Disclaimer – still don't own Hawaii Five -0 - just toying with their lives for a while. And my lawyer and psychiatrist both agree that I still don't own Steve. Dammit.
A/N - "I'm evil and I know it..."
Wo Fat's voice taunted him in one ear as those of his teammates and the woman he loved collided in the other. He stood, frozen, as the missile inched closer and closer to his home. The home he'd grown up in. The home he'd recently begun to picture raising a family in with Jennifer.
"Five..."
"Kono, go!" Lori pleaded.
"I'm not leaving you!" Kono countered defiantly.
"Four..."
"Get out house NOW!" Catherine shrieked. Steve launched himself a step forward before Wo Fat's voice stopped him in his tracks. "They're already dead, McGarrett. Move and your sister joins them."
"Kono! Get out of there!" Steve thundered.
"Lori's can't move, I need help!"
He watched helplessly as Danny, Chin and Jennifer looked at each other before running back into the house.
"We're coming, Kono!' Chin bellowed.
"Get her up!"
"Jam the signal, Catherine!" Steve desperately ordered.
"There's nothing to jam, Steve!" she cried.
"Three..."
"Jenny!"
"Take cover, Dad, we're carrying Lori out."
"Two..."
Steve sank to his knees as the reality of the unfolding horror weighed on his shoulders. He was helpless to save them, helpless to save her. He tuned out Mary's agonized sobs behind him and focused on the breathless voices in his ear. "Please, God," he whispered.
"Go, go, go!"
"One..."
They cleared the front door as the missile tore into the house, igniting a fireball that began at the lanai, backlighting their figures and making it impossible for Steve to determine their positions as the explosion launched five bodies into the air. The silence from the destroyed communication port was deafening. He didn't even realize he'd ripped the now useless equipment from his ear until it fell out of his hand onto the ground.
The air was thick with smoke, fire and ash - too dense for Steve to make out who might be moving and who might be dead. A female figure raised up just slightly on her palms before collapsing back onto the ground. Fury burned through his veins as he jumped to his feet and spun to face Wo Fat, finding a fainted Mary Ann crumpled at his feet. "You son of a bitch!" Steve thundered, taking a swing at his nemesis, who deftly blocked the punch and spun to kick Steve in the ribs. Steve threw another fist, this time knocking the pistol out of Wo Fat's hands. He quickly recovered and landed a blow to Steve's kidneys that left the Commander staggering.
He rushed at Wo Fat again, slamming his head into the man's gut, knocking him onto the ground. Steve rolled over him, landing with a thud. Wo Fat was on him instantly, leveling a punch to Steve's jaw. He retaliated with a knee to Wo Fat's groin and sprang to his feet. He noticed movement out of the corner of his eye and spared a glance to the side to find his mother with her arm around Joe's waist, shrapnel clearly evident his bleeding head, slipping in and out of consciousness. Nancy wobbled under his added weight as they rounded the corner of the bushes. "Mary!" she wailed.
"Stay back," Steve yelled as Wo Fat's leg knocked his feet out from under him. He collided with the ground again, the wind knocked out of his lungs. Wo Fat scrambled for the gun and managed a shot that whizzed past Nancy just before Steve threw him onto the ground again. "Get out of here!" he ordered.
Nancy carefully eased Joe to the ground before rushing toward the struggling men. She fell to her knees in front of Mary, quickly easing the tape from her mouth with one hand while gently patting her daughter's cheek with the other. "Mary, sweetheart, please wake up!" she cried.
Sirens wailed in the distance, slowly but steadily competing in volume with the roar of the fire behind them. Mary stirred and Nancy breathed out a sigh of relief. "Get her out of here, Mom!" Nancy hauled Mary up under her arms and dragged her back toward the main road.
Wo Fat swung his legs around Steve's neck and began to squeeze the Commander's trachea. He angled his torso up and aimed the pistol at Steve's forehead. He cocked the hammer and sneered at Steve before a shot rang out.
