Adam picks Catherine up downtown.
Catherine's lost weight. He knows it. Truthfully, she looks like shit, but he's smart enough not to tell her that. Kono would kill him, kill him if he ever thought it appropriate to say that to any woman, especially a close friend of his wife's.
"Aloha."
"Aloha." She all but whispers back. By the time she's in his car, she's ready to be out of it and in the house. The first night is easy; she sleeps in their spare bedroom after crying herself to sleep, like any other heartbroken person. Adam pretends he doesn't hear her little sobs, he doesn't knock on her door in the morning to wake her, he doesn't leave her a note telling her he's going for the day, but he does leave a key taped to the front door for her.
Catherine waits until she's sure Adam has left the house to get up and shower. She needs to call Doris or maybe Joe for help to access her money; they owe her that much. She needs to call her mother and let her know that she's not actually dead, just left the agency. She needs to schedule an appointment with a therapist. She needs to find an apartment. She needs to get her corvette out of storage. She needs to stop thinking about Steve, missing Steve, needing Steve. Instead of handling any of the things she said she'd get done on this peaceful Sunday, she rolls back on the bed and falls asleep in her towel.
It's night time before she realizes she's squandered the day, but she can't seem to care. She's missed some texts from Kono. Trump didn't declare war on anyone. The world was still spinning. She takes out her laptop and figures out a way to reach Doris' handler with her recent news. She finds herself wanting to phone Joe, but that's too close. Isn't it funny how life is; the woman who birthed Steve isn't too close to Steve, but his former CO – that's too close.
Tomorrow, Catherine resolves, she will go to the psychiatrist, thank Kamekona, and get her car. She'll need to get it serviced, inspected, update the tags, but she won't drive and park it in Adam's car park. She doesn't know how often 5-O comes by or how nosy Adam's neighbors are and who they talk to. She'll probably end up leaving it in storage until she gets a place.
Catherine wakes up well past her standard 6:00 am wake up and can't believe she's slept so much. This is certainly not how she conducted herself in the Naval Academy, the Navy, or the CIA. All of this crying and sleeping made Catherine unrecognizable to herself. But she knew this was the mess behind the wall she'd put up for the world for the past couple of years – since the break-up with Steve, or whatever you call two unofficial people who love each other, but life and circumstances pull them apart.
Getting up today is harder than usual. If she hadn't promised the caring nurse to go to the Veteran's Affairs psychiatrist promptly on Monday, she wouldn't have gotten up. But she knows she needs this. After her numerous rounds of sleep, she's finally been able to call her Mom and Dad, pick up her car and drop it off to be serviced. Her parents are concerned, but she convinces them flying to Hawaii is unnecessary. This is her journey and hers alone.
She's early to her psychiatrist appointment. As she sits in the waiting room, she texts Kono letting her know that she's starting to get the help she needs.
The psychiatrist's appointment is rough, the doctor's poignant questions pierce her soul, but she's been prescribed antidepressants so at least the meeting is fruitful. She's able to make an appointment for therapy at the Veteran's Affairs for the following afternoon. Catherine is committed to dealing with the deep-seated reasons as to why she's so restless, why she ran away from the love of her life, and how she can live after this now that she's not distracted by life threatening, exciting missions all over the world.
The next day, she's anxious to be in Hawaii without anything to do. With a few free hours before she's due for her therapy appointment, she heads to a local coffee shop to send out some more emails, look out for any notice from Doris, and to see if there are any places she can begin touring. She finds Kamekona's number and texts him to thank him for all his kindness.
She finds Kamekona's number and texts him to thank him for all his kindness. When he tells her to drop into the food truck, she politely declines and acknowledges that she can't go there and run into Steve. Kame understands, but he wishes to meet up so he can at least put eyes on her and make sure she is in fact better. She agrees to lunch with Kame, dinner, if 5-O shows up. She facetimes Kono, and it cheers her up that by the end of the call Kono is not as visibly worried about Catherine as she was at the beginning of the call. When she gets a text from Kame, promising dinner, she's elated.
Dinner with Kame is nice. He doesn't press her; he just lets her discuss how she is, what she thinks the future holds for her. She feels selfish dominating the conversation, so she asks him about his life. He tells her that he's partnering with Steve and Danny for an Italian restaurant, there's no telling when the restaurant will be open. A piece of her dies inside, it's not that she wants to co-own a restaurant, she isn't stupid, but this is just another example of Steve creating something with someone for outside of 5-O, where he couldn't even create a world outside of his work for her.
She casually mentions to Kame to look out for places since she's anxious to leave Adam's. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know Adam's uncomfortable with her presence and he feels seedy lying to Steve; she understands how unnerving it is to hide things from Steve. Kame offers to let her stay at one of his new rental properties. It's not a shock Kame is investing in real estate, but she's grateful he's thrown her a lifeline. Catherine jokes he's genuinely becoming quite the mogul and it pleases him to see her smile and joke.
Once dinner is finished, he takes her to Adam's to drop off the spare key. Adam isn't home which makes the situation that much more bearable. Since she only has one bag and a backpack, it's hardly anything for her to pick up her stuff, leave the key on the table with a post-it-note scribbled, "Mahalo."
Kame's place is nice, when she gets a job, the rent will be reasonable, and she can decorate it however she wants. She doesn't mind the place being bare; she's slept in much worse environments than this. It's quite spacious for a two-bedroom, two bathroom. The master with its en-suite bathroom has a tub where she can have a bath once she's hit up CVS and gotten some cleaning supplies.
The next day, she receives a call that her money has been unfrozen and that Doris has contributed handsomely into her accounts. She sends a silent prayer of thanks up to God and waits to hear back from her former CO about any job postings. By Friday she has gained three interviews with three different agencies on the island in the upcoming week and has a bed delivered. By a month, her apartment's decorated, and she's started training for her new job working for the US Marshals' Service. She still has to go to Glynco for federal law enforcement training, but the work will be relatively easy compared to previous positions she enjoyed.
She ups her yoga practice, she joins a gym for a month and passes all the requirements for Marshal service.
Before leaving for Glynco, she visits her parents for a few weeks. Staying with her parents allows her to feel a sense of normalcy she had not yet found in Hawaii and gives her time to breathe and relax. Catherine is thankful that she's been able to rekindle the closeness she'd once had with her parents before her stint at the Agency. They know she's heartbroken, but they allow her the space to talk when she wants and to be silent when she needs silence. Her brothers off on assignment in the Navy, can't come home on such short notice, but she talks to them almost daily. It strengthens Catherine's spirit to get to know her mother as a woman and not a mother and wife. For the first time in Catherine's life, she gets to know her father as her father and not as a Naval Officer. When she leaves California for Georgia, she feels like she's well into her way of becoming whole again.
Catherine doesn't hear about Steve, and she doesn't look for him as she settles down. She doesn't know Joe White is being held in captivity. She doesn't know Steve and Junior risked their lives to save Joe. She doesn't know every day Joe's words about Catherine are on an instant replay in Steve's head.
Steve does not look for Catherine either. He's "moving on," or so he tells himself, multiple times a day. Steve is incredibly thankful that Joe saved his life, encouraged him to ask her out, and ordered him to visit his father. Those memories with his father he will treasure forever, that little time he spent with John McGarrett had healed a good portion of his internal childhood trauma. Between seeing his dad and dating Catherine, he had felt wanted, needed, and loved. Had Joe White not ordered him to be vulnerable he would have missed out on memories with his favorite people on the entire earth.
