Hey guys well this is it! the last chapter of This is Not the End I hope I have done our guys justice and I haven't let you down with the ending! Massive massive thank you to my fantastic beta mirs13 she has been amazing! Hope you enjoy please review, mahalo. Keep Smiling and bye for now :)
"CATHERINE ROLLINS, DROP THE GUN AND PUT YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD!" shouted Chin and Kono as they raised their guns, pointing them directly at Catherine's head. She was trying her best to look shocked and confused, but Steve knew her too well to fall for that trick.
"Steve please, he is lying. Isn't it obvious? He staged this whole thing so he could come between us. You don't belong with him. He is not right for you and he doesn't deserve your love. I am the one who is so perfect for you, but you picked that over me!" pointing her finger towards Danny as she argued back, refusing to take her other finger off the trigger of her gun as Chin and Kono continued to shout demands at her. Catherine stood her ground and looked to be vibrating as anger surged through her veins.
Steve honestly couldn't believe all this was happening, but standing up from the now cowering Danny, he looked right at her and said, "You're right Catherine." Out of the corner of his eye Steve could see that Chin and Kono still had all their focus on Catherine. "You hit the nail on the head. I don't belong with Danny. I mean, what the hell was I thinking?" he laughed, shooting a disgusted look at the man hugging his knees on the floor behind him. "Lower your weapons."
"You heard the man Catherine, lower your weapon!" yelled Kono with a smirk, but then she saw the look in Steve's eyes and couldn't believe what she was seeing. "Boss…"
"Not Catherine, you two. Lower your weapons now! Don't even think about shooting. I need her." Steve said, placing his gun back in his holster while Chin and Kono grudgingly did the same. He looked to Catherine who had lowered her weapon and was beaming at Steve with tear filled eyes.
"Steve? Do you really mean that? You need me?" she asked as she holstered her gun, wiping a tear of joy away from her eye. Her smile got wider as Steve advanced on her, pulling her into a deep, tight hug.
"Of course Catherine, I am now 100% certain of what I want. It just took you showing me to know for sure, that's all." he said, smiling brightly down at her as she raised her arm up around his neck and ran her fingers through his hair. That was when everything seemed to go into slow motion. As she pulled him in for a kiss, Steve grabbed her arm, twisted it around, and pushed her wrist right in between her shoulder blades causing her to scream out in pain. "And what I want is to see you rot in jail for laying your hands on Danny. When are you going to get it through your thick skull? I am completely, utterly, and hopelessly in love with him. It has always, and will always, be him. You were a fool to think I ever felt anything remotely similar to this with you. I am marrying him! I would happily die for him if I knew that was the only way to save him." Steve noticed that Duke had come rushing back in when all the yelling had started and he was extremely grateful for that at this moment. "Duke, get her out of my site before I do something I almost certainly won't regret!"
"You got it Steve. Come on Lieutenant Rollins, let's go." The older man forced some cuffs on her, tightening them to their tightest possible setting. Grabbing her by the shoulder, Duke turned her around to face the team she had just betrayed, the family she had let down. Nothing but cold glares responded to her as she desperately pleaded with them that she was innocent.
"Boss, if you don't mind, Kono and I would like the honour of doing the interrogation before we personally transport her to general population at Halawa; she has done enough busts with us to be recognised by the other inmates." Chin gave a coy smile to Catherine as Steve just nodded in approval. Duke just nodded with a sigh and led Catherine out of the cave, the light from the moon highlighting a lone tear gliding down her cheek. She hadn't just betrayed Five-0; she had betrayed all of HPD and the state of Hawaii.
"Danny!" Steve whispered once he turned around to see Chin and Kono kneeling beside him. Danny was shivering and trying to fight back tears that continued to slip down his cheeks, soaking into the thin shirt he was wearing. It was getting cooler and they were at a high altitude, so it was only going to get worse as the night wore on. Steve started to walk over as Chin and Kono were helping Danny stand on his own two feet. Immediately Danny collapsed into Steve's arms, sinking his face into Steve's neck, trying to hold himself up by Steve's shirt. Steve quickly wrapped his arms securely around Danny's quivering body, resting his head on Danny's muttering, "Danny, I am so sorry. I am so, so sorry! I had to say those things to get her where I needed her."
