So I've finally wrestled this story into submission. It only took a year.

On Jan. 23, 2012, an earthquake initially measured at magnitude 5.0 hit the Big Island of Hawaii. No serious injuries or damage were reported. What if it had been otherwise?

Thanks to my sister Jelsemium for the great title.

Hawaii 5 Point 0

How big is that truck? Danny Williams wondered, as a rumble rattled the Five-0 offices.

Danny and Lori Weston were using the smart table to research information about drug thefts from local hospitals. The other Five-0 officers were doing the same thing in their offices on their phones.

The rumbling grew louder. A pen began to jitter around the smart table. Danny felt a sense of vertigo, as if the ground was moving.

"Earthquake!" Kono called from her office.

Shit! The ground was moving! In a flash, Danny remembered Grace solemnly passing on her emergency preparedness lesson. Don't run. Don't try to go far. Take cover and hang on. Face away from windows.

Danny looked at the glass walls surrounding him. Double shit!

As the rumbling took on a distinct rolling motion, Danny dived for cover beneath the smart table, but checked when he saw Lori standing paralyzed, wide eyes focused on a monitor rocking frantically above her head.

With no time for discussion, Danny took her down the way he'd put a recalcitrant suspect into a patrol car. He kneed her behind her knees so her legs buckled. Hand on her head, he pushed her down and under the table. Lori didn't fight him. The action woke her from her paralysis and she scrambled forward, making room for Danny to roll in beside her.

Now the shaking made such a roar, Danny had to shout in the woman's ear.

"Cover your head! Glass!"

Looking out, Lori could see the glass walls flexing as the floor humped and writhed.

She covered her head, just as a glass panel exploded with a crack as loud as a pistol shot. She felt Danny flinch against her and a sharp exhalation of breath on her neck, but whether he cursed or exclaimed in pain, she couldn't hear. There was another shattering crack, then a metallic snap and one of the monitors crashed to the floor. Lori flinched and unconsciously burrowed closer to Danny. He gathered her in and the two East Coasters rode out the waves together.

The rolling seemed to continue forever. The two flat on the floor could still feel it, even when the noise had died away and their teammates began to emerge from their offices.

"At least a 5.0," Chin commented.

"A lot of rolling, though. The epicenter's probably not right under Honolulu," Kono said.

"What a mess," Steve said, broken glass crunching underfoot. He saw four feet still beneath the smart table. "You guys can come out now."

"But it's not over," Lori protested. "I can still feel it."

"Maybe, but the worst is over — for now."

"For now?" the woman asked fearfully.

"There's always a possibility of aftershocks," Chin said kindly. He knelt beside the table and offered a hand to help her out.

Danny didn't move.

"Taking a nap under there, Danny?" Steve asked.

"I need some help here. I'm caught," the detective replied.

"I think he's hurt," Lori said, as she gained her feet. "That glass."

"Danny?" Steve said in concern. Careful of the jagged shards, he dropped to his knees and peered under the table. "Geez, Danny!"

Splinters of glass had peppered the detective's arm and side. A shard the size of a jackknife blade stabbed deep in his forearm where it had been protecting his head and another had lodged in his armpit, so he couldn't put his arm down.

"I can't move," Danny said, more in aggravation than in pain. "Get it out!"

"Maybe we should call the paramedics," Steve said.

"You don't think they have better things to do after an earthquake?" Danny demanded.

Through a broken exterior window they could hear sirens. Lots of sirens. Still, Steve hesitated, not wanting to hurt his friend further.

"Every time I breathe, it stabs deeper," Danny said. "Get it out!"

Steve would have preferred to get Danny out from under the table first, but he couldn't see any way of moving his friend without moving the shard of glass.

"I'll have to pull it out. Slow or fast?" He gave Danny the choice.

"Fast," Danny said. He was afraid he'd flinch and slice himself open.

Steve reached for the glass. Danny recoiled.

"Easy," Steve soothed.

