The next three weeks passed by ever so slowly for Steve. They had several cases to keep them busy during the day, but when he got home each night, his mind would be on Shauni. Each night she would call him either before or after her concert, sometimes both, and they kept in touch with texts and video chats. Seeing her face on his phone screen during their video chats was welcome but it also made him miss her more. He was hoping to join her after they ended their current case even if it was only for a couple of days. He missed her so much his heart hurt, and anyone who knew Steve McGarrett knew that it was unlike him to carry his heart on his sleeve.

Shauni wasn't fairing much better. While Steve was usually busy during the day, she was busiest during late afternoons and evenings filled with radio interviews with local stations where she was performing, soundchecks, meeting fans, doing personal appearances here and there, and ending with the nightly concert. She loved being busy, but nothing was keeping her busy enough to stop the ache in her heart for Steve. Nothing. As unbelievable as it sounded, she would almost consider cancelling the rest of her tour just to get back to him. But she would never let her fans down that way. Besides, this was her job. It was her passion. If she and Steve were going to make it as a couple, they would have to learn to deal with these separations eventually. Luckily, tours only came around every couple of years and only lasted for 2-3 month stretches. Surely they could handle that, she reasoned.

But oh how she missed him.

Yes, she had friends and family who were periodically meeting her on the road and hanging out for a day or two. She had made friends over the last few years since she'd been doing music and touring so she had friends all over the country who were in the industry. It was always nice to see them "on the road" and reconnect, but again….nothing took away the emptiness that only Steve could fill. She hoped he would be able to meet her soon. He had mentioned something about doing so after they finished their current case and she was praying that would work out.

In the meantime, a thought struck her: She was getting ready to be in Orlando for three days of concerts. She decided to call Mary to see if she and Joanie could join her there. She would love to take Joanie to Disney World and this was a perfect opportunity since she was going to have more free-time than usual and wanted to take advantage of it.

Mary excitedly agreed to join her and said she was looking forward to it. Joanie was going to be so excited, she said. Shauni arranged for them to have first class tickets headed to Orlando the next day. Shauni and crew were expected to be there the following night and would meet them at the hotel. It was going to be a fun weekend!

Her excitement was quickly shattered, however, as she looked at her cell phone to see a message from Connor. How in the hell had he gotten her number? She had changed it recently and only a select few people had it.

I need to see you. It's important. Trust me, you don't want to say 'no'. I need to see you. I miss you.

She scoffed. How could he miss her? Their relationship had ended over two years ago. The big question was why was he suddenly trying to get back into her life and what was so important that he 'had to see her'?

After that initial text message which went unanswered by her , Connor started bombarding her with texts. Each one sounded more determined and desperate. The last thing she wanted was trouble with Connor. After all, he'd caused quite a scene at her kick-off concert and she didn't want that to happen again. She decided to try and appease him, and told him they could talk. That wasn't good enough, though. He wanted to meet in person. In fact, he insisted on it, so before she could protest, he told her he would be flying to Orlando and that a face-to-face meeting was necessary. Shauni was less than pleased with it, but when he refused to answer any further texts from her, she decided the best thing to do would be to meet him in private and see if she could end things once and for all.

Shauni knew that she needed to tell Jake and Tommy that Connor was on his way. She also knew that Steve would be pissed if she didn't tell him, too, but she wanted to handle this as peacefully as possible. Having Steve, Jake, and Tommy involved would most certainly mean things would be anything but "peaceful". So she decided to keep her mouth shut and pray that things went okay.

*************h50***************h50******************h50***************

Steve looked down at his buzzing cell phone to see Mary's face on the screen. Five-0 was all gathered around the smart-table going over the latest developments in their case, but something told him he needed to answer this call. "Gimme a sec, guys."

He pushed to answer the call before it went to voice mail. "Hey, Mar. Sorry I haven't called. We've been caught up in a case the last few days."

"It's okay. But I need to talk to you. Do you have a minute?"

Steve's mood immediately went from distracted to completely tuned in to his sister. Danny, Chin, Kono and Grover saw the change in his facial expression as he probed Mary for details.

"Are you okay? Is Joanie okay? Do you guys need anything?"

"Yeah…yeah….we're fine. We're actually in Orlando with Shauni right now."

"Orlando. As in FLORIDA? Seriously? Why didn't you tell me you were going?"

"Well…" Mary started in her typical Mary-like-sarcasm, "Because as you just stated, bro, I haven't been able to reach you."

"Right….right…..Okay, you're in Orlando with Shauni. So what's wrong?"

Everyone turned to look at him their expressions getting concerned as well.

"It's Shauni. I think something is going on."

The hairs stood up on the back of Steve's neck, "What do you mean something is going on?"

Mary grew quiet as if she was second-guessing her decision to call Steve. "Come on, Mary. Tell me what's going on." He paused for a second as she continued her silence.

"NOW" he demanded.

He heard Mary sigh on the other line, "Okay, just gimme a sec. You know I'm not use to being a snitch, but I'm worried and I think you need to know this…which is why I called you."

