THROWING DARTS

Based on the Hawaii Five-0 Series Finale | Season 10 Episode 22: Aloha

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CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

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BITTERROOT VALLEY, MONTANA - JULY 3, 2020 - 1100 HOURS

"You doin' okay back there?" Steve called out as they galloped through the open plain.

Catherine snapped the reins and held on as her horse sped up to meet Steve. "I'm good!" She smiled.

Steve tugged back on the bridle to stop his horse as they approached the stream that cut through the pasture. "You're really gettin' the hang of it." He grinned as he swung his leg over the horse and stepped off the stirrups. Catherine hopped off of her horse and led her to the stream for a drink.

The last few weeks that Steve and Catherine had spent at the ranch in Montana had been the most relaxing honeymoon possible. Their days typically consisted of a trail ride or a run together, then after lunch, Steve and Catherine would separate for a few hours. Steve would usually head into one of the barns that he had converted into a workshop to fiddle around with building or repairing things, while Catherine would curl up in the bay window and read a book. The bay window had quickly become her favorite spot in the farmhouse. It overlooked the valley and had the most magnificent view of the mountains that shot up into the sky. The other perk of reading in the bay window was that if Steve kept the barn door open while he worked, she could watch him sawing and hammering away while shirtless and glistening. The days that he worked with the door open, she never made it past the first page of her book.

True to his word, Steve had remembered her affinity for his beard, and decided to grow it back out. The beard... the boots... the snug Wrangler jeans that he only wore in Montana…Lord, just the thought of it had her hot and bothered already. Catherine glanced over at Steve and watched him tie off his horse and glance back at her.

"You're doing it again." He chuckled

Catherine smiled as she leaned against the tree. "Doing what?"

Steve raised his eyebrows as he wiped the sweat off of his forehead with his arm. "Staring."

"You're my husband, I'm allowed to stare." Catherine giggled.

Steve chuckled as he walked over to her and slid his hands down her hips, effectively pinning her against the tree. "Didn't your parents teach you that it's rude to stare?"

"Oh they did." She laughed. "Problem is, I just don't listen."

He smirked as he leaned in and kissed her slowly, tracing the outline of her lips with his tongue. "That's okay." He mumbled. "Because I was taught to keep my hands to myself, and I just...can't." Steve chuckled as his hands slid down from her hips, across the denim of her ripped shorts, to the soft skin of her thighs.

Their witty banter quickly turned into a full-blown make out session under the tree. They rolled around in the dirt like two horny teenages who just couldn't keep their hands off of each other. A few minutes later, they laid side by side on the grass and stared up at the sky through the branches of the tree.

"You know." Steve began. "After what happened here with Hassan and Joe, I…. I never thought I'd love being up here so much… you know?"

Catherine nodded. "Yeah… It's crazy to think that the workshop you set up in the barn is where we held rendition for Gregers Thomsen… And the bay window that I sit and read in was where the RPG hit." She paused for a moment, "You know, when Danny showed up out here, he was, uh, pretty pissed that I was here…. With you."

"Cath, I-"

Catherine shook her head, "He and I talked it out. We're good." She smiled. "I think he was more mad at you than me in the moment though... You know, he thought you were hiding from him."

Steve nodded.

She continued, "But when you tapped out with Thomsen and I went in to relieve you in rendition for a few hours, after you went back in, I sat and talked to him about it… He was, uh, he was scared. He had never seen you like that."

"That's why I didn't want him or any of 'em coming out here till we got the information we needed." Steve grimaced.

Catherine nodded, "I know...but I think Danny seeing a little bit of your past...job experience… helped him understand why you didn't want him here. That it wasn't because you didn't trust him or love him, you just didn't want him thinking less of you for the things you and I have had to do in our lines of work."

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BITTERROOT VALLEY, MONTANA - JANUARY 4, 2019

"'Ay." Steve grumbled as he stood up from the water trough.

Danny sauntered towards him as he took in Steve's condition. "Hay is, uh, for horses…" He joked dryly, motioning to the thoroughbreds in the pasture.

"You didn't need to come out here." Steve replied grimly.

