I don't own Hawaii Five-0! My native language is Dutch and I'm dyslectic so sorry for any mistakes.

Chapter 7

Feeling like he had no energy left in his body, Steve arrived at HQ the next morning. Today was Day 3 of Jeffrey's sick game. Yesterday evening Steve had to tell Lori's parents that their daughter was killed. Killed because him. As expected her parents had many questions and Steve had tried to answer them all. Soon Lori would go home for the last time. He had promised her parents that. Lori would come home. Telling the family was always the hardest part of his job. He hated it. The looks on their faces and the sound of their voices. All hurt and despair. The question 'Why?' was the one he had heard the most. And he still didn't know that answer. He couldn't tell a victim's family why.

Danny and Chin didn't look much better. They were all tired, tired of the game. They all wanted their family back.

'I'm sorry about yelling and being so angry, Steve,' Chin apologized.

'I understand it, Chin,' Steve said. 'I know and I'm not taking it personally. I know what you feel. And we'll get them back.' He had told himself that about a hundred times by now and he started to stop believing in it. He had stopped when they found Lori in the jungle, murdered because some crazy guy had become bored to play with that many people. Jeffrey had no idea the effect he had on people's life. Actually he should see Lori's parents. Just so that he knew what he had done. He must have felt the same when his parents died. He must have had the same questions. Then why did he still cause this much hurt.


'Commander..sir…Steve!' Makan yelled as he ran into the building. Steve hurried out of his office to meet the young man. Makan needed a second to catch his breath before he could tell why he came in yelling.

'I…found…the location,' he panted. 'The location of…officer Kalakaua. I spent the last two days listening to the tape and looking for clues…and I think I found it. A building close to the road and far away from other people…'

'Where?' Steve interrupted. Makan searched his pockets and gave Steve a wrinkled piece of paper with an address written on it. 'Thank you, Makan.' Makan's face lit up.

'Glad I could help, sir…Steve,' the man said.

'Danny! Chin! We got a location for Kono!' Steve shouted and he was already on his way to the cars when he noticed Makan wasn't following him. 'Makan, are you coming? It's your lead so you're coming with us.' Makan smiled and he ran to Steve.

'Thank you,' he stumbled and Steve got in his car. They drove quickly to the address on the piece of paper. It was an old warehouse in the jungle and indeed close to the road. They could hear cars pass, like they had done in the video. All four of them were nervous. Nervous for what they would find inside. SWAT had arrived as well and they were seconds away from entering.

'Ready to bring Kono home?' Steve asked and they all nodded. Steve signaled for all of them to enter and he grabbed his own gun.


'HPD! Freeze!' SWAT yelled while they ran inside, followed by Steve, Chin, Danny and Makan. They left the arrests to SWAT. They went looking for their team member. Kono was hanging in one of the back rooms. Chin carefully removed the tape from her mouth as Steve and Danny pulled her down gently.

'Hey, cous,' Kono smiled weakly and Chin smiled at her. 'You came quite late for the party. You just missed the host himself.' Steve looked at the exit and he ran towards it.

'Steve!' Danny yelled but Steve kept running. If Jeffrey had just left, he might catch him…and he might find Catherine. He had to try. Trees were flashing passed him as he kept running. But Jeffrey wasn't to be found. Steve kicked the tree closest to him in frustration. When he heard a twig crack, he turned around, his gun trained on whoever was coming.

'Jeez, Steve, trying to give me a heart attack?' Danny said as he held his hands up in defense. Steve put his gun down.

'You came very close to being killed,' Steve grumbled.

'Next time I'll be yelling as I approach you,' Danny said. 'I learned my lesson.'

'How is Kono?' Steve asked.

'Not good,' Danny answered. 'Medivac is on its way to take her to the hospital. Chin suspected internal bleeding and her leg is definitely broken. Chin will flight with her and we should drive to the hospital…Jeffrey isn't here anymore, Steve.'

'I already noticed,' Steve snapped and he sighed. It wasn't Danny's fault. 'I'm sorry, Danno…'

'People are apologizing too much these days,' Danny said. 'We're all a little pissed because of the current situation. It's something we have to deal with, and certainly something we shouldn't take personally.'


Being in the hospital was always worse. Especially when it was the second time in three days. But this time Steve wasn't here for himself but for Kono. The doctors had taken her into surgery. To repair her leg and stop the internal bleedings. This was one moment they couldn't do anything. They were just waiting. Steve hated it. They had done so much waiting these couple of days. Hours they could have spend on finding Kono, Catherine and Lori. They might have prevented Lori's death. If they had only searched like Makan had done. But no, they had waited till Jeffrey had given them another assignment which wasn't getting them any closer to finding Kono, Catherine or Lori. Their waiting was why Lori had died.

'Family of Kono Kalakaua?' a doctor asked, who appeared in front of the team. They stood up and nodded. 'Alright, we managed to stop the bleeding and reset Miss Kalakaua's leg. The operation was a success. Miss Kalakaua is stable and in the recovery room.'

'Can we see her?' Chin asked hopefully.

'Of course, I'll get a nurse to take you,' the doctor answered.

'Thank you,' Danny said and the doctor nodded before leaving. Not long after that a nurse came and led them to Kono's room. Kono was still sleeping but she looked better than she had in the warehouse. She was still covered in bruises but without the blood, she looked better. More like herself.


On his desk was a box standing. Steve tore it open, no more patience left to open it carefully. Inside was a syringe. Curiously Steve looked at it and he had some idea of what was coming. Danny came walking into his office with the phone in his hand.

