Hey Guys, this is my first story so please go easy on me. And just to clarify a few things:

1- This is set after the Season 2 finale.

2- Although it does so, it does not follow the current Season 3 plot line, so you could say its AU.

3- There is no Catherine, because to be perfectly honest i'm not really her biggest fan.

And last but not least - This is a McKono story, it may just take a while for them to realize it themselves

Anyway... I hope you enjoy the first chapter, it's rather short though so i do apologize for that.

It was dark.

So dark.

Darker than she could remember it ever being.

But then again she wasn't really surprised.

Waking up in the middle of the night had become a regular occurrence for her now. It was the same thing every night. The same dream, the same man pushing her into her beloved ocean and the same sweat covered body that would jump up in bed.

Looking on into the darkness of her room.

She was sure she had died that night. She had accepted it, she acknowledged the fact that she probably wasn't going to live, she wasn't going to get to catch any more waves, she wasn't going to make it to that dinner date she had with Kelly and she wasn't going to ever see her family again. Her family, her mother, father, her brothers, Chin, Danny, Grace, Steve. She wasn't going to get to live. She was going to die and she had accepted that. Ironic she had barely lived, a short twenty four years on the earth and she had already accepted that she was going to die. She was going to drown in the ocean she loved so much.

Her breathing was still erratic; her chest rose and fell along with them. She could feel her hair stuck to her forehead, damp from her perspiration and her body shook in cold shocks and her hands were gripping her sheets so tightly her knuckles were white.

She could hear the ocean outside her balcony. The waves hitting against the shore. It used to calm her, now? It only frightened her more; her once favourite sound now brought her nothing but pain.

Her room was dark.

Really dark.

The only source of light coming into her room was the moonlight shining in through her curtains.

But it barely lit anything.

One thing it did light?

A reflection.

Her reflection.

But it wasn't really her. No, she didn't recognise the girl, the frightened girl staring back at her.

She didn't recognise who was staring back at her.

She didn't recognise herself.

"Victim's name is Damien Hood, 54, divorced, 3 kids"

"The guy's completely normal, why kill him?"

"Nothing came back on his background check. No suspicious contacts, no secret affairs, her the guy even volunteered at the children's hospital. The guy's squeaky clean."

"What about his financials?"

There was a beat of silence. The three men standing around the smart table glanced at the slim woman sitting on the stool, her head resting on her hands, her gaze blankly staring ahead.

"Kono?"

"Kono?"

"Cuz?"

The brunette jumped at the louder voice, her attention snapping back to the case in front of her.

"Um sorry. Nothing, there was nothing on his financials. The normal spending accounts, business accounts, even had a donation account. The guy spent millions on various different charities"

Chin gave her another look. She recognised that one, it was the same on her father had on his face when he saw her lying on that hospital bed, the same one her brothers had, the same look Steve and Danny looked at her with. Like she was broken, like she was a doll that could be smashed at any moment, at the most delicate of touches. She hated that look; she hated it more than anything. She hated it because she knew they were right, she was broken. She had been since the event six months ago.

Steve and his mother had patched things up in a month.

Danny had gained shared joint custody of Grace in two.

Malia had left the hospital and gone back to Chin in three.

What about her? She had had complications. Water in her lungs, something about an infected cut she had suffered on a piece of coral as she tried to swim for her life. Three fractured ribs, a strained wrist, and a broken ankle all from the beating she received before he decided to push her to her death. And her trauma. Her post traumatic stress she still couldn't quite control.

It seemed everyone was on their way to healing. Everyone except her.

Steve and his mother.

Danny and his daughter.

Chin and his wife.

Who did she have?

Adam?

No, she'd made it quite clear it wasn't going to work. Her relationship with him just wasn't good. Not for her, not for him, not for them. She didn't love him; she loved the way she thought she could fix him. But she was more broken than he was, so just how was she supposed to help Adam when she couldn't even help herself?

"Kono!"

Her attention popped back to Danny, who was giving her a curious look. Curiosity, pity it seemed all the same to her now.

"You keep zoning out on us there sparky. The case too boring for you?" Danny teased a playful smile on his face.

Any other day she'd have smiled back, maybe even have laughed but she was just too exhausted to care.

"I'm fine, just tired I guess" She attempted a small smile, one the guys caught onto easily but thankfully they let it go. Good, she wasn't in the mood for another discussion on whether she should take some time off. She had taken more time off than anyone; it was also only her second case back. She didn't need time off. Time off meant time to think and thinking was the last thing she wanted to do right now.

She caught the look Steve was giving her. She caught his eyes with her own. They were still the bright, vibrant blue she remembered them to be. Full of life and adventure and fun and she couldn't hold back the frown on her face. She wondered if he could tell that her eyes no longer held the same glint.

If he did, he didn't show it because as fast she had looked at him, he had looked away focusing once more on the case in front of them.

"Well Chin you take Kono and go talk to the ex, Danny and I will go see if we can find anything at the victim's work. We'll meet back here in 2 hours"