CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

Title: "Salvation: Forever and Always: Elusive Dreams – PART III"

Author: Michelle Heath

Rating: MA for adult situations and language

Summary: Story #9 in the Salvation series. The bonds of family bring the Five-0 ohana even closer.

Disclaimer: I so do not own Hawaii Five-0; unfortunately! All original characters are the property of the author!

Date Written: March 10, 2013

(Danny leans in the doorway of the nursery he and Caroline had prepared for their baby and watches his wife as she stands at the baby bed and gazes lovingly down at her sleeping niece. For a moment, pain slices through him when he thinks of the son they lost, but he pushes his sadness away. He and Caroline have decided that, while they will always love and miss the child they lost, they aren't going to allow themselves to drift apart. They are going to do their best to recover from the loss of their son and pray that they will have a child of their own soon. Taking the few steps necessary to bring him to Caroline's side, Danny slips an arm around her slender waist and he, too, gazes down at Emily's sleeping form with a smile on his face.)

"I'm glad we didn't get in a big hurry to donate this furniture to the domestic shelter, Danny. I'm ashamed to admit that I hadn't thought about where Emily was going to sleep when she stayed with us, and well, now that we've decided to try and have another baby, we really need to keep everything. Unless, you don't want to . . ."

"I want to, Caroline. I mean, we already have everything so, yeah, we should keep it."

"Emily is so beautiful."

"Yeah, she is. Looks just like her mother."

"She does look like Sam, but I think she looks a lot like Steve, too. 'Course, it would probably kill you to admit that you see anything of Steve in Emily."

"No, it wouldn't and she looks a little like her Daddy, too. I just think that, because Emily is a girl, she looks more like Sam."

"Unbelievable."

(Danny takes a good look at his wife and he sees a touch of sadness in her eyes as she looks at their niece.)

"Hey, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Danny. I'm worried about my sister, but I know that she has Steve and he's not about to let her do anything to screw up, so, yeah, I'm good. How about you?"

"I'm good. I have you back, Gorgeous."

"Yes, you do, Danny, and I promise you I'm not going to leave you ever again."

"Good. . . . So, Mrs. Williams, what do you say we leave the little Princess here to her sweet dreams and go make some of our own?"

"Danny, really? What if Emily wakes up and hears. ."

"Caroline, Emily is way too young to understand what, if anything, she might hear should she wake up and, besides, when we do have another child, what's your plan for keeping our baby from hearing something?"

"Good point, Romeo. 'Kay, then, head on into our bedroom so we can make sure the baby monitor is working. I'm right behind you."

(Libby still can't sleep when she goes up to bed and, after ten minutes of her tossing and turning, Mike can't stand it any longer and turns on the lamp on his bedside table.)

"All right, Libby, out with it."

"Out with what, Mike?"

"Don't you dare try to pull that 'Out with what, Mike' crap on me, Libby Thrasher. Something's on your mind and it's obviously bothering you to the point you can't sleep, which means I'm not going to sleep, so . . Out with it."

"Fine. If you must know, Michael, I'm furious with myself for not seeing what Sam was going through all these years. I've gone over everything that happened when Anne and Jonathan died and in the years since, and I simply cannot understand why I couldn't see something was wrong with that sweet child."

"Libby, Caroline said it fairly clearly earlier. . Even Steve didn't know that Sam was suffering from survivor's guilt so how were we supposed to see it? Sam wouldn't say anything to us because she thought we blamed her for losing our best friends, and she wouldn't say anything to Caroline because she thought Caroline blamed her for forcing her to share us."

"Of all the ridiculous ideas. . ."

"It wasn't ridiculous to Sam, Libby."

(Libby hears the same remorse she's feeling in Mike's quietly spoken words and turns her head to meet his eyes. Now Libby is feeling guilty for upsetting her husband more than he already is and she turns on her side to face him, smiling when he does the very same thing. After all these years of marriage, they know each other pretty well.)

"What do we do, Mike? How do we help Sam move past this?"

"By doing exactly what Capt. Stewart told us to, Libby. We simply continue loving Sam the way we always have and we reassure her that what happened to Anne and Jonathan was not her fault."

"Yes, but is that going to be enough? It's not just Sam I'm worried about here, Mike, but Steve and Emily, too. Not to mention the rest of us."

"And there's your answer, Libby."

"What do you mean?"

"There are very few things I can categorically state as fact, but one of them is the fact that Sam loves Steve and Emily more than anyone or anything else in this world and she's not about to do anything that would cause her to lose them. In fact, she's going to do everything she possibly can to make sure she doesn't lose them. And don't, for one second, think that Steve isn't going to do everything he possibly can to help her through this. That boy loves our girl; she's his world and he's not about to lose her, but, the reason I know Sam's going to be okay is Emily."

"Emily?"

"Yes, Libby, Emily. That beautiful little bundle of energy who's the spitting image of both Sam and Steve is going to be her mother's salvation."