Finally…another chapter and I've already started the next one, so it will be posted soon too. I love reading what you think about this story, so please keep the reviews coming. Also, please overlook any mistakes; Especially with the Italian. Enjoy!

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Steve and Sophia eventually left Kamekona's shrimp stand to go for a walk on the beach. Kamekona watched them leave with interest. He had rarely known McGarrett to blow off a day of work to spend with someone else, so this young lady must be important. From what Steve had shared, she was the younger sister of one of Steve's former SEAL buddies who had recently died. Watching them together as they ate lunch, though, Kame couldn't help but wonder if something else was amiss. He was no expert, but he was pretty adept at reading people; Those two definitely had chemistry and what he was reading between Steve & Sophia told him he might be seeing a lot more of the pretty Italian in the future.

The couple walked a few minutes in silence before finding a place to sit in the sand. After watching the relaxing sway of the waves rolling in, Sophia looked at Steve's handsome profile and felt guilty. As much as she had enjoyed spending time with Steve again, she knew she was keeping him from work.

"I feel like I need to apologize to you."

"Apologize for what?"

"I know you must have much more important things to do than babysit me."

Steve looked at her with obvious admiration in his eyes. "I wouldn't call it babysitting. And you haven't heard me complaining, have you?" he winked at her making her blush.

"No, but…..I feel guilty for how this has happened. I mean, finding me the way you did this morning…..and then taking me back to your house so I could sleep before bringing me here for lunch…..I've totally ruined whatever plans you may have had, and I'm sorry about that."

Steve turned towards and took one of her hands in his own, "Listen, It's okay. I told you, my team will call me if anything urgent comes up."

"I think you're just being kind. In all the years I've known you, when did you ever sit still for more than 5 minutes at a time? Seriously."

Steve chuckled a little at that, "You have a point. But it's been a really long time since I took a day off, so this has been nice for me too. Truly. It's been great to see you again, Soph."

The two spent a while longer on the beach before Steve got a call from Danny on something that had come up. He wanted to drop Sophia off at his house so she could wait for him to come back, but she insisted that he had done more than enough for her. She was fine, she said. She wanted to go back to her apartment to do a few things before going back in to work herself the next day. Steve had reluctantly agreed with her, but only after she promised to keep in touch and call him if she needed anything.

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The next couple of weeks went by fairly quickly. As promised, Steve kept tabs on Sophia by checking in with her every day to make sure she was okay. They even met twice for lunch or dinner although neither of them would call the meetings "dates". They were just two friends getting together and sharing good memories of a friend/brother who was now gone. Sophia found that she was drawing strength from Steve in ways she wouldn't have anticipated before. It helped to have someone to talk to who had known Gio and loved him like she had. In many ways, they had both lost a brother.

Steve had promised to be there for her no matter what time of day or night, and he had proven himself trustworthy on that note. In addition to checking in on her daily, Sophia had called him two other times over the next couple of weeks when she had felt herself needing to talk; One such call was during the workday when something had reminded her of Giovanni and sent her into an emotional tailspin. She called Steve on his cell phone and he had answered immediately. The other time had been in the middle of the night. She had dreamed about Gio and woke up feeling so overwhelmed with grief, the only thing she could think of was calling Steve. Both times, his voice on the other line had been able to comfort her and make her feel sane again. Not only was Steve becoming an invaluable friend and sounding-board, but Sophia was also finding it harder and harder to fight the attraction she had for him.

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Steve looked up from his desk as he heard someone open his door to find Danny standing there with Rosa.

"Look who I found downstairs." Danny said cheerfully.

"Momma Rosa! What are you doing here? Is everything okay?" Concern etched Steve's face as he stood up to go to her with a hug. Rosa smiled at him as she put a hand on his cheek to pat it gently.

"No worries, bambino. I wanted to surprise you but the guards downstairs wouldn't let me up without 'announcing' that I was here." She looked somewhat irritated as she recalled how her surprise had been ruined, "Thank goodness Detective Williams came in when he did so I could still sneak up."

Steve smiled at her apologetically, "Sorry, Rosa. It's just for security reasons. You understand, right?"

Rosa shook her head in understanding, "Of course I do. They need to keep you all safe and I am glad for that."

Steve looked at the box in her hand. "What's this?" he asked curiously.

Rosa handed him the box which he opened eagerly. "Oh man! Your homemade cannoli?" He took one out and took a big bite as his eyes closed in ecstasy.

He looked over at Danny, his mouth still full of the delicious sweet treat, "Momma Rosa makes the best cannoli on the planet. Seriously. This stuff is legendary. She would send Gio and I boxes of it when we were enlisted and we would have to hide it from the other guys."

Rosa beamed at him before looking over at Danny, "I think Stevie may be exaggerating a little," she chuckled.

"I like cannoli. Wanna share a piece, buddy?" Danny looked at him greedily.

At first Steve considered keeping it all to himself, but after seeing the stern look he was getting from Momma Rosa, he reluctantly handed the box to Danny so he could sample for himself.

"There is another reason I came by today." Rosa looked at Steve pointedly. Sensing that she may need to talk to Steve privately, Danny turned to excuse himself. "The box stays in here, Danno!" Steve demanded as he held out his hand expectantly. Rosa chuckled as she settle onto the couch and Danny reluctantly handed the box of cannoli back to Steve before walking out.

