A/N1: Thanks to everyone who read, followed, favored and especially for the ones who took the time and left me some words. You are so sweet.

A/N2: This chapter has very little to do with the case. I felt a bit stuck, so I decided to just post it and start moving my inspiration again with the third chapter. I hope you'll still be OK with it. I'm feeling a bit unsure with this one.

Please tell me what you think.


They keep working in silence for the rest of the day. Chin and Kono are making their progress slowly. They can identify eight different vehicles, and they start running them against the data base, while Danny is on the phone with the lab. The Ford is clean. Too clean. Not a single finger print, not a speck of blood. The only finding is the remains of an orange nylon bag under the driver's seat. It has no marking on it, and they're all quite skeptical about the possibility of finding anything from the analysis.

"I don't get it" Danny steps into Steve's office after an hour on the phone with the lab "it doesn't add up."

"What doesn't?" Steve looks at him from his desk.

"The scene. The car. The whole thing. It doesn't make sense."

Steve looks at his partner carefully. He knows him long enough to know that when his detective senses are on high alert, he should be listening to every word. The guy has the best hunch he had seen in his life, and when his instincts tell him something is wrong, he's usually right. Among the four of them Danny is probably the most experienced and most sophisticated detective. Chin was forced to work the streets for years so his strength lies there, he himself was busy chasing terrorists on the wrong side of the globe most of his adult life, and Kono was... let's face it... she was still in high school, when the guy was already solving murders in the slimy streets of New Jersey.

"Go on..." he leans back and looks at him thoughtfully "explain it to me..."

"It took too much work."

"The murder?"

"No, the scene. It took too much work. Too much time too. To pour the bleach on the blood, to clear the room from all the personal items, and then, to clean the car so meticulously. It looks like every stage, and every step that was taken to get rid of the evidences was carefully planned and obsessively executed."

"OK" Steve nods "I can see that."

"On the other hand, too many things were almost... random. Casual, even. I mean, what kind of murderer cleans the entire motel room, makes sure to destroy DNA evidences, but leaves the murder weapon in plain sight?"

"Maybe he was under pressure, thought he was seen and had to leave in a hurry..."

"No... the door was locked when the cleaners came in the morning, you remember, they told us. He had time to lock up, but not to take the weapon?"

"OK... I'd buy that. This actually looks very weird."

"The car, too. It was pretty much given to us as a present. It was parked in a gas station, where it would have necessarily be noticed within a few hours by the owner. I mean, the Haleiwa beach park is two miles down the road. Why not park it there, when it would probably remain unnoticed for days?"

"I see what you're saying" Steve nods "we're missing something."

"Yes" Danny looks at him thoughtfully "but I have no idea what."

()()()

By the time they have all the tire marks mapped it's pretty late. They have a good idea of manufacturers and models and they have the list of license plates, so Kono is able to have a rough idea of which tire marks belong to which car. It's not as simple as it looks. When they see they are still left with too many options, they both realize they'll have to go and find the actual cars to make a final identification.

It's no use to start with all of this today, and the lab didn't come up with anymore findings. The day is over.

()()()

They drive home in her car. Well, she drives. He just sits there beside her looking out the window gloomily. She looks at him from the corner of her eye, he looks serious, and tense, and much more quiet than his normal self. His fingers tap impatiently on the window.

"It's fine, babe" she says quietly "or at least, it will be... eventually..."

He doesn't answer, only looks out the window at the dark street that stretches in front of them. She says it again, and asks him to stop dwelling on it, she makes her best to promise her family will come around, and asks him not to take any of it personally. He doesn't answer. Only grunts occasionally when she says all this. She tries to swallow her anger when he retreats back to these monosyllabic responses "for fuck's sakes" she mumbles "it's exactly like the first weeks of our relationship when he had to be trained how to conduct a basic conversation."

()()()

When they get home, he opens the door, and makes his way to the kitchen. It's late, he's hungry.

"I'll make us dinner" he calls behind his back.

She doesn't answer, just steps behind him and hugs him around his waist.

