"Yeah, I'll text you when we land buddy, bye." Steve hung up the phone with a chuckle as the line of people boarding the plane ahead of them started moving.

"Wow, I'm impressed." Catherine spoke with a surprised laugh. "I thought for sure you'd crack under the pressure."

Steve sent her a puzzled face as he shifted his duffel bag in preparation to hand his ticket over to the agent as his turn was coming soon. "What? Why?" He was ever conscious of the unfamiliar feeling uniquely present to him as he moved his bag from one hand to the other.

"Guilt, Steve." She laughed. She wasn't buying his non chalant attitude one bit. "I mean, you know he's going to kill you when he finds out why we were really on the mainland."

He quickly sent her a scolding glare for the choice of words. Catherine pursed her lips when she realized her blunder, though thankfully it seemed no one around them had heard her.

Steve shrugged. "I mean, sure he's going to be mad. I'd be worried if he wasn't all.. Danny about it, but he'll get over it."

"Ticket please," the man behind the kiosk asked professionally. Steve prepared his gracious smile for what he knew would happen when the agent looked at his identification. Normally it happens right away, but since they were both in civvies on this occasion Steve knew it would take the name on his passport for the agent to respond. "Thank you for your service, sir."

Steve completed his commonly used interaction with the man and moved ahead a couple feet to wait for Catherine. He heard a similar interchange between she and the agent before they were reunited and headed onto the jet way.

"Hey, do me a favour?" Steve asked quietly as they walked.

"Yes, you can have the window seat." Catherine stopped and shook her head knowingly.

Steve got closer to her and whispered. "Great. But what I was going to say is try not to use any words that will get us kicked off this flight, okay?" He fully employed what he knew was her most favourite of his grins.

Catherine rolled her eyes and continued walking. "You're just teasing because you know I'm right about Danny." She smiled as she approached the waiting flight attendant standing by the plane's door and then began the shuffle down the narrow aisle to their seats.

Finding their seats, Steve was once again reminded of the foreign feeling he'd had for the last week.

"Here," He sent his outstretched hand towards Catherine as she shuffled into her seat. She smiled, getting his cue.

"Is this your way of acknowledging that you know I'm right?" She teased some more as she handed over her bag.

Steve scoffed as he pushed both their bags into the overhead compartment with relative ease. Two can play that game he thought. "Rollins if this is the kind of company I can expect for the next five hours, I just might have to flash my pretty smile at that flight attendant up there and get seat upgrade to somewhere where I'm not being..bothered." His mouth twitched up on the last word as he made himself comfortable in the window seat next to the Lieutenant. As soon as the words left his mouth though, the realization of their current situation hit him like a truck.

He waited anxiously for Catherine's reaction to his own misspeaking, but was disappointed when all he got was silence. "Cath, c'mon you know I'm joking." He spoke softly as he shifted his glance to his right. He was met with a straight ahead, pensive looking face. "Cath?"

"Hmm?" She snapped back to the present with his repeating her name. "Oh, sorry. I was uh.." She smiled, looking down as her hands fumbled over themselves to find her seatbelt. "I was thinking about what you called me." When she heard the tell-tale click, Catherine finally looked up at the man sitting beside her. "If feels… different now, I guess."

Steve quickly fastened his belt too as other passengers shuffled by them. "Really?" he was quite naïve of the impact of what had transpired while spending two weeks in sunny California had on Catherine. "Why?"

"Well.." She began slightly unsure of her words. "I mean, Steve. It's.. I've always been.."

"Well, this must be my lucky day," A rather sharply dressed man with an even sharper smile unknowingly interrupted as he stood beside their aisle. He gave his ticket one last look and quickly stowed his bag under the empty seat beside her and then put himself in it. "Mark Young." He greeted her with an even brighter smile.

"Uh.. Catherine Rollins," She smiled politely. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise, likewise." The obvious business man kept his blue eyes trained on her. "Tell me, are you from Hawaii? Because I've got to tell you, I've heard stories of Hawaiian beauties, but-"

"Okay, buddy." Steve cut him off sharply while between the two men Catherine openly laughed at the stranger's audacity. "Commander Steve McGarrett," he held out a hand as standard social etiquette dictates, but his reasoning went way beyond following conventions. The suit clad Casanova gripped the hand offered to him firmly for the first second until Steve's message became clear. He sent a small, apologetic smile as Steve finally let the hand go.

"Lieutenant Rollins and I are headed back to our home in Hawaii, yes." He answered the man's question without letting his stare soften.

