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.


Danny slumped against the wall outside of the Veteran's Affairs Medical Center in San Diego. "How…." He began, running his hand over his deflated pompadour. "How the hell does someone go through, uh, gettin' blown up or somethin' like that and still have a smile? I, uh, I don't get it." Walking through the physical therapy center and seeing veterans in various states of recovery had Danny utterly gutted. Often, he forgot that Steve was former military. He always just chalked up his trigger happy, does-not-play-well-with-others attitude to a personality trait. As much as he and Steve acted like petulant siblings around each other, he couldn't imagine a world without his gun-slinging brother.

Steve shoved his hands in his pockets, "I dunno, man. I just thank my lucky stars I never got it that bad." He sighed and checked his watch, "You, uh, you wanna go for a beer?"

"Got a place in mind?"

"Somethin' like that."


Half an hour later, Steve pulled the rental car into a parking space and looked around. Absolutely nothing had changed. It had been years since he'd been back, but it was all still here. Everything was the same. The view of the beach from the parking lot. The shabby exterior that had no visible business name. There was never any need for a sign. Everyone knew what the 2,000 square foot building was. No one actually knew the name of the place. All the locals and transplants just called it The Bar. The neon open sign was the only beacon anyone needed.

"Nice place." Danny muttered as he looked around. "This, uh, this seems like the kind of place you'd get murdered at in broad daylight."

A grin crossed Steve's face, "This is probably the safest bar on the planet." He slammed the car door and motioned for Danny to follow him, "C'mon. You'll see."

"You gonna get me killed in a bar fight?"

"Nah, just keepin' that promise I made down in the, uh, parking garage. Figured we came all this way, might as well do a little show and tell." The bell hanging over the door rang as Steve yanked the door open.

Peanut shells and half-crushed pretzels crunched underfoot. There was something inexplicably sticky on the floor. Danny guessed that the place hadn't had a good mopping in at least a year. Then, he noticed just how quiet the bar had become. For a packed five 'o clock crowd with a country crooner blaring over the speakers, you could hear a pin drop. Heads turned as Steve made his way up to the old, oak bar. "Commander McGarrett! It's been a minute! How, you doin', bud?"

Steve grinned and leaned over the bar to give the old man a one armed hug and a slap on the back, "Good to see you, Jim."

Danny looked around and suddenly understood why Steve said this was the safest bar in the world. Every man in green camouflage had a trident on his uniform. Those who were in civvies still proudly adorned themselves with attire that pointed to their service. "Your old stomping grounds, huh?"

Steve nodded as he got a pitcher and a couple glasses from Jim before tilting his head in the direction of a booth. "That one's mine."

"You have your own booth? You don't even live here."

He grinned. "I've spent enough money I should have stock in the place by now." Steve set their drinks on the table and slid in. "BUD/s happens on the base just down the beach. This is where everybody comes to, uh, let off some steam. In between phases and evolutions."

"I see." Danny said as he helped himself to the pitcher of beer. As he moved the glasses, he noticed that a set of initials had been carved into the wooden table. "S and C?" A knowing smirk crossed his face, "No, there's no way that's you and Catherine." He burst into a fit of laughter, "Mister Super SEAL-Captain America did not scratch out his initials in a table like a, uh, like a twelve year old with a crush."

Steve wiggled his eyebrows and took a long drink, "I told you I'd tell you the rest if we made it out of that parking garage." He took another sip and cleared his throat, "Alright, Danno." Steve clapped his hands together, "What do you wanna know?"

Before Danny could answer, Jim showed up with a couple beers and slid them on the table, "Courtesy of the tadpoles over yonder." He cocked his head to the group of newly-minted SEALs in the corner. "Kiss asses." He chuckled as he walked back to the bar.

"Okay, first question. Who's that?"

Steve picked up one of the beers and raised it in thanks to the young men who had bought them a round. "Jim's the owner. He was a SEAL back in the seventies. One of the originals. When they moved BUD/s from Norfolk to Coronado, he uh, decided to open this place when he retired. Wanted to give the kids somewhere to come and relax. Not much else around here unless you cross the bridge and go back into San Diego."

Danny eased back into the booth and finished off his first glass. He looked over at the boys who had sent them their next round, "So you're like… a, uh, legend around here."

He shrugged and took a long swallow, "Kinda like those fishing stories that dads tell. The more times they get told, the, uh, the bigger the fish gets."

"How big's your fish?"

Steve smirked, "Jim called me up a couple weeks ago and told me he overheard two kids debating my CKs. One apparently said it was over 120. The other said it was over 160."

"CKs?"

"Confirmed kills."

Danny nodded, "Ah, that's right, you, uh, you workin' the other side like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." He tapped his fingers on the side of the glass. "Alright, so, uh what's your number."

He took a long drink and finished off his glass, "Classified."

"Classified." Danny muttered. "Of course it's classified, you schmuck. You, my friend, just like to play into the mystery of it all, don't you."

