Disclaimer – I don't own Hawaii Five-O. If I did, Steve McGarrett would be shirtless all the time. And they wouldn't be covering up any of AOL's tattoos. I'm just toying with the characters for a while.

6 months ago…

"What the hell happened?" Claire exclaimed, running to greet a bloody and bruised Danny and Steve at the main door of the 5-0 headquarters.

Danny grinned despite the gash on his forehead. "H-hey, sweetheart. You are a sight for sore eyes. And head and legs…"

Claire gave Steve a cursory once-over before focusing her attention on Danny. She gingerly inspected the cut while Danny struggled to keep his eyes from wandering down Claire's neckline to the small gap between the chiffon scarf tied loosely at the top of her blouse and the first button, allowing just the lacy edge of a nude colored camisole to show. "Eyes up, Casanova," she said gently.

"What's the verdict, Doc? I need stitches?" he asked with a smirk.

"No, it's already stopped bleeding. I'll put a couple of butterfly bandages on it to minimize any scarring," she replied, gently brushing her fingers over Danny's cheek. "What happened?" she asked again.

"Rambo here drove a motorcycle through a plate-glass window and the bad guys got away," Danny explained.

"Doc?" Steve asked curiously with a grin. "I thought that University of Hawaii plaque on your wall said Juris Doctorate, not MD."

"She's a woman of many talents, babe," Danny answered with a laugh as he watched her step over to the Commander, "many, many talents…"

Claire rolled her eyes as she lifted Steve's arm and pulled the gauze away gently. For a moment, the world ceased spinning. She had never touched him before, not even accidentally. He wondered if she could feel the effect she was having on him as her cool fingers prodded the wound. "You, on the other hand, DO need stitches," she surmised.

He suddenly realized he'd stopped breathing. "Yeah, no big deal, I'll take care of it later…" he began, waving her off and side-stepping her on his way to his office.

Four minutes later, Claire dropped a medical kit on his desk, startling him. Her long hair had been swept up in a messy ponytail. "What are you doing?" he asked; his eyes wide.

"I am going to stitch up your arm," she explained calmly, like it was the most normal thing in the world for a lawyer to be sewing up a cop.

Steve scratched his forehead and eyed the attorney curiously. "I'll go see Max later, it's fine."

"Dr. Bergman is out today," she answered dryly. "And you and I both know; left to your own devices, that cut will get infected, which will turn into sepsis, and next thing you know, you're having your arm amputated."

The Commander leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest, cringing slightly at the pain before laughing. "Okay, one, you've been hanging out with Danno way too much. And two, you still haven't told me why I would let you sew up my arm."

Claire shook her head and reached into the case, coming up with a curved needle in a sterile pouch. "My father was a highly decorated medic in the Navy. I wanted to be a doctor when I was a kid, so he taught me. I've sewed him up a few times after bar fights that got out of hand."

"Your dad's an alcoholic?"

Claire froze and glared at Steve. "Wow, you really want me to hurt you, don't you?"

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he thought to himself. Claire Ellis had grown on him in the two months she'd been assigned to 5-0. The initial friction had dissolved into playful banter. More importantly, she made Danny happy – brought him back from the edge of the cliff he was precariously clinging to after Rachel broke his heart. And Danny wasn't just his best friend, he was Steve's brother. But for reasons he could not identify, Steve hardened, badass Navy Seal McGarrett, was terrified of being alone with ASA Claire Ellis.

So, he reverted to his standard defense – he pushed. "Did you or did you not just say you sewed your father up after bar fights? Fights – plural. What was I supposed to think?"

She took a deep breath and blew it out slowly while donning a pair of purple nitrile gloves. She yanked the injured arm from his chest, ignoring his pained protests. "After he retired, my dad managed a bar a couple of blocks from U of H. Ten years later, he bought it from the original owner. Things get crazy in there, especially during football season."

Claire secured a sterile adhesive patch around the wound before coating the skin around it with an orange goo Steve recognized as Betadine. "Sorry," she said softly when he flinched from what she assumed was pain. In reality, it was a reflex to hide the goosebumps taking up residence on his arm.

"So, how does a girl who wanted to be a doctor end up an Assistant State's Attorney?"

Claire smiled sadly as she used a small tool to thread the needle through his skin on one side of the wound, capturing it on the other side with a pair of tweezers. "It's not exactly a happy story, Commander."

This peaked Steve's curiosity. "Well, counselor, you've, ah, got me on a string. Not like I'm going anywhere," he said with a grin.

Intense sadness flashed behind Claire's emerald eyes and Steve was instantly sorry he'd pushed her. She worried her bottom lip with her teeth before answering. "My best friend Bethany was murdered 2 weeks before I was supposed to start Johns Hopkins. Her son, Cooper, was barely a month old…"

Steve's brow furrowed in confusion and he held up a hand to stop her. "Wait, Danny said your son's name is Cooper."

"Yeah," she answered with a gentle nod, "I adopted him."

"What about his father?" Steve asked softly.

He didn't miss the anger that flushed Claire's features. "Serving a life sentence at Leavenworth for killing Bethany."

Steve felt his heart stop for a moment as Claire's words sank in. "I…ah…I'm sorry," he stuttered.

She blinked a tear away and shrugged. "It was a long time ago."

She worked in silence for several minutes, looping the needle through Steve's torn skin, before tying it off and cutting the thread. He dared not ask her any other questions. He simply watched as she cleaned the Betadine off his arm, then pushed her chair away and stood. "All done," she said quickly before escaping his office with her supplies.

She turned at the door frame, facing him, but not making eye contact, "make sure you keep it clean and bandage it back up."

He nodded. "Yeah, thanks, I will."

He watched as she made her way into Danny's office, noting the radiant smile that crossed her features the moment she saw the Detective. Danny sat on the edge of his desk and pulled Claire in close, so she was standing between his legs. His hands took up residence on her hips, holding her in place as she gently applied three butterfly closures to the gash on Danny's forehead. Steve fought the memory of Claire's fingers on his arm...the delicate way her fingers threaded the needle through his skin.

He rested his arms on the desk, closed his eyes and pressed his thumbs into the sides of his nose. When he opened his eyes, they fell on a picture of him and Catherine slid under the glass protecting the top of his desk. He sighed and tried to convince himself there was a simple explanation the angst turning in his stomach - he just missed Catherine.

TBC...