For those of you waiting for Kono to make a reappearance, she will be back soon and have more of an important role in later chapters.

Chapter Nine "Brothers Part IV"

Mia ran out into the living room with Steve on her heels. What she saw was only half surprising, but it was disappointing. She watched as Kirk pushed Morgan against the wall. Morgan only held out his hands, trying to calm his younger brother down.

"Don't give me that," Kirk was saying. "You think you can just ride off into the sunset like the freaking lone ranger and leave everyone else in the dark. She's my sister too!"

Mia cleared her throat. Zach, who had been standing near the door, as if to avoid the conflict looked toward her and his eyes lit up.

"Mia!" he said and hurried past his brothers, now ignoring them.

Mia held out her arms to hug her little brother. He was only about an inch taller than her and looked much younger, though he was only about three years younger. As they finished their hug, Kirk was standing with his arms crossed, as if waiting.

"Ah, ah, ah," Mia said, when he came closer. She put her hand in the middle of his chest as if to hold him at arms length. "What do you say?" she asked.

Kirk dipped his head. "Sorry," he said.

Mia rolled her eyes. "Not to me, moron."

Kirk sighed and turned half way around. "Sorry, Morgan." He turned back to Mia, smiling, and opened his arms.

Mia grinned back and hugged him tightly. "Behave," she whispered in his ear and kissed his cheek.

"Love you, Bug," he whispered back.

Mia leaned back, her arms still resting around Kirk's neck. "A little too much sometimes," she said.

Kirk smiled and kissed her forehead. "It's good to see you again."

Mia slapped his arm. "You too, Beetle." She turned to see Steve leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed.

"Well," he said. "I'm eating all the bacon." He turned to go back to the kitchen, and Mia smiled at how easily he was letting her family intrude on his space. She had meant it when she said he was generous, but she had no idea how much. It was one more reason she should be completely in love with him. But she wasn't. Or wouldn't let herself be.

H-5-O

As Steve walked back through the hallway, Zach was close behind him. The others were still in the living room talking.

"Mia's gonna tell them to stop arguing," Zach said, "but they won't."

They reached the kitchen, and Steve handed him a plate. "Are they always like this."

Zach shook his head. "Worse. But at the end of the day, you don't mess with them. They'll end up ganging up on you."

"I take it you've had a lot of personal experience with this."

"I'm the little brother. I was tormented as a child... Still."

Steve laughed. "Isn't that what brothers are for?"

Zach shrugged. "Yeah, but I'll get them back. I thought I'd help you eat all the food before they get here."

By this time, Steve and Zach had filled their plates and went to sit at the table.

"So, you're Steve?" Zach said as they sat down.

Steve looked confused. "Yes," he said slowly.

"Mia told us about you. She said you went to one of her lectures."

"Yeah."

Zach's expression was something like admiration. "You're a brave man. I had to go to her things when she was teaching at UCLA. I really tried not to fall asleep... Anyway you must really like her."

Steve found himself completely off guard. There didn't seem to be any other option but to tell Zach the truth. "Yes," he said. "And I enjoyed listening to her."

Zach nodded. "She told us. She said you were 'surprising'. Whatever that means."

Steve couldn't help a small smile. "I guess she didn't think a guy like me would be interested in academic things."

"I would completely understand if you weren't. I mean, the whole process is oppressive. Everyone talks about free thinking, but no one really means it."

Steve began to see what Mia meant when she talked about her youngest brother. Perhaps he had ADHD or something.

"Anyway," Zach went on. "It's really great that she found you. She doesn't usually trust people so easily."

"I didn't realize she trusted me more than was necessary given the circumstances."

"You have to rate her on a different scale. She trusts by degrees. Kirk the most, if you hadn't noticed."

"I had."

"Yeah. He's her favorite, but don't tell anyone, it's supposed to be a big secret."

"I won't tell." Steve smirked. Zach wasn't exactly the sort of person he could understand, but he liked him anyway. He seemed genuine.