"What are you doing?" he turns around inside her embrace, and looks at her curiously. She moves her long delicate arms around his neck, and kisses him slowly and deliberately, gently lacing her fingers in his short hair.

He kisses her back, even though he has no idea what just happened. His arm goes around her shoulders, pressing her body against him. He can't help it, she feels so good in his arms.

"What are you doing?" he asks again after long long minutes when they're just kissing there, standing in the kitchen, and he feels how she starts to move her arm under his shirt.

"I'm kissing you, baby" she mumbles "I thought you'd recognize the gesture by now."

"But..." he groans when her fingers play with his nipple "I thought we were fighting..."

She moves her head away, to look into his face with surprise "are you kidding me? we just made up!"

"We did?" he looks genuinely confused "when?"

"Just now" she cries incredulously "in the car."

"Really?" he looks at her thoughtfully.

"You weren't listening, were you?" she sighs "I knew it. You kept agreeing with me the whole time, I should have guessed something was not right."

"I..." he tries to deny it, but can't.

"Fine" she grumbles "whatever. I don't care. You only listen to me 73 percent of the time anyway. Actually, I'm not even surprised."

He smiles towards her, and kisses her again, moving to lift her off her feet and starts to carry her out of the kitchen.

"Bedroom or living room?" he asks a little breathless when she groans approvingly.

"Living room" she says quickly. He goes and lays her gently on the sofa, and she pulls him on top of her, her hands start to work on separating him from his shirt. he kisses her lips, and her jaw line, and her neck, and she starts to feel that warm feeling and the familiar excitement he ignites in her just by holding her close to him. She gasps at the tantalizing, demanding contact of his lips on her skin... when... suddenly, he stops.

"How could he just say it?" he looks at her questioningly, raising his head from her neck "I mean, at least, he could say that he needs to think about it, or something like that."

She looks at him with alarm "are you seriously talking about my father, while you're about to... you know...?"

"What?" he looks horrified "no, sorry. You're right... it's weird. I'm not really... let's go on..." she pulls him against her again, her lips swallowing his, her tongue enters his mouth, dancing violently inside it, taking his breath away. He moves his hand inside her pants, and nudges her knees apart with his leg, Then... he suddenly stops. Again. "Maybe it's a test or something. Maybe he wants to see how serious I am and..."

"Steve!" she cries in frustration "what are you doing?"

"I'm... nothing..." he mumbles "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to... come here" he helps her to take off her shirt, and bends his head to her chest "god, you're beautiful" he whispers against her skin, before he kisses her breast, moving his tongue slowly to create wet warm trails from her nipple to her neck.

"Don't try to be cute now, and make me forget about ... oh fuck Steve..." she moans "seriously, one more word about it, and we're fighting again..." He only laughs at her pointless threat. It's really hard to take it seriously when her voice sounds so soft, and excited, and her hands pull frantically at his hair in an attempt to encourage him to keep touching her the way that he does. It works though, because there's no words anymore, only the sound of their heavy breathing and of Kono's soft groans when he makes her come.

"I think I should talk to him again" he tells her after they are able to talk again, his head still buried in the crook of her neck. She pushes him off her, and looks at him furiously, how can he still be thinking about it?

"I can't believe you're still obsessing about it" she looks at him with despair "were you thinking about it during..."

He just sighs, and pushes off of her, and puts his pants back on "I'm not obsessing about it" he declares angrily "I just can't get how it all deteriorated so much."

"Steve..." she says softly.

"I thought your family would..." he starts, watching her with some unrecognized emotion "that finally I'll have some kind of a..."

"What is it, baby?" she sits up and reaches towards him with her hand "tell me..."

He just stands there, his head bent down, his arms crossed, and she bites her tongue not to say anything, silently hoping he'd say what he feels. He rarely does, and he doesn't say it this time, either.

()()()

Finally, he mumbles something about being hungry and goes to the kitchen to make them dinner.

