Title: Consequence

Author: Annaliesegrace

Rating: Solid T, might have an M rated one down the line, you will as usual be reminded.

Disclaimer: In a stunning development, I don't own the characters, just the situation.

Summary: Actions have consequences, which Steve and Kono learn the hard way.

AN: Well, readers, I'm back! Did you miss me? This is set in Season Three though I have NOT yet seen an ep of this season; they are sitting on my DVR waiting for the husband and I to have time to watch. So there might be some stuff in here that contradicts the show.

Also, if you are interested I am now on Twitter (username there same as my author name here) I might post ETAs for chapters, thoughts and even snippets of chapters if you'd like to follow. I'll probably comment on all the shows I'm currently watching also.

Consequences are unpitying – George Eliot

Initially Steve was hesitant to bring Catherine onto the task force, not because he doubted her capabilities, but because there was something jarring about seeing someone once every couple months then suddenly having them around all the time.

But it had worked out…eventually.

Danny had (unsurprisingly) been wary and hesitant and cranky but she had earned his trust and faith once he realized that while she was former military she wasn't quite as…severe as Steve. She was fun and laughed a lot (sometimes even at Steve). Chin had welcomed her as well but at the time he had been dealing with Malia's death and had been pretty lost in himself. So the two didn't have much in the way of interaction.

Kono…Kono had been her normal accepting self, completely non-pulsed by the other woman's entrance to the team. They had struck up a good friendship after everything with his Mom had simmered down.

Steve was still adjusting though, mostly because the team naturally assumed they were still dating, and while neither of them had confirmed the notion; they hadn't exactly done anything to dispel it either. She spent most nights at his house, even though she had her own apartment (found with Kono's assistance). They both seemed content to allow their relationship to be undefined as neither of them were comfortable labeling it, especially since they were still muddling through seeing each other on a regular basis and figuring out their place with each other.

Even with the unclear aspect of their personal relationship, Steve finally felt like his world was finally in order. Wo Fat was in solitary, his Mom was alive and well, and the team was functioning like a well-oiled machine.

He should have known it would all come crashing down.

Warrant in hand, Chin pushed through the double doors into the 5-O offices. Kono was at the smart table with Danny, Steve and Catherine were in their offices.

"Got it!" he yelled and Steve was up and meeting him at the table in no time.

"Nice…do I want to know?"

Chin smirked, "Probably not."

"Let's go," Danny said and started to push away from the table.

"Wait…" Kono started and the detective stopped. "If we go in guns blazing he will know we are on his trail, maybe we need the element of surprise here."

Steve nodded, she had a point. They had been carefully tracking the movements of one Edward Bloomquest. A mainlander who had moved to Hawaii five years ago and quickly became a successful real estate mogul. The only problem was he was suspected of getting in deep with drugs and prostitution; moving both around the island.

Finally they had accumulated enough evidence that Chin was able to squeeze out a warrant, though just barely. And it was limited to one club he owned. If they wanted more they needed to find something there and possibly expand the scope of the warrant to other properties and his home.

But if they went in guns blazing Bloomquest would know they were onto him and probably destroy anything before the next warrant could be typed.

In this case it was better to go in quiet, get what they needed without being noticed and get out.

"Looks like we are going clubbing…" Kono said happily and smiled at the annoyed face Steve was sporting. He hated these kind of undercover assignments with a passion, and honestly, he kinda stunk at them.

It didn't take long to determine that they needed three on the inside, two to look through and gather records in the office and one to keep an eye out. The last two would be relegated to surveillance in the van and back up as needed. Steve insisted on being one of the two to rifle through the office and decided that Kono was best suited to go with him, if a computer needed hacking she was the best at it.

Catherine agreed to be lookout and they broke apart to get ready.

Kono assessed her outfit in the main area, jeans, a loose fitting sparkly cream shirt and her normal slip on shoes. The last item could be a problem. They were going to a fairly high-class nightclub…

Catherine seemed to realize the problem as Kono's gaze lingered on her feet and disappeared into her office, reappearing with black stilettos for the other woman. Catherine was already wearing low-heeled shoes that were at least somewhat appropriate and she had changed into a tighter t-shirt that was probably in her office as extra clothes.

"I think were the same size," she said and Kono slipped the shoes on. And she was reminded why she so rarely wore heels. At nearly five eleven, she towered over most people as it was, with the heels she was easily over six feet.

