A/N: This started as a note in my phone late at night on April 3 saying "AU where Catherine wasn't on that plane." This is where that took me. 133 pages, 48k words later, I'm done. Hope you all enjoyed this journey as much as I did.

10x22 Aloha

"Welcome to Reno-Tahoe International Airport, folks. We should be landing in the next ten minutes. Please remain seated until the seatbelt light goes off," the pilot said over the intercom system. Steve sat patiently observing the passengers around him. He looked out the window, seeing the low mountains and utter brown scenery. When deciding where to go from Hawaii, he hadn't been particularly looking for anywhere to go. As he sat at his laptop and searched for plane tickets, he had somehow found himself typing "Carson City" into the search bar. He definitely should have called her or texted at the very least. But he was afraid to. He didn't want to hear that she didn't want to see him. Logically, he knew that she would never say anything like that, and she'd welcome him with open arms. But for some reason, his brain had been anxiously playing out scenarios of what would happen when she saw him for the first time in a long time. As the plane finally landed, Steve turned airplane mode off on his phone. He smiled at the text from Danny.

Please come back. Your dog is driving me insane. He's exactly like you, the text said.

Be nice. Both of you, he shot back. Putting his phone away, he stepped out into the aisle with the rest of the passengers. He felt his stomach turn at the thought of seeing her.

"Agent Kalakaua, there's a man in your office. He says he knows you," the young officer told her as she stepped out of the interrogation room.

"Did he give you a name?" Kono asked. The young woman shook her head.

"No ma'am, but if you don't mind me saying, he's quite attractive. He's got some very impressive tattoos. He wouldn't take no for an answer either. He insisted he'd wait until you were done," she said. Kono cocked her head, trying not to smile.

"Thank you. Book this guy, he's given us all he's going to. I'll go to my office now," she said. The officer nodded and headed into the interrogation room. Kono allowed herself to smile, wondering who exactly was in her office, though she had a strong suspicion of who it was. She strode into her office and came to a standstill when she saw that she was right. He turned around, and her small smile turned into a huge grin. His face broke into a matching smile. In two big steps he swept her into his arms. She laughed.

"It's been a while, Steve," she said. He nodded, still holding her.

"Too long," he said, before finally letting go. His hands rested on her arms.

"You look great. This suits you, having the big office, being the boss," he observed.

"It does. I enjoy making a difference. And the big office doesn't hurt," she said. He let go and stepped back.

"I'm happy for you, Kono," he said.

"So what brings you here?" she asked, moving toward her desk.

"I...uh...stepped down, at least for the time being," he said. She whirled around. Her brown eyes probed his blue ones, searching for the truth.

"You're serious," she said after a couple of seconds.

"Yeah, it was time. I made Five-0 my life for 10 years. I had spent so much time wrapped up in it that I realized I wasn't really living for anything any more. I came back to Hawaii to catch my dad's killer. That's long since over, and now my mom is gone too. I threw everything I had into that team, and it was exhausting. I need to find what I'm fighting for again," he explained.

"Yeah. I understand that feeling," she told him, finally allowing herself to sink down on the edge of her desk. Steve knew she did understand that feeling, probably more than he knew.

"So I got on a plane. I'm planning on going back, of course. But for now, I'm off doing some 'soul searching' as Danny called it," he said. She smiled at the mention of Danny.

Before they could say anything, the door opened. A breathless officer stood there.

"Ma'am, we think we've got something," he said. Kono was on her feet in an instant.

"I'll be right there," she said. The officer nodded and shut the door behind him.

"I'm sorry," she apologized, turning to Steve. He shook his head.

"Don't be sorry. This is your job. I just showed up unannounced," he reminded her.

"I'll text you. We can grab dinner together," she promised him. He followed her out of the office.

"It's a date," he said, then realized what he had said. He got flustered. "I mean, it's uh, a plan. We'll plan on it. Yeah that's what we'll do," he tried to amend. She smiled at him.

"It's a date," she told him and pushed him teasingly. "Now let me do my job." He nodded.

"Yes, ma'am. I'll see you later, boss," he said, grinning, pleased that he could use the nickname she had called him for seven years. She just shook her head, laughing, as she headed toward the commotion in the office.

He watched her for another second before he left. She was confident, self-assured, and a fantastic leader. He was proud of her and who she'd become. She clearly ran an efficient operation here, and he had heard of the great work she was doing even from Hawaii.

Now it was time to call Danny and come clean about where his first stop on his road to self-discovery was.

"Ohhhh, very interesting," Danny said, clearly in a way that meant he was reading too much into Steve's actions.

"What are you talking about, man?" he asked.

