Episode 2 "Ohana" (Family)

Part 2

"Kidnapping victim's name is Roland Lowry. His car was T-boned an hour ago. Gunshots were exchanged, passengers were killed. This all happened in broad daylight," Steve summed up in the car. Well, Danny's car, his shin silver camaro to be specific.

She had called shotgun, running up and ducking inside before Danny'd a chance to call bullshit. The jersey cop had thrown his hands up and complained, while the Navy SEAL's friend laughed loudly. She didn't seem the least bit surprised when Steve had shrugged and said, "I don't ride shotgun." They were in a hurry so Danny hadn't bothered fighting it, just complained loudly until Steve gave briefed them the info Chin had sent him.

"That seems like a pretty messy grab to yank an ordinary guy off the streets," Danny observed.

"This guy's not ordinary. Lowry's ex-NSA," Steve explained. "He used to have top-secret security clearance."

"Which means his abduction could be a serious national security threat," Mitch inferred logically, seriously, the usual shimmer of a smirk absent from her lips.

"Right," Danny nodded along. "What else did the governor say?"

"She said, 'Find him'," Steve said.

"Hey, got your message," Chin said, approaching the crime scene with Kono at his back just as Steve, Mitch, and Danny arrived.

"Good," Steve said as he and Mitch ducked under the caution tape, "Let's start processing."

"Governor's Task force," she told the cop in front of them, flashing her badge in one smooth practiced motion. It was a badge Steve had fought for. He wanted Mitch on his team, someone who not only understood him, but his mission as well. The Governor didn't want her, didn't want the army vet whose file was bare, whose missions were unknowable, all labeled with a sharp and clear 'classified'. She didn't want the FBI agent with a penchant for switching units. She said Mitch was a flight risk, a loose canon, an unknown variable she didn't want on her task force.

Steve called her talented. Steve called her trustworthy. The only sniper he'd ever known who could calculate the coriolis effect in her head, the only profiler he'd ever place his trust in was her. There was no replacing her. He talked of her experience, her knowledge and her skill, the talent, the contacts, the network she could bring to the taskforce.

Needless to say, Steve McGarrett got hs way.

"We'll take it from here," He added smoothly, finishing her sentiment as they waled by the man in blue. "Chin, Kono, stay on the SUV," he told his team. "Danny and I are on the van. You too, Mitch."

"Officer Lee," Chin greeted, but the man hardly batted an eyelash.

"North winds must be coming in early," Kono commented with slightly narrowed eyes. "I just got a chill."

"You know, I trained that guy and now he can't even look me in the eye," Chin said with a small shake of his head. His voice was somewhere between bitter and frustrated.

"Forget him, cuz," she encouraged her cousin, a bright sunny smile arising on her face. "My police academy graduation dinner's at Haleiwa Joe's, 7:30. Can you make it?"

"I'll try," Chin said crouching down and pulling some papers from the door of the wreck. He didn't look at her. "Car was a rental."

"C'mon," Kono smiled, tilting her head to the side. "You're gonna make it to my graduation, right?"

He sighed. "You know, I don't think that's such a good idea. Between our family and H.P.D-" he began.

"I don't care what they think," she said firmly, looking over at him, "You're the reason I became a cop."

"Well, a ceremony doesn't make a cop," he said, looking at her. "Doing the job makes a cop."

"I want you there," she affirmed strongly, seriously, her brown eyes firmly tained on his.

Still, he shook his head, a pained sort of look in his eyes spilling over the dull stinging bitterness that had festered since losing his badge. "No, you don't. They think I'm dirty, Kono. They're gonna paint you with the same brush. I'm doing this for you." There was a pause as he caught sight of a stop light just over a ways. "Stay on the car," he said. "I'm gonna pull the footage from that camera, see if it got anything."

