Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
"Hello, can you help me? I seem to be a little lost." a stranger asked as he walked up to Steve McGarrett.
"What can I do for you?" He asked. He took note of the shy, skinny, pale man, who looked to be maybe 20 years old. But this young man's eyes were haunted like he had seen too much.
"I am looking for a place named the "Palace", do you by chance happen to know where it is?"
"Yeah, we are standing right in front of it." McGarrett was a little perplexed and suspicious of why this guy was asking for directions to the Palace.
"Oh! Thanks." With that, the obvious Haole walked towards the entrance of the building.
Standing there, Steve pondered what the man was up to, when a few minutes later, his phone chimed. Steve checked to make sure he knew who it was.
"McGarrett."
"Hey, Steve. It's Danno."
"What's up, man?"
"Well, there is a young man in the office looking for someone."
"The man wouldn't happen to look to be in his twenties?" He continued to describe the man he had chatted with earlier.
"Um, yeah. How'd you know?"
"I saw him a few minutes ago. He was looking for directions to the Palace."
"Oh."
"Yeah. So what'd he want anyway?"
"Apparently, he's looking for Callie."
"Get his name. I will let Callie know." He hung up.
Callie Jacobs was Steve's younger foster sister. She now worked as a part time member of Five-O, and even though she wasn't a prominent member, she was still considered part of that family. So Steve's guards went up when this Haole asked about his little sister.
McGarrett dialed his little sister.
It rang for five seconds and then Callie was on the line.
"Hey, M. This better be good. I interrupted my run." Chuckling lightly because she almost never ran, he responded.
"Oh? How far?" He teased.
"Never mind that." she said, "What did you need me for? Can't figure out what x equals?" she teased back.
"Whatever," he grumbled, admitting the loss. "Anyway, just wanted to give you a heads up that some guy is looking for you at the Palace, so don't come in today, please? For me?" Ever since he found out she had a soft spot for any of her brothers asking her something for them, he used it when he really wanted his way.
"Okay." she answered. "I actually wasn't planning on coming in until 1 anyway."
"I can handle that." He let a bit of his grin seep into his voice.
"I'm gonna get back to running. Have fun with mystery man!" She joked.
After she hung up, he found it hard to lose the grin on his face, just like every other time they spoke. He entered the Palace and headed up to where the team would be. As soon as he entered the main office, Danno caught his arm.
"Can I talk to you for a moment, Steve?" Danno pulled him into his office and shut the door behind them."
"What's going on?"
"That guy I was telling you about? He works for the FBI."
"So?"
"As in, he works for the BAU of the FBI."
And in a very uncharacteristic moment, Steve swore, "Shit."
Danny's eyes widened a fraction in surprise of the word. "Yeah. What are we supposed to do about C?" he asked, using the nickname for Callie that the team used.
"I honestly have no idea. She knows he was here though, and I also informed her that he was looking for her."
"Good, if she knows, she can keep her eyes open for him."
At the sound of Steve's office door being knocked on, they turned. Chin was standing there, pointing at the table in the middle of the offices. Once they began moving in that direction, Chin joined Kono and Lou who were already there reading something on the screens.
"What do we got?" Steve took control of the meeting, like usual.
"The guy that was here this morning is one Dr. Spencer Reid. He's the youngest member in the unit, and he's been there for four years. He was 22 when he joined. Get this, though. The kid has three PhD's and three bachelors." Kono summarized.
"In what fields?" Danno asked, amazed that Spencer was only 26 with 6 degrees. His jaw was hanging slightly open.
"It looks like PhD's are in Mathematics, Engineering, and Chemistry, while his BA's are in Psychology, Sociology, and Philosophy."
"What else, Kono?"
"Well, um, he graduated high school when he was twelve. He has an IQ of 187, and he lived with his mom, until he had her committed when he was eighteen."
"Okay, so he's clearly a genius, but why is he looking into C?" Lou wondered.
"We can ask C when she gets here if she knows him."
A few hours later, Callie walked in to Steve's office, like she did every day.
"Hey, oldie." she teased and greeted.
