Side Streets and Kono proved to be the distraction Cath needed. She felt herself wind down and have a good time. All too soon it was time to call it a night. Not wanting to fight for parking, they'd walked over from HQ. It was a beautiful night and they were both enjoying the attention they were getting from the male tourists that populated their route. The two were waiting for the light to change so they could cross the road when Kono poked her in the arm.

"Hey! Isn't that Steve's truck?" Kono asked pointing down the road.

Catherine turn her gazed in the direction of Kono's arm. Sure enough, there was Steve on the opposite side of the road head towards the intersection and he wasn't alone.

"That must be his buddy with him. He didn't mention his buddy was a girl," Kono stated.

"No he didn't," Catherine confirmed.

"I couldn't get a good look at her, could you?" Kono went on, unaware of the tension seeping into her friend's demeanor.

"No, the light was too bad," she responded tightly, watching the truck make a right hand turn, the opposite way of where they were standing.

The light changed and Kono ushered her across the road. "You know, the last thing Steve would ever do is cheat on you," Kono said quietly. "He's all about the honesty."

"I know," Cath responded. "He still keeps his secrets though."

"There's a difference between keeping secrets and being honest," Kono said.

"I know," Cath sighed.

Steve still wasn't home when she got there, so she decided to get a jump on her packing. She had reserve drills this weekend and if she wanted to be on time for the early morning call on Friday, she'd have to be on base Thursday night. She'd already made arrangements to stay with a girlfriend who lived on base but with the case in progress she wasn't sure she'd get another time to gather her gear. She briefly wondered if Steve even remembered.

Steve arrived home not too long after Catherine. He was please to see that she was still up. Maybe they could share a glass of wine on the lanai before they hit the sack. He opened the door, surprised to find her duffle and boots sitting on the floor. He'd forgotten about her Reserves weekend.

"Hey, anybody home?" he yelled, not hearing any movements.

"Indisposed. Be down in a minute," Cath called back. "Why don't you grab some wine and I'll meet you out back."

Steve grinned. Great minds think alike. Making his way through the house, he grabbed a bottle and two glasses. He sank down into a chair and poured out two glasses. His grin widen when he did a mental review of the evening.

Arianna felt comfortable enough with him to ask him for a favor. She'd asked him to go through the house with her on Friday. She'd admitted to feeling a little nervous about going into the place after it had been rented out for so long. The management company had been a bit cagey about the condition of the place and Arianna suspected they hadn't been very diligent about checking on the property.

He freely admitted to himself that he hadn't been comfortable with the idea of his daughter going through the place on her own either. He agreed to meet her at one and she said she'd bring the sandwiches and drinks. He was compiling a mental list of tools and things they might need, depending on what they found. He could pack them in the truck tomorrow night. He was so engrossed in his musing, he didn't notice Catherine joining him until she snapped her fingers in front of his face.

"Hey there. Where'd you go? You seemed a million miles away," Catherine said as she sat down next to him.

"Oh. Sorry. I was running through the case, trying to make sense of the weirdness," he explained.

"Come up with anything?" she asked.

"I got nothing."

"Kono and I saw you tonight on our way back from Side Streets," she threw out casually.

"Oh, yeah? Must have been taking my friend back to the hotel," he offered.

"Steve, is your friend a female? Is that why you didn't tell me about her?" Catherine asked, tired of beating around the bush.

Steve had the grace to look uncomfortable but he didn't hesitate in replying. "Yeah, she's a girl and I didn't tell you because I didn't want it to be awkward between us."

"You use to be lovers," she guessed.

"What?!" he squawked. "No! We're just friends but we have a heavy background. Just trying to find our way again."

Catherine's relief was palatable. "Oh, well I hope you can reconnect."

"Me too. Turns out she's decided to stay in Hawaii. Maybe I can introduce you sometime."

"I'd like that when you're ready," Catherine she said, giving him the first real smile she'd had in days.

The couple sat sipping their wine, enjoying the Hawaiian evening and each other's company until it was time to turn in.

Steve and Catherine drove separately to work the next morning as Cath wanted to head for base right after work and Steve wanted to get in early to run Arianna's theory. He had the offices to himself for almost two hours. Instead of working the new angle, he took the opportunity to start learning from his books. Sign language wasn't at all like the military hand gestures he was use to, but he figured he was making good progress in getting a couple of the basics down. He read online that a lot of connotation came from facial expressions. Hell if he had as many faces as Danny claimed he did, then he had that down pat already. Speak of the devil, his partner just walked in.