Michelle whistled as she picked up a bullet, an impressed double tone that had her two partners shooting her a questioning glance. "Steve take a look at these," she said. Danny's eyes narrowed on the almost, dare he say it, pleasantly surprised look on her face. He shook his head, telling himself he'd stop trying to figure out the bronze-skinned woman with a fondness for things that could kill.

"SS-190 armor-piercing rounds," he recognized as well. "These guys were definitely well-backed."

"Definitely not a local job," Danny said, climbing up to sit sideways in the seat.

"What do you got?" Mitch asked him casually.

"This van, reported stolen two days ago," Danny listed. "Two dead guys in the SUV, hired muscle from Bruddah's private security firm."

"That's interesting," Steve said. Mitch hummed in agreement, eyeing the shattered glass windshield. Her head cocked momentaly to the side, her dark wavy ponytail swinging with the movement as she hummed lowly. Both men watched as she crouched down and reached to prod at the crack with one gloved hand. She made a brief sound, something like surprise in her eyes. Dany only felt lost,and as Steve's eyes lit with recognition he wondered if it as always gong to be like this, if he was always going to be the last one in the know.

"Very interesting," she added, dragging one gloved fingertip over the shattered edge of the glass.

"Why is it interesting?" Danny asked dryly.

"This is density-layer ballistic glass, laminated onto a shield of resilient polycarbonate," Steve pointed out, as Mitch took the glove off her hand, standing.

"Why can't you just say bulletproof?" Danny asked Steve with a withering look. "I mean, how hard is that?"

"Get Chin to call the security company, find out where they were going," Steve said.

"Guys," Kono interrupted, a phone in hand as she brushed the hair from her face. "Roland's last call was at 6:15 a.m."

"Same time he was abducted. Who did he call?" Danny asked.

"His son, Evan."

"We got our witness."

"Evan, do you know where your dad was going this morning?" Mitch asked the kid back at headquarters. The brown haired boy sat in one of the netted swivel chairs as she leaned back against the computer table, her butt just resting on the top. Danny sat in another chair next to her, Steve standing just between them, arms crossed.

"No," he shook his head worriedly, "I mean, he probably told me, but I was only half-listening. It was some big meeting."

"Do you know what it was about?" she asked. Her voice sounded gentler than Danny had expected her to be capable of. He shook his head.

"Any idea who it was with?" Steve pressed.

"Look, we don't really talk about his work," the boy said.

Steve changed his approach, "Did your dad ever have any disagreements with anyone?" he prompted, "Is there anybody you can think that would wanna hurt your dad?"

"No," Evan shook his head earnestly, "I'm telling you, he's the most boring person you'll ever meet."

"What about your mom? Where is she?" Danny pipe up and asked.

"She died when I was 7."

"All right, buddy, look," Steve said honestly, "there were two other men with your dad this morning."

"They were bodyguards," Mitch told Evan candidly, but there was a firm sort of gentleness in her eyes that said she was someone he could trust. Evan wasn't sure why, but he did, he trusted her.

"You have any idea why he would hire bodyguards?" Steve asked.

"Seriously?" the boy looked honestly surprised, worried, even.

"Yeah, kid. We are," she said softly.

His eyes stuck on her as he sucked in a harsh breath. "Bodyguards?" the boy echoed shaking his head. "No, I had no clue. I can't believe it," he sighed, "That could've been the last time I ever talk to my dad." He paused, harsh realization settling on his shoulders, in his mind. "And I called him a dictator," he breathed, a soft kind of disbelief in his voice.

"Hey," Mitch leaned forward, "Look at me, kiddo." Evan's eyes narrowed on her slightly, resenting the word 'kiddo', but the honest firm look in her eyes the one that said she'd feed him no bullshit lines was back. "He knows you didn't mean it. He's your dad, he loves you no matter what."

"Evan," a blonde woman woman called rushing into hug the boy. "You all right? I'm so sorry. You okay? God, you must have been so scared," she reached out to him, holding his hand as they sat in opposite chairs. "I can't even imagine it. I'm gonna want you to come stay with me until they find him. Yeah?"

