Chapter Text
~~~
Mary - Age 10
~~~
For a long time Mary thought moving away after someone died was what you were supposed to do. Her mom was gone, so they were moving. It's what happened. But Steve was angry. The dimples had fallen from his face a long time ago. She had crawled into his bed that night, because she didn't understand. She would, though. She would understand that her mother wasn't coming back and this was a sad time and Steve gave really good hugs. It wasn't like she didn't know that already. Looking back, she knew Steve was hugging her because he was the one that needed the hug.
She wished she had held on tighter back then. They were on a long plane ride alone together until they got to New York and met Aunt Deb. Steve kept wiping at his face and she kept asking him what was wrong but he never would tell her. He let out a single sob when the wheels hit the ground and she hugged his arm. He had pulled her head close to his chest until they were told they could get their things and unload.
Three days later he did the same hug on the train ride south to Virginia. There were no tears that day, so she assumed he was better. He was getting to go sleep-a-way school and she was entirely too jealous. He told her not to be. He told her she was lucky to be living with Aunt Deb. How the city was exciting and she'd get to see plays and go to parks and museums.
"I'll find out all the best places," she told him on the train. "So when you visit we can go to them. So you get only the best stuff."
He made a face and Deb covered her mouth listening from across the aisle, and then he smiled. "You do that, Mare. It'll give me something to focus on and look forward to."
Mary rocked in her seat, happy to of done something good for her family for once. That was the first smile on his face since their mother had died. He looked good with a smile on his face. The smile disappeared at the train station where Uncle Joe was waiting for them. It fell off his face and an anger she didn't think her brother was capable of replaced it. It startled her and she should have held him tighter.
"Son," Uncle Joe greeted him after he and Deb shook hands, the two of them already knew one another.
Back then Mary thought he really was her father's brother. It would make sense he was Aunt Deb's brother too. But they shook hands, they didn't hug. How strange.
"Mmph," Steve greeted back, adjusting his backpack on his shoulder.
Uncle Joe let the cold greeting slide off his back and he smiled down at Mary, "Hello Mary."
"Hi Uncle Joe."
"Well," Joe said, looking them over. "Our train's boarding now."
"Of course it is," Steve said sourly. Then he turned to Mary. "Give me a hug. I won't get another one until Thanksgiving." He sent Joe some kind of dark look Mary couldn't decipher. She gave him a sweet, quick hug, and his grip was a little too tight that it kind of hurt her shoulders.
The train ride home was a blur of tears. She didn't understand why she was crying. Someone died and you moved. It's what you did. Of course it's what you do. Her mom died, she left her dad, and her brother was going to a neat school. It's just what happened. But she cried, and cried, and cried until Aunt Deb and the rhythm of the train rocked her to sleep.
~~~
Mary, New Year's Day, 2016
~~~
In her defense, she had several good places lined up for her and Joan. Asking Danny if he was renting out his place, last minute, on the plane… it wasn’t like he was her only option. Just the best one she was hoping for. She was a better adult than that nowadays.
She was looking forward to living on the island again. The few months she did after her father had died, and the long visits she had in the meantime… it felt like a good fit. She’d been all over the world, but she had a soft spot for her birthplace, and she was excited for Joan to experience a little bit of what she remembered growing up there. She wanted that life for her daughter. Growing up surrounded by the power of the ocean and the beauty of the wildlife and the hustle of tourists and the bright lights of a city. It was a good mix. Plus Joan had family here she really needed to get to know. With Steve announcing his intentions to adopt Jack, she’d have a little cousin soon.
She deserved the world and Mary wanted nothing more than to give it to her. Mary patted her hair behind the headphones. She woke up a little, focusing on her movie.
But here Mary was again, moving halfway around the world after someone died. Aunt Deb’s passing was expected, but that didn’t mean she didn’t ache. The kids were all either asleep, or spaced out with headphones on. Joan had her own tablet and headphones, her head nodding every few minutes. A few more scenes of Despicable Me and she’d be out for sure.
Mary smiled at her daughter. Easily the best decision she had ever made.
Danny got up, after already switching seats with Nahele earlier when he and Grace wanted to play a game of cards, said nothing to anyone, and walked towards the back of the plane again. Mary watched him go. He looked angry.
Mary turned around to Steve, “what’s wrong with him?”
