Disclaimer: I'm actually quite glad I don't own Hawaii 5-0; the storyline would get a little depressing.

OK, so fine, I was asking for it, putting a negative review as an example, and yes, negative reviews are fine- as long as one actually has an idea about making it suck less. Otherwise you're just being an arsehole. You need to actually give some constructive criticism, hello?
Or else there's no point in reviewing, unless you're just some emotionless psychopath who likes to get people down.
In which case you've failed, because of the fact that if you had gotten me down, I would not have continued. And I have.
So, sorry, but I don't care about you.

Here we go...

No.

The next day I woke at 5.30am, then took Jack for our morning run.
What was I going to do? How was I going to work with him? I couldn't transfer, that would mean going back to the mainland. I knew what would await me there, and there was no way that I was ever going to willingly go back.

"Where ya going, Sam?" He called out after me, running down the stairwell, gaining on me no matter how fast I ran. I touched the handle of the door just as he grabbed my wrist and twisted it in front of me, not letting me go.
"Stop it, Jake!" I writhed under his tight grip, bruising my wrist as I did so. "You're hurting me! Jake!"
"I'm hurting you, huh?" He slurred. A fist slammed into my side, making my head spin, and he wrenched me from the door and pushed me roughly against the wall. "How about now? You're hurting now, aren't you? I can make that all better, baby," He spat into my ear. I could smell the whiskey on his breath.
The worst thing was that he wouldn't remember a thing tomorrow morning.
And then tomorrow night he would drink again. And I wouldn't be able to outrun him then either.
His hand trailed down my chest as he held me against the wall. It reached my navel, and continued down my abdomen until it reached my waist line. It pinched the skin, hard, and whipped me around. Jake shoved up against me and I felt the face brick wall scratch the uncovered skin of my lower back. It hardly hurt anymore, my skin had long since scarred over, and it healed stronger every time. This was just a routine.

I sped up, sprinting as hard as I could, and Jack barked anxiously, trying to look behind us at whatever was chasing us. No one was chasing us. Not for now anyway.

I couldn't help thinking about what everyone was going to say to me once I walked into the office. Would they be happy to see me? Or would they not be able to trust me? Chin was happy that I had told everything to McGarrett, but not telling everyone the truth straight away had caused irreparable damage, both to the team's trusting me, and to the general public's trusting of the team. Would they forgive me?
I had no time to answer that question, as the elevator doors opened, and I walked out onto the busy floor. As people saw me, they stopped talking, and gradually, the bustle faded to silence as everyone stared at me, waiting for me to say something. I paused, then carried on to the 5-0's section of the floor. Danny, Chin and Kono were all hovering awkwardly around the table, avoiding my gaze. I opened my mouth, and then closed it. What would I say? I hadn't thought about that one, I thought to myself. The simplest thing that I could think of saying was just...
"I- I'm sorry." I heard my voice break a little at the end, and I cursed myself inwardly. I couldn't even apologise right. Unless the stutter at the end helped me with my authenticism. "I should have told you everything when I had the chance."
Kono and Chin's faces softened at once, and Kono opened her mouth to say something soothing to me, but she was cat off.
"Why didn't you?" Danny's voice cut through before Kono had a chance to say a word. "Why didn't you tell us?" His hands went up, like they always went when he ranted. "Because I've been going over it in my head, you see Sam, and I still don't get it." He paused for a breath, and I didn't try to cut him off. I just waited for him to continue. Chin looked at me oddly as Danny resumed.
"So won't you please explain it to me, because I can't see why my trusted colleague," He looked me in the eye, weighing something in his head. "And friend," He paused again to add effect. "Would lie to me and to everyone else about whether or not she is directly related to an arms dealer! Isn't that something that you'd tell a friend?" He crossed his arms, motioning for me to plead my case.
"Danny..." I trailed off as Steve emerged from his office. He must have been listening from inside, and his eyes burned into mine as he analysed my reaction. I looked away from him, back to Danny and the team.
"It wasn't that I didn't trust you. I trust you- it's just that..." This was hard to explain.
"It was never something that I was proud of; I had hardly admitted to myself that my father was a criminal, and not just a criminal, but one that had convinced me that he had stopped hurting people, killing people..." I looked at my feet.
"As for the practical side of it, it would have delayed the investigation. You would have had to do all the questioning that happened over the past week, and once my father-" I winced- "found out about it, and trust me, he would, he would have gotten spooked, and hidden everything." I looked back at McGarrett.
"We never would have gotten that list." McGarrett's eyes softened, and it felt like he was standing right next to me, instead of behind everyone, at the doorway of his office.
"I know that nothing really excuses lying to you guys, you probably would have found a way through protocol, but I didn't want to take the chance."
"We wouldn't have judged you." Kono spoke quietly. "We would have been fine with whatever your history was; it's the present that matters."
She walked slowly towards me and hugged me. I relaxed against her and smiled at Danny over her shoulder as he made his way towards me. Kono let go of me as I gingerly extended my hand to him. He stared at it for a second, and then took it, pulling me forward into a hug.
"Danny," I complained jokingly. "Stop being such a girl, brah!"
"Don't..." warned Danny as he hugged me tighter.
"Welcome back, Mainland." Chin smiled at me as I pulled out of Danny's death grip and was enveloped in his.
"Thanks Chin," I whispered.
Chin let go, and then went over to the kitchenette.
"Coffee?" He called over to me.
"Please!"

