A.N. – Hawaii Five-O belongs to CBS. No copyright infringement is intended. In memory of Harry Endo.
A Romantic Dinner Out
Friday, February 14, 1969
Che Fong stood in his bedroom getting ready for work, buttoning up his dress shirt then tucking its tails into his suit pants. As he picked up his watch from the dresser, he caught a glimpse of the framed sepia toned wedding portrait that had been displayed there for the past twenty-five years and paused. He carefully picked up the antique frame and really looked at the young couple staring back at him. Then he smiled wistfully and shook his head.
We looked like kids back then, especially Ling Li. And she's so beautiful! Where did the time go?
The years came flooding back into his thoughts; the good years, the hard times, the ups and downs of their shared life and the family they had raised together.
He set the framed portrait back on the dresser and looked around the bedroom of their comfortable middle class home. He thought about their first home: a tiny one room apartment furnished with hand-me-downs from their parents. Money was tight but they were blissfully happy. Che was in graduate school and Ling Li worked overtime whenever she could to pay his tuition and keep on top of the bills. Meals were often peanut butter sandwiches at the university lab. Che seemed to live in the lab in those days.
The forensic scientist looked in the mirror while he adjusted the neat Windsor knot in his tie. The prominent white hair at his temples and the creases around his eyes brought Che back to the present. When did I get this old? he wondered. The aroma of freshly brewing coffee and the sound of dishes clinking together brought Che out of his thoughts. Ling Li was in the kitchen preparing their breakfast. This would be their first Valentine's Day as empty nesters; their daughter and son were now grown and on their own. While the couple had adjusted to this new phase of life, Che wanted to do something special for the woman who so filled his heart – a romantic dinner at an expensive restaurant. He had made the reservation a week in advance.
o-o-o
Downtown traffic wasn't too bad and Che had enough time to stop at the florist on his way in to the HPD crime lab to pick up the corsage he had ordered. The plastic box would fit nicely into the lab refrigerator where the delicate flowers would stay fresh until that evening. Unfortunately, the light morning traffic would be the end of his good luck that day.
First, two of his techs called in sick, leaving him short-handed. Then the phone never seemed to stop ringing. He had to process three different crime scenes, which meant three separate trips through city traffic, one trip to the North Shore. At one location while casting foot prints near a pineapple field, a farm truck passed by and hit a large puddle from a recent shower, splattering red mud down the side of Che's pants. So much for wearing his nice clothes to work; now he would have to change before dinner. His time at the lab wasn't much better. Chemicals he had been expecting were on back-order, Bergman was less than pleasant on the phone when discussing samples taken from one of his 'customers' and somehow Che had managed to break an expensive volumetric flask, and he rarely broke glassware.
Would the day ever end? Che fingered the jade stone in the gold wedding ring on his left hand. He certainly didn't want to be in a foul mood for the special evening he had planned. Ling Li deserved this night out and so did he. He glanced up at the clock – almost five pm. He closed his eyes and took some calming breaths, releasing from his mind the frustrating events of the day. He retrieved the corsage box from the refrigerator and placed it on his desk. Just as he was about to remove his lab coat, the momentary peace was interrupted by the ringing telephone. He snatched up the receiver. "Crime lab, Che Fong," he answered.
"Che, Steve. We may finally have the goods on Charlie Gibson. We searched his place this afternoon and found what we believe are key documents that he tried to destroy. They're ripped up and partially burned, and I need you to do whatever you can to reconstruct the information: names, dates, account numbers, payoffs, it should all be there." Che could hear the urgency and determination in Steve's voice. The head of Five-O continued in a gentler tone. "I know it's late, Che, but it's really important. I need this before tomorrow. Danno's on his way and should be there soon."
The overworked scientist released a sigh that he hoped McGarrett couldn't hear over the phone. "Sure, Steve, I'll get on it right away. I'll give you a call when I'm finished." Che hung up the phone. Today of all days! Frowning, he picked up the phone again and dialed his home number. It wouldn't be the first time he'd called because he had to work late.
o-o-o
Ten minutes later, Dan Williams arrived at the lab and handed Che a large plastic bag containing what looked like large dirty confetti. The young detective noticed how tired the Chinese scientist looked and felt guilty that he was the one delivering the extra work. He felt even worse when he spotted the corsage box on the desk. It didn't take a detective to figure out that the man had special plans for the evening; plans that had to be canceled.
"Sorry, Che," Danny said sympathetically nodding toward the small box of flowers. "And make my apologies to Ling Li. If it makes you feel any better, we're working late, too."
"It doesn't," was Che's blunt reply. Then he gave the curly haired detective a half smile. "Sorry, Dan, it's just that it's been one of those days."
