Missing Scenes, "Ma'ema'e"
by Sammie
DISCLAIMER: Not mine, obviously, because if I owned the characters, I sure as *bleep* wouldn't have started this second season like this, now would I.
RATING: T
SUMMARY: Danny confronts Steve about Kono. Episode speculation for "Ma'ema'e".
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I, like others, am upset that neither Danny nor Steve appear to show any concern about Kono. Still, I'm more prone to forgive Danny because he at least called Kono in the week leading up to the premiere. In my story, I take that and run with it.
Right now, I don't even want to see Steve. "'Protect her'"? I can't believe he says that to Chin. McG hasn't even contacted Kono to see how she is, much less to protect her. He's still got his precious Five-0 because she won't rat the guys out - specifically, him!; she's doing all the 'protecting' work.
The second thing driving me crazy is the lack of Kono airtime. Yes, I love that she's finally got an actual storyline, but she's onscreen even less than than before. Just get a cardboard cutout of Grace Park and let her go home to Vancouver to do some real acting work.
So, that said: don't read this. (If you like Steve, REALLY don't read this.) I'm in a really pissed-off, steal-Chin's-shotgun-and-shoot mood.
P.S. Shamelessly stole a scene from "BSG", in which Grace Park's genocidal-Cylon-turned-good gets more support in a minute than poor Kono's got all season so far from Steve or Danny. Argh.
Danny watched as Chin burst out of his office - not angry, but frustrated and desperate and beginning to panic. He grabbed something and headed straight out of the office.
"Lori," Steve barked from somewhere inside his doorway. "My office."
She started to get up from her seat, but Danny cut her off. "Listen, we've all had a long day. You - " Danny pointed at her "you go get a coffee or something for a little while while I talk to SuperSEAL for a few minutes."
"Danny, in case you happened to forget," Steve replied sarcastically, appearing in his office doorway, "we've got - "
"Make it a Venti, and have a couple biscotti with it." Danny slapped some money into her hand; the blonde gave him an exasperated look, handing the money back, but grabbed her purse and left.
Danny physically turned Steve around and methodically pushed him back into his office, then shut the door and closed the blinds with a calm he wasn't sure he had and which he was sure was driving Steve to insanity. He turned around, then carefully brought his palms together in a calming motion. "I am taking anger management classes - " Steve started to interrupt, and Danny held up a finger in a 'pause' motion to get him to stop " - and I am learning conflict resolution. Normally, I would just punch you across this nicely decorated office of yours, but now I'm going to give you one shot to explain the complete crap you were yelling at Chin earlier."
"Crap - complete crap - !" Steve repeated his terms back to him with an incredulous tone. "We were chasing a dirty cop today, Danny, and we found Kono with him. How do you explain that, huh?"
"I'd like to see you explain it, seeing as you spend SO MUCH TIME talking to Kono since your arrest," Danny retorted. "So. Share. What is it that Kono is doing, huh? Why was she with him? Why is she involved?" He paused. Steve said nothing, he held up his hands in a questioning gesture. "OK, fine. Let me ask you something. When was the last time you saw or spoke to her? Hm?"
He jabbed an index finger in the air, pointing vaguely in Steve's direction. "I can tell you the last time I talked to her. Two nights ago. Two nights ago. We talked for an hour. Did you know she's injured herself? That knee she blew out, the one which ended her surfing career, has been giving her problems the last few days. But you wouldn't know that, would you."
Steve was silent.
"'How did it get this far'? 'Why didn't she come to us'?" Danny mimicked his close friend, his tone mocking and sharp. "What are you, SuperSTUPID? When do Chin and Kono ever come to us for help, huh? When do they ever not bear the weight of the entire world on their shoulders so somebody else doesn't have to?"
He slammed his palm down on the desktop, leaning forward on the large desk. "I'm going to ask you one question, Steve. What do you know of Kono and Chin's family life? Besides their uncle stealing money to buy an organ for his dying wife? Do you know Charlie Fong's connection to Kono?"
