Title: Saved

Author: Annaliesegrace

Rating: T (some steamy parts included)

Summary: Kono finds that being on the run is not easy, especially when it all goes sideways.

AN: Hello readers! I didn't mean to be away so long but I recently started a new job and haven't been able to write. Actually…that's a little lie, I have been able to write, but only on paper and then I have to retype what I wrote, which is more challenging than it sounds cause my handwriting is awful. Annnyway, I haven't even had time to READ fic, which is truly a sad state of affairs. But I'm hoping that with this one my time is well spent. The first chapter is shorter than I usually do, but it sets up the action and it was good natural break.

This picks up four months post finale and I am completely ignoring the whole Wo Fat/Steve scene at the end because…well, I just don't know what to do with that. So in my head the finale ended with Steve staaaaring (seriously, could he have stared any harder at her as she got on that boat?) at Kono as she left.

Enjoy and don't forget to leave a review, they are appreciated to no end and are motivating.

Chapter One: Lost

Four Months Later

The phone ringing pulled Steve from a deep sleep and he glanced at the clock. While middle of the night phone calls were not unusual, he had only fallen into bed three hours earlier after barely sleeping for two days while on a case. They were still a man down on the task force, none of them willing to accept the possibility that Kono wasn't returning to them. To that end they had refused to replace her and the team had nearly burnt themselves out trying to take out Michael Noshimuri's gang of thugs in between their usual workload. It was starting to take its toll.

So to say he was crabby was an understatement and it came out in his terse, "McGarrett" when he answered the phone.

And then there was silence on the other end, which only fueled his irritation. "Whoever you are, you've called the cops, don't make me trace this call, find you and toss your ass in jail for making crank calls at three in the morning!"

"Steve?" The voice was quiet, familiar and sent a warm feeling spreading through his chest. It had been four long months since they had bid farewell to her on that pier. Four months since it felt like a piece of him had been ripped away painfully.

"Kono?" he replied and sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes.

"I'm sorry, I forgot the time there…I just…" She sounded close to tears and Steve gripped the phone harder, concerned.

"What's wrong?"

A shuddering breath then, "Adam and I got separated five days ago, we thought we were being followed so we split up, but he didn't meet me at the rendezvous point. The burner he has is off, rolls over to voicemail. I can't get ahold of him and I didn't know what to do…"

"It's fine," he reassured her, because it was. "I'm glad you called. Where are you?"

She hesitated. Doris had warned them not to divulge their location to anyone, even her former teammates, but she was desperate. Adam was missing and she was in a foreign country…alone.

"Manila, the Philippines."

"Ok," he said and got out of bed, grabbing the paper and pen he left by the bed. "What's Adam's cell number? I'll see if we can trace it."

Again she hesitated; suddenly calling him seemed like a bad idea – on a lot of different levels. "I…I shouldn't have called, I can't drag you into this, Steve. If someone finds the trace…"

"I'll worry about that. Right now we need to find Adam. Number?"

Quickly she rattled off the number she had memorized.

"Give me an hour. Do NOT turn off your phone, ok?"

"Ok…Steve…thanks. I just…I didn't know who else to call."

She sounded so…lost. It scared him a little because Kono was one of those women you didn't need to worry about, she could handle anything life threw at her. But maybe she had finally run headlong into something she couldn't.

"You did the right thing. I'll call you back, don't move."

Even though he didn't want to, Steve hung up his cell and for a moment stared at the screen before making another call.

Clutching the cell phone, Kono leaned back against the brick of the narrow alleyway she had paused in to make the call. Out of options and just this side of terrified, the only person she could think to call was her boss.

She knew he would help her.

Not that Chin wouldn't want to help – and she was confident Steve would pull him in – but Steve possessed a certain…skill set that her cousin didn't; and those skills were what she needed in that moment.

Despite her initial reluctance to call, Kono was relieved; she was just so very tired – physically and emotionally. While she was far from being an expert on being on the run, Kono had at least seen firsthand how criminals did it and the creative (and careful) ways they stayed off the radar. Between that, the instruction Doris had given them before heading back and the fear of being caught, she was constantly on alert, cautious. Adam was less so – convinced that since they were far from home they were untraceable and wasn't always as careful as she would have liked. Which had only served to up her anxiety – she was constantly worried that he'd – however inadvertently – expose them. It would only take one small mistake to bring the Yakuza down on them, no matter how safe they thought they were.

