Hi Everyone! So, once upon a time, I wrote a story called Low. Then, i started writing some timestamps for it. And now, over a year since the original was published, it's time for the official sequal! I hope you like it. Again, sorry to put Steve through so much. Also, to clarify, the reason Steve is part of the SEALs despite diabetes is because I decided he could be:) and that's the same reason he has so many issues with controlling his blood sugar, because it makes for a better story than if he was a completely stable diabetic. I know it's probably not 100% medically accurate, but, ah well, it's fiction.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this, nice short one to start us off. Chapter 2 will be out in the following days. Please let me know what you think, I hope someone is still interested in this Verse!
Rosexx

"Okay. Thank you for letting me know." Steve ended the call, phone slipping to the ground. Stay calm. He could do that much. He'd had the bad news delivered too many times, delivered it himself more than once. Stay calm. He knew how, had been through the highest pressure of situations without so much as a tremor in his trigger finger. Calm.

It was the hottest day of the year so far, but Steve was cold, so, so cold. His legs were shaking as he walked downstairs. Calm, he needed to be calm. And he was. He was calm as he tied up his shoes, calm as he stood. He was even calm as he put his fist through the drywall. Calm. That's something he could be. Even when he'd just gotten a call telling him that his sister is dead.

Steve was out the door running within five minutes of the call. Each thud of his feet on the pavement drowned out the ringing in his ears. Mary was dead. A drunk driver through a red light, DOA. It could have happened to anyone.

But it didn't, a voice in his head chimed. It happened to his sister, someone he swore to protect. Someone he failed. He didn't feel the heat of the day, the sweat rolling down his face, the ache in his legs. All he felt was a pain in his heart that refused to go away. If Mary had been living on the Island, she never would have been on the road she died on. If Steve had called her, maybe she would have been at home that night, talking to him, very much alive. Steve had failed, plain and simple. And now his sister was dead.

On a normal day, he would run maybe ten kilometres, depending on how he was feeling. But he wasn't stupid, logical enough to go in the early mornings before the Hawaiian heat was at its most lethal and if he was running longer he'd double back for something to get his blood sugar up before going on. But he was anything but clear headed. He'd already passed the turnaround point for his twenty-kilometre loop, and was fast approaching twelve kilometres from his house. His skin felt tight on his face and sweat ran down in continuous streams, as if was raining.
Mary.
He missed her. He never used to, not when she was alive. But no matter how far away they were physically, he knew she was on the other end of the phone. Now, all he'd get was voicemail. It was a painful substitution for the real thing.

The McGarrett siblings had never really gotten on. They bickered when they were children and had lived on opposite sides of the country since they were teens. But it was reassuring having someone, someone you could count on to be there no matter what had happened between you. It was lonely without them. He turned, feet crunching along the gravel, headed up the narrow mountain road. Lost in grief, he didn't hear the hum of a 4x4 coming from the distance.

Danny had dropped Grace off early that morning. They'd spent the Friday and Saturday together, but Step-Stan had planned a trip to the mainland and Grace was, apparently, going with him and Rachel. By the time he got home, it was well int Sunday morning so he was surprised when there was no breakfast dishes in the sink or notes from Steve saying he was of somewhere. He checked his phone; nothing there either. A smile spread across his face. It was a Sunday and Steve was surely still in bed. The smile grew wider and he made his way upstairs and into their room. It quickly faded when there was no one in the bed and by the time Danny had confirmed the bathroom d laundry were equally empty, worry was settling deep into his gut. His pulled his phone out again, making sure there was no messages he'd managed to miss. There wasn't. He scrolled to Steve's contact, called, waited until it went to voicemail. Left a message, tried again. He was starting to get more than worried. He walked through the house, called for the other man. It was then, as he walked back past the front door he saw the hole in the wall. He passed over Steve's contact and went to Chin's instead, and hit call.

Each step was taking more effort and the road was getting narrower. He turned around the bend and suddenly, there was noise and force and he was spilling off the side of the road, rolling down the incline. He tried to brace for the impact but his head was foggy it was all he could do to tuck his chin and follow the motion of his fall. He crashed between trees and rocks, jolted over a log and and rolled to a stop, exhaled. The breath left him, and as if his consciousness was a candle, that small breath extinguished it.

"Yeah Chin. I left this morning and he was still asleep but we were up pretty late so Grace and I agreed not to wake him. We had breakfast in town because she's going away and I dropped her off. But when I got back, he wasn't there."
"Chill Brah. I'm sure he's at the beach or something. Maybe he went for a run?"
"No. There's no dishes so he hasn't eaten much, if anything and we agreed that if he was going out by himself, he'd let me know where and when he'd left so I don't worry myself sick. But there's no note and he hasn't texted and I found his phone on the floor in the bedroom, and there's a hole by the door so newsflash, I'm worrying."
Danny heard the older man's breathing shift. "Alright. Stay calm or me. I'll call Kono and we'll be right over."
Danny looked around the hall, eyes roaming from the door to floor, to the hole in the wall to a room that showed no other signs of a struggle. Either someone had taken Steve and they'd been skilled enough to do so without him fighting back very much; or he'd left by himself, without eating or telling Danny where he'd gone, and still wasn't back. Either way it didn't look good. He took a deep breath, finger over the hang-up button on his screen.
"Hurry up. There's something wrong. I know there is."

Up the mountain, a man stepped out of his land rover. The grinding of gravel under heavy boots signalled his approach to the side of the track not a minute before Steve McGarrett had gone over. He gazed over the side of the incline, seeing, far below a body, not moving, blood pooling from various places, an arm out of place. He pulled out his phone, but his fingers did not go to call an ambulance. They hit speed dial.
"Boss? It's done. Both McGarrett's have been taken care of."

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Thanks for coming out.
Rose xx