Sins of the father (H5-0 season 6)

by wendyonmyown

A new case for Five-0 brings back a member of there Ohana causing Steve McGarrett to face a future he thought he'd lost at the same time he's forced to remember events from his past. Set before episode 17 Assets was aired. Slight crossover with NCIS L.A and Jag.

1. Chapter 1

SINS OF THE FATHER.

Iolani Palace

FRIDAY 1700 hrs.

"I think that's the last of the reports sent." Steve said as he left his office to meet the other members of the task force. They had just finished up a case, having caught the serial killer who had been targeting newly married couples from the main land. It had been a long tough week, and they were all ready to head home for some rest and a decent night's sleep. "How about we all head over to Side Street for an early dinner?" He suggested, not ready to go home to his empty house this early.

They all looked around at each other, quickly agreeing. Then groaned loudly as Steve's phone rang. "McGarrett," He said in greeting then they all heard the words. "We're on our way."

"Where too," Danny asked, slightly annoyed.

"Warehouse on the docks. HPD responded to a call from security, three bodies were discovered, one victim is still alive. Strung up and tortured, dog tags were found on 2 of the victims, so we need to get moving on the scene before NCIS or AFOSI are involved." Steve said as he headed towards the door, the others following behind.

"Who's AFOSI?" Danny asked trailing behind his partner.

"Air Force office of special investigation's" Steve told him, calling for the lift.

"Why does the military have to have weird names for everything?" He grumbled making the others smile.

...

5-0 excited their vehicles, and approached the police officer's that were stationed at the entrance to the warehouse. They could see the EMT's working on the third victim a short distance away. Duke approached the team, handing three evidence bags to Steve, as they made their way into the warehouse. Steve glanced at the bags noting the dog tag and a thin gold double chain necklace. Steve froze at that. "Duke the woman?"

"She's the one the EMT's are working on." He told 5-0's leader who immediately ran to the ambulance.

Danny had noticed Steve's reaction, and quickly moved towards his partner, instantly knowing something was wrong. When he reached the back of the ambulance, he discovered his partner, clasping the hand of the victim. The biggest shock of all was who their victim was.

"Steve" She crocked out, weakly, grabbing at his hand as tears slid down her face.

"Shah, save your strength Catherine. I'm not going anywhere." He told her as the EMT's carried on working on her. One of the EMT's was filling a syringe with morphine when Catherine started to panic.

"No, no pain meds." She told them panicking as they went to insert the needle in the I'V that they'd set up to replace her fluids. She quickly turned to look at Steve, tears running down her face as she blurted out, "I'm pregnant."

Steve opened his mouth, no sound coming out as he took in the woman before him. To say he was stunned was an understatement, but that was quickly making way to his anger. "What?"

Catherine was freely crying now, the tears streaming down her battered and bruised face, as she sobbed. "So sorry... didn't know... not till...I'd left...wanted to tell you...I tried calling..." She said, between great sobs. She looked away from him then, not wanting to see the anger in his eyes.

"Catherine, look at me." He said in a quiet voice, his hand gently brushing her hair away from her face. He smiled at her as she turned to look at him again. "So 3 months?" He asked.

Catherine turned to look at him, noticing the acceptance in his face. She knew he was angry with her, could see it in his eyes, but she could also see the acceptance of her words. He didn't doubt her words; he knew the baby was his. She nodded her head, moaning at the pain that created, and whispered the word. "Yes."

Steve grinned at her then, glancing at the EMT's who were ready to transport her to the medical Centre. He looked back at her, leaned down and brushed a kiss across her forehead. "I'm just going to fill Danny in, and then I'll ride with you. I'm not letting you out of my sight, either of you." He whispered against her forehead.

Steve gave her hand a quick squeeze, then turned ready to go find his partner. As he exited the ambulance, he spotted his partner nearby. Danny was looking at him with concern; the detective had obviously discovered that it was Catherine that had been found in the warehouse.

"You okay, babe?" Danny asked.

"Yeah." He said swallowing, "I guess you no it's Catherine?"

"Yeah. I saw you run over and I followed." He explained shifting a little uncomfortably, "So should I start calling you daddy?" He asked with a grin.

"You heard?" Steve asked, grinning back at his partner. Steve couldn't help but be pleased with himself over that fact. Catherine and he had never discussed the idea of having kids; it had always been an unspoken rule when Cath had been in the Navy. It would have been a real career ender for her, and Steve knew she'd been on birth control during that time. Steve had always left Catherine to handle the birth control issue.

"Yeah, now go get baby SEAL checked out." He said pushing Steve back towards the ambulance. "We'll get started on the scene and swing by the hospital later for Cath's statement."

...

Danny watched as the ambulance left the warehouse, heading towards the Hawaii medical Centre. He shook his head, god what a mess this was going to turn out. Danny knew how Steve felt about Catherine, and add in the fact that she was also carrying his baby. Danny only hoped that maybe Catherine would finally settle in Hawaii, and stop hurting Steve.

"Hey, where'd the boss go?" Kono asked as she walked up to Danny, Chin and Lou by her side.

"Hospital, with the victim." He said, taking a deep breath. "It was Catherine." He told them.

"What the hell," Kono explained.

"Steve okay, bra?" Chin asked, worried for his friend.

"Yeah. Look, Rambo will probably kill me for saying this, but." Danny stopped, gathering his thoughts, before adding. "Seems there's a baby SEAL on the way." He told the stunned people in front of him.

"Seriously, Cath's pregnant." Kono exclaimed, totally shocked by the news.

Danny nodded his head, grinning at the team. "Steve seemed very pleased with himself, by all accounts."

Lou was the only one to voice his concerns though. "Can we be sure it's McGarrett's?" He asked.

"Catherine said it was," Danny told them. "Look, Steve's been getting calls for the past couple of months. There from an unknown number, and Steve believes they were coming from Catherine. With what I overheard she's been trying to get up the courage to tell him." Danny said filling them in.

"Still doesn't mean she's telling the truth, Williams." Lou said, not backing down.

"I think till we know any different, we don't make assumptions." Chin said, trying to defuse the situation. "From what Danny has said, Steve's happy to take Catherine at her word."

"You know Catherine and Steve were apart an awful lot when they were both in the Navy, neither of them stepped out on each other." Kono said. "We have to leave this between them."

"What about the girl he's been seeing?" Lou pointed out.

"Steve broke it off with her, and from what I did get from him, it was just a casual fling on his part." Danny explained to him. "I told Steve we'd swing by the hospital once we're finished with the crime scene, get Cath's statement." Danny said, bringing a close to the discussion.

"I have a feeling that we'll get pulled of this case," Chin said, and began filling the others in on the evidence he'd already gathered. "This has Navy stamped all over it, there were several empty packing crates in the warehouse, all with Naval shipping addresses on them. I spoke to the first officer on the scene, the 2 dead victims are both Navy, and Catherine was with them. I'd say she was pulled in for a mission."

"The Navy isn't going to tell us anything if that's the case. They'll definitely send an NCIS team to do the investigation." Danny said, clearly not happy about the situation.

...

FRIDAY 18.00 HRS

Catherine was rushed into the emergency room, Steve still holding her hand as she was wheeled down the corridor. The waiting medical team descended on her immediately, removing her clothes to access her injuries as a nurse attempted to remove Steve from the room.

"Commander, we need to treat the patient, you can interview her when we've finished." She told him.

He was just about to tell her in no uncertain terms, what he thought of that idea, when Catherine shouted for him." Steve, don't leave."

"I'm not going anywhere Cath." He said gripping her hand, and giving it a small squeeze. "I'll be right here," he told her, glancing at the nurse to drill home his point. Steve gulped as he took in the bruises and abrasions that marred her pale skin. He began mentally mapping the injuries, taking note of the possible cracked or broken ribs, and burn marks that covered her chest. He noticed the trauma team setting up some equipment, before the doctor squeezed a tube of gel onto Catherine's body. Steve frowned, not sure what to make of it.

"Lieutenant; I'm Doctor Susan Nailor. I'm going to use the ultra sound machine to see what's going on with your ribs, and to see if you have any internal bleeding. I need you to keep breathing in that gas and air for me, the pethidine should start to kick in shortly." She explained in a pleasant calming voice. "Are you still okay with the Commander being present?"

Cath nodded her head, her eyes locking on Steve's as he smiled at her. He was her rock, her anchor, always had been.

The doctor was curious about the woman she was treating. She'd been in the ER a number of times when a member of the 5-0 task force had been brought in for treatment. They were a very tight knit group, almost like ohana, especially when one of their own was injured. She'd seen Commander McGarrett a number of times with his team, and had noticed the looks most of the female staff had sent his way. Susan had often wondered if the man was gay, as he'd never so much as noticed the women around him. But watching the interaction between these two made her question that idea.

Susan began her examination, carefully moving the device over Cath's body explaining everything she was doing, "The good news is there doesn't appear to be any internal bleeding, but those ribs are fractured, so you'll be very sore for a while." She told her.

Catherine nodded, having already come to the conclusion that she'd either cracked or broken the ribs. "My baby?" She asked in a near whisper.

"I've had a quick look, and everything looks normal. We'll get you cleaned up and settled in a room, and then one of our obstetricians will come and take a better look at baby." She told her soothingly, gently placing her hand on Catherine's shoulder. "How far along is your pregnancy?"

"She's about 3 months," Steve told the doctor as he approached Catherine, grasping her hand as she held it out to him.

Susan turned to look at the Commander, startled that he did in fact know how far along the Lieutenant's pregnancy was. It definitely seemed that she was right to assume there might be some kind of relationship.

"What about the name of your Doctor? We can get in touch with the base to get your medical file sent over." Doctor Nailor told her.

Catherine just shook her heard. "Not seen one. I've been on assignment." She said quietly, tears beginning to leak from the corners of her eyes. "I didn't know till after I'd gone in." She said quietly, looking at the Commander.

Susan gave the woman's shoulder a small squeeze to reassure her. "Not to worry, our obstetrician will be down to check on you as soon as we get you settled in your own room. Commander, could I have a word with you?" She said indicating the door with her head.

"Sure." He said, before turning back towards Catherine. "I'll be right back." He told her.

They excited the room, the Doctor turning towards him. "Commander, correct me if I'm wrong but I'm assuming you're the father?" At his nod she continued. "The Lieutenant's injuries are only minor and superficial. The ribs although painful will not cause her too much trouble."

"I hear a but." Steve said, glancing back towards the closed doors of the Trauma room.

"Yes. I'm concerned, as I'm sure you're aware given the extensive injuries and burn marks on her body, she has been tortured. Given the discoloration of the various bruises, I'd say that this was done over several days. The stress levels that her body has been put threw; I believe is causing slightly high blood pressure. If we can't help her to get this under control it could cause a miscarriage."

Steve swallowed, staring at the doors. "How do we help her?" He asked, suddenly scared.

"We need to get her calmed down. I'm sensing that there's some tension between the two of you, normally I'd remove you from the room." She told him.

"No way, I'm staying." He insisted. "If Cath wants me out then fine, but you're not kicking me out of there."

"As I was saying Commander, normally I'd remove you, however I believe that would only make the situation worse. The Lieutenant was quite adamant about wanting you to stay, but we need to remove the tension that your presence is causing her as well." The Doctor told him, outlining where she stood.

"Cath left a few months back; supposedly she was going to Nepal to help with the earthquake relief. As you've probably guessed, that didn't happen, which means she lied to me." Steve said crossing his arms and pacing the floor in front of the Doctor.

"You've only just found out about the baby?" She asked, watching as he nodded. "So the tension I'm picking up on is to do with all this!" She concluded.

"Yeah." He said.

"Ok. I need you to put her mind at rest, and I need her totally calm." She outlined.

"You got it, Doc." He said glancing back towards the room Cath was in. "I've a feeling that the Navy is going to send an NCIS team in to deal with the investigation, can you stall them. I'd prefer that either myself or one of my team interview Cath, allow us to keep her calm." He said.

"Yes we can do that, I can put a note on her records stating that she's not to have any visitors without my consent, or that of her attending obstetrician." She agreed.

"Ok, I'm going to head back in to Cath." He said, pushing back into the room, Doctor Nailor following behind him.

