A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who has alerted this story. I was overwhelmed with the responses and the sheer number of alters that rolled in. I've never had this kind of interest before and I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I hope I can live up to your expectations.
Just a little warning, this chapter has a lot of emotional stuff in it. Some whump and some tense moments. I'm throwing you right into the thick of things.
As usual I do not own anything, although I wish I could reach out and hug them all after what I did to them in this chapter.
Thank you all again and Enjoy!
Chapter 2: A Family's Fear
Danny tossed his cell back onto his desk top as the call between himself and his daughter ended. He sighed knowing that she was upset but knew that he had soothed her fears and that at least he wasn't giving up his whole weekend with her. It was consolation enough to get him through the day. He stood from his desk, stretched and walked out into the bullpen where Steve and Kono were pouring over a stack of case files.
"What are we looking at?" Danny asked as he saw the miscellaneous files laid out.
"Just some odds and ends," Kono smiled, "nothing really interesting, but as we have no cases right now, we may as well help out with some of the HPD cases."
"So what are we interested in?" Danny asked.
"Weapons theft," Kono asked rather than answered as she flipped open the file, "or missing person?"
"We could take em both once Chin get's here," Steve stated, "flip a coin to see who gets what off the top?"
Danny shrugged his agreement as Chin walked into the office a look of absolute horror on his face.
"What's going on?" Kono asked seeing the discomfort in Chin's eyes.
"I just heard a call on the radio that there were shots fired at an elementary school!" Chin stated as he pulled up the application on the computer and tuned into the police frequency.
Steve, Danny and Kono held their breaths as they listened.
"I'm sure media is already on the scene," Chin added and turned monitors on all around him and locked them to local channels.
"That's Grace's school," Danny gasped as his voice caught in his throat and his eyes grew wide as the news bulletin flashed that a kidnapping had taken place.
5-0
Grace sat in the darkness, unlike her teacher, she had been awake and alert throughout the whole ordeal. Liliana had held on as long as she could but the final shove and the anger of the captors slammed her head into the wall and then everything went black for the mild mannered TA. Grace watched in horror as the pretty young woman fell to the ground in a pile and the blood began to run down one side of her head. Grace was then violently shoved into the same space and the door slammed behind her causing the cell to fall into total darkness.
Grace stood for a moment, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness, afraid to move, afraid to cry, even afraid to breath, but the longer the silence was with her the more she became calm and the more her eyes adjusted to the darkness. The room was small. There was a long board attached to the wall, long enough and wide enough for one person to lie down on it. In the middle of the floor Liliana was laying in a pile, face down, her head turned to one side as the blood rolled over her brow. Grace listened, holding her own breath, to hear if Liliana was breathing but couldn't. She forced her arms out in front of her as she kneeled down and felt the floor until she reached Lili and felt along her body to her neck where she searched for the poor woman's pulse as her father had showed her. she counted the slow steady rhythm as the blood pulsed through the vein and she sighed in relief to know that Lili was alive; just the simple act of feeling Lili's pulse help to comfort the poor, trembling eight year old child.
With all her might, Grace rolled Lili onto her back, straightened her out on the floor and cradled the woman's head in her lap. "Danno will find us," Grace whispered in the darkness, "I know he will." She said as she patted Lili's hair and moved it out of the cut on her forehead.
5-0
"Daniel!" the voice of the British woman caught the attention of the Five-Os as the doors burst open and Rachel ran in. He face was white as a sheet, her eyes were stained and Stan was following her like a lost puppy dog. "They have Grace," she cried and Steve almost had to reach out to catch his partner from falling.
Danny swayed at the news, his knees nearly buckled; he reached out and grabbed the Smart Table with one hand as Rachel fell into him sobbing.
"I don't believe it," he whispered. "Why?" he asked as Rachel shook in his arms.
"They took her because of him," Rachel stated anger, hatred, and sorrow in her voice as she spun and pointed at Stanley Edwards. "They are ransoming her because of him." She sobbed.
Danny's eyes flashed in rage as he looked at Stanley, "what have you done?" he hissed tears in his eyes.
"Whoa, calm down," Steve stated as he jumped between Danny and Stanley.
"They have my child because of him," Danny yelled.
"I'm sorry," Stanley stated fear in his eyes and sorrow on his voice, "I don't know why this has happened."
"I know why," Danny yelled, "you're dirty dealings is why, you've burned too many bridges, you've pissed off too many people and now my daughter has been kidnapped, had a gun held to her head again because of you!" Danny screamed.
"Ok, split them up," Steve stated, not moving from his place between Danny and Stanley, "Chin, my office with Stan, now. Kono take Rachel and Danny into his office, now." He ordered.
Chin dragged Stanley away before Danny would move. He then released his ex-wife and followed Kono toward his office.
