…..

Hey, everyone! Welcome back to another chapter! I don't know about all of you, but I am so looking forward to Catherine and Allie meeting each other. I had this planned out all along, and I've been looking forward to it for quite some time now. And if you're looking forward to it as well, I hope it lives up to your expectations.

Also, I'm so terribly sorry for getting off of my schedule again. I feel so awful. To try to make up for it, I'm planning to post twice this week. I'm also done making promises about a posting schedule, since life always seems to want to remind me that it's in charge lol. But, I still plan to try my best to post at least once a week. Thank you so much for your patience.

Thank you so much to all of you that continue to read this story. I'm glad that you're continuing to enjoy it. And thank you to everyone that has reviewed, favorited, followed, or private messaged me. Each show of support means the world to me.

Happy Reading!

…..

Chapter Ten: Restless Hearts

"You're clear on everything?" Edward asked as he handed Catherine an earpiece.

She slipped it into her ear and then smoothed her wig of blonde hair down so that it was all but invisible. She looked like an entirely different person with her loose, French-style clothes, colored contacts, and too much makeup. "Definitely."

When Edward continued to stare at her expectantly, Kol stepped in. "I think he wants you to go over it for him one more time. No offense."

"Oh," Catherine said. "I'll get there when the museum opens so that they don't think that I'm following her in. Then, I'll go from exhibit to exhibit slowly and pretend to sketch a few pieces. You guys will let me know when she arrives and where she is, and I'll make my way there and pass her the note. After she gets it, I'll watch discreetly until she goes to the bathroom."

From his seat at the kitchen table, Max spoke. "And the SIM device?"

Catherine didn't miss a beat. "She needs to take her SIM card out and put it into the open slot. It should take about thirty seconds for the transfer. When it's complete, the light will turn green. Then, she puts the other SIM into her phone and we should be good to go. I need to tell her that to pull up the other side of the phone, so to speak, she has to type 'conundrum' into a new message."

I looked over at Max. "Why conundrum?"

He shrugged and the hint of a smile played at his lips. "It's the strangest word in the English language."

Kol shook his head at his brother. "Kumquat."

"Shut up."

"Enough." Edward held up his hand and then nodded to Catherine. "And?"

"And she can only communicate with us via phone call. A text message could be intercepted." Catherine didn't hesitate in the slightest. She was definitely ready.

"I need to work out that kink," Max mused.

"Ya think?" Kol rolled his eyes.

"Okay," I jumped in before they could come to blows. "I think we've got it all down. Everyone satisfied?" When no one spoke up to the contrary, I gestured to the side door. "I'll walk you out to the car, Cat."

She walked with me outside and, as we closed in on the large detached garage, she looked over at me. "There's nothing to worry about. Allie and I could pull this off in our sleep."

She was right, of course, but I couldn't stop the worry anyway. "You don't even know Allie."

"No," she agreed. "But I know what you've told me. And that's enough. You worked with a special ops group for years, and then moved to Five-O. If you say that she's the most capable person you've ever worked with, then she must be something special."

I opened the door to the garage and plucked the keys to a newer model sedan off of their hook. Dangling them in front of Catherine, I said, "Drive safe."

"Will do." She took the keys and gave me one last, determined look. "I guess I'll see you in a few hours."

"Hopefully not much later than that." Allie typically got to the museum about an hour after it had opened, when there was a good buffer of people to detract attention. If she stuck to her pattern, we wouldn't have long to wait before Catherine made contact.

I watched Catherine drive away and then headed back into the house, where everyone was finishing up their breakfast before everything went down. I didn't want to eat anything, but Kol pestered me until I finally choked down a banana and a glass of orange juice.

And then, there was nothing to do but sit in the living room (where a makeshift control room had been set up) and wait. Kol sat beside me for a bit, but then got up and moved, presumable because he was annoyed that I kept bouncing my leg up and down.

