My Girl
AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: Well here we are my wonderful readers. This one is a long chapter but a lot happens in it so I hope you guys enjoy it. Don't forget to drop a review and I'll see you guys next week!
Chapter 25
Steve got back to his house, after everything that had happened on his way to that correctional facility in Kailua, absolutely livid.
He was angry with himself, angry that Danny had witnessed him lay his heart bare to the woman he stupidly still had feelings for and got rejected. Angry because she had gotten away and he had been powerless to stop it. Angry that even though he was prepared he still underestimated how real Wo Fat's feelings were for person he called his daughter. Steve should have realized that a more than twenty-year commitment to the same person was not a coincidence, or simply because she knew too much.
But who was to blame him? Wo Fat was a sociopath, who would have thought he was capable of caring for anything other than himself?
Steve sure didn't until he witnessed it firsthand.
He was still kind of in shock about it.
But what he was really angry about, what had him slamming that door closed upon getting home, was what Rory had told him.
As soon as he was in the house his dad was heading towards him. He was moving to hug him, which meant he heard what had happened.
Steve only had minor bruising in some places from the crash, some small cuts from when the glass shattered, over-all he was fine. Physically at least.
He let his dad hug him, let him feel better, be reassured that his son was alive and then he pushed his dad away.
"You knew she was alive?" he asked.
It was a flat accusation, because if Rory was right about his mom knowing then it stood to reason that she had told his dad. Maybe. Doris liked to hide things a lot, she might not have. But his reaction to that accusation was what was important, because the second he threw that accusation at him, he paled.
His dad definitely knew something.
John faltered. "Uh… I mean… you did tell me…"
"No!" Steve cried. "No, you knew before I told you. Didn't you? Didn't you?!"
His dad stared at him, that concern was back on his face, but now he saw it as something else. He was worried that Steve knew all about his hiding things from him. Which he had promised not to do after they found Shelburne and his mother. And that Shelburne was his mother.
"Steven…"
Steve shook his head and stepped away from his dad. "No, it makes sense now. For the life of me I couldn't understand why you were so unsurprised when she turned up alive. Or why you were so adamant I not find her. But that's just it, isn't it? You knew she was alive. You knew and you didn't want me to find her because… what… I'd be disappointed? So when did she tell you, mom, when did she tell you Rory was alive?"
John seemed to realize that he was defeated, that Steve knew, because he simply sighed and said: "Shortly after she returned to Hawaii."
Steve stumbled back, literally physically reeling at the confession.
That soon? And they hadn't told him? Why? Why would they choose not to tell him that, Doris had unloaded all sorts of secrets, but that was the one she decided to keep? Geesus how many secrets were they keeping from him? Was anyone in his family able to tell the truth?
"You've known that long? And you didn't tell me?" Steve cried. "Why? Why would you keep that from me?"
John opened his mouth, maybe to lie to him again, maybe to tell the truth, Steve didn't know.
"No. No, we're going to start at the beginning. We're going to hash it out, and so help me dad. You better not lie to me."
John nodded, and together, they started from the beginning.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Two years ago
It took arresting Wo Fat to get to this point. That and strong-arming Joe White into taking him there.
He said he was finally going to meet Shelburne, the spy who started it all. The only person Wo Fat was scared of.
He took him to Japan, a place Steve had just left and didn't really want to go back to. Especially since the last time he had been on a plan leaving Japan, it had crashed and he had to fight Wo Fat, and then the Yakuza in order to get Wo Fat back into custody.
But Joe said this was where they had to go, so he was heading on back.
He had brought him to this house in the middle of nowhere and said: "If you want answers, they're all in there."
Yeah, like that hadn't been cryptic.
But he had diligently knocked on that door and waiting for some kind of answer.
When that door opened, it was his mother on the other side and best believe Steve had been shocked.
She was supposed to be dead.
That was what everyone had told him. Granted the how it had happened had changed, it wasn't a car accident but a car explosion rigged by the Yakuza but she was dead.
His dad had sent both him and Mary because of her death. Mary went to live with their Aunt Deb and Steve had gone to military school.
And she was alive?
She didn't have anything to say to him either. She just kept looking at him, like she was about to cry while he stood there staring at her.
