We had 2 days of rain so I had crazy amounts of time to write. And then today I spent hours by the pool so its a good vacation.
Thank you as always to everyone who is reading, alerting, and reviewing. I will respond to reviews but not until I get back. Enjoy.
Steve woke up to find sunlight streaming through the hospital window. He had to blink several times before his vision focused enough to identify Catherine as the figure sitting beside his bed. She immediately sprang up to adjust the blinds.
Once she had settled back in her chair, Steve reached for her hand, "I thought you went home to get some sleep."
"I did. It's after 8:00 now. I wanted to check on you." She didn't tell him that it was too strange staying at house alone. "Your breakfast will be here soon."
"Cat, seriously, how did you get back to Hawaii so fast?" Steve smiled a little sheepishly, "We really didn't get to talk last night."
"I've been transferred to Pearl. I have leave built up, so I'm taking it before I start my new posting." She tried to make is sound very matter of fact.
Steve was confused, "A posting at Pearl? I didn't thing they were doing any high level surveillance work at Pearl Harbor."
"I'm changing focus a little," Cat wasn't trying to be evasive but she didn't want to upset Steve. Not right now when so much was going on.
Steve was having none of it, "What did you do, Catherine?"
"I can't go into it right now. I was offered a chance to help you and I took it. Why? Don't you want me around all the time?" The question was intended as a joke but Catherine's lingering insecurities created and awkward pause instead.
She started babbling to fill up the silence, "I only told people that I was your girlfriend because it was simpler. I wasn't trying to trap you into anything. I know we've never talked . . ."
Steve tugged on her hand until she stopped talking. He was smiling at her, "Cat, I don't want you to jeopardize your career for me, but you are the most perfect girlfriend I could ever have."
Catherine smiled back at him, "Good. That's good." She could hear the breakfast cart in the hallway. "I'm going to sit here and make sure you eat your entire breakfast. Then, when Danny gets here, we're going to take a drive and talk to his friend, Toast. We're going to take care of things for you, Steve."
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Danny had just pulled the camero into a parking spot in front of Queen's Medical Center when his cell phone rang. He glanced at the screen: Rachel.
He was smiling as he answered, "Did you and Gracie get to New Jersey okay?"
"We did, Danny. Your parents both send their love," Rachel paused for a moment, "It's all over the national news. Is there really any way you're going to be able to help Steve?"
Danny felt an instinctive surge of anger but he pushed it away. Rachel had a child – no, two children – to think about. She had a right to ask the question.
"Rachel, I know Steve is innocent. I 100% believe that we will prove it."
"Then you I know you will," Danny could picture her single sharp nod, "I have a piece of good news."
"Well are you going to tell me what it is, or should we play 20 questions?"
"As you know, since moving to Hawaii I've been doing freelance financial consulting. Well one of the companies I've done work for has offered me a Director level position."
Danny was flabbergasted, "They just called and offered you a job? How did they know you would be looking?"
"Sharon Allan, the company's CEO, has a son who goes to school with Grace," Rachel's tone turned wry, "Apparently, the gossip at the country club prompted her to call me. I may not like how it came about, but the offer is fantastic."
Danny heard the hint of doubt in her voice and knew what was causing it, "Was I really once young and stupid enough to be insecure about how much money you made?"
"I believe that you may have said that it was your job to provide for your girls."
"Well consider me older and wiser," Danny became more serious, "I'm very proud of you. If you want this job then take it."
Danny was almost to Steve's room, "I have to Rach. Can I talk to Gracie for a minute?"
"Your parents took her over to your sister's house for dinner. We'll try to call you later. I also wanted to let you know that my flight will be landing tomorrow evening at 7:00. Can you pick me up?"
"Things are so crazy right now I can't say for sure. I'll make sure someone is there," Danny smiled, "I can't wait to see you."
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As they drove to Toast's place, Danny tried to watch Catherine out of the corner of his eye. By the time he had reached Steve's room, the injured SEAL had finished breakfast and was fading fast. He may be been exaggerating the extent of his injuries but the concussion was still very real. They had left him to get some rest while they headed out.
Catherine was perfectly aware of Danny's scrutiny, even if he thought he was being subtle. "You want to ask me about Steve, don't you?"
Danny shrugged, "He doesn't talk about himself very much."