"Watch your fingers," Danny retorted. "It's sharp!"

Steve used a corner of his over shirt to protect his fingers. He carefully closed his fingers on the glass, then snatched it away. Danny hissed in pain, then sighed in relief, when he was able to put his arm down. He felt blood trickling down his side, but the sharp, stabbing pain was gone.

"Coming out," he announced.

With Steve's help, he edged out and sat beside the smart table. He used the edge of his shirt to pull the other piece of glass out of his arm. It was such a relief to have it gone, he didn't care that blood ran freely down his arm and dripped on the floor, but his friends did.

Kono ran for the first aid kit while Steve wrapped his hand tightly around the wound. Danny hissed again, but didn't complain.

As Kono ran back, Chin said, "Let's get that shirt off." He gripped the hem of Danny's polo shirt and pulled it over his friend's head when Steve took his hand away for just a second.

Lori blinked to see the muscular shoulders that had been hidden by his shirt. She knew Steve was built, she hadn't realized the Jersey detective was, too. But the attractive view was spoiled by the smear of red down his side. Lori dropped to her knees beside Danny and began to clean the oozing wound with an antiseptic wipe. Kono began cleaning the deeper wound on Danny's arm, while Steve held it out for her.

"All this attention, brah. You'll get spoiled," Chin teased.

Smiling, Danny winced at the stinging antiseptic. "But love hurts, Chin."

With no room for him to help Danny, Chin went for a stepstool to take down a monitor that was dangling precariously from a bent and twisted bracket.

"Thank you, Danny," Lori said, fervently. "I was petrified. I didn't know what to do."

Danny patted her knee. "Extra credit," he said, with a hiccup that might have been ruthlessly suppressed hysteria.

Lori realized the Jerseyan had never been through an earthquake either.

Danny covered his face with his left hand for a moment, then spoke, "After the tsunami warning last year …"

Everyone nodded. Even Lori had heard about the fake tsunami.

"After that," Danny continued. "Grace's school decided to do a unit on emergency preparedness — tsunamis, fires, hurricanes and earthquakes. Part of the lesson required them to practice with their families. Because she's my good girl, Grace not only practiced with Rachel and Stan, she quizzed me. I had training on fire safety, been through two hurricanes in Jersey and knew more about tsunamis than I ever wanted to, but I didn't know about earthquakes; so we practiced duck and cover." Danny swallowed emotion. "Grace got extra credit for practicing with two families. My daughter's extra credit saved my life."

"That's a little dramatic. The quake wasn't that big," Steve mocked gently, trying to bring Danny out of his anxiety.

Danny's blue eyes were as impenetrable as a glacier.

"You think I'm exaggerating?" Danny pulled his arm out of Steve and Kono's hands. "I covered my head with my hands like Grace told me."

"Which is how you got stabbed in the armpit," Steve said. (It was a little funny.)

Danny put his hands over his head. Steve was silenced when he saw the wound on Danny's forearm was beside his neck. If his arm hadn't been in place — as Grace had taught him — the glass would have lodged in his carotid artery. He could have bled to death before the earthquake stopped and even Lori right next to him wouldn't have been able to hear him call for help.

"My baby saved my life," Danny said, his voice choked with tearful pride.

Lori put her hand on his bare shoulder. "Mine, too," she said, as she looked at the fallen monitor and the glass littering the floor.

"I wish I knew if she was all right," Danny said quietly.

Kono put her hand on his other shoulder. "She's in school. It's the safest place, Danny. They train for emergencies."

Danny nodded, unable to speak.

Steve wanted to squeeze his shoulder in comfort, but the women had that covered. Instead he went to his office, dug into what Danny called the cupboard of classified contraptions and brought back a phone and a pair of laminated, 3-by-5 cards.

"Once we get squared away here, we have some places to check out for damage or injuries," he explained. The others nodded. It was all hands on deck after a public emergency. Five-0 was just one of the agencies that would be checking for danger.

