A/N: Thank you all for the kind words and encouragements. You make everything fun and enjoyable. I am trying to respond individually, but not always able to do so. So, if I hadn't had the time, please accept my sincere thanks, now. Lydia - your sweet words are especially dear to me.

Special thanks to my darling Christinaxa who is not only a pure inspiration in general, and in this fic specifically, but also the only reason I'm not losing my mind over this awful season 3 that we're having. Her sweet and optimistic views, as well as her funny remarks and courageous previews of the more challenging episodes this season, are a true joy.

Please tell me what you think.


When he wakes up the next morning she is buried in his chest again. He is so grateful, he makes a silent decision not to move, even if it kills him. Her hand is holding his shirt tightly, and her head is tucked perfectly under his chin. Every breath she takes caresses the base of his neck and his upper chest, breaking his heart a little bit.

When the sun is high enough in the sky, and the light finds her closed eyelids, slowly abducting the sleep away from her, he closes his eyes quickly, trying to feign sleep and let her figure out her next move on her own. He tries to control his heart, when he waits silently for her movements. When she moves her head slowly away from his chest, he feels his throat tightens as he instantly craves her touch again. He feels so exposed suddenly, the place she occupied on his body is almost hurting with the new emptiness.

She opens her eyes, and all her senses are attacked by his presence. His scent, his touch, the beating of his heart and his quiet breathing under her ear. Her eyes sting a little, probably from the last night's crying. Her throat feels a bit raw. Actually, every nerve ending in her body feels raw.

She moves her head back slowly, to look at his face. He is sleeping soundly, and she has the rare opportunity to observe him without interruptions. He breathes deeply, his broad chest moves under her hand. His long eyelashes make weird little shadows on his cheekbones. He has a two day stubble, which makes him look young and reckless. She has to smile at this notion, if he would be more reckless than he is, it might actually be dangerous. She thinks about the last two days, it's already dangerous. In so many levels. Her eyes move to his strong neck, his chest, his broad shoulders. His left arm is draped lazily around her shoulders, the same as it was last night. His fingers are stretched, touching the ground behind her, effectively caging her in his arms. After always being the tallest girl around, she feels uncharacteristically small against his strong demanding body. She's surprised to discover it feels... good. She feels protected, and safe, and not alone anymore. She didn't feel like this in a very long time.

She moves her hand gently from his chest upwards, towards his face. Her fingers ghost over his lips, lingering there for a second only to move higher, above his cheek. She move them gently over his closed eyes and long eyelashes, trying to burn the image of his beautiful face with every sense she has. She can't help it anymore, as she throws all caution to the wind and moves her hand upwards to his temple and to his head. When she runs her fingers through his thick short brown hair, he wakes up.

His eyes are opened before she has the time to breathe. The look he sends her is so intense, and penetrating she gasps as her whole body lights up to his sudden suffocating presence. He moves his left hand from the ground to crash her against him, his lips finds hers immediately, as he shifts his weight on top of her, holding to her desperately.

To say that he kisses her doesn't even starts to describe it, he swallows her whole. He pins her down to the ground, his left leg between hers, his lips and tongue claiming her mouth with so much force and need, she feels like she's going to explode. She holds him against her with the same force, intensifying their contact by aligning her body to accommodate his position, her nails dig straight painful trails on his back under his shirt, as her leg comes to circle his thigh, pushing him against her pelvis. He is pushing against her with every move they make. He's kissing, sucking, as he moves his arm to caress her chest and abdomen, under her shirt. The silence around them is filled with their ragged breathing and the delicious sound of her moans.

It's when his mouth moves to paint burning trails on her jaw line, and down on her neck, and she whimpers uncontrollably with every wave of need he ignites in her, when he says her name, in awe and desire, that she finally realizes what they're doing.

"Steve" she mumbles, trying to regain control on the situation. He doesn't answer, his hand travels down on her abdomen, slow but demanding.

"Steve, look at me" she says decisively, moving her hands from his back and holding his head in front of her face. "Steve, it's crazy" she tells him when he finally looks her in the eyes "we shouldn't."

"No" he says at last, exhaling deeply, as he drops his head on her shoulder "we shouldn't."

He slides from on top of her, and moves to lie by her side, and they both lie there looking at the blue sky above them.

"Is it about Adam?" he asks quietly, his voice so empty and tired, she has to look at him with concern.