As Wo Fat's lifeless body suddenly collapsed on top of him, blood oozing from the hole in the center of his forehead onto Steve's legs, his own head flew back against the ground to search for the origin of the fatal shot. What he saw turned his blood to ice – a broken, bloodied Jennifer losing her grip on the charred, blood moistened ground beneath her, the 9 mm still in her hands.
He pushed Wo Fat's body off him and scrambled on his hands and knees over to where Jennifer lay on her stomach, her breathing pained and shallow. It was then that he heard the sounds of life emanating from his team as they slowly began to regain consciousness - Kono's moans, Chin's curses, Danny's groans – all music to his battered ears.
He cradled Jennifer's head in his hands and pressed his hand lightly to her back. "Don't try to get up, baby, please," he begged. "The paramedics are almost here."
"Did I get him?" she asked weakly, coughing with the effort.
Tears stung at his eyes as he watched the light fading from hers. "Yes, baby, you got him. Don't try to talk." He looked up to find several teams of paramedics rushing toward them. "Over here!" he yelled, waving a hand at them.
"Commander McGarrett, I need you to step away," a female paramedic whose name Steve could never remember quickly ushered him to the side as she knelt beside Jennifer.
"Got a D.O.A. here, Commander," another paramedic announced solemnly. Steve looked up to find the woman knelt at Lori's side. He cursed and shook his head before he turned his attention to his partner. "How you doin' there, Danno?" he questioned, earning another groan from the detective.
"Do you have any idea how much I hate you right now?" Danny slowly rolled onto his side and then on to his back despite Steve's protests. "That damn woman of yours threw herself on top of me!" Danny grumbled. "What is it with you people?"
"We protect the ones we love, Daniel, you should know that by now," Steve chastised, turning his attention back to the paramedics working on Jennifer.
"As nice as that sounds, I'm still gonna hate you for a little while," Danny surmised.
"Kai, how's Chin?" Steve shouted over his shoulder.
"Compound fracture of the tibia, and the blast refractured his ribs, among other non life-threatening injuries" the male medic answered quickly.
"Abdominal distention," Steve heard Jennifer's paramedic say as he watched the slow, deliberate, rise and fall of her chest. "She's bleeding internally."
He swallowed the fear bubbling up in his chest and called out again as he crawled back to Jennifer. "Kono?"
She moaned loudly, throwing her hands over her eyes before answering, "God, somebody please turn off the sirens."
"At best a concussion," the paramedic responded to Steve's unasked question while placing an oxygen mask over Kono's nose and mouth, which she immediately pulled off.
"Lori?" Kono asked quietly. Steve shook his head and her dark eyes filled with tears. "Lie back," he heard the paramedic gently order. She was too crushed to argue.
"Pulse is weak and thready," the female paramedic suddenly said. Steve looked down to find his fiancée's eyes closed. He rested his forehead down on hers and repeated her earlier words to him - "Don't even think about it. Fight, baby," he pleaded.
"Jenny?" he heard Joe's voice ask weakly from the end of the driveway. "They're working on her, Joe," Steve yelled loud enough for him to hear. Nancy dropped down to his side and ran a trembling hand through Jennifer's hair. "Musume," she whispered as tears streamed down her cheeks.
The second medic shoved a needle into Jennifer's side and pulled the plunger out slowly, filling the large vial with dark red blood. "Blood in the chest cavity," he stated calmly. "We need to move now."
Steve dug in his pocket as they lifted Jennifer's backboard onto the stretcher. He ran after them to the ambulance with Nancy on his heels. "Who's riding?" the woman asked. Steve looked back at his team and then at his mother. She patted his cheek softly. "Go."
"Wait!" he yelled before jumping in and sliding onto the bench on Jennifer's left. He took her hand in both of his and pressed a kiss onto her bloodied fingers before sliding her engagement ring on.
"Fight, Jenn," he whispered into her ear. "Please…fight."
TBC…