Cujo III – Reloaded – This Time It's Personal
Chapter 35
Here's the next. Have tallied your votes. Looks like our guys are going to abandon their quest for revenge against Angie - smart move. Thanks so much for your opinions and comments.
Imaginary Beta is a complete ditz right now, (holiday cheer overload no doubt), so errors may abound. Last week she'd said if she heard 'Jingle Bells' one more time she was gonna take a sack full of water balloons and go climb a tower somewhere to wait for carolers.
Disclaimer: Have made the usual amount of income from this - NADA! Too bad husband isn't affected by cat nip. After realizing the sad fact of making absolutely no income from this it would certainly cheer him up. I hope he won't start chasing imaginary mice, (though Ninja cats would completely understand and share).
*5-0*5-0*5-0*5-0*5-0*5-0*5-0* Hawaii 5-0*5-0*5-0*5-0*5-0*5-0*5-0*
Temptations
Steve sat impatiently on the exam table waiting for Doctor Trilling to come examine his leg and maybe take out the stitches. He'd refused to don that stupid, thin to the point of almost being transparent, hospital gown and sat there in his T-shirt and boxers. Did they keep the temp at what felt like thirty friggin' degrees on purpose? He supposed it had to do with the growth of bacteria or something but even a Yeti wouldn't survive long in this room while sitting on a table and clad in only its underwear.
"I'd say chill brah." said Chin with an amused chuckle from where he sat in the corner keeping an eye on his restless leader, "But from the goose bumps I'd say you were already doing that."
"Funny Detective Kelly." said Steve sourly, as he wrapped his arms around himself and eyed the gown that still sat folded beside him. That measly piece of cloth would never have saved him from a case of hypothermia. "If you'd been sitting here freezing your ass off for almost an hour you'd have goose bumps too – if not pneumonia and frostbite."
Hearing a knock, they looked up to see Doctor Trilling enter. "Sorry to keep you waiting Commander." she smiled.
At least she's apologized in advance for probably having to put me back into the hospital because I've nearly frozen to death while waiting for her to show up, thought Steve without actually voicing it aloud.
"We had a sudden influx of patients with injuries sustained in the crash of a tour bus. Looks like it wasn't anything too serious but it caused quite the hubbub in the E.R. until we got everyone sorted out. Doesn't look like anyone was seriously injured. Only one or two will be spending the night and only for observation."
"Glad to hear everyone's going to be okay." said Steve as the doctor immediately donned a pair of purple nitrile gloves and sat on a rolling stool in front of him. She gently moved his knee outward to get a better look at the still healing injury on the inside of his thigh.
The movement caused him to wince slightly as the inside of his leg stretched and pulled with a fair amount of discomfort. He hoped she hadn't noticed but no such luck.
"So, still pretty painful huh?" she asked as she began to carefully peel off the tape holding the long strip of gauze in place.
"Not too bad." he answered. "Just cramps a little when I overdo it. By that I mean when I've stood too long or walked a little way too far." In the corner, out of Steve's eye-line, Chin shook his head from side to side to silently dispute his leader's description of only mild discomfort. More than once he'd witnessed the man doubled over in pain when he thought no one was watching.
Trilling had seen the Hawaiian's negative head shake but didn't give any indication she had.
"Now, I know we've talked about the 'overdoing it' thing", she admonished. "I hope you haven't tried to return to work yet? You still have some physical therapy to do first but it will be several more days before I'm going to have you sign up for it."
By Steve remaining silent to the work question, she had her answer. This time she looked directly at Chin for confirmation. The Hawaiian detective only sat staring serenely back at her. Steve had already incriminated himself; he didn't have to add anything to the guilty verdict.
"Commander McGarrett" she began with a frown, "You know very well you are not yet cleared for duty. Only the exterior stitches have healed sufficiently. The ones in the inner layers of your thigh muscle won't heal if you engage in strenuous activity. By 'strenuous' I mean of course doing anything to cause your thigh muscle to contract too vigorously and pull the stitches loose. That would include the following: lifting anything heavier than ten pounds, running, jumping, climbing, cycling, swimming, or anything else of the sort."
He knew he was busted and really hoped he hadn't blushed at that last part. He could feel his face growing suddenly warmer than the rest of his still freezing self. He and Cath had already figured out a way of avoiding too much strain on his thigh when engaging in that anything else part. He was exceedingly grateful his not-my-girlfriend was so inventive . . . and supple.