"Good morning, Danno," Steve said, signing at the same time.

"Well look at you! Learning to talk with your hands," the man exclaimed.

"Pot, kettle. You always talk with your hands, at least I'm using mine to make actual words," Steve retorted.

"Touche. Oh, and this is the sign for Danny," the blond said demonstrating by making a "D" and sweeping it along the side of his hair.

"Impressive. What's the sign for Steve?" said man asked.

Danny shrugged. "Not sure. Only a hearing impaired person can make a permanent sign for your name. You'll have to ask Arianna. Do you know hers?"

Steve showed him that he did by making an "A" while using the sign for song.

"Very impressive," Danny said again. "Now all you have to do is learn 'Book 'em, Danno' and you'll be set."

"Don't think I won't," Steve warned.

Danny laughed. "We get any more intel?"

Steve shared Arianna's theory with his partner. "It's solid. I heard of a case in Atlantic City once where the crooks were using a kid with savant syndrome to work the black jack and poker tables," Danny told him. "It's worth checking out. We need to reinterview the owners and employees, see if they remember anyone with special needs coming in accompanied by another person."

Steve concurred. He and Danny divided the lists between Chin and Kono and him and Danny. Catherine would stay behind to continue working through the client lists. It was going to be a long day. Steve had time to send off a quick email to update HPD and the governor before the rest of the team arrived. Once they were all there, Steve gave the assignments and they headed out.

Steve and Danny had switched up the lists so that neither team was interviewing the same people they had the first time. Their hope was to see if the different questioning techniques would yield more details. They caught a break. All five store managers remember a man with autistic characteristics coming in with another man. They said they were looking for engagement rings for themselves. All five managers agreed to meet with a HPD sketch artist today. Both teams headed back to HQ to await the renderings.

Catherine coordinated a late lunch for everyone. They were finishing up when the first sketch came in of the autistic man. Chin immediately started the facial recognition program. It was too much to hope they'd get an immediate result. It wasn't too long before the first sketch of the 'other' man came in. Chin got it in the system just as quickly. They got a hit within minutes.

"Kenny Ryder," Chin stated, sweeping the image up on the screens. "First class thief. His specialities include alarm systems and safes. Did five years on the mainland for B&E, moved to Hawaii once his parole was finished. Current address listed is a homeless shelter here in Honolulu.

"Let's get confirmation from the others and we'll go talk to the shelter organizers, see if Ryder is there," Steve said.

The other managers agreed that the sketches were of the two men they'd also encountered. Danny and Steve were soon on their way to the shelter.

"So plans with Arianna tonight?" Danny asked once they were back in the car.

"Not tonight. She's meeting up with some old friends," Steve said. "Hey, I gotta stop at Max's for a moment. Do you mind?"

"Of course not. Use my car for your personal errands anytime and seeing that we're already heading in that direction, who am I to say no," Danny snarked.

Steve ignored his partner as he put the car in park and jumped out to meet Max at the door. Danny saw a familiar looking white envelope exchange hands, confirming his suspicions that Max had the results of the DNA tests.

Steve was solemn when he climbed back into the car, tossing the envelope into the back seat. Danny studied the man he considered his brother, trying to figure out the sudden mood change. Steve didn't know the results yet, Danny knew that for certain because he'd watched the man like a hawk and not once did Steve even try to open the envelope.

"You okay?" Danny asked his partner, worry thick in his voice.

Steve sat gazing through the windshield for several minutes before he answered. "Yeah. I mean I guess so."

"Wanna talk about it?"

The SEAL turned to face his friend. Not since Catherine's abduction had Danny seen that look on Steve's face. The man was scared shitless. "What's going on in that goofy head of yours?" Danny questioned, trying to lighten the mood.

"It's just…. Well, you had nine months to come to terms with being a dad. I've had four days," Steve said so quietly Danny had to strain to hear him.

"Nine months wasn't enough either. Hell, sometimes I think I'm still not ready. At least you'll be beyond the crappy diapers, puberty, first date and all that stuff," Danny said, trying to be consoling.

"But that's all the stuff I've missed too, Danny. I wasn't there for her first steps, her first dance. I missed my opportunity to scare the crap out of her first date," Steve almost whined.