"Thanks…" she said and smiled. Kono really liked Catherine, she was friendly and easy-going and they had instantly bonded over their common denominator, being women on an elite task form. Well, that and Steve. They frequently had a laugh about his sometimes insane behavior and Catherine often shared parts of their private lives that Kono was confident Steve would not want broadcast. Not that she ever would, but it showed how much Cath trusted her that she would even share.

It was then that Steve walked to the smart board and he came to a sudden stop when he realized Kono was now eye to eye with him. His gaze drifted to her feet, then to Catherine (clearly he recognized the shoes), but said nothing about it.

The women shared a glance and smiled at each other. Steve hadn't bothered changing his attire: cargo pants, t-shirt, boots. It would have to work.

Steve and Kono were finishing round one of beers when Catherine's voice came over the comms.

"Office is empty, Bloomquest just left."

That was their cue and in complete sync they put the bottles down and stepped away from the bar they had been standing around with devilish looks on their faces. Thankfully the office they targeted was down a long hallway, past the bathrooms so it was easy enough to pretend they were going that way before diverting to the office whose lock was picked with shocking ease and Kono blocking anyone's view of what Steve was doing. To both their surprise the hallway did not appear to have a camera.

When she heard the soft "snick" of the lock giving, Kono turned and followed him in and wordlessly they divided the work up, Kono immediately going to the computer and firing it up, Steve looking through file cabinets.

They had been working in silence a solid fifteen minutes when Catherine was back in her ear, "Our man is heading your way slowly, wrap it up."

"Come on…" she hissed at the computer.

Immediately Steve was at her side, watching as the indicator on the monitor moved from 88% to 90%. Kono had easily found what they needed on the laptop and was copying most of the files to a USB drive.

"Cath?" Steve asked.

"He's talking with someone, but I'd hurry."

91%

Now Steve leaned over farther, well into her personal space and Kono was suddenly on edge by his nearness. The air around them suddenly felt…thicker, heavy with something she couldn't quite identify. He must have sensed it also because he subtly moved back as the display jumped to 95%.

Now he hissed at the machine, "Come on."

"Guys, he's heading your way…two minutes, max."

"Shit," Steve muttered and as if on cue the display moved to 99%. That's when he started looking around the room for alternate methods of departure; there were none. Not even a god damned window. They were boxed in.

An excited "Yes" pulled Steve from his thoughts in time to see Kono yank the small device from the side of the laptop and slip it into the front pocket of her jeans as she stood and returned the machine to its original state.

"Heading down the hallway…"

They were trapped and Steve made a decision that would change absolutely everything.

Without warning he gripped her upper arm and pressed her against the wall next to the door, she looked shocked for a second until meeting his eyes and reading where he was going with this.

Then his lips met hers and all hell broke loose.

The kiss started fairly chaste and gentle and a lot unsure, but it was as if a switch was turned on between them at the contact. And it was more than just a spark of something; it was a raging fire, consuming them both with heat.

It didn't take long for the kiss to turn the corner to passionate and hard and unleash a fury of desire and need and want that she had never felt before in her life. Her hands moved up to his t-shirt, clinging to it tightly, her fingernails scraping his chest through the material. His hands slipped under her cream colored shirt, palms meeting the smooth, hot skin of her back that Steve thought he could touch forever.

He pulled away for just the barest of seconds, his eyes locked on hers, finding confusion and want mixed together in them, a mirror image of his own roiling emotions.

Then he was back on her, lips attacking hers at first then moving to the skin of her neck and they both forgot why they were even in this position, forgot about the assignment and teammates that could surely hear what was going on between them. They were lost in a haze of something they weren't aware had even existed; something powerful and real and taking on a life of its own. And neither of them could quite remember feeling the desperate need and heat that was between them now with anyone else.

Somewhere in the back of Steve's head he knew that at any second Bloomquest would walk through that door, but with Kono under him, squirming and sighing he couldn't care less. And he could delude himself into thinking it was all for the cover, but what he did next was purely out of instinct (and would sell the cover that much more) and want.

Because that's when his hands slipped farther under her shirt and grasped, pulling it up over her head, pinning the material and her wrists that were wrapped in it against the wall above her head. After taking a moment to appreciate her in just a bra his lips found her collarbone and his tongue the dip at her throat and oh God, she tasted like sun and sand and life. The soft moan that came from her throat as he moved down her breastbone was nearly his undoing.

