Chapter 22

"Is he dead?"

"No sir, he was wearing a bulletproof vest under his sweater."

"Damn. Who was the girl?"

"That's his daughter."

"Steve McGarrett has a daughter? Hm, interesting."

Steve and Helen were on their way home. Catherine was following in the Corvette.

"Sorry the ball ended like that, the next one will surely be better."

"It's okay. I'm just glad it's over. Wasn't exactly the most enjoyable ball experience."

Thoughtfully, Steve looked at his daughter. "I wanted to apologize to you. You know, being a dad is still new to me and sometimes I may overreact. It's good when you tell me, but deep down I mean well. Okay?"

She smiled at him and brushed over the bruise on her right hand. "I know, Dad, and that's okay. Probably Grace, me, and the others would still be in there otherwise."

At that moment, Steve noticed the bruise on her knuckles. He looked at her attentively. "What happened?"

Helen stared at her hand. "You were right. Unfortunately, there are not only nice people at a school ball."

Steve's expression darkened. "What happened?"

"Two guys gave me a hard time and my hand slipped. After that, they quickly made off."

Steve's face relaxed somewhat. He took her hand. "Good to know you can defend yourself. If you want, I can show you a few effective moves."

Helen nodded. "Yes, that would be great."

Back home, Helen headed straight to the bathroom. She wanted to get out of her dress. Somehow, she was sad that the ball had ended like this. Before the two guys had shown up, she had had a lot of fun with Grace and her friends. After a shower, she slipped into her pajama shirt, took a brightly wrapped book from her nightstand, and flipped through one of the pages. Almost everywhere between the pages were photos, dried flowers, or even drawings. Her mother had often drawn her too, but these drawings showed someone else. Helen had found the book in Coronado in her mother's closet when she was there with Steve to get her things. She had been looking for Liana's favorite sweater and the entire stack of sweaters had fallen out of the closet. Behind them, under another sweater, was the little book. Helen had often thought about showing it to Steve and felt guilty for withholding it from him, but she also didn't dare to give it to him. At that moment, there was a knock on the door, and Helen quickly slid the book under her pillow. "Come in."

Steve stuck his head through the door. "Bedtime, kiddo, Cath and I are calling it a night too." He came over to her briefly and kissed her forehead. "Sleep tight."

"You too."

Steve jolted awake from his sleep. What was that noise? Did someone call out to him? Catherine lay beside him, peaceful and asleep, seemingly unaware of anything. Quietly, Steve got up and left the bedroom. When he reached Helen's room, he heard another scream. He burst through the door, but there was no one in the room. Helen, however, was tossing and turning in her bed, drenched in sweat. He lay down beside her and gently took her in his arms.

"Shhh, Helen, it's okay. You had a bad dream."

"Dad?"

"Yes, I'm here. Everything's okay."

He gently stroked her back. She turned to him and buried her face in his chest, slowly calming down.

Then there was a sudden crash behind her as her mother's little book fell from the bed. She turned around and picked it up. For a moment, she considered sliding it under the bed. But then she decided against it. She snuggled into her father's arms and held out the book to him.

"What's this?"

"It's my mom's diary. I found it when we were getting Bumble Bee and my stuff from Coronado. It was hidden among her sweaters."

Steve opened the first page. A photo of him in uniform fell out. On the back, Liana had drawn his name and a few hearts in her fancy handwriting. His heart felt heavy.

But then Steve quietly read aloud what Liana had written. And he supplemented some of the stories with his memories. Sometimes he and Helen laughed heartily, other times they were close to tears. Many drawings of Steve were tucked between the pages, and after Helen's birth, there were many of her too.

Then Steve pulled out a drawing that made him swallow hard. Liana had drawn him holding Helen as a baby. How much he would have loved to do that for real and welcome his daughter to this earth 15 years ago. Helen gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Don't cry, Dad."

He quickly wiped away the tear. Then he closed the book and looked at the clock.

"I think we should get some more sleep."

She looked at him pleadingly.

"Will you stay here tonight?"

"If you want me to, I can."

"Yes, please. Will you tell me something else?"

Steve looked at her questioningly.

"What do you want me to tell you?"

"How you met Catherine. You've told me about Danny and the others, but never about how you two met."

"Hm."

"What?"

"Well, our first encounter wasn't exactly great. I behaved horribly and threw a stupid comment about her height at her. But Catherine was prepared for such a comment. Then we had to do an exercise together on the Enterprise, and surprisingly, it worked out well, and after that, I don't know… we could talk normally and kept in touch, and I had already fallen for her a bit, but I never dared to ask her out on a date. Joe White then made me promise during an operation that I would invite her on a date."