"I'll tell you what," Cat grinned mischievously, "Once this all blows over, we'll all go out. We'll eat, we'll drink, I'll answer questions – as long as Steve's there to defend himself."
"Deal," Danny agreed, pulling up to the run-down bungalow that Toast called home.
Catherine glanced around dubiously as they walked inside, "Steve told me about Toast over breakfast. I see that he was telling the truth."
The door was open so they entered without knocking. Toast was just emerging from the bathroom, Playboy in hand. Both Danny and Catherine immediately tried to forget that image.
"Jersey!" Toast greeted him. He looked Catherine over, "Much better than your last partner."
Danny clapped Toast on the shoulder and turned him towards his computer equipment, "Forget about her. She's McGarrett's girl."
Toast nodded sagely, "Those SEALS have wild groupies. Crazy wild."
Cat and Danny exchanged disturbed looks.
Danny tried to get him back on track, "What did you learn about those finger prints?"
"Jersey, I looked, but it's not my thing," Toast shrugged.
Catherine joined them by the computers, "I have a proposal for you."
Both men's heads snapped around to her.
"Not like that!" Cat barked at them. "I'll take the finger print evidence. In Naval Intelligence that is our thing. You see if you can break the encryption on this." She offered Toast the flash drive.
"Encryption? Is it military?" Toast's eyes were sparkling.
"Yes it is," Danny told him, "Toast, this is important. I'll swing by tomorrow to see what you've got. Remember, this is the kind of information you don't want people to know you have. Low profile – really low."
"Got it, Jersey. See you tomorrow." Toast was already turning on his computers.
Danny and Catherine settled back into the car.
"Can you really work on the finger prints?" he asked her before starting the car.
"I am part of Naval Intelligence. I meant it when I said this is our thing," her tone was sharp. Cat didn't like having her abilities questioned.
Danny made a placating gesture, "I was just wondering if you'll have trouble getting access to equipment since you're on leave and haven't officially reported for duty in Hawaii yet."
"It won't be a problem," she reassured him, "No one will question me if I want to stop by and check out the facilities. Besides, both Steve and I have a lot of friends on that base."
Danny let it go. He would have to trust she could do what she said. "Then you spend the rest of the day figuring out the finger print thing, and I'll keep wading through financial documents."
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Kono walked out the main doors of HPD Headquarters and into the bright afternoon sunshine with her shoulders straight and her head held high. She refused to let any of the men or women inside see how battered she felt inside.
Once she had rounded the corner of the building, entering the parking lot, she let her posture collapse. She had just spent 4 hours being questioned about her role in the incident at the hospital last night. The experience had been grueling, but, ultimately, Kono had realized that Chin was right. Ariyoshi had important family members. They wanted him to be protected.
The story had been presented to Kono neatly wrapped up: Ariyoshi's first priority had been the innocent civilians trapped in the waiting room. He had given Kono his weapon to protect McGarrett while he had courageously escorted the civilians out, unarmed. It was unorthodox but he was being praised for it.
Part of Kono wanted to expose Ariyoshi for the fraud he was, but she knew to pick her battles. She let it go. Someday, she'd get another chance at Ariyoshi.
Kono was unlocking her Cruz when a young Hawaiian woman slipped out from between two SUV's.
"Officer Kalakaua?" she asked hesitantly.
"Yes. Do I know you?" Kono pressed her back to the car and kept watch around her, wondering if the woman was some kind of diversion.
"I'm Kimee Turner. Sean Turner was my husband," her eyes filled with tears.
"I'm so sorry," Kono told her. She was sincerely sorry this woman had lost her husband, even if the man had been part of an attempt on Steve's life. "What can I do to help you?"
"No, you don't understand. I want to help you," Kimee was trembling and clutching Kono's arm. "Can we go somewhere and talk?"
An hour later, Kono, Kimee, and Chin were seated on a bench near Kamekona's shave ice stand. Kimee had been hesitant to talk to Chin but Kono convinced her it was okay.
"Kimee, I'm suspended. I really shouldn't be involved in this," Kono told the other woman.
"But that's why I came to you!" Kimee clung to Kono's hand.
Kono and Chin exchanged a look. If they wanted this woman to trust them, Kono was going to have to stay.
