AN: Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed and everyone who read this story! I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint and I realize that it's not really the most interesting cheapter but I can't just have Kono wake up and be just fine and dandy. Anyway, enjoy!
Chapter Two: What is Everyone Staring At?
Nearly losing your life takes a lot out of you; especially when that 'life threatening situation' involves the Pacific Ocean and a lengthy swim. Officer Kono Kalakaua, of the governor's Five-0 task force, could attest to this statement.
She wasn't sure what time she had landed on the beach last night—midnight, was it? Maybe it had been later—and to be perfectly honest, time was really not of her concern. When that wave, blessedly strong enough to carry her to the long forgotten embrace of a sandy strip of land, had dropped her head over heels onto solid ground, her first concern was getting away from the ocean.
Kono loved the ocean, no doubt about it, but it had almost killed her. Had she not been a surfer, had her childhood not been spent learning to hold her breath, the water would have snuffed Kono out last night.
Not to mention, she was tired—so very tired that the cold sand beneath her fatigued limbs felt even better than a memory foam mattress with twenty pillows and a fluffy down comforter. In fact, Kono didn't even care that there were a few rocks under her because she just didn't have the energy to notice as she let her eyes drift shut.
It was a while before she woke, and even then it wasn't on her own.
The exhausted member of Hawaii's police force was enjoying her sleep—she had no intention of facing the day any time soon. Unfortunately, one of Kono's fellow law enforcement officers didn't understand the ordeal she had just been through; he probably hadn't even known who she was when he poked her and informed her that the beach was not for sleeping.
And yes, in retrospect, Kono knew that the man was just doing his job but at the moment she had never hated anyone more. At the initial poke, her slumber was broken. The second stirred her from unconsciousness. But the third just pissed her off.
"Ma'am, the beach isn't a camp ground, I'm going to have to ask you to leave" his voice was young, unfamiliar to her ears, and lacking in a certain authority.
Carefully, and with all the strength she had, Kono rolled herself over from her stomach and onto her back before attempting to sit up. Apparently he recognized her—for his face turned remarkably pale and his eyes widened in horrified shock—or maybe she just looked so shitty that it instilled astonishment in observers.
"Wh-" she tried speaking but found it difficult with such a parched throat "Where" was all she managed to get out before Officer Soto, who's name she could barely read off his glimmering name tag, grabbed at his radio and began rattling off instructions.
"Send a bus" Soto said as he squat down and gently pushed Kono's shoulders back down as she tried to sit.
"Officer Kalakaua, I need you to stay still until the paramedics get here okay?" He asked, his voice far more serious than it had been when he first addressed her. Did she really look that bad?
She couldn't speak, that much she had already figured out, so she just nodded her head slightly and watched in horror as Soto scanned over her body.
He wasn't an overtly large man, maybe a bit more built than the average man, but nothing jaw droppingly special. Still, Kono couldn't take her eyes off him as he silently examined her exposed limbs. Soto's eyes widened when he reached her legs, she didn't have the strength to look for herself but imagined that there was something quite wrong.
"You're going to be okay, Ms. Kalakaua, just hang in there" said Soto as the distant sirens of an ambulance came closer. At some point, he had grabbed her hand and was now repeating that she was going to be okay like it was his god given mantra—she found it rather annoying actually.
Soon, he left to wave down the medics and helped them bring the stretcher to where she was laying. She felt weak and powerless as the two paramedics carefully lifted her off the ground and onto the awaiting gurney. She felt like a failure for not even being able to stand at the moment. How was she supposed to keep the peace if she couldn't even tough out a little exhaustion? Kono silently vowed to work on that once she was better.
"Alright miss, we are going to bring you to Queens Medical Center, okay? You're in good hands, officer" the older of the two men said as they pushed the stretcher into the back of the ambulance. He seemed nice enough but considering he was pulling out an IV needle to stick in her arm, she was not his biggest fan.
Without a word, the younger man started to close the doors—stopping only for a moment to talk to Soto. Kono watched idly as Soto's sandy blonde hair and mundane blue eyes vanished behind the metal doors.
Once they were moving, Kono observed the two men fussing with rolls of gauze and antiseptic solution as they made quick work on her legs. She didn't understand what they were fussing over, her legs didn't hurt at all.
"Miss, are you in any pain?" the younger one asked, to which she responded with a curt shake of her head.
"It's got to be the adrenal, push twenty mg of morphine just in case it starts to wear off before we get to Queens" EMT Hathaway, as his nametag read, said in a hushed voice he hadn't intended for her to hear.
She was getting nervous, very nervous. Should she be in pain? Was there something wrong with her legs? Why did she only feel their light touches ghosting over her legs and not the pain they had expected?
Unfortunately, Kono couldn't ask any of these questions because the last thing she had drank was salt water and her throat was unimaginably dry. For a moment, she thought that the Sahara desert had made its way into her body and was taking up residence in her mouth and throat area.
They arrived at the hospital and were immediately greeted by a doctor who promptly asked what they had.
"Female, mid-twenties, multiple abrasions to her legs and torso. She's a cop" Hathaway spoke to the doctor, who had yet to announce her name, as they made their way down a hallway leading to the emergency room.
"Alright, Ms-"
"Kalakaua" the younger EMT, who Kono did not know the name of, said as the doctor finally addressed her.
"Ms. Kalakaua, I'm Dr. Torres, and I'm going to take real good care of you and get you back in tip top shape" the doctor said before beginning to remove the dressings from her legs.
Soon, Kono could see why Soto had been so horrified. On the wall of the room where Torres had wheeled her, there was a simple mirror—no frame or special adornments, just a mirror. Well, in that mirror, Kono Kalakaua caught a glimpse of her legs and midsection for the first time since she awoke on the beach.
She mustn't have noticed what she was pulling herself over while she made her way up the beach. She couldn't even remember feeling anything but sand beneath her as she had used her arms to pull herself out of the path of the waves.
Had there been rocks there? Had she really not noticed the rough edges of what could have been thousands of rocks sliding under her tired body?
Apparently that was the case because what other explanation would justify the ghastly cuts marring her tan legs and thin torso?
Well, clearly she had gone through a little bit more than she had initially thought last night. All she could hope for now was that the adrenalin didn't wear off before the morphine kicked in.
AN: Well, now that's done so the next chapter should have her interacting with everyone (or mostly everyone) and starting to be the badass we all know and love. If you want to, tell me what you thought! :)
