a/n: Well it's only been…..2 years since I last updated this one. I honestly thought it was dead but somehow I found new inspiration and just might finish this story yet. Enjoy!

"You weren't around to cheer me on, help me dress for my high school prom like mothers do. Did you think I didn't need you here? To hold my hand, to dry my tears. Did you even miss me through the years at all?"—Kellie Pickler, I Wonder

"I'm sorry Detective Williams, but that just isn't going to happen."

Danny didn't have time to register the other voice before a blow struck him on the back of the head, dropping him to the floor.

"Graham, what the hell are you doing?" The Governor hissed at her husband.

"Me? What the hell are you doing? Talking to the cops, making deals behind my back?" He snapped back at her.

"I wasn't making a deal. They don't know anything." She insisted.

"They know about Melinda!"

"It's a lie. Melinda is dead." Pat declared firmly.

She had seen the pictures and there was no way Melinda McGarrett could have survived that bomb. She had been assured of it by an expert when she had asked for his assistance. He had seen enough IEDs in his day to know what would be most effective and he had been a trusted ally of her father's. There was no way he could have screwed this up. But there was something about the look on her husband's face that made her stomach tighten.

"Graham…Melinda is dead…right?" Her husband smiled sadly and her feeling of dread spread through her as his eyes went cold and dark.

"Oh Pat," He sighed, raising the pistol he had used to knock out the cop. "You can be so stupid sometimes…"

The silence in the room was stifling.

Steve and Melinda sat on opposite ends of the sofa with all the words left unsaid swirling around them. Melinda had held her tongue while she waited for her son to make up his mind about her. She knew he was conflicted about how to feel towards her, torn between joy and anger. Admittedly, this was not the reunion she had pictured in her head. In her dreams, she would be reunited with her family and they would be so overjoyed to see her alive that everything else would be forgive and forgotten. Unfortunately, life was no fantasy. Her husband was dead and her children had grown into strangers. She wished she had a time machine that she could use to go back and make a different choice. She would have never gone back for that stupid purse if she had known it would lead to all of this.

Steve, meanwhile, had a thousand thoughts running through his head. He had so many questions but he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answers. Had she missed them? Did she regret it? Would she do it all over again if given the choice? The answers had the potential to do more harm than good but the not knowing felt just as awful.

"Where have you been?" He finally asked. It seemed like the safest place to start.

"What?" Melinda said, slightly startled by the sudden break in the silence.

"After you…when you left the island, where did you go? Where have you been all these years?" Steve asked with a penetrating stare. The firm lines of his face reminded her so much of John that she had to turn away.

"Oh," She looked down at her hands and shrugged. "Well, we bounced around to a few different places at first, only staying for a day or so-"

"We?" Steve cut in.

"Joe and I. He stayed with me until I got settled in the program." Melinda clarified.

"You mean Witness Protection?"

"Yes. I was in Ohio for awhile. Then New Mexico for a couple of years before finally settling in Wyoming. It's beautiful out there but its very different from Hawaii." She added with a sad smile. Steve looked away.

"Did you have a job? Friends? Another family?" He questioned.

"I was a librarian in Ohio, a bookkeeper in New Mexico and I was a teacher in Cheyenne. As far as friends, there were a few people I got to know over the years but it's hard to get close to anyone when you can't tell them anything about yourself." Melinda stated matter-of-factly. "But I never had another family. No one could ever replace any of you." She insisted. She tried to reach over to take her son's hand, to get him to look at her again but he pulled away from her. "Steven…" But his cell phone began to ring, cutting off any response. Steve removed the phone from his pocket and saw Mason's face on the screen.

"McGarrett."

"Turn on the TV." His friend demanded.

"Why?"

"Just turn it on." Steve reached out for the remote and switched on the television. A news bulletin flashed across the screen.

'SHOOTING AT GOVERNOR'S MANSION. ONE CONFIRMED DEAD'

"No…"

"We can't reach Danny on his cell." Mason admitted reluctantly. "Chin is heading over there now-"

"I'm on my way." Steve insisted.

"No, Steve-" But Mason's warning went unheard as Steve had already hung up and was pulling himself up off the couch.

"You don't think…" Melinda gestured towards the TV.

"You better hope not." Steve growled, giving his mother an icy stare as he limped past her. "I refuse to lose one more person because of this. It ends now."