More translation for the masses =)

Gowk – idiot
nae – no
palaver – fuss
mair – more
stramash – fuss
cannae – can't
whit – what
Aam – I'm
aboot – about
mah – my
wasnae – wasn't
intae – into
Ah – I
oan – on
masel' – myself
yersel' – yourself
dae – do
oot – out
nane – none

Cause I may be bad
but I'm perfectly good at it
sex in the air
I don't care
I love the smell of it
- S&M, Rihanna

.

Steve had never been so glad to finally reach his front door. After sending Kono and Chin home he had gone with Danny to take Axel back to her abandoned car. He had to admit that Danny did a wonderful impersonation of a man who'd had his tongue cut out. His disapproving air filled the entire car until Steve felt like he might suffocate with it. Even after Axel had got into her own car to follow them home Danny didn't say a word. He didn't really need to though. Steve felt as though he could read his mind and hear it shouting at him. He knew Danny had no reason to trust Axel but Steve knew she wasn't about to butcher them in their sleep.

As much as he didn't want to admit it though he felt quite touched by Danny's insistence that he would also stay at his house even though Steve would have liked to talk to Axel on his own. Having her reappear in his life after two years warranted some time to talk things through, especially considering the situation.

By the time he had unlocked his front door Axel had parked up, grabbed a non-descript black rucksack from the boot of her car and was heading towards the porch. He flicked on the lights as Danny followed him inside his condemnation wafting before him and saturating the house with it. Steve couldn't help but roll his eyes. He wondered briefly who he would put in his spare room. He knew Axel wouldn't have any qualms about sleeping on the couch but from what he remembered she wasn't the pyjama wearing type.

"Right on the beach I see," Axel commented as she closed the door behind her. "I'll be able to have my morning swim."

She smiled at him, eyes twinkling as though she was amused by something. Steve realised she was probably remembering the times they had swam together in the morning. Not that swimming was all they had done.

"Are you wearing contacts?" he asked her suddenly as he noticed once again the alien blueness of her eyes.

She blinked briefly taken unawares before her signature smirk slid back on her face.

"Ye remember the colour of my eyes now, do ye?" she said obviously taking great enjoyment in his discomfort. "Aye, I've got contacts in. I'll need tae take them out. Do ye have a decent mirror in this house?"

Steve nodded indicating the door to the bathroom.

"Do ye mind if I take a show? I'll need tae borrow a towel."

His chest constricted for the second time that evening but he duly showed her where he kept the towels and the left her in the bathroom. With her out of the way for the moment Steve squared his shoulders and headed for the kitchen preparing to deal with his disapproving and, infinitely, hot-headed partner.

"You are unbelievable," Danny greeted his entrance to the kitchen loudly. "Are there any other ex-girlfriends that we might bump into whilst breaking into a murder suspect's, and might I add, international arms dealer's property because if there are I want to bloody know about them?"

Steve opened his mouth to answer but before he could get out a single sound Danny snapped,

"Just don't talk to me."

"Well how am I supposed to ..."

"Just. Don't. Talk," Danny repeated through gritted teeth and Steve promptly shut his mouth. He was well acquainted with his partner by now. Danny would calm down in his own time and not before. Trying to force the issue would only make things worse.

Danny gave an exasperated sigh, puffing up his cheeks and then releasing the air in a slow, controlled manner. Steve just watched him patiently as he tried to calm himself down. He didn't really understand why Danny was so pissed off. It wasn't like he had ever expected Axel to turn up in Hawaii, at least not without a phone call. Then again he wasn't sure if he'd have mentioned her to his team even if he had been forewarned. Axel wasn't the easiest person to explain and neither was the strange relationship they had had.

"Where is she?" Danny asked finally glancing over Steve's shoulder as though she might appear suddenly in the doorway.

"She's taking a shower," Steve told him jerking his head in the general direction of the bathroom. He was having trouble concentrating on Danny when he was thinking about the fact that Axel was currently having a shower in his bathroom.

"Do you really think it's a good idea having her stay here?" Danny was saying when Steve managed to focus again. Danny had drawn his palms together and was waving them slightly up and down to emphasise his point. "The woman's a bloody spook and not even for our own country."

