I'm back with another Flangell re-write, Five-0 style. This one is from my story "Double Date". Although there will not be a date in this version, double or otherwise, I've used as much of the original story as I can.
I usually keep the title the same, as some readers have let me know that they are going back to read the original Flangell version, but that just didn't seem to work this time, hence the new title: "Tactical Training".
As usual, Kono will take the place of kick-ass Detective Jessica Angell. And I've decided to that Steve would be best to replace Detective Don Flack in this scenario instead of Chin.
My characters: SWAT team assistant Phillips, Agent Spencer, and perp Steve Jackson.
HAWAII FIVE-0
Officer Kono Kalakaua was perplexed. 'How could anyone do that?' she asked herself. It was all just so twisted. Normally she'd sit back with a bag of peanut M&M's to take her mind off things. But this was going to take more than M&M's. She grabbed her sun glasses and headed out the door for some real food.
Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett sat with a cup of cold coffee in front of him as he stared out the window. He'd sent his team off to work on a case without him so he could be here, and now she was late. She was more than late, she wasn't going to come at all. Why did she have to do things like this, why did her problems have to invade his life so much. He wanted to be supportive, but there was a limit to what he could take.
It had been a short walk to the diner. Kono walked in and placed her order at the counter, then stepping back to wait. She noticed a familiar face and walked over.
"Oh, no thanks." Steve said to the waitress who was offering to warm his barely-touched coffee.
"Looks like your food got cold, too, Boss." Kono said, approaching his table.
He looked up and smiled to see her. "Hey." Was all he managed and she could see a sadness in his eyes. "Have a seat." He offered.
Kono sat down opposite him in the booth. She could tell by the cold food and coffee in front of him, something he would normally never let happen, that something was wrong. She knew him well enough to not ask though, but just to be there if he wanted to talk. So she just took advantage of a comfortable place to sit while she waited for her order.
After several moments of silence, "Mary." was all he said.
"Your sister?" She asked, "What about Mary? Is she okay?"
"Good question. I wouldn't know. She was supposed to meet me here, said it was important, but didn't show. No phone call. Nothing." He explained.
Kono was surprised he had told her so quickly, so it must really be bugging him.
"I'm sorry." It sounded so weak and generic, but she didn't know what else to say. "Guess neither one of us will ever know the advantages of being an only child."
Steve broke a slight smile at her comment. "So, what brings you here?" He asked, needing to change the subject.
"Food." She answered.
"Did you and Chin have any trouble bringing the suspect in?" He asked, to which she shook her head, "Something must've happened with the case if peanut M&M's didn't cut it." He replied, knowing they were her standby and she had to have them any time she was frustrated or stressed and always kept a bag in her desk drawer.
"Tough? No. Strange? Yes." She clarified.
"Tell me." Steve requested, leaning back and with no obvious intention of eating the food in front of him. He'd taken a couple of hours off work to come and meet his sister while the others worked on the case. He'd be back to HQ soon and would need an update anyway.
"Twenty-two year old female undergrad student strangled in her boyfriends dorm room." Kono said, then took a deep breath before continuing, "He killed her for faking it."
Steve's eyebrows shot up. He couldn't believe she'd managed to say that with a straight face. "For faking it?"
"Mhmm." Kono mumbled with a slight nod. "Apparently she needed some extra study time to prepare for finals, but the boyfriend had some final goals of his own." She paused to study the bewildered look on Steve's face. "Too bad she wasn't studying acting."
"He strangled her... for faking it, during sex." He stated, not really a question, he was just still stunned.
"Yep. So here I am grabbing a sandwich while he's being put thru booking. This should be a very interesting interrogation." She said before hearing her order number called. "Do me a favor, will ya?" She requested, sliding out of the booth.
"What's that?" He asked.
"Eat." She paused as she stood, "Or we're gonna have to work with you later when your low blood sugar hits and you're grumpy." She said with a smirk before walking away to pick up her order.
Steve just smiled and watched her head for the counter. He was still bugged about Mary and would only wait another five minutes for her to show up. He pushed his plate away, and waived the waitress over to request his check.
The waitress returned just a minute later, "You sure you don't want any more coffee before you leave, sir?" She offered.
"No, thank you. Just my check, please." Steve said.
"There isn't one." She informed him.
"Isn't one?" He repeated.
"That's correct, sir. Have a nice day." She said, walking away.
"Wait a minute. Why don't I have a check?" He asked, thoroughly confused.
"Well, you did. But it's already been paid." She said with a smile and starting again to walk away.
"By who?" He asked, standing up.
"I don't know." She shrugged, "Some lady picking up her order requested to take care of it."