The man's expression changed as he processed what Steve had said. "Oh, uh wow." He ran his hands down the top of his thighs nervously. "Military huh? Are you both stationed at Pearl Harbor? I'm only going to be in Hawaii for a few days for business, but I'm hoping to get the chance to go there."

It amused both Steve and Catherine that he was now trying to make idle conversation with them. "Negative." Steve replied with a strong head shake. "I am a member of the Navy Reserves but my day job is running a highly trained, specialized task force designed by our Governor and which members I've handpicked to eliminate high priority criminals and solve large scale crimes for the State of Hawaii." The speech rolled off his tongue automatically as if it had been rehearsed. He continued his deep stare, just willing this stranger to ask for clarification on Catherine's position.

"Oh, uh, right." The clearly scared man nodded. "I've heard of that, it's uh, Five 0 right?"

Steve nodded once more with no intention of continuing the conversation. Luckily, the pilot's voice came over the PA and ended any chance of the rather unlucky Mark Young continuing.

Several hours later, Catherine was waking to hear the pilot speaking again, only this time it was because they were beginning their descent into Hawaii. "Steve.." She clumsily shook his left bicep. "Steve, we're almost home." Catherine waited only a few seconds before trying again. "Steve, you're gonna miss it." She spoke a little more loudly this time, realizing she didn't have long to get him awake and alert. She was keenly aware that his favourite part of flights home was getting the unique panoramic view of the Southern Coast from the air. She glanced to her right and noticed the seat was not only empty, but the bag was gone too. She let the amusement cross her face just as she looked back towards her man.

"Mmm, yeah." He let his head roll towards her as he slowly opened his eyes. "Are we landing?" He mumbled.

Catherine couldn't help but enjoy the rare glimpse she got of Steve in such a relaxed, dazed state. She smiled to herself, knowing her opportunity to see those kinds of moments would be coming much more regularly from now on. "Yeah, look." She finally answered out loud, but his head had already made its way back to the window. Reassured by the thoughts streaming through her mind, Catherine reached over and placed her left hand on Steve's right leg.

The gesture didn't go unnoticed, but his view didn't stray from the window. Instead Steve blindly placed his right hand on top of hers and made their fingers interlock. When they had touched down, he finally allowed his eyes to find hers. "Well?" He took a big deep breath in before looking down at their intertwined hands. "Are you ready to do this?"

"Are you?" She laughed a little more loudly than she intended as she unbuckled herself.

Steve laughed at her jovial manner and then leaned in for a quick kiss before letting his belt go too. "C'mon." he spoke as they slowly stood as much as possible within the height of their seats and waited patiently for the other passengers to pass.

"You know I was thinking," Steve began as they finally exited the constraints of the jet way and were in the openness of the gate area.

Catherine gave the hand holding hers a squeeze before she interjected a remark. "Steve, the last time you said that.." She made her point clear as their eyes met then both darted to their joined hands.

He chuckled as their hands separated to step single file onto the escalator to the baggage claim area. "Yeah, yeah I know. But this one's better." He tried rather hopelessly to make the facetious look on his face disappear before Catherine could see it. "Okay, well not better." He quickly corrected himself. "But, in a different league so I'd say on par at least."

"Like apples and oranges huh?" She added for him as they stepped off. Steve's hand automatically moved forward to collect hers. Catherine was still slightly shocked at his gesture, even though it had been happening for a week now. Elated, tickled pink even. But still shocked.

And for Steve, the sudden fire in his eyes when their hands connected did not go unnoticed in the slightest. Selfishly though, he did it as much because he knew she loved it as much as for his own reasons. It instantly brought him back to the few days they'd spent travelling up the coast of California. And more specifically to the night that changed both of their lives forever. "Uh, yeah. Something like that." He replied quickly. "Oh, we're over there." He took his free hand and pointed at a carousel just starting up. There was no doubt between them that he'd deliberately evaded sharing his idea. Catherine was anything but bothered by it though. She knew Steve was up to something, and she'd learned over the years that trying to get it out of him would be a waste of time. She thought again about how the opportunities for that kind of thing would be more frequent also and the thought put a smile on her face as their bags came down the chute and into view.

Once they had their bags, the pair trekked to the arrivals area of the airport. "You gonna call Danny?" Catherine asked as the warm, humid air hit them. "Or is that part of this idea of yours?" She smirked, knowing the answer already.

Steve silently gestured towards a cab parked and waiting as his wiggling eyebrows gave her all the information she needed. "Steve.." She warned as the driver took their bags. "We can't…" she shook her head as he opened the car door.

