Sorry for the long delay in posting, real life has gotten in the way big time. I've decide to move and I'm currently spending a lot of time trying to downsize as I won't have the same storage as before and packing stuff up ready for the move. The word nightmare doesn't even cover it, I have so much stuff in my loft/attic to get rid of it's unbelievable.
Thank you to everyone who left review, as always they are greatly appreciated. Hope you enjoy the update.
Wendy x
Washington D.C.
"Good morning, Catherine." Doris greeted with a smile as she saw her daughter-in-law approach the table where she was seated. Standing up she moved to greet her properly.
"Hey, Doris. Sorry I'm a little late." Catherine greeted as she briefly hugged the other woman before sliding onto the seat on the other side of the table.
"Have you told Steve?" Doris wanted to know as she looked at Catherine as she removed her coat and laid it on the seat beside her.
"Yes. He actually brought you up himself." Catherine explained as she made eye contact with the waitress. "Can I get a glass fresh orange, please." She asked the waitress who took her order and moved off to get the drink.
"I'm not here to make trouble for you, Catherine." Doris pointed out as she took a sip of her tea.
"I know, which is why I agreed to meet you for breakfast." Catherine returned with a smile. "Steve knows I'm here." She assured the other woman.
"Did Steve tell you about my journal?" Doris wanted to know.
"Yes." Catherine confirmed, breaking of as the waitress reappeared with her drink. "Thank you."
"Are you ladies ready to order? Or would you like a few more minutes?" The waitress asked as she placed the glass of fruit juice in front of Catherine.
After a quick glance at each other to confirm they were ready to order they placed their choices and the waitress disappeared of once again leaving the two women to continue their conversation.
"Steve's told me what you wrote about marrying John and having a family. That's the reason I'm sat here having breakfast, Doris. Steve's made peace with his past, he knows his childhood was exactly as he remembers it before you disappeared. He knows that Mary and himself were both planned and wanted because John and yourself had discussed having a family out of love." Catherine broke off as she reached across the table to take Doris's hand in her own.
"Thank you." Doris said. "I thought that leaving was the best way to keep my family safe, I never wanted them hurt because of my past." She sniffed back a few tears that threatened to fall.
"I, more than anyone understand that. I did the same thing, Doris. I thought that by taking the job offer… I could keep Steve safe, but all I did was cause him more hurt." Catherine told her deliberately being vague due to their location. "I pushed him into the arms of another woman set on using him for her own personal gain."
"He's forgiven you." Doris pointed out as she placed her hand over Catherine's left hand and tapped at the stunning engagement ring and the wedding band that adorned her finger.
"He's done the same with you, Doris." Catherine told her with a smile. "You know when you do move back home, we're expecting you to be on hand to help change diapers." She teased with a grin.
"I'm looking forward to that." Doris assured her with a proud grin, before asking. "Have you told your parents yet?"
"Not yet. Steve and I have agreed to wait till my dad's out of the hospital to tell them. Hopefully by the time I get home my dad will have been released from Tripler." Catherine informed her. "We're going to keep it to ourselves for a little while, we're not ready to tell the Ohana just yet."
"I understand, and I promise I'll keep it to myself. Mum's the word." Doris told her with a wink, making Catherine chuckle, a wide beaming grin across her face.
"Thank you." Catherine said sincerely as she took a sip of her juice.
"I meant what I said yesterday, Catherine. I am sorry people got hurt because of my past actions, and I have dealt with it, it won't happen again." Doris assured her.
"We appreciate that." Catherine said vaguely. "Steve got a call from an old Navy friend of ours, wanted to let us know that Yuri Nikolaev had been involved in a serious car accident earlier in the week." She watched as a small smile of triumph crossed the other woman's face before she schooled her reaction.
"Yes, I had heard he'd died, I really must send flowers." Replied Doris with a pleasant smile, fully aware that her son and his wife knew who had caused the crash.
…
Danny's Camaro
Pulling himself up from the bench he was currently sitting on as he spotted his car being driven back into the parking lot at high speed as his partner turned the steering wheel sharply as he parked against the curb. He watched as the female instructor climbed from the vehicle on shaky legs and made her way to the curb, grabbing hold of a metal sign post to steady herself.
"Very nice, you fail already?" Danny asked Steve through the open driver's window.
"Duke called, get in." Steve informed him, forgoing pleasantries.
Danny made his way around to the passenger side of the car and climbed in, buckleing his seat belt as Steve gunned the engine and tore out of the parking lot. "So where are we going?
"Nation of Hawaii." Steve said and quickly began relaying the small amount of information he had on the case.
"Have you spoke to Catherine?" Danny wanted to know as Steve made his way through the traffic.
"Yes, I have. She called me last night after I got home." Steve shared with his partner, a huge smile lighting his face at the mention of his wife's name.
Danny shook his head as he took in the huge smile on his friends face at the mention Catherine's name. "Is she in any trouble over your Mom's rescue?" He wanted to know.
"No. My mom's been running interference with the company to keep Catherine out of trouble." Steve explained as he glanced across at Danny in the passenger seat of the Camaro. "Catherine was meeting her for breakfast."
"You don't find that a little freaky?" Danny asked as he stared at his partner in the driving seat.
"What?" Steve asked in confusion as he glanced across at Danny.
"That your wife gets along so well with your mom that they're having breakfast together?" Danny wanted to know.
"Why would I find that weird? My mom and Catherine have always got along with each other." Steve admitted, not understanding where Danny was going with this.
