You Owe Me

by njborba

Steve thinks he's finally ready for a future with Catherine, but nothing goes as planned.

11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to the TV series, Hawaii Five-0.

---

You Owe Me
Part 11

By
N. J. Borba

---

He pushed the front door open and dropped his bag.

Steve actually smiled when he heard Trooper's paws brushing softly against the hardwood floor. He watched her round the corner, ears perked when she spotted him. The dog rushed straight for his flip-flops under the stairs. She brought them over to him, dropping them in favor of licking his outstretched hands. "I missed you, too, girl," Steve spoke affectionately to the canine, though he'd yet to succumb to a baby-talk voice. "But I'm not staying long enough to need those," he regretfully slid the flip-flops out of the way.

"You just got back, why aren't you staying?"

Her voice caused him to stand up straighter. Steve sighed as he eyed his sister who was standing in the archway between the living room and the back room, "I'm heading back to China tomorrow. There's a new lead I want to check out."

Mary groaned as she bent down to pick up a file folder of the floor, "Why don't you just let it go?" she asked.

"Let it go? Are you joking, Mare?" Steve shook his head before shedding a top layer of clothing. The button-up shirt was tossed onto his bag, white t-shirt and khakis remaining. "Wo Fat had dad killed, did that detail slip your mind? He's also the reason mom faked her death and left us," he spoke with a great deal of exasperation. Normally he tried to shield her from all of the nastiness of the past, but his ability to do anything but focus on Wo Fat lately was seriously lacking.

"And what are you doing with my files?" Steve took several steps toward her and yanked the manila folders out of her hands. "Those were all in order."

She glared at him for a second then swooped down, grabbed another file and tossed into a trash bin by their father's old desk, "I agreed to dog-sit for you," Mary freed her words with considerable restraint, "But I've spent the last five days tripping over your files. This place is a disaster." Mary took a moment to observe her brother's appearance, "Actually, you're a disaster, too. What's up with this Grizzly Adams look?" she waved a hand at his beard.

He deliberately stroked the chin whiskers that had grown out about an inch the last few months. The hair atop his head was longer as well, slightly wavy as it flopped haphazardly over his ears. Ever since his reservist training at the end of May, he'd let regulation grooming fly out the window. "Everything here is in order," Steve side-stepped the issue of his appearance. "All of these files are laid out exactly as everyone was seated on the plane."

"Steve, your floor is covered with dead people… pictures of dead people anyhow," Mary pointed out, each file folder having a photograph of a passenger on flight U8517 stapled to the front of it, "Don't you find that creepy? I find that creepy. I find it hard to sleep in this house with all these pictures just lying around," she physically shivered before bending down to retrieve another file.

Steve stomped the toe of his boot against it, stopping her from picking up the file. "I thought you were going to Kono's gathering today."

"I didn't figure you were going," Mary gave up, stood and backed away from him, her arms hanging limply at her sides, "I thought it would be kind of weird to go on my own. Plus, now that you're back, I don't want to leave you alone on a holiday," she stepped backwards and slipped on a piece of paper. Mary caught herself, hands pressed against the wall. "Jeez, Steve!" she exclaimed, "I can't even walk around without tripping over stuff. Trooper can't even get to her food dishes."

"Don't exaggerate, Mare," Steve squatted and repositioned the files she'd picked up. Max had identified remains for eighty-nine of the one hundred and fifteen passengers. The other twenty-six would never be fully laid to rest in their family's hearts. And that almost bothered him more than not knowing the truth about the accident, "You know I made sure there's a path to the kitchen and one to the back door," he grabbed the file out of the trash and repositioned it as well, "I wouldn't neglect our dog."

"She's not my dog," Mary frowned.

He looked up at his sister, "What?"

"You said our dog."

"Obviously I meant mine and Catherine's."

"Steve…" Mary's shoulders sagged as she let go a soft sigh, "Catherine is dead."

He didn't outright deny what she'd said, but he did his best to avoid the topic, "I need to grab a shower and some clean clothes," Steve walked away from the files, snapped up his bag and headed up the stairs. Trooper followed him up and into the bedroom.

The dog curled atop the bed, her tail happily thumping against the comforter as she watched Steve.

Mary entered the room even as her brother kicked off his boots and stripped off his socks. "Why do you change the subject every time I try to talk about Catherine? You used to do the same thing after mom died and then dad," she instantly noticed the look in his eyes, a mixture of avoidance and sorrow. Mary tried to backtrack a little, "I can't stay with Trooper any longer. My flight leaves tomorrow morning. I told you I start my new job on Monday. I have to be in California."

"I'll make other arrangements for Trooper," Steve didn't seem bothered as he reached into several drawers and pulled out clean t-shirts, pants and underwear. He emptied his duffle of the dirty clothes and replaced them with the clean ones.

"You know," Mary wandered further into the room as he was preoccupied. "I bought some of those frozen turkey dinners and it's already after four, I could go toss them in the oven and we can eat together here, maybe watch a movie," she picked a book up off Catherine's bedside table. "Since mom seems to have disappeared again and Catherine isn't here to keep us together, I figured I should make an effort. I know I've never been very good at that, but…"

Steve turned and spotted her with Catherine's book in her hands. He swallowed, "Mary, I appreciate the effort but I really need to stay focused on this lead. After I shower I'm heading to the office to do some research tonight. I'll take Trooper with me and sort something out for her."

"I didn't know she read this author," Mary remarked, reading the book's title, doing her best to ignore his brushoff, "I've read a few things by her, pretty good, haven't read this one."

"If you want the book, take it," Steve offered.

She looked down at the bedside table again. "There's at least an inch of dust here. It's like an episode of hoarders in this place."

"This is not hording, Mary," he finally lost his cool with her. "This is just the way Catherine and I keep things. I have someone come by and clean occasionally, just not for a few weeks now. And all of those case files downstairs are important. They need to stay ordered, and as soon as I figure out why Wo Fat was released - as soon as I get his sorry ass behind bars again - I'm going to come back and figure out more about the crash and what really happened to Catherine."

She was tempted to keep quiet, sensing how unwilling he was to budge, but Mary couldn't let it go. "I think maybe you need to talk to someone, Steve."

He sighed, "What do you mean? I just told you I had both cases under control."

"Not about a case. I mean a professional. Aunt Deb made me go to one after mom died; a grief counselor. It helped, some."

His eyes radiated anger, but he managed to keep it in check this time, "I do not need to talk about my feelings to some shrink who knows absolutely nothing about me and Catherine or how much we… thank you, but no," Steve dismissed her suggestion.

"Then you can talk to me if you want," Mary offered softly.

"What is there to talk about?" he groaned, feeling exasperated by his little sister in much the same way as he had when she'd tried to get him to play My Little Ponies with her as a little girl, "I'm fine, Mare. I take care of Trooper, made sure she had her vet check-up last month. She's healthy. We eat, go for runs, walks on the beach, we swim together."

"And she sleeps in bed with you, curled up on Catherine's side," Mary recalled seeing him one morning with his arm draped across the Labrador. "You know Catherine didn't come back in dog form, right? It's not healthy the way you're living. What about your lack of grooming lately… or the fact that you take all sorts of breaks from your taskforce to travel around looking for a guy who's way too dangerous to be looking for on your own?"

He shook his head, "How I cope is really none of your business, Mary."

"You're my brother, Steve. Other than Aunt Deb you're the only family I have left. You are my business. Please, just stay with me tonight. And after we eat I could," she glanced at the book again, and the nightstand. "I'll help you pack some of this stuff up. I think you need to get rid of her things. She had a Will, right?"

Steve looked stricken, like she'd just physically hit him, "She left everything to me, except her life insurance policy which went to her parents and to cover funeral expenses. I got a tiny blue car that I'll never drive," he rolled his eyes, wondering why she'd left that to him. "But I got Trooper, and the record collection. Actually, you could have the car if you want."

"And do what with it, drive to California? I don't want Catherine's car," Mary sighed, about at the end of her tolerance rope. "Catherine wouldn't want you to live like this. We talked about it once… well, sort of. I made a comment about how she'd changed some curtains and a few other little things in the house. I told her I was glad. You always leave stuff the same, after mom died, after dad died… it's not healthy, Steve."

He walked over to his sister and kissed her forehead. "Thank you for watching Trooper. Take the book if you want. I need to shower."

That was all he said before entering the bathroom and closing the door on her.

000

"Come on, girl," Steve tugged on Trooper's blue leash, encouraging her to follow him out of the truck.

"I promise this isn't the place I had in mind to leave you."

He closed the door once she was down and they walked across the pristinely kept lawn. The green grass softly yielded to their footfalls as Steve guided the dog toward the spot he hadn't returned to since her funeral. It actually took him a moment to find it, his eyes scanning over several other names carved into stones that were aligned toward the horizon. Steve thought he was finally ready, but when he spotted her name he realized just how unprepared he'd actually been.

Even though, in Steve's opinion, his father had died too soon, he'd been prepared for it in some small way. The way an adult is always expecting their parents to go before them. He figured parents were meant to be a part of the past eventually, but as Steve looked down at her name he couldn't imagine the future. Since the first time they'd met, Steve had always expected her to be in his life somehow. He'd always expected himself to go first, given the risks he took, and because the thought of a world without Catherine was too sad.

"This is it," he spoke to the Labrador as they stood in front of the stone.

Steve squatted, still keeping a tight hold on the dog's leash. Trooper had gone through a long period of mourning for Catherine, not wanting to go for walks, barely eating, staying curled up in bed for hours on end. They'd suffered together until Steve realized he'd been allowing the dog to follow his lead, and not a good one. Eventually they'd resumed runs on the beach and swimming in the ocean. But it still wasn't the same without Catherine.

He gently brushed some mowed grass off the stone and read the words etched there:

Lt. Catherine June Rollins

U.S. Navy

June 23, 1978 – Feb. 15, 2014

Beloved Daughter – Sister – Friend

"That's nice, simple," Steve was pleased to know her parents had included the part about her being a sister. But he couldn't help feeling conflicted by the word: friend. He wasn't really sure where he fit in regard to that list. She'd been so much more than a friend to him, but never a fiancé or wife. Steve placed a hand against his chest where her ring and dog tag still remained close to his heart. Then, with a great deal of care, Steve reached for the small white flower he'd tucked into Trooper's collar.

He placed the delicate white plumeria bloom atop her grave marker, his fingers tracing the curve of the C in her name.

"I don't have any idea if you're here or… listening, or…" his head shook. "For some reason I figured nine and half months might make this easier to face. Guess that makes me a fool?"

Trooper curled up to the left of the stone, seeming to sense that their visit had something to do with her dearly departed friend.

A small American flag was anchored into the ground on the right-hand side with a short stake, flapping in the gentle warm afternoon breeze.

There were other flowers there, a jar filled with blue snapdragons. Conversations with Grace let him know she was the one who left those for her Aunty once in a while. Several long stalks of Red Ginger were bundled and tied, lying above her gravestone. Steve had seen Kono carrying a similar bunch the day of Catherine's funeral. Then there was a tall, narrow vase with some half-wilted flowers that he was pretty sure had once been livelier tulips.

He couldn't guess who the tulips might have been from. Mary was the only one who came to mind, but he knew she avoided cemeteries nearly as much as he did.

Steve mindlessly patted the dog as he continued to talk, "Today is Thanksgiving," he sighed, "Seems like a strange day to be visiting you here for the first time since…" he shrugged. "I keep thinking about last year when you wanted my mom to be with us for the holiday and I was kind of against it. Then I got pissed at her. I felt bad because I knew you'd tried so hard to make it a special holiday for all of us. Today I snapped at Mary, after she came all the way here to watch Trooper for us… me," he corrected.

"If you were here you would've told me to be nicer to Mary," he knew. "If you were here I wouldn't have been…"

Trooper's head lifted and turned as a small flock of birds took to the air a few yards behind them.

