So many lovely people who said they were happy to wait for me. I so appreciate it. I decided to write a little something for you all. Finally at Christmas Day...almost. I should be working on my Lewis challenge fic...Enjoy!
I have had the Zoe stuff written for so long, it was nice to finally use it.

/ / / Zoe \ \ \

"Enjoy your run, Steve?" Molly asked, shifting her weight on the couch. Steve had just come down after his shower, he was hot, pleasantly worn out and starving.

"Yes," Steve said with a wide smile. "I always feel better after going for a run."

"Pop's gone to pick Uncle Ed and Aunt Sarah up. He took Nana with him," Danny said, putting a plate of pancakes down onto Steve's lap. "I saved you some breakfast."

"Thanks," Steve yanked on Danny's hand making him drop onto the couch next to him.

"Troglodyte," Danny said with a sigh.

"Oh," Steve said slowly, with a low whistle at the end. "You learned a new word."

Danny nodded and picked up a piece of pancake to eat. "I can feel the SATs coming back to me when I'm sleeping in my old room."

"Oh," Molly said with a happy, giddy, sigh. "The two of you are adorable."

Steve turned to her and lifted an eyebrow, he knew Danny had turned to her as well. Steve could picture the expression on his face.

"Don't look at me like that," Molly said. "You are adorable."

"Those are the hormones talking," Danny said. "We are not adorable."

"No one had ever called me adorable before," Steve said.

Molly shook her head. "They were thinking it."

"I'm a Navy SEAL," Steve said. "There is nothing adorable about me."

"You should see him with Grace," Danny said. "That is adorable."

Steve turned his head to look at Danny. "I am not adorable."

"Tell her about Grace helping paint," Danny prodded.

Steve frowned and then looked back at Molly who was smiling at him encouragingly. Steve shrugged and started telling Molly about the work they had done renovating his house. Molly's eyes softened the longer he talked. Steve frowned and looked at Danny who was sitting back and grinning at him triumphantly.

"Grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch," Lizzie said, when she walked through the house carrying shopping bags. "Steve, you're back."

"I am," Steve said, standing. "Can I help you?"

"No," she said, waving him off. "It's only grilled cheese sandwiches and a couple of bags. Though, how typical that you would ask when my own children, who I raised to be better than that, didn't even pretend to stand and help me carry my bags into the house. Especially since they are for their dinner."

"Sorry, Ma," Danny said. Molly echoed him a beat later.

Lizzie shook her head at them sadly and continued on to the kitchen.

Molly looked over Steve to Danny. "She's making grilled cheese?"

Danny shrugged. "I love her grilled cheese."

"Well, no shit," Molly said with a smile. "But, she would never make something so easy with Steve here."

Danny looked at Steve. "If she's making that what on earth is she going to make for dinner?"

"She has just been to the market."

"And she came in with bags."

Danny sighed. "She's going to overdo it."

"Georgina is coming in."

"Not until after dinner though," Danny reminded her.

"It's going to be good regardless, Harvey's girlfriend is going to be here too. Two people to impress."

"What are you talking about?" Steve asked.

Danny turned to him. "Ma likes to show off, she has been showing off for you. If she is just making grilled cheese for lunch then she will be making something insane for dinner."

Steve nodded. "I'll see if she needs help."

Danny chuckled at him. "After lunch."

Lizzie made lunch and they sat in the lounge room eating off their laps.

Harvey came home halfway through lunch with three wrapped Christmas presents under his arm. "Ma, don't forget Zoe is coming tonight."

"Oh, yes," Molly said with an evil smile. "We finally get to meet the girlfriend."

Harvey ignored her and went upstairs. He came back down an hour later wearing jeans and a shirt. Steve could see the difference between this Harvey and the one that walked through the door even though he had never seen Harvey working as a lawyer. Lizzie brought lunch out to Harvey and kissed him on the forehead.

Then Lizzie sat on the couch next to Danny and they put on a show she liked to watch. When she decided to go off and make dinner Steve offered his help and she told him to come in when the football game they were all watching was finished. The doorbell rang just as Steve was standing to go and help Lizzie – before the game was over but after at least six minutes had passed. He went to answer it with Danny behind him. He certainly wasn't expecting the woman standing on the other side of the door.

