A/N: I'm taking some liberties with this story, including some background information on Kono and her family. I also realize the concept that drives this story may be farfetched to some, but even though this is a whole team fic, I really wanted to explore the idea of a close friendship between Kono and Danny. I really hope you will give it a chance. There will be angst, but there will also be resolution. I hope you enjoy!
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"Hey, Max. What's up?" Steve listened intently for a few moments before pinching the bridge of his nose and swearing softly. "Are you sure?"
He was quiet just a bit longer before interrupting. "That's not what I meant, Max. Of course your ability to do your job is not in question. I just meant that given the circumstances, I need you to be positive without a shadow of a doubt before I blow up her world."
Danny was a lot confused at this point, but knew by the look on Steve's face that whatever news he had gotten was not good news.
"Okay…we'll be right there. Is Duke there? Good…have him keep everyone else away. Nobody goes near the body except for you until we get there."
Steve nodded as Max confirmed the request. "No…don't call her. Danny and I are on it. We'll take care of it." With that, he disconnected the call.
He glanced at Danny with a look of dismay on his face, deciding to not beat around the bush. "Duke got a call about a body drop…HPD called Max. When he got there, he realized that the body was Adam Noshimuri's."
Danny blanched at that. "The fuck? Seriously?"
Steve nodded and took a deep breath. "GSW execution style. He's positive on the ID."
Danny shook his head. "We need to confirm before we tell Kono. If Max is right, this is going to destroy her."
Steve and Danny headed for the Camaro. "She and Chin are on the other side of the island, talking to Sophie's parents…they should be back in a couple of hours." Steve was referring to tying up loose ends on their latest case – a kidnapping that turned out to be a teenage runaway trying to get ransom money from her parents.
The two climbed into the car and made the short drive to where the body had been dumped. Duke had made sure that the area was cordoned off, and while there were a few gawkers, the crowd was manageable.
They quickly found Max, who was standing over a black body bag. "Gentlemen." He was concise, as always, but Steve knew that he was probably a bit rattled. Adam had often taken time to ask Max questions about his music, which had endeared Max to the older man.
Max knelt down and unzipped the zipper, revealing Adam's death-frozen face. "As you can see, my previous identification was correct. Of potential importance to your investigation is the presence of this hood covering his head which I have partially lifted, covering a crudely written message on his forehead, containing one word…'traitor'. I will need to get the body back to the lab, but it appears that the victim…Adam…died of a single gunshot wound to the chest, fired at point blank range. If I may presume, I would say possibly Yakuza. It fits the profile of other victims I've seen in the past."
Max cleared his throat, and Steve placed a hand on his arm. "Thanks, Max. We appreciate you calling us in person."
Max nodded and turned away from the two men, needing a moment to compose himself before finishing his work so that he could get Adam back to the lab and complete his portion of the investigation.
Stepping away from the scene, Danny and Steve shared a glance. There was no way to ever prepare for something like this. How were they going to look Kono in the eye and tell her that Adam was gone; taken in such a horrific manner? The two of them were in a really good place…they had gotten engaged three months before, and were happily immersed in planning their wedding. Now, her life was about to be blown to hell and there was nothing any of them could do to stop it from happening.
Danny took a breath. "I'm going on instinct here, but I'm guessing that the Yakuza weren't too happy that Adam had gone legit? This investigation is going to get messy…you know that, right?"
Steve nodded as they moved back towards the car. "Yeah…this whole situation is going to get messy. I hate saying this, but I'm not worried about that right this minute. We both know that we won't find anything concrete to tie them to this hit. We do need to get back to the Palace, though…Kono deserves to hear this in person."
Danny agreed and they quickly drove back to headquarters. While they were waiting for Chin and Kono to return, they got to work compiling a list of potential Yakuza suspects. They didn't have to search hard, as these names had come up in crimes past.
Without warning, Kono bounced into the room. "Hey guys…Chin's on his way with lunch. I hope Thai is okay."
Her enthusiasm waned as she caught sight of the expression on Steve's face. Her stomach sank as she saw the matching look on Danny's face. "What's wrong? What is it?"
Steve and Danny shared a quick glance before Steve stepped forward. "Why don't you come into my office and have a seat?"
Whatever this was, it wasn't good; and just the idea of being in an enclosed office automatically had her feeling trapped. "No. Just tell me. Whatever it is, just tell me."
Steve took a deep breath and wiped his hands on his cargo pants. "We got a call from Max today about a body, and when we got there, he confirmed it. Sweetheart, it was Adam. He's gone."
Kono tilted her head, not quite making sense of what Steve had said. She looked at him in denial. "That's not funny, Steve. It's not fucking funny at all!"