"I trust her with my life," Steve said simply with a genial shrug of his shoulders. He felt slightly startled by his own admission. When he had first met Axel he had constantly watched his back in case she found it worthwhile to stick a knife in there somewhere. He didn't remember when he had stopped but somewhere along the past seven years he must have ceased worrying.

"Forgive me if I'm not convinced," Danny snapped grumpily. "Remember your old buddy, Nick Taylor? Do you remember what happened there?"

"That was completely different," Steve protested.

"Oh, I forgot, it was completely different because you weren't fucking Nick Taylor."

"Is that really what is bugging you, Danny?" Steve yelled back at his partner. "Is it that I've slept with her?"

"It's because you're fucking blinded," Danny shouted. "I don't care how many girls you stick your cock in, it's none of my business but whatever happened between you and her it's a lot bigger than just having a fuck on the odd occasion."

Steve glared at him for a moment but then relaxed when he realised his hands were balled up into fists.

"What would you know about it?" he asked his partner throttling his voice down to the calmest tone he could manage. "Were you there?"

Danny gave him an odd look but he seemed to have gotten whatever he wanted off his chest. Danny wasn't the one who usually took risks, Steve knew that was his job really, and Danny certainly didn't like to be put in a situation which could be a risk to his life. Therefore, the idea of staying in a house with a woman who was a spy and assassin for British Intelligence whom he didn't completely trust was weighing heavily on his mind.

"No, I wasn't," Danny told him with a sigh, "but it's written all over you both, or should I say, it's written all over you. I can't read a thing off her."

That took Steve back slightly.

"When did you ..."

"Start being able to read you?" Danny interrupted him, finishing his sentence. "I have been you partner for two years now. You aren't as inscrutable as you think."

Momentarily stumped Steve didn't reply and Danny didn't bother to bridge the silence. They both just stood there awkwardly, watching each other. Steve wasn't sure what to say. He wanted to reassure his partner that he knew what he was doing and that he knew Axel well enough to know that she wouldn't harm then or double cross them in any way but he also knew exactly what Danny's reaction to that would be.

"I need a beer," he said at last as he headed for the fridge. "Do you want one?"

There was a brief flicker of hesitation on Danny's face before he nodded.

"Go on then," he said. "I could use it."

Steve grinned at his partner before he ducked into the fridge for the six pack of beers that was about the only thing in there. He straightened back up, closed the fridge door before he turned to look at Danny and nearly dropped the beer on the floor. Standing in the doorway behind Danny soaking wet and in the smallest towel imaginable without it being indecent was Axel. Her long black hair was draped over her shoulder and was dripped water onto her chest. Her eyes were now back to normal, the colour of wet slate in the sunshine, and her lips were curved up at the corners. Steve had a flashback of a hotel room in Cyprus when he had left her only a hand towel to dry herself with.

"Can I have a beer?" she asked startling Danny who seemed to jump and swing round at the same time. "By the way, I think you need bigger towels."

Steve felt like groaning when he recognised that it was one of his sister Mary's hair towels that Axel had wrapped around her but he just managed not to. He could only see the back of Danny's head but he could well imagine the expression on his partner's face. Axel, as per usual, looked completely unbothered as though being mostly naked in his house was a regular occurrence.

"Did you search for the smallest towel?" Danny asked her looking her up and down. Axel glanced down at herself and then shrugged.

"I heard the word beer and grabbed the first towel I could lay my hands on," she told them with a wicked grin. "As Commander McGarrett had seen me naked, on more than one occasion, the towel was all for ye, Detective Williams."

Steve closed his eyes briefly as he exhaled strongly though his nose. When he opened them again Danny was staring at him with an expression which clearly said, "Is she for real?"

"Axel, put some clothes on," Steve told her catching the mischievous twinkle in her eyes. "I'll get you a beer."

Axel smiled widely before she left the kitchen, hopefully to go and put on some clothes.

