Total clearance

The clock on Grace's dashboard blinked 11:06 as she pulled into her driveway. She parked her car and got out, walking to the trunk to get her groceries before locking it. The sun was burning and the birds were singing, another day in paradise, she thought to herself. She walked to the front door and unlocked it.

Stepping into the cool air of her living room she could sense something was wrong. She didn't know what it was, but something was out of place. She closed the door with her foot and put her groceries down on the floor. If there was someone in her house she knew calling out for them wouldn't help. Having been in the same position several times before, her next move was pure reflex.

Her awareness of her surroundings kicked into full gear and she reached for the gun she kept in a drawer in the hallway and cleared every room one by one. When she reached the guest bathroom she could see that the light was on through the crack under the door. She couldn't hear anything through the door and slowly pushed it open. Lying on the floor surrounded by blood was Steve. He was unconscious and in a police uniform she knew didn't belong to him. "Great," she muttered to herself and put her gun down by the sink. Grace knew what she had to do, the same thing she had done one too many times before to her friends and family.

The sound of a fan woke Steve up, and as his eyes fluttered open he could see the blades propelling in front of his eyes. "Steve," he heard a familiar voice say. "Steve, come on wake up," the voice said again and snapped their fingers in front of his face. He blinked a few more times before looking around and stopping when he saw her face. He remembered it all now. Victor Hesse stabbing him, knocking out the EMT and the guard in the ambulance, running into the cop at the gas station and driving to her house. Knowing it was the only place no one would look for him and that she would take care of his wound.

As he looked at her Grace let out a breath of relief and gave him a small smile. Steve had forgotten how beautiful she looked when she smiled, it had been one of the few things keeping him going when he was in prison.

He returned the gesture before looking down at the bandage wrapped around his lower torso. "I better not be getting a big scar," he said touching the bandage. Grace scoffed at his remark and slapped his hand away. "Nice to see you haven't forgotten how to say thank you," she answered with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. Steve looked up and into her eyes.

"Thank you", he said. She gave him another warm smile and pushed a strand of hair out of her face, "anytime", she answered.

They both just looked at each other, until Steve finally opened his mouth. "I'm sorry I broke into your house; I didn't really have anywhere else to go." Grace nodded slightly and cleared her throat. "You don't have to apologize. Besides I kind of miss practising medicine on someone who's still alive. I would although like to know how you got hurt. Guessing by the wound it was a crudely sharpened piece of unsterilized metal, so considering you were in prison I'd say it was a shank."

Glad she took so lightly to the fact that he obviously hadn't just been released from prison, he couldn't help but let out a half-hearted chuckle. "Yeah, this guy, Victor Hesse, stabbed me when we were alone in the yard." He explained, gaining a nod from Grace. She knew who Victor Hesse was, Steve had told her about him and his brother and their involvement in his father's murder.

"So I'm guessing someone didn't give you the uniform you were wearing out of the goodness of their heart." she asked already knowing the answer he would give her and not giving him a chance to answer. "You and Tommy are roughly the same size so I had him bring over some clothes for you", she said and put down a pair of dark blue denim jeans, a black t-shirt and a pair of combat boots in front of him. "Thank you" he said and got up into a sitting position and started getting dressed.

Grace got up to get Steve some water when someone knocked on the door, making Steve throw panicked look he way. "Who is it?" he asked. "It's alright Steve," she said walking over to the door. "Grace, don't answer the door", he said and grabbed the gun from the uniform lying on the table and pointed it at the door. Grace didn't listen to him and opened it giving whoever was on the other side a smile before letting them in.

When Steve saw it was Danny and Chin he put down the gun and let out a breath in relief. "What the hell is the matter with you, huh? What is the matter with you breaking out of jail, taking out a cop.? Have you lost your mind?" Danny asked him.

"Why are you yelling at me?" Steve asked him back. "I'm not yelling at you!" he countered back with his voice raised. "Have you lost your mind?" he asked Steve again.

"What choice did I have Danny?" Steve asked his partner. "What choice did you have? What does that even mean?" Danny repeated.