Steve didn’t look much happier, but instead of angry, he looked upset. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Right,” Mary said, turning back around. Joan nodded her head again. Mary took in Steve’s sad face, how much it looked like that day on the plane, back when they left Hawaii for the first time. How she always wished she could go back in time and hug him harder. Steve was hurting. The whole point of moving back to Hawaii was to be closer to her only family left.
She turned around again, “what’s wrong?”
Steve stared at her for moment. “Nothing.”
“You know,” Mary said, adjusting her feet into the aisle to have better access to lean around the back of the chair. She shared a row with Danny and Joan, but Steve, Charlie, Jack, Grace, and Nahele were the row behind them. “Grace tells me that cop gut is genetic. My cop gut is telling me: ‘liar.’”
Steve rolled his eyes, but didn’t say anything.
“I’m your sister,” she tried quietly. “We aren’t going to be close unless we talk to each other.”
His eyes shot down to Charlie next to him, curled up asleep in the chair, and then to Grace across the aisle asleep against the window and Nahele zoned out under chunky headphones and a baby finally asleep under a light blanket on his lap. Jack’s insistence that it had to be Nahele he slept on cut his and Grace’s card game short, but the boy didn’t complain and took the baby happily.
Steve scratched the side of his face and adjusted in his seat. He looked toward the back of the plane, probably checking for Danny. He sat back normal with a sigh. “It’s really not the place, Mare.”
“Something happened.”
He licked his lips and for half a second it looked like he was about to cry. Mary was shocked at the display. But as quick as the break in his armor came, it was gone. “It’s really not the place.”
“Oh, Steve,” Mary said. She was out of her chair and hugging him. He hugged her back from his seat easily. They held each other for a moment, Mary letting Steve hold on as long as he needed, and when he finally let go, she sat back in her chair still leaning around to face him. “This may not be the place, but I’m not going to let you drop this.”
He grinned sadly. “Distract me in the meantime. I know you’ve got a gig lined up at Wailana Diner… did you really not have a place to live until you asked Danny?”
“I had prospects.”
“‘Prospects,’” he scoffed.
“And a hotel reservation!” she defended herself.
“Mary…”
“Stop that!” Mary said. “I don’t need the judgment. I am a mother! I did think ahead! I wanted to see where I’d be living before I signed a contract and doomed my daughter to a dump for a twelve month lease!”
“Alright, alright,” he held his hands up. Then he pulled a face. “You’ve never said anything about me living in dad’s house. You were his kid, too.”
She pulled a face. “Nah, I can’t live there knowing he died there. It’s all yours.”
Steve nodded, and looked away, one of his thousand yard stares. She knew he cleaned up the crime scene. It’s part of the reason why she didn’t make it to the funeral, she knew the house wasn’t… she couldn’t face all that…
Steve did. And he did it alone. Well, looking towards the back of the plane, not really. Danny was already a staple in Steve’s life the first time she came home to the island.
“Do you know anyone else? Besides us?”
Mary licked her lips. “I know Ona, and Mamo.”
“Dad’s friends?”
She sighed. “Please don’t judge me for wanting to come home.”
Steve smiled and blinked easy. “Okay.”
“Trust me, okay? I’m a grown up, I promise.”
“Okay.”
She studied his face for a moment. His eyes slid down to the seat in front of him, halfway to another thousand yard stare, and then he turned and studied Charlie. Something about looking at the small boy was enough for a pained look to cross his face.
“We’re definitely talking at some point in the future.”
“I’d like that,” Steve said with a smile that didn’t cover up the pained look on his face.
It was at that time that Danny came back, red faced like he had been wiping at his eyes in the bathroom for the last five minutes. He looked straight ahead, didn’t look at Steve, didn’t look at Mary, but Mary watched as Danny sat down, stony faced and sniffed.
Mary openly stared at him. He pointedly did not look at Mary and sat, arms crossed. When he didn’t look her way she turned back around to Steve.
“You free tomorrow?”
Steve let out a single chuckle. “Aren’t you moving into a new house?”
She turned and eyed Danny, who was obviously listening to them.
“I sure hope so,” she said to Steve.
He pulled another pained face, and leaned forward, head in his hands in his lap.
“Whoa, whoa,” Mary said. “Okay.” She turned to Danny over Joan’s head. “What happened?”
“Ask him,” he answered, not turning her way.
It was at that time she noticed Nahele, who had his eyes on Steve. He looked curious and worried. He pulled his headphones off his head.
“What’s going on?”
“Nothin’,” Danny turned around to face Nahele. Then he turned back towards Mary, eyes still raw, “I’m not going back on my word, Mary. You have a place to live.”
