Disclaimer: I do not own Hawaii Five-O or anything you recognize from it.

Hello! Just a quick note to everyone: I didn't base this on the original show; in fact I took what I wanted from the new television series and ran with it. So if there are any diehard fans out there, please don't be offended.

But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,

All losses are restored and sorrows end. — William Shakespeare

Please enjoy and Please Review!

Chapter One

The Emergence of Home

Melissa Jones honestly couldn't remember the last time she had stepped off a plane, into the airport and felt with a certainty that she was home. It just felt right, the conviction that this is where she belonged settled in her bones and for what seemed like the thousand time today, she reminded herself that she had made the right decision. It had taken a lot of convincing from her friend Kono, but finally she relented, or at least agreed for a mini vacation away from her home in the Federal Bureau's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program.

She had joined the academy right out of high school and slowly but steadily worked her way through the layers of the New York Police Department up until her twenty-fourth birthday, when she found out she was blacklisted and under investigation by Internal Affairs because of her partner's association with certain crime lords and propensity for accepting bribes. Being who she was, she packed up her things, applied to the Federal Bureau, and worked non-stop until she finally felt like the stain from New York was forgotten and began to work for the Violent Criminal Apprehension taskforce.

Breya James had been borne and raised in New York and having her life ripped apart from suspicion, she began a new life in Virginia working for the Bureau. There she began to grow and evolve, working and bleeding, sweating and pushing herself harder than she had ever before until she made it on the taskforce. Starting her life anew had been a blessing for Breya, it meant that going undercover would be easier for her; creating a new identity and working under the pressure and suspicious gazes of criminals until they accepted her was ironic, but it meant the world to her.

So Breya became Melissa Jones, and began working undercover, bouncing around the states with cases until she had to go undercover as a surfer in Hawaii and there she had met Kono, a fellow surfer. They had hit it off immediately and their friendship, though under strains from Kono's knee injury and career change to Melissa's less than stellar past and career choice, their friendship only grew stronger. In fact, Kono was one of the very select few that knew Melissa's real name and the past in which she had emerged from; which alone was a testament to the strength of their bond since Melissa had a few issues with trust.

Even though Melissa refused vacations, she still managed to buy a loft by the beach in Hawaii where Kono housesat whenever she was away. And now, with just a few months to go before her twenty-seventh birthday, Kono had told her that she had found herself her own apartment and to get her butt back to Hawaii for a real vacation. Maybe even a permanent one.

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"Hey, Boss?" Kono asked, raising an eyebrow when all three pairs of eyes turned to her. She hadn't wanted to ask, but she knew slave driver Steve McGarrett probably expected Danny Williams, her cousin Chin Ho Kelly and her to stay all night studying this case. She glanced at her watch and winced, if she broke a few speeding laws on the way to the airport, she'd just make it.

"Yes, Kono?" Steve asked closing the case file in his hands.

"I was wondering if I could have the rest of tonight and tomorrow off…its kind of short notice." Kono shrugged, smiling when she heard Danny snort. She ignored her cousin's questioning look, throughout all of the years of her friendship with Melissa, she had never really spoken to Chin about it; all he knew was that Melissa had been there when Kono's life had been turned upside down because of her knee.

"Big plans?" Steve raised an eyebrow, he knew he was hassling her, he'd give her the time off but his curiosity was more than peeked. Kono almost never asked for personal time.

"Well…my friend is visiting and I want to get her comfortable and try to convince her to make her vacation permanent." Kono explained leaning back in her chair to tell them how she'd plan on changing Melissa's stubborn mind when her eyes fell to the clock on the wall and her heart stopped. "But I'm going to be late. Thanks boss!" She grabbed her keys and bolted, there was no other way around it. She could always stay late other nights but tonight was important to her and it was important that she showed Melissa how much coming home meant to her.

"That was…odd. I've never seen her that excited." Danny commented aloud.

Chin nodded, "Sorry Steve—"

Steve snorted, "Hey, everyone needs time away. We can handle this case ourselves, we're men, right?"

"Well, I know I am." Danny muttered ignoring the glare Steve threw his way.

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Melissa waited by the luggage pick up anxiously, no matter how often she traveled for her job, she was always nervous about her luggage. Something about strangers handling her things, someone losing it…it just added to her anxiety of the airport experience. She glanced at her watch and raised an eyebrow, Kono was late; Kono was almost never late, even though she had been a surfer, the surfing mentality had never stuck and she was always prompt. But she could forgive her; Kono probably was kicking herself enough that she wouldn't even say anything.

She let out a huge sigh of relief when she saw her luggage, and hurriedly bent down to grab it, letting out a string of curses in the process. She was still sore, not intensely sore as she had been the day after but sore enough that she should have slowly grabbed her luggage. There was a reason why she had accepted Kono's invitation because of her last case; as she was apprehending a very violent, very crazy man, he had threw off two of the men holding him from her taskforce and attacked her. She had seen it coming but a psycho with a vendetta against women was always stronger and she hadn't been able to block a few square punches to her ribs.

Being beaten up was nothing new, but it suddenly dawned on her that she didn't want to make a life out of being a killer's punching bag, regardless of the globetrotting. She was bone tired and thought maybe Hawaii would instill some sunshine in her and make her okay again. She hadn't thought that much about her plans for the future, her bosses still thought this was a vacation, and maybe it was. Or maybe it wasn't. She honestly didn't want to think of anything for a little while.

"Well, look who it is." Melissa heard behind her and forgot about everything but her friend and whipped around seeing Kono smiling hugely.

