Kono Kalakaua pulled up at the crime scene minutes after receiving the text from her cousin. She knew there would be questions from everyone based on her attire and the short amount of time it took her to get there, considering she lived at least fifteen minutes away. The cool breeze felt amazing on her sweat soaked body as she shut off the engine and stepped out of the car, abandoning the air conditioning she had going full blast. Because in the wee hours of that morning, the rookie had decided that it was the perfect time for a run.
Well really, what else was there to do at 4am on a Tuesday morning when you can't sleep? Besides, there wasn't really anyone around to tell her that it was a bad idea, because all of their so called 'team building activities' resulted around things that Lori wanted to do. Like a surf lesson. In Hawaii, where 4/5 of their team had grown up, and with a professional surfer on the team, Lori had booked them all into surfing lessons. And the icing on the cake was that the lesson took place at the beach where Kono often frequented.
To say Kono was annoyed would be the understatement of the century. However, upon arrival when she refused to practice paddling on the sand, like she taught beginners to do, she suddenly became the bad guy. Danny started to rant about how surfers thought they were better than everyone else because they knew how to ride and read the waves, whilst Chin stared at her with his disappointed face. She hated that face. Ignoring Danny, Steve stepped toward Kono and started to chastise her. "Kono, come on, it's to help the team. I get it, you were on the pro circuit and you can surf, but going back to basics couldn't hurt, I mean, maybe you got a bit rusty in some areas."
She reeled back as if he'd slapped her. But Steve was too busy focusing on Lori to notice when she spoke up. "It's fine Steve, she doesn't have to. I just thought it would be fun for us to do something together, you know, as a team. But it doesn't matter, it was stupid." As all the boys started to jump to assure Lori that her idea was perfect, Kono caught a mumbled, "It's not you babe, it's Kono". A shocked, half strangled sounding gasp left her throat as she stared at the men who were supposed to be her Ohana, bad mouthing her for the sake of her replacement.
With a shake of her head, Kono turned and stormed off of the beach, ignoring Steve's calls for her to return. No way was she going to stand there and take that. She was livid as she unrolled her towel and retrieved her phone and keys, hastily dialling a number she knew by heart. "Howzit little sistah?" the cheerful voice answered after only the second ring. "Kawika, you busy?" "Never too busy for you sistah, what's going on? Those boys of yours do something?" A strained laugh bubbled from her mouth at the dark tone in her friend's voice as she fought to keep the tears at bay. "Something like that. Can you meet me at Mamo's beach?" "Anything for you little sistah. I'll be there in five." As the dial tone beeped in her ear, Kono hung up and jogged to her car, speeding towards her friend.
Sometime later, Kawika and Kono were seated on the boot of her car, slowly eating their shave ice treats as they watched some keikis ride the waves. Kamekona had been surprised when she showed up at his shave ice shop front, asking for two of her favourite flavour with beans. "Hey little sistah! You gonna eat those two all by yourself? You better not explode near my store, I can't have no police searching around okay?" He received a short laugh in return, "Mahalo uncle, but they're not both for me, Kawika had to swing by the grocery store for something." Kamekona's brow furrowed. "Kawika? Where's McGarrett and Chin Ho and my favourite two haoles?" A mumbled, "not here" was all he got in return before Kawika arrived, with two grocery bags in hand, with a short nod at Kamekona.
The silence stretched between them, until Kawika glanced over to see a tear fall down Kono's face, only for her to just as quickly brush it away. A sigh escaped her lips as she glanced at her friend in defeat. "I've been replaced." At his puzzled look, Kono glanced up at the clear blue sky, in an attempt to compose herself, before speaking again. "Lori, the new girl, she replaced me." Understanding dawned on Kawika's face, after all, while she was undercover, they'd gone surfing together a lot, and he started to notice small changes in the two haoles of Five – 0. It was nothing major, just how Kono only ever talked about Chin coming to see her, and how she regularly mentioned how self-isolation seemed to be easy, especially when everyone else seemed quite happy to go along with it.
After watching the sunset on the beach, Kawika jumped off of the back of her car and helped her down. Her feet had only just barely touched the ground when she was pulled into a hug by the older man. She nearly crumbled as he whispered in her ear, "You'll be okay." And held her at arms distance before reaching behind him, and retrieving the two shopping bags that had remained on the boot and handing them too her. She shot him a puzzled glance, and went to look inside, but he captured her face in his hands before she could. "No, wait until you get home. Remember, if you ever need anything, I'm just a call away okay?" A teary "okay" was her response, as he swept her up into another hug before she slid into her car, depositing the grocery bags on the passenger seat, and started for home.