...

Cath sighed in relief, as she spotted Steve heading back into the room. He smiled at her, as he crossed the room, taking hold of her hand to give it a squeeze. "Steve," She whispered, looking into his face, trying to read him.

He shook his head, "We'll talk later, Cath. Right now you just need to worry about getting better, so we can get you home. I'm not going anywhere." He told her. "The Doctors getting you a room sorted, no visitors except me, no-one will be allowed in to see you." He explained, watching as she breathed in deeply.

"Steve, NCIS will be involved." She exclaimed.

"I know, but they won't be able to see you till your Doctor's say they can. The Doctor is concerned about your blood pressure, Cath. They want you to stay calm, and that means me keeping NCIS out of your room." He told her firmly. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you Cath, either of you."

...

SATURDAY 0700 HRS

Pearl-Hickman airfield.

The 4 agents departed from the plane, heading down the ramp and heading towards the 2 black SUV's that were parked there. The local NCIS agent was stood waiting for them.

"Welcome to Hawaii, I'm David Smith with the local office." He said holding out his hand towards the lead agent.

"Sam Hanna, my partner Callen, Kensi Blyth and our LAPD Liaison Marty Deek's." Sam said introducing the team to the other agent. "Where are we up to with the investigation?"

"The 5-0 task force has taken over the investigation, at least for now. There were no weapons found in the warehouse but, several empty shipping crates that housed them were still present. Two sailors were found dead at the scene and a third has been taken to Hawaii Medical Centre for treatment. That's where we have hit a small problem." He told the assembled team.

"What sort of a problem?" Sam asked.

"Five-0 has got a complete lock down on the third victim. The Hospital is only allowing Commander McGarrett in to visit." Agent Smith told them.

"What do we know about the third vic?" Callen asked.

"Lieutenant Rollins Naval Intelligence, pulled for this mission 3 months back." He filled in.

"Do we know what his condition is?" Kensi asked.

"He is actually a she," Sam told the assembled group, then added as his team and Smith looked at him in surprise. "Lieutenant Catherine Rollins is a very old friend of McGarrett's, hence the reason for him sitting on her."

"You know her?" Callen asked.

"Yes, I've met Catherine a few times while I was in the SEAL's. She's been included in plenty of team nights out with the guys, team 6 more or less treat her like a sister they even gave her a nickname" Sam explained to the agents. "How bad is she, have you managed to get a sit rep?" He asked the local agent.

"Her Doctor isn't giving any information out, but we were able to speak to a nurse who treated her in the Trauma room. From what she says, her injuries are only superficial. The Lieutenant was treated for a couple of cracked ribs, electrical burns and cuts and bruises. Nothing broken and no internal bleeding." He told the LA team.

"So why the lockdown, McGarrett's Navy, he has no know that NCIS would send a team to investigate." Deek's asked, clearly puzzled.

"I don't know the nurse was called away before I could get anything else from her. When I tried again later, she refused to talk to me, said she'd gotten in trouble earlier." Smith said, clearly annoyed about the incident. "I'm figuring someone must have warned her to keep quiet."

"Question is who and why?" Callen added.

"Think we should start with 5-0 HQ; see what evidence they collected at the scene. One thing we can be assured of is that they'll have done a thorough search of the scene and then we need to get access to Rollins." Callen said, making his way towards one of the SUV's. "Kensi, you and Deek's head over to the hospital, see if you can get into her room. Maybe as a nurse you'll have more look." Callen suggested.

Kensi shook her head, "That's going to be a problem, if McGarrett's keeping tabs on Rollins he could be in the room with her."

"And?" Callen asked.

"She's met Steve." Sam told them.

"How do you know him, Kens?" Deek's asked, confused and a little curious.

"I helped him on case a few years back, we have a mutual friend who cashed in a favour to help translate some data that McGarrett had come across." Kensi told them, vaguely.

"That's not telling us much, who's the mutual friend." Callen asked, knowing that she would have said if it was Sam.

Kensi shook her head not telling them.

...

SATURDAY 0800 HRS

The Five-0 team was busy working through the footage from the security cameras when they heard someone entering their offices. Looking up they noticed the 4 NCIS agents from the L.A office entering the room. Lou looked ready to intercept them before they entered too far, but Danny and Chin waved him off.

"We were wondering when NCIS would show up." Danny said walking around the smart table to greet the agents. "We weren't expecting you guys though."

"NCIS is happy to let you run the case on the warehouse, we want these people found." Callen told him. "But we have a bigger problem; the team was tracking a shipment of weapons."

"So Cath had been recalled?" Danny asked, remembering the conversation that Steve had told him about over hearing.

"I don't have all the facts." Callen told him.

"See, that there's a problem for us. You're telling us you want our co-operation but you won't give us all the facts. Cath's ohana, and we want to catch the bastards that did this to her." He told Callen, watching for any reaction from the other man.

"We want them found as well, but we have the bigger picture to look at." Callen told him.

"We need to speak to Lieutenant Rollins." Sam said firmly, before Danny could answer Callen.

"The hospital is restricting visitors, at the minute only Steve is allowed in her room." Danny told them both. "That's not us being award with you; her Doctor is concerned about her condition." He concluded, trying not to give too much away. Danny wasn't sure how much Steve would be willing to share with the NCIS agents about Cath's condition.

"Cracked ribs, electrical burns, and cuts and bruises I believe were what they treated her for." Callen stated, watching as the 5-0 team looked at him with anger and hurt in their eyes. "In my estimation those injuries are superficial."

Danny, Chin, Kono and Lou, all glanced between one another, silently communicating between themselves. Chin nodded at Danny, who nodded back at him. "Catherine's pregnant," He told them.

"What you're saying she was also raped?" Kensi asked concerned for the other woman.

"No, Cath wasn't raped. At least not that we know of, anyway." Danny told her, taking a deep breath and adding. "Her Doctor is concerned that anymore Stress will cause her to miscarry."

"And the reason why McGarrett has the hospital keeping us out?" Callen asked, clearly not guessing what the man wasn't saying.

"Because Smooth Dog is concerned about his woman miscarrying his kid?" Sam added, finally realizing the situation for what it was. Steve might be a Navy man, but family came first in this situation. Sam could understand that, being a family man himself.

"Correct. It seems that Catherine wasn't aware of being pregnant before she left." Chin told him.

"Wait, a minute. You told us they were friends?" Deek's questioned Sam.

The Five-0 team and Sam started laughing at that, the rest of the NCIS team and Lou looking at them all strangely. "Hey, you funny guys want to let us in on the joke?" Lou asked clearly annoyed with his three colleagues.

"You know for years anytime anyone referred to Catherine as being his girlfriend, he'd instantly deny it. They just had "a thing." Steve always referred to Cath as his oldest friend." Danny told them.

"Yeah, the team used to rib him over it all the time. Any guy that will spend half of his 48-hour shore leave flying halfway around the world to see the same woman is more than just friends." Sam told them.

"Cath, pretty much tells the same story. Neither her or the boss have ever felt the need to classify their relationship." Kono added. "They're pretty cool about the whole thing."

"We still need to talk to her." Callen said, looking at Danny and Chin. "We need to find out how close they were to getting these guys."

"No. If you have a problem with that, take it up with Steve." Danny said, crossing his arms against his chest defiantly.

"You're forgetting she's Navy. We can always do this the hard way." Callen said trying to push the Detective into cooperating with them.

"You really want to go up against Steve on this issue?" Danny asked, beginning to pace the room.

"Look, I have a solution." Sam said, trying to diffuse the situation between his partner and the Detective. "Get hold of Steve and ask if he'll allow me to speak to Catherine, she knows me."

"I'll phone, but it's up to Steve about anything else." Danny told them.

...

SATURDAY 0800 HRS

Steve watched as Cath slept, his eyes raking over her body remembering each and every bruise, cut, and burn mark that covered her beautiful body. His eyes drifted towards her stomach, and he smiled at the thought of her carrying his baby. He knew they needed to talk, the idea scaring him more than anything he'd ever had to do before. He was mad at her for leaving, and for lying to him, but he couldn't help but hope there might be a future with her. He'd ended things with Lyn, because it hadn't felt right.

The ringing of his cell brought his mind to other matters, pulling it out of his pocket he saw who the caller was. "Hey Danny." He said; glad to hear his partner's voice.

"Steve, you're on speaker. NCIS are here from LA, there wanting to speak to Cath about what went down." Danny's voice said threw the cell's speaker.

"Not happening, her Doctor has given her a mild sedative to get her to sleep. Her blood pressure is still higher than they like and her temperature spiked last night, indicating an infection from some of the more serious wounds. They have her on a broad spectrum antibiotic, and want to do some more tests later today, along with another scan." Steve told his partner.

"Steve we need to speak to her, we need to know how close she was to ending this mission."

Sam said, trying to appeal to Steve.

"Sam, she's not up to being interviewed, my priority is Cath's health." He told his former team mate.

"Look Steve, we might not have a lot of time on this thing. We have been tracking weapons shipments sent back from Afghanistan for the last several months. Weapons and munitions have been going missing, and surfacing on the black market. We need to put an end to this, we need to get the weapons back and we need to stop these people. Cath is the only one who can give us the information." Sam told him, quickly outlining everything. "Cath knows me, let just me come in and speak to her, you can be there the whole time."

"Tell you what I'll do for you, Sam." Steve said, pausing a minute before he outlined his plan. "You get me read in and I'll debrief Cath when she wakes up, but neither you nor any of your team will be present during that time."

"I'll have to run that by SecNav and the Director, I can't just agree to any of that." Sam told him.

"I know." He told him, before he addressed Danny personally. "Hey, Danny I need you to swing by my place and grab me some stuff. Change of clothes, wash bag, the usual stuff, and there's a box of Cath's stuff in the bottom of my closet, grab her some stuff as well."

"Ok, I'll drop them off in a bit." He told Steve.

"Mahalo, Brah." Steve told him, disconnecting the call, and glancing back towards Cath. She was mumbling softly in her sleep, his name on her lips. He smiled at her, leaning over he placed a kiss on her forehead, just as she started to stir.

"Mm, Steve..."She whispered nuzzling at his neck. "Love you." she told him as she lifted her hand up to slip around his shoulder.

"Morning, Cath." He said pulling back slightly to look in her eyes.

She smiled at him, running her hand from his shoulder and rubbing her fingers across the stubble on his jaw. "You've been here all night?" She asked.

"Yeah." He swallowed, then taking a deep breath asked the question he needed to here. "Are you staying?"

"I'm not leaving again, I'm home to stay. I promise no more trips to any foreign countries, no more leaving you." She whispered, tears running down her cheeks.

Using his fingers, he gently wiped the tears from her eyes. "Good." He said. "How long have you known about the baby."

"A couple of months." She said grinning at him. "I'm sorry you found out like that though, I wanted to tell you properly. I know we never discussed having kids, but now I can't imagine anything more ideal." She told him.

"Yeah, it's a pretty amazing feeling. I keep looking at you, and thinking you're the mother of my child, Cath." He shared, a grin spreading across his face.

Cath laughed at his expression, "You're pretty pleased with yourself there, Sailor."

"Maybe," He said with a grin back at her. "I did manage to get you pregnant while you were on birth control."

"You're such a caveman; I can't believe you came out with that." She said laughing up at him. "I was due for another shot the week I left. I'm kind of glad now I didn't get it." She told him honestly, smiling back at him.

"So am I." He told her honestly, as he leaned in and kissed her gently on the lips just as his cell started ringing. He groaned resting his forehead against hers, before dropping another quick kiss on her lips, and pulling his cell from his pocket. "McGarrett." He said as he answered the call.

...

SATURDAY 0830 HRS

"We have permission to read you in, but SecNav is insisting that an agent is present during debrief." Sam told him getting to the point.

"Just a minute," Sam heard Steve say, before he heard a muffled conversation. "I'll just be outside."

"Okay." Sam heard a muffled voice reply, assuming it was Catherine's. He heard the faint noise of a door opening then McGarrett came back online.

"Not happening, Sam. I suggest you get back onto SecNav, and explain that her Doctor is not allowing any visitors except for me. Now you can wait until her Doctor is happy her condition is stable enough to do a debrief, or you can read me in and I'll do it, up to you." Steve told him firmly.