Danny took a step towards her, causing Kono to step back. "Babe…"
Kono shook her head frantically as her breath hitched. Somewhere along the line, her body was struggling to understand and to react to what Steve had told her, and she was quickly ramping up to panic mode. "No…no, no, no, no, no…"
Without warning, she lashed out towards Steve, who was closer. She landed a punch square against his chest before turning and stumbling. She lost her balance and crashed into the corner of the computer table, her ribs bearing the brunt of her weight. She scrabbled to regain her footing, but her momentum had her off balance.
Before she could hit the ground, Danny caught her, sinking carefully to the floor as he braced her back against his chest. "Ssshhh, Kono…I've got you. Just breathe for me. Can you do that, yeah?" He rocked slowly back and forth as she shook and fought in his arms, her sobs tearing through him like a knife.
Steve pinched the bridge of his nose as he watched his teammate shatter. He knew the anguish that she was feeling, and wished that he could take it away from her. Her cries transported him back to the night he found out his mother had died – Mary sounded much the same way as she broke down at the news.
"Steve?" Chin's voice was strangled as he caught sight of his cousin crumpled on the floor in Danny's arms.
Steve pulled him a few feet away from Kono and shook his head. "Max called about a body drop, and when we got there, he positively identified that it was Adam. We're guessing Yakuza, based on some preliminary evidence."
"God…" Chin trailed off and turned back to where Kono had suddenly gone silent.
Steve just squeezed his shoulder – there were no words that would make any of this easier on any of them.
"Kono? Babe?" Danny reached for her wrist and frowned at how thready her pulse had become.
"Danny?" Steve jogged over to where Danny had placed her directly onto the floor.
"I think she's in shock." Danny rushed to grab a blanket from his office, while Steve fashioned a cushion to prop her feet up. His emergency field medicine training kicked in, and he quickly grabbed a baseline pulse and respiration rate. All Chin could do was move up towards her head, whispering comforting words in Hawaiian, hoping that she could hear him.
"Kono sweetheart…wake up." Chin lightly tapped her cheeks, hoping it would make her stir, but she stayed still as stone.
"We should get her checked out. Do we call an ambulance or drive her in?" Danny was worried at how pale she was and knew that her body was fighting the stress of the news with everything it had. Physiological shock was very real, and Kono could go downhill quickly, if they weren't careful.
Steve snatched his phone from his pocket. "I'll call for a bus…just keep an eye on her." He stepped away to call EMS, while Danny went to her office to grab her purse.
Within minutes, the paramedics were there and had readied Kono for the trip to the hospital. Her pulse was off the charts, while her blood pressure had bottomed out. They quickly had placed an IV, and had her on oxygen to help combat her symptoms. Chin felt like he should ride with her, while Steve and Danny followed behind.
By the time they had parked the truck and headed inside the ER, Chin was pacing the waiting room. He looked at his coworkers with a distraught look on his face. "What the hell happened?"
Steve guided him to a bank of chairs that were a bit isolated and the three sat down. "All we know so far is that it looks like an execution. He had a bag over his head, and Max said he had the word 'traitor' written on his forehead. I know I initially questioned the validity of his claims to be legitimate, but we all checked him out, and he has had no connection at all to the Yakuza in the past three years."
Danny shook his head. "Whatever we believe doesn't matter. It appears that the Yakuza are using Adam to send a message to anyone who thinks they can just leave the business…and Kono is now caught in the crossfire."
The three sat lost in their thoughts until a familiar tortured scream brought them to their feet. They immediately headed through the doorway and into the room where Kono was being treated.
"No! It's not fair! I didn't know! I never had a chance to tell him! He should have had a chance to know, damn it! I need to let him know…I need to…I need…" She was sitting up on the gurney with tears streaming down her face, her body shaking in anguish.
Chin immediately rushed to her side, while Steve and Danny moved towards the doctor. While Chin did his best to comfort Kono, Steve turned to the doctor. "Doc? What happened?"
Dr. Ruiz had treated various members of the team at one point or another, and normally felt comfortable filling them in, but he honestly was at odds over sharing this news with them. However, given everything that he had learned over the past twenty minutes, he felt it best that Kono have a strong support system in place. She would need it, to say the least.
Danny worried as he caught sight of the monitor blaring over Kono's head. Chin was trying to calm her down, but wasn't having much luck.
"I know you all have given consent in the past to share information with one another, but this is a bit more sensitive. That being said, Kono is going to need your support to get through the next weeks and months. When she came in, she was guarding her ribs, and had some fairly extensive bruising."
Danny shook his head. "Yeah, she lost her balance and stumbled, hitting the corner of the computer table with her ribs."
Dr. Ruiz nodded. "That makes a little more sense, then. Not knowing that, we did an ultrasound to see if we could see anything abnormal that would warrant further testing, and that was when we discovered that she is pregnant…our OB resident estimates approximately ten weeks."