Danny reached over to clap his friend on the shoulder. "You still have many firsts to come, my friend. She's not married so you can still screen potential husbands. You'll be there to walk her down the aisle and a shoulder to cry on when they have their first fight."

"She's not getting married till she's forty," Steve adamantly stated.

Danny chuckled. "Are you going to open the envelope?"

"I kinda want to open it with her," Steve admitted.

"So what are you waiting for, call her," Danny directed.

"We've got a suspect to talk to, remember," Steve pointed out.

"Right. Okay, so we go get our suspect and wrap this up toot suite so you can call your daughter. Now drive."

"Toot suite, Danny? Really?"

"Are you going to mock my vocabulary again, Steven, because I have you know that 'toot suite' is a perfectly…"

Steve grinned as Danny continued to rant, knowing full well his partner was doing it to distract him.

By the time they got to the shelter, Danny had moved on from the defense of this vocabulary to telling Steve about the latest weather forecast for New Jersey and how he might possibly be happy he was in Hawaii right now.

The shelter director was little help. They hadn't seen Kenny in several days. The director did tell the two cops that Kenny usually came in with another man who went by the name Mal but who's name they had listed as George M. Tanaka.

Danny called in the information before they left the parking lot. Chin informed him that Catherine and Kono were faxing the picture of their other suspect to adult day cares and developmental disability agencies on the island. Catherine remembered how one of her friend's sister, who was autistic, went to one of these centers every day. Danny agreed it was worth a shot and told Chin it'd be a while longer before they made it back to HQ. Steve was sporting his What the Hell are you talking about face when Danny looked over.

"Have somewhere to go, Danno?"

"No, Steve, I don't have any place to go, but you do. Now turn this car around and head for where ever your daughter is."

Steve decided, wisely, not to argue with his partner. He started the car making a left and heading for Makaha Beach. Though the beach was fairly crowded, Steve spotted Arianna quickly. She was just coming in to shore with a board under her arm. She walked up to a group of people and started animatedly signing. Steve almost hated to intrude, but Danny shoved him from behind towards the group.

Arianna caught sight of him when he was about twenty feet away. From her smile, Steve knew his presence was welcome. Arianna signed something to her friends then jogged towards him.

"So, you decided to join us after all," she said as she got close enough.

He waited till she was next to him before replying. "No, we're still in the middle of a case. Max called. I picked up the test results." He pointed to the envelope in his hand.

"Did you read it?" she asked nervously.

"I wanted to wait till we could open it together," Steve said.

Arianna drew a deep breath and let it out with a whoosh. "Okay. I'm ready, are you?"

Steve's answer was to pull out his pocket knife and split the seam. Pulling out the papers, he made sure they could read them at the same time.

"So what now?" Arianna asked him, biting her lip.

"Now, you go and finish having a good time with your friends, I'm going to return to work and you'll call me tonight when you get back to the hotel," Steve directed. Saying he was surprised when she hugged him and placed a quick kiss on his cheek would have been putting it mildly.

Danny knew from the Cat Who Got the Canary face what the results were. "Congratulations! It's a Girl," he exclaimed, slapping Steve on the back.

Steve's face got impossibly smugger. "Yeah. Yeah it is!"

He didn't have too much time cherish the moment because Catherine called saying they'd got a hit from the faxes. One of the centers identified the second man as Trevor Pierce. Chin and Kono were on their way to pick him up. Steve and Danny headed back to HQ.

Pierce proved to be extremely helpful. With his dad's encouragement, the young man told them everything. He'd met Mal at the center where the older man was volunteering (read casing). Trevor thought Mal was his friend and when the man wanted to introduce Trevor to Kenny, Trevor was excited to meet his friend's friend. Kenny and Mal aka. George, had told him they had a game where they'd been hired to test the security systems of these jewelry stores and they were suppose to take a certain number of items from each place and since Pierce was so good with numbers, they could really use his help. He told them Kenny and Mal were living in a house in Pearl City. They were there before the game started. He couldn't give an address or tell the team how to get there, but he could show them because he remembered the land marks. By the looks everyone was wearing, it was clear the team felt for Pierce and knew he'd been conned because of his abilities.

With a somewhat open ended search warrant (boy, had that taken all of Danny's extensive verbal and persuasion skills to get the judge to issue one) they set out for Pearl City. Chin and Catherine were in the lead with Trevor and his dad because the young man refused to get into the back seat of the Camaro, citing statistics about fatalities in sports cars versus all other cars.

