AN: Hey guys. First of all I would like to thank each and every one of you who takes the time to read & review this story. It really means a lot to me. Sending lots and lots of love to all of you, wherever you might be on this planet. In times like this we need to be particularly kind to one another. Stay safe and healthy!

Secondly, I can't believe the last episode of Hawaii-Five O ever is airing in less than a week. I really hope that Steve and Catherine get the happy ending they deserve, but honestly, I am not so sure about that. She hasn't been a part of this weeks' episode nor was she mentioned (at least as far as my knowledge goes), so the chances of that happening are decreasingly low. But when Steve said that he needed some time away to get some perspective..somehow that gave me hope. So, let's keep believing that P. Lenkov gave them (and us) the happy ending they (and we) so clearly deserve!

Honolulu, 1900 hours

The sun was a few minutes away from setting, when Catherine Rollins got into her car and placed the grocery bags on the passenger seat next to her. After she had teared up in front of her mom, she had stayed in the hospital for a few more hours. Spending time with her parents and finally talking to her dad again helped her relax, because he not only seemed to be on the road to recovery, but it also made her forget about everything else for a few hours. This "event" as her mother had called it, was a something she really didn't want to talk about, even though it was a constant companion of hers. She took a deep breath, before starting the motor - she loved the sound the blue corvette was making. Before she went grocery shopping, she had picked up her car from the storage unit, where it has been stored for years now. Of course she could have sold the blue corvette, but she just didn't have the heart to do that.

She would be staying at her parents' house - she was actually on the way to get there now - and in the next few days her younger brother Alexander would fly in too, to check in on their dad. Her older brother Noah still lived on the island, but since he had recently been promoted to be the head chef at a popular local restaurant, he didn't have as much time. He had already visited their dad a few times, before she had even known about the accident. But they were already making plans to hang out some time in the next few days. Catherine hadn't seen them in roughly a year and a half and she couldn't wait to finally catch up with them. Her younger brother had become a father just a few weeks ago and she still hated that she missed that. She knew her job took in a lot of her time, but she could hardly arrange herself with the fact that she missed out on people's lives, like her brothers'. In spite of this, she loved doing what she was doing. She loved being an undercover agent for the CIA. But it had probably never been the number one source of her happiness.

As she came to an halt at a red light she tried to assure herself that her estimated route was right. Her parents had only returned to Hawai'i a few years ago and they had already moved two times ever since, so she had actually never been at their newest residence. It was only when her eyes caught sight of a familiar street sign that she realized how close she was to the beach house. Her old home. With a quick glance on her wrist watch she noted that it was still relatively early, so Steve was probably still at work. But what if he wasn't? She had promised to call him, which she hadn't done yet, because she needed at least 24 hours to settle in and mentally prepare herself to see him again. The longer she stood here, the greater the urge to just throw all of her doubts overboard, drive there instead of her parents' house and just knock on his door.

And that's what she did. The light switched to green and she stepped on the gas, before she could delve deeper into her doubts and took a left turn instead of turning right. The beach house got bigger and bigger through her windshield and with it an uneasiness began to settle in her stomach. She hadn't been here ever since she broke up with him almost 4 years ago - it seemed like it had been an eternity ago and at the same time she remembered it as if it had been yesterday.

Her car came to an halt in his driveway. She ran her hands over her face (AN: Don't do that at the moment with the coronavirus spreading - at least not before washing your hands. Stay safe and healthy, guys!) and took a deep breath. She checked herself in the small mirror, before taking another deep breath and stepping out of the blue corvette. With weak knees, she made her way to the door and carefully knocked on it. There was music coming from inside the house or rather from his backyard - a clear sign that he was here and probably not alone.

"Where have you been? We have been waiting...oh." Tani opened the door and obviously didn't expect to see Catherine standing on the other side of it, "Catherine..hi." she said and smiled somewhat shyly. Tani knew that Catherine was back on the island. After all it had been the number one topic in the bullpen of the Five-O Headquarters and her boss could hardly hide his joyousness about seeing the brunette again. But with it being her boyfriend's birthday, she had completely forgotten about all that.