"I mean, it's very interesting that the first stop on your soul searching path was to stop and see how our former rookie, who you are in love with, is doing," Danny said.

"Danny, don't be ridiculous. I'm not expecting anything out of her. But I had to see her, and you should see her, man. She's an agent with the FBI. She's leading an official task force. Her office is organized, and her people respect her. You can see it on their faces," Steve told him.

"And she's no long your subordinate, so you could definitely convince her to go out with you again, which is convenient," Danny pointed out.

"That is not why I'm here," Steve protested.

"Sure it isn't buddy. But I'm curious, if Kono asked you out, would you say no?" Danny asked. Steve remained quiet, not sure how to bring up the fact that she had already called their dinner a date.

"Wait wait wait. Did she ask you out?" Danny asked, reading into the silence. Somehow he could read Steve's mind even with the Pacific Ocean and the state of California between them.

"Well, no. Not exactly. I mean, she said we could have dinner together. I slipped up and called it a date. And when I tried to correct myself, she told me it was a date," he explained.

"Steven?"

"Yeah, man?"

"You're an idiot, you know that right?"

"Yeah," Steve said, sighing.

"Kono is a gorgeous woman who deserves the world. You two were so in love with each other that it even hurt me when she left. Don't hurt her," Danny said.

"I'm going to try not to," Steve said, "But I'm not really sure how this is going to end."

"That's what I'm afraid of," Danny said, sighing.

Kono texted Steve as soon as she got off work.

Just finished up for the weekend. Headed to my place to change. Pick you up from your hotel in 30 minutes?

He sent her the address of his hotel. Sounds good.

Kono knew she shouldn't be this nervous. They were just two old friends (and ex-lovers), grabbing dinner and catching up. He was going to leave in the next couple of days, and they probably wouldn't see each other for several more years. Still, she took the extra couple minutes to spray on perfume and clean up her living room before she left, you know, just in case. She was in front of his hotel exactly 28 minutes after she had texted him. And he was predictably walking out, already waiting on her.

"Hey," he said, getting into the car.

"Hey," she said. They sat in comfortable silence for a little while.

"I've never been to Carson City," Steve confessed, as they drove. The sun was setting behind the mountains.

"It's beautiful," Kono said. "It's nothing compared to Oahu, but the mountains are still fun to hike." He read between the lines.

"You miss the ocean," he said. She grinned, looking at him.

"I would kill to be able to go surfing," she admitted. He laughed.

"You can take the girl out of Hawaii but you can't take Hawaii out of the girl," he said. She nodded.

"I went surfing practically every single day for 30 years. It kills me not being near the ocean," she said.

"I get it. It's like a piece of you is missing," he said. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. He was watching her. She sighed deeply.

"Yeah. It is," she admitted. They pulled into the parking lot of Kono's favorite Chinese restaurant.

The servers were all Chinese immigrants, and Steve tried to impress her by ordering in Chinese. She grinned as she turned to the server and ordered in Chinese as well. Steve's mouth was hanging open when she finished, but he was half-grinning.

"I've learned a few things. A lot of the victims we encounter on the coasts are from Asian countries. I've picked up quite a bit of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Spanish while living here," she explained. She shrugged, sitting back in her chair. Steve's open-mouthed gape had turned into a nonchalant face, with just a hint of a smile.

"Well, I'm impressed," he told her. She smiled and changed the subject.

"How is everybody?" she asked. Steve looked away and took a deep breath.

"They're all good," he said. He knew she was genuinely wondering about everybody, but he also knew she was thinking of one member of Five-0 in particular — her ex-boyfriend. "Danny's upset that I left, but he took it pretty well. I think he got it more than most of the team that I needed to leave. Grover is also doing well. We added two new kids to the team after you left, Junior who I heard you met and Tani. They're an incredible asset to the team. They also just started dating each other, and I couldn't be happier for them. Just a short while ago we added an MP who had been reduced to writing speeding tickets on base. She's doing great with the team," he was clearly avoiding one name.

"Steve," she said softly. He made eye contact with her finally.

"Adam's doing good, Kono. He's a really great team member, and he's a great friend. We're lucky to have him," he told her.

"Good," she said, letting out a deep breath she didn't know she was holding.

"Are you seeing anyone?" Steve tried to ask casually. She shook her head.

"No. After...you know," she gestured between them. "I just haven't found the right person. I've gone on a couple of dates, but nothing seems to work out," she said. He nodded.

"I'm in the same boat. I've gone out with a couple of girls, but I haven't found anyone that has made me want a long term relationship," he told her. His brain silently added on words that he wished he could say out loud. Since you.