Danny smiled in disbelief. "Oh, no. No, I did, you see? Because, uh, that's what family does."

Steve was growing irritated at their conversation. He thought back to the pile of bloody pulp sitting in a chair in a barn just a few yards away. He needed to resume rendition. "That's, uh, that's some real wisdom, Danny."

"Well, I g-got that from you, you know? When my brother died you wouldn't leave me alone… Big pain in the ass...so…" Danny's voice trailed off as he sensed Steve's indignation.

Steve sighed. He knew he was being an ass. "Well, I'm glad to see you." He reached out and pulled his partner in for a hug.

"So." Danny said as he patted him on the back, "It's been over a month. You ready to come home now, or what?" Danny's inquiry was interrupted by the creaking of the barn door, "Aha." He muttered sarcastically.

Catherine stepped out onto the porch and waved at Danny. "Hey." She called out.

Steve turned to go back into the barn with Danny on his heels. "Hey, I, uh, you know, I didn't mean to interrupt."

Catherine paused for a moment as she leaned against one of the posts on the porch and crossed her arms. "What exactly did you, uh, think you were interrupting?" She watched as Steve walked past her as Danny stopped beside her.

"Oh, I don't know. The, uh, the grieving process?" Danny joked with his signature dry humor.

Steve's eyes were set on the barn door, "That's not what this is." He pulled the creaky door open and stepped inside the barn. Catherine gave Danny a sharp look of warning, but didn't deter him from following them inside.

Danny paused as he stepped foot in the drafty room. He wasn't quite sure if the thing tied to the chair was a person or not, but given Steve's demeanor, he guessed 'it' was still alive. He tried to hide his obvious discomfort as he joked, "Well, I liked it better when I thought you two were playing house." Danny watched as the man in the chair slowly cut his eyes over to assess whether or not he was going to be an accomplice in his torture. "Who's that?"

"This is Gregers Thomsen. He's Omar Hassan's lawyer." Catherine said without any apparent signs of disgust regarding the man's condition.

Danny narrowed his eyes as Thomsen. "Huh. If you say so, I mean, it looks to me like his mother couldn't recognize him."

Steve's voice was gruff as he turned from the work table where he had laid out an assortment of tools. "It was Greer who gave up the names of the SEALs on the mission that killed Hassan's father in '02." He tossed a knife down on the bench before picking up another tool to clean it of the blood that was no doubt Thomsen's. "But it was Gregers here, who executed Hassan's plan. Isn't that right, Gregers?"

The look on Danny's face of horror and confusion remained unchanged as Catherine began to explain while Steve turned to fiddle with the car battery sitting on the table behind Thomsen. "He hired the hitters who murdered the team… Including Joe."

"You're just in time, Danny." While Steve's voice was hoarse, there was something chilling about his calm demeanor. "Gregers, was, uh, just about to tell us Hassan's location." He patted the bloodied man on the shoulder, no doubt causing extreme pain given his current condition. "Isn't that right?"

Danny watched as Thomsen spit blood from his mouth and cringed in disgust, "Yeah, doesn't.. Doesn't seem to me like he's gonna talk."

A twisted smile flickered on Steve's face. His voice was almost encouraging. That's what made it all the more scary. "That's okay." He coaxed as he hovered over Thomsen. "I'm not done with him yet." He drew a dagger from his belt and enjoyed the sight of Thomsen shifting in fear. Steve glanced over to them. "Catherine." He didn't say anything beside her name. He was giving orders. Catherine knew what her place was in all this. She motioned for Danny to leave the barn, and thankfully, he didn't protest. Catherine closed the door behind her and led the detective into the house.

"You, uh, you want a beer or something? Water?" Catherine offered.

Danny nodded. "Beer. A beer would be good." He admitted as he followed her into the kitchen and sat down at the table.

Catherine pulled out two bottles from the fridge and popped the tops off, handing him one. "Cheers." She mumbled as she sat down across the table from him.

Danny stared into the glass bottle but didn't take a sip. "Why you?" His eyes cut over to her. "Why'd he call you and not me?"

"Danny…" Catherine began.