"You want to hear something ridiculous?" Steve asked the stone with her name, "I was going to propose to you when you got back from Russia. I know you agreed just to talk about marriage some more, but I was confident I could get you to say yes. Especially with the ring," he smiled softly. "I would've wanted a short engagement, but I'm guessing you'd have planned something special. That's what women do, right? Plan their wedding day and name all their kids ten or twenty years before they have them."

A small bit of laughter escaped, but it made him feel like he was betraying her to be even the slightest bit cheerful.

"Mary used to do that sort of thing. She'd try to tell me about it and I'd slam a door in her face, drove me crazy." Steve sighed, recalling again how mean he'd been to Mary earlier, dismissing her love and concern. "Mary misses you, she doesn't say it really, but that would be a McGarrett family trait. Kono, Danny and Chin talk about you sometimes, usually if they think I'm not listening. And Gracie… she still talks about that Christmas snowball fight and ice skating with you."

His left hand tightened around Trooper's leash a little. "But they all seem to be moving on without you."

The flag whipped around again as a warm gust drifted across the cemetery. "Kono and Adam are doing really well. Adam regained his hotels after we got back from Japan, and the two of them are living together," he expanded. "Chin and Leilani are taking things slow, but it's pretty clear they're both in love," that word hitched in his throat for a moment. "Danny claims he's sworn off women for good since Gabby, but I doubt he'll be holding to that for much longer. There's a woman he flirts with when we go have drinks at the Hilton."

He took a few breaths, glancing at the flowers again, "I almost forgot, Kamekona and his cousin started another franchise. Floral arrangement, if you can believe that," he shook his head. "Apparently it's big business. Lots of weddings on the island," Steve noted, "Grace is twelve now, had a birthday in May. She's still cheerleading but switched to roller hockey instead of softball this school year. Pretty sure you'd call me an old man if I said time flies, but…" he picked at the grass with his right hand.

"Maybe I shouldn't tell you this, but Wo Fat is free again," Steve revealed. "Apparently those idiot CIA agents made good on their promise to give him freedom in exchange for information. Wouldn't be a bit surprised if Doris was behind it, although I'm more convinced someone was paid off. I still can't connect him to the plane crash, but I do plan to toss his sorry butt back in prison. And if he gets out again after that I'll just keep hunting him down and..." he trailed off.

"It's easier to focus on a crusade than a reality without you in it," Steve confessed. "I don't know why I can't let you go, Cath," he sighed, realizing that wasn't entirely true. "Okay, maybe I do. But I know what you'd say about that, too… more mommy issues." Steve tossed that thought around a moment before letting it out, "I'm pretty sure Doris skewed my ability to cope with death the moment I found out she was Shelburne, and alive," Steve admitted.

"Never told you this, but when I realized the North Koreans hadn't given us the right body my first thought was that maybe Freddie hadn't really died. I thought maybe he was still alive somewhere in a North Korean prison. And then when Max told me he'd identified that sample of yours I believed him, I did, but… I'm sitting here in front of your grave now and I still can't face the fact that you might really be dead. Still haven't found a shred of evidence to prove you're not either, but…"

He let go of Trooper's leash and raked both hands through his shaggy mop of hair, which had a few more grays lately. "Danny seems to think that it's in my head. He says I should tell you how I really feel, that I should say those words I could never get out: Tell her you love her, break the spell… then maybe you can finally move on. But I keep thinking that if you are still alive somewhere then I can't disrespect you by saying those words, not unless I'm looking you in the eye."

Steve aimed his face to the sky for a second as a small airplane passed overhead. He noticed that the last of a blue sky was slipping into darker hues of a red and purple sunset.

"Mary suggested today that I should talk to someone, a shrink or even her," his gaze fell to her headstone again, "But you know you're the only one who could ever get me to talk about all this stuff," he sighed, "Maybe you don't care about any of it, though. Maybe wherever you are, you only care about the fact that the Cowboys are playing today. Or maybe you're polishing your halo. No doubt you deserve one of those after putting up with me."

A shadow fell across the gravestone.

Steve glanced up to see a man standing across from him who was holding a bunch of white tulips.

"I didn't think anyone would be here," Billy said as he remained standing a few feet away. "I'll go," he offered.

"No," Steve felt the word escape without much forethought. "You must come here often," he pointed to the vase of dead flowers as he gathered Trooper's leash and stood.

Harrington clutched the flowers in his hand. He wasn't sure if he should go as planned or stay as it seemed Steve wanted. "When we were in Amsterdam several years ago I bought Catherine red tulips. I obviously wanted us to be more than just co-workers or even friends. And she tried to take her mind off things with me, but she mostly talked about you. Took me a while, but I finally realized our time in Amsterdam was nothing more to her than a rebound fling from you."

Billy knelt down in the grass, removed the dying flowers and replaced them with the new ones. He gathered up the dead remains and stuffed them into the plastic wrap the new ones had come in, "White tulips are said to represent forgiveness." Harrington faced Steve again, "Hard to find here, but I found a little shop. They have to chill the bulbs for several months before they can be planted in this climate. Makes them expensive, but," he shrugged, "Marty left me money."

"Lost both my best friends far too close together," Billy lamented.

Trooper got up and walked over to Billy. She sniffed the flowers and then sniffed his hands, but she didn't growl at him.

"An's not with you today?" Steve watched as Billy cautiously patted Trooper atop the head.

"She's working, traveling for work," Harrington stood again, crunching up the plastic into a small ball, "Won't be back until middle of next week."

"Why does she travel so much?" Steve tried not to feel so uncomfortable with his old friend.

"She's an electrical engineer," Billy seemed glad for the chance to talk, "Designs state-of-the-art security systems for companies around the world, and other technical gizmos. An is what I like to call, too smart for her own good," he said with a smile. "She earned a PHD in Chemical Engineering years ago, but got burned out after starring into a microscope for hours at a time. So she went back to school and got a Masters in Electrical Engineering."

His smile remained, "We met at a security systems conference in San Francisco last year. She helped me analyze some of the equipment I was planning to buy for Catherine and our office. An is a little older than me, very serious disposition. At first those things kind of bothered me, but it was her brain that finally won me over."

"Well… she looks young," Steve remarked, trying to make conversation, "Maybe chemically engineered herself, her own personal fountain of youth," he tried to joke. But there was no laughter between them. "Billy, I owe you an apology for what happened in February. Hitting you was incredibly stupid. I was upset, but that's no excuse for my behavior."

Billy's head shook, seeming relieved to get it out of the way, "You were right to be angry at me. I wasn't there for Catherine when she needed me. I should've been but I didn't feel well that morning. I woke up with a horrible headache, thought a shower might help. But they sometimes start that way and I should've been more careful, instead I ended up slipping and falling. Then when Catherine found me I was so embarrassed that I lied."

"What are you talking about?" Steve was confused but also concerned.

"I had a mild seizure that morning," Billy revealed. "Sometimes they'll follow a bad headache, but more often they just hit me out of the blue. Doctor has changed my meds so many times since the accident, but I think maybe we've finally hit on a good one," he glanced down at Trooper, "Could be why your canine friend isn't growling at me today. Dogs are really smart. They can pick up on things that most humans can't. I even read once about dogs sniffing out things like cancer."

That word caused Steve some discomfort.

"We had this really amazing working dog in Kabul, German Shepard named Qudamah. He could sniff out a bomb, landmine, anything remotely dangerous," Billy rambled on, "I think Trooper knew what was wrong with me long before I finally told Catherine."

Still not really getting an answer, Steve searched for more information, "What's wrong with you, Billy?" He remembered Catherine saying she'd had something to talk to him about when she got home, something to do with Billy.

"Can't exactly tell you where we were when it happened, most of that's still classified," Harrington spoke like a true Navy SEAL, honor and loyalty to the end, "It was about ten months before I decided to retire, not that retiring was really my choice," he sighed, "I was helping transport a prisoner. Our convoy was hit hard, several IEDs. All four of our Humvees were flipped and rolled. I was only one of three to walk away from that accident, out of two dozen. I felt lucky. Helmet popped off on the first roll… hit my head hard on the second."

Billy paused a second, "Still I only had a small scratch on my forehead, but…"

"It was worse than that," Steve guessed.

"Caused more damage than could be seen on the outside," Billy confirmed. "Traumatic brain injury, TBI… it's a nice term for a whole bunch of things that doctors still can't quite put their finger on. Twenty minutes after I walked away from the crash I collapsed, supposedly suffered six seizures en route to the mobile medical unit. From there they flew me to Germany as soon as I was stable enough, but the damage was already done."

He took a quick breath, "Still consider myself one of the lucky ones. Within a few weeks I was back on my feet, walking and talking. But I knew my combat days were over."

"I started the security firm thinking it wouldn't be too strenuous, surveillance and private protection. I thought the Olympics would be a great opportunity, nothing really dangerous, whole new clientele opportunities. I wanted Catherine to work with me because I trusted her, and I knew going it alone would be too risky. But I never should've put that on her. I didn't even tell her the truth until that morning in Russia before everything went to hell. She was pretty pissed at me at first, but she said she was going to help me thought it."

"She would've, too," Steve knew. "How bad is it now?"

"Still kinda like having a grenade clenched in your fist, could go off at any time," Billy shrugged, "Makes me want to rush through life. I thought An and I would be married by now, wanted to do everything as quickly as possible, maybe even have a baby right away in case I didn't live much longer. But I realized that wouldn't be fair to An. She deserves to be able to plan a wedding, do her job. And, like I said, the new drugs are helping so," he shrugged, "I might outlive us all."

Harrington shook his head, "That was a dumb thing to say."

Death was the last thing Steve wanted to dwell on at the moment, even though they were surrounded by it, "So the lying… Dugan's case…"

"I honestly didn't realize I was lying to you or Catherine," Harrington revealed. "Things can get a bit disorienting at times. There've been a few blackouts. Short term memory in particular gets skewed, but also some of the long term stuff, things I know I should be able to pull up but just can't. I've had mood shifts, behavioral issues, done some things that were inappropriate, like trying to kiss Catherine. And, uh… I might've asked her to marry me in Russia, sort of."

Steve could see his old friend was embarrassed. He realized just how lucky he'd been to escape years of combat with good health.

"You should know Catherine never would've let anything happen between us again," Billy stressed. "She loved you, more than anything. I think I knew that even before I tried to win her over." He glanced down at the white tulips again. "I'm so sorry I didn't protect her."

"That guilt will eat you up inside if you let it, Billy. And I'm sorry I contributed to it at her funeral," Steve apologized, extending his hand to the man.

Billy nodded and shook Steve's hand with a grateful smile, "I should let you be alone here, never meant to intrude. But…" he hesitated only a moment, "I'd just like you to know I still consider you a friend, Steve. If there's ever anything you need, business-wise or otherwise, you can call me."

Steve watched him turn and take a few steps away, "Harrington," he stopped the man. "Actually, there is a favor I could use."

000

The sun had completely set by the time Steve entered the Palace.

The lights on the top floor were off when he arrived at Five-0 headquarters.

Steve had his duffel with him, planning to crash on his office sofa before his nine o'clock flight in the morning.

He knew the way to his office by heart and didn't bother to switch any lights on. But he'd only made it halfway to his office door when light flooded the command and control area. Steve turned around and spotted his team walking out of Chin's office. All three of them took up position around the darkened surface table. Kono leaned her hip against the table, arms crossed. Danny stood with his hands in his pockets. Chin pressed his palms against the table's edge.

"Sneaking into your own office?" Danny asked.

"No, I was just…" Steve glanced around the table again at his friends. "It's Thanksgiving, what're you all doing here? You're meant to have the whole weekend off." He eyed Danny in particular, "Where's Grace? You should be with her today."