"Kono." Steve mumbled to himself. "Uh, thanks." He said to the waitress before she finally succeeded in walking away. He sat back down so he could see out the window, but Kono was long gone. 'Great, now I have to eat it.' he thought to himself as he pulled the plate closer and sighed.
HAWAII FIVE-0
Kono and Danny sat across from Steve Jackson in interrogation room two. Jackson was all of 23 years old and it was obvious that he thought very highly of himself, or at least thought all the ladies should think very highly of him.
"So tell us exactly what happened, Mr. Jackson." Danny instructed.
"She was wasting my time." He said back in a monotone voice and with a slight shrug of his shoulders.
"Sounds more like you were wasting hers." Danny shot back.
"Hey, I'm in pretty high demand." Jackson said, "But I might be able to accommodate certain members of law enforcement." He added, shifting his gaze to Kono.
Kono, who had her jacket on for a reason, despite the heat, looked up from the file she'd been pretending to read, said, "No thanks, I prefer grown men." with a straight face, then looked back down at the file in her hand.
Chin and Steve, who were both on the other side of the glass in an observation room, both busted up laughing. They were so glad that Kono couldn't hear them. "Wow. She sure put that kid in his place." Chin said, as both men attempted to not start laughing again.
Back on the other side of the glass, Kono was succeeding in frustrating Jackson, "Ya know, Mr. Jackson, if you were really any good, Emily wouldn't have needed to fake it." She told him.
"Good? I am good, and she had no reason to fake it!" He yelled back at her.
"Calm down, Mr. Jackson." Danny instructed.
"Hey, you can't insult me like that! I can have any girl on the campus I want! They all want to be with me! Emily was just distracted last night!" He yelled.
"Okay. Okay, so she was distracted. Wasn't into it. Why kill her?" Danny asked in a calm voice that didn't quite match the agressive hand movements that accompanied his words.
"Why? Are you kidding me? She told me she needed to study! Needed to study? Can you believe that? She thought taking some test next week was more important than being with me?" Jackson said, so full of himself it was disgusting.
"So why not just let it go? Just forget about it till another time." Danny asked.
"What? And have her tell all her friends what happened. No way!"
"So you had to shut her up." Danny said.
"Damn right I did!" Jackson confessed.
Steve had had enough of listening to this murderer. He was so full of himself it was just disgusting and he wanted to keep down the lunch he'd eaten.
HAWAII FIVE-0
"Thanks." Steve said, as Kono took off her jacket and placed it on the back of a chair by the Smart Table.
"For what?" She asked.
"Someone bought me lunch today." He said with a smirk.
"Did you eat it?" She asked, searching for a pen.
"Yes." He answered with a nod.
"Then it worked." She said, closing the drawer. "I told you; you get grumpy."
"But that's not why you did it." He stated.
"You were having a bad day." She said with a shrug.
Steve opened his mouth as if to speak, but didn't, and closed it again. He paused, "I, uh, don't know what to say to that." He finally spit out.
"Don't say anything. We're ohana. We care about each other. Looking after each other is just what we do. So don't say anything." She told him with a slight smile that warmed his heart.
"Commander McGarrett." The HPD captain called out as the glass doors swung open.
"Yes, Sir." Steve replied as the man approached.
"I have a training assignment for your team for tomorrow." He informed, removing paperwork from a folder before he continued, "The annual tactical training that works with SWAT and other agencies begins tomorrow. Four officers had to be rescheduled, so I'm moving Five-0 up on the schedule to take their place since your case just wrapped up."
Steve and Kono both watched as the captain headed back out the glass doors. "You don't look too happy about this." Steve said as he noticed Kono lean back against the Smart Table with a sigh. She just shook her head and looked away. "It's two days of simulated situations, take-downs, and training with some nice toys." He paused, "Maybe you could even show your cousin a trick or two with a pump action shot gun." He added with a smirk.
Kono raised her eyes to meet his. "Gee, thanks. But it's also two days of men either gawking at me or treating me like I don't know how to hold said shot gun. I'm going out there to do my job, not to prove to a bunch of horny chauvinistic cops they're wrong."
THE NEXT DAY...
Kono could see his shadow hovering almost above her. He was so close she could almost feel him, his presence looming, yet he wasn't close enough. She waited. Patience was going to pay off in this scenario, of that she was sure. His shadow shifted and she could hear more gun fire just behind her. She wondered who he'd shot. It wasn't long till the shadow returned, he was getting frustrated, she could tell, she could sense it. He was the last one. She again reminded herself of the need for patience. It would pay off, more than that, it was vital. He slowly moved closer, she kept her breathing slow and steady, lest he find her. His shadow disappeared for a while again, she waited for it's return. Yes, she'd decided she would take her chance when it returned, giving him away. He thought he had an advantage. He didn't, it was hers to have. Again the shadow moved closer, but still not close enough. Closer, yes, a little closer. Almost, but still not enough. She had only one chance, and she knew it. It was down to just the two of them, everyone else was gone. Shot. It was just him against her, her against him. He would shoot first, if only he could see her. His shadow came closer again, and she prepared herself, but mostly in her mind, as her body could not move. Timing would be everything.
