Thank you all so much for your response to that little teaser. I hope I will live up to your expectations.

I hope you will enjoy the first real part of the story.

Protective Detail - Chapter 02

Five-0 Headquarters, Monday, 0930 h

Steve is sitting in his office, Monday morning, not even ten a.m. and already he's tired. He didn't sleep well last night. Hah, make that didn't sleep at all. Not that he has slept well during the last week. None of Five-0 had gotten a lot of sleep in the last seven days, or had seen a lot of their respective loved ones. Not after the case they just put to bed on Friday night. Oh, to bed, that's a good thought. Steve's sigh can be heard across the bullpen, he's sure of it.

He attributes the fight to his tiredness. If he had been more alert, he would never have said those things to Cath. None of your business. "God I'm an idiot," Steve mumbles as he goes out of his office to get some coffee.

"What was that?" Danny practically runs into his friend. He looks at him with a critical eye. "How was your weekend?"

"Fine." Steve's not going to talk about the fight he had with Cath on Sunday morning. Or that she spent the night with a friend of hers and not at home.

"Spill it." Danny can read Steve like an open book. It's not really a hard task, everyone can read him like an open book. Contrary to what Steve likes to believe, he does have many faces. And the one he's sporting right now, screams 'miserable' out loud.

"Nothing to spill, Danno. Don't you have paperwork? Or something?"

"No, actually I'm waiting for the printout. I'm already done, because I was working while in my office. Not like other people I know, who were just sitting there, gazing into space." Danny won't give up that easy.

"Funny. You're a real comedian, Danny." Steve just walks around Danny and fills his coffee mug with freshly brewed coffee.

"Hi Steve, how'z it brah?" Chin asks, obviously also drawn to the rest area by the smell of Kono's latest creation. This seems to be her new hobby finding a new brand of coffee every week. The pool of when she will run out of brands is already going.

"Careful Chin, our fearless leader is in one of his moods." Danny sends a warning Chin's way. Completely ignoring Steve's dark glare.

"Danny's imagining things. I'm fine Chin, thanks. How's Malia?" He smiles tiredly at his friend and hopes they had a better weekend than Steve and Cath had.

"Good. We'd like to invite you and Cath to dinner on Friday."

"Okay, I'll ask her." Steve's not looking at Danny and marches out of the small kitchen.

"Steven, wait. We're not done." Danny follows his friend and almost runs into him for the second time today.

"Yes, Danny, we are. I'm only going to say this once, so listen. Leave. Me. Alone." Steve glares at Danny, not even sure why he's so mad at his friend. He takes a deep breath, clearing his head, that has been pounding for a few hours now. He looks at Danny, who's kind of speechless. "I'm sorry, Danny. Look, I really don't want to talk right now. Maybe we can have lunch together?"

"It's a date. Take something for your headache, and stop glaring, you're scaring the kids." Danny smiles at his friend and leaves him to go pick up the printouts.

Steve looks after his partner, shakes his head and smiles. But only for a minute, only until he remembers Catherine and what he had told her. He has called her numerous times to apologize, but she hasn't taken any of his calls. It was their first real fight in all the years they have known each other. They've had arguments before, disagreements. But never a fight like this. It was not even loud, neither had raised their voice. And it was really short. But Steve knows that it was a really serious fight. That he had hurt her. Deeply. With a sigh he enters his office, sits down and tries to get at least some work done.

*~* *~* *~* Hawaii Five-0 *~* *~* *~*

Tripler Army Medical Center, 11.00 h

"Ma'am, a Lt. Catherine Rollins is here to see you. I've told her that she'll need an appointment… Yes, ma'am." Petty Officer Coates puts the phone down and looks at the lieutenant in front of her desk. "Ma'am, Captain Jordan will be with you in a few minutes. Would you like a coffee or tea?"

"No, thank you, Petty Officer." Catherine is glad she can see JoJo on such short notice. She hopes to find out what is going on with her stubborn boyfriend. She only has to wait a few minutes until Dr. Jordan calls her into her office.

She comes to attention in front of JoJo's desk, but gets dismissed right away. "Catherine, it's good to see you. Please have a seat. What can I do for you?"

"Thank you for seeing me, JoJo." Catherine looks at her older friend and is not sure how to begin.

"What's on your mind, Catherine? Everything okay?"

"No. We had a huge fight yesterday, and I left."

"What do you mean you left? You left Steve?" That is shocking news, she can't believe that her two friends have split up.

"No. No, of course not. I spent the night at a friend's house. JoJo, what is going on with Steve? Why is he on medication? Why do I have to learn that by accident?" Cath is still mad at her friend for keeping that from her and from actually telling her that it's none of her business. He had never hurt her like that before.

