Partial truth

It had been two weeks. Two weeks since her brother showed up on her doorstep, two weeks since he'd been seen killing a man on camera and two weeks since she had seen or spoken to Steve, Danny, Chin and Kono. She had also avoided running in to their new team member, Lori, not wanting get the urge to ask about Steve. She realised that avoiding Steve and the rest every time things got awkward or complicated was a childish thing to, but she wasn't ready to tell the truth. Nor did she know how to tell it.

It had been two weeks of her and her brother walking on eggshells around each other and she'd had enough.

She walked through her kitchen and out the back door to where her brother was sitting looking out at the ocean. He was sipping a beer and doing Sudoku, something he only did when he needed to clear his mind.

She sat down on the chair next to his, still not saying a word. Taking a deep breath and bracing herself for the hail of fire about to rain down on her for bringing it up, she cleared her throat to let him know she was going to say something.

Sean put his Sudoku down and moved slightly in his chair to look at his sister. He had a hunch about what it was she wanted to talk about, he'd had it since she came home two weeks ago, not able to look him directly in the eyes. Not really ready to tell her what was really going on, he knew that he wouldn't have a choice.

His sister was a master at looking through his lies and could read him better than anyone else. She had that skill when it came to everyone in their family, and it scared most of them. They all knew that trying to mess with her and lie would only result in them getting a punch in the face and a verbal smack down.

"Why'd you do it?" she asked, knowing he'd know what she was referring to.

"Because of you," he answered, leaving Grace shocked and wondering. Taking a second to process what her brother had just said, she closed her gaping mouth before continuing the questions.

"How can it be because of me?"

"You remember the name Rupert O'Brian?" he asked. Again, just like when Chin had said the name two weeks' prior, Grace felt a pang of recognition but she couldn't place it. "He's a Red hand defender with a special interest in the family, in you."

Not giving her a chance to answer, Sean continued. "He's the one who threw the Molotov cocktail into our car when we were kids. After that he went off the grid completely; for good reason. We had no idea if he was even still alive until he showed up in Armagh 5 weeks ago. Word was he was planning some sort of attack but we weren't sure on who and where. Then when we found out he'd booked a ticket here we knew he was coming for you."

Not sure how to process what her brother had just told her, Grace grabbed the beer bottle form his hands and chugged what was left. Her memories of that day were cloudy and in fractions, but one thing she would never be able to forget was the extreme heat coming from the car as it went up in flames and how hard it was to breathe as she sat on the pavement surrounded by black smoke.

"So you just followed him into the parking lot and what? Killed him right then and there?" Grace asked. She knew her brother had killed people in the past, but she didn't like the idea of him killing a man in cold blood, no matter how bad he was.

"No, I followed him and confronted him. I gave him the option of going back home, but he refused and grabbed for his knife. I wasn't planning in killing him, but I would've done it again. If it meant keeping you safe." Sean had always put his sister's life before his own, all her brothers had. Especially when she'd gotten a shot at having some sort of a normal life.

Nodding in response, Grace got up from her seat. "I'm going to go tell Steve everything you just told me and try to make him understand where you came from and why you did it. I can't promise he won't arrest you, but if he does you won't try to run. This is my life now, Sean and I like it. So as much as I love you I can't go around ignoring the people I work with forever." She explained and Sean knew well enough that there was no way in hell he'd get her to change her mind and that she was right. No matter how much he hated to admit it.

Sitting at his desk, Steve was doing paperwork he'd been putting out doing and saving up for a week. His day hadn't been very eventful and he'd found his mind traveling to the case from two weeks ago that Grace obviously had something with on more than just one occasion. He wanted to know who the guy on the tape was and how Grace knew him. But she'd been completely ignoring him for the past two weeks, something that seemed to be a pattern.

He dropped his pen on the report he was working on and leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling. Everyone else had gone home per his instruction, so he was completely alone with his thoughts.

A gentle knock on his door got his attention back to the real world and he looked down from the ceiling to see Grace standing outside his office door. He felt a lump appear in his throat and he suddenly became nervous. With a polite smile he motioned for her to come inside and when she did the familiar smell on lavender and vanilla that always followed her filled his nostrils.

"Can we talk?" she asked gently, not sure whether to smile or not. Like usual her usually rational brain turned to complete mush when she was in the same room as Steve and when he motioned for her to sit down on one of the chairs in opposite him her heart skipped a beat.

"What do you want to talk about?" he asked, not able to read her expression as he would have liked to.

"Rupert O'Brian," she said after swallowing hard and taking a deep but silent breath.

Steve automatically sat up a little straighter in his chair and cleared his throat feeling the lump grow. "What about him?" he managed to get out without his voice cracking.