Kono pushed out from the narrow ledge she'd been hiding under, rolling over as fast as she could, she aimed and fired.
It was blue. She had hit her target twice and his jacket was now running blue. He threw his arms up in the air, "No way, man! You can't be serious! How the hell..."
"Woo-hoo!", "She got you, man!", and "Blue wins!" came a mixture of voices. She was sure Danny's was the loudest.
"All right, everyone, gather 'round." The SWAT leader called out. "As you can see, by the last man, uh, woman, standing, that the blue team wins."
Cheers were yelled out by the blue team and low grumbles by the red team. That training exercise was the last one of the day and everyone was ready to head for home.
"Before we leave for today, let me remind you of the basic reason we're all here. It's not just to keep up your skills on weapons. It's not just to shoot painballs at each other in simulated situations. It's also so we learn from each other as representatives of law enforcement and as different branches of law enforcement." The SWAT leader said to the crowd of twenty gathered around him. "I know we've gone over a lot of information here today, but before we leave I'd like to ask Officer Kalakaua..." he paused and turned to her, "...how the hell did you pull that off?" He smirked and several laughed, including Chin, whose arm still bore the red paint his cousin had put there earlier.
"I followed your instructions." Kono answered matter-of-factly.
"Yeah, but lots of others tried hiding under those ledges, and were found pretty quickly." Someone from the red team she didn't recognize asked.
Turning back to the SWAT leader, she said, "You reminded us to work with what we've got. The layout within the parameters here didn't give a lot of options. So I hid where I could till my opportunity was present."
The SWAT leader nodded, then asked, "Before we leave, would you mind demonstrating for us exactly 'how' you fit under that ledge?"
Kono didn't really want to, she didn't want the attention, but agreed anyway for the sake of their purpose in doing the training exercises in the first place. "Um, sure." She said quietly, walking over to the ledge that was shaped similar to an I-beam. "Again, working with what we've got, or don't have in some cases."
"Don't have?" Someone asked before she could finish.
She nodded. "Yeah, what you don't have can be important, too."
"How's that?" He asked.
"Well, size in my case. I'm smaller than some of you who also decided to hide under the ledges."
"I'm the same height as you." Called out a different officer, "But I couldn't fit under there, either. Got shot in less than five."
"Perhaps you didn't fit under there the same way I did." Kono said.
"How's that?" The SWAT leader inquired.
"Well, it helps when you're only three feet tall." She said.
"Again," said the same guy, "I'm the same height as you, so how can you make yourself only three feet tall?"
Kono had stalled long enough, she really didn't want to answer, but took a deep breath anyway, then suddenly dropped down into the splits. She could hear the mostly male group groaning in response to her sudden action.
"You fit under there because you can do the splits?" Someone asked.
Kono nodded, then got up. "It allowed me to back myself up much further under the ledge than the rest of you could. I also had the option of leaning against the back wall without my feet sticking out."
"Well done, Officer Kalakaua." The SWAT leader said, then dismissed the group, "We'll see you all back here tomorrow."
ANOTHER DAY OF TACTICAL TRAINING...
The next day began with an emphasis in hand-to-hand conflicts. Everyone was dressed in tee shirts and shorts. One of the SWAT team assistants named Phillips broke everyone into random pairings, making sure Kono was paired with him and they were to demonstrate first.
Phillips had everyone gather around the edge of the mat, with he and Kono in the middle. He saw a lot of determination in her and wanted to give her the opportunity to prove herself, yet he wasn't about to just hand anything over to her. "Again, we've got to learn to work with what we've got in any given situation. Feel free to use whatever you can get your hands on, within the confines of the mat space, which as you can see, isn't much. We'll all be wearing light weight sparring gloves, to keep from getting hurt too much, but this is still a full-on match otherwise. Agent Spencer has the whistle, and it's not over util the whistle blows. Everyone understand?" He asked. Everyone nodded.
Steve didn't like this at all. He felt like Kono was being picked on and singled out. Some of the men from the red team still had a bit of a grudge from her helping the blue team win yesterday. He wasn't entirely trusting of Phillips, either. Was she out there with him so he could make an example out of her? Questions or not, there she was, out in the middle of the mat about to go one-on-one till one of them gave in or the whistle blew.