Steve looked and saw that Chin heard the news as well, and turned back to the doctor. "What happened next?"
Dr. Ruiz blew out a breath. "She started coming around during the ultrasound, and the resident assumed that she knew, which obviously was not the case. That's partly on me for not telling him of the circumstances of her arrival into the ER. Regardless, she became quite upset at the news…or the timing of the news, which is understandable. I don't want to have to sedate her, but having her so anxious is not good for her or the baby. She's been through quite the shock, and her body needs a chance to rest and regroup."
Danny blinked to clear the moisture from his eyes, his forlorn expression identical to that of his teammates. This whole situation was beyond fucked up. "So what happens now?"
Dr. Ruiz glanced at the monitors and then at Kono before shaking his head and making his decision. Her vital signs were all over the place, and he needed to get her calmed down before she made herself sicker. "I'm going to give her a light sedative, and then I'd like to admit her for at least the next 48 hours. Right now, her pregnancy is strong, and I'd really like to keep it that way. Grief is a horrible thing in the best of circumstances…but I think we can all agree that these are not good circumstances at all. I just want to make sure she's as okay as she can be before sending her home."
With that, he strode over to where Kono was still on the edge of being hysterical. In Chin's arms, she kept murmuring that Adam didn't know, and that she had to find him and tell him. It was almost more than any of the team could take.
Dr. Ruiz drew up the sedative and injected it into the IV port, and within a minute, Kono had relaxed enough for Chin to set her back against the pillow. He stood up and wiped his eyes looking absolutely wrecked. "I'm going to…I'll just…I'll be back, okay?"
Steve nodded in understanding. Kono was his cousin. She was important to all of them, but Chin was blood family, and was taking this hard, especially with his own fairly recent journey through grief. "Why don't I run back to headquarters and grab the emergency bag from her office." The team had all taken to keeping an overnight bag packed in each of their offices – there was no telling when a case might stretch out over a day or two, and there had been times when they had appreciated having clean clothes to change in to.
Danny nodded. "If you see Chin outside, see if he'll go with you. It might do him some good to get away from here – clear the memories for a bit. I'll stay with Kono, and will text you when they move her to a room."
Steve agreed and headed through the curtained off area in search of his teammate. Danny dropped his head to stretch his neck before toeing a three-wheeled stool over and sitting next to the gurney. He picked up Kono's hand, shocked at how cold it was. Seeing a blanket warmer in the corner, he grabbed one and carefully tucked it around Kono's shoulders and arms, retaking his position at her side.
He knew Kono was tough, but this was almost too much to stomach. How was she supposed to get through this? The best analogy he could come up with nearly had his stomach turning inside out – the idea of something happening to Grace was the closest he could come to imagining Kono's grief, and he didn't even want to put that out there in the universe.
And then to have a new baby to think about? At least having a baby was something he knew about. He vowed then and there to be there for Kono as much as she would let him – and even when she wouldn't let him. Women had babies on their own all the time – but as long as he was alive, no friend of his would ever have to go through that alone.
Approximately fifteen minutes passed before Dr. Ruiz came into the room. "Danny? We're going to be moving Kono to a room. She's going to go up to the OB floor, room 417." Danny nodded, and as the nurse came in to ready Kono for transport, Danny took a few seconds to text Steve and let him know.
He made sure that he had Kono's personal belongings and stood and followed the nurse into the hallway. The ride in the elevator was made in silence, and Danny appreciated the lack of mindless small talk. When they wheeled the gurney to Kono's room, Dr. Ruiz was there, talking with the OB who would be taking over Kono's care while she was a patient.
Dr. Lau was a tiny young woman who immediately put Danny's worry at ease for the time being. Maybe it was the care she took in getting Kono settled herself, and not leaving it solely in the hands of the nursing staff. Maybe it was the way she listened intently to Dr. Ruiz and his report. Maybe it was just his gut instinct telling him that she wouldn't just treat Kono as a case, but as an actual person. Regardless, as she approached him, he felt a palpable sense of relief.
"Detective? I'm Dr. Lau. I'll be taking care of Ms. Kalakaua and wanted to hear from you what happened, and what your concerns are."
Danny reached out and shook her hand. "First off, it's Danny…Williams. And she'd want you to call her Kono. You'll meet the rest of the team later – her cousin Chin Ho Kelly, and her boss Steve McGarrett. We're Five-0 – the Governor's Task Force, if that means anything to you."
Dr. Lau smiled. "Thank goodness I know you all in name, only."