The minute he disappears in the kitchen, she shoots out of the sofa and searches for her phone. Then she runs upstairs, and closes herself in the bathroom, and dials the number.

She watches her reflection in the mirror with determination in her eyes. Her fingers tapping the counter as she waits for the line to connect.

"Hi" Kapali's voice is sound from the other side of the line.

"Get your brother's" she tells him quickly "all of them, and put the phone on speaker, now."

()()()

"I'm going to kill you" she tells them when they're all listening in, on the other side of the line "I'm going to kill you, and dismember you and feed your body parts to the fish."

"You're talking about Steve... don't you..." Akela is the first one to talk, in the big silence that lingers after her furious declaration.

"Of course I'm talking about Steve" she hisses "what the fuck would I talk about? I'm furious! How could you do it to him?"

"Do it to him?" Kapali protests "we didn't do anything to him, he did it all on his own."

"He made a minor mistake..." she argues "a miscalculation..."

"He stood in front of dad, and informed him he's going to marry you" Makaio interjects.

"He didn't informed him, he asked for..."

"You weren't there, sis" Kapali interrupts "he may have said he came to ask for permission, but it sounded awfully like he was officially notifying him of his final decision."

"That's right" Kale adds "I saw a war movie once when the commander there ordered all the guys in his unit to storm a German castle, and scarify their lives to save the world, and even he was more polite than your boyfriend..."

"Well..." she says unsurely "it's Steve.. you know how he can get a little..."

"I'm telling you sis" Nohoki tells her quietly "I was really rooting for the guy, but when he started to be impatient and said he demanded an answer, even I could see where it's going."

"He was just trying to be nice, you know him, he's a good guy... even if he screws up every personal interaction he's involved in, he only..."

"Kono, he tried this attitude on dad, he's either extremely brave, or extremely stupid."

"I guess he's a little bit of both" she sighs in resignation "still... you guys! you were total shitheads. He really likes you guys, he's always so nice to you, how could you not support him?"

"Kono" Akela cries "we're living with dad, and we're minors. He might give us up for adoption for something like that."

"Don't be ridiculous" she rolls her eyes at the phone "he didn't give you up for adoption when you stole Mr. Barney's car and crushed it into a tree, and killed his cat, didn't he? he knows perfectly well it's already too late to get rid of you two. And Makaio" she cries "how could you, running bets on his chances? he was really offended by this lack of confidence, you know."

"Offended? I was only trying to salvage the situation and make some profit from this whole mess. it's not my fault the odds were against him. I mean, if you were there you would probably have bet against him, too."

"Maybe..." she sighs, unable to fully contradict him "still, it was rude, and inconsiderate, and made him feel like you're making fun of him. Especially you, Nohoki, you know you're his favorite."

"I put my money on him!" Nohoki cries "I was the only one who backed him up. Both times..."

"Yeah, brah" Makaio says dryly "and you still owe me fifty bucks for this pathetic bet..."

"Look guys" she raises her voice impatiently "Steve is my man. He's going to be your brother in law, and he can fucking kill you all with his eyes closed. So, you'd better fix everything, and tell him you're sorry, and beg for forgiveness, because, I swear, maybe he's too good a person to actually hurt you, but you really don't want to test me..."

()()()

They don't talk about it for the rest of the evening. She talks about the case a little and he tells her about Danny's suspicions. She does the laundry, and he cleans up and takes a quick look at the garden, o the next time they meet is in the bedroom after they take their showers. She's already in bed, when he climbs into bed beside her, before he lies down he looks towards her and says "Kono, I don't want to fight, or to create problems with your family, but you know me, I can't let this one go."

"I know, baby" she sighs "you'll make hell rain down on us, ruin my relationship with my family, make Chin and Danny want to kills themselves with embarrassment and have an entire SEALs team take over my parents house, forcing them into loving you, before you gave up."

"Pretty much" he nods seriously as he lies down on his back "we both know, I'm a really great guy, they just need to get to know me. A military captivity survival training series is the best way to get to know someone, believe me."

