Chapter 11
Gatherings
Akamu frowned. Reports were scattered all around him, and he was sitting cross-legged on the floor. Emily was asleep, leaned up against the wall.
They had found a few related murders. Never the same M.O., but it felt like the murders were the same. Emily thought he was crazy to take this angle, but AP chalked it up to always acting crazy around her. The other day she had leaned her head back to put up her hair, and AP had run into a wall. Spilling his coffee. Over freshly printed sheets, his new shirt, and good pants. AP had then looked up, mortified, into Emily's laughing eyes, and raced off. Running into the computer table and falling over. He didn't come into work the next day. He remembered what he told his new partner. Those 24 hours flu's are a real pain, aren't they? Emily had agreed, grinned, knowing full well he was too embarrassed to face her, and never brought it up again.
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Darkness blended in with the lights, and pain ricocheted through his body at every minute movement. A steady ache was present even if he did not move. Steve forced his eyes to stop squinting, and he stared at the face above him. Jolev's dry, cracked lips broke into a smile.
"Finally!" The older man whispered, slumping to the floor. "You've been unconscious awhile, kid. Well, I wasn't in here for a little bit, so I can't say you weren't awake then, but—"
"Where were you?" Steve cut in. Charles stopped rambling.
"Well, you didn't tell them anything, so they thought you might have lied about being the only one to know anything, and well, you know what terrorists do in that situation."
"I'm sorry."
"Not your fault. I'm not as bad as you are, at any rate." Charles grinned. "Shot me. In the side. But they thought I would bleed out. Didn't cuff me. Ready to get out of here?"
Steve gave a small smile.
"You bet."
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Ella clapped her hands together again. Saturday had come, and the bright sun showed that today was going to be gorgeous. Paul was in a good mood, and soon all her family—not Matt, she thought sadly— was going to be there. Ella directly the cab driver into the house's driveway.
Ella observed the beach house as Paul paid. It's beautiful, she thought, delighted. Danny greeted her at the door with a smile, and directed her and Paul to the back porch. Ella slowly turned on the Lanai, one glass door ajar behind her.
"This is gorgeous!" She gushed. Soon the rest of the family had arrived. Kono and her parents, Myla and Kino showed up, Myla toting bags of food. She promptly set up in the kitchen. Chin with his parents, Mark and Reko arrived last, because Mark had to search for the perfect wine to bring. They were all sitting together, laughing and talking, when a lull in the conversation let Paul and Ella once again gaze around their surroundings. Paul harrumphed.
"Daniel, why are you living in an apartment when you could have a house like this? Out next to the water, good neighbourhood, lots of space. It would be perfect for you and Grace to spend the weekend." Kono, Chin and Danny's smiling faces froze, while everyone else laughed. Grace continued to eat, oblivious to the conversation until her name was mentioned. She looked up at her father.
"We spend out weekends here, Nana." Grace piped in. Danny patted her hand.
"Yeah, we do sometimes." Danny nodded, and everyone could see he clearly wanted to move on. Ella tittered.
"Really? That's nice. Is it one of your friend houses?" She pressed. Danny's frozen smile had turned to a grimace.
"Yes."
"Oh. Which one of you dears owns this house?" Ella directed her next question to Chin and Kono. Kono's smile was completely gone at this point. Chin politely stepped in.
"Neither of us, ma'am. Our other friend, who works with us, is away right now. It's his house."
Grace watched with interest as her grandmother's smile grew suspicious, and her two surrogate relatives and her father looked like they were extremely uncomfortable. Aunt Casey spoke up.
"Are you talking about that guy Steve you were telling me about Danny?" Casey prompted. Grace saw her father give a stiff nod.
"Well, why didn't he come?" Ella exclaimed, looking offended. "Did he not want to meet us?"
"He's busy," Danny ground out. "He's not on the islands."
"Too busy for family?" Paul scoffed a little. Casey touched her father's arm.
"I think that's enough," she said quietly. Paul looked at her and nodded. Grace wanted to let herself be heard again.
"Uncle Steve made me a room here. Can I show you, Nana?" Her grandmother stood.
"I would love to see." Ella and Grace walked off, Grace excited to be able to talk about her Uncle Steve again. Casey bit her lip, but Lindsay, aware of the uncomfortable atmosphere, shifted the topic to New Jersey, and soon the playful banter was filling the air again.