A loud horn blaring startled Kono and she practically jumped in the narrow space; the unending sounds of traffic and tires screeching and horns blaring were giving her an unbearable headache and she slumped to the ground, burying her face in her arms.

It had started so well, Doris had set them up, giving them explicit instructions how to stay off the radar which they had followed religiously. And yet, it seemed they had been found. Adam had spotted someone who looked very familiar; enough that they agreed to split up and rendezvous at the docks one day later. She was there as agreed, he wasn't. One day passed, and then a second before she decided Adam wasn't going to show. Frustrated and more than a little scared, she had found a crummy room near the docks and stayed there as long as she felt safe, which had been another three days.

After that she packed up and simply wandered the streets, unsure exactly what to do. Despite her gut telling her she needed to get the hell away from the docks, she still slowly circled the one they'd agreed on, hopeful he would show.

It was the beginning of the fifth day apart she realized he wasn't going to. It would have been easy enough for her to get on a flight, they each had fake passports and cash, but Kono couldn't – wouldn't – leave without him. That and where the hell would she go by herself? Not back to Hawaii, as far as she knew the Yakuza were still a functioning gang and clearly still after them.

So she called the only man she could think of that would have any kind of an answer. With any luck Doris would have a contact out here that could help her navigate the country quietly while they looked for Adam. If Steve couldn't find Adam himself.

Another extremely loud horn and screaming coming from the street had Kono retreating farther into the alley still holding tight to the cell.

Walking into HQ, Steve was not surprised to find Chin standing impatiently at the smart table, clearly waiting for him.

"That was fast," Steve said and slid the paper with Adam's number scribbled on it across to the older man. Instead of a response all Steve received was a look he couldn't quite decipher. The other man was angry, that was clear but Steve wasn't sure where exactly the anger was directed.

It wasn't long before Chin made a frustrated noise.

"Battery's been removed or the cell is off…no signal at all to trace."

"Ok, what was the last call?"

"Let's see." Several minutes later Chin swiped something onto the screens. "Five days ago a call was made to another burner cell, both were in Manila, south side of the city. Within a two mile radius of each other."

Steve pulled out his phone. "What's the other cell number?" Chin rattled it off and Steve nodded. "That's Kono. Must have been right after they split. "

"You think Noshimuri's guys found them?"

Steve scrubbed one hand over his face. "No way to know, really. Unless…you have the list of suspected members of his gang?"

"Yeah."

"Let's run them and see if anyone made a trip to Asia in the last month."

Instead of retreating into his office as he usually would have, Steve stood by the table and watched as Chin ran several programs at once. He really couldn't keep up with the technology, that's why they had Kono – and now Chin.

After she had stepped onto that boat Steve had convinced himself she would be gone a couple weeks and then return to them, leaving Adam wherever he was overseas. But two weeks stretched into three, then a month, then two months and finally he accepted that until they could remove Michael's accomplices, Kono and Adam would never truly be safe.

And her safety was important to him, Steve had a soft spot for her; probably had since the day she came out of the water and decked a tourist for moving in on her wave.

The soft spot might have been helped by the instant physical attraction he felt for her. Then again, she had been wearing a very small bikini at the time. And hey, he was male. But since then his affection had morphed into something else. Something he would rather not analyze in that moment.

Catherine tended to ground him, interject reason into his insanity when called for, and question his methods if they were outrageously reckless.

Kono would grin and go along for the ride…at least to a point; just recently she had felt compelled to call herself "the only adult in the room". And sadly, it had been true. But she had also frequently sided with him and his (somewhat) insane ideas.

And yet as the days passed, instead of adjusting to her absence, he was finding it harder to ignore the longing he felt for her presence. She had promised him it wouldn't be forever and yet these four months already felt like it.

"Steve…I might have something-"

Chin's voice snapped him out of his musings and Steve focused on the other man.

"- One of Michael's low level guys, Dean Richards, took a flight to Tokyo, then skipped around Indonesia a while before flying into Manila two weeks ago. Five days after that Noshimuri got a call from said guy, and suddenly two of his best enforcers are flying strait to Manila."

"He found them, Kono was right."

"Looks like it."

"And we can't exactly call the local authorities…" Steve mused.

"Steve…" Chin said slowly and regarded his boss and friend with a nervous expression.

"Looks like I'm going to Manilla."

tbc...

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