Eventually he crossed over the threshold and she hugged him. He hugged her back, still in shock, though, now that he could feel that she was real, it was starting to wear off.
She let Steve get his bearings, let him digest what he had just figured out. But the need for answers overwhelmed him.
This couldn't be a happy reunion, he was angry. His whole life had been derailed and she had been alive the whole time?
She let her husband and Steve's dad think that she was dead and it was his fault and she had been alive this whole time?!
He was sitting in her living room and she was making tea. She kept trying to give him a cup, like that was going to make this whole situation better for him.
Newsflash. It was not.
"I know you have a lot of questions, Steve," she had said. And yes, that was true he did.
"Yeah, we don't we start with Shelburne."
That was the second big thing for him. He had been tortured over Shelburne. And it was his mother the whole time? The mother he thought was dead? No wonder Wo Fat was adamant that Steve knew where Shelburne was.
That was the real big thing, the fact that she had been alive this whole time, but he didn't want to start with that, because he was sure, if he did, that he might start crying.
His mom put the cup of tea she made herself down on the small table she had in between them. In fact, the whole house looked very nice, on the outside it looked like a fisherman's shanty, but inside it looked like a very well put together place. It was nice that she had been clearly living the high life while Steve and his family floundered in the loss of her.
She didn't lie to him though, so that was good.
"Shelburne was the code name the agency gave me."
Oh my god. No. His mother really was a spy. No. No this was not happening.
"I'm sorry. Agency? What agency?"
"Before I met your father, I worked for an intelligence program that reported directly to the Pentagon."
He knew the answer but he still asked: "You were a spy?"
"Yes."
Aw come on!
"So all those years that I thought you were a schoolteacher that was just…"
"It was a cover," she finished for him.
Oh my god his whole life was a lie. She hadn't just gotten herself a cover, she had dragged him and his family into too.
"And were me and Mary just a cover too?"
Those words hurt his mother, he could tell. But other then watering eyes and purse of her lips she didn't show it. She did shake her head at him though.
"Shelburne was way before you and Mary."
"How did you meet Wo Fat's father?"
Because that's what had started this. Shelburne had killed Wo Fat's father, and now Wo Fat was out for blood. So if Shelburne was his mother, then she had been the one to kill Wo Fat's father and start them down this horrible path.
"He was an assignment."
"So you were ordered to kill him?"
"It was a little more complicated than that."
"Well we got some time, so why don't you, uh, why don't you uncomplicate it?"
He had gotten a little aggressive there, only because he was sick of all of these riddles and pretty words. That was all anyone had given him about this since the day he found out about Shelburne. He wanted answers, real answers that he understood, that he could quantify.
At that his mother nodded though and began to tell him what he wanted to know.
"Like you, I served my country. But after I got married, I left the agency because I wanted to be a mother. Unfortunately, I could change my name, but… not my past."
"So that's why you pretended to be dead?"
He was hoping she'd see how Stupid that was, because she had literally left them all behind. She let them mourn her.
"When I made that choice, I knew that my life would never be the same. I knew I would have to give up the only thing that meant anything to me, my family."
"So why did you do it, Doris?" Using his mother's first name was a low blow and he knew it, but he didn't care. To him, she gave up the right to being called mother the second she faked her death. "If that's even your real name."
That too was a low blow. But she did just say she had changed her name.
"It was the name I was born with, and the name… the name I went back to the day I met your father. And since when does a son call his mother by her first name?"
Ohh, she was going to call him out on it. Bold move. It was like she didn't think he'd call her out right back.
Maybe the prepubescent Steve of the past might not have, but he was older and he was jaded, and he just found out that he had been lied to for more than half his life.
"Since she failed to be one twenty years ago," he shot back.
His mother stared at him, clearly not liking that he said that, but Steve didn't care, he simply held her gaze.
"I didn't see any other options, Steve. Wo Fat was looking for the person who murdered his father and he was willing to kill anyone who stood in his way."
"So you faked your own death?"
"Yeah! I did what I had to do to protect my family!"
Did it to protect them? Did she see that they needed her?
Steve jumped to his feet. He could sit still and listen to this anymore. He turned his back on his mother, just so she wouldn't see the unshed tears in his eyes. He both wanted her to see how badly this all hurt him and didn't, at the same time.