Ella knelt looking at the dolls in Grace's room.
"This is beautiful, dear." She smiled, and neatly placed the doll back in her house.
"I know. Uncle Steve took me and Danno out and we picked out everything! It was great!" Grace continued to chatter as they walked back out to the Lanai.
"And then Danno said 'Don't spoil her Steven!'" Grace's impression of her father's voice made Ella laugh. "Then he talked a lot about how having dolphins and penguins at the same time wasn't okay."
"What did Steve say?" Ella asked. She was intrigued about this man who her son had complained about, but apparently opened his house for Danny and Grace on the weekends.
"He said just what I was thinking! Uncle Steve gave Danno this funny face and said, 'But where else will the penguins and dolphins live Danno?'" Grace giggled and took her seat again. Danny ruffled her hair.
"Are you telling Nana about when we went shopping for your room stuff?" He asked. Grace nodded enthusiastically. Melissa grinned a little.
"Is that exactly what this Uncle Steve said, Gracie?" Melissa prodded. Grace nodded.
"And I got hippos as well. Danny said everyone likes hippos, even if SEALS don't know it. Then Steve laughed. I didn't understand, but sometimes I don't get what Uncle Steve finds funny."
To everyone else who didn't know Steve, Grace's sentence had been obscure.
Seals don't know everyone likes hippos? Casey's brow scrunched in confusion.
"I thought that Daddy didn't like when people besides his monkey called him Danno," Melissa looked at her brother with a grin on her face.
"I don't." Danny said shortly. "But it's not like I can stop him." Melissa grinned again.
"Does the whole team—"
"God no. Just Steve calls me that. Well, and Grace."
"Steve!" Ella suddenly exclaimed. Everyone looked at her strangely. "I remember! I was trying to place how I knew that he was on your team. Remember that phone call we had months ago, Daniel? You complained about him so much. He's your boss, isn't he?"
Danny nodded.
"Look, we're here for a family reunion," He gave a tight smile. "Can we not talk about my absent boss?"
Casey looked up at his sharp tone. Steve? He's been pissy all week because of him? She narrowed her eyes. There was more to this than she was hearing.
"How's work been lately?" Lindsay cut in, directing her question to the three team mates.
"Good, rather boring." Danny shrugged. "We have a new rookie, AP, he joined a few months ago."
"He's fun," Chin grinned. "But he's terrified of Danny." Kono laughed.
"Definitely, Other-Boss can be a mean, mean person to poor, innocent rookies."
"I didn't do anything to him!"
"He didn't even think you knew his name until last week," Chin said solemnly. "That's sad, brah."
"He definitely thought you liked that coffee machine better than him," Kono piped in.
"I hate that coffee machine. It doesn't make real coffee. It is a biohazard risk, Kono! How could I like that thing better than our new rookie, older rookie?"
"He probably thought that since you actually looked in its direction at least once a week you must have some deeper connection with it than him," Chin broke in.
Ella watched as her son protested with one of the first real smiles she had seen for a while. It was small, and less than the brilliant ones she had seen before, but it was a smile. So she wondered Why? Why did he stop smiling to begin with?
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Steve scowled. Jolev grinned. Steve grunted. Jolev raised one eyebrow. Steve sighed, and Jolev patted his shoulder. Trees seemed to be coagulating around them, but Jolev assured his commanding officer that there were the same number of trees there had been two minutes ago. Steve had rolled his eyes, but forced himself to relax. Despite his calm appearance, Charles Jolev wanted to kill someone. Steve was looking miserable, lying back next to the dead body of their comrade. The small space was optimal to hide from any attackers, but Warner Bexley, deceased comrade, was starting to stink up the space. Steve was waiting as Charles patched him up the best he could with only the clothes on their backs.
The trees rustled in the wind, and they could hear the sounds of animals moving in the distance. The moon shone a bright light, no clouds marring the view.
Charles hated it. Anything, rain, snow, windstorm, hell, even the men crashing through the forest would be better. But he knew, logically, that it wouldn't be. Noise doesn't make it better, his mind ridiculed him. Steve looked up through long lashes.
"I want to do something as well," he whispered. "But you need to get this bleeding stopped before we can keep going." Charles nodded, careful of his side. The gunshot had been shallow, and superficial. He was barely impaired by it. Steve winced a little as he tied off the end of the fabric.
"Let's go, Sir. Let's get Bexley and us home."
