Hawaii Five-0: Adventures (Secrets Part 2)

Time heals all wounds, or not?

In the end Steve was fine, but Catherine wasn't. There was still a risk that her body would not accept the liver. Doctor Kahale had promised to let the team know as soon as possible. So he went into his office and picked up the phone.

"Lieutenant Kelly? Doctor Kahale here."

"Hello, how are Steve and Catherine? Is everything ok?" The fear that something unforeseen might have happened was clearly audible in his voice.

"I can calm you down a bit. Commander McGarrett is fine so far. He hasn't come out of the anesthetic yet and is still being monitored in intensive care, but everything looks fine. However, that is not the case with Lieutenant McGarrett. It remains to be seen if her body will accept the donated liver. Unfortunately, she's not out of danger yet."

"Thanks, Doc. When can we see them both?"

"Not until they're off intensive care unit. That should be with Commander McGarrett in an hour or two. I can't say that about Lieutenant McGarrett."

"Thank you, Doc."

Chin shared the update from the hospital with the others. Then they turned back to finding Wo Fat. They still had no trace of him and Doris hadn't reported whether Wo Fat had tried to free his father in the meantime.

A few hours later, Kono, Chin and Lou drove to Steve. He had now woken up and been transferred to the ward. When they came into his room, he turned on a worried face. Doctor Kahale had just been with him. Catherine was still not better. Fear for her was written all over his face. Chin gave Steve a quick update on Wo Fat and that unfortunately they hadn't gotten any further. Then came a sister and threw them all out again so Steve could get some rest.

A few days later:

The team was still looking for Wo Fat. He had left almost no trace. Chin had already considered asking Doris for help, but wanted to coordinate this with Steve first. Danny was feeling better now and actually he should have left the hospital already. But he wanted to stand aside for his friend. Doctor Kahale had even softened and had him put a bed in Steve's room again. With Catherine still not getting better, Steve was a bundle of nerves right now.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door and a nurse brought another bed into the room. Danny wondered a bit about the extra bed, because he had just got one.

"Thanks, but I already..."

"Catherine!" Steve called out in a much brighter voice than a few seconds ago.

"Catherine?" Danny grabbed his head, he hadn't seen the shock of brown hair in the pillows. But she didn't seem to be awake yet. Steve looked happily at Danny, the whole thing had ended well.

"I think it's time for me to go. Get fit soon, buddy."

He hugged Steve goodbye and then quietly left the room. When Danny left, the nurse pushed Catherine's bed right next to Steve's and took the now empty bed out with her. Steve was very relieved and took Catherine's hand in his. After all, he'd almost thought he'd never be able to do this again. The door to the room opened again and Dr. Kahale joined them.

"How is she, doc?"

"Your wife is out of danger for now, Steve. Her body has been accepting the liver well so far. What is important is that Catherine now rests and doesn't exert herself, takes her medication regularly and comes to the follow-up examinations. Any irregularities must also be checked. Please always come to me if something seems strange to you."

"All right, Doc, I'll keep an eye out."

"Very good Steve. I rely on you. Catherine should be up shortly too." With a greeting, Dr. Kahale left and closed the door behind him.

Three weeks later, early in the morning:

Steve woke up and saw that Catherine was not in bed. It had been like this every morning since she had been discharged from the hospital two days ago. But that wasn't the only thing, that was different. Steve knew full well that this experience hadn't gone unnoticed by Catherine, but they hadn't spoken out yet either. Until now, Catherine had always avoided him and avoided lengthy conversations. But now Steve made a decision. He finally had to talk to Catherine, whether she wanted to or not, but things couldn't go on like this.

So now Steve got up and walked down to the garden where Catherine was sitting in one of the lawn chairs. Steve approached her and got straight to the point.

"Cath, we need to talk."

"Steve, please don't, I..."

"Stop. You know very well that things can't go on like this. We have to speak out. I know exactly how difficult everything is for you right now, because unfortunately I've had the same experience and didn't want to talk about it at the time. But it only gets better if you talk about it. Also... don't you think it bothered me when you almost died? I was terrified and when I found you and Danny bleeding, it got a lot worse. Especially when you asked me to... end it because you were in so much pain. At that moment I thought I was losing you and it's all my fault. After all, Wo Fat only did this to you because of me."

Catherine was momentarily surprised by what Steve had just told her. Of course she had known that the situation hadn't been easy for him either, but now knowing exactly how he had felt about it made it even harder for her.

"I understand you well, because I had to go through something similar... Listen, the reason why I didn't want to talk about it is because I was trying to suppress these memories myself and I thought that if I talked about it, I would struggle with it even more."

"Did it work? Repressing the memories, I mean."

Catherine thought about her answer for a moment, but actually she already knew it for sure.

"No... As much as I hoped, I have the feeling, that it's not going to get any better. The memories keep coming up, it all happens again, it robs me of sleep every night..."

Steve noticed that this conversation wasn't easy for Catherine so gestured for her to get up and when she did he pulled her into his arms and just held her tight...