Well, here is the fourth chapter. It's another long one. I hope you enjoy it.
Translation time =)
Hawd yer Wheesht - Shut the Hell Up or (more politely) Hold your Tongue
Baws - Balls
I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited
but I couldn't stay away, I couldn't fight
I hoped you'd see my face and that you'd be reminded
that for me, it isn't over
- Someone Like You, Adele
.
Steve woke in the morning to a huge thump coming from somewhere down the stairs. He immediately grabbed his gun out from under his pillow and rolled out the bed, his feet landing quietly on the floor. He was out the door of his bedroom and heading down the stairs in a flash, his eyes blinking in the sudden light coming in through the windows. When he reached the bottom of the stairs an odd sight met his eyes. In the middle of his living room stood Axel still dressed in his white shirt. She was glaring down fiercely at her unsuspecting victim on the floor with a Sig Sauer braced in both hands. Steve wondered briefly where she had been keeping that. He immediately recognised Lieutenant Catherine Rollins, who he had been dating for the past little bit, lying on the floor breathing heavily, indicating that Axel had tossed her onto the floor, knocking the breath out of her.
"What the fuck are you doing?" he asked the British agent as he lowered his gun and moved into the living room towards Catherine lying on the floor.
"I was in the kitchen having a drink when I heard someone come in the front door," Axel explained not removing her eyes from Catherine. "They were creeping around like they didn't want tae be heard so I came in and dealt with them."
"I was going to surprise you, Steve," Catherine told him as he knelt down on the floor next to her, "but she got the drop on me."
Steve could see the accusation in her eyes. He knew exactly what it looked like but he didn't bother to explain right at this moment.
"Are you alright?" he asked Catherine. "Did she hurt you at all?"
Catherine shook her head and Steve looked up into the barrel of Axel's gun.
"You can put that away," he told her. "Catherine's a friend."
Axel shrugged one shoulder but then duly lowered her arm and relaxed her threatening stance over Catherine. Steve helped Catherine off the floor and then made her sit down on the couch. He was only briefly aware that it didn't look like anyone had slept on it.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Steve asked Catherine again. Axel was lethal after all.
"I'm fine," Catherine told him sincerely sounding like she had now recovered her breath. "I just didn't expect to be thrown around your living room before having a gun thrust in my face."
Steve could hear the question in her voice.
"Actually it's probably better if I don't introduce you," he told her before turning to Axel. "What the hell were you thinking? You might have killed her."
Axel smirked, her eyes flickering to Catherine and then back.
"I would have if she had moved," she responded nonchalantly, "but she didn't and she's still alive. People shouldn't sneak around other people's house, especially early in the morning."
"I was trying to surprise him," Catherine told her through gritted teeth.
Axel snorted.
"Steve sleeps light enough that no matter how quiet ye were ye'd have likely found yerself with his gun in yer face rather than mine," she said bluntly, "though I am surprised it took ye so long tae get down the stairs. Ye used to be quicker."
Steve was saved from answering by the ringing of a phone. Axel immediately turned towards the sound which was coming from a small black phone sitting on the coffee table. She picked it up and glanced briefly at the caller id. Steve saw recognition flicker in her eyes.
"I need tae take this," she told them before she turned on her heel and left in the direction of Steve's office. When she had closed the door behind her Steve looked back at Catherine.
"I'm sorry about that," he told her.
"Steve, I think you'd better tell me who that woman is and why she is wandering around your house in your shirt with a gun," Catherine said in the sternest voice Steve had ever heard her use. He sighed heavily. Trust Catherine to be on dry land at the same time Axel decided to put in an appearance.
"She's an old friend," he explained hesitantly. "She's in the area on business and she slept on the couch last night."
Catherine's eyes narrowed when she looked at him. He could see the doubt in them. There was nothing that he could explain and that was killing him. Axel's identity had to be protected and whilst Steve trusted that Catherine would never tell anyone anything it wasn't really up to him to tell her or not. That was entirely up to Axel. It was rare that she ever told anyone her real name so having her open up to his team was a huge deal.
"Why is she wearing your shirt then and how does she know how you sleep?" she fired the questions at him. "You still haven't told me who she is."
Steve sighed.
"I can't tell you who she is," Steve told her. "All I can tell you is that she's an old friend, she borrowed my shirt to sleep in and we used to work together."
He knew his explanation wouldn't pacify Catherine but he didn't expect her to get to her feet and storm off in the direction of his office where Axel was taking her phone call.
