afternoon …"
Catherine shook her head, she'd seen it coming at the liking the fish comment. "No, thank you," she said a bit formally, straightening her stance. Years of fielding unwanted advances in the Navy had her automatically reverting to an 'at attention' posture. She held up her left hand. "I'm married."
His flippant, "Married isn't dead," had Catherine's eyes narrowing.
Her voice was tight and clipped. "Excuse me?"
"You can take a break from … work." His voice dropped and he grinned. "Beautiful lady like you shouldn't have to work too hard, anyway. Besides, everyone needs a break," he emphasized the word in a way that left no room for questioning it was a proposition. "I won't tell McGarrett if you don't."
"Okay, that's it, back away from me, right this minute."
Zach raised a hand in surrender. "Okay, okay, sorry, I thought maybe … I see that's not the case."
"That's completely not the case and make no mistake, it never will be," she said coldly.
Clearly afraid to say more to the obviously angry Catherine, he shrugged and turned to walk away.
She shook her head and picked up her laptop, planing to spend a few minutes outside before going back to her office.
She stopped abruptly when she turned, however, because six feet away, Cody was standing with an expression that could only be described as 'Steve-like'.
"Cody. Hey, what's …"
His voice was low and concern was mixed with anger in his eyes. "That jerk hit on you and he knows you're married. To Steve. Everyone here knows that. I was gonna come over and tell him to back off but ..." he raised a shoulder, "then I saw I didn't need to..." A tiny grin crossed his lips.
"Aw, thank you, hon." She placed a hand on his forearm. "And yeah, I handled it. I worked with five thousand guys on a carrier." She shook her head as she continued, "Sometimes you just gotta put them in their place." Cody nodded and Catherine asked, "Were you looking for me, or …"
"I had back to back free periods this afternoon, so I came in to pick up my intern performance review for my guidance counselor and stopped down here for an apple, 'cause I missed lunch. I was coming over to say hi and I heard you shut that guy down."
Catherine motioned him to sit and she did the same. "You're a good man, Cody Allen."
He ducked his head, much the same way Steve did when deflecting a compliment. "I just…"
"You stick up for people. Your friends, family, nothing 'just' about it."
He met her eyes with a small smile. "Catherine?"
"What, hon?"
"Make sure my sisters know that, okay? That even though that guy looked all smart and smooth, he was a creep and it's okay to call him out on it."
She squeezed his hand briefly. "Absolutely. And even though they're both pretty smart already, every girl needs to know she's worth more than her looks." She checked her watch with a smile. "I've got some time, I was going to go outside for a few minutes. How about we grab you that apple and take a walk around the building?"
"Pretty obvious it's just for the company, right?" Cody grinned, "Because you can totally take care of yourself."
Iolani Palace
Three women parted when Steve entered the building, allowing him to pass between them as they stood outside the main entrance of the Palace. The youngest, Kira Saki - six months out of college and a brand new hire in the Department of Tourism's outreach office - giggled and pinked slightly when he said, "Thanks," and glanced her way. That earned her a knowing look from Renee Keller and Amiyah Fuller, both twenty six, who worked in IT and records, respectively.
"Yeah, he's got that effect." Renee nodded in the direction he'd gone.
"Definitely," Amiyah agreed.
"You know his wife is gonna be the chief of staff to the new governor, so …" Renee raised an eyebrow and ran a hand through her deliberately tousled blonde mane.
"So...?" Amiyah questioned.
"So he may be in the market for some extracurricular activities if she's not here to watch him."
"She wasn't here to watch him for a couple of years, she wasn't even on the island from what I've heard. And rumor has it he was never interested then either."
Renee took a lip gloss out of her purse and fiddled with it before applying the pinkish shade. "Things change."
"Aren't they newlyweds?" Kira asked as she took a sip from her water bottle and checked her phone for the time.
"Whatever, all I know is she's not here all day, every day. I bet he booted her cause once they finally got married she was smothering him."