Steve chuckled, "Hey, it gets us free beers, doesn't it? Jim- he's been good to us over the years. Gives good advice to candidates going through BUD/s. The kids who get cut come to drink their sorrows away and by the time he's done with them, they uh, they've got a whole new outlook on being in the Navy and aren't so defeated by not making it through SEAL training."

"Sounds like a good man."

"For a while, Catherine was stationed in San Diego and I was at Coronado. This was our place. Her. Me. Freddie Hart. My SEAL team. Billy, on a few unfortunate occasions." Steve grinned against the mouth of the dark beer bottle he had cracked open, "First time she met my team, Joe White- he set it up so I could get her number. She, uh, she wrote it on a cue ball with a permanent marker. I still have it."

Danny tapped his index finger against Steve and Catherine's initials. "So you're tellin' me that at some point you were what some would refer to as a romantic."

He chuckled dryly, "She deserves better than me. That's for damn sure. Man, I put her through hell."

"You, uh, you said Catherine's here on the mainland visiting friends?"

Steve nodded. "Yeah, she's staying with Amy and Matt for a couple days then heading down to see her folks in Texas." He looked up as Catherine sashayed into the bar and gave Jim a hug. He grinned and waved her over, "I may have forgotten to tell you that Matt and Amy live outside of San Diego." He stood up as Catherine approached. Steve grabbed her by the small of her back and nearly lifted her off her feet as he planted a hard kiss on her mouth.

"I'm gone for what? Two days and you guys foil a domestic terror plot?!" She laughed, "You're practically famous. It's all over the news!" Catherine leaned across the table and gave Danny a hug before cramming into the booth.

Steve grinned at Danny, "Told you she wasn't AWOL."


After hours of reminiscing and telling Danny all their stories, Danny excused himself and took the rental car back to the hotel so he could call Grace before their flight in the morning. Steve and Catherine planned to stay until last call, but opted for a stroll along the beach instead. "Remember this?" Catherine smiled. "After your BUD/s graduation? You and me. Stripping down to our skivvies and swimming?" She giggled, "I wanted to kiss you so bad that night…"

Steve chuckled, "Hey, now. You're the one who stopped me. I had every intention of kissing you." He stopped in his tracks and let his thumb skim her lower lip. "Remember you and me right before my last deployment? You gave me your dog tag and we, uh, kissed and made up." He took her hand in his as they stood ankle deep in the undertow and let the waves crash into them.

Catherine leaned her head on his shoulder. "Have you ever thought about how the ocean refuses to stop kissing the sand no matter how many times it's sent away."

"I like that." Steve wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and leaned down and kissed her neck, "I missed you." He murmured. "Sucks not having you at home." He nestled his forehead in the crook of her shoulder and neck. "This was a hard one without you. You're, uh, you're the only one on the team who gets it."

"Did you really get the guys who blew up that convoy of Marines in Kandahar?"

He nodded and let the silence cocoon them. For a few fleeting minutes, no words passed. Only unspoken memories of their time in combat. "Do you miss it?"

Catherine sighed, "Sometimes I wonder what would have been different if I had stayed in… If I had been deployed again. Would I have been able to stop something like that?"

"Is it selfish of me to be glad you retired?" He murmured into her hair.

She turned in his arms and wrapped her arms around his waist. Pressing her cheek to his chest, she said, "This is where I want to be."

"Are you happy?"

She nodded. "Yeah... I, um, I am."

"Catherine…" Steve cleared his throat. "There's, uh, there's something I wanna talk to you about. Something I wanna tell you." She looked up at him. He looked more nervous than she had ever seen. The tic in his jaw was a tell-tale sign that he was deep in thought. His fingers skimmed up and down her spine. Steve tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear as he cupped her cheek, "Remember what we talked about after Halloween? You and me? The long run?"

Her heart fluttered as she whimpered a weak, "Yeah?" He had that look in his eye. His hand fumbled in his pocket. The butterflies in her stomach turned into a flock of hyperactive velociraptors. Was he about to propose?

"Cath, I, uh, I know I'm… I'm not the best at telling you, uh, you know… what you mean to me." He took a deep breath, "Look, I… I don't know what I would do without you. You're everything to me. I swear, you're like… my guardian angel." His hands dropped out of his pockets and grasped onto hers. "You know, I, uh, I remember you walking in the bar the day before I shipped out that last time. And I saw you, and you saw me…. And then you ran up and kissed me in front of all the guys…." He smirked, "I thought I was the luckiest son of a bitch in the whole damn Navy."

Okay, so he wasn't proposing. Had she misread everything? Her lips parted and tilted up in a soft smile, "I think I'm pretty damn lucky too."

Steve continued, "I just… I don't want you to ever doubt how much I care about you."

Care... Right. Catherine stretched up on her tiptoes and kissed him, "I don't ever doubt it."

His hands slipped under the thin fabric of her shirt and glided along her skin, "You sure you don't wanna stay at the hotel tonight?"

She shook her head and laughed, "No, I, uh, I told Ames I'd be back tonight and I don't think Danny would appreciate us waking up in the next bed over."