"See you've still got the crazed mountain man look going on," Danny waved a hand at his friend's face. "You know Grace isn't a fan of your scratchy Uncle Steve kisses. And you also know she's in Vegas with Rachael and Stan. I told you we all agreed she'd spend Thanksgiving break with them this year, and I get her all Christmas break."

"Oh," Steve didn't recall that conversation, realizing how neglectful he'd been of his team, "The beard is good for undercover work," he randomly added.

Danny noticed the bag at Steve's side, "What's this, going on another fieldtrip? Didn't you just get back?" He spotted something other than the bag in his partner's hand, walked over and took it from Steve's grasp, "Let me guess, another Dear Danny note?" he noticed his name on the front of the envelope. Danny tore it open and nodded, "Yep." He read, "Danny, I'm going to be gone for a little longer than planned. Trooper is staying with Billy now until I get back. I gave him a key to my place to get her food and bed. I'll be in touch."

"Billy?" Chin frowned, "As in Harrington? The man you were last seen punching at Catherine's funeral?"

Steve nodded. "We talked," was the only explanation he offered up.

"A little longer, what does that mean?" Kono questioned, more concerned for her boss' state of mind than the dog's care, "Days, weeks?"

He avoided looking her in the eye, "However long it takes me to track down Wo Fat."

"So that could mean the rest of your life?" Chin pointed out. "We can help you with this," he immediately offered. "I thought that was the plan. Ever since we learned about Wo Fat's release five months ago we swore we'd help you in any way possible."

"Chin is right," Danny watched his friend, thinking about the last time Steve had taken off for a while only leaving some short note. "See, apparently you still don't understand the team concept here. You don't need to go off on your own little vendetta missions. Unless this is about more than Wo Fat?"

"Let me guess, Mary called you," Steve sighed, shaking his head. "I didn't see any of your cars in the lot downstairs, is this some sort of a surprise party, or an intervention?" he felt considerably trapped at the moment, "I know I've been obsessed with trying to figure out what really happened to Catherine, the attack at the Olympics, the plane crash, but… what do you want from me? You want me to just roll over and admit that Catherine is dead? I can't do that," he let them know.

"I can't stand here and say something sappy about how she made me a better person," Steve shook his head. "You all can live with the evidence, so can her parents. That's obvious because everyone has moved on. But I just can't. I don't… I don't accept that she's gone," he finally cemented his view, stating it loud and clear for all of them to hear.

"We already knew the part about her making you a better person, boss," Kono replied with a teasing smile.

"And whatever you believe, we've got your back," Danny offered.

"You're ohana, brah," Chin added. "Ohana means family. And family means no one gets left behind, or forgotten."

Kono chuckled.

"Did you just quote Lilo & Stitch?" Danny asked, recalling how Grace had forced him to watch that movie five times in a row shortly after moving to the island.

Chin Ho shrugged, "I was hanging out with all our little cousins earlier today," he grinned.

Steve stood there listening to them - touched by the way they went about being them, their banter, proving they cared about him enough to be there on Thanksgiving.

He finally dropped his bag and moved toward the table. He powered it up with a swipe of the surface and then inserted an SD card, "All the surveillance photos I've managed to get on Wo Fat for the last few months show him meeting with businessmen and women that check out as being legit," he pulled up photos of Wo Fat on a dock beside a large cargo ship, "He's got an international freight company and even a small boat building business. I pulled import and export logs that he's signed," Steve reported.

"Every step he's taken over the last five months has been about him trying to lull me into thinking he's seriously clamped down on his illegal dealings."

"Sure, he's playing it safe as a cover, but the odds that he's completely keeping his nose clean…" Danny shook his head. "I wouldn't put good money down on that bet."

"Neither would any of us," Steve admired the way they all seemed interested in what he had to report, clearly an attempt to get him to stay put. "About six or seven days ago I managed to slip onto a boat that I've seen Wo Fat come and go from a lot. It wasn't docked. It was anchored nearly fifty miles off the coast of Shanghai. I followed him out there, slipped onto the craft and even accessed a small sampling of video surveillance. But he had too many guards around to get any further."

He played some of the videos, all of them short, "No audio," Steve told them. "There were at least two dozen guards roaming around that boat, all armed."

"Why didn't you just lob a grenade in there and be done with it, Super SEAL?" Danny asked.

"Because of this," Steve pointed to the screen as they watched another video clip.

Wo Fat wore a finely tailored charcoal gray suite as he strolled along the middle deck of the boat.

There were two women with him. One walked beside Wo Fat, her jet-black hair hanging straight down her back. The second woman had slightly lighter hair, auburn brown. It was half up, half down. The upper half was spun into a tight bun that was secured by a single, slim, red wooden dowel. The woman next to Wo Fat wore a business type skirt, black with matching blazer. The woman behind them had on a long silk brocade dress, emerald and gold threads weaved together in an intricate repeating flower design.

It had a high collar, covered her arms completely, and ran down the length of her body practically skimming the metal decking.

She appeared to be barefoot and held her hands in front of her, out of the camera's view.

"Both of these women show up in several videos," Steve noted. "But this one," he pointed to the dress adorned female, "She shows up on video more than anyone, even more often than Wo Fat. Always wearing some version of this same long dress, and she always has her back to the cameras. And trust me, there're probably a couple dozen cameras on that boat."

"Then she must know where all of them are and she's deliberately trying to keep her face hidden," Chin guessed.

"I don't know why, but she clearly spends a lot of time on that boat," Steve watched her again, looking for any small hint of facial features. But her arms were covered by the long-sleeved dress and her neck was hidden by the collar and a cascade of hair. There was nothing. And yet, when he stared at the back of her head he couldn't help be reminded of the last visual they'd had of Catherine - the back of her head walking away from view at the Paris airport.

"While I was tracking him this most recent time, I questioned a man who'd done some business with Wo Fat. He was buying six boats for a touring company he runs," Steve explained as the three of them watched more short videos of Wo Fat chatting with security guards.

"Questioned, meaning you tied him up and forced him to talk?" Kono inquired.

Steve shrugged. "He may have needed some encouragement," he admitted. "The guy claims he's heard everything from Wo Fat taking on human trafficking to him actually settling down and starting a family," Steve's eyes focused on the back of the woman's head again, feeling like there was something obvious he was missing. "So those women in the videos could either be his slaves or one might be his wife."

"Or both of them could be his wives," Danny offered up.

"Makes sense, Wo Fat wanting a family," Kono said, "Someone to carry on his legacy," she guessed.

"The one woman looks more like she could be a business partner," Chin mused, "She's got the corporate attire, kisses him on the cheek at one point. But the one trailing behind them certainly seems submissive. She could definitely be a slave of some sort, or pretty little trophy wife," he shrugged.

Steve switched to a new clip, slightly different area of the boat, "Check this out. The black-haired lady leaves. Wo Fat leads the other woman into a room and when the door opens you can just catch a glimpse of this figure," he froze the frame. "Looks like a gray-haired man, but there's no video on the inside of the boat anywhere, at least not that I could access. I had a laser arc set up briefly, but the windows in that area are some sort of special wavy glass, hard to get a signal in or out. I have about ten minutes of static and garbled voices."

"Maybe Charlie can clear it up for us," Kono offered.

"Good idea," Steve agreed.

"Looks like a pretty sophisticated boat," Chin examined the videos closely, zooming in as much as he could on the exterior hull. He took some still shots of it and ran it through a search engine. "Pretty sure it matches up with this type of expedition yacht," Chin swiped a few photos of a comparable model onto the larger screen, "Steel hull, aluminum superstructure, self-sufficient for long periods of time," he rattled off details he read on the web site. "Even a helipad on the top deck."

Danny looked over Chin's shoulder, "That thing is well over thirty million," he whistled softly, "And no doubt Wo Fat made considerable upgrades to his model."

"Floating fortress," Steve sighed.

"Does the boat have a name?" Kono asked as she gently nudged Danny away from her domain next to Chin at the computer.

"Kappa-Shui gui," Steve spelled it for her.

"Kappa-Shui gui?" Chin took an immediate interest in the name, "Are you sure?"

Steve nodded, "I know Shui gui is a type of Chinese water ghost," he recalled hearing the term once on a mission, "I was planning to look up Kappa. I didn't think it was Chinese."

"Kappa is a Japanese term to describe a type of water monster," Chin revealed. "I remember an Aunty of mine was quite taken with all manner of Japanese and Chinese mythical creatures. Kappa is supposedly sort of child-like in appearance," he added, "Of course both are a type of myth."

"Too bad Wo Fat is most definitely not a myth," Danny retorted.

Chin pushed away from the table, "I'm almost certain I've heard the name before," he rushed to his office and came back carrying a small card with him, "I knew it," Chin rejoined the group and placed the card against the computer table. "This was delivered two days ago, came from my CIA contact. Apparently there's an event being held tomorrow night aboard a boat docked thirty miles out from Waialua Bay; a boat called the Kappa-Shui gui."

"I thought you just saw this boat in China?" Kono questioned.

Steve nodded. "That was about a week ago, though. It was gone when I went back the next morning. They must've set out the night I was there, which would give them enough time to make it here. What kind of event?"

"Benefit for the Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children," Danny read.

"Charity event, right…" Steve trailed off as he examined the invitation, "Chin, there is no way Wo Fat has any involvement in a charity event. It feels like your CIA contact has been dragging us around by the balls without really getting us anywhere, first some vague photo of Wo Fat in a minimum security prison and now this," Steve felt kind of bad for his earlier remark, eyeing Kono. "No offense about the balls thing," he apologized.

Kono shrugged, "None taken." She eyed the invitation closer, "Catered by Waialua Bay Boathouse Grill. That's perfect, I just found our way in," Kono grinned, "I did some waitressing in high school before my surfing really took off. We could use someone undercover." She could see Steve's lips forming the word, 'No', but she stopped him with countermeasures, "I have a friend who's a makeup artist on the island. They're always shooting some sort of movie or TV show, modeling gigs… I'll call her up and see what sort of magic she can work."

"Better be some serious magic," it was Chin who responded before Steve could, "I don't want Wo Fat knowing you're on that boat."

Steve nodded, "I don't want him knowing any of us are even near that boat," he stressed before walking his bag into his office.

There was a small stack of mail on his desk. He had bank statements or other correspondence that dealt with financial information sent to the office. There were a few household bills that he'd already paid online. Steve tossed them into an organizing bin on his desk. One envelope caused his breath to hitch. He dropped everything else onto his desk and immediately tore into the white envelope that was address in familiar typed format. Another foreign postmark adorned the envelope.

Inside there were no pictures, just a single white slip of paper. More typed words. Steve read them once, then twice.

He pushed open his office door, took three long strides to reach the surface table and slammed the envelope and note against the computer.

"Whoa, easy there…" Danny stepped away from his friend, seeing cold fury blazing behind Steve's eyes. "What the heck just got you all riled?"

Kono snatched up the page and read it aloud, "You're not an easy man to destroy, McGarrett. I should know because I've been trying for a while. There was a time I might've admired that sort of fighting spirit, but no longer. I despise it. You've lost someone dear to you, aren't you human? Her death should've broken you. Their death broke me. Now I live only to see you suffer. I think she's finally ready to help me make that happen. Let's see how you deal with what's next."

Chin reached for the accompanying envelope, "This came for you yesterday," he didn't feel the need to elaborate much. "We all thought it best if you were the one to open it… I noticed the postmark from Germany, ran a few scans for fingerprints, but… same as all the ones before, no lead."

"What do you think this means?" Kono asked. Chin had told her everything about the pictures and the notes Steve had received about Catherine.

"I think she's finally ready to make that happen," Steve repeated the words, only able to dwell on that line. "Catherine, it has to mean Catherine is alive."

Danny and Chin shared a worried glance. Kono bit her lip. "Boss, maybe it's just someone messing with you again about…"

"No," Steve's head shook. "First we focus on Wo Fat. Then we finally figure out who this taunting coward is and get Catherine back," he declared.

