9:00 am - March 27th, 2015

Steve cursed under his breath as he sped towards his home. Danny looked as worried as Steve knew he looked himself. He knew for a fact Kono had it under control, but there was that small part of him that couldn't see anyone but himself protecting Tabatha.

"I'm sure Kono has it covered - she said there was no activity besides movement around the house." Danny tried his best to sound confident.

"For now," Steve growled, taking a curb a bit too fast.

"Jesus Christ!" Danny called out habitually. Steve ignored him.

They turned into his driveway with a squeal and hopped out. Steve did a quick look around the area, but didn't waste time getting inside the house.

"Tabatha!" He called out as soon as he burst through the door. He didn't see her, though, and Kono looked up from her spot at the kitchen table with the laptop.

"Shh, she's sleeping in her room," Kono said quietly, sending Steve a glare. "She was mentally exhausted after what just happened."

Steve marched past her and headed up the stairs.

"Any movement now?" Danny asked.

"Nope, they left."

Steve saw Tabatha's door closed, and turned the knob to open it. Unfortunately, it was locked. Part of him was thankful she had been smart, but the other part just wanted the damn door to be open. He took a deep breath and knocked loud enough to get her attention.

"Tabatha? Are you awake? Unlock the door, would you?" He did his best to keep his voice calm, but he tapped his foot and licked his lips anxiously. He was relieved to hear shuffling on the other side of the door, and took a step back as the door unlocked.

"Thank god!" Tabatha cried out, jumping up and wrapping her arms around him. She was still in her cotton pajama pants and black tank top. Steve circled her with his arms and held her tightly. He found himself turning his head to the right and placing a light kiss on the side of her head.

"Are you okay?"

"Now that you're here, yes," she admitted, squeezing him. The little comment made Steve smile. He felt the same way. Tabatha pulled away, grinning with relief. Suddenly, her smile turned to bashful and she cleared her throat. "I.. need to tell you something."

"Yeah, sure, is it about the case?" Steve closed the door behind him and looked at her. He gave her his full attention. Anything new would be fantastic, actually.

"No, it's not."

Steve looked at her for a moment and felt a bit confused. She sighed and nibbled on her lip nervously, her cheeks turning pink. His chest tightened, but the part of him that knew what she had to say was totally being blocked at the moment. Standing in front of him, Tabatha looked almost like the teen from his past.

"Is something wrong?"

"I realized something in the last hour," she started.

Steve furrowed his brows. With all the excitement in the last half hour, he could see how she could have a little revelation of sorts. He waited.

"When Kono told me to come up here and lock the door, I realized that if something did happen…" Tabatha trailed off for a moment then started again. Steve took a slight intake of breath. "I realized I'd never see you again. And that scared me to death. I don't want to feel that way ever again."

Suddenly, Steve knew this could go two ways - one, she would leave and sever the little connection they had. Two, she was going to tell him how she felt - which deep down both knew was true for him as well. Both caused Steve's chest to tighten in panic.

"You could always move in," he said with a grin and a chuckle. He knew it sounded a bit forced, though. The wide eyes and hurt look on Tabatha's face told him it was the second one. Shit.

"Steve, I'm being serious. I'm trying to lay it out in the open, and you're joking about everything." Tabatha's hurt face turned into annoyance and irritation. He recognized that look from being around Danny so much.

"I.. look, this is not the time to… to talk about all of this right now. You have a crime boss wanting to kill you and none of my security seems to keep you from his eyes. Can we focus on that? Please?" He wasn't one to beg, but at the moment it was the only thing he could think of doing.

"No! No, you are not going to push me aside like you did ten years ago." Tabatha stepped forward, head held high, and poked him in the chest. He stepped back out of surprise and felt the door behind him.

"What are you talking about, I didn't -"

"You did! And I know why. We were getting close again, we were moving past the point of friendship and you ran like a scared little boy." She poked him again. "Is it a mommy thing? Cause that explains a lot. You and commitment to anything other than yourself is nonexistant."

"Whoa, don't bring my mother into this? You don't know what the hell happened!" Now he was feeling a fire from this conversation, and it wasn't the fun kind. "This thing just makes shit complicated. And, look, we were teenagers. Who the fuck cares what happens when you're a teenager?"

"What did you just say? Do you realize that all this shit happened when we were teenagers? I trusted you to help me, and you left!"

"I didn't think he'd come back!" Steve shouted back.

"Well, he did!" Tabatha growled.

"And I'm helping you!"

"Only because you feel like you have to! I mean, this is all your fault, isn't it?"

Steve couldn't answer that with anything other than silence. They were both breathing hard from anger at this point. She hit the nail on the head - he did feel all the blame for this mess. He turned away and leaned his forward against the door, his hands in fists on either side. He heard Tabatha standing still behind him.

After a few long moments, he took a deep breath. Steve pulled away just long enough to opened the door and shut it loudly behind him. He made his way into his room and changed as fast as he could into running shorts and t-shirt. Without speaking to Kono or Danny, he charged out the door. He needed to run this shit out.