"Steve, my team is aware she's pregnant." He told his friend. "I have kids myself; I understand where your concerns are. Let me be in the room when you de-brief her. Catherine knows me that has got to count for something with you." Sam said, slightly exasperated with the other man's stubbornness.

"Danny told you." Steve said, sighing. "Ok, I want to check with her Doctor first though."

"Ok, I can work with that. You want to do the briefing in your office?" Sam asked.

Steve chuckled, "So your partner can sneak into Cath's room?" He asked.

"No way, you have my word. We'll do this your way; my team will be at 5-0 the whole time." Sam reassured.

...

SATURDAY 1030 HRS

2 hours later saw Steve McGarrett leaving the hospital and heading for the palace. He'd called Kamekona to come and watch Catherine's room for him to prevent NCIS getting in to see Cath while he wasn't there. Danny had fetched him a change of clothes and his wash bag. He'd quickly washed up and changed in the hospital rest rooms down the corridor while Danny had slipped into Cath's room to hand her sleep clothes and toilettes that he'd collected.

Danny had quickly filled him in with the information they'd collected on the case, before the conversation had turned to personal matters between him and Catherine. "Have you talked to Cath?" He asked.

"Yes, I've talked to Cath." Steve told him.

"And?"

"And we talked." Steve said with a shrug.

"You know getting you to talk my friend is like extracting teeth." Danny ranted, "What did you decide?"

"If you're asking if Catherine is sticking around, then yes she is. I don't know if we'll be together or if we'll end up raising our baby separately." Steve told him, purposely not looking at Danny, who was driving his own car for a change.

"Do you want to do it together?" Danny asked, not letting the subject drop.

"Yes I still want Catherine in my life; yes, I want us to be a family." He told his friend. "I cheated, how do I tell her that?" He said in an almost whisper.

"You did not cheat. The 2 of you had split up, you told her you wouldn't wait, so do not lay guilt on yourself over that. You stayed faithful to her for what 12 years, during which time you could have slept with any woman you wanted." Danny shouted at him. "You my friend are a veritable saint."

Steve leaned his head back against the head rest and turned to look at Danny. "I'm scared of messing this up, Brah." He told the other man.

"I'm sorry did I just hear Super-SEAL say he was scared," Danny said with a grin on his face. He quickly looked at Steve who had a small smile on his face at the jab to his ego. "Look you 2 both need to focus on the most important thing that little seal pup of yours." Danny said with a smirk.

Steve snorted at Danny's nick name for their baby. "You tell anyone I said any of that and I'll deny it." He told the blond detective.

...

Steve strode into Five-0 glancing at the screen to see how far into the investigation they were. He frowned as he caught sight of the man displayed there. Chin was running a facial recognition on him. He looked familiar somehow, but Steve was having trouble trying to think where he'd seen the man.

"This one of the guys responsible?" Steve asked as he approached the smart table to get a better look at what Kono was working on.

"Hey boss," She said in greeting, before filling him in. "We think so; we have some footage from the dock camera's. This guy appeared pretty frequently. We're trying to get a name, but so far no hits. Eric's working on some damaged CCTV equipment that we pulled from the warehouse; he'll call when he gets something." She told him.

"I can't help but think I've seen him somewhere." Steve told them, staring at the screen deep in concentration. Hearing a noise behind him, Steve turned to see Sam Hanna and his team behind him.

"Nell came up with a name for this guy. You're not going to like this one, Steve." Sam told him, handing a flash drive to Kono who plugged it into the smart table. "Meet Michael Hesse, youngest brother of Victor and Anton Hesse, no real criminal activity recorded till about 4 years ago when he started to make a name for himself selling arms to small time gangs and thugs in Europe. He has a legitimate business trading artwork threw a number of gallery's in the continental U.S."

"Shit." Steve said, hoping to have seen the last of the Hesse's. "You ready to read me in?"

"Yeah, SecNav has also agreed to partially allow us to give the rest of your team a brief outline of the information. Going to need N.D.A's for them though, can't play ball without." Sam told him.

Steve nodded, not having a problem with his team being in the loop on this. "You have the paperwork?" He asked; as Sam nodded his head to let him no he did in fact have the paperwork.

"Ok, what the hell is SecNav and N.D.A?" Danny asked, clearly puzzled by the acronyms being passed around.

"SecNav is short for Secretory of the Navy, and N.D.A's is non-disclosure agreement." Steve explained to his team, familiar with Danny's disfavour with Military jargon. "If you agree to sign them, you're legally bound to not repeat anything that you've been shown or heard. Quickest route to a high security prison for treason if you do." Steve warned his team.

...

STURDAY 1200 HRS

Sam and Callen had just finished briefing the members of 5-0. There was silence in the room as they all digested the information. They were all watching McGarrett, his head bowed as he braced his arms on the smart table, breathing deeply.

"What I don't understand is why Catherine was recalled to active duty." Danny said, glancing across at his partner.

"I'd say that someone at the top figured out who I was in Afghanistan with last year. If they checked flight manifests, then they'd have picked up on Cath's name. She also has extensive knowledge of the terrain, is very familiar with the local dialect, and has several contacts in country." He told the assembled group. "I overheard her having a conversation in Pashtu, the morning she left, supposedly for humanitarian relief in Nepal."

"Why the subterfuge? I mean surely she'd know you'd understand that it was a classified mission and not to ask for details." Kensi said, clearly confused.

"I don't know, but there was great thought put into a cover story." Steve told her.

"You never did tell us exactly what was said." Danny pointed out.

"I'm not about to tell you now, either. That's between Cath and me." Steve said, closing the subject. "Chin I want you to start checking where and when he got on the Island. Kono go see Kawika, see if the Kapu have heard any chatter about arms coming in." He said directing his team.

"You want me to speak to Kamekona?" Chin asked.

"No need. I'll speak to him; he's at the hospital watching Cath's room for me." Steve told him, looking across at the NCIS agents and adding, "No offence Sam, I didn't trust you not to try."

"None taken. I'd have done the same thing if it was Michelle." He told him in understanding.

"Danny, chase Max and Eric up on the forensics, if we get any hits, let me know. Lou check in with HPD I want eyes and ears on the street, any chatter feed it back to Chin." Steve directed.

"You mind if my team tag along with yours?" Sam asked, ready to pair up the 2 teams.

Steve glanced across at the 4 NCIS agents quickly sizing them all up. "Kono take Deek's with you, he won't look out of place at North shore. I'd suggest the rest of your team follow up on any leads you might have during that time." He said before walking towards his office and collecting his keys from the desk drawer.

"I'm going to head to the hospital, see what Rollins tells us." Sam told them as Steve strode out of his office heading towards the doors.

...

SATURDAY 12.30 HRS

Sam noticed the large wall of a man stood outside the hospital room as Steve and himself approached. The other man stepped towards them, giving Sam the once over before turning his full attention to Steve.

"Aint nobody been in there other than that pretty nurse and Doctor you spoke to earlier. Your woman's safe." He told Steve.

"Mahalo." Steve told the man before indicating to Sam. "Kamekona, Sam Hanna. Sam was a member of my SEAL team, and Kamekona is very good at getting information on illegal activities on the Island." Steve explained.

"Hey Brah, I ain't no snitch." He told McGarrett, slightly annoyed at the implication.

"Of course not. What do you know about weapon's being shipped, sold or stolen? We're looking for someone that's been stealing from the base." He told Kamekona, who looked ready to dispute any knowledge about anything.

"I don't know anything about any of that." He told McGarrett.

"Look these guys are responsible for killing 2 sailors and beating the crap out of Catherine. I want them." He growled.

"I'll put out some feelers, and see what I can find out for you. But I'm telling you Brah, I honestly know nothing about it." He told McGarrett. He hated the thought of anyone hurting Catherine; she was one of his friends after all.

"Mahalo." Steve said watching as Kamekona left the building.

"Can you trust him?" Sam asked, clearly confused over the interaction.

"Yeah. Kamekona has had a little bit of a colourful past which after helping Chin nail the big fish, and serving a year in Halawa for his small part, he went totally straight. Kame has his ear to the ground on most things that go on around Oahu, he'll let us know if something comes up. He also considers Catherine a friend." Steve told him as he placed his hand on the door to Catherine's room before entering.

...

Catherine was propped up in bed, the remote for the TV in her hand as she flicked threw the channel's trying to find something worth watching. She instantly flicked past Jag, NCIS and Sea patrol, as they hit too close to home, finally settling on watching a re-run of the tough mudder from this year. She looked towards the door; having heard what she thought was Steve's voice. Muting the TV, she listened more carefully, and smiled when she realized he was talking to Kamekona outside her room.

A few minutes later he was pushing open the door to her room, a smile on his face. She smiled back at him, greeting him her usual welcome line. "Well hello their Sailor."

He grinned at her, glad she was sounding a bit more like her old self. "You sound a little better."

"My Doctor thinks I could be out in a couple of days, the antibiotics have kicked in and my blood pressure has come down." She told him with a grin on her face.

"Hey that's great news." He told her, indicated behind him. "You have another visitor." He said stepping aside and allowing Sam to enter the room.

"Catherine, good to see you again." He told her as he entered the room, and moved to stand at the end of her bed.

"Hi Sam, your here to de-brief me, aren't you?" Cath reasoned, already familiar with Sam's past and current job.

"Actually I'm here as an observer, Steve's going to de-brief you." He explained.

Cath opened her mouth, and then closed it again looking towards Steve for an answer. "I don't understand." She finally managed to say.

"SecNav agreed for Five-0 to be read in on your mission, that way I can debrief you, and we can get the mission completely wrapped up, and most importantly it won't stress you out too much. We can stop at any time, Cath." Steve explained taking hold of her hand as he took the chair by the bed.

"Can you pass me my notebook, Danny brought it with some of my stuff?" Cath said indicating the cupboard by the side of her bed.

"Sure." Steve said as he opened the cupboard and removed it, placing it on the bed beside her so he could help her sit up a little better.

"Thanks," Cath said as he opened the notebook and placed it on her lap. "We were able to place trackers in the shipment." She explained.

"The crates had been emptied and left behind," Sam told her.

"We didn't just tag the crates; we also tagged a variety of the weapons and munitions. Jamerson placed trackers inside some of the munitions while Myself and Collins were able to partially dismantle some of the larger pieces and replace the firing mechanism's with new one's that we'd embedded trackers into." Cath explained as she logged onto a secure server through her notebook. Opening a file and bringing up the tracking system. "This isn't working; the file requires more power than I can get with this." She told them with a sigh.

"Can you send the file attachment to our tec team, and then we can track them." Sam asked.

"I can't, I need to be on the main server to do that. I can do this at the Palace, Steve." She told Steve, making eye contact with him. "I need to do this; I need to finish it."

"I'll speak to your Doctor," He told her, knowing how stubborn and driven she could be.

...

SATURDAY 14.30 HRS

Steve pushed open the doors to the office and gently ushered Catherine inside. Sam followed behind them, indicating to his team to keep back. Kono was the first to spot Catherine, immediately smiling and coming around the smart table to greet the other woman in a gentle hug.

"Hey, Sistah. You okay?" She asked in greeting.

"Yeah, I will be. How's things with you and Adam?" Cath asked as she pulled back a little from her friends embrace to look in her face.

"Not great. Adam killed of the Yakuza's men, and is currently in Halawa." Kono said with a small sigh.

"I'm so sorry Kono." Cath said pulling her into a hug.

"Congratulations on the little guy." Kono told her, as she pulled back moving aside to allow Chin to draw Catherine into a hug himself.

"It's good to have you back Catherine." He told her honestly. "Also congratulations on the baby."

"Thanks. It feels pretty good to be back, especially in one piece." She told the Hawaiian man, smiling back at him.

"You know, if we're hugging, you missed me right." Danny said holding his arms open so Catherine could step into his embrace. "Definitely congratulations on the little seal pup." He told her, earning him a small chuckle at his antics.

"You all done hugging, think we can get some work done?" Steve drawled, amused at his team, but very thankful for their acceptance of Cath and baby.

