Steve was a man of patience, well you had to have patience to be in the navy but right now he felt a bit on edge. Emma had agreed to come over so they could talk about recent events and Steve knew it wasn't going to be a pretty conversation but he missed Emma and he wanted to fix things between the two of them. Steve had come to realize that by keeping Emma away during everything with the Governor's murder and his brief time in prison he had been pushing her away. It hadn't been intentional, Steve had only been keeping Emma away from this all to protect her and it had kind of worked a bit too well. More than Steve would have liked and now he was working on winning her trust back, which he was certain would be as difficult as he originally thought it would be only hours ago. Despite being relatively pissed off with him Steve was pretty sure Emma glad to see him turn up at her office after hearing about her being attacked in court. The doorbell going off signaled Emma's arrival and getting up from his father's desk Steve made his way to the living room and crossed the room and opened the door and there was Emma.

"Hey…" Steve began.

"Hi." Emma replied with a weary smile as she tucked a loose piece of her blonde hair behind her ear and Steve could tell that she was nervous, probably just as much as he was.

"Come on in." Steve said inviting Emma in to the house and once she was inside he shut the door and then it was just the two of them standing in his living room in a somewhat awkward silence. They both knew why they were here yet it didn't change how uncomfortable the situation was so Steve decided to make a little small talk with Emma before they got onto the inevitable heavy stuff. "How's Harry?"

"Great, he's been asking about George as of late as it's his birthday in a few days so Kim is going to take him out for the day and talk about George. Kim knows more about his father than I ever did so I'm happy that Harry can spend time with his aunt and be able talk about George. Other than that Harry is his normal happy and sweet self although he is no doubt getting up to no good tonight with his Uncle Danny whose babysitting." Emma explained with a bigger smile on her face, Steve knew he probably shouldn't have used Harry to help Emma ease up but he knew nothing brought a genuine smile to Emma's face than talking about her pride and joy; her son.

"I miss him."

The smile on Emma's face faltered. "He misses you too, Harry doesn't understand what's going on but then again neither do I. I am in as much of the dark as my four year old son. All I know is that you somehow ended up in the Governor's mansion, she was killed by somebody else, you get charged with Governor's murder and you end up at county before finally escaping and you try and act like everything is fine when you've been ignoring me for the entire time Steve."

"Emma I know I've got a lot to explain and you've got every reason to be mad with me but I need you to trust me when I say I was doing this to protect you Emma. I never meant to hurt you, I just thought I was doing what I thought was best." Steve attempted to explain.

"Steven I am not five years old, I am thirty one years old and I do not need protecting. I don't know what is about me that you and Danny think you need to mollycoddle me constantly but it's annoying as hell. I am not Harry, I don't believe that there are monsters under my bed and I need my mom to look under it every night. I am a grown woman, I know that there are bad things and people in the world, which is why I do the job that I do. I let you into my life Steve, mine and my child's life. I let see everything, the good and the bad. I let myself fall in love with you and I trusted you Steve and I was silly enough to think you felt the same about me." Emma angrily stated.

"I do Emma. I love you and I want to be with you, I make things right with us which is why I asked you to come over tonight. You told Danny that I don't talk about things with you and honesty is something that I've been lacking and your right. I've lied to you and I did all of this without talking to you when you should have. I thought I was doing the right thing by keeping you out of all of this, I thought by keeping you at arms length that I was protecting you. I never wanted to hurt you Emma, I just wanted you safe. So much has happened to you and I just have this instinct to protect you as yours and Harry's safety matters to me the most but I now know that part of keeping you safe is being honest with you. So I'm going tell you everything but I need you to trust me." Steve said holding out his hand towards Emma.

"Are you seriously asking me to trust you after everything?" Emma skeptically asked and Steve couldn't blame Emma for being so weary of him given everything he had done recently and what he had put her through. But to be fair to him, it was all to find out who was behind his mother's death and prove his own innocence in the governor's murder but he needed Emma to understand that.

"I know it's a lot but I promise I'm going to explain everything." Steve replied and ever reluctantly Emma handed her hand and Steve led her though the living room and over to his father's desk where the champ toolbox was sitting and waiting. "My father was murdered by Victor Hesse an arms dealer I had been chasing for a couple of years. The day my father died I got a call from him and he called me champ. My dad had never called me champ in my life. It lead me to this toolbox…" Steve slowly began as he let go off Emma's hand, Steve opened the toolbox and handed Emma the postcards from Japan. "It turns out my father was conducting a secret investigation as he couldn't trust HPD, my father was investigating numerous things including my mother's murder."

"I thought your mother died in car accident." Emma slowly said.

"So did I but she wasn't, she was murdered and my father was investigating it and he kept everything in this toolbox. I figured that he wanted me to finish what he started." Steve explained and Emma nodded ass she slid of her jacked and placed it on a chair, Steve could tell by the look in her eyes that she was fully invested in what he was saying.

"This toolbox of your fathers I'm assuming that it's connected to what happened?"

"Yeah and I'll get to how this toolbox landed me in prison but I've got to fill in the gaps, during the course of the investigation the contents toolbox was stolen but luckily Mary had taken photographs of everything when she had been snooping around. That was a big help although I started getting anonymous packages and each package contained a piece of evidence from the toolbox. During this time I found out that a member of the local yazuka, a Hiro Noshimuri was connected to Governor Jameson and the day I arrested him, his brother was killed in a car accident similar to the one my mother was killed in." Steve explained as he watched Emma take a sharp intake of breath.

