"How is she?" he asked quietly as he heard his office door slowly close behind him.
"She's okay. Chin is with her. I don't think they'll admit her, but not sure yet," Officer Lori Weston answered just as quietly. He barely nodded as she stood in the awkward silence for a moment, looking at the back of her boss as he stared vacantly out the window, absently clenching and unclenching the fist that he'd used on Captain Fryer.
"You should ice that," she finally said as she left him alone again to get him some ice. She didn't even know if he'd heard her.
She didn't know him that well yet – at all really – but, she definitely got the impression that you don't mess with those that he is close to, and that he took it hard when one of his own was in trouble.
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Kono sat quietly on the examining table as the nurse and doctor worked on her wounds; various bruises and abrasions from the fight at the bank, and a fairly deep grazing from a bullet to her right upper arm from Delano.
The doctor and nurse exchanged glances and then looked over at Chin who was sitting in the chair beside her and watching her intently. Kono was barely reacting to the sting of the antiseptic solutions and probing, cleaning and suturing of the graze wound.
"Okay, looks like you're all set. Luckily, the bullet grazed your upper arm without doing any damage that won't heal on its own. We'll give you a tetanus booster and antibiotics, and show you how to clean the wound and change the bandage. Keep the sling on for a couple of days so you don't rip any sutures, but then you can remove it if you're comfortable. You should follow up with your own doctor in a couple of days just to make sure there's no problem, and the sutures need to come out in about 10 days. You can go back to your doctor, or we can do that here," the doctor told her as he finished with the last of the bandage and the sling.
The doctor then turned to Chin. "Will she be staying with you for now?"
Chin started to answer, but Kono cut him off. "No. I'll be fine at home," she said tiredly. "Just need some food and some sleep."
Chin saw the look of concern on the doctor's face – knowing that the adrenaline would wear off soon and she'd be alone to face the shock her body and mind had gone through a few hours ago.
Chin nodded to the doctor, stood and shook his hand. "Thanks, Doc. I'll take care of her; make sure she's okay."
"Okay, then. Jessie here will get your paperwork in order and your prescriptions. You should get them filled on the way home. I'll include a little pain medicine – you might start hurting when the lidocaine wears off," the doctor finished, signing the papers and handing the chart off to the nurse who went off to finish the discharge paperwork.
He turned back to Kono. "Officer, would you like to speak with someone? I can arrange to have someone come down and talk to you. You've been through something pretty horrific if the news accounts are any indication. And, I'm sure they only touched the surface."
She looked at the doctor. "Thanks, I'll be fine. If I have any trouble, I have people I can go to," she said, looking at her cousin and getting a confirming smile in return.
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Danny was headed towards Steve's office as Lori came from the kitchen area with a bag of ice and some antiseptic and a bandage for Steve's hand.
"I'll take it in," he said, holding out his hands to take the items from her. "A little man to man talk, if you know what I mean," he said, meaning she hadn't done anything wrong he just wanted a chance to talk to Steve. No one had said anything on the way back to the office and he knew that Steve was slowly simmering – and hurting – inside. He wasn't one to let his emotions show.
"Okay – he should clean the cuts on his knuckles first and then ice his hand," she said, handing Danny off the supplies. Truth be told, she was relieved at not having to go back into the tension-filled room. "I'll get started on some paperwork. There'll be plenty of that," she told Danny as he tipped his head in thanks to her.
Danny turned and walked into Steve's office. Steve had moved from the window and was now sitting on the couch in his office, a clipboard on his lap and pen in hand, trying to get started on the paperwork. The only work going on right now was whatever he was working out in his mind while leaning his elbow on the arm of the couch and massaging his temple with the fingers on his good hand.
He was brought back to his office by the sound of Danny closing the door and clearing his throat. He held up the ice and medical supplies.
"You need to clean out those knuckles and ice your hand – it looks pretty puffy," Danny told him, putting the items on the desk for him. Steve glanced down at his hand as if noticing the wounds for the first time. He flexed his fingers, noticing the stiffness and soreness for the first time.
"Thanks," he said, putting the clipboard and pen to the side and sliding forward on the couch to reach the supplies. Danny watched him for a moment going through the motions of cleaning his wounds, throwing the used cotton swabs soaked with antiseptic into the garbage can and wincing at the sting the solution caused.
"She's okay," Danny said to him, finally breaking the awkward silence. He nodded as he finished bandaging his knuckle and sat back on the couch putting the ice bag on the back of his hand and letting the cold seep in to numb the newly noticed pain.
"I just talked to Chin, she wants to go to her place, so Chin's going to stay there with her, at least for tonight. She fought him on it, but he wasn't going to give up, so she gave in instead," Danny informed him further.
"Good," Steve said. "She shouldn't be alone anymore," he said, looking around his office.
"That was a choice she made, Steven," he corrected his boss. "She made the decision on her own to work with Fryer. He tricked her into it by threatening her with us – that he'd go after all of us with investigations. He got to her when she was vulnerable and she was trying to protect us," he finished.
"I know, Danny. I just wish she would've come to me about it. Jesus, Danny, we could have killed her today!" Steve finished angrily, rising to his feet to pace.
