Even with their lights and sirens and Kono's foot flat on the gas, she felt that she should be doing more, doing it faster to get to the house. She couldn't be there fast enough, and she could tell the others felt the same way.
No one spoke as she sped through, around, and in between traffic. Danny did little more than tighten his fists as she swerved across the median and dodged a few oncoming cars to avoid a traffic jam. Catherine's face was oddly calm, though her eyes were still red from crying.
All of them had red eyes, Kono thought as she looked into her rearview mirror.
As if to mock her thoughts that she was not going fast enough, she was chased down and passed by a wailing ambulance as they neared the address. Danny swore. "That had better not be for anyone we know."
Kono opened her mouth to agree, but the words stuck in her throat as she thought about Chin Ho, who could dead or dying at this very second. Catherine murmured assent in her place, and then Danny groaned. "That's our turn up ahead, and the bus just took it."
"Maybe it's just in case something goes bad?" Kono could tell that Catherine was trying to sound optimistic, but the dread in all of their thoughts overrode it entirely.
They pulled into the street and stopped next to the ambulance. The paramedics had already jumped into action by the time they got out of their car, and a familiar voice was complaining loudly as they approached the virtual pileup of cruisers. "Really, I am fine! This is just a scrape."
"Lukela, get outta here before you bleed out all over the rest of us!" A tall, burly black man practically threw Duke onto the stretcher as Kono approached, and when the paramedics began pushing him away the burly man ran back to the house. "We've got enough issues without trying to keep you alive," he called over his shoulder.
"Duke!" Kono rushed to her friend's side, but he waved her away.
"I'm fine! You need to get over there." Duke gave up fighting off the paramedics and allowed himself to be wheeled away, and Kono joined Danny and Catherine in the middle of the chaos.
"And who the hell are you?" Danny was standing nose to chin with the man who had forced Duke onto the stretcher. "You don't just get to waltz in here and start throwing around orders, especially with your face looking like you just got attacked by a pinch hitter."
"Danny Williams, Five-0. And yes, I do get to start throwing around orders seeing as this is our case." Though he was dwarfed by the other man, Danny's look was venomous enough to make most people quake in their boots.
"What exactly is going on?" Kono asked before the tall man could retort.
"As far as we can tell, there's just one shooter. Automatic weapon, but he's not a great shot. Lukela was unlucky, but he'll…get down!" Gunshots rang through the air as the entire company crouched behind a car or dove to the ground. When the booming died down, Kono lifted her head tentatively. No one near her seemed to have been shot, but Danny was holding his head between both hands as if afraid something in it would spill out. Catherine was already on her feet again, adjusting a scope on one of her weapons as she stared at the house that half of HPD was surrounding. "Injuries?!"
A flurry of "No sirs!" echoed from around the block. Catherine lowered her weapon and turned back to Kono and Danny. "He's been shooting from that front window, but he's not visible now."
"Probably reloading. We're gonna have enough spent rounds to fill our armory by the time this guy runs out." The tall man turned to face them, too. "So you're Five-0, huh? I've heard a few things about you."
"Then you'll know that we aren't the type to stand around waiting," said Danny, finally lowering his hands and blinking hard. "Cath, you got any flashbangs tucked away?"
"Now hold on just a minute!" The SWAT member put his hands on his hips. "I told you earlier that you don't just get to come in wherever you please and take over. That ain't how this works. Not with me."
"And who exactly are you? I don't remember you being at the school," said Kono before Danny could say something to make the stranger even angrier.
"Captain Lou Grover. I was on a plane over the Pacific Ocean, bringing my family out here now that the school year has ended, and as such I missed the party last time around. But this is my show, and I make the rules."
"I do have a flashbang, Danny," Catherine interjected. "Easy shot to lob it through the window while you guys storm the house."
"Are you not listening to me?!" Grover said, waving his hands around. "You don't get to make the rules! You don't get to choose what we do!"
"No offense, Captain, but I think you'll find that we do. Now, if you want to help us, by all means do. But don't try to stop us. The guy in there-"
"Yeah, he's a cop killer, as evidenced by his shooting spree here. Your little gang aren't the only ones who care about that, Jersey." Grover blew out a long sigh and raised his voice. "Washington, grab a crew and a case and get your ass over here."
Brad Washington looked up from one of the knots of SWAT officers and nodded, tapping his teammates on the shoulder and leading them over. Right as they joined the group, more shots rang out from the house and they all knelt behind the cruiser, which vibrated as it was pelted with bullet after bullet.
