Sorry I've been slacking off on my Five-0 stories. I really appreciate the interest and all the reviews on this story. This chapter is a little shorter and probably not as good as my other stuff, but I wanted to get something out there.

Chapter Two "Maneuvers"

Steve wasn't sure if Danny were breathing or not. He couldn't hear a thing from the other end of the line. Maybe Danny had hung up. Steve waited. Finally, he could hear breathing again. It was a start.

"Can you, uh, can you repeat that please?"

Steve had already said it twice. "My mom is alive. She's been hiding all this time because Wo Fat wants to kill her."

"Why do you sound okay with this?"

"What?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe the fact that everyone lied to you for twenty years is just fine with you."

"No. It's not." Steve was pacing in front of the house his mother had been living in. He had to resist shouting as he slumped against the wall, suddenly feeling the bruises from the shooter in the pet hospital.

"I'm sorry." Danny's voice had changed from its usual annoyed indignation to something more serious. "I didn't mean to say that. It's none of my business."

"Danny, what's wrong?"

"Nothing. I mean, nothing I can't take care of without you, so... yeah, do whatever it is you do when reunited with a long lost relative."

"Is it about Grace?"

"What? No. Well, yeah, but that's on hold for a while. Just—I don't know, have fun?"

"Danny, what aren't you telling me? Is everyone okay?"

"Sure. We're fine. Or will be. Hopefully. Listen, when you work things out with your mom, then we'll talk, okay?"

"I don't wanna do this." Steve hated that he was about to dump all his problems on Danny, but he couldn't help it. He needed to talk to the one solid person in his life before it was too late and Danny moved off to Las Vegas because Steve knew he would.

"Do what?"

"I don't want to be here, Danny. I was done with this whole thing. I'd resigned myself that Joe was never going to tell me the truth, and I let it go because I wanted to be home. I wanted to get on with my life, you know?"

"Yeah." Steve could almost hear Danny nodding, the way he dipped his head to the side. "But it's your mom, Steve. What did she say?"

"About why she left? That she would have died if she didn't. She said that Dad actually wanted us to know about it, but Joe and Hiro out voted him or something."

"Hiro Noshimuri was involved?"

"He had to be. As soon as I figured out that Wo Fat had killed him, I knew he and Joe had been working together long before the faked his death. And now that I think about it, he died protecting my mother. She hasn't explained that just yet."

"Or why Wo Fat wants to kill her. Are you even supposed to tell me all this?"

"I don't know. I did."

"Okay. So, what are you going to do?"

"I don't know. It's been twenty years since I've seen her. That's a lot to catch up on, but I can't just leave all of you. And I don't want to."

"Don't worry about us." Danny didn't sound very convincing. "Just do what you have to, and we'll be waiting for you when you come home."

Steve could only pray he was right.

H-5-O

Chin had overheard Danny's conversation with Steve, and even though he was preoccupied with worrying about his wife, he couldn't help but catch the main point. Shelburne was Steve's mother. Chin shook his head. He thought he had known Virginia McGarrett so well. He remembered how she often reminded him of a younger version of his own mother. To think that she had been alive all this time was too much to take in.

Chin took in a deep breath and realized that he was well on his way to an emotional overload. He wasn't sure whether talking about it would help any, but the words spilled out before he could stop them.
"Ginny is alive."

Danny stared at him from across the room. "Ginny?"

Chin nodded. "I should have seen that coming after all the trouble Joe went to and all the secrets John kept from everyone. I could tell every time I saw him that there was something he wanted to get out but just couldn't. I can't believe they kept it up for twenty years."

Danny kept staring. "I didn't even know her name."

"Steve never talked about her. John hardly did either."

"How... How is he even supposed to begin to deal with this?"

"You didn't tell him what's going on here?"

"I couldn't. He'd want to come back here and deal with Delano, and I am perfectly happy letting Adam and the Yakuza take care of that scumbag, so why not let Steve have some time with her, right?"