"If you won't tell me anything then I'll ask her," she said and Steve tried to stop her from opening the door but he didn't quite reach her in time. Axel spun round as they entered the room and her eyes flickered across them quickly. Catherine opened her eyes to speak but Axel made a swift, brutal sign indicating that she should be quiet or else have her throat slit.
"I have tae go now," she said into her phone. "Bye darling."
"Was that him?" Steve asked the moment she had hung up. Axel blinked slowly but didn't answer him. Instead she looked at Catherine.
"I believe ye had something tae say."
"Yes, in fact, I do, who the fuck are you and what are you doing in my boyfriend's house?" Catherine demanded in a very superior tone than sounded like it could have belonged to a field hospital matron.
"Yer boyfriend?" Axel repeated, her eyes flickering to Steve for a moment. "Will that make ye Lieutenant Rollins then?"
"Yes it would."
"Well, I could tell ye who I am," she said, "but I'd have tae silence ye afterward."
Steve felt like he was in the middle of a bad sit-com when that signature smirk appeared on Axel's face. What the hell was he supposed to do in a situation like this? Where the hell was Danny? He could really use the back up right now.
"I'm an intelligence officer in the United States Navy," Catherine began stiffly but Axel interrupted her.
"Ye could be the President of the United States and I still wouldn't tell ye. My relationship with Commander McGarrett is none of yer concern and neither is the reason I am here. Ye can ask me until yer blue in the face but ye'll no get an answer out of me so I suggest that ye save yer breath for questions that I might answer."
Catherine seemed stumped and was just staring at Axel in disbelief. Steve wished he didn't have to be there right now. If there was ever a situation that he had thought would never, ever happen it was that Axel and Catherine would never be in the same room as each other.
"Well I'm flattered, Steve," Axel said turning to him, "she does favour me some."
With that she swept past them and Steve could hear her going out of the back door, probably for a swim.
"Just what did she mean by that?" Catherine asked him and all he wanted at that moment was to go back to sleep to wake up and find it had all just been a bad dream. Now that he had seen them together he had to admit Axel had something there. They were about the same height with dark hair although Catherine's eyes were brown and she was infinitely more tanned than Axel. He hadn't really noticed before but at that moment it seemed he had a type.
"She meant that you are with me because I look like her," Catherine answered her own question. "Who is she, Steve? Your ex-girlfriend? Your ex-wife? Who? You had better tell me now or else I'm going to walk out that door and you're never going to see me again."
"I'm not with you because you look like her," Steve protested immediately. "I've never been married, you know that. She's just an old friend from a couple of years ago."
"You seem to have been closer than friends."
"If you want me to admit it then, yes, I've slept with her," he told her, "more than once but that was years ago. She lives on the other side of the Pacific, for fuck's sake."
Catherine's mouth suddenly dropped open and Steve could see the ghost of a memory in her eyes followed by confusion and anger. She seemed almost shocked by whatever she was remembering and Steve could feel the apprehension building within him.
"It was her," she said softly.
"What was her?" Steve asked her confused.
"That first night you took me for dinner when we met in Coronado," she said, "and we never made our reservations, the next morning you got a text message. It was under the name Bond. All it said was San Diego. When you got that message you were in such a hurry to have a shower and get dressed. It was her you were going to, wasn't it?"
Steve didn't answer. He remembered that day, leaving Catherine's bed and heading to San Diego to see Axel after a four month absence. She would tell him what she was doing there but he suspected she was in the middle of an operation at the time because they had only a couple of hours together which they had spent sitting in a park underneath a tree, not talking and just watching the world go by. They had spoken about the girl's bed he had just left that morning even though it was just briefly. They had agreed that their intermittent relationship shouldn't stop them from seeing other people when they were apart, especially since Axel used her position as a woman in her job so often.
"Did you go straight from my bed into hers?" Catherine asked in an almost dangerously soft voice. Her fury seemed to have died down now but Steve could still see it in her eyes dancing a twisted dance with hurt. What the hell was he supposed to tell her? He couldn't exactly say that at the particular point she had just been a one night stand and she hadn't meant anything to him, which was the truth but Steve didn't want to tell her that.
"Cathy," he said gently reach for her, "it was over before we had even really started."
She flinched away from him, reluctant to have him touch her.
"That's a bad excuse, Steve and you know it. You slept with me and then went straight to her. How do you think she'd feel about that?"
She waited for an answer and Steve knew what it was but he didn't want to say it.
"I told her," he admitted quietly, "and she didn't care."
Catherine looked at him in disbelief and it loosened his tongue rather suddenly.