000

"Is it just me, or is Kono a total babe as a blond?" Danny asked from his spot on the boat they'd rented to get close to the floating charity event.

"It's just you," Chin replied. "That's my cousin you're talking about, and your co-worker," he needlessly pointed out. "Besides, she doesn't look anything like Kono. Those chin and nose application things and that blond wig make her look like a ridiculous caricature. And Kono is all about the gentle but feisty nature. Not this ditsy act she does undercover."

"Guys, I can hear everything you say," Kono's voice came across clearly. "And just so you know, Adam prefers me as a brunette so as soon as this night is over…"

"Sorry, Kono," Danny chuckled. "Hope you know I didn't mean anything offensive by it, only admiration. Besides, that would be like hitting on my sister. Chin was right when he said you don't even look like you. Although, if you ever wanted to go blonde for real I think you could pull it off."

Kono chuckled softly over their comms, "That's okay, Danny. I took it as a compliment. But you need a date in a bad way," she teased.

"She's right about that, brah," Chin smiled at the detective, no hard feelings between them.

"Could everyone get back on track," Steve directed as he brought their rental boat to a stop. For the last twenty-four hours he'd barely been able to focus on their plan to get Kono on the boat in order to track down information on Wo Fat. His head was filled with the very real possibility that Catherine was alive somewhere, which was more than they'd had to go on since the plane crash. He needed to cling to that hope. "Kono, where are you?" Steve asked, also realizing he needed to make sure his team remained safe.

"Just managed to give my hostess boss the slip," she reported, "Still no sign of Wo Fat. I'm making my way up to the third deck now to poke around."

"Be vigilant," Steve reminded, checking on her though the view scope Chin and Danny had set up in the back of the boat.

"Really, boss? When am I ever not cautious?" Kono rolled her eyes, glad that he couldn't see her close up. "Actually, don't answer that," she added.

A few moments later they could hear someone else over her comms, a deep and gruff male voice. Steve looked through his view scope again and spotted a burly man in a suite with a decently sized gun strapped to his back. "Hey, what are you doing up here?" the man asked Kono, "The party is on the lower two decks only. You're not allowed up here."

"Oh, really? Well, I am sooo sorrrry," Kono exaggerated some of the words, playing dumb as much as she could without making herself sick, "I swear my boss specifically told me to serve the shrimp-filled mushroom caps up on the third deck. Bosses! Sometimes it feels like we should be in charge and they should be the ones taking orders," she chattered, "But now that I'm here, do you want some? A mushroom cap, that is," she giggled flirtatiously. "Don't you guys at least get to eat?"

"You need to go now," the bulky security guard replied, unwaveringly.

Steve watched as three more guards came up behind the man, "Kono, do as he says," he warned, "No confrontations."

"Fine, Mr. Hunky, no need to get all rude on me," Kono replied to the guard then turned back and headed for the stairs. She glanced over her left shoulder and when the four thugs turned the other way she slid into a small hiding spot, tucked away as she waited for the guards to clear out.

"That's good, Kono," Chin said, "None of the security cameras should be able to see you there," he hoped. They'd studied the videos of Wo Fat's boat as much as possible noting all the vulnerable spots.

"I swear this deck is crawling with the most security, at least a dozen armed men up here," Kono reported.

"They probably doubled security for the event," Danny mumbled, "I don't like it."

"The decks down below don't seem overly guarded," Chin noticed.

"Third deck is the highest," Steve noted, "Higher position, they can see everything up there." Their comms remained silent for a short time. "Kono, do you think you can get anywhere up there?" Steve finally asked. "Or should we abort now?"

"Hang on," she whispered, sneaking around the corner and approaching a cabin door. "All the windows up here are blocked out and the door is solid. Locks are entirely electronic, not keyed. Guess that means our keyhole cam isn't going to do much for me. The whole thing is sealed tight, boss, no way to get a camera view in there, not even under the threshold."

"How about audio?" Danny asked.

Kono groaned, "I've put my ear to the wall, even the window… no sound inside."

"Soundproof," Chin guessed.

"I'm trying to find some small bit of clear window to get a signal bounce," Kono let them know as she positioned her equipment against one window that had a tiny slit of light peeking out. "Wait a sec," she caught a glance of movement over the deck rail below her, "Uh, guys… I'm pretty sure there's something more than a party going on here," Kono whispered.

"Tell us something we don't know," Danny quipped.

"What's wrong, Kono?" Chin sensed a change in her tone.

She sighed, giving up on the equipment in favor of following the people below her. "I'm not sure, but I've got a bad feeling that Wo Fat is running human trafficking. Check out the couple that just left the middle deck, shimmery red dress, black suit," she described the man and woman. "Do you see them?"

"Yeah," Steve focused in on them. "Shit, is she carrying a…"

"Baby," Kono confirmed.

Steve stepped aside a little, allowing Danny a chance to check out the couple. "When we were back at the docks, how many people did we watch getting on those transport boats?" Steve asked, knowing the answer was somewhere close to a hundred, "Lots of couples, but no one showed up with a baby."

"They've turned a corner," Danny announced, "Probably headed for some other room we can't see?"

"Kono, see if you can get down to the lower deck and keep an eye on them," Steve instructed. He looked over his shoulder, "Chin, I need you to steer this boat around the other side and get us as close as you can without any guards noticing our late arrival," he looked to Danny, "You and I are getting on that boat," he let his partner know.

Ten minutes later they were aboard.

"Boss," Kono kept a decent grasp on her silver tray of mushrooms as she finally managed to squeeze her way into the throng of people on the second deck. "They went into an unmarked room at the back of the boat on the second deck," she reported, "Just past the huge dining room."

"We're almost there," Steve replied. They met up with her a minute later and Kono did her best to nonchalantly direct them toward the door.

Danny glanced around, keeping his weapon concealed beneath the flap of his navy blue suit jacket. He reached up to fiddle with the fake mustache Chin had haphazardly applied for him. Steve wore a black suit, his real facial hair doing a decent job to camouflage his appearance. They opened the door and found themselves in a narrow hall, a large guard standing in front of another door, "How you doing tonight?" Danny grinned.

"Heard there's an auction going on," Steve nodded toward the door, taking a chance on the auction part, planning to play stupid if his hunch was wrong.

"I don't think you're the type they're looking for," the guard eyed them.

"What type would that be?" Danny asked casually, "We did get an invitation," he pulled the piece of paper from his pocked.

The guard looked it over for a second and shrugged, then opened the door for them, "Go ahead."

Steve slipped into the other room with Danny right behind him. They both stopped in their tracks when they spotted a large open cabin, gold-velvet covered chairs aligned in rows of four. There were about thirty people in the room, all of them seeming to be male/female couples. But that wasn't odd at all. The thing that rooted them in place was a man in a tuxedo holding a microphone as he gently rested his other hand against the shoulder of a young woman.

"Our next lot up for bid tonight is a rare combination package," the man spoke in English, though he was clearly of Chinese ancestry, "Three-month-old female child and the young nanny who's taken care of her since birth. The baby's mother tragically died in childbirth, but her nanny, Jin Mai, has treated the child as her own. She speaks fluent English and they both come with appropriate documentation to make work visas and birth certificates easily attainable. Now, who would like to make a first bid?"

And even worse than that, Steve spied a grouping of baby basinets behind the young woman and baby up for auction. There were a dozen basinets, babies wiggling around inside them.

They watched as the couple Kono had spotted earlier placed an infant into one of the basinets and then walked over to pick up an auction paddle.

"What is that," Danny whispered, waving a hand at the couple, "Try before you buy?"

"I don't see Wo Fat here either," Steve sighed, feeling sick to his stomach. "I have a feeling he's not even on the boat tonight."

"Who cares about Wo Fat, we need to stop this now," Danny growled, "I think I might hurl."

His eyes flicked from one end of the room to the other, guards lining the walls, the doors, "And how to do propose we do that?" Steve asked his partner, feeling equally sickened but knowing they had to play it smart, "We're not prepared to deal with this, we can't just walk up there with guns blazing. We have no idea how many children or other nannies they have aboard. This is huge, Danny, we need to make sure we have everything covered before we attempt to take this down."

"So babies get sold tonight?" Danny made no attempt to hide his disgust.

"Yes, that's exactly what it means," Steve replied sternly. "Danny, go get Kono and head back to the boat. I'm going to wait around until one of these couples leaves again with a baby, see if they get on a shuttle boat back to the island. Our best bet is to follow them back to shore and question them."

Danny sighed and reluctantly left his partner alone inside the auction room, knowing Steve had a better disguise if Wo Fat did show up.

Steve was thankful when a couple bidding on the nanny and child concluded their deal swiftly. He watched as the couple had a somewhat heated conversation with one of the guards, hands waving, but all of it too far away for Steve to overhear. He waited until they eventually picked up the child and walked toward the back door with her, leaving the nanny behind. Steve sprang into motion, going out the door they'd come in and rushing around to the other side of the boat.

He watched as a ferrying boat came around and began to help the couple and baby into the craft.

"Can I help you, sir?"

"Uh," Steve spun around to face a security guard. He was thankful of his beard and the hair that fell over his eyes a little. "No, no help needed. Just enjoying the fresh air while my wife is in their picking out one of the… you know, the auction items up for bid," he smiled.

"Very well," the man walked off.

Steve turned back to the boat with his couple, seeing they were already away. "Chin, where are you? I need you to follow a boat by the name of Wiki Moku."

"Fast boat," Chin scoffed, "How creative. I have Kono back aboard, but what about you and Danny?" Chin asked.

"Damn it, Danny," Steve grumbled, "Just go without us," he insisted. "Danny, where are you? Didn't I tell you to go with Kono?"

"I got her back there safe. Now I'm in the auction room looking for your sorry behind," he replied. "Didn't think I was going to leave you?"

"Of course not, I'd have to be…" Steve's voice caught in his throat as he spotted something out of the corner of his left eye. He rushed forward, trailing after a figure in a fancy blue and gold dress very similar to the green and gold one he'd seen the woman in his surveillance videos wearing. "Wait up," he called out.

"Wait up for what? Steve, where are you? What are you doing?" Danny asked through their comms.

The questions barely registered as Steve caught another glimpse of the dress-clade figure headed up the stairs. Steve cringed, knowing how many guards had been up there earlier. He didn't waste too much time thinking about it, though, as he chased her up the stairs. Steve was just a few feet behind her as she headed for the door with the electronic lock that Kono had described. "Hang on, I just want to…" he managed to grasp her left hand and turned her around.

Steve's glance caught on her hand, paused by the fact that she had a missing finger. Ring finger. He'd never asked Max if he knew which finger of Catherine's had been identified, it hadn't seemed at all important. Now it seemed the most important fact to know. His heart thumped as his eyes slid upward and locked on hers. "Catherine?" he felt like maybe he was floating all of a sudden, his head buoyant and his stomach jumping into his throat.

She used his obvious distraction against him, yanking her hand from him, kicking his shin and connecting her elbow with his stomach as hard as she could.

He recovered quickly, blocking her passage to the door, still completely dazed by her appearance. There was no time to think about it, the fact she was fighting him worried him more. "Catherine, please," Steve tried to reason with her, not wanting to fight her. "It's me, Steve," he couldn't help think maybe his beard and long hair had her confused. But the second hit to his ribcage came from a deftly aimed foot and sent him sideways a few staggering steps toward the deck's railing.

"Catherine," he watched her coming at him again and tried to think of some way to stop her. Instead, he watched her collapse onto the deck. Steve looked up to see Danny standing over her, the butt of his gun aimed down at Catherine.

"What the hell?" Danny was in a bit of a daze himself as he finally looked down at his partner's attacker, the woman he'd hit over the head with his gun, "I guess nobody ever really dies anymore," he remarked.

"Wo Fat is going to die," Steve snarled as he scooped Catherine up into his arms, her body warm and soft against his chest. "And I'm going to be the one to kill him," he vowed.

