As they stood side by side, waiting for Adam to return and watching the remaining activity, Danny laid his hand on Chin's shoulder. "You sure you're all right? He said it was just a sedative, but..."
"No, really, I'm fine. They'll check the contents of the syringe but in the meantime, I just need to be working this. There's no way I could sit around in a hospital."
"Yeah, I think you've tried and failed at that before," Danny recalled.
Chin smiled and nodded. "Guess we are stubborn."
"Guess so."
The next several seconds were heavy with uncomfortable silence. Both men rubbed their aches, scratched their nonexistent itches, and fidgeted until they couldn't take it any longer. Danny beat Chin to it, "So, out with it. What the hell?"
"Okay, okay, I'll tell you everything. You deserve that much, but don't you want to wait for Adam. He's going to want to know, too. No sense repeating myself."
"Oh, the whole team is going to have to have an account of this, including Steve."
"What about you? How did you find me?"
"I followed you."
"You followed me? From where?"
"Your first arranged meeting spot, on Kalakaua."
"How did you know about that?"
Adam dejectedly came through the same door he had run out of a few minutes before. "We'll finish this with the others. No more secrets?" Danny whispered to Chin. Chin nodded.
"Nowhere. Not a sign of him," Adam said with a shrug.
Danny didn't verbalize an 'I told you so' thought. "We'll get HPD to run the protocol, bird in the air, canvas the area. Maybe we'll get something." He said it to encourage Adam… and Chin, but he didn't really believe they'd get anything himself. "What we do have is one of Gabriel's men waiting for us in rendition. I think that's our next step. Give 'em the once over."
Adam looked around the scene. "Where are the medics? You two should be making a trip to the hospital to get checked out."
Danny used the towel that had been given to him by 'Jules' and swiped at his nose. "Naa, see? Nothing there." The stream from his nose had in fact ceased.
"You missed a spot," Chin said as he pointed at his own right temple.
Danny folded the towel over again and touched it to the side of his head where Chin had indicated. When he pulled it away, sure enough, he was staring at a bright red streak on the stark white towel. He sheepishly smiled at Chin and put the towel back with some pressure to stop the flow.
"Chin? What about you?" Adam turned his attention to the other injured party.
"I'm with Danny. We sent them away. I'll be a hundred percent in no time. Just a little foggy. We need to get back and get information out of that guy."
"And? What else?" Adam was tenacious as he hinted at the obvious elephant in the room.
"…and we're all going to have a talk," Danny acquiesced. "The team deserves to know everything. No secrets."
Chin's head popped up and his eyes were wide at the mention of the team. "I forgot. I totally forgot." He rubbed his forehead as if that would help the fogginess go away. "Gabriel. He threatened the team. After I dismissed one of his warnings, he tried to provoke me by asking if I'd been in touch with you guys lately. Adam, when's the last time you've spoken with them?"
"Junior was going to visit Steve at the hospital. Tani and Kono were headed to HPD to register evidence. Lou and Jerry were both at HQ."
Danny already had his phone out dialing Steve. "Chin, try Kono. Adam, call Jerry and make sure he and Lou stay put." Danny's call to Steve went unanswered, so he immediately dialed Junior.
"Danny, I'm glad to hear from you, man. Steve's been going crazy wondering where you are."
"Where is he? I just tried to call him."
"They took him down for some tests. He argued like hell, but they won out."
"Okay, look, you need to stay right there for now. Don't leave Steve alone until you hear back from me."
"What's going on?"
"We've gotten a hint of a threat from Gabriel, but nothing concrete. Could be playing more of his games, but we just want to be sure. Are you good with hanging out there a little while?"
"Yes, of course. No problem."
"Have you heard from Tani lately?"
"No, she and Kono left out before I did. I haven't heard from them in a while. Should I call her?"
"Chin's trying Kono now, but it wouldn't hurt. If you reach her, let her know what's going on and tell her to stay with Kono and to keep her eyes peeled. Again, probably nothing, but we just want to be ready in case."
"Copy that."
When Danny got off the call with Junior, he looked to the others. Chin still had the phone to his ear and shook his head at Danny to answer his unspoken question. Adam gave a thumbs up about Lou and Jerry and turned his attention to Chin after getting the A-OK from Danny on Junior and Steve. Chin lowered his phone and pushed the button again. Again, there was no answer.
~~~~~H50~~~~~
"I shouldn't be long if you want to wait out here for me. Well, unless they're having a busy day, then it may be a while. Can't count on criminals to run nine to five," Tani joked. She and Kono had enjoyed a pleasant morning together, Tani introducing Kono to her favorite coffee joint and Kono letting Tani in on her juice bar secret.
