Always

Chapter 6

A few hours later, Steve returned to an empty house with a broken heart. Gutches' words were still ringing in his ear and he sighed deeply. It was a sigh of relief and exhaustion. Joe was proud of him. That was what Gutches had said and he really hoped that those words were true. And then there was Catherine. Even though he still felt her everywhere, he also felt her absence more strongly than ever before. After all they had basically spent every minute together in the past month.

Luckily, the exhaustion in his bones got him to lay down on the couch and prevented him from overthinking, as he immediately fell asleep. It wasn't until mere hours later that he was awaken by a sharp knock on his door. He groaned, but kept his eyes closed in the hope that whoever was standing in front of his door would sooner rather than later disappear.

But soon enough it was followed by another knock and then another one. He sighed, when he realized that whoever was standing in front of his door - he was guessing that it was Danny - wasn't gonna go away that easily. Steve muffled a yawn, switched on the lights and opened the door in one swift move...

McGarrett residence, 0200 hours

When he opened the door, a raging storm greeted him and he wondered how the hell he could have slept through that. The wind was wailing and it was raining cats and dogs. And yet, there she was, standing on his doorstep in the middle of the night. Her wet clothes were hugging her fine figure and somehow the wet hair paired with this undefinable look in her eyes made her look extremely sexy. Honestly, to him, she always looked sexy. Even if her hair was all messed up in the morning or when she was wearing sweatpants. But in that moment, with her soaking wet clothes sticking to her body and this confused, but somehow passionate and wild look in her eyes, she took his breath away.

"Catherine." he breathed, as if he couldn't believe his eyes. She had come back.

"What's this, Steve?" she asked, holding up the paper with her right hand. She wasn't bothering to greet him properly, since it was no use to beat around the bush. There was no way back now anyway. She felt like she had just jumped into a cold pool of water - and not just because of her wet clothes.

"Well, I think you know what it is, because you wouldn't be here if you didn't." he replied almost teasingly, but when she answered with a warning "Steve.", he realized that this wasn't the time to make jokes. "Yeah, uh, sorry, don't you want to come in? You must be freezing." Even though it was quite warm outside, the wind was pretty harsh and in combination with the wet clothes it probably wasn't that cosy.

"What I want is for you to explain to me what this is." she replied with a determinedness in her voice that left very little room for any objections. She was clutching so hard onto the piece of paper that it was already crumbling in her hand.

He sighed. "What do you wanna hear from me Catherine?"

"Did you mean what you wrote?"

"How-how can you even question that?" he asked, crossing his arms in front of his body. He couldn't believe that she doubted even for a second that he didn't mean every single word he had written.

"I am sorry, I.."

His features softened. "Please come in, Cath. I don't want you to get sick." She eyed him, seemingly considering her two options and finally, she decided to take him up on his offer. She was stubborn, but she also wanted answers and clarity and she knew that neither of those things would come quickly or easily.

"Do you want dry clothes? I think I got something that might fit-"

"A towel would be fine, thank you." she replied and let herself fall onto the couch, while he hastily made his way to the bathroom to get her a towel. She sighed deeply, as she let her eyes wander around the room. A feeling of comfort immediately began to settle in her chest, as she recognized the place she had once referred to as home. He softly wrapped the towel around her slim body and sat down a few inches away from her on the couch. She thanked him with a small nod.