All right. Here's the next installment. It focuses on Kono.

I'm planning to feature each member individually as well as the team and a few combinations. I have a tally system to try and keep it all fair...hopefully it works.

Regardless, please give me your thoughts!

Thanks,

Knyle B.

Disclaimer: Hawaii Five-0 is not mine! I'm only playing with it for a little while.

When my parents died, I was twelve. My life shattered. I lost everything I ever imagined I had…and gained a few things in return.

It wasn't a fair trade.

There's really no good way to become an orphan, not when you love your parents the way any child does. There's no good way to lose your hearing, either. Having both destroyed at once, live and in person, can be a bit damaging.

Trust me, I know.

But things would have been a lot worse without my Uncle Jared. Afterwards, he was the first one I saw when I woke up in the hospital. He was the one who stuck with me through it all, looked after me, and took me in. I've been living with him ever since, here on Oahu in our homey little condo by the beach. Time heals, and so does family.

Until they can't anymore. I came home from school one day to the scene of a tornado. My house had been ransacked, my uncle was missing. It was probably a miracle I thought to call the police before I started running like a madwoman through the neighborhood, searching for any sign of the man I'd come to love most in the world.

When the police got there, I was sitting on the beach, stuck. All of a sudden, I'd lost all energy, collapsed into a ball mid-run, and stayed that way, staring at the ocean.

It was my parents all over again: the mess, the disappearance. I rued the day my family had taken on a high-profile government contract for their import-export business. It was getting all the people I loved killed.

A gentle touch on my shoulder made me uncoil like a spring.

Throwing myself away from the contact, I scrambled back on the sand, too senseless to realize that the young woman there meant me no harm. She stayed where she was at my retreat, her posture and expression unthreatening.

I saw her lips moving, realized that I'd lost the microphone for my hearing implants somewhere in my frantic search. That was why I hadn't heard her approach me. So I switched to lip reading, watching her tell me that she was a policewoman with Five-0.

Her name was Kono. She and her team had been called to the house by a young girl—was I her?

I nodded, my lips forming words that I had only heard through electronics or faint vibrations ever since my thirteenth birthday—the day I had the surgery for my implants.

"My uncle is missing."

She nodded, holding out a hand. "We're here to fix that. What's your name?"

That stopped me. I frowned, listening to my head buzz in excitement and fear. I couldn't remember. I shook my head helplessly as I reached for her hand, overwhelmed.

She didn't look bothered by my silence. "Why don't you come with me, then, okay? I'll take you to see some people who can start helping you find your uncle."

I let her guide me back to the condo, walking carefully through the yard to the front, where several police vehicles were parked. I watched faces and mouths anxiously, trying to get a sense of what was going on. Had they found anything yet?

Kono took me over to a squad car and had me wait a minute while she conferred with an officer nearby. I watched their every word; he told her that they'd already spread my uncle's information to other officers on the island and that her teammates were still working inside.

She thanked him and pointed me out with a nod, explaining that she would take my statement. The policeman told her that my name was Cierra, which seemed right. After he said it, I remembered and started to think more clearly.

Impatience grew in me as I took in the—most likely meant to be private—exchange. They already knew who my uncle was, who I was. It was clear from Five-0's involvement that they suspected my uncle's government work had something to do with his disappearance.

Why waste time talking to me about it? I didn't want or have anything to do with that family-endangering business.

Kono came back over, the policeman went his own way, and I was left to panic quietly on my own. I'd never been so rattled. I'd forgotten my name, for crying out loud. When it was my parents, I'd been much more collected. I hadn't known what to expect; I could still hope, still be optimistic.

With it all happening again, I knew exactly what I had to look forward to.

Blood. Pain. Fear. Death.

And then I'd be alone. There was nobody left after Jared, not even cousins. My whole life would be stripped bare in an instant, finished with only fifteen years marked off the clock.

The policewoman's face filled my vision, concerned. I saw her lips moving; she must have said something that I'd missed. Desperately, I pushed at my fog, trying to center myself enough to read what she was saying.

It was no use. I closed my eyes, shaking my head and fisting my hands in my hair.

I felt words spilling out of my mouth of their own accord. "It's happening again. I can't lose him, too. Not Uncle Jared. I can't. I can't, I can't, I can't—"

Arms wrapped around me, surprising me, cutting off my hysteria. I started and looked up.

It was Kono. She'd pulled me into a hug and sat back against the squad car with me in her arms.

I didn't know what to do at first. My arms dropped slowly. I felt one gentle hand brushing my hair while the other pulled me back against her welcoming shoulder.

Next thing I knew, I was crying against her neck, holding her like a lifeline. She rubbed my back and kept stroking my hair. I could feel her chest vibrating with the words she spoke, undoubtedly comforting and reassuring. I hadn't listened to anything like that in ages.

"I can't hear you," I sniffled, trying to get a handle on myself. "I…I was home when they took my parents. I tried to stop them, but one of th-the men hit me with a crow bar. Now I c-can't hear without the microphone for my implants. I l-lost it looking for Uncle J-Jared."

She paused. My mouth snapped shut, and I waited in trepidation, horrified.

I had learned very quickly to never bring up that god-awful night. Most people couldn't seem to bear the weight of my reality. Expecting Kono to have similar limitations, I waited for her to pull away, to stiffen in disgust. She was bound to shy away from me, as every other stranger had done in the past three years.

Instead, she hugged me even harder.

The sudden show of acceptance was mind-boggling. I was dumbstruck. Only very few people had taken to me so openly after I became a cripple. I didn't know how to respond.

Under the circumstances, the kindness proved too much for me to process. Without conviction for mortar, my inner walls collapsed. I fell apart in her arms. Honestly, I hadn't lost it so completely since the night after my parent's funeral.

I don't know how long we sat there while I sobbed, but she never made any move to pull away.

Three days later, when Five-0 brought my uncle home and my world fitted itself back together again, I didn't wait for my new friend to come and find me. I left Uncle Jared's side for the only bearable reason I could think of: seeking out the dark-haired policewoman who had given him back to me.

Running as fast as I could to the front yard, I caught up to Kono as she headed out to her car. She heard me and turned, maybe thinking I was one of her teammates or another officer. When she saw me, her smile grew, her expression softening a bit.

In all likelihood, she expected a word of thanks, a brief goodbye—a conversation of some sort. But I was no longer a girl who felt chained by spoken language. She had shown me a better way to communicate the bottomless affection and gratitude I felt.

So I hugged her back.

All rightie. Another done. The next one is about Danny, I believe. And the viewpoint is a little less innocent than the last two have been...

We'll see how it turns out. ;)

As always, all thoughts are welcome! *handing out virtual pennies*