Sammy & Ilna, thanks again for just being your amazing selves. It's more fun here than I ever dreamed.

Sammy really deserves a credit on this one. Your edit improved my original story. Thanks, partner

Ilna thanks for the suggestion for the very beginning. You helped me make more sense :)

REALMcRollers, hugs and love for the heartfelt responses and love!

Pot of Gold

1:00 a.m.

She lifted her head just before the squeak. She knew it was coming, the tiny human had shifted in her basket. She was hungry.

Cammie stood and shook herself. "Woof," she huffed. Not too loud, just enough to make sure they were awake. She wagged her tail happily when Catherine spoke.

"I've got her, Cammie. Thanks, pretty girl," she said quietly and glanced at Steve as she picked the baby up and moved to go into the nursery. He was sprawled on his back, but had lifted his head.

"Sleep, we're good," she whispered.

When he murmured, "Thanks, love you," even as his eyes were closing, she smiled softly.

He'd only just gotten in at midnight after a twenty hour day on the heels of their return flight from L.A. They hadn't been wheels down two minutes when he was heading towards the gate, weaving through the crowd at a dead run.

Duke had been waiting to pick him up since the call about the potentially volatile hostage situation came just as they were boarding in California. When he received the update that circumstances had deteriorated while they were en route, Catherine texted Esther for a ride so Steve could hit the ground running.

She looked at him again and her smile grew at how he'd gone back to sleep with a barely there grin hinting at the corner of his mouth. Catherine kissed the baby after changing her diaper.

"There we go, all clean. Let's get you fed."

She sat in the rocking chair, offering Angie her late-night meal. When the hungry infant latched on eagerly, Catherine tilted the bottle into position. Minutes later a tiny hand found the side of the plastic container and stayed there, and she beamed.

"Look at you! Pretty soon you'll be holding your bottle all by yourself. Wait till Daddy sees. We'll show him first thing in the morning. Tonight we're gonna let him sleep though because he got home very late. He and Uncle Danno were out catching bad guys. They kept everyone safe and those men won't be hurting anyone ever again." She touched a soft cloth to the baby's cheek. "All done, sweetheart. If you burp for Mommy we can both go back to bed, okay?" When Angie complied, she motioned to Cammie, who was resting on the soft rug. "Come on, pretty girl."

When they were all settled in their respective beds and bassinet, Catherine sighed and snuggled against Steve's side. He stirred but didn't wake and she placed a kiss on his jaw. "Sleep, I have the watch."

5:30 a.m.

Steve slid out of bed and lifted Angie. "Daddy's got you, c'mon," he murmured before saying, "Cammie, let's be quiet, okay?" to the dog who'd stood when he did, prepared to assist him with whatever her youngest human needed.

After she was changed and fed, he took the baby back to the bedroom and sat in the chair, Angie comfortably snuggled in the crook of one arm as he opened a new book he'd grabbed from her dresser.

"Looks like your grandma was at the bookstore again," he said quietly, so as not to wake Catherine. "Let's see what this one's about. What do you think?" He bent and kissed his daughter's head. "Leprechauns. Okay." He opened the board book and began to read.

When he'd finished, Angie was staring with wide open eyes and he stifled a laugh. "Not sleepy yet? How about if I tell you I remember Aunt Deb coming to visit one year around my birthday. She got in on Saint Patrick's Day and brought green donuts for me and your Aunt Mary. Mary was about three and she wanted nothing to do with them because she thought they were going to taste like broccoli. Once I convinced her by eating one, she inhaled two donuts in five minutes."

He'd not thought of that visit until that moment. Deb had brought the donuts, and green beer for the adults, and that night she'd told them about how people in the old country, as her grandfather called Ireland, who could find a leprechaun and capture him would get three wishes. "If you could follow him to the end of the rainbow, you'd find his pot of gold."

Steve continued to murmur his memories of that visit softly and finally stood when the baby's eyes closed and her breathing evened out. Crossing the room he gently placed her in the bassinet at Catherine's side of the bed.

"So," he finished as he adjusted her sleep sack, "I figured I could just find the end of a rainbow and wait for a leprechaun, this being the rainbow state and all. I even promised your Aunt Mary a wish.

Aunt Deb said she always thought the pot of gold represented your heart's desire as opposed to a big pot of riches. When she explained that meant the thing you wanted most, Mary requested more donuts." He grinned thinking Joan would probably do the same.

Bending to kiss his daughter's head, he ran a finger over her cheek, marveling once again at how closely the tiny profile mirrored Catherine's. "Sleep, Angie. Love you," he said softly before quietly returning to bed.

He checked his phone for any updates about the hostage case from the previous night. A text from HPD told him the suspects had been processed and were due to be arraigned at 11:00 a.m.

He nodded as he returned the phone to its spot on his bedside table. The day before had been a long one but worth it to get two more dangerous criminals off the streets.

It was just after midnight when, after showering off the day and kissing their sleeping baby, he'd collapsed into bed and his wife's waiting arms. As always, Catherine's touch and murmured, 'I love yous' obliterated any tentacles of of ugliness still clinging from the case.

He stretched out beside her and she rolled to face him.

When he held an arm out for her she curled into his side.

"I'd have gotten her," she said quietly.

"I slept five hours. Besides, I missed dinner and Angie's bedtime." He kissed her softly. "So I did a story just now."

"I heard." She smiled against his shoulder, then moved to look in his eyes. "Chasing leprechauns, hmmm?" Her brown eyes sparkled. "I can just picture you setting out on a mission to find one of the little guys. Sorry you didn't catch one."

He shrugged. "I wasn't chasing them exactly," he explained with a small smile. "I borrowed Dad's compass and map. I figured if I just waited for a rainbow and then followed it I could find where one lived pretty easily."

"I'm sorry you didn't get your wish or find your pot of gold," she teased gently, her voice sleepy.

Steve kissed her forehead, looked in her eyes and whispered, "Don't be."

He glanced at the compass he'd given Catherine all those years before, safely ensconced in it's box and back into her eyes.

His true north.

"I did find it." He touched her cheek gently. "And it was more amazing than I could've imagined."

# End thanks for reading

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