"Hi." Catherine replied and suddenly felt incredibly stupid; she could have sworn her cheeks were as red as a tomato.

"Steve, you finally got the cake? I would have almost ate Kamekona's-" a voice, she identified as Danny's, came closer, but he stopped as abruptly as Tani had, when he saw Catherine standing in the door way, "Catherine." he stated, before a smile broke on his face and he pulled her into a hug.

She couldn't help the huge grin that grew on her face at the warm welcome. She knew Danny definitely hadn't been her biggest fan especially when she had left Steve again, after promising that she wouldn't. But ever since their joined mission in Laos, he had completely forgiven her. Though he still didn't understand why she had decided the way she had, he knew that she had never intentionally hurt Steve. And when Steve had needed her, she had been the first to be there for him - that was enough for him to forgive her.

"We heard about your dad, is he all right?" Danny asked and let her step inside. It felt pretty weird being back here after all those years and she had a hard time focussing on what Danny was saying.

"Yeah, he is fine, he is doing fine." Catherine replied and gave him a small smile, as she tried to check out the livingroom as inconspiciously as possible. Everything pretty much looked the same and just like her mom had given her a sense of home, this did too. After all, she had more or less lived here for about 2 years.

"That's good...uh, Steve is out..he is getting a cake for Junior, since it's his birthday." Danny explained and scratched the back of his head, realizing that she was probably looking for Steve and not either one of his colleagues, "He should be back any minute now."

Catherine nodded, unsure of what to say or do. She didn't want to leave, but she didn't exactly wanted to invite herself to stay either. "You wanna say hello to the others?" Tani piped up and Catherine gratefully accepted that offer with another nod. Tani linked arms with the other brunette and tagged her along onto the lanai. Everything looked pretty much the same here too, the two wooden chairs where still standing in the same exact spot they had when she had still lived here - she was positive they had been standing in the same exact spot ever since John had bought them. It was in that moment that she wondered if it had really been the best decision to come here. This place brought up so many memories and it reminded her over and over again of what she had given up all those years ago, when she had chosen to work for the CIA. It felt like a punch in the gut.

Junior, Lou, Quinn and a woman she didn't know yet, who later introduced herself as Noelani, were standing around the brazier and seemed to be engrossed into a lightful conversation, while Kamekona and Flippa were setting the table - of course there was shrimp too. She greeted Quinn, whom she briefly knew from her time in the Navy, Lou, Flippa and Kami - as she had always liked to call Kamekona - and met Noelani as the "new" medical examiner, and wished Junior a happy birthday. Even though she found that Chin, Kono, as well as Jerry had left an unfillable hole in the Five O task force, Steve had gathered some pretty amazing people in his team; they were truly ohana to each other. A sadness overcame her at that thought, because she had once been a part of that ohana too. And she had deliberately given it up.

"You need to catch up on some of my newest creations!" Kamekona exclaimed, when she went to get a beer after some small talk with the group.

"Oh, definitely." she agreed with the same enthusiasm, "Show me what you got to offer." Her stomach obviously seemed to approve of her plans to finally eat something, because it started grumbling; she was starving.

"Okay, so we got the shrimp pizza." he started and pointed with his head to one of the many dishes that were placed on the table, "And of course we got shrimp dogs and wraps, but that's not new." he paused again, as he turned to pick up one of the many plates, "I know just the right thing for ya, sista! Shrimp cake! With extra whipped cream of course!"

The whole cake basically consisted of layers and layers of pink whipped cream with a few shrimps on top, forming a heart. It looked really yummy, until you identified the ingredients on top of the cake as shrimps. "You know that this is the reason I had to get another cake, right?" Steve said, who was suddenly standing next to her and Kamekona. He had already seen her car in the driveway, but seeing her for real - she was standing just a few feet away - was something entirely different.

