Horrendous. That was the only way to describe how Olivia felt in the morning and it wasn't because of the mild hangover she had although it was part of the reason she felt bad. Most of it was to do with the fact that she was still very much angry with Steve over what happened yesterday and after she left his office Olivia went to a bar and proceeded to get very drunk with her roommate Nora. Everything after that got a bit fuzzy but Olivia had woken up alone and in her own bed much to her relief as the last thing that she wanted was to hook up with some stranger. As she wearily walked out of her bedroom Olivia walked down the hallway until she came to the open plan living room and kitchen, where she found her roommate Nora sitting at the breakfast bar happily munching on a piece of toast. Olivia shuffled into the kitchen, grunted a morning greeting to Nora as she went about making herself some peppermint tea. All Olivia wanted to do was stay in bed all day but she found herself dragging herself out of bed as if she was going to be miserable, she might as well be miserable on the couch with a comforter and some movies.

"Good morning Liv." Nora chirped and Olivia just grimaced.

"Are you sure about that?" Olivia grimly replied as nothing suggested to her that it was a good day in the slightest as she was still annoyed about what happened yesterday and she had woken up in a rather foul mood with a hangover. Her day had started just like it had ended last night; terrible.

"I'm not surprised that your hungover Olivia, you were really knocking back the drinks last night especially the tequila. I'm surprised that you even managed to drag your ass out of bed as you were a wreck by the time I managed to drag you home Liv." Nora chuckled and Olivia glared at her roommate before swiping the slice of toast that Nora was eating and taking a bite for herself.

"Then why didn't you stop me if I was so bad?" Olivia questioned through a mouthful of toast, social graces went out of the window when she was hungover and felt like a complete wreck.

"I thought about it but then I decided against it as you deserve to blow off some steam and get crazy drunk since you came back from your tour plus you were in a really bad mood and your really scary when your angry. So I figured I'd let you get drunk and keep an eye on you and make sure you didn't get into any trouble and to be fair you were pretty harmless and quite funny. Until some guy called Steve called you and then you really started chugging back the tequila. You said something about wanting to get drunk enough that you just didn't care enough anymore." Nora revealed and Olivia couldn't help but pinch the top of her nose as she poured herself some tea. "So whose this Steve guy?"

"Family friend, it was his dad's funeral I went to the other day… Steve's in the navy but he's just transferred to the reserves to run some taskforce for the governor." Olivia wearily explained, being as vague as possible.

"Well for a friend you seemed to be really pissed off with him." Nora noted.

"That's because I am, Steve offered me a job yesterday in his taskforce and things didn't end well." Olivia stated in a rather sour tone of voice as just thinking about it was getting her worked up and her hangover really didn't need it.

"He offered you a job? Can he do that?"

"I'm pretty certain he can, the governor has pretty much given Steve the authority to do whatever he wants such as offering me a job when he's aware that I have one! The nerve of that man! You should have seen him Nora, Steve just assumed that I would quit my job and join this taskforce of his because he had already got an office for me. Steve just completely seemed to ignore the fact that I can't just pick and choose what I get to do, I can't stay in Hawaii as I have to go back. He was being such a jerk and then he had the nerve to bring up my last last tour!" Olivia spat before taking a sip of her tea and going to look for something for her poor head. During this time Olivia couldn't help but note that her roommate was being very quiet. "What? Why are you so quiet?"

"You got pretty upset last night when Steve called last night hence the tequila but when we were in the ladies you kind of burst into tears. You were sort of crying and ranting about Steve and something what happened when you were in Afghanistan." Nora slowly said and Olivia felt her jaw harden at the mere mention of Afghanistan, it was all Steve's fault. It also explained why Olivia had woken up with eyes that looked like puffy mushrooms. Olivia wanted to crawl into a hole and die, she'd even take still being blind drunk at this point.

"Sake." Olivia darkly murmured.

"You want to talk about it?"

"No."

"Would it be such a bad thing if you stuck around for a while?" Nora hesitantly asked and Olivia couldn't believe what she was hearing as she had been expecting Nora to take her side. Given that they were friends and roommates, Olivia let Nora live in her apartment at a very cheap rate since she needed someone to take care of it whilst she was overseas. The last thing Olivia was expecting was for Nora to suggest that she should take the job. Nora was supposed to be on her side, regardless of what she thought. But then again Nora wasn't one for normal conventions with her pale pink hair, model good looks but studying to get her PhD in mathematics.