"You can't understand, Cath, you weren't there. We weren't a couple. We spent months apart, lived completely separate lives. We didn't do dinner or drinks or the movies, we didn't introduce each to friends or family. It wasn't the kind of relationship you're thinking it is, neither of us had the time for permanent things in our lives, we weren't stable enough, either of us. We had very little time. Sometimes we didn't even really talk much, and I don't mean that all we did was fuck but we could sit together in silence for hours at a time. It wasn't a proper relationship."
Catherine's face seemed to change drastically through his rant from shock to anger to comprehension and finally to resignation. Steve wasn't sure what the resignation meant, whether she had accept his explanation or was determined not to accept that she was hearing the truth.
"What was it then, Steve?" she asked him in a surprisingly soft voice. "That girl, what was she to you?"
Steve heaved a sigh.
"It was just ... It was just simple," he told her. "Everything else was so hectic, five years of tracking the Hesse brothers, and that girl, she was my little bit of peace and quiet."
The look in Catherin's brown eyes as she stepped towards him was something he couldn't describe. She raised her hand and for a moment he though she was going to slap him but she didn't. Instead she rested her warm palm against his cheek. She seemed to be searching his eyes but what she was looking for he couldn't tell.
"I could never compete with that," she told him before standing on her tip toes to plant a lingering kiss on his cheek. "Come and find me when she's gone."
"Cathy," he attempted to persuade her but she shook her head and he knew it was in vain.
"Goodbye Steve."
She gave him a smile and then turned and left the house swiftly. Steve sighed as the front banged shut behind her retreating back. Right at that moment it felt that if it wasn't for back luck he'd have no luck at all but when he thought it he couldn't help remembering that it was one of Axel's sayings.
Exasperated he left his office to go into the kitchen. Danny was awake and fully dressed leaning on the kitchen side finishing off a bacon and egg sandwich. Axel was sitting on the counter opposite his partner watching him in obviously delighted by the enjoyment plain on his face. Beside her on the counter was a plate which held two more of the bacon and egg sandwiches. His partner and the British agent both looked up when the door clicked shut behind him.
"Where did they come from?" Steve asked nodding at the sandwiches.
"Axel made them," Danny told him through a mouth of bacon, egg and bread. "They're damn good. You don't seem like the cooking sort of woman."
Axel laughed.
"I was in the Army," she told Danny. "All military personnel know how tae cook."
Steve glowered at her, annoyed about her good humour. He was also annoyed at Danny because he would have really liked him to still hate Axel at this moment especially when he was pissed off at her himself. He didn't understand why she had to say that in front of Catherine. He knew it wasn't just a spur of the moment thing. Axel had an extremely effective filter between her brain and her mouth. Everything she said was carefully thought about before it was said, an excellent tool for a spy.
"Where's the Lieutenant?" asked Danny once he had finally swallowed the rest of his breakfast.
"She's gone," Steve said through gritted teeth, shooting a glare at Axel.
"Why?" she asked. "I liked her, Steve. She'd be a good one for ye tae settle down with."
Steve couldn't help but just stare at her. Axel bloody confused him royally.
"What the hell do you mean by that?" he demanded. "If you liked her so bloody much then why did you talk down to her like that and then imply that the only reason I like the woman is because she looks a bit like you?"
"Calm down, McGarrett," she told him. "Even if I like someone it doesn't mean that I'm going tae let them demand information from me in a condescending way. I'm a bloody grown woman, no some sixteen year old teenager who's nicked her sister's boyfriend. If ye had been smart ye'd have told her I was yer cousin and there wouldn't have been a problem but ye didn't so I dropped the hint and left ye to deal with it. Trust me, it's better she knows."
Steve felt like he was about to tear out his hair. Is this how Danny felt around him because right now he could completely sympathise with his partner?
"I think he's pissed at you," Danny commented to Axel, "makes a change from me being pissed at him."
Axel looked at him and then shrugged.
"He's no pissed at me," she told his partner. "He's just mad because I'm right, again."
Steve wanted to argue that point but he couldn't because it was mostly true. He felt like an idiot for not thinking to tell Catherine that Axel was his cousin and he certainly knew that she had the right to know that there had been some history between him and Axel. Still, he could have got round to that in his own time.
"Axel, that was the girl from Coronado," he explained. "She just figured out that I left her that morning because I was rushing across the state to you."
Axel shrugged.
"It's no big deal," she told him. "It was yer first date. It's not like ye even knew her, really."
"Most women don't see it that way actually," Danny interjected.
Axel dismissed it with a wave of her hand and for some reason, just when he wanted to be mad at her, Steve had to smile. It had always been one of the many things he had admired about her. She just didn't give a fuck what other people thought and she just dismissed anything that didn't sit the same way with her. She didn't care what way most women saw it as far as Axel was concern they were just being stupid and making a fuss over nothing.