"Did you ask him that?"

"No. When I found the bottle of pills he said it's none of my business. I just snapped. I can't even remember what I said to him. I remember that he stood there in the kitchen, looking totally lost. I turned and just left. He called me at least a dozen times, but I haven't answered. I know, not very mature. But I'm still so mad."

"And hurt?"

"Yeah. JoJo, why is he taking psychotropic drugs? Those meds you prescribed are for treatment of PTSD."

"Catherine, we cannot discuss Steve's treatment, you know that."

"What?"

"You know that I can't talk about what led me to prescribe anything for Steve. Everything that Steve tells me is confidential. I can't tell you, Catherine. I am surprised though that he's not talking to you about it. I had no idea."

"JoJo, please. I'm his next of kin and legally you're allowed to tell me. Has he told you not to talk to me?" That thought brings some new anger to the surface.

"Cath, calm down. No, he hasn't told me not to discuss this with you." Jojo looks at her distressed friend and decides to tell her at least something to put her mind at ease. "Steve is not taking any drugs. But he doesn't know that and you cannot tell him."

"You prescribed a placebo? Does that mean he doesn't need medication?"

"Steve needed help to cope with certain things. For some reason, he was unable to access the coping mechanisms he learned over the years. He has had a hard time dealing with the events of the last few months. The medication helps him do that. It doesn't matter what's in the pills. Prescription drugs or just vitamins, it's not important as long as Steve can concentrate on his problems. And he's doing a great job with that. The mind is a powerful thing, Catherine."

"So, he's okay?"

"Steve will always walk the line. He's had some very traumatic events in his life, from a young age on. He suffered a lot during his military career. He saw and did things, we can't even imagine. And now, he has a very high stress level job as head of Five-0. The possibility of ASD or even PTSD has always been there, as it is for everyone in such a job. Every law-enforcement officer, or firefighter, soldier and many other high-stress professionals will tell you that. No one is safe from that for sure. Steve will always be at risk, adding to that is the fact that he suffered ASD before. But Catherine, he knows the signs, and he's taking good care of himself. Don't worry about him. To answer your question, yes, he is doing okay."

"Thank you JoJo."

"You know, you should talk to him. Tell him that he hurt you. I'm sure he knows that already, but he should hear it from you. Tell him why what he said hurt you so much."

"Oh, don't worry, I won't let him off the hook too easy. I'll let him work for it a bit."

"Catherine, I'm pretty sure you know it, but that man loves you. More than anything or anyone else. But despite that, he's just a man. They say stupid things at times, things they don't mean. And we women? We sometimes hear things they never said. Sometimes, I wonder if men and women are even meant to be together." Dr. Jordan smiles at her friend.

"Well, without men, life would be a lot easier. But I would MISS them."

JoJo can't but laugh at that. "Yeah, me too. This Saturday, we would love to have you over for dinner. Can you ask Steve? I assume you're going to be on the same page by then?" JoJo could ask him herself later, but it couldn't hurt to ask the woman in the relationship first.

"Thanks, I'd love to come. I'll ask Steve, but I'm sure he'll like that as well. I'll call you?"

"Good, good. And Cath? You can come by any time. I'm sure I will always find a few minutes for a friend."

"Thank you, JoJo." Catherine gets up from the comfortable chair and wonders not for the first time how one of her boyfriend's sessions with his therapist goes.

"I'll see you out." JoJo comes around her desk and leads Catherine out and after a friendly good bye greets her next patient.

"Lieutenant Donaldson, sorry for the delay, please come in." She walks after the middle aged red head back into her office.

*~* *~* *~* Hawaii Five-0 *~* *~* *~*

Angel 'Z' diner, Monday 13.00 h

The two Five-0's make their way into the diner. They often visit for an impromptu lunch or even breakfast. It's frequented by a lot of uniformed officers and one or two detectives. Even some overdressed business people are often seen. The food is excellent and the prices are fair. And it's close to headquarters, one of the more important points.

Danny and Steve find a quiet booth, settle down and not a minute later place their order.

"So, I take it you and Cath had a huge fight?" Danny long figured that out.

"Yeah. She left."

"What?" That draws some curious looks their way.

"Keep it down, will you? She didn't leave… leave. She left for the night. At least I hope so," he adds softly. "I called her at least twenty times, but she wouldn't take any of my calls."

"Why were you fighting? What happened?"

„She found my pills," Steve quietly tells Danny.

"What pills?" He keeps his voice equally low.