"Rachel never got along with my mom." Danny suddenly announced. "They certainly never voluntarily had breakfast together."
"Cath's only skipped out on breakfast with her once." Steve shared with a smirk.
"What's the story behind that smug look?" Danny pushed. "Come on, spill it."
"My mom stopped by one morning to fix breakfast." Steve shared with grin.
"I don't think I want to know." Danny suddenly complained as he glared at Steve. "I do not want details."
"I wasn't going to give you any. We were sleeping, and I mean that literally." Steve pointed out before he continued. "I heard someone downstairs, so I grabbed my gun and went to check it out."
"With the Ramboette watching your six." Danny guessed with a chuckle as his friend nodded his head in agreement.
"Cath made some excuse about a meeting on base and took off, leaving me to have breakfast with her on my own." Steve admitted with a grin as he slowed down as they reached the area that had been cordoned off by HPD cruiser's.
"Smart woman." Danny pointed out as Steve parked the Camaro and the two of them climbed from the vehicle to great Lou who had pulled to a stop beside them.
…
Nation of Hawaii.
Danny glanced over at Steve and caught him checking his watch as he pushed himself up from the bench and moved away from the long trestle table, fishing his cell out of his pocket. Wanting to know what his partner was up to, he headed in that direction. Steve had his back to him as he waited for the person on the other end to answer his call. Danny stopped in his tracks and quickly moved away to give his partner some privacy as he heard him greet his wife.
"Whose Steve talking to?" Lou asked as Danny returned to the table.
"Catherine." Danny announced as he glanced back over his shoulder to make sure his partner was still out of ear shot. "Have any of you noticed something different about Steve?" He asked.
Lou looked at the Jersey Detective and gave a loud laugh. "You mean beside the ring on his finger?"
"Now that you mention it, he has been in an overly good mood." Chin pointed out as he too glanced across at Steve.
"The man's just got back from his honeymoon, that's gonna put any normal man in a good mood." Lou pointed out as he shook his head in amazement at his two colleagues
"Catherine's on the mainland though." Danny reminded Lou.
"You know for Detectives, you three are completely clueless." Kono told them as she approached, overhearing most of their conversation.
"You know something!" Chin realised as he turned to look at Kono who was grinning at the three of them.
"I might have overheard the boss asking Catherine how she was feeling after her flight landed in DC." Kono told them with a grin, raising an eyebrow when they all looked at her with puzzled expressions. "He was asking her about nausea." She added.
"She suffers from motion sickness." Chin pointed out, he'd heard Steve teasing her about how she always got sick whenever they'd flown.
"She was in the Navy." Lou exclaimed as he looked down his nose at Chin to push his point across.
"She gets air sick." Chin explained for Lou's benefit.
Danny's eyes went wide as he realised what Kono was suggesting. "Wait, you think she's..." Danny started only to cut himself off as he spotted his partner approaching them, quickly schooling his features as he asked. "Catherine okay?"
"Yeah, she's fine. I wanted to catch her before she settled down for the night." Steve shared as he slipped his cell back into his pocket. "It's looking like she'll be on the mainland a couple of weeks."
"You okay with that?" Danny asked in concern.
"Yes I am." Steve answered. He'd been mentally preparing himself for his wife's trip ever since she'd come home from the hospital, he'd known it was only a matter of time before she was recalled to DC. He had been worried that something would go wrong and she would be forced to go on another assignment for the company. Finding out that his mother was in DC protecting Catherine was helping to alleviate his fears.
"This is just something that Catherine has to do, I understand that." Steve told them when he saw the sceptical looks his team sent his way. "If we want a future where Catherine isn't constantly looking over her shoulder, then this is what she has to do."
"You think Catherine's going to have problems with them?" Chin stated as he watched Steve closely.
Steve shook his head. "Not anymore. Doris has stepped in, she's using her leverage with the company to protect Cath." He shared with them, glancing around the area to make sure no one was listening to their conversation. "Catherine has confirmed Doris was behind Nikolaev's accident."
"I guess that means we're closing the Rollins case." Danny theorised as he glanced down the table to make sure no one was listening in on the conversation.
"Yeah. As far as NCIS are concerned we have the three-people responsible for Patricks assault and Catherine's abduction. With Nikolaev dead the only other person who knows what this is all about is my mother, and she's not going to tell us anything." Steve pointed out.
"Do you think this will be the end of it?" Chin asked vaguely as he spotted one of the village women approaching them with a plate of food.
"I hope so. My mom wrote to me just after Catherine came out of the hospital, claimed she'd taken precautions and dealt with the situation herself." Steve explained as he to glanced across at the approaching woman.
"It's not as if she's been forthcoming in the truth department in the past." Danny pointed out to Steve. "If she told you anything I doubt it would be the truth."
"Thank you for that, Danny." Steve growled in annoyance. It was one thing for Steve to know how his mother had lied to him, but he didn't need his partner rubbing it in his face. He waited for the woman to place the plate of food on the table and move off before he continued what he wanted to say. "If there's one thing about my mom that I do know; if it's anything to do with her past she will keep it to herself, and deal with it. The whole faking her own death and going into hiding for 20 years was to protect our family. I might not agree with her methods but I sure as hell understand why she felt the need to do it."
"How many more skeletons are going to come out of your mother's closet?" Danny queried as he glanced across at Steve. "I mean we thought that WoFat was the only threat to your family, but if there's more?"
"All we can do is wait and see." Steve reasoned knowing perfectly well that his mother's past could come back to haunt him at any time, but then again so could Catherine's or even his own.