Hi Everybody! So I decided to not keep you waiting too long! A chapter dedicated to Shirik… hopefully this satisfies your needs! Hope you enjoy! I'm super duper excited for next week! Even though my dinner is on the same night! Hopefully I'll be able to download straight after! So this is as far as I've written.. no chapters ahead to keep you busy while I write, so hopefully I can get inspired tonight and write another 2 chapters! *holding thumbs*
Disclaimer: I still own nothing… wishing isn't helping!
Kono was starting to come out of her daze. She felt the sun beating down on her body and was slightly confused as to why she was feeling a small pain in her ribs. She pulled herself out of the daze and realised that she was on a horse, lying on her stomach, her hands were tied. Her dark hair cascaded over her face making it difficult to see. She lifted her head and saw the rider of the horse look down at her as she stirred. It was Ronald. Kono's breathing started to get heavier. What was she doing here? She looked at the shirt she was wearing. Steve. Did they take him aswell? Did he know they had taken her? She tried to look around but she was restricted by her restraints. She started to remember what had happened. She knew they hadn't taken him, because he had been on the phone with Catherine when they took her. She sighed and hoped that he hadn't thought she had run away from him. After another 10 minutes of riding they finally stopped. Ronald jumped off the horse and pulled Kono onto her feet as he did so. She looked around and saw a small building. It looked like it used to be used as a cabin. She was shoved towards it by Ronald and only then noticed the other two men that were accompanying him. Jack and the silent man at the bar. Ronald pushed her inside the building. It was filled with chemicals and jars everywhere. This must have been where they manufactured their meth. Kono took a deep breath.
"Well officer. Nice of you to join us on this lovely day." It was the silent man. "Oh, my apologies. I'm Markus and this is my humble factory."
Kono stared at the man, refusing to show fear. "What do you want with me?"
He scoffed. "Well, firstly I would like to know what you know about my business and then I think Ronald said something about having a dance with you."
Kono swallowed hard as she saw the glint in Ronald's eyes. Let him try it.
"So, are you going to tell me or are we going to have to force you to."
"We don't know anything. That's why we're here."
"oh in that case, Ronald you can let her go." He laughed loudly and Kono's face hardened even more.
Markus ushered for the two men to leave him with her and they obliged, walking outside and closing the door behind them. The man pulled up a chair and forced Kono to sit on it. She stared at him with all the hatred she could muster up at that time.
"Officer, you must realise that me, well, I'm just into the money from these drugs. Ronald on the other hand, he likes to have fun with the customers. Now, I've told him that he is not allowed to touch you while you are being cooperative, but if that should change…" he trailed off.
"I told you, we don't know anything."
"You must know something if they sent you here in the first place."
"We heard of a possible drug issue, if we didn't find anything we couldn't report it."
Markus bent down to her level and brushed his hand over her face. "Pity. It would have been so much better to have you around for a while."
Steve had been riding fast for the last 10 minutes. He couldn't have been that far behind them. He saw the rooftop of a small building ahead and slowed his horse down. He dismounted and tied the horse to a nearby tree. He stalked towards the house slowly. He didn't have a weapon so he knew he would have to use other tactics. He came up to the side of the house and peered in through one of the windows. He sighed in relief at what he saw. She was alive, being stubborn as usual, but still alive. He smiled a little before he heard the distinctive sound of a weapon being cocked ahead of him. He looked up to see Ronald standing before him, weapon pointed directly at him. He slowly rose to his feet and put his hands in the air. He needed to get closer to the man to be able to disarm him. He inched closer, but was promptly stopped in his tracks when he was knocked over the head with a large plank. Steve fell to the ground, seemingly out of it. The two men dragged Steve into the cabin.
Kono watched as the door to the cottage opened and gasped when she saw Steve being dragged in by the other two men. Markus got a cocky grin on his face when he saw that the only person who could rescue her was being dragged in, barely conscious.
"Well, this changes things a bit doesn't it?" He looked towards Kono again, the fear in her eyes was evident. "Tell me what you know and I'll let him live. If you don't tell me what you know, then Jack over here is going to take him outside and put a bullet in his head."
Kono frowned. "I don't know anything." It sounded more like pleading than anything else.
Markus seemed to get a little angrier now. "Fine." He motioned for Jack. "Take him outside and put a bullet in his head. We don't need him anyway."