Catherine let us know when she arrived at the museum, and then we could hear her paying for entrance. It wasn't long until I began to pace nervously, waiting for Catherine to say that Allie had appeared. Everyone watched me, but no one told me to stop pacing; several of them probably wanted to do the same thing, but there wasn't enough room for all of us.

I began to think of every single thing that could go wrong, driving myself completely crazy. I knew that Catherine and Allie were both extremely capable, but all that it would take was one tiny slipup for everything to blow up.

And then, finally, it was time.

"I see her," Catherine told us after we'd watched Allie go in on the security cameras. "At least, I'm pretty sure it's her. Can someone confirm for me?"

I grabbed the mic before anyone else could. "Black tee and skinny jeans. Hair up in a messy bun." Beautiful and graceful and perfect, I didn't add. Doesn't even look pregnant, just a little different.

"It's her," Catherine said. "She's not being tailed. I'm going to go ahead and pass the note. Stand by."

I swear, every single person in the room held their breath over the next minute. We could see them on the security cameras, but the resolution wasn't the best, so we weren't going to be able to tell if it was a success. And then…

"Got it," Catherine said, and there was a collective sigh of relief in the room. "She handled the pass really well."

"Of course she did," Kol scoffed. "She's a professional con."

"Was," I corrected him.

Like the mature adult that he was, Kol stuck his tongue out at me.

A few minutes later, Catherine spoke again. "Okay, Allie just gave me the signal that she understands the plan. We'll have to wait a few minutes so that it doesn't look suspicious if anyone is watching."

My pacing intensified, because there were so many things that could go wrong. Medici could become suspicious – in which case, he would likely hurt Trent and possibly do something to Allie. Allie could get called away by Medici and not have the time to get the SIM card. Or any number of other things. I just couldn't seem to stop thinking about these negative scenarios.

The seconds felt like hours, but finally Catherine spoke softly to us. "Okay. I'm headed for the bathroom now. Allie should be following behind me in a couple of minutes."

"More minutes," I grumbled, and didn't think that anyone had heard until Kol gave me a sympathetic smile from his seat in the recliner. It was hard for him, too, I knew. How was he handling it so much better than I was? She was his twin, for goodness' sake. He'd never lived without her.

There was silence on the other end until Catherine spoke again, a smile in her voice. "Steve? Someone wants to talk to you."

I lunged for the headset and pulled it on, muting the conversation to everyone else. "Allie?"

"Steve." That one word was all that it took for my body to flood with emotion. Tears burned my eyes and I blinked them back desperately, trying to keep it together. I wouldn't have long to talk to her. Not wanting everyone else to overhear, I began to move for the kitchen.

"Hey," someone objected, but I heard Kol tell them to sit down and leave me alone.

I needed to thank him later.

"Allie," I repeated as I reached the kitchen. "Are you okay? Is… is the baby okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. We're both fine." Her voice sounded as familiar to me as my own, as if it had only been hours instead of weeks since we'd spoken. "I can feel it moving now."

The tears that I'd been fighting back slowly began to leak, but I couldn't bring myself to care. "So, you don't know if it's a boy or a girl?"

"No," she answered, and I felt a little relieved. At least I hadn't missed everything. "Not yet. Are you getting along with my family?"

"Yeah, they're great." Most of them, anyway. "Are you sure you're doing okay?"

"Mostly. I had some pretty bad morning sickness right at first, but it's gone now. The doctor put me on some medicine for it."

"Is your doctor good?"

"The best."

I knew that we didn't have much time. "Listen, we're working really hard to get you and Trent back safely, okay? I love you, Allie. So much."

"I know," she assured me. "I love you, too. Catherine's great, by the way. Really good brush pass."

I smiled. "She's not even in the same league as you."

"Flatterer," she teased. "So, I just got the SIM card back and I'm putting it into my phone. Hopefully, this thing will work. My code phrase is going to be 'orange bucket, black handle'."

My confusion knew no bounds. "What the hell does that even mean?"