Grace was trying not to laugh at the scene folding out in front of her but found it really hard. She was glad Chin stepped between them before it got out of hand.

"You alright?" he asked Steve in a calm tone.

"Thank you for asking Chin," he said. "Yeah, I'm alright. Thanks to Grace." Steve explained. Chin turned to look at her and gave her a smile, "mahalo for calling." She gave a smile in return.

"Anybody follow you here?" Steve asked Chin and Danny. "Undercover unit tried to, but we managed to shake their tale." Chin told him, causing Steve to calm down a little. "Heard you stole a squad car, where'd you ditch it?" Chin then asked him. "A few blocks south, it's behind a construction site."

"I'll take it up to the North shore, distract the HPD." Chin said. "You are HPD, Chin. Remember." Steve said and Grace could sense the small hint of hurt in his voice. "Just because the badge says HPD, doesn't mean I'm not Five-0. You know that" Chin said. "You do what you have to do. Right now I want to find Wo Fat, you understand." Steve changed the subject.

"Kono is following one of his guys right now, as soon as we have eyes on him we'll be there." As Steve is about to answer Danny's phone starts to ring and he picks it up. "Hello," he says. "Who is it," Steve asks impatiently. "Yeah, he's right here I'll put you on speaker phone" Danny continued.

"Steve you okay, where are you?" Joe asked on the other side of the line. "Yes, Sir. Where are you?" "I found someone you need to talk to, 5423 Puuikenna Drive. I'll be waiting out front." He finished. "Alright, copy that. I'm on my way." Steve said before ending the call.

"Whoah," Danny said stopping Steve. "What do you mean you're on your way? You're not on your way anywhere, you are a fugitive, remember that?" he said clearly annoyed.

"You heard the man, he's got something." Steve said, not understanding why Danny was making such a big deal out of this. "Yeah, I heard him. We all heard him. He doesn't have anything, he's got an address, that's all. Unless Master Yoda can send telepathic messages that the rest of us cannot hear, -"

"Actually, Yoda technically didn't have any telepathic powers," Grace earning her a annoyed glance from Danny before he turned back to Steve

"Please, listen to me. Is there any way I can talk you out of this?" Danny asked Steve. "Has that ever worked before, Danny?" Steve asked him back, meaning for it to me a rhetorical question. "No," he replied.

"Ok, so let's go, yeah?" Steve said and headed for the door. "Wait, wait, wait-" Chin started, stopping Steve and Danny. "You can't take your car, HPD is gonna be on the lookout for it."

"You can take my car," Grace said holding out her car keys. "You sure?" Steve asked, not wanting to get her more mixed up in all of it, but knowing her well enough to know she probably wouldn't care. "Yeah," she said with a smile and handed him her keys and taking Danny's out of his hand. "I'll lead them in the opposite direction," she said as an answer to his questioning look.

Grace was sitting in the back room of Kamekona's shave ice business, waiting for Steve and Danny to show up. She'd done a lot of thinking ever since Steve got arrested. The second she'd heard all she wanted to do was make a phone call and get him out, but she knew if she did too many of her secrets would be revealed and that wasn't something she could risk. Not even for Steve.

"They're here," Kamekona said, sticking his head through the door before going back to sell shave ice and pretend like nothing was going on. Grace sat up straight in her seat as Steve, Danny, Chin and Joe walked into the room. "Anybody follow you here?" Steve asked her. She shook her head, "no, I drew them towards the north shore and shook them of."

"Good," Steve started before realising Grace and Joe hadn't met before. "Grace this is Joe White, my old CO. Joe this is Dr. Grace Ó Máille, she's the one that stitched me up." He introduced them to each other. "Nice to meet you," Grace said and stretched out her hand. "Likewise," Joe answered and shook her hand.

After discussing for a while, Chin, Danny and Joe decided to go back to the Governors residence and see if they could find camera that filmed the meeting between Steve's father, Wo Fat and Jameson. "I know some people who might be able to find proof that Wo Fat was in that office when Jameson was killed and that he's still here," Grace said, making everyone look at her with curiosity. "And what people would that be?" Danny asked. Realising she was digging a hole she wouldn't be able to just walk out of when this was over, she came to the conclusion that keeping Steve out of prison for good was worth the risk.