There was an uncomfortable limbo of Steve’s head still in his hands, Danny not really looking anyone in the eye, Mary turning and checking on Steve and then back to Danny, and Nahele aware and trying to catch up to what was happening.
Something happened. Something major. Steve was worried about Danny moving out? They were so touchy and lovey dovey this morning at breakfast. All smiles and heated looks. She could have sworn that the two of them...
Then Nahele pointed to Joan - who had finally given in to sleep and had started falling over - and Mary moved quickly to catch her, but Danny was there first. Joan’s tablet fell to the cabin floor. He finally met her eye. He looked just as pained as Steve did.
“Thanks,” she said, pulling back on Joan, adjusting her so she’d be more comfortable. Danny reached for Joan’s tablet, and made quick work of pausing the movie while Mary covered Joan with her jacket.
“Why were you worried about Danny taking back is word?” Nahele asked, quiet. He looked towards Steve, and Mary couldn’t see, but she assumed Steve was still in the same position. He looked back towards Danny, more confused.
“She doesn’t. She’s going to live at my rent house. That’s all that’s changing.”
She heard Steve let out a loud and long sigh and the rustling of him readjusting in his seat. That’s apparently what he needed to hear.
It was Steve’s turn to ignore everyone and stand up quickly and head for the back of the plane.
Danny handed her Joan’s tablet. “Don’t worry about it.”
“You two,” she said, wrapping the protective case around the screen. “So alike.”
Danny didn’t say anything back to her, but he did to turn to Nahele, “It’s okay. You okay?”
“I kinda have to pee,” he said. “Mind taking Jack?”
Danny paused for an uncharacteristic moment, staring at the baby, before he shook himself. “Yes. Yes, of course.”
Whichever one of them did this needed a smack on the back of the head. Mary took it upon herself in that moment to find out and be that person.
~~~
Ellie - Age 10
~~~
"I don't understand, daddy," She said, as she rushed to close her open window from the incoming rain. "Why'd we come here? It's always raining!"
Her father stuck his head into her doorway, "What girly?"
She rolled her eyes. "Why'd we have to come here? I miss home."
He sighed, made his way into her room, navigating around moving boxes, to let himself sit on her still unmade mattress. "Sometimes... We lost mom quite quick, didn't we?"
It was still a fresh hurt, even if it was over a year ago. She nodded. She'd have to find her box of pictures. There was her favorite with her and her mother at the beach that she was terrified would get lost in the move and had kept with her, but there were others. So many others. In one of these boxes. She had a shelf already picked out for them.
"Where we were... I couldn't be a good daddy there. I was way too sad there."
Ellie's eyes teared up. It had been a quiet, bleak year. They had no other family, and neither did her mother. That's why her parents loved each other so much; they didn't have anyone else. Then they had Ellie and it was perfect. Until it wasn't anymore.
"I want to be a good daddy. I want to raise you strong and happy."
"Did we have to do it here?"
"This is actually where your mother is from!" He patted the bed for her to sit down next to him. "You knew that. This way, we're always connected to her, but it's a new place. We can learn to love this place together. Make new memories, but not leave mom behind."
"I miss her."
"I do too girly," he pulled her close. "I do too."
They sat like that for a bit. Her father's arm around her shoulders, sitting in the sad of it all, letting steady tears out. That was his philosophy; that tears were just your heart's way of healing itself. Sometimes it got too full of sadness that you had to let it out or it would burst. So just cry, and cry, and cry. It's the best thing you can do for a broken heart.
When the moment settled, she wiped at her nose and sniffed. Her father followed suit.
"So, we need a break from unpacking," her father decided. "What should we do first?"
"It's still raining, daddy," she gestured towards the window.
"Doesn't mean we can't go out, see what's around! You know tomorrow you and I are looking at real estate. We gotta make a living out here."
"The bar."
He nodded. "It was always your mom's dream. We're not leaving her behind. I'm going to make sure of that. So, let’s go out into the world, and make this place home, huh?”
~~~
Ellie, January 3rd, 2016
~~~
She usually had pancakes on Saturday mornings. A habit left over from her days vying for John McGarrett’s attention. He’d pick her up from whatever foster home she was staying in every couple Saturdays without fail and take her to Wailana Diner for pancakes and sneak her coffee. She made it a habit after he died… to take a Saturday every now and then to sit down and enjoy an indulgent stack of pancakes.
