Pehea wau i ʻike ai i kou makuahine

Based on the characters and stories of Hawaii Five-0.

Hawaii Five-0 is owned by CBS and their respective creators.

I've got your six. -C

Steve stared at the words Catherine had scribbled on the back of the polaroid years ago. It took every ounce of self control to keep from calling her up and telling her he was an idiot. Greer tapped on the door as she lingered in the doorway. "Hey." Her alluring smile made him tense. Why couldn't that woman take a fucking hint?

He shoved the polaroid back into the safety of his pocket and looked up. "'Sup." He was rather irritated to see her. As soon as he had left Kabul and brought his HVT in for interrogation at Guantanamo, Steve had caught wind that she was over at Strawberry Fields. It didn't take Greer long to track him down and coax him into telling her all about what had happened in Kabul. Steve had been so pent up about it that he let his guard down and opened up to her about his feelings towards Catherine.

It was then that Greer said those words: 'therapy', 'stress relief', 'blow off steam'. Hearing them come out of her mouth again nearly made him sick. Not this time. This wasn't going to be Marrakesh 2.0.

"You know, I get it. You miss her. But staying in your room all the time in between interrogations isn't going to fix things. You need to move on." Greer was growing impatient. The note he had left her in Morocco when he disappeared said that he had gotten called up for duty, but that he would see her again. Catherine Rollins leaving that other SEAL she had been seeing had gotten in the way of Greer's plan, but she was nothing if not patient. Patience, though, doesn't always mean sitting idly by, waiting for the world to fall in your lap. Some people called her manipulative, she preferred to think of herself as an outcome engineer.

When Greer saw how distressed Steve was when she watched his interrogation after Kabul, she knew the time was right. He didn't need or want sex then, he needed someone to care. Someone to listen. She was a CIA agent, after all. Listening well and pretending to care was her job. Her pursuit of Steve was simply a little extracurricular use of her skill set. It had taken a few weeks, but she had planted the seeds of doubt that being with Catherine wasn't in his best interest. He had disagreed wholeheartedly at first, but time after time, she would plant those seeds and wait for rain.

When it rains it pours. A group of agents and officers had gone off base to a bar. Greer pickpocketed his phone from him and sent the fateful message: You free to talk at 2100 your time?

Catherine's response was pathetically fast, Greer had thought. Rollins had been waiting on edge for him to reach out to her for weeks. Now all Greer had to do was sit back and keep feeding Steve shots until he was just tipsy enough to make the call. Greer knew that she could coax him into saying what she had been planting in his mind for a while. She had done far worse for a lot less.

Steve barely gave her a second glance as she lingered in his doorway.

"I've got a little time on my hands…" Her words were tranquil. Greer eased across the room towards him. "Wanna relax?" Steve hadn't so much as given her a desiring look the entire time they had spent in Cuba and it was about to make her lose her cool.

He sat up from his bed and pulled on his sneakers. "I'll just go for a run." He muttered as he pushed past her and left the barracks. As Steve's sneakers pushed into the sand he didn't feel the slightest bit better. Why the hell had he gotten drunk and texted Catherine? Frankly, he didn't even remember doing that. He did, however, remember the heartbreaking sound of Catherine crying as he hung up the phone later that night after he had apparently promised to call her. That was the nightmare that he had been possessed by for weeks - not nightmares of the torture he inflicted on Al-Qaeda operatives, not the nightmare of Catherine nearly dying in Kabul and Billy saving her - no. The thing that haunted him the most was the fact that he had hurt her in the worst way he could. No amount of sex with Sienna Greer could fix that, so he didn't even bother.

"Commander!"

Steve looked over his shoulder as a young sailor flagged him down. He turned and jogged back up the beach. "Yes?"

"Call waiting for you from NAS Corpus Christi."

"Thanks, I'll be right up." Steve pondered who would need to speak to him from Corpus Christi. He didn't know anyone stationed there at the moment… Unless… "Shit." He muttered as he bolted for the communications center. "Shit. Shit. Shit." He hurried into the room and shut the door behind him, taking a minute to collect himself. "Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett."

"McGarrett. I was hoping I wasn't going to have to have this conversation with you."