She took a deep breath, "So here's the thing; Shauni asked Joanie and me to come spend a couple of days with her because she wanted to get us into Disney World. You know how much Joanie is into all of the Disney Princesses right now, and we haven't had a chance to go to the Disney park in LA, so Shauni told us to come here and she'd get us into this one."

Steve was getting impatient, "That's great, sis….but it still doesn't tell me why you're worried."

"I'm getting there." She answered just as impatiently, "Shauni went to do a radio interview today and accidentally left her personal phone in our suite. And in case you're wondering….because I know you'll ask…..Joanie and I have been staying with her in this suite. We went to the concert last night and we were hanging out this morning until she was finished with her interview so we could spend the afternoon together. Tomorrow morning is when we're all going to Disney World."

Mary was rambling, but Steve's ears perked up at one detail she'd given. "Wait…..She's planning on going with you to Disney?" Steve asked in disbelief.

"Of course she's going! And I know you're probably freaking out right now, but she said she has a great disguise and wants to go with us so she can see Joanie's reaction to the princesses. She really is the best, Steve."

Steve shook his head in agreement even though Mary couldn't see him, "I know that, Mar….but you're stalling. So tell me what happened, dammit!"

"Would you take a deep breath, for God's sake? I'm trying to get there. So like I said, she left her phone here when she left for her interviews. The personal phone; You know she has one she uses for business and one for personal calls. So anyway, I heard it dinging like she was getting several messages so I looked at it to see who they were from….to see if it was something urgent. That's when I saw his name."

Steve could feel his blood turn cold. His voice came out in a low rumble, "WHO'S name?"

"Connor's. He sent her several texts…..and I'll admit that I was being nosy, so you can both get mad at me later for snooping, but what I saw in those texts has me worried."

For the first time in probably their entire lives, Steve was grateful for Mary's curious and doubtful nature. "What did they say?"

"Things like 'Why are you ignoring me?'… 'Why aren't you calling me back?'…'I need to see you!'…and 'I'm on my way'". He also said 'You can't hide from me.' Steve, each message looked like he was getting more frustrated, so I don't know what's going to happen. "

"What about Jake and Tommy. Don't they know about this?"

"They were with her at the interview. Like I said, it was just Joanie and me here at the hotel. "

"So has Shauni seen the messages?" Steve asked.

Mary didn't say anything right away, so he asked again, "Mar! Did she see the messages?!"

"Yes." Mary admitted. "She saw them when she got back. And as soon as she read them, her face turned pale. I asked her if everything was okay and she just said everything was fine. But I think he's coming after her. And honest to God, we have no way of knowing if he's been sending these messages to her since he saw her in LA or if today was the first time."

Steve was silent on the other end of the phone and Mary knew he was mad. Actually probably more like pissed to the nth degree. Shauni better not have been hiding it from him, because if she had, they were going to have some serious discussions about it.

"I'll be on the next plane there."

"Please don't do that, Steve. If you do, she's going to know that I said something."

Steve scoffed in disbelief, "WHY would you be worried about that?"

Mary's voice came softly over the phone. She was almost whispering, "Because I've never had a sister. I don't feel like we've had a family for the last 15 years, Steve. The Steele's make us feel like a family….and Shauni and Sasha really make me feel like a sister. I don't want to lose that. Besides, I know you love her…..and I never thought I would see that for you. We NEED them."

Steve closed his eyes. Her comments pierced his heart and he knew exactly what she meant.

"I know, Mar," he began, "And I totally understand where you're coming from. But you know me….and you know that I will damned well protect anyone who is close to me. I love her, so I HAVE to address this. I have to protect her. You understand that, right? Otherwise you wouldn't have called me."

The phone was silent again for a few moments before `Mary responded, "I know. And yes, that's why I called, but I just don't want to get her to get mad at me."

"She won't, Mary. Trust me. Now don't tell anyone that I'm coming. It's best if it's a surprise, okay?"

They said their goodbyes and Steve started formulating a plan to go to Shauni while having the rest of the team handle this case.

His Ohana were all concerned, of course, and encouraged him to go to Shauni. Besides, the three week separation had been difficult for him and they all knew he wanted to be with her…..no matter what the excuse. The case could be handled by the four of them and Steve could check in periodically. He never took time off. With exception of the time he'd gone to Colorado to find her, Steve hadn't had more than a day off for months.

Steve walked towards his office to make some calls. Sasha was going to be his first one, but before he could call her, she called him.

"Do you have a sixth sense or something?" he answered in greeting.

"What are you talking about?" Sasha said clearly surprised at the way he'd answered her call.

"I was just getting ready to call you, so this is great timing." He said, "I need a favor."

"Well I have something to tell you too and I think mine might be more important."

Steve was intrigued, "Oh really? Why is that?"

"Because I just had a friend call me from LAX saying they saw Connor boarding a plane headed for Orlando. There is only one reason he would need to go to Orlando, Steve."