When the other man didn't respond, he straightened, bringing his hands together again. "All right, Steve. One question. Tell me why Chin has never shown any interest in another woman in this entire year we've worked together. That includes Laura Hills."
"He's not you, Danny. Some of us have better control over our hormones."
"I am going to ignore that petty comment, because it indicates you don't know." Danny crossed his arms. He took a deep breath, his voice lowering and dropping the sharpness. "I met her today. Chin's ex-fiancee - this gorgeous doctor named Malia. Chin was going to get married, Steve. Ring, planned honeymoon. He's head over heels for her, Steve. It took me two seconds after seeing his face when he looks at her to know that something big was up."
He pursed his lips for a moment, letting that information sink in. "Chin broke up with her," the blond continued, biting each word off, "when his scandal hit. He wanted to protect her."
Danny stood in silence, staring straight back at Steve. "We didn't know that Chin was this close to marriage, Steve," he said quietly. "We didn't know when he signed over the deed to his house to try to save his uncle. You all have already met Rachel and Grace and we all know about Catherine, and none of us except Kono knew about Malia! What is this telling you?"
"He's the one who didn't share that information with us," Steve replied, frowning. His answer was weak.
"Yeah, he doesn't," Danny bit back. "Because Chin's convinced himself his problems are his own, and everybody else's are too important and have to come first," he spat. "And we let him do this to himself.
"When Meka was labelled a dirty cop, during that whole debacle - Chin came and found me in a bar," he continued. "Bought me a drink. Told me he'd back me up one thousand percent. When he knelt in that parking lot, wearing a bomb around his neck, he wanted me behind the blast barrier."
He looked straight back at Steve. "And when you evaded arrest and stupidly went after the governor, when everything fell apart, he went crawling back to HPD, pretending like he was some prodigal son, trampling his pride under his own feet - to help you. That is the type of person Chin Ho Kelly is."
He breathed in, then out, and suddenly seemed to change tack. "I've called Kono every week since her suspension. Every time I ask to meet up with her - grab lunch or something. Why do you think she won't meet with me, huh? Huh? She's trying to protect us, you frakkin' idiot. She's cutting us loose the way her cousin cut loose his fiancée - to protect us - and we're just letting it happen!"
Danny tried to continue, his words coming out in a jumble. He took a few steps away, trying to gather his thoughts, then came back around, his hands clenched in fists in front of him, shaking them up and down in his earnestness. "Do you really think Kono won't fall on her sword to save the rest of us? Look at the example in front of her." He pointed towards Chin's office. "Steve, think long and hard about it."
He crossed his arms. "Have you forgotten that all of us are complicit in the theft of the ten million? It's easy to forget since we're not in jail, huh? Easy to forget that Chin knew where the money was, that I went along with the idea - and that you were the one who actually took the money."
He shook his head. "I read the case file on Kono - what was there," he said stonily. "Charlie Fong analyzed some of the money which was burned. He found bits of of your backpack there, some of it intact. They pulled a partial off of it - not enough to make an ID, though, but too wide of a print to be Kono's. She told them she took somebody else's backpack to cover her tracks."
Danny paused, letting that sink in, watching Steve's stony face, his jaw tensed. "She came running when you escaped out of prison," the blond continued. "Running. Even without a HPD radio and being in the loop, she was watching the news and came running to help you. She got caught by Wo Fat, was taken to be executed in some forest - all to help you. And when was the last time you called her?" He shook his head, backing off. "Out of sight, out of mind, huh?"
"Who's protecting whom, Steve?" Danny paused. "You really think that we're the ones protecting her? She's been a cop barely a year - what kind of enemies could she have possibly gathered? We've been dragging her into our messes for a year, and now we rant about the mess that she's now in - the mess which, let me remind you, involved money whose location she didn't know about and a criminal she didn't piss off."
He watched as Steve flinched slightly at the reminder about Hesse. He let is sink in, then straightened, now calm and more subdued. "Kono's been following us straight into hell without a second thought. You think about that before you start condemning her. We've known her a whole year. As much as I like her, we've known Lori Weston less than a month."
