Two chapters in one day….YAY! As always, let me know what you think.

And a special thanks to AquaBaby58, FicreaderT, and Avengers2015 for always giving me reviews! ;) You keep me going!

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Steve and Maddie showered together which resulted in another love making session before dressing and making their way outside. Steve grabbed two bottles of beer from the fridge before following Maddie outside and settling onto the hammock beside her. Maddie snuggled into him and they sat in silence for a few minutes before Steve decided it was time to get serious and talk some things through.

"Maddie, we need to talk, but before we do, I need to tell you something really important."

"Okay."

Maddie felt Steve take a deep breath as she rested her head on his chest. She could even hear his heartbeat going faster and wondered what he was going to say.

"I love you, Maddie. Truth is, I don't think I ever stopped….and now that you're back, you need to understand that I'm going to do whatever I can not to lose you again."

Maddie couldn't believe it. How was it possible that her wishes were finally coming true in spite of all the mistakes she'd made. Steve still loved her in spite of it all?

"I love you too," she whispered.

"Okay, so I need to make some things very clear. Right now." Steve's voice was full of certainty and resolve as he continued, "You know that Steph came running with me this morning, right?"

"Mmhmm."

"Well, I could tell that something was bothering her, but I didn't want to force her to talk to me about it. I mean, I know what it's like to have something traumatic happen…..and eventually she's going to need to talk about it, but it may be too soon for that yet. I decided to just wait her out and we kept running."

"Okay," Maddie urged him on.

"So, we got back to the house and she sat down outside before I could open the door. I could tell by that point that something was really bothering her, so I sat down beside her and told her to talk to me."

Maddie leaned up and rested a hand on Steve's chest so she could look at him, "Is everything okay? Is she okay?"

"She's fine, Mad. It's just that…Well, I hope you think this is good news." Steve shifted a little so he could look Maddie in the eyes, "Steph seems to be on the same train of thought as we are."

Maddie's brows creased, "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that she asked me to talk you into moving back….here."

"She did?" Maddie was shocked. Not 'unhappy shocked', but 'surprised-shocked'. She had assumed Stephanie would throw a fit over leaving the friends she'd grown up with or moving to start over at another high school. "What did she say to you?"

"She said she wanted more time…..with me…..with us as a family." Steve sighed heavily, "She told me she had missed fifteen years with me and didn't want to miss anymore."

Maddie's heart broke at that statement as Steve continued, "Then, she asked me to talk you into moving back."

"But what about school? What about her friends?"

Steve shook his head in understanding, "I asked her that too. Her answer was that she had thought it through…..even though we would assume she hadn't….and that she could stay in touch with her friends through 'FaceTime' or something like that." Steve smiled at her hopefully, "We could finally be a family, Maddie."

Maddie couldn't help it; Tears just started falling and there was nothing she could do to stop them. Steve didn't understand. Had he said something wrong?

"Hey….what's wrong, babe? Did I say something wrong?"

Maddie shook her head, "No…..no….of course not." She got out of the hammock, difficult as it was to do without falling flat on her ass, and saw Steve's bewildered look. He followed suit and stood up beside her. "Okay, so what's wrong? Why are you crying? Isn't this good news? I mean, I want you back…..You said you want to move back…..and now we know that Stephanie won't take any convincing. We all want the same thing."

Maddie started to pace as tears continued to fall. "I've screwed everything up so badly, Steve. I messed up your life….I messed up her life…" Her voice was rising as Steve continued to stand and watch her. "And you just told me that you still love me. How can you possibly love me after finding all of this out? Why don't you hate me? I deserve for you to hate me. I mean, I kept you apart all these years and now….."

She took a deep breath, stood up rim-rod straight, wiped the tears from her cheeks and said resolutely, "I need to go for a walk."

Steve wasn't having it. As soon as she started walking towards the shoreline, he stepped forward and grabbed her arm firmly to turn her around, "Dammit, Maddie….Stop! You are not going to do this to me again."

"Do what again?" she asked angrily as she tried to free her arm from his grasp. Unfortunately for her, Steve wouldn't let go which forced her to stay put.

"You are not going to walk away from me. That's what you always use to do when we argued: You would just clam up and try to walk away."

Maddie's shoulders slumped. "And you never would let me," she said softly. "You always insisted that we talk it out."

"Well, guess what? Nothing has changed." Steve's voice was firm "You're not going to close up….You're not going to walk away…..and we are talking through this. Right now. Do you understand me?"

Maddie couldn't speak over the lump in her throat, so she just shook her head in agreement.

"Good." Steve put his arms around her effectively stopping any attempts she may try to get away. "Now listen to me. We both have regrets, baby….I mean, I stayed away years longer than I had to. After the naval academy, I went into the Navy. Then, I went into the SEALs program. I just kept going and going. Do you think I haven't blamed myself at least a thousand times for my dad's death?"

Maddie leaned back to look up at him and saw the torture in his eyes. "Steve, you can't think that that was your fault!"

He sat down in the chair that was close by and pulled Maddie onto his lap with his arms around her. "I know that here," he pointed to his head. "But not here," he pointed to his heart. For the first time since she'd been back in Hawaii, Maddie saw the pain John McGarrett's death had caused him. Steve's eyes started to fill with unshed tears and Maddie knew with certainty he was showing her a side of himself he rarely, if ever, let go anymore.

"If I wouldn't have been trying to apprehend an international terrorist, maybe my dad would still be alive. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about that, Mad…and I would give anything…..anything…for one more day with him."

