I was so enamored with the reviews that I was getting that I decided to post 2 chapters in one day. Ridiculous, right? I actually have the story written, but the last two chapters are a little hack because I wrote them around 2 this morning. But enjoy this new content!

- Amelia

Kona was in the hospital for a week, but it felt like forever. She wanted to be surfing. Heck, she just wanted to be outside. It would have also been nice for her to be able to contact her friends and family, but alas, she had to keep up the illusion that she was dead. Apparently, they'd managed to ignore the question of releasing the body by claiming that they needed to do more post-mortem exams to conclusively tie her murder to Wo Fat. Well, they were adding her name to a long list.

She could just imagine the gasket that Chin would be about to blow because they couldn't follow the proper funeral traditions. He was probably about to go to the morgue himself. What a surprise that would be. Then they'd have to make another excuse. Lost her body, perhaps? Released it to the wrong family? Oh, the fun they could have.

She chuckled to herself. She wouldn't have found that funny a week ago, but being in isolation in a hospital ward for a week could lead one to have some very morbid thoughts.

It was early in the morning when they officially discharged her. The Governor sent a car to take her back to the palace for the big reveal. Fortunately, Kona was the only person there. Damn. She was really hoping to give some unsuspecting office worker the fright of their life.

The Governor was waiting for her at the door. She guided Kona up to the bullpen, and sat down in front of her.

"Are you sure you're ready for this?" the Governor said, concern permeating her voice.

"I'm ready for some human contact with someone other than my doctor," Kona said. She hoped that she was hiding the nerves, and the fact that her heart was racing in her chest at the thought of seeing everyone again, especially Steve. That extra bit of heart racing jitters was for him.

"They should be here in not too long," the Governor said. "I can stay if you would like."

"No, I think that it's best if I do it alone," Kona said, "but thanks anyways."

It was only when the Governor left that Kona really got nervous. Her stomach dropped, and started doing backflips, and ultimately it was a very unpleasant sensation. She figured if she had to wait any longer, she might drop for real.

Chin was the first person in. Of course he was. He got really driven and robotic and when he was faced with intense emotions.

"What the... fuck..." Chin said. "I just spent half an hour on the phone with your mom trying to calm her down and convince her that I would go down to the morgue and personally collect your body."

"Can I explain when everyone gets here?" Kona asked, her hands trembling noticeably now. "It's a little bit complicated."

"No kidding. You had to fake your own death. That's not exactly a paradigm of simplicity. But they'd better get here fast."

Danny got there within five minutes. He was equally floored, but still managed to drop a couple of corny one liners before Steve came in.

Then, the whole room went silent. Because hey, Steve and Kona hadn't exactly been subtle about the looks, and all that other stuff that went with hiding a growing attraction for another person. Chin and Danny had a pretty good idea of what was going on, but neither one had a particular compulsion to get in the middle of it.

Well, it was Steve and Kona. It had the possibility to get incredibly intense.

Steve's breath caught in his throat. There she was. A hallucination, perhaps. But how probable was three people sharing the same hallucination? Cho and Danny seemed to be equally in awe at Kona.

"Kona," Steve said, his voice nearly catching in his throat, "nice to have you back."

She barely managed a smile. She could feel her cheeks heating up, her heart rate beating faster and faster (this couldn't be healthy for someone who had recently survived a shooting) and she supposed that she'd better get on with the explanation before she passed out.

"So I wake up in the hospital," Kona started, hesitantly, "and the doctor tells me that I've been shot, but I guess Fat's sniper wasn't all that good because he managed to miss all the important stuff. Anyways, the Governor comes in and tells me that I have to pretend to be dead because there's some kind of risk that Fat will come back for me and that he's trying to get the rest of the team too, and there was going to be a press conference, a big public event that would draw Fat out."

"Sounds about right," Danny said. "I mean, apart from the whole you being alive part. And it was great almost getting killed for a second time in one day."

"I could hear the gunfire," Kona said, her voice almost dropping to a whisper, "and I thought you guys were all gone. All dead. And the worst thing was I couldn't contact you guys, or any family. I was just stuck in this little hospital room for a week. I'm good now." She brightened a little, but it felt fake. All she wanted was for Steve to come over or something. "The doctors says I need a few days of desk duty but I should be back in no time at all." She looked around at the team and forced a smile. Danny and Chin looked like they were thrilled, and a little shocked and surprised, but Steve was still standing away from the group, looking like someone had punched him. Oh my god, what have I done?

Steve had a resignation letter in hand. He was planning on getting back in touch with the Navy, going back to Afghanistan, just getting away from the Hawaiian scene that reminded him so much of someone he thought that he would never have back again.

Well, that was until he walked in to the office this morning and saw Kona sitting on her desk, just like it was any normal morning. Yeah. People came back from the dead all the time. That was a completely normal occurrence around 5-0.

He knew that he should feel overjoyed. That he should have been running to her, and taking her in his arms and kissing her like he had always wanted to do. This was his second chance.

But he couldn't do anything but stand and listen to Kona tell her story and feel supremely betrayed. She couldn't bend or break protocol to just let the team know she was okay?

At least his mental health. Because he was head over heels in love with her, and it really sucks to find out that someone you feel so strongly about would lie to you about something as important as their death.

"Well, so we had to do this press conference," Danny said, picking up the story, "and McGarrett over here steps up to the podium and before he gets a sentence out bullets are flying everywhere. Apparently the Yakuza thought that this was the right time to bust out the fireworks. Well, that was a few minutes of hell, because there were bullets and civilians and we all know how good a combination that is, but anyways, no one's hurt, and they got Wo Fat, which was great. He's in lockup and I think we've fulfilled McGarrett's life mission, eh?" Danny looked over his shoulder and tried to engage Steve in the conversation.

He was silent. He just couldn't say anything. All he could do was stare at Kona. And she was staring back. He tried to search her eyes for love, or perhaps some justification of the massive betrayal that she'd perpetrated, but he found nothing. Her stare was blank.

"Boss?" Chin said. "You okay?"

"No," Steve said, and bolted out of the bullpen like he was on fire.

Kona couldn't react immediately when Steve ran. She was paralyzed, and intensely confused. Should she stay or go? She really didn't think that ruining her relationship with her boss and object of her intense affections was a good way to go, but could things get any worse?

She picked go. She decided to run after him. But as soon as she got out of the Governor's palace and on to the street, she knew she had no hopes of finding him. He was a Navy SEAL. He knew how to run and hide.

She did, however, have something of an inkling of where he'd gone to.