MY WAY HOME ◆ Steve McGarrett ◆ Hawaii Five-0

TEN

"Do you wanna go for a hike? I need to stretch my body after the long flight yesterday," Steve asked me as we were back in his place.

"We can go but I need to change and put on sunscreen."
"I can wait," he smiled at me and kissed me before I walked upstairs.

We parked under the Koko steps.
Steve was wearing all navy, sleeveless top with gold trident logo from his SEAL days and knee-lengt shorts with black Nike trainers while I was dressed in white oversized write top, black and blue Nike shorts, white trainers and my straw hat to shield my face from the sun.
"You're kidding, right?" I looked up. This was no ordinary hike. It was full on work out.
"Somethimes I run up these stairs if I want to get some great exercise," Steve looked at me smiling.
"Not gonna happen!" I said firmly as I put my foot on the first step.

I climed on the summit and turned back at all those steps I left behind.
"You run this, you can't be serious!" I exhaled. I had enough. The Hawaiian heat combined with over 1,000 railway steps were grueling test of my will but the view was worth it.
"Here," Steve handed me his water bottle.
"Thank you."

"You said you grew up here, on the island," I said to Steve as we sat under the trees.
"Yes I was born here and lived on the island until I was 16."
"What changed? Why did you leave?"
"It was my father," he exhaled and started making lines into dust with fallen branch, "he sent me away to naval academy."
"That's mean," I wrinkled my forehead, "I mean at 16...."
"He did it to protect me," Steve jumped into my words, "at that time I didn't understand it, I resented him for it for long time. And we haven't really spoken much since. It was only couple of years ago when I've learned the whys and could forgive him for sending me and Mary away when we were so young."
"What did you find out?" I returned him his water bottle and he took a sip.
"Do you really wanna know?"
"Of course I wanna know," I reassured him.
"For more than 20 years I thought my mother died in a car accident. Only recently I found out that she was alive the whole time..."
"What!?" I almost screamed.
"Yeah, exactly," he continued, "she faked her own death thinking it'll protect us from her past."
"What past?"
"My mother was a CIA operative."
I exhaled
"And did it? Did it protect you?"
"I mean," he took another sip, "in a way. My father was a cop, he didn't know any better and started looking into her death."
"Runs in a family," I smiled at him.
He smiled back, "he found out some things that didn't add up and that's why he sent me and Mary on the mainland when we were just kids. To protect us in case there'd be something more going on. But at that time he didn't obviously say anything to us.
It was only few years ago when I met a man called Wo Fat when he came after me trying to kill me..."
I lifted my head and opened my mouth but before I had chance to speak Steve stopped me, "wait, this is where it gets interesting, "he smiled and continued.
I rested my head on a tree behind me, turned my head towards him and listened to the rest of his story.

"He was trying to find a person who killed his mother and he though I knew who that person was. For 2 years I didn't understand why he'd think that but then with help of Joe, I told you about him on a plane,"
"I remember," I noddeed.
"He helped me track down my mother and it was then when I learned it was her, she accidentally killed Wo Fat's mother when she was assigned by CIA to kill his father." After that Steve hesitated.
"You can tell me everything," I squeezed his thigh reassuringly.

"The whole time when I thought my mother was dead, she was raising Wo Fat as her own child," he exhaled heavily.
"Of course when the agency found out they stopped it, put Wo Fat's father somewhere, probably to black site and my mother went into hiding until I found her in Japan and brought her back here."
"And where is she now?" I asked.
"I have no idea," he laughed ironically and shook his head.
"She was here for a while. At that time Wo Fat was still in prison here on the island, before being sent to supermax in Colorado, after I and the team captured him after he came after me again. She even went to see him. I'd bet she's confessed to him about what she's done. But then she was gone again.
I think she never processed what she'd done to Yao Fat, Wo Fat's father, and his family and that memory was, and maybe still is, haunting her. Last thing I heard was that she's trying to locate Yao."