"Nothing. That's the point. I need to get going before any of Medici's men get suspicious. I'll get in touch when it's safe. I love you."

"I love you, too," I told her, and then she was gone.

A few moments later, Catherine was back on the line. "Steve?"

I cleared the emotion from my throat. "Yeah, I'm here."

"Allie just went back out. You doing okay?"

"I'm just glad that it all went according to plan." But I longed to hear her voice just a little bit longer. To hold her in my arms and tell her that everything was going to be okay. And not knowing when I would finally get to do that drove me absolutely insane.

"I'm going to stick around the museum for another hour and a half to avoid any suspicion, and then I'll head back to the house. Will you let everyone know?"

"Sure thing."

She turned her earpiece off and I went back into the living room to tell everyone what had transpired. Unlike me, no one else thought that Allie's code phrase was way outside of the normal. Perhaps that was standard operating procedure for them.

"While we're waiting, I'm going to go upstairs and rest," I told everyone. "I didn't get a lot of sleep last night."

No one objected to that, so I climbed the stairs and went into my room, closing and locking the door behind me. I knew that I should have called the team back in Hawaii to let them know that I'd heard from Allie and that she was doing okay, but I couldn't hold it together any longer.

I laid down on the bed, buried my face into the nearest pillow, and began to cry. It had been a long time since I'd sobbed like that, but I just couldn't hold the emotion in any longer.

It wasn't fair. None of it was fair. And I just couldn't take it anymore, so I let it all out.

And it felt so freeing.

I must have been exhausted, because the next thing that I knew, I was waking up to knocking on my bedroom door. A glance at the digital clock on the nightstand next to the bed told me that it was four in the afternoon. Apparently, I'd gotten a good nap in.

"Jesus Christ," I muttered as I pushed myself up onto my elbows and used a hand to wipe some drool off of my face. I'd been sleeping incredibly hard. Harder than I had since Allie had been taken.

There was another knock on the door and I groaned. "I'm coming. Just a second."

As I approached the door, I ran a hand through my unkempt hair, which was in desperate need of a trim. I decided to ask Kol if anyone in the house could do it, but I was completely thrown off when I saw Catherine standing on the other side of the door instead of Allie's twin.

"Catherine."

She gave me a small smile. "You can't truly be that surprised to see me. I've been here a couple of days."

"No, it's not that. Of course, I knew that you were here, but…" I felt my mouth twist up in a wry smile. "Kol is usually the one that wakes me up by knocking on my door."

"Well, I volunteered this time. Dinner is almost ready downstairs, and I said that I would fetch you. Did you have a nice nap?"

"I'm sure that I look like I did. Let me just change out of this wrinkled shirt and I'll come down for dinner." I started to close the door, but Catherine put her hand out and stopped me.

"Actually," she said, and then checked the hall to make sure that no one was listening. "Can I come in for a second?"

"Sure." I stepped aside and let her pass, closing the door softly behind her. "What's up?"

Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a small, folded piece of paper. "Allie asked me to give this to you. She said that I should do it in private, so that you could enjoy the moment without prying eyes."

Curiosity piqued, I reached for it. "What is it?"

She shrugged and let go of the smooth, folded rectangle. "I didn't look at it. It's none of my business."

I gently tossed it onto the bed and then looked at her, hoping that I could adequately express what was in my head. "Catherine, today… You saved the day. Not just for me, either, but for Allie's entire family. I'll never be able to repay you for that."

She smiled. "Well, no offense to Allie's family, because they seem really great, but I didn't do it for them. Or for Allie, really. I did it for you." Her smile became sad as she took a step forward. "Steve, I hate how we left things back in Hawaii. How I left things. But I hope that you know how much I still care about you and how incredibly sad I am that you have to go through this. And I want you to know that I'm always here for you. As your friend, I hope."

I smiled and stepped forward to hug her. "Oh, Catherine. I forgave you a long time ago. And as for the friends thing…" I pulled back and smiled at her. "I consider myself very lucky to have a friend like you."