He smiled faintly.

"And I did that even from the hospital bed. And never regretted it."

"You were in the hospital?"

Steve nodded seriously.

"Yes, the operation didn't go well back then, and if it hadn't been for Joe, I wouldn't be here now."

Helen snuggled closer to Steve, and soon he heard her calm breaths. But Steve couldn't fall asleep. Liana's diary and the memories of the exercise and the operation had stirred him up.

As the sun appeared on the horizon, Steve got up carefully, put on his swimsuit in the bathroom, and went outside. But he couldn't get his head completely free.

When Steve returned to the house, Catherine was already sitting on one of the garden chairs.

"Hey sailor, wasn't that a bit early this morning?"

"I couldn't sleep anymore."

She got up and ran her hand over the bruises on his chest that the shots had left yesterday. She frowned; one was right over his heart. Catherine swallowed, but then said nothing.

Together they went into the kitchen, and when the scent of eggs and bacon wafted through the house, Helen came down the stairs. She was already dressed and had an appointment with one of her new friends at the mall. Cath also wanted to go shopping and promised to drop Helen off at the mall. Steve had considered stopping by his father's grave again. So after breakfast, their paths separated. In good spirits, possibly a little tired, each went their own way.

Catherine had just come out of the supermarket and was loading her groceries into the Stingray when her phone rang. She answered, turned pale, but then just listened. After hanging up, she took a deep breath. This couldn't be happening right now. With trembling hands, she dialed Steve's number, trying not to show anything.

"Steve, can we meet at the lookout point right away? I need to talk to you."

She could hear the surprise in his voice when he replied, "Yes, of course."

"Thanks."

Catherine got into her car, glanced into her glove compartment, and started the engine.

Upon reaching the lookout point, Catherine retrieved her weapon from the glove compartment and tucked it into the back of her pants. Then she waited until Steve arrived and got out of her car. Steve approached her, looking concerned.

"Hey, Cath, what's wrong?"

"I...I'm so sorry."

With that, Catherine drew her weapon and aimed it at Steve, who immediately raised his hands defensively.

"Catherine, what's going on?"

Catherine's hand trembled, and tears welled up in her eyes. She didn't want to do this, but she had no choice.

"Steve, I don't want to do this. I'm so sorry."

"Hey, calm down and lower the gun. We can talk about this, just like we always do. Whatever it is, I'll help you through it, but this isn't the solution, and you know it."

Steve started to approach Catherine slowly, prompting her to fire a warning shot into the grass beside him.

"Don't come any closer! Don't make this any harder for me."

Steve was simply shocked by the shot. He was overwhelmed by the situation, as he never could have imagined Catherine pointing a gun at him.

"Cath, please lower the gun. Then we can talk about everything. I trust you, no matter what. But you need to put the gun down now."

"I...I can't."

"Yes, you can... I know you can."

Steve just couldn't believe that Catherine would really shoot him, so he continued to approach her slowly.

But this time, there was no warning shot. Catherine actually fired at Steve, and he immediately fell backward. Then Catherine approached even closer and fired two more times. She threw the gun away, knelt beside Steve, leaned over him, and cried like she hadn't cried in a long time.

"I'm so sorry...I'll always...always love you."

Catherine felt as if she had just died. Her heart contracted, and it was as if it turned into a black hole that grew so large that absolutely nothing could escape it. The pain was unbearable, and the guilt only grew stronger. She had never wanted to do this, because she loved Steve too much. But now she had actually shot him, and she couldn't undo it, no matter how much she wished she could. Catherine wanted to cry and scream with anger at the same time, and she wanted this pain to stop. This unbearable pain that threatened to shatter her into a thousand pieces and destroy her forever.

The tears didn't stop flowing, and Catherine clutched her fingers so tightly into Steve's shirt, as if she were afraid she would die instantly if she let him go now.

Catherine sat like that for another two minutes, crying. Then she let go of Steve, stood up, took her weapon, and simply threw it into the sea. She hated that thing so much right now. Then she looked up at the sky, closed her eyes, and tears streamed down her face again. Suddenly, she saw so many moments in front of her when Steve had been there for her or had helped her out of a difficult situation. She couldn't even describe how much she regretted everything right now and how much she loved Steve.

But now she had to, as difficult as it was, leave Steve behind and do what she had shot him for in the first place...

I'm back with a new chapter. Hopefully you are still reading this story :) I just don't have much time for fanfictions right now, because I'm trying to become a real author, but my first book is nearly finished and then I can translate more chapters per month (there are still 32 chapters to come).

I will upload the next chapter on the weekend :)