No one wanted to admit it, but they hadn't seen it coming.
Most suspects that they captured were so afraid of the Five-0 task force that once they were caught, they tended to stay caught. So Steve hadn't thought twice before transferring the wrists of the two hundred and fifty pound mass of muscle that committed their latest murder into Kono's capable hands. Later, he regretted not cuffing the man himself. Kono was tough, far more advanced than a rookie should be. But Hale was twice her size, and used that to his advantage.
It had taken only seconds for Hale to pull with enough force to knock both himself and Kono off the dock into the water below. It had taken less time for Steve to realize that only Hale's head was above the water. Somehow, probably during the short fall, the larger man had trapped the rookie's neck between his heavy hands, and was now using the leverage to keep her submerged. Kono thrashed, disoriented from the lack of oxygen, accidentally ending up with a few deep gulps of ocean water in her throat.
McGarrett pulled his weapon from his belt, swearing when he realized that there was no way to get a clean shot without harming Kono, and threw it down on the dock before jumping in after them. Hale was treading water half decently, but was hindered by the fact that he couldn't use his arms, lest he release the only thing that was keeping him from being shot.
When Steve jumped in next to him, the other man twisted to put Kono, who was choking on water as she struggled to the surface and wrenching away as hard as she could without putting more pressure on her neck, in between the two. Steve winced, watching as Kono breathed in more water than could possibly be safe, and dropped his gun into the water before raising his hands to show Hale that he wasn't armed.
Finally, just as Kono was about to lose consciousness from the feeling of the water sloshing in her chest, Hale released her, using Steve's preoccupation with getting his teammate to shore to escape unnoticed.
"You're gonna be okay, Kono," Steve soothed, though he was sure she wasn't really listening and not so sure that it was true.
Even though they assured him that she was going to be fine, the doctors in the ER were quick to take Kono from the paramedics and rush her back into the depths of the hospital, leaving Steve to sit in the waiting room, dreading the phone call that he was going to have to make. Danny and Chin hadn't gone with the pair to pick up Hale, and Kono hadn't been in any state to call them from the ambulance. Undoubtedly, Danny was going to lecture him, escaping into the comfort that a good, solid rant brought him. Chin would be more subtle, assuring the younger man that it hadn't been his fault, but at the same time glancing off at the ER door, waiting for news on the rookie that had would never had become a cop had it not been for her cousin.
Before he could pick up the phone, the rest of Five-0 was charging into the waiting room, looking about as frazzled as he'd ever seen the other two men. "How?"
"Malia," Chin explained, "How is she?"
Blinking rapidly for a moment, the SEAL collected his thoughts, not prepared to have to fill his friend in this soon. "They said she was alright, but I haven't seen her. Chin-"
"Save it, Brah. Wasn't your fault," Chin, who had apparently been expecting as much, corrected. "Malia said she'd help me find her if I met her in the office. I'll be back."
Later, Steve and Danny stared in through the alcove at the patients in the ER. Malia must have worked whatever magic she had because Chin could be seen from the waiting room, rushing to meet a shaky Kono, who was pulling herself up and out of her bed. Dripping hair was still plastered to her neck, the only outward sign of the earlier incident, making Steve let out the breath that he'd been holding since she'd gone into the water. The rookie's hands were trembling, and Chin had to swing an arm around her shoulders to help her stand, but she appeared to be fine.
Just fine.
A week later, the same could not be said for Jacob Grayson, who had just encountered a dizzying interview in the interrogation room with the one and only, super SEAL. As it turned out, Grayson was not the homicidal maniac that they took him to be and received a very firm handshake and a halfhearted apology on his way out the door. Steve and Danny soon followed, off to find the man that really killed their latest victim.
"Before I forget," Danny said, turning back to address Kono, "Grace wants to make a date for her next surfing lesson. What can I tell her?"
Kono blinked, paling slightly before shaking it off and looking down to mess with her files. As she straightened them into a neat stack, her hands shook slightly, drawing the attention of all three men, who exchanged confused glances but didn't call her out on it. "Oh. Tell her not this weekend. Sorry."
"Next?"
"Maybe," she answered, still absentmindedly tapping her papers into place, "We'll see."
Shrugging, the detective turned back to the door, already midway into a rant about McGarrett's interrogation tactics, which had worked a little too well on their unfortunate suspect. Steve seemed almost entirely unfazed as he led the way out the door to the car. They could still be heard as they went out into the hall, leaving Kono fidgeting and Chin rolling his eyes. He looked at his cousin once more and suppressed a sigh. Something was genuinely wrong.
He'd noticed her discomfort when she was talking to Danny, but had chalked it up to her brush with Hale, like he'd done with the rest of her strange behavior since it happened. It had been almost a week, and the younger woman was still a bit shaken up from her ordeal in the ocean, so the team more or less let her deal with the distraction on her own. However, Chin had already decided that if she didn't seem fully ready to be back in action by the end of the next week, he would talk to her about was bothering her.
Taking care to inject a dose of casualty into his tone, he looked away from the monitor and asked, "What's going on this weekend?"
"What?"
"That you can't surf with Grace," he clarified.
Her answer didn't come right away, a sure sign that whatever was about to come out of her mouth wasn't entirely true. "Nothing. I just don't feel like surfing."
That was borderline ridiculous. Chin had put her on her first surfboard, and he and the rest of the family spent her childhood trying to tear her off it was time to come home. What they didn't get was that, to Kono, being in the ocean was about as at home as she could get. Something she'd once described as flying.
Chuckling lowly to cover his concern, he shot her a dubious look. "Cuz, you've never not felt like surfing in your life."
Apparently done with the conversation, Kono bit her lip and finally stopped shuffling her files long enough to pick them up. "I should go see what Max has for us."
"Kono-"
"Later, brah."
When he was left alone, staring after his teammate, Chin let his thoughts drift to a long day spent teaching his cousin how to fly.