Hey everyone! I haven't read any spoilers for the show for season four, so if this is totally off from what happens, I have no idea.
This story is quite long, so I hope you're ready for some serious reading! It's all finished, so I should be able to update every day or two.
This is mostly about Steve and Kono, but is just them being friends, nothing more.
There is one section in particular about halfway through that gets really violent. I did that to make it realistic and to band the characters together. But I wanted to warn you if it's hard to read about that sort of thing.
Lastly, thank you so very much for reading this. I hope you like it. Reviews make me happier than just about anything, so please tell me what you think. I'm about to get very busy with school so I may not be able to respond back, but I want you all to know how much I appreciate them.
Enjoy the story!
-H50-H50-H50-
He could practically feel the urgency of the situation running through him in his veins. Yet this had all been incredibly easy. Nothing was happening, and that was exactly why Steve was so suspicious. He and Kono walked quickly yet silently through the hotel room and to the door, holding hands tightly, because he was not going to let her disappear again, and because she was determined to get home. If they could only get to the others, then they could all leave. But what had happened to the people they were so sure would attack at any moment?
And then it happened. Steve had been a Navy Seal and a cop for too long to ignore the feeling that suddenly struck, the feeling that told him something was terribly wrong. He stopped just before the door and held up a hand to Kono.
She looked at him with tired yet wide-set eyes that had undergone far too much stress in too little an amount of time, questioning his hesitation. He listened for another second, then quickly backed away from the door, pulling her with him. It would not be as simple as walking out.
ONE HOUR EARLIER
Chin reflected silently on the car ride to the hotel about all that had happened in the last twenty four hours. The first was that they had uncovered a major Yakuza plan (thanks to Steve holding their only lead's head out of the open door of the car, six inches from the road, while Danny drove like it was on fire). The man had confessed in no time at all about how they had learned where Adam, and by extension Kono and Doris, were staying in Shanghai. They had a plan to go there almost immediately and take out Adam out of loyalty to Michael, and Kono out of loyalty to the entire business itself.
Chin thought Steve was going to kill the man. He had hardly ever seen him so angry before in his life. Danny had intervened when it became painfully clear that the man had no more information for them. They had immediately made plans to fly to Shanghai with necessary supplies, not even the governor knowing of their plans, because they could not risk a leak for anything.
Two hours later they were in the air. Even on the jet it took nine hours to reach Shanghai, a miserable trip filled with unanswered questions and increasingly horrifying what ifs. They landed on a small airstrip located just outside the city and rented an SUV with enough space for the three of them, and hopefully, after all this was done, three more.
The drive into the city had taken one hour. It had now been fifteen hours since they had come across their lead and realized who they had found. His accomplices would no doubt know he was missing and suspect that their plan was known. But Chin tried not to think about that. It was like seeing his cousin disappearing right before his eyes, and he didn't think he could take that.
Once inside the city they parked half a block from the hotel. As Kono, Adam, and Doris had no cell phones and had given them no way to contact them, Steve called the front desk of the hotel and asked to speak to Anne Matthews. Anne was his mother's middle name, Matthews her maiden name. He was told that there was no one staying in the hotel under that name. What about Grace Mitchell? He asked it in desperation, a name that Kono had given not six weeks ago during an undercover assignment. The clerk said yes, there was a woman staying there who was registered under that name. Chin's relief at finding her after traveling so far and going through so much could almost be felt in the car. I'd like to talk to her, said Steve. Connecting, he said a few seconds later.
"Hello?"
"Mom! Mom, listen, you and Kono and Adam, you've got to get out of there now. The Yakuza are on their way, there's no time to explain, just get out of there now!"
"Okay, we're leaving. Let me just go up to Kono and Adam's room and get them. Are you downstairs?"
"Wait, they're not with you right now?"
Chin's heart froze in his chest.
"No, they're one floor up. But I know which room, I'll get up and get them in two minutes tops."
"Shit. Listen Mom, just get out now. We'll come in and get them, we're prepared. What's their room number?"
"1184."
"All right, we'll get them. Just get out of there now, okay?"
"Okay Steve. I'll be right down." She hung up.
Steve, Chin, and Danny didn't need to say a word. Armed with more weapons than a small army, they exited the SUV and sprinted to the side of the hotel where they threw open the door and ran inside.
-H50-H50-H50-
The room they entered was a small one off of the main lobby, a cheerful contrast to the dark night and their mission. Danny pointed out a staircase and they made their way over to it quickly.
"Chin?" a voice suddenly asked.
