One for Sorrow
Pairing: McRoll
Spoilers for season 10 - Episode 7
Chapter - 19
It wasn't easy, getting a six year old up way before she usually gets up. They had to be at the Andrews Air Force base by 8:00am which meant they had to be up at around 6:30am so they had time to shower, make sure they packed all their belongings, grab something to eat and then head to Andrews. Joan had a shower the night before, so Mary didn't worry about giving her another in so early in the morning, she let her sleep in as long as she possibly could while she showered herself and then once she was ready, she woke her up and dressed her in her half sleepy state.
Knocking on Steve and Catherine's hotel room door, Catherine opened the door for them as Steve put his jacket on. Both of them watched in amusement when Joan went to wearily sit, half lay on the unmade and yawned rather loudly. "She isn't a morning person are you munchkin", Mary answered their amused looks as a way of explanation. "We are all ready, how about you guys?", she added, looking around the room to make sure they were all packed up and ready to go.
"We are ready to go, I thought we might have a little breakfast in the hotel dinning room before we get going, we still have time", Catherine was the first one to speak, It was now around 7:00am on the dot. "I'll go put our bags in the car so we don't have to have them lug them around to the dinning room and leave them unattended somewhere". Steve picked up their bags and smiled softly at his niece who was told by her mother to stand up, "I'll meet you guys down there", he kissed Catherine softly and then grabbed the keys to the rental and opened the door to head down to the garage.
"Okay Munchkin, let's go get some good seats in the dinning room and wait for your Uncle to come back to have something to eat.. You all ready Cath?", she spoke to Joan and then to Cath who nodded who had a quick look in the bathroom and then around the room before smiling. "Yup, all ready, let's go". She picked up her handbag and her phone, sliding it into her bag and walked out of the door that Mary had still open and once they were all out, it closed. "I'll go down to reception, hand in our card keys and then meet you guys in the dinning room".
Steve had moved the car out of the garage and out to the front parking lot and came back in through the reception area, stopping to wait for Catherine once he spotted her there. They walked back to the dinning room together, hand in hand and sat down to eat breakfast with Mary and Joan, chuckling as she raved about the pancakes and how good they were, Steve and Catherine both sipping on their coffee's and eating their shared pancakes as well.
Once breakfast was over, they all headed to the bathroom, and then out to the car. It became more somber as they got closer to Andrews, it was getting onto 8:00am and they were pulling the rental into the car space. Someone from the CIA was going to hand it back over the the rental car place later on that day. As they walked up to the tarmac, they saw the Director and the Deputy Director already there with a coffin, nearly ready to be loaded onto the plane.
"I want to see her before you load her onto the plane", He was still worried that they might have done a switch like what happened with Freddie Hart's body all those years ago. That still played on his mind and though it wouldn't be as much of a risk mission to get the right body back, it was still something he didn't want to have to deal with. The Director nodded, knowing after his conversation with Commander McGarrett that he would want be sure it was her. "Of course Commander McGarrett". He indicated he come forward while the coffin lid was opened enough for Steve to see it was in fact his mother.
"Thank you for holding to your word Director". The coffin lid was closed again and they began to load it onto the plane's cargo hold of the plane they were travelling on. The plane itself was a passenger aircraft and was carrying Naval and Army service men and women who were either going home to Hawaii or getting ready to be deployed from Hickam airforce base. He shook hands with the Director and then pulled his hand away, turning to face his family. "Come on guys, they are boarding the plane, let's go find our seats".
They were four seats in the middle row and that is where the CIA had them seated, Mary was on on end side, Joan next to her, Steve and then Catherine on the opposite end to Mary. As soon as they were seated and the seatbelt sign on, they put their seatbelts on and Catherine took Steve's hand in hers. Steve didn't know this yet, but when Catherine was speaking to Danny the evening before, he mentioned making sure everyone was there as a show of respect and a sign of love for Steve and for Mary and Joan.
It was going to be a long flight, she knew that Steve didn't sleep much the night before, so she did hope he might get some sleep on the flight home. He had been away from home for around two months and she knew he missed it, and the people he loved and cared for as well. It weighed on his mind, being away from everyone for so long, but she knew they would all understand the reasons why he did what he did and they all would have done the same thing if roles were reversed.
Author Notes:
Thank you all so much for all of your patience. I haven't really written anything for this since late November so I appreciate you all sticking by and waiting for the next chapters to come. I hope this is a lovely belated Christmas gift to you all. I wasn't aware where I began this journey on this story that it would turn out the way it has but I am really enjoying writing it and really enjoying going through this journey as well. Getting back home after our holidays, December just became quite busy but finally I have had a bit of downtime to get these next ones done.