Hello Emerson and Steve fans! I am back! I know you probably thought I had abandoned this fic and for awhile I had. Life got in the way and writer's block set in. But I started a new fic recently about Severide and Lindsay from Chicago Fire/PD and it got the creative juices flowing. So I sat down and banged out a chapter in this fic for you. It's not my best and it might take a little while to get me back in the groove, but this chapter is basically a brief review of what's happened so far. I hope you enjoy and I promise not to make you wait so long for the next one!

Chapter Thirteen - Breakfast with Mary

Harry's Café in Honolulu, that same morning…

"Fried Rice Loco Moco for Chin, fresh fruit bowl for the surfer girl, and a stack of flapjacks with pineapple, strawberries, and whipped cream for the Jersey boy."

Mary McGarrett smiled at the members of her brother's team as she rattled off their orders and set down their breakfasts with expert efficiency. Reaching back behind her, she grabbed a fresh pot of coffee and began filling Danny's cup as she teased, "I thought you didn't like pineapple."

"On pizza," the detective told her, popping a fresh strawberry into his mouth, "I don't like pineapple on pizza. On pancakes? Love it."

"Good to know," Mary shot back with a smile, moved on to fill Chin's cup, and then asked, "Can I get my favorite customers anything else?"

"Answers," Danny mumbled through a mouthful of pancakes.

"We have motives besides breakfast," Kono translated helpfully as she took a sip of her juice, "And for the record, I wanted no part of this. But they enticed me with free breakfast and my traitorous stomach just couldn't let me say no."

"Are you working on a case?" the blond waitress asked, her eyes lighting up as she looked at them.

"Sort of," Chin offered, swallowing his first bite of breakfast, "The case of Emerson Kennedy."

"Emerson Kennedy is still in Hawaii?" Mary asked in surprise. "Wow."

"Why wow?" Kono asked, suddenly intrigued.

"Emmy Rose Leigh," Mary said with a grin, as if she hadn't heard Kono's question. Looking at Danny suddenly, she inquired, "Does Steve know?"

"Oh, he knows."

"Is she in trouble?" Mary wanted to know, suddenly concerned, "Is she part of your case?"

"It's not really a case," Chin explained, stirring some sweetener into his coffee, "Well, it is now. But it didn't start out that way. She came in looking for your brother the other day and I happened to be on the phone with him at the time. When I told him she was there, he told me to keep her there by any means possible until he got back. And when he saw her…"

"It was intense," Kono offered, her curiosity causing her to suddenly want to be part of this conversation after all.

"To say the least," Danny added, finally looking up from his breakfast, "He's weirded me out before, but this was different. First he didn't recognize her, then he seemed all pissed off…"

"He backed her into a wall," Kono interrupted with a grin, "It was kind of sexy. And then he got all He-Man macho protective with her, they argued, and she ran out."

"They argued?" Mary repeated as her eyes widened and her jaw dropped in shock.

"The next morning, Steve had Danny go get her car from a crime scene and drop it off at his house…"

"Where," Danny interrupted, poking the air with his fork to accentuate his point, "I found her in his arms. In his kitchen. In one of his t shirts."

"Oh. My. God." Mary breathed and took a moment to let all of the information she just heard sink in. When it did, she broke out into a full on smile and said, "I knew it!"

"Knew what?"

The blond scrunched up her face and then changed the subject by asking, "So what do you need from me?"

"Background info," Chin told her as he watched her refill Danny's coffee cup again, "She's involved in something we can't really talk about…"

"Is she in trouble?"

"No," Chin answered quickly to reassure the fear he saw creep into her pretty facial features, "Not right now. Steve and your mom are protecting her. But this is personal for Steve. Very personal. And you know your brother…"

"He's a man of few words," Mary agreed, with a nod, "And you want to know just how personally involved he is?"

"We like her," Kono said softly, "We want to help him keep her safe. But we want to make sure he stays safe, too."

Mary nodded but when she didn't say anything else, Danny prompted, "He called her 'his girl' in front of some of the cops we work with. That's not Steve-like behavior and…"

"He loves her," Mary finally interrupted with a smile and a sigh, "I think he always has. And if she's in trouble, he's going to move Heaven and Earth to help her. Like she's always helped him."

This time it was the team's turn to stay silent while they digested that bit of information along with their breakfasts.

"We lived across the street from the Kennedy's growing up," Mary explained, "Emerson has two sisters, Sophie and Laurel, and they were always hot for Steve, but it was Emerson who always had my brothers' attention. I think it started because she needed his protection and he's got that whole 'hero complex' thing about him, but the more he got to know her I think he started to need her too. She made him laugh, she listened to him, she understood him in a way few people have."

"But?" Danny prompted when Mary paused.

Mary laughed and stole a piece of pineapple off his plate as she went on, "We were teenagers. Steve was a football star and Emerson was chubby and awkward and she had this horrible crush on him. But he never saw her that way…he was preoccupied with dating the brainless cheerleaders and pageant queens who hung on his every word. He was too busy basking in all that attention to see that he had a connection with Emmy that he would never have with any of those girls." Sighing heavily, she finished, "And then my mom died, or so we thought, and we got sent to the mainland. I had kind of figured Emerson got the hell out of dodge…her family wasn't exactly stable and she was the best of them anyway. I can't believe she's still here in Hawaii. And staying at Steve's…"

"And hot," Danny added, "She's not chubby and awkward anymore."

Mary grinned as Chin asked, "Steve said something about your father's funeral…"

"Oh yeah," Mary remembered, "She was there. With her sisters and her mom. When she came through the receiving line, it was the first time I saw Steve relax all day. Just seeing her seemed to make him feel better…you know, that connection I was talking about. They talked about going out for a drink or something. But then she was gone. He kept calling her, but I don't think she ever called back. And then he got all involved with 5-0 and Wo Fat and I guess he just stopped trying to find her."

"Well she found him," Kono assured the younger McGarrett, "And the sparks were flying. Whatever he didn't realize about her in high school, he sure as hell knows now."