DISCLAIMER: I don't own Hawaii Five-O.
DANG IT. I REALLY WANTED TO.
Lori felt so embarrassed. So, so embarrassed.
Steve had heard her singing.
As soon as she saw him when she turned away from the radio, her first thought was, "Oh, crap."
But instead he had just wrapped his arms around her and dropped a kiss on her head.
Her heart had skipped a beat.
Premature ventricular contractions, Max probably would have said.
Steve flustered her so much, made her blush, made her heart race, and when they argued in his office, he would make her angry. He made her into a stuttering fool. Or even worse, silent.
She would be lying if she said she didn't like knowing him. She loved it.
When she had quit, Lori had gone home and cried herself to sleep, sobbed while she placed neatly folded clothes into boxes, wept as she roughly shoved plates and glasses into boxes full of crumpled newspaper. Preparing to go back to the house.
But it felt as if a weight was lifted off her shoulders when she told Steve how she felt. She hated the awkward goodbye that ensued after, and hated that Steve wanted her to stay. When he said, "I don't want you to quit," it just confused her. She hated being confused and confusion. Chaos. She hated chaos. And at that exact moment, it was all that filled her mind.
Lori was going to miss Danny, Chin, and Kono. She was going to miss Steve, her job, the cool wind that blew through her windows at seven in the evening. She would miss the pineapple. She would miss Steve.
And two days after she had quit, she was drugged and woke up in a dark, damp cell with Steve. And he couldn't remember anything.
And now here she was. On Steve's deck. Hugging him.
Feelings she swore to herself would be dormant in Steve's presence bubbled up in her chest. She felt him smile against her head, and Lori tried to reluctantly shrug those fluttery feelings in her stomach away. She couldn't. As if she ever could.
"Any new memories?" she finally asked, breaking the comfortable silence.
"One about arguing with Danny over pineapple, but that's it for now," Steve said seriously, and Lori laughed.
"It'll take a while, but with patience, it should be easy."
"I hate patience."
"Hmmm," Lori hummed in agreement. They still clung to each other in the cool morning air. The sun had fully risen, but was still relatively low in the sky. Lori guessed that it was around 6:45 or 7:00.
"Ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring BANANA PHOOOONE," rang out, from inside the house. Steve looked at Lori, smirking.
"Banana phone? Really?" he asked, and Lori blushed a little as she extricated herself from Steve's grip to answer her phone.
"Yes, really, when you have a nephew that likes bananas," she answered. Steve laughed. "Hi, Jason, what's going on?" She sat there silently smiling as she talked to her four-year-old nephew, who was currently going through a phase where he was obsessed with Tonka trucks. "You got a new Tonka truck? That's great!" She briefly looked at her watch. It was seven in the morning, meaning that Jason was just about to set off for kindergarten in California. "Okay, don't you need to go? School? Yes? Okay. Bye. Love you!" Lori hung up and smiled, shaking her head a little.
"Kids," Steve said, still smirking. "They're..."
"Amazing," Lori supplied, helping herself to an apple resting on the counter. She crunched on it for a minute. Steve sauntered away, smiling back at her briefly. Lori rolled her eyes and continued eating. She looked at her reflection in the window, pretending to chew like a cow. She leaned over the sink, looking out onto the ocean.
She felt a pair of hands on her hips and jumped.
Lori turned around, then froze, immediately thinking of the day she felt a hand covered in cloth clap over her mouth, and she couldn't breathe anything but...chloroform? So old fashioned. But she still had no idea. She felt terror grip her body as she recalled waking up, looking at her raw wrists and ankles, seeing Steve's slumped form. She remembered running over to him, rubbing blood off his cheekbones, fear gripping her and gutting her stomach. She remembered seeing his blue eyes open, and hope slowly seeping through her bones. She remembered smiling at him. She had never been happier to see the color blue.
It was like she was there in the cell again. She could practically feel the humid air making her skin damp.
Steve could see her eyes glaze over and widen slightly as she relived something.
"Lori!" he said, shaking her shoulders a bit. She looked up at him. "I won't do that again."
"Don't," Lori said pathetically. She wrapped her arms around his waist and fell silent. Steve just wrapped his arms around her shoulders and rested his chin on her head, closing his eyes.
"I'm sorry," Steve whispered, breaking the silence.
"I don't like surprises."
"Me neither."
"Surprise parties aren't good when the person you're surprising has a gun," Lori said lightly, her voice muffled slightly by Steve's chest. Steve laughed, and she could feel it vibrate through her.