H-5-O

Mia was just happy that Morgan and Kirk weren't yelling at each other anymore. It was embarrassing, not to mention upsetting. But she knew it wasn't over. Kirk was mad at Morgan for leaving without him and Morgan was mad at Kirk for being mad.

Still, Mia managed to get them to comply with her long enough to have breakfast. When they got to the dining room, Steve and Zach were almost finished, but Zach was going back for seconds.

"Steve," Mia said as she sat down at the table. "This is my brother, Kirk." She nodded to her right where Kirk was sitting next to her. "And he apologizes for assaulting your wall with his brother."

Kirk cleared his throat. "Yeah, sorry about that."

Steve smiled. "Much worse things have happened to my house," he said.

"I have heard stories about that," Mia said.

"Skewed by Danny's tendency toward hyperbole, no doubt."

"I don't know. Did you really have to fight off mercenaries?"

"Yes."

"And they almost killed you?"

Steve shrugged. "That is debatable."

"So how did he hyperobolize?"

"That's so not a word," Zach said.

"Is," Mia argued.

"Are you seriously gonna argue with her, Zach?" Kirk asked.

"I reserve the right to as many exercises in futility as I please," Zach said. "Hey, we should go surfing."

"I have to go to work," Mia said, standing up.

"You're still working?" Morgan asked.

"Illiteracy waits for no man."

Morgan crossed his arms. "You're a college professor."

"Point being, yes, I am still working."

"Don't you have a TA or something?"

"You need to stop before I help Kirk throw you into the ocean."

Morgan put up his hands as if in surrender, but they both knew it wasn't over. In the midst of their conversation, Steve had gone upstairs to change. When he came back, he left a piece of paper on the counter.

"Alarm code," he said. "And directions to Five-0 HQ. You guys might have information that could help us. So, if you could stop by there sometime today, we would appreciate it."

H-5-O

The ride to the school started out silently until Mia turned in her seat to look at Steve.

"I'm sorry about them," she said.

Steve tilted his head to one side. "Sorry for what?" he asked.

"The generally bad behavior."

Steve shook his head. "They're just being normal brothers. Zach seems nice."

"You managed to have a conversation with Zach. Congratulations. Usually it's a lot of disjointed thoughts on whatever happens to pop into his mind."

"There was a little of that... No, he said I must really like you."

Mia bit her lip and stared straight ahead. "Was he wrong?" she asked, not really wanting the answer either way. She wasn't ready to deal with it.

Steve sighed. "No."

"Oh."

"The trouble is," Steve said, "I want to help, but there doesn't seem to be anything I can do."

"But you have." Mia was aware that the tone of her voice was more emotional than she would like it to be. "Everything you've done has made my life easier; trust me."

"Okay... So, what do I have to do to know what's going on in your head?"

"Nothing... I mean, I don't know what you want to know."

"That you can't just be all calm and collected all the time. No one is. Even I'm not. But you want people to think you are." Steve's gaze drifted from the road to the rearview mirror where he could just see Mia's left eye and back to the road again.

"There's no middle ground for me," Mia said. "It's this, or the worst sort of female angst you've ever seen."

"You don't like it, do you?"

"What?"

"Being emotional. At all."

"You make it sound like I'm some kind of robot."

"I didn't mean that."

"Yeah... It's easy for you. People don't expect you to talk about your feelings. Everyone thinks I should. But I don't see how it's relevant."

"Zach said you trusted me, but I don't believe him."

"You should. I know you'll keep me safe."

"But you don't feel like it. And in your world where feelings don't matter, that seems okay to you. Sometimes you can't be logical, and you have to deal with that before you can move on."

"I went to the counselors, Steve. Did everything a victim is supposed to do. It was a long time ago; I'm over it."

"Saturday wasn't a long time ago."

"That was nothing."

Steve shook his head. "It was everything."