It is about Adam, she says to herself, but when her eyes lay on his tormented face, and still heaving chest she knows it's only half true. It's about Adam, yes. She's supposed to be his girlfriend, and girlfriends don't sleep around with other people if they can avoid it, but... it's even more about Steve. She suddenly realizes this. She looks at him beside her, his blue eyes mirroring the pain, and guilt and regret he's feeling. She can't take this beautiful man, and use him as the 'other guy'. She can't force him to come second. He's a proud man, with very clear and simple moral code. The fact that he's willing to break it, only to be with her, consequences be damned, is the loudest declaration of love and devotion she could ever get from him.

He turns his head to look at her, and she feels like all the blood runs out of her face, as all of it occurs to her at once. He loves her, crazily, intensely, burningly... and she... she does, too.

She knows there's no way it's going to work if she'll let it start out as something wrong. She needs to clear things up first, needs to let Steve be Steve, and do the right thing.

"Steve I..." she starts, but the fleeting moment of enormous love and devotion she sensed from him is already drowned by his own reality check. She can practically see him slipping away from her, as he speaks.

"I'm sorry, Kono" he says quietly looking back up to the sky "I never wanted to hurt you. Never."

"I know, Steve" she says quietly looking at his tormented face, already doubting her decision to wait.

"I want you to be happy with him, I am. And I trust you, you know that I do" he adds, looking at her earnestly "I trust you with my life, with everything. It's..." he closes his eyes for a second, and sighs deeply "it's him that I don't trust."

They lie next to each other for a few long minutes, looking at each other's eyes in silence. Then he sits up, and goes to arrange everything for the rest of their way down the mountain.

The silence continues when they make their preparations. When they clear all the evidences of their being there. When they find the trail again, and when they walk down the path with him in the lead, like always.

"I bet you miss yesterday's awkwardness, now..." he mocks her from behind his back, after a tensed hour of silence.

"Oh god, yes!" she cries, in despair from behind him. Then he hears her beautiful laugh, and he smiles.

()()()

They see her backpack almost at the same moment. They both start to run towards it with an overwhelming sense of dread. When they see the remains of the collapsed bridge hanging there on the rock, they look at each other with sheer panic. They look desperately down the cliff, half expecting to see their partners' bodies lying there on the ground. There's nothing, but there's so much vegetation, and it's way too high to see anything clearly, they both fear the worst.

"Jeez, brah" Chin mumbles brokenly "it's so high, they never had a chance..."

"Wait, wait" Danny says breathing deeply "there must be another explanation, I refuse to accept that..."

"Danny" Chin looks at him, holding his arm "they've obviously been here, we didn't find them anywhere else, we have a collapsed rope bridge here, that both you and I know for sure these two could never resist..."

"No, Chin" Danny shouts "no way. I know him, he will never make it that easy for me."

"Easy?" Chin looks at him like his crazy.

"I always warn him against all these lunatic stunts he pulls, I keep preaching him when he does something overwhelmingly stupid, like climbing a fucking rope bridge. He always finds a way to prove me wrong, the overzealous, careless, trouble magnet, bastard. There's no way he'll do something like that to make me look like I was right..."

"Danny, you're being ridiculous..." Chin shakes his head "they saw the bridge, it looked old and barely standing, so obviously they had to cross it, it's as simple as that... only..." he stops in his tracks, looking back at the scene in front of them "only... why would they cross, and leave Kono's gear behind?"

"Good point" Danny sounds intrigued "maybe... they thought it was too heavy?"

"But Steve's gear was heavier. They took his gear, and not hers? and besides, why leave the Sat-Phone behind? it makes no sense."

"Give me your binoculars" Danny cries suddenly. When Chin pulls out the small binoculars, he holds it up, and scans the other ridge "what was she wearing? do you remember?"

"Who, Kono?" Chin asks with confusion "I have no idea... how should I remember a thing like that?"

"You can't remember what your own cousin, and your partner was wearing?" Danny looks incredulously at him "how can you not remember?"

"I don't know" Chin spits angrily "can you remember what Steve was wearing?"

"Of course" Danny looks at him with contempt "cargo pants and a blue shirt."

"I think you have a small advantage when it comes to Steve's wardrobe" Chin grumbles towards him "wait, let me think... I think she wore a red shirt and jeans."

"They got to the other side" Danny says, beaming towards him "look."