"Steve that is not what this is about. I trust you and I know you would never do anything to hurt me, or Gracie for that matter. I'm just sorry that you've lost a friend because of me. It's all my fault!" Danny felt Kono flick his ear and he let out a moan, "Ouch! What was that for?"
"How dare you blame yourself for what that bitch did to you Danny! You didn't ask to be kidnapped and beaten. This is not your fault and I will have a full blown rant about it tomorrow that even you will be proud of, but for now," Kono continued, redirecting her attention to Steve, "I think we should get him out of here Boss. Plus, Chin and I have an engagement back at HQ that I am really looking forward to if I am being honest." Kono shone the torch out of the cave at the ever growing darkness that surrounded them and led the way out.
"Glad you are alright brah," Chin said with one of his kind smiles as Danny slipped his arm over his shoulder. Danny did the same to Steve and then his friends helped him limp jerkily out of the cold, damp cave following in Kono's path. He was safe once again.
In interrogation at Five-0 Headquarters
Sitting with her cuffed wrists bound tightly to the nailed down chair, Catherine looked around the room where she had personally questioned all matters of scum and dirt bags, and wondered to herself when she became one of them.
She didn't have much time to ponder on the question because only a few seconds later the familiar scrape of the door introduced Chin and Kono, still wearing the Kevlar showing their names and Five-0 inked across the badge. They walked further into the room before quietly shutting the door behind them. The two cousins just stared at her with no remorse, no emotion whatsoever, and just one question on their minds…
"Why?" Kono asked taking a step towards Catherine, her arms folded across her chest. She stared into the eyes of someone she had once called her friend. Now Catherine was just another criminal, scratch that, she was just another person who had almost ripped her Ohana to pieces and nearly killed someone she loved. She was not going to let that go.
Sniffing and rolling back in her seat, Catherine just stared back at her, remaining silent until Kono had enough. Getting right up in her face, Kono gritted her teeth and asked again, "Why did you kidnap Danny and leave him for dead? Don't make me ask you again!" Chin could see that Kono was clenching her fists and he knew where that would lead, it was one of the reasons why he made sure the corridor was clear of officers. It's not like there wasn't already a line forming to have a go at the person who almost killed someone they had accepted into their family. They would all defend Danny to the end. No, no one was going to say a word, but Kono and Chin felt they had the right to be first and they were going to make sure nobody was nearby to stop them.
"He doesn't deserve to live, not after what he did to me!" Catherine sneered, leaning up into Kono's face to meet her halfway, matching her dark gaze with her own. Kono cracked. Standing back, summoning up all her strength, she released a nasty right hook to the middle of Catherine's face, whipping her head back in agony as Chin leaned against the wall observing. He was a good cop, but he was ok with letting this happen, for a while at least. He had a feeling Kono was only getting started as she wiped the smear of Catherine's blood off her still clenched fist onto the Kevlar she was wearing. "I learned that from the man you just tried to kill and let me tell you, if you had succeed in doing so, I can promise you, what I am about to do to you, would only have been the beginning. I wouldn't have been content until I had you begging for mercy; just like you had Danny doing since you kidnapped him. Then you could have really known what it felt like. Frankly, I can't wait to see how the nice people of Halawa are going to take to you!"
"You can't do this!" she laughed, spitting out the blood that had gathered in her mouth onto the clean marble floors as Kono paced in front of her." "You're cops and I'm your friend!" she exclaimed rattling the cuffs on the chair.
Now it was time for Chin to step forward. Resting a hand on Kono's shoulder, she looked back at him. "She's right Kono, we are cops. If you do this, I can be called as a witness." He reached up, peeled the Velcro name plate with Five-0 on it from his Kevlar, unclipped his badge and gun, and turned to Kono, watching as she did the same, before handing all her items to Chin, who shoved them in a basket by the corner of the room.
