Catherine and Steve end up staying for New Year's, at the prodding of her parents. They hardly ever see Catherine, these days, and miss their daughter, so she doesn't have the heart to deny them another few days. Steve is very surprised at how much he enjoys the domesticity of being with Catherine's family, and at finding out that he genuinely misses her. He's very happy that he came, in the end.
By January 2nd, new intel and footage of Gregers Thomsen has been sent to Catherine, so they go back to 'mission mode'. Her brother Peter also needs to go back to his ship, so the three say their goodbyes to Catherine's parents, Steve genuinely thanking them for their hospitality, as they helped heal a lot more than a sad heart. The three drive to the airport together, Steve naturally taking command of Peter's rental car, to Catherine's amusement. With wishes for a safe return to his ship, Catherine and Steve bid her brother goodbye and head for their gate, to catch their plane back to Montana.
The next few days are occupied with planning their extraction op. After all the details are finalised, Catherine and Steve head to Stockholm, where they are met by a local CIA team, fully briefed on the mission. The extraction goes by without a glitch, and Steve silently thanks the higher powers for the help and for the fact that no one got hurt. This may be his own, personal vendetta, but he still needs outside help, and the CIA is a good ally to have, he has to begrudgingly agree. They return to Montana on a CIA plane, since no official channel would let them effectively kidnap a foreign national and bring him to US soil, against his will. However, the lawyer is savvy and defiant; he refuses to give out any information on his employer, perhaps because he instills more fear into him than Steve. After a day of not making any headway, Steve calls Catherine and tells her he needs to proceed to other methods. She acquiesces and leaves him to it, not feeling sorry for the man in the least. She has noticed that Steve has reverted back to the grieving man she found when she first arrived; he's quieter, more pensive, less talkative. His anger is back and he wants revenge. Thomsen will be the first to feel the weight of his retribution, Greer last.
Two hours later, Thomsen still isn't amenable to talking and Steve's bloody hands are a testament to that. He opens the door to the small room, inside the barn, and heads outside to the horse's trough, bucket in hand, when he spots a car in the open expanse of meadow, heading their way. His survival instincts kicking in, Steve crouches behind the trough, hand on his gun, trying to figure out if the occupants of the car pose a threat. He does a double take, at that moment, when he realises that not only is there only one occupant, but also that occupant seems to be Danny.
Slowly getting up at the sight of a blonde head of slicked back hair, Steve breathes deeply, relieved. As the two men hug each other, Danny gets right to what brought him here: bringing Steve back home. However, that plan spectacularly backfires on him, when he hears a door squeak and sees the person exiting from it, slowly coming forward, until she stands in front of a post, cautious: Catherine. Danny's sarcastic nature takes hold and he can't disguise his disapproval at the scene before him. Uttering an 'I see what's going on and I don't like it' sound of displeasure, he makes his feelings known in no uncertain terms, as he greets her.
"Hey, I did… I didn't mean to interrupt", Danny says, flailing his arms about.
Always composed, Catherine is very civil, but answers him nonetheless, slight frown marring her features.
"What exactly did you think you were interrupting?" she counters, crossing her arms across her chest, a classical sign of defensiveness, and leaning back, not moving towards Danny. He's made her uneasy, and she knows why. The spectre of their last conversation, three years ago, where she'd been less than unambiguous, still hangs in the air. She tries to disguise how uncomfortable she is by looking to Steve for moral support, but he just walks past her into the little room, bucket in hand, dogged. Catherine looks back at Danny, slightly annoyed, wanting to hear his answer.
"I don't know, the… grieving process?" he throws back at her, as he continues to walk in her direction, opening his arms to hug her. He still feels like the same Danny who she worked alongside with for over a year; who was her friend for much longer than that, and he hugs her as though he's missed her. This is hard, Catherine thinks, when they move back to where Steve disappeared to.
When Danny sees a bloody Thomsen, face beat to a pulp, he is even more annoyed at Steve's recklessness and Catherine's inability to put a stop to his madness. Despite that, his continued sarcasm and jab at Catherine, "I liked it better when I thought you two were playing house" are met with indifference on her part, while she answers his question directly, looking him in the eye. Now is the time for getting serious. She'll talk to Danny later.