Once he had his emotions reigned back in, he turned back to her, just so she could see the anger on his face.
"You know, dad sent us away, thinking he had to protect us. He's spent the last twenty years looking for your killer. All of that was for nothing!"
"If I had told him the truth, Wo Fat would have executed him!"
"And he almost did anyway! I still don't know why he didn't," Steve cried. Then he paused as he thought it over. "What am I going to tell him Doris? How do I explain this to him? That you chose to leave him? To let him burry you. How do you think he's going to feel?"
"You… John… Mary… I didn't… god knows you all deserved better. I just… I didn't know what else to do, Steve. But never once did I spend a day not thinking about you."
Oh yeah, like that made all of this better.
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"
"It's the truth."
"What am I supposed to do with the truth, huh?" Steve asked. "I have to go home and tell my dad that his wife is alive, and chose to leave us in the most traumatizing was she could think. I have to tell Mary… I… what do you want me to do? Forgive you? You want me to forgive you now, is that it, and we'll just move on like this didn't happen?"
"No! I just..." she cried as she stood as well to match Steve. "I'd just like you to understand. I'd like you to just… try to understand."
Steve nodded. "Fine. Then pack a bag."
"Pack a bag? Why where are we going?"
"We're going home" Steve snapped. "I'm not telling dad this by myself. You're going to tell him everything. Lord knows he wouldn't believe me anyway."
"It's not safe, I can't."
"Wo Fat can't hurt you. He's being transferred to a supermax facility on the mainland today. By the time we land in Oahu, he'll be out of our lives forever.
And though she was nervous, and worried for her estranged husband's reaction. Doris had agreed.
No one knew how wrong we were. Yet.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
When Steve called to tell him that he had found Shelburne he had been excited. In the nervous, we're finally going to get all our answers, kind of way.
He asked if Steve knew who Shelburne was and well, yes, apparently, they both knew who Shelburne was.
John had demanded an explanation right away. Steve had faltered and told him that it would be better if he saw for himself. That would be about when John learned that Steve was flying Shelburne from Japan to Hawaii on a Naval plane for their security.
John had called the rest of the Five-0's, only to find that they already knew that Steve was on his way back, though he hadn't told them anything but that.
When it came closer to Steve's plane coming in, John took the Marquis to go meet him and found Danny and his Camaro waiting there as well.
They had stood together shooting the shit as they waited until eventually the plane appeared.
It was a simply private plane, not the naval plane that Steve had talked about, but it was getting special clearance, which was probably where the Navy came into play. John and Danny straightened, but Danny was the one who moved towards the plane.
Danny and Steve were basically best friends even if the two of them didn't want to admit it, plus his son probably wouldn't want to get a hug from his dad in front of the great spy Shelburne and Danny, so he was content to stay back until Steve was ready to introduce them.
The problem was, when the door opened, and Steve came out with Shelburne, John could see why exactly it was that Steve wanted to tell him who Shelburne was face to face. Because if he had told him over the phone, John wouldn't have believed him.
At that moment, John was glad he hadn't gone up to the plane to meet Steve because he was frozen in place in shock of who was coming down those steps behind him.
While John recognized the person with Steve, Danny was clearly confused.
"Your dad said you were bringing Shelburne back," he said once he got close to Steve.
"Yeah, this is Shelburne," Steve answered right away, looking past Danny to where John had stayed by the cars.
"You can call me mom, someone should," Doris said staring straight at Steve in a disapproving kind of way.
John was immediately defensive. If his son didn't want to call her mom after all this, he got it. He found it in himself to move, if only to protect his son.
But then Doris turned those sparkling green eyes that he had fall in love with to him and John felt the air leave his lungs all over again.
It really hit him then. What had happened. His wife really was alive.
Had been alive this whole time
"Hi, I'm sorry. Who's mom?" Danny asked.
Steve raised his hand. "Mine," he said.
"You know for a woman who died in a car bomb almost twenty years ago you are remarkably well put together."
Steve rolled his eyes. "Really Danny?"
Doris, however, was focused entirely on him. "Hello John," she said softly while he could only stare at her.
All these years and he was certain that she was dead, he had worked tirelessly to avenge her, to bring her killers to justice. And she was alive.
