Disclaimer: I am not associated with Hawaii-5-O or CBS in anyway. I do not own Hawaii 5-O it belongs to CBS and it's writers.

Author's Note: Thank you so much for the wonderful response this story has received. Truly better than I ever imagined. There are slight spoilers for 1X20 and 2X5. Any errors are my own. I hope you enjoy this next part.

Part II

The letter was waiting for her on her desk when she arrived to work. The familiar scrawl jumped out to her and she quickly dove for it. Tears pooled in her eyes as she stared at the white envelope.

She dropped in her chair and tore the envelope open revealing a page full of her husband's markings. She latched onto the chain around her neck, something she caught herself doing a lot since she said goodbye to Steve, sending him off to an unknown location for an unspecified amount of time. She fingered the wedding ring as she began to read, his voice floating through her mind.

Kono –

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to write something to you. This was the first chance we got to send anything home. We've been on the go since we first dropped down. I'm sorry I can't tell you about where we are or what we're doing. A fact that will no doubt drive Danny crazy. I can almost hear the rant in my head and that brings a smile to my face.

It saddens me as I sit here and think of everything I'm missing. I never realized before just how long the days are. I'm sure it has something to do with knowing what is waiting on me back home. The pictures are still in my left breast pocket, right over my heart. I look at them as often as I can. The guys say I'm pretty lucky when I showed them your picture. I have to say I agree. I am lucky. I'm the luckiest man on earth that I get to have you in my life.

I don't know how long this is going to take. All I can do is hope that I'll be there in time to see the birth of our little boy. I am simply amazed at the life growing inside of you, a life we created.

It hurts thinking of everything I am missing. And I wish so bad that I could be there with you and experience it together. I wish there was some way to capture it all; every kick, every heartbeat heard at the doctor's office, even every inch gained as you nurture our child.

I stare at the picture of us, of our little family and realize that every single one of the men on my team, have the exact same photo. We all have a family waiting back home for us. They all come out at downtime and get folded back up and put in pockets when it's time to go. We try not to pry and we pretend we don't see any tears shed. I can't believe how this is different than my last trip. I guess we were all young and full of ourselves back then. Not a worry in the world. Carefree. But this time, this time it's completely different

It's not about me anymore. It's about you, about our baby. It's about Danny and Grace; Chin and Malia. My Ohana. Something that means so much to me. But as I think about it and look around at my guys doing the exact same thing I am, I realize that they all have Ohana's too. Everybody has somebody waiting, hoping and praying they come back safe.

There came a time, previously, when called upon, I would do anything to protect my team; to save the brother on my left or right from harm. And I would do it selflessly. I would have laid down my life, made the ultimate sacrifice to save my brother and I had no doubt the feeling was reciprocated. But now it's weighing on my mind. So much has changed, so much is different. The stakes are so much higher. And I find myself wondering if this is still true. Could I do it? I am not trying to be a hero. I don't want to die. But in this moment; in this world over here it all moves fast, everything happens within a blink of an eye you don't get a chance to think twice.

I don't mean to scare you. I should crumble this up and throw it away and write something better. But I made a promise to you, a vow, that I would never hide from you. And you have proven on numerous occasions that you are strong and can handle anything life throws at you. You are my girl, Kono, and I do thank God for making our paths cross. We've been through so much together and there isn't another woman I'd rather have in the passenger seat.

Kono swiped the tears away from her cheeks as she let Steve's letter fall to her desk. She blamed the pregnancy hormones for the crack in her tough exterior.

"Oh Baby, your father is a great man," she rubbed her stomach through the maternity top. His words in the letter weren't shocking. That was her husband to a T. That was the type of man he was. He was the same way with her, Danny, Chin. He would sacrifice himself so they wouldn't get hurt. And she knew that would carry on back to the SEALs. After all, that was where it all originated from.

"Hey Babe," Danny said as he pulled open her office door. He frowned seeing the tears, his heart stumbling. "What's wrong? What is it? Are you feeling okay? Is it the baby? Steve?"

Kono shook her head and gave the acting leader of the task force a watery smile. "I'm fine Danny. Hormones." She could tell he didn't believe her, so she lifted the letter in her hand. "Steve sent me a letter."

Danny took the letter. "I'm hurt he didn't send me one," he said jokingly as he quickly read the letter. "How could he write something like this to you? How could he tell you that he would take a bullet and die for a member on his team?"

"Danny," Kono stood up trying to head off the New Jersey native before he got into full rant mode.

"I knew it. I knew I should have found a way to go with him. To stop him from doing stupid stuff like this. He would do something like this too. It doesn't matter to him that we're back here waiting. That we're stuck in limbo; that there's something missing."

"Danny," Kono grabbed one of his flailing hands and held tight. "It's okay. I'm not crying because he told me that. I wouldn't expect anything less of him than that." She said matter-of-factly. "And you know that's how he is."

Danny's shoulders slumped as he sighed. "I know. Doesn't mean I have to agree with him though."