They spun, turning with guns raised to see none other than Adam. He looked noticeably different. Tired. Shaken. Afraid. His eyes widened at the sight of them. "What are you doing here? What's wrong?" His voice shook with emotion.
Chin walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Listen," he said. "The Yakuza are coming, if they're not already here. We're going to get you all out and to a safe place. Understand?"
Adam looked back at him. "Where's Kono?"
"Upstairs," said Steve, just as the door to the stairwell was thrown open.
"Mom," Steve said with relief as she pushed through the door. She ran up to her son and threw her arms around him.
"You all right?" he asked, hugging her back.
"I'm fine," she said, stepping back. "Adam, what are you doing down here? Is Kono with you?"
"She must still be upstairs," he said, turning white as a sheet and beginning to look around fearfully.
"Listen," said Steve. "You two get Adam and my mom to the car. Drive around the block, don't stop. I'll go up and get Kono, it'll be easier for just one person to sneak up there. We'll find you when we get down. Okay?"
"Here," Adam said, reaching a shaking hand into his pocket and pulling out a room key. "Room 1184," he said. He looked Steve right in the eyes. "Please hurry," he said desperately.
Steve put a hand on his shoulder, took one last look at his teammates and mother, and sprinted through the door and up the stairs. He was not taking the chance of running into someone in the elevators. He only hoped he wasn't too late.
-H50-H50-H50-
Kono was beginning to worry. Adam said he was going down for coffee and that was it. It shouldn't be taking this long, should it? She stood up and walked quickly out of the bedroom and down the hall.
Steve quickly unlocked the door using the room key Adam had given him. They didn't have much time. He stepped into the hotel room and turned to close the door behind him.
They both entered the room at the same moment. For just a little while their eyes met and stayed there, holding their connection from across the room, Steve's a sure, confident stare, Kono's a shocked and surprised one. She, like Adam, looked more stressed than a human being should. Her eyes were lined with circles and were red, as if she hadn't slept in days. Already thin, she looked as though she might have even lost weight. He was sick at the thought of her life becoming such a hell.
They watched each other for a few more seconds, saying more with their stare than they ever could with words. Then, they both walked quickly over to each other to meet in the center of the room, and threw their arms around each other.
Kono could see it in Steve's eyes and feel in the way he hugged her just how much he had missed her. Steve could see in the near-tears and her embrace just how much she wanted to be back at home. They held each other for a few more seconds before each of them stepped back.
"Let's go."
"Where's Adam and Doris?"
"Downstairs with Chin and Danny. They should be in the car by now."
"It's the Yakuza, isn't it? They found us."
"Yes, but we'll talk about that later."
He could practically feel the urgency of the situation running through him in his veins. Yet this had all been incredibly easy. Nothing was happening, and that was exactly why Steve was so suspicious. He and Kono walked quickly yet silently through the hotel room and to the door, holding hands tightly, because he was not going to let her disappear again, and because she was determined to get home. If they could only get to the others, then they could all leave. But what had happened to the people they were so sure would attack at any moment?
And then it happened. Steve had been a Navy Seal and a cop for too long to ignore the feeling that suddenly struck, the feeling that told him something was terribly wrong. He stopped just before the door and held up a hand to Kono.
She looked at him, wide-eyed, questioning. He listened for another second, then quickly backed away from the door, pulling her with him. It would not be as simple as walking out.
-H50-H50-H50-
It had been too long. How long did it take a Navy Seal to run up eleven flights of stairs? Surely he found the room right away. Surely Kono was with him by now. Surely they were on their way down.
But then where the hell were they? A million thoughts rushed through Danny's mind. He was caught on the way up. They were both caught on the way down. Steve had arrived at the room to find Kono already…
He couldn't take it anymore. He knew it might interfere with their progress but he had to know. If they were in trouble he'd be going back in after them. He pulled out his phone, dialed Steve, and waited the agonizing three seconds it took him to answer.
"Danny."
"Hey, where are you?"
"Listen to me, we're trapped. Somehow they knew we were coming, and they're outside the door right now. They could come in at any second. I have no idea how many of them there are."
"Is Kono with you?" came Chin's voice, and Steve assumed he was on speaker.
"Yeah, she is. We need help now."
"We're coming," said Danny. "But do you know if—"
"Wait." There was a painfully long pause. Then Steve dropped all efforts to keep quiet as he suddenly yelled, "Kono, get down!"
Shots could be heard from Danny's end of the phone. He swore as he jumped out of the car and ran back to the building with Chin, Adam, and Doris right behind him.
-H50-H50-H50-
"Yeah, she is. We need help now," Steve said into the phone, putting as much authority as he could into a whisper.