"So she's not coming home?"

"Wo Fat is still alive, so I'm thinking not."

Chin shook his head. "To think that Steve has been chasing this for so long only to have it end up like this. I wonder what she was involved in that got her into so much trouble. I have a feeling there's a lot more to her than anyone ever suspected."

"What? Like she's a spy or something?"

Chin laughed. "I wouldn't put it past that family."

"And now Steve's in it too."

Chin's eyes met Danny's. "I guess it makes sense she would want to protect him from it. Maybe in a twisted way, he was better off not knowing."

Danny shook his head. "The one time he told me about her... I could hear the pain in his voice that he tried so hard to hide. It was one of those times I wished I could turn back time and make everything okay for him. Send him back to his childhood where everything was fine."

H-5-O

"Who were you talking to so long?" Ginny asked as she laid some blankets on the old couch in the main room of the shack of a house.

"No one." Steve didn't want to bring her into that part of his life just yet. Not if she planned on skipping out of it again.

Ginny gave him a suspicious look but didn't ask again. "I know there's a lot we still need to talk about, but it can wait for morning. It's not very comfortable, but it's all I have." She gestured toward the couch.

"It's fine." Steve didn't say that he had slept in far worse places without complaint. She had to know what he had been doing for the last twenty years from Joe, but she seemed to want to imagine that his life had been safe and comfortable all the time. He didn't really blame her.

As he laid down and the lights went out, Steve realized that he wouldn't be falling asleep any time soon. He was so tired, worn out really, but his mind wouldn't shut off. Part of it was wondering what his mother had been up to all this time, but another part wished it would all just go away so he could go home. He thought about Mary: what would he tell her? He thought about Wo Fat locked in a prison cell. That never guaranteed anything in Steve's experience. He thought about Chin and Kono and how complicated their lives had been lately. He thought about Danny and wondered if he would make it back in time to say goodbye. He didn't want his best friend to leave, but he was so certain it would happen. Everyone left eventually, even if they came back sometimes.

Steve thought about Catherine. He avoided talking about her, thinking it would make him miss her more. She left him every time, but she always came back. He didn't harbor any illusions that she would ever stay for good. It wasn't his luck to have a real relationship.

Soon Steve realized that lying on the uncomfortable couch did no more good for his sore back than standing against the house had, so he got up and quietly went outside. The whole town was dark as he sat on the porch. Steve couldn't see three feet ahead. He didn't need to.

As he breathed in the moist night air, Steve wished again that he were back home. He felt bad; it wasn't as if he wanted to be away from his mother. Quite the opposite, but he didn't think she would come with him.

Steve heard the door to the shack open and close behind him. He wasn't surprised. The glow of her flashlight bounced over the wooden porch and down the steps into the blackness before she flicked it off and sat down next to him. With the presence of his mother's body heat, Steve realized how cold he was getting.

"It was worth a try." Ginny put her hand around Steve's arm. "Sleeping."

"Not usually."

"What's bothering you?" Ginny shifted slightly. "In particular?"

Steve let out a short laugh. "I can't be here."

She nodded against his shoulder. "I understand. It works out anyway. You should call your sister."

Steve turned to face Ginny, though he couldn't see very well in the darkness. "What are you talking about?"

"Things have changed since I left. You and Mary aren't kids anymore. And it's time for me to come home."

"But Wo Fat—"

"I'll always be in danger no matter where I am. But I have a feeling that if we had stayed together, this family would have been unstoppable."

"What good does coming home do if it will only get you killed?" Steve didn't want to say that. He was supposed to be the optimist. "I'm not going to bury you again."

"You won't have to. There's a lot I haven't told you, but believe me when I sat that Wo Fat won't get near me from where he's sitting. You've managed to cripple him in a way I or your father never could have. And I will explain it all."

Steve nodded. "Eventually, right?"

"Yes. Eventually."