A/N: Hey I just need you guys to know that we're nearing the length of a full-sized novel. What started out as a note eventually became the last chapter of this, and it's currently about 7,000 words shy of being the same length as The Notebook. It's sitting at 123 pages in a Google Doc.
7x19 Puka 'ana
"You invited her to your house?" Danny sounded incredulous and was very loud, even over the phone.
"For coffee, Danny. I just wanna check up on her and on Adam," Steve defended himself. He couldn't almost see Danny pinching the bridge of his nose.
"You an idiot, Steven," he said.
"Thanks, man," Steve said dryly, standing in his living room and wondering if he should clean before she got there.
"I know what you're doing. Don't think I don't. And if I see it, then she almost certainly does too," Danny warned him.
"I'm not doing anything, Danny," Steve said. He remembered how messy Kono's house was and figured he probably didn't need to clean anything. She'd barely notice, not that his house actually needed to be cleaned.
"You bribed Flippa into playing a slow song so that you could dance with her," Danny reminded him.
"So, about that," Steve said. He knew he should've never told his partner that. "I may have overheard your conversation with her on the plane to Mexico," he confessed. There was a pause, and Steve wondered for a second if Danny had dropped his phone.
"You are so stupid. I can't believe you. So you do think you're going to win her back! And you think that because you heard her confess that she still loves you. Did you miss the part where she said you couldn't be together?" Danny asked finally. Steve had never heard him talk so fast.
"I didn't miss it. I just figured that if I can get her to realize that she loves me more than what's holding her back, we can be together," Steve explained. It was very rational really.
"I think you're severely underestimating how strong Kono's will is," Danny informed him.
"Guess we're about to find out because she's here. Bye, Danny," Steve said. He had heard a knock on his front door.
"Steven, don't do anything stupid! I-" Danny started, but Steve hung up on him. He opened the door to find Kono standing there, looking very nervous. He smiled and opened the door wider.
"Hey, come on in," he said, turning toward the kitchen. He heard her close the door behind her. He got himself a cup of coffee and one for her too. "Make yourself at home," he called to her from the kitchen. She moved to the table.
"So I got a call from the director of the Phoenix Foundation. She told me that you guys did a hell of a job," Steve told her, handing her a cup of coffee, just the way she liked it. She accepted it with a genuine smile.
"Ah, well, it was a team effort," Kono told him.
"Oh, yeah?" Steve asked. Kono was grinning, and he wondered where this was going. He had talked to the director earlier, before Danny had called. She had told him that there were a few of her people at the site of the earthquake too, including an old friend of his.
"Mmm-hmm," Kono said, "You know your friend Jack - he's a lot like you, huh?" She had been very amused by the ex-Delta Force operator. He reminded her a lot of Steve.
"I don't know if that's a compliment," Steve told her, and she laughed.
"I'll just leave it at that," Kono told him, unwilling to tell him what Jack had actually told her to tell Steve, which was that he was a "wimpy little water baby."
"Okay," Steve accepted, sure he was missing something. He'd have to ask Jack if he had a chance.
"So I know you didn't invite me over to pat me on the back," she said, "So what's up?" She wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know. She had been half-convinced this was a trap so that he could get her into a private place to confess his feelings and kiss her and make her feel all sorts of things she had been pushing down.
"Oh, I just wanted to check on you. And see how Adam's doing," he said. He was testing the waters, of that she was sure. He wanted to know how much contact she'd had with Adam since he got out of prison.
"Oh, yeah, he's good. We get together once a week or so to hang out. He's a great friend," she said. That last part may have been a lie, because she was pretty sure that advice he'd given her about being friends with Steve had been terrible, terrible advice. He had absolutely been wrong when he told her it was possible to go back to the way things were. Things had gone back to the way they were right before they tried to date, when they were always doing things like jumping in front of bullets for the other person or giving them longing looks when they thought the other person wasn't looking.
"That's good," Steve said. He sipped his coffee, nonchalantly. She was watching him, trying to figure out his goal here. "Well, if he needs anything, just let me know," he told her. She nodded.
"Yeah, thanks," she said. She still wasn't sure why she was in his house. This could've easily been a phone conversation. His doorbell rang, interrupting her train of thought. She came to the doorway of the kitchen, watching as Sara sold Steve 13 boxes of cookies. She smiled, watching the way he interacted with the little girl. She wouldn't tell anyone she thought about this, but she longed to see the way Steve would be with his own kids. He was such a great uncle to Joannie, Grace and Charlie, and now Sara.
Her phone rang before her thoughts about having kids with Steve got too far. She was grateful for the distraction.
She was less grateful for the nature of the distraction. A kidnapped girl? Kono was already angry.
"I don't get it," Steve said, as they drove, "It doesn't make sense to me. Moani seems like a bright kid from a stable home.
"Yeah, yeah. But you know, 15, it's a rough age for a girl. I mean, you're awkward and insecure. You don't think you're smart enough, pretty enough or popular enough. And then, suddenly someone pays some attention to you. Sends you a nice message or some compliments. Suddenly you feel like somebody gets you. Like they care. Whoever this Jonah guy was, obviously understood that and used it to his advantage," Kono explained. Steve looked over at her, suddenly wondering what she was like as a teenager. She was already a pro-surfer, so he couldn't imagine she looked much different than she did now. He knew that she knew now that she had no need for insecurities. She was gorgeous. He mentally shook his head to bring his attention back to the task at hand.