"Don't say anything," Steve said to Danny who was giving him a look which meant he was about to expostulate over the situation. Steve headed through to the living room with Danny right behind him and plonked the beers on the coffee table whilst he searched for a bottle opener in one of the drawers of his desk. He handed Danny a beer before settling down onto his couch with his own. Danny perched on the edge of the armchair.

"She's got some legs on her," Danny commented after a few moments of silence. Steve grinned at him, glad to see he had gotten over his little fit of anger. He was also amused to find that no matter how angry Danny was he was entirely capable of looking at a woman.

"She could strangle you with those legs," Steve told him before taking a sip of his beer. It was nice a cool against his throat as he remembered suddenly that early in the night he had ended up on his back with Axel's thighs wrapped around his head. He was almost certain that even if Danny hadn't been there he would have managed to shove her off in time, almost.

"You're fucked up, you know?" his partner told him.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Your fucking relationships," Danny explained rubbing the flat of his palm across his chin. "Who sleeps with a woman whose only loyalty is to her country and who can strangle you with her legs?"

"Me, apparently," Steve said trying to look unconcerned by this evaluation.

"Fucked up. Here I thought Lieutenant Rollins was the normal type but you've been covering up this little bombshell."

"Would I be that little bombshell then?"

Axel appeared from nowhere again making Danny jump.

"Could you not do that?" he exclaimed turning to look at her.

"How?" replied Axel with a grin.

"Oh I don't know," Danny retorted with heat, "maybe by announcing your presence instead of just sneaking up."

Steve laughed as Axel grinned even more broadly.

"She means why, Danny," Steve informed his partner, "not actually how. It's a Scottish thing."

Danny looked puzzled but Steve was suddenly preoccupied by something else.

"Axel, are you wearing my shirt?"

She was standing just inside the living room, behind Danny, wearing one of his white shirts. It reached only her mid thigh and he could see the shadow of black underwear beneath it. Her hair was still wet but swept back from her face, turning the shirt see-through where it dripped.

"Aye," she replied as she moved further into the room, grabbing an open beer off the table and dropping onto the sofa next to him. "I didn't bring any pyjamas and I didn't think Detective Williams would appreciate me wandering around in my underwear. Anyways, isn't this the shirt I bought ye from Duchamp in London?"

Now she was closer to him Steve could see that it was in fact the shirt she had bought him. The very faint silk lines that ran through the shirt were unmistakable. He rarely wore it any more but more due to not having the occasion to wear it and not damage it in any way.

"Hardly ships passing in the night if you're buying him shirts," Danny commented.

Axel rolled her eyes. Steve was pleased that she had taken out her contacts. It wasn't so disturbing to look at her when her eyes were their usual colour.

"He'd have looked like a right gowk if he'd turned up tae a dinner party in a tux with no shirt, aye?" Axel responded levelly.

"Eh, translation please?" said Danny looking at Steve much in the same way he did when Steve started talking in what Danny called "Army speech".

"Gowk means idiot," Steve told him briefly and then added, "Keep it down on the Scots."

Axel just shrugged and took a sip of her beer. Steve couldn't help watching her, the way her throat moved as she swallowed, the pale skin still flushed from the shower. It was only then that he noticed a silvery line just coming out of her hair line.

"What is that?" he asked her in a voice that could have belonged to a father talking to a child who had drawn on the walls.

"What is what?" asked Danny a frown creasing his brow.

Axel was just looking at Steve in a blank manner but he didn't bother to explain. Instead he swept his hand through her hair pushing it up so he could get a look at the long, jagged scar that ran from her hairline to the middle of her skull. She certainly hadn't had that two years ago.

"Oh that," said Axel blithely, "it's another war wound tae add tae my collection."

"What is it?" Danny came closer to have a look. "What the hell did that?"

"An axe."

There was silence for a heartbeat as Steve automatically let go of her to stare in horror. Axel didn't show any signs of concern about the fact that she had been hit in the head with an axe and continued to sip her beer as though she might have just told him that she had broken a nail when she had been picking up some heavy boxes.

"An axe?" said Danny voicing Steve's own disbelief. "Who hit you with an axe?"