They had been enthralled with each other's tales from their respective times with Five-0, some serious, but more humorous. They found the stories of the people they had each gotten to know on different planes of time to be very recognizable and it created a common ground on which to build their own friendship.
"I'll come with. It'll be good to see some old faces again."
When they got to the evidence room, the officer behind the counter asked for the jacket number of the case before he could accept the envelope for processing. "Dang it," Tani exclaimed as she felt the two back pockets of her jeans, finding them empty. "Kono, would you go out to the car and get my phone? I bet it's in the seat. Do you mind?"
"Sure. Be right back."
Tani stood in front of the counter tapping her fingers as she awkwardly waited. The young rookie manning the room leaned his elbow on the counter and smiled a bit too enthusiastically for Tani's liking. She checked out each corner of the ceiling, trying to avoid his attention. "So, how you doin'?" he self-assuredly asked.
With fleeting images of Joey Tribbiani and their very own Eric Russo coming to mind, Tani broke an insincere smile and added a, "fine".
"You're with Five-0, huh? Must be pretty exciting."
"I'm just going to run out and see what's keeping my friend." She held up an index finger. "'kay? Okay," she answered herself. "Be right back."
"Not going anywhere!" the young officer yelled out as she left.
When Tani got to the steps and looked down the road to where her car was parked, she rolled her eyes and smiled when she saw Kono standing shoulder to shoulder with an apparent tourist holding a paper, probably a map, pointing at an unknown spot in a direction away from the police department.
"Figures," Tani mouthed, beginning to understand more as she witnessed the helpful and thoughtful legend in action. She was going to go back inside to wait in the air conditioning, when a van screeched to a stop beside Kono and the 'tourist'. "Kono," she spoke, knowing good and well Kono couldn't hear her. She quickly made her way down the steps and broke into a full sprint at the bottom. "Kono!"
The 'tourist' dropped his side of the map and slid behind Kono and grabbed her around the waist from behind with the intent of flinging her into the back of the van that someone had opened from the inside. That someone jumped out to help. Because her arms were still free, Kono was able to use the heel of her hand and drive it into the nose of the one that had come from the van. The man immediately bent over in pain and held his hand to his gushing face. That bought her some time and she stomped on the foot of the man holding her and then struck him with an elbow. The man was persistent though and didn't give up as he fought to get her into the van as he yelled at the bleeding man to get in as well.
By the time Tani caught up to the action, she had her gun drawn but could not get a clear shot with Kono in the fray. She reholstered her gun and kicked the bent over man in the face. She then kicked the back of the knee of the one holding Kono and his leg gave out. His hold loosened and Kono broke free.
The man with the busted face managed to jump into the back of the van and shouted to the driver, "Get outta here! Bitch ain't worth it. Just go!" The van pulled away, leaving their abandoned comrade to deal with the underestimated but clearly more-than-capable spitfires.
The forsaken man pulled out a gun in desperation and aimed to shoot, but both women were able to do the same. Tani hit her mark with her first two shots and the man went down. Kono tried for the van's tires, but it had already gotten too far away. Kono turned her weapon toward the downed man as Tani kicked his gun away and felt for a pulse.
She looked up at Kono and shook her head. "We won't be getting anything out of this one," Tani confirmed. Kono finally breathed out a huge breath and lowered her weapon. "Hey, you okay?" Tani questioned.
Several uniformed officers and plain clothes staff converged on the site, arriving after the sounds of gunfire alerted them.
"Yeah, thanks for the assist," Kono said as she holstered her gun and planted her hand on her hip.
"Looks like you had it under control. Pretty badass."
Kono smiled. "You too. You're going to fit in just fine. Did you get a plate? I didn't."
"Wasn't one." She pointed her thumb toward the dead man. "Maybe this one's fingerprints will help."
Kono nodded. They each gave a quick preliminary report to the ranking officer that arrived on the scene and let the crime scene unit take over.
"Oh, sorry, I never made it to the car to get your phone," Kono admitted.
"No problem." She skipped across the road to her car and retrieved her phone. As she was walking back, she checked the screen and saw her alerts. "Four missed calls. Something must be up."
Kono pulled out her phone because it was buzzing. "Three here," she stated before answering.
Before Tani tried calling Junior back, she waited to hear who was calling Kono.
"Kono, am I glad to hear your voice," Chin said. "You weren't answering. Is everything okay?"
"Well, now that you mention it…"
~to be continued~
\,,,/BronsonL