Chapter 44

Millie's cellphone rang; caller ID said it was her brother, Drew.

"Hey Drew, what do you got?" Millie asked, putting her cellphone on speaker.

"Hey. I've had a chance to look over Lunkhead's file, and I'll be honest with you. If you don't do the amputation, he'll be in constant pain and that tumour will likely grow. If you do do the amputation, it'll stop the tumour and he'll likely live a longer life," Drew said.

Millie chewed on her knuckle. "What about the surgery risk?"

"There's always a risk, more so because of his age, but I honestly think his chances are very good. Based on what I saw of that walking bio-hazard of yours (he ignored Millie's yelp of indignation), he is in good health, and maybe about ten years old, at least."

"Will the missing leg affect his quality of life?" Millie asked. "Will he still be able to do the things he used to do?"

"Oh yeah, yeah, he will. He might slow down a bit, but he should be fine. And Millie?"

"Yeah?"

"I know how much he means to you, so I'm telling you the blunt, honest, straightforward truth here," Drew said. "Have the amputation done. His survival rate is very good and I think you'll get a lot more years out of him, when you do. Doctor Young and her team appear to know what they're doing. Trust them."

Millie bit her lip, then nodded. "Okay. I'll tell them to have the procedure done. Thanks, Drew. I appreciate this."

"Not a problem, kiddo." And he ended the call.

"I'm gonna go call Dr. Young and take care of some stuff," Millie said, heading for her office.

"I called her dad," Steve said to the team. "He'll be here on a flight arriving in the morning. Seems it's his turn. Oh, and he asked that we not tell Millie. Apparently he wants to surprise her."

"Heck of a surprise," Chin said.

An hour later, the judge, a Judge Vandersteen, granted Millie emergency guardianship of Zack Bergerson, once it was shown that the boy knew both Millie and her friends, and that there were witnesses to the attack on Millie. Until Zack's uncle and aunt were located and arrangements made, Zack would stay with Millie. As for Kirk Bergerson, it was highly unlikely he'd be getting out of Halawa for at least a year, due to the nature of his charges.

After the judge granted Millie emergency guardianship of Zack Bergerson, Steve sent Millie home. She did so, reluctantly, but she did. She spent the first half of the day napping and the second half of the day loading up her fridge and pantry, trying to keep her mind off Lunkhead. According to both Lou and Danny, growing teenagers could put a serious dent in the eating department, and Millie didn't know how long Zack would be staying with her. After that, she tackled her garden. Just after she'd moved in, she had discovered an overgrown, tangled mess of a garden. Her neighbour on her left kindly told her she had a variety of roses, such as the Aloha Hawaii rose and the Volcano rose.

Since I'm being forced to take some time off, guess what I'll be doing, she texted Steve.

Going after your garden and raiding the local nursery? Steve replied.

Eyup. Hope my green thumb isn't actually a black thumb. Maybe I can plant some lavender bushes. I love the smell.

Lavender grows well in this climate. Rosemary is another good one that grows around here. One of my neighbours has a rosemary bush and when the wind blows just right, you can smell it.

Thanks for the tip. Making a list now.

See you tonight.

Steve stayed the night with Millie and Zack, before leaving in the morning. Before he did, he extracted a promise from Millie to stay as far away from Headquarters as possible, unless she absolutely had to.

Nearly a day after the phone call Steve had made to the Phelps family, Mike Phelps was landing in O'ahu.

Mike stood about Steve's height, had salt and pepper hair that was more salt than pepper, with inquisitive dark blue eyes, and wore a lilac open-neck dress shirt, dark blue jeans, brown belt, brown and black slip-on shoes, and tan plaid sports jacket. He carried a black carry-on and as soon as he spotted Steve, he waved in acknowledgement and walked over to him. Steve noticed he walked with what might be called a command presence; head and shoulders straight and tall, sure of himself, sure of what he was doing and where he was going. He reminded Steve of Navy officers who had seen it all, done it all, and were not one to screw around with. He was the boss, and he had earned every inch of it.

"Commander McGarrett?" he asked.

"Call me Steve, sir," Steve said, shaking the offered hand. "Welcome to O'ahu and thanks for coming on such short notice."

"Call me Mike, and hey, it's my baby girl we're talking about here," Mike said, following him to the luggage carousel. While they waited for his suitcase, he quickly sent off a text message to his wife, letting her know he'd arrived safely and met up with Steve.

Once they had his suitcase, Steve led him to his truck. Mike whistled when he saw the bright sunshine and dug his sunglasses out of his jacket, putting them on before taking his jacket off and rolling up his sleeves.