"Oh Steve…" Emma softly said as she put the postcards back down in the toolbox.

"I know this is a lot Em but I want you to know the truth. When I first looked into the toolbox I found this small gold key and I tried it in every lock in this house and it didn't fit. I discovered where the key led to the day Laura Hills was killed."

"Laura Hills? Governor Jameson's assistant? How is she connected to this?" Emma couldn't help but ask and Steve waited a moment before he answered.

"Because Laura was the one sending me back the evidence that was stolen from the toolbox and I found this out when Danny and I searched her house and I found the gold key again. It turns out it opens a desk in the governor's mansion which is why I was there the night I got arrested and this whole thing blew up. I knew I couldn't go to the governor about it so I decided to break in and I found evidence that showed the Governor had found out that Laura was sending me the evidence back." Steve stated and he watched as Emma burrowed her brows together.

"Are you telling me that the Governor was responsible for what happened to Laura?"

"Yes, with help from a man named Wo Fat whose associated with the yazuka and the person who ordered the death of my parents. He was also the one who tasered me, shot Governor Jameson and then framed me for it." Steve finished and he waited for a response from Emma but she didn't say a thing, she was deadly quiet. Which he knew wasn't a good thing as when Emma was silent and didn't respond it meant she was bottling something up inside. "Em? Talk to me Emma."

"I feel so bad now, all this time I've been so mean to you and accusing you of doing all this stuff when all you were trying to do was find the people who killed your parents. I'm really sorry Steve, for everything…" Emma said and Steve couldn't stand the sad look on her face so he took a few steps closer to Emma and placed his hands on either side of her face. Emma didn't flinch, she didn't move in fact she actually seemed to relax into his embrace.

"There is nothing for you to be sorry about. I don't blame you for anything Emma, you tried to help me when all of this was blowing up which I really appreciate. I should have said that, I should have explained what was going on at the time but I was just trying to protect. I know that you can take care of yourself, as you are one of the strongest people I know. I really did just want to keep you safe but I still managed to hurt you Em. I'm sorry." Steve firmly stated as he wanted Emma to know that she never needed to be sorry for anything. This wasn't her fault and it wasn't his fault wither for the most part, it was all Wo Fat.

"I-I was so scared that I was going to lose you when you were arrested and it terrified me Steve to the point that I was too scared to admit how I really felt and it turned you were guilt. Despite the fact that you didn't do it, I was just scared that if I admitted how I felt everything would hurt even more, even after you had been exonerated. I'm always scared that I'm going to lose you Steve, it was why I was acting the way I was…" Emma wearily said as Steve had to brush away the tiniest hint of tears before moving his hands away from Emma's face and pulling her into a tight hug.

"I don't want to lose you either Em, it's why I'm always trying to protect you. I kno you don't need me to but I like doing it as I always want you around. I don't want you and Harry to go anywhere. I love you both." Steve admitted as Emma needed to hear that, she needed to hear him being serious about his feelings for her and know that he was serious about having her and Harry in his life. "I'm just hoping this insurance adjudicator hasn't already taken my place."

Emma couldn't help but laugh as she pulled away so she could just see Steve. "I just said that because I knew Danny would tell you that. I was really mad but there is nobody else for me. There's nobody who could compete with you Steve"

"I'm glad to know that."

"Since we're being honest with each other then I should tell you something, whilst you were in prison being a bit of a douchebag in order to protect me. I had a bit of a pregnancy scare." Emma announced and that was the last thing that Steve was expecting to hear and his eyes couldn't help but wonder briefly down to Emma's stomach for a second.

"Oh…" Steve eventually said.

"Yeah I thought I was possible pregnant for a few days and it freaked me out given that I was super pissed with you at the time and you were in prison but I'm not pregnant which is kind of a relief as I don't think we're ready for that. Not to mention it's been a pretty intense since we met, we've both had things going on in our lives and a baby would just complicate things." Emma slowly said as if to check that they were on the same wavelength and Steve completely agreed with her. Although he couldn't help but ponder the idea of him settling down with Emma and having a family with her and Oz. It didn't seem like a to bad of an idea the more Steve thought about it.

"Maybe someday." Steve lightly tossed out.

"Danny would love that." Emma sarcastically replied and Steve couldn't help but chuckle, his partner had barely accepted the fact that he was seeing his sister. If Steve had got Emma pregnant, Danny's head would have no doubt exploded at the idea of mini pac men or ms pac women. The more Steve thought about it, the more he liked the possibility of having kids with Emma and it wasn't just because he knew that it would annoy Danny to no ends. Especially because if Steve ever took that step with Emma, he's make an honest women out of her first which would make him Danny's brother in law.

"I would have been there for you if you were pregnant, you and the baby along with Oz. I just want you to know that Em, I wouldn't have let you go through that alone." Steve said, feeling the need to let Emma know that he would have supported her without a doubt if she had been pregnant. She needed to know he would have been there for and Steve wanted Emma to know that he was open to the whole family thing as he knew that Emma and Harry were a package deal.

"I know that Steven as no matter what you are always here for me."