Steve McGarrett prided himself on being cool, calm and collected even in the direst of situations but right now he felt like he was sinking fast and he wanted to scream. His relationship with Catherine had soured considerably when he moved back to Hawaii after his father died and it had ended completely several months earlier. He had never been more furious with Catherine than he was right now, though.
After months of no contact she'd called him at one o'clock that morning and informed him she was at the Naval Hospital giving birth to his child. According to her she hadn't found out about her pregnancy until after they split up and hadn't told him earlier because she wanted to decide exactly what she wanted to do before she brought him into the situation. And what Catherine wanted to do was nothing. She wasn't cut out to be a mother, she told him. She was career military, she told Steve, and wasn't going to give up everything she'd worked so hard for to raise a child. Steve could either take the baby himself and raise it on his own or let her give the child up for adoption.
Even though he was in shock and had no idea what he wanted to do, needless to say Steve had shot down to the base and had arrived at the hospital just in time to see his, as yet nameless, daughter be born. Part of Steve thought that the smart thing to do would be have a DNA test done to confirm that the baby was his but once he got a look at the girl there could be no doubt that she was a McGarrett. She had Catherine's brown hair and his blue eyes but otherwise Steve thought that his daughter looked exactly like Mary.
'My daughter!' Steve had thought in shock, staring at her. He had a daughter. He was a daddy.
He'd never thought that he would have kids. His mother's tragic death and getting sent away from Hawaii by his father had soured his views on family. He'd also known that as Navy SEAL he could die at any time and didn't want to risk leaving any child he had fatherless. Even after he met Catherine and fell in love with her his opinion hadn't changed. He was a Navy SEAL and she worked in Naval Intelligence. They were stationed in different parts of the world and rarely saw each other so there was no way they could have given a child the stability he or she would need. Being in the Navy, he'd decided, didn't leave room for anything else in your life. Now, though he had a daughter and he had no idea what to do.
He couldn't deny that he felt an inexplicable pull towards the tiny person in his arms but he still didn't know if he could keep her. Even though he was only in the Reserves now and wasn't traipsing all over the world he still worked crazy hours. He could still get killed at any time and he still had enemies all over the world who wouldn't hesitate to use a tiny baby against him. How could he subject an innocent child to that sort of life?
On the other hand since leaving the SEALs and the constant companionship of his team hadn't he grown tired of being alone in the world? After seeing Danny and Grace interact hadn't he grown to regret his fractured relationship with his sister and mourned the way he'd never reconnected with his father after being sent away from Hawaii when he was just 16? This baby, this little girl, was his family, he realised. He wasn't alone anymore. Knowing that could he really hand her over to strangers to raise and turn his back on her?
Steve had hoped for a few days to make a decision but his shocks weren't over yet. Catherine had already made her mind up and as such wanted nothing to do with their daughter. The baby was born at 1:35am and when Catherine's doctor did her rounds at 9:15am both mother and daughter were pronounced healthy and told that, so long as they both came in for a check up in a few days, they could leave. Catherine handed him some documents from her attorney dissolving all her parental rights and giving him full custody as well as the business card for someone at social services in case he decided not to keep the baby. She then kissed his cheek and the baby's head then left without a word.
With nothing else left to do Steve got the car seat Catherine had brought, and the bag containing a pack of diapers, a couple of changes of clothes, a can of formula and a bottle, and took their daughter home. It was only when he got home that he realised he had no idea what he was doing. He'd kept an eye on Mary, five years his junior, when he was a young teenager, he'd delivered a baby once on an op with the SEALs and he spent some time with Grace Williams. That was the extent of his childcare experience, though. He had no idea what to do with a newborn.
Luckily a nurse had fed and changed the baby while he was taking care of the paperwork before they left the hospital so he had a while to figure it out. While the baby slept peacefully in her car seat Steve paced up and down the living room trying to decide what to do. He'd only had about 30 minutes prior warning that he was going to be a dad so he had nothing prepared and Catherine had left him with almost nothing. The first thing he'd need to do, he decided, was go shopping. But what should he buy? He knew that babies needed a lot of stuff but, aside from the basics like a cot, he had no real idea what. Perhaps there would be some information on the internet? Obviously he was going to have to take some time away from 5-0 while he got used to being a dad but he was also going to have to arrange some sort of childcare for when he inevitably went back to work.
Steve's eyes widened in shock when he realised what he'd just decided. He was confused and scared about the prospect of being solely responsible for this tiny human being for at least the next 18 years but somewhere along the way he had unconsciously decided he was going to keep his daughter. He wasn't sure when the decision had been made but if he was contemplating childcare arrangements deep down that must be what he wanted.
Steve realised, though that he was going to need some serious help. There was no way he could do this on his own. Who could he call, though? Apart from his daughter Mary was the only family he had left and not only did she live far away in LA she didn't like children and had vowed never to have any. Chin and Kono, with their huge extended family, probably knew a lot about kids but really there was only one person who it made sense to call. Watching Danny and Grace interact these past couple of years had touched something deep inside of Steve. He'd seen how much Danny cared for his daughter and that was the sort of father Steve wanted to be to his own little girl.
His decision made he pulled out his cell phone and dialled his partner's number, extremely overwhelmed as he began to realise how much his life had changed in the last eight or nine hours. He really hoped Danny could help him.
"This better be good, Super SEAL because I've got Gracie with me and a million things to do," his partner greeted him.
Steve belatedly realised that this was one of Danny's weekends with Grace. He felt bad for interrupting the much too infrequent time Danny got to spend with his daughter but Steve really couldn't help it. "I'm sorry," he said. "But Danno, I need your help!"