"No." Danny snapped. "Why'd he call you? Huh? Did you convince him to take you back? Did you prey on his grief? Is that it? Because YOU walked out on him, leaving US to clean up your mess -so, so why the hell did he call you instead of the people who actually care about him?"

Catherine's soft demeanor turned into a frown. "Steve knew Thomsen was in Europe and needed help finding him and backchanneling him into the States." She stated as if she was debriefing her CIA team. She wasn't the kindhearted, playful Catherine that his best friend had fallen head over heels for - she was a government operative. "He asked me to stay to help question him."

Danny pointed to the open bedroom door, "Oh, so if this is just business then why are you two shacking up? Huh?" He chided with a sarcastic laugh.

"Steve and I are grown adults and that's not your concern." Catherine answered coldly.

Danny's knuckles were white from gripping the bottle so hard, "It is my concern when you're just gonna disappear again, leaving him to exist as a shell of a man… You can't keep doing this. You can't keep popping in and out of his life whenever you need a favor!"

Catherine took a long drink from her bottle of beer. "You wanna know the reason he didn't want you here?" She paused to let him hear the blood-curdling screams coming from the barn. "That's why."

Danny cringed as he shook his head, "How long… how long has, uh… How long has he been treatin' this place like it's Guantanamo?"

"Little over a week." She stated. "I brought Thomsen in about ten days ago. We let him sit for a few days before we began working."

Danny laughed in disbelief, "Working?" He shook his head, "You say these things like this is normal behavior! This isn't normal, Catherine! This is repulsive!"

"This is justice!" She shouted. "Sometimes justice is repulsive! Steve and I… the things we've done in our lives are the dirty, little secrets of the U.S. government." Catherine had never once raised her voice with Danny, but he was obviously oblivious to the bigger picture. "And it's fucking twisted. And it's disgusting. But it's what we do." She set her beer aside, folded her hands together, and leaned her elbows on the table. "You didn't know Steve when he was in the SEALs." Her words were like ice. "Your idea of what he did is what you see in movies or the little shreds of unorthodox combat you have with Five-0. This is not a game." Her jaw clenched, "He told me you saw his name on a classified file named 'Operation Strawberry Fields', but do you know what that op was?" She paused as Danny looked down and sighed before looking back at her, "S.F. is in Guantanamo Bay." She stated. "You people throw around 'Guantanamo' like it's a joke, but the horror of it, is that it's very real, and frankly, Strawberry Fields makes Guantanamo look like a fucking cake walk."

"So, what. You're saying he interrogated prisoners at Guantanamo?" Danny questioned.

Catherine shook her head and sighed. "The only reason I'm gonna tell you this is because I trust you. You don't like me right now, and I get that, but someday you're gonna have to learn to trust me too." Her eyebrows raised, waiting for Danny to acknowledge her statement. Once he nodded, she continued. "Strawberry Fields was a separate detention center built near Gitmo. It housed high-value targets under CIA custody." She cleared her throat, "These were ghost detainees, Danny. There was no record of who came into their custody. The methods of acquiring information were a hundred times worse than the waterboarding scandals at Guantanamo."

"And you're saying Steve did that?" Danny asked.

Catherine nodded.

Danny shook his head, "I don't get it… If Strawberry Fields was under CIA jurisdiction, how'd he end up...uh… interrogating prisoners there?"

She sighed, "When you have certain affinities in the military you can….."

"I know, I know." Danny interrupted. "He worked 'the other side'.. He was a sniper, I know that."

Catherine rolled her eyes but didn't bother to correct him, "Gitmo is under the Navy, so when Steve's SEAL team would bring in the targets that they had acquired, they would already be shaking in their boots and no one could figure out why... You have to understand, these men were bred to be terrorists since they were in diapers. They were more than willing to die for their cause. No one could understand why they were so scared of one Navy SEAL." She glanced over her shoulder as another round of screams echoed through the valley. "Steve had a way of getting in their heads… a, uh, "gift" as the folks there used to call it… He was somewhat legendary to the people who were stationed at Gitmo and Strawberry Fields, so whenever they had a detainee that was particularly… stubborn… Steve would get sent to Cuba to retrieve whatever intelligence they needed. He was always successful."