"Oh some big bloke," Axel told them. "It bled like hell but luckily it was just a glancing blow. I spent three weeks in hospital having scans of all sorts. My superiors had a right palaver over it but in the end everything was fine. I had told them that there was no point causing a stramash about it."

Danny shook his head.

"I don't think I understood much of that," he said. "It's an ugly scar. It's a good thing your hair covers it up."

"What the hell were you doing to have someone hit you with an axe?" Steve just managed not to shout. Axel's eyes narrowed dangerously at the tone of his voice and Danny immediately took a step back from the two of them.

"My job," Axel practically growled. "What is it to you?"

"It's almost like you go out of your way to get seriously injured."

"Hardly!" she exclaimed in outrage. "I've got my share of war wounds but it's no like I spend half my life in and out of hospitals."

"Every time I saw you, you had a new scar and what about South Korea?"

"Whit aboot it? It wasnae like it was a big deal. It was nae mair than a wee scratch."

"A scratch," Steve responded irately. "It's was a large gash up the underside of your arm."

"A scratch, it wasnae like I had tae go tae the hospital. Yer getting yersel' a' worked up aboot nothin'. It's no like I cannae look after masel'. Aam a British agent, we're the feckin' best trained in the world. I ken how tae handle masel'."

"Considering the situations you get yourself into ..."

"It's nane o' yer friggin' business whit Ah dae or how Ah gang aboot it, McGarrett. The situations Ah get masel' intae are mah ain concern an' anythin' Ah get masel' intae is usually oan purpose. Ah aye get masel' oot o' it."

With the two of them shouting at each other on the couch Danny had just stood back to watch but it was at that moment he decided to interrupt.

"Look if you two are just going to shout at each other," he said, "and, trust me, I don't understand anything that is coming out of your mouth Axel, then I'm going to go to bed. I'll also tell you that for ships passing in the night you sound like an old married couple."

They both backed down immediately. Axel slumped back in the sofa, pulling her left knee up under her chin and taking a sip of her beer. Steve leaned forward, his elbows on his knees and rubbed a hand over his chin, feeling the scratch of his stubble against the palm of his hand. He glanced up at Danny who was looking rather relieved that they had stopped shouting at each other. Steve should have known not to bring up South Korea. Axel's injury had been the only thing that had roused him out of his single minded state to hunt down Victor Hesse and kill him.

"Right, I'm going to go to bed," Danny told them, "and let you two work out your issues."

Steve glanced at Axel and then back at Danny.

"Goodnight, Danno," he said. "You want to take my room and I'll sleep on the couch?"

"Nah, I'll sleep in the spare room. I wouldn't want to be tumbled on in the middle of the night."

Steve raised an eyebrow but Danny just smiled at him before he left the room, taking his beer with him. Steve wanted to say something about his last comment but he didn't really have a witty enough response to that. He just watched Danny's retreating back until he was gone before he turned back to Axel.

"I like yer partner," she said with a smile.

"I don't think the feeling is mutual," Steve informed her lightly.

"Aye, I received that message loud and clear," she told him. "I'm sure he'll look back on this night with fondness in his later years of life."

"Well he's got the spare room. I'll take the couch if you want my bed."

Axel shook her head almost fiercely.

"Definitely not, I'll sleep on the couch. I'd sleep in yer bed next tae you but I don't want tae give Detective Williams any ideas and anyways, ye wouldn't be able tae keep yer hands of me."

"Haha, you wish," he responded but his memory immediately bombarded him with memories that completely contradicted his sarcastic comment.

Axel smiled but an awkward silence developed between them. Steve just looked at her trying to figure out something to say. There was a lot he wanted to say but he didn't seem to be able to find the words to tell her. Unusually for her Axel wasn't meeting his gaze. She was looking down at her feet.

"Did ye get him?" she asked unexpectedly but he knew exactly who she was talking about.

"Yeah, I got him. He's in jail."

Her eyebrows flickered up.

"Ye didn't kill him?"

He shook his head. He had wanted to. In fact, the first time he had caught up with him he had put two bullets into Victor Hesse but he had survived that, only to come back to strap a bomb around Chin's neck. He had caught him that time and now he was rotting in a jail cell.

