50 FIRST DATES

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

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

A serial anthology of all the possible first meetings of Steve McGarrett and Catherine Rollins

On board the USS Enterprise - 1999

"Attention!" Commander Jameson's voice bellowed through the tiny room.

Catherine's head snapped from her computer screen to the doorway of the intel station on board the USS Enterprise. Her commanding officer, Commander Jameson, stood shoulder to shoulder with another man. He was tall and well built. Even the boxy camouflage uniform couldn't hide his muscles. The very end of a tattoo peeked out from his cuffed sleeve.

"As you all know," Commander Jameson continued, "Lieutenant Bryant is now overseeing the intel station in Virginia Beach. This is your new commanding officer, Lieutenant McGarrett." He barked as he motioned to the stud of a man to his right. "Any questions? No? Good." Without another word, Jameson turned on his heels and exited.

Well that was going to be one massive distraction. She could barely look at Lieutenant McGarrett without her heart cranking up to a drumroll and he was going to be in charge for the rest of her deployment. Catherine watched as her new C.O. sat down at his station and began thumbing through the stack of assignments that Bryant had left. Their eyes met for a split second before she turned her back to him and continued scanning the satellite imagery that had been taunting her in her sleep.

"Damn... If looks could kill that screen would be dead." A voice behind her chuckled quietly.

Catherine rolled her eyes and fought back a yawn. "Unfortunately the military hasn't perfected the 'looks-that-kill' technology yet." She felt the person move closer, and hover over her shoulder. Whoever it was needed to back the hell off. "But I am ready to take a battering ram to this piece of shit," Catherine muttered as she turned her head to see who the owner of that sarcastic comment was.

When her eye caught sight of the name emblazoned on his BDUs, she felt heat flash through her face as her stomach ended up somewhere in the middle of her throat. The stitching on his fatigues read McGARRETT.

"Shit," she muttered when she realized her faux pas. "Um, Sir. I apologize for my previous comment… and the unbecoming profanity," she stammered as she turned to face him, fear and embarrassment pulsed through her veins. "I didn't know it was you, sir."

Steve's face was stone cold as he allowed her to squirm in the awkwardness of the interaction. His eyes narrowed as he studied the name written across her fatigues, "Rollins."

"Sir, I'm sorry for how rude I was…." Catherine began to apologize again, but stopped when she saw his stern face turn into a dopey, half-cocked grin.

Steve chuckled and extended his hand, offering the cup of coffee he had snagged from the mess hall. "You know your shift ended two hours ago, right?" He asked as he motioned around the empty duty station.

Catherine nodded, "I know, sir, I just—it's been three days and I haven't been able to finish this project... And I don't think I'll be able to sleep until it's done." She admitted.

Steve nodded thoughtfully for a moment before rolling another chair to her side and sitting down beside her. "Alright. What are we looking for?"

"Sir?" Catherine questioned.

"Steve. Call me Steve." He smiled as he scanned the images on her screen. "Or McGarrett….If you'd like." He extended his hand to her.

Catherine laughed quietly. "Lieutenant McGarrett," she replied, addressing him respectfully.

"Do you have a first name that goes with Rollins?" Steve asked as he took a long sip of the coffee he had brought for himself.

"Catherine," she responded sweetly as she held the warm coffee in her hands.

"Catherine." He repeated with a soft smile. "I like that." Steve turned back to the screen. "So what are we looking for, Catherine?"

"A faction of the Taliban is rumored to have a weapons cache and hideout somewhere in the Korangal Valley in Afghanistan… we haven't been able to find it and there's been a SEAL team waiting to move on the location for three days…" She sighed in frustration. "I can't make them sit and wait any longer, but I'm not gonna give them bad intel and get them injured or worse."

Steve nodded as he rested his arm across the back of her chair.

She could feel the heat radiating off of his body and it made her stomach do somersaults.

Steve noticed her wandering gaze and gave her a little tap on her shoulder. "Then let's get to work, Rollins."

Steve eased down into the chair behind his desk. He groaned and rubbed his eyes. He and Ensign Rollins had spent the better part of the night working through satellite imagery until they had found the Taliban's weapons cache in the Korangal Valley. He was running on an hour and a half of sleep and there was no amount of crappy aircraft carrier coffee that could ease the exhaustion that plagued him. He yawned and glanced over at the desktop computer that had taunted him for hours. He couldn't quite make out what was on the screen because its operator was already sitting down in front of it, deep in concentration.

Steve cleared his throat. "Rollins."

"Sir?" Catherine turned around in her chair quickly and stood up.

Steve crooked a finger at her, a silent command to come over to his desk. "Good work last night."

"Couldn't have done it without you, Sir. Thank you."

He watched as Catherine turned and returned to her work. Truth was, he didn't do much. He was more or less there for moral support and coffee refills. For hours, he had sat and watched her comb through footage, looking for the slightest hint of something out of the ordinary. Somewhere around zero-three-hundred hours, they had stumbled upon a cluster of activity where there shouldn't have been any. He had watched as Catherine scribbled notes on a legal pad and cross referenced them with intel that they had gotten from the troops on the ground. Steve sent the grid coordinates for the bunker to the SEAL team that was waiting to strike, and then all that was left to do was wait and try to grab a little shut eye before they were supposed to be on duty again.

"McGarrett." Commander Jameson's voice boomed through the tiny room. "A word."

Steve stood quickly and walked to his commanding officer. "Sir?"

"SEAL Team Nine just relayed that the weapons cache has been seized. Eleven hostiles dead, five captured, pending interrogation. All of our men are present and accounted for. Good work."

"It was all Ensign Rollins, Sir. I just submitted the intel." Steve glanced over his shoulder as Catherine's eyes widened. She quickly turned away and continued working.

Jameson nodded before he noted, "Good leaders acknowledge good work." He looked over to where Catherine had buried herself in files and cleared his throat. "Rollins. Well done."

Catherine snapped to attention, "Thank you, Sir." She watched as Commander Jameson turned quickly and exited their station. She scrambled out of her chair and hurried over to Steve. "You shouldn't have said anything about me, Sir. You should have taken the credit."

"Absolutely not, Rollins." Steve chuckled, "You know damn well I didn't do shit last night other than keep you from falling asleep on your keyboard." He crossed his arms over his chest, "You heard Jameson. You did a good job. They got the bunker and everyone got out safe. You did that."

Pride crept across Catherine's face as she tried to subdue a smile. She had gotten along well with her last C.O., but he had a nasty habit of taking all the credit for himself. She didn't think her new C.O. would be any different—but he was. "Thank you, Sir." She smiled before diving into her next project.

"McGarrett," he corrected with a flickering smile at the corner of his mouth.

"Thank you…" She paused a beat and then added, "McGarrett."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Read and review, loves! You know the drill! Just going ahead and dropping this one!

You're going to CRUSH this Monday! Have a wonderful week!

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XO,

-Mags-

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