"I've had someone drive me to work but I assure you, I haven't done anything that would fit into those categories unless you count walking from the door to my desk. I even take the elevator rather than climbing the stairs up to our offices." he said defensively
The young blonde woman only looked stonily back at him before blowing out a frustrated breath and shaking her head. "I swear it's like trying to reason with my cat." she announced in a resigned tone; bending back to her task.
"Oh we know all about stuff like that." volunteered Chin.
Trying not to move his leg Steve twisted toward him with a frown.
Continued Chin, "We've got one of those at the office. Actually, Commander McGarrett is frequently compared to Five-0's mascot and rodent control officer." chuckled the detective despite the glare-of-death now aimed in his direction.
"Oh" exclaimed the young doctor as she pulled off the last of the tape and began to poke and prod at the thin, still reddened and raised line of the healing incision crisscrossed with blue nylon sutures, "I've heard stories of that animal. Wasn't he responsible for sending one of your detectives to the E.R. a couple of nights ago?"
"Not one of my detectives, the guy works for HPD, but yeah, that would be the animal." grinned Steve with what could be easily interpreted as pride.
"Quite the little warrior!" laughed Trilling, as she pulled a rolling metal tray containing a large plastic bottle of Betadine solution, several alcohol wipes, scissors, tape, gauze, and other medical implements toward her. "The on-call E.R. doctor said he had to put quite a few stitches into a, in his words, 'seriously chewed-up' and extremely upset law-enforcement officer and order a tetanus booster for him," then she lowered her voice conspiratorially to add, "administered with an extra-large needle courtesy of an annoyed and seriously out-of-patience nurse."
Now, both men grinned broadly at Mickey's deservedly painful punishments for attacking Danny with a flashlight. Both were beaming at the accomplishments of their tiny terror, one Detective Cujo D. McGarrett. Steve was still smiling when he yelped in pain as the doctor, not so gently this time, maneuvered his leg into a better position to remove the numerous stitches that had held his thigh together for the past several days as it healed.
"Even though I'm going to remove the outer stitching, I'm warning you Commander, don't do anything to tear those interior ones. If you do so, it could result in permanent damage to the muscle. Not to mention of course being incredibly painful."
Using the small pair of stainless steel scissors she began to clip the blue threads embedded in the line that began just below the shoved-up right leg of her patient's boxer briefs.
"Yes ma'am" answered Steve meekly. After all, the woman currently held a sharp pointy instrument way too close to something that was near and dear to him.
In his usual Zen-like way Chin only smiled like the Cheshire cat. Keeping Steve McGarrett from doing anything strenuous was going to be an uphill battle. His ohana certainly had their jobs cut out for them.
…..
Kiki strode into Five-0's offices in an absolute fury. One could almost see the smoke trailing behind her as her heels tapped loudly and angrily across the granite tiles.
Kono looked up eyes widening at the local newswoman's dramatically abrupt entrance.
"May I help you?" she asked warily; knowing she couldn't be here for any peaceable purpose.
"Where is your commander?!" angrily demanded Kiki
"Commander McGarrett isn't here right now. Is there something I can assist you with?"
"Yeah, you can!" hissed the incensed reporter, "You can tell that asshole to call off his little vendetta!"
"Excuse me?" asked Kono taken aback by the woman's words; her hackles rising, (well, that is she knew they would if she had hackles).
"No one at HPD is willing to give me the time of day! I know it's because that dickhead said something to them . . . gave them an order or something!" asserted the angry woman.
"Ma'am . . . "
"I'm Kiki Kenworthy of KAEO dammit!" grandly stated the reporter as if expecting the detective to genuflect or something.
"I know who you are." coolly replied Kono, "And as I was about to say, HPD and Five-0 are two entirely different law enforcement entities. Commander McGarrett has no say in HPD's policy of who they do or do not talk to nor does the Honolulu Police Department have any say in Five-0's business."
"Look, McGarrett had me thrown off a crime scene and threatened to have me jailed! He did in fact do just that when I tried to practice my rights as a member of the free press! I know goddamned well he's behind it!"
"Ms. Kenworthy," began Kono through clenched teeth, it becoming much too tempting to throw the woman out on her ass.
"Look!" barked Kiki, "I'm done talking to you. Get me someone in charge!"
Kono, without reply, smiled coldly and then turned away to walk toward Danny's office. Chin had taken Steve to his follow-up doctor's appointment and they weren't due back for another half-hour or so.