There weren't enough words in the English language or any of the other seven languages she knew, to iterate how she felt at that moment, but being a single child growing up had been lonely and she always wished that she had a sister to share life with. And at that moment, she knew she had one. "Come here." Melissa met Kono halfway and hugged her fiercely, ignoring the pain in her ribs and held on.

"Well, if I had known I was going to get such warm reception, I would have suggested this a long time ago." Kono laughed, grabbing Melissa's carry on bag. "Please tell me you packed a bathing suit."

Melissa laughed, she had forgotten the last time she had laughed since and damn, it felt good. "I'm in Hawaii, why the hell wouldn't I?"

Kono nodded, "Good, we still have a match to settle."

Melissa snorted; she had forgotten about their surfing match, "Well, we all know who's going to win. You might as well admit defeat, Kono."

"I admit defeat? Excuse me, but I'm the best out of everyone in Hawaii!" Kono pretended outrage and grinned when Melissa snorted.

"Hmm, just keep telling yourself that and my victory won't hurt as much." Kono caught Melissa throwing appreciative glances at her car and frowned. She honestly hadn't thought about that, if she wanted Melissa to move here, she'd need a car. She'd have to ask her cousin if he knew where to get used cars. Melissa hated new things and if Kono was being honest, she did too.

"So, here's our plans. Drop your stuff at your place, we're grab a bite to eat and maybe get drunk?"

"Hmm, that sounds like a deal. How long is your time off?" Melissa asked lightly, she didn't want Kono to feel guilty or like she had to take time off from work. Work was important to Kono, especially with her new position she had told Melissa about with a new taskforce and she could make do without Kono, if she had to.

"Don't worry about it. What about yours?" Kono glanced at Melissa when she remained quiet.

Melissa threw a smile her way, "As long as I wanted. I haven't had a real vacation since…" Melissa had been about to say since she left the NYPD but that had been a lie; it wasn't a real vacation.

Kono knew Melissa's train of thoughts and grimaced, "Don't worry about it. We'll make this the best one ever."

"Of that, I have no doubts. Our plans tomorrow?"

"Surfing, ice cones and shopping." Kono smiled when Melissa began to nod earnestly.

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Kono whistled when she saw Melissa exit her bedroom wearing jeans and a shirt, "You aren't going to be hot? This isn't Virginia, you know."

Melissa laughed, she had wanted to wear shorts and a tank top like Kono but her body had a few scars from being undercover and more than enough tattoos. She had half a sleeve, a few on her other shoulder, her upper back, one above her heart, her entire thigh, hip and a few littering both of her legs. Some of the ink had been her idea and others were the cost of going undercover in gangs where tattoos meant power.

"I just don't want to start anything here." Melissa explained and Kono felt a twinge of sadness for her friend. She had made herself into a dangerous criminal for a job that was thankless and she still paid the ramifications.

"Change into something more comfortable." When she saw Melissa still hesitating Kono promised, "Look, I'll make you a deal. If anything happens tonight, I'll be your backup."

It was all the urging she needed and came out of her bedroom again under five minutes flat, "See, that's way more Hawaiian now." Kono tried not to stare at some of the new ink but knew that some of the tattoos Melissa was sporting was from very dangerous infamous gangs that most criminals, and cops knew to leave alone when they saw someone sporting them.

Melissa tried not to be too self-conscious and she was doing fine, up until her and Kono walked into a very small pub and a few of the patrons stopped talking to stare at her, "Well, this is such a homecoming." Melissa snorted.

"I know, right?" Kono snorted when she heard Melissa chuckle, the girl would be okay. They got themselves settled away from the prying eyes and both girls began to relax when they heard the chattering pick up again.

"What would you both like to drink?" The waitress asked.

"Beer, tequila shots and—" Kono began.

"And that will be enough for now, thank you." Melissa smiled up at the waitress before turning her attention to Kono, "I do plan on walking out of here without any help, you know."

Kono laughed, "Just wanted to loosen you up."

Melissa forgot all about reality, about everything but her and Kono, laughing and it being like old times. The hours blurred by and she finally, finally began to unwind and enjoy herself. She should have known though, that no matter where she went, trouble would find her. Trouble in the form of three burly men, glaring holes through Melissa.

Kono lowered the beer bottle from her mouth and smiled at the men, "Can we help you gentlemen?"

"Yeah, why you hanging around with someone like that?" One of them nodded towards Melissa.

"We don't want any trouble." Melissa said, slowly getting up and pushing away from the table, she threw a smile at the scowling Kono. Who was she kidding? A vacation without a few punches thrown wasn't really a proper vacation.

"Then why you showing off that?" One of the other men pointed towards the tattoo on her arm.

She nodded, knowing that tattoo had cost her a lot, it allowed her to infiltrate one of the most infamous gangs in the south, guaranteed danger if she ever visited the south again and ensured she would always be in trouble if anyone recognized it. Anyone being most everyone. "We're not doing this in here."

Kono pushed herself away from the table to stand up, glaring at the men, "There's children here."

"Then you should have thought about that before coming here."

And the next thing Melissa knew, there was a fist the size of a very large grapefruit coming at her. But both her and Kono had always been tough, more than tough; they had excelled in both of their self-defense classes, respectively and knew how to handle themselves around a fight. Drunk or not. Melissa grunted when one of them landed a punch to her lip, thanking her luck that her head had already been back, so the punch only split her lip, and had not knocked any teeth out.

She distantly heard sirens wailing closer and closer and through her tipsy state, she still managed to drop two of the men and grab Kono just as she dropped him, "C'mon, before they get here."

"Wait." Kono pulled out a few bills and threw them on her chair, the table no longer being an option since Melissa had thrown one of the men on it.

"We're good now?" Melissa mockingly asked and quickly left the bar, Kono at her heels.