"Y'all just don't know what tastes good." Kamekona complained, before adding: "I still got hopes in you, sista. I will reserve a piece for you.", as he walked by Catherine to join the others at the brazier. Both Catherine and Steve couldn't help but chuckle at that statement, as she turned around to face Steve.

"Hey." was all she managed to get out, before she fell into his arms. She briefly closed her eyes, wishing she could hold onto him forever. She had imagined this moment so many times, she had replayed every possible scenario over and over again in her mind. But not one of those came close to what she was actually feeling right now. Like a wave, all kinds of emotions seemed to hit her at once. There was the guilt again, mixed with nervosity and uneasiness. But there was also a form of happiness and relief washing all over her body. He had always made her feel so special, so welcome...so loved. And this time was no exception.

"You okay?" he whispered into her ear. It felt extremely good to have her back in his arms in one piece. He couldn't tell how many nightmares of her dying have been tormenting his sleep in the past year nor could he tell what it was exactly that kept triggering those dreams. But after everything that had happened in the past year and a half, especially after losing Joe and his mother within a year, he was more afraid than ever before to lose yet another person he held dear. Sometimes it was Danny or another member of his ohana that appeared in those dreams, other times it was Catherine. Even though she wasn't in his life anymore, she was still one of the people he cared for the most on this earth. And that would probably never change.

She nodded, "And your dad?"

"He is okay too." she replied, when they finally let go off each other. He gave her a small smile, the relief was clearly visible in his face; mirroring her own expression. She knew Steve had always gotten along well with her father and she was touched, but not surprised that he still seemed to care so deeply for her entire family.

"How long have you been back?" he asked, knowing that it couldn't have been long.

From the corner of her eyes, she noticed that everybody was watching them with curious eyes. "I flew in this morning." she told him and tried to ignore the fact that they were being watched, "I spent almost the whole day in the hospital and after I picked up my car..I somehow ended up here."

"I am glad." he whispered as honest as ever and she felt like he was looking right through her.

"Guys, uh, I don't mean to interrupt, but we are kind off waiting for the cake here." Danny piped up and both Catherine and Steve chuckled, "Everybody is or you are?" Steve replied teasingly. Danny started babbling away, but Steve didn't hear half of it. With a last smile directed at Catherine and a look in his eyes that told her that they would continue this conversation later, he went back inside to get the cake.

McGarrett home, 2300 hours

Steve was sitting in one of the wooden chairs in his backyard, listening to the waves crashing at the shore. It was still pretty warm and the light breeze coming from the ocean was refreshing. The moon and the stars were plastered across the night sky, it truly was magical. Sitting here always helped him clear his mind and these days he came to appreciate that more and more.

Much to his dismay, he and Cath didn't really got the chance to catch up today - though it had been a great evening. But they had decided to meet up in the next few days to do just that and he couldn't deny nor hide the fact that he was over the moon to finally see her again. He was a bit unsure of how to behave around her, but today it had somehow come naturally - like it always had with her. He sighed deeply. Over the last year and a half, he had more or less successfully managed to not think about that particular night, but now that Catherine was back, suppressing it had gotten a thousand times harder.

"Hey, you okay?" Danny asked, as he sat down on the other wooden chair. The others were long gone, but Danny had offered - to everybody's surprise - to help clean everything up. Though he had to admit that this wasn't his ulterior motive and judging by the look in Steve's eyes he could tell that Steve knew that too.

"I am fine." Steve answered and accepted the beer Danny was offering him with a smile.

"Soo..Catherine is back, huh? At least for a few weeks, right?" he tried to subtlely steer the conversation in the wanted direction. Steve tried his best to cover up his shit-eating grin, but Danny noticed it. He had expected it actually, since it was a sheer fact that Steve only smiled like that when Catherine was around, "And you are clearly happy about that, so why don't you tell me what's going on with you?" Danny added, as he saw Steve's smile faltering.