When Chin picks up the binoculars, and scans the other side of the valley he sees what Danny is talking about. On the highest point of the ridge, just next to the remains of the bridge he sees a beautiful red mark made of Kono's shirt.

"This is why we couldn't find them" Danny says "we were looking at the wrong mountain."

"You're right" Chin nods "all the search parties were focusing on the north side. They were moving south the whole time."

"We're at least one and a half day behind them" Danny mumbles "and I think it's safe to assume our targets are there with them, as we didn't find a trace of them either."

"You're right" Chin says thoughtfully "we need to call Duke, tell him to move the forces south as soon as he can."

"It's not enough" Danny shakes his head "it will take ages" he pulls out the Sat-Phone from Kono's backpack, and pulls out his phone and scrolls down the numbers.

"What are you doing?" Chin asks curiously, as he pulls the low frequency radio to call Duke.

"I'm calling Catherine."

()()()

They walk for hours. They stop for food for about half an hour, but it's all hurried and purposeful. They hardly talk, and when they do, they are so civil to one another, it's actually frightening. It feels like the whole experience turned into some kind of an official assignment, and they are forced to work as a team, and are working on a case together for the first time. Their real first time involved her in a bikini, and afterwards stripping to her underwear under his eyes, followed by him breaking into a warehouse, trying to save her butt when the bullets started to whistle around her too soon. She still remembers his impressed, and slightly curious look when he found her slamming her fist into a guy 100lb heavier than her, as well as the beers afterwards, with Danny and Chin in the middle of the new HQ constructions. During this two hours long mission all the official boundaries between the four of them were lowered forever, to find them proudly erected again now, is simply devastating. She can see how he looks at her from under his eyelids, when he's busy tucking all the empty MRE bags back into his backpack. He silently watches her every move. She thinks to herself, there's not a list in the world they can push this strong surge of emotions between them, that would keep Danny and Chin in the dark about what happened here.

()()()

The forest ends. Abruptly. They can see the tree line from where they're standing, and he signals her to stop as he draws out his gun. She does the same, and they make their progress quietly and carefully, crouching behind bushes and trees.

He watches from the safety of the forest, finding himself standing at the edge of a big exposed area. There's a small building in the middle of it, and a gray pickup truck parking next to it. They can't see people, but he can see their targets' tracks leading towards the building.

He goes to sit beside her as she leans against a tree, to try and think of a plan. They have to assume they are facing at least four people inside, their three suspects and at least another person who drove the truck.

"We have to look inside" he whispers "see what we're up against."

She pulls her phone out, it looks like there might be reception "wait, Steve" she says quietly "I'll try to call for help."

She dials Chin's number, but it's cut off almost immediately, he tries Danny's with the same result.

"Look" he says thinking "if they'll climb into this truck, we'd lose them. Our only chance is when they're still here."

"Steve, they are heavily armed, they are inside a building... it's..." she sees the familiar glint in his blue eyes, and smiles towards him "don't tell me, you already have a plan..."

He pulls out two grenades from his backpack. One is a smoke grenades, the other one a regular military issued, with high explosive capacity "first step, to block their escape route" he whispers "can you handle the car?"

"Yes" she nods decisively "I can cut the ignition or something."

"Perfect" he nods "I'll cover the house while you do that. Then, I'll throw the smoke grenade in, and as they run out, we'll shoot them."

"Steve" she looks horrified "I know Danny and Chin are not here, so obviously, the lunacy level would have to be pretty high, but as you might remember, they are all still suspects..."

"In the legs, smarty pants" he says in annoyance "shoot them in the legs. A sniper like you... I think you can manage to find their legs from a close range."

"Fine" she glares at him furiously "I'll shoot their legs. All fucking eight of them..."

()()()

They move silently towards the building. She follows his footsteps carefully, and as soon as he slams against the wall, under one of the windows, she makes the short run towards the truck. The vehicle is locked, so she takes off her over shirt and wraps it around a heavy stone she finds there, and crashes the window, trying to make it as quietly as she can. When the window breaks she opens the door, and crawls into the driver's seat, searching for the ignition cables under the steering wheel. She cuts them with the small knife she has hidden in her boot. When she finishes, she signals to him with her thumb, and prepares to move out of the truck.

