Chapter 23

Saturday morning...

The girls had been looking forward to today. Cath knew that today was going to be a great day for her to bond more with both Chelsea and Evie and hopefully get Evie to start talking about some stuff that Cath could sense was wrong with her, but she had a feeling it was something that she didn't feel comfortable talking to Steve about.

It also meant that Steve got to spend the day with Jay, along with Danny. It meant that Steve and Jay could get to know each other more. He and Jay had gotten close through going running most mornings but trying to talk properly and get to know each other was hard when they were running. Danny had just come back and it was going to be a good time for Steve to catch up with Danny. He bad come back earlier than expected due to Stan going over there as well.

The girls had left earlier than the boys, giving them a couple of hours before the football games started for them to have some breakfast.

"How were things with you and Ellie yesterday?" Steve asked.

Jay had come home from his 'date' with Ellie and hadn't really said much. Through a lot of trying by both Cath and Chelsea, Jay had refused to share many details about what happened. Steve thought that he would try again and see if he would tell him anything in the hope that this could bring them closer like both he and Cath wanted.

"Things went really well. She is really nice and funny and I really like her. She said she enjoyed it too and we are going to go out again." Jay said, Steve was quite happy that Jay had decided to tell him this.

"So boyfriend/ girlfriend?" Steve questioned.

"Not yet, she said that she doesn't want to rush it and that we both need to be sure. We made a deal that we would go again and spend the day together and then we would take it from there." Jay explained. It wasn't Jay's choice for this to happen, it was really Ellie's choice but Jay knew, that if he wanted to go out with her he had to go along with her terms like his Nan had raised him too.

"I am sure it will happen in a while, just be patient." Steve told him.

"What time is Danny coming?" Jay asked changing the subject.

"He said he should be here in about an hour." Steve said after looking at his watch.

As Steve and Jay ate breakfast they started talking more about girls, football and about stuff that Jay didn't think he could talk about with his mother and sister. He was enjoying having another man around the house, because since the death of his dad the only male company he really got was teachers and his friends, neither of which give him the chance to talk about stuff he would like to talk to his dad about.

"I think with a couple more hours of practice with a football you will be captain of the football team." Steve said, he had seen Jay play football and he had been really good, before they even started practicing, he had a natural talent of playing.

"And be able to beat all the records you set, as I am almost certain no one has beaten them quite yet." Jay said.

"Oh really, if you think you can break my records I should stop training you to break them." Steve said jokingly.

"I think I still might just about break them." Jay said smiling back at him.

"Your mom said you were thinking about the Navy for when you leave college." Steve said, it wasn't a long conversation between him and Cath but she had mentioned it, and how upset Cath was about it because she never wanted that for her kids.

"I was thinking about it. When I used to go and see mom on base I saw the SEALs a couple of times and from then on wanted to be one. Mom is trying to convince me that other things are better in life, because she knows that it is like, but I don't care because I know I won't be in the same situation as mom." Jay replied.

"I understand were your mom is coming from but if it is what you want to do then I am sure I can arrange for you to speak to some people about it and meet the trainers of a few of the SEAL teams." Steve wasn't sure what Cath would say when she found out what Steve had told Jay but he needed to help the boy, because if it was what he wanted then he would do it to help him peruse his ambition.

"I am not sure what my mom will say but thank you." Jay said, he would most defiantly take Steve up on his offer, not just yet but sometime in the future when it got closer to him having to go think about signing up.

They carried on talking about things that Steve had encountered in the Navy and his time as SEAL with Steve being careful not to give away any classified information that would end up with him being court marshalled. When Danny finally arrived – late as Steve had expected – they left straight away to go to the football game.

"How was England?" Steve asked – he had once again took the driving seat of Danny's car leaving Jay sitting in the back – Steve knew that England had not gone as well as they had wanted it to and knew that a rant would be coming up soon.

"Cold, wet and full of snow. Grace loved it, and was enjoying the snow, but it started to melt yesterday." Danny said.

Steve noted that he was talking about the place and not about what had really happened between him and Rachel. "How was Rachel?" Steve tried again.

"She was alright, a little upset about her mother, but she will hopefully be better in a few weeks according to doctors." Danny explained.

"And Stan?" Steve asked, he hoped that Danny would talk about him when he asked about Rachel but for once Danny was not himself.