"Zoe?" Steve said and he saw Danny turned to him with surprise from the corner of his eye.

"McGarrett?" Zoe said, shock in her voice too.

"Seriously?" Harvey asked, walking in from the lounge room. "You two know each other?"

"Hello, McGarrett," Zoe said with a smile, getting over her surprise quickly. "What are you doing here?"

"Same thing you are," Steve said. "This is Danny, he's my partner, we came to see his family for Christmas."

"How do you know each other?" Harvey asked moving around Steve to pull Zoe into the house properly.

"Zoe was serving on the Enterprise a few years ago when I was stationed there."

"Steve always caused the most interesting cases," Zoe said.

"Zoe is a JAG lawyer," Steve said for Danny's sake. "Cath said you'd left the carrier."

"I've been stationed in New York for the last year or so," Zoe said. "Last I heard you were running a civilian taskforce in Hawaii."

"Still am," Steve said. "Danny is my partner."

"Oh," Zoe said. "I thought you meant…are you dating?"

"We're engaged," Steve said proudly.

Zoe smiled widely and her entire face softened. "Congratulations."

"How did you meet Harvey?" Steve asked.

"We met when I was studying law," Zoe said, with a smile. "He was funny."

"Funny?" Danny asked, turning to his brother with a wicked grin. "You think he's funny?"

Zoe looked past Steve to Harvey and smiled.

"We kept in touch when she started working for the military," Harvey continued.

"And he showed me around when I came to New York," Zoe said.

Steve knew there was more to it than that. He had known Zoe for a long time, she and Cath were incredibly close, and he had a feeling there was more to their relationship than either of them were saying.

"I'll get Ma," Danny said, disappearing into the kitchen.

Steve sat back and watched as his new shine wore off with Zoe in the house. He couldn't say he minded. She was staying through dinner and the trip to evening mass before she went to her Aunt's house in Brooklyn for Christmas day.

Steve slipped into the kitchen with Lizzie while Zoe was interrogated by Lily who'd come down from her nap and whistled.

"Caught yourself a hot one, Harvey," Lily said and squeezed her way in between Molly and Zoe. "Tell me all about you. And would you be willing to come down to the deli. I need to show you off too. They won't believe I have two grandsons with so much game."

"I…" Zoe looked at Harvey and then Steve.

Steve had shrugged. "I went down there." Before he slipped out to help Lizzie prepare dinner.

/ \ / \ / \ / \

Lizzie stayed up long after everyone else had gone to bed.

They had had a nice, if a little crowded, dinner. She could see the way her children looked at one another when she placed dinner down in front of them. Sometimes, she thought they just didn't understand what it meant to be a proper hostess. To feed the people you loved. She liked Steve helping her cook – she could do it all alone but it was nice to spend time with him even when she wasn't learning more about him. Lizzie would miss him when he took her son back to Hawaii.

They went out to the evening mass instead of the midnight one for Hannah's boys and then back home for cake and tea. Georgina arrived after Zoe had left and Danny and Steve had gone up to bed. She slipped in just before the change from Christmas Eve to Christmas day occurred. It was just Lizzie and Chris awake. As it was every Christmas Eve since their first child had been born. It was their time together, they drank hot chocolate and talked about their children while Chris put the final presents out and Lizzie put out the stockings.

Lizzie had asked her mother to sew up a stocking for Steve as soon as they had arrived. Lily had outdone herself really, turning the plain, generic red stocking into something lovely. It would look slightly out of place next to the well-worn ones that would be hanging next to it but she had a feeling Steve wouldn't care. Lizzie wasn't even going to ask where or how Lily had managed to find a Navy SEAL patch to sew onto it but Lizzie smiled as she moved the other stockings along and hung Steve's new stocking next to Danny's. She had pulled Grace's old one out and had found something to put in it for Danny to take back to Hawaii with him. She didn't like sending money every year but it was simply easier and saved her from buying things that Gracie or Danny already had.

Eventually, they went off to bed when everything was ready for Christmas.

/ / / TBC...