"What do you mean?" Steve asked, pretending not to know what Danny had meant.

"Something is on your mind and I am pretty sure that it has got something to do with Catherine." Danny replied and mustered his friend. For a while, Steve didn't seem to fully register Danny's statement, as he was staring onto the dark ocean.

FLASHBACK - December 31st 2018

"So, what do you wanna watch?" Steve asked, when she returned to the livingroom with two beers.

"You are really letting me choose?" she asked, she looked almost stunned. She let herself fall back onto the couch and handed him one of the beers, which he accepted gratefully. In the past three weeks they have been looking for a way to avenge Joe's death and to find Greer. A few days ago, they had managed to find and capture Hassan's lawyer and even though he hadn't started talking yet, it was the closest they had gotten to finding Hassan and or Greer. They have been working on a bare minimum of sleep, but they were both more than willing to make that sacrifice. But today, or at least for a few hours, they would rest and regain some of their strength.

"As long as we are not gonna watch the Notebook again, then yes, I am letting you choose." he replied and a grin broke on his face - something she has seen him do often lately. Though it felt weird to celebrate something in a time like this, she knew how important it would be for the both of them. And seeing him smile like that just strengthend that presumption.

"Oh come on, that movie isn't that bad. It's romantic." she argued. She had made him watch it about 6 years ago and she was kind of surprised that he still remembered it. For the fraction of a second her smile faltered and she asked herself how she could have ever let him go.

"Well, if you say so." he said with a chuckle, as he remembered the many times she had made him watch romantic movies. Obviously he couldn't name most of them, but somehow the Notebook had stuck with him. It wasn't even that he found that the movie was particularly bad, he just liked teasing her about it.

"What do you think about an epsiode of friends?" she suggested finally, because she was actually a big fan of that show. She used to watch it every thursday with her brothers' - it was one of her favorite memories from her childhood.

"Sure." he agreed, because he actually liked that series too and they could definitely use something to cheer up a bit.

Just like one of these nights about 6 years ago, their shoulders were touching and with his arm on the armrest behind her, she was almost laying in his arms. She successfully convinced herself that it was totally okay and normal to seek closeness in a time like this. And it wasn't like this was the first time they were so close to one another. In her first night here, and in several following ones, Steve had woken up sweaty - his sleep has been plagued by terrible nightmares. Either she woke up too or was still awake, because despite being exhausted her mind just wouldn't shut up and let her sleep. However, they usually talked for a bit then, before they fell back to sleep - most of the time with their hands intertwined.

Three episodes in it was almost midnight, so they counted the last few seconds down to the new year. They clinked their beers and hugged, wishing each other a "happy new year". It sounded somewhat ironic, considering their situation, but in that moment it felt like maybe everything could be okay again - at some point in the future. When they entangled from one another, their eyes locked and one of their many conversations without speaking actual words took place.

Their eyes met and he understood the silent promise she was making. They would find Greer. Together. And she would stay as long as finding her would take. As long as he needed her. He nodded slightly, a gesture of acknowledgement and appreciation. He saw that she wasn't left cold by Joe's death either, he saw the pain behind her eyes. And he was extremely grateful that she was here, with him. She smiled gently. He couldn't imagine having had and continuing to have any other person by his side but her.

He returned the soft smile, when his eyes suddenly fell on her lips. Maybe it was in the heat of the moment, maybe it's been something he has been wanting to do for a long time now, maybe it was even a combination of both, but he suddenly found himself kissing her. His hands were cupping her face as he kissed her with a passion he hadn't felt in a long time.

Without hesistation, as if it was the most natural thing on earth, she kissed him back and opened her mouth to let him brush his tongue against hers, "Steve..we shouldn't..be doing this." she mumbled, when she placed her hand on his torso and carefully put some space between the two of them. She wanted this, she wanted to kiss him, to touch him, to feel him. But she knew she couldn't. She was the one who had put her job over him and as much as she wanted him, she knew it wouldn't be fair to him, because as soon as they found Greer, she would return to being an agent with the CIA.