Steve looks at his friend, not sure how to tell him. He knows that Danny still has some trouble with the concept of therapy. No matter how many jokes he makes about it. Steve knows that he should have told him weeks ago, but he just didn't know how. He was afraid that it might change Danny's view of him. Well maybe not his view, but his behavior towards him. Before he can answer, the waitress brings them their ordered coffee, neither of them being hungry.

"I've been seeing JoJo again twice a week since… Korea. At first, everything was kind of okay. The painkillers made me sleep a lot. But after I was back on my feet… I… I couldn't sleep at night. I had nightmares. And the second week after being back… I had a flashback. I was out swimming, barely made it back. Kind of passed out in the kitchen." Steve's embarrassed to tell Danny. He knows that there is nothing he needs to feel embarrassed about, but he can't help it.

"Is that why you stayed home for another week, after the doctor told you that you could come back to duty?"

"Yeah. I went to see JoJo that day and she put me on medication. That stuff needs a little time to take effect. So I couldn't go to work, it would not have been safe. The meds help me concentrate on using certain techniques to cope with what happened. To work through it."

"You're on medication for PTSD right now?" Danny asks softly. He knows what it means for Steve to talk about it with him.

"No. For ASD. But the line between the two is really thin. Danny, I'm not on heavy drugs. I'm cleared for duty. I would never endanger any of you."

"Hey! I didn't think so. I know that you would not work if you weren't fit. So, are you sleeping better?"

"Yeah, I am. Talking to JoJo helps a lot, and JoJo has reduced my dosage to one pill from the three I took at first. I feel a lot better. I'm able to think about what happened in Korea and with Joe, without having nightmares. And I haven't had another flashback. Next week she wants me to stop taking the medication."

"You okay with that?"

"Yeah."

"Steve, I don't understand what this has to do with you and Cath fighting?"

"I didn't tell her."

"You didn't tell her what?"

"I didn't tell her that I'm on medication. That I see JoJo twice a week. She doesn't know about the flashback. I didn't tell her Danny."

"That was pretty dumb."

"Yeah. When she found the pills, she asked about it and I lost it. I didn't want to talk about it. Danny, we had such a great day before. On Saturday I felt so good. For the first time in weeks, I felt normal. When she asked me Sunday morning about the pills and what was going on… I just didn't want to ruin that day, that feeling. I said something really stupid, I really hurt her. I told her 'it's none of your business'. Danny, I don't know how to fix this. How could I have said that to her? She is always there for me, she's saved my life in so many ways. I'm such an idiot." Steve puts his head in his hands.

"Yes, you are. But you're my idiot." Catherine puts her hand on Steve's back and kisses him on the forehead when he turns to her.

"Cath! When did you get here?" Steve's totally surprised to see her. He hadn't even noticed her approaching them.

"Couple of minutes ago. Steve, I'm sorry I ran like that."

"NO. I'm sorry. Please don't apologize. I am sorry Cath. I should have told you. I don't know why I didn't. I'm so sorry." Steve has totally forgotten that Danny sits right there with them. He's only focused on Catherine.

"I think this is my cue to leave. Steve, see you later in the office." Danny doesn't even wait for a reply. He looks at Cath who's mouthing a 'thank you' his way. Danny makes his way out of the diner, all the time grinning about his brilliant plan, which worked like clockwork.

*~* *~* *~* Hawaii Five-0 *~* *~* *~*

Steve watches his girlfriend sitting down across from him, on the place Danny just vacated. "Did Danny call you?"

"Yeah he did."

"Well, I'm glad you took his call." Steve knows that he's an ass, but he had gotten worried when she hadn't taken any of his twenty or so calls yesterday.

"I guess I deserved that one. Steve, I'm sorry about the calls. I should have talked to you. Sorry."

"Catherine, I'm really sorry about what I said. I didn't mean it. I know it is very much your business and I want you in on it. I will tell you everything, and we will talk about what I said and why. Just not here and now."

"Nobody's listening in, Steve. We can talk here, it's a nice and quiet place." Cath doesn't really want to postpone the necessary conversation.

"I know. Danny and I often eat here. It's not that. And I don't want to avoid the conversation either, if that's what you're thinking." Steve hangs his head for a moment to loosen the tight neck muscles that are not helping with his still pounding headache. The pills he took earlier hadn't done a damn thing about it. "I have a meeting with JoJo in half an hour. Cath, I don't want to miss that. But I promise we'll talk tonight. You have the day off, right?"

"Yeah, I do. I'm going to hold you to that promise. We need to talk about this. I want to know why you kept this from me. Steve, you never did that before, in all the years we've known each other, you never kept anything like that from me. Why now?"

Steve looks at his friend, of course he knows the answer to that question, but he can't tell her in two minutes. "Please give me the chance to tell you tonight?"

