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helsinkibabyTitle: In the Still of the Night
Challenge #55: Bruise
Fandom: Hawaii Five-0
Pairing: Steve/Catherine
Rating: G
Length: 453
Summary: In the middle of the night, Steve realises why he didn't want Catherine to go to North Korea with him.
Notes: Post ep to The Promise. For the fan_flashworks bruise challenge.
Steve can't sleep.
He suspects it's something to do with the jet lag that comes from travelling from North Korea to Honolulu, combined with the relief of repatriating Freddie's body, the knowledge that his family - that Steve himself - will finally get some sense of closure.
But if he's honest, he knows it's also something to do with the woman beside him.
Catherine is asleep, has been for hours now and he suspects that's as much to do with the painkillers the doctors prescribed her as tiredness from their mission. She didn't make a fuss when they were there, didn't make a fuss when they were on their way back either but he'd seen the way she was moving, the pain on her face she was trying to hide.
He hadn't questioned her too closely at the time, being as they were running for their lives, but also because he knows Catherine, knows she didn't want him to worry about her. Didn't want him to blame himself for her getting hurt the way he's blamed himself for Freddie's death for almost three years now.
That was, he admits to himself now, the real reason he didn't want her on the mission with him. Nothing to do with her being a woman, with her being his girlfriend.
But the last time he went to North Korea, Jenna Kaye came home in a coffin. The time before that, it was Freddie.
If things came in threes, he'd have much rathered that Catherine was in Honolulu and out of harm's way and if that makes him a bad person, well, he's been called worse.
She shifts in her sleep then, makes a little noise of discomfort and he frowns, both at the noise and the fact that her tank top has ridden up, exposing her side to his gaze. The bruise is larger than he remembers, large enough now that if he laid his hand over it, several ugly shades of red and purple would still leech out. She'd suspected a cracked rib; it had actually been two and the knowledge of how easily he could have lost her sends a shiver down Steve's spine.
He'd told his mother only recently that he and Catherine had a good thing going; it's only now, in the still of the night, when he realises that he could have lost her, forever this time, that he realises just how good.
Catherine shifts again, whimpers and he moves closer to her, moulds his body to hers and holds her close. She never stirs, her eyes stay closed but her lips turn up in a smile.
His own follow suit as he closes his eyes and in minutes, he too is asleep.
Challenge #55: Bruise
Fandom: Hawaii Five-0
Pairing: Steve/Catherine
Rating: G
Length: 453
Summary: In the middle of the night, Steve realises why he didn't want Catherine to go to North Korea with him.
Notes: Post ep to The Promise. For the fan_flashworks bruise challenge.
Steve can't sleep.
He suspects it's something to do with the jet lag that comes from travelling from North Korea to Honolulu, combined with the relief of repatriating Freddie's body, the knowledge that his family - that Steve himself - will finally get some sense of closure.
But if he's honest, he knows it's also something to do with the woman beside him.
Catherine is asleep, has been for hours now and he suspects that's as much to do with the painkillers the doctors prescribed her as tiredness from their mission. She didn't make a fuss when they were there, didn't make a fuss when they were on their way back either but he'd seen the way she was moving, the pain on her face she was trying to hide.
He hadn't questioned her too closely at the time, being as they were running for their lives, but also because he knows Catherine, knows she didn't want him to worry about her. Didn't want him to blame himself for her getting hurt the way he's blamed himself for Freddie's death for almost three years now.
That was, he admits to himself now, the real reason he didn't want her on the mission with him. Nothing to do with her being a woman, with her being his girlfriend.
But the last time he went to North Korea, Jenna Kaye came home in a coffin. The time before that, it was Freddie.
If things came in threes, he'd have much rathered that Catherine was in Honolulu and out of harm's way and if that makes him a bad person, well, he's been called worse.
She shifts in her sleep then, makes a little noise of discomfort and he frowns, both at the noise and the fact that her tank top has ridden up, exposing her side to his gaze. The bruise is larger than he remembers, large enough now that if he laid his hand over it, several ugly shades of red and purple would still leech out. She'd suspected a cracked rib; it had actually been two and the knowledge of how easily he could have lost her sends a shiver down Steve's spine.
He'd told his mother only recently that he and Catherine had a good thing going; it's only now, in the still of the night, when he realises that he could have lost her, forever this time, that he realises just how good.
Catherine shifts again, whimpers and he moves closer to her, moulds his body to hers and holds her close. She never stirs, her eyes stay closed but her lips turn up in a smile.
His own follow suit as he closes his eyes and in minutes, he too is asleep.