Of course today was Sunday.
Yesterday was Saturday.
Ever since she met Steve McGarrett, Saturday mornings were left open just in case Steve text her asking her about pancakes. Turns out John McGarrett used her as a stand-in for his kids, sharing a tradition with them that Steve, in turn, shared with her. Or, they shared it with each other. How she looked at it depended on her feelings on John, which varied day to day.
Some days John was good and right and did no wrong. Other days he was just a random guy that let her down.
Steve, however, was a pleasure and a true friend. He’d been busy with foster kids lately, and his partner moving in… so a few of the Saturday’s included a table full of kids in a booth behind her and a show. Anyone with eyes could tell Steve and Danny were head over heels for each other, but they were too close to the subject; they hadn’t noticed yet. In the meantime, they were fun to watch over a good cup of coffee.
Yesterday was Saturday and she craved pancakes and shot a quick message to Steve:
Ellie:
Wailana and maple syrup?
Steve:
Not today, sorry. I’ve got plans all day.
Ellie:
Alright. I demand a breakfast in the next few weeks.
Steve:
You got it.
She woke up Sunday with the same craving and took it upon herself to get those damn pancakes herself. She used to do it alone all the time. She didn’t need company to eat breakfast.
So when she walked into Wailana and saw Steve sitting at a booth with another woman about her age, she grinned. She walked right up to the booth and with as serious a face as she could muster she said
“McGarrett,” he looked up, and smiled instantly. She motioned to the woman. “You cheating on me?”
His face fell. “What?” There was comical moment when he looked at his friend, and then back to Ellie, back to his friend, and finally back to Ellie again. “What?”
His friend looked confused. Ellie raised her eyebrows at him, come on Steve, you were in the Navy; it’s not hard to realize you’re being teased.
He finally got it and rolled his eyes, he looked back to his friend. “This is my friend, Ellie,” he told her. “She thinks she’s funny.”
“I’m hilarious,” she said, grabbing a discarded bit of charred bacon she knew Steve doesn’t like off his plate and popping it in her mouth. His friend raised her eyebrows at the action. “So you don’t have time for breakfast with me…” She motioned to his friend, “you must be special.” Then to Steve, “move over.”
She pushed at Steve, who rolled his eyes and started moving over in the booth to allow her to sit with them. He’d have said something at that point if she wasn’t welcome, but she still didn’t take her purse off her shoulder, in case she needed to say goodbyes and make a quick exit.
“Sorry, I really was busy yesterday.”
“Yeah, yeah, sure,” she said shrugged, still teasing.
“I was going to bring you malasadas tomorrow, but if you’re going to throw a fit about it…”
“No! I’m not throwing a fit. I just really had a craving for pancakes.”
“I’m pretty sure you’re capable of getting pancakes all by yourself,” he said, deadpanned, single eyebrow raised towards her.
She rolled her eyes, “what can I say, we’ve gotten into a routine, you and I.”
Steve smiled at that, and she shared the smile back and reached for another bit of bacon, to which he smacked her hand.
“Ow!” She mocked pain.
“Order your own bacon, ya’ hog.”
His friend leaned forward then, focused on Steve, her tone deep and weighty. “You just got done telling me that you have a broken heart over Danny, I swear to God, Steve, if you have had a girlfriend on the side, I’m going to smack you so hard your great-grandchildren are going to feel it.”
Ellie was taken aback and she knew she had wide eyes at his friend’s outburst. Then she turned to look at Steve, who mirrored her expression perfectly.
Then, in sync: “No no no,” she said. “This… is not… that,” he said. “Steve? No,” she drawed out, low and slow. “Not in a million years!” he exaggerated.
That caused her to pause, “not even in the event of a zombie apocalypse where everyone else is dead?”
“We have talked about that scenario, Ellie. No, not even then!” His arms were flailing around like Danny’s. Danny had been adamant in that particular argument that Steve couldn’t judge his mental and emotional state in the event that everyone he loved was dead and couldn’t predict the need for human connection. Steve was redfaced and huffing and puffing about it and man, she liked Danny. Steve couldn’t get over the mental block of “zombies aren’t going to happen, you two. Charlie, don’t listen to them.” Party pooper.
“No, Ellie is just a friend.”
“I thought you and I were going for brother and sister?” She turned to the woman. “I'm more something like a sister,” she insisted. The woman raised her eyebrows and gave an exaggerated nod.