"It was a bit chilly in Portland when I left," he said. "This isn't chilly; this is actually quite pleasant."

"Glad you think so. Coffee?" Steve asked, smiling.

"Please. And then you can tell me what's going on with Millie," Mike said.

As Steve drove through the city, he recounted what he knew. "She's been ordered to take two weeks off, but she tried to negotiate it down to one week."

Mike snorted with laughter. "That's my girl. How well did that go down?"

"It didn't. We wound up working out a compromise," Steve admitted. "She takes a week off completely and then plays it by ear the second week. If she wants to come in and help, then she's on restricted duties."

"Fair enough. I'm on vacation for a week, anyway." He rubbed his hands gleefully. "How's the fishing around here?"

"Pretty good, if you know where to go and what you're fishing for. Chin and I can point you in the right direction."

"Appreciate that. I only have one request."

"Yes sir."

"Show me the file on the bastard who hurt her so I know what I'm dealing with before I see her."

"Consider it done. I'll take you to HQ then to Millie's home."

"Thanks. Much appreciated." He rubbed what looked like a faint scar above his left eyebrow.

"What happened there?" Steve asked, curious about his companion.

"Oh, that. That's an old scar. Itches every now and then. Drew, my youngest boy, he went through a baseball thing when he was a boy, so I tried to be there for his games," Mike explained. "During one game, he hit a home run. It would have been beautiful, too, except it went thataway instead of that way." Mike clicked his tongue. "Don't know which hurt more; the four stitches I got, or the nut shot I got a game later, when I tried to catch a fly ball that bounced." He glanced at Steve, who was trying valiantly not to laugh. "Go ahead and laugh. Got knows Susie did when she heard."

"I'm sorry," Steve said, giving in to the laughter while trying to steer straight.

A short while later, coffee in hand, they pulled up to Headquarters. Mike reached into his carry-on and dug out his badge.

"Don't know how well it'll work here, but it's worth a try," he said, clipping it to his belt, opposite his cellphone holder.

They headed in and were heading up the stairs but were stopped when they heard a commotion. It was Duke and two others trying to wrangle a local with tattoos up and down his arms, back, and neck. Steve watched as Mike tilted his head, watching.

Then the man broke free with a strangled yell. He didn't get very far.

"Millie was right; you guys do do things differently in Hawaii," Mike said, rubbing his knuckles.

"That was stupid, Busta," Duke said, joining them, glaring at the groaning man on the floor, who was holding his face.

"Busta, huh?" Mike asked, watching as the officers hauled him up. "How about you start calling yourself Busta Nose, because that's what you've got now."

Duke and Steve chuckled.

"No thanks to you, man," Busta snarled.

"Well, if you hadn't gone and Busta move, I wouldn't have Busta your nose," Mike shot back, grinning.

"I hate you," Busta said as he was led away.

"Thanks for the assist," Duke said.

"Duke, this is Detective Sergeant Mike Phelps, Millie's dad," Steve said. "Mike, Sergeant Duke Lukela."

"Good to meet you, sir," Duke said, shaking Mike's offered hand.

"Likewise. Millie's spoken highly of you and I appreciate the way you guys went after Moore," Mike said.

"Oh that was fun, trust me," Duke said. "I think I saw her heading upstairs a few minutes ago."

Steve scowled. "She's supposed to be on a doctor-ordered vacation."

"This is Radar we're talking about," Duke pointed out.

"Good point," Steve said, heading up the stairs.

They found Millie over by the computer table, talking with the rest of the team. Steve's eyebrows went up. Gone were the slacks and shirt she had been wearing earlier. Now she wore a long-sleeve white cropped fishnet shirt over a neon green triangle bikini top, denim cut-off shorts, denim slip-on shoes, no socks, and sunglasses were on her head.

Mike just smiled and shook his head. "You're supposed to be on vacation, Babs," he chided gently.

Her eyes went wide, and then she was running towards him. He met her halfway and hugged her as tightly as she was hugging him, lifting her up off her feet.

"I will be," she said, her voice muffled by his shirt. "As soon as I take care of a few things here."

"Yeah? Then what?" he asked, pressing a kiss to her temple.

"Maybe work on my garden, keep myself distracted enough," she said. "Ellie needs me to come in later this week, because of Moore, and I need to deal with IA, somehow. How much do you know?"

"Steve told me everything. What about that cat of yours, Lunkhead?" Mike asked, leading her back to the rest of the team, keeping his arm around her shoulders.

"I took Steve's advice and had Doctor Young forward Drew everything he could. He said it was worth the risk, and I told them to go ahead with it. They kept him overnight and I should be picking taking him home today," Millie said. "Along with a month's worth of fresh fish."