"Good." She gestured to the paper on my bed. "I'll leave you to it." She strode past me and left the room, closing the door behind her.

I changed my shirt and then went to the bed, sinking down onto the mattress as I grabbed the glossy paper. And when I unfolded it, my breath caught in my chest as my heart began to pound.

It was an ultrasound of my baby.

It had been taken at thirteen weeks gestation, so it was very recent. I couldn't stop staring. And even though I couldn't make out everything from the smudges of gray in the pool of black, I could tell where the head was and from there, I could make out a few things.

When a tear dropped down onto the sonogram, I was glad that Allie had asked Catherine to give this to me in private. I needed to have that moment alone.

Once I'd committed the image to memory, I folded the paper up and put it into the drawer of my nightstand. I knew that I would be looking at it many times a day for the next few weeks, until we got Allie back.

Downstairs, I found everyone just getting ready to start dinner, and I joined them in a much better mood than I'd been in for the last several weeks. Something about hearing Allie's voice and seeing our baby had reenergized me.

As we were filling our plates, Catherine leaned over and whispered, "Everything okay?"

"Better than okay," I assured her. "That thing that Allie gave you? It was a picture from her last ultrasound."

Catherine's smile was bright. "Aw, Steve. I had a suspicion that's what it was. Boy or girl?"

"Too soon to tell, I think, but she should be finding out soon."

"Are you hoping for one or the other?"

I shrugged. "I haven't given it much thought, actually. I haven't wanted to dream too much, you know… just in case things go wrong. But now that things seem to be shifting in our favor…" I couldn't fight my smile. "I think it would be so nice to have a little princess."

"You with a daughter." She laughed. "That poor girl when she decides that she wants to date."

"Oh, she's not dating."

Kol asked Catherine a question and we were drawn out of our conversation as she answered. I joined in on conversations and actually enjoyed myself for the first time since all of this had started. I was so grateful to all of them for their role in allowing me to have a conversation with Allie. And for giving me the chance to have even more conversations with her. It would make our separation so much easier.

After dinner, I found Catherine in the gardens, talking on the phone. It seemed that she was making travel arrangements to go back to where she was stationed. Once she'd concluded the call, she gave me a smile. "Since I'm not needed here anymore, I'm going to head back."

"Of course." I had expected nothing less. "I'll never be able to thank you enough for everything you've done for us. Doing research on the box, getting that SIM card to Allie… I'll be in your debt forever."

"You're the kind of man I like to have in my debt," she teased me.

"Do you need us to take you to the airport?"

She shook her head. "I'll head out tomorrow morning and sneak a few streets over to get a cab. It's not a long ride."

"I'll make sure that Edward gives you money for the cab." When she opened her mouth to protest, I held up a hand. "I insist. And I'm sure that he would, too. They're all grateful to you."

She sighed. "I won't argue, then. And I'm going to continue to work the case from my end. I'll look into where Medici might be holding Trent, or more history on the box, or anything else that you need me to dig up. I won't stop until you have Allie back."

I smiled. "I can't wait for the two of you to meet under better circumstances."

"Looking forward to it."

Before I could ask her what time her flight was, my phone went off. I pulled it out of my pocket and glanced at the unsaved number. The message on it made my eyes go wide and my heart stop.

Orange bucket, black handle. And then there was a red heart emoji.

"Steve?" Catherine's voice brought me back to reality.

"It's Allie." A wide smile split my face as I looked up at Catherine and showed her my phone. "It worked. Max's SIM card really worked!"

"That's wonderful!" Catherine seemed just as genuinely happy as I was. "Message her back and I'll go let everyone know!"

She headed inside as I typed out a message back to Allie.

I miss you. And I love you.

She responded moments later: I guess I should update everyone on what's been happening. And then as soon as I have an opportunity, I'll call.

I didn't want to wait to hear her voice, but at least we'd made some progress. I needed to be patient. That sounds wonderful. So, what's been going on?

And she spent all night filling all of us in.