Chapter 37
Steve hadn't thought about contacting Freddie's family before boarding the plane and so when he disembarked at Pearl he was surprised to see Freddie's parents, Kelly and the baby in front of the main building to the side of the runway. They were too far away for anything other than a wave, but he resolved to speak to them as soon as possible. He turned to take his place next to the cargo plane so that he could salute the coffin as it was unloaded, when he stopped dead in his tracks. Standing in a precise line in their Navy full dress uniforms were Catherine, Harry and Joe. Then next to Joe stood Danny, Chin and Kono, dressed in sober black suits or, in Kono's case, a simple black dress and matching jacket. A myriad of emotions passed across his face before he gathered himself and took his place in line next to Catherine. She took his hand and discretely squeezed it for a second while keeping her eyes forward. The Navy officers saluted in perfect unison as the coffin slowly passed in front of them on its journey from the plane. Tears threatened to fall from Steve's eyes, but he controlled the strong emotions and kept them at bay. He was overwhelmed by the presence of the most important people in his life, who had come to support him when it was so very badly needed. He had spent so many years dealing with tragedy on his own that he wasn't used to having a support network and the feeling it gave him inside was difficult for him to properly explain.
When the grave moment had passed and Freddie's coffin had been loaded onto the airport truck and taken away, Catherine turned to Steve, "Hey, Sailor – you brought him home, I knew you would," she reached behind her and passed him a neat parcel, "your uniform for the funeral – we planned it while you were flying back from Tokyo, we thought that Freddie had waited long enough." Steve pulled her into a fierce hug and whispered his thanks into her ear. He stepped back and shook hands with Harry and Joe, not needing to say any words to express his thanks to them both, a silent moment shared between them all. He made his way to the Five-0 team who were still standing solemnly in line,
"Thanks guys, it means a lot to me you being here−" and then he was interrupted as he was pulled into one bone-crushing hug after the other. If a few tears were shed then no one was telling.
Steve approached the building and stopped just short of the Hart family. He didn't know how they would react to his presence, after all, if not for his insistence on having Freddie join him on that fateful mission then their son would still be alive. Freddie's parents were very important to him, acting as stand-in parents at his graduation ceremony when he had no one to be there to see him stepping up onto the stage to receive his trident. He had swallowed his pride and invited his Dad and Mary Ann, but neither of them had attended in the end. The people before him were the ones who had cheered and clapped as the coveted emblem was pinned into place on his uniform. Mrs. Hart pulled him into a hug, "Oh, Steve," is all she managed to say before choking up. Mr. Hart stepped up to shake his hand,
"Thank you for bringing our boy home, Commander." Steve started to express how sorry he was about Freddie's death when an unexpected voice cut him off,
"You're not to blame, Steve. Freddie loved the SEALs but was under no illusion about how dangerous it was. You were a brother to him and he loved you . . . and so do we." Kelly couldn't continue anymore and threw herself into Steve's arms. They hugged for a little while, Kelly's tears flowing freely. When Steve was able to speak again, he addressed Freddie's dad,
"Why are you having the funeral in Hawaii? I just assumed that you would want Freddie to be buried at home on the mainland." The older man shook his head,
"No. Freddy made his wishes very clear. He told us that The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific was the most beautiful place that he had ever seen and that if anything was to happen to him then this is where he wanted to be buried . . . besides, having Freddy here gives us an excuse to come and visit our favorite island boy." Steve managed a watery smile before turning to the baby in the pram. She was awake and stared at him in interest. Kelly scooped her up and passed her over to Steve,
"Look Sophia, it's your Uncle Steve," the baby cooed and tried to grab Steve's hat in her chubby little hand. He was mesmerized and laughed as he held her carefully to his chest,
"A beautiful name for a beautiful little girl," he looked at Kelly, "I'm an uncle to another very special little girl as well now, only she's a bit older than this one. She's the 7 year old daughter of my Five-0 partner, Danny." Steve passed his phone to Kelly and she got busy flicking through all the photos he had of Grace. They were all just looking at a lovely shot of Steve and Grace floating side by side on surfboards when they were interrupted by Catherine, she lightly touched Steve's arm to get his attention,
"We need to be making a move, you still need to get changed." Steve nodded in understanding and passed Sophia over to one very eager grandmother. He promised to talk to them after the funeral and then followed Catherine to her car. She turned just as she reached the vehicle, "You're gonna have to get changed at the cemetery, you can use the back seats – I promise not to look." Steve gave her a wicked smirk,
"Look all you like, Lieutenant. It's nothing you haven't seen before." She snorted and chucked an electric shaver in his direction so he could remove the small amount of facial hair growth that had appeared since his freshen up in Japan.
The funeral was solemn, dignified and very moving; Steve and Catherine both feeling the weight of their loss when the gun shots rang out. When Kelly was handed the folded-up flag she couldn't keep in the sob that she had been trying to supress and Freddie's father laid a hand of her shoulder in comfort. They may had lost a much-loved son but at least they had gained a daughter and wanted her to know that. Steve glanced at baby Sophia – he would give the little girl Freddie's dog tags when she was older and able to understand. He had made a promise to Freddy to tell his daughter how much her Daddy loved her, even though his friend only ever got the chance to see his unborn daughter on an ultrasound image while she was still in the womb.
Steve spent a couple of hours talking to the many people who had attended the funeral and followed through with his earlier promise to talk more to the Hart family. Danny, Chin and Kono had come over to join the group and were taking great delight in recounting some of Steve's more outrageous stunts. Unlike the man's Navy missions, most of their cases were not classified and so could be shared freely. Steve did his best to justify his actions, but could tell from the expressions on everyone's faces that he was fighting a losing battle.
When Danny shared the tale of how the SEAL had used a grenade to blow open a reinforced door in a pawn shop when they were on the trail of modern-day pirates, Steve realized it was a completely lost cause. Danny's arms were moving as fast as his mouth as he recreated the incident in vivid detail, "It was like a scene from Die Hard, we came back into complete carnage amongst the smoking ruins of the shop." Steve's eye roll was almost as impressive as Danny's tale,
"Oh come on, it only blew the door off its hinges - there was hardly any other damage!" The articulate detective was shocked into stopping speaking for a beat but quickly recovered his momentum,
"Hardly any damage," he parroted very slowly, "are you being deliberately obtuse, Steven? The place looked like a bomb had gone off . . . oh wait, a bomb did go off!" At this he clapped his hand on his partner's arm and turned back to the assembled group around them, "I even offered to get him professional help and to pay for it. Not that this trigger-happy Rambo took me up on my very generous offer."
"In my defense," started Steve, "I did ask the pawn shop owner to open the door very nicely and gave him ample opportunity to avert such drastic action." Danny just shook his head in wonder,
"There is no defense. In civilized society one does not use military-grade incendiary devices to open doors."
Like all great warriors when finding themselves in an untenable position, Steve gracefully admitted defeat and just soaked up the little bit of levity on what had otherwise been a very sad day.