Maddie's heart broke again; This time for Steve and all the pain he'd been through after thinking he'd lost his mother, being separated from Mary, and then losing his father. She could understand his deep need for a family of his own. And she wanted to give him that; More than anything. She just had to get past her own feelings of guilty first.

Maddie leaned down to kiss away a tear that had managed to fight it's way down Steve's cheek. "I'm so sorry, sweetie."

Steve took a deep breath and she saw him pulling emotions back in. "The thing is…we all have things we would've done differently. But I've learned that we can't think about the 'what ifs' all the time. You….and me…..and Stephanie…..We've been given a second chance, Maddie-girl. You're just going to have to accept that I'm not letting you go."

Maddie felt as if her heart would burst inside her chest. "Okay." She smiled at her man.

"Okay?" he asked hopefully.

"Yep….Let's do it!"

Steve laughed as he stood up to swing Maddie around before leaning down to kiss her….thoroughly. "You won't regret this, baby."

"I know…..But you are going to have to give us a couple of weeks to wrap some things up in L.A."

"Like what?"

"Well, I need to give notice at my job for one. And I'll need to get Stephanie squared away at school so she can transfer. And then the house will have to be put up for sale…..And we have to pack….."

Steve stopped her with a kiss. "Okay, I'll give you two weeks. Whatever isn't ready after that will have to wait. If you're ass isn't on a plane with our daughter by that time, I'm coming to get you. Understand me, young lady?"

"Damn, your sexy when you're being all bossy."

Steve laughed. "Just remember what I said. Two weeks, Mad."

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Maddie and Steve made their way back into the house to make some lunch. After their marathon love session and then the emotional discussion they'd had afterwards, they were both starving.

Steve got a call from Danny just as he and Maddie were finishing their sandwhiches.

"Sorry to bother you, buddy, but we just got the call. We're ready to move when you are."

Steve gave Maddie an apologetic look as he listened to Danny giving details. The information Ivan Belitrov had given to them on Diana Reynolds' sister's whereabouts had been true. However, it hadn't been as easy as they thought to get access to her. It was a volatile situation that had required some surveillance and strategizing on how to proceed. Steve had been in constant contact with his team since it happened and had told Danny to call him as soon as they were ready to proceed.

This would be a rescue mission that had the possibility of getting out of control very easily. Steve had to be there. After he got the address, he filled Maddie in and led her out to the truck. Maddie called Stephanie to tell her they were going to be a little later than planned to pick her up since Steve had something to take care of.

"Mom, I would love to stay here longer…..but Nahale has to be at work in an hour. Want me to just hang out here until you're done? "

Maddie looked at Steve and told him what was going on. Steve shook his head. "I don't want her there by herself. Have Nahale take her with him to Kamekona's. I'll call Kame and let him know that we'll meet her there later."

"Can't he just bring her to us?" Maddie asked.

Steve looked at her as if she were crazy, "It's a hostage situation, Maddie. I don't want her anywhere near there."

Maddie shook her head, "Sorry…..Stupid question. I wasn't thinking."

Unfortunately, Steve knew this was something she was going to have to get use to if they were going to be together; The unpredictability of a schedule and seeing him in dangerous situations was part of the job. But he knew his Maddie was tough enough to handle it.

Or at least he hoped so.

"It's okay….I understand," he smiled at Maddie. "I'll call Kamekona now and tell him what's going on."

After settling things with Kamekona, they continued to make their way to the crime scene where the SWAT team was already en route as well. Danny had relayed that their surveillance had proven successful and there was no doubt Danielle Reynolds was inside. The plan was to keep SWAT far enough away to go unnoticed unless they were needed. Steve wanted to take the kidnappers by surprise and hopefully get her out without incident.

He turned down the road leading to the neighborhood where the suspects were hiding out. It looked like a typical suburban neighborhood and Maddie had to wonder if any of the people living there knew there were psychopaths living among them? It was scary to think about.

Steve saw Grover's vehicle first and pulled in behind him before shutting off the engine. He quickly stepped out of his truck with Maddie right behind him before he could stop her. He shot her a look of disapproval…..which she ignored.

"Sorry about this, man." Grover said as he reached them, "I'm sorry to cut into your time with your girls."

Maddie's heart melted at the words as she realized that must be how Steve referred to her and Stephanie to his team. They were his "girls". It was such a simple endearment but it did funny things to her heart just hearing someone say it.

"If there was any other way….." Grover continued, but Steve interrupted him.

"It's okay, Lou. Hopefully, this won't take long. So fill me in….What have we got?"

Chin, Kono, and Danny soon followed and the team discussed the current situation. Maddie was impressed with the amount of knowledge they'd been able to surveil in such a short time: They knew how many men were inside, the names of them all, possible weapons they had with them, and even a floorplan of the house marked with the possible location of where Danielle was being held. Someone had also had eyes on the house long enough to know that Danielle wasn't being harmed, but did appear to be heavily medicated….just like the other girls.

Within minutes, they had a plan of attack.

Steve started putting on his Kevlar vest and the thigh holsters that would hold his weapons. He saw the look in Maddie's eyes as she watched him and couldn't help but grin remembering what she had said the first time she'd seen him "suit up" like this. He led her back to the passenger side door of the truck and gave her a quick kiss. "Stay in the truck, Maddie. You are NOT to come out of this truck until I get back. Understand?"

She saluted him smartly, "Yes sir, Commander."

"I mean it….You're in big trouble when I get back if you're out of this truck," he teased her with a twinkle in his eyes.

He opened the door for her as she got inside. Then she watched as he walked away with the rest of his team in full-on bad ass mode. She said a prayer that things would turn out okay and Danielle would be rescued without incident.