Steve really didn't want to. He had always hated this type of assignment. He was the head of 5-0, for fuck's sake, not a freaking babysitter. But when the Governor calls and tells him that he needed to go and protect someone, he has to comply. After all, the man has the power to shut down 5-0 if he wants to.
The Governor had called him early that week and said that a celebrity was coming to Hawaii and that she needed protection. This was the daughter of a close friend of his wife so there was no way in hell Steve could get out of it. And he tried, God knows he tried.
The next few days were spent assessing threats, talking to her agent to get her schedule and making sure he had escape routes from every place she was going to be in. She arrived on the third day, surrounded by paparazzi and two of her own bodyguards. "If she already has protection, what am I doing here?", he thought when he saw them.
He didn't approach them in the airport, he wanted to see how aware of threats her men were. Instead, he followed them to her hotel. They were none the wiser. Steve knew then that he had his work cut out for him. He parked his truck on the hotel parking lot and made his way inside. He was going to have a talk with those bodyguards and it wasn't going to be pretty.
Steve identified himself to the man standing outside of her suite. The man let him in, mumbling something under his breath that Steve couldn't quite get. He decided to ignore him and walked in, moving towards the open space that worked as a living room. That's when he first met her.
- "Hi. You must be Commander McGarrett. I'm Eliza." – She said, reaching her hand out to shake his.
- "Nice meeting you, Miss Eliza."
- "Please, just Eliza. I understand you're here to take care of my security while I'm on the island?"
- "That's right."
- "Well, Mr. Denning says you're the best, so I trust you completely."
- "Thank you. I'll do my best to keep you from harm. Now, I'm gonna need to talk to your security guys. I've been following you since the airport and I saw that there were no maneuvers to try and lose me, which means that they didn't even realized I was tailing you."
- "Oh. I'll call them over right now. Please, you're in charge. Just do whatever you feel like it's best to keep me safe. Like I said, I trust you." – She picked her phone from the table, sending a text and soon enough, both of her so-called bodyguards were in the room.
Steve took them out to the hallway, so Eliza couldn't hear them, and laid down the law. They were to do exactly as they were told and follow his instructions to the letter. The last thing he wanted, or needed for that matter, was for something to happen to her while under his protection. Once that was done and he had given his orders, he went back inside, leaving the men to carry out his orders.
When he went back inside, he took a moment before walking back into the living room to talk to Eliza. He needed to gather his thoughts about everything, as well as figure out what his next move would be. He knew he needed to go over some security measures with her but he didn't know how she was going to react to them.
At first look, she seemed nice and approachable. She had a beautiful smile, he had to admit, and even more beautiful eyes. She was soft-spoken and he could tell she was humble, not letting fame get to her head. She could easily be like so many other celebrities that didn't care about anyone else other than themselves and how they look at all times.
Eliza however, he could tell, wasn't like that. She was caring and kind. She had given the rest of the day to her crew, so they could settle in in their rooms and get some rest before the next day. And now there she was, sitting on the floor, her back to the couch, wearing short shorts and a tank top. Her hair was in a ponytail and she was barefoot.
Steve smiled at the sight. He had some experience with celebrities and none had made such a positive impact, as Eliza was making, in the first few hours of meeting them. Steve shook his head, refocusing on the matter at hand, and cleared his throat, to let her know he was in the room.
Eliza looked over her shoulder and smiled when she saw him. It was clear she wasn't expecting him to be back so soon, but she didn't make him feel any less welcomed.
- "Back so soon, Commander?" – She asked him, a smile on her lips.
- "Yes. I hope I'm not interrupting. I just need to go over some things with you, if that's okay."
- "I was just idling. We can talk." – And with that, Steve spent the next hour going over her schedule and making sure she knew what to do if something happened, as well as to what to do to prevent something from happening.
Once that was over, Steve excused himself and called Danny to have him check on some security threats, as well as to give a background check on both of the bodyguards. For some reason, Steve didn't trust them and if he couldn't trust them, then he didn't want either of them anywhere near Eliza.
Steve walked back inside and heard a knock on the door. Looking back at Eliza, she told him that she had called for room service. He made his way to the door and, after double checking the trolley and tipping the waiter, rolled Eliza's dinner to the living room.
She thanked him, stroking his arm, before picking up a plate and serving him. It didn't matter how much he protested, she wasn't backing down. Next thing he knows and they're both sitting at the table, enjoying dinner and getting to know each other a little bit more.
"This is either going to go great or terribly wrong.", he thought as he took another bite from his dinner.