There was a pause as he listened, and Kono watched as he turned quickly to face the door. A look of alarm crossed his face. "Wait," he said, continuing to watch. Then he yelled, "Kono, get down!"
She didn't have to know anything about what was going on. When Steve McGarrett told you to duck, you simply did. She dropped to the floor, landing hard on her knees, catching herself with her hands before her face hit the floor as well.
As soon as her knees had hit the ground, she not only heard but felt the bullets as they ripped through the door like it was paper and flew into the space where her head had been one second before.
She felt Steve dive on top of her, one of his hands on her head. In the chaos she blindly grabbed for his arm and held on, even if it made no difference to their situation. In moments like these things didn't have to make sense to help.
She felt Steve's other hand grab her arm and pull her up to standing though they stayed bent over, bullets still flying overhead, the door ripped to shreds by now.
They ran as fast as they could to the balcony, threw open the door, and began to climb over the railing. In the dark it was hard to find their footing, and Steve knew that at eleven stories up they could very well die while trying to save their lives, but they had to try.
From inside the hotel room he could just make out figures slowly entering through what was once a doorway. He quickly glanced over at Kono. They were both on the other side of the railing, crouched low, trying not to be seen but still fearful of climbing lower and possibly missing their footing in the dark.
But they had to go. Steve carefully picked up one foot and stretched as far as he could below him. He could just barely reach what he assumed was the railing of the balcony below them.
Carefully, he swung his legs back and forward as he let go. He landed on solid concrete as quietly as he could.
He looked up to Kono and could see she had lowered herself to hanging by her hands, just as he had, and was about to attempt the same swing. He stepped back to give her room and watched as her dark silhouette landed perfectly on the balcony.
They turned to the glass doors leading to the hotel room and listened. They heard no sounds from within. "Should we break in?" asked Kono.
"I'm not sure. If the Yakuza are already in the building, we're going to run into them."
He pulled out his cell phone and dialed Danny. "Hey, we're okay. We're one floor down on the balcony. Where are you?"
"Next to the doors we came in at."
"Okay, start driving. Don't give them a chance to catch up to you. We'll get down as soon as we can."
"We're going to wait for you."
"No Danny, you've got to go. You can stay in the area, but just drive. They just shot up the entire room. They're prepared, they know we're here. Just go, okay?"
Danny sighed on the other end. "Fine," he said. Then, "Adam wants to talk to Kono."
"Okay, put him on." He handed the phone to Kono while they crouched in the darkness of the balcony.
He tried his best not to listen as a tearful Kono tried to convince Adam not to worry. He could hear the poor guy's voice on the other end of the phone and he sounded near a breakdown. After a few moments she handed the phone back to him, and he could see her swipe at her eyes in the dark.
He put a hand on her arm. "It's going to be all right."
"How? It's all wrong right now."
He could hear the stress in her voice, and pulled her into a hug. She leaned into him but did not cry. She stayed so still it was as if she had fallen asleep. After a few moments he pulled back.
"Listen, we will get out of here. It might take a little while, but we will. Okay?"
"Okay," she whispered.
For the next hour they sat low on the balcony and listened as police swarmed the building. They figured that as the only room key they held was where the shooting had taken place, they needed to keep Kono out of sight. Plus Steve, with his bulletproof vest and three guns, might seem suspicious.
-H50-H50-H50-
Chin had taken to texting every fifteen minutes. Kono quickly took the phone and kept it as she messaged him back.
When the room whose balcony they were on was being searched, they hid to the sides where they found just enough cover that the officers inspecting the room wouldn't be able to see them. The thought didn't give them much hope that the Yakuza weren't able to hide just as easily from them.
From Chin's updates they learned that their group had taken to driving within a six block radius of the hotel, keeping an eye out for anyone suspicious. So far they had seen nothing at all, leading Steve and Kono to believe that they were still hanging around and waiting.
After another hour had gone by since the police had searched the room, Steve silently picked the lock on the balcony door and they let themselves in.
They had already determined from listening to the search that no one was staying in this particular room. Steve checked his supplies and studied a map of the hotel while Kono got a glass of water and sat down on the couch.
"Okay," he said after a few moments. He came and sat down on the couch next to her, map in hand. "They'll have blocked off the elevators and stairs by now. We can always climb down by balconies, but that's risky and it might take a while. Plus it's likely we'll be seen now that people know there's something going on. Rooftop's a possibility as we're only two floors away, but they might be up there as well. I think we've only got one option left."
Red rimmed eyes met his clear ones. "What's that?"
