"We are now asking all the remaining passengers of flight UA 752 with service to Los Angeles to immediately make their way to gate A12 as we are about to close our doors"

There she was. Having de-boarded a plane only a couple hours ago, ready to board the next. The past hour felt like it rushed by her, she didn't have the time to think about the decisions she made. Everything she was doing right now is what her heart felt was right, rather than her mind interfering. "Ma'am? Are you going to get on?" she heard a lady looking in her direction ask, not realizing it was her she was talking to. "Ma'am? Are you on this flight?" Catherine snapped out of her thoughts as the flight attended gently touched her shoulder. "Oh! Me? Yes… yes. Sorry. Here you go" she handed her ticket over and made her way through the gate and on to the plane. First Class. Business Class. And no sight of Steve.

Of course, she laughed a little to herself. Of course he wouldn't have treaded himself to a business class ticket, he'd always choose economy not wanting to splurge with his money.

Row 12, 13, 14 and no sight of him. As she passed row by row doubt started creeping in her mind. Was this not the right flight? Has her gut feeling betrayed her after all? 15, 16, 17, 18… 18.

There he was. She could only see the back of his head but she didn't need to look twice to know that this was her sailor. The all too familiar demeanor, the appearance. She knew right away. Even if her mind didn't quite realize it, her heart surely knew. Beating almost out of her chest, she desperately thought of a way to approach him.

"This seat taken?" she asked, glad that the one right next to him in fact wasn't taken, her nervousness becoming all to clear in her voice already. He turned. His blue eyes with a hint of silver turned and looked at her. If she could, she would swear that her heart stopped beating for a second right then and there. He was looking as good as ever, his hair a little darker than the last time she saw him, but the color of the hair in his face surely gave away that the time indeed had passed.

"Catherine?" he asked. Unsure if what he thought was real. Unsure if this was a dream after all. That he would wake up any second in his bed on Oahu. He could feel his chest tightening, not wanting this to be a trick his mind played on him.

"Hey, sailor" she said, not even thinking about it. This greeting just came out all too naturally. She really was there. Alive and in color and about a foot away for him, so close but yet so far.

He spent what felt like an eternity looking at her, making sure he took it all in, until he realized the reasoning behind her being here, on this exact flight.

"It was you?" He asked, already knowing the answer. "You cracked that cypher?" "mhm" she stated, smiling a little in victory, knowing that he very well knew it was her.

"Lincoln got ahold of me, said you guys needed some help, so…" she didn't need to continue. They both knew. They always had this understanding of each other, that barely any words really needed to be spoken. But one thing they didn't have to communicate about at all, was them being there for each other. She knew it and he knew it, that there was never a question that if one of them needed the others help, both would drop everything and be in there in a heartbeat.

"He's a good man" Steve answered, unsure of why he felt the need to state the obvious, not wanting to end their conversation on the cypher part.

"Well he must be" Catherine laughed a little "you gave him the keys to Danno's car" she answered, causally calling him Danno, underlining her being around for as long as Steve has known Danny. "Well…" he answered "we cant have Danny Williams drive his own car" he laughed a little in all honestly, like he hasn't in a very long time.

There it was. The all too familiar feeling of them being separated for God knows how long and it feeling like they just saw each other yesterday. For as long as they could remember, it had always been like this – whether it was deployment, him being on black ops with the seals or her being on sea for an unknown amount of time. The minute they met again, it had felt like they had never left each others side.

"Like he ever did" she replied, feeling a weight lift off her shoulders at the familiar feeling. He smiled and she was unable to take her eyes off of him. He was still the charming, handsome sailor she fell in love with all those years ago and she now realized, that she never quite fell out of love with him.

"Will you sit down?" he asked, a little nervous about saying it out loud, meaning so much more behind that sentence than he tried to let on, hoping for her to say the three letter word. "mhm" she replied with her lips curved in a smile once again, never been as sure of her answer as right now. She sat down, not a care in the world that this was not her actual seat.

Pushing her bag under the seat in front of her, she felt a weight lift off her shoulders that she didn't know she carried. This was him. This was always his presence to her, making her feel at ease and vice versa.

He looked at her pushing her bag forward, still not quite sure if this was him dreaming or if this was real. There he was, technically on his way to find her, when she was again one step ahead of him, having found him. He didn't know what he was looking for or where he would go from here, but he knew his first stop would be where ever Catherine was. California, he thought, making his way through Coronado to call in a couple of favors with a few buddies at the Navy who might have been able to locate her or get in touch with the CIA. He wasn't sure how or where to go from there, but he knew that this would be his first stop.

But here she was. In the spot right next to him. In this moment he did not care how she knew or when or even why she got there. Everything that mattered was that she was here. Right then. Right there.

She could feel his tension and all the thoughts running through his head. But she knew that this step, him leaving his island after all that had happened, was a cut. Not for good. Maybe not even for long. But for him to even take this step into the unknown, made her feel like he was ready to move on.

No chances this time, she thought. She wanted to do this right.

"You ready" she asked calmly, fully aware and in peace with how she was feeling in this moment. Implying so much more than the take-off of the plane that was about to happen. Meaning the moving forward, wherever him or they would go from here.

He got it – he didn't need to think twice about it. Whether he was reading too much into what she was saying or if it was him just feeling calm and ready with her by his side, feeling like he could take on anything. He was ready for whatever the future was about to throw at them.

This was different. This wasn't him calling her reaching out for help, or her reaching out for guidance. This was them in a team where it finally felt like they were both ready to put each other first.

Seconds past before he realized he didn't answer her yet. "Yea" he simply answered, yea he was ready. More ready than he had ever been before. He held out his arm, moving it on the middle piece of the seat that was separating them, palms wide open.

She didn't need to think twice about it, put her hand right in his, interlocking their fingers like they had done so many times before. Like they had never stop holding each others hands through all of the hard times.

She smiled at him and he smiled back. Words did not need to be spoken right now. They knew.

Surely they had a shit load to talk about, but in this very moment was that they were in each others company. Whatever may come next or where ever they might go from here.