Danny grinned. "Good thing then. Anyway, Steve and I got a call this morning about a body, which happens in our line of work. When we got there, though, we discovered that it was Kono's fiancé, Adam. He had been murdered. She wasn't with us at the time, but when she returned to the office, we had to be the ones to tell her. She went into shock, and after initially being very upset, she passed out. She hit her ribs when she stumbled, but I caught her before she could fall and hit her head. After she was brought in, they did the ultrasound and discovered she was pregnant. She hadn't known, and finding out was another big shock, and Doc had to sedate her to get her to settle."
Danny ran a frustrated hand through his hair, and Dr. Lau knew that he was struggling to keep himself under control. "Danny, look. I know you probably feel like you're spinning in circles right about now. But I really think that with time, and with the support that you obviously seem willing to give her, Kono will be fine. I won't lie to you…it's going to be rough on her. It will get much worse for her emotionally before it starts to get better. She's not only going to have to grieve the loss of her fiancé, but come to grips with the pregnancy, and not being able to share that with…Adam, was it?"
At Danny's nod, she placed a hand on his arm. "Just be there for her, even when she may not want anyone to be. Support her…surround her with love, and she'll come back to herself in time. I'll take care of the medical stuff while she's here, so you can focus on the emotional."
Danny smiled tremulously. He wasn't sure why he was so emotional, other than it flat out sucked that this had happened to Kono. She had started out like his little sister on the team, but over the years of working together, their friendship had developed into one of mutual respect and trust.
"Thanks, doc. I appreciate it." He reached out and shook her hand before turning to where Kono was starting to sporadically show a bit more movement. Although he really wanted to see her awake, he knew it would bring a whole new set of anguish to his friend. So why did he feel like a complete ass for hoping she'd stay unconscious for just a bit longer?
He pulled up a chair, sitting next to the bed for the next hour before he finally caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Kono's head was starting to twitch as she looked like she was dragging her way through the rest of the sedative.
After a few more seconds of restlessness, she jackknifed with a strangled, "No!" She was struggling to catch her breath as her eyes darted around the room. Finally, her confused gaze landed on Danny as he sat on the edge of her bed.
"Kono, you're okay. You're okay, now." Danny spoke softly, not wanting to spook her any more than she already was. Chin and Steve had texted to let Danny know that they had gone to talk to Kono's parents while Danny was staying with Kono.
Her parents had never liked Adam, and they acted as though Kono had betrayed them by choosing him. Steve and Chin weren't sure what kind of reception they would have, or whether the Kalakauas would even care about the news.
"Try to take some deep breaths." Danny nodded as she attempted to steady her breathing. "That's good, babe. That's really good."
Kono took in the details of the room as she sunk back against the pillows. She was in a hospital, judging by the array of equipment near her bed. She tried to focus on her teammate sitting in the chair next to her bed. Something wasn't quite right. Why wouldn't Danny look her in the eyes?
"Danny, what happened?" She took in the worried look on his face and felt her heart sink. Vaguely, she could hear the heart monitor speed up. She was trying to avoid a full-fledged panic attack, but was having very little success. She noticed the sad look on Danny's face, and all she could do was shake her head in silent anguish. His silence spoke volumes.
"No…no…no." Each no was punctuated by a fist against the mattress. "Danny, no. Adam's okay, right? He was supposed to meet me at the Palace. We were going to go to Maui for the weekend. He's okay, right?" She had heard Steve's explanation earlier, but was hoping it was all a nightmare. She looked Danny in the eyes and pleaded with her friend to rescue her from the hell that she was slowly drifting towards.
Danny hadn't always been a fan of Adam's, but he would have given his right arm to be able to tell Kono that her fiancé was okay, but he just couldn't. "Kono, I need you to calm down, okay? I'll tell you what I know, but you have to calm down, or they are going to sedate you again."
Kono nodded through her tears. She took a shallow, shuddering breath and wiped her eyes.
"Kono. Steve and I were there. Max confirmed it. Adam's gone."
Kono felt like she had been kicked in the gut. Nothing could have prepared her for the pain of having her soul ripped in half. She clasped both hands over her mouth, trying to stop the torrent of tears and sobs that were threatening to burst forth. She drew her knees up, not caring that that motion sent searing pain through her injured ribs. Even though she knew he wouldn't care, she didn't want Danny to see that she was losing her fight to keep from breaking down. She closed her eyes, rocking back and forth in an attempt to feel anything but anguish.
Vaguely, she felt the bed shift next to her as Danny's arms wrapped gently around her. That simple comfort was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. She couldn't stop the tears from flowing. "Danny, why? Why?" She repeated that one word, over and over in the midst of her grief. Danny simply gathered her closer, his heart breaking for his friend.
"I don't know, babe. I just don't know." He continued to rock her soothingly, until he felt her grow limp in his arms. Mindful of her ribs, he gently laid her back against the pillows.
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