"NO!" Kono tried to get off her seat, but she was restrained by Ronald. "I don't know anything, I swear." She fought with all of her strength to get to Steve, but Ronald hit her alongside her face and made her fall to the ground. He kicked her twice in the stomach while she lay there. She lay her head on the ground and the tears started rolling down her face as she saw the door close behind Jack. She felt completely useless. She really wished that Danny and Chin were outside and would be able to save him. She could see the shuffling of feet through the crack at the bottom of the door. A single gunshot rung through the air and she closed her eyes, tears streaming down her face as her whole body went limp. She whispered his name as if he could hear her. "Steve."
Jack walked back into the room. Kono had been hoping that Steve had gotten the upper hand and it was his feet she would see entering the door. She seemed defeated lying on the ground, whimpering to herself. Ronald picked her up roughly. "What are we going to do with this one boss?"
"Do what you want with her. Just make sure that she never speaks to anybody ever again. The buyers are coming to meet me here any minute. So make it quick."
Kono didn't have the energy to fight as she was pushed towards the door of the shack again. The bright light shone in her face and she squinted her eyes when she was taken outside. She looked around for Steve. She saw a small pool of blood on the ground and drag marks leading to behind the shack. She suddenly found a little energy to attempt to fight off her captor. He was strong though and quickly subdued her attempt to get to see Steve's body. He dragged her to off the path and into a jungle area, pushing her against a tree. She fell at the base of the tree and seemed to be caught in a moment of disbelief at what had just happened. Anger was now starting to take over her emotions. Ronald attempted to grab her by the shirt, Steve's shirt. In one swift movement she raised her bound hands and they connected with his jaw bone fiercely, sending him stumbling backwards. She kicked the man in the leg and attempted to run past him, but he caught her leg and she fell to the ground hard. Kono attempted to crawl away, but soon he was sitting on her back, pinning her to the ground. She felt him pressing against the bruises on her back roughly. She was bracing herself for him to begin fondling her when all of a sudden the weight on her back got lighter. She heard the footsteps of another fumbling around the jungle. She heard the sound of fists hitting flesh. She couldn't seem to move, she wanted so badly to get up and see who her rescuer was, but her body was frozen in that moment. Suddenly all the noises stopped. She finally managed to shuffle to her knees, she turned, looking towards where the scuffling noises had been coming from. Her eyes got wide and she took in a sharp breath. Steve. Her eyes immediately started to fill with tears, leaving clean streaks on her dirt covered cheeks. He was alive. He limped over to her, keeping his shoulder in one place. No words were spoken between the two. He lifted her up and as fast as lightening he had removed her binds. She stared at him while he fiddled with the ropes, almost not believing that he was really there. He pulled her in to his chest and hugged her tightly and kissed her head. She still couldn't believe it. He let her go and cupped her face with both hands, wincing in pain as he did. He wiped the tears falling over her cheeks with his thumbs. She was breathing heavily again, searching his eyes with her own. He kissed her slowly and passionately.
"How?" The word was a whisper on her lips.
"I'll never leave you Kono." He smiled at her. "Are you okay?" She nodded and looked at the blood soaked shirt he was wearing. "Jack. He shot me in the shoulder and hid me behind the shack. Somehow I don't believe he likes being a part of all this. We best get going, the buyers will be here soon. Danny and Chin should be on their way."
Steve was still staring at her when he noticed a reflection off of something in the corner of his eye. He pulled Kono to the ground as gunfire started heading in their direction.
"Run." He grabbed her hand with his good one and they started running in the opposite direction of the gunfire, ducking to avoid being hit. They seemed to be running at record breaking speed and soon they didn't hear gunfire anymore. They were deep in the jungle before Kono couldn't see the sky through the thick trees up above. She slowed down, her body beginning to feel the stress of the last two days. She was breathing rapidly and eventually stopped running, resting her hands on her knees.
"Can't…" She indicated that she needed to rest.
Steve looked around. "Okay. We'll rest here for a bit. He ushered her to a rocky area on the side of the mountain. He sat on a rock and closed his eyes for a few moments, scrunching up his face at his wound that was bleeding profusely. Kono watched him and eventually she walked over to where he sat. She remembered the days' events, especially the part about Catherine. She moved to lift his sleeve so she could see the wound more clearly. "I'm fine, it's okay."