“That’s exactly why ‘not in a million years,’” he said, pointed, finger pointed for emphasis.
“Wait, did you say heartbroken over Danny?” Steve rolled his eyes and his jaw knocked out of alignment. “What happened?”
“I’m not explaining it again today.”
“He’s being stupid,” the woman offered.
“ You’re being stupid? And you’re the one with the broken heart?”
Steve shrugged. The woman nodded. Ellie smacked him in the arm, without heat.
“Ow,” he mocked pain, mocking her. “I get it, I get it. I’ve been getting it from her all breakfast.”
“Good,” Ellie said. Whoever this woman was, she was good for Steve. “You can tell me the details later, but if you’re the one being stupid, then just stop being stupid!”
“Mmm hmm,” the woman agreed.
He rolled his eyes again and sighed. “It’s more complicated than that.”
The woman rolled her eyes and then took a long sip of her coffee. Ellie licked her lips, eager for her own cup. Steve moped in the corner of the booth, and both women said nothing to let him seep in his stupidity for a bit. Ellie only shook her head at him. Men.
Then she noticed the woman studying her.
“So, sister, huh?” his friend asked with a bit of… smug? grin. Ellie didn’t really know how to read her.
Ellie nodded with a bit of a grin, “Not really. No DNA test would link us, of course. Just a shared combo of daddy-slash-abandonment issues.”
Steve did this phenomenal roll of his head several times, before he threw it down into a hand resting on the table.
“You know, for as dramatic as you are I have no idea how you made it in special ops.” His friend snorted over her coffee.
He pulled a dramatic head back to give her an unamused face.
“See?” she asked his friend, holding up a hand as if to show off Steve’s overdramatic response. The woman snorted again.
Steve practically whined.
“So, don’t mind him, who are you?” she asked.
“Oh, I’m something like a sister, too.”
“Oh really?” she asked, curious. Then, “Steven, do you collect sisters?”
He looked defeated, a little scrunched over. “Apparently. Why am I friends with you?”
“Shared daddy-slash-abandonment issues. Keep up.” She pointed to the woman. “You too? We should start a support group.”
“Ellie!” Steve interjected. “This is my sister, Mary.”
Ellie turned to Mary with wide eyes. “Mary,” she said. “The actual sister!” Mary nodded. “The one that was moving to Hawaii in the new year. It’s the new year already. Hi!” She held out a hand across the table. “I’m Ellie. Sorry, about- all-. I’m Australian.”
Steve chuckled at that.
“I noticed,” Mary said, shaking her hand.
“I’ve truly been looking forward to meeting you,” she told Mary. “Where’s your daughter? Joan, right?”
“Yeah, she’s getting to know her cousins,” Mary glanced towards Steve and then back to Ellie. “I’m sorry, I haven’t heard anything about you.”
Ellie rolled her eyes, “Oh that’s okay.” Then, to Steve with a click of the tongue, “really?”
“How exactly am I supposed to have that conversation?”
“How did you two meet?” Mary asked.
“She was leaving flowers at dad’s grave.”
Mary’s face turned curious and she adjusted in her seat. “What? You knew our dad?”
“You know those daddy issues I was talking about?” Ellie asked with a scrunch of her nose.
Mary nodded.
“Yeah…” Ellie pulled a face. “My father was murdered.”
“Something we all have in common,” Steve said softly, still looking a bit defeated and small in the corner of the booth, but more relaxed now. Probably happy that the subject had changed off of his stupidity.
“Well,” Ellie stumbled on that for a tick, “Yeah, but John was the main investigator on his case and he never solved it.”
“Five-0 did, a couple years ago.”
“Yeah,” Ellie smiled. “Thanks to Steve.”
Steve shrugged in a small show of humility.
“But John also…” she looked to Steve and then to Mary and let out a deep breath, “He kind of took me under his wing. I was a kid in the foster system, and he was… a father figure of sorts.”
Mary took a sip of her coffee, taking that in with another exaggerated nod.
“I’ve truly been looking forward to meeting you. Steve has such wonderful stories about you. I don’t know if you know this, but he’s pretty proud of you, always showing off pictures and videos of your daughter.”
She grinned softly for a moment before rolling her eyes. Steve moved his head and popped his neck, looking uncomfortable. They looked around the diner, but anywhere except each other for a moment.
Emotional constipation seemed to be a family trait, then.
“Okay,” Ellie said. “Mary. I’d like to get to know you. What are planning on doing for work?”
