After about a twenty minute Uber ride, Steve and Catherine finally made it back to their place and Catherine felt nostalgia creeping in.
She remembered the last time she arrived with an Uber very clearly.
She had been on a long covert op when she found out that Doris had been captured. She did not have to think twice about where she was headed next.
She grabbed the first plane she could arrange to get to O'ahu. She decided to call Steve and give him a heads up, but by the time she left her origin it was in the middle of the night for him so she decided not to call. Everything happened so quickly that Catherine felt that maybe if she showed up unannounced, things would not be as bad as if he had time to think about all the things he was still holding back.
So she called an Uber to the airport and headed straight to his house. The closer she got to his place, the more she doubted her decision and called him, mainly to make sure that he was home.
"hello?" he answered, his voice sounded at ease and not a least bit worried that she called from a blocked number. "Steve?" she asked, wanting to make sure that it was him and that she remembered his number correctly. "Catherine?" he asked, less surprised than she expected after not having talked to him for a while.
"Yeah, it's me. Can you talk?" her CIA habits already getting the best of her, making sure that because the line was not secured, that he was alone or that no one was listening in on this phone call.
"uhm... kind of. You alright?" he answered and her heart skipped a beat at the fact that the first thing that came to his mind in the midst of the chaos their relationship had been through when she left, was to ask if she was okay.
"Oh um, I'm… I'm fine" she said, searching for the right words. She sure wasn't prepared for this reply from him, since she was ready for yelling and anger at her, or him not even picking up the phone at all.
"Steve listen there's something going on that you need to know about but I can't really get in to it over an open line." She continued quickly after having answered his question, making sure he didn't have time to ask another one.
"Catherine what are you talking about?" "I'll explain everything in a minute" she concluded as she hung up the phone, not waiting for his reply, as her Uber driver pulled in in his drive way.
The second she stepped out of the car and made her way to the front door, she could feel her heart rate picking up. She had been so tense and concentrated on the op and on telling Steve face to face that she didn't have the time to think about how their meeting would go and what she would tell him, whether she should hug him or not, or if she should bring moral support in the form of Chin, or Kono, or whoever, in case he was as pissed at her as she thought.
Too late now she thought to herself and decided to get it over with. When Steve opened the door before she had a chance to knock, her heart stopped beating. He looked at her and she looked at him – not saying a word.
Catherine expected a lot of things prior to seeing him, but the realization of the amount of love she still felt for him hitting her the second she looked in his eyes caught her by surprise.
"hey" he greeted and snapping her out of her shock, "hi" she said as she exhaled, still trying to catch her breath.
"Come on in" he invited, as he opened the door for her. Catherine didn't hesitate and went inside the house she used to call home.
What she saw then, was the last thing she had expected and had her heart break right in front of her. "Oh" was all she blurted out, trying to cope with the image in front of her. "I didn't… uhm… " she was unable to finish her sentence and couldn't get one more word out. Her mouth hung open and she had to try to remember to breath.
"Lynn, this is Catherine. Catherine…Lynn" his hand motioned towards the tall blonde, as he was standing next to Catherine. He stood so close that she could smell him, which did not help the situation or her state of mind at all.
"It's nice to meet you" she lied "sorry to barge in like this but it couldn't wait" she continued before looking at Steve again. "Okay. What's going on?" he asked, now facing her.
"It's about your mother…" Catherine vividly remembered telling Steve all about it, the whole conversation was a blur in her mind. All she remembered was the way she felt like she couldn't breathe with Lynn in the living room that was once the place she and Steve made out while watching not so scary movies every Halloween.
She very clearly remembered the conversation she had with Lynn, though. She remembered sitting down on the foot rest of the recliner that Steve always sat on. She explicitly chose that spot as she was unsure she could handle sitting on her sofa. Their sofa, now.
Catherine desperately thought of a way to fill the awkward silence and went with apologizing again for interrupting their evening and decided to be respectful to Lynn nonetheless. "I have to say you're being…. very understanding about this… I mean, cause I know out of context this could look a little weird." She forced a smile at the woman.
"Yeah, my boyfriend's ex, who he was gonna propose to, shows up in the middle of our date… and now he's upstairs packing to go on a trip with her? Yeah, out of context, that is a little weird."
Catherine remembered every single emotion she felt in that exact moment all those years ago and she was certain that she had never felt as many at once. She was confused, she was hurt and shocked, she was heartbroken – she felt regret, she felt anger and after it all settling in and after she had thought about it and broken it down to pieces, most of all, she felt honored that Steve was willing to share the rest of his life with him. She smiled at the fact that he was willing to put down roots with her. He was never the one to call her his girlfriend or admit to a single soul that he loved her more than anything, so him wanting her to be his wife – that was huge.
That still is huge. And Catherine started to wonder if he still feels the same now, after everything that happened. Or if her leaving that day and ultimately crushing his plan made him decide to never take that chance again.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Steve interrupted her trail of thoughts and Catherine snapped out of her walk down memory lane as the Uber driver stared at them through the rear view mirror, impatiently waiting for them to get out of the car.
"Oh..uhm…sorry" Catherine said as she made eye contact with the driver and opened her side of the door to get out of the car.
Steve quickly made his way around the car to be right beside her, after he got both their bags on his back. "You're thinking about the last time you came here, hm?" he said with a low voice while reaching his hand out to hold hers, making them both stop in front of the door.
"Yeah" she whispered, her eyes slowly filling with tears.
"I just… that was a… that was a tough one" she chuckled, a single tear now rolling down her cheek.
Steve lifted his other hand up and cupped her cheek, using his thumb to wipe away the tear. "Yeah" he choked, "I know" he smiled politely.
"I didn't exactly plan for you to find out that I was gonna propose to you" he chuckled while never losing eye contact.
"Not then or uhm… not ever?" she smiled nervously, "Not then" he answered quickly in all seriousness as he pecked her lips.
"Besides Rollins, didn't you already agree to my proposal in LA?" he smirked and gave her a wink "Ha!" Catherine let out a loud laugh "You're not getting off that easy, Sailor. I still want a very romantic setting and you down on your knee… and a shiny ring of course" "of course" Steve rolled his eyes at her and gave her a warm smile "Come on, let's get you inside" he concluded after another peck on the lips.
And with that, they were finally home.