Knowing if she stretched it out any longer she's chicken out, Grace let her well build guard down and told him everything. Well everything he needed to know.

"The man who killed him, his name is Sean Alastar Ò Máille and he's my brother. He did it because Rupert was going to hurt me, that's why he was on the island. My brother being as protective as he is, tried to convince him to go back home but he refused and pulled a knife on him. I know it doesn't excuse what he did and him just taking off without calling 911, but I just wanted you to know that he didn't just do it for fun."

Taking a minute to process what Grace had just told him, he took that time to study her face. She looked genuinely sorry for what her brother had done and sincere when she'd said he was only trying to protect her. Something Steve understood very well, having that same need himself.

"Why would Rupert O'Brian want to hurt you?" he asked, surprising Grace.

"Because of some stupid, several decades long blood feud. His family hates mine and my family hates his. We normally don't cause each other actual physical harm, but Rupert he… he's always had an unnaturally large dislike toward me. He's only ever acted on it once before 14 years ago, but when he failed he disappeared. Until now." Even though what Grace told him wasn't the whole truth, she knew if he found out the real reason to why Rupert wanting to hurt her he'd never look at her the same again. So if making up a blood feud was what she had to do to prevent that from happening then so be it.

"Well from what you told me, it seems like your brother killed him in self-defence. If he's willing to come in to make a statement, I'm sure we can make sure he'll stay out of jail." Steve said, once again surprising Grace.

"You don't have to do that. He's knows he screwed up and he'd ready to take the consequences. Well maybe not ready, but willing." Grace didn't want Steve to jeopardise his job for neither her or her brother.

"Look, we have no leads and no evidence. Rupert had a several unregistered weapons in his luggage and the phone number to a local explosives expert. It's clear he was her to harm someone. We also managed to retrieve a few more minutes of the security tape from the airport which clearly shows your brother showed up unarmed with no intention to kill him. So how about you trust me on this and let me do my job? Believe it or not I'm actually pretty good at it."

Accepting Steve's help, Grace called her brother and told him he would have to show up at the palace the next day make a statement and then making it very clear she wanted him to go back home right after.

After settling some more formalities and Grace giving her own statement to Steve he offered her a beer and got one out of the mini fridge behind his desk.

"So why do you want your brother to leave as soon as he's made his statement?" Steve asked curious.

"Because, and don't get me wrong I love my brother, but he's a pain. He sticks his nose where it doesn't belong, he has no sense of boundaries when it comes to personal life and he's favourite activity is to annoy me as much a humanly possible. You should've seen what Sunday dinner was like when we were growing up. Sean, Rhys and Cameron would make it feel like running a marathon. Our dad used to think it was hilarious, so did our uncle." Before she even realised what she'd said it was too late. Grace never talked about her family, let alone her father. To anyone.

Steve knew Grace didn't like talking about her family, her father in particular. And even though he could see from the expression on his face that she hadn't planned on telling him about her family's Sunday dinners, he was grateful that she did.

"You don't talk about father much," he said, knowing he was stepping into dangerous territory.

"Neither do you," Grace answered back. Knowing Steve didn't like talking about his family either. "I guess everyone has their own family stuff they'd rather not talk about, but somehow talking about it with you doesn't feel strained and uncomfortable." Laying her cards on the table, Grace knew she was stepping into a grey area if she didn't stop herself from getting more and more drawn to Steve. They had already established they were going to stay friends.

"It's a gift, people just open up to me. Something about my personality I think." Steve teased, trying to lighten the mood.

Leaning back in her chair, Grace took a sip of her beer and gave him a smile. "And here I was thinking it was due to your striking good looks," she teased back with a hint of sarcasm. They looked at each other for a while, not saying a word with a smile on their lips.

Before Grace got a chance to continue, her phone started to vibrate in her back pocket. She reached for it and saw it was Max that was calling. She answered with her usual, "Ò Máille." She took in the information being feed to her and told Max she'd be right there.

She put the beer down on Steve's desk and looked at him once more. "I've got to go see a man about a dead body," she said with a smile and got up. As she was halfway through the door Steve called her name and she turned to him. "Yeah?" she asked him, thinking she'd forgotten something. "Thank you, for telling me the truth."

Grace gave him a warm smile in return, "thank you for listening." She answered before she left. Leaving Steve to himself with a smile on his lips.

A/N: I am really sorry for the late update. Things have been completely insane and I just haven't had the time to either write or post. The second update will come before the end of the day tomorrow.

Hope you liked the chapter, and thank you for reading!

XOXO
Hannah

PS: You'll get to find out more about this Rupert character later and what the Red hand defenders are. If you'd like you can google it, but like I said it will be explained in later chapters.