"Doris," he said back. He tried to keep his tone level, but he must have betrayed a bit of emotion there because she frowned at him.
"I know this is a lot, John… but…"
John didn't even let her finish. He turned, clasped his son in a tight hug and simply asked: "Are you okay?"
Steve blinked his eyes, he glanced from his dad to his mom and then said: "Uh… I guess… still trying to come to terms with all of this, to be honest."
That was fair. John felt that he was in the same boat, but his son would obviously feel it more than he did. He was the one who suffered the most after all.
"Okay, well, you take your time," John said. He glanced at Doris and then back to Steve. "And, with all things considered, if you're not comfortable calling her mom, Doris will do just fine."
Doris huffed but his son smiled at him and that was all that mattered.
"I think we should take this conversation elsewhere," Doris said, ever the bossy one. She had always worn the pants in the relationship before, now John got why.
"By all means. Why don't you come with me in the Marquis, and Danny can drive Steve home?" John offered. "Give us some time to talk privately."
John knew that there were things that, if Doris told him flat out, would hurt him. His son had been through so much in his youth, and even more lately with Wo Fat, that he just didn't want him to hurt anymore.
"I think that's a wonderful idea."
Steve didn't seem all that interested in splitting up. He had always been close to his mother, having her back, even if he was mad at her, and having to let her go again clearly had him worried. Probably worried she would disappear on him again.
But if that was the case Steve said nothing. He gave his mom half a hug before heading towards Danny's Camaro. That left John alone with Doris.
He ushered her to the car and saw that she was smiling. "You still have this old thing?"
John pat the hood of his Marquis lovingly. "She's a classic now."
"She was just when you got her and she's junk now," Doris said shooting him a playful smile. She was only half joking but he wasn't going to argue with her about it at that point. "It's nice to see that some things haven't changed."
She was looking for a vestige of the life she gave away, well she'd love the house when she saw it. She wouldn't like anything else.
Like how their children didn't really talk to him anymore. In fact, the only reason that Steve was even in Hawaii was because John had almost died and the Governor had given him an opportunity he couldn't resist and his own task force to rule over.
He opened he door for Doris and let her get in like he used to do back when they were dating and then got into the driver's seat himself. At first, he wasn't sure where he was driving, because it sure as hell wasn't towards home. He just seemed to be… wandering.
"I really thought it was for the best, John," Doris whispered. "When Wo Fat came after me, when he threatened out family, I honestly thought I was doing all I could to protect our family."
"And when did Wo Fat come after you?"
"Couple weeks after he took Rory," she admitted.
That hurt him a bit, he couldn't help it. He had failed that little girl. Wo Fat had killed her, no doubt to hurt them. Maybe he thought that she was one of their real children, he must have been livid when he found out she wasn't. Though it had hurt them greatly it happened, of course.
"He really was the one who… you know…"
"Yes, he uhm… he contacted me… to brag. To threaten. To tell me he'd be coming after us next. I knew I had to leave. To protect you, and Steven and Mary."
John could see that Doris meant that. She really thought that she had no other choice. She really thought she couldn't tell him, that he couldn't help her.
She seemed to understand what he was thinking because she said: "I wanted to tell you John, but you not knowing about my past was the only reason the agency left you alone. I really just couldn't chance it."
John nodded. "Did you ever think about coming back?"
"I haven't stopped thinking of you and the kids since I left," she whispered, tears brimming in her eyes. "I dreamed of being able to come back to you. But until Wo Fat was behind bars it wouldn't have been safe for you or Steven, or Mary…"
"So how do you explain what happened then?" he asked. "Wo Fat sent his people after me, nearly killed me, and might have too if they hadn't changed their minds."
Doris nodded at him. "Honestly, I'm surprised they spared you."
"It was weird. He said uhm… he said that I was a good dad to a little girl who didn't deserve it once, and then left," he said. "And… at the time I didn't know what he was talking about but then… he meant Rory. Didn't he?"
Doris sighed and then nodded.
"But I mean… why would he care? And if he does care then… well I mean… she died under my care. Wouldn't he have blamed me?"
"Why? It wasn't your fault."
"We were her guardians, we were supposed to make sure that nothing happened to her… and… she died, Doris. The poor thing was only thirteen…"
"Well... that poor thing is twenty-nine now and a complete and utter terror. So you shouldn't feel too bad."