"Who are you?!" A man called out, rounding the corner. "What're you doing with her? Let her go!"

Danny skillfully turned his gun the right way around and fired a warning shot. The guard ducked back toward safety but six more were coming up behind him quickly. "I already had to take out a few guards getting to you up here. We need to get the hell off this boat," he ushered Steve along. "Chin and Kono are on their way back, meeting us port side," Danny relayed before shooting a few more warning shots over his shoulder, pushing Steve ahead of him. "Come on, I've got you covered," Danny assured his friend.

"I know you do," Steve was grateful as he could really only focus on Catherine.

Chin and Kono were waiting for them, Kono firing shots as carefully as possible since they all knew there were innocent women and babies aboard.

Danny speedily helped Steve get Catherine on the boat and with Kono's cover Chin took off before any of the guards could fire again.

"They won't follow," Steve said, "Won't risk anyone on land knowing what's going on out here," he was sure.

000

Steve rubbed his eyes and rolled his shoulders.

It was almost daylight and he still hadn't gotten a word out of her.

"I hope you know I really don't want to keep you handcuffed like this," Steve said.

He extended his right hand to her but she flinched away. Steve sighed as he sat back again, seeing how wide her eyes were, adrenaline no doubt still pumping through her body. She'd roused from her unconscious state in the back of his truck and he'd nearly swerved off the road when she'd tried to attack him again. Thankfully Kono has managed to cuff Catherine and subdue her long enough to get her back to HQ. Now she was seated on the sofa in his office. A metal chair was positioned beside her, which was what he'd cuffed her left wrist to after she'd picked up a model ship and lobbed it at his head. Steve had cleared the others out of his office at that point.

"All I want to know is if you're okay," he kept a calm voice, even though he wanted to know everything about where she'd been and what had happened to her since the plane crash. Steve wanted all the information now, up front. For once he didn't want to have to question someone like a suspect, especially not Catherine. "If you can promise you won't freak out on me again I'll un-cuff you," he offered. "Just say the words. I need to know you understand me."

She remained quiet, staring past him. Steve almost feared someone had cut out her tongue or sliced her vocal cords, but he'd seen her open her mouth enough to detect her tongue intact. And he couldn't identify any sort of markings on her neck, though it was mostly covered by an ornate cloth. "What is that? Some sort of a scarf?" he asked, pointing to it, having originally though it to be a high collar on her dress.

Catherine jerked away from his pointed finger.

It broke his heart, but he kept at it for a while longer. "If you don't talk to me I'm going to have to take you to see a doctor, find out if there's anything physically wrong with you," Steve watched her brow furrow upon hearing that and he was pretty well assured that meant she could hear him, "What did they do to you, Catherine?" his guilt settled in for the first time since he'd seen her on the boat several hours ago.

Steve couldn't help wonder what sort of hell she'd been through for the last ten months, but he tried to guess, "Did they brainwash you into thinking I'm the bad guy? Or maybe they told you I was dead?" he continued to carry on an extremely one-sided conversation. "You know, they tried to make me think you were dead," he turned tactics on her. "For a while I wasn't sure what to believe, the DNA Max identified was…"

He glanced down at her left hand again and his stomach clenched to see the missing finger. He'd thought about it several times before. Sometimes, when he imagined she was still alive, he envisioned someone creating a fake finger and injecting it with her DNA then tossing it into the crash wreckage. Only one of the crazy fantasies he'd entertained over the months. But her hand was right there, cuffed to a chair, blatantly revealing the truth to his eyes. "That doesn't matter to me," he assured her, "Nothing matters except that you're alive. Talk to me, Cath, please."

She stood abruptly, jerking her hand against the cuff. Her right hand grabbed the lamp on the table beside the sofa and she threw it against the floor. The light bulb exploded, shattering. Steve jumped up, holding his hands out in a pleaded gesture. The others rushed back into Steve's office, three of them standing guard, worry radiating outward even though none of them dared to speak. They were all still in shock over seeing Catherine again.

"Wo Fat is going to be furious," Catherine finally said, her eyes not focused on any of them, "He'll kill you if he finds you've taken me. He's very territorial about his property."

"You mean he's very psychotic," Danny corrected.

"You're not his property, Catherine," Steve tried to get her to listen to him, "But maybe…" he changed strategies again, "Maybe you want to be?"

His accusation caused her head to turn, facing him. Steve was glad of that, pressing on, "Maybe you're working with him?" he goaded. Steve ran his eyes over her dress again, the blue and gold silk brocade was sewn into a fairly tradition Asian wrap design. A deep slit ran along the right side, which he recalled had facilitated her kick to his ribcage, which was still a bit sore. "The fancy clothing," as he spoke he eyed the necklaces she was wearing.

The small, delicate golden arrow her father had given her was there, but it was dwarfed by a large medallion hanging lower. The circular disk was adorned by a chain of perfectly round pearls. "Expensive jewelry," he dared to grasp the medallion, noticing the markings on it. He could speak a fair bit of Mandarin, but reading the Chinese language had always been trickier for him. "What is this, some Chinese poetry representing your undying love for Wo Fat?" he asked, now brushing his fingers along the edge of the odd swath of fabric wrapped about her neck like a collar.

"He must be good to you," Steve breathed out with a great deal of difficulty, pulling his hand away from her, "I don't see any marks on you, no bruises. You don't even fight back, do you?"

Catherine sat down on the sofa again but looked him in the eye, "You can believe whatever you want. I don't need to explain myself to you."

Steve felt worse than when she'd kicked him earlier. He grabbed a second set of cuffs and lashed her right arm to the other side of the metal chair. Then he ushered everyone out of his office again and swept up the lamp mess. Finally he took a third pair of cuffs, hooked one cuff to the bottom rung of the chair and the other end around the base of a floor lamp. He figured it would've been more secure to leave her in the interrogation room, but he just couldn't do that to her, no matter how much she fought back.

When he emerged from his office and joined the team in the command area, Kono shook her head at him, "Hey, boss… I mean no disrespect when I say this, but you were a downright bastard to her. What gives?" she asked.

"She's protecting Wo Fat," Steve replied.

"We don't know that," Chin put in.

"Seems doubtful," Kono added.

Danny sighed, "Shit, Steve, if I spent almost a year as Wo Fat's prisoner I'd probably be his bitch, too," he remarked, "Very poor choice of words there, I apologize. But you gotta think about what Catherine's probably been through all this time. We have no idea…" he watched his partner. "And that's what really has you pissed. Of course it is," Danny knew he should have realized that sooner. "Super SEAL can't stand it when he has no control over the situation."

"She wasn't with Wo Fat for the last ten months, Danny," Steve countered. "Not if his release date of five months ago can be trusted. And last night proved that Wo Fat isn't always with her. That means someone else held her those first months and then what?" he sighed. "Sold her to Wo Fat? Leases her out?"

No one had an answer for him.

"Look, Catherine is smart, she's a fighter," Danny reminded his friend. "Maybe we should give her the benefit of the doubt here, huh?"

"Not to change the subject entirely, but I think we might have a lead on one of the couples who bought a baby last night," Chin announced. "I searched airport surveillance cameras and noticed the couple Kono and I had been following before we came back for you and Danny last night. Video shows them with the baby. They bought two airline tickets late last night for Los Angeles. We're going to need to act fast, though, because that flight takes off for the mainland in about twenty minutes. And airlines don't check identification for infants sitting on a lap."

"Probably why they didn't take the nanny," Steve guessed, "They wanted to leave as soon as possible. Chin and Kono, I want you to head back out to Waialua Bay, see if you can determine if the Kappa-Shui gui is still nearby. You know the drill, look for any other evidence, video surveillance, whatever you can find," he instructed. "Danny you're coming with me to the airport."

"Uh, boss," Kono pointed toward his office, "What about Catherine?"

"She needs time to cool off," Steve said.

"But she'll be alone here," Chin added to his cousin's worry. "She could take off, not cool off."

"She's cuffed, and there's security downstairs," Steve shrugged. "And I cleared my office of all paperclips," he added.

All three of them eyed Steve skeptically, but none of them questioned him further.

000

Nearly two hours later Chin met up with Steve and Danny outside the palace. "Any luck with the fleeing couple?" Chin asked.

Danny's head shook, "They did book two tickets to Los Angeles like you found, but those were a decoy. We stopped the plane and searched it, but they weren't on board. Turns out they had a private charter hired. They flew out of Honolulu about an hour before we ever even made it to the airport. We called LAX to alert them of the situation. TSA will detain them when they land then LAPD will question them," he reported.

"How about you guys, what'd you find?" Steve asked.

"Not much," Chin sighed as they entered the building's main lobby. "No boat, nobody smiling for any cameras. I dropped Kono off at the lab so she could see if Charlie had anything on that audio file from your surveillance in China…"

The three of them were stopped by the guard at the door, "Security badges?" the man asked.

Steve eyed the man, "Stew, you know us, you never check our badges."

"Had a security breach half hour ago," Stew was tall and burly, a formidable presence standing in their path, "Someone broke in through a window upstairs. Didn't dispatch contact you?" the man asked.

"No," was all Steve said as he rushed past the guard, Chin and Danny at his heels. Duke and two other police officers were inside headquarters when they entered, "Duke, why wasn't I notified?" Steve pushed past him to enter his office. The metal chair was there, broken glass, but Catherine was gone. "Where is she?" Steve questioned Duke. "Where's Catherine?"

The officer looked concerned by the mention of the commander's late girlfriend, "We just got here about five minutes ago to check it out," Duke replied. "Stew said he thought someone was breaking in, but the glass fracture pattern and spread evidence seems to indicate someone going out the window. Looks like they used that chair," he motioned at the item.

Steve felt a warm breeze blowing through a window that wasn't meant to open. He spotted the chair and found the two sets of cuffs attached to the side rails. "That's strange," he squatted in front of the chair, noticing that Danny and Chin were hovering right beside him, "Both cuffs of this set are still closed."

"Maybe the one swung shut when she used the chair to break the window," Danny guessed.

"One way to know for sure," Chin headed to the command center and pulled up the HQ security videos. He fast forwarded through the last few hours of footage from Steve's office and found the spot when Catherine made her move. "Huh, well there's one scenario I'm guessing you didn't plan for," Chin said as Catherine managed to easily squeeze her left hand through the cuff hole. "Her missing finger?" he could only guess that one less finger had helped her squeeze through the cuff.

"And look at what else we have going on," Danny eyed his partner as Catherine opened the top desk drawer and pulled out a key, "You cleared away the paperclips but left your skeleton key in a place she obviously knew about?"

Watching her break free caused Steve conflicting emotions. He couldn't help be proud of her for getting out of his cuff set-up. But he also couldn't help wondering if she'd been able to escape so easily, why hadn't she tried to escape Wo Fat's boat. "She headed into the command center first?" he needlessly pointed out as they all watched her exit the office.

Chin pulled up footage from a different camera. They'd been sure to install a lot more security features ever since El Condor's troop had infiltrated their domain.

"Look," Danny pointed, "She accessed something on the computer?"

"She knows my security log-in," Steve sighed, though he was more assured that she remembered the past clearly.

"Guys, what the heck…" Kono stepped into the office and glanced around, seeing the officers in Steve's office, "Where's Cath?"

Danny pointed to the screen. They watched as Catherine hurriedly typed something and then turned away, headed down the hall. She came back into view a few minutes later dressed differently, gray sweatpants and a white t-shirt, sneakers, "Those are the work-out clothes I leave in my office," Kono realized.

They continued to watch as Catherine headed back to Steve's office. Chin switched back to the video inside the office, all of them seeing how she deftly cracked the window and climbed out, never seeming to break a sweat. Steve knew there were no fire escapes back there, but the wall did have some small ledges she could've maneuvered like a rock climber. "Where is she running to?" he whispered.