After placing the items in the basket, Chin turned around and walked towards Catherine. "As far as us not being able to do this Catherine, that is where you are wrong. Do you see any badges in here? I don't. See the thing is, you kidnapped and tortured our brother. I already lost Malia to scum like you and I made sure Delano died while he was trying to evade me. I'm not going to hurt you; I'll leave that to Kono. Personally, I want to see you spend the rest of your life living with the knowledge that Steve will never want to talk or see you ever again, but on the off chance you do get out," Chin leans down low next to Catherine's ear and whispers through gritted teeth, "be warned. Stay away from me and our Ohana or you will find that the entirety of HPD can turn a blind eye because the next time it won't just be Kono coming after your ass." Chin stood back up and walked towards the door. "You have lost a family today. That is on you. Enjoy the rest of your life, what you have left of it anyway, behind bars and I hope you get what's coming to you." As he opened the door to leave, he looked back at Catherine one last time. "Oh and for the record, I never thought of you as a friend." With that he nodded to Kono and left the room, but not before he saw a quick moving leg and a loud groan of pain. He smirked to himself, thinking how glad he was that he never had to be on the other end of one of Kono's roundhouse kicks.
A few hours later
"AAHHH! You have no idea how great this bed feels after the day I've had." Danny laughed, pulling the duvet right up around his neck, snuggling his body down so all that Steve could see when he came out of the bathroom still brushing his teeth was a small tuft of blonde hair peeking out.
"I can actually!" laughed Steve, as he tidied up his toothpaste in the bathroom. He was turning off the light before exiting when his phone went off. Walking to his bedside table, he picked up the phone as Danny watched him. "Chin… uh huh… right… impressive… yeah Danny's home...he refused to stay overnight… yeah and he calls me the animal… thanks for letting me know… yeah see you tomorrow!" Steve hung up, tossing the phone next to his badge and gun on the table before he clambered into bed beside Danny. He pulled the shorter man in close against his bare chest, feeling Danny's skin against his felt so good, possibly even natural.
"So…" Danny asked, snuggling back in against Steve, "how many times did Catherine fall on Kono's fist?" He laughed as he felt Steve smile against his neck.
"We don't know exactly. Chin only saw one mean right hook and a patented Kono roundhouse kick. He has no idea how many times Catherine had been knocked around by the time he came back into the interrogation room as a cop and handed Kono her badge back, which by the way, is a trick they learned from us. We better make sure we don't start making that a habit. Eventually we will get into some serious trouble. Anyway, enough talk about that for tonight. I still think they should have kept you in overnight for observation, I mean it wouldn't have killed you Danno!" he replied gently, stroking his hand through Danny's freshly washed blonde locks as they began to curl into their natural state.
"No you see, that is where you are wrong my dear Steven, it would have killed me. I just wanted to get home to my own bed with you. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else than right here." he whispered, snuggling into Steve as much as was humanly possible. "I'm sorry I put you through all this. I went to Catherine in the first place because you have been walking around pouting like I kicked your puppy. I thought it would help if I invited her to the wedding, but it didn't go as planned." Danny sighed, feeling like he had failed Steve in some twisted way.
"Catherine is now firmly situated in Halawa and I hope to god I never have the misfortune of laying eyes on her again. I love you so much Danno! I would pick you over anyone in a heartbeat, without so much as a second thought ok? It's you I am in love with. It's you I can't imagine my life without. Please never leave me." Steve whispered into Danny's neck, causing Danny to turn around in Steve's arms until he was facing him. It was dark, but Danny could still see the insecurity in Steve's eyes. Seeing Steve look like this caused Danny's heart to hurt so much. He decided he would rather have the teeth zip ties instead of ever seeing Steve look like this again.
"Hey listen," Danny started as he pulled Steve's hand up and intertwined their fingers, looking at them like it had been forever since they had done so. "I am never going to leave you on purpose, I promise you that!" Using his free hand to hook a finger underneath Steve's chin, Danny pulled him in for a long, slow kiss, full of feeling and promises of the future. Turning around again, snuggling back into Steve's chest, fingers still intertwined, Danny made his choice. "Tomorrow we are going to see the Governor." he breathed out, a smile spreading across his lips. "We are getting married!"
"Why?" Steve asked, propping himself up on one elbow to look down at Danny. "We were going to set a date for next month." Danny turned his head to look up at Steve before saying,
"Because Steven, I can't bear not being married to you for one more day." With that Steve smiled down at him and pulled him in for a long, drugging kiss. One of the many that were still to come…
