Over the rest of the day I met the rest of the team, got acquainted with the area and local issues of the week, I wouldn't officially start work until tomorrow, but the guys wanted to take me out and get to know me a little better tonight. I was staying with Steve until the house I had been assigned by the USAF was cleared and fumigated, roughly a week or so until that was ready; Steve had free time this afternoon so he was heading to the beach to surf, he invited everyone along and I came to mind the seats. He knew something was up when I refused to go swimming; he knew I was a trained rescue diver and loved the ocean. While they surfed I sat down on the chairs above the sand level on the tarmac, my mind screamed when I even thought about touching the sand. Taking a deep breath to calm the urge to run away, I watched them ride the crests of the waves, my whole body itched to be with them in the water, but my body just refused…it was killing me…..I can't tell anyone without risking my career and freedom…..not even Steve!

An hour or so later I had water for them all and was reading the newspaper when Steve joined me on the park bench, handing him a water bottle he looked at me and noticed I was always using my right hand; while passing him another towel he grabbed my left hand and tried opening it. I whimpered loudly enough that he loosened his grip and turned my hand over and noticed the deep bruising and lacerations to my knuckles.

"What have you done to your hand?" he demanded rolling up the loose sleeve.

"I was boxing earlier in the gym, bag got away from me and I punched the panelling behind it, no biggy, nothing stopping me from working, just a few layers of skin loose and a banged up knuckle." I replied.

He looked over it closely and frowned as he saw the deep bruising across my knuckles, he knew it was broken by the click it made as he pressed gently.

"This is a double hairline fracture of your knuckles, your skins raw as hell and it looks like it has been bleeding a lot – did your gloves burst during the hit?" he demanded.

Holding up my hand I peeled back the loose skin and chucked some water on it, lay the skin back over the knuckles and then clicked my knuckles for the joints to pop into place. We hadn't seen Danny appear behind me and he stared aghast at my hand.

"Ow, Sarah…that needs seen too!" he said grimacing.

"Its fine Danny, had worse….no need for the mollycoddling!" I replied back.

Steve realised that I hadn't answered his question about my gloves in the gym and put two and two together, I wasn't wearing proper protection!

"You were boxing without gloves, with those bags in our gym?" Steve accused me, glaring at my turned away face.

Turning around to him again I glared and stood up, leaning against the fence, I really wasn't in the mood for a lecturer!

"Technically I wasn't boxing, I was letting off steam in this tropical paradise on speed, while waiting on you coming back to the office, Chin said I could keep my gear in your office and showed me the layout of the place." I replied hotly.

Sitting up I rolled down my sleeve and grabbed a bandage from my bag. Wrapping my hand up I flexed it and dropped some painkillers. Steve glared at the pillbox and then at me.

"Morphine, your taking morphine….how the hell did you get morphine with being on the island only 5 hours? And why the hell morphine for a cracked knuckle?" he said checking the dosage on the bottle.

"I'm a medic Steve; I prescribe by licence, collect when required and take as recommended. No harm. No foul!" I retorted angrily.

Walking off towards the main police HQ again, Steve and Danny looked at each other and winced, they had just introduced O'ahu to a Scottish temper!

"You my friend had better make nice with her, you've gone big brother mode on her and I doubt she needed scolded. What did she do anyway?" Danny said as he watched me walking away.

"She missed the punch bag and hit the panelling behind the shield, she also lied to us about the morphine; all her meds would have been destroyed before coming across the ocean by the USAF doctors."

"Why would she lie to us? What could she gain by hiding anything to do with that?" he inquired.

"I don't know Danny; this isn't the same Sarah McGregor I know. I know it was a couple of years since we've seen each other, and under worse situations, but she has really been changed."

"Why does my dad senses tell me this is going to end badly for her? Did you date or have a fling or something? Is that how you know each other?"

"More of a double crush we had for each other – regulations got in the way through and we got split up." He replied gently.

Danny looked up at his partner and frowned at his expression.

"Well my friend – time to get back into the game! Did you meet her in the UK?" Danno replied.

Steve looks at him and shakes his head before pulling a top on.

"No. We met under fire in Iraq where she had to pull a bullet out my back while under Evac, the bullet could have paralysed me if she miscalculated the procedure, I trust her fully, will protect her like I would all of you, but something has happened to change her." He whispered.

Danny looked up and him and sighed.

"Well, it's rumoured she was in a situation with a unit in Iraq, maybe contacting her CO is a good idea, get his opinion?" Danny suggested while watching me enter the building ahead.

Steve looked at him and raised his eyebrow; Danny shrugged and passed him his phone with a message from Joe White regarding me.

"Had to check my friend, Joe says it's some serious crap that went down involving a rescue. He says to call if you need help or information."

"Yeah, that's the plan Danny," whispered Steve.