I do NOT own anything, but the plot.

Thank you for reading and reviewing!

There's a lot of angst coming!

Nalo a loaʻa

-loosely translate to "lost and found"-

CHAPTER SEVEN

Steve had lived a lot of hells in his life, but none so killer as this.

He felt like he was unravelling. Piece by piece, his harden shell was dropping to the ground and he wasn't strong enough to keep it in place. Hell Week had taught him resilience, being a SEAL had taught him survival, but there were parts of his mental health that no training could prepare him to survive breaking.

Seeing Kamekona's shrimp truck in the distance, Steve hadn't realised how far he had walked, but he decided to use the moment to rip another band aid off and headed over. Coming to join the queue, he knew he needed to eat something before he decided his next moves.

"Whoa, Flippa, we serve ghosts now!" Kamekona said rounding the truck to stand beside McGarrett. "Howzit, bruddah?"

"Been better," Steve batted back, rubbing his jaw. "Just needed a spot of lunch."

With a cocked brown, Kamekona knew something wasn't right, but banged the side of the shrimp truck.

"Get da man his usual," he ordered his cousin, slapping a hand onto Steve's shoulder. "Spicy garlic shrimp ... jus' how you like it, Boss."

Peering over Steve's shoulder, the large Hawaiian searched the makeshift parking lot. He frowned when he didn't see what he was looking for.

"Hey, where's da little haole's car you always steal?"

Stupidly, Steve glanced at the grassy carpark a few feet away knowing full well he didn't drive. After Grace left in the state she did, Steve couldn't bring himself to drive, so he just walked, and he didn't stop until he realised how far he'd made it.

"Eh, he needs it more," Steve lied, trying to cover up the fact he had no right to shotgun Danny's driving privileges.

"You ridin' solo?"

"Something like that, yeah." Steve stepped out of the queue, allowing someone else to put an order in as he waited. "Look, I know this is a shock..."

"I mean I heard it on da coconut-line but wanted to see if da man 'imself would show up…" Kamekona matched that comment with a raised brow. "Pretty happy da rumours were true …

Least someone is, Steve thought.

"Go sit, I'll get Flippa to bring over your food, Brah. I see a little wahine checkin' me out."

Glancing in the direction Kamekona was, Steve noticed two women in bikinis most definitely not looking at Kamekona, but he allowed it. Deciding to go and claim a bench and really think about his next moves, Steve left Kamekona to his usual tricks; there was a lot to deliberate, and he hated he had to do it alone. Usually, while he would think things through alone, Danny would always come along and interrupt, pull him out of himself, force him to talk.

"Steve McGarrett!"

He barely had time to protect himself as a swarm of news reporters descended like vultures, each vying for flesh just so they had a story to sell. The governor had warned him people wanted an official statement following the vast news coverage after his death, but Steve thought he could avoid it.

"McGarrett! How long were you planning to play dead?"

"How come you were able to come home?"

"What were the circumstances around you being able to come home?"

"How many people were involved in this case if you had to go to such drastic measures?"

Sensing Steve's unusual behaviour, Kamekona used his sheer size to push through the crowd to McGarrett. Never in the six years of knowing McGarrett had he ever seen him look bewildered. Usually the SEAL was stony faced, frown hardening, and able to handle any and all public talking he had to.

"Let da big guy breathe!" he shouted out, fanning people away. "C'mon, Brah, let's go." Kamekona did a pretty good job to get Steve away from the throngs of people. "I'll drive," Kamekona says, moving the masses and protecting Steve. "Where you wanna go?"

"Home," Steve says bitterly, advancing for Kamekona's truck. He didn't even look in the big guy's direction. "Nowhere else to go anymore."

When Steve was sure he and Kamekona were far enough away from the shrimp trump, he allowed his shoulders to drop.

"Some first outing that turned out to be," Steve murmured as he sunk into his seat. "But thanks, Man, I owe you."

"Yeah, you do. I've got a new menu coming together. You'll 'ave to be mah tester, Bruddah."