"Found what she accessed on the computer," Chin let them know, "It's an email sent from Steve's email address back to him. The message is only eight letters long, but I have no idea what they mean." He swiped the message onto the main screen.

VVSLDCJL

"What is that supposed to mean?" Danny wondered aloud.

"It's gotta be a code," Steve's heart lightened just a little, hopeful that she'd left them some sort of breadcrumb. He just prayed it didn't stand for something such as; Wo Fat is going to kill you. "We need to figure out how to decode it."

"Didn't you do that sort of thing in Navy intelligence?" Kono asked.

"Not my specialty," Steve tried to brainstorm.

"Well, it could be a scrambled word," Danny thought, "Except it has two Vs and two Ls and no vowels."

Kono gripped the USB drive in her hand and looked to Steve, "Charlie was able to recover some of the audio you recorded on the boat last week," she reported. "There's about three minutes on the file that he gave me, he doesn't think there's any more he can get than that."

"Can you play it?" Steve asked. He wasn't sure which direction to go, feeling pulled in several at the moment. But he finally noticed how hesitant she seemed, "Kono?"

"Boss," she sighed, still keeping the audio file in her hand, "What did you notice about Catherine when you saw her on the boat, or maybe not until you brought her in?"

He shrugged, feeling a bit annoyed by the delay. "I don't know, Kono… a lot of things. She was quiet but angry, really angry and…"

"No, not how she reacted to seeing you and us again. I'm talking physically," she did her best to prod it out of him, but could see he needed more coaxing.

"She was walking around the boat barefoot," Danny recalled.

"Not missing shoes or even a missing finger," Kono looked to Steve alone, "There's something distinctly different about her," she could see his brows raise and she knew what that meant, he understood her, "It's okay, boss, I'm pretty sure I know what you're thinking right now and you can say it."

"She seemed more…" Steve floated around a few words, "Buxom," he settled on.

"Exactly," Kono nodded, pulling up the camera footage of Catherine that they'd just watched. "Her boobs are bigger," the woman declared. She looked up again, noticing that all three men were silently starring at her. "What? I'm a cop. It's my job to notice details about people. Also, Catherine and I had the whole small chested sister thing going for us," she grinned.

Danny glanced over at Steve, "Did you just say buxom?"

"Her breasts, Danny, her breasts are definitely bigger," Steve shook his head.

"So…" Chin felt a bit uncomfortable with the topic, "Do we think Wo Fat got her a boob job?"

"No," Kono grew serious again. She would've chuckled at that reaction from her cousin if she hadn't already heard what was on the recording. She finally plugged in the USB drive and brought the audio file up, pressing play on the program, "Listen carefully, there's still a bit of static, but…" she didn't explain any more.

"You're certain?" a male voice asked.

"That's Wo Fat," Danny noted.

"If you want me to take a test I will, but I thought you trusted me."

"Catherine," Steve whispered her name, a lump forming in his throat as he continued to listen, recalling what Kono had pointed out.

"Of course he trusts you, Catherine. We all trust you, you've earned that," a third voice entered the conversation. Male. Unknown.

"And you're sure it's my baby?" Wo Fat questioned.

"Absolutely," it was the other man who answered, not Catherine. "You know we've kept her only for you, I told you that would be the case from the start."

"When the baby is born I get to renegotiate," Catherine put in.

"You both will do as I say, no renegotiating," the unidentified voice responded with a great deal of malice.

"But you said…" Catherine tried to break in.

"I am allowed to change my mind, child," the man snapped. "You are not allowed to do anything without my permission. Or you. Are we all understood?"

"Yes, zhu," Catherine replied.

"Of course, jingcha," Wo Fat responded, "I have left this all up to you. I trust you know what will..."

The recording ended.

"That's all there is," Kono felt ill as she noticed the stricken look on her boss' face.

"Zhu? Jingcha?" Danny did a decent job butchering both pronunciations of the words as he looked to the others for some explanation.

Steve swallowed, "Catherine called the man, master. Wo Fat referred to him with a word that's used to mean cop, police force," he tried to explain the best he could, "Both terms and the tone of their voices… they each seem subservient to this mystery man. Who would Wo Fat ever be subservient to?"

"Is anyone going to bring up the baby issue?" Danny nervously glanced around, daring to speak about it. "She wants to renegotiate something when the baby is born, do you think that means she's… is Catherine pregnant with Wo Fat's kid? Or is this about the baby selling ring stuff? Maybe she's helping some other poor woman have Wo Fat's baby?"

Chin glanced around, "It was Catherine who said she'd take a test if they wanted."

"It's the reason I brought up her bigger chest size," Kono reluctantly reminded them, "Women's breasts tend to get larger when they're pregnant."

"She's right," Danny agreed. "Rachael didn't even look pregnant, aside from her breasts, until about five months in. Although she starting asking me if she looked fat by about week ten. Piece of advice, men," he eyed Chin and Steve, "Don't ever answer that question. They don't really want to know," Danny warned, "You're gorgeous, sweetheart… that's the answer you give."

"How about now, Danny," Steve snapped as he stalked away from the table and paced a small patch of the polished floor, "You think we should still give her the benefit of the doubt?"

"Come on, this is Catherine we're talking about," Danny responded with a cooler head, "You can't really think she'd willingly work with Wo Fat or have his…"

"They've got her trust, Danny," Steve felt like he was about to explode if he didn't find a way to distract himself soon.

"Could be some sort of Stockholm syndrome?" Chin wondered.

"She's been held for ten months by Wo Fat and whoever this mystery master/cop guy is who seems to be directing things," Steve sighed, "So… Stockholm, some form of torture… whatever you want to call it they've got to be holding something against her, some sort of leverage," he was at a loss about what it could be, "We need to get her back," he shook off the other thoughts and finally remembered what he'd set in play earlier.

"How do we do that?" Kono asked.

"I may not have all the answers," Steve replied, "But I have a back-up plan."

Danny knew that tone, "What did you do?"

Steve took away control of the table from Chin for a moment, knowing just enough about some of the computer's operations to be dangerous. He pulled up a program they'd all seen before, a map of the world. Steve zoomed to Oahu and pressed a few more controls. A bright red blip-dot appeared within seconds, transmitting from a marina up north. "I put a tracker on Catherine's person when I restrained her," Steve revealed, trying not to think about having to restrain her again.

"What is with you planting trackers on Catherine? That's not a very healthy relationship trait," Danny said even as he smiled, proud of his partner's move.

"Did you know she'd get away?" Kono wondered.

"I knew it was a possibility when I decided to leave her here alone. I'd hoped she'd stay put, but I've learned to never underestimate her," Steve pulled up the email message with her code and snapped a picture of the letters with his cell phone. "Danny and Chin, I want you to go check out the ping, see if you can find her. She might be less combative if she sees you two first," he hated to admit it; still not knowing what was going on in her head. "Keep in touch, I'm going to see if I can get some help with this message she left for me."

"Boss?" Kono felt a bit left out of the loop.

"Just stick close to HQ for now," Steve instructed. "Keep an eye on the tracker in case Danny and Chin lose the signal."

000

"You and Catherine worked on several cryptography projects together in Kabul, right?" Steve asked as he stood in the doorway of Billy's personal office.

"Yes," Harrington remained seated behind his desk. "Neither of us specialized in it, but Catherine was good at a lot of things."

Steve bent down to pet Trooper. The dog's tail wagged excitedly as she licked Steve's hands. He glanced up again, his eyes resting on a framed photo on a shelf behind Billy's desk. It was a picture of Harrington and An cuddled together, sitting in the sand on a beach. They looked like any normal, happy couple, except only Billy was smiling. An's lips were mashed together in a look Steve couldn't read. He swallowed, "I saw her, Billy."

"I don't understand, saw who?" Harrington asked; standing and leading the way into his outer office.

"Catherine, she's alive," Steve revealed as they walked.

Billy stopped to lean against the door of their tech room where Catherine had done most of her intel work with his security company. He tried to process the news for a moment, "Are you sure?" he asked, still struck by what he'd just heard. "You saw her?"

"I'm very sure." Trooper had followed them, sticking close to Steve. "She's… Catherine isn't herself right now, but she left something on the computer at Five-0, some sort of message that I think she coded," he pulled up the picture on his cell phone to show Billy. "She was at Five-0 but escaped," he didn't sugar-coat any of the events; "I sort of helped her escape… or made her think she was escaping. Anyhow, I have a tail on her right now, but…"

"Steve, whatever you need," Billy offered.

"I need to figure out what this says. Can you work on it?"

"Absolutely," Harrington nodded, sitting down at a computer and imputing the letters, "Steve, she's really alive?" he watched the man nod, "Where's she been all this time?"

Steve sighed, "I'm not exactly sure where, but at least part of her time has been spent with Wo Fat."

Harrington winched. He'd heard Catherine talk about the man and he'd seen the international criminal on the news, "I thought he was locked up."

"He was, now he's not," Steve explained as simply as he could. For some reason, as he watched Billy type, his thoughts drifted back to the picture in Harrington's office. "You said An designed security systems," he wasn't sure how to approach the subject in a casual way, his mind focused on the locked door Catherine had been headed for on the boat. He remembered the short videos of Wo Fat, Catherine and another woman - a very dark-haired woman.

"Yes," Billy glanced over his shoulder. "Why?"

"I don't know, my mind is shifting all over the place right now," Steve tried to cover, "Where is she now? An?"

"Berlin," Harrington replied, focused more on the computer.

"Oh," Steve felt his gut churn a little. "Germany, huh? Does she speak the language?"

"She speaks a little of a lot of languages, I guess it comes with the territory of her job," Billy said. "She's been to more places than I have. Navy mostly took me to the Middle East, but An has been all over Europe, Africa, Asia, South America. I think she's even been to Greenland for a job. She spent part of her childhood in a small village in China then moved to the states when she was about twelve. Her parents were teachers, taught English in a bunch of different countries, so she's used to travel," Harrington studied the letters, trying to make them slide into place in his head.

Steve's phone rang, causing his stomach to settle just a little, "Danny, what've you got?"

"A boat," the detective replied. "But not the big one we were on earlier."

"It's a fishing boat," Chin spoke over the line. "Registered to a man named Clyde Bagley, he's a retired doctor from the states. Doesn't take the boat out much, claims it hasn't been moved in over two weeks."

"Stay put," Steve instructed, "I'm going to meet you up there." He ended the call, "Billy, I need to head out, but you'll…"

"This could take a while, but as soon as I have something I'll let you know," Billy promised.

"And Trooper?"

"She's good here."

"Thanks," Steve left the office, walking quickly toward the elevator.

He wondered if his mind was jumping to completely illogical conclusions due to a long night and eventful morning, or if he really had something to worry about. It didn't make sense to suspect Billy's fiancé of anything just because she had dark hair and happened to be in Germany at the moment, the place where his latest note had been posted from. The note which had sounded more personal than all the others, more irate. He couldn't think of any reason An would hate him or his family. He barely knew the woman.

As he punched the elevator's down arrow, thoughts of An drifted. All he could worry about was Catherine.

000

"That white sedan up there," Danny pointed out a vehicle in the lot above the dock where they were standing, "Reported stolen this morning."

Steve nodded before he stepped onto the small fishing boat. It had a sleeping cabin below which was where they found Chin. The lieutenant looked up from where he was turning over cushions on the sofa bed, "We've picked this place apart, no sign of Catherine being here. Haven't even been able to find the tracker anywhere," Chin reported as he stared at the blinking dot on his tablet resting on the sofa, "But it's still transmitting from this spot…" he trailed off, a thought hitting him, "What if it's not on the boat…"

"That thing is waterproof," Steve realized.