It was Chin who'd successfully cajoled their entirely too stubborn leader into actually going to see the doc. Sometimes Danny only seemed to make Steve dig his heels in deeper when he wanted his partner to take better care of himself. They could always count on her cousin's calm, centered, demeanor to take things down a notch and make everyone eventually acquiesce to reason.
Knocking on Five-0's temporarily-in-command's door then quickly entering without waiting for a response, she growled through clenched teeth, "Danny, you need to get out here and deal with this woman before I flipping strangle her."
Danny looked up from the paperwork scattered across his desk. It wasn't often that Kono asked anyone for help in dealing with suspects, perps or anyone else. She was smart and tough and entirely too much like their fearless leader at times. He raised his eyebrows questioningly at her obvious agitation and made the gesture that bade her explain.
"She wants to talk to the person in charge. You're the lucky one." said the Hawaiian detective with a not entirely innocent smirk on her smooth young face.
With only a quizzical look in return, Danny rose from his chair and followed her back to the outer office. He almost groaned aloud when he caught sight of the teal blazer and dark shiny hair. Ah, another of those with whom our warm, fuzzy, leader managed to make friends, he thought as he strode up to her.
"You're in charge?" barked Kiki
Without reacting to the not so subtle diss and not bothering to respond to her question he asked, "May I help you Ms. Kenworthy?"
Suddenly realizing here was a man she'd once almost charmed into her web she changed her tone. Almost schizophrenically in a suddenly honeyed voice she cooed, "I seem to have run up against a wall with HPD letting me in on their investigation of the Macchiato Murders. I assume it was because of something Commander McGarrett said to them. I could certainly use your help Detective Williams in straightening out this most unfortunate situation."
"Ms. Kenworthy . . . "
"Just call me Kiki." she interrupted with a bat of her mascaraed eyelashes that almost made Kono lose her lunch right there on the floor in front of the smart table.
"Kiki," smiled Danny with no real warmth behind his grin, "Commander McGarrett has no say in who HPD deals with. I'm sure there must be some misunderstanding."
"If you say it's so, I'm sure it's true," she purred as Kono rolled her eyes behind her, "But do you think you could put in a word with them? I really need their cooperation to get this story. I've already turned over everything the murderer sent me so I would think they'd be willing to cooperate with me in getting information on the case."
"I have no influence on HPD." he stated as he caught Kono's miming of sticking her finger down her throat and gagging as she stood out of Kiki's eyesight. He was trying mightily not to react to it.
Both Five-0's knew the fact that Kiki had been arrested only a few days ago, (yes, on Steve's orders); had served for HPD to put her on the 'no fly' list for information – no matter what she'd given them.
"Detective Williams - Danny, pleeaase." she whined; drawing out the word like a little girl asking for something she shouldn't have like tickets to a Snoop Dog concert; all but twirling the ends of her hair.
"I can point you in the direction of the guy who can probably make a call on it." he smiled at her.
"You're sure you can't do anything yourself?" she tried once again; turquoise eyes pleading for all she was worth.
"No Ms. . . . umm Kiki. I'm sorry but that is not in my power."
"Okay fine!" she snapped having realized she was barking up the wrong detective. She'd already braced Mickey about it and had gotten the same answer – there was nothing he could do. She'd needed to cut him off anyway. She was tired of having to put-out for that annoying twerp and, of late, getting pretty nothing in the least useful in return. He was pathetic.
"Let me get Sargent Lukela's card for you." said Danny as he turned to go get it from his desk drawer. Duke would be annoyed but at least it got her out of here before Steve came back and he had to break up a brawl. In a verbal argument SuperSEAL would certainly never hit a woman but, considering the woman, he just might shoot her.
Kiki tapped her foot impatiently and setting her Prada bag onto the glass surface of the smart table, (making Kono wince – glad that Chin wasn't here to witness the travesty), she began rummaging around in the ostentatiously expensive pocketbook. It was time for another layer of lip gloss.
"You shouldn't set your bag there." observed Kono in an overly sweet tone, "The table is a very sensitive electronic device."
"The bag's a Prada." announced Kiki icily as though that made some sort of difference.
Cujo, voices from the other room having awakened him from his nap in Steve's out-basket, stretched lazily and lightly leapt out of the box set on the corner of the desk then just as lightly jumped down onto the floor to pad silently across it to go investigate the commotion.
Ignoring the humans because there was something more interesting to look into; the curious animal sprang onto the smart table to check it out.