This shooter wanted them dead.
One the shooting stopped again, Danny threw a look at Grover before starting to speak. "Someone get a flashbang through that window. The rest of us are going in, my guys first. Kono, you're point, then me and Catherine. I know emotions are running high right now, but we have to take this guy alive."
Kono saw that the other officers' jaws were set, and she understood. To them, the guy in there was nothing more than a cop killer who was trying to kill them, too. Under any other circumstances, they would be forgiven and even quietly applauded for taking him out.
Even she, who knew exactly who was holed up in there, felt a grim sort of satisfaction pass through her at the thought of the man who shot Chin and now Duke laying in a pool of blood.
"Let's move!" Grover's battle cry jerked her from her thoughts and running to keep up with her teammates. They pressed themselves against the house, Kono with her hand on the doorknob, and at the sound of the explosion she flung the door open in the same movement as she jumped into the house.
"Five-0!" she shouted as she let the others move past her. Smoke drifted from the room to her right as they spread throughout the house, guns sweeping into every corner in turn. The entryway was clear, and she moved into the kitchen to clear it, as well. No people, but there was a pile of clear plastic tubing and several empty syringes laying on the counter. "Clear!" she said, holstering her gun and pulling a pair of gloves from her pocket. Her cry was echoed from all over the small house, but her attention was on the small refrigerator on the counter next to the medical equipment. She opened it just as Danny walked into the kitchen.
"Shooter's down, Kono," he said. She was so focused on the numerous vials of medication in the fridge that she didn't immediately register his words, but when they did strike her she gasped and turned, her mind whirling in a mixture of horror and elation. "It's not him," he whispered. His expression briefly mirrored the relief that flooded her, but it quickly became confused as he took in the mess on the counter. "What the hell is all of this?"
"I think we found where Polina's stolen equipment has been going," she said. "Morphine, Scopolamine…I don't even know how to pronounce some of these."
Grover and Catherine entered the kitchen before Danny could respond, the former looking furious and the latter strangely calm again. "There was somebody else in here," Grover said before Kono could ask what had him so angry.
"What?!"
"Your dead guy was shot in the back of the head." Grover shook his head. "We must have just missed him."
"No one in the house, but the bathroom window was open. Maybe we can pull some prints," Catherine said.
"Duke was leading a group to cover the back when he got nicked, and we retreated to come up with a better plan. If we'd just kept going…" palming his face, Grover sighed deeply.
Danny groaned, but Kono was focused on Catherine. Her face was still eerily calm, as if she hadn't just seen the aftermath of someone's brains being blown out of their skull. But Grover broke Kono's train of thought by shoving past the short woman. "I'm out of here. CSU and ME should be here soon."
Danny stopped him with a hand on his arm. "Hang on."
"What now, Jersey?" Grover asked wearily. Danny narrowed his eyes and removed his hand.
"I just wanted to thank you for having our backs. You could have given us more hassle."
Grover stared down at Danny for what seemed like minutes, his expression indeterminable. Kono thought he looked softer for some reason, almost like he was going to say something kind in response. The moment, however, was cut short by Brad Washington's attempt to enter the already-crowded kitchen. Grover pressed himself against the counter and Catherine moved behind a chair to let Brad in. "We all wrapped up?"
"Yeah, but there's something I think these guys need to see sooner rather than later." Washington pointedly averted his gaze when Kono tried to make eye contact, and said nothing more as he led the group through the small house to the farthest door. "It's in there."
Danny started to walk in but stopped halfway through the doorway. "What in the name of…" he whispered. Grover was staring over his head, his expression asking the same question. Catherine shot Kono a look, and together they shoved their way past the group of men.
The room was plastered with photos. Every wall, the bed frame, even parts of the ceiling were so thick with pictures of various people that it was difficult to tell where one began and another ended. Some of the photos were bigger than others, as if they were more important or just better shots. Kono was so mesmerized by the effect that it took a while for her to spot a theme to the snaps.
The one that finally caught her attention had been taken at the shrimp truck. Kamekona was standing in the window, laughing as he handed Chin Ho a tray laden with food and coconut water. Malia was standing beside her husband, looking like she was laughing as hard as Kamekona, but Chin was only half smiling as he looked at something in the distance.