He sees her satisfied grin, and moves his attention towards the building. He moves slowly, trying to look into the house through the window. It's a big room, and he can see a large table inside, covered with different weapons, and ammunition. He counts three men standing around it, arguing about something. He can recognize two from the sketches the other suspects gave them. He looks frantically around the room, there's no other door, there's no other exit. Only three men, where the fuck is the fourth one?

"Put your gun down, or I'll fucking shoot her" he gets his answer from behind him. When he turns around slowly, he sees a large man holding Kono in front of him, pointing a gun to her head "put the gun down, I said" the guy spits again. She only looks at him blankly, like she's not even there.

"Fine" Steve says quietly "calm down, I'm putting it away" he lowers the gun to the ground, and raises his hands. She looks at him intently, she can't see the grenades. Must has stashed them behind him, or in his pocket... this is getting interesting.

"Your knife too" he indicates towards his thigh holster, and Steve obliges slowly, without even arguing. "Makana, Mike, Ollie" he cries towards the building "come see what I found. She sees Steve looking at her, then moving his eyes to her boot, and then looking at the door.

"OK" she nods, making the man holding her, pull a little harder around her neck.

They hear hurried footsteps from within the building, moving towards the door when Steve shouts "now!"

()()()

It happens within a split second. She back kicks her abductor's knee under him, and slams a strong elbow into his solar plexus. When he's fighting to breathe, releasing her in the process, she take his gun away from him, and pulls out her knife, stubbing him in the foot, making him cry in pain. She raises the gun and sees Steve running with his own gun towards the building's door, shouting to her to duck. She does, just before a big explosion is sound from within the building. She figures he managed to throw the damn smoke grenade in, after all.

He stands against the door, pointing his gun towards it, when the three men pushing out of the burning smoke inside, he hits the first one with the butt of his gun, and kicks his head in. She shoots the second one in the leg, and Steve completes the job by kicking him in the head too. When the third one starts to shoot from inside the building, he has to take cover behind the heavy door, and he has time to turn around and watch her.

She is being dragged by the fucking bastard again. She was too busy focusing on supporting his breach, that she didn't notice the guy picking her gun from near the truck, where she dropped it, until he was already shoving it into her waist. He is still in pain, and he can hardly walk, but he leans on her and uses her body for cover, as well as for support.

He can only stand there, grounded to his position by the heavy shooting from inside, and watch them disappear back into the forest.

()()()

He pulls the real grenade now, he has no time to lose. He takes a deep breath, before he opens the door quickly, throws it in, and closes it back immediately. It takes three seconds before a loud explosion is heard, and after that, there's no more shooting. He takes a quick look at the two half conscious men on the ground beside him, decides they are not going anywhere, and runs after Kono and the fourth guy.

()()()

He can't find them anywhere. He screams her name in sheer panic. There's no movement between the trees, his instincts are all on high alert, but he can't see a fucking thing. He just stands there with his gun in his hand, scared out of his mind, looking around him frantically.

The guy is wounded, they couldn't have gone far. He tries to convince himself that he didn't actually hear any gunshot, but with the noise from the explosion... he can't be sure of anything anymore.

"Kono" he shouts at the top of his lungs "Kono, can you hear me?" Fucking nothing. He feels how his heart is sinking in his chest. He feels like the whole world is swirling around him.

()()()

Then he sees it. A piece of red thread wrapped around a tree. He scrambled towards it, recognizing immediately the fabric of her shirt. He looks at the ground, he can see blood splatters on the leaves, a broken flower, a bent shrub. He can follow their tracks again. His old hunting skills are running the show again, as he moves quickly and quietly, following the signs. He can see they still remain in the outskirts of the forest, probably because it's an easier walk. He moves with a beating heart, with hope, with fear, until he finds himself on the edge of a big hole in the ground.

()()()

There are two bodies at the bottom of the hole. The guy's head is crushed on a rock, bleeding. Kono is lying motionless beside him, her legs folded under her.

"Kono" he cries "Kono, babe, can you hear me?"

She moves slightly, groaning with pain. He releases a breath he wasn't aware he was holding, and jumps in.

"Hey" he whispers, when he picks her head up gently "are you OK?"

"Yeah" she murmurs in his arms "I saw the hole, so I pushed him, I thought if I land on top of him, then..."

"Good thinking, babe" he smiles in relief "although, if Danny was here, I bet he would've said you're even crazier than I am."

"It's a great honor, boss" she smiles tiredly "and now that you mention it... you think we can add this to the list?"