"Hey, kiddo." he greeted back. "So we found out who the guy that's looking for you is."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, we have some info and his picture up on the screen." They walked back to the table, and Steve woke the displays up to show Callie the picture.
As soon as she saw Spencer's picture, her hand went to her mouth, and she gasped.
"It can't be…" Steve also noticed the paling of her face, and stepped between her and the picture. Even as he did, he took note of the distant look she had, as if she were lost in her memories. Although they all been close as siblings, nobody but Toby had ever asked Callie about her past, and no one ever asked after he did either because of the response he got. Steve's concern grew the longer she was trapped in her memories, and gently touched her elbow. She gasped again, but was back in reality. Steve thanked every god out there, that everyone was still out to lunch. He picked Callie up and took her back to his office.
"What happened, C?"
"Spencer is looking for me? After all this time?" Her tone of disbelief caught Steve off guard.
"What do you mean?"
"Spencer is my older biological brother. When Dad left, he took me with him, so he could give me up for adoption. Even though, I am four years younger than Spence, I guess Dad thought I'd still be too much trouble for him." Steve knew not to interrupt her, because if he did, she would shut up, and never speak about her past. "Anyway, Spence kept in contact until I was about ten, when I really could've used an older brother, but after that, he stopped writing me, so I gave up on getting to know him."
The Steve found himself mentally yelling at the rest of his team for their horrible timing, because at the moment they were filing through the door, laughing. He looked at Callie. She was shaking and couldn't have been more pale if she was a vampire, so he made her an offer. "C, why don't you head home, and I'll tell the team about your connection." She nodded mutely and left, almost sprinting for the door. No one missed it, but they knew Steve would fill them in. So Callie headed towards the door feeling nauseous and wondering why after all this time, her brother was looking for her.
Steve held his hand up to his team until Callie had left the area, then sighed as he slowly lowered it. Lou was the first to speak up.
"Is everything okay?" The man had felt his fatherly instincts kick in the moment he came back with the team and saw Callie looking pale.
"Yeah, turns out, the good doctor that is looking for her? He is her biological brother." Everyone on the team knew that Callie and Steve were as good as blood-related siblings.
Steve watched as Kono's face fell. "The poor girl."
Danno wanted to know the story behind Steve's tone of bitterness towards the man, "Okay, so what is the story there?"
Steve took a moment to gather his composure, "Apparently, Spencer's and Callie's dad left their mom when Callie was six, but he took Callie with him, only to give her up for adoption. They wrote each other letters until she was ten when the letters stopped coming."
"Wasn't she ten when she met Jude?" Chin finally spoke up.
They all knew the basics about how she met Jude; that when she was ten she was put into a foster home that had a four year old boy in it, and that the foster dad was an alcoholic and used his fists to beat Jude until Callie stepped in. They didn't know what caused her to move foster homes, or that Callie was beaten more times with a bat for taking Jude's place, or that she did no matter how bad it was gonna be or how many times Jude begged her not to.
"Yeah, she was."
"So, what are we gonna do about this Spencer Reid who wants to meet our C?" questioned Kono.
"I'm not sure we can do anything yet. We even try to talk to him, and Callie is gonna be mad. Honestly," Steve sighed and scrubbed a hand up and down his face, "I have no idea."
Callie was at home trying to work up the nerve to pick up her phone and look up Spencer's number. She was terrified that he might leave her in the dust or that he might want something, although she wasn't quite sure which thought petrified her more. About fifteen minutes later, she finally grabbed her cell phone, googled Spencer's number and called.
"This is Reid."
"Spencer?"
"Yes, who is this?" he confirmed.
"Oh, oh sorry. This is Callie. I heard you were looking for me?"
"It is nice to hear from you, Callie. I was wondering if, maybe- and only if you're available, of course- but would you like to meet up for a cup of coffee and possibly catch up?"
She heard the major hesitance in his voice. But, all she really wanted to do, was scream in frustration and yell at him for not being there when she needed him. A moment later, she heard herself ask, "When and where?"
"I can do whenever. I am on leave until my plane leaves Saturday. Where is also up to you. I'm sure you know the best places, considering you live here."