John paused. "Wait… what?"
"Wait… you didn't know?" she asked him. "But… she's been on the news a few times. Didn't you see her?"
John shook his head. "Do you mean Rory? She's… she's alive? How do you know that?"
Doris stared at him, clearly not sure what she should say to him. He just had to hope that she didn't lie to him this time.
"I… you know John, it's a long story and… I think I owe it to you to tell you the truth about her. The whole truth. From the beginning. I should have done it then but… well… I was too scared to."
"Doris what are you talking about?"
"Just… just let me talk, okay?"
And that was just what he did.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
When Doris got the call that the Agency wanted to talk to her she was immediately very concerned. She had specifically hidden that microfiche somewhere they wouldn't chance to go and get it. She had made them known that she had it so they would leave her alone and let her get on her with her life.
She was in Hawaii, far away from Wo Fat who was looking for the person who killed his father, but he was safely distracted out in China.
At first, she was certain she wasn't going to go. But then they asked her if she wanted to know what Wo Fat knew about who killed his father.
So, she had gone.
They had asked her to meet at an airfield. She told her husband that she was going out to work when she had called in sick for the day. She had kissed her husband's cheek before he went to work, she saw both her kids off to school, being sure they knew just how much she loved them, in case she didn't make it back to her, then she dug that gun out of hiding and went to meet the agents.
She thought she was ready for whatever was coming next, but she was wrong.
Because it wasn't a trap like she thought it would be.
It was two men she didn't recognize from the agency standing by a little private jet. They were all standing with what she had to assume were MSS agents.
Five in total.
That was odd, that that many were there, but she realized that they must have been having a problem with Wo Fat. They must have wanted her expertise.
Or they were hoping to catch her and hand her over to them.
She'd see what they wanted first, and then shoot her way out if she had to.
"So, what is this?" she asked when she got close to them.
"We have a request," the leader said. He was from the MSS, and he looked a lot like what Wo Fat looked like.
Same shorn short hair, suit and tie. No smile, just a glare on his face as he took her in.
"A request?" she echoed.
"Yes, we need you to mind one of our assets until further notice."
"I'm retired," Doris reminded them.
"Of course you are, Shelburne, but if you'd like to stay that way we're going to need you to cooperate." That came from the Agent from the agency. She didn't know his name, but he was dressed in Mission Impossible spy outfit. Probably for show and less for use. His blonde hair was slicked back and he too was glaring at her.
It wasn't like the agency and the MSS to work together on something, so this had to be big if they were collaborating. It definitely piqued her interest.
"I guess it depends," she said. "On what this asset is and who exactly is after it."
The MSS leader nodded and then turned back to the plane, calling: Bring her out, in Mandarin.
Doris was expecting a weapon, a briefcase, something small, probably data related that they wanted her to protect.
But no, what came out of that plane with a sixth, female MSS agent, was a child.
The girl couldn't be more than thirteen. Definitely small for her age, but not ten. She was in a standard uniform, the kind of lifeless grey jump suit they made the kids in their facilities wear. It obviously wasn't for her though, because it was too big on her.
She was white. Her little face was tear stained, her eyes all together too blue to be real, and her hair had clearly been cut and dyed black recently. She was guessing while they were on the flight.
Doris looked her up and down not sure what exactly was happening, but realizing that this child was the asset.
How the hell was a child an asset?
"What the hell is this?"
"This is Rory Wickerby." Oh that was such a fake name! Why had they changed this kid's name? The MSS agent handed her a manila file folder. "Here is her file. I'm sure you'd like to look it over."
The man clasped a hand to the girl's shoulder and she flinched at the contact. She didn't move though, she just stood there, tears falling down her cheeks that she sometimes wiped away. She kept moving to hold something, like she was trying to hug something to her chest, but then remember that it was gone.
The girl was going to have issues, she could tell. If they wanted her to take her on they better be paying for her therapy.
She took the file from him and opened it up and was immediately bombarded with distressing information.
Like her real name was Ro Fat. Full name, Ro Lei Kuan Fat.
Like she was Wo Fat's adoptive daughter, and he had given her his mother's name.
Like they had just gotten custody of her, like they had just threatened him with her life, and then took her away from him, in an attempt to get him to cooperate as a spy once more.