After quickly grabbing fins, mask and snorkel from the back of his truck, Steve dove into the water. It was quiet down there, warm and comforting as he searched for the missing tracker, hoping it wouldn't still be attached to Catherine's collar. Being in the water always helped to calm him, for just a moment he allowed his thought to drift to happier times… surfing with Catherine, lazy walks on the beach with Trooper and Catherine, a midnight swim with Catherine and nothing but skin between them. He spotted the small silver disk, surprised it was even visible against the similar colored sand.

He emerged, pulling himself up onto the dock, water droplets dripping off his beard and the hair hanging over his eyes.

Danny brandished Steve's cell phone, "Billy just called. He wants to meet you at Five-0… thinks he's figured out the code."

"Found the tracker," Steve held the item up as he shook himself off somewhat like a dog, "My guess is she never was on that boat, this was just a stop to toss the tracker and probably find another car."

"She knew about the tracker," Danny stated rather than asked.

"Yep," Steve sighed, "We should all head back to HQ and see what Billy has for us."

"Planning to tell me what's up with you and Billy being all buddy-buddy again?" Danny asked as he helped carry Steve's wet equipment. "Something's bothering you, and it's more than just all this Catherine stuff."

"Ride with me?" Steve offered his partner.

"Sure," Danny tossed Steve's stuff in the truck then fished out his Camaro keys, "Hey, Chin," he lobbed the keys to the officer, "Don't dent her," he playfully warned before climbing into the passenger seat of Steve's Silverado. "Okay," he breathed out as Steve pulled onto the highway, "What's up with Billy boy?"

When they walked into HQ twenty minutes later, Danny greeted Harrington amiably, shaking the man's hand. He'd promised Steve not to say anything about Billy's condition. He could understand how a guy would want to keep such a thing to himself. Trooper was there as well and Danny gave the dog a big scratch behind both ears, fussing over her with affectionate.

"Where's Kono?" Chin noticed his cousin wasn't around.

"She said something about a medallion and talking to a guy named Charlie," Billy shrugged as he pulled open his laptop, "I ran Catherine's message through a bunch of different code programs but couldn't find anything until I finally remembered something Catherine once said to me about liking the simplest codes best. There was a Caesar cipher we used a few times in Kabul, a simple one we came up with using our unit number, 372."

"You already lost me," Danny said, tapping his foot, "Caesar salad?"

"Caesar cipher is a type of substitution code. For example, you could decide on the number three and count forward three letters in the alphabet from the letter you actually wanted and substitute in the third letter back. The one Catherine used is our 372 method, three letters back, seven forward and two back… then you repeat that for however long the message is, in this case only eight letters."

"This is simple?" Danny's head shook as he patted the dog again.

"What's the message?" Steve was growing impatient.

"I came up with what appear to be three words," Billy displayed them on the screen of his laptop: You Owe Me

Chin rolled those words around in his head, "She sounds kinda mad."

Danny nodded, his gaze aimed at Steve, "Like maybe she thinks you owe her for leaving her with Wo Fat all this time? Not that you knew she was alive. Okay, well, maybe you did know on some super SEAL spidy-sense level…"

"No, Danny," Steve actually smiled as he read the words. "This is Catherine; she left this message for me."

"We already know she typed that message, boss," Kono spoke from the open doorway, pushing her way inside the office, having heard some of the last bits of conversation. "We saw her on the video."

"No," Steve stood up straighter, "You don't get it. It's her. She had to be pretending earlier, putting on an act."

"How can you be sure?" Chin was curious.

"It's sort of a thing we had going between us… have going," he corrected himself after so many months of hearing people use her name in the past tense. "Over the years I've asked her for a few favors," he noticed the way all of them sported raised eyebrows. "Okay, maybe there've been a ton of favors," Steve admitted. "Catherine would usually try to protest or wiggle her way out of it, but she'd always come through for me. And she'd always say something like, that'll cost you, or you'll owe me big… or just…"

"You owe me," Kono guessed.

Steve nodded. "You owe me," he confirmed. "It's sort of her own little code for…" he stopped short, not sure what it had been code for. I've always got your back? I'll help you whenever you need me? I love you?

"Okay," Danny nodded, "That's great. It really is. You have no idea how happy I am that she's our Catherine, and Wo Fat hasn't really brainwashed her after all. But can I just ask the obvious question here? If she remembers us and her life here then why did she leave that message and take off? Is she headed back to Wo Fat? "

"Maybe to lead us to him," Steve said.

Danny wasn't satisfied with that answer, "If she was going back to infiltrate the big bad wolf, why not just tell us? We could help her, right?"

"I figured out something else," Kono announced, hating how Danny's doubts seemed to be bringing down the mood again. "It seemed strange that Catherine changed her clothes but left this collar thing around her neck and the medallion," she pulled up a screenshot from the security footage. "I couldn't make much of the collar, but I got a closer look at the medallion. Charlie helped me figure out that the Chinese characters mean; Life, Love, Peace, Family."

"And that's significant?" Steve asked.

"Not really," Kono replied, "I think the symbols are simply a distractive device."

"Makes sense," Billy spoke up, "Wo Fat would obviously know what the Chinese symbols represented. There's got to be more to it."

Kono confirmed, "There is. Which is why I'm glad you're here," she aimed her words at a surprised Billy as she pulled up another image, a zoom-in of the medallion. "These marks surrounding each of the Chinese symbols are actually letters. You probably wouldn't notice them as anything other than decorative unless you used a magnifying glass or, in our case, a computer. There are groups of letters around each symbol. They seem random, four letters then five, four again and the last one has eight," she turned to Harrington.

Billy immediately got to work with Kono, using the same 372 cipher pattern for the new letters. He had a message worked out within a few minutes.

"Going in a clockwise motion, it seems like the message is: Non Sibi Sed Familia," Billy spoke the Latin words.

"Isn't that your Navy motto?" Danny recalled.

"No," Billy and Steve said at the same time.

"Not exactly," Steve clarified, though even he was a little confused by the message. "Navy motto is Non Sibi Sed Patriae. Not for self, but for country," he reminded them. "What Billy just said is more like: Not for self, but for family."

Chin wasn't surprised, "Catherine is doing all this for her family, for you and us," he figured.

"Or maybe she means something to do with Wo Fat's family," Steve feared, "His child, their child."

"There are extra letters," Billy announced, "After I filtered out Catherine's revised motto there was one letter left over in each group that didn't seem to fit, in order, A, E, N and V.

"Alphabetical order," Steve noticed.

"I tried applying the cipher again to those four letters but all I got was, XLLS," Harrington let them know.

"Really strange t-shirt size?" Danny offered.

"Roman numerals?" Chin grasped.

"No, the double Ls don't make sense and there's no S in Roman numeral," Billy responded to that idea. He thought it out some more, "What about a word scramble? What are some words you could make from the decoded letters? Vane is the only thing coming to mind," he suggested.

"Is nave a word?" Danny wondered.

"I'm pretty sure nave is a term for the main body of a church," Chin mentioned.

Kono looked up the term on the internet, "He's right, used more for medieval cathedrals. From the Latin word Navis, which means ship. Suggested due to the keel shape of vaulted ceilings of cathedrals," she read, "Interesting about the ship connection."

"Are you sure the E isn't a Y, maybe it spells navy?" Steve thought that would make more sense.

"I can double check," Billy offered, running the letters back through the program, "No, not unless she used a different cipher for those four letters. And the original letters before the cipher is applied are DGQX. I guess either of them could be an acronym," he shrugged.

Steve sighed, frustrated to think maybe Catherine was trying to tell them something important but they couldn't figure it out, "I can't think of anything those letters would stand for. Kono, see if you can contact Catherine's former CO, maybe naval intelligence can mull it over for us." He looked to the others, including Billy, "So far we have boats as a theme, I think we should start searching every marina on the island," he suggested.

"Chin and I can take the west coast, work our way up to the north shore," Danny offered, sensing Steve wanted to include Billy in the search. "The two of you could head east."

"Sounds good," Steve agreed, looking to Billy for confirmation that he was in. Harrington gave a quick nod and Steve took up Trooper's leash, leading her and Billy to the door. He opened it, but paused, "Hey, Danny," he turned back to eye his partner, "If you guys need to start knocking on doors and checking out people's private docks or boathouses…"

Danny nodded, "Any means necessary," he understood the message.

Still hovering in the open doorway, Steve called out a few last instructions, "Kono, see how much surveillance video you can pull from anywhere around the island. Not just marinas but the airport, shopping centers, tourists attractions, hotels… and keep us in the loop about anything that comes up on police chatter, even if it's a shoplifter," he finally concluded.

"You got it, boss," she set to work.

000

Billy flashed the female marina manager a grateful smile, "Thank you so much for your time and help."

He walked back to Steve's truck shaking his head, "She hasn't seen any boat like the Kappa-Shui gui around here. Says that big of a boat would probably stay out at sea, have a smaller craft to shuttle them in to shore. And she hasn't seen any new or suspicious looking boats lately, just the usual locals," Harrington rattled off, "Basically the same exact story we've been hearing all along the coastline so far," he sighed.

"And we've got several more to go," Steve tugged on Trooper's leash, getting the dog to jump back into the truck after a short break to relieve herself. He wasn't ready to give up yet, but he thought Billy looked a little worn out. It was almost two o'clock in the afternoon and none of them had gotten much rest or eaten, "If you're tired I can drop you back at…"

"No," Billy halted the offer, "I can keep going," he insisted, "You can take a SEAL out of commission, but you never take the SEAL out of a man."

Steve nodded. He was worried about, but proud of, his friend. His phone rang just before he reached the driver's door. "Yeah, Kono, what's going on? Chin and Danny find anything?"

"Boss, something kind of strange just happened," she said, "The tracker program was still up and running on the computer, and a few minutes ago it started beeping. I pulled it up and found a red blip on the map, a new ping on the same frequency as the tracker you put on Catherine this morning."

"How is that possible?" Steve questioned, "I found that tracker in the water."

"Best guess is that she cloned it, or Wo Fat cloned it," Kono replied, "It's basically the same principle as a cell phone clone."

"Okay, but why?" he wondered, "And where's it headed?"

"Not sure why," Kono responded, "But the blip is holding steady. Chin and Danny are closer. I'll have them check it out."

"Good," Steve agreed, "I'm guessing it's another diversion, but worth checking out. Billy and I are headed further north; let me know if Chin and Danny find something."

"That's my job," Kono ended the call.

000

Danny had pulled a U-turn several miles back. Now he maneuvered the black Camaro along a winding stretch of inland valley road.

They'd been up just past Makaha Beach Park sticking close to the coastline, but Kono's directions to the blip on her map had them headed back to Waianae. From there they took the valley road cutoff, weaving slightly north and west until they came to a gate at the end of the road. The area was hilly and forested past that point and there looked to be some sort of trails leading off from the gate. But there was also a black vehicle parked near the gate. "I'm guessing that must to be our target," Danny parked behind it and cut his engine.

It was a shiny four-door town car with tinted windows.

Chin and Danny drew their weapons as they cautiously approached from either side of the vehicle. "Come out slowly with your hands were we can see them!" Danny instructed.

There was no response from inside the car, no movement that they could detect.

"Catherine!" the two men called out at the same time. Still no answer.

With a simple nod between them, Danny reached for the driver's side door handle. He found it was unlocked and flung it open. His gun was raised again, eyes searching for a driver but finding none as Chin opened the passenger door. Danny heard a soft noise from the backseat and he stepped away from the car. He moved sideways and flung the back door open, re-aiming his weapon. Chin did the same on the other side. They were both shocked by what they discovered in the backseat.

"Huh, I don't know what I was expecting… but that's not it," Danny frowned, not sure what to make of the situation.

"Steve's not going to like this, is he?" Chin guessed as he studied their discovery a little closer. He watched Danny shake his head, "What do we do?"

"I guess we take it in," Danny concluded, sheathing his weapon and reaching into the back seat.

000

"Boss, we just got a call about a missing person report up in Hau'ula," Kono relayed as Steve entered headquarters.