Danny shook his head, his expression pained and sad. "We abandoned Kono, Steve. We are doing to her everything Chin's coworkers did to him. Protect HER? Who are we kidding? The minute she opens her mouth and tells what actually happened that December, Five-0 is over - permanently - and we join the ranks of the unemployed.
"She bears the entirety of our sins on her shoulders," the cop said quietly. "That's not something any of us should have to do, much less Kono - who's been the most innocent in everything we did last year."
He took a deep breath. "I don't know what she's in, Steve. I'm worried. But yelling isn't going to fix any of this. I should know from personal experience," he smiled bitterly. "We need to get Kono in here and get her side before we start condemning her. We give criminals the chance to talk. We owe her that, in the very least."
The blond stopped talking, and the two men stood in silence for a long time before Danny said, his voice quiet and uncharacteristically tired. "I'm not trying to bust your chops this time, Steven. But I mean it when I say that we've wronged Kono in the worst way - and that I hope she never hears what you said to Chin today."
Kono dropped her bag onto the ground and closed the door, wincing, her hand instinctively going to the side which appeared to be causing her pain. She suddenly stopped, still facing the door, when she heard the soft breathing of somebody else in the room. She then quickly pulled her gun, pointing it into the darkness of her living room, towards the dark figure seated inside. "Don't. Move."
The figure in the dark moved an arm slowly, to the right. The lamp by the sofa flicked on, revealing an uncharacteristically quiet Steve McGarrett, sitting on the sofa, one leg crossed over the other at the knee. He pulled his hand back from the lamp's switch and folded his hands in his lap.
She lowered her gun and turned her back on him, ignoring him completely; her expression clearly stated that she was in no mood to listen to what he had to say. There was a long silence as she dusted the sand off of her shoes and continued to work to clean up her things, making no motion to talk to him.
He materialized next to her, and she continued to ignore him. She worked until he quietly took her right hand in his left, drawing her attention to him. She turned towards him, her eyes cold and distant. He pursed his lips, swallowing as if it were difficult to say, and then said in a quiet, hoarse voice, "I'm sorry."
There was a long silence, even as surprise flashed in her eyes before they clouded over again, shutting her off from him. She stood warily - puzzled but cautious, drawing into herself as if to protect herself from a physical low.
"I told you a year ago," he said quietly, "that we would protect you. I didn't - then or after or now." He breathed in slowly, his eyes moving to hers. His face was stoic, unmoving, but his eyes were pained. "I'm sorry - for dragging Chin into my feud with Hesse. For involving you. For - " he swallowed " - for being so wrapped up in my own investigation about my father that I forgot you and what you were going through."
She watched him steadily, her expression softened but still shuttered. She might as well have been looking at a stranger.
He took a deep breath. "I'm here now."
She looked away from him, pulling her hand away. She gave a bitter laugh. "It doesn't work like that. I don't just spill all these secrets because you're here."
"I know I have to earn your trust again," Steve muttered. "I wouldn't trust me as a boss."
Kono said nothing.
He paused, running his free hand down over his face. "Please," he said in a soft, pleading voice. "Tell me what is happening. Let me help you."
She pulled her hand away even as she diverted her gaze away from him. Her face was a mask, and she said nothing. He changed tack. "Kono, I know your silence is why Five-0 hasn't been busted. I know that I got reinstated because Denning doesn't know I took the money. Please, let me help you. Tell me what is going on. What does IA have on you?"
She looked up at him, finally, her eyes glassy, the stoic face masking eyes filled with pain and frustration and loneliness. She looked at him a long time, and when she spoke her voice was barely audible. "If 5-0 - and I - were ever to have a future," she whispered, "I had to take matters into my own hands."
He frowned, then, turning the words over and over in his mind. He turned his head slightly, looking at her from ther corner of his eyes, his voice tense and alarmed. "Kono, what are you talk - "
She looked up at him, her eyes watery and vulnerable, her voice soft and bright as she interrupted. "Do you trust me?"
He looked down at her, her face turned up towards him, her face pleading for understanding. His answer was firm. "Yes."
"Then please don't ask me what I have to do," she whispered.
END