"But first on my list is Grace's school," Steve said pointing out that, in fact, it was on his list.

"The cell towers might be overloaded with calls," Chin warned as he worked on the stubbornly bent bracket.

"I don't care how many towers the earthquake knocks out, it's not going to touch the satellites," Steve answered, showing his sat phone.

He figured the school phone would be busy with anxious parental calls, so he dialed the principal's personal cell phone.

"Why do you even have that number?" Danny asked.

"It's classified," Steve smirked.

"Control freak," Danny retorted, smiling.

"Mrs. Morimoto, this is Commander McGarrett of Five-0. I'm calling to make sure everyone is OK."

He didn't fool the principal. She reported that all the students and the staff members were safe and accounted for — and she could see Grace Williams with her class out on the schoolyard where they had evacuated the buildings.

"Would you like to speak to her?" the principal asked.

"Please," Steve said humbly.

In a moment, he heard Mrs. Morimoto say away from the phone, "Grace, Commander McGarrett would like to speak to you."

"Uncle Steve, is Daddy OK?"

Steve should have realized she be scared getting a call from him.

"He's fine, Grace. He's right here."

"Monkey, are you OK?" Danny said into the phone.

"Danno," the child was relieved. "You're OK?"

Danny wouldn't lie to Grace. "I got a couple of cuts from flying glass, but I protected my head like you taught me."

"If you're OK, why did Uncle Steve call me?"

"Because he knew I was worried about you, and because it's his phone," Danny answered, logically.

"Oh. OK."

"Thanks for teaching me about earthquakes, monkey."

"You're welcome, Danno. I've got to give Mrs. Morimoto back her phone now."

"OK, be good and be careful, Grace," Danny said.

"You, too, Daddy."

Danny handed the phone back. "Thanks, Steve."

"Anytime, partner."

Chin suddenly swore, causing everyone to stop and stare, because he just didn't swear. Standing on the stepstool, he'd had a strange sense of déjà vu, as if he'd seen this scene of damage before, but in reverse. Then he understood.

"I was thinking these windows shouldn't have broken," Chin explained. "But now I see the ones that broke today are the ones that didn't break when Laura Hill's car blew up. They must have been damaged by the explosion, but it didn't show up until now."

"They should have been checked after the explosion," Lori protested. "That's protocol."

The original Five-0 member exchanged glances. "Don't look at me," Steve said. "I was in prison."

"Kono and I were unemployed and Chin had a new job," Danny said.

"And the governor was dead," Kono added. "So they must have fixed the obvious damage but there wasn't anyone in authority to get the building checked for hidden damage."

"So it took an earthquake to show us that the building is unsafe?" Danny said, incredulous.

"It makes me wonder what else was overlooked," Chin said darkly.

He went back to work on the stubborn bracket, asking Steve to give him a hand. Steve left the women to bandage Danny's wounds and help him put on a white T-shirt Kono had fetched from his locker.

"Still white T-shirts, Danny" Kono chided. "White's boring."

"I am not a billboard," Danny retorted. "Someone wants me to advertise their products, they can pay up front."

Steve chuckled as he took hold of the monitor. With a fierce yank, Chin finally wrenched the bracket loose.

Then the whole room lurched. Chin lost his balance on the stool and Steve dropped the monitor to catch his friend.

Vibrations began, sharper jolts than the previous rolling. Lori and Danny didn't need Kono's warning this time. They dived back under the smart table and Kono rolled in beside them. Steve set Chin on his feet and pushed him under the conference table. The Five-0 team held on as the building and rattled and shook.

The same thought was in all their minds. What other damage hadn't been fixed?

To be Continued

Wouldn't you know, as soon as I started a story with Lori in it, they took her off the show! Maybe that's one of the reasons I had a hard time getting past Chapter 1. (Seriously, the first chapter's been written since January 2012!) Sorry, Lori lovers, doesn't look like she'll be in much of the story.