Steve struggled to his feet. "You good with Warner?" He asked, pain lacing his words.
"If you help me prop him up," Charles nodded. "I'm good." Steve assisted in hanging the corpse over Jolev's shoulder. Jolev felt the weight settle, pushing back his grief for the dead man. His friend, and his comrade. His brother-at-arms, never to breathe free air again.
Steve touched his shoulder briefly, before pausing to listen. Silently, even injured, the two SEALs crept through the forest, hoping to find their way home. A shout rose over the air, and Steve grinned.
"They're falling for it," he gave a short, quiet laugh. Jolev nodded, carefully placing Bexley back down. He covered the man with leaves and branches, memorizing where they would be leaving the body.
He glanced at Steve, who nodded. Charles took a deep breath, and they turned and headed back to the compound.
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The party had moved to the living room. Grace was sleepy, and the moon slowly rising showed that it was soon time for her to go to bed. Chris was dozing off lightly next to his mother, while the adults were involved in conversations centering around what seemed to Danny, embarrassing their own child the most. With Chin and Kono, they didn't embarrass easily.
Kono laughed at the story her mother had concluded. Danny could imagine her dancing in the water, and disappearing. Apparently, everyone at the party had thought she was drowning. Turned out she was further down the beach and had found a shell that interested her. She didn't think that she would have to answer her mother if there was a shell there for company. Her mother patted her hand.
"What can I say?" Kono shrugged off the embarrassment of the childhood story her mother had just told. She gave an impish grin. "I loved to find things in the water, and make new friends." Chin laughed.
"I remember that," he said. "You frightened everyone. When you just starting dancing again, everyone got mad. They thought you should be frightened too."
Reko was laughing, and she leaned forward to her husband. "Mark and I remember Chin when he was young. A troublemaker. He was eventually asked to stay home April 1st, the schools didn't want him there."
Danny laughed out loud.
"Chin? He's been holding out on me!" Danny grinned. "What were some of these great pranks?" He leaned forward, a triumphant gleam in his eye.
"Ah, brah, Hawaiian secrets." Chin grinned. "Can't reveal the secret of my trade." Mark laughed at his son. Reko tutted, sharing a fond glance with Myla. Ella chipped in, choosing to embarrass her son as well.
"Well, we didn't have such a laid back life in Jersey," she said enthusiastically, "but Danny certainly was a—ahum—shall I say, free child?" Chin and Kono burst into laughter, and Grace leaned forward to hear the funny story about her daddy.
"Ever since he was little, Daniel would decide that clothes weren't good enough for him. In fact, all through grade school Daniel had trouble with his teachers—"
"I wasn't that bad!"
"Dear, your shirts would disappear more often than my keys." Ella smiled consolingly. Her wicked grin reappeared. "He told me, when he was younger that the reason he took off his shirt is so that everyone could see his abs." Ella smiled fondly. "Dear didn't realize he was a pudgy child, and people would have been fine with a shirt," Kono snorted into her drink.
Chin was grinning, and Grace was laughing. Danny was protesting the story his mother was telling when a doorbell shattered the silence. Danny got up, still laughing, and headed to the door. Conversation died a little, and he pulled the door open.
A uniformed man stood at the doorstep.
"Daniel Williams?" He asked.
"Yes?" Danny stepped back for the man to have more space. "What's this about?" The man passed him an envelope.
"I know you've already been informed of what has happened concerning Steve McGarrett," the man started. He hesitated a little. "This is the official report stating that Lieutenant Commander Steven McGarrett is officially missing in action. Commander McGarrett, and the two men that stayed behind are being rewarded medals for their outstanding bravery in the face of adversity. We want to assure you, and your friends and family, that we are doing everything we can to find Commander McGarrett."
Danny was stony faced.
"Before, they told us—" he swallowed harshly. "They told us he was presumed dead. Has that changed?"
"We're hoping for the best," the man started, "but there is no guarantee. I'm sorry Mr. Williams. I wouldn't plan on seeing your friend again."
Danny stood still, as the man placed the envelope on a surface, and turned and left the house. He stood still as Kono embraced him, letting his shocked arms hang loosely at his sides. Danny was still as the family gathering broke up, shock written on the faces of friends and relatives. Danny stood still until a trembling voice snapped him out of the reverie he was in.
"Daddy, is Uncle Steve really dead?"
TBC
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