"Nora…" Olivia began not wanting to have this conversation a she had already had it with Steve and she did not want to have it again, especially when she was hungover.

"Liv just hear me out, we've been roommates for just under six years now but we've only actually lived with each other for just under two years and even then it's rather sporadic as your always coming and going. I know it's because of your deployments and I knew that you wouldn't be around much when I moved in. But don't you just want to live your life sometimes? You thirty years old and you have spent the last nine years in the army, you practically spent your entire twenties working and being overseas."

"I knew what I was getting into when I enlisted Nora, I didn't decide to join the army on a whim, I did my research and all those years of hard work got me here. This is my life which is why I didn't hesitate to reenlist when my eight years was up." Olivia explained.

"Liv you don't have to explain it to me but wouldn't it be nice just to be home for a while. Connect with your family and friends again instead of only seeing them for two weeks every several months. Isn't your brother's wife pregnant? That's got be worth sticking around for a bit. Let somebody take care of you, have fun and enjoy the world instead of always fighting overseas." Nora urged and Olivia just sighed and took a sip of her tea. "You need a break for a while Liv, these last few years all you've done is work constantly."

"It's all I know Nora."

"They take a break and try something else for a while, it doesn't mean you have to leave the army. You could go back if you wanted to right?" Nora asked and Olivia slowly nodded her head, she knew that she had missed out on a lot. She had barely managed to make it on time for her Everett's wedding, Olivia had gotten in the night before to surprise him but two weeks after she was off again. Then she had missed Grady's college graduation, their father's funeral. Basically Olivia had missed a lot of things, it was like she was barely even a member of her own family.

"Yes."

Before Nora could answer there was a knock on the door and Olivia just groaned as it was far too loud for her particular liking and Nora laughed as she went to the door and looked through the peephole. Nora looked through it and then looked over at Olivia with a small frown on her face. Olivia didn't really understand as she never had visitors to her apartment as she was never there and she liked it that way. The only people who ever came to the apartment were Nora's friends and family. "Um Liv, this guy Steve… Is he tall, dark and incredibly handsome with blue eyes and with a body that looks like it belongs to a Greek Adonis?"

"He's on the other side of the door, isn't he?" Olivia wearily asked although the grin on Nora's face pretty much said it all.

"Yep."

Taking a deep breath Olivia walked over to the door and slowly opened it and there on the other side of the door was a rather sheepish Steve McGarrett carrying a bouquet of sunflowers. Knowing full well that he wouldn't give up until he spoke to her, Olivia motioned for Steve to come in. "Steve this is my roommate Nora Fletcher and Nora this is Lt. Commander Steve McGarrett…"

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Steve began.

"You too, Olivia has told me quite a bit about you although she did leave out how good looking you were." Nora quipped and Olivia couldn't help but roll her eyes as Nora was unbloody believable.

"These are for you Liv." Steve said as he handed the flowers over to her and Olivia reluctantly took and went to find a vase for them in the kitchen. Just because Steve remember that sunflowers were some of her favourite flowers, it didn't mean she was just going to forgive him. Because Olivia wasn't, once the flowers were in a vase and sitting on the kitchen table she idly walked over to the living room and sat down on her cream couch. All this standing whilst slightly hungover wasn't doing her much good.

"Well I'll leave you both to it." Nora said with a small smile before slinking off out of the living room and heading back towards her bedroom leaving Olivia and Steve alone.

"About what happened the other day Liv…"

"Steve can we please not do this right now as I am really not in the mood for this conversation." Olivia wearily said as she rubbed her eyes in an irritated manner, after what she had heard from Nora all Olivia wanted to do was just crawl into a hole. Olivia couldn't believe that she had got so drunk and worked up about what happened that she had started crying. In the last three years Olivia had cried about five times at the most and generally it was about things a lot worse then her having an argument with Steve.

"Are you hungover?"

"Yes I am hungover or have you not taken a real good look at me." Olivia shot back as she was well aware that her green eyes were all puffy from all the crying and her dirty blonde hair was all over the place and half scraped into a bun. Then she was walking around in just a tank top and some old stripped pyjama pants. It was not a pretty sight but Olivia couldn't care less, she was in her own home, the one place where she could walk around like an absolute slob whenever she wanted to.

"Good night?"

