Okay, so here's the deal…

Ever since the pilot episode, I have had this nagging little idea in the back of my brain…What if Hesse didn't really kill Jack McGarrett? I mean, we didn't see him die. We didn't see the shot. Steve didn't see him die, he only heard the shot. I always thought the big twist in the series was going to be that Jack wasn't really dead. Since it doesn't look like it's going to play out that way, I've decided to write it myself!

I think I confused some people by talking about Tom Selleck a couple of chapters back and I'd like to clear things up. A loyal reader asked what actor I had in mind while writing Harper and I wrote back in one of my author's notes that I didn't really have an actor in mind for Harper but when I was writing her father, Mickey James, I was clearly picturing Tom Selleck. That is why I said that it was a meeting of Tom Selleck and Alex O'Loughlin. Despite my love for Blue Bloods, I was not actually relating Harper to the Reagan family. The family I have created for her, the James', includes her father Mickey and four brothers…Frankie, Vinnie, Tommy, and Bobby. So far, we've only met Frankie and I'm not sure if we are going to meet the rest of them because I don't want to add too many new characters to the mix. I hope that clears things up.

Also, I played with the McGarrett backstory, too. I know in the show that Steve and his father and sister were estranged since their mother's death but I decided to change that. Hey, if I can give him an ex-wife and bring his father back from the dead, I figured I could take a little more creative license, too! In this story, the McGarrett family have been in contact since the mother's death and were at Steve and Harper's wedding. Plus, I couldn't find a name for Steve's mother so I gave her one of my own.

I'm sorry that it took so long to get this chapter up. It's been written for a few days, but I was having trouble uploading it. Damn computers...

Chapter 19 – Jack

"Do not stand at my grave and weep, I am not there, I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glint on snow. I am the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn rain. When you wake in the morning hush, I am the swift, uplifting rush of quiet birds in circling flight. I am the soft starlight at night. Do not stand at my grave and weep. I am not there, I do not sleep. Do not stand at my grave and cry. I am not there, I did not die!"

~ Mary Elizabeth Frye

Somewhere in Hawaii…

"It's me, Harper," the voice informed her, "It's Jack McGarrett."

"Jack?" Harper whispered into the darkness and after letting the name roll around inside her addled brain for a few moments, she said it out loud, "Jack McGarrett?"

"That's the one," came the reply.

"You're dead," she answered bluntly because it seemed to be the only thought that was cognizant in her brain.

The older man chuckled and admitted, "Well some days it feels that way, but trust me when I tell you that I'm not."

Something was wrong. Very, very wrong, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Her cop brain was somehow managing to override the drugs and the beating and it was now working in maximum overdrive as she asked accusingly, "Who are you?"

"John McGarrett, Vietnam War vet and detective with the Honolulu PD," John told her seriously, knowing exactly how her mind worked, "Husband of Anna, father of Steven and Mary Ann…"

"No, no, this is not happening," Harper interrupted, shaking her head in denial, "I've been drugged…I'm hallucinating."

"I can see how you could draw that conclusion…"

"I've been beaten," she interrupted again as if not letting him speak would make it all untrue, "My brain got jostled and it's playing tricks on me…"

"Are you okay?"

The concern in his voice was jarring so it took her a minute to say, "I'll live. I stabbed him with a broken water glass…"

"Good girl."

"But then he broke my wrist," she deadpanned, gingerly touching her wrist and then reaching up to touch her face as she added, "And then the son of a bitch kicked the shit out of me."

"You took it like a champ."

"It's practically my middle name…Harper 'Take it Like a Champ' James," the redheaded detective bit out and then getting the conversation back on track, she said, "Steve thinks you're dead. He told me you were dead. Everyone thinks you're dead."

"I know," Jack said and Harper thought she heard a twinge of sadness in his voice as he continued, "That's what he's been told…"

"He heard it happen!"

"No, he didn't," the senior detective argued, "He heard a gunshot."

"Jack McGarrett is dead," Harper repeated, as if she was trying to convince both of them that it was the truth, "He was killed by a terrorist named Victor Hesse."

"Who works for our friend, Wo Fat," he reminded her slowly. And when she was quiet for a few moments, he knew that she was ready to believe so he said again, "It's me, Harper. It's Jack."

"Prove it."

In the darkness, Jack McGarrett smiled to himself. He could imagine having the same conversation with either of his own children and he suddenly remembered why he had instantly loved this woman who had captured his son's heart.

"I remember your wedding day," Jack began, loud enough for her to hear, "I was there. It was on the beach in Mexico. Just you and Steve, the priest, a handful of friends, Mary and me. You wore a simple white dress, no shoes, and had an orchid in your hair. It was the reddest hair I had ever seen…"

"There were pictures," Harper interrupted quickly, wishing that he had chosen any other memory than her wedding to Steve, "Anyone could know those details."

"You took his breath away," he continued, undeterred by her interruption, "I remember the look on his face. A parent doesn't ever forget that look of pure happiness when they see it on their child's face. He called you "his Jimmy"…"

"Wo Fat called me Jimmy," she interrupted again, "He knew Steve's nickname for me. He could have told you…"

This time it was Jack's turn to interrupt as he said smoothly, "You didn't think that anyone from your family was going to show up. So there wasn't anyone walk you down the aisle…or the beach, as it was. You said it was because it was so last minute and no one could get away from Chicago, but I could see in your eyes that they wouldn't have come even if they had a year's notice. They didn't approve. So I offered to walk you down the aisle and you hugged me so tight that I could barely breathe."