"Good. I can't wait to meet that walking bio-hazard of yours," Mike said, grinning.

"Drew still holds a grudge, doesn't he?" Millie groaned.

"Your brother doesn't forgive and he doesn't forget; you know that."

"Eyup. Guys, this is my dad, Detective Sergeant Mike Phelps, Portland PD, Robbery Division. Dad, meet Danny, Chin, Lou, and Kono. Steve, can I talk to you for a moment, please?"

"Don't hurt him too much, Babs; he did the right thing by calling me," Mike said, pressing a kiss to her head before letting her go to shake Danny's hand.

"It's good to meet you, sir," Danny said.

"Mike wants to see Don Moore's file and the case file on what happened," Steve said.

"Easy to do," Danny said. "This way, sir."

Steve and Millie went over to one side and she hugged him tightly.

"I figured you were up to something. Thank you," she said, savouring the feel of his arms around her and the comforting thump of his heart under her ear.

"You're more than welcome, sweetie. You take care of yourself and Lunkey. We'll take care of IA and Moore."

"What about Donna? If that bastard goes after her on the stand, it'll be like an attacker going after his rape victim again, and she doesn't deserve that."

"We have some ideas about how to handle that," he said. "We'll be there, one way or another." He leaned his forehead against hers. "I love you, you know?"

She smiled. "I love you too, and right now I'm holding on to that."

"You do that. Promise me something?"

"I'll try."

"Take care of yourself. Your dad is going to be here for a week. Have some fun, and don't worry about us, okay?"

"No promises on the not worrying about you guys, but I do promise to try and have some fun," she said. "Expect to hear from me regularly."

"Not too regularly, okay?"

"Okay. Once a day?"

"That'll do." And he kissed her. "Now, take your dad and go have some fun. I'll catch you later."

She smiled.

When Millie and Steve rejoined the team and Mike at the table, it was in time to see her cellphone ringing; it was Doctor Young's office.

"Millie Thompson," Millie said, answering the call.

"Good morning, Millie. This is Debbie, from Doctor Young's office. I'm calling regards to your cat, Lunkhead," a pleasant voice said.

"I was just on my way to visit," Millie said. "How is he?"

"He is doing just fine. I'm just calling to let you know that Doctor Young has checked on him again this morning and the surgery sight appears to be healing well. She is not seeing any more signs of that tumor and says by all means, take him home today."

Millie breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you so much. I'll be there in about an hour or two."

"You're very welcome. See you in a bit," Debbie said, ending the call.

"I need to grab a few things from my office, then we'll go," she said, smiling at her father.

"Sounds good," Mike said.

While she did that, Mike spoke up. "I need a favour," he said.

"Okay," Steve said.

"You guys have resources I don't. Would it be possible to run a genetic test between me and Millie?" Mike asked.

"Do you think Millie's your daughter?" Kono asked.

"Niece," Mike said. "I had an older brother, Keegan, who was also a cop. He died when Millie would have been about two. There were things he said, things I've seen, heard. Can you do this? It's a long story, one I'll tell you over a beer later, I promise, but I don't want to say anything to Millie until I'm sure."

Steve nodded. "Sure. We'll give you a cover story, and then let Charlie Fong know. It won't be a problem."

"Thanks guys. I appreciate this," Mike said, just as Millie rejoined them, her purse over one shoulder. Then he scratched his lip as an idea came to him. "You know, this whole business with Donna and Moore and all that, I might have an idea. From what I've read, Moore is a bully. He thinks he's a tough guy who can intimidate his victims. Now, I worked the gang unit for a number of years, and a while back, a biker gang called the BACA caught the news."

"Right, right, I remember them," Millie said. "Bikers Against Child Abuse. They were actual bikers who were trained by mental health professionals, and had extensive background checks done."

"I remember hearing about that," Danny said. "They would help protect children who were victims of all kinds of abuse, by either being there in court for them, or just hanging around."

"What I remember the most is one judge asked this kid if he was scared. The kid said no. Why? Because his friends were scarier than his perpetrator," Mike said. "Now, I don't know if the BACA has a chapter here, but I don't think it would be too hard to make it look like that."

"Wait a minute," Chin said, an idea coming to him. "Wasn't there that biker gang who helped us look for Ella Bishop a few years back?"

"There was, yeah," Steve said, seeing where Chin was getting at. "Tip Gilbert and his guys. I think I still have their number around. First chance we get, we'll give them a call and ask for a favor. Now you, I'll help you get your dad's luggage, then you get out of here, okay? I don't want to see you around here for the rest of the week, unless you absolutely have to," he said to Millie.

"Yes sir," she said, smiling tiredly.