“Well,” Mary started, “I’m going to be a waitress here at Wailana.”
“Truly?” Ellie was excited for her. Wailana was a great little diner that most tourists skipped right over. A little hole in the wall for the locals, and Mary getting a job in the little family the regulars and staff made boded well. “I love it here.”
“Yeah,” Mary nodded. “I remember Saturday mornings here like they were yesterday. Just walking in here brings back memories like whoa. Plus, I love Ona. She used to babysit me and Steve!”
“Oh, I love Ona,” Ellie moaned. Ona and her husband owned Wailana and had been a friendly face for most of Ellie’s life. She sent a care package or two filled with left over baked goods while Ellie was off at Stanford. “John would take me here every couple Saturday’s. I’m a regular.”
“Ya’ a good tipper?”
She chuckled. She liked Mary. “What are you doing Wednesday morning?”
“Wednesday?”
“Oh, Ellie…” Steve groaned.
“What?” Mary asked.
“Kono and I go to kickboxing classes every Wednesday morning. Care to join us?”
“Really?” Mary asked, excited. “I was just googling kickboxing classes last night?”
“What?” Steve asked Mary.
“I kickbox,” Mary said proudly. “You’re not the only badass in the family. Deal with it.”
“Okay,” Steve chuckled and sounded impressed. Mary raised her chin, smug.
“Give me your number, I’ll text you the details,” she said, reaching for her phone.
“For sure,” Mary said and they went about sharing their information.
Ellie eyed Steve while Mary was calling herself from Ellie’s phone; he looked pleased at their interaction. “What?” she asked him.
“Nothing!” He said. He turned to Mary, “I really wanted you to meet Ellie, and I didn’t know how I was going to make that happen, and this just… happened! And you’re getting along! That’s great.”
“Two sisters,” Ellie said. “Honestly, three people makes a support group. We all have so much in common.”
Their waitress stopped by after that, and Mary and Steve both invited Ellie to join them for real, and they settled into a nice, comfortable conversation while Ellie waited for her food. Ellie got a few more details about Danny from Steve; something about putting his foster kids first, and Ellie had to admit she found that admirable even if Steve looked miserable talking about it. Mary talked more about Joan and finding her and how it was public school for sure, no waitress salary was going to afford private school. Ellie revealed her career and Mary nodded that exaggerated nod again.
She had done it several times and Ellie couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being judged.
But things were going well, and they were all getting along pretty well by the time Ellie’s food showed up, and they lulled into a bit of non-conversation while Ellie scarfed down a good portion of her pancakes, so the last thing she expected out of Mary’s mouth was, “how old are you?”
Ellie thought it a strange question, but indulged her, “I’ll be thirty-five in February.”
“Right,” Mary said, biting her lip, looking upset at the news.
Ellie watched the siblings as Mary fell in on herself, staring down at her coffee cup, and as Steve looked confused and then the epiphany on his face as Steve figured out what made Mary so upset and halfway reached across the table for her arm.
“Mary…”
“It’s okay, Steve,” she shook her head. “I’ve got to go.”
“Mary, no,” Steve said.
“I can leave,” Ellie said instantly.
“No, it’s not you,” Mary said. “Finish your breakfast, really. It was nice meeting you, but I’ve got to…” She gathered her bag and pushed out of her side of the booth.
Steve shared a look with Ellie. “Do you need a ride?” he asked.
“Nah,” she said, dropping a few bills on the table. “I can walk from here. I want to walk.”
“Mary, don’t worry about that,” Steve waved at the action.
“For the waitress then,” Mary insisted. “I’ll text you later, Steve.”
“Will I see you Wednesday?” Ellie asked after her.
Mary stalled, mouth slack. Then she shook her head. “Yeah. Whatever, see you then.” Then she was gone, out the door, before either of them could say anything more.
“What just happened?” Ellie asked, worried and sad.
Steve sighed and sat back into his seat. “You know how you and I have shared daddy issues about John?”
“Yeah,” Ellie nodded.
“They’ve got nothing on Mary’s issues with him.”
“What’s that got to do with my birthday?”
Steve sighed, “Mary turned thirty-five a few weeks ago. She put two and two together.”
Ellie shook her head, not understanding.
“She realized John used you as a stand-in for her.”
The pancakes in front of her tasted bland and vulgar after that. She didn’t want to be a stand-in for anyone. No wonder Mary left in a hurry; Ellie didn’t blame her wanting to be alone and away from them. From her.