Danny returned the smile and said "That's okay. Good luck." Then he left the lab to return to the Palace.
Che took the bag containing the partially burned document to the large lab bench, switched on the long armed adjustable lamp and emptied and spread out the bits of paper. What a mess! Under different circumstances, this might have been an enjoyable challenge, but this was not the evening activity he had anticipated.
o-o-o
After twenty minutes of painstakingly sorting torn pieces of paper into burned and unburned piles then treating the burned scraps to preserve the edges, Che was getting hungry. And his hands were cramping from the meticulous work that had to be done with tweezers. He stopped to take a break and was rubbing his sore eyes when he heard a soft knock at the door.
"Come in," he answered wearily.
What happened next would one day become a favorite story he would tell his grandchildren. Ling Li walked into the lab carrying a small picnic basket. Instead of the elegant silk dress she had picked out to wear to the restaurant, she was dressed comfortably in jeans, sneakers and a casual aloha shirt. Completely surprised by his visitor, Che's face lit up at the welcome sight of his wife.
"Ling Li! I'm not going to be finished here for quite some time yet."
The petite woman parked the picnic basket on the desk then walked over to the lab bench, looked into her husband's tired eyes and slid into his arms.
"I know, my love, but you need to eat," Ling Li replied after a quick kiss. "I brought dinner."
"And I appreciate it, but I'll have to eat fast and get back to work," Che said, affectionately sliding his arm around her shoulder and walking her back to the desk.
"Explain to me what you're doing, maybe I can help," Ling Li offered as she unpacked a pair of peanut butter sandwiches, two ginger ales and a baggie filled with carrot sticks. Che proceeded to describe how he had been sorting through torn pieces of an important document and that the pieces would need to be reassembled like a puzzle so that the print could be read. When he saw the sandwiches, he laughed.
"What does this remind you of?" Che asked with a grin.
"Putting you through college!" was Ling Li's immediate answer, joining in her husband's laughter.
Then at the same time, they both said "I was just thinking about those days this morning!"
While it was not the Valentine's Day dinner they had originally planned, the simple supper proved to be romantic in a deeper way, more so than any crowded upscale restaurant could ever be. Eating peanut butter sandwiches in the lab transported them back in time to the early days of their marriage when Che was in school and their love was fresh and new. The stress and tension of his day evaporated with shared laughter and reminiscences.
After they finished eating, they both returned to the lab bench and worked side by side to reassemble the damaged documents. What had originally seemed like an impossible task became possible then easy as letters then words then paragraphs took shape in the scraps of paper. Ling Li's small agile fingers were a natural for the job.
Once the puzzle was complete, they carefully transferred the pieces to blank sheets of paper that had been treated with a spray-on adhesive. Then Che photographed each page before he phoned the Palace to let McGarrett know that they now had irrefutable physical evidence on Charlie Gibson.
o-o-o
Steve McGarrett dropped by the crime lab on his way home from the Palace. While he trusted Che's word that the difficult task had been successfully completed, he wouldn't be able to rest until he had seen the documents with his own eyes. When he walked purposefully into the lab, he was surprised to find that Che wasn't alone. The small scientist and his wife had been enjoying a lingering kiss and had quickly broken their embrace when they heard the doorknob turn. Perhaps they weren't quite fast enough.
"Hello Ling Li; I didn't expect to see you here," Steve warmly greeted Che's wife with a smile.
"Hi Steve," Ling Li replied with a twinkle in her eye. "Good to see you again."
The Five-O detective looked back and forth between the husband and wife. Both Fongs seemed rather giddy, and he strongly suspected that there was more going on here than just forensic work. "Did I interrupt something?" he asked wryly.
"Well, it is Valentine's Day," Che commented with a slight grin as he handed the big cop a stack of file folders containing the pieced together document pages. "It's all there, Steve."
"Thanks, Che. I'll leave you to…ah… whatever it was you were doing," Steve said, as he made a hasty exit.
Ling Li giggled at the exchange and in her husband's eyes, she looked nineteen again.
"Come on, dear, let's get out of here," Che said happily.
Ling Li started to pack up her basket then picked up the corsage box and looked wistfully at the pink roses and ribbon. "These flowers are beautiful, my love. Thank you so much."
"Too bad you didn't get to wear them," Che replied ruefully.
"That's okay, Che. I wouldn't trade our lab picnic for any fancy dinner out."
The simple honest response warmed Che's heart and in that moment, he felt like a teenager, too. He took Ling Li into his arms, looked into her beautiful brown eyes and whispered "Happy Valentine's Day, my love." Then he glanced at the corsage box and added "How about tomorrow we have a nice romantic breakfast out?"
Pau