Danny sat in silence as the realization that his best friend was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde set in.

"Danny, this is war." Her voice had softened into its typical kind tone, "It's messy, and it's gruesome, and the memories of what you've done in the name of God and Country haunt you."

Danny sipped his beer, "Are you… are you, uh, speaking from personal experience?"

Catherine nodded. Before she could say anything else, Steve swung the door open and trudged through the house, back to the bedroom. "You're up." He muttered as he passed Catherine and entered the bedroom.

Catherine looked over at Danny. He watched as her demeanor shifted from one that had just been having a heartfelt conversation with a friend to one that could kill. "Be back in a bit." She said as she walked out the door towards the barn.

Danny slid back from the kitchen table and walked into the bedroom to find Steve opening a bottle of pills, pulling one out, and tossing it back into his mouth. "Headache from all the screaming that guy's been doing?" He joked.

"Not exactly." Steve mumbled as he stepped into the bathroom to wash his hands and face.

Danny picked up the pill bottle he had left on the bed. "Peroxetine?" He held it up as Steve exited the bathroom. "You, uh, you sick or something? What is this?"

"It's for PTSD." He grumbled as he snatched the bottle out of Danny's hand and threw it back in the bag. "I've been on it for years. Nothing new." He explained, trying to put his friend's mind at ease.

"You never told me about it…" Danny said as he crossed his arms and followed Steve into the living room.

Steve sighed as he sat down on the couch, "Yeah, well, not something I really like to talk about."

Danny sat down in the chair across from him. "Okay." He nodded. They sat in silence before screams filled the property again. They were quickly followed by pleads to make the pain stop. Danny swallowed and grimaced at the sound. He glanced over to Steve, to find him stretched out on the couch with his eyes closed. "Seriously? You're gonna take a combat nap while your girlfriend tortures some guy?!"

Steve's eyes blinked open and cut across the room to him, "Yes, Danny."

"And you're okay with that?" He asked in disgust.

Steve groaned in annoyance and sat up, "It's her job."

Danny rolled his eyes, "She was a naval intelligence officer… Catherine, she, uh, she sat behind a computer. She did not torture people in Guantanamo because she had a 'gift'!" He shouted.

Steve ignored the fact that Danny and Catherine had obviously discussed the details of his previous life. "She's a CIA agent and she's good at her job. The details of what I've done in my life or what she does now are none of your business."

Danny shook his head in disgust, "I can't tell if you two are a match made in heaven or a bond forged in the fires of hell."

Steve watched through the window as Catherine exited the barn. "Neither can I…" He mumbled.

Catherine stepped into the house. Her shirt was stained with blood and she was drenched in sweat. "He's asking for you." She stated as if she were giving an update to her commanding officer. Steve nodded and hopped off the couch. He left the house and walked into the barn without another word. Catherine looked at Danny and motioned back to the bathroom, "I'm gonna clean up real quick." The way she said it made it seem like she had just been outside gardening and had gotten a little dirt on her pants; not that she was covered in someone else's blood and had no doubt brought someone within an inch of their life.

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The screams and cries for mercy that had been ringing through the mountains for the last few hours had finally stopped. Danny wasn't sure whether it was because Thomsen was dead or because Steve had finally gotten the information he wanted. He got up and walked outside, taking a seat on top of a picnic table outside the barn. If what was happening wasn't so damn horrifying, he thought it'd be the perfect place to relax.

Catherine stepped out of the house in a pair of clean clothes and joined him at the table. "Has he come back out yet?"

Danny shook his head, "No. But it's been pretty quiet for a minute or two."

"Look, uh.. What we talked about earlier…" She hesitated.

"I won't bring it up." Danny promised. "Steve, uh… Steve told me you're, uh, you're good at your job." He pointed at the barn door.

Catherine chewed on her lip. "Not really sure if that should be taken as a compliment." She admitted.