She couldn't believe she had agreed to coffee with this guy. "Um, would two hours from now work?"
"Yeah. Totally." She could hear the excitement dripping from his voice.
"There is a little coffee shop on 8th street. Can you find it?"
"Of course. I'll see you then. "
"Sounds good." As she went to hang up, the sound of her name caught her attention.
"And Callie? I really do appreciate the phone call." Then she heard the dial tone that signified that he had hung up.
She started to mentally panic. Oh my goodness. I agreed to have coffee with Spencer. What do I do? What should I do to get out of it? Wait, do I really want to get out of it, though? He sounded nice enough on the phone. I should probably let Steve know in case something happens…. Oh crap. Steve! I can't believe I forgot about him. He is going to be totally pissed that I haven't bothered to call him once since I got home…. Crap! She mentally yelled, while picking up her cell again.
The silence of the office was broken by the sound of Steve's phone going off.
"McGarrett."
"Hey, M."
"What's up, C?"
"Um, I have something to tell you, and I need you to not freak out."
This worried him, "No promises. What's going on, C?"
"Um, I may have called Spencer and agreed to meet him for coffee in about an hour and a half."
"C! What the hell?"
"Sorry, sorry. I know I should've told you about planning to call him- crap."
He freaked out a little more, "Planned?! What do you mean planning to call him? Calliope, I hope you realize that S and Cal are gonna be pissed when they realize what you just pulled. You'll be lucky if you can leave your house after they find out."
"Oh, crap! Have you told any of them what has happened today?"
"Nope. This is your story, kiddo." He tried lightening the mood, "Do you know what x is?"
He caught the unfortunately invisible grin in her words, "It is twenty-fourth letter in the alphabet, located between w and y. It also equaled eighteen in that one math problem you were having an issue with."
He smiled, because of course she would remember that.
90 minutes later
Callie was sitting at a table sipping a caramel frappe, when Spencer walked in. He walked up to the counter and ordered a medium black coffee. When they handed him his cup, he joined Callie and began adding sugar to his coffee.
"Thanks for meeting me, Callie." Spencer stated.
"I was kind of surprised, to be honest."
"Why were you surprised?"
"Because you stopped writing me when I was ten, I assumed you just stopped caring. So why now? Why, after all this time, did you decide to look me up?"
"I decided to look you up, because I had a lot of vacation time on my hands, and nothing to do with it. And I didn't stop because I no longer cared, I stopped because I started getting the letters back, marked Return to Sender."
"I always loved getting your letters. I missed them growing up."
"I kept writing you, I just never sent them. And I loved getting your letters back."
The coffee shop door opened, and the person entering caught Callie's attention.
"Oh boy."
"What's wrong, Callie?" Spencer looked concerned.
"Hey C!" greeted Kono, while she waited for her coffee.
"Hello, Kono." Callie greeted back, raising an eyebrow. "Kono, this is Dr. Spencer Reid, from the FBI. Spencer, this is one of my coworkers, and friends, Kono Kalakaua."
"Hello, Spencer."
"Hello, Officer Kalakaua."
"Please call me Kono. All my friends do. So how do you two know each other?"
Callie jumped in. "Spencer is my biological brother."
At the pleased and confused look on Spencer's face, Callie explained. "All of my coworkers know about me being fostered, mainly because my foster brother is my boss. And I missed calling you my brother for the last nine years, so yes, I am going to acknowledge that you are my brother."
"Okay." Spencer lost the confused look, but kept the pleased look.
"So what kind of work do you do for the FBI?" Kono asked, genuinely curious. Although Steve and Danny knew, they hadn't shared the information with the team.
"I work for the BAU. We profile mostly serial killers, but do help out with bombers, and other types of criminals if we can."
"Wow. So not the nice guys we have here?" Kono joked.
"I wouldn't say you have nice criminals here in Hawaii at all. I know about some of the criminals you have gone after, and they sound absolutely despicable." Spencer stated, missing the joke.
"Well, I better get going before Steve wonders where I am." declared Kono. "Nice to meet you, Spencer, and nice to see you C."