With an open line of communication between the vehicles, Steve and Danny followed behind listening to directions; turn right at the blue house with the fence, go three houses past the yellow house with the lawn ornaments, turn left at the car wash then right after the McDonalds. Two HPD units out of the Pearl City station joined them sometime after the car wash.

The take down, such as it was, was pathetically easy. Danny and Steve went to the front, Chin and HPD to the back. Danny peeked through the front window to see Ryder and Tanaka sleeping in the living room with the stolen goods sitting between them on a battered coffee table. Steve knocked, quietly, then told everyone to move in. Tanaka didn't even wake up until Steve kicked the side of the of his chair. The two crooks were turned over to HPD for processing and Trevor was taken back to Honolulu to be booked.

Leaving Chin and Catherine to follow through with the booking, Steve and Danny went straight to the offices. Normally they would have left the drudge work to HPD but the members of Five-0 wanted to make sure Trevor Pierce was okay. They'd all grown to like him in the short time they'd known him.

Steve had barely settled into his chair when his phone chimed.

Download the following app to ur phone so I can call u 2nite. Sometimes my speech isn't very clear over the phone and this will help if u can't understand me. the app is called ClearCaptions

This isn't some trick to get me to load stupid cat pictures or continual thoughts for the day, is it.

Nah, but u may not want to have it running if ur girlfriend is going to talk dirty to u, especially if ur in a place where someone could over hear.

Copy that. talk 2 u l8r

Steve went to the app store to find out what this program was all about. Not that he didn't trust Arianna, but the girl did have a tendency for mischief. To his relief, he found it was an app that translated the spoken word from a phone call into text, enabling the hard of hearing and the deaf to use their phones without video chat. He quickly downloaded it and then called Danny to see how it worked.

Seeing the detective frown at his phone when he saw who was calling, Steve almost giggled.

"Steven. What exactly is it that you have to tell me that is so important you had to call me rather than waiting the 2.4 seconds necessary to walk from your office to mine to tell me in person?"

"Wanted to check out my new app. It's cool. Translated everything you just said perfectly, sans the sarcasm. Course it took it a second or two to catch up with you. Didn't realize how fast you actually speak until now," was Steve's convoluted reply.

"Okay, I'll bite. Exactly what app are you talking about? Are you now translating English to Mandarin so you can brush up on your skills?"

"Funny. No. It's an app Arianna uses that translates everything to text so she can use the phone instead of video chat. She reads what the other person is saying and then replies verbally. I can do the same or use speaker phone to talk and only read if I can't understand her. She says sometimes her voice is hard to understand. Pretty cool, huh?" Steve sounded like a kid at Christmas.

"Yeah. Just don't leave it on if you want some privacy," Danny warned.

"Yeah, Arianna said that too."

"Wise woman. Well, if you're done playing with your new toy, we both have paperwork to do," Danny grumbled.

Steve made his kicked puppy face through the windows and hung up. Danny may or may not have checked out the app for himself.

By the time everyone returned from their respective tasks, the team was ready to call it quits for the day. Catherine followed Steve to the cars, waving at her departing teammates.

"So you gonna survive the weekend without me, sailor?" she teased.

"It'll be tough, but I'll probably survive," Steve snarked.

"You got big plans with Danny this weekend?"

"Nothing set in concrete. He mentioned the zoo and Grace wanting me to join them so I wouldn't be alone the whole weekend," he replied.

"That'll be fun. Keep you out of trouble," she teased again.

"That's what Grace said too," he told her looking chagrined.

With a quick kiss, the pair parted. Catherine watched him in the rearview mirror as he climbed in the truck. Despite his explanations, she still felt like he was holding something back.

Steve decided a swim was in order when he made it back to the house. It would settle his nerves and keep his mind occupied while he waited for Arianna to call. By the time he made it back to shore his muscles were quivering in a good way, a pleasant exhaustion seeping into his bones. He checked his phone for missed calls, finding none (it was only a little after seven), he headed for the shower. He was in the middle of fixing a sandwich for supper when his phone rang. To his disappointment, it was Danny.

"So, how was Australia?" Danny asked in lieu of a greeting.

Momentarily confused Steve repeated, "Australia?"

"I figured with the amount of keyed up energy you had today, you'd have swum to Australia and back by now," Danny chuckled.