Steve tilted her chin up and kissed her, "Come home to me."

"I will."

"Promise?"

Catherine nodded. "I promise."


Steve twisted the lock to the hotel room door until it clicked before toeing his boots off and crashing on the empty bed. Danny peered over from his bed, "Get your girl back to your friend's?"

"Yeah." He groaned as he tried to rub the exhaustion out of his eyes. "She'll be back to work at the end of the week."

Danny crossed his arms, "Don't take this the wrong way, because Catherine- she's, she's great at the job, but, uh, do you think havin' her work for you is the, uh best idea?"

Steve opened one eye and looked over at Danny, "Get to the point."

"All I'm saying is that you seem to, uh, have, I dunno- future plans, with her, and you're, uh, you're maybe blurring the lines." Danny shrugged, "Like just now, you said she'd be back to work at the end of the week. Not home, not, uh, not back on the island- you, you gotta be careful. You got a good thing with her and she makes you happy. I just don't wanna see you screw it up."

"And you think I'm gonna screw it up by having her on the team?"

Danny sat up and turned to face Steve, "Take my word for it. You don't wanna blur those lines. Workin' with her back when you were in the Navy is one thing. You had rules that kept you from being with her. Workin' with her now? You'd be an idiot to think she's gonna settle for the same treatment. And don't you argue with me. I've seen the way you two are around the office."

Steve threw his hands up, "What are you talking about? We have great professional boundaries! I always pair her with Chin or Kono so she and I aren't alone on the clock, I keep my office door open if she's in there-"

"That's the problem. She's your girl. She's not me or Chin or Kono and you shouldn't be treating her like she's one of us. You should be kissing that woman's feet and, and putting flowers in her office every damn day."

His brow furrowed, "Has she said something to you?"

"No." Danny shook his head. "All I'm saying is she's the best damn thing that's ever happened to you and I don't want to see you screw it up like I screwed up with Rachel. As much as I want to blame it on Stan, I let things slide. I stopped treating her like I should and I paid the price. I don't want to see the same thing happen to you. Because you and Catherine? That's the real deal."

There was something about being back in Coronado. Steve could feel Freddie's presence. Steve could see him sitting in the jump seat of that C-130 on their way to HALO jump into North Korea, telling him not to screw it up with Catherine. That what they had was the real deal. Steve thumped the pillow with his hand before closing his eyes, "Go to sleep."


"Let me get those for you." Danny took the stack of plates from Catherine's hands. "You cooked, you shouldn't have to do the dishes too. Everything was great, Catherine."

She smiled graciously and turned to help Steve finish clearing the table. Tuesday night dinners with Danny had resumed their regular place on the calendar. Occasionally Grace or Charlie would join, but more often than not, it was the three adults catching up. "So how are things going with Rachel? You two still trying to work things out?"

"Can they call it working things out if they've been doing it for longer than some people have been married?" Steve joked.

Catherine swatted him with an oven mitt causing Danny to laugh. "Seriously, Danny. You guys thinking about getting remarried and giving it another shot?"

He shrugged as he filled the sink with water, "Don't have to jump off the cliff to know you die at the bottom."

She huffed and shook her head, "You've been going out on dates, spending weekends together... You can't honestly say it hasn't been going well."

"Oh, it's going great, and that's why I, uh, I don't wanna change anything. Don't wanna mess it up."

Catherine rolled her eyes as she spooned leftovers into Tupperware and stacked them in the refrigerator. "Men…"

Steve reared his head back. "What's that supposed to mean?"

She laughed, "It means that men have a tendency to be satisfied with the status quo. They see safety in the norm and will do anything and everything to not mess it up, even if it mean missing out on great opportunities like, oh, I don't know… Saying I love you and proposing?"

He smirked and pecked her lips, "Low blow, Rollins."

She continued, "I'm just saying. Sure, you're right- the safe thing is to keep things the way they are, but the safe thing isn't always the right thing."

Steve and Danny looked at her with twin crossed arms and scowls. Finally, Steve was the one brave enough to speak up, "Mel's been rubbing off on you."


AUTHOR'S NOTE

Thanks for reading, loves! Be kind people today. Love others and bring joy to those around you!

1. Obviously, 4x21 is up next. OH BOY.

2. If you have not read my story, "Morocco", I HIGHLY recommend you go ahead and tackle that one. This story will incorporate details from that story that are original to me (not the show) and I'd hate for you guys to be confused when we make it to 7x7! So, I'm giving you fair warning and plenty of heads up that it may or may not be required reading for this story to make sense.

3. 4x20 is always in my mind as the Pretty Little Liars episode because Sasha Pieterse guest stars. Am I the only one who sees her as Alison DiLaurentis in this episode?

4. Thank you for reviewing! Whether it's three words and a thumbs up or a dissertation, I adore reading your thoughts, reactions, and feedback! Shoutout to all the guest accounts who leave reviews! I see you guys! Mahalo!

XO,

-Mags-