"What's on your mind, Rosa?" Steve inquired.

"It has taken some time, but I finally started cleaning out Giovanni's apartment," she began. "I just couldn't bring myself to go in there before, but I knew it had to be done."

"You should have called me. I would have helped you."

She reached over to pat him on the leg. "No…no…..You are doing enough, sweetheart. You have been there for my Sophia and I will be forever grateful. I have a couple of friends who are helping me with Gio's things. We're just taking it slow and doing it as we can."

She reached into her purse and pulled out a small letter sized envelope. "I was going through some of his papers yesterday and found this." She handed Steve the envelope with his name written in Gio's handwriting.

"What is it?" Steve asked.

"I don't know. It's sealed, so it must be something he wanted you to have. I wanted to bring it to you personally."

Steve didn't know what to think. When had Gio written this? And why hadn't he given it to him before?

After visiting with Rosa a few minutes more and promising to go to her house for dinner within the next couple of weeks, she said goodbye. Steve sat down at his desk to open the note from Gio.

Hey Steel…..

Steve immediately had to swallow the lump in his throat at the name his SEAL buddies had called him. All of them had nicknames. Gio's had been "Stallion" as in "Italian Stallion". And Steve's had been "Steel"….as in 'Man of Steel' aka Superman. The guys had said nothing could stop Steve from getting something he wanted…. Probably not even kryptonite….Hence the name "Steel". Steve closed his eyes and gathered the courage to read on.

If you're reading this letter, something has undoubtedly happened and I am no longer with you. I never expected to be trapped in this dark hole and I am finding it harder every day to fight my way out. I have fought like hell to escape, but I can't get away from the nightmares anymore. They have robbed me of my desire to live and I am tired of fighting the demons that are always in my mind.

You have been such a great friend, comrade, and brother-in-arms. The good memories we share have helped to keep me stay afloat this long. I just don't think I can do it much longer. You have been a true fratello…..Maybe not by blood, but definitely in life. I am forever grateful for your friendship and brotherhood.

I want you to know that I never meant to hurt anyone. Especially not you…..or Momma….or Sophia. I am so sorry that I am bringing this pain into your lives.

I worry about Sophie the most. She is strong, Steve, but it hurts me to know what this will do to her. Promise me that you will be there for her. She will need your strength to get through this and I am trusting you to look after her once I'm gone.

I will also let you in on a secret that Sophia will probably hate me for sharing. BUT, since I am her pesky big brother, I guess it's only appropriate that I do one last thing to get under her skin. I don't know if you've known this or not, but Sophia has always had a 'thing' for you. Yes, as much as I hated to admit it, she thought Steve McGarrett hung the moon. She may have looked up to me….but I didn't hold a candle to you in her eyes. Shocking, I know.

Steve chuckled in spite of himself even as he fought to keep the tears from his eyes. He continued reading.

I'm also not blind, brother. I can see that my baby sister has turned into a beautiful woman. I can't tell you how many nights I've lost sleep over that fact. She's beautiful….and smart…..and as you know, she also has an incredibly big heart and capacity to love. She's going to make some man very lucky one day; That is as long as they can put up with the Italian temper that comes out sometimes too. (smile)

Steve stopped and smiled again. Yes, Sophia did have an 'italian temper', but he actually thought it made her quite sexy…and endlessly tempting.

I won't be there to do background checks and everything else that needs to be done on him, so I want you to look after her and make sure the one who wins her is worthy of her love.

And if that man ends up being you, I want you to know...you have my blessing. I'm throwing that in here 'just in case'….. I don't know why, but I have a feeling about things where you two are concerned.

Thank you for being such a great friend.
I will always love you, brother.
Giovanni

Steve re-read that last paragraph over again. Where had that come from? Him and Sophia? Yes, the thought had definitely crossed his mind. Countless times over the last several weeks, in fact, but he had never let his mind wander too far. Seeing Gio's words on paper seemed to "free" him a little to explore things with Sophia if things kept going forward.

He read through the letter once more. Danny opened the door just as Steve was finishing the letter again and saw him wipe a tear from his eyes.

"Everything okay, buddy?" he asked as he walked towards Steve's desk.

Steve held the letter out to him, "Momma Rosa found this letter in Gio's things. Apparently he wrote it before he died."

Danny read through the letter and let out a low whistle, "Wow. Pretty heavy stuff. Are you okay?"

Honestly, Steve wasn't sure, and he told Danny so.

"Is something going on with you and Sophia?" Danny asked.

"No. We're just friends." Steve answered but Danny wasn't convinced and it showed on his face.

"What?" Steve asked.

"All I'm saying is that I've seen you two together. I think it's great…..really…..that you've been there for her. But you can't deny there might be something else going on between you. Am I wrong?"

Steve hated to admit it to Danny's face, but he couldn't deny it. "Yeah...Maybe." Steve sighed. "I don't know...I definitely feel something for her, so I guess we'll just have to see what happens."

Danny smiled happily at him, "Okay. So let me know when you wanna do a double date, okay?" he teased. "You know Amber is Italian too, so I think they'd get along great."

Steve ignored his comment as he walked out to get back to the case they were currently working on.

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*FYI: "Fratello" means "Brother" in Italian. Please review and let me know your thoughts on this chapter. The next one is coming soon.