Author's note: This is my take on what happened on Catherine's side of the story before she came to see Steve :-) Looking at a few chapters here, hope you'll like!
After a long day of work for the CIA, she got to the apartment she tried so hard to call home for a couple of months now, when her phone rang with a very familiar area code. "Hawaii" she thought instantly as her heart began to pick up a beat. Could it be? Her mind instantly wandered to the man she spend the better part of everyday thinking of. Catherine had been happy with her work with the CIA in the beginning, so when Steve asked her if she was happy doing what she was doing, her answer was honest and true. She was happy. She felt needed and in a place where she could make a difference. However, as the weeks and months passed, hustling from one place to another, from one job to the next never knowing what will happen or where the next job might take her, how long it would take and what sacrifice she had to make next, she missed the feeling of calmness, of feeling like she belonged somewhere or that someone was waiting for her to come home or to just hang out with, without even saying a word. The CIA had been everything she had for the past years but somehow it just didn't feel like it was enough anymore. She had been feeling like this for a while now but could not quite make sense out of it.
"This is just a phase" she said to herself multiple times while also absent mindedly realizing that she only put in half the effort she used to in all the tasks she was asked to do. She often found herself thinking back to better times. To a time where she was with Steve and both of them were working towards creating a future as a couple. To when they were living together, the nights they spend out at the lanai talking about life, the early morning swims, the cooking dinner together, the meeting in lunch breaks just to kiss him hello and just the everyday life with him. Catherine knew she was going to miss him when she left, she just did not know the length of it. She never thought that missing him could hurt her this much or leave her empty like this.
So when her phone rang, she somehow felt a calmness within her that took her by surprise. They always had this special connection when somehow he knew exactly when she needed him – so this must be him, this must be Steve.. her Steve. "Hello?" she asked, ready to hear the all so familiar voice. "Catherine?" a voice said that did sound familiar but not at all like Steve. "Yeah?" She said way more disappointed than she wanted to "who's this?" "It's Lincoln" the voice replied. "Lincoln! Hey! What's up? It's been a while! You're in Hawaii?" she was excited to hear Lincoln's voice or any voice that had nothing to with the CIA really at this point. "Yea, I am. Listen, Cath, I have a favor to ask you.." he said and continued to explain the situation to her.
"How is he holding up?" she asked. There was not a doubt in her mind about this and she immediately agreed to help Steve out, or Lincoln for that matter, but she just needed to know how he was doing in this situation. "Cath… in all honesty, I think he is putting on a brave face for everyone around him" Lincoln said. She knew exactly what Lincoln meant, this was so Steve, she thought. She could just picture him acting like nothing is wrong just so no one would be worried about him. The thought of him keeping it all on the inside created a lump in her throat. Her heart broke for him and for the fact that she, once again, could not be there to ease his pain.
They hung up the phone and Catherine immediately started working on the cypher to get her mind off of where it was wandering. She knew she would be able to crack it, even if it was the last thing she did on this earth.
By 5 am, endless hours of working on Lincolns request, way too much coffee and no sleep it all, it was done. She did it. And she wanted nothing more than to tell Steve all about it. But this was not her place anymore, at least not right now given the circumstance. She gave Lincoln a call and let him know what she found out.
She tried to get some rest before her alarm would go off at 07:30 but found her mind centering around the SEAL once again. Fuck it, she thought – maybe this was the universe telling her that he needed her. That he had been thinking of her as well. It might have been the exhaustion that made her grab her laptop, or the feeling of needing to be right next to him as soon as possible, but Catherine booked the very next flight out to Honolulu International Airport and found herself at the airport about an hour later.
She dialed the number of her CO, letting him know that she will not be making it into work for a while now, that it was a family emergency and she had to leave right away. After all, Steve has always been her Ohana, so the family part was technically not a lie, she thought. The job she has been working at the past couple of weeks had luckily been coming to an end anyway, so it did not take much of convincing for the CIA to let her have some time off.
Here she was, on an airplane in the middle seat, boarding a ten hour flight to the island she used to call home for so many years. It was odd knowing that not a single soul knew she was coming, it was going to be weird to not be picked up by her sailor with a wide grin at the airport.
The fact that she did not feel nervous at all scared her a bit but she was ready. She was more ready than she had ever been before. Not the kind of ready to see Steve again for a limited amount of time, for vacation or between deployments. She was ready for good – to stay, for better or for worse, if he'll have her.