A/N: So this one fits in somewhere to the idea that I had described in the beginning. It's really a moment for Steve when he realizes how similar, and yet how different people can be.

I Disappear – Metallica (4:29)

For: SGFlutegirl

I Disappear

Steve walked through the rows upon rows of patients in the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. They were no longer differentiated by their forces, they were the injured, they were the men and women of the army and the navy and all of the armed forces of the United States had sent into the conflict. They were the victims of war and the survivors and Steve was looking for the ones that he knew. Or maybe he was looking for someone that he didn't know, but in every one that he passed he saw a familiarity with something that he had left behind.

There was a father, clasping at a photo of his daughter. There was man who wore an engagement ring around his neck with a cross and a visible regret. There was a woman, proving herself to the world, to her family, to the man, that she was the tough one. There was the quiet entrepreneur who did what he had to do to survive. There was a doctor who was forced to look at the dead rather than the living. There was a woman caught in between the battle and the technology. There was a man looking for clues as to why humanity was so horrible. They were all the same and yet they were all different. No woman ever looked like Kono or Jenna and Steve thanked God for that fact. No man looked like Danny, or Chin, or Charlie, or Kamekona. No photograph but his own, the one he kept secretly in the pocket closes to his heart, looked like the little smiling Grace that he had left behind to do what he had vowed to do as a man of service. No doctors looked like Max, talked like Max and there were defiantly no impromptu piano recitals in the M.A.S.H unit.

His family, his Ohana, he kept in his pant pocket, a fading Polaroid photo of the people that meant the most to him. He saw their faces every day, and prayed he would never see them in this place where everything seemed to turn to dust.

There were voice and tongues from many different states but there were no Dannys or Chins or Konos or Jennas. There wasn't the jolly laughter of Kamekona or the threatening danger of the drug cartels and mafia bosses. There was only war, and sometimes Steve wasn't even sure he knew what war he was fighting.

"Sir, please help me," one patient cried out in pain and delusion as his eyes were covered and darkness had taken up his world, but Steve had stopped at the end of his bed. "Help me please I can't see."

"Soldier, you're safe, you're in the hospital. You'll be going home soon." Steve said.

"Matthew is that you?" the poor man called out and reached for something, anything.

"No, I'm commander McGarrett, soldier," Steve answered.

"I can't see you, but you sound like my brother," The poor man stated and reached out for Steve again.

"You can't see because you've lost your eyes," Steve said softly as he took the man's hand and he sat down beside the bed.

"Everything is dark, I don't feel anything, but I can see my home town and the fields." The man said and held tighter to Steve's hand.

"Where are you from?" Steve asked.

"Tulsa Oklahoma," the man answered.

"And your name soldier?" Steve asked.

"Steven, Steven Bradley," the man answered.

"Are you army or navy?" Steve asked.

"Navy, Commander," Steven answered.

"Good man," Steve half smiled, "well, lieutenant, you'll be going home soon." He added as he looked around and saw the man's tags and his designation as an officer.

"I'm not much of a soldier anymore," Steven sighed. "So you can be as informal as you like." The sightless man said as his panic has faded away as he held tightly to Steve's hand. "Where are you from, Commander McGarrett?"

"Hawaii, Oahu," Steve answered.

"Are you in the reserves out there or, are you a full time Navy man?" Steven asked.

"I'm a reservist now, yes, I was a full time SEAL but I went back home when my dad was killed and now, I'm a detective with a special task force." Steve explained.

"That sounds very prestigious," the young man stated.

"It is. It's probably the best thing that ever happened to me." Steve smiled.

"Do they call you commander there as well?" the young man asked.

"No, they call me Steven."