"He came over, tried to play the loving husband, and step Stan and I took it as my cue to leave. I was going to have Grace come back with me, but Rachel said she was staying and that she would be coming back with her." Danny explained. "Anyway, how is the football practice going with both of you?" Danny asked changing the subject.

"It is going well, although Jay here thinks he can break all of my records." Steve said, looking at Jay though the rear view mirror.

"Well I am sure it wouldn't be too hard." Danny replied.

"I would like to see you beat them." Steve replied, he knew that Danny was slowly becoming back to himself.

"Not me personally but I think Jay would destroy them." Danny said.

"I think Danny has a point." Jay said speaking from the back seat.

"Really?" Steve replied.

"Yeah I am sure I will do it before I leave school."

"We'll have to wait and see." Steve said. He was almost certain that Jay would break at least half of his records before he left school with the way that the training had been doing.

Meanwhile...

"I think Steve has gone all out mom. He is certainly trying to spoiler you for something. Look at what he has booked us in for. Getting manicure and pedicures, hair done, full body massages, facials, lunch and dinner." Chelsea said looking at the schedule.

"Really?" Cath asked, when Steve said he had booked them into a spa she thought he would have just booked entry and nothing else. Cath took the schedule off Chelsea and started reading for herself. "I can't believe this." Looks like I will have some making up to do to him, she thought.

"Where do we start?" Evie asked.

"Manicure and pedicure." Chelsea said as she started to walk away.

"I don't think I have ever had a manicure and pedicure." Evie said. "My mum never took me, she used to go by herself while I was at school."

"You'll love it when they are done, you never want to go back to your old nails." Chelsea said.

Later that day...

The football game had gone well, the team that Steve, Danny and Jay had been supporting had won. Steve and Danny had gone into another one of their arguments about sporting records and how competitive Steve was. Jay found it quite amusing and but thought it must get a little annoying if he would have to witness it every day.

Steve had decided that after the game they should meet up with Chin for dinner, but after Jay mentioned Adam, they had decided to phone Adam and see if he wanted to join them too. Kono had already told them about her plans for the day, and knew that Adam would be doing nothing with her.

Steve was about to drive to the hotel for dinner when his phone rang. He saw the Governors name pop up and he knew that the rest of his day off was about to go.

"McGarrett" Steve said answering the phone. He listened to the Governor on the other end and the case he had for them. "We'll be there in 20minutes." He said once the Governor had told him all about the case and why HPD couldn't take it and it was one for 5-0. "Danny call Chin and Kono and tell them to meet us at the Hilton hotel and then call Adam and tell him dinner is off. We will drop you home on the way to the hotel." Steve said turning around to look at Jay.

"Okay, looks like I came back at the right time." Danny said taking his seat in the car.

Once Steve and Danny had dropped Jay home they made their way to the hotel to see what brutal case they would have to face today.

When they got to the crime scene they saw that HPD was already outside the room, and walking in they found a young girl stabbed to death in the bed. Both Danny and Steve looked at the body before turning away, they had seen many murders but for some reasons this one was different. The girl must have only been 16 at the most, her body lay there covered in blood only partially covered by the covers.

"I hate this job sometimes." Steve said walking away from the body to look around the rest of the hotel room.

"We need to find out who this girl is, why she was here, who she was with and who booked this room." Steve said once Chin and Kono had arrived at the hotel room.

"Well I found out this room is booked under the name of Thomas Peterson 30, he checked in two days ago and I have HPD checking CCTV to see if they can find out when he was last in here. This room was only booked for one person, so whoever this girl is she wasn't planned to be here." Danny said as he walked back in from talking with the manager. "Also she was found about an hour ago, by the cleaner, she had come into make the bed and saw the blood and then the body and left straight away to call HPD and inform the manager."

"Right, Kono I want you to work on finding out who this girl is, Chin, have a look at CCTV find out who this Thomas Peterson is and why he was in the hotel, and see if you can find where he is now. Me and Danny are going to have a look in the room to see what we can find." Steve said. He wanted this killer found soon, with the victim being a young girl all he could think about was Evie, he knew that there was a 6 year age gap, but he was also thinking about Chelsea were there was only a 2 year age gap and how very soon both Chelsea and Evie would be going out and he and Cath not knowing entirely where they were.

Meanwhile...

Cath, Chelsea and Evie had, had a great day at the spa. They got home to find that Steve's truck was there, but the house looked empty. Once inside Cath found the note that Jay had left for her on the kitchen surface.