"Nice to you see you too, Kono."
"It was a pleasure to meet you, Kono." And she dashed out the door, wondering what she was gonna tell Steve when he asked her about Spencer.
Back in the shop, Callie looked apologetically at Spencer. "I am so sorry about my friend. I am pretty sure she was checking on me for my brother. "
Spencer smiled, "No problem. I think it is a normal response for brothers."
"Yeah, well, it still doesn't give him the right…" she muttered.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, lost in their thoughts.
Finally, Spencer spoke. "So, do you think we could meet again soon?"
"When do you leave for Virginia?"
"Next Friday." Callie tilted her head in thought for a moment.
"Would this Friday work?"
"So, two days from now?"
"Yeah, and if you want, we could just meet here, same time."
"That works for me."
"Cool."
"Okay, well, I'd better go. Thanks for meeting me, Callie."
"It was lovely to see you again Spencer. By the way, did you ever change your last name?"
"Nope. You?"
"It ended up being Jacobs after my first foster dad adopted me."
"Oh, well that's good."
"Well, he's in jail, so."
"Oh, my apologies, I didn't realize."
"It is fine. I came to terms with it a long time ago."
"Well, I will see you in two days' time." And Spencer stood up from the table and grabbed his coffee. He waved at her and left. She began to gather her things with her back turned towards the door, when a man burst through said door with a gun, and fires three shots at the ceiling. Callie jumped in shock, an d turned to face him.
"Everyone lay down on the floor! NOW!" Mystery Man yelled.
Everyone did exactly as he said. He turned to the teen girl cashier. "YOU!" he bellowed. "Get up and open the damn register!" When she didn't move fast enough for him, he yelled again, "NOW! MOVE!" She moved in a jump from the ground. Callie tried to get a glance at his face, but he had his back to her so instead, she got a look at the girl's face. She had tears running over the light freckles on her face, her ice blue eyes expressing a large amount of fear, and her hair was a curly bright orange. The young lady was looking at the gunman, terror in her eyes, and it stopped Callie's heart for a moment. Why does this scene feel familiar? She wondered. Then it hit her, and she felt like she couldn't breathe. She had been in the young girl's position when she was thirteen, but the gunman wasn't a stranger who wanted her money. It was her stepdad wanting to know where her brother was, and she had been more terrified than the orange haired girl, because Callie had already been beaten before having the gun shoved in her face. Callie began to try and slow her breathing down, so she didn't give herself a panic attack in the middle of a hostage situation. Once she successfully achieved slower breathing, she wondered in HPD was gonna bring in 5-0 as blue lights began showing up on the walls.
Steve was lounging in his chair when his phone rang.
"McGarrett."
"Hey Steve."
"Duke, what's up, man?"
"We have a problem outside a coffee shop on Eighth Street. Some guy is holding everyone inside hostage."
"Crap." He ran a hand through his hair, remembering that his sister had gone there for coffee with Spencer earlier. He prayed hard that she had left shortly after Kono had left them. "Duke, do you know who's all in there?"
"Yeah, just the cashier, three men, four women, and one child." He paused for a moment, but Steve was grabbing his keys, and motioning everyone to follow him. They began grabbing their gear, not knowing what they were heading into with him, but each wiling to walk through fire for the man. Duke continued, "Steve, I just received word. Callie is in there." Steve stopped dead and closed his eyes to regain the composure that charged from him when he heard Duke's last statement. Everyone stopped with him, shooting concerned glances his way. "Duke?"
"Yeah, McGarrett?"
"Nobody makes contact with him but me. Understood?"
"Of course."
Steve McGarrett hung up on Duke, turned to his team and dialed Spencer, having got his number from Danny when he had searched for information on him.
Ring. He couldn't stop thinking about Callie. Ri-"This is Reid."
"Hello, is this Spencer Reid with the BAU?" Steve wanted a confirmation before filling this stranger in on the details.
"Yes, who is this?"
"This is Steve McGarrett with the Five-O taskforce, here in Hawaii. I am also Callie's older foster brother."
"What can I do for you, Commander?"
