WOW! Amazing reaction to my last few chapters! Kind of been picking up the pace and I'm glad everyone still likes it. Please continue to review! Tell me what you like/dislike and what you want to see in the future, please!

H5-0 * H5-0 * H5-0

"They're completely in love."

Chin and Danny looked at Mary incredulously.

"What? It's true!"

H5-0 * H5-0 * H5-0

Steve carried Kono up the stairs and into her room. He went to the bed and laid them down. She lay on top of him and clutched at his shirt, crying her heart out. He just held her.

There was nothing he could do to make it better.

He could only be there.

H5-0 * H5-0 * H5-0

She gasped. She couldn't breathe. The panic was everywhere. It was in every bone of her body, it infected her mind, it made the edges of her vision fuzzy. Not that her vision wasn't fuzzy from the tears that couldn't seem to stop. She couldn't control any of it. It was like a foreign power had invaded her body.

Steve tightened his arms around her trying to stop her thrashing and comfort her.

But she just struggled more.

"NO, NO, NO!" she cried. "STOP!" She tried to hit him, her arms flailing as her body and mind panicked and refused to focus.

"Kono! It's me! It's Steve! KONO!"

She landed a hit in his stomach, knocking the wind out of him, and he released her, gasping for air.

She was off him in a second, rolling to the other side of the bed and standing up.

He lay there, trying to get his breath back. "Kono," he choked out. "Kono, baby, it's me."

She was suddenly coming to her senses. She looked at the man lying on the bed and she saw Steve. She saw him lying there, simply wanting to comfort her. She saw him worried about her. She saw him caring about her.

"Steve?" she whispered, arms crossed protectively in front of her body.

"Yeah, babe, it's me."

"Oh God, Steve," she whispered, breaking down again. She kneeled on the bed crawling over to him. The tears were running freely down her face again and she collapsed into his side, touching him to reassure herself that she hadn't hurt him too badly. "I don't know what came over me, you were you and then you were James and I don't understand what's going on! I didn't mean to hurt you!" she sobbed into him.

"Shh, Kono, it's okay. You're panicking. You need to calm down. Just take deep breaths. Remember that I'm here and Chin and Danny are downstairs and everything is going to be okay."

She nodded, trying to grasp onto his words. She tried to slow her breathing but it was hard when she was crying.

"Babe, just lay back," he said soothingly. He gripped her shoulders and gently rolled her off him so she was lying next to him. Slowly, her breaths started to slow and she seemed to calm down.

Her shirt was still unbuttoned and Steve suddenly became very worried.

"Kono, you've bled through your bandage. I think you pulled out some stitches. I'm going to call to Danny to send up a medic to check you out."

He made to get up but her small hand caught his large one. "No, Steve, would you check first? If they don't need to come up, I don't want them to."

He looked at her skeptically.

"Please?" she added.

He melted. "Okay." He sat back down and hesitated. He looked at her, waiting for her approval before he pulled the edge of her shirt over. This time she didn't freak out at all. She knew where she was and she knew that Steve would never hurt her.

He pulled her bra strap aside and then unwrapped her wound. He looked down at it, inspecting it for damage.

She looked up into his face instead of at the wound. She found both kindness and worry there. Anger and his attempt to repress it. All sorts of emotions that she had previously never been able to identify in him were suddenly clear. He had let her through his walls, allowed her to see his emotions. She tried to push through any remaining panic to memorize those emotions so that she could identify them later.

"Well, you pulled a few of them out for sure, but most look fine and the wound is already healing." He went to stand up again, and again, she grabbed his wrist.

He smiled. "It's okay. I have a first aid kit in the bathroom. I'll be back in one second."

She looked at him, pleading for him not to leave her.

"Trust me, Kono. I'm not going to leave you. I just need to grab the kit and put a few butterfly bandages over the wound."

She saw the sincerity in his eyes and released him. He stood and quickly walked down the hall, threw open the cabinet in the bathroom, grabbed the kit, and almost ran back to her.

He was surprised to find that she had closed her eyes and was taking slow, albeit shaky, breaths.

"Kono?"

Her eyes opened. "Um-hum?" she murmured.

He released a worried breath. "Okay. Thought you might have fainted there."

"I'm really tired," she said as he sat next to her. "I'm glad you're back."

He looked at her, wondering if he should point out that he had been gone under a minute.

But then he realized that it had felt like an eternity to him too.

So he let her slide on that one.

"Glad to be back." He leaned over her, gaining access to her wound again. He lightly pulled the butterfly bandage over the wound. She hissed in pain as he pushed lightly against the healing wound. "Sorry," he said.

"It's okay," she replied.

When he was done, he leaned back, rewrapped her bandage and buttoned up her shirt. "You should get some rest."

"Okay," she said, her eyes already fluttering closed.

He looked down at her for a second and then leaned over to kiss her forehead. Then he stood, moving to the door so she could sleep in peace.

"Where are you going?" her voice came from the bed behind him.

He turned around to look at her. Her bleary, tired eyes gazed back.

"You need to rest," he answered.

She looked at him. She nodded abruptly. She looked away. He thought he might have seen tears prick her eyes.

"Kono? What's wrong?"

She hesitated.

"Could you just stay with me for a while?" She took a shaky breath, on the verge of tears again. "I'm kinda freaked out right now. Could you just hold me until I fall asleep?"

Did she really think he could resist that?

He moved back over to the bed and pulled the covers out from under her. He pulled them up to cover her to her stomach and then leaned down to take off his boots. He slid under the covers and held his arms open.

She shuffled across the bed, curling herself into his chest, her head on one of his arms, the other wrapped around her waist. She tucked her head under his chin and her hands came to rest on him, one on the bicep under her head and the other on his waist. Her legs touched his along their whole length and their feet touched at the bottom.

She sighed shakily and closed her eyes, burrowing into him.

He watched her as her breaths evened out.

He watched her face as she slept.

He watched her until his own eyes fell shut.