Olivia was furious. Well actually she was beyond furious, all she could feel was extreme rage as she walked back into headquarters and straight away Olivia headed off into her office, shutting the door behind her. Looking down at her hand Olivia could see that her left hand was shaking because she was so mad. Olivia knew that she needed to do something with this pent up energy so she started pacing around her office, she couldn't believe what had happened today. Everything seemed to be going okay as far as Olivia believed it to be, so she was seeing a drinking but she had her family and friends not to mention a job that was slightly less hazardous than fighting in a war. Olivia had been starting to feel like she was making some progress in terms of her readjusting to living a somewhat normal civilian life. However Olivia was still getting up at 0600 hours going for her daily 10 mile run before making sure that she was half an hour early for work. The day had been normal or as normal as it ever got for Olivia and it wasn't long until the team had caught a case. There was a batch of bad coke going around which had killed a college student and put another two in the hospital. Tracking done the supplier and manufacturer became key in order to stop anyone else getting hurt. A long story short they had managed to track done one of the dealers, but like a typical criminal he took off when he saw the cops and they had given chase. Everything got a bit hectic and things ended up on the roof but by the time Olivia along with Chin Ho reached the roof Steve was holding their suspect over the side of the building by his feet in order to get some information from their rather reluctant suspect.
She had seen a lot of things but for some reason watching Steve hold some guy over the side of a building struck a raw nerve with Olivia. She had a big problem with it which is why she was so pissed off, Olivia couldn't believe what she had just witnessed and the fact that none of the others seemed too bothered by it. Olivia couldn't let it go as it bothered her how cavalier everyone seemed about it as once it was done, once they had got the name of the dealer's suppliers it was like nothing had happened. Having enough with all the pacing Olivia finally sat down behind her desk and opening her top desk draw she pulled out her handgrip from the draw and quickly started squeezing. Olivia kept as it generally helped with gun control but right now she needed something to get her excess tension out.
"Liv?"
Olivia hadn't even heard the door to her office open but there was Chin Ho standing in the doorway and from where she sat she could see Kono lingering a few feet away. Olivia forced a smile on her face as it seemed like the most natural thing for her to do. "Hey Chin…"
"Are you okay Olivia? You just seem a bit tense and I just wanted to see if you were okay." Chin questioned and Olivia had to bite down on her lip to stop herself from cursing. But she took a deep breath and a moment to compose to pull herself together before she decided to speak.
"Yeah I'm fine Chin, just be bit frustrated with this case ya know? A college kid is dead and two more others are critical because of some bad coke. We don't know how much of this bad coke is on the street and a lot more people could get hurt or worse, killed. It's unreal and I guess I'm still trying to adjust to the job and all. I wasn't chasing drug dealers back when I was in Iraq." Olivia said with a casual lie rolling straight off her tongue without her even batting an eyelid. She knew it was bad to lie to her team but Olivia needed to talk Steve about it as she was certain that this wasn't the first time that he had pulled something like this.
"You sure?"
"I am, but thanks for asking it means a lot." Olivia replied in a warm manner and with a slow nod of her head, Chin Ho left and engaged in a conversation with Kono leaving Olivia to her own. Taking a deep breath Olivia closed her eyes and sat back in her office chair whilst continuing to squeeze her hand grip. Olivia stayed like that for god knows how long, time seemed to be of no concept until she heard a noise that was loud enough to disrupt her from what she was doing and opening her eyes Olivia say Steve and Danny walk back into the office. Putting down her hand grip Olivia stood up and left her office. She knew that there was probably a better time that she could talk to Steve about what happened but Olivia needed to do this now. "Steve… We need to talk."
"Can you give me a minute?" Steve questioned.
"We need to talk now Steven, in private…" Olivia stated in a firm manner making it clear that she was leaving no room to argue about any of this. The two of them needed to talk and she was not willing to wait a moment longer to get this off her chest.
"Okay then, let's go to my office." Steve replied in a friendly manner and Olivia followed him into his office, making sure the door was shut behind her. "What's up Liv? You seem a bit tense?"
"What the hell was that?" Olivia demanded, not beating around the bushes as it simply wasn't her style and neither was bullshitting with the truth especially when it come to someone she had known as long as she had known Steve. They had a history together, had seen each other at some of the worst and awkward times in their lives. Steve was one of Olivia's oldest friends but that didn't mean that she would glance the other way at what had happened, let alone call him out of the crazy stunt that he had pulled earlier.
"Liv I don't understand…"
"Then let me refresh memory, not long ago you were holding a drugs dealer off the edge of a building Steve. Does that not ring a big or do I have to go into more details? Like the fact he was begging and pleading with you to pull him up, to not let go off him but you kept yanking his chain. Pretending like you were losing your grip on him and all but scaring him to death Do I need to go on any further?" Olivia questioned in an irritated tone of voice.
"We needed information Liv and he wasn't willing to talk so I had to give him an incentive–" Steve began.
"By hanging him off the side of the building? Is that what you do when your dealing with a suspect who is the tiniest bit uncooperative because your inpatient! For some reason I know this isn't the first time you've pulled some dumb crazy stunt like this and the others have followed you blindly!"