They knew the dangers of this plan as well. Which was why they had mocked up a file saying that she was dead, the figured f he went looking for information on her, that would sway him for a bit. They didn't think for long though.
So they decided, if he did find out she was still alive and stashed somewhere, they wanted the girl placed with someone he'd be too afraid to go after.
And that was her.
But this was suicide. For her and her family.
Wo Fat clearly cared enough about his girl to do anything for her, which would include killing everyone in his way to get her back.
"Are you serious? Him? He's her… do you know what he'll do if he finds out I have her?"
"You won't have to worry about that. We've dealt with that."
No, according to this file, they set themselves up to be on the receiving end of his very violent rage.
She didn't want to agree to this but that little girl was still standing there, blue eyes glassy, hiccupping through her tears. She was going to throw up soon if they didn't get her to stop.
She was clearly utterly heart broken, and Doris couldn't help but think that if it were the other way around, she'd want someone to step up and take care of her children. And clearly Wo Fat was capable of being a semi-decent parent because this child had been under his care for at least six years at this point
The agent from the agency smiled almost cruelly "Come on now, Shelburne, this should be right up your alley."
"And besides, if you don't take her, we're going to put her in some nasty little orphanage where she'll never see the light of day again. You wouldn't want that would you?"
Doris frowned at him, how cruel, to threaten the child like that in front of her. She reached out for her right away and she put her hand into Doris' without a second thought, no doubt ready to get away from those horrible agents.
"Come on, let's get you out of here," she said.
She led the girl out of that airfield, taking the prepared file the agency had created as her needed back story. She spent the rest of the day talking the girl through her new identity and the cover story.
She wasn't even the least bit surprised when the girl took in the cover story and new identity with ease. With a father like hers this probably wasn't the first time she had to do that, but Doris wasn't sure if that was a good thing, or a sad thing for her.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Doris finished telling him the story and John found himself sitting there confused. The story made sense in a way. It explained why she lied about Rory's father, and how she came to be in her custody, it also explained why she took in the adopted offspring of her greatest enemy.
He just couldn't believe that that was the back story. It was so far away from what he thought would happen but
"So… you mean to tell me that… he's her father… but… then… whose body…"
"Not hers," Doris said. "She's been living with him this whole time. She's perfectly fine. He showed up to take her home, that's it."
"You mean he faked her death? Why?"
"So I wouldn't go looking, I guess. Doesn't explain why he told me a week later that he had her, but he did. Who knows what he was up to, the man is psychopath. He does cruel things like that all the time."
"And he's had her this whole time?" John found himself asking and then he paused. "I guess that explains why she was the way she was."
"If we're being honest, I'm surprised she wasn't worse. You should hear some of the things that man was capable of. For her to have come out even half way decent, which, let's be honest here John, she was, was surprising."
"You thought she was half way decent? She stabbed me with a fork."
"She was acting out. She was hurt that's all. She lost her dad, was told that he never wanted her. She was just acting out. She just came from a violent background so her temper tantrums were more violent."
John half scoffed. "Yeah that's one way to describe that." He looked at Doris carefully and then asked: "You think she's okay with him?"
At that Doris nodded. "From everything I've heard about him and the way he was with her, it's like he's a completely different person. I mean… she's a master thief now, but that's about it."
The thief thing lined up. Rory was forever getting in trouble for shop lifting when she lived with them. Girl could pick pocket and pick pocket, she was so light fingered.
John sort of felt better knowing that she was alive and well somewhere. Driving someone else crazy with her wild antics. There was just one problem.
"The question is now, how do we tell Steve?"
Yes that was the question, because Steve had taken Rory's death the hardest. In fact, John knew for a fact that his son was still holding onto the memory of her.
He hadn't quite realized it was as bad as it was until early that year when Joe admitted that Steve had been holding his girlfriends up to the "Rory" standard, which made no sense, because she was thirteen when she died. How could she hold a candle to a fully grown woman?
Then, when Steve told his father that he wasn't sure he wanted to take things with Catherine, his current unofficial girlfriend, to the next level, John had called him out on it. He had no idea that Steve and Rory had been… romantically entangled when they were younger. Granted nothing too sexual happened, the two were apparently just kissing, but to have not known that was going on in his house was shocking. He thought he knew his son well.