"Kono isn't going to leave," Chin assured Kimee, "What did you want to talk to her about?"
Kimee looked at Kono, who squeezed her had encouragingly, before she started, "It's about what happened to Commander McGarrett. Someone paid Sean $250,000. He was supposed to take McGarrett somewhere else, not the jail."
"Where was Sean taking him?" Chin asked.
"I don't know. He didn't say. There was supposed to be a diversion to separate the cars. That's all Sean told me."
Seeing the look that passed between Chin and Kono, Kimee hurried on, "Sean wasn't a bad man. I lost my job a few months ago. They're going to foreclose on the house. McGarrett's a criminal. Sean didn't know anyone would die."
Her comments about Steve evaporated Kono's sympathy, "Why are you telling us this? I'd think $250,000 would still come in handy."
Kimee shifted uncomfortably and looked at the ground. "The money's gone," she admitted, "It was transferred into our checking account yesterday, just before the prisoner transfer, and it was gone this morning."
Kono turned away in disgust. These people had been willing to deliver Steve to what would certainly have been his death.
Chin was no less angry, but he hid it behind his usual calm façade, "Kimee, we're going to need access to your bank accounts. Our best bet is to trace that money."
While Chin stepped away to make the arrangements, Kono turned back to Kimee, "Why did you come find me?"
"When Sean told me about the money, he talked about your family. About how your uncle took money for your auntie's kidney. And about how you took money, too. I knew you'd understand."
Over Kimee's shoulder, Kono saw Chin coming back with a pair of uniforms. Without another word, Kono walked away.
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Darren Crosby surveyed the area surrounding the rundown warehouse from the back of a surveillance van. His men were all in position. Brian Jagger, Eric Inouye, Kayo Hosoi, and Doug Kidman would go in first with a full SWAT team for back-up.
Their informants had told them that a large shipment of meth would be leaving the warehouse this afternoon, bound for the mainland. Stopping that shipment would be the team's first win. Then they would use information from this bust to shut down a network of meth labs throughout the islands.
"Crosby, everyone's in position," Jagger's voice sounded in his earpiece, "Are we a go?"
"Move in," Crosby ordered. He noted the precise formation as the men moved forward. That was the last thing that went right for the next several hours.
Five-0 moved in expecting several armed guards, maybe as many as 8. They were supposed to take the warehouse quietly. By the time the boat arrived to pick-up the shipment, Crosby and his men would have replaced the real gang members. That way they would also arrest the men on the boat with a minimum of fuss.
Instead, the warehouse contained at least 20 heavily armed men. Bullets instantly filled the air. One of the SWAT vehicles exploded.
"Was that a rocket?" Crosby demanded.
"Yes, sir," Kidman confirmed, "I see a rocket launcher."
"We have a problem!" Inouye yelled, "This isn't a warehouse. It's a lab."
Crosby swore colorfully. Meth labs were dangerously unstable. "Pull back! Regroup and surround the building. We'll wait them out."
"Too late," Hosoi shouted, "Fire! Everyone get out of here!"
It was a few minutes later that the explosions began. Crosby swore some more and listened to the sirens as the fire trucks arrived.
He was joined in the van by his four men as the firemen extinguished the flames.
"Did everyone get out?" Crosby asked, dreading the answer.
"Yes," Jagger told him, "Nine officers are being treated for injuries. Most are minor but 2 men will need to be hospitalized overnight for observation."
Crosby let relief wash over him. HPD had taken too many losses yesterday in the car bomb, they didn't need any more.
"How many arrests did we make?" Crosby wanted to move on and get the people behind this.
"None," Kidman reported.
"None?" Crosby repeated, "We didn't arrest anyone?"
None of his men would meet his eyes. Crosby sighed, "How many bodies have we recovered?"
"None, the fire marshal is looking through the wreckage now but its slow going. A lot of dangerous chemicals are still there," Hosoi reported.
Crosby considered this piece of information. "They didn't run past us, so they had another way out of that warehouse. We need to find it. Let me know as soon as we have something."
The four men hurried out, eager to redeem themselves.
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Chin stood next to Ben Kokua and watched Charlie Fong working with countless tiny strips of paper.
"Are you going to be able to do it?" Chin asked Fong.