"Is one of those for me?" Steve asked deciding that he had had enough of this subject and he pointed at the plate next to Axel.
"Aye, they both are," she said handing the plate to him. "My special bacon and egg butties. Danny's had two already."
"Oh, it's Danny now, not Detective Williams," Steve commented looking between his partner and Axel. "Are you not eating?"
"I had breakfast like three hours ago," Axel told him. "It's eight o'clock. Ye sleep a lot later than ye used tae. I'll say something about Arlington, he sleeps late and it kills me having tae lay there waiting for him tae wake up. Half the time I get up, go for a swim, have my breakfast, make all my phone calls and then get back intae bed before he wakes up. The man sleeps like a log, a bit like ye when ye're drunk, Steve."
Steve had forgotten that Axel seemed to require next to no sleep. By the time they had gone to bed last night it must have been about half one in the morning but she had gotten up three and a half hours later. He also really didn't want to hear about Arlington's sleeping habits because that brought it to the fore front of his mind that Axel was sleeping with the slimy, arms-dealing bastard and he certainly hated being compared to him.
"Axel, you've seen me in a drunken sleep once," he contradicted between bites of his sandwich, "I hardly think that makes you an expert."
"Steve, I managed tae climb in through the window of yer hotel room, on the eighth floor might I add, without ye hearing a thing, even when I landed with a right wallop. If ye hadn't of been in a drunken sleep ye'd have been awake well before I'd managed tae even get tae floor three."
"Why were you climbing in through his window in the first place?" Danny asked puzzled. "Do you and Super SEAL just do that kind of thing for fun?"
Axel and Steve exchanged a glance and then laughed.
"Aye," Axel told him at the same time Steve said, "yes."
"You know I'm thinking that I might ask Chin to knock me out for this entire operation," Danny told them. "I have enough problems just dealing with one, let alone two people whose entire lives seem to revolve around armed conflict. I might have a mental break down."
"Pfft," said Axel dismissively, "ye'll barely be seeing me, Danny. I'll be stuck playing Barbie to Arlington."
"Ignore her," Steve told Danny, "she loves going undercover."
"That I do," she admitted. "Nothing like bringing down the bad guys without them even knowing it was me. All they think I'm good for is lying on my back."
"How do you do that?" Danny asked. "How do you sleep with people like Arlington and Victor Hesse? I couldn't do it."
"Oh it's easy, Danny," Axel said with a wide smile, "I just lie back and think of England."
Steve laughed but even as he did so his fists clenched. He hated being reminded that Axel had slept with Victor Hesse, the man who had killed his father, John McGarrett. It had been before he had even met her but it still rankled him. She hadn't told him about it at all and he'd only found out when he'd been sent after the Hesse brothers and Axel was the one that had been recommended to try and lure Victor Hesse in. It was over comms he had heard their conversation and the way Victor was flirting with her. He hadn't even realised that whilst Axel had been undercover as an arms dealer she had slept with Victor in order to get closer to him. He had thought it a bit extreme at the time but he soon got used the way Axel did things even if it did make him want to blow the mission by ripping the arsehole's throat out.
"I should have slit Victor's throat whilst he was sleeping, eh?" Axel said gently obviously following his train of thought.
"That wasn't your job," Steve reminded her, "and you always get the job done."
"Still, it would have saved a lot of hassle if I had just killed him all those years ago."
"Why were you sleeping with him?" asked Danny curiously.
"I like ye, Danny," Axel said with barely a moment's hesitation, "but I'm no going to tell ye anything. Ye know enough as it is for me tae have probable cause tae slit yer throat and dump yer body in the ocean, no that I'd do that."
She grinned broadly at the Jersey Detective who looked as though he was trying to force a golf ball past his adam's apple. Steve just shook his head, not bothering to responded as he finished his breakfast. He'd forgotten how good Axel's bacon and egg butties were.
"I'll be going tae see him," Axel announced suddenly.
"Going to see who?" Steve asked suspiciously.
"Victor Hesse."
"What?" expostulated Danny. "Why?"
"Well with Victor in jail," Axel explained ignoring the way Steve was staring at her, "his contacts and clients are up for takeover by various associates. Arlington will want at least a few of them."
"But Victor knows you," Steve protested. "Surely he's going to be suspicious if you turn up under a different name.
"Aye Victor knows me but as a translator, negotiator and deal broker in the crime world," Axel told him. "The first time I met him my name was Laura McKaren and the second time I gave the name Emma Alexander. Criminals use fake names as well as spies. Victor doesn't know whether either of the names I gave him are my real name but he's no going tae care. Arlington was smart enough tae send me tae deal with Viktor Bout when we were in New York. No one ever suspicious about a woman visiting a man in jail but a suspected arms dealer visiting another suspected arms dealer is no a good move. He'll send me tae see Victor."