-H50-H50-H50-
Oddly enough, this was not the first time either of them had done this. When she signed on to be a cop Kono had never thought this was where it would lead her, but she couldn't say her life hadn't been interesting. And climbing through an air conditioning duct in a Shanghai hotel with her boss in the middle of the night to escape assassins and flee the country was definitely interesting, to say the least.
She had climbed through an air duct once two years ago to spy on suspects for a case, and another time seven months prior to sneak into a building and let the guys in after her. Both times had been unpleasant, and this was no different.
It was a good thing neither of them were claustrophobic or too allergic to heavy amounts of dust. The vent was just wide enough for Steve to squeeze through laying on his stomach, and was filled with so much dust and whatever else that it was difficult to breathe. But they continued forward, pushing their way through.
"It slopes down here," said Kono.
"Can you see where it goes?"
She shined her flashlight down the slanted shaft. "No, but I don't think it closes at the bottom," she answered, not wanting to think about sliding face first into it, meeting a dead end, and being unable to pull herself up.
"You want to try it?"
"We've gotta get downstairs somehow."
"Okay. Be careful."
Kono carefully inched forward into the shaft, trying as much as possible to shine her flashlight into it. She started to make her way down, one hand on the grimy floor to stop herself if she needed to. It was about twelve feet down in total. She continued forward until her feet left the main vent and she was completely slanted forwards.
Every instinct told her to panic, but she suppressed them by thinking about how she was only crawling that much closer to freedom. She breathed in as deeply as she could despite the dust and continued sliding down.
At the bottom she quickly shined her light to her right and left. Both open passageways. She sighed with relief. "Okay," she said quietly up the shaft to Steve. "Which way?"
She waited while he studied his map with his own flashlight. "Left."
They continued their slow progress through the building. As the time wore on the dust seemed to grow thicker and the vents smaller, but she didn't think about that. She thought only about the people who would be at the bottom.
-H50-H50-H50-
"Where are they?"
Adam had taken to asking that question every five minutes from the backseat. Doris, who was obviously worried herself, nonetheless sat silently beside him, looking out the window and not saying a word.
"I don't know," said Chin. "I'll text them again."
He did so and set the phone on the console to wait for an answer while Danny drove in a mile wide radius around the hotel.
Five minutes later the phone vibrated, and he barely picked it up before Adam grabbed it himself. "In the vents. Safe. Will text later," he read out loud.
"In the vents?" Doris asked, sounding not at all surprised, as if they had just announced they had run to the store for groceries.
"That's what they said," reported Chin.
"How long will it take them to get out?" asked Adam.
"No idea," Chin said. "Don't worry," he added. "Kono's actually had to go through some before. And I'm sure Steve has at one point or another as well."
Adam nodded and sat back in his seat, running his hands over his hair.
"I'm going to stop," Danny announced. "We're running low on gas, and I'd rather not have to fill up here." He pulled over to a curb about a half mile from the hotel and they sat in silence in the dark.
-H50-H50-H50-
Steve didn't get sick easily and had never dealt with allergies worse than the common cold, but after thirty minutes of crawling through the ventilation system, he was wheezing with every breath he took. Up ahead, he thought he heard Kono doing the same. The dust had gathered so thickly around their arms as they pulled their way through that Steve was literally picking up handfuls and throwing it behind him.
He estimated they had crawled down seven floors at this point. Once they got to the bottom he could only hope they could find an isolated room to bust out of the vents and seek some kind of refuge in before calling the rest of the team. As bad as their current situation was, he had to remind himself that the other four were safe.
Kono coughed up ahead into her sleeve, trying her best to muffle it. He remembered how sick with stress she had looked and could only imagine that this was even more horrible for her.
"Doing okay?" he asked, voice scratchy.
She didn't answer but extended a thumbs up back to him.
-H50-H50-H50-
Thirty minutes had gone by since the last text. Danny thought Adam was going to claw through the car if they didn't hear from them soon. He knew how he was feeling, having someone he cared about in danger. But, he supposed, he didn't know what it was like to be chased by a small army of very powerful thugs who wanted him dead, and what it must have been like to leave it all behind and come here to try and hide, constantly living in fear. And he hoped he'd never feel anything like that.
The sound of the phone vibrating made all four of them jump. "What does it say?" Doris asked before Chin had even picked up the phone.
"They're calling," he said. And into the phone, "Hey."
"Okay, we're out," said Kono quietly. She sounded tired. "We're trying to find a safe way out of the building. Where are you?"
"Headed that way," said Chin as he motioned to Danny.
"Be right there," he said as the car traced the now familiar route back to the hotel.
-H50-H50-H50-