/ / / Cath \ \ \

Catherine Rollins knew the second that Steve's name appeared on her screen she would get to do something fun or dangerous. She also knew that he'd be asking for a favour but she answered like she always did because she knew he'd stop at nothing to help her, like he had before.

Cath drove from her house towards the HPD safe house trying to work out if there was anyway, anyway at all, that this would not turn out to be a horrible, terrible idea. She parked outside and walked in anyway; half worried and half really looking forward to meeting Steve's mum, who wasn't dead but had fucked her son over since he was sixteen and lost his entire family through some bad decisions. She hoped that Doris had a really good reason.

Cath knew Steve calling someone like his mother by her first name was a bad sign. Steve was a SEAL, he'd been trained to do the right thing and be respectful and shove every personal feeling down into a box to follow orders and to get the job done. However, Cath was standing in a safe house across from his mother who he thought was dead and watching him repress as much as he could behind that mask of professionalism. She wanted to give him a hug but even if he'd allow it that had never been her place.

She did not envy Danny having to deal with Steve like this. When she and Steve had been involved they hadn't discussed feelings unless something terrible occurred and they were never really emotional support for one another. Catherine didn't need Steve to be her emotional support, he was the guy at the end of the gun or the fist and her friend but when she needed someone to talk to about feelings she went elsewhere. As far as she was aware Steve hadn't talked about his feelings with anyone but Danny in twenty years. At some point she knew this was going to explode and she knew it was going to be bad. As much as she would protect this woman for Steve she just wasn't sure if she could ever forgive the woman on Steve's behalf; Doris would need to have the world's best reason and yet she didn't even look apologetic as she bossed her son around like he was still a teenager.

Cath pushed all of that aside and focussed on the mission.

/ / / / /

"The perimeter is secure," Doris said behind her. "Come join me."

"I really shouldn't Ma'am." Cath said hoping the older woman wouldn't push. Something about Steve's warning, and Steve so rarely offered warnings, was making her wary of Doris.

"Cut the ma'am crap; neither of us is in uniform. Now come on. Please just sit down for a few seconds, you're making me nervous."

Catherine sat down even though the idea of whatever it was Steve's mum wanted to say to her was making her nervous.

"So…" Cath tensed for no apparent reason as Doris spoke.

"So…"

"Do you love my son?"

"Do I?" Ah shit!

"Love…" Doris said letting Cath finish the sentence herself.

"Ah…wow," Cath said trying to work out if Steve had refrained from telling his mother about Danny. She had seen the blonde man though and no one who saw them together could ever be confused about their relationship. It wasn't her place to tell Doris about the relationship if Steve hadn't said anything yet.

Thank God for Kamekona.

When they'd eaten Doris fixed her gaze on Catherine again. "You never did answer my question."

"Question Ma'am?" Cath said only half paying attention as she checked in with each of the SWAT team on perimeter duty.

"Are you in love with Steve?"

Cath turned to her and shook her head. "No."

Doris frowned at her for a second. "But you were involved?"

"A long time ago when it was convenient for both of us," Cath said. She refrained from explaining that it became inconvenient when she realised Steve was in denial about being in love with Danny.

"But now he's involved with his partner?"

"Danny?" Cath asked. If Doris knew that Steve and Danny were together then it was downright impolite to ask Cath if she was in love with Steve. If Cath was carrying a torch then it was hers to carry in silence and none of Doris' business while her son was living with someone else. Not that Cath was holding a torch; it had been so very easy to return to just friends who never had sex.

"Of course."

"They are dating though that seems a little shallow for what they have."

Doris frowned and didn't say anything for a moment; Cath assumed the older woman had simply been looking for confirmation that her son was being cared about properly. She was proved wrong by the next words out of Doris' mouth.

"Danny doesn't seem to value commitment, he's divorced and he has made no permanent commitment with Steve."

Cath couldn't stop her bark of laughter. "I care about Steve, he's one of my best friends but you are wrong only someone utterly committed to Steve could live with him and renovate a house with him."

Doris looked shocked. "They renovated my house?"

Cath nodded slowly at the indignant tone. "Yeah, they live there, stripped all the rooms down. It looks amazing…not that it didn't before but I don't think Mr McGarrett had done anything with it." Cath knew she ended weakly but the house had been a weird monument to Steve's lost family and dead father until Danny and Steve had taken it apart and made it their own.

Doris nodded. "And they live there together."

Catherine smiled. "They managed to get through it without killing one another so they are there together. Can't say I ever expected Steve to settle down though."

"You never thought that you and he would settle down, get married?"

Cath laughed. "I love Steve, in my own way, but I would have killed him."

Doris looked at her like she could answer all her own questions if she just concentrated hard enough.

"He and Danny managed to find a way to live together without killing each other." Cath said hoping to minimalise what she'd just said about Steve. "They are happy."

"I don't see why he'd be happy with Danny who was so rude in the car on the ride over."

Cath was honestly surprised, Danny could be short and he was quick to rant but he wasn't normally rude for no reason. "Really?"

"Very."

"I'm surprised."

"So was I," Doris said. "I asked about his daughter but he just told me to mind my own business."

Cath sunk into her seat and frowned, in the back of her mind she questioned what Doris was saying; it didn't sound at all like Danny. "I am sure it was a miscommunication. Danny is a good guy, he loves your son and he has proven that he would do almost anything to keep Steve safe. You don't need to worry about him. I don't know what happened in the car but Danny really is a good guy."

Doris sunk back into her seat and looked a little disappointed. "I'm glad about that."

Cath nodded and stood up. "I'm going to check the perimeter again."

"Could you like a cup of tea?" Doris said standing up.

"That would be lovely, thank you."