()()()

She's lying down in the bed, still awake, half an hour later, when he's already deep in sleep beside her. She looks at him cautiously, hoping, but deep down inside, knowing, that he wasn't really joking.

()()()

When he opens the door in the morning, he finds all five of them standing there waiting for him.

"Howzit brah" Kapali says eventually after they all just stand there silently, watching each other.

He doesn't answer, only crosses his arms on his chest and looks at him with a penetrating look.

"Tell him" Makaio pushes his eldest brother "you're the eldest."

"I already said hello, now it's your turn" Kapali hisses.

"You, then" Makaio nudges Nohoki's shoulder "you're his favorite."

"I was the only one who didn't do anything wrong" Nohoki reminds his brother angrily "and besides, look at him... I don't think any of us are his favorite anymore..."

"Makaio, you were the worst offender" Kale says from behind them "maybe you should be the one to start with the apologies."

"You mentioned twins!" Makaio reminds him "fuck Kale, the reaction we got when you said it... I mean, I never saw dad's face in that color before..."

"We're young" Akela jumps to protect his twin brother "our frontal lobe is not fully developed yet, we're actually allowed to act a little foolish from time to time."

"A little?" their three elder brothers cries out in unison, just before they all embark on another combustive, loud, multi-participants argument.

He still doesn't say anything, jut moves his eyes from one young Kalakaua to the other. Then, he makes his decision, and pushes between them, and start running. They look at his retreating back, then at each other, for a few seconds.

"Let's go" Kapali sighs, shaking his head, so they all run after him.

()()()

It takes him longer than usual. When he's back, he's sweaty and tired, and he has mud on his shoes and on most of his legs. He looks really tired, and breathless, like he was running more than he's used to, but when she looks at him, a bit puzzled, he has his usual smug smile on his face, the one he gets when he does crazy things, but still miraculously things are going his way. He takes a bottle of water from the fridge, and runs up the stairs to the shower. She has a feeling she knows what's going on, she pulls out her phone, and dials her brother's number.

()()()

"You said he's a nice guy" Kapali protests loudly.

"He is" she tries not to laugh "he's awesome. You all fucking love him."

"He made us run the whole Tantalus route" he cries "it's more than ten fucking miles, and it's steep, and you have nowhere to stop there. On top of it all, he made us do it in a murderous pace. Fuck Kono, he could have got us killed there and nobody would have ever known."

"What do you mean made you?" she asks, between giggles "how could he made you run? he left the house without his weapon, did he tie you up, and pulled you after him or something?"

"No..." Kapali admits "he just... stood there, silent, and looked at us like we were the biggest disappointment he saw in his life time."

"Brilliant" she cries happily "I wonder if he got this method from mom..."

"We were trying to apologize" Kapali whines "it was like talking to the fucking wall. He started running, so we... followed... I mean, what else could we do? he looked sad, and serious... and we were really sorry..."

"I bet you all feel much better now" she says with obvious satisfaction.

"Not really..." Kapali informs her "we can hardly walk, or breath, or move, or even think at this point... it's unbelievable. We're younger, and he's... he had no problem running the whole fucking trail, and he was always in the lead, and by the looks of him, I really think he could have done another lap, just for fun. I know that he wanted to teach us a lesson, but there must be some limit to his dedication..."

"Actually there isn't" she smiles "he really has the stamina to keep exercising and moving, and touching..." she adds dreamily.

"Yuck, gross!" Kapali shouts.

"Oh grow up" she scolds him "he's a SEAL, they are all crazy like that."

"Anyway" Kapali coughs "we need to go back home now, and try to avoid mom, and try not to move too much in the next couple of weeks. He told us it's all cool, now. So I hope it's all cool with you, too."

"It is" she reassures him "you did good."

"You know, Kono" he tells her quietly "we actually are really sorry. You know we like him."

"I know" she smiles "thanks for telling me, though. It's nice to hear."

"Yeah well... we're definitely not saying it to him. Whenever mom talks about feelings, or during family dinners, when things get too emotional, he always looks weird..."