"Please, Steve will work just fine." He took a deep breath. "I need a favor."
"Okay."
"Do you know any good negotiators?"
Callie continued to watch as the gunman paced back and forth demanding to know who called the cops. After a few seconds, Callie rolled over and stood up forcing herself to move, despite the paralyzing fear, and keeping her hands above her head, and stated, "I did. I called them." The gunman whipped around angrily.
"Oh? I guess now we know who I'm shooting first."
Knowing the reaction would be worse the later a certain fact came out, and not wanting to take the chance, she burst out, "Wait! If you shoot me now, Five-O will bust through the doors, and you don't want that, do you?" She attempted to insert a certain amount of curiosity, hoping to distract him from asking how she knew that. She knew she failed when his eyebrows shot up.
"How do you know that?"
"First you let these people go, and I'll do whatever you want, including tell you how I know."
"Fine. He pulled her into his chest, and flipped her around so she couldn't see what he was doing, just the chaos around them. "Everyone! Out now!" he bellowed. All eight adults, and the child scrambled to their feet, and cautiously dashed out the door.
"Now, you'll tell me?" he flipped her around to face him.
"I am a member of the Five-O taskforce." She gasped as the grip on her arm tightened and she knew she was gonna have bruises by the time they were finished.
Steve stood behind the police car closest to the shop's door, and yelled as he watched civilians began climbing to their knees, "Everybody, hold your fire! Hold your fire!" A few of the police officers began letting their firearms slide to their side so they could help the hostages get out of the line of fire and check for injuries efficiently. Steve did a quick head count of everyone leaving the building after they arrived at the ambulances before realizing his little sister was still in there. He sprinted back to where he had been before the hostages had been let go. "Spencer!" "Yeah, Steve?" "Callie is still in there."
"Listen, I want to know what to do so I can get out of here. I don't have a problem shooting you if it means I get out alive and free." He turned his cold, black eyes toward her. "I understand completely." She was glad he was still talking to her. "Come on, I have a better idea." He grabbed her by her dark brown hair and dragged her over to the shop's phone, and had her dial Steve's number. He gave the receiver to her so she would understand that she was to relay his demands.
Steve's phone began ringing. He looked down at the caller ID to see who was calling at the worst moment. Not immediately recognizing the number, he answered.
"McGarrett."
Callie breathed in relief when she heard her brother's gruff voice on the other end of the line, knowing his rule about never answering his cell during negotiations.
"Steve."
Steve closed his eyes at the sound of Callie on the line. "Hey, kiddo. How are you doing? Are you injured? Is he listening in?" He spit the questions out rapidly, wanting an answer to them before the criminal hung up the phone on them before he made sure C was okay. Her answer had him slumping, "Yeah, I am okay. No injuries, yes he is, and I am doing fine. Don't worry about me McGarrett." He heard the strain in her voice as she attempted to relieve the tension on the line. "I'll always worry, C."
"I know. Listen, the man in here has some demands." "Okay." "He wants a route out of here, clear of all law enforcement, and a motorcycle." "Let him know I'll work on that." He heard a sharp gasp on the line, "C, is everything okay? Callie?" "I'm here." Steve heard the waver in her voice and knew she was crying. "Callie, are you okay?" "U-um. Yeah. I have to go. He says to call back in an hour or if you get everything ready before then." "Okay, I'll do that." The dial tone rang back at him after a few seconds, and he gave the phone to Duke, and walked towards the furthest cop car. When he had passed the third vehicle, Danny caught up to him. "Steve, what happened?" "I don't know what happened. She was doing fine, being strong, and then he did something, she gasped and started crying." Danny could see what that negotiation was doing to his partner. Not knowing what else to do, he tried to be encouraging, "She'll get through this fine, but only if you are there for her during this. Who knows what she is going through right now, Steve. And she needs you to be strong. If you're strong, she will survive this. Come on, man. She needs you."