And then the door opened, the haze was broken and Steve snapped back into cop-mode, pushing Kono behind him to cover her topless state.

"What the fuck are you doing in here!" Bloomquest boomed.

Steve pulled himself together and managed a sheepish look. "Oh, sorry man. We were just looking for a place to…uh…you know, be alone…"

Kono was slipping the shirt back over her head as Bloomquest leaned around Steve, an appreciative look on his face for just a brief second. Something primal in Steve reared up at the other man's leering but he pushed it down. Now was not the time.

"Well get the hell out, the door says "Private". There's a motel two blocks down."

"Yeah, yeah," Steve said and reached back, grabbed her hand and led her out of the office.

They passed Catherine in the hall still holding hands and nodded at her, the sign they had what they needed and were pulling out.

Catherine didn't miss the vaguely guilty look on Kono's face or the confused one on Steve's.

When they got back to HQ, Kono plugged in the USB drive to the smart board and starting downloading the files they had retrieved. Noting it was going to take a couple minutes she got up and decided to return the shoes to Catherine.

Knocking on the other woman's door, she held up the stilettos and smiled. "Thanks for the loan," she said and placed them on the floor next to Cath's desk. Kono started to turn toward the door then quickly changed her mind, completing a 180 so she was facing the other woman again. "Look, Cath, about tonight…"

Catherine gave her a wide, genuine smile. "Don't worry about it, really. Crap happens, it wasn't real."

Kono swallowed hard, it had certainly felt real to her, she could still feel his hands on her sides, his lips on her body, and it was distracting really. But she could hardly tell the other woman that. "No, no it wasn't."

"Ok then."

Kono nodded and left the office, sitting back down at the smart table. The conversation and Catherine's words didn't help though, she still felt guilty and she couldn't quite figure out why.

Steve watched Kono go into Catherine's office and then leave a couple minutes later, he couldn't keep his eyes off her. After that kiss it was like a switch had been turned on between them and now electricity was flowing freely, dangerously. One wrong move, though, and they would get burned. He wasn't sure if the electricity he felt while kissing her was from the danger of the situation or something else.

Steve was not one to let something fester, preferring to confront things head on so he stood and headed out to the main area, to her.

"Hey, how's it going?" he asked as he approached and stood next to her. It was still there, this unexplainable pull toward her and there was that buzz of electricity between them, just under the surface, waiting for something to ignite it.

She could feel it too, that…urge to touch him, to feel him again. Kono shook it off as remains from the encounter in the office. "Um, slow. There was a lot of data; I'm trying to sift through it."

She looked up and caught his gaze, those dark blue eyes focused on her and behind them was something dangerous for them both. Curiosity. He reached out to touch her arm and she physically stepped back, clearly unwilling to test the nature of the unexpected physical reaction they'd had toward each other.

Besides, they were both in relationships, even if Steve was reticent to openly admit that he and Catherine were a couple.

So she shook her head. "No..."

"Kono…" he started.

"Don't Steve…"

Glancing around to ensure they were still alone he leaned in toward her, keeping is voice low. "What happened back there…"

"Was nothing." She cut off and stared at him hard.

"Was something, you felt it to."

"Doesn't matter if I did."

"Yeah, it does, we should talk about…"

Now she leaned in toward him, their faces inches apart and oh, the urge to close the space and kiss him again, to feel that again was nearly overwhelming. Then she thought of Adam and Catherine - who was still in her office – and shook her head.

"There's nothing to talk about, Steve."

"Kono-"

Chin's voice interrupted him before he could get far and Steve pulled back from her.

"Find anything yet, cuz?" He asked and looked at them…really looked and noticed the standoffish body language from Kono and the frustration on Steve's face. "You guys ok?"

They both turned toward him and Kono smiled but he could tell it wasn't a genuine one. "Yep, good. I'm still organizing data, probably be a couple hours before we find anything good."

"Need help?" he asked while sending Steve a pointed, wondering, look.

The team leader consulted his watch. "Let's pick this up tomorrow, it's nearly midnight now. Better with fresh eyes."

Kono took the out. "Sounds good, I'll lock up the drive and dig in in the morning. Night guys."

With that she pulled the flash drive and disappeared into her office, Steve watched her go, his emotions more unsettled then they were before.

"You sure everything is good with you guys? You know, after-"

Now it was Steve avoiding. "Yep, great."

TBC

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