Breaking Point

Chapter One

Zebraboymom

Disclaimer: They do not belong to me. Jeepers!

Author Notes: Steve is in trouble. My son gave me the title for this one and is very interested in it. So, thanks Zach. This one's for you shirik! I promised you the next story would have an injured Steve in it. Let the Steve hurt begin.

Wednesday morning the Five-0 team wandered in as usual to find an empty office. That was surprising. Steve was never late. He was always leaning over the computer looking at data, sipping coffee, waiting to give them all a greeting and sometimes tapping his watch and teasing anyone who was late. After all three other teammates arrived they devised a plan to tease him mercilessly. When ten minutes went by, it was still no big deal. When half an hour went by they all looked at each other. Danny called Steve's cell, but it rang and rang before going to voice mail.

"Is there any chance he's with a woman?"

"No way. He and Catherine broke up when she shipped out last month."

Kono's head went up. This was news to her.

"I say we keep calling him, but we head over to his house."

The three of them headed for Danny's car. Kono continued to call Steve, but it went to voice mail over and over.

"Something is definitely wrong. Steve always answers his phone."

Kono nodded her head in agreement and left a voicemail telling Steve they were on their way to his house and to call them as soon as he got the message. Kono tried to hide her fear in the backseat. She was pretty sure that call was not going to come. She had a bad feeling.

When the team arrived at Steve's house, they knew instantly what had happened. His front door was gone, completely torn off its hinges, and his living room was the scene of what must have been an incredible fight. Steve had not gone willingly. Who would do this? The problem was, there was a list of people a mile long. All of them had an axe to grind with Steve. They had to assume it was directed at him only, since none of rest of the team had been taken.

Danny looked over at Kono. Her eyes were wide and she looked around the room in shock. Se reached down and gingerly picked up the smashed frame that held Steve's favorite picture of himself and his dad. Kono slipped the picture out of the destroyed frame and looked at it. She could feel herself stifling a sob. She bit her cheek and turned her back quickly to the guys, pretending to show an interest in some of the objects on the floor. Her movements and reactions were not lost on Danny. This was hitting her hard. He guessed it was the first time she had ever lost a teammate. He called in the forensics team and then contacted the governor. She told Danny that every resource he needed to find Steve was available. She would even call the FBI. Danny told her how the house looked. It didn't look good. It didn't look good at all. The team split up and Danny stayed at the scene while Chin and Kono went back to HQ to start pulling files on criminals Steve had put away. When he finally got back two hours later, they had news. Kono was not happy about what they had found out.

"Victor Hesse escaped from prison last night. Guess who his last visitor was right before he escaped? Mr. Wo Fat. Hesse came after Steve. You know it was him. We're wasting time even talking about it anymore. It's got to be Hesse or Hesse and Wo Fat together. I know it. They have Steve and no telling what he's doing to him right now. We have to find him fast!"

Daany and Chin exchanged a look.

"I'm going down to the lab and find out if they found anything at Steve's house. I'll be back as soon as I know anything."

Kono could feel Chin's eyes on her as Danny left. She turned away from him to stand looking out the window. She swiped away the angry tears starting to fall down her face.

"Talk to me Cousin."

"I…I can't."

"I haven't seen you this emotional in a long time. What's going on?"

"Nothing…I just…"

Chin walked up to her side and saw the tears running down her cheeks. He took her by the shoulders and turned her to face him.

"Kono do you have feelings for Steve?'

"No! What makes you say that?"

"You forget, I grew up with you and I know you don't cry over just anything."

Kono wouldn't look up. After a few moments she slowly nodded her head. Chin took her in his arms and hugged her.

"Honey, I had no idea. You have never once made me suspect you felt anything but friendship for him."

"Pretty good actress, huh?" Her shoulders shook.

"Yeah. You fooled me and I'm sure you fooled Danny and Steve as well. Does he know how you feel about him?"

"No and I want to keep it that way Chin. If Steve knew how I felt, he might ask me to leave the team and I couldn't stand that. I'd rather be his friend and stay on the team than to take a chance on telling him and have him fire me."

"Give the guy some credit. You have to tell him how you feel whether he returns those feelings or not. You're too good to spend your life pining for someone you'll never have, and you'll never have him if you don't tell him."

"What if we don't find him? I never will get to tell him how I feel."

"Let's cross that bridge when we come to it, okay?"

"Okay."

"Now, let's not leave any stone unturned. Victor has to have property on the island. He took Steve somewhere. We just have to figure out where."

Kono wiped her eyes.

"I'll start pulling all his property records for the last five years."