Forcing a smile, Steve looked at Kamekona. "As long as it doesn't contain spam or other questionable inventions."

Kamekona screwed his face up in disgust at Steve's unwilling nature. "You wound me, Brah," he stated, patting his chest as if to feign pain. "Or I can show you da new heights in da helicopter... at a discounted rate seeing as you raised from da dead and all. We can make a detour."

"Thanks, Kamekona, but really, right now, I just want to go home."

"Fine, Brah, but you could help with publicity on da beach front."

"I don't think that would work in your favour," Steve joked, huffing out a nonchalant laugh.

Kamekona didn't say a word to dissuade him, he just continued in the direction of Steve's home. He didn't even say anything when he pulled up to Steve's house and the commander got out with a quiet thanks and headed to the front door.

"Hey, you didn't tell me da big Kahuna was back from da dead." Kamekona stomped his way over to the group. "Bruddah, I thought I was practically five-oh."

"Brah, we are Five-0 and we only just found out," Chin jested, trying to make light of the situation. "When was he here?"

"'Bout an hour ago. Told 'im, I could use 'im for publicity when I left 'im," Kamekona commented, and the team knew he was being serious. "You lot are returning customers after all and celebs to dis beach front establishment."

Danny felt uneasy, rubbing the back of his neck, his gut told him something was off about all of this.

"So, what happened? Where is he now?"

"'e was flocked by da paparazzi, so I got 'im home."

"Huh," Danny started, "Surprised he didn't use his ninja skills. Usually, he doesn't need backup to get out of sticky situations."

"Danny," Chin scolded from across the bench. "What do you mean he got flocked?"

"Guess everyone wants a snap of da dead leader of Five-oh. Caught me by surprise."

"Caught us all by surprise," Kono muttered, wryly.

"From what 'e said, it was 'is first outing since being home. Da big guy couldn't wait to get away." Kamekona frowned, rubbing his jaw. "Never seen 'im like dat."

"Like what?"

"Shocked, Brah!" Kamekona announced loudly. "Da big guy didn't know what to do … man froze. McGarrett men don't freeze."

"Sure, you weren't serving spam his way again?" Danny chided, cocking a brow. "We know how cagey he gets when you start dishing that, big guy."

"Spam is a perfect delicacy to da most civilised of men," Kamekona proudly stated.

"Civilised of men?" Danny asked, chortling. "So, after he froze, what happened?"

"I got 'im out of dere, took 'im straight home." Kamekona shrugged. "Said 'e had nowhere else to go."

Danny knew, against his better judgement, he needed to step up and find out what was going on with Steve. No one had known where he went to after he had spoken to Grace, only that he had left the office shortly after Danny had. If there was one thing Danny hoped for, it was that Steve never heard what Grace had to say. He knew he wouldn't recover from it himself, but right now, he would hazard that it would be the thing that pushed Steve over the edge.

"Er, I'll go check on him."

"Maybe you can take 'is order wit' you… Brah looks like 'e needs a good meal."

Danny nodded. "Make it two and I'll make sure he eats it when I eat mine."

Five minutes later, Danny was laden with food and preparing to head to his car knowing this day was going to be a long one.

"Hey Danny!" Chin called out as the detective started to get up. "Go easy on him, Brah."

Chin, having watched Steve in the moments they had seen him, knew that something was amiss. Chin Ho Kelly had worked alongside John McGarrett for long enough to know Steve almost as well as he knew himself. In some ways, Steve was just like his father, but in a lot of other ways, Steve was softer, kinder and a lot more Ohana orientated than John had ever been. It was one of the reasons why Chin took Steve's return so hard because just like the SEALs training, Chin thought Steve would never leave a man behind.

Steve had left an entire army in his wake.

"I'll see you later," Danny replied, mentally preparing himself.

He felt like he was walking through quicksand, but he knew this had to be done.

Regardless of what had happened, something wasn't adding up.