"Daddy!" Lyla ran across the yard of her grandparents' house when she saw Steve park the car in front of the house.

Steve got out of the car and opened his arms to take her in his lap and hug her when she got close. "Hey, baby!"

Lyla hugged him and kissed his cheek happily.

"Thank you, daughter," Steve told her.

Caroline also left the house and went to meet Steve. "You took a long time to get back, Dad."

Steve passed his arm around Caroline's shoulders and kissed her forehead. "I'm sorry, daughter."

"I want to go home," Lyla asked him.

"We'll be home soon." Steve set her down on the floor and asked Caroline to get the backpacks with their clothes and also asked her to call Don.

Margaret approached and Steve thanked her for staying with the children in the middle of the week.

"You don't need to thank me, Steve. My grandchildren are welcome any day and any time."

"I know, Margaret.

"Steve, I'm worried about Don. I'll come to your office tomorrow to talk about him. We need to know who his friends are, we need to know who he talks to."

"Okay, Margaret. I try to get close to Don, but he won't let me. I wanted to be my son's best friend, but he ignores me. I don't know what else to do," Steve told her.

"You're a good father, Steve. The problem is Don. He's suffering a lot from the loss of his mother, but he won't let us help him." Margaret looked back and saw Don leaving the house with his backpack on his back.

"We'll talk more tomorrow," she whispered to Steve.

"Hi, son," Steve pulled him close as he passed by and hugged him.

"Hi, Dad."

"Give your grandmother a hug," Steve told him.

Don obeyed Steve and hugged Margaret, then went to the car.

Caroline came out of the house with Lyla, and the two hugged and kissed their grandmother.

"Bye, Grandma! I love you," Lyla said to Margaret.

"I love you too, my darling," Margaret replied.

"Bye, Grandma," Caroline said goodbye and went to the car as well.

Steve took the children home and spent the rest of the day with them. The next day he woke them up earlier than usual.

"It's not time to get up yet, Dad," Caroline complained and Lyla opened her little eyes with difficulty.

"We're going out for breakfast today," Steve told them.

"But today is no special day," Caroline replied refusing to get out of bed.

"Every day with my family is special, Caroline. One day you will look back and miss it. I won't live forever, daughter. Please get up and let's go out."

Steve pulled Lyla out of bed and took her on his lap. "What about you, Sleeping Beauty? It's time to wake up."

"Good morning, Daddy."

Steve smiled and kissed Lyla's forehead. "Good morning, daughter."

To Steve's surprise, Don didn't complain and quickly got up to get dressed to go out with Steve and his sisters.

Some time later, Steve was in the cafeteria with the children when Catherine sent a message wishing Steve good morning. He smiled and replied to her message.

Don and Caroline realized that he was "talking" to someone.

"Who is it, Dad?" Caroline asked.

"It's someone I know from my Navy days," Steve replied.

"Her name is Catherine?" Don asked.

"Yes, son. But how do you know?" Steve wanted to know.

"You were talking to her last night," Don replied.

"She's a really nice person, you'll like her when you get to know her," Steve told them.

"I don't want to meet anyone," Don told Steve.

Steve cut the pancakes for Lyla and didn't answer Don. He knew it would not be an easy task to introduce a girlfriend to Don and Caroline, but he was not willing to let Catherine out of his life again.

Steve took his children to school after they had eaten breakfast and then went to headquarters.

One month later...

It was a Friday and Steve had taken the children to their grandparents' house and then he went back to headquarters. The team had had an unsolved case for a few weeks and Steve would not admit it. He was rereading the investigation reports to see if there were any clues that they had missed.

Catherine had called him half an hour earlier and he had told her that he was going to headquarters to work on an unsolved case.

He was reading the report for the fourth time in a row when Catherine called again. "Hey, sailor. You're working hard."

"Yeah, Cath. I'm tired and I have a headache."

"Well, I think you need some coffee and a painkiller. I have the coffee," Steve looked at the office door and saw her holding a cup of coffee.

"Cath?"

"Hi, I wanted to surprise you," she walked into the office and Steve stood up and hugged her. "I loved the surprise."

Catherine put the cup on the table. "I missed you and realized that all I wanted was to be here on the island because this is where you are," Catherine told him and passed her arms around his neck.

"I missed you too, and I'm so glad you're here. When did you get here?" Steve asked.

"I arrived today, just before lunchtime. I checked into a hotel nearby. How about we go there? You look so tired, let me take care of you."

"Great. I'm going to love having you take care of me."

PS: Thank you for your review in the previous chapter.