Steve and Danny got called to work, he said he doesn't know when he will be home. If he is still working through the night he will call you in the morning. I have gone out to see Ellie, I will be home about 8-9ish.

Love Jay

"Well it looks like it is just us for the night." Cath said walking back into the living. "I am thinking raid the sweet cupboards and go upstairs and watch a movie?"

"Yeah." Chelsea and Evie replied.

Chelsea and Evie made their way upstairs to get into the PJs on while Cath went to the kitchen cupboard and got some food to take upstairs. As she walked into the front room she grabbed two films to take upstairs.

Once Chelsea and Evie had made their way to Chelsea's room to get changed, Evie stopped in the mirror to admire her hair. Today while at the spa, all three girls had got their hair done, although Evie had decided to cut her short. Cath and Chelsea had both been surprised to turn around and see most of Evie's hair lying on the floor. Her middle back length hair had been cut to sit just about her shoulders. Cath and Chelsea both thought it looked beautiful, but neither where entirely sure as to what decided on the new look.

"Your hair looks amazing." Chelsea said when she noticed that Evie had once again stopped to look in the mirror. Evie had looked in mirrors a lot today looking at her hair, which Chelsea thought was a sign that it was taking some getting used to or Evie didn't like that big change.

"I like it, it is just really different, I mean I ran my fingers through it before and it felt really weird." Evie replied, she did like it but she knew that she had not had hair this short in a very long time.

"I understand, it takes about a week to get use to and then it just becomes normal. What's your dad going to say?"

"I'm not really sure." Evie said before walking to the bathroom.

About 20 minutes later they were all lying in Cath's bed with food in the middle of the bed and The Notebook about to start.

It was a couple of hours later when Jay came home. He walked upstairs and found the girls mom's room. Once he saw they were watching the notebook he quickly said goodnight and made his way to his room. Watching that film was one too many times for him.

It was the middle of the night when Steve finally came home. He had decided that his team needed a rest and they would continue early the next morning and the few leads they did have could wait until the morning.

When he got home he was looking forward to going to bed and sleeping for the few hours he had before he had to go to work. But as he got to his door, he stopped to see that Chelsea and Evie were asleep in the middle of his bed with Cath lying next to them watching TV.

"What are you still doing up?" Steve asked as he walked over to the side of the bed.

"Waiting for you." Cath said, she knew that Jay had told her he might not be home until tomorrow, but she hadn't seen him all day and wanted to wait to speak to him if it would only be for a couple of minutes.

"You didn't have to" Steve said.

"I know I wanted to. How was the football game?" Cath asked, making sure she was quite enough not to disturb the girls.

"It was good, we managed to watch the whole game before we got called away with a case." Steve said. "How was the spa?" Steve asked, taking a seat on the edge of the bed.

"It was good, really relaxing, we all enjoyed it."

"Looks like I am not sleeping in here, I will let you go to sleep. I am out to work early tomorrow, so I will phone you at lunch time." Steve said, getting off the bed, kissing her before walking around the bed to kiss Evie on the head.

"I swear my daughter had a lot more hair than that when you went out this morning." Steve said as got to Evie. He bent down next to her and ran his finger through her hair to see if properly and it was a lot shorter. Of what he could see of it, whilst she was lying down, he had to admire that it looked beautiful.

"Well done SuperSeal, great observation." Cath said looking over Chelsea's body to where Evie was asleep.

"Did she say why?" Steve asked. Ever since his daughter had been little she had already loved her hair long, and when she first came to stay with him, he had commented on how long her hair had gotten, and she had told him that she liked it that way.

"No idea, both me and Chelsea both asked but she didn't really say anything."

"Okay, well goodnight." Steve said walking to the door.

It was about 6am when he woke up. He had slept on the sofa, and after looking at the time he got to sleep he decided not to go for his morning run, as he had to leave for work early anyway. He had about an hour and a half before he had to be at work so he made his way into the kitchen to make himself some coffee.

He heard someone moving around upstairs and thought it was Jay, getting up to go for a run. He did go and see if he was awake to tell him he would not be running this morning, but he didn't want to wake him as he was already asleep.

Once he heard the creaks on the stairs he ruled it out of being Jay walking down the stairs because the person walking down the stairs was lighter in a weight, probably one of the girls.

As he looked out the kitchen door he saw Evie walking into the living and towards the kitchen.

"Good morning." He said when she reached the kitchen.

"Morning."

"You're up early." Steve stated when she sat at the table.