"This will have to do for now." He spoke cryptically as she hesitantly got in.

"Please tell me we're not doing what I think we're doing." She asked, although it was more like telling. She watched his smug face close her door, have a quick conversation with the driver and then get in behind the driver.

Catherine's mind was on alert, worrying about what he had planned. "Do you honestly think I'm up for what I think you're planning? I mean, I know it's kind of traditional, and what we're sort of supposed to do, but c'mon. Tell me you don't want to.." She trailed off always aware that they were not alone.

onesSteve laughed lightly as he pulled her left hand to his right hand once again. "Well that depends," he grinned.

"Are we going home?" She asked, getting straight to the point. She felt confident she knew what he was planning if they were headed for somewhere private, like home.

"Nope." He answered just as directly.

"Oh, good." Catherine sighed feeling relieved. It only took a few seconds before that relief evaporated though. "Wait. Steve.." She warned with conviction this time.

Her implication made Steve laugh as genuinely and heartily as he had for the last week. "No, Catherine. We're not going to…" he shook his head. "We're going to HQ. We might as well get all this over with right?" He reasoned.

"Sure," She sighed once again. "And then maybe home. To sleep." She tried to look serious but her mouth betrayed her as she felt her lip curl up.

"Right. Sleep." He nodded with a wink and squeezed her hand as they rode through the streets and neighbourhoods they'd come to call home in the last five years.

"Thank you sir, and welcome home." The cabbie spoke with a gentle smile as he accepted the payment from Steve after parking and retrieving their bags from the trunk.

As he drove away, Catherine smiled as she watched Steve stare pensively at the windows of his offices. "I guess there's no turning back now Commander." She half teased, knowing he was nervous to officially share the secret they'd kept to themselves for the last week.

Steve took in a slow, deep breath before looking over at the woman beside him. "You know, I think the 'no turning back now' ship sailed about, oh, a week ago." He outwardly laughed as he reached to pick up his bag.

Catherine joined in just as she felt her phone vibrating from her pocket. "Oh, hang on." She cautioned as Steve had begun to walk. "It's Danny." She shot a puzzled glance at Steve. "Why's he calling me?"

Steve shrugged, rather unconvincingly. "I may have forgotten to turn my phone back on after we landed."

"Steve." She shot an annoyed face his way before putting the phone to her ear. "Hey, Danny." She winced slightly, getting the wrath of his worried tone. "Yeah, we uh, Steve forgot to turn his phone back on when we landed, sorry." She listened some more, all the while scowling at the man beside her. He tried to hide the grin creeping up on him, but it was to no avail. "Yeah, we're actually just outside. The cab just dropped us off." She explained. "I know, I know." She smirked, looking at Steve. "Kay, see you in two."

"What was that about?" He asked rather accusatorily. "What do you know?"

Catherine shook her head and laughed as they began walking towards the doors together. "I know that he really is going to kill you for this, and that it's going to be fun to watch." She teased happily.

Steve mocked outrage. "Oh, because you're so innocent, right?"

Catherine smiled a thank you to someone holding the door open for them as they shuffled into the building with their bags in tow. "Hey," she finally rebutted as they made their way through the lobby and towards the stairs. "You asked, so what was I gonna do? Say no?"

The SEAL stopped at the bottom of the staircase and set the bags down, prompting her to do the same. "You would do that?" he asked, smoothly snaking an arm around her waist. "I mean, you could've I guess, if you really didn't want to..-"

"Oh, so two week alone and you still can't keep your hands off each other long enough to let the rest of us know you're still alive." Danny's voice barked from the top of the stairs.

Steve put his head down, suddenly hit with the realization that this was the moment. "Nice to see you too, partner." He turned to face his friend. "And thanks for that welcome home, it was really special." He jabbed sarcastically as he consciously placed his hands behind his back.

As Danny made his way down the stairs to them, Catherine sent a look only Steve would understand. He didn't have time to reciprocate before the Detective had picked up Catherine's large bag and had turned back to the stairs. "I mean, c'mon guys. You're like two love sick rabbits or something, geez." As he turned his back on them to start up the stairs, Catherine and Steve shared an amused glance. Though for Steve, there was some fear mixed in there too.

"You coming back for my bag buddy?" Steve yelled up towards his friend. He was pretty much joking, although he realized in the moment, sharing their news to Danny first in private seemed more appropriate. He hoped Danny would come back down to them, thus giving Steve the opportunity he was hoping for.