"Okay," he nodded, seeming comfortable with her.

She caught his eye and he seemed to know without words that she was asking if he'd be okay with this woman. He smiled barely and nodded as the woman patted down his hair and hugged him tightly. Satisfied the boy was okay, she turned to the others and followed them outside.

"Who's that?" Steve asked, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder at the woman.

"Name's Natalie Reed," Kono said. She had let the woman inside. "Roland's girlfriend."

"She have any guess who'd wanna grab her boyfriend?" he asked.

"No idea," Kono confirmed.

"All right, stay close," he told her. "If this is a kidnap and ransom, the abductors might make contact. Want someone who can run the trace."

"Okay," she nodded, moving to turn away when Danny piped up.

"Hey, listen," he said. "Give us a couple hours, we'll run down some leads. We will relieve you. I promise you, you won't miss your graduation."

"It's cool, bro," she smiled a little.

"Grabbed the footage from a traffic cam near the crime scene," Chin said holding his phone aloft as he approached them. "I'll see if there's anything that can identify the shooters."

"Did you get in touch with the company that Roland hired today?" Mitch asked him.

"Yeah, I spoke to the owner," he said. "Roland hired the bodyguards for an appointment he had this morning."

"Where were they going?" Steve asked.

"Hickam Air Force Base."

Danny nodded and looked between the two servicemen. "You know anyone at Hickam?" neither dignified that with a response, though Mitch did raise her eyebrows in a condescending manner just before she and Steve walked off.

"What a stupid question," Danny muttered, trailing after them. "Of course they do."

"Roland became paranoid," Nathanson said as they walked alongside him. He was an older man, but still strong. He was one of Michelle's contacts, strangely enough. Steve's man had turned out to be off-base at the moment, but Nathanson had been in Hawaii for about a year now. A plane took off to Steve's right, the engines whirring.

He told Michelle she should ring up her old Commander, but she only smiled tightly in response.

"Firing off memos in the middle of the night directly to the Joint Chiefs of Staff," Nathanson continued. "Which pissed off his immediate superiors to no end," he added.

"What were the memos about?" Steve asked.

"He was constantly telling us how vulnerable we were to attack," Nathanson explained. "In fact, he moved to Hawaii not to retire, but to carry on with his work. He felt this is where he could do the most good."

"What do you mean by that?" Mitch probed.

"Hawaii's in a strategic position in the global theater," the air force official explained, pausing in his steps. "And the United States Pacific Command is directly responsible for a hundred and fifty million square miles. Literally half the Earth," he said and looked between the three task force members. "Why do you think Pearl Harbor was a target?"

"Is that why he wanted to see you, because we were still vulnerable?" Steve asked.

"He was working on something that could prove it," blank nodded.

"Okay, what was it?" Danny pressed.

"He didn't feel comfortable talking over the phone so he was bringing it over," the older man said.

"So Roland was about to expose some serious threat to the island," Mitch summarized.

"That's why I took the meeting."

"That's why he was kidnapped," Steve assessed.

A/N: Hey everyone, we've got a few more people who have followed/favorited this story, so thanks for joining up! I would really appreciate it if, when you read this chapter, you'd leave a review! It's helpful for me to know you've read the story, but it's even better if I know what parts you enjoyed versus what you didn't enjoy. It helps me become a better writer and it helps you get a better story!

So please, let me know what you think! Mitch is not a mary-sue, she's a talented, but flawed individual whose good at fighting, shooting, and reading people, but somewhere along her life journey forgot how to be herself, forgot how to have fun, how to have friends and put down roots. Steve, and a couple people who have yet to come into the story, are the only people she has to rely on, to talk to. Throughout this story, her circle of trust and friendship will grow- she and Danny will become closer, she and Kono will forge an iron-clad friendship. But she's not exactly personable, so she might make a few enemies as well.

If I get three reviews... I'll post another chapter early, it's already done!