Steve ran his hand through his hair, "Sir?" The last thing he wanted to have to do was explain to Admiral Rollins why he got drunk and broke up with his daughter.

"Catherine was scheduled to call her mother two days ago and we haven't heard from her. It's not like her to skip a scheduled call. I swung by the NAS at Corpus Christi to see if I could get any information on her but I'm being stonewalled by someone in the sandbox. I know you're not over there right now, but I was hoping you'd heard from her." Admiral Rollin's voice softened from a hardened Naval retiree to a scared father. "I don't need to know where she is or what she's working on… I just need to know that she's okay…"

He exhaled a sigh of relief. Catherine must not have told her parents what an ass he had been. From the looks of it, they didn't know that he had broken up with her. "I haven't, Sir… We uh…." Broke up? That wasn't the thing to say to a worried parent. At best Catherine was avoiding them. At the worst she was AWOL or… worse… "I haven't heard from her, but I, uh, I have a couple buddies over there with her. I'll give 'em a call and make sure she's okay."

"Thank you, son. She's lucky to have you lookin' out for her. I know Evelyn and I are grateful. You, uh, you have the house phone number, right?"

Steve nodded. "Yes, sir. I'll shake the trees and I'll, uh, I'll give you a call if I hear something." He hung up the phone as a quiet prayer slipped out of his mouth. "God, Cath… please be okay…" He quickly dialed another number and silently willed that someone would pick up. He pulled the polaroid out of his pocket and gave it a chaste kiss. "I got your six, Rollins." He whispered.

"Okay, Lieutenant Rollins. From the beginning, please." The officer stated calmly as he pushed the record button on a video camera.

Catherine sat across the table and nervously adjusted the sling on her arm. The metal chair made her broken vertebrae scream in pain, but she maintained her composure. "Nine days ago, my unit was assigned to a recon and surveillance op. The mission went sideways when we came under heavy fire."

The officer held up his hand as he asked, "And this is the second time that this has happened, correct? The first being approximately four months ago when your unit came under fire and called in for backup and were assisted by SEAL teams five and seven."

She swallowed but maintained her calm demeanor. The harness from the polygraph machine was practically strangling her. "That's correct."

The officer glanced over at the polygraph paper that boasted scribbled lines and made a note in his notebook. "You may continue."

She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "The hostiles set off what I'm assuming was a directional charge... like a, uh, M18 Claymore or something. I was knocked unconscious. When I came to, I was disoriented and had a GSW to the leg and I thought my arm was fractured or broken."

"When you woke up in the field, presumably alone, how did you treat your injuries?"

Catherine took another calming breath. This was the lie she had been preparing for. "With the help of the Navy, of course." She smiled. "I've spent plenty of time around special warfare operators to know a thing or two about field dressings. I made a makeshift tourniquet, removed the bullet from my leg, and packed it with gauze. I found some scraps of fabric and fashioned a sling for my arm."

"And your back? Your x-rays from the hospital here on base show a broken vertebrae."

She nodded. "That's correct. I was in pain, but there was nothing I could do about it. It took me a couple days to safely make my way back to where I knew I could flag down a convoy."

The officer nodded and seemed satisfied with her answers. "As you know, Lieutenant Rollins, your injuries are extensive. Your orders here are not supposed to be finished for a few more months, however, given your current condition, they have been amended. As we do not have the capability for physical therapy and extended treatment here, you will be sent to Landstuhl for further medical care and then will have your scheduled 120 day leave following the end of your treatment. You will receive your new orders after that." He slid back from his seat and tucked the polygraph chart into the file. "Good work, Lieutenant. The Navy is lucky to have officers as determined and resourceful as you are." He removed the polygraph machine from her body and shook her hand before exiting the room.

Catherine exhaled a sigh of relief. Being sent to Landstuhl was far preferable to sitting at the sorry excuse for a hospital that they had in Kabul. Europe would be a breath of fresh air.

"Mrs. Rollins?"

"Speaking."

"Ma'am, this is Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett. Admiral Rollins asked me to give you all a call at this number if I -"

"Steve!" Evelyn exclaimed. "Bless your heart, you gave me a scare - no one ever calls the house phone and refers to me as "Mrs. Rollins"! I thought this was one of those family notification calls…"

Steve could tell that Evelyn was trying to sound upbeat, but truthfully she had sounded just as scared as her husband had when he called three days prior. "Yes ma'am. I'm sorry it's taken me a few days to get back to you. Have you heard from Catherine since Admiral Rollins called me?"