5-0
Grace looked up and all around the cell like room she and Lili were being held in. Up high on the walls were what looked like windows; dust covered, frosted glass that were not letting in the light. They were nothing more than dim grey rectangles out of reach of the little girl.
There wasn't any sound coming from anywhere. Grace listened hard to the silence around her and heard only Lili's and her own breathing. There was a drain in the middle of the floor, but other than that, there was nothing but the make shift bunk and the four walls. Grace sat, cradling her teacher's head in her lap and she began to cry, huge, sorrowful tears. They were the first tears of despair the little girl had cried. She was scared; she wanted to know why they wanted her and what they were going to do. It was lonely, it was dark and Grace felt completely helpless until she saw something peak out of the edge of Lili's shirt. Grace's eyes grew wide as she reached for the shiny bit of metal and pulled out Lili's phone. She gasped as it reacted to her touch and frantically she dialed the one and only number that came to her mind.
5-0
"What do they want?" Chin asked as he watched Stanley pace McGarrett's office.
"They want money, they want me to vacate the position I hold with my company and they want me to leave Hawaii all together. They say they will hand Grace over when the money is in their hands and I am at the terminal heading back to the mainland." Stanley stated and handed his phone to Chin, "I recorded the whole conversation as soon as they started to threaten me."
"Do not move from this office," Chin stated and walked out leaving Stanley to stew.
"What did he say," Steve asked as Chin slammed the phone down on the Smart Table.
"We have the ransom conversation," Chin stated and pressed play.
"So the price on our little girls head is 50 million," Steve stated in disgust. "I'll kill him, if Danny doesn't," he added as the recording finished and all the accusations were laid out on the table.
5-0
Danny was in a state of constant motion as Kono held him and Rachel in his office to calm down. He paced the length of the room cursing profusely and racking his brain, trying to wrap it around what Rachel had confessed was on the recording.
"50 million, that's what my little girl costs," Danny hissed his eyes red with tears, "I'm going to kill someone," he added as his phone began to vibrate on his desk. He glanced at it, but when no picture showed up he picked it up and then recognized the number.
"Lili?" he asked.
"Daddy?" Grace whispered.
"Grace," Danny gasped, "what happened, where are you?"
"Danny, I'm in a cell, Lili is hurt," Grace sobbed.
"Grace, its going to be ok, we'll find you," Danny stated and rushed out of his office, fumbling with his phone, nearly dropping it as Kono followed. "Trace this call," He hissed and placed the phone on the board. "Grace just keep on talking to me."
"Daddy, the car, I saw the registration tag, but I only remember part of it." Grace stated.
"What is it?" Danny asked.
"HBM3," Grace stated.
"Kono…" The words were hardly out of Danny's mouth before Kono had jumped into action.
5-0
Grace froze as a sudden noise caught her attention. "They are coming," Grace stated into the phone and hung up, fumbling to throw the phone back into the folds of Lili's shirt. She stared in horror, tears running down her cheeks as the door swung open and the light practically blinded her.
"What is your name?" the man in black asked as he stared down at the little girl, his face was uncovered this time.
"Grace," she whispered.
"Who is your father?" the man asked.
Grace trembled, "Detective Williams." She answered.
"Five-O?" he asked.
Grace nodded.
"Not Stanley Edwards?" the man asked.
Grace shook her head.
Grace flinched as the man lunged toward her and grabbed her by the front of her school uniform; "if you are lying to me, I will kill you." he hissed into her face as he kicked Lili's unconscious body and pulled Grace to her feet.
"I'm not lying," Grace sobbed, "Detective Daniel Williams is my father. Stanley Edwards is my step father." She practically screamed as her little body began to tremble.
"Shit," The man hissed and threw her to the floor.
Grace curled into a ball and sobbed as the door slammed again.
5-0
"GRACE!" Danny yelled as the line went dead and the trace came up incomplete. He slammed his fists into the table, his body trembling as a sob shook his composure.
"We'll find her," Steve said his emotions betraying him, "she's a brilliant little girl and she gave us a partial plate, we will find her."
"The school has surveillance, they're sending it over." Kono said drying her eyes with her sleeve, "I'm running the partial through every database we have."
"CSI have pulled three bullets from the walls of the school," Chin said softly not daring to look at any of his three partners, "we'll have them to run soon."
"No soon enough," Danny said as he clenched his fists and grabbed his phone off the Smart Table. "I'll be in my office," he sighed rubbed at his eyes. "I now have to tell my ex-wife that we almost had her back." He added as tears continued to roll down his cheeks, "I heard her voice," he sobbed, "we were so close."
A/N: Ok, I will admit, I cried when I wrote this and I cried again when I proofed it. I feel like such a horrible person for having such bad things done to little Grace!