Danny shrugged, "I know we've got a ways to go, you and I… but, uh.. But I'm glad you're here for him.." He sighed, "I've been here like five minutes and I think I'm gonna have nightmares. I just don't get it, you see, because a while back we worked this case, and uh, Steve, he, got called up to go talk to a prisoner at Guantanamo, Naser Salaam… He uh, he tipped us off about a terrorist attack on O'ahu. He passed the information along to Steve because he had been kind to him, you know, feeding him, giving him water, letting him use a prayer mat… that sort of thing when he was supposed to be interrogating him…" Danny sighed, "Steve told me that he just felt the need to treat him like a human being, you know, because they were both men. He and Naser… He said that they both came into this world the same way and in us-versus-them situations like that, how it's easy to forget that. That Steve, or I, or you could've very easily been born in a place where you're bred to hate a whole group of people from the day you take your first breath. The roles could've so easily been reversed." He rubbed his face with the palms of his hands. "I just.. I don't get how the same person can be both ways. "

Catherine cracked a smile, "You know you mean the world to Steve. He really didn't want you to have to see this side of him." She reached out and squeezed Danny's hand. "He's still gentle and honest and kind…. The guy you know in Hawaii? He's still in there." She retracted her hand and crossed her arms as a gust of wind blew across the field. "We, uh… in this line of work we're taught very quickly how to compartmentalize and cope with the things we've done." She looked over at the door as she heard the sounds of Steve packing up his tools. "He needs you too. To look at him normally and to joke with him, and treat him like you always have."

Danny nodded. They sat in silence until the barn door creaked open and Steve walked out with a pail of water. "You, uh… you done? With that? Because uh, taking in this fresh mountain air is a little difficult with the screaming and crying."

Steve washed the blood off of his hands and stood up, turning to face them, "Hassan's in Vientiane, Laos."

"Nice, uh, nice work. So y-you just tell somebody at the CIA, and then, then they do what they gotta do, and problem solved, right?" Danny rambled.

Catherine looked up and shook her head at him.

Danny groaned, "Oh, what? What...are you- you wanna go to Laos? We- you want me to go to Laos? Is that what that is?"

"We are going to Laos." Catherine confirmed.

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"Have you heard anything from Langford recently?" Catherine asked as she and Steve sat at the edge of the stream and skipped rocks.

He shook his head, "No. Radio silence."

Catherine nodded. "Figured." She muttered.

"Hey." Steve said softly as he kissed the top of her head, "We're on our honeymoon." He chuckled, "You shouldn't be worried about cryptic messages in a wine bottle from a former MI6 spy."

She laughed, "We're honeymooning at the place where we interrogated someone for a week, we've never exactly been a 'normal' couple."

"Yeah, but at least we interrogated him together." Steve smirked. "Couples have shared interests."

His joke caused Catherine to double over in a fit of laughter. "I don't think that keeping up with the latest interrogation techniques and torture tactics counts as shared interests."

Steve hopped up and untied the horses from the tree, "And that's why, in a few days, I figured we should, uh, we should head out of the country." He smiled.

"What do you have in mind, Sailor?" Catherine giggled as he helped her up on her horse.

Steve hopped up on his thoroughbred and began trotting beside her as they made their way back to the farm house. "You didn't think I forgot about my list, did you?" He grinned. "The one you said I wrote after throwing darts at a map?"

Catherine smiled as they rode through the open plains, "So where to next?"

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AUTHOR'S NOTE

Why hello, lovely readers! Confession: this flashback chapter wasn't what I had originally planned for Ch.23, but if you haven't noticed, I absolutely LOVE the dynamic of Steve and Catherine in Montana, so I decided to do a little coda dealing with the scene with Steve, Catherine, Danny, and Thomsen in 9x11. Even though it's a really dark, twisted moment in their lives, I think it adds a lot not just to their personal relationship, but the fact that they have both seen and done things that they're not proud of, and they lean on each other for support and understanding.

We'll have another chapter or two in Montana before they head out on their next adventure! For chapter 24's Author's note I'll do my best to give some shoutouts! So leave your feedback in the reviews and any comments or questions (personal or story-related) will be answered in that chapter's A/N!

I can't wait to see what you thought of this chapter! Leave your reviews, loves!

XO,

-Mags-

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