'I'm with Steve right now,' he said and Steve could hear Jeffrey greeting him.

'Hello, Jeffrey. Why are you calling this time? Does it has something to do with the package I received?' Steve showed Danny the syringe.

'I want to inject yourself with the syringe,' Jeffrey said and Steve looked at the syringe. The solution inside was clear. Nothing to indicate what it could be. 'There is no quitting, commander. No quitting at all…' Steve started to hate hearing that over and over. He knew that there was no quitting. But that didn't make it easier to inject himself with God knows what.

'Steve, don't say you're so stupid to do that,' Danny said when he saw Steve looking from the syringe to his arm and back. 'Don't be so stupid. This is a game. Jeffrey wants revenge. You just can't stick that syringe in your arm.' Steve thought about what Danny said and he took a deep breath. Before Danny could stop him, he injected himself and he threw the syringe on the ground. Danny looked in utter shock at him.

'Why did you do that?' he shouted angrily. 'Am I talking in a language unknown to you when I said you shouldn't do that?' Steve looked at Danny, without saying a word. Only blinking a few times. 'How are you feeling, Steve?' Before he could give an answer, Steve dropped to the ground.


'You're saying he injected himself?' Steve could hear a man, who was probably a doctor, ask shocked.

'Yes, that fool injected himself with whatever was in the syringe,' he heard Danny say angrily. 'Can you tell me with that he injected himself? Poison? Did he killed himself?'

'No, Lieutenant Commander McGarrett injected himself with a solution that will paralyze him temporary,' the doctor answered. Yeah, that was something Steve already knew. He wanted to tell them, but he couldn't speak, couldn't move. All he could do was listen to Danny and the doctor talking about him. 'The only question that's left is why he injected himself with that solution?'

'That is quite a long story,' Danny answered. 'When will this paralyze stuff wear off? Are we talking about hours or days?'

'Most will wear off in hours but for it to disappear completely from his system it will take about two days,' the doctor answered. 'He might have some trouble walking straight…or shooting. So that should be out of the question. He should take it easy, especially combined with the blows to his head he received a couple of days earlier.'

'Yeah, try telling him that,' Danny said. 'The situation right now isn't allowing him any rest.' Steve was glad that Danny told the doctor this but he hoped the doctor wouldn't want to keep him overnight. Staying here until the solution wore off was bad enough. Laying here in bed, doing nothing while Jeffrey could come up with the next step of the game, while Catherine was with this man and Kono in the hospital. Steve needed to push himself, cleaning this solution from his system. But he knew that that wasn't possible. His body needed to do that on its own time. For Steve it will happen to slow, he already knew that. He didn't have much time.


'You're worrying me more than Grace,' Danny told Steve when the solution had worn off some and Steve could move three fingers but he still couldn't speak. And Danny took the opportunity to tell Steve how wrong he was. 'At least I know Grace wouldn't something as stupid as injecting herself with an unknown solution. She's a smart girl. You're a fool, injecting himself what God knows what. You should be happy it just paralyzed you. It could have killed you just as easily. Jeffrey does hate you, remember? He blames you for the death of his parents. Those people don't give nice things!'

'Sh…up…' Steve managed to say as he discover that he could speak a little again.

'Oh no, I'm not shutting up,' Danny said. 'I'll only stop when you realize what a fool you are! Not a moment earlier! You almost gave me a heart attack when I saw you stabbing yourself and falling on the floor! You should be responsible. You're becoming a dad! We can't have you do stupid things like that when you have a child!'

'Sht…up…' Steve repeated. 'I…kno…do…te…mee.'

'You know?' Danny asked and Steve managed to nod. 'So you know it was stupid. So why did you do it? Just for fun? Because you want to die? What am I going to tell Catherine when you do? Yeah sorry, Catherine but he was too stupid to live. But he knew he was stupid. That is not something I want to tell her!'

'Stop…worry,' Steve said, finding that speaking became easier and he was relieved that he could move his right leg again.

'Worrying…I'll stop doing that when you stop being a fool!' Danny said but Steve could see the smile on Danny's face and he knew Danny was relieved as well that Steve was okay.


'Wow, you look terrible, boss,' Kono commented. 'Almost worse then I feel.' Steve had order a nurse to bring him to Kono's room as he had nothing better to do than wait until the paralyzing solution had left his system.

'Well, I actually feel kind of okay,' Steve replied. 'Good to see you awake.' Kono smiled but the smile didn't reach her eyes.

'I'm happy to be awake too,' she said. 'When I lost consciousness again, I thought it was the last time…that I wouldn't wake up again. And I felt okay with that, because you found me…and I had enough of the pain. I promised I would hang in there until you came so I could give up…'

'Good that you didn't,' Steve said. 'One death is enough.' While the words left his mouth, he realized his mistake. Kono didn't know about Lori yet. She didn't know anything that was happening beside everything she had been through. She looked questioningly and worried at him.

'Jeffrey killed Lori,' Steve explained and Kono gasped. 'He was tired of her…so he shot her between the eyes and left her in the jungle for us to find.'

'Oh my God,' Kono whispered. 'When…did he do it?'

'Umm…yesterday,' Steve answered.

'And have you found Catherine?' Kono asked.

'Not yet…how do you know Jeffrey has her?' Steve asked confused.

'He told me,' Kono answered. 'Also that she's pregnant…I'm sorry, Steve. He explained his plan with the baby. He was explaining it laughing. He enjoyed thinking about the pain he was causing you. He's one sick bastard.'

TBC.

School started again =( and it's a busy time. Papers are due, teaching the third grade and exams are coming =( Sorry when it takes a while to update!