Kono felt the lump in her throat. She'd heard the rumblings from the red team. She was there for training and not some stupid testosterone laden contest. She didn't like being front and center, she was confident in herself, but wasn't a show off, and she didn't like being made an example of, either. She had a slight distrust of Phillips for some reason, she just couldn't quite put her finger on it. Either way, she was about to go one-on-one till one of them gave in or the whistle blew.
The 'match' started and it was obvious it was going to be a long one. Kono graduated the top of her class in hand-to-hand combat, but Phillips was a training assistant and would be a more than worthy opponent. Jabs were exchanged and it wasn't long till it was an all out sparring match between the two. Obviously neither of them would be giving in.
As expected, the match kept going beyond bloody noses and jabs to the gut. It wasn't quite an all-out punching match, but throw in some sharp objects and you could be watching stunt double's warming up for a scene for Kill Bill.
Steve felt helpless, and had a sick feeling in his stomach at every blow he watched her give or take. Making eye contact with both Chin and Danny, could tell they felt the same. They all had confidence in her abilities, but this was still hard to watch. Of course Steve did feel a bit better when he watched Phillips try to knock Kono's feet out from under her, but she had jumped straight up to avoid being knocked over, which sent Phillips sliding harmlessly under her as she came back down with the advantage, which she used to the fullest.
A bit later Phillips succeeded in kicking Kono's feet out from under her and landed on her ribs. She was winded but gave him an elbow to the head that knocked him off her. Both were winded, but neither would give up. They were back on their feet, swaying slightly from side to side, each looking and waiting for another opening to take the other out.
After several more minutes of the match Phillips had Kono pinned. He looked around and said breathlessly to her and the circle of watchers, "What I did here was an exercise in patience, I had to wait quite a while to figure out Officer Kalakaua's weakness." Several from the edge of the mat nodded and Kono could hear some of them talking to each other.
Kono let herself relax under Phillips arm that had her shoulders pressed to the mat, taking the opportunity to catch her breath. Then, when he began to rise up, she saw her opportunity and swung her right leg around and over his left shoulder and kicked him so hard under his chin that he went flying off her as she bolted away. This of course shocked and infuriated Phillips. He shook his head a bit since it was spinning, then took off after her.
Kono ran to the other side of the mat as fast as she could. She could hear Phillips coming after her. She slid feet first into a large garbage can on the edge of the mat. This action pushed the can off the mat and into a weapons rack just beyond, knocking the rack over and onto the mat. She grabbed a mace can from the rack and quickly pulled the pin as she spun on her heels to face Phillips who was now only a step away.
Phillips froze. He had no other choice. Kono had a mace can only ten inches from his face with her finger ready on the trigger, and the look on her face was fierce. "You care to explain that, Officer Kalakaua?" He asked thru gritted teeth with an obviously angry tone to his voice. "The match was over and you took a cheap shot." He added, just in case she needed clarification.
Kono needed no clarification, she knew exactly why Phillips was mad. "You found my weakness,... and I found yours." She informed him without flinching.
Phillips expression changed to one of confusion. "Oh, what's that?" He asked with a suddenly pompous attitude.
Kono shook her head, "Nope. You first." She insisted, still not flinching or giving him any room for arguing.
He took a deep breath and started to move slightly, but she shifted with him and kept the mace pointed at his face. "Okay. Fine. I'll go first." He began, lifting his hands in a surrender motion, "When you jab with your right, you drop your left shoulder. This causes a shift in your weight, making it easier for me to knock you feet out from under you." He looked at her as if asking if she was satisfied with his answer. "Now it's your turn." He added, anxious to hear what excuse she would offer for the move that he knew she could have easily followed up on and caused more damage with.
Kono nodded slightly, satisfied with his critique. "Your hearing." Was all she said.
"What? What are you talking about?" He demanded while looking around confused.
"Your hearing." She repeated, then paused, "There's been no whistle yet." She explained, still not flinching since the match was not over.
Phillips eyes suddenly widened at the realization that she was right, and the murmuring could be heard by many of those standing around the edge of the mat, despite the loud cheers from Steve, Danny, and Chin.
Just then Agent Spencer blew the whistle and stepped onto the mat. "Officer Kalakaua," He said, addressing her. "I commend you on your excellent attention to detail. However, you were instructed to work within the parameters of what was on the mat. The weapons rack and the mace cans were not on the mat." He added, stating the obvious, which those standing around them were also surely thinking.
"That's true, sir." She agreed, putting the pin back in the can now that the match was truly over. "But you also told us to work with what we've got. And since what I needed wasn't 'in' bounds, ... I made it 'in'." She put the can down and looked up at Agent Spencer, "I never left the mat, as instructed. Since I couldn't get to the rack, I brought the rack to me." She paused and looked at Phillips, "You're the one who told us to work with what we've got." She added, then left the mat as Steve handed her a towel and water bottle, which she gratefully accepted.
THE END