Tears were in her eyes and burning her throat, but Tabatha didn't let them fall. After Steve walked out without looking at her, she stared at the door. Blinking rapidly, she fell onto the bed, leaning forward and putting her head in her hands. She sniffled, trying to keep the tears from falling but failing. She sobbed hard for a little bit, but made herself stop.

Everything she had said was true, though it had been pretty harsh. Kono had heard everything, and if Danny had come with Steve… hell, she couldn't show her face down there for a while! More tears escaped, but she took a deep breath and let it out. Maybe it had been a bad idea to let everyone out right now. Stress levels were kind of high.

A knock at the door made her jump.

"Yes?" It wasn't Steve, she knew that.

"It's Danny. Can I come in?" Lovely, Steve's BFF.

"Yeah, sure." No need to hide her read face, everyone heard the argument they had. The door opened slowly and Danny peeked inside. A soft, worried look adorned his face as he came inside, leaving the door open. He sat next to Tabatha on the bed.

"I.. er.. heard the little.. conversation you and Steve had."

Tabatha looked down at her hands.

"Bringing up his mom probably wasn't the best idea, you know that, right?"

"Yeah.. it just came out."

"Look, I know the guy is all about the job, but what you said about him being selfish…" Danny shrugged. "Over the top. You and I both know he's not like that."

"Most of the time, anyway," Tabatha muttered. "I was just trying to get all this shit off my chest and he made a joke out of it."

"It sounded like you were blaming him for everything."

Tabatha stayed silent, knowing Danny was right.

"I'm just a guy on the sidelines, but don't give up on him. He's a marshmallow inside that hard exterior."

"That isn't what's pissing me off," Tabatha murmured.

"A lot of things he does piss me off. What's on your list?"

"I'm crazy in love and he's not."

"Oh." Danny seemed to be a bit confused about what to say to that. "Uh… that isn't my expertise - I mean, I have an awesome girlfriend, but still…"

"It's not worth bringing it up again," Tabatha decided, standing straight and taking another deep breath. "It's not worth it to try to have something that isn't going to happen. I don't want to lose a friend."

"That isn't what I meant from all that…"

Tabatha ignored his muttered comment as she left her room for the bathroom. She had to wash her face to begin the quick process of getting back to the way it was before she opened her mouth.

12:00pm

Three hours later, Steve was in his office. After a hard and quick run, he didn't go back to house. His partners had it under control. Thankfully, the office had a shower for him to clean up after his run and he always kept extra clothes in a small duffel bag under his desk. He had buried his face deep into paperwork from the last few cases he had dealt with. Not one to do the paperwork, he was a bit behind. Might as well use this time wisely.

His anger had left him, but it was replaced with a form of helplessness. Where the fuck did they go from here? He wasn't ready to settle down, especially with a woman he hadn't seen for twenty years. The connection they had, the spark, was present just as he knew it as a teenage boy. Back then, though, it wasn't really understood more than the whole lustful type of thing.

As he typed on his computer, he had to stop and put his head in his hands. He really needed to stop thinking about this. With a loud sigh, he narrowed his eyes and went back to work, putting more attention into his usual paperwork than he ever did before.

Meanwhile...

Tabatha was dripping with sweat and breathing hard.

"Need a break?" Kono asked, standing in the middle of the living room. The furniture was moved to the outer edges of the room.

"Just a drink." Tabatha took a step to the right and picked up a water bottle, drinking it greedily.

When she had made her way downstairs after the talk with Danny, she had asked Kono to show her some ways to defend herself. The first hour had been simple, talking at the kitchen table about parts of the body - the best ones to hit, the worst ones to hit, etc. The next hour had been Kono pointing out different household items that could be used for weapons and a slow demonstration with Danny on how to use them.

Now, they were putting the long lecture to good use. Danny was standing on Tabatha's side to shout out pointers as Kono and her sparred. The first minutes had been slow, Kono helping Tabatha's move her body and correctly use it. The last twenty minutes, though, Tabatha had insisted on Kono letting her do it on her own.

She had been doing pretty well, actually, except for getting winded long before Kono.

"Let's do it again," she said. Kono looked worried as she picked up her own water bottle.

"We've been doing this for a few hours - we're going to take a rest." Kono turned around and headed to the kitchen to refill her bottle.

"We can't!" Tabatha blurted.

"What do you mean?" Danny asked, lounging on the couch. He used his hands while he talked a lot, she noticed. "You look like you're going to fall over. We're good. Go ahead."

"No, I mean… I don't know if Steve is going to be around as often and… I want to be able to defend myself. If… anything happened."

"Why wouldn't Steve be around his own home?" Kono asked innocently while glancing at Danny. Tabatha took her water bottle and fell onto the couch.

"You heard the argument we had. it was… short but filled with… words."

"No kidding," Danny muttered.

"He'll be back - he won't let anything happen to you."

"I'm not sure he wants to be around me." The thought stung Tabatha more than she wanted it to.


4:30pm

Yoshido looked through the email his associate had sent him. Pleased, he picked up his phone and pressed four on speed dial.

"Tonight we begin."

He hung up without waiting for an answer. It was coming to a close. The thought had him grinning. Ren decided to order room service and a woman for the night.