"I'd have killed him," Axel stated.

Steve only smiled in response to that. Axel was an orphan with no family. She had grown up going in and out of foster homes, relying solely on herself with no attachments to anyone. It had made her the perfect candidate to become a spy for British Intelligence. Steve had seen her military file. She had joined the army at sixteen into the intelligence section. Her report described her as dedicated, focused with a sharp mind and a sharper tongue but it also portrayed a loner who didn't trust other people and who didn't form close friendships with anyone although she was well liked, excellent at hand to hand combat and skilled in marksmanship. He knew she didn't really understand how he felt about his father being murdered. She spent her life in dangerous situations surrounded by dangerous criminals and she didn't form attachments.

"You know, I'm sorry," he said quietly.

"For what?" she asked and Steve was amused to see that Axel was in fact genuinely surprised and not making any attempt to hide it.

"For not getting in touch."

"Pfft," said Axel waving her hand to dismiss his apology. "We were never good at getting in touch and I was busy anyway. Still, it's been a while."

He had to agree with that. For five years they had bumped into each other all over the world, acting like a couple of love sick teenagers and barely able to keep their hands off each other. All it had ever taken was the one text to let him know where she was and if he was in the area he would go to her. Sometimes he even went to her when he wasn't in the area and had time to spare. Then two years ago it had all disappeared. After he left to avenge his father he no longer received those texts and he didn't send them.

"Did you miss me?" he asked in a teasing manner.

"Did ye think about me?" she responded with a smile.

"Not at all," they answered together with the ghost of a familiar joke on their faces. They both took a sip of their beers at the same time almost as though they were programmed.

"What time do you need to be back tomorrow?" he asked her.

"I'll definitely need tae be back by half five," she told him. "Arlington's got a meeting and I'm supposed tae be translating."

"You speak Hawaiian now, do you?"

"Even if I did I wouldn't be needing it," Axel told him with a grin. "He's meeting with a Frenchman named Louis Bardot."

"Another arms dealer?" he asked.

"No, I think he's an accountant of some type. Arlington is transferring resources to France at the moment, probably tae be on the safe side because America doesn't have an extradition treaty with France. He only set up the meeting yesterday so I have a feeling that yours and Detective William's presence is setting him on the defensive."

Steve took a slow sip of his beer. He wasn't quite sure what to make of that situation but he was tired enough to not want to bother. If Axel didn't have to be back until half five that gave them time to go through their game plan.

"So what are you going to say if Arlington finds out you were here?" he said voicing only a little of the concern that had been in the back of his head since they had busted her earlier in the night.

"Easy," she said dismissively. "You could pass for my cousin right?"

He grinned.

"I suppose so. What name are you using?"

He was surprised to see Axel flush pink.

"Sophia Lauder."

He started.

"Lauder," he repeated. "That's my mother's maiden name."

"I know that fine," she told him with a smile. "Did ye think that I just make-up my alias' on the spot? I tend tae pick them from people I've known or things I've seen or read. So we could definitely pass as cousins."

Steve shook his head in disbelief. She had obviously been thinking about him when she had chosen that surname to go in under cover with Richard Arlington. He had thought about her over the past two years as well. He had even dreamed about her on the odd occasion.

"So you did miss me then?" he said with a smile.

Axel rolled her eyes but then pitched herself forward to wrap her arms around his neck. The intensity of the hug shocked him slightly as she gripped her tightly to her. He supposed that the woman who was completely self-reliant and never made attachments had formed some kind of link to him through their messed up relationship of five years. He wrapped his own arms around her back and held her close to him. She smelled very clean but the scent of her skin penetrated his senses reminding him of nights gone past. He remembered that smell.

"It's nice to see you again," he told her whispering into her hair.

"It's good to see ye too, Steve."

Well that's the third chapter. I'm going to start the fourth chapter like right now because I'm currently in the middle of a Hawaii Five-0 omnibus. Watching episode 17 with the bit where Steve blow opens the pawn shop door with a grenade. Excellent. Anyway, I hope you liked that chapter and as usual I can't wait to hear what you think.