"Get it yourself, you animal." The blond man yelled back as he disappeared from their view from the lobby.

"You want to tell him alone, don't you?" Catherine nodded as she spoke, knowing her assessment was correct. "You want me to go up and get him?" She asked genuinely.

Steve scrunched his face. "What? No, it's fine." He shook his head, as if to shake out the thought and reached for his bag. "He'll just have to deal with it, that's all." He spoke coarsely, but it was clear he was talking about himself as much as he was Danny.

"Okay then," Catherine let out a heavy breath as they each began the trek up the stairs. "You can't say I didn't warn you though."

Steve chose to ignore the point he knew she had as they made their way up to the familiar glass enclosed halls.

"Hey, who's this now?" Chin Ho Kelly joked from his position at the smart table as Danny emerged from setting Catherine's bag down in Steve's office.

"Funny," Steve smiled, acknowledging the implication that they'd been gone for too long as they approached the group at the table.

"Yeah," Lou Grover spoke up with a bemused smile. "Two whole week away from here? I didn't think that was possible for you, Commander."

"What?" Steve defended. He had a feeling this was going to be the big reveal moment, so he chose his next words carefully. "Kono's gone too. I mean, can't I get a little time away when I want it?" He figured if there was going to be a right moment, this was it. Steve deliberately crossed his arms in front of himself. He shot a quick glance at Catherine who picked up on his cues. In a calculated move, she leaned on the smart table using both her hands in front of her.

Danny snorted his disagreement. "Completely different circumstances, my friend. Kono got married, and is on her honeymoon. There is a very big difference between what she did and is now doing and..OH. MY. GOD." The reality smacked Danny in the face as his eyes darted lightning fast from Steve's crossed arms to Catherine's leaning on the table. "NO, no, you didn't!" He wasn't yelling, but he wasn't exactly calm either.

"Yeah, we did." Steve's stance eased as he and Catherine shared a smile. "A week ago today." He nodded proudly as he held his left hand out to hers.

The other two men in the room stood slightly confused, until Chin caught a glimpse of the shimmer coming from Steve's outstretched hand. "No way.. You got married?!" He laughed, still not quite believing it.

His boss nodded the confirmation as Catherine put her hand in his. "Yeah, we did." He laughed too, feeling a little relieved that the big moment was over.

Grover clasped the Commander on the back and hugged Catherine as he gave his congrats to the couple while Danny was still processing. "This is crazy. No, completely insane, actually." He added. He couldn't take his eyes off Steve's left hand. "What on Earth possessed you to…?" he couldn't quite say the words aloud.

"Uh, thanks Danny." Steve ignored the question. "You're approval is heartwarming, really." He rolled his eyes at his partner's harsh words.

Danny's faced changed from one of confusion and shock to amusement. "Oh, no. Sorry, I approve, honestly. I whole heartedly approve," He moved around the table to be closer to his friend. "I just.." he shook his head before turning fully to Steve and opening his arms in preparation for a hug. "C'mere, you big mushy man." Danny laughed into their masculine, yet sincere embrace. As they parted he gave Steve one final swift pat on the back. "Congrats, buddy. I am happy for you." He spoke genuinely before turning to a beaming Catherine.

"Look," he laughed shaking his head. "I have no idea how you pulled this off, but remember to feed him three times a day, and he doesn't sleep well if he doesn't go shoot at something before going to bed, okay?" The detective laughed as he spoke the last words and wrapped his arms around her.

Catherine laughed also as she reciprocated Danny's warm gesture. "Got it, thanks. But it was actually his idea." She glanced between the two best friends once more.

Danny's eyes closed slowly as he took in a deep breath. "Okay, uh. Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I am going to need some, uh, assistance processing all this." He pointed and began walking towards the door. "Let's go. Drinks are on me."

"Oh," Chin spoke up slightly amused. "You mean liquid assistance." He and Grover chuckled as they followed suit.

"Yeah, then I'll have a million questions, surely." Danny continued as the three men walked. "Starting with did Elvis officiate?" He posed the phrase in the form of a question but didn't actually turn around to expect an answer. "Because if that's the case, I'm really sad I missed it."

Steve laughed as he watched his friends for a second before turning to his new wife. "Drinks, then sleep.." He smirked. "Mrs. Smith?" he added jovially.

Catherine didn't miss a beat. "Aside from eloping with you Mr. Smith, nothing would make me happier." She placed her hand in his outstretched one once again as they joined their friends, together for the first time as a married couple.

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