"Have you met her? Cause she doesn't seem like the type to smother a guy." Amiyah shook her head. "Not at all. Besides, she's nice to everybody. I like her."
"I'm telling you, people change when they get a ring. I notice a lot of things, like how the commander's wife isn't within arms length so there may be a window of opportunity there."
"C'mon, no way. Like what? He's gonna dump his beautiful, smart wife and run away with you?"
"Not looking to run anywhere. Just sayin' maybe he's interested in a little distraction."
Kira shook her head. "I don't think the commander would do that. I saw him and Lieutenant Rollins yesterday when she came by." She looked a little dreamy. "I wish someone would look at me like that."
"Well, I have to go update the interface with HPD in their office and I'm going to take a run at it, so …" She capped her water bottle and smoothed her skirt. "I'll see you later."
When she'd gone inside, the two women exchanged a glance and began to chuckle. "She hasn't got a chance," Kira said.
"Not a snowball's chance in hell." Amiyah rolled her eyes. "We tried to tell her." She shrugged and pointed across the parking lot. "We've got another 45 minutes, wanna get a shave ice?"
Kira nodded and with the subject forgotten, they started walking toward a vendor a block away.
In the ladies' room at the end of the work day, two of the three women met up again. Seeing Renee's demeanor, Amiyah said, "How'd that go for you today?"
Renee huffed. "Clueless."
"For hitting on a clearly happily married guy?"
"Not me, him. I tried subtle, that was a wash so I was a little more overt. I actually offered to help him update his network - at his house. Anytime he wants."
"And he said no."
"He said no, but he totally didn't get it, he sat on the sofa in his office and worked while I did the update to his computer. After I basically propositioned him, which he didn't notice, mind you, his phone went off and I saw the screen. It was a text from his wife. He texted her back and was still grinning like a teenager when I left."
"See? He loves his wife, Renee. I think that's sweet." She took a glance in the mirror. "I also think you need to concentrate on single guys."
Renee nodded with a shrug as they turned to leave the restroom. "She's damn lucky and I think I need to concentrate on ones who are less oblivious." Almost as an afterthought she added, "I'm gonna go to Bar A later, I wonder what Mister Oblivious is doing tonight."
Amiyah followed her friend out the door. As she did, she passed a hall window that overlooked the parking lot where Steve was climbing into the truck. Grinning to herself she quietly said, "Whatever it is, I'm betting from that smile it's with his wife."
McGarrett / Rollins Home
"Oh, look at that." Catherine was all smiles when she opened the front door and stepped inside.
"Welcome home, Lieutenant." Steve's face split into a grin. Pointing at Cammie, who was greeting his wife with a plethora of kisses and little huffing sounds, he added, "I got in an hour early so we had a swim and she's fed."
"Good." She smirked at the place settings on the coffee table as she bent into his kiss. "You made dinner?"
"I got take out." He pulled her into his lap. "Faster. We just need to heat it up."
"Did you pick a movie?" She grinned against his lips.
"Got a list." He took one hand off her back to reach into his pocket.
She read it with a snort. "You totally wrote down three random movies."
He kissed her again with a shrug. "Naked movie night. Not like I'm gonna watch much."
She laughed. "Okay, but I still want popcorn. Oh, and we have cupcakes for later."
Steve moved to pull off his t-shirt. "Anything you want."
Her eyes lit with amusement and mischief. "Anything?" She pulled her own shirt over her head.
"Anything. Always." He nodded and toyed with her bra strap. "Hungry?"
"Ravenous." She grinned and ran her hands up his chest and around his neck.
"In that case, let's reheat dinner." He kissed her again and made to slide her off his lap and stand.
Catherine pushed him back on the sofa. "Not what I'm ravenous for, Commander. Let's heat dinner … later."
Steve smiled and nodded, pulling her close. "Like I said, anything, always."
# End thanks for reading • Oblivious will return!
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