"Yeah couldn't get back to sleep."

"You cut your hair." Steve told her when she sat down.

"Yeah. You like it?" She asked.

"It looks beautiful. Can I ask why you cut it?" Steve thought back to what Cath had said last night and how she had not told her and Chelsea why she had done it.

"I just did." Was Evie's simple reply.

"Come on, we both know that's not true, and I can tell when something is bothering you." Steve said.

"I liked my hair long, but for the last couple of months I wanted to cut it shorter, but Mom said that she liked it long. I didn't want to cut it this short, but I thought that since Mom doesn't want me then why should I do what she wants, so I got it cut, but decided to get it cut shorter because she doesn't like my hair really short." Evie said.

"You cut your hair to annoy your mom?" Steve asked, he didn't understand why she would do it annoy her mom.

"Sort of, but I wanted it short anyway, but I just want to move on from her. She didn't want me, why should I want to speak to her or do what she wants?" Evie said.

"Just because she sent you to live with me doesn't mean that you have to forget about her, and start doing things different because she won't like it."

"She has forgot about me, when was the last time she phoned to speak to me. Not even a letter or email, she never said goodbye to me, she just sent me away, so why can't I forget about her?" Evie said, tears had started rolling down her face, she stood up and left the table to head upstairs.

"Evie." Steve called after her, but he didn't want to shout too loud, in case he woke up anyone else.

As Steve followed Evie upstairs he was stopped by Cath who was walking out of their room.

"What's going on?" Cath questioned.

"Evie came downstairs and we started talking about her mom, she got upset and then ran up here." Steve explained the short version.

"Where did she go?" Cath asked.

"I think she went into Chelsea's room. I will be down in a minute."

"Steve just leave her for a little while to calm down, trust me if she ran off from you she won't want to talk to you right now." Cath said still blocking his way. "Okay?" She asked waiting for him to turn around before she carried on.

In Chelsea's room...

"You okay?" Chelsea said sitting up in her bed. She had just heard Evie running up the stairs and had properly woke up when she heard Evie walk into her room, sounding like she had just started crying.

"Yeah." Evie said at first, but as she turned to look at Chelsea she knew that she couldn't hide her tears from Chelsea. "No."

"What happened?" Chelsea asked as Evie sat down on the bed next to her.

"Why does my dad always want to talk about my mom? She left me, she didn't want me, what else is there to say. He keeps asking me about how I feel and I feel angry that she left me, I feel like I was never good enough for her and that all my life she has never wanted me. I feel upset that my own mother doesn't want me and no matter how much I try not to think about it, I can't get it out of my head that she doesn't love me." Evie said.

Chelsea waited a few minutes to make sure that Evie was finished, before she said anything. "Have you told your dad this?" Chelsea asked, she already knew the answer that Evie properly hadn't talked to Steve about it or this conversation would probably not be happening.

"No."

"Then that is why he keeps asking you. He wants to make sure that you are alright, and he knows, probably though experiences with your aunty and my mom that when women say they are alright they very rarely mean it. When my dad died I told everyone I was alright and it didn't help, it made me think about it more, everything I was feeling I kept inside and in the end it made me feel worse."

"I will go and speak to him later, right now I think I might go back to sleep. I am sorry for waking you." Evie said.

"Don't worry its okay it's only Jay that annoys me when he wakes me up. You go back to sleep I will be back in a minute." Chelsea said getting out of her bed.

Chelsea started to make her way downstairs, to go and find Steve and her Mom.

"Morning." Cath said turning around from making breakfast in the kitchen. "Is Evie alright?"

"Yeah, that's why I came down to talk to you. She's upset." Chelsea started, she saw that Steve started to make his way to the door. "Before you go upstairs she has gone back to sleep, she knows that she has to talk to you, she has told me she will, but you need to give her time."

"Is she okay though?" Steve asked.

"Yeah she's fine, she has calmed down now and will be fine." Chelsea replied.

"Thank you, for everything." Steve said, he truly was thankful that Chelsea was there for his daughter and she helped her more than he could at times.

"It's okay. Right now I am going to go back to bed." Chelsea said.

"Don't forget we are going out shopping later so don't sleep for too long." Cath said as Chelsea turned around to go back to bed.

"Trust me it is shopping I will not forget."

"I know." Cath said.

Please review. I am sorry it is taking me so long to update, I have exams coming up so updates will be slow, but as soon as I finish for the summer updates will come more regularly.