"You jealous?" Danny asked with a smirk on his face.

Catherine laughed at their antics, shaking her head and moving towards the smart table in the Centre of the room. She quickly typed into the server and remotely accessed her computer at Pearl-Hickman. The two teams watched in silence as Catherine quickly opened the tracking file and logged into the Icon recon satellite that she'd need to track the weapons shipment.

"You're accessing a recon satellite?" Callen asked, speaking up for the first time.

"Yes," Cath answered not looking up from her work as she pinpointed multiple locations around the Island. "We were able to tag a number of weapons and munitions before they left Afghanistan." She explained.

"That wasn't in any of the reports you or your team filed." Callen stated.

"We knew there was a leak somewhere on the base. If shipments of arms were going missing, it was an inside job; there was no way of getting around that. Jamerson, Collins and I had worked together before, we trusted each other. We made the decision to keep the trackers to ourselves." She told the pushy agent.

"How many locations are we looking at?" Steve asked moving to stand beside her at the table.

"Total of 4 locations. Give me a minute and I'll narrow down the items they have in the locations." She told him, as she continued to work, opening up another file.

"You can tell what's at each location?" Kensi asked in surprise.

"We altered the frequencies slightly so we could differentiate between munitions, arms and R.P.G's." She told her, as she brought a new file up on the screen and merged the 2 images.

"I have no idea what you're doing, but I'm impressed." Deek's said, watching over the Lieutenant's shoulder.

Cath ignored him and continued working on the smart table, until she was happy with the results. She pushed the 2 combined images onto the screen in front of them, the multi-coloured dots blinking the locations. "Munition's and arms are spread over the 4 locations, the R.P.G's are all in the same location. I'm bringing up the live feed on the locations now." Announced Catherine as she pushed the satellite feed on to the main screen, for them all to see.

"Lou get a hold of HPD and get them out to each of the location's Cath has indicated, tell them to hold back until someone from 5-0 gets there. I want SWAT as well." He ordered Grover, who nodded his head and moved off to contact HPD. "Kono, and Sam take the warehouse at Pearl City, Chin and Callen take the warehouse at Kapolei, Deek's you go with Lou to the house at Waikiki, Kensi and Danny you're with me at Sand Island." He directed.

Steve turned to look at Cath who was leaning against the table, obviously in some discomfort. As he went to speak she gave him a small smile. "Pain meds are just starting to wear off; I have every intention of popping my meds and pinching your chair while I stick my feet up on your desk." She said with a smirk. "Now I have the program up and running, I can access everything from your laptop, and I'll be able to guide you all from there." Cath explained.

"Right let's get moving, feed everything back to Cath." He ordered as they all made to leave the office. He quickly turned to look over his shoulder, and catching her eye he ordered. "Keep the feet of the desk, Rollins."

"Sir, yes Sir." She laughed as he left the room. She grinned at his retreating back, fished her meds out of her pocket and headed into Steve's office to boot up his laptop. Opening the small fridge in the corner of his office, she pulled out a bottle of water and swallowed the pills down. Then she sat down in Steve's chair, and got comfortable by kicking of her shoes and propping her feet on his desk.

Catherine contacted each of the teams, and kept up a steady stream of information and updates with all of them. She wasn't too thrilled about being left to watch from HQ, but new she wouldn't be much good on this take down. She was in a lot of pain with the ribs, and after everything she'd endured the past week, she was scared about anything happening with her baby. The baby was the only thing that had kept her going for the last few months; it was her reason for getting up every morning and carrying on with the mission.

...

SATURDAY 1600 HRS

Steve and Sam had both agreed that all 4 locations should be targeted simultaneously, and with the help of Catherine they were able to get everyone in all the locations. HPD had transported them all to the lock up, except for 2 men, who when identified as Naval personnel they had been escorted to 5-0's blue room for interrogation.

Catherine had been able to search the Navy's data base for the sailor's personnel files and their duty roster for the past 12 months. They were all aware these 2 were only small fish in big scheme of things, but they needed to find the leak, and those 2 were there only hope at that. Catherine was still sat in Steve's office, when the two teams returned, her feet still firmly planted on his desk as he walked in.

"Hey, I thought I said no feet on my desk." He said with a grin, coming around the piece of furniture and propping his hip on the edge. He slid his hand to her leg, rubbing along her calf muscles as she sighed. "You find anything?"

"Not yet, the only similarities I can find is there C.O. Commander Barrow. They were never rostered together and both worked in completely different branches. Neither have any family, nor do they seem to have had any problems financially before all this began, so we can rule blackmail out as a motive." She told him on a moan as he picked one of her feet up and added pressure.

"What about their C.O. Have they been brought up on any charges by him?" Steve asked, wondering what could have pushed the men to betray the service.

"No charges have ever been brought against them. But Barrow's a total ass," Spat Catherine.

"Ok, why do I have a feeling there's something you're not telling?" He said, raising an eye brow to look at her.

"He was my C.O. for this op. When I found out about the baby, he not so subtly accused me of doing it deliberately to get out of the op, and then suggested I get an abortion. When I told him that I wouldn't be killing our baby, he told me he wasn't scrubbing the mission. He ordered me to complete the mission as planned." Cath told Steve quietly, looking at his face. His eyes were closed, the pulse point in his neck and the hard set of his jaw indicating how mad he was.

Opening his stormy eyes, to look at Cath. "God, Cat." He managed to croak out.

"Not even for a second, Steve. I'd never do that to our baby." She said, reaching to grab his hand as a knock sounded on his open door.

Steve turned towards the person, noting Sam and his partner Callen just behind him. "We get anything from them?" He asked.

"Yeah, there not the brightest of criminals. There C.O recruited them about 2 years back, just petty little things at first, smuggling contraband booze and porn. Then they claim about 12 months ago he stepped up the operation, and started skimming of the top of the weapons shipments going stateside. Just hand guns to start then then bigger stuff when they got regular clients." Sam explained, seriously pissed off with the whole fiasco.

"The C.O.? Barrow?" Steve asked, his temper flaring at the implication.

"Yeah. You know him?" Callen asked, picking up on the tension between McGarrett and Rollins.

"He was my C.O for this mission." Cath explained, as she looked at Sam and his partner. "We've just been talking about him." Cath watched as Steve stood, then started to pace his office, before turning on his heel and leaving. "Tell Danny to go with him." She told Sam as they watched him leave.

"What the hell is going on?" Sam asked, clearly confused.

"Sam, please just tell Danny to go with Steve." Cath insisted.

Sam left the room in search of the Detective, gave him a quick rundown of the situation and watched as the man nodded and immediately sprinted from the office to catch up to his partner. Sam scrubbed a hand over his face, wondering what was going on with his former teammate. He saw Catherine out of the corner of his eye as she slowly made her way from Steve's office, Callen trailing behind.

"What's going on, do we have a lead?" Kensi asked, ready to go.

"Maybe Catherine can explain," Sam replied, turning to look at the woman.

"Barrow was my C.O as well as the 2 sailors you brought in." Taking a deep breath, she moved on. "When you confront Barrow, Keep an eye on Steve." She told them.

"Why? What's going on, and what the hell did we just witness in his office?" An angry Sam asked her.

"When I found out I was pregnant, Barrow accused me of deliberately 'getting knocked up to avoid the mission' his words." She said using her finger's in a gesture of air quotes. "He strongly suggested I got rid of the baby, when I told him that I had no intention of killing my baby, I was ordered to complete the mission as planned." She swallowed a lump round in her throat. "Steve and I had just finished discussing that when you informed us that they'd given up Barrow."

"You think he's gone after Barrow!" Callen stated, already moving to the doors.

"No, he's gone to think." Chin said calmly, having an idea of what was going through his friend's head. "Catherine was right to let Danny handle this."

"You sure about that?" Callen asked the Hawaiian Detective.

"Yes." Was the instant and positive reply that came from Chin's lips? "Out of all of us Danny is the one best situated to handle this. Steve will open up to him, more so than the rest of us. Danny is stubborn, and won't let up till he gets Steve to talk." Chin paused a moment wondering if he should say more to ease the minds of the NCIS agents. He realized he did need to explain further.

"When Steve returned to Oahu it was to bury his father and find the man responsible for his murder. The case was being run by a haole and a rookie, Steve had been offered the task force by the governor but refused, he didn't plan on staying. Steve was a Navy SEAL with every intention of returning to that, till he met Danny at the crime scene. Steve bullied Danny into being his partner through the governor, and eventually they were able to get a lead on a trafficker who had helped Hesse get onto the Island undetected."

"Steve has an image of being the tough guy; he instils respect, but fear into most people who don't know him as well as his friends. Danny was the only one at HPD that wasn't scared of Steve; he openly stood up to him, and even took a good swing at Steve. Steve respects Danny for that; he's the only one of us that won't back down with him." Chin told the agents in front of him.

Catherine spoke up again. "I'm willing to bet that when Steve left the hospital with Danny, he told him most of what we'd discussed." Catherine held her hand up to stop Agent Callen for interrupting her. "And no I'm not telling you any more than that. Steve will be back when he's cleared his head." She concluded ending the discussion.

...

Waimanalo Bay- SATURDAY 1630 HRS

Danny sighed as he spotted Steve's Silverado parked in the lot, pulling into the vacant spot at the side of the truck. Exiting ad locking his car he quickly scanned the beach looking for his friend. It didn't take long to spot Steve, stood facing the ocean, hands stuffed in the pockets of his cargo pants, as he stared out to sea. Danny pulled himself upright and slowly made his way across the sand till he reached Steve's side.

Danny knew Steve was aware of his presence but he didn't acknowledge him, just continued to stare out to see as the waves crashed on the shoreline. Danny saw him pull in a few deep breaths, slowly letting each one out as he attempted to get his anger under control. When Danny felt like Steve was ready to talk, he turned to look at him properly. He took in the hard set of his jaw and the red rimmed eyes, and waited.

"Did you speak to Catherine before you left?" Steve asked resigned to telling Danny everything.

"No. Sam told me Catherine wanted me to go after you. What's going on Steve? Is this something to do with you and Catherine?" He asked, wondering if Catherine was going away again.

"Catherine's C.O. is the one behind all this. This bastard tried to force Cath to have an abortion, and right now I'd like nothing more than to beat the Bastard to a pulp." He told his friend in a dangerous voice.

"I can understand you wanting to do that, but you can't. What do you think that will do to Cath, she needs you there for her and the baby? We'll get this guy and he'll pay, but you cannot kill him." Danny reasoned.

"Don't you think I know that? You want to know what scares me the most." He shouted at Danny, not waiting for an answer. "Cath could have aborted our baby, and I'd never of known." He said on a sob, wiping his hand down his face.

"Hey, babe, don't do that to yourself. Cath would never do that; you know that right?" He said, hurting for his friend. "Catherine looks really happy that she's pregnant with that little seal pup of yours." He joked. Steve snorted at that, but didn't say anything else. "Why don't you start at the beginning, I'm sure you missed loads out."

Steve pulled in a deep breath and began to tell Danny everything Cath had told him about her C.O's conversation over the baby. Danny didn't interrupt, just allowed him to tell the whole story, as he silently offered him his full support.

"Oh, I so want to hold that Bastard down, while you beat the crap out of him." Seethed Danny, a while later. "What I don't understand is why he ordered her onto the mission. We know Cath is good at what she does, look at the way she tracked the shipment. She was in the Navy for years doing this, and I'm willing to bet this guy knew Cath had worked for 5-0 as well. Why insist on having her run that mission?" Danny said in confusion.

"Yeah, unless." Steve said turning to his partner.

"He was working with Hesse. Cath's involvement could be targeted at you." He said answering for Steve, clearly on the same page as he watched Steve pull out his cell phone and hit speed dial.

"Hey Chin, put me on speaker." He ordered. "Get a thorough background on Barrow; I want to know if he had any connections to Hesse. We've been trying to figure out why Cath was picked for this op, and why she was forced to continue with it. It doesn't make sense, SOP is that Cath should have been sent stateside when they discovered she was pregnant, that didn't happen. Why?" He pointed out, directing everyone's thoughts. "Also it was common knowledge in intel about me and Cath. Any C.O checking her jacket would have seen that I was listed as next of kin"

"Catherine has already started working on Barrow's background. She disappeared into your office half an hour ago; you want me to tell her to take her feet of the desk?" He said in a jovial tone.