"I don't understand what the problem is Liv and why you're making such a big deal about this? We're doing what we set out to do, working the important cases, cleaning up the island and putting the criminals away. So I get a bit creative sometimes when a suspect doesn't want to co-operate and give up the information I need. It's no big deal given that we don't have to deal with any of the bureaucratic red tape that normal cops deal with. This is a good thing Liv trust me." Steve said in a warm manner and Olivia could straight away see what he was dong, he was trying to charm her with his beautiful blue eyes so this would go away. But this wasn't going to go away, Olivia wouldn't let Steve try and attempt to convince her that this was no big deal Olivia could recall Danny mentioning to her offhandedly about Steve doing crazy stuff and at the time Olivia just thought it was Danny over exaggerating when it came to dealing with his new partner. But now she could see that he wasn't.
"I am not stupid Steven, I know that sometimes the rules have to have to be bent ever so slightly but not like this. This is not one of those places like Guantanamo, Iraq or some secret government facility where people can get away with this kind of stuff. People have right and civil liberties which we have to abide by and respect." Olivia lectured.
"Now your being naïve Liv." Steve retorted.
"I am not naïve, I am very much aware that we live in a big bad world, I have fought in the wars. I have sworn to defend and protect this country so people can go to bed at night and kids can grow up. I have the evil in this world, I have seen the cruelty in which people treat each other like animals with no sense of remorse which is why I took this job. To make a difference on the island I love but I will dangle people off buildings because I lack any patience when they don't want to talk to me at the first attempt. We are here to uphold the law, Steven we are not the people who decide the laws that govern our country and people abide by. We are the people who enforce the law, we have to be the ones to follow the letter of the law because if we're out there making our own rules it makes us no better than the criminals who break the laws. We are not criminals, anarchists, mercenaries or renegades Steve we are cops. We are supposed to be the good guys with follow the law and not be rogue and acting like we're cowboys back in the wild west." Olivia yelled not caring who heard her anymore as Steve was pissing her off too much for Olivia to care for restraint.
"Liv…" Steve said and Olivia just shook his head.
"This is not what I signed up for me, so if you want to go around hanging people off the edge of buildings to coerce information out of suspects by putting them under duress then so be it but don't expect me to be a part of it." Olivia retorted before deciding that she had enough of all of this and she needed to leave here right now before she did something that she may not regret until later.
"Olivia where are you going?!" Steve yelled out as Olivia walked out of his office and back towards hers so she could grab her stuff.
"I am going to remove myself from this situation and go home. I'll be back tomorrow and I hope to god that but then you're acting like less of neanderthal." Olivia spat as she made her way out of the Five-0 offices but once she had made her way out of the building she didn't make it too far. Olivia only got as far as the car park and even then she didn't get into her car. Olivia just kept her gaze to the ground and looked briefly at her left hand, which was shaking again. Even when she balled it up into a fist and released her hand it was still shaking.
"Liv?"
"I, Olivia Spencer Rose Phillips do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God. " Olivia stated before she took a deep breath and looked up at Danny who was standing in front of her, Olivia was pretty sure she knew what this was about. "When you enlist in the military you have to take the oath and for as long as I could remember I wanted to be in the army. My dad made me wait until I graduated from college and by then I was impatient. I have achieved a bit in my life, I won awards and medals but I never been more proud of what I have done in my life then the day I took the oath to serve my country as a member of the armed forces. I live by that oath Danny every day of my life ever since I took the oath. I try to hold myself to the highest standard as I know that is what is expected of me. I am good soldier, I love my country and I will protect the things I love but I cannot in good conscious turn a blind eye to these so called antics which can be see torture."
"Liv it is not torture." Danny stated and Olivia just shook her head.
"Danny do you know what the word torture means? It is the act of inflicting excruciating pain to the body or mind as punishment or revenge as a means of getting a confession or information or even for sheer cruelty. I don't know about you but holding someone off the side of a building by their feet and all but scaring them to death sort of falls into what torture is defined as. It may be water boarding but that's where things like that start off." Olivia wearily replied before kicking the ground with her boots and things went quiet for a minute or so.
"Tough day, huh? You look like you could use a beer or at least a six pack." Danny eventually questioned.
Olivia looked up and wearily laughed. "I'm actually cutting back on alcohol at the moment, so you here to tell me that I shouldn't have yelled at Steve given that he's sort of the big boss? Because I'll remind you that I don't work for Steve, I work with her on this task force as per the conditions of my joining the team."
"No I'm not. I am actually here to say that what you did up there was damn impressive Liv. I have never seen anyone take on Steve so fearlessly and call him out on his behaviour. When I try Steve just laughs but he's upstairs right now with his tail between his legs." Danny stated and Olivia snorted in amusement.
"I doubt it."
"Trust me Olivia, I would not lie about something rare like this." Danny said in amusement. "So this thing with you and Steve is probably more complicated because of this thing you two have?"
"Thing?" Olivia questioned.
"I'm not stupid Liv, I'm may be from what you call the mainland but I am still after all a detective and I do have eyes and I've watched the two of you together since that crazy pac man in combat pants drove me onto a Chinese freight boat." Danny stated and Olivia just looked at him for a moment before letting out a heartfelt sigh.
"Sometimes I look at Steve and he is the boy who I grew up with, the boy who I had a childhood crush on. But we're not those goofy kids who we used to be anymore, we grew up but now we're back here again. When I'm with him things are different and it scares me Danny…"