She scowled her face at him. "Don't be even more of an ass. Let me see." She gave him a warning look at which he allowed her to asses his injuries.
His eyes wondered over her face as he watched her concentrate on his bullet wound. He felt the need to explain himself for the earlier phone call. "Kono, about earlier…"
"Don't." It was short and to the point, nothing else.
"Kono, I need…"
"You don't need to do anything."
"Yes, I do"
"Not now." The two words stung Steve. She had spoken so softly and he could sense the hurt in her voice.
Kono lifted his shirt over his head and started ripping it into bandage size pieces. "Looks like a through and through, but you'll need to keep some pressure on it." She tied the pieces of fabric around his shoulder, pulling a little tighter than she needed to when she knotted it.
"Okay.." He winced again. "Thanks." Suddenly he started to feel dizzy. His body swayed a little and Kono grabbed him on his sides.
"You feeling okay?" When he didn't answer straight away Kono started to get worried. "Steve?"
"Yeah. Fine. I think I'm just a little dehydrated."
"I swear Steve, if you make me carry your ass through this jungle we are going to have such issues." She sighed. "We best try get back to the ranch. They wouldn't try anything there." As she said the words she heard sirens in the distance. Thank God. "Come on." She slid her arm around Steve's waist and swung his good arm over her shoulders. She was weak, but Steve was in worse shape. They limped down through the jungle. Occasionally Steve would glance at her, examining her facial expressions. They seemed cold to him. Something he never thought he would see coming from her. She stared straight ahead at the path before them. Eventually they were nearing the area that the shack was located at. Kono took her arm away from Steve's waist and made him sit behind a tree. "I'll be back in a few seconds. Wait here."
"No, Kono don't." He grabbed her arm.
She paused at the touch of his hand and closed her eyes when she answered, speaking softly to him. "I need to see if Danny and Chin are there or if we need to stay hidden for a while. I'll be back in a few minutes. Stay here. Okay?"
Steve had no choice but to let her go. He was starting to feel the effects of loosing so much blood and in reality he wouldn't have made it up the small embankment without resting first. She stared at him for a second before turning and making her way up the embankment, trying to be as quiet as possible. She reached the top of the small hill and slowly lifted her head to peer over and assess the situation. She sighed in relief at the sight of Danny pacing and waving his hands at anybody he could.
"Danny!"
"Kono. Babe, are you okay?" He ran to the edge of the embankment, swiftly jumping down to her level. He hugged her tightly then stepped back to assess her condition. She was covered in dust and had a nasty bruise forming on her face, not to mention that she was covered in small cuts and scrapes.
She nodded in his arms and wrapped her own arms around his shoulders. She was so close to tears she had to clear her throat to avoid sounding squeaky when she spoke. "Steve is down there. He needs a medic."
Danny sighed in relief at hearing they were both alive. "Is he in bad shape?"
They both moved down the hill towards where Steve rested. Steve looked up when he heard the sound of shuffling ground. When he saw that it was his partners he relaxed against the tree again.
"Hello. Earth to Rambo." Danny was waving his hands in front of Steve's face.
"What?"
"What happened?"
Steve started to stand, supporting himself with the tree. "Long story. Did you get all of them?"
"We've arrested Markus and Jack, not to mention a couple of goons running around with guns."
"And Ronald?"
"He wasn't at the cabin. We didn't think he was at the scene."
Steve looked at Kono with worried stare. "Search the jungle. He's got to be here somewhere."
Danny and Kono helped Steve up the embankment and directed him to the medic that was waiting for him. As soon as she saw he was in capable hands, Kono walked away towards the camaro. Steve looked around for her as the medic evaluated him. He spotted her sitting in the camaro, her legs out the open door. She rested her elbows on her knees and her face was buried in her hands. If Steve hadn't of know any better he would have thought she was crying, but knew she wouldn't allow herself to do that in the presence of her team members. Danny looked at Steve, then followed his line of sight. He noticed the look of helplessness on Steve's face.
"What you do?"
"What?"
"The way you're looking at our rookie. What did you do?"
"It doesn't matter Danny."
"Obviously it matters or you wouldn't be looking at her like that."
Steve shook his head and climbed into the ambulance, not daring to look at Kono again under the watchful eye of his partner.