"I don't know. What if I screw up? What if I say or do something wrong, and get her injured?" They shut up when an ear-piercing scream broke from the building. Steve did a one-eighth and ran terrified for where Chin was waiting for him. "What the hell happened?" he almost yelled. "We don't know, Steve. No one has talked to him since you stopped." Steve's phone rang from where it was sitting in Duke's hand. McGarrett looked to Danno for strength as he picked up the cell phone and slid the green button left to answer.
"McGarrett."
"S-Steve?" Callie no longer sounded terrified, but now she sounded as if she had run a marathon.
"Callie! Are you okay?" He mentally berated himself for his word choice.
"I'll…" she broke off for a few seconds before coming back. Although Steve thought there couldn't be any more terror in her voice, he was proved wrong. "I-'I'll be o-o-okay. S-swear it."
"What happened?"
Suddenly, rather than Callie's voice, it was the gunman's voice. "She'll be fine. I just thought you could've used a little more motivation, since you seemed to be walking away from me earlier."
"I am working on it, Mr. …' Steve trailed off in question, hoping the man would give them a name.
"You have no need to know that to give me what I want. I am moving up the time frame, and here shortly, you'll have a little more motivation."
"Wait-" he cut his plead off when he once again heard the dial tone in his ear.
Another scream came from the building, and this time, Steve's eyes began tearing up.
All he wanted to do was kill the man with his bare hands for the pain he causing Callie. Lou noticed Steve's eyes, and took charge. "All right, everyone, gear up. We going to.." and he began laying out the plan.
Inside the shop, Callie didn't even bother to try and muffle her scream learning after he broke her right arm for muffling her scream when he shot her. She hadn't done anything to antagonize him, when he turned and declared, "This routine is getting old. I am going to provide some motivation for your boss." After that, he lifted a knife she hadn't seen before, and carved her right shoulder. She bit her tongue so hard, that she tasted blood. He then broke her arm to get some sound from her. Now, he had stabbed her in the kneecap. It hurt like hell. Callie was starting to getting to get tired from the stress though, and noticing her eyes drooping, the gunman smacked her across the face to wake her up. But instead of looking straight at him, she looked over her shoulder and pinched her eyes shut as soon as she noticed the flashbang held in Lou's hand, and he was standing about two feet from the door.
After the police cleared the gunman, Lou rushed in and saw Callie sitting on the floor, arm covering her right shoulder. So as to not scare her, Lou made sure his steps made a soft thumping sound as he approached his injured friend. "Callie, sweetheart, are you okay? Can you tell me what he hurts?"
Her muffled response came a second later, "My shoulder and my knee hurt, but I'm pretty sure he broke my arm. And I'm awfully tired." She tipped over as soon as she finished her sentence.
A few hours later, Kono, Chin, Lou, Danno, and Steve were gathered in a hospital room, waiting for their injured family member to wake up. She had a casted arm, which would also be held in a sling for a few weeks, until the carving on her shoulder healed, and a bandaged knee that the doctor wanted her to stay off of for three weeks as well until the wound in her knee healed. She would be on crutches for the duration. Steve wasn't listening to the rest of his team as they shared stories about how Callie had pranked each of them at one time or another, although they all joyfully admitted that they had retaliated, just as not as well. All Steve could think of was how he didn't do anything before Lou had to step in. He was gripping Callie's hand like a three-year-old holding their favorite toy and was about to do his seventeenth round of "What if's" when Callie's hand slightly tightened. He looked up at her face and watched as her eyes slowly opened. "Danno, go get the doctor, please." he murmured, not wanting to scare Callie.
The doctor had come and gone a few hours earlier, and Callie was once again resting peacefully when Spencer finally dropped by. "Hey Commander."
"Hello, Dr. Reid."
"How is she?"
"She is doing well. She has a broken arm, and she'll be in a sling and off her knee for a while, though."
"Yeah, she never was a restful healer when she was little."
"Is that you're way of wishing me good luck?"
"Yep. Take good care of her, Steve."
"I'll try, Spencer." Spencer sat with Steve and the rest of the Five-O team for a few hours before they were all kicked out by the nurse. He continued to drop by every day until he finally had to head back to Virginia, but after making Callie promise to call him every day.
The End.- Please leave a review. I'd love to hear what you thought. Thank you.