"He promised he was coming back," Kono's voice wavered. "And I'm holding him to that promise."

Danny pulled Kono into his arms. "Me too." He whispered in her hair.

"We got a case," Chin opened the door to Kono's office. He arched an eyebrow at his teammates in an embrace. He caught Danny's look and changed the next question. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, Cuz, hormones," Kono smiled. "I got a letter from Steve."

"That's good." Chin smiled, releasing a small breath at the first sign Steve was okay.

"You said something about a case?" Danny clapped his hands together as Chin filled them in as the three moved from Kono's office.

"You sure I can't come with?" Kono gave each man a dazzling smile as they gathered their things to head off to the crime scene.

"And have Steve come down on us for putting you in danger?" Chin shook his head. "Absolutely not. Sorry Cuz."

"You know better than to ask that," Danny told her. "Stay here and start looking up these names. Get all you can on them." He kissed her forehead before walking away. "And write him back."

"I figured I'd find you here."

Kono looked up from her spot in the sand to see Chin smiling behind her. She turned back to stare out into the ocean as he settled himself next to her. She watched the waves build and the more experienced surfers catch them; the late afternoon hour spurning the tourists.

"Do you know that this is the exact spot you introduced me to Steve?" Kono said, breaking the silence between the two. "A lot of good things happened that day."

"If I recall you punched out a tourist and had to strip down in front of a sleezeball."

"Aside from that," Kono said. "And that tourist had it coming," she added as an afterthought. "You got to become a cop again, working with people who trusted you. Danny started to realize he didn't have to be alone on the island anymore. I met Steve."

"Who turned you into a mini-McGarrett. Had you kicking ass, taking chances, not thinking before you acted."

"No, Brah," Kono smiled. "He didn't turn me into a version of himself, that's who I already was. We were just alike and it showed." She fell silent again, watching another surfer take a wave. "Did you know when he first asked me out, I turned him down?"

Chin looked at his cousin surprised. "Really?"

Kono nodded. "I didn't want to be apart of the whole 'sleeping with the boss' cliché. I hadn't been out of the academy that long and I didn't want people to think that was why I was enlisted to Five-O. I had to prove that I was a part of Five-O because I deserved to be."

"Cuz, you do deserve to be on this team. You were not kept on this team because Steve had feelings for you. You earned your spot on that very first case where you went into that warehouse for Sang Min and the rest of his friends and proved that you could hold your own."

"I know that now, but back then I was just a naïve cop fresh out of the academy."

"So what made you say yes then?"

"When he fell off that cliff he was climbing with Danny. I asked myself what I was doing. Why was I denying myself this man and the great things that might come from being together? Why did I care what a bunch of other cops thought? It didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was what he thought, what I knew."

"I've come to this place a lot over the years; sit here and just think; clear my mind. I came here after he was arrested and I was suspended. Didn't know what was going to happen. I admit that was one of the few times I had every truly been scared. This big unknown was facing me. I was for sure going to lose my badge. I stole that money, there was a witness. But even bigger, the man I loved was in jail for murder."

Chin would never forget that daunting week when the team had been disbanded. How the hurt and pain coursed through him knowing that his boss was in jail, his cousin under investigation and his friend unemployed because no one on HPD wanted to be the Haole's partner.

"If I had to do it over again, I would. I would take Fryer's offer to infiltrate Delano's organization. I would do it, not for my badge, but for yours, for Danny's, for Steve's. To protect you guys," she felt a tear slip down her cheek and she gave an irritated swipe with the back of her hand. "And I want to be mad at him. I want to yell at him for what he's putting me through today. But I can't. I can't do it. Because that's him. That's who he is. That's what he does. He protects people."

Chin prided himself in being able to follow Kono's thoughts and for making the jump from Fryer to Steve. In the car to the crime scene this morning, Danny had filled him in on Steve's letter. And he agreed with Danny, wishing that Steve hadn't filled his letter with thoughts of giving his life to save another.

"If something happens over there, he's going to beat himself up over it. Brood over every detail of what he should have done versus what he did. And it will eat at him knowing that he could have done something different and got different results.

"And it's hard to sit here and fight with myself, knowing the kind of man Steve is. I'd hate myself if I wrote to him telling him that under no circumstances was he to put himself in harm's way, to do something crazy that would jeopardize his safety, would jeopardize him coming home to us." She moved her hand across her belly, smiling through her tears when she felt a strong kick. "That's the man I love. That is who I fell in love with. The man who would lay down his life for another."

"Kono…" It was all Chin was able to get out before Kono cut him off. He figured he wasn't meant to talk, give advice – though he was unsure what advice he could give. He was here to listen, to offer comfort. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her against his side and leant his ear.

"And I'm scared Chin. For the first time in my life, I am truly scared. I thought I was scared when I blew out my knee and faced an unknown future. But that wasn't anywhere close to this. I could lose him Chin. I could really lose him. And that scares me to death because I don't know what I am anymore without him. Those lines blurred together right here on this spot. He is my life Chin and I'm scared."