Kono stared at the photo, drinking in the normalcy of it all. Then, as her eyes began to shift to the next photo, she realized that half of the picture was covered. She pulled it out from under the beach scene next to it and gasped at the sight of her own face.
She looked significantly less happy than her friends as she stood at the opposite end of the truck, her shoulders hunched as she talked into her phone. In just a few moments, she would turn around to see Chin Ho watching her suspiciously, and she would end her call and fake a chuckle at Kamekona's continued banter.
You need to be on your guard.
I always am. Comes with the job.
I'm serious, Kono. There are some rumors.
Regarding…?
Some guy named Sang Min.
Oh great, him. You know where he is?
No, but he's trying to take down anyone with ties to the Yakuza.
To be honest, I'd be more worried if he was trying to—
Just promise me you'll be careful. …Kono?
Yeah, I got it. Listen Adam, I have to go.
I love you.
"Man, this is some weird shit," Grover said from behind her. Kono jumped and knocked several of the pictures down. "Sorry about that. But seriously, this is some major stalking. What's going on with all this? Hey, wait, isn't that Captain Kelly?"
"Yes." Kono let her hand linger over a headshot of Chin Ho, probably taken on the same day as the one that had sent her spiraling into the past. His grin was genuine in this one, and if she recalled correctly it was in response to one of her jokes.
Sang Min had shot her and Adam the following night.
Kono blinked hard and turned away, walking over to Danny. He was staring at a wall that seemed to be dedicated to photos of himself and Grace. "Some of these are even before I got back to Jersey," he said as she joined him. He pointed to one at eye-level that featured him kneeling in front of Grace, his face screwed up as if he was trying not to cry. "This one has to be the day Denning disbanded Five-0; I mean, that's the last time I wore a tie in Hawaii without being in family court, and certainly the last time I looked that broken up while wearing a tie."
She didn't respond immediately, but took note of the compilation. Almost none of the photos featured the same outfits, which meant that these were taken repeatedly and over a long span. One must have been taken last summer, because Grace and Danny were eating ice cream on a decidedly untropical boardwalk. There were several of Danny in ties walking into the same coffee shop, sometimes alone and sometimes with other people who had to be cops, and even more of Grace bounding down the steps of her school, smiling as she hugged her mother or giggling as she walked with her friends.
"This is insane," she finally murmured, turning towards the door in the hope of escaping this bombardment of images. Her exit was deterred by the sight of Catherine, who was facing the wall next to the door. The other woman was standing between the door and a corkboard that was strangely empty, though a couple scraps of photo paper still attached to thumbtacks told Kono that someone had hurriedly torn the photos away.
Catherine, however, was not looking at the corkboard. Her arms were wrapped around her waist as she stared down a photo near the board, and her emotions at what she saw had finally cracked the calm veneer on her face. She made no move to wipe the tears from her face as Kono joined her. "He was here," she whispered.
"What?" Kono looked at the photo Catherine was staring at with such intensity. It was, of course, of the Navy lieutenant, and it was one of the biggest ones in the room. She was sitting on the stretch of beach behind Steve's house, and had clearly been crying for a while by the time the photo was taken. "You think he took this?" she breathed.
"I doubt it. The only time this could have been taken was right after I visited you on leave a year ago." Catherine placed a gloved hand on the glossy surface of the photo. "Someone touched this one. Most of them that I have seen haven't been."
And then Kono realized what Catherine was saying. There was a large smear across her face, as if someone had taken a thumb and attempted to wipe away her tears.
Steve had been there. Steve had been in this very room, and he had probably been the one to take the photos from the corkboard.
And something about that photo of Catherine had made him feel.
Kono put her arm around Catherine's shoulders as they began to shake. Danny, Grover, and Washington continued to look at the walls of pictures, apparently mesmerized into silence.
All of them jumped when a loud ringing broke the silence.
The blood rushed from Kono's head when she fished her phone from her vest pocket and saw Malia's smiling face. With numb fingers, she slid to accept the call and lifted it to her ear. "Malia?"
There was just a breath on the line at first before a raspy voice spoke. "Kono."
At the sound of Malia saying her name, at all of the emotion contained in it and in the horrifying room she was currently in, Kono burst into tears.
A/N: Aloha! Thanks again to Forest Rose for her editing, and to all of you for reading. Reviews are always welcome!
Did everyone else catch the season premiere? I kind of love what they seem to be doing with Steve this season.
Catch you next time!