"Okay. But before you go to your meeting, I want you to know, I love you. And no matter that we fought yesterday and I even left our home, never doubt that. Okay?"

"How do you always know what to say to make me feel better?"

"I'm a woman."

For the first time in over a day, Steve really smiles. Even his eyes are sparkling again. "That you are. And a very smart one at that."

"Flattery won't get you any extra points."

"Was worth a try. Cath, I really should go. If nothing happens at Five-0, I should be home around six. Otherwise I'll call you." While getting up he's massaging his temple again.

"Hey, Sailor, wait," Cath also got up from their booth, steps closer to Steve and encircles his waist. A sweet kiss follows and she can feel him relax into her embrace. "How bad's your headache?"

"Pounding since last night."

"Did you sleep at all?"

"A little."

Cath hugs him a little tighter, "I'm sorry I wasn't there. You be careful today," she whispers, before she lets him go.

"I will." Steve bends down for one last kiss and leaves for his meeting with his therapist. Knowing that the real session will be tonight with his girlfriend, who without a doubt will drill him for every little detail. Surprisingly to him, he's okay with that.

*~* *~* *~* Hawaii Five-0 *~* *~* *~*

Health Center, Dillingham Blvd., 15.00 h

So much blood. The smell of copper is almost overwhelming. Steve looks around him and sees that he's not the only one who's breathing through his mouth. He closes his eyes for a second to take it all in. The noise the crime technicians are making with their equipment; Kono, who's also taking photos; Danny, who's talking in the outer office with one of the secretaries; Max, who's kneeling next to one of the victims; Chin, talking to one of the CSU guys.

Steve arrived at the crime scene a little later than his teammates. He was in a session with JoJo and came straight here after Danny called him.

"Hey babe, you okay?" Danny startles him a little when he lays his hand on Steve's forearm and softly talks to him. Getting him out of his thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm good. So, what do we have?" Steve looks at his friend, smiling reassuringly at him.

"The first victim: Nadine Webster; Doctor Nadine Webster; 56; single; retired from the Navy six months ago; was last stationed on the east coast; Capt. Webster was department head of psychiatry at Bethesda. Came to Hawaii after that, worked here at her daughter's private practice three days a week. She had a contract with HPD and was specialized in PTSD." Danny looks up from his notes.

"Webster?" Steve goes around the desk and takes a closer look at the victim. It's a gruesome sight. Former Cpt. Webster is lying in a pool of blood that is slowly being soaked up by the thick carpet. Her throat has been slit with a bone deep cut. That was done with brutal force and the multiple stab wounds all over her upper body indicate a blind rage. Blood spatter can be seen all around her. The blood gives the scene a bizarre look, almost like some piece of modern art. Gruesome modern art.

Steve steps back and looks at Danny, "and the second victim?"

"Officer Kala Kalakeni." Danny's glad he doesn't struggle with the Hawaiian names so much anymore. "She's 28 and eight-months pregnant. She has been on sick leave for a week now. She was rushed to Queens Medical, she suffered one stab wound to the abdomen. They're not hopeful but think that they might be able to save her baby. Her husband has been informed and is at the hospital."

"Was the assistant able to give you anything?"

"No. She had been out of the office for a few minutes on her regular coffee run. When she came back, the door was open… she called 911 right away and kept Officer Kalakeni alive until the EMS were on the scene. HPD is canvassing the neighborhood. There're no surveillance cameras in the building. Chin is looking at possible cameras outside."

Steve looks up and sees that Chin must have left in the last few minutes without him noticing. "Danny, has the daughter been notified?"

"Not yet. She's out of town attending a conference in Seattle. We haven't reached her yet."

"Okay." Steve's absent-mindedly rubbing his temple, where the headache is still pounding away. "Let's see what Max can tell us and then we need to take a look at her patients."

"You think this was a patient of hers?"

"I don't know Danny, but that's the best place to start. Right?"

"Steve, you knew her?"

"What? No, but her name sounds familiar. I was in Bethesda once, maybe I saw her there. But I don't remember her face, just the name."

"When was that?"

"About ten years ago. Danny, we need to talk to NCIS, they might want to get in on the investigation."

"This is our jurisdiction, Steve. An HPD officer was attacked."

"Yes, Danny, but a Captain of the US Navy was killed. Technically it's their case. Murder over attempted murder. But I'm sure we'll figure something out." Steve has no intention of letting this investigation go. He's sure that the guys from NCIS know their job, and won't rest until the murder is solved. But this is kind of personal to him too. One of his fellow officers was killed, and if the young woman dies, it will be even more personal.

*~* *~* *~* Hawaii Five-0 *~* *~* *~*

TBC