Just as Kono had just about decided to haul off and clock her, Kiki, startled by the silent and sudden appearance of the animal Mickey had described in great and trepidacious detail, let out a shriek and let go of the bag that landed open-side down beneath the smart table. Its contents scattered noisily across the polished granite.
Cujo paid no attention to the woman's screech. It wasn't even as loud as the ones from the human he called Female-Afraid-of-Mice. He often brought her gifts just to get her reaction because it was such fun. He hadn't seen her for many days. He kind of missed her.
Stuff like that didn't even faze him. He was used to the loud and sometimes angry sounding words often directed at him. At this moment, however, the fascinating things that landed bouncing and rolling noisily across the shiny ground drew him to them.
"What is that animal doing here!" screeched Kiki, as she backed away in fright. Mickey had been very graphic in his description of what the cat was capable of and she'd seen the damage for herself when he'd undone his pants during their last encounter. She'd tried not to laugh . . . really she had.
"Just don't touch him!" warned Kono to the supposedly tough newswoman, "He won't bother you if you don't touch him or umm . . . run or anything." she added almost with glee.
Kiki looked up at her in disbelief that Five-0 even allowed such a creature in their offices. She narrowed her eyes at the Hawaiian woman who looked like she was suppressing laughter – at her expense.
"Here, let me help you pick up your stuff, "offered Kono thinking the sooner she got her things back into her over-priced symbol of conspicuous consumption the sooner Kiki would be outta here.
"Cujo!" ordered Danny as he walked back into the room with Duke's business card, "Leave that stuff alone and let the nice lady leave with her belongings."
The cat, focused on his investigation of the mysterious things, interrupted it to chirp at the loud man.
"Come on popoki, let's let her get outta here." smiled Kono, glad that at least Cujo had made an impression on the obnoxious woman.
Cujo looked up at Danny in obvious evaluation then back at the pile of things that had spilled out of the funny looking bag. Oh well, the loud man had helped him win the battle against the man whose blood he'd gotten to taste.
He'd cooperate for now. This annoying female who smelled almost like the awful stuff that had been sprayed on him by the tall woman should leave – NOW. He sensed she was the enemy of his band of humans. Someone who smelled like that had to be!
With a dismissive chirp, he sat down to calmly watch them pick up the mysterious things and put them into the bag.
Kono and Danny nodded and smiled at the little buzzsaw for agreeing to back off and began to scoop up: wallet, cell phone, keys, change, assorted containers of lip-gloss, mascara, blush, nail polish, concealer, eye-liner and highlighting powder along with a perfume atomizer, various make-up brushes and other materials to enhance her appearance.
To Kono, it looked like the woman carried an entire beauty supply warehouse in her purse. Oh, excuse me all to hell, Prada bag.
She and Danny checked under the table and quickly scanned the floor around it to make sure they had everything and then handed the re-loaded leather sack back to its owner.
Kiki took it without a thank you to the woman who handed it to her but smiled and batted her eyelashes at Danny before she sinuously swiveled her way across the office toward the exit. She'd have to find a replacement when she dumped Mickey. She was certain Detective Williams would make a better bed partner. She could tell these things. Anyway, he was certainly a whole lot cuter. She bet she'd be happy with what she'd find when she got him out of his seriously buttoned down attire.
"If that woman puts any more hip action into her walk, she's gonna break something." muttered Kono under her breath.
"Jealous?" smirked Danny, eyes dancing as he took in Kono's sour look of evaluation as Kiki made her serpentine way across the floor.
"You've got to be kidding!" she responded, turning to him with mouth open and eyes wide in disbelief that Danny could even say such a thing to her.
Danny smiled in what he hoped was a disarming way and went back to his office before he got his ass kicked by a slender young female detective. The 'better part of valor' and all . . .
Cujo crouched quietly under the smart table. He was patiently watching his humans and waiting for them to leave. They hadn't picked up everything. When they were gone he would have something new to add to his collection of toys.
*5-0*5-0*5-0*5-0*5-0*5-0*5-0* Hawaii 5-0*5-0*5-0*5-0*5-0*5-0*5-0*
Kiki doesn't yet know it but she may have made a major mistake that, courtesy of a certain feline, will result in our team getting much closer to finding the killer.
Also a possible reveal of other 'issues'. McMommy Dearest is about due back from her trip.
Reviews would make me deliriously happy. Way better than that colorful but less than thrilling ribbon candy foisted on us every year! Fruitcake anyone?