Steve grinned at the image of Cath making herself at home in his office. "No, that's fine, although the rest of you better not get any ideas." He told them. "Sam, have your people check up on any of Hesse's business associates, I want to know how he was able to get in on this deal. Kono, pull his phone records, go back at least 12 months, this type of op would have taken time. Chin ask Cath if she can give you a rough time frame of her locations last year, and check them against Barrow's." He directed. "We're on our way back now, so we'll see you in 20." He said.

"Hey boss, how about feeding us. I for one am starving." Kono said.

"Fine, we'll swing by Kamekona's on the way back." He told them, as Danny chuckled beside him.

...

SATURDAY 17.30

Steve and Danny walked into HQ with bags of food from Kamekona's. Dropping them in the break room, where everybody gathered to eat. They passed around the cartons of food as Chin and Kono grabbed the cutlery and crockery from the small kitchen area they used.

After everybody had filled their plates and began tucking in, they began discussing the case, and any new information they'd come up with. They brainstormed their idea's back and forth with each other, giving some more angles to check, when Catherine stopped dead in her tracks, dropped her plate and quickly left the room returning a few minutes later with the sat phone from Steve's office drawer.

She quickly typed in a number from memory, and waited for the call to connect. She sighed when the call was answered then stunned everyone when she started to speak Pashtu. Steve sat up straighter, as did the 4 NCIS agents. She spoke for about 10 minutes, before she disconnected the call.

She took a deep breath before she spoke to the occupants of the room. Her gaze locked on Steve, as she explained. "Something Fazik said to me last year after the Taliban took Najib and the other children from the village. He said that there had been a white man who had been in the village shortly before who had spoken English. He'd apparently spoke to some of the women. He's going to phone back when he's spoken to his wife, see if she can remember what he spoke of with her."

Steve had an idea where she was going with this. "You didn't mention Fazik in your report, to protect the village though." Steve stated.

"What report? And what village are we talking about?" Callen asked.

"During one of my tours in Afghanistan, I was injured and separated from my unit. A local man Fazik, found me. Fazik and his wife helped me and hid me from a Taliban patrol at a great risk to themselves and their son. Last year Fazik called to say the Taliban had taken his son, along with several others from the village." She told him.

"They train them up as fighters, we've encountered it before." He told her, remembering the time the NCIS team had gone to rescue Kensi.

"Yeah. Steve and I we went in under the radar to get the kids back." She told him, before turning to look at Steve. "That prisoner transport mission of Anton Hesse, was over seen by Naval Intelligence. We had spent years tracking them both, and all the data and intel came across our desks even before you and Freddie was sent in. Victor might have been working for Wo Fat when he killed your dad, but he knew all about you. If he'd kept tabs on you..." She said, her voice trailing off as Steve finished her train of thought.

"He'd have seen us together, and known we were friends." Steve agreed.

"It's possible that he could have kept tabs on me during my tours in Afghanistan." She said, before pausing. "Also there were 3 other Intelligence officers who compiled the data with me. Jamerson, Cooper and ..." Cath paused looking at Steve, knowing which friend they were discussing.

"Billy!" Steve finished with a swallow.

"Who's Billy?" Callen asked, picking up on some of the tension.

"A former team mate." Sam told Callen.

"Billy transferred into Naval intelligence a couple of years before leaving the Navy for private work." Cath added, filling out some of Billy's background. "He was an ex." She finished for the NCIS agent's benefit.

"His death was completely separate from this though, Cath." Steve reminded her gently.

"Yeah, but that still left 3 of us. Jamerson, Cooper and me." Cath bit her lip, drew in a deep breath and continued. "They were waiting for us at the warehouse, they knew exactly where and when we'd be there. Took us out with Darts, and never asked a single dam question the whole time they had us."

"That would hold with Barrows being in league with Hesse. He had Jamerson and Cooper still in Naval intelligence; he just had to pull you in for the mission to work." Steve concluded.

Cath looked at him, needing to say more about being pulled for the mission, but uncertain how he'd react. "I was approached while I was still in Afghanistan, gave orders and told that the Navy would be in touch when the op was a go. They had a lot of intel; they knew we'd travelled together. I'm guessing they must have pulled Danny's call records, they knew I was the one who saw you getting taken." She swallowed down the lump in her throat. "Steve," She whispered.

"Cath, don't. I never blamed you for that. You did what you could, to get me help." He told her, putting a stop to her apology. "When did they get back in touch?"

"The day I left. I got a call from Barrows that afternoon telling me to get a cover in place and that I was wheels up at 2000 hrs." She told him.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked, beginning to pace the room.

"I had orders, Steve. Under no circumstances could you be told about the op. Barrows was pretty insistent on that." She said, still upset over the lie she'd had to tell him.

"You wouldn't let me drive you to the airport!" He said turning to look at her, as he realized she'd said wheels up. "Military transport." He exclaimed.

She nodded her head, pulling in a breath as she swiped the tears from her eyes. "Yeah. If I'd have let you drive me, you'd have known I wasn't going to Nepal to help with the earthquake relief. I had no choice, and I'm so sorry I lied to you."

Steve finished his pacing; dropping down into the chair he'd been sat on moments ago. The room had gone quiet, no one daring to say anything. Steve just looked at Catherine, a look of understanding and forgiveness passing across his face.

Catherine knew Steve would understand her orders, and forgive her for lying about them. She knew they still had a lot to discuss; her staying in Afghanistan last year had still not been broached properly. Steve had given her an ultimation and she'd left him again, and she wondered if he'd moved on. His actions at the hospital and earlier in his office gave her some hope that he still loved her. The ringing of the Sat phone broke the quiet of the room.

They all watched as Catherine glanced at the caller I'd before answering the call in Pashtu. She spoke for a few minutes, before hanging up. "Farina says he was asking if there had been an American woman in the village. He claimed he was trying to find his friend who had been listed as Missing in action. Farina said she hadn't said anything to him, but Fazik believes it's possible one of the other women may have said something. I'd say from the brief description that Farina was able to give, it was most likely one of the Hesse brother's." Catherine relayed.

"We need to find the connection." Danny said in frustration.

"I can't find anything with phone record's, more than likely used a burner." Kono said.

"Same with his file, I haven't found anything out of the ordinary. His financials are pretty consistent, no large amounts in his bank, no large purchases or withdrawal's. He must have an of shore account that payments go through. Nothing that tie's him in with Hesse, Yet." Catherine was determined to nail this S.O.B.

Sam looked at Steve; both shook their heads, clearly frustrated. "I think we should call it a night, get some shut eye and start a fresh in the morning." Sam said, looking around the room at the assembled group.

Steve nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah. You guys set up?" He asked his former team mate.

"We'll head over to one of the local hotels, get situated there." Sam told him as the rest of his team stood ready to head out.

"Plenty of room at mine." Steve offered.

Danny snorted, saying. "So long as one of you doesn't mind the little mermaid room."

The NCIS team looked between the blonde detective and the SEAL, attempting to gauge how serious Danny had been. Steve was scowling at him, although it didn't seem to faze the other man.

"You know Mary did the room, not me." He defended, as he looked at Sam. "It's my niece's room, she's 2."

...

McGarrett's residence Saturday 1930 hrs.

Steve pulled into his driveway, looking across at Catherine in the passenger seat of the truck. Her head was leaning against the window as she slept soundly beside him, placing his hand on her shoulder he softly called her name, but she didn't stir. Opening the door and climbing out of the truck, he made his way around the other side of the Silverado, and gently opened the door to get to Cath. He leaned around her, unclipping the seat belt and freeing her from its constraint.

Steve heard the black SUV as it turned the corner into his road, coming to a stop outside his property. He looked up, watching as the 4 agents climbed out of the vehicle and headed towards his truck. Steve was already lifting Cath out of the truck, as they neared him. Pushing the cab door shut with his hip, he engaged the lock with the fob in his hand, and made his way up the path towards his front door. He passed his door key to Sam and instructed him on where to find his alarm system and the code he'd need.

Sam opened the door and disabled the alarm, as Steve headed for the stairs still carrying a sleeping Catherine in his arms. He pushed the covers back as he gently placed her on the bed, and quickly began to undress her. He pulled one of his shirts from his dresser and carefully pulled it over her head, covering her body. He pulled the covers over her, dropped a quick kiss on her forehead and after placing his gun and badge in the drawer on his side of the bed, he left the room.

"She still asleep?" Sam asked as he spotted Steve heading back down the stairs.

"Yeah. She didn't sleep that well last night, even with the doctor sedating her." He told him, as he made his way towards the study and opened his desk drawer. He pulled the small box out, and slipped it into the pocket of his cargos before anyone saw it. "I'll give

you the whistle stop tour." He said, as he made his way into the living room and showed them where they could find what they needed.

...

Saturday 2300 hrs.

Steve quietly pushed the door to his room open, quickly slipping inside and closing it behind him. He glanced across at Cath, a sliver of moonlight from the window above his bed bathing her. He smiled as he watched the rise and fall of her chest as she slept soundly in the bed. He moved around to his own side of the bed, lowering himself to sit on the edge of the mattress. He unfastened and removed his boots, pushing them under the bed, before pulling the small box from his pocket and placing it in his bedside drawer.

Getting up he headed into the bathroom, quickly stripping and dropping his dirty clothing into the hamper, before stepping into the shower. He emerged exactly 3 minutes later, rubbing the water from his hair and body before wrapping the towel around his waist, and grabbing his toothbrush from the holder.

He emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later, ready to grab a pair of shorts from the dresser only to find Cath sitting up in bed, with the bedside light on breathing heavily. He was by her side instantly, pulling her into his embrace, realizing she'd probably had a nightmare. He held her tight, his hands rubbing at her back in a soothing way, as she finally let go and cried.

Steve didn't say anything, just held her, and for that Catherine was grateful. She clung to him as tightly as she could, the tears freely pouring down her face as she cried. What seemed like hours later, but was probably only minutes, her tears began to subside as she relied where she was. She pulled back slightly to look at his face, noting the concern and love that shone from his eyes as he held her. She leaned towards him, kissing his lips, a soft sigh escaping her as he returned the kiss.

Slipping one hand into her hair to hold her close, he deepened the kiss, gently lowering her to the bed and bracing his other hand against the headboard to keep his weight of her bruised and tender body. He pulled away from her mouth and littered her face and neck with kisses before whispering in her ear. "I want you so badly, right now."

"I want you too," She said on a whisper as she tried to turn her face to capture his lips with her own. Her hands had slid down to his waist; her fingers finding the edge of the towel, and pulling.

He felt the towel around his hips loosen, as her hands skimmed around his waist and under the towel, her nails racking across his flesh. He growled into her neck, his control slipping. He pulled away from her slightly, his breathing heavy as he rolled to his back, pulling her on top of him.

Catherine could feel his hardness pressing against stomach as she looked down into his face. She felt his hands slipping under the shirt she was wearing, running across her bottom and up her waist and lower back. She moaned as he slid his hands around her sides, gently pulling her towards him as he leaned up to kiss her. Sliding one of her hands into his hair and bracing the other on the bed beside him, she allowed him to deepen the kiss. She sighed into his mouth when she felt him pulling the shirt up, the cool air from the open window hitting her quickly heating body.

He groaned, needing to feel her skin against his own. Sliding his hands up her body brought a cold splash of reality as he encountered the bandages around her ribs, at the same time as she hissed in pain. He pulled back from the kiss, resting his forehead against hers as he drew in a few deep breaths attempting to get control of his breathing and his body. "I'm sorry." He whispered.

"Steve," She murmured as her lips sort his in another kiss. "Please."

"Don't want to hurt you, Cath." He whispered as he peppered her face with kisses, noting the saltiness of the tears that leaked from her eyes.

"Please, make it stop." She whispered in his ear as he kissed her neck.