"I might head up there myself since I haven't seen Danny and Chin yet," he grumbled, "Danny said they'd meet me back here with the person they found at the site of Catherine's tracker, so I dropped Billy off and have been waiting… " he paused when Chin entered from the other side of the office and made his way down the long hall, "I've been waiting for you guys down in the interrogation room for about a half hour," Steve said, "What took you so long? You should've been back before me. Where's Danny?"

Chin was carrying a navy blue duffle bag over one shoulder. He had a small red cooler in his right hand. Chin sat them both down on the surface table, "We had to stop for a… an issue that came up and took longer than anticipated," the officer explained in vague terms, "And we didn't think you'd want this guy down in the interrogation room."

"Why not?" Steve questioned, still confused, "What is this stuff… who's this guy you're talking about? You know him?"

Danny entered the office carrying a small bundle of pink blanket in his arms, "Thanks for holding the door, Chin," he chided.

"I had my arms full, too," Chin replied, keeping an eye on Steve as Danny approached, thinking maybe they should've warned him.

The bundle in Danny's arms moved, causing Steve some alarm. He instinctively reached for his weapon until Danny was close enough for them to all see what he was carrying. "What's going on here? What the heck is that?" Steve pointed to the bundle, which was not only moving but now crying as well.

"A baby," Kono replied.

Steve glared at the woman for a moment, "Yeah, thank you, Kono. I can tell it's a baby, but what's it doing here? Whose is it? Where did it come from?"

"This little guy right here," Danny did his best to softly giggle-rock the baby to calm him, "Was the only thing we found inside that car along with Catherine's tracker."

"It's a boy?" Kono asked, noticing the pink blanket and white outfit the child was wearing.

"Oh yeah," Chin nodded, "We found that out when an awful smell began to drift through Danny's Camaro. Had to pull over to change him, which is what took us so long to get back here. And he is definitely a member of the brotherhood," Chin smiled.

The baby continued to fuss in Danny's arms, "So… I really hate to be the one to point this out, but the little guy has got Catherine's brown eyes."

"Whoa," Kono had to agree the baby's eyes did remind her of Catherine, "Then we sort of had it right? She was pregnant, but she already had a kid with Wo Fat?" she eyed Steve who remained silent, "Maybe that recording we heard was actually playback from an earlier conversation? Could be why there was all that static, it was a recording of a recording?"

"She has been gone nine and a half months," Chin realized, "That's enough time to have a baby."

"But Wo Fat hasn't been free that long," Kono pointed out.

"Uh, also…" Danny spoke up, still trying to manage the cranky baby. "Since I'm the only parent here at the moment, how about a little biology lesson?" he offered, "You see, the whole nine month thing is a little misleading. The birthing classes I attended with Rachael explained that full term is actually forty weeks from point of conception, so more like ten months. I guess what I'm trying to get at here is that if this is Catherine's baby…"

Kono could see he was reluctant to say it, "Cath was pregnant before the crash," she voiced for him.

Danny nodded. "Admittedly, my little monkey was pretty tiny by comparison," he said, "But this guy here is at least a couple months old, two and half, maybe three months."

"Could've been born early," Chin suggested.

"By nearly three months?" Danny shifted the boy to the crook of his left arm, but the baby continued to fuss. "Somehow I seriously doubt this big guy was a preemie."

"Catherine had to have been pregnant before her abduction," Chin repeated, floored by that revelation. But they could all see that Steve was even more perplexed.

His silence spook for itself.

"That would make him your son, boss," Kono smiled at the thought.

"I want proof," was all Steve finally said.

"Proof," Danny nodded, "I kind of figured you would." He pulled back part of the blanket covering the baby, unzipped the little's guy's outfit and gently wrestled one of the baby's feet out. Danny held the baby's left bare foot up. "Here you go, I couldn't help notice these when I changed him earlier. His feet are huge," Danny held his thumb and index finger up to measure the boy's foot, "We're talking some Super SEAL baby flipper feet here. Kid's got 'Steven McGarrett is my daddy' written all over his feet," he was convinced.

"I feel sorry for Catherine, though," Danny added, "This guy must have been a heavyweight to push out. Ouch," he cringed a little before starting to cover the boy back up.

"So that's your proof? He's got big feet?" Steve wasn't sold.

"Well, that and the fact that he's been cranky ever since I've been around him," Danny shrugged, "I figure, like father like son."

The door to their right opened and Duke stepped inside, "CSU is still processing the Waianae sight," he reported, "But I thought you might be interested in seeing this right away," the officer passed Steve an evidence bag. "I remember at Catherine's funeral her father talked about a necklace like that. I thought it seemed significant."

Steve stared at the gold arrow necklace, "This was in the car?"

Duke's head shook. "Found it hanging on a bush about a hundred feet away from the car, kind of a secluded area. One of the CSU team spotted it glinting in the sun."

"Thank you, Duke," Steve dismissed the man as he pulled the necklace free and examined it.

"She must have waited out there," Chin guessed, "She waited until someone showed up. She made sure the baby was safe."

Not knowing what to make of the situation, Steve turned over the necklace and spotted something, "That was never there before," he recalled, having seen the necklace many times over the years, on her nightstand or the bathroom counter. "There's some sort of crude etching on the back…" it took him a second to read the word, "Evan."

Kono glanced at it as well, "I remember at the funeral Cath's mom mentioned she had a brother, was his name Evan?"

"No, her brother's name was Ben," Steve sighed, still looking at the necklace.

"Not for self, but for family," Kono said, reminded of the medallion. She looked to see all three men staring expectantly at her, "The word on Catherine's medallion wasn't nave. We had it backwards… Evan," she realized. "Maybe leaving this necklace behind was her way of trying to tell you your son's name is Evan."

"You don't know he's my son," Steve said, doing his best to avoid looking at the fussy baby.

Danny shifted the boy in his arms again, trying out a swaying rock-bounce motion that had always calmed Grace.

Kono wasn't fazed by her boss' denial. She pulled up a Wikipedia page search, knowing that everything Catherine did seemed to have some sort of meaning. "Well, boss…" she waved a hand at the page on the main view screen, "Easy answer is, Evan is the Welsh form of the name John."

"She named him after your dad," Danny realized.

Steve let the necklace fall back into the evidence bag, and stepped away from the table, "You'll have to forgive me if I don't take Wikipedia's name definition as proof of paternity," he replied in a frustrated tone, "Do I need to remind you all of Wo Fat's baby selling ring? He could've set this all up, left one of his black market babies in that car, set the tracker, even left Catherine's necklace behind, probably even carved that name on the back himself just to torture me!"

"You're right," Danny agreed, hoping to calm his partner down.

"I want proof before I start celebrating Father's Day," was all Steve said again before heading directly over to their medical cabinet in the middle of the office. He returned with a swab kit and gently rubbed the long swab along the inside of the baby's cheek, still managing to not look at the child very closely. When he was done he sealed the kit and handed it off, "Get that to Max for me, tell him to run it against the DNA samples I had him process before, mine and Wo Fat's," he instructed Kono.

He took a quick, shaky breath, "Then I want you and Chin to get back out there and check the rest of the marinas. I know Wo Fat is on this island and he had to come ashore somewhere," Steve concluded, "Danny, you and I are going to Hau'ula, we've got a missing person case," he said, edging toward the door.

"What do we do with this guy?" Danny asked, passing the baby off to Chin.

"Social services?" Steve shrugged.

"No way," Kono protested, "Steve, you can't be serious. You don't want to do that."

"You two figure it out," he demanded, holding the door, "Danny, you're with me," Steve summoned.

Danny looked a little nervous about leaving the baby behind, "Guys, I'm pretty sure he's hungry," he mentioned, standing in the open doorway, "And I'm guessing what we found in that cooler is breast milk. Good luck, call me if you need to."

Kono watched Danny slip away then she glanced over at her cousin and the baby. "He's sceptic."

"Who, Danny about us taking care of the baby?" Chin asked, feeling a little out of place with an infant in his arms. "He's right to be."

"I meant Steve, about the baby," Kono opened the cooler and frowned, not sure what to do with the contents.

"No kidding, wouldn't you be in his shoes?" Chin realized the mistake of his words, "Okay, if you had a baby you'd probably know for sure it was yours, but for a guy…" he glanced at the boy again, "I don't know, I've always thought all babies look the same. How could you be sure based on eye color or foot size?"

She chuckled, "You gotta admit those were some pretty big baby feet Danny flashed," Kono sighed as the baby continued to be fussy, "Well, what are we gonna do with him? We need to get that DNA sample to Max and then resume our search," Kono knew both tasks would be difficult with a baby in tow, "I could go alone," she offered.

"With the possibility of Wo Fat roaming around the island," Chin's head shook, "I'd prefer none of us go anywhere alone."

"So we take the baby with us?" Kono frowned.

"No, I have an idea," Chin sighed, "Although, I'm not sure how Steve will feel about it."

000

Danny white-knuckled the passenger side grab-handle above him as his partner took a corner way too fast.

"I'd like to see my daughter again, preferably in one piece," Danny said as Steve continued to drive erratically, "She won't be home until Sunday, but I need to figure out how to tell her Catherine's alive. Having to tell her Catherine was dead nearly ate me up inside. I know this should be a happy topic but… do you think maybe I shouldn't tell her Catherine is alive? In case things don't go," he stopped himself, realizing what a stupid thing he'd been about to say, "Hey, you okay over there?"

"In what way do you imagine I could be okay right now?" Steve retorted. "None of this is okay, Danny."

"I know… ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer," the detective acknowledged. "I'm just worried about you, babe. For months you were determined that Catherine was alive. Okay, so maybe you wavered a bit here and there, but I knew you always believed it. But now that we all know she is alive you seem kind of like you're hanging back. Basically leaving Catherine alone at HQ, letting Chin and me go after the trackers, barely wanting to entertain the idea that baby we found could be your son."

"I'm having him tested, right?"

"True," Danny realized. "But even right now, we're going to work another case?"

Steve took another corner too fast, his conflicting thoughts about the baby pushed as far away as possible, "Danny, what if she really is mad at me? She's avoiding me. What if that you owe me message was her way of telling me she's upset?"

"I doubt it, not if it has meaning to you otherwise," Danny tried to be supportive, not exactly sure how to accomplish that.

"Then there's the flipside, what if she thinks I hate her?" Steve asked. Biting off those words caused his stomach to tighten, "What if she feels like I abandoned her by not figuring out she was alive sooner? Maybe she felt the only choice she had was to stay with Wo Fat and have his baby. Maybe she never expected to see me again so she's just trying to protect herself," he sighed, unable to process everything. "All this time I thought that if she was just alive we could make it through anything. Well, she's alive, Danny… but…"

"What if we find her," the detective dug a little deeper, "What if we take out Wo Fat and Catherine comes back to us but really is pregnant with his kid? What if she had your baby and is also having his baby, then what?" he was able to ask the harder questions for his friend, "Do you hate her? Or do you figure out a way to somehow accept his child in your life or risk losing Catherine and your baby? Not that we know he's your baby yet or…"

"Is that even possible," Steve wondered, "That she could be pregnant so soon after?"

"My youngest sisters are eleven months apart," Danny offered an example, "So, yes. Rachael told me women are extremely fertile after giving birth, which is why I didn't touch her again for years after Grace was born," he tried to make a joke of it."

Steve felt like his mouth was too dry, his brain too foggy, the whole world too real at the moment, "I don't know what to think about any of it, Danny," he shrugged. "Honestly, all I can focus on right now is the getting her back part."

"Which is why we're headed toward another case?" Danny again voiced his opinion about finding that odd.

"More than anything else… I trust her, Danny," Steve responded, "And my gut says she wouldn't be doing all this if she didn't have a plan."

Danny sighed, "Unless she really has been conditioned by Wo Fat."

"Or despite being conditioned by Wo Fat," Steve countered.

---

To be continued…