Evelyn sighed, "No, sweetheart… We haven't. We've been…" Her voice cracked, "We've been hoping and praying that you had…"

He pressed his fist to his forehead as he collected his thoughts. Steve had never made a family notification before, but if this is what it felt like, he never wanted to have to do it again. He had felt Evelyn's same anxiety when he called Matt who called Amy who called another friend, who connected Steve with Catherine's C.O. in Kabul. He swallowed his guilt and lifted the phone back to his ear. "Ma'am, I, uh, I talked to her C.O. this morning. Catherine's been injured but she's okay. She's being sent to the Army hospital in Landstuhl, Germany and will likely be on a leave of absence when she's released." He felt a lump in his throat as he heard Evelyn's sniffles over the line. "She's gonna be okay, Evelyn. She probably just hasn't had time to call. She got treated on base and then probably had to debrief. I'm sure once she's, uh, once she's in Germany and she gets settled, she'll call."

"Thank you, Steve." Evelyn exhaled to try to calm herself. "I hope you come visit soon and stay safe yourself."

"You're welcome, ma'am."

Steve set the phone down and looked back up at the computer screen where Catherine's C.O. had sent him the debrief report. GSW to the leg. Broken arm. Broken Vertebrae. Knocked unconscious by a directional blast. He hesitantly clicked on the video of her polygraph test. Truthfully, he had just wanted to hear her voice. Of course, she had passed the polygraph with flying colors, but there was that one little thing he noticed. Catherine's nostrils flared just the tiniest bit.

Steve pressed a featherlight kiss on Catherine temple as she stirred from her sleep. "Mm. What time is it?" She mumbled.

He chuckled and brushed her hair away from her face. "A little after nine."

Catherine yawned. "Thanks for getting Shelbs up and fed." She groaned as she sat up, "This one just has me way more exhausted than Shelby did." Her hand rested on her belly.

Steve smirked, "I shoulda warned you." He put his hand on top of hers, "McGarrett boys are a handful."

She giggled as the baby kicked against their hands. "I kept you around all these years, didn't I?" Steve raised his eyebrows and scoffed, "Okay, so maybe we did a pretty terrible job of that." She grinned.

He was about to retort when his phone buzzed. "McGarrett… Yes, ma'am…. Yes…. Okay. See you soon."

"Was that mom?" She asked as she threw back the covers and rummaged around in the dresser for something to wear.

"Yeah. They just landed. Your dad was getting a car so they should, uh, be here in about two hours. She sounded excited about finally coming out here and seeing the place."

Catherine rolled her eyes but a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, "Why does she always call you? I can't remember the last time she called me first."

Steve chuckled, "You jealous that your mom calls me and not you?"

"One time! One time I go MIA on a deployment and you call her and I never hear the end of it from you two!" She exclaimed with a laugh. He playfully smacked her ass as she bent over to wiggle into her jeans. Catherine stood upright quickly and hooked her fingers in his belt loops, "C'mere, cowboy." She murmured as she pulled him closer for a kiss.

He hesitated just above her lips, "I thought it was 'sailor'?"

She grinned, "We're at the ranch, you're wearing boots, and you have the beard back. It's cowboy." She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.

Steve chuckled as he trailed his fingers up and down her ribs. "Your mom's never seen the beard before. She's gonna hate it."

Catherine looked up into his eyes. She adored him. Her palm trailed down his jaw. "Doubt it, but even if she does - I don't care."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

So we finally find out who was the mastermind behind Steve and Catherine's breakup! This chapter coincides with S04E21 when Catherine is MIA and is saved by Amir and his family. Now Catherine's a single gal and is off to Europe!

Leave your reactions and feedback in the reviews ! I LOVED reading all of your reviews for the last chapter, so keep 'em coming!

Lastly, I want to give a huge birthday shout-out to my sweet hubs! He's my real-life Steve McGarrett and Billy Harrington all rolled into one!

Happy Friday, loves!

XO,

-Mags-