"Danny's list?" he laughs

"Yes" she nods seriously "and maybe we should make another one, you know, for Chin."

"Sure, babe" he nods in agreement. He can acually think about several other things that should go on Chin's list, too...

()()()

She hurt her fucking knee. Yes, the same knee. She landed badly when she fell down the hole. You know, because officially she goes with falling. Jumping simply sounds bad. In so many levels...

When he tries to help her out of the hole, he can't. She can hardly move, and the edges are slippery, and even he isn't strong enough for this exercise. He leaves her there, climbs out and runs to the building to find a rope, or a ladder or something. When he steps out of the forest, he sees Danny and Chin running towards him from Danny's car.

"Steve" they both shout in relief, as the area starts to fill with more and more police cars, and a helicopter is flying above them.

"Where is she?" Chin shouts over the noise of the sirens and the chopper. Steve only signals to them to follow him.

They find her in the hole, supporting herself on one leg and Steve jumps in again, picking her up and lifting her towards Chin and Danny who lies on their stomach with their arms reached towards her. They grab her, and pull her out swiftly, and before she knows it, she is already held in the tight embrace of her cousin. Danny reaches his hand to help Steve out too, and then the four of them are sitting there, on the ground, together at last.

()()()

Chin and Danny hug the both of them, and Danny smiles broadly, clapping Steve on the back. Then they make their way out of the forest and towards the cars.

"How did you find us?" Steve asks with confusion, watching Kono's swollen leg in horror as she's being carried by Chin slowly. He can't help feeling out of place suddenly, when Chin takes charge of her care.

"Catherine helped" Danny smiles "we found the kid's backpack near the place where you crossed the valley "I assume it was your brilliant idea..." he glares at Steve.

"It was sort of a joint decision" Steve mumbles.

"You are a fucking liar" Danny notifies him "anyway, we were all looking for you on the other side of the valley before that. By the way, kid, nice touch with the signal."

"Thanks, Danny" she beams.

"We asked Catherine to use her resources, and look for you with the Navy equipment, while we made it to the other side, by car."

"Your phone sent us a signal" Chin adds "a few minutes ago, for a really short time. We were roaming the hills for hours, and when we picked it up on the computer, it helped."

"The main thing now is to take you to the hospital, and to take the bad guys to jail" Danny claps his hands in satisfaction looking at the both of them "we can talk about everything else later, after you'll have a shower, and change, and listen to all the messages I left on your phones."

()()()

They come out of the forest, and there's an ambulance there as well as several police cars. Duke is walking towards them smiling, and Steve meets him half way, shakes his hand and starts to explain the situation pointing at the building and the suspects who are already being arrested. In the mean time, Chin takes her to the bus, and gets the paramedic look at her leg. It's obvious she needs to go to the hospital, but they have so much to take care of on the scene, she makes Chin promise they'll finish everything there first, and come to see her there later.

She sits on the gurney when she sees Steve walking towards her, with a big smile on his face. Danny and Chin are next to the suspects, giving instructions and taking a look at the weapons. She smiles back at him. She really thought he would use this opportunity now that they're safe and back with their friends, to go back to the distanced way he was handling himself for so long, around her. Only... the blue eyes that looked at her in the hole, after he thought she was dead, told her things will never be the same between them. Never. They need to talk, they have to clear all the mess around them, well... she has to, really. Adam is her mess after all... she thinks to herself, she can actually do it now, because she knows she has him... so when she sees him making his way towards her, she smiles...

Catherine is the one who runs from her blue and ridiculous car, calling his name. She crashes into him, holding him in her arms and kissing him in relief.

"I was so worried, I tried to call you" she says hurriedly "then Danny called and I realized... oh god Steve, are you OK?"

She hugs him again, and he hugs her back, buries his face in the crook of her neck, while Kono's gurney is loaded to the back of the bus, on its way to the hospital.

()()()

She makes the ride to the hospital in silence, feeling how the tears well in her eyes and roll down, on her cheeks. She opens her cell phone, and dials the code to the voicemail, and listens to all the messages there from the last two days. She can hear Chin's worried voice, Danny's rants, her mother, annoyed about something and then, Chin again. She hangs up the phone after she finishes listening to all twelve messages. There isn't a single one from Adam.


Ok, this one came out really long. Sorry about that... one more chapter till the end.