"I can't recall much but it mustn't' have been too good seeing as I woke up alone but then again maybe that is a good thing." Olivia grimly noted before she even realized what was coming out of her mouth and once she did, Olivia knew it was too late to take it back. But Steve didn't seemed shocked by it, in fact he seemed rather amused by it all.

"How much did you have to drink?"

"Not enough." Olivia grumbled as she curled up onto the sofa, wearily eyeing up Steve as he came towards her and it looked like he was going to sit beside until he caught attention of something on one of the bookcases. Olivia watched as he smiled as he picked up a framed photograph and for the life of her she couldn't figure out what picture he was looking at. Olivia was barely ever home and when she was it generally was only to sleep so she wasn't familiar with the finer details of her apartment as some of the stuff in it she hadn't looked at in years.

"Oh wow…" Steve murmured.

"What are you looking at?" Olivia questioned as she was now curious and Steve came over and sat down on the couch next to Olivia and had her the photo frame. The photograph was of her, Steve, Mary and her two brothers Grady and Everett, they all had their arms around each other and grinning widely in the photo. The photo had been taken roughly about twenty two years ago as judging by her missing two front teeth Olivia put herself about being eight when this photo was taken which Steve was round about twelve. "I forgot I had this, I think I swiped it from my dad's house a few years ago."

"I think this was taken at your dad's house in the summer during a barbeque, we we're so young back then. Unbelievable how much time has gone by since this was taken." Steve noted.

"Things were so much easier back then." Olivia replied with a small sigh

"Liv about what happened yesterday, I should have never mentioned what happened in Afghanistan." Steve began and Olivia just groaned, she did not want to have this conversation in the slightest and that was regardless of her hangover. But it was the only thing that was preventing her from getting up and leaving. Olivia really wished that Nora had stopped her from drinking so much tequila last night.

"Your damn right you shouldn't have mentioned it, what happened over there is none of your business and I don't even want to know how you found out in the first place. But you have no right in bringing it up as you have no idea what happened; what I went through and I don't want you to ask about. It is not your place to ask about Steve just like it is not my place to ask what the hell you've been doing for the last six years. I do not talk about my deployments with anyone, end of story. Juts because you're in the navy doesn't make you special enough that I'd talk about it with you Steve." Olivia bluntly stated or rather attempted to state in a rather blunt manner but since she was dehydrated from all of last's night drinking, her voice was very croaky and sounded like she was an old lady and the furthest thing from being blunt or annoyed.

"I'm sorry Olivia."

"You should be Steven."

"I know you don't believe me when I said it but I do need you Olivia, I need your help in finding out what my dad was actually investigating. He couldn't trust anyone else but you and I've always been able to trust you. I haven't known Danny, Chin or Kono as long as I've known you and as such I can't trust them as easily. We've got an opportunity to do some real good here Liv, no more going through the bureaucratic red tape–" Steve attempted to explain and Olivia ran her hands through her hair. Olivia liked the job she had, she was good at what she did. The army was her family but then Olivia reminded herself that she also had a real family. She had Everett, Grady, her sister in law Ava, not to mention her unborn niece or nephew as well as Nora. Olivia knew she had missed a lot, deep down she was well aware that she missed countless things over the years but talking with Nora just reminded her of that. Olivia was so used being away that when she came home she never really adjusted. It was like she had left most of herself back there and it was bad that she felt more comfortable being deployed overseas then at home with her family. It was worse than bad and Olivia knew things had to change. She wanted things to change. Nora was right, she needed to take a break and Olivia wanted to be Olivia the person again and not just the soldier. She wanted to see her niece or nephew come into the world and be an aunt, she wanted to see Nora get her PhD.

"Shut up Steve, I'll take it." Olivia quietly announced.

"Excuse me?"

"I will take the job, if the offer still stands." Olivia clarified in a rather uncomfortable manner as she saw Steve smile, no doubt pleased he had finally gotten his way. "Don't look so arrogant McGarrett as this doesn't mean that I've forgiven you for bringing up Afghanistan because I haven't and I have some conditions for you."

"What conditions?" Steve wearily questioned.

"I work with you not for you and if at any time I get called up from the reserves back on to active duty I am going with no hesitation Steve. I am a Sergeant in the US Army and I will report for duty when ordered to do so regardless of where I am and what I am doing."

"Okay. So when can you start?"

"Give me a six weeks to get everything in order."