He knew then what her whispered plea was about; she wanted him to help take away her pain. Not the physical pain her body was in, the emotional pain of losing her friends in such a horrific way. He knew she was asking him to make her feel alive; it was something she'd done for him so many times in the past. She'd always known what he needed as soon as he'd turned up at her door. She would pull him into her embrace and let him take the lead on whatever it was he needed from her.

"Whatever you need," He told her in a hushed voice, as he brushed a kiss across her lips. He felt her shifting bracing her hands on his shoulders as she pushed to sit up, her legs pressed against his hips. He watched her in the moonlight as she pulled the shirt over her head tossing it over her shoulder.

Catherine stared at his face, studying him as his eyes racked across her naked body. She knew him well enough to know he was taking in her injuries, and planning the best way to minimize her discomfort. His body might want her, but he wouldn't hurt her. She felt his hands run across her hips, gently holding her as he sat up. His hands slid up her back, pulling her closer in his embrace as he kissed her lips tenderly.

She moaned as his lips moved across her own, then down her neck and across her shoulder leaving a fire of sensation in its wake. His hands were gently running across her back, holding her to him. She needed more from him, more than the tender kisses and gentle touches. "Steve, need you."

He grinned against the skin as he heard her needy words, loved how her body responded to just his kisses. He brushed kisses across the upper swell of her breast, his mouth latching onto a nipple and gently flicking it with his tongue. He was rewarded with Cath grinding her core against his erection.

"Stop teasing." She pleaded, her hands going to his shoulders to push him back onto the bed as he chuckled at her.

"Bit impatient are we?" He whispered around the nipple in his mouth.

"Yes," She hissed as he gently bit down on her tender little nub. "I want you inside me, and I want you to fuck me hard and fast." She ordered, grinning when she heard him growl against her breast.

Damn this woman new how to push his buttons. Cath always had come across to everyone as a well-mannered female officer, but beneath that facade there was another, the saltiest of Sailor's who had a real foul mouth. Very few people ever saw that side of her, but she knew how her crass words could take him from 0-60 in the blink of an eye. "Jesus, Cath." He said, bucking his hips against her.

She felt his hands gliding down her spine and across her bottom as he gripped her, pulling her body closer to his. She felt his fingers slipping threw her wet folds as he fastened his mouth around her other nipple grazing his teeth across the tender flesh. Cath gave a surprised little yell as he quickly rolled them over, his hands braced on either side of her head as he kept his weight of her upper body.

He shifted his weight so he was braced on one arm above Cath, his other trailing down her body and hooking behind her knee to pull her leg around his hip opening her more fully for his possession. He gasped as he felt Cath's hand gripping his erection, guiding him towards her body. Dropping his forehead against hers he savoured the sensation of pushing into her tight body.

Cath's hands went to his back as she welcomed her lover back into her body. She felt the pull of her muscles as her body stretched to accommodate his size, her moans of pleasure as he began to slowly move inside her body. It wasn't the hard and fast pace that she had demanded, but this was just the start of their love making. Hard and fast would come once Steve was ready, not before, he very rarely gave up full control to her in the bedroom. Wrapping her other leg around his hip, and digging her fingers into his back she gave her body completely to him.

Steve leaned forward, kissing her deeply as he rocked into her body gently. He was determined to be gentle with her; he knew how tender her ribs were. She moaned into his mouth, making him grin as he pulled away from the kiss. "Gonna have to be quiet, Cath." He whispered against her lips. "No trying to wake the neighbours."

He thrust into her a little deeper, smirking as he saw how she bit her lip to keep from crying out. Steve watched her face as he moved above her, mesmerized by her beauty. He leaned in kissing her, as her hands slid to his shoulders, attempting to pull him down closer towards her. He felt the sting of her nail's biting into his skin as he thrust into her a little harder.

He rolled to his side pulling Cath with him as he wrapped his arms tightly around her body, kissing her deeply before trailing kisses across her check and down her neck to suck at her pulse point. He heard the gasp and then the load moan she bit into his shoulder, in an attempt at being quiet. He kissed his way back up her neck, to her ear, nipping at her lobe as he whispered exactly what he wanted to do to her. He felt the shiver run threw her body and heard the excited moan as she moved her body in tune with his thrusts.

Steve knew Cath was as close to the edge as he was himself, as his pace quickened at the sound of her panting. He kissed her lips again pulling back slightly to look into her face. "Come for me, Cath." He ordered, as he closed his mouth over hers, capturing the small scream as her orgasm broke through her. He felt her body tightening around his, and he let go, spilling himself into her body.

Steve held her close as they both tried to get there breathing under control. She could still feel him inside her body, as he made no move to withdraw from her embrace. She tucked her head into the crook of his neck, sighing contently as he brushed kisses across her face.

"I love you, Catherine." He whispered against her forehead, when he could speak again.

Catherine looked up into his face, smiling back at him. "I love you too, Steve." She said, stretching up to tenderly kiss his lips.

...

Sunday 0700

Catherine slowly came awake, stretching her body and wincing at the slight pull of abused muscles, she rolled to her side to find Steve's half of the bed empty. She tapered down her disappointment his absence caused and climbed from the bed. She grabbed the shirt she'd pulled of last night and slipped it on, heading to the closet to see what clothes she still had here. Pulling on a pair of shorts she headed down stairs, noting how quiet the house was.

The Lanai doors were open letting in a cool breeze, the sound of the ocean moving against the shore. She turned as a sound behind her drew her attention to the stairs. Sam and Agent Callen were heading down the stairs, both fully dressed, ready for the day. Cath smiled a greeting at them before she headed into the kitchen to start on coffee.

"McGarrett still asleep?" Callen asked as he followed her into the kitchen.

"No. Steve's probably been up a while." She told them as she opened the cupboard with the coffee in, and placed some in the grinder.

"I don't see him anywhere." Callen said, glancing around the room, and taking in the child's painting pinned up on the fridge, as Catherine opened it to remove the milk, butter and fruit juice.

"Lanai doors are open so I'd say he's gone swimming, Agent Callen." She said placing the items she'd collected onto a tray.

Sam chuckled; He knew Steve kept in shape just as much as he did himself. "How many miles he covering these days?" Sam asked.

"Depends on his mood," She told Sam with a grin. "Never less than 5, though." She poured water into the cafeteria and placed the lid on it before picking up the tray and heading outside.

The 4 agents took in McGarrett's backyard, and the view of the Ocean. Glancing down to the water they could see the man cutting strongly threw the water as he made his way back to shore. Catherine poured the coffee and passed each of the agents a mug, before filling a 5th mug for Steve, spooning in a large spoonful of butter and stirring it into the bitter liquid.

"Seriously you're going to drink that?" Deek's asked, looking at the mug in front of her.

"No I'm not, this one's Steve's." She told him with a grin, as Sam chuckled beside her.

"It's a team thing; it boosts energy and enhances brain function." Sam explained to Deek's, grinning. "Maybe you should try it, Deek's."

"No way, why would anyone want to put butter in a perfectly good cup of coffee." He groused, shaking his head in confusion. "SEAL's are weird." He exclaimed.

Cath looked at Sam, "You know he kind of reminds me of Danny."

"We talking loud and annoying?" Sam asked.

Cath chuckled, shaking her head. "Definitely, Danny has a knack for pushing all Steve's buttons. The two of them argue like an old married couple." She said with a chuckle, watching as Steve made his way out of the water. He grabbed the towel he'd left on the battered wood chair near the water's edge and quickly towelled, as he made his way towards the house.

"That mine?" He asked as he spotted the coffee in front of her.

"Yeah." She said, handing him the mug.

Steve took hold of the mug, and thanked her as he dropped into the empty chair on her other side. "Mahalo"

"You have a beautiful view from your backyard." Kensi said, on a sigh taking in the view.

"Yeah, some of the smaller islands are pretty spectacular, most are uninhabited so the wildlife thrives on them. Makes for some pretty amazing free diving experiences." He told her, remembering the last free dive he'd done and feeling guilty. He needed to talk to Cath, tell her what he'd done, especially after what they'd shared last night.

"I noticed some boards outside last night, you surf?" Deek's asked.

Steve grinned, "We're in Hawaii, it's pretty much mandatory, even Danny surf's." he told him.

"Really, I never had him pegged for the beach sort of guy." Deek's said, trying to imagine the blonde detective on a board.

"Grace wanted to learn, so Danny learned how to surf. He's actually pretty good, even if he hasn't learnt the concept of not stealing someone's wave yet." Steve mused.

"I'd say that was pretty admirable, taking lessons just for your kid." Kensi said with respect for the man.

"Danny would do anything for Grace." Catherine pointed out, before pushing herself out of the chair. She turned to look at Steve. "I'm going to shower." She told him.

"You want me to re-tape your ribs?" He asked, knowing she'd probably want to remove the bandages so she could clean the hospital smell from her body.

"Yeah." She said over her shoulder as she made her way back into the house.

...

Sunday 0900 hrs.

Palace

The NCIS agents walked into five-0's offices, and headed for the smart table, where they could see the members of 5-0 stood going through some of the evidence from their case. Danny looked up as they entered, his eyes going to the doors behind them, as he realized Steve and Cath weren't with them.

Sam noticed the look the Detective sent their way and explained. "Catherine wanted to pick her car up, Steve's running her down to the unit."

"Right." He said. "We've been going over the evidence, seeing if we can spot something we missed yesterday. The crime lab was able to recover some security footage from the warehouse cctv; we're just waiting for them to send it over." He told them getting down to business.

...

Sunday 0900 hrs.

Pearl City - Storage Unit.

Steve pulled the truck to a stop outside the storage unit, Cath indicated. Throwing it in to park as she opened the door and climbed out. She pulled the key from her pocket and moved towards the door.

Cath unlocked the door, as Steve moved from behind her, pushing the metal shutter upwards. Her blue Corvette took up most of the space inside, but Steve could make out a few large box's stacked up at the back of the unit. He knew the contents of most of the boxes had come from her old apartment, the others were the mountain of clothes and personal memento's she'd collected during her Naval career.

Steve watched as she made her way towards the back of the locker, and began moving a few of the box's aside. "Hey Let me help." He said moving across to move the boxes out of her way. "Which one do you need?"

"There's a couple of box's at the back," She said pointing at the one's she wanted. "I need some better underwear than I have at yours." She quietly told him, watching his face as he grinned.

"I kind of like it when you don't bother with it," He smirked at her.

"You would." She told him in an amused voice, adding. "My breast's unfortunately have other ideas. I'm pretty tender because of the baby." Cath explained as she slit the tape to open the box. She rummaged through the box, pushing items aside until she found what she was after. She pulled the lingerie out of the box, placing it on top of another box as she opened the other box and pulled out several long sleeved shirts and a few pairs of slacks.

Cath felt Steve move closer, his breath warm against her ear, as he turned her to face him. "There's something I need to talk to you about. I know this isn't the best time to do this, but after last night, we need to talk." He told her gently, his hands on her hips as he looked into her eyes.

Cath looked at him in confusion, wondering what he wanted to talk about. "I'm not going to leave, I meant what I said." She said thinking that might still be his main concern.

"I know." He said, swallowing nervously as he got the courage to tell her. "A few weeks after you left, I..." He paused, pulling in a deep breath nervously. "Get it together McGarrett," He told himself. "I went on a few date's." He got out of a rush.

Cath sucked in a deep breath, biting her lip, as tears threatened to fall. She stepped back, letting his hands drop from her waist as she wrapped her arms around herself as if protecting herself. "You're seeing someone?" She asked on a sob, as the tears spilled from her eyes. The thought of what they'd done last night running threw her head, making her feel sick.

"No." He said shaking his head in denial. "I'm not seeing anyone. I tried to move on, Cath, but I can't imagine spending my life with anyone else but you. I broke it of when I realized that I still wanted you." He took a step closer, his hand held out towards her. He sighed when she took hold, allowing him to pull her closer as he wrapped his arms around her.

Cath buried her face into the warmth of his chest, breathing in his familiar scent as she cried. She could feel his hands on her back as he rubbed soothing circles, as he let her cry. Trying to get her tears under control, she took a shaky breath, pulling back from his shoulder to look into his face. His eyes were full of remorse and a hint of guilt, as he swallowed nervously, waiting for her to speak.

"How many?" She asked.

He shook his head confused by her question. "How many, What?"