"But, we didn't. Thank God, we didn't. We just need to let her know that we're there for her – no matter what. I know you feel like you've let her down – you think you're the papa bear of this group. And you are to some extent, but we're all adults here and she's got to learn that she has people backing her up. I think she realizes that now, but she was just trying to protect us from IA.
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Chin sat outside on the porch of Kono's house. He had brought her home from the hospital a couple hours ago. She said she wanted to get cleaned up and lay down. She was very quiet, but Chin decided to give her some space to process everything. He'd told her that he was going to go get some food for them and be back in a little bit.
When he'd gotten back from the store, he put things away and went back to the bedroom to check on her. He'd found her lying down on top of the covers of her bed sleeping with her right arm propped with a pillow under it. He'd gently put a blanket over her and decided to let her sleep a little bit longer before starting to make them something to eat. He didn't care what she'd wanted, he wasn't leaving her alone – at least not for tonight.
So, he was sitting on the front porch, feeling a slight breeze and watching the sun slowly begin to set. He saw the familiar blue pickup truck come around the corner and slow to a stop in front of the house. He watched Steve get out of the truck, stick something in his pocket and walk toward the steps.
As he climbed the stairs to the porch he nodded at Chin before settling against the railing. "Danny and Lori said they let her come home. How is she?" he asked.
"She's okay for now, Steve. She's been very quiet – hasn't said more than two words I don't think. She's been lying down since we got back from the hospital, but I was gonna make some dinner and wake her up," Chin answered. "Care to stay for dinner?"
"Um, not sure she wants me here. Okay if I go in and try to talk to her?" he asked as Chin stood up.
"Yeah, bra…. She thinks you're mad at her I think," he answered. "Go ahead - the room on the left of the front room."
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Steve went through the front door, quietly closing it behind him. He looked around the front room and saw her surf boards in one corner, sand from the beach that had dried after she'd brought them in on the floor in front of them. He noticed some pictures around the room; pictures of Kono with some of her friends – looked like high school friends and some of when she was on the surf circuit. She seemed so young, but she'd seen so much in just the short time she'd been with 5-0.
He looked toward the hallway, took a deep breath and quietly walked toward her room. He quietly pushed the door open just enough to see in. She wasn't on the bed, but he could see a figure sitting in the corner chair, feet curled up under her, and looking out the window. He took a couple of steps into the room.
"Hey," he said almost in a whisper as she looked toward him. She'd heard his truck pull up and saw him get out of it from the window of her room. She heard his footsteps coming toward her room. He was trying to be so quiet, but there's no hiding the sound of those boots he wore all the time she thoughtm smiling to herself. Her stomach had tightened as she heard him approach.
"Hey," she said back.
"You okay? Need anything?" he asked, taking another step closer, noticing the wetness on her cheeks.
She drew in a ragged breath and he knew that she'd been crying. "You hurting, Kono?" he asked with concern.
"Yeah, brah, but not from the fight," she answered, finally looking him in the eye.
They remained quiet for a moment, just looking at each other. "Kono, I'm glad you're okay," he started.
"I'm sorry," she said at the same time.
"What? Sorry about what, Kono?" he said. "You didn't do anything wrong," he told her.
"I should have come to you guys. I know that now, but Fryer came at me so hard. I didn't know what end was up. And then, the deeper I got in and told Fryer I wanted to talk to you guys, the more he pressured me, the more he threatened to take down 5-0," she said, the jumble of words just tumbling out of her mouth at him. He didn't even think she'd taken any breaths through all of that.
He quickly approached her, sank to his knees in front of her. She had her face in her hands now, it was all flooding her; the events of the last couple of weeks and especially the last day. Steve moved closer to her, leaned in and put his forehead against the top of her head, an arm around her shaking shoulders.
"Shhhh, its okay, Kono. Just let it go," he said, feeling her lean into him. "Fryer shouldn't have taken advantage of you. You don't have the experience, he shouldn't have put you anywhere near that situation," he said, the anger rising again.
She remembered him screaming at Fryer back at HQ, "She's a year and half; a year and a half out of the Academy! We opened fire on her today, she could have been killed. I would never do that!" She knew right then that Steve, Chin and the team would take over and get her out of it. She'd seen that determination and anger before and it never ended well…. for whoever was on the receiving end of it.
After a few more minutes, with no words spoken between them, Steve leaned back and pulled Kono's chin up to look at him. "You're okay. You handled everything great. I'm so proud of you. But, I hope you know now that you have a family in 5-0. We'll always have each other's backs." With that, he leaned back on his feet and reached into his pocket. He pulled out her badge and offered it back to her. "For when you're ready, Kono. Take as long as you need." He placed the badge in her hand and closed her fingers around it, holding her hand within his for a moment.
She laughed, nodded her head, wiped the tears from her eyes and face, took a deep breath. Chin, who had been standing just outside the door came into the room. "Hey, anyone hungry? We've got a room full of friends out here waiting to eat," they hadn't heard the rest of the team coming into the house, and just now noticed something delicious cooking in the kitchen.
They turned to look at him and in unison replied, "Yeah, brah! Let's eat!"
The End -