"I think that is a bad idea," Steve said. "Victor is in maximum security, all his visitations are recorded. If you're trying to avoid notice by the HPD then I wouldn't be visiting him."
"They don't record his conjugal visits," Axel said with a smile, "although I must say I think the idea of conjugal visits is crazy. In Britain if you're in jail ye just have to suck it up."
"A conjugal visit, Axel, are you serious?" Steve practically shouted at the Scot. "Was the bastard that good in bed that you just can't wait to go back?"
"Aw hawd yer wheesht, Steve," Axel replied irritably. "I'll no actually be fucking him. I'm only going along tae get information and conjugal visits are the only visitations that maximum security prisoners have that aren't recorded as ye say. Anyway, what with Lieutenant Rollins it's no like ye care really who I happen tae be sleeping with."
Sometimes Steve really wanted to strangle her.
"Axel, he murdered my father," he reminded her.
"Aye," she acknowledged, "and for that ye should have chopped off his baws, wrapped them round his throat and hung him from the nearest tree. As it is he's still alive and I'm in the middle of a job so I'll do whatever I can tae get it done. It's a dirty job but someone's got tae do it."
Steve knew there was no point in arguing but it felt like his heart was beating at a rate of noughts when he thought about Axel willingly going to a conjugal visit with Victor Hesse. He should have killed the bastard. He really wished he had.
"Right, well now ye've both eaten," said Axel slipped off the kitchen counter, "let me go and put some clothes on and then we can get everything sorted before I have tae go back tae Arlington."
She left the kitchen and Steve watched her go, still wearing his shirt and from the back he could just catch a glimpse of her bum where the shirt had ridden up from sitting. When he looked back at his partner Danny was watching him with an indescribable expression that immediately put Steve on the defensive.
"What?" he asked.
"Are you sure you're going to be able to handle this?" Danny asked him seriously.
"Of course. Why wouldn't I?"
Danny looked doubtful.
"You're going to have to put up with looking at and maybe hearing Axel and Arlington together," he explained patiently, "and with the way you're acting I wouldn't be surprised if you did something stupid."
"I've worked with Axel before, Danny," he said in a cool tone.
Danny held up his hand as though in surrender.
"Okay, Steve," he said and whatever else he was about to say was interrupted by a knock on the front door followed by it opening and Kono's voice shouting out,
"Boss, you in?"
"In the kitchen, Kono," Steve called back before he looked at Danny quickly. "Not a word."
Danny folded his arms and rolled his eyes clearly indicating to Steve that he thought he was an idiot for even suggesting that Danny was going to say anything about last nights and this morning's events.
"Hey Boss, Danny," Kono said coming into the kitchen with Chin.
"Hey you two," Steve greeted them warmly. "Good idea to come here instead of going the HQ."
"What have you got?" Danny asked them noticing the file in Kono's hand.
"Well, Kono decided to do a rundown of Arlington's more recent associates in case it turned up anything fruitful about how the two nuclear scientists got involved," Chin explained and both Danny and Steve were immediately engrossed.
"I came up with two," Kono continued. "First I've got an American, a William Rose. He owns several testing laboratories and actually develops weapons for our Armed Forces but apparently he has met with Arlington several times in the last year. The FBI are keeping an eye on him. Our next candidate is like a ghost. I contacted the CIA two days ago when her file was blocked and I finally got something back this morning. Her name is Sophia Lauder, she seems to be some internationally known translator but not only that she sets up meetings with respective clients or dealers but her file is like practically empty. Nobody had even heard of her until earlier this year."
"That'll be because it's Axel," Steve explained with a frown. "I'll ask her and see if it was her that set up the meeting between Arlington and the scientists."
"I set him up with David Harrington but no the other one. That was Rose."
The Five-0 team swung round to see Axel standing behind them. She was now fully dressed in a pair of black linen trousers and a cream blouse. Steve didn't think he'd ever seen her look so casually elegant before. She normally favoured cargo pants and a vest top although that wasn't to say that she didn't clean up well. He had been surprised a couple of times by how lady-like Axel could seem when dressed up to the nines in silks, satins, heels and diamonds or pearls.
"And you said you were just there to warm his bed," said Danny with a smile.
"I never said that was the only thing I did," laughed Axel, "but I certainly don't file his paperwork."
Well there we have it. Chapter Four. As usual I'm dying to hear what you think.