"I might have went a little farther than normal, but not that far," Steve conceded.

"I figured. So about this weekend. You still up for the zoo with Monkey and me?"

"I don't know. I'm not sure of Arianna's plans," Steve said.

"Invite her along," Danny replied, the duh implied.

"Danny, she's said she isn't ready to meet ohana yet," Steve reminded him.

"Invite her anyway. She may have changed her mind. Pick you guys up, Saturday at ten sharp. Oh wait, all four of us can't fit in the Camaro. You pick us up in the truck. Don't be late. The world and monkeys await for no SEAL nor his pup ," Danny declared then hung up.

Shaking his head at his the detective's machinations, Steve plopped down on the couch while grabbing the remote. Surely he could find something to watch with over two hundred channels to choose from. By eight thirty he was bored out of his skull, he'd been so wrong with his high estimation of the television offerings. Grabbing a random book from the shelf he sat down to find he was about to read Hunt for Red October for the fourth time.

He must have dozed off because the chime from his phone startled him.

Sorry gonna b near 10 b4 can call. Small emergency. Dont worry i fine. Will explain when i call

Anything i can do? U sure u ok? He sent back.

I good PROMISE! unless u can set a broken arm then no. U cant set a broken arm can u?

Sadly no. Call when u can i'll be up

K. u kno it'd b real cool if u could set broken bones, might come in handy with the grandkids

Im not old enough to have grandkids not for another 15 years!

keep tellin urself that

Brat

LOL

Steve looked at his watch, 9:30. He might as well head for bed. Better to doze off there than the couch. He made his rounds, set the security system and went upstairs. Even though he loved having Catherine in his house and in his bed, there were times when it's nice to have an entire bed to himself. Too many years bunking too close to too many teammates can lead on to have a bit of spacial issues when it comes to a proper bed. He piled all the pillows in the middle, grabbed one of the sign language books and lounged back, nervously waiting for Arianna to call.

Ten o'clock came and went. By 10:25 Steve was ready to jump in his truck and go find his wayward daughter. He was half way to putting his pants on when the phone rang at 10:28.

"Sorry. I'm so sorry," were the first words he heard.

"It's okay. Are you sure you're okay," he asked.

"Yeah, just a long night. Ellie's son fell on a concrete parking block and broke his left arm as we were leaving the beach. I got the great joy of watching her other three while Ellie and Jim were in with the kid," Arianna explained.

"The boy going to be okay and was that sarcasm I heard in your voice?" Steve asked.

"He'll be okay, kid's resilient and yes that was sarcasm," she snorted.

"You don't like kids? Why'd you become a teacher if you don't like kids?" Steve question.

"Oh, I like kids, I just don't like those three hooligans," she claimed.

"They can't be that bad," Steve stated.

"Remind me to introduce you to them. Gives a whole new meaning to the terrible twos."

"Exactly how old is this friend of yours that she already has four kids?" Steve inquired.

"She's two years older than me. She had the devil when she was eighteen and the hooligans when she was twenty, they're triplets," Arianna rattled off. "See, you could have grandkids already."

"No one's calling me grandpa before I'm forty-five," Steve insisted.

"Okay, forty-five. Got it, Sir," Arianna repeated.

"Don't you forget it. What time do you want to meet tomorrow?" Steve asked, changing the topic.

"How about lunch time, say 12:30? I'll bring sandwiches and we can eat in on the lanai, assuming it's still there," she suggested.

"My partner and his daughter invited me to go to the zoo with them day after tomorrow and they'd like you to come too," Steve said hesitantly.

"Your partner, Danny? He's the one that eased dropped, right?"

"That would be the one and only," Steve confirmed.

"So, Saturday at the zoo, I don't know. Can I think about it?" she asked, her unease evident.

"Sure, not a problem. Oh, I need the address again. It's been a long time," Steve told her.

"It's 1940 Thurston. So I'll see you tomorrow then," she stated, her voice stilted.

Realizing he'd made her uncomfortable with the invitation, Steve wished he could take it back. "I'll be there with the truck on the off chance we might run into some garbage that'll need to be hauled away."

"Hadn't thought about that. Thanks. So, good night then," she replied.

"See you tomorrow. Night," Steve answered. It was several seconds before Arianna ended the call. Steve sighed, praying he hadn't pushed her too much. A long time passed before he fell asleep.