Fong pushed the magnifying glasses to the top of his head and rolled his shoulders. "I am making progress. The pieces of one page tend to be together. It's just time consuming." He raised a hand to wave off Chin's reply, "I know why we don't have more people working on this. I'm just telling you that it's going to take awhile."
Chin nodded and clapped Fong on the shoulder to convey his appreciation.
"I've been looking over the finished pages," Ben offered, "its old case files. I'm not sure how they're connected."
"I think I might," Chin told him. He lowered his voice, "Has anyone been asking about this evidence, poking around?"
"No," Ben assured him, "and we lock it up tight last night. The safe lets Fong set his own combination. No one tampered with it."
"Thank you. You're doing a good job here." Chin started flipping through the completed pages, noting case numbers and the names of people involved in them.
Before he had gotten very far, his phone rang. Chin listened to dispatch inform him that all available officers were to report to the site of Five-0's warehouse raid. Apparently, the warehouse had exploded.
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At the site of the former warehouse, Chin surveyed a scene of destruction and chaos. The fire was out but the clean-up would be going on for quite some time.
Chin was surprised that no one from Five-0 was with the fire marshal. Steve would have staring over the man's shoulder while Danny did his best to stop the SEAL from pushing past the marshal. The current taskforce were all in the van.
Chin skirted the areas the fire crews were working on. They would find some kind of trap door. It was the only way the gang members could have gotten out. That didn't interest Chin. It wouldn't tell him anything useful.
Instead, he moved towards the less damaged parts of the warehouse. Uniformed officers were sifting rubble.
"Hey Lieutenant," one of the officers called, "I got something here."
Chin found the woman standing over the body of a large man. He was obviously dead but not burned. The fire hadn't reached this far but the explosions had brought the building down. Chin guessed that the smoke would be cause of death.
What caught his attention was that the corpse was wearing an orderly's uniform from Queen's Medical Center. It was impossible to be sure, but he matched the description given by the witnesses at the hospital.
"We're supposed to let Five-0 know if we find anything," the officer told Chin.
He nodded at her, "Go get them. I'll stay with the body and alert the morgue."
After she left, Chin quickly snapped a few pictures of the man's face. Then he called for the coroner's van.
Doug Kidman arrived soon after and Chin faded away into the background.
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Danny threw himself into the empty chair next to Steve's bed with a loud sigh.
"Tough day?" Steve asked dryly.
"I'm going blind," Danny informed him. "I've spend four hours chasing numbers across spread sheets. It's so close but I can't quite make it connect."
"Think you will tomorrow?" Steve tried to make the question casual but Danny heard the tension in his voice.
"No," Danny admitted honestly, "It'll take me longer than that. Catherine, however, has made some break through with the finger prints. She sends her love, but she will be working late tonight."
"You're not an equal substitution," Steve informed him.
"You're taking shots at me? When I'm here to tell you that you'll be sleeping in your own bed tomorrow night?" Danny sat back to enjoy the play of emotions that crossed his partner's face.
"Don't tease me about this," Steve told him quietly.
"I'm not. Chin has arranged a meeting with the DA for tomorrow at 2:00. We don't have enough to implicate Wo Fat, or tie Jameson to him, but we can get the case against you dismissed." Danny leaned back in the chair, "So let's waste a few hours watching some TV and call it a night."
Steve was about to hit the power button on his remote when Danny sat upright suddenly.
"Hey Steve, there's something you should know before you see it on the news."
"What is it?" Steve seemed resigned to the fact that his life had become a series of bad news.
"Governor Page has appointed a new Five-0 taskforce," Danny watched carefully to gauge how Steve responded to this news.
Steve was quiet for a long moment before replying, "It's not surprising. Even if we take down Wo Fat, things aren't going to be what they were before. You, Chin, Kono – you'll all be cops. I don't know what I'll be."
Danny didn't know what to say to make things better so he tried to lighten the mood instead. "This new taskforce is nothing compared to us," he told Steve dismissively, "They blew up a warehouse today."
"To be fair, Danny, we've blown up our share of buildings," Steve pointed out.
"They also let all of the bad guys get away. Every single bad guy," Danny smirked.
"We never did that," Steve's smirk matched his partners.
Scenes from the upcoming chapter: Chin and Danny meet with the DA. Wo Fat meets with Governor Page.