"I don't care." he breathed, as if he could read her mind. His finger tips began tracing the features of her face - just the way he had done it when they were still together. Her skin was soft and she looked so unbelievably beautiful in that moment. When she didn't object, he slowly leaned in again and placed a soft kiss on her lips and then on her neck and cleavage, "Do you want me to stop?" he mumbled, even though he knew it wasn't exactly fair. He still knew her well enough to be able to tell that she didn't want him to stop, quite the contrary actually.

Every fiber of her being craved to be touched by him. Being an undercover agent for the CIA didn't exactly help her sex life, but it was more than that. She wanted him. Him and not anybody else. "No." she whispered shakily and this time she was the one to initiate the kiss. It was slow and careful at first, as they were exploring each other's mouths and faces for the first time in a long time. Not much had changed really, they still fit as perfectly as the first day they met. He still tasted of peppermint, she still tasted of coffee and something else, which he had always found difficult to define.

He smiled into the kiss, when she pulled him closer by pulling his shirt. It was only a matter of seconds until Steve was laying on top off her and they were kissing each other passionately again. He couldn't help the moan from escaping his mouth, her hands seemed to touch him everywhere all at once. He felt completely consumed by the kiss - something he had only felt once before: with her. The friends episode, where Rachel had just found out that Ross was in love with her by accident, was long forgotten, as they hurriedly freed each other of their clothes.

PRESENT - McGarrett residence, 2303 hours

Steve ran his hands over his face and exhaled deeply. That faithful night he had known that it would only be a one night stand, because it had happened for all the wrong reasons. They had been in pain and their actions were lead by lust. The next morning they had promised each other to just forget about it, they had called it a mistake and even laughed about it. And that was that. Steve sighed, maybe it was time to finally let Danny in on his little secret, "I slept with her, Danny." Steve said and turned his head to the left to be able to look at Danny, "It happened in Montana. Once."

"That was about damn time." Danny stated and Steve knitted his brows in question, "What do you mean?" Steve asked.

"I mean everybody knew something happened in Montana. We just didn't know how long it would take for you to tell one of us about it." Danny started explaining, "So, congrats, one year and a half, you are officially the champion of suppressing your emotions." Numerous times, he had found himself on the verge of just asking Steve about it, but then again he had also wanted to give Steve the time he needed.

"That has nothing to do with suppressing my emotions." Steve argued, but he couldn't hide the hint of surprise that was resonating in his voice, "Wait a minute, you all knew about it?"

"Not so much knowing as guessing." Danny answered, trying to put all the pieces together, "So that's what this is about? You don't know where you two stand now?"

"Mh-hm." Steve mumbled and took a sip from his beer.

"Are you in love with her?" he proped Steve, because the last thing he wanted was for Steve to get hurt again. Catherine had always been a soft spot for his best friend and he knew from first hand experience how thin the line between friends and more actually was - he had been there many times with Rachel.

"What?" Steve replied, maybe a little too fast, "No. No, I am not." He could feel Danny's eyes muster him, as if he was trying to look for signs that Steve was lying to him, "Why would you even ask that?"

"I am just..listen, you and Catherine, there has always been something between the two of you. And there will probably always be something. And before you protest, Montana is just the precendential case." Danny started, watching Steve's reaction very closely, "Look, I am just looking out for you. I don't want you to get hurt again." As much as they both liked it when Catherine was here, Danny knew the closer the two of them got the harder the goodbye would be. And he was fairly certain that Catherine wasn't here to stay permanently.

"I appreciate that, Danno, but I am fine, kay?" Steve said and gave his best friend a warm smile, "I am just happy to see her healthy and okay after everything she did for me when Joe died. And I just don't want anything to come between our friendship..especially not..that." He really really wanted to believe his own words.