"People you can't look up in the yellow pages," she said before walking out of the room to make some calls and not giving Danny or anyone else to ask any more questions.

When she got back Steve was the only one left and she sat down in the chair next to him. "I asked around, but anything he did before the past 24 hours was done completely off the grid. There wasn't much to find, sorry." She explained feeling like she'd let him down in a way. "You don't have apologise, you tried. That really all anyone could ask for." He assured her with a smile.

"I know I already said this, but thank you again for stitching me up and all." Steve thanked her again, feeling like he owed her. "Like I said, it was nice to use my medical skills on an alive human being for a change. Besides I couldn't just let you out on my bathroom floor," she replied with in a mocking tone. Steve couldn't help but laugh a little at the whole situation. "Why'd you decide to become a medical examiner?" he asked what he'd been wondering since they'd met.

Grace considered what to answer before telling him the truth. Or at least parts of it. "Well mainly because you can't kill someone who's already dead. And also because the police's job is to bring the family closure and catch the killer, but as a medical examiner you do the most important part. You give the victim back their voice, you become their advocate when they're unable to speak for themselves. And I think there's something quite beautiful about that." Giving him the standard answer, she left out the most important part. The real reason.

Joe having come back earlier that Chin and Danny, had caught parts of Grace and Steve's conversation and thought to himself that he really liked her and to make sure to tell Steve that. Not wanting to sneak up on them, he opened the door and shut it again to make sure they heard him enter.

"We found the camera, Danny and Chin are going through the footage now." Joe said as he walked into the room. As Steve was about to answer he heard a big commotion from outside before the sound of someone speaking through a megaphone.

"McGarrett, we have the building surrounded, come out with your hands up!"

After Kamekona asking what he wanted to do and thinking it through for a minute he decided to go outside and surrender, leaving Joe and Grace looking out through the window at a detective approaching him as he got down on his knees to cuff him. As Steve was getting cuffed and hauled up to his feet, Danny and Chin pulled up and the same detective that cuffed Steve motioned for the two of them to be arrested to. Grace could see Steve trying to explain they had nothing to do with it, but suddenly another man walked up and after he exchanged a few words with the detective and the rest of the officers Steve was uncuffed and the cops backed off.

Confused as to what just happened, Grace walked outside with Joe and Kamekona at her heels. Apparently the man that had walked up was Lieutenant Governor Denning and he'd been shown the video of Wo Fat tasering Steve before killing Jameson. Relieved Steve wasn't hauled back to prison, as they were all standing around the computer on the table at the back of Kamekona's shave ice shop to watch the video, Grace grabbed Steve's hand and squeezed it.

"So who are these friends you've got that can't be found in the yellow pages?" Danny asked the question he'd been wondering about for hours. After Steve was completely cleared of all charges everyone had gone to the bar at the Hilton Hawaiian village to have drinks.

Curious to whether she would tell the actual truth or the modified one, Tommy gave her an amused look. "Yes, Grace. Who are these friends of yours?" he repeated Danny's question. Giving Tommy a glare before looking back at Danny, Grace took a deep breath and started to explain. "At the beginning of my career, I worked as a medic in the Royal Marines. Where I met a few people in high places within military intelligence etc. I might've also for a small period worked at the Ministry of Defence." She explained, only giving them the highlights and not the whole story.

Everyone extremely surprised by what they'd just been told, they all just sat and looked at her for a while before anyone said anything. "You worked at the Ministry of Defence, as what?" Kono asked, impressed by the new information about Grace. "I was the personal attaché for the Secretary of State for Defence. Wherever he went, I went." Grave answered, that part completely true.

"Wow," was all Danny managed to get out as the rest of the group just looked at her with amazement. Steve felt something move inside him when he learned she'd been a marine and worked for the Secretary of State for Defence. His admiration and awe of her just growing with every new thing he learned about her.

A/N: So here it is, another chapter.

I have no idea of the British Secretary of State for Defence has his own personal attache, but in this universe he does so...

Hope you enjoyed.

XOXO
Hannah