Only thirty minutes later, Kono found a deed for a small pineapple farm going out towards the Dole Pineapple Plantation. They called Danny who was still in the lab. Nothing had come of the forensic evidence. He hurried back and they put together a team to accompany them to the plantation. The governor let them pull SWAT guys and snipers. It was an awesome team. Chin wasn't surprised. He suspected the governor thought of Steve as a son of sorts. An hour later they were stationed around the main facility. Danny looked through binoculars and spotted heavily armed guards around a smaller building to the side of the main one. He suspected that was where they were holding Steve, if he was still alive. Danny looked at Chin and Kono who was practically dancing with nerves. He had never seen her like this. She was usually very calm right before an operation like this. He had a suspicion something more was going on here, but now wasn't the time to address it. They needed to get to Steve before it was too late. He sent Kono's team around the back of the facility and he and Chin took theirs to the front.

Steve slowly came around to find himself tied down to a table. The last thing he remembered was the sound of his front door being rammed down and at least five guys coming at him at once. He fought as hard as he could but he was outnumbered. He had eventually passed out from the pain of the beating he was getting and gave up the fight. Now he found himself alone in the room. He looked around with the one eye he could still open. He definitely did not like what he saw. The room was some sort of torture chamber. There were surgical tools, a winch hanging over a huge galvanized tub of water and several car batteries hooked up to various tools of torture. He tried to wrap his mind around what he was about to endure, but all he wanted to know was who and why. His questions didn't take long to be answered. The door swung open and Victor Hesse, his father's murderer stood grinning in the doorway.

"How did you get out?"

"Oh, I had the help of an old friend. You may know him. Wo Fat."

"You know my people will find you."

"Maybe, but by then it will be too late. We have some time, so I plan to enjoy every minute of this."

He walked over to the table and snapped on a pair of latex gloves. He picked up a hot iron bar that was hooked to one of the batteries and as Steve strained to break free from the restraints, he laid it across his bare stomach. Steve grimaced and growled and tried to pull away. Hesse laughed and reached for his right hand.

"Ah, the shooting hand."

He bent two fingers back breaking them instantly. Steve bit down hard on his lower lip and grimaced. He was determined not to scream and give this guy the satisfaction. All he could focus on was how this man shot his father in cold blood. He started fighting so hard his wrists began to bleed. Hesse burned him several more times with the hot iron pipe. The more Hesse tortured him, the madder he got and the harder he fought almost pulling the table over. Unfortunately it was chained to the floor and his efforts were useless. His legs were bound together and hooked to the winch. Hesse turned it on and lifted Steve off the table. He knew he had some broken ribs because it hurt like hell. When Steve was stretched until his wrists hurt, Hesse undid them from where they were tied above his head and with the rope attached to them pulled them hard behind his back. He was tied up like a pig. Steve was swung off the table and then lowered into the water. He struggled at first, but then realized he needed to conserve his air. Hesse watched him until he saw him start thrashing again. Finally as Steve started to loose consciousness, he raised him up. He repeated the process until Steve was half drowned and then returned him to the table. Some of the fight had gone out of him. Hesse rolled the tray of surgical tools over.

"Now for the main event. I'm going to cut you at first until I build up to actually gutting you. It's kind of ironic, don't you think? The idea of you being shall we say, gutless."

"You're the gutless one. Why don't you untie me and we'll end this the honorable way, man-to-man. Your afraid aren't you?"

Steve couldn't help baiting the man. Victor sliced the scalpel across his arm and it started to bleed profusely. He continued to slice him across the chest and stomach and then he held the scalpel to his neck.

"Beg me to end this and I will. One slice across here and you'll bleed out almost immediately."

Steve could feel himself getting weaker and weaker from the loss of blood. He wouldn't last too much longer if Hesse kept it up. He hoped he blacked out before it got really bad. He thought about his team. He wished he could have told them all good-bye. He and Chin were just starting to mesh and he and Danny were really friends now. His biggest regret was Kono though. He closed his mind to Hesse and tried to picture her sitting on the tech table edge with her ankles crossed, smiling that big dimply smile of hers. He had fallen quite hard for her, but hadn't had the nerve to tell her. At this point it seemed likely he never would. He would never get to hold her or kiss her or tell her he thought he was in love with her. That was something he had only dreamed about. He felt himself start to tear up. He fought it as best he could. He didn't want Victor to think he was crying because of anything he was doing to him.

"I'm not afraid of you Victor. You have no soul. My team will find me and when they do I'm going to see to it that you never get out of prison again."

Steve saw the flash of anger in Victor's eyes as he lifted the scalpel and aimed at his stomach. Steve tried to stay awake, but he felt his eyes slipping closed. He was so weak. Just then there was a commotion outside and he heard gunfire. Hesse looked sick as the back door swung open the rest of the way.