Catherine went upstairs first and made her way methodically through the house checking outside as she went to ensure the men were where they should be. Something about the conversation she had just had with Doris felt off. Cath just didn't know what or why. She pushed it out of her mind; obviously Doris was simply worried that Danny wasn't a good guy. Catherine hoped she'd convinced Doris but if she hadn't Danny would prove himself soon enough.

/ / / / /

"Dinner," Cath said handing Doris a plate.

"Are you going to join me?" Doris asked.

Catherine nodded. " I will, thanks."

"So Steve said you work for Naval Intelligence?"

"Yes."

"Where are you stationed?"

Cath debated for a second but figured that Doris couldn't do much with that information. "I was posted on the USS Enterprise until recently. I'm not sure where I'll be when my leave is over."

"But you live here on the island?"

"Yeah, I have a little house. I get to surf on my downtime and I've been posted to the base here a number of times."

"That sounds nice, so you're quite settled in Hawaii?"

"I like it here," Catherine said grinning. "I grew up in Minnesota so I love the weather here."

"You don't have an accent," Doris noted.

"First thing I broke when I joined the Navy," Catherine said remembering the months spent breaking that accent. "I only slip when I'm talking to my mum."

Doris nodded. "Do you get home much?"

"Not as much as mum would like me too."

"Has your mum met Steve?"

Cath laughed. "Oh God no, I think the idea would have given him hives."

Doris nodded. "You keep making comments like Steve is afraid of commitment."

Catherine took a deep breath and a large bite of her dinner to give herself some time to think. "Steve is a great guy and if you are ever in trouble he is the guy to call but he has always liked to hold himself a little separate from others. I suppose it's the job, you can lose a teammate at any time." Catherine knew it was more than that, the fear of loss went so bone deep with Steve it all traced back to the moment his mother died and his father sent him away and nothing until Danny had pushed through that fear. Catherine wondered if the woman sitting across from her would ever be aware of just how much damage she had done. The protective part of Cath, the one that always helped Steve no matter what, wanted to tell her. She wanted to explain all the moments of Steve's life she'd witnessed that told her how broken he was on the inside but Catherine was here to protect Doris and to do that she needed the older woman to cooperate.

Doris was watching her closely.

"I really shouldn't be talking about him," Cath said. She hadn't meant to but what harm could it do to talk about Steve with his own mother? Now as she thought back over what she'd said she just hoped she hadn't painted the wrong picture of Steve.

"I'm his mother," Doris said.

Cath refrained from pointing out the fact that she had 'killed herself' twenty years ago. "Then you should ask him about his relationship with Danny."

"I'm not interested in their relationship. I am curious about yours."

Cath tensed inside as she continued to eat, something about that statement was not good. She answered as firmly and concisely as she could instinctively. "Steve and I met when he worked Navy Intelligence, we became friends and for a while we…dated when we saw one another. It was never serious and it was never exclusive. Both of those things are however true for his relationship with Danny."

Doris nodded and went back to eating. Catherine watched her for a moment. If she had been working for the last fifteen minutes she'd say she had been skilfully interrogated, she would comment that her answers were not what the interrogator wanted and that they were taking a break while the flow of questioning changed. Catherine thought back to what Steve had said earlier. She's a spy and is acting like a spy. She's watching me like I am a mark, just be careful. Catherine could understand what he'd been trying to tell her but she hadn't been careful enough. Doris was good but Catherine could work with this if she needed to and suddenly she really wanted to see where this conversation was supposed to be going.

"Did Steve tell you much about Danny?" Cath asked after a reasonable stretch of silence.

"Almost nothing," Doris said. "I had to catch them kissing on the plane for him to even tell me they were dating."

Catherine shook her head. "I would have thought Steve would have introduced him earlier."

"Well he really should have if they are as serious as you say."

"Must have been the shock," Cath said with a smile finishing her dinner. "I'd better do another sweep."

Doris shook her fork at Cath. "No, no, you can sit with me while I finish, can't you?"

Catherine smiled at her widely. "Of course, you're right." Catherine poured herself another glass of water and sat back hoping that Doris would steer the conversation again.

"I really had no choice but to disappear," Doris said. "Wo Fat was relentless."

"I wouldn't have thought he could have been such a problem. He can't have been that old."

"Revenge is a strong motivator," Doris said. "He was only ten when they sent me after his father."

"It can't have been easy for him to lose a parent like that, so much like Steve and his father." And with you, Cath refrained from saying. She had a feeling that direct assault on Doris McGarrett ended up with all-out war which would explain what Doris had been saying about Danny. Catherine knew that Danny's love was fierce and protective and he wouldn't have been able to help himself if he didn't think Doris was suitably apologetic or if Danny thought Steve was going to be hurt. Catherine could easily picture Danny telling Doris to pull her head in if she said something that he didn't like about Grace. It was much more believable than Doris' story.

Doris nodded. "I was sad to hear about John, he was still my husband."

Catherine believed that Doris had been hurt by John's death but the fact she'd known about it and had known that Wo Fat was now circling her son should have been incentive to have come out of hiding to protect him, especially since the threat of Wo Fat had been the reason she'd 'killed herself' twenty years ago.

"Did you think about coming back?" Cath asked her voice carefully apologetic.

Doris shook her head and stood up to clear away her plate. "Too dangerous."

Cath nodded. "Of course." A picture was starting to form in Catherine's mind and it wasn't particularly positive but she'd keep it under her hat until she was sure. She hoped desperately that she was wrong, Steve deserved some family that wasn't useless or distant but the sinking feeling in her stomach said that the family Steve had made for himself was the only family that would stand by him. Cath followed Doris with her own dish knowing the conversation was over for now.

They had finished tidying away the dishes and Doris had just sat down on the couch when Cath's phone rang, Steve's name flashing at her.