Disclaimer: I do not own Hawaii Five-O or anything you recognize from it.

If you want to be happy, be. — Leo Tolstoy

This is the second last chapter, so please, please, please enjoy!

Chapter Thirty-Five

Fixing the Frays in the Metal Casing

Melissa quietly sat up, staring over her shoulder at a very naked and very delicious looking Steve as he slept on his stomach, sprawled across the bed. Wanting to run her fingertips over his tanned, hewed back but knowing that it'd wake him up. If it were any other morning she'd take a bite out of his very nicely shaped butt, but not this morning. After she had told him, "I love you", his lovemaking fever had only grown exponentially and she hadn't even had an hour of sleep and even if she had more, she wouldn't be able to close her eyes. It was as if he couldn't get enough of her, that he was afraid she'd leave him again and that if he closed his eyes, it would all be a dream.

She didn't regret telling him that she loved him but she needed time to decompress and think, to reflect and be by herself…even if it were for a few hours. She didn't know what to say or do if she were to face him this morning so she had waited until the sun began to rise and he had finally passed out before she slowly snuck out of bed and quickly shoved herself in her clothes, grabbed her house key and left his place.

She drove aimlessly until she found a secluded part of the beach where the salty air wrapped around her and the wind blew her hair out of her face. She loved the man and though she didn't know what their future would hold, they were stronger together than separately. She leaned against the car and smiled at the crashing waves; she was happy, regardless of running out of Steve's place that morning. She was happy.

With a sense of calm, she got back into her car and drove determinedly back to her place and slammed her way into the building. Steve had always been there for her, even when he refused to admit it to himself and to her, he had always been with her…even when she fought his memory. She had to face it, he was irrevocably under her skin, deeper than any tattoo she could get, he was a part of her. She walked to her bedroom and kneeled by the bed, reaching underneath it to grasp a wooden box that only one other person knew about. When she had first come to Hawaii, she had stashed her FBI badge in the box and unfortunately fortunate for her, Summers had known it was there. In a way, she wasn't as surprised as she should have been; Summers was a profiler and he had always been damn good at seeing things that no one else saw. The box had been a perfect representation of whom she was; at first, she had been empty and just getting by, using the box to place things she didn't want to lose but didn't want to be reminded of. But now, the box was brimming with memories that she refused to forget; most of the items had reminded her of Steve. She grabbed the cassette from her voice message machine and placed it in her voice recorder, pressing play. She let her head rest against the bed as she smiled to herself, listening to Steve's husky voice order her around. When she had awoke that morning hung over from the binge drinking night of entropy that she had spent with Kono, she had absently pressed play on her voicemail machine. Even in her hung over stupor she had been deeply happy and grinned like a mad fool as she listened to his husky dictatorial voice and knew that if she were ever worried about 'them', all she had to do was listen to his voice and know that someone would tear the world apart for her.

She sighed and placed the tape gently back into the box, running a finger over a singular leaf she had foolishly grabbed from the hilled mountain he had brought her to. She would never tell anyone of this box, with little tokens and mementos she had taken along the way that reminded her of Steve. A button that had fallen off of his dress shirt the time he had made dinner for her, a leaf from the hilled mountain where they first loved each other and even the silly message he had left her with her slurring in the background drunk. All of these things reminded her that she was loved, that she wasn't alone anymore and damn it, if she was every feeling sullen or down, all she had to do was open the locked chest and see the evidence that she was wrong.

She was wrong and she knew what she had to do to fix her mistakes. It was now make or break it time.

0000000000000000

"What has gotten into him this morning?" Kono whispered to Danny as she saw Steve tear someone apart over the phone.

"My guess…my Jonesy." Danny replied, quickly glancing over his case file to the caged lion.

"Does anyone have the Hardwick case file?" Steve demanded and grabbed it from Chin's hand, "I wanted this two hours ago."

"Sorry, boss." Chin apologized, sharing a look with the other two hostages in the office.

Steve slammed the phone shut and opened the file, his brain refusing to absorb the information screaming at his eyeballs. This morning he had woken up, reaching over for Melissa only to find her spot empty and cold. He had thought maybe she had been making breakfast or going out for a morning jog but when he found her car missing, he let out a string of expletives so foul, the air blackened around him. He hadn't slept much last night; after their discussion in the car and the realization that he had almost lost her, he had been too hungry and raw to let her go. When she had reached up and rested her hand on his cheek, whispering her love, he knew they both wouldn't sleep at all. But then his exhaustion took over ad she had snuck out; he didn't think it was because she was shy or nervous; maybe she had just needed some time to herself. But damn it, couldn't she have waited for him to leave for work before having a freaking meltdown?

Steve glanced up and watched Melissa step off the elevator and hungrily absorbed the way the navy military-style dress clung to her curves, by gods, he adored that woman. She must have went back to his place to shower and change and damn if that didn't start another round of heart flutters. He was in the military, he was the commanding officer of Five-O and he was having heart flutters? He shoved his attention back to the case file in his hands and scowled, trying to calm himself; who knew it'd take a FBI agent to reduce him to stomach and heart flutters.

Melissa opened the office door to Five-O and nodded to the trio, taking in their haggard and worried faces, "Are you okay?" She mouthed worriedly to Kono.

"Yes." Her friend wordlessly replied before nodding to Steve and making a stabbing motion with her pen.

Melissa smirked and walked up to his desk, knowing he was aware of her presence but was still ignoring her. That man sulked more than she did. "You're not going to make this easy on me, are you?"

She signed when she realized he hadn't even blinked, "Chin?"

"Yes, Melissa?" Chin asked pretending to look busy.

"Is the interrogation room unoccupied?" She asked not tearing her attention away from their boss.

Chin smirked, "We were waiting for you."

"See to it that we're not disturbed." She ordered using her best Bureau voice.

"Yes, my Special Agent Jonesy." Danny replied earning a passing scowl by Steve, he waited until Melissa opened the metal door and all but shoved his boss into the room and slamming it shut before grinning like a relieved fool.

"Why do you keep calling her that?" Chin asked, swivelling his chair around to face the other man.

"Because I always get a reaction from Steve." Danny replied, sharing a grin with Chin.

"Children." Kono remarked more to her self than anything.