Steve had admitted to him what he had said to Joe White. That some part of his heart was always going to belong to Rory, and just because the two of them were children at that age didn't change how he felt. He had loved Rory then and he continued to love her now, and it was only fair that the women he got involved with knew that.
John really couldn't say anything either, because that was how he felt about Doris. He hadn't moved on from her, clearly holding on to lost loves was something that ran in the McGarrett blood.
He did tell him that she would have wanted him to be happy, to not miss out just because he missed her, but he could tell Steve hadn't taken that to heart.
And with the emergence of Wo Fat, and Steve establishing that he was the man that he had last seen Rory with, his obsession with her, with getting vengeance for her death, was getting more and more unhealthy. Very much like John's had.
It got so bad that Catherine and Steve had actually broken up. Well, she had been deployed again, and Steve had told her that a break would be best instead of long distance.
Now that he knew the truth, now that he knew that Rory was alive and well out there, he knew Steve was going to stop at nothing to get her back.
Which meant going straight to the prison to figure out where Wo Fat had the girl he called his daughter stashed.
He didn't want Wo Fat having yet another thing over on Steve.
"We'll tell him very carefully," John said after thinking about it.
And that had been the plan. All the way up until they got the car home.
There they found a fleet of squad cars, with their lights all flashing, waiting for him. John was actually worried that something had happened to their son while he was gone, but Steve was standing there waiting for them, with Danny beside him, so he was fine.
No, Wo Fat had just escaped from prison.
Obviously they were worried about him finding out that Doris was back on the island and finally getting that revenge for her part in killing his dad. So, after a tearful goodbye, she went into hiding again. Officially this time, with WitSec.
Still it was hard on Steve, having to say good-bye to the mother he had just found. Even harder because she didn't get a chance to explain everything, to clear up all the questions Steve had.
He and Doris promised one another they would tell Steve together, when they thought he was ready, when she was able to come back.
It was the hardest thing they had to do, but it was the only option they had.
The problem was, even when Doris came back, they couldn't find a time to tell Steve. Wo Fat was missing and when he wasn't missing he was tormenting Steve. Things were looking good for him and Catherine, Steve even bought a ring.
And then, of course, Doris went into hiding again and they hadn't seen or heard from her since.
So John kept that secret, hoping that he never had to tell Steve the truth on his own.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Now
"How… how could you?" Steve found himself whispering. "How could you both keep this from me?"
John sighed again. "Steve… your mom… she wanted to tell you…"
"Except she didn't! If she wanted to tell me, why didn't she?"
"I told her not to."
Steve glared at his dad. While John held that gaze, waiting for him to say something. When he realized Steve was just going to glare at him because he was angry, he continued.
"Steve. I saw, better then others, what the loss of Rory did to you. I knew you never got over her and… finding out she had chosen to leave us all behind for her criminal father would have… well… I was worried it would just… break you."
Steve didn't want to think it was true, but it was.
This revelation, realizing who she really was and that she was actually alive and well after all those years of mourning for what could have been had hurt him. Badly.
"The Rory you knew… she was gone. Wo Fat had been warping her into something more like him before we got a hold of her, and all the good we instilled in her… it was gone the second he got her back. If you had managed to track her down, to get her back, you wouldn't have gotten your Rory back."
See, that wasn't all the way true. Because his Rory had never been Rory. Rory was Ro, she had always been Ro. And yes, she might have been a little better behaved with them, but she really wasn't all that good to begin with.
But yes.
Having Wo Fat raise her for most of her life definitely turned her into something that wasn't quite acceptable as his potential partner or wife.
God, why was he still thinking about having a life with her?
It was that stupid kiss. It just had to be good.
"Do you understand now?" John asked. "Now that you've met her, do you see why I had to do it?"
"No," Steve lied. "No, because none of that is true. None of that happened. You should have told me. You should have prepared me for this, maybe… maybe I could have found her earlier… maybe I could have prevented all of this…"
It wasn't fair to throw that in his dad's face. Because who knows what would have happened if he had found Rory earlier.
And it wasn't fair to lie to his father after he demanded the truth and nothing but the truth.
But Steve was angry.
And he was going to be angry for a very, very long time.