Harper's breath caught in her throat as his words transported her back to that emotional day in their history. As if on cue, tears filled her eyes as he went on, "And when I came to your hotel room that morning, you were crying. It was supposed to be the happiest day of your life and you looked so sad. You were all alone in that room and that wasn't how you ever believed your wedding day would be. You were marrying the man of your dreams on one of the most beautiful beaches in the world and no one was there to celebrate with you. Your mom was gone, your father disapproved of Steve, and your brothers would never go against your father's wishes…they had left you were all alone on your wedding day. So I asked you if you had any doubts and you wiped the tears away, smiled up at me, and said, 'Not about Steve. He's the only man in my life who didn't let me down today.'" Jack smiled at the memory and told her truthfully, "At that moment, I knew you were a keeper. And then in something like a scene from a movie, there was a knock at the door…"

"Vinnie," Harper breathed, her voice barely a whisper, as she wiped away the eyes that had fallen down her cheeks at the memory.

"It was your brother, Vincent, and his wife," Jack continued, not hearing her say her brother's name, "He couldn't let his baby sister get married without anyone to give her away or someone to stand up for her. And he gave you a locket that had been your mother's…the one she wore on her wedding day."

Harper reached up and fingered the locket she still wore around her neck. She had no idea where the rest of her clothes were, but for some reason her captors had allowed her to keep the heart shaped locket that contained a picture of her mother on her wedding day.

"And then as you walked out to the beach, he had another gift for you," Jack went on, as much for himself as for her. It had been so long since he had conjured up these beautiful memories. "The rest of your brothers were waiting there…Frankie, Tommy, and Bobby. They had all made the trip despite your father's wishes. When you saw them, the smile on your face got even wider than before and you were the most beautiful bride I had ever seen. It was a perfect day."

Harper slid down against the large, heavy door until she connected with the floor and pulled her knees up under her chin. The only thing she could think to say to him was, "Vinnie's gone. He was killed in an undercover operation."

"I know," the elder McGarrett told her, "Steve told me."

"God, I don't know what to believe anymore," she moaned, shoving both of her hands through her messy hair, "This has been one hell of a week. One minute I'm on an undercover operation trying to find the punk who killed my partner and the next minute I'm face to face with my ex-husband who left me to go to Virginia. Only now I find out that my father forced him to leave me and before I could figure out how I feel about that, I was attacked by two big goons in my hotel room and thrown into a dungeon. I knew that my life was never going to be dull, but this is a little ridiculous…"

"Steve is in Hawaii?" Jack asked in surprise.

Remembering that the man had been trapped in this prison for the better part of a year, Harper explained, "He left Naval Intelligence to head up a task force called Hawaii Five-0…"

"Five-0?" he interrupted again, a grin coming to his face, "When he and Mary were kids, I used to call us the Five-Oers because Hawaii is the 50th U.S. state. I can't believe he remembered that."

"He came to Hawaii to solve your murder," she informed him, understanding all too well the complicated relationships that existed between fathers and sons, and then added, "And your wife's."

"So, he found my clues. Good boy," Jack said with fatherly pride, and then asked, "What does he know about it so far?"

The sparks of a normal conversation, relatively normal under the circumstances, seemed to be enough to ignite all of Harper's senses as she told him, "He knows that it wasn't a drunk driver or a car accident…"

"It was a bomb," he corrected her angrily.

"He knows she was murdered by a high ranking Yakuza who was gunning for you," Harper continued, spitting out all of the information Steve and the team had shared with her, "He knows that you got too close to finding out the truth and that's why you were…murdered. And he knows that you sent him and Mary Ann away for their protection." Unable to put all of the pieces together in her head, she asked, "What the hell is going on, Jack? No offense, but why hasn't he killed you?"

"It's a game," the detective informed her, "He's playing with us…me, Steve, and now you."

"Well, I don't want to play anymore."

"I wish it were that simple, sweetheart," Jack told her and she could practically feel the smile spread across his lips through their cell doors. It was a surreal experience.

"He knew things about me…personal things," Harper told him, "About me and Steve. How does he know those things? Did you tell him…?"

"Don't even finish that question, Harper Elizabeth," her former father in law scolded and then added, "He must have someone on the inside."

"No way, Steve is too smart for that," Harper shook her head even though she knew he couldn't see her and reminded him, "He chose his team carefully. He trusts them."

"Then he planted a bug somewhere in the office…"

"…and everything they do there is compromised," she finished for him because the minds of cops work the same way. "Wo Fat will always be one step ahead of them. Where are we?"

" I don't know," Jack admitted and then continued, "but this is a manmade structure. There are more rooms…downstairs somewhere. He had me in one of them first, before he moved me here. He hides behind the walls. He and his two thugs watch all the time. I don't think he ever sleeps."

"What does he want from us, Jack?" Harper asked, knowing that there wasn't going to be a good answer to her question, "Why did he kill my partner? Why would he keep you alive but let Steve think you were dead…it seems that it would torture your son more if he knew that you were alive but couldn't save you."

"There's lots about this that I don't understand..." the older man said, his voice now hoarse from emotion…relief, joy, guilt, fear. "Probably lots that we will never understand. But this is all about my son and my wife's murder. I don't know how your partner fits in or why Wo Fat felt the need to bring you here. I think we just have to let this play out…"

"I'm not that good at letting things play out," his former daughter in law reminded him, "Because if this is a trap to lure Steve here, he and the team will be walking into an ambush."

"I think my son can take care of himself."

"I know he can," Harper agreed, leaning her head back against the door and closing her eyes, "but it's what is going to happen in the meantime that has me worried."