"Date's?"

"I didn't exactly count them. I went out with her for a few weeks, that's all." He told her. "Free diving, Coffee and drinks." He mentioned, watching as she gave a small smile.

"You didn't make dinner plans?" She asked with a grin as he casually mentioned the activities.

"No, you're the only person I want to NOT make it to dinner with." Steve said, leaning down to brush his lips with hers.

She pulled away from his kiss to ask in a quiet voice. "Did you..." She swallowed the lump in her throat, and tried again. "Did you sleep with her?"

He didn't answer, just nodded his head "I'm sorry for hurting you, Cath."

She let the tears spill down her cheeks as she pulled away from him. "I'm sorry I didn't trust or believe in our relationship enough to tell you the truth. I should have told you I was going on a Navy sanctioned mission."

"I understand why you didn't tell me, Cath." He told her gently, as he looked into her face.

Cath swallowed; glad they were both being honest with each other. "Can we start again?" She asked in a small voice.

"I don't want to start again, Cath." He said, quickly adding. "Let's forget the last 12 months ever happened, and carry on where we left of 12 months ago."

Cath smiled, "I'd like that." She said wiping the tears from her eyes, and leaning up to kiss him.

Steve kissed her back, his hand moving to cup the back of her head as he deepened the kiss. He felt her hand's slipping around his back, pulling him closer as she moaned. He pulled back, his kisses becoming more tender. He rested his forehead against hers, pulling air into his lungs.

"Marry me?" Cath said on a rush, needing him to be hers completely.

Steve didn't say anything, just smiled at her. He reached into his pocket, his hand closing around the box he'd slipped in his pocket that morning. Pulling his hand from his pocket, he thumbed the lid open just as Cath spoke again.

"Say something." Cath said, suddenly nervous he didn't feel the same way.

Steve pulled away from her, bringing the box up till it was level with her line of sight. He watched her face as she noticed the ring, her eyes quickly moving to his. "Is that a good enough answer?" He asked with a grin, pulling out of her embrace and dropping to his knee in front of her.

"Catherin Rollins, will you do me the honour of becoming my wife?" He asked, taking the ring from the box and slipping it onto her left hand.

"Steve, it's beautiful." She whispered, completely stunned by the ring. She sank to her knees in front of him, leaning in to kiss him. "I'd be honoured to be your wife." She told him, leaning in to kiss him.

...

Sunday 1000 hrs.

Palace.

Steve pushed the door open, allowing Catherine to pass through before he followed her into the bull pen. He noticed both teams stood around the table, watching the screen in front of them as cctv footage of the warehouse was played. He saw Cath stop in front of him as she noticed the footage being played. Her breath hitched when she saw herself being beaten, her 2 team mates, shouting insults at their captures to draw their attention away from her. Steve quickly moved to her side, grasping her shoulder for support. Chin was closing the recording down as the other people in the room turned to see Catherine stood watching.

"Eric was able to pull some security footage from the damaged cctv. We've just being going through the footage." Chin explained, watching Cath closely. "I'm sorry we didn't hear you come in, I'd have turned it off earlier." He apologized.

"It's okay." She said finally moving, stepping around Chin and opening up the camera feed again.

Everyone watched as she fast forwarded threw the footage till she came to what she was looking for. She paused the image, at a smartly dressed woman in her late forties. Cath was staring at the woman, her eyes fixed on the image deep in thought.

"Cath," Steve said from behind her, his hand once again going to her shoulder. "Talk to me."

"She was the one giving the orders. It didn't make sense at the time, but something she said, about the ultimate pain of retribution being through the eyes of a child." Cath turned to look at him. "She made sure that every hit was on my upper body or face, never my stomach. Except this one time, one of the goons hit my rib cage really low, she put a bullet in his knee."

"She knew you were pregnant." Steve surmised, understanding what she'd told them.

"Now I think about it, she had a slight Irish accent." Cath told them.

Kono was busy running her face threw the system. "We have a match guy's. Elizabeth Barrow, wife of our Commander. Her maiden name is McKinsey, born in Dublin, Ireland. She's been married to Barrow for 4 years, has a son to a previous relationship, he's twelve." She told them.

"Wait," Cath said, tapping away at the keyboard of the smart table. "Barrow's page 2 entries has a 12-year-old child listed as one of his dependents. He's listed as Mathew Anton Barrow."

"See if you can pull a birth certificate for the boy. It can't be a coincidence that the boy's middle name is Anton." Steve said, watching as Catherine tapped away at the keyboard.

"Got it." Cath said, sliding the image to the screen. "Father's name is listed as Anton Hesse." She said, turning to look at Steve. They had their connection.

"Looks like we have our connection." Callen said. "We also have Barrow visiting the warehouse on three separate occasions."

"We'll need a secure location to do the interrogation." Sam said, before asking. "We okay here?"

"Yeah, I actually insist on it." Steve replied.

"You should stay out of this, Steve." Sam told him firmly. "We're gonna nail this s.o.b. for what he's done, but we need him in one piece."

"No. I need to do this." Steve told him.

Sam stared at him, sizing up the situation. Nodding his head, he agreed. "Fine, but you let my team take the lead on this. That's non-negotiable." He told him.

"Okay." Steve agreed.

Sam looked over at Cath, studying her a moment before telling her what he needed. "Cath, can you get me a location for Barrow and his wife. See if you can dig up anything about the wife's past as well. I might need you to access the recon satellite again once were ready to go in."

Cath looked across to Steve, waiting for him to give his go ahead. He nodded at her and she quickly set to work.

...

Sunday 1200 hrs.

Danny's Camaro.

Danny looked across at Steve as he drove the Camaro threw the traffic of Pearl city, as they made their way to Barrow's home. Steve had been quiet since they had left the palace, clearly deep in thought.

"So, I noticed you asked!" Danny stated, tapping at his left ring finger, finally breaking the silence

"Yeah," Steve said turning to look at his partner, with a goofy grin on his face. "Although Cath kind of stole the op from under me."

"Wait, your telling me Cath proposed?" Danny said, grinning back at his friend, and chuckling when Steve just nodded his head.

"I had the whole op planned. I was going to take her up to Waimanalo point later, watch the sunset, and ask her to marry me. But Cath, she beat me to it." Steve told him with a grin, not really bothered by the fact.

"So what you just said yes?"

"No. I'd stashed the ring in my pocket this morning, so I did the whole down on one knee thing with her. I felt I at least owed her that for making her wait so long." Steve said, and then smiled.

"You tell her about Lyn?" Danny asked, curious to know if Steve had actually talked to Cath about him dating the other woman. He was a little concerned that someone else might tell her, and cause them problems further down the line.

"Yeah, I told Cath." He said.

"And she's okay?" Danny asked, carefully testing the water's.

"Yeah, we're good. Thinking about it, Cath did exactly the same when she'd dated Billy." Steve said quietly before grinning at Danny. "She said yes."

"Yes she did. Congratulation's Brah, I'm happy for you. I know I call you and stuff, but you my friend will be a great husband and father, never doubt that." He told him honestly.

"Mahalo Brah. You know your my best man right?" Steve said, grinning at him.

"I better be, or you and I would be having some serious words." Danny told him with a grin.

...

Sunday 1200 hrs.

Lou's SUV

"You guys notice, Cath's hand." Kono asked from the back seat of the SUV a grin firmly in place.

Chin turned to look at Kono, smiling back at her. "I noticed the ring, who knew Steve would have such good taste." He teased.

"I saw that little beauty when he bought it." Lou told them, before sharing his concerns. "I hope she's gonna stick around this time." Lou said; worried how McGarrett would react if she upped and left again.

"I think she will." Chin said. "I got the impression that Catherine hadn't wanted to leave that last time."

"Yeah, Cath seemed pretty distrait over having to lie to Steve about the mission. I'm kind of looking forward to the boss getting all soft and mushy over the baby." Kono said with a huge grin on her face.

Chin laughed at that, adding. "I'm sure he'll be a great father. He's very good with Grace, and was wonderful when Mary left Joan with him."

"You do realize that if Cath has a girl, he'll be ten times worse than Danny." Lou pointed out, chuckling at the image that was forming in his head. McGarrett had an over protective streak a mile long, and would definitely protect his family at any cost.

"God, you think we should pray for a boy?" Kono said on a giggle.

"Can you imagine Steve, dressing her in frilly pink outfits?" Lou said; raising his eyebrows and looking at Kono threw the rear-view mirror.

Kono threw her head back, laughing at the image of her boss surrounded by frilly pink outfits and Barbie dolls. Chin and Lou were both chuckling from the front seat. "I'd so love to see that." Kono said chuckling as she wiped tears from her eyes.

...

Sunday 1230 hrs.

Barrow residence.

The Camaro and the two black SUV's pulled to a stop outside the home where several H.P.D vehicles were also pulling to a stop outside. Both team's quickly geared up; weapons were checked and readied as they made their way towards the front and rear of the house. H.P.D. used the battering ram to gain access to the home, as Five-0 and NCIS quickly entered and began searching the property.

Movement in the lounge caught their attention, as they swept the room. The battered and bloodied body of Commander Barrow was lying on the floor a gunshot wound to his shoulder. The man groaned in pain, as Steve used his foot to roll the man over to check if he was armed. Steve noted that his hands were secured in front of him with duct tape, and his mouth was gagged.

His eyes locked on the face above him and he blanched realizing who was looking down at him. He saw the rage in the other man's eyes as he pointed the gun at his head. In that moment Derick thought he was going to die, he'd read McGarrett's personnel file. He knew what the man was trained to do, and given the injuries his wife had inflicted on Rollins, he didn't expect to live to face court martial. He closed his eyes, silently preparing himself for the bullet that would take his life.

Steve watched as he closed his eyes, and quickly leaned down to check for a pulse. Barrow's eyes snapped open at the contact, and Steve had to push down on the urge to bury a bullet in the bastard. Pulling his knife from its sheath, he cut through the gag in his mouth. "Where's your wife?" He hissed at him, the knife pressed against Barrow's throat to dissuade him from calling for help.

"She left with Michael." He said in a scared voice.

"Where?" McGarrett demanded.

"I don't know, I swear." He said desperately wanting the man to believe him. "They didn't tell me."

"House is clear." Danny informed Steve, as he returned to the main room. "Safe has been emptied."

"I've got Cath putting out Bolo's on Hesse and the wife. We'll find them." Sam told him.

"Get this piece of shit back to interrogation." Steve told them, roughly pulling the man to his feet.

"We'll need to get him checked out first." Sam said taking in the bleeding wound on the man's shoulder.

"Don't need to," Steve told him. "Five-0 has full immunity; don't need to bother with patching him up before we interrogate him." Steve added with a grin, making Barrow blanch. "Book him Danno." He told his partner as he pushed the injured man in the direction of the door.

...

Sam and Callen were just on the way back to the black SUV after talking to the HPD forensics team, when the ringing of Steve's cell phone came to their attention as he answered.

"Hey, Cath. You get anything on Hesse or the wife?" He asked.

"We have another problem! There's been a power cut, we're in lock down." She told Steve.

"We're heading back now. Get yourself armed, your tac vest's still in the storage locker, be careful till we know what's happening." He told her, the worry starting to creep into his voice, as he motioned the 2 teams over to him.

"Always." She said, before disconnecting the call.

"The Palace has gone into Lockdown. Chin get a hold of The Chief, I don't want HPD going in till Five-0 get there, tell him not to lift the lockdown under any circumstances. Lou I want SWAT surrounding the building, no-one in or out." He said. Lou nodded, and moved away to make the call.

"Lockdown?" Sam asked.

"In the event of a power outage, we go into full lockdown. We had a situation a couple of years back, when the Palace was targeted by a terrorist cell. Emergency generators keep Five-0 online, but power to the rest of the building is completely cut until The Chief, The governor or myself lift the lockdown, no-one in or out." He explained quickly as they all made their way to their vehicles. "We split into pairs and do a room by room search, once we get there."

"Cath okay?" Danny asked, sensing Steve's tension as they neared the Camaro.

"Yeah, she's tacking up now." He said. "I've got a bad feeling about this. It's too much of a coincidence."