Steve had seen Kono with kids dozens of times. But it got to him every single time. As he watched her talk to the girl soothingly, he wondered again what Kono would be like as a mother. She was so good with kids, so kind and gentle. He swallowed hard, pushing the thought away. Now was not the time.
He got out of his truck and was walking past Kono's car when he realized she was still in it. He knocked on the hood, but when she didn't budge, he opened the passenger door. She didn't look good; she was very focused on staring straight ahead, clenching her jaw. He recognized the signs of someone trying very hard to stay in control.
"Hey," he said, leaning in.
"Hey," she replied brusquely. Her tone made him uncomfortable. This was not the Kono he knew. Something was going on.
"You okay?" he asked.
"Yeah," she said, but he knew she was lying. He got into the car and closed the door. He looked her up and down, taking note of the bandaged hand. He sat and waited for her to speak.
"I talked to Kelsey," she said, "Think we might have a lead. She told me about one of her regulars. She's, uh she doesn't know his real name, but he's a high school teacher, coaches swim."
"You reach out to HPD?" he asked. He'd deal with the business first, but he still knew something else was going on.
"They're looking into all the high school swim coaches on the island; can't be more than a few dozen. They'll put together a photo array for Kelsey to look at. Then we'll track down the john and flip him for the pimp," she told him.
He picked up her hand and looked at it. He saw her flinch when he first touched it. He held her hand in his for a moment longer than necessary.
"You sure you're okay?" he asked.
"I know it's not a good thing for a cop to get angry, to get emotional. But I can't help it," she said. There were unshed tears in her eyes, and he could see them from where he sat. This new version of Kono was the dangerous version, not one who loved the adrenaline rush of violence, but a darker version that used it to punish those who hurt girls. He wondered what glass she'd broken to get the cuts on her hand.
"It's fine to get angry," he assured her. God knows he'd been angry on this job more times than he could count. "You wanna sit this one out?" he asked, already knowing her answer.
"No," she said, looking at him sharply.
"Good," he said, nodding and maintaining eye contact. He wanted nothing more than to hurt every single sex trafficker in this world with his bare hands because of the way it made Kono feel.
Steve couldn't remember a single time where he had ever seen her this angry. When she punched the john, Cardiff in the gut, he could almost hear Danny's nagging voice in his head, insisting he stop her. But he didn't. She needed backup, not her boss. And she was very clearly in control. The punch had been enough to bring him down and knock his breath out, but he was fine. It was a calculated hit that she had made. As she yelled in Cardiff's face, he briefly pitied the man. He had never seen her like this before. It was terrifying, and if he was completely honest, kind of hot. This righteous anger that she carried inside of her burned like a fire. When she looked Steve in the eye, he could see the fury in her eyes that she was containing. Later, when she interrogated Tori, he let her take the lead. She did well, getting information out of her. He really couldn't have done it better himself. He made a note to not tell Danny how much she had learned from him over the years.
When he walked up on her hitting Emilio, he took note of her service weapon tossed on the ground, the magazine next to it. He had let her have Emilio, knowing she needed to do this on her own. She stood up as he approached. As she walked past him, he noted the controlled fury was still in her eyes, but this time it had an edge to it, that made him wonder how much self-control it had taken to not kill him.
"He had a knife," she told him as she passed. He watched her go, wishing he had been there to see what had just happened. When she kicked somebody's ass it was usually beautiful and graceful.
He showed up at her house that night. When she opened the door, he could see the sweat on her face. Her right hand had been wrapped again after the stitches she had gotten at the hospital. He had got the report earlier from Duke. She had broken a guy's car window and tossed his car keys away because he honked at her when she didn't move at a green light. The guy had filed a police report and had taken note of the badge on her hip and her license plate number. Fortunately, he had agreed to let the police handle discipline internally. Steve had thanked Duke and promptly put the file in his desk to ignore. He had no plans to discipline her. She had been through enough today.
She let him into her house silently and went back to the punching bag. He closed the door behind him. She was using her left hand since her right had been injured, but he could still see the muscles in her arms straining. He bit his bottom lip, watching her for a second before he went to hold the bag for her. They didn't talk as he stood there, letting her hit the bag again and again. He would never admit that she nearly knocked him down a couple times with how hard she hit the bag. After a while, her hits got weaker and weaker, and he realized there were tears streaming down her face. He let go of the bag and after a moment's hesitation, wrapped her in his arms. She let him, her hot tears and sweat making his t-shirt wet quickly. He didn't mind. He guided her to the couch and let her cry on him, knowing she needed to let everything out. He wanted to be here for her, whether he was just her boss, a friend, or something more. He needed to be here for her.
When Chin showed up at Kono's house in the morning to pick her up for work, he took note of Steve's truck in the driveway. He quietly let himself in with his key. The door opened to reveal them asleep on the couch. Steve had his arm around her, his head back, and his mouth open. She was curled into his side, under his arm, with her hand resting on his chest. Chin just smiled knowingly and closed the door quietly behind him. Steve would take care of her. That had always been Chin's job, but he was more than willing to pass that role over to one man only, the man who would always protect her and always love her - Steve McGarrett.