Steve.
She looked at me warily as I walked forward. What, did she think that I was going to hug her? Of course I wasn't going to hug her. I wanted to, but she didn't want me back. I didn't blame her, a secret interoffice relationship was difficult, to say the least, and I couldn't half imagine what Danny would have to say if we told the team, let alone anyone else.
I kept walking, completely aware of the warning glances that she furtively shot my way, and paused in front of her.
I opened my mouth to speak, but she cut me off.
"I need to go get something outta my car, give me a minute?" She turned on her heel, ready to run away again, but I wasn't going to let her.
"Come on, Sam, just give me a chance!" I grabbed her wrist and she turned back to face me, twisting away as if burned. She looked up at me, defeated. I paused, now unsure of what to say.
So I said:
"...Hey." She looked at me wearily.
"McGarrett, do we really have to talk about this-"
"Talk about what?" I smiled.
"McGarrett." She pinched her fingers at the bridge of her nose, closing her eyes. "We said that we would mention what happ-"
"I wasn't talking about that. Why? D'you want to talk about it? Changed you mind?"
"No," She pulled me with a surprising amount of force into the stairwell. "Of course not. What did you want to talk about?" She raised her eyebrows, leaning away from me, her back against the wall.
"I'm sorry about what happened yesterday. I was..." She relaxed against the wall, waiting for me to explain my storming off. "I didn't want you to say that it didn't mean anything to you." She opened her mouth to speak, but I didn't want her to break in and stop my momentum. But I didn't know what to say. Because it meant something to me, is what I desperately wanted to say, but I wasn't going to tell her. She already knew, but I was not going to say it out loud.
"McGarrett," She ran her hand through her hair, sighing as if she were thirty years older than she was -granted, she had seen enough to last a lifetime of bad experiences within the last three weeks- "Can we just leave it? I know that it can't be forgotten, and it's going to affect how we work together, but," She smiled wryly. "Truce?"
She held her hand out to me, and with much deliberation, I slowly shook it. We paused for a minute, in companionable silence, then realised we were still holding hands and broke apart. She flushed a little, and turned to go back into the office. A strand of hair had escaped from the clip that she was wearing to hold it back, and it flicked, catching what little light was in the stairwell, as she turned.
"Sam?"
"Yeah?" She turned back to look at me, tensed, like I was about to say something else idiotic about my feelings, and make it awkward. I desperately wanted to tuck that strand away, and take her face in my hands, and-
"About what I said a minute ago," I bit my lip. "I, uh, I take it back."
She smiled ruefully, her shoulders falling in relaxation.
"OK."
Oh, fuck it.

Sam.

The fact that that a few weeks passed without so much as a soulful look from McGarrett, never mind me, was in itself a miracle. Of course I didn't want him, and of course there was no possibility of any soulful looks coming from me whatsoever, but I did wonder: what would happen if we did... make something of it?
What if- No.
I didn't want to get in a relationship, never mind a relationship with someone who was skilled in hand to hand combat, who could handle a gun, and who was known to have anger management issues. I knew that there were certain ways that relationships could go, and, trust me; I did not want to go through that again.
That was the whole reason for my coming here, wasn't it? I kept telling myself that I didn't want this, I didn't need a man with me to feel complete, I have a dog to keep me safe at night. All I really needed was a warm body, right?
And it isn't his personality, it's just the fact that he is incredibly attractive, and I'm human, I can appreciate aestheticism, that's all. But try as I may, I couldn't forget the warmth of his body as he curled around me that night, the strength and security of his arms that he protectively crossed over my chest.
I knew that all of that was exactly what I shouldn't be thinking about, that I wasn't ready for a relationship, that a relationship with a man that I took orders from but still refused to call 'boss' was probably the worst relationship choice possible.
Still, what if-
No.

I just wanted to say thanks, because I've been looking at the number of reviews for stories by first time authors, and stories with OC's and- you know, I don't really care about reviews, I mean, my numbers are actually pretty good in comparison :) and all of you who have reviewed, don't think that it doesn't mean anything to me now that I'm saying "you know what, never mind about the reviews," I really appreciate every bit of feedback that I've gotten, except for the random "that sucked".
This is for you guys!
It means a lot that people take the time to say whether I'm doing OK, and it really helps when I'm struggling to write anything that sounds the least bit readable.

Sorry about the short chapter, I really just wanted to get on to the next one, as I was typing the last word I thought of a great idea! So click the little Next Chapter link, please :)