"Hey, we've got her back." Danny said opening the passenger side door as Steve slid in behind the wheel of the Camaro.

...

Palace.

Catherine hurried down the corridor that lead to the Five-0 storage locker, scanning the empty hallway as she quickly and efficiently entered her code into the key pad outside the door. Entering the room, she quickly grabbed one of the hand guns nearest to her, pulling out the drawer which held the ammo, she loaded the weapon, and stored extra clips in the pocket of her jeans, before she moved to the back of the room where her tac vest was stored along with her leg holster.

She quickly strapped the holster to her leg, slipping the weapon into it as she pulled a rifle from the rack, and loaded it, slipping extra clips into her vest. She left the storage locker, securing the room behind her, and scanning the corridor as she made her way back into the main office.

Once back in office she headed to the smart table, placing the rifle beside her as she started accessing the Palace's security camera, seeing if she could pick up anyone on the footage. The Palace was pretty empty with it being a weekend, the public offices empty of people. Cath watched as the guard on the front desk made his way towards the doors, weapon drawn as he opened the doors, allowing Steve and the rest of five-0 to enter the building.

Cath saw Steve give orders to the HPD officers, NCIS and Five-0 before everyone headed off in different directions to do a room to room search. Picking up her cell, she contacted the members of five-0. "Guy's I have a visual of you. I'm not picking anyone up in the corridors, or stairwells."

"The security guard said a couple came in about 30 minutes ago, description matches Elizabeth Barrow and Michael Hesse. We'll clear the building floor by floor, just sit tight for now." Steve told her, as he began to scan the room he'd just entered.

Cath's eyes flitted to one of the screens as she saw movement. Elizabeth Barrow excited a room, the security camera feed indicating it came from the second floor on the east of the building. "I have movement on the second floor east corridor, It's Barrow. Still no visual on Hesse."

"Okay, we're heading that way now." Steve told her as he entered the stairwell and made his way up the stairs.

Cath scanned threw the different camera's following Barrow's route. She watched as the woman entered the stairwell, just as the camera feed cut out. "God dammit," Cath exclaimed as she began tapping away at the keyboard trying to get the feed up and running.

"Cath, talk to me. What's happening?" Steve asked, worried with her outburst.

"I've lost visual, someone's cut the feed." She told him in frustration. "My last visual had Barrow entering the stairwell."

"Sounds like they could be heading up to you, we're on our way, just be careful." He said as he started to sprint up the stairs, closely followed by Danny, Sam and Callen.

...

A noise behind Cath alerted her to someone entering the office's, and she quickly grabbed the rifle from the table and moved towards the wall, crouching down as low as she could out of sight, waiting. Moving slowly and carefully around the edges of the room, Cath was able to peek into Danny's office threw the partially closed blinds, and had a clear line of sight threw his office door. Barrow had just entered Steve's office, and was checking under the desk and behind furniture in search of her.

Cath slowly crept along the wall of the office and into the corridor, just as Hesse excited Chin's office a pistol pointed directly at her head.

"Drop the weapon." He snarled his Irish accent prominent in his speech.

Cath lowered the rifle to the floor, and stood upright again, her hands in the air. She watched as Hesse, moved towards her, and bent to retrieve the gun. Cath took the opportunity to kick out at him. Her foot connecting forcefully with his jaw, before she spun and kicked him in the midsection, watching in satisfaction as he crumpled to the ground in pain.

Barrow came at her from her left side, slamming Cath into the wall. Spinning to face her attacker, she was able to bring her hands up to block the next blow to her body. Cath was able to get a few hits to Barrow's face in, causing the woman to stumble backwards to ward of some of the blows. Cath saw Barrow pull her hand back, dropping it lower before attempting to strike a solid blow to her stomach. Turning quickly to the side, the blow glanced across her injured ribs, causing the cracked ribs to break.

Cath quickly drew her elbow up slamming it into the woman's face, and causing Barrow to cry out in pain, her nose almost certainly broke. As she stumbled back, Cath grabbed hold of her arm, spinning her round and sweeping her feet from under her, as she slammed Barrow face first on to the floor. A noise in the corridor caused her to look up, just as Steve burst through the doors, aiming his weapon and firing at Hesse.

Hesse's body dropped to the ground, the gurgle in his throat telling of the impact of the bullet's Steve had fired into him. Steve's gaze took in Catherine, as she pinned Barrow's body to the ground with a well-placed knee in her back. "You okay?" He asked in concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She told him, a small smile playing at her lips.

Steve passed her his cuffs, allowing her the satisfaction of handcuffing the woman, before he helped Cath stand then pulled the other woman to her feet, and handed her of too Danny. Steve pulled Cath into his embrace, his hand going to her head to hold her against his chest, as he attempted to get control of the fear that had racked his body. They'd heard the fight taking place, Steve fearing for Cath's safety as he'd rushed towards the offices.

His relief at finding her safe was overwhelming. He pulled back, looking into her eyes as he brushed his lips across hers in a gentle kiss. Hearing footsteps behind him, he reluctantly pulled away turning to see Sam and Callen coming up behind him.

"With the help of HPD we've done a full sweep, there's no one in the building. Your ME is coming to collect Hesse, and William's has taken the wife down to interrogation." Callen told him, glancing between McGarrett and Rollins.

"You okay?" Sam asked as he looked at Cath.

"Yeah." She answered; the adrenaline still pumping threw her body.

"You're getting checked out." Steve declared, adding. "No arguments." When it looked as if she was about to disagree with him.

"Okay," She said, sighing in frustration at Steve's over protective nature.

"Great work on taking them down." Sam said, giving her a smile. "Looks as if Commander Barrow might be very chatty in relation to his wife. We've got enough to nail them both; weapons are back in our possession, so all in all a pretty good op."

"Good." She said, pulling in a breath and slowly letting it out. "At least Jamerson and Cooper didn't die for nothing. I owe the two of them so much. They tried to keep them off me as much as they could." Cath told him, swiping at a loan tear as it ran down her cheek.

"Try to minimize the blows to the rest of your team; help's you all too last longer." Callen pointed out, realizing what her team had done.

Cath smiled sadly before replying. "There motif was a little different than that, they both knew about the baby. I had really bad morning sickness the first few weeks; Jamerson figured that out really quick." She told them with a small smile. "They were pretty pissed that Barrow didn't pull me from the op."

"He'll pay for his part in all this." Sam told her, just as the other members of both teams came through the doors.

"The members of Five-0 and our NCIS colleagues have come to the decision, that we're having a night at side street in celebration. Don't forget your wallet, Steve. You're buying the first round." Danny said grinning at his partner.

"Wait a minute, I'm buying." He asked, crossing his arms across his chest and staring at Danny.

"It's your engagement party, babe." Danny said with a smile, clearly enjoying himself at Steve's expense.

"Come on boss man, you didn't think we was gonna let you get away with not having a party." Kono said grinning at him as well.

"Fine, first drink only after that you're on your own." He said shaking his head in amusement as his team high- fived each other. "We'll meet you down there about 1900 hrs. I'm gonna run Cath by the hospital, get her checked out." He told them as he placed his hand on her back and ushered her to the door, Cath rolling her eyes at Danny as she passed.

...

Sunday 1910 hrs.

Side street.

Steve escorted Cath threw the crowd of people milling around the entrance of side street, heading towards their usual table at the back of the bar. He spotted the members of the 2 teams, clustered around the tables, along with more of their extended Ohana. Kamekona, Max, Eric, Gerry, Grover's wife and kids and Grace were there. And as Steve looked around the bar he noticed quite a few of the HPD, and SWAT were also present, and he grinned as he noticed team 9 and his SEAL team propping up the bar.

"Looks like five-0 and NCIS have had a busy afternoon." Steve said, leaning into Cath so she could hear him over the noise.

"Not just them, I'd say team 6 have been pretty busy as well, most of my old unit is here as well." Cath told him, pointing out several of her former colleagues, and her 2 bunk mates from the Enterprise.

"We've definitely been set up here." He said grinning at her.

"Yeah," She agreed, smiling back at him. "I've missed this." She told him, indicating their extended family.

"Hey, about time you two got here," Danny said as he spotted them. "Everything go okay at the hospital?"

"My ribs have been upgraded to broke," she told him. "But the baby is fine." She explained with a satisfied smile.

"So, busy afternoon Danno?" Steve said with a raised eyebrow as he indicated the rest of the room.

"Sam made a couple of phone calls to SEAL team's 6 and 9, your team made a few calls to Cath's bunk mates?" He asked, and Cath nodded her head to indicate he was correct. "They made a few more to the rest of your colleagues who were on shore leave. Chin contacted Duke who intern notified all of HPD, Kono contacted Kamekona and Max, Lou got in touch with SWAT, and I made sure my daughter, and the governor were made aware of this little shin dig. I also called Mary to let her know what was going on, she said she'll be out on the next flight, and would call with her flight times later." He said proud of what he'd achieved in the short space of time.

"Mahalo, Danny." Steve thanked, pulling him into a hug.

Danny, slapped him on the back, pulling back to grin at them both. "Your welcome, now if you'll excuse me a minute, there's something I need to do." Danny told them cryptically before he disappeared into the crowd. A moment later his whereabouts became obvious, as they heard his voice over the microphone.

"Okay, Can I have everyone's attention? If you're not here for the engagement, just ignore me. Steve I know I told you the bar bill was on you," A load chorus of hoo-ya's could be heard from the two SEAL team's. "Well you'll be pleased to know, you don't have to pay for it. I have a message from the governor, he said to enjoy yourselves and send him the bar bill. Your all gonna have to show either your badge or Navy I.D's to get it on the tab."

"Everyone else, I think you'll all agree it's about time these two made there "Thing" official. I've known Steve for nearly six years, now we didn't hit it of strait away, he jacked me into his little task force, got me shot at, and that was just the first day." He told the assembled room.

"Never was good at first impressions." Cath shouted to Danny, grinning across at Steve.

"Hey, I made one with you." He said grinning back at her.

"It seems I have low expectations." She told him with a grin, several of their friends' laughing at her words.

"Thanks'," He told her, shaking his head in amusement.

"Being his partner definitely needs to come with a health warning, but I couldn't ask for a better friend. You've been there for me threw some pretty crappy times, and I'm pretty sure that most of the people in this room will feel the same way about you. We're all very privileged to call you friend. Catherine, you came as a surprise, I actually thought he was gay at one point." He told her, their friends laughing at Steve's indignant splutter.

"Hey. I'm re-thinking the best man spot, right now."

"Nah, that's okay, I'm still doing it." Danny said to the amusement of the assembled group. "Like I was saying, Cath, I thought he was gay. The amount of very pretty young ladies that would make it known they were interested, and he'd just walk right past them, never even notice them. This happened a lot, so it got me thinking, until we actually found out that there was a certain Navy Lieutenant he had on his radar. Now we knew you had to be pretty special to get his attention, but what none of Five-0 really figured on was you being a female version of him." He told her, most of the room breaking into laughter.

"Well once we met you, we knew why you were so important to him. You are very smart, funny, courageous and loyal, and most importantly you can put up with the annoying Neanderthal animal. Now everyone, raise your glasses, bottles or pineapples, whatever really floats your boat. To Steve and Catherine, it's about bloody time." He said raising his glass in a toast to them.

The room erupted with a series of Hoo-ya's, clapping and wolf whistles, as Steve pulled Cath towards him and kissed her. He felt her hands loop around his neck as he dipped her slightly, deepening the kiss before gently bringing her upright again and resting his forehead against hers. Friends milled around, hugs and pats on the back as they congratulated them. Grace had run over to them as soon as her father had finished his little speech, her hug the most enthusiastic, causing Cath to wince a little as the girl squeezed her ribs a little too hard. Steve had gently admonished her, telling her to be gentle with Aunt Cath.

Steve glanced across at Catherine, reluctant to let his fiancée out of his sight for more than a second. Catherine had promised she was staying, but the fear was still there, they would have to work threw it together. He couldn't wait for the next step in their relationship, having took so long to get to this place in their lives. Cath and himself had come to the decision that they didn't want to wait long to get married. Cath would start planning their next op tomorrow, once he'd left for work.

...

THE END...for now.