Their food came then, and they spent a couple of minutes eating in silence.

"My team really wants to meet you," Kono told him, grinning cheekily.

"Oh?" he asked.

"They want to meet the person who is supposedly responsible for making me an insane person," she said. He snorted.

"I had nothing to do with that. You had your own way of doing things, and I didn't discourage it," he said.

"Nah, brah," she told him. "Not to sound like Danny here, but I definitely learned how to break procedure from you." He laughed.

"What else does your team think about me?" he asked. She shook her head.

"Well, let me just tell you…" she said. They spent the next hour exchanging stories of their teams and their cases. After they finished, Steve snagged the check before she could even reach for it. She tried to protest, but Steve wouldn't give in. They got in her car, neither one ready for the night to end.

"I have a pack of beer in my fridge," she offered. They both knew that it was stepping into different territory if they went back to her apartment. He looked at her, holding eye contact for several seconds before he spoke.

"Yeah, okay," he agreed.

She brought him upstairs, and she locked the door behind her.

"Make yourself comfortable. I'll go grab the beers," she said, gesturing to her living room. It was a pretty spacious apartment. Steve tried not to notice the way her DVDs were stacked crookedly or the rushed cleaning that had clearly happened at some point that day. This was still very clearly Kono Kalakaua's messy home. She had a picture of the original Five-0 team sitting on a shelf. He smiled at the sight of it. She rounded the island in her kitchen and handed him a beer. He accepted it and gratefully took a sip. She kicked off her shoes. Steve watched her out of the corner of his eye, noticing how beautiful she looked in the simple black jeans and purple top. He shouldn't notice those things, really. But he wasn't her boss any more, and he couldn't help but let his mind explore the thought that she might still have feelings for him. She flopped down next to him on the couch and took a sip of beer.

"This doesn't have to be anything. I can sleep on the couch, and you can go sleep in your bedroom. By the time you wake up, I can be gone," he offered, breaking the tense silence. She took a long drink of beer and set it on the table. She turned to look him in the eye. He was caught off guard by the intense look that met him.

"Steve McGarrett, I spent seven years working with you. Those first couple of years were absolute torture. I adored you, and I knew it was stupid. I had this embarrassing schoolgirl crush on my boss." He flinched when she said that word like it was a curse word. "Then I met Adam. I was still attracted to you, of course, but I loved Adam. Then Adam was out of the picture. You and I had a good thing. I really wanted to make a go of it. But you were my boss. We couldn't… Anyway, you're not my boss. You're single. I'm single. We're sitting in my apartment, drinking beer, and I'm still so in love with you that it physically hurts me to be around you without telling you. If you think for one second that I'm going to let you sleep on the couch and walk out of here in the morning without saying a word, you are more of an idiot than I thought you were," she declared. Her voice was sure, and she was confident in what she wanted. Steve set his beer on the table next to hers. He felt his heart racing, and he was sure that this was what he wanted more than anything in the world. In the blink of an eye, he crushed her lips with his own. Years of unreleased tension let itself out in their frantic kisses. His hands were in the hair that he had dreamed of running his fingers through again. Her hands were rubbing across his arms, his chest, and then playing with the edge of his t-shirt. He stood up, pulling her with him. She instinctively wrapped her legs around his hips so that their mouths would stay connected, and he supported her legs with his hands. He strode confidently to where her bedroom was, despite having never been in her apartment before. He threw her on her own bed. She made a noise, almost a growl, and Steve had never wanted her more desperately than he had at that moment. The movements of their hands were quick and needy, trying to inhale each other and make up for lost time.

When it was all over, they lay on the bed, panting quietly in the darkness. Her body was half draped over his.

"Steve?" she asked, her voice drowsy.

"Yeah?" he replied.

"Don't leave," she said. His heart broke, thinking of his plans to get on another plane in two days.

"I won't," he said, making up his mind in the space of a heartbeat. "I can't."

"Why?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper now.

"I think I found myself. You took a piece of my heart all of those years ago when you left, and I've been looking for it ever since. I love you so much. Now sleep, Kono. I'll still be here in the morning," he promised.

And he was.

And the next morning.

And the morning after that.

And every morning right up until the day that he proposed. And after that, he was still there, every morning, in their home in Hawaii, where they both knew their hearts would bring them back to. He was still there the day they got married. He was still there the day she went into labor for the first time. He was still there for every morning, as long as he could be. He was there until death parted them.

She couldn't have asked for a better life with him. When he